May 13

Birthdays:

1986~ Lena Dunham, American actress, director and screenwriter.

1964~ Stephen Colbert (né Stephen Tyrone Colbert), American comedian and host of the Colbert Reportfrom 2005 until 2014.  In 2015, he became the host of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

1961~ Dennis Rodman (né Dennis Keith Rodman), American basketball player.

1950~ Stevie Wonder (né Sveland Hardaway Judkins), American singer.

1943~ Mary Wells (née Mary Esther Wells, d. July 26, 1992), African-American singer and member of The Supremes.  She died of cancer at age 59.

1941~ Ritchie Valens (né Richard Steven Valenzuela, d. Feb. 3, 1959), Mexican-American singer who was killed in a plane crash along with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.  He was 17 years old.

1940~ Bruce Chatwin (né Charles Bruce Chatwin, d. Jan. 18, 1989), English travel writer.  He died following a long illness at age 48.

1939~ Harvey Keitel, American actor.

1934~ Ehud Netzer (d. Oct. 28, 2010), Israeli archaeologist.  He is best known for his excavation of the Herodium, where he uncovered the tomb of Herod the Great.  He died at age 76 of injuries sustained when he fell from a railing that gave way at the dig at the Herodium.  He died at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem.

1927~ Clive Barnes (d. Nov. 19, 2008), English critic who wielded Broadway’s most pointed pen.  He died of liver cancer at age 81.

1922~ Bea Arthur (née Bernice Frankel, d. Apr. 25, 2009), American actress.  She died 18 days before her 87^th birthday.

1914~ Joe Lewis (né Joseph Louis Barrow, d. Apr. 12, 1981), American boxer.  He died of cardiac arrest a month before his 67^th birthday.

1914~ Antonia Ferrín Moreiras (d. Aug. 6, 2009), Spanish mathematician and astronomer.  She died at age 95.

1912~ Judah Nadich (d. Aug. 26, 2007), American rabbi from the Conservative movement.  He died at age 95.

1911~ Wayne Hays (né Wayne Levere Hays, d. Feb. 10, 1989), American politician from Ohio whose career was cut short due to a sex scandal.  He died of a heart attack at age 77.

1907~ Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning (d. Apr. 19, 1989), British novelist, best known for her book, Rebecca.  She died less than a month before her 82^ndbirthday.

1888~ Inge Lehmann (d. Feb. 21, 1993), Danish seismologist and geophysicist who discovered the Earth’s inner core.  She died at age 104.

1883~ Georgios Papanikolaou (d. Feb. 19, 1962), Greek pathologist who developed the pap smear.  He died at age 78.

1882~ Georges Braque (d. Aug. 31, 1963), French artist, painter and sculptor. He died at age 81.

1857~ Sir Ronald Ross (d. Sept. 16, 1932), English physician and mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1902 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work in the study of malaria.  He died at age 75.

1842~ Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (d. Nov. 22, 1900), English composer who collaborated with Sir William Gilbert and composed a number of comic operettas. He died of heart failure at age 58.

1792~ Pope Pius IX (né Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, d. Feb. 7, 1878).  He was Pope from June 1846 until his death 32 years later.  He died at age 85.

1753~ Lazare Nicholas Marguerite, Count Carnot (d. Aug. 2, 1823), French mathematician and politician.  He died at age 70.

1730~ Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2^nd Marquess of Rockingham (d. July 1, 1782), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He served two terms as Prime Minister, both during the reign of King George III.  The first term was from July 1765 through July 1766.  His second term was only from March 1782 until his death of influenza at age 52 just 4 months later.

1717~ Maria Theresa (d. Nov. 29, 1780), Austrian wife of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.  She was the Holy Roman empress in her own right.  She died at age 63

1713~ Alexis Clairaut (né Alexis Claude Clairaut, d May 17, 1765), French mathematician and astronomer.  He died 4 days after his 52^ndbirthday.

1655~ Pope Innocent XIII (né Michelangelo Conti, d. Mar. 7, 1724).  He was Pope from May 1721 until his death on this date 3 years later.  To date, he is the last pope to select Innocent as his papal name.  He died at age 68.

1588~ Ole Worm (d. Aug. 31, 1654), Danish physician and historian.  He died at age 65.

Events that Changed the World:

2018~ Mother’s Day in the United States.

2012~ Mother’s Day in the United States.

1989~ Large groups of students began to occupy Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China and began a hunger strike.

1981~ An assassination attempt was made on Pope John Paul II (1920 ~ 2005) in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.  Turkish national, Mehmet Ali Ağca (b. 1958), the alleged assassin, was quickly arrested and served time in prison.  He was released from prison in January 2010.

1963~ The United States Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brady v. Maryland, in which the Court held that the prosecution cannot withhold exculpatory evidence and to do such violates the defendant’s due process rights.

1958~ The trademark Velcro® was registered.

1948~ The Kfar Ttzion massacre, where 129 Jews were killed by Arabs, occurred the day before the declaration of the independence of the State of Israel.

1939~ The first commercial FM radio station in the United States began operation sin Bloomfield, Connecticut.

1846~ The United States declared war on Mexico starting the Mexican-American War.

1787~ Captain Arthur Phillip (1738 ~ 1814) set sail from Portsmouth, England with eleven ships filled with convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.

1515~ Mary Tudor, Queen of France (1496 ~ 1533) married Charles Brandon, (1484 ~ 1545) 1^stDuke of Suffolk.  He was her second husband.  Her first husband was King Louis XII of France.  Mary Tudor was the sister of the British King Henry VIII.

Good-Byes:

2013~ Dr. Joyce Brothers (née Joyce Diane Bauer Brothers, b. Oct. 20, 1927), American psychologist who became a media star.  She died of respiratory failure at age 85.

2009~ Meir Brandsdorfer (b. Sept. 7, 1934), Belgian-Israeli rabbi.  He died at age 74 of cardio-vascular disease.

2005~ George Dantzig (néGeorge Bernard Dantzig, b. Nov. 8, 1914), American mathematician. He died at age 90.

2000~ Paul Bartel (b. Aug. 6, 1938), American actor best known for his movie, Eating Raoul.  He died of a heart attack at age 61.

1995~ Hao Wang (b. May 20, 1921), Chinese-American logician and mathematician.  He died 7 days before his 74^th birthday.

1985~ Selma Diamond (b. Aug. 6, 1920), Canadian-American actress best known for her role as Selma Hacker on the Television sit-com, Night Court.  She died of lung cancer at age 64.

1984~ Stanislaw Ulam (né Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, b. Apr. 13, 1909), Ukrainian-born mathematician. He emigrated to the United States. He died of a heart attack a month after his 75^th birthday.

1972~ Dan Blocker (né Bobby Dan Davis Blocker, d. Dec. 10, 1928), American actor best known for his role as Hoss Cartwright on the television show Bonanza.  He died of a pulmonary embolism at age 43.

1961~ Gary Cooper (né Frank James Cooper, b. May 7, 1901), American actor.  He died of prostate cancer 6 days after his 60^th birthday.

1957~ Michael Fekete (b. July 19, 1886), Hungarian-born Israeli mathematician.  He died at age 70.

1938~ Charles Édouard Guillaume (b. Feb. 15, 1861), Swiss physicist and recipient of the 1920 Nobel Physics Prize. He died at age 77.

1930~ Fridtjof Nansen (b. Oct. 10, 1861), Norwegian explorer and diplomat. He was the recipient of the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died of a heart attack at age 68.

1916~ Sholem Aleichem (né Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, b. Mar. 2, 1859), Russian-Yiddish writer and humorist. He died of tuberculosis and diabetes at age 57.

1884~ Cyrus McCormick (né Cyrus Hall McCormick, b. Feb. 15, 1809), America inventor of harvesting machinery and founder of the International Harvester company.  He died at age 75.

1826~ Christian Kramp (b. July 8, 1760), French mathematician.  He died at age 65.

189~ Emperor Ling of Han (b. 156), Chinese Emperor of the Han Dynasty. He ruled for 21 years.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been about 32 or 33 at the time of his death.