February 3

Birthdays:

1976 ~ Isla Lang Fisher, Australian actress and wife of Sacha Baron Cohen.

1969 ~ Joseph “Beau” Biden (né Joseph Robinette Biden, d. May 30, 2015), American son of Vice President Joseph Biden who dedicated his life to public service.  He served as the 44^th Attorney General of Delaware.  He had suffered from brain cancer and was 46 years old at the time of his death.

1965 ~ Maura Tierney, American actress.

1956 ~ Nathan Lane (né Joseph Lane), American actor.

1948 ~ Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, East Timorese Catholic bishop and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize.

1947 ~ Stephen McHattie (né Stephen McHattie Smith), Canadian actor.

1943 ~ Blythe Katherine Danner, American actress.  She is also the mother of actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

1925 ~ Shelley Berman (né Sheldon Leonard Berman, d. Sept. 1, 2017), American comedian who found humor in angst.  He died at age 92.

1920 ~ Henry Judah Heimlich (d. Dec. 17, 2016), American thoracic surgeon who developed the Heimlich Maneuver, a technique for removing an obstacle lodged in one’s throat to prevent a patient from choking.  He died at age 96.

1918 ~ Joey Bishop (né Joseph Abraham Gottlieb, d. Oct. 17, 2007), American deadpan comic who was the last member of the Rat Pack.  He died at age 89.

1917 ~ Shlomo Goren (d. Oct. 29, 1994), Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israeli.  He died at age 77.

1909 ~ Simone Weil (d. Aug. 24, 1943), French philosopher.  She died at age 34 of cardiac failure.

1907 ~ James Michener (d. Oct. 16, 1997), American novelist best known for writing long historical sagas.  He died at age 90.

1906 ~ George Adamson (b. Aug. 20, 1989), British wildlife conservationist.  He and his wife, Joy Adamson (1910 ~ 1980), were best known for their book Born Free, about Elsa the orphaned lioness cub.  He was murdered at age 83 by bandits near his camp in the Kora National Park in Kenya.  Ironically, his wife had also been murdered 9 years earlier.

1905 ~ Arne Beurling (d. Nov. 20, 1986), Swedish mathematician.  He died at age 81.

1904 ~ Pretty Boy Floyd (né Charles Arthur Floyd, d. Oct. 22, 1934), American gangster and notorious bank robber.  He was shot and killed by FBI agents in Ohio.  He was 30 years old.

1894 ~ Norman Rockwell (d. Nov. 8, 1978), American illustrator.  He died at age 84.

1893 ~ Gaston Julia (d. Mar. 19, 1978), French mathematician.  He died at age 85.

1874 ~ Gertrude Stein (d. July 27, 1946), American writer.  She died at age 72.

1862 ~ James Clark McReynolds (d. Aug. 24, 1946), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He had previously served as the 48^th United States Attorney General under President Woodrow Wilson.  He was known for his anti-Semitism, racism and misogyny, which led to conflicts with his fellow Justices, especially Louis Brandeis, Benjamin Cardozo and Felix Frankfurter, who were Jewish.  He served on the High Court from August 1914 until January 1941.  He died at age 84.

1857 ~ Giuseppe Moretti (d. Feb. 21, 1935), Italian sculptor and designer of the Vulcan statue in Birmingham, Alabama.  The statute, which is made from iron from the Birmingham area, was created as the city’s entry into the 1904 World’s Fair, which was held in St. Louis, Missouri.  He died 18 days after his 78^th birthday.

1830 ~ Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3^rd Marquess of Salisbury (d. Aug. 22, 1903), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served as Prime Minister for 3 terms during the reign of Queen Victoria.  He died at age 73.

1821 ~ Elizabeth Blackwell (d. May 31, 1910), British-born physician first woman to received a medical degree in the United States.  She died at age 89.

1811 ~ Horace Greeley (d. Nov. 29, 1872), American journalist and politician.  He is credited with coining the phrase: Go West, Young Man!  He also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York.  He was born in Amherst, New Hampshire.  He died at age 61.

1809 ~ Felix Mendelssohn (né Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, d. Nov. 4, 1847), German composer.  He died following a series of strokes at age 38.

1747 ~ Samuel Osgood (d. Aug. 12, 1813), US Postmaster General.  He was appointed to this position by President George Washington.  He served as Postmaster General from September 1789 until August 1791.  He was born in Andover, Massachusetts.  He died at age 66.

Events that Changed the World:

2013 ~ The Baltimore Ravens beat the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII, which was played in New Orleans.  During the course of the game there was a power outage in the SuperDome, which suspended the game for approximately 30 minutes.

1995 ~ Astronaut Eileen Collins (b. 1956) became the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.

1969 ~ Yasser Arafat (1929 ~ 2004) was appointed as the Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress that was held in Cairo, Egypt.

1959 ~ In an incident that became known as The Day the Music Died, a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa killed Buddy Holly (1936 ~ 1959), Ritchie Valens (1941 ~ 1959) and the Big Bopper (né Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr., 1930 ~ 1959), as well as the pilot of the plane.

1931 ~ The Hawke’s Bay earthquake in New Zealand killed 258 people.

1913 ~ The 16^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified, thereby authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income taxes.

1870 ~ The 15^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified, thereby guaranteeing the right to vote to citizens regardless of race.

1783 ~ Spain recognized the United States as a country independent from Great Britain following the American Revolutionary War.

1690 ~ The colony of Massachusetts issued the first paper money in America.

1637 ~ Tulip mania collapsed in what is now the Netherlands after sellers could no longer find buyers for their bulb contracts.

1488 ~ Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias (1451 ~ 1500) landed in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope.  He is the first recorded European known to have traveled so far south.  He later died when his ship was lost at sea.

1451 ~ Sultan Mehmed II (1432 ~ 1481) inherited the throne of the Ottoman Empire.

Good-Byes:

2015 ~ Sir Martin Gilbert (b. Oct. 25, 1936), British historian.  He died at age 78.

2015 ~ Charles “Charlie” Sifford (b. June 2, 1922), African-American professional golfer who shattered racial barriers.  He was the first African-American to play on the PGA tour.  He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.  He was known for chomping on a cigar while on the links.  He died at age 92.

2014 ~ Gloria Leonard (née Gale Sandra Klinesky, b. Aug. 28, 1940), American porn star who became a publisher of High Society, a pornographic magazine.  She was also a pioneer in telephone sex.  She died of a stroke at age 73.

2014 ~ Joan Mondale (b. Aug. 8, 1930), American wife of Vice President Walter Mondale.  She died at age 83.

2012 ~ Ben Gazzara (né Biago Anthony Gazzarra, b. Aug. 28, 1930), American actor.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 81.

2011 ~ Maria Schneider (b. Mar. 27, 1952), French actress best known for her role in The Last Tango in Paris.  She was the vulnerable actress who tangoed with Marlon Brando.  She died of cancer at age 58.

2003 ~ Natascha Artin Brunswick (b. June 11, 1909), Russian-born American mathematician and photographer.  She died at age 93.

1996 ~ Audrey Meadows (b. Feb. 8, 1922), American actress.  She is best known for her role as Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners.  She died of lung cancer 5 days before her 70^th birthday.

1991 ~ Nancy Kulp (b. Aug. 28, 1921), American actress best known for her role as Miss Jane on the Beverly Hillbillies.  She died of cancer at age 69.

1989 ~ John Cassavetes (b. Dec. 9, 1929), American actor and film director.  He died of liver disease at age 59.

1985 ~ Frank Oppenheimer (b. Aug. 14, 1912), American physicist.  He died at age 72.

1980 ~ Hanna Rovina (b. Sept. 15, 1893), Israeli actress.  She died at age 91.

1970 ~ Heinrich Behmann (b. Jan. 10, 1891), German mathematician.  He died 24 days after his 79^th birthday.

1959 ~ Musicians killed in the plane crash The Day the Music Died:

• 1959 ~ Ritchie Valens (né Richard Steven Valenzuela, b. May 13, 1941), Mexican-American singer who was killed in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper He was killed in a plane crash age 17.
• 1959 ~ Buddy Holly (né Charles Hardin Holly, b. Sept. 7, 1936), American singer.  American singer who was killed in a plane crash along with Ritchie Vallens and the Big Bopper.   He was 22 years old.
• 1959 ~ The Big Bopper (né Jiles Perry Richardson, b. Oct. 24, 1930), American singer who was killed in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Vallens.  He was 28 years old.

1956 ~ Émile Borel (né Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel, b. Jan. 7, 1871), French mathematician, known for his work in areas of measure theory and probability.  He died less than a month after his 85^th birthday.

1952 ~ Harold LeClair Ickes (b. Mar. 15, 1874), 32^nd United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman.  He served in that Office from March 1933 until Feb. 1946.  He died at age 77.

1929 ~ Agner Krarup Erlang (b. Jan. 1, 1878), Danish mathematician and engineer.  He died a month after his 51^st following abdominal surgery.

1925 ~ Oliver Heaviside (b. May 18, 1850), English engineer and mathematician.  He died at age 74.

1924 ~ Woodrow Wilson (né Thomas Woodrow Wilson, b. Dec. 28, 1856), 28^th President of the United States and recipient of the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was President from March 1913 until March 1921.  He died at age 67.

1922 ~ John Butler Yeats (b. Mar. 16, 1939), Irish artist and father of the poet William Butler Yeats.  He died at age 82.

1889 ~ Belle Starr (née Myra Maybell Shirely Reed Starr, b. February 5, 1848), American Wild West outlaw.  She was killed 2 days before her 41^st birthday under mysterious circumstances.  Her murderer was never found.

1862 ~ Jean-Baptiste Biot (b. Apr. 21, 1774), French physicist, mathematician and astronomer.  He died at age 87.

1737 ~ Tommaso Ceva (b. Dec. 20, 1648), Italian mathematician.  He died at age 88.

1468 ~ Johannes Gutenberg (b. 1400), German publisher credited with inventing the printing press.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 67 or 68 at the time of his death.

1116 ~ Coloman (b. 1070), King of Hungary.  He was king from 1095 until his death in 1116.  He was known as Coloman the Learned because he was very scholarly.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 45 or 46 at the time of his death.

6 CE ~ Ping (b. 9 BCE), Chinese emperor of the Han Dynasty.  The exact date of his birth is not known.  He died at age 14.