June 9

Birthdays:

1981~ Natalie Portman (née Nata-Lee Hershlag), Israeli-born actress.

1964~ Wayman Tisdale (né Wayman Lawrence Tisdale, d. May 15, 2009), American NBA basketball player who became a guitarist.  He died of cancer three weeks before his 45^th birthday.

1963~ Johnny Depp (né John Christopher Depp, II), American actor.

1961~ Michael J. Fox (né Michael Andrew Fox), Canadian-American actor.

1961~ Aaron Sorkin (né Aaron Benjamin Sorkin), American screenwriter and producer.

1956~ Patricia Cornwell (née Patricia Carroll Daniels), American author of detective and crime novels.

1952~ Uzi Hitman (d. Oct. 17, 2004), Israeli musician.  He died of a heart attack at age 52.

1931~ Phoebe Snetsinger (Phoebe Geddes Bennett, d. Nov. 23, 1999), American birdwatcher.  She had identified nearly 8,400 species at the time of her death at age 68 in a car accident in Madagascar.

1926~ Happy Rockefeller (née Margaretta Large Fitler Murphy, d. May 19, 1926), American socialite and philanthropist.  She was the wife of Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, making her the Second Lady of the United States.  She died 21 days before her 89^th birthday.

1921~ Arthur Hertzberg (d. Apr. 17, 2006), American Conservative rabbi and scholar.  He died of heart failure at age 84.

1916~ Robert McNamara (néRobert Strange McNamara, d. July 6, 2009), 8^th United States Secretary of Defense who was undone by Vietnam.  He served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson from January 1961 until February 1968.  He was a major figure in America’s role in the Vietnam War.  He died less than a month before his 94^th birthday.

1915~ Les Paul (né Lester William Polsfuss, d. Aug. 12, 2009), American guitarist and inventor.  He died at age 94.

1912~ Gerald Whitrow (né Gerald James Whitrow, d. June 2, 2000), English mathematician.  He died 7 days before his 88^th birthday.

1906~ Huguette Clark (née Huguette Marcelle Clark, d. May 24, 2011), American tycoon’s daughter who hid for seven decades.  She is the subject of the book, Empty Mansions, by Bill Dedman and Paul Clark Newell, Jr.  She died 16 days before her 105^thbirthday.

1891~ Cole Porter (né Cole Albert Porter, d. Oct. 15, 1964), American songwriter.  He died of kidney failure at age 73.

1875~ Sir Henry Dale (né Henry Hallett Dale, d. July 23, 1968), English pharmacologist and recipient of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in the study of acetylcholine as an agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses.  He died at age 93

1861~ Pierre Duhem (d. Sept. 14, 1916), French mathematician and physicist.  He died at age 55.

1851~ Charles Bonaparte (néCharles Joseph Bonaparte, d. June 28, 1921), 46^th United States Attorney General.  He served under President Theodore Roosevelt.  He also served as the 37^th Secretary of the Navy in President Roosevelt’s administration.  He died less than three weeks after his 70^th birthday.

1843~ Bertha von Suttner (d. June 21, 1914), Austrian novelist and recipient of the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize.  She was the first woman to be awarded the Peace Prize.  She died less than 2 weeks after her 71^st birthday.

1836~ Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (d. Dec. 17, 1917), English physician and woman’s rights advocate.  She was the first woman in Britain to qualify as a physician and surgeon.  She died at age 81.

1672~ Tsar Peter I, also known as Peter the Great of Russia (d. Feb. 8, 1725).  He died at age 52.

1661~ Feodor III of Russia (d. May 7, 1682).  He was Tsar from 1676 until his death in 1682.  He died about a month before his 21^st birthday 20. His young death sparked the Moscow Uprising of 1682.

1640~ Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (d. May 5, 1705).  He reigned from July 1658 until his death 57 years later.  He died about a month before his 65^th birthday.

Events that Changed the World:

1993~ Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito (b. 1960) married commoner Masako Owada (b. 1963).

1978~ The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons) opened its priesthood to “all worthy men”, thereby ending a 148-year-old policy excluding black men from participating in the liturgy.

1973~ Secretariat won the Triple Crown in horse racing.

1967~ Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War.

1959~ The USS George Washington was launched.  It is the first American submarine to carry ballistic missiles.

1958~ London’s Gatwick Airport was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.  The airport is actually located just outside of London.

1934~ The Disney character Donald Duck first appeared in a movie.  The movie was The Wise Little Hen.

1923~ Bulgaria’s military took over the government in a coup.

1915~ William Jennings Bryan (1860 ~ 1925) resigned as Secretary of State in the Woodrow Wilson administration over a disagreement in the United States’ handling of the sinking of the RHS Lusitania.  This event is recounted in Erik Larson’s book, Dead Wake.

1815~ Luxembourg declared its independence from France.

1732~ James Oglethorpe (1696 ~ 1785) was granted a royal charter for the colony of Georgia.

1534~ Jacques Cartier (1491 ~ 1557) became the first recorded European to discover the St. Lawrence River.

Good-Byes:

2017~ Adam West (né William West Anderson, b. Sept. 19, 1928), American actor best known for his role as Batman in the 1960s television show of the same name. He died of leukemia at age 88.

2009~ Norman Brinker (né Norman Eugene Brinker, b. June 3, 1931), American restaurateur who pioneered the salad bar. He died 6 days after his 78^th birthday.

1994~ Jan Tinberg (b. Apr. 12, 1903), Dutch economist and recipient of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Economic Science.  He died at age 91.

1989~ George Wells Beadle (b. Oct. 22, 1903), American geneticist and recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He died at age 85.

1981~ Allen Ludden (néAllen Packard Ellsworth, b. Oct. 5, 1917), American game show host and husband of Betty White.  He died of stomach cancer at age 63.

1975~ Albert Spencer, 7^th Earl Spencer (b. May 23, 1892), British peer and grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.  He died 17 days before his 84^th birthday.

1974~ Miguel Ángel Asturias (b. Oct. 19, 1899), Guatemalan writer and recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 74.

1974~ Katharine Cornell (b. Feb. 16, 1898), American actress.  She died in Tisbury, Massachusetts at age 81.

1959~ Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus (b. Dec. 25, 1876), German chemist and recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on sterols and their relation to vitamins.  He died at age 82.

1927~ Victoria Woodhull (née Victoria California Claflin, b. Sept. 23, 1838), American suffragist.  In 1872, she ran for President, however, she was under the constitutionally mandated age for being President at the time.  In November 1853, she married Canning Woodhull.  She was barely 15 years old at the time.  Her husband was an alcoholic and a womanizer, so she divorced him, but kept his name because she had 2 children. She died in England at age 88.

1911~ Carrie Nation (née Carrie Amelia Moore, b. Nov. 25, 1846), American temperance advocate.  She died at age 64.

1871~ Anna Atkins (née Anna Children, b. Mar. 16, 1799), British botanist and photographer.  She is considered to be the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images.  She died at age 72.

1870~ Charles Dickens (néCharles John Huffman Dickens, b. Feb. 7, 1812), British novelist, best known for such novels as Oliver Twist and Great Expectations.  He died of a stroke at age 58.

1820~ Judith Sargent Murray (b. May 1, 1751), American activist for women’s rights and playwright.  She was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts and died in Natchez, Mississippi.  She was 69 years old at the time of her death.

68~ Nero (b. Dec. 15, 37), Roman Emperor.  This is the traditional date ascribed to Nero’s death at age 30.