February 12

Birthdays:

1980 ~ Christina Ricci, American actress.

1965 ~ John Michael Higgins, American actor.

1956 ~ Arsenio Hall, American actor and talk show host.

1951 ~ Steven Earl Parent (d. Aug. 9, 1969), victim of the Charles Manson murders.

1945 ~ Maud Adams (née Maud Sloveig Christina Wikström), Swedish actress.

1942 ~ Ehud Barak (né Ehud Brog), 10^th Israeli Prime Minister.

1939 ~ Ray Manzarek (né Raymond Daniel Manczarek, Jr. d. May 20, 2013), keyboardist who gave The Doors their signature sound.  He died of cancer at age 74.

1938 ~ Judy Blume (née Judith Sussman), American author.

1934 ~ Bill Russell (né William Felton Russell), American basketball player with a long career with the Celtics.  He was born in Monroe, Louisiana.

1930 ~ Arlen Specter (d. Oct. 14, 2012), American senator who battled both sides of the aisle.  He was a United States Senator from Pennsylvania.  He died of cancer at age 82.

1929 ~ Donald Kingsbury, Canadian mathematician.

1926 ~ Joe Garagiola, Sr. (né Joseph Henry Garagiola, Sr. b. Mar. 23, 2016), American baseball player and sportscaster.  He died at age 90.

1926 ~ Charles Lincoln Van Doren, American quiz show contestant best know for having been given answers on a game show quiz in the 1950s.

1923 ~ Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film director, best known for his 1968 rendition of Romeo and Juliet.

1919 ~ Forrest Tucker (d. Oct. 25, 1986), American actor.  He is best known for his role in as Professor Harry Hill in The Music Man, and for his role in the television sit-com, F. Troop.  He died of lung cancer at age 67.

1918 ~ Julian Schwinger (d. July 16, 1994), American physicist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 76.

1918 ~ Norman Farberow (d. Sept. 10, 2015), American psychologist who worked to save the suicidal.  He was 97 years old.

1917 ~ Dominic DiMaggio (d. May 8, 2009), American baseball player who played his entire career with the Boston Red Sox.  He was Joe DiMaggio’s brother.  He died at age 92.

1916 ~ Joseph Alioto (d. Jan. 29, 1988), 36^th Mayor of San Francisco.  He was mayor from January 1968 until January 1976.  He died 14 days before his 82^nd birthday.

1915 ~ Lorne Green (né Lyon Himan Green, d. Sept. 11, 1987), Canadian actor.  He is best known for his role as Ben Cartwright on Bonanza.  He died at age 72 of pneumonia.

1915 ~Olivia Hooker, first African-American woman to enter the United States Coast Guard.

1912 ~ R.F. Deldefield (né Ronald Frederick Deldefield, d. June 24, 1972), English author.  He is best known for his novel God is an Englishman.  He died at age 60.

1908 ~ Jacques Herbrand (d. July 27, 1931), French mathematician.  He died while mountain climbing in the French Alps.  He was 23 years old.

1893 ~ Omar Bradley (d. Apr. 8, 1981), American Five-Star General.  He was the 1^st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He served in this position under Presidents Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.  He died at age 88.

1884 ~ Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (d. Feb. 20, 1980), eldest daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt.  She died 8 days after her 96^th birthday.

1884 ~ Max Beckmann (d. Dec. 27, 1950), German painter and sculptor.  He died at age 66.

1881 ~ Anna Pavlova (d. Jan. 23, 1931), Russian ballerina.  She died of pleurisy 3 weeks before her 50^th birthday.

1880 ~ John Llewellyn Lewis (d. June 11, 1969), American miner and labor union leader.  He died at age 89.

1877 ~ Louis Renault (d. Oct. 24, 1944), French car manufacturer and co-founder of the Renault Company.  He died at age 67.

1876 ~ 13^th Dalai Lama (né Thubten Gyatso, d. Dec. 17, 1933).  He died at age 57.

1809 ~ Abraham Lincoln (d. Apr. 15, 1865), 16^th President of the United States.  He died after being shot by John Wilkes Booth the day before.  He was 56 years old.

1809 ~ Charles Darwin (d. Apr. 19, 1882), English biologist and proponent of the theory of evolution.  He died at age 73.

1775 ~ Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams (d. May 15, 1852), First Lady of the United States and wife of President John Quincy Adams.  She died at age 77.

1768 ~ Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (d. Mar. 2, 1835).  He died less than 3 weeks after his 67^th birthday.

1663 ~ Cotton Mather (d. Feb. 13, 1728), New England clergyman.  He died 1 day after his 65^th birthday.

1606 ~ John Winthrop the Younger (d. Apr. 6, 1676), 1^st Governor of Connecticut.  He died at age 70.

1272 ~ Zhao Bing (d. Mar. 19, 1279), Chinese emperor.  He was the ninth and last Emperor of the Song Dynasty.  He reigned from May 1278 until his death a year later.  He died was killed at age 7.

41 ~ Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus (d. Feb. 11, 55), heir to the Roman Emperorship, died under mysterious circumstances.  His death led to Nero stepping up to become Emperor.  He was the Roman son of Claudius.  He is believed to have died a day before his 14^th birthday.

Events that Changed the World:

2013 ~ Mardi Gras.

2010 ~ It snowed in 49 of the 50 States in the USA.

2010 ~ The Winter Olympics in British Columbia began.  Shortly before the opening ceremony, one of the luge participants, Nodar Kumaritshvili (1988 ~ 2010) of Georgia (Ukraine) was killed in a trial run.  He was 21 years old.

2004 ~ Gavin Newsom (b. 1967), mayor of San Francisco, issued a directive allowing the city to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

1999 ~ President William Clinton (b. 1946) was acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

1994 ~ Edward Munch’s painting, The Scream, was stolen by four men who broke into the National Gallery of Norway.  It was recovered several months later.

1990 ~ Carmen Lawrence (b. 1948) became the first female Premier of Western Australia.

1974 ~ Nobel Prize recipient Aleksandr Solzheinitzyn (1918 ~ 2008) was exiled from the Soviet Union.

1963 ~ Construction began on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

1914 ~ Construction on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., began.

1912 ~ Puyi (1906 ~ 1967), the last Emperor of China, abdicated.

1909 ~ The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

1855 ~ Michigan State University was established.

1832 ~ The Galápagos Islands were annexed by Ecuador.

1825 ~ The Treaty of Indian Springs was formalized and the Creek Indians ceded the last of their lands in Georgia and moved west.

1818 ~ Bernardo O’Higgins (1778 ~ 1842) formally approved the Chilean Declaration of Independence.

1771 ~ Gustav III (1746 ~ 1792) became King of Sweden.

1733 ~ James Oglethorpe (1696 ~ 1785) founded Georgia, the 13^th of the original Thirteen Colonies that became the United States.

1541 ~ Pedro de Valdivia (1597 ~ 1553) founded Santiago, Chili.

1502 ~ Isabella I of Spain issued an edict outlawing Islam in the Crown of Castile, forcing all Muslims in the country to convert to Christianity.

881 ~ Charles the Fat (839 ~ 888), King of Italy was crowned the Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John VIII.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Al Jarreau (né Alwin Lopez Jarreau, b. Mar. 12, 1940), American vocal virtuoso who crossed genres.  He died a month before his 77^th birthday.

2016 ~ Antonin Scalia (b. Mar. 11, 1936), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Ronald Reagan.  He served on the Court from September 1986 until his death 30 years later.  He died in his sleep following a day of hunting in Texas.  He died a month before his 80^th birthday.

2015 ~ Herald Price Fahringer (b. Nov. 6, 1927), American teetotling attorney who defended famous pornographers.  He died at age 87.

2014 ~ Sid Caesar (né Isaac Sidney Caesar, b. Sept. 8, 1922), American comic actor who ruled 1950s television.  He died at age 91.

2011 ~ Elizabeth “Betty” Garrett (b. May 23, 1919), American musical-comedy star who was scarred by the Hollywood blacklist.  She died at age 91.

2009 ~ Vasanti N. Bhat-Nayak (b. June 10, 1938), Indian mathematician.  She died at age 70.

2000 ~ Tom Landry (né Thomas Wade Landry, b. Sept. 11, 1924), American football coach.  He served for 24 years as the coach of the Dallas Cowboys.  He died at age 75.

2000 ~ Charles Schultz (b. Nov. 26, 1922), American cartoonist and creator of Charlie Brown.  He died at age 77.

1985 ~ Nicholas Colasanto (b. Jan. 19, 1924), American actor best known for his role as Coach on Cheers.  He was born in Providence, Rhode Island.  He died of a heart attack 24 days before his 62^nd birthday.

1983 ~ Eubie Blake (né James Eubie Blake, b. Feb. 7, 1887), American musician and composer.  He died 5 days after his 96^th birthday.

1979 ~ Jean Renoir (b. Sept. 15, 1894), French movie director and son of artist Pierre-August Renoir.  He died at age 84.

1976 ~ Sal Mineo (né Salvatore Mineo, Jr., b. Jan. 10, 1939), American actor.  He was murdered about a month after his 37^th birthday.

1975 ~ Carl Lutz (b. Mar. 30, 1895), Swiss vice-consul to Hungary during World War II.  He is credited with saving over 62,000 Jews during the War. By issuing safe-conduct certificates that allowed Jews to emigrate to what is now Israel.  He died at age 79.

1971 ~ James Cash Penney, Jr. (b. Sept. 16, 1875), founder of the American department store chain, J.C. Penney’s.  He died at age 95.

1970 ~ Clare Turlay Newberry (b. Apr. 10, 1903), American author and illustrator.  She died at age 66.

1960 ~ Oskar Anderson (b. Aug. 2, 1887), German mathematician.  He died at age 72.

1958 ~ Douglas Rayner Hartree (b. Mar. 27, 1897), English mathematician and physicist.  He died of heart failure at age 60.

1944 ~ Margaret Woodrow Wilson (b. Apr. 16, 1886), American daughter of President Woodrow Wilson.  She served as First Lady during her father’s presidency after her mother, Ellen Wilson, died and before he married Edith Wilson.  She died of uremia at age 57.

1942 ~ Avraham Stern (b. Dec. 23, 1907), Polish Zionist leader.  He founded the militant Zionist group that became known as the Stern Gang.  He was murdered in Tel Aviv at age 34.

1942 ~ Grant DeVolson Wood (b. Feb. 12, 1891), American painter best known for his iconic American Gothic.  He died of pancreatic cancer 1 day before his 51^st birthday.

1929 ~ Lillie Langtry (née Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, b. Oct. 13, 1853), British singer and actress.  She was born in Island of Jersey and was known as the Jersey Lily.  She died at age 75.

1916 ~ Richard Dedekind (b. Oct. 6, 1831), German mathematician.  He died at age 84.

1804 ~ Immanuel Kant (b. Apr. 22, 1724), German philosopher.  He died at age 79.

1789 ~ Ethan Allen (b. Jan. 21, 1738), American military leader during the American Revolutionary War.  He was the leader of Vermont’s Green Mountain Boys.  He died 22 days after his 51^st birthday.

1771 ~ Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden (b. May 14, 1710).  He was king from March 1751 until his death in February 1771.  He died at age 60.

1554 ~ Lady Jane Grey (b. 1537), claimant to the English throne.  She was queen for nine days in 1553, but was ultimately beheaded for treason.  The exact date of her birth is not known.

1554 ~ Lord Guilford Dudley (b. 1536), husband of Lady Jane Grey.  He was executed for treason along with his wife, Lady Jane Grey.  The exact date of his birth is not known.

1538 ~ Albrecht Altdorfer (b. 1480), German painter.

914 ~ Li, Empress of Yan, one of two wives of Liu Shouguang, the only emperor of the Chinese Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.  The date of her birth is not known.