March 28

Birthdays:

1986 ~ Lady Gaga, (née Stephanie Angelina Germanotta), American singer and musician.

1970 ~ Vince Anthony Vaughn, American actor.

1968 ~ Max Perlich, American actor.

1955 ~ Reba Nell McEntire, American singer-songwriter.

1948 ~ Dianne Evelyn Wiest, American actress.

1946 ~ Henry Merritt Paulson, American economist and 74^th United States Secretary of the Treasury.  He served under President George W. Bush from July 2006 until January 2009.

1946 ~ Alejandro Toledo, 48^th President of Peru.  He served as President from July 2001 until July 2006.

1944 ~ Ken Howard (né Kenneth Joseph Howard, Jr., b. Mar. 23, 2016), American actor.  He died 5 days before his 72^nd birthday.

1936 ~ Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian author and recipient of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1930 ~ Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist and recipient of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1928 ~ Alexander Grothendieck (d. Nov. 13, 2014), German-born French mathematician.  He is a leader in algebraic geometry.  He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966.  He died at age 86.

1928 ~ Zbrigniew Brzezinsky (d. May 26, 2017), Polish-born American political scientist who served as the United States National Security Advisor under President Jimmy Carter from January 1977 until January 1981.  He was the 10^th National Security Advisor.  He died at age 89.

1926 ~ Doña María del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, 18^th Duchess of Alba (d. Nov. 20, 2014).  She died at age 88.

1921 ~ Jerzy Bielecki (d. Oct. 20, 2011), Polish Catholic social worker who was sent to Auschwitz on suspicion of being a resistance fighter.  While in the concentration camp, he met and fell in love with Cyla Cybulaska, a Polish Jew.  The two escaped from Auschwitz, but were separated for 39 years.  He was 90 years old at the time of his death.

1914 ~ Edmund Sixtus Muskie (d. Mar. 26, 1914), American politician and long-term senator from Maine.  He also served as the 58^th US Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from May 1980 until January 1981.  He died 2 days before his 82^nd birthday.

1910 ~ Queen Ingrid of Denmark (d. Nov. 7, 2000).  She died at age 90.

1907 ~ Swifty Lazar (né Samuel Lazar, also known as Irving Paul Lazar, d. Dec. 30, 1993), American talent agent.  He died at age 86 from complications of diabetes.

1905 ~ Marlin Perkins (né Richard Martin Perkins, d. June 14, 1986), American zoologist and television host of Wild Kingdom.  He died of cancer.  He was 81 years old at the time of his death.

1899 ~ Gussie Anheuser Busch (né August Anheuser Busch, d. Sept. 29, 1989), American brewer and grandson of the founder of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company.  He died at age 90.

1895 ~ Christian Herter (d. Dec. 30, 1966), 53^rd Secretary of State.  He served under President Dwight David Eisenhower from April 1959 until January 1961.  He also was the 1^st United States Trade Representative under President John F. Kennedy.  He had earlier served as the 59^th Governor of Massachusetts from January 1953 to January 1957.  He was 71 years old at the time of his death.

1892 ~ Corneille Heymans (d. July 18, 1968), Belgian physiologist and recipient of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for showing how blood pressure and the oxygen content of blood are transmitted to the brain.  He died of a stroke at age 76..

1868 ~ Maxim Gorky (né Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, d. June 18, 1936), Russian author.  His birthday is sometimes shown in accordance with the Julian calendar, which would be March 16.  He was 68 years old.

1862 ~ Aristide Briand (d. Mar. 7, 1932), French politician and recipient of the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize.  He also served several non-consecutives terms as the Prime Minister of France.  He died 21 days before his 70^th birthday.

1847 ~ Gyula Farkas (d. Dec. 27, 1930), Hungarian mathematician.  He died at age 83.

1836 ~ Frederick Pabst (d. Jan. 1, 1904), German-born American brewer and founder of the Pabst Brewing Company.  He was 67 years old.

1652 ~ Samuel Sewall (d. Jan. 1, 1730), American judge best known for presiding over the Salem witch trials.  He later apologized for his actions in those trials.  He died at age 77.

1613 ~ Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang (d. Jan. 27, 1688), Chinese Grand Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty.  She died at age 74.

1515 ~ St. Teresa of Ávila (d. Oct. 4, 1582), Spanish nun, mystic and saint.  She died at age 67.

1472 ~ Fra Bartolomeo (d. Oct. 31, 1517), Italian artist.  He died at age 45.

931 ~ Liu Chengyou (d. Jan. 2, 951), Chinese Emperor of the Later Han dynasty.  He died at age 19.

Events that Changed the World:

2005 ~ An 8.7 magnitude earthquake, known as the 2005 Sumatra earthquake, hit Indonesia.

1990 ~ Jesse Owens (1913 ~ 1980) was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

1979 ~ The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, failed causing a major meltdown, creating the United States’ worst commercial nuclear accident.

1970 ~ The 7.2 magnitude Gediz earthquake in western Turkey killed over 1000 people and injured over 1200 individuals.

1959 ~ The State Council of the People’s Republic of China dissolved the Government of Tibet.

1933 ~ The Imperial Airways biplane City of Liverpool is believed to be the first airline to be lost to sabotage or terrorism.  It is believed that a passenger set a fire aboard during flight causing the crash.  All 15 passengers and flight crew were killed.

1930 ~ The names of the cities of Constantinople and Angora in Turkey were changed to Istanbul and Ankara, respectively.

1920 ~ A tornado outbreak, which occurred on Palm Sunday, affected the Great Lakes area and the southern States.

1866 ~ The first hospital ambulance service in the United States began operating in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1854 ~ France and Britain declared war on Russia during the Crimean War.

1814 ~ During the War of 1812, in the Battle of Valparaíso off the coast of Chile, tow American navel vessels were captured by two British naval vessels.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ Lou Duva (né Louis Duva, b. May 28, 1922), American scrappy boxing manager who trained champs.  He managed such boxing champions as Evander Holyfield and Darren van Horn over a 7-decade career.  He died at age 94.

2014 ~ Jeremiah Andrew Denton, Jr. (b. July 15, 1924), the American Admiral POW who defied his captors.  He was a United States Senator from Alabama from 1981 to 1987.  He died at age 89.

2014 ~ Lorenzo Elliot Semple (b. Mar. 27, 1923), American screen writer who made Batman funny on the television series.  He died one day after his 91^st birthday.

2009 ~ Maurice Jarre (b. Sept. 13, 1924), French composer.  Many of his compositions were in movies.  He was 84 years old.

2006 ~ Caspar Weinberger (b. Aug. 18, 1917), American politician and 15^th United States Secretary of Defense.  He served as Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan from January 1981 until November 1987.  He had previously served as the 10^th United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.  He died at age 88 in Bangor, Maine.

2004 ~ Sir Peter Ustinov (b. Apr. 16, 1921), British actor.  He died 19 days before his 83^rd birthday.

1987 ~ Maria von Trapp (b. Jan. 26, 1905), Austrian-born singer and subject of the movie, The Sound of Music.  She was the stepmother and matriarch of the Von Trapp Family.  She died at 82.

1985 ~ Marc Chagall (né Moishe Shagal, b. July 6, 1887), Russian-born painter.  He is best known as one of the world’s preeminent Jewish artists and is best known for creating the Jerusalem windows at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.  He died at age 97.

1982 ~ William Francis Giauque (b. May 12, 1895), Canadian chemist and recipient of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 86.

1979 ~ Emmett Leo Kelly (b. Dec. 9, 1898), American clown.  He died of myocardial infarction at age 80.

1969 ~ Dwight David Eisenhower (b. Oct. 14, 1890), 34^th President of the United States.  He served as President from January 1953 until January 1961.  He died of heart failure at age 78.

1969 ~ Aryeh Levin (b. Mar. 22, 1885), Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi.  He died 6 days after his 84^th birthday.

1957 ~ Christopher Morley (b. May 5, 1890), American journalist.  He died at age 66.

1953 ~ Jim Thorpe (né James Francis Thorpe, b. May 28, 1887), Native American athlete and Olympian Gold Medalist.  The exact date in May of his birth is unknown and is sometimes recorded as May 22.  He died at age 65.

1943 ~ Sergei Rachmaninoff (b. Apr. 1, 1873), Russian composer, pianist and conductor.  He died 4 days before his 70^th birthday.

1941 ~ Virginia Woolf (née Adeline Virginia Stephen, b. Jan. 25, 1882), English writer.  She committed suicide by drowning at age 59.

1910 ~ David Josiah Brewer (b. June 20, 1837), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Benjamin Harrison.  He served on the Court from December 1889 until his death on this date 21 years later.  He died at age 72.

1893 ~ Edmund Kirby Smith (b. May 16, 1824), Confederate General during the American Civil War.  A dormitory at LSU was named in his honor.  He died of pneumonia at age 68.

1881 ~ Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (b. Mar. 21, 1839), Russian composer.  He died 7 days after his 42^nd birthday.

1874 ~ Peter Andreas Hansen (b. Dec. 8, 1795), Danish astronomer and mathematician.  He died at age 78.

1850 ~ Gerald Chittocque Brandon (b. Sept. 15, 1788), Governor of Mississippi.  He served two terms as Governor.  He died at age 61.

1828 ~ Dr. William Thornton (b. May 20, 1759), American physician and architect.  He is best known for designing the United States Capitol.  He died at age 68.

1794 ~ Marquis de Condorcet (né Marie Jean Antoine Nicholas de Caritat, b. Sept. 17, 1743), French mathematician, political scientist and philosopher.  He was also a social advocate and was a strong supporter of women’s rights.  He was arrested and imprisoned during the French revolution.  He died at age 50 in prison by what may have been poisoning.

1757 ~ Robert-François Damiens (b. Jan. 9, 1715), French domestic servant who attempted to assassinate King Louis XV of France.  He is known for being the last person in France to be executed by drawing and quartering.  He was 42 at the time of his execution.

1584 ~ Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (b. Aug. 25, 1530).  He was known as Ivan the Terrible.  This is the traditional date of his birthday under the Gregorian calendar.  Using the Julian calendar, is birthdate is considered to be September 3.  He died at age 53 from a stroke while playing chess.

1285 ~ Pope Martin IV (né Simon de Brion, b. 1220).  He was Pope from February 1281 until his death on this date 4 years later.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

1241 ~ Valdemar II of Denmark (b. May 9, 1170).  He was known as Vlademar the Conqueror.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but is believed to have been in May 1170.  He died at age 70.