April 27

Birthdays:

1945~ August Wilson (né Frederick August Kettel, Jr., d. Oct. 2, 2005), African-American author and playwright. He died of cancer at age 60.

1941~ Fethullah Gülen, Turkish theologian.

1939~ Judy Carne (néeJoyce Audrey Botterill, d. Sept. 3, 2015), British actress.  She is best known for her performances in Laugh-In.  She died of pneumonia at age 76.

1932~ Gian-Carlo Rota (d. Apr. 18, 1999), Italian-born mathematician.  He died of cardiac arrest 9 days before his 67^thbirthday.

1932~ Casey Kasem (né Kemal Amin Kasem, d. June 15, 2014), American radio disc jockey and personality, best known for being the host of American Top 40.  He democratized rock ‘n roll.  He died at age 82.

1932~ Anouk Aimée (née Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus), French actress.

1927~ Coretta Scott King (d. Jan. 30, 2006), American civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.  She died of ovarian cancer at age 78 years old.

1923~ Jean Harris (d. Dec. 23, 2012), American educator who murdered her lover.  She died at age 89.

1922~ Jack Klugman (né Jacob Joachim Klugman, d. Dec. 24, 2012), American actor.  He is best known for his role as Oscar Madison on the television sit-com, The Odd Couple.  He died at age 90.

1921~ John Robert Stott (d. July 27, 2011), British Christian who evangelized the world.  He died at age 90.

1920~ Mark Krasnosel’skii (d. Feb. 13, 1997), Ukrainian mathematician.  He died at age 76.

1916~ Enos Bradsher Slaughter (d. Aug. 12, 2002), American baseball player. He died at age 86.

1913~ Irving Adler (d. Sept. 22, 2012), American mathematician. He died in Bennington, Vermont at age 99.

1899~ Walter Benjamin Lantz (d. Mar. 22, 1994), American animator, screenwriter and actor.  He is best known for creating such cartoon characters as Woody Woodpecker.  He died of heart failure a month before his 95^thbirthday.

1896~ Wallace Hume Carothers (d. Apr. 29, 1937), American organic chemist who, while working at DuPont, invented nylon.  He died committed suicide 2 days after his 41^stbirthday.

1822~ Ulysses Simpson Grant (néHiram Ulysses Grant, d. July 23, 1885), General in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and 18^thPresident of the United States.  He was President from March 1969 through March 1877.  He has previously served as General in the Union Army during the American Civil War.  He died at age 63.

1791~ Samuel Finley Breese Morse (d. Apr. 2, 1872), American painter and inventor of the Morse code. His contribution greatly advanced the use of the commercial telegraph.  He was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts.  He died three weeks before his 81^stbirthday.

1759~ Mary Wollstonecraft (d. Sept. 10, 1797), English author and early feminist, best known for her book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.  She died at age 38 of complications following childbirth.

1755~ Marc-Antoine Parseval (d. Aug. 16, 1836), French mathematician.  He died at age 81.

1593~ Mumtaz Mahal (d. June 17, 1631) died during the birth of her 14^thchild.  She was 38 years old.  She was the third and favorite wife of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I (1592 ~ 1666), who spent the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.

Events that Changed the World:

2014~ A tornado outbreak over much of the eastern portion of the United States killed 45 people.

2011~ Over 200 tornados touched down in the Southeastern United States, especially in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee.  During the tornado outbreak, which occurred from April 25 through April 28, over 300 people were killed and scores were injured in the devastation caused by the storms.

2010~ Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece’s sovereign credit rating to junk.

1987~ The United States Department of Justice banned Austrian President Kurt Waldheim (1918 ~ 2007) from entering the United States because he had been involved in the deportation and execution of thousands of Jews while serving as a German Army officer during World War II.

1967~ Expo 67 officially opened in Montreal, Canada in a ceremony that was broadcast around the world.

1865~ The steamboat, SS Sultana, exploded and sank into the Mississippi River.  The boat’s passenger list was comprised of many Union soldiers who had survived the Andersonville and Cahaba Prisons.  Of the 2,400 passengers aboard the steamboat, over 1,700 were killed.

1865~ The New York State Senate created Cornell University as the state’s land grant institution.

1861~ President Abraham Lincoln (1809 ~ 1865) suspended the writ of habeas corpus.

1810~ Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 ~ 1827) composed his famous piano piece, Für Elise.

1667~ John Milton (1608 ~ 1674), who was blind and impoverished, sold the copyright of his book, Paradise Lostfor £10.

1570~ Pope Pius V (1504 ~ 1572) declared England’s Queen Elizabeth I (1533 ~ 1603) a heretic.

711~ Islamic Moorish troops landed in Gibraltar and began their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula.

Good-Byes:

2002~ Ruth Marianna Handler (b. Nov. 4, 1916), American toymaker and creator of the Barbie doll.  She was president of the Mattel toy company.  She died of colon cancer at age 85.

1999~ Al Hirt (néAlois Maxwell Hirt, b. Nov. 7, 1922), American trumpeter.  He was born and died in New Orleans, Louisiana.  He was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2009.  He died at age 76.

1996~ William Colby (b. Jan. 4, 1920), 10^thDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He served under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford from September 1973 until January 1996.  He died in what appeared to be a boating accident.  He took off on a canoe on April 27, 1996.  His body was discovered on May 6, 1996.  Although the coroner determined that he died drowning after having suffered a stroke or heart attack, there has been speculation that his death may have been due to foul play or suicide.  He was 76 years old.

1978~ Guido Stampacchia (b. Mar. 26, 1926), Italian mathematician.  He died of a heart attack a month after his 52^ndbirthday.

1965~ Edward R. Murrow (néEgbert Roscoe Murrow, d. Apr. 25, 1908), American broadcast journalist.  He died of lung cancer 2 days after his 57^thbirthday.

1952~ Guido Castelnuovo (b. Aug. 14, 1865), Italian mathematician.  He died at age 86.

1938~ Edmund Husserl (b. Apr. 8, 1859), Austrian mathematician.  He died 19 days after his 79^thbirthday.

1936~ Karl Pearson (b. Mar. 27, 1857), English statistician and mathematician.  He died a month after his 79^thbirthday.

1932~ Hart Crane (né Harold Hart Crane, b. July 21, 1899), American writer.  He is believed to have intentionally committed suicide at age 32 by throwing himself off a steamship.

1915~ John Labatt (b. Dec. 11, 1838), Canadian businessman and brewer.  He was the founder of the Labatt’s Brewing Company.  He died at age 76.

1902~ Julius Sterling Morton (b. Apr. 22, 1832), 3^rdUnited States Secretary of Agriculture. He served in that Office from March 1893 until March 1897 in the Grover Cleveland administration.  He died 5 days after his 70^thbirthday.

1886~ Henry Hobson Richardson (b. Sept. 29, 1838), American architect.  He designed Trinity Church in Copley Square in Boston.  He was born in St. James Parish, Louisiana.  He died in Brookline, Massachusetts at age 47 of Bright’s disease.

1882~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (b. May 25, 1803), American essayist. He died less than a month before his 79^thbirthday.

1813~ Zebulon Montgomery Pike (b. Jan. 5, 1779), American army officer, frontiersman and explorer.  Pikes Peak in Colorado is named for him.  He was killed in action age 34 in the Battle of York during the War of 1912.

1605~ Pope Leo XI (né Alessandro Ottaviano de’ Medici, b. June 2, 1535).  He was Pope for less that a month, from April 1 until April 27, 1605.  He died at age 69.

1521~ Ferdinand Magellan (b. 1480), Portuguese explorer who was killed by natives in the Philippines.  He is believed to have been about 40 years old at the time of his death.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.