February 26

Birthdays:

1958 ~ Tim Kaine (né Timothy Michael Kaine), American politician and United States Senator from Virginia.  He is best known for being the Democratic Vice President nominee in the 2016 Presidential election.  He was the running mate of Hillary Clinton.

1954 ~ Recep Tayyio Erdoğan, 12^th President of Turkey.  He assumed office in August 2014.

1949 ~ Elizabeth George (née Susan Elizabeth George), American writer of mystery stories set in Great Britain.

1948 ~ Sharyn McCrumb, American author whose books focus on the folklore of Appalachia.

1946 ~ Ahmed Zewail (d. Aug. 2, 2016), Egyptian-born American chemist.  He was the recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 70.

1932 ~ Johnny Cash (né John Ray Cash, d. Sept. 12, 2003), American singer.  He died at age 71.

1931 ~ Robert Novak (d. Aug. 18, 2009), American journalist.  He died at age 78.

1928 ~ Ariel Sharon (né Ariel Scheinermann, d. Jan. 11, 2014), 11^th Prime Minister of Israel.  He was a retired General.  He had been a commander in the Israeli Army from its inception in 1948, thus he lead Israel in war and peace.  He suffered a massive stroke in January 2006 and remained in a coma for the rest of his life.  He died at age 85.

1928 ~ Fats Domino (né Antoine Dominique Domino, Jr., d. Oct. 24, 2017), African-American New Orleans pianist who shaped rock ‘n’ roll.  He died in Harvey, Louisiana at age 89.

1926 ~ James Alexander Green (d. Apr. 7, 2014), Scottish mathematician.  He died at age 88.

1920 ~ Tony Randall (né Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg, d. May 17, 2004), American actor.  He died at age 84.

1916 ~ Jackie Gleason (né John Herbert Gleason, d. June 24, 1987), American actor and musician.  He died of cancer at age 71.

1903 ~ Guilio Natta (d. May 2, 1979), Italian chemist and recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 76.

1887 ~ William Frawley (d. Mar. 3, 1966), American actor best known for his role as Fred Mertz on the I Love Lucy show.  He died 5 days after his 79^th birthday.

1882 ~ Husband E. Kimmel (né Husband Edward Kimmel, d. May 14, 1968), American admiral.  He died at age 86.

1866 ~ Herbert Henry Dow (d. Oct. 15, 1930), Canadian-American businessman and founder of the Dow Chemical Company.  He died at age 64.

1861 ~ Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. Sept. 10, 1948).  He was the Tsar of Bulgaria from October 1908 until October 1918.  He died at age 87.

1852 ~ John Harvey Kellogg (d. Dec. 14, 1943), American surgeon and vegetarian advocate.  He was from Battle Creek, Michigan and ran a sanitarium that focused on nutrition and exercise.  He, along with his brother Will (1860 ~ 1951), became known as the breakfast cereal, Kellogg’s Cornflakes.  He died at age 91.

1846 ~ William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody (d. Jan. 10, 1917), American frontiersman and showman.  He died of kidney failure at age 70.

1829 ~ Levi Strauss (d. Sept. 26, 1902), German-born American clothing manufacturer.  He founded Levi Strauss & Company, the first company to manufacture denim blue jeans, which were worn by gold miners during the California Gold Rush.  He died at age 73.

1808 ~ Honoré-Victorin Daumier (d. Feb. 10, 1879), French artist, painter, illustrator and sculptor.  He died 16 days before his 71^st birthday.

1802 ~ Victor Marie Hugo (d. May 22, 1885), French novelist best known for his novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  He died at age 83.

1786 ~ François Arago (né Dominique François Jean Arago, d. Oct. 2, 1853), French mathematician.  He died at age 67.

1777 ~ Mateja Nenadović (d. Dec. 11, 1854), Serbian priest, historian and politician.  He is considered the 1^st Prime Minister of Serbia.  He died at age 77.

1564 ~ Christopher Marlowe (d. May 30, 1593), English playwright.  He was stabbed to death at age 29.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized on February 26.

1361 ~ Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia (d. Aug. 16, 1419), King of Bohemia.  He died at age 58.

Events that Changed the World:

2013 ~ A hot air balloon carrying tourist crashed near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt.  Nineteen people were killed.

2008 ~The New York Philharmonic performed in Pyongyang, North Korea.  It was the first such an event to occur in North Korea.

1995 ~ The United Kingdom’s oldest investment banking institution, the Barings Bank, collapsed after a securities broker lost $1.4 Billion by speculating on the Singapore International Monetary Exchange using future contracts.

1993 ~ A truck bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City exploded, killing 6 people in injuring over 1000.

1980 ~ Egypt and Israel established full diplomatic relations.

1972 ~ The Buffalo Creek Flood in West Virginia caused a dam to burst, killing 125 people.

1971 ~ U.N. Secretary-General U Thant (1909 ~ 1974) signed a UN Proclamation of the establishing the vernal equinox as Earth Day.

1935 ~ Adolf Hitler (1889 ~ 1945) ordered the Luftwaffe to be reformed in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

1929 ~ President Calvin Coolidge (1872 ~ 1933) signed an Executive Order establishing Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

1919 ~ President Woodrow Wilson (1856 ~ 1924) signed an Act of Congress establishing the Grand Canyon National Park.

1917 ~ The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded the first Jazz record.  The band originally called itself the Original Dixieland Jass Band.

1909 ~ The first successful color motion picture process, the Kinemacolor, was first shown to the general public at the Palace Theatre in London, England.

1815 ~ Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 ~ 1821) escaped from Elba.

1794 ~ The first Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark burned down.

1616 ~ Galileo Galileo (1564 ~ 1642) was banned by the Catholic Church from teaching or defending the view that the earth orbits the sun.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Ludvig Faddeev (b. Mar. 23, 1934), Russian mathematician.  He died less than a month before his 83^rd birthday.

2017 ~ Joseph Wapner (b. Nov. 15, 1919), American judge who presided over The People’s Court.  He was the first star of the reality television court.  His show ran from 1981 until 1992.  He died at age 97.

2015 ~ Earl Francis Lloyd (b. Apr. 3, 1928), American NBA player who broke the color barrier.  In 1950, he became the first African-American to play in the National Basketball Association.  He was drafted by the Washington Capitols.  He was 86 years old.

2013 ~ Thomas C. Griffin (b. July 10, 1916), American World War II navigator who helped steer the Doolittle Raid.  He died at age 96.

2011 ~ Eugene Fodor (b. Mar. 5, 1950), American violin virtuoso haunted by addiction.  He died of liver disease 7 days before his 61^st birthday.

2011 ~ Arnošt Lustig (b. Dec. 21, 1926), Czech novelist who recalled the horrors of the Holocaust.  He died at age 84.

2010 ~ Louis Fabian Bachrach, Jr. (b. Apr. 9, 1917), American photographer who put the powerful at ease.  He is best known for his photographs of celebrities, politicians and presidents.  He was born and died in Newton, Massachusetts.  He died at age 92.

1998 ~ Theodore Schultz (b. Apr. 30, 1902), American economist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 95.

1994 ~ Avery Fisher (b. Mar. 4, 1906), American audio specialist.  He is best known for the design of the auditorium in the Lincoln Center cultural complex in Manhattan.  He died 6 days before his 88^th birthday.

1985 ~ Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid (né Albert Turner Reid, b. Nov. 13, 1927), American mathematician who worked on probability theory.  He died at age 57.

1985 ~ Tjalling Koopmans (b. Aug. 28, 1910), Dutch-American mathematician and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Economic Science.  He died in New Haven, Connecticut at age 74.

1969 ~ Levi Eshkol (né Levi Yitzhak Shkolnik, b. Oct. 25, 1895), Prime Minister of Israel.  He served as Prime Minister from June 1963 until his death in February 1969.  He died in office at age 73.

1931 ~ Otto Wallach (b. Mar. 27, 1847), German chemist and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on alicyclic compounds.  He died a month before his 84^th birthday.

1903 ~ Richard Jordan Gatling (b. Sept. 12, 1818), American inventor who invented the Gatling gun, the first successful machine gun.  He died at age 84.

1839 ~ Sybil Ludington (b. Apr. 5, 1761), heroine of the American Revolutionary War.  At age 16, she rode her horse 40 miles throughout the night of April 22, 1777 to warn the militiamen that British troops were planning to attack Danbury, Connecticut.  She died at age 77.

1834 ~ Alois Senifelder (b. Nov. 6, 1771), Czech inventor of the lithography printing process.  He died at age 62.

1813 ~ Robert Livingston (b. Nov. 27, 1746), American politician and assisted in the negotiation of the Louisiana Purchase from France.  He was the 1^st US Secretary for Foreign Affairs.  He served in this position during the George Washington administration from October 1781 until June 1783.  He died at age 66.

1638~ Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac (b. Oct. 9, 1581), French mathematician.  He died at age 56.

1603 ~ Maria of Austria (b. June 21, 1528), Holy Roman Empress and wife of Maximilian II.  She died at age 74.

1577 ~ King Erick XIV of Sweden (b. Dec. 13, 1533).  He died at age 43.

1548 ~ Lorenzine de’Medici (b. Mar. 23, 1514), Italian writer and politician.  He is best known for assassinating his cousin, Alessandro de’Medici.  He was subsequently murdered about a month before his 34^th birthday.

1275 ~ Margaret of England (b. Sept. 29, 1240).  She was the Queen consort of Scots.  She was the second child of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.  She died at age 34.