January 3

Birthdays:

1981 ~ Eli Manning (né Elisha Nelson Manning, IV), American football player from New Orleans, Louisiana.

1975 ~ Danica McKellar, American actress and mathematician.

1956 ~ Mel Gibson, Australian actor.

1950 ~ Victoria Principal, American actress.

1941 ~ Franklin McCain (d. Jan. 9, 2014), African-American civil rights activist and man who lead the Greensboro Four at the Woolworth lunch counter in 1960 when he was a student at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.  He died 6 days after his 73^rd birthday.

1939 ~ Robert Marvin “Bobby” Hull, Canadian ice hockey player.

1937 ~ Glen Larson (d. Nov. 14, 2014), American writer-producer who churned out hit television shows.  He created such shows as Battleship Galactica and Quincy, M.D.  He died at age 77.

1934 ~ Carla Anderson Hills, 5^th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  She served in the Gerald Ford administration from March 1975 until January 1977.

1932 ~ Dabney Colman, American actor.

1930 ~ Robert Loggia (né Salvatore Loggia, d. Dec. 4, 2015), American actor.  He died of Alzheimer’s disease a month before his 86^th birthday.

1926 ~ Sir George Henry Martin (d. March 8, 2016), British experimental recording producer who guided the Beatles.  He was sometimes referred to as the Fifth Beatle because of his involvement in each of the Beatles albums.  He died at age 90.

1926 ~ W. Michael Blumenthal (né Werner Michael Blumenthal), 64^th Secretary of the Treasury.  He served under President Jimmy Carter from January 1977 until August 1979.

1917 ~ Vernon Anthony Walters (d. Feb. 10, 2002), 17^th Ambassador to the United Nations during the Ronald Reagan administration, from May 1985 until March 1989.  He died at age 85.

1917 ~ Roger Williams Straus, Jr. (d. May 25, 2004), American journalist and publisher and co-founder of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  He died at age 87.

1916 ~ Betty Furness (née Elizabeth Mary Furness, d. Apr. 2, 1994), American actress and television journalist.  She died at age 78.

1909 ~ Victor Borge (né Børge Rosenbaum, d. Dec. 23, 2000), Danish-born comedian and pianist.  He died at age 91, just 11 days before his 92^nd birthday.

1901 ~ Ngô Đinh Diêm (d. Nov. 2, 1963), 1^st President of South Vietnam, was assassinated following a military coup.  He was 62 at the time of his death.

1892 ~ J.R.R. Tolkien (né John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, d. Sept. 2, 1973), British author best known for his novels The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series.  He died at age 81.

1883 ~ Clement Richard Attlee, 1^st Earl Attlee (d. Oct. 8, 1967), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister from July 1845 until October 1951 during the reign of King George VI.  He died of pneumonia at age 84.

1879 ~ Grace Coolidge (d. July 8, 1957), First Lady and wife of President Calvin Coolidge.  She was born in Burlington, Vermont.  She died of heart disease at age 78 in Northhampton, Massachusetts.

1840 ~ Father Damien (né Jozef De Veuster, d. Apr. 15, 1889) Roman Catholic priest from Belgium who was known for his ministry to people with leprosy in Molokai, Hawaii.  He died of leprosy at age 49.

1793 ~ Lucretia Coffin Mott (d. Nov. 11, 1880), leader of the abolitionist and women’s rights movements in the United States.  She was from Nantucket, Massachusetts.  She died at age 87 in Pennsylvania.

106 BCE ~ Marcus Tillius Cicero (d. BCE Dec. 7, 43), Roman politician and author.  These are the dates ascribed to his birth and assassination.  He died at age 63.

Events that Changed the World:

1993 ~ US President George H.W. Bush (b. 1924) and Russian leader Boris Yeltsin (1931 ~ 2007) signed the Second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

1977 ~ Apple Computer was incorporated.

1974 ~ The most complete early human skeleton, known as Lucy, was discovered in Ethiopia.

1962 ~ Pope John XXIII (1881 ~ 1963) excommunicated Fidel Castro (1926 ~ 2016).

1961 ~ The United States severed its diplomatic relations with Cuba.  It would be 54 years before relations were re-established.

1959 ~ Alaska became the 49^th State of the Union.

1957 ~ The first electric watches were introduced by the Hamilton Watch Company.

1956 ~ A fire damaged the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1949 ~ Chinese Communists captured Chonqing.

1947 ~ The proceedings of the United States Congress were televised for the first time.

1938 ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945) established the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio.

1933 ~ Minnie D. Craig (1883 ~ 1966) became the first female elected as Speaker of the House in North Dakota.  She was the first woman to hold the office of Speaker in any state of the union.

1932 ~ Martial law was declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers who had been fired by the United Fruit Company.  This event is recounted in Rich Cohen’s book, The Fish that Ate the Whale.

1925 ~ Benito Mussolini (1883 ~ 1945) announced he was taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1919 ~ At the Paris Peace Conference, Emir Faisal I of Iraq (1885 ~ 1933) signed an agreement with Chaim Weizmann (1874 ~ 1952), a Zionist leader, pertaining to the development of a Jewish homeland in what was referred to as Palestine.

1911 ~ A 7.7 magnitude earthquake destroyed the Almaty, Turkestan.

1870 ~ Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge began.  It would open in May 1883.

1861 ~ During the period leading up to the American Civil War, the State of Delaware voted not to secede from the United States.

1858 ~ John L. Mason (1832 ~ 1902) patented the Mason jar, thereby allowing a method for the preservation of perishable foods.

1823 ~ Stephen Austin (1793 ~ 1836) received a land grant in Texas from the government of Mexico.

1804 ~ The impeachment trial of United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase (1741 ~ 1811) began.

1782 ~ Great Britain singed an agreement recognizing the independence of the United States.

1777 ~ During the American Revolutionary War, General George Washington’s army defeated British General Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.

1749 ~ Benning Wentworth (1696 ~ 1770), the colonial governor of New Hampshire, issued the first of the New Hampshire Grants, which ultimately lead to the establishment of the State of Vermont.

1731 ~ A massive earthquake struck in Beijing, killing at least 100,000 people.

1521 ~ Martin Luther (1483 ~ 1546) was excommunicated by Pope Leo X (1475 ~ 1521).

1487 ~ The German Beer Purity law was promulgated stating that beer should be brewed using only three ingredients ~ water, malt and hops.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Edward Brooke, III (b. Oct. 26, 1919), African-American pioneering senator from Massachusetts who transcended America’s racial divide.  He was a Republican politician who became the first African-American to win a Senate seat in a popular election.  He also served as the Attorney General of Massachusetts.  He died at age 95.

2014 ~ Phil Everly (b. Jan. 19, 1939), the American harmonizer who inspired the Beatles.  Together with his brother, Don, they formed the Everly Brothers.  He died of lung disease 16 days before his 75^th birthday.

2014 ~ Saul Zaentz (b. Feb. 28, 1921), American film producer who put literature on the screen.  He died at age 92.

2010 ~ Mary Daly (b. Oct. 16, 1928), American radical feminist lesbian philosopher and scholar who barred men from her classes.  She taught at Boston College.  She died at age 81.

2009 ~ William Devereux Zantzinger (b. Feb. 7, 1939), American farmer from Maryland who inspired a Bob Dylan classic civil rights song, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.  Zantzinger had killed a black barmaid with his cane.  He served 6 months for the murder.  He died at age 69.

2009 ~ Pat Hingle (né Martin Patterson Hingle, b. July 19, 1924), American actor.  He died at age 84.

2007 ~ William Verity, Jr. (b. Jan. 26, 1917), 27^th United States Secretary of Commerce.  He served in the Ronald Reagan administration from October 1987 until January 1989.  He died 23 days before his 90^th birthday.

1993 ~ John M. “Johnny” Most (b. June 15, 1923), American sports announcer.  He was the radio voice of the Boston Celtics.  He died of a heart attack at age 69.

1989 ~ Sergei Sobolev (b. Oct. 6, 1908), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 80.

1980 ~ Joy Adamson (née Friederike Victoria Gessner Adamson, b. Jan. 20, 1910), Czech conservationist best known for her books about Elsa the lion raised in her home in Africa, including Born Free, Living Free, and Forever Free.  She was murdered by a former and disgruntled employee just 17 days before her 70^th birthday.

1979 ~ Conrad Hilton, Sr. (b. Dec. 25, 1887), American hotelier and founder of the Hilton Hotels.  He died 9 days after his 91^st birthday.

1967 ~ Jack Ruby (né Jacob Leonard Rubenstein, b. Mar. 25, 1911), Ammerican assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald.  Ruby shot Oswald while the news cameras were rolling while Oswald was being transported from a prison in Dallas.  Ruby was convicted of murder.  He died in prison of lung cancer at age 55.

1927 ~ Carl David Tolmé Runge (b. Aug. 30, 1856), German mathematician.  He died at age 70.

1920 ~ Zygmunt Janiszweski (b. June 12, 1888), Polish mathematician.  He died at age 31 of influenza.

1898 ~ Lawrence Sullivan Ross (b. Sept. 27, 1838), 19^th Governor of Texas.  He served as Governor from January 1887 until January 1891.  He died at age 59.

1895 ~ James Meritt Ives (b. Mar. 5, 1824), American lithographer and businessman.  He was a cofounder, along with Nathaniel Currier, of Currier and Ives.  He died at age 70.

1795 ~ Josiah Wedgwood (b. July 12, 1730), English potter and founder of the Wedgwood Company.  He died at age 64.

1701 ~ Louis I, Prince of Monaco (b. July 25, 1642).  He was Prince of Monaco from January 1662 until his death 9 years later.  He died at age 58.

1690 ~ Hillel ben Naphtali Zevi (b. 1615), Lithuanian rabbi.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1641 ~ Jeremiah Horrocks (b. 1618), English mathematician and astronomer.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been 22 when he suddenly died of unknown causes.

1437 ~ Catherine of Valois (b. Oct. 27, 1401), Wife of Henry V of England.  She died at age 35 following complications of childbirth.

1322 ~ King Philip V of France (b. 1292).  He was known as Philip the Tall.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 29 at the time of his death.

326 ~ Emperor Yuan (b. 276), Chinese emperor of the Jin dynasty.  The date of his birth is not known.

235 ~ Pope St. Anterus.  He was Pope for only 44 days.  The date of his birth is not known.