April 26

Birthdays:

1983~ Jessica Dawn Lynch, American soldier and who served in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.  Her convoy was ambushed by Iraqi forces and she was serious injured.  She was a POW, but was successfully rescued by Special Forces.

1980~ Channing Matthew Tatum, American actor.

1970~Melania Trump (née Melanija Knavs), First Lady of the United States.  She was a Slovenian-American model and third wife of President Donald Trump.

1958~ Giancarlo Esposito, American actor.

1956~ Koo Stark (née Kathleen Dee-Anne Norris Stark), American actress and former girlfriend of Prince Andrew.

1938~ Leonid Plyushch (d. June 4, 2015), Ukrainian mathematician.  He died at age 77.

1938~ Duane Eddy, American guitarist.

1933~ Carol Burnett (née Carol Creighton Burnett), American comedian.

1933~ Arno Allan Penzias, German-American physicist and recipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1932~ Michael Smith (d. Oct. 4, 2000), English chemist and recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 68.

1927~ Eugene Foster (d. July 21, 2008), American pathologist who linked President Thomas Jefferson to his slave, Sally Hemmings. He died of renal failure at age 81.

1925~ Vladimir Boltyansky, Russian mathematician.

1917~ I.M. Pei (né Ieoh Ming Pei), Chinese-born architect.

1916~ Morris Lango West (d. Oct. 9, 1999), Australian writer.  He is best known for his novels The Shoes of the Fishermanand The Devil’s Advocate.  He died at age 83.

1914~ Bernard Malamud (d. Mar. 18, 1986), American novelist.  He is best known for his novel The Fixerabout anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia, and The Natural.  He died at age 71.

1900~ Charles Francis Richter (d. Sept. 30, 1985), American geophysicist and creator of the Richter magnitude scale that measures the strength of earthquakes.  He died at age 85.

1898~ Vincente Aleixandre (d. Dec. 14, 1984), Spanish writer and recipient of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 86.

1894~ Rudolf Hess (d. Aug. 17, 1987), Nazi official and convicted war criminal.  He committed suicide in prison at age 93.

1889~ Anita Loos (née Corinne Anita Loos, d. Aug. 18, 1981), American writer.  She is best known for her comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.  She died at age 92.

1879~ Sir Owen Willans Richardson (d. Feb. 15, 1959), English physicist and recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on thermionic emission.  He died at age 79.

1822~ Frederick Law Olmsted (d. Aug. 28, 1903), American landscape architect, best known for his planning and designing of Central Park in New York City.  He died at age 81 in Belmont, Massachusetts.

1798~ Eugène Delacroix (né Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix, d. Aug. 13, 1863), French painter.  He died at age 65.

1785~ John James Audubon (né Jean-Jacques Rabin, d. Jan. 27, 1851), American ornithologist and painter.  He identified 25 new species of birds.  He died at age 65.

1765~ Emma, Lady Hamilton (née Amy Lyon, d. Jan. 15, 1815), English mistress of Horatio Nelson.  She died of liver failure at age 49.

1575~ Marie de’Medici (d. July 3, 1642), wife of King Henry IV of France.  She died at age 67.

1319~ King John II of France (d. Apr. 8, 1364). He died 18 days before his 45^thbirthday.

570~ Muhammed (d. June 8, 632), founder and prophet of Islam.  This is the traditional date according to the Shi’a sect.  He is believed to have been about 62 at the time of his death.

121~ Marcus Aurelius (d. Mar. 17, 180), this is the traditional date ascribed to the birth of this Roman emperor.  He ruled the Roman Empire from March 161 until his death in March 180.  He died about the age of 58.

Events that Changed the World:

1991~ Over 70 tornadoes broke out over the central United States.

1986~ The Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident occurred in the Ukraine, the worst nuclear accident to date.

1981~ Dr. Michael Harrison (b. 1943) performed the world’s first human open fetal surgery at the San Francisco Medical Center. The surgery was to correct an advanced urinary tract obstruction in the fetus.

1964~ The countries of Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania.

1937~Guernica was bombed by German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War.

1933~ The Gestapo, the official secret police of Nazi Germany, was established.

1923~ The Duke of York, who later became King George VI (1895 ~ 1952), married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (1900 ~ 2002) at Westminster Abbey.

1865~ Confederate Memorial Day and the date in which Confederate General Joseph Johnston (1807 ~ 1891) surrendered his army to General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820 ~ 1891) at Bennett Place, near Durham, North Carolina.

1777~ Sibyl Ludington (1761 ~ 1839), at age 16, rode her horse 40 miles from Carmel to Mahopac, New York to warn the militia men under her Colonel Henry Ludington, her father, that the British were poised to take control over Danbury, Connecticut.

1721~ A massive earthquake devastated the city of Tabriz in modern-day Iran.

1564~ William Shakespeare (1564 ~ 1616) was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, thereby estimating his actual birth date to be 1 or 2 days earlier.

Good-Byes:

2017~ Jonathan Demme (né Robert Jonathan Demme, b. Feb. 22, 1944), American director who made The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won an Academy War.  He died of complications from esophageal cancer and heart disease.  He was 73 years old.

2015~ Jayne Meadows (née Jane Meadows Cotter, b. Sept. 27, 1919), American actress.  She died at age 95.

2014~ Jacqueline Ferrand (b. Feb. 17, 1918), French mathematician.  She died at age 95.

2014~ William Franklin Ash (b. Nov. 30, 1917), Texas-born British writer who served as a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II.  He was the POW who wouldn’t stop escaping.  He died at age 96.

2013~ George Glenn Jones (b. Sept. 12, 1931), American country singer who became the voice of heartbreak.  He had such hits as He Stopped Loving Her Today.  He died of respiratory failure at age 81.

2011~ Phoebe Snow (née Pheobe Ann Laub, b. July 17, 1950), American singer and songwriter.  She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 60.

2009~ Salamo Arouch (b. Jan. 1, 1923), Greek Sephardic Jew who was a boxer who survived Auschwitz with his boxing skills, which entertained Nazi officers.  His story was portrayed in the 1989 film Triumph of the Spirit. He died in Tel Aviv at age 86.

1989~ Lucille Ball (b. Aug. 6, 1911), American actress and comedian.  She died at age 77.

1988~ Guillermo Haro Barraza (b. Mar. 21, 1913), Mexican astronomer.  He was very influential in the development of astronomy in Mexico.  He died just a month after his 75^thbirthday.

1986~ Broderick Crawford (néWilliam Broderick Crawford, b. Dec. 9, 1911), American actor.  He died at age 74.

1984~ Count Basie (né William James Basie, b. Aug. 21, 1904), American jazz musician, bandleader and composer.  He was born in Red Bank, New Jersey.  He died at age 79.

1981~ Jim Davis (né Marlin Davis, b. Aug. 26, 1909), American actor best known for his role as the patriarch, Jock Ewing, on the television drama, Dallas.  He died of multiple myeloma at age 71.

1973~ Irene Ryan (née Jessie Irene Noblett, b. Oct. 17, 1902), American actress, best known for her role as Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies. She died of a heart attack at age 70.

1970~ Gypsy Rose Lee (née Rose Louise Hovick, b. Jan. 8, 1911), American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She died of lung cancer at age 59.

1946~ James Larkin White (b. July 11, 1882), American miner, explorer and park ranger.  He discovered the Carlsbad Caverns.  He died at age 63.

1940~ Carl Bosch (b. Aug. 27, 1874), German chemist and recipient of the 1931 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 65.

1920~ Srinivasa Ramanujan (b. Dec. 22, 1887), Indian mathematician.  He was the subject of the 2015 movie The Man Who Knew Infinity.  He died at age 32 from tuberculosis.

1910~ Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (b. Dec. 8, 1832), Norwegian author and recipient of the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He was 77 years old.

1865~ John Wilkes Booth (b. May 10, 1838), American assassin who killed President Abraham Lincoln.  He was shot by Union Calvary troopers in Virginia.  He was killed 14 days before his 27^thbirthday.

1810~ Blind Jack (né John Metcalf, b. Aug. 15, 1717), the first professional road builder.  Despite being blind, he was able to build over 180 miles of turnpike roads in England. He died at age 92.

1478~ Giuliano de’Medici (b. Mar. 25, 1453), ruler of Florence, Italy.  He was murdered by members of the Pazzi family, who had conspired to kill both Guiliano and Lorenzo de’Medici during High Mass in the Duomo of Florence.  Lorenzo was not killed in this attack.  Guiliano was killed a month after his 26^thbirthday.

757~ Pope Stephen II (b. 715).  He was Pope from March 752 until his death 5 years later. The date of his birth is unknown but he is believed to have been 43 at the time of his death.