February 9

Birthdays:

1974 ~ Amber Valletta, American fashion model.

1949 ~ Judith Ellen Light, American actress.

1946 ~ Jim Webb (né James Henry Webb, Jr.), 18^th United States Secretary of the Navy.  He served under President Ronald Reagan from May 1987 to February 1988.

1945 ~ Mia Farrow (née María de Lourdes Villiers Farrow), American actress.

1945 ~ Carol Wood, American mathematician.

1944 ~ Alice Walker, African-American writer.

1943 ~ Joseph Eugene Stiglitz, American economist and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

1942 ~ Carole King (née Carol Joan Klein), American singer and songwriter.

1940 ~ J.M. Coetzee (né John Maxwell Coetzee), South African-born Australian writer and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1930 ~ Garner Ted Armstrong (d. Sept. 15, 2003), American televangelist.  He died at age 73.

1928 ~ Roger Harrison Mudd, American journalist and television news reporter.

1926 ~ Letitia Baldridge (d. Oct. 29, 2012), American manners guru who served the Kennedys in the White House.  She died at age 86.

1920 ~ Thomas Maria Messer (d. May 15, 2013), Czech-American museum director who tended the Guggenheim Foundation.  He died at age 93.

1914 ~ Bill Veeck (né William Louis Veeck, Jr., d. Jan. 2, 1986), American baseball executive.  He owned the Chicago Cubs.  He died of lung cancer at age 71.

1910 ~ Jacques Monod (d. May 31, 1976), French biologist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He was 66 years old.

1909 ~ Carmen Miranda (d. Aug. 5, 1955), Portuguese-born Brazilian actress and singer.  She died of a heart attack at age 46.

1909 ~ Guilio Racah (d. Aug. 28, 1965), Italian-born Israeli physicist and mathematician.  He died of asphyxiated of an apparent faulty heater at age 56.

1909 ~ Dean Rusk (d. Dec. 20, 1994), 54^th Secretary of State.  He served under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson from January 1961 until January 1969.  He died at age 85.

1907 ~ Harold Scott MacDonald Coxeter (d. Mar. 31, 2003), British-born Canadian mathematician.  He died at age 96.

1880 ~ Lipót Fejér (d. Oct. 15, 1959), Hungarian mathematician.  He died at age 79.

1874 ~ Amy Lowell (d. May 12, 1925), American poet.  She was from Brookline, Massachusetts.  She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 51.

1871 ~ Howard Taylor Ricketts (d. May 3, 1910), American pathologist.  He is known for identifying the disease agent causing Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  The pathogen, Rickettsia, was named after him.  He died at age 39 after contracting typhus.

1814 ~ Samuel J. Tilden (d. Aug. 4, 1886), Governor of New York State.  He was Governor from January 1875 until December 1876.  He died at age 72.

1800 ~ Hyrum Smith (d. June 27, 1844), Mormon elder.  He and his brother Joseph Smith (Dec. 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844), were murdered by a mob in an Illinois jail.  Joseph died at age 38 and Hyrum was 44.

1789 ~ Franz Xaver Gabelsberger (d. Jan. 4, 1849), German inventor of stenography.  He died about a month before his 60^th birthday.

1775 ~ Farkas Bolyai (d. Nov. 20, 1856), Hungarian mathematician.  He died at age 81.

1773 ~ William Henry Harrison (d. Apr. 4, 1841), 9^th President of the United States.  He caught pneumonia during his inauguration speech and died a month after taking Office. He was the first President to die in office and he served for the shortest term in American history.  He died at age 68.

1769 ~ George Washington Campbell (d. Feb. 17, 1848), 5^th Secretary of the Treasury.  He served under President James Madison for 9 months from February 1814 until October 1814.  He died 8 days after his 79^th birthday.

1737 ~ Thomas Paine (d. June 8, 1809), American revolutionary, writer and radical liberal philosopher.  He died at age 72.

1060 ~ Pope Honorius II (né Lamberto Scannabecchi, d. Feb. 13, 1130), Pope from December 1124 until his death in 1130.  He died 4 days after his 70^th birthday.

Events that Changed the World:

2018 ~ The 2018 Winter Olympics opened in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

2016 ~ Mardi Gras.

2013 ~ A 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck southwest Colombia.  Although there was major disruption to the region, no one was killed.

1986 ~ Halley’s Comet appeared in the inner Solar System.

1971 ~ Satchel Paige (1906 ~ 1982) was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1969 ~ The first test flight of the Boeing 747.

1965 ~ The first United States troops are sent to South Viet Nam.

1964 ~ The Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

1950 ~ Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908 ~ 1957) accused the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.

1889 ~ President Grover Cleveland (1837 ~ 1908) signed into a law creating the US Department of Agriculture into a Cabinet-level agency.

1870 ~ President Ulysses Grant (1822 ~ 1885) signed a joint resolution of Congress establishing the United States Weather Bureau.

1861 ~ Jefferson Davis (1808 ~ 1889) was elected as Provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

1825 ~ The United States House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams (1767 ~ 1848) as the President of the United States after no presidential candidate received a majority of the electoral votes in the 1824 election.

1775 ~ The British Parliament declared Massachusetts in rebellion during the American Revolutionary War.

1621 ~ Pope Gregory XV (1554 ~ 1623) became the last Pope elected by acclamation.

Good-Byes:

2010 ~ Walter Frederick Morrison (b. Jan. 16, 1920), American Space Age toymaker and inventor who created the Frisbee.  He sold the rights to the Frisbee on his 37^th birthday.  He died 24 days after his 90^th birthday.

2006 ~ Sir Freddie Laker (né Frederick Alfred Laker, b. Aug. 6, 1922), English businessman and founder of Laker Airways.  He died at age 83.

2005 ~ Robert Kearns (b. Mar. 10, 1927), American engineer who invented the windscreen wiper.  He died of brain cancer a month before his 78^th birthday.

2003 ~ Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda (b. Feb. 25, 1926), Turkish-Japanese mathematician.  He died 16 days before his 77^th birthday.

2002 ~ Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon (b. Aug. 21, 1930), sister of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.  She died following a stroke at age 71.

2001 ~ Herbert Simon (b. June 15, 1916), American economist and recipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 84.

1996 ~ Albert Jean Amateau (b. Apr. 20, 1889), Turkish rabbi.  He died at age 106.

1995 ~ David Wayne (b. Jan. 30, 1914), American actor.  He died of lung cancer 10 days after his 81^st birthday.

1995 ~ J. William Fulbright (né James William Fulbright, b. Apr. 9, 1905), American Senator from Arkansas who worked to establish an international exchange program, which eventually lead to the creation of the Fulbright fellowship program.  He died at age 89.

1994 ~ Howard Martin Temin (b. Dec. 10, 1934), American geneticist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died of lung cancer at age 59.

1984 ~ Yuri Andropov (b. June 15, 1914), Russian politician.  He died at age 69.

1979 ~ Dennis Gabor (b. June 5, 1900), Hungarian-English engineer and physicist.  He was the recipient of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He is best known for inventing the holography.  He died at age 78.

1973 ~ Max Yasgur (b. Dec. 15, 1919), American farmer and owner of the Woodstock festival site.  He died of a heart attack at age 53.

1966 ~ Sophie Tucker (née Sonya Kalish, b. Jan. 13, 1884), Ukrainian-born singer and performer.  She died 27 days after her 79^th birthday.

1942 ~ Lauri Kristian Relander (b. May 31, 1883), 2^nd President of Finland.  He served in Office from March 1925 until March 1931.  He died of heart failure at age 58.

1936 ~ Caroline Ellen Furness (b. June 24, 1869), American astronomer.  She died at age 66.

1894 ~ Maxime Du Camp (b. Feb. 8, 1822), French photographer and journalist.  He died 1 day after his 72^nd birthday.

1881 ~ Fyodor Dostoyevesky (b. Nov. 11, 1821), Russian novelist, best known for his novel, Crime and Punishment.  He died at age 59 of a pulmonary hemorrhage.

1670 ~ King Frederick III of Denmark (b. Mar. 18, 1609).  He died at age 60.

1450 ~ Agnès Sorel (b. 1421), French mistress of King Charles VII of France.  She died in childbirth following the birth of her 4^th child.  The exact date of her birth is not known.  She is believed to have been 28 at the time of her death.

1135 ~ Tai Zong (b. Nov. 25, 1075), Chinese emperor.  He was the second emperor of the Jin Dynasty.  He died at age 59.