February 15

Birthdays:

1986 ~ Amber Riley, American actress and singer, best known for her role as Mercedes on Glee.

1964 ~ Christopher Crosby “Chris” Farley (d. Dec. 18, 1997), American actor and comedian.  He died of a drug overdose at age 33.

1954 ~ Matt Groening (né Matthew Abraham Groening), American cartoonist and creator of The Simpsons.

1951 ~ Jane Seymour (née Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg), British actress.

1935 ~ Roger Chaffee (d. Jan. 27, 1967), American astronaut and crewmember of the ill-fated Apollo I, which caught fire during a test of the spacecraft.  He died 18 days before his 32^nd birthday.

1935 ~ Susan Brownmiller, American feminist writer best known for her book, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape.

1929 ~ James Rodney Schlesinger (d. Mar. 27, 2014), American headstrong aide who served three presidents.  He served as the 1^st United States Secretary of Energy under President Jimmy Carter from August 1977 until August 1979.  He served as the 12^th United States Secretary of Defense from July 1973 until November 1975 under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.  He also served as the 9^th Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He died at age 85.

1927 ~ Harvey Korman (d. May 29, 2008), American actor and comedian.  He is best known for his role on The Carol Burnett Show.  He died at age 81.

1924 ~ Jerome “Jerry” Yellin (d. Dec. 21, 2017), American pilot who flew the last combat mission of World War II.  He died at age 93.

1923 ~ Yelena Bonner (d. June 18, 2011), Soviet human rights activist and dissident who never waivered.  She was the wife of Andrei Sakharov (1921 ~ 1989).  She died at age 88.

1922 ~ John Bayard Anderson (d. Dec. 3, 2017), American politician and one-time presidential candidate.  He ran as in Independent in the 1980 presidential election.  He died at age 95.

1920 ~ Endicott Peabody (d. Dec. 1, 1997), 62^nd Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1963 until January 1965.  He died in Hollis, New Hampshire at age 77.

1918 ~ Allan Arbus (d. Apr. 19, 2013), American actor and ex-husband of photographer Diane Arbus (1923 ~ 1971).  He died of congestive heart failure at age 95.

1914 ~ Hale Boggs (né Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr., d. Oct. 16, 1972), American politician from New Orleans, Louisiana.  He is presumed to have died on this date, but he was not officially declared dead until January 1973.  He was in a small aircraft that disappeared in rural Alaska.  He was 58 years old at the time of his disappearance.  He was the father of journalist and correspondent Cokie Roberts.

1909 ~ Miep Gies (d. Jan. 11, 2010), Dutch secretary who help hide Anne Frank and her family during World War II.  Following the War, she discovered and preserved Anne Frank’s diary.  She died about a month before her 101^st birthday.

1907 ~ Cesar Romero (d. Jan. 1, 1994), American actor.  He died at age 86.

1899 ~ Lillian Marie Disney (d. Dec. 16, 1997), wife of Walt Disney.  She died at age 98.

1892 ~ James Vincent Forrestal (d. May 22, 1949), 1^st Secretary of Defense.  He served under President Harry S Truman from September 1947 until March 1949.  He was also the last cabinet-level Secretary of the Navy, from May 1944 until September 1947.  He died at age 57 from a fall down a flight of stairs, which may have been a suicide.

1874 ~ Sir Ernest Shackleton (d. Jan. 5, 1922), Irish Antarctic explorer.  He died of a heart attack at age 47.

1873 ~ Hans von Euler-Chelpin (d. Nov. 6, 1964), German-born chemist and recipient of the 1929 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his investigation into fermentation of sugars and enzymes.  He died at age 91.

1861 ~ Charles Édouard Guillaume (d. May 13, 1938), Swiss physicist and recipient of the 1920 Nobel Physics Prize.  He died at age 77.

1861 ~ Alfred North Whitehead (d. Dec. 30, 1947), English mathematician and philosopher.  He died at age 86 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1851 ~ Spiru Haret (d. Dec. 17, 1912), Romanian-born Armenian mathematician and astronomer.  He died at age 61.

1850 ~ Sophie Willcock Bryant (d. Aug. 29, 1922), Irish mathematician and social activist.  She died at age 72.

1845 ~ Elihu Root (d. Feb. 7, 1937), 38^th Secretary of State and recipient of the 1912 Nobel Peace Prize.  He served as Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt.  He also served as the 41^st Secretary of War under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.  He died 8 days before his 92^nd birthday.

1840 ~ Titu Maiorescu (d. June 18, 1917), Prime Minister of Romania.  He served as Prime Minister from March 1913 until December 1913.  He died at age 77.

1825 ~ Carter Henry Harrison, Sr. (d. Oct. 28, 1893), Mayor of Chicago.  He served several terms as Mayor.  He was assassinated during his 5^th term.  He was 68 years old at the time of his death.

1820 ~ Susan B. Anthony (née Susan Brownell Anthony, d. Mar. 13, 1906), American woman’s suffrage activist.  She died about a month after her 86^th birthday.

1812 ~ Charles Lewis Tiffany (d. Feb. 18, 1902), American jeweler and designer.  He founded Tiffany & Co.  He was the father of Louis Comfort Tiffany who was born on February 18, 1848, 54 years earlier.  Charles Lewis Tiffany died 3 days after his 90^th birthday.

1811 ~ Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (d. Sept. 11, 1888), 7^th President of Argentina.  He served as President from October 1868 through October 1874.  He died at age 77.

1809 ~ Cyrus McCormick (d. May 13, 1884), America inventor of harvesting machinery and founder of the International Harvester company.  He died at age 75.

1797 ~ Heinrich Engelhard Steinway (né Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg, d. Feb. 7, 1871), manufacturer of the Steinway & Sons pianos.  He died 8 days before his 74^th birthday.

1748 ~ Jeremy Bentham (d. June 6, 1832), English philosopher, jurist and social reformer.  He died at age 84.

1710 ~ King Louis XV of France (d. May 10, 1774).  He was 64 years old at the time of his death.

1564 ~ Galileo Galilei (d. Jan. 8, 1642), Italian astronomer, scientist and philosopher.  He died at age 77.

1471 ~ Piero di Lorenzo de’Medici (d. Dec. 28, 1503), Italian ruler.  He was also known as Piero the Unfortunate.  He was the Lord of Florence from April 1492 until his exile in 1494.  He drown at age 31.

1368 ~ Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (d. Dec. 9, 1437).  He died at age 69.

Events that Changed the World:

2013 ~ A meteor exploded over Russia.  Over 1,500 people were injured as shock waves blew out windows and rocked buildings.

2001 ~ The first draft of the complete human genome was published in Nature.

1965 ~ Canada adopted the new red-and-white maple leaf design for its national flag.

1961 ~ Sabena Flight 548 crashed in Belgium, killing 73 people, including the entire United States figure skating team.

1949 ~ Gerald Harding (1901 ~ 1979) and Roland de Vaux (1903 ~ 1971) began to excavate Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves.  In their excavations, they discovered the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

1946 ~ ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania.

1933 ~ An assassination attempt was made on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945) while he was visiting Miami, Florida.  Giuseppe Zangara (1900 ~ 1933) missed Roosevelt, but hit Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak (1873 ~ 1933), who died of his wounds on March 6, 1933.

1925 ~ A potential diphtheria epidemic was spreading through Nome, Alaska.  The supply of diphtheria antitoxin had expired in the summer of 1924 and the new supply had not yet reached Nome.  The Alaska board of health decided to send the antitoxin to Nome using a dogsled relay instead of aircraft due to weather conditions.  The sled team set out on January 27 and arrived in Nome on February 15.  Although the serum was not sufficient for the entire population, it was sufficient to hold the epidemic at bay.  This became known as the 1925 Serum Run to Nome, or the Great Race of Mercy.  It was also the event that led to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

1923 ~ Greece became the last European country to adopt the Gregorian calendar.

1898 ~ The USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana Harbor, Cuba.  Over 260 Americans were killed, which lead the United States to declare war on Spain, thereby initiating the Spanish-American War.

1879 ~ President Rutherford B. Hayes (1822 ~ 1893) signed a law allowing women attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

1767 ~ The city of St. Louis, in what is now the State of Missouri, was established.

1637 ~ Ferdinand III (1608 ~ 1657) became Holy Roman Emperor.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Arnaud de Borchgrave (b. Oct. 26, 1926), Belgium-born, swashbuckling reporter who lived the high life.  He specialized in reporting on international politics.  He died at age 88.

2002 ~ Howard Kingsbury. Smith (b. May 12, 1914), American journalist.  He was born in Ferriday, Louisiana.  He died of pneumonia at age 87.

1999 ~ Henry Way Kendall (b. Dec. 9, 1926), American physicist and recipient of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 72.

1988 ~ Richard Feynman (d. May 11, 1918), American physicist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died of cancer at age 69.

1984 ~ Ethel Merman (née Ethel Agnes Zimmerman, b. Jan. 16, 1908), American actress and singer.  She died of brain cancer a month after her 76^th birthday.

1973 ~ Wally Cox (né Wallace Maynard Cox, b. Dec. 6, 1924), American actor.  He died at age 48 of a heart attack.

1965 ~ Nat King Cole (né Nathaniel Adams Coles, b. Mar. 17, 1919), American singer and musician.  He died of lung cancer at age 45.

1964 ~ Robert Lee Thornton (b. Aug. 10, 1880), Mayor of Dallas, Texas.  He served as Mayor from 1953 to 1961.  He died at age 83.

1959 ~ Sir Owen Willans Richardson (b. Apr. 26, 1879), English physicist and recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on thermionic emission.  He died at age 79.

1928 ~ H.H. Asquith, 1^st Earle of Oxford and Asquith (né Herbert Henry Asquith, b. Sept. 12, 1852), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister from April 1908 through December 1916, during the reigns of King Edward VII and King George V.  He died at age 75.

1905 ~ Lew Wallace (né Lewis Wallace, b. Apr. 10, 1827), American lawyer, General in the American Civil War, and novelist, who’s best known book was Ben-Hur.  He died at age 77.

1897 ~ Dimitrie Ghica (b. May 31, 1816), Prime Minister of Romania.  He died at age 80.

1849 ~ Pierre François Verhulst (b. Oct. 28, 1804), Belgian mathematician.  He died at age 44.

1847 ~ Germinal Pierre Dandelin (b. Apr. 12, 1794), Belgian mathematician.  He died at age 52.

1844 ~ Henry Addington, 1^st Viscount Sidmouth (b. May 30, 1757), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was in Office from March 1801 until May 1804 during the reign of King George III.  He died at age 86.

1637 ~ Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. July 9, 1578).  He died at age 58.

1145 ~ Pope Lucius II (né Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso).  He was Pope from March 1144 until his death on this date 11 months later.  The date of his birth is not known.