July 7

Birthdays:

1980~ Michelle Kwan (née Michelle Wingshan Kwan), American figure skater.

1949~ Shelley Duvall (née Shelley Alexis Duvall), American actress.

1940~ Ringo Starr (né Richard Starkey), British drummer for the Beatles.  He was knighted and is now known as Sir Richard Starkey.

1936~ Egbert Brieskorn (d. July 11, 2013), German mathematician.  He died 4 days after his 77^thbirthday.

1935~ Kitty Genovese (née Catherine Susan Genovese, d. Mar. 13, 1964), American murder victim.  She was murdered in New York City while her neighbors allegedly did nothing to help her.  This became known as the By-stander or Genovese Effect.  She was 28 years old at the time of her murder.

1933~ David McCullough (né David Gaub McCullough), American historian and author.

1927~ Doc Severinsen (né Carl Hilding Severinsen), American conductor and trumpet player.  He is best known for leading the NBC orchestra on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

1921~ William Worthy, Jr. (d. May 4, 2014), African-American defiant journalist who reported from forbidden lands.  He was a civil rights activist and dissident who pressed his right to travel regardless of the regulations issued by the United States Department of State.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 92.

1919~William Kunstler (né William Moses Kunstler, d. Sept. 4, 1995), American lawyer and political activist.  He died of heart failure at age 76.

1917~ Larry O’Brien (né Lawrence Francis O’Brien, Jr., d. Sept. 28, 1990), 57^th United States Postmaster General.  He served under President Lyndon Johnson from November 1965 until April 1968.  He subsequently served as the 3^rd Commissioner of the NBA from 1975 until 1984. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.  He died at age 73.

1916~ Chia-Chiao Lin (d. Jan. 13, 2013), Chinese-born mathematician.  He was born in Beijing, China.  He died at age 96.

1907~ Robert A. Heinlein (né Robert Anson Heinlein, d. May 8, 1988), American science fiction writer, best known for his novel, Stranger in a Strange Land.  He died at age 80.

1906~ Satchel Paige (né Leroy Robert Paige, d. June 8, 1982), American baseball player.  He died a month before his 76^th birthday.

1906~ William Feller (né Vilibald Srećko Feller, d. Jan. 14, 1970), Croatian-American mathematician. He died at age 63.

1905~ Marie-Louise Dubriel-Jacotin (d. Oct. 19, 1972), French mathematician. She was only the second woman to earn a doctorate in France in pure mathematics.  She died at age 67.

1906~ Satchel Paige (né Leroy Robert Paige, d. 1982), American baseball player.  He died at age 75.

1880~ Otto Rohwedder (né Otto Frederick Rohwedder d Nov. 8, 1960), American engineer and inventor of sliced bread.  Interestingly, the first loaves of sliced bread began to be sold on his 48^th birthday.  He died at age 80.

1861~ Nettie Stevens (née Nettie Maria Stevens, d. May 4, 1912), American geneticist.  She was born in Cavendish, Vermont.  She died of breast cancer at age 50.

1860~ Gustav Mahler (d. May 18, 1911), Czech-Austrian composer.  He was born in Kaliště, Bohemia, which is now the Czech Republic.  He died of bacterial endocarditis at age 50.

1843~ Camillo Golgi (d. Jan. 21, 1926), Italian physician and recipient of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died at age 82.

1752~ Joseph Marie Jacquard (d. Aug. 7, 1834), French merchant and inventor of the Jacquard loom.  He died a month after his 82^nd birthday.

1616~ John Leverett (d. Mar. 16, 1679), Early American soldier and 19^th Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, however, he was baptized on July 7, 1616.  He is believed to have been 62 or 63 at the time of his death.

1540~ John Sigismund Zápolya (d. Mar. 14, 1571), King of Hungary.  He died of an illness at age 30.

1207~ St. Elizabeth of Hungary (d. Nov. 17, 1231).  She was a princess of the Kingdom of Hungry.  She was married at 14 and widowed at age 20.  She then began building hospitals to tend to the sick.  She died at age 24.

Events that changed the World:

2005~ In a series of four explosions, rush-hour terrorist bombings on the London public transit system killed 52 people, plus four of the alleged suicide bombers.  Over 700 others were injured.

1985~ Boris Becker (b. 1967), at age 17, became the youngest player to win at Wimbledon.

1983~ Maine native Samantha Smith (1972 ~ 1985) wrote to Yuri Andropov (1914 ~ 1984), the newly elected Secretary General of the Soviet Union and received a personal invitation to visit the country.  Two years later she was killed when the small plane she and her father were in crash landed in Maine.

1981~ Sandra Day O’Connor (b. 1930) was appointed to become the first female justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1980~ Sharia law was instituted in Iran.

1954~ Elvis Presley (1935 ~ 1977) made his first radio debut when WHBQ in Memphis played is first recording for Sun Records, That’s All Right.

1930~ Construction began on the Boulder Dam, now known as the Hoover Dam.

1928~ The Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri sold the first loaves of sliced bread.

1911~ The United States, Great Britain, Japan and Russia signed the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911, which banned open-water seal hunting.  This was the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues.

1907~ Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. (1867 ~ 1932), staged his first Ziegfeld Follies on the roof of the New York Theater in New York City.

1898~ President William McKinley (1843 ~ 1901) signed the Newlands Resolution, which annexed Hawaii as a territory of the United States.

1863~ The United States began its first military draft for soldiers for the American Civil War.  Exemptions from the draft cost $300.

1777~ During the American Revolutionary War, American forces retreated from Fort Ticonderoga and were defeated in the Battle of Hubbardton.

1456~ A retrial verdict acquitted Joan of Arc (1412 ~ 1431) of heresy 25 years after her death.

Good-Byes:

2014~ Dick Jones (né Richard Percy Jones. b. Feb. 25, 1927), American actor who voiced Disney’s Pinocchio.  He died at age 87.

2014~ Anthony Smith (b. Mar. 30, 1926), British adventurer who crossed land, sea and air.  In 2011, well into his 80s, he sailed from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas.  He died at age 88.

2006~ Syd Barrett (né Roger Keith Barrett, b. Jan. 6, 1946), British singer-songwriter and founding member of Pink Floyd.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 60.

1996~ Max Factor, Jr. (né Francis Factor, b. Aug. 18, 1904), Polish-born cosmetics entrepreneur.  He died of a heart attack at age 91.

1990~ Bill Cullen (né William Lawrence Francis Cullen, b. Feb. 18, 1920), American game show host.  He died of lung cancer at age 70.

1973~ Veronica Lake (née Constance Frances Marie Ockelman, b. Nov. 14, 1922), American actress.  She died in Burlington, Vermont at age 50 of renal failure.

1972~ Esther Applin (b. Nov. 24, 1895), American geologist and paleontologist. She is best known for her work with microfossils and their use in determining the age of rock formations. This was important in the oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.  She died at age 76.

1971~ Ub Iwerks (né Ubbe Eert Iwerks, b. Mar. 24, 1901), American animator and co-creator of Mickey Mouse.  He died at age 70.

1970~ Sir Allen Lane (b. Sept. 21, 1902), British publisher and founder of Penguin Books. He died at age 67.

1965~ Moshe Sharett (b. Oct. 15, 1894), 2^nd Prime Minister of Israel. He served as Prime Minister from January 1954 until November 1955.  He died at age 70.

1930~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (né Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, b. May 22, 1859), Scottish physician and writer.  He was the creator of Sherlock Holmes.  He died at age 71.

1927~ Álvaro Obregón (b. Feb. 19, 1880), President of Mexico.  He served as President from December 1920 through November 1924.  He was assassinated at age 48.

1927~ Gösta Mittag-Leffer (né Magnus Gustaf Mattig-Leffer, b. Mar. 16, 1846), Swedish mathematician.  He was a strong advocate of women’s rights.  He was a member of the Nobel Prize Committee in 1903 and was instrumental in seeing that, in 1993, Marie Curie was awarded the prize in Physics as well has her husband, Pierre.  Mattig-Leffer died at age 81.

1901~ Johanna Spyri (née Johanna Louise Heusser, b. June 12, 1827), Swiss writer best known for her children’s book, Heidi.  She died about 3 weeks after her 74^th birthday.

1893~ Samuel Blatchford (né Samuel Millard Blatchford, b. Mar. 9, 1820), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was appointed to the High Court by President Chester Arthur. He served on the Court from March 1882 until his death 11 years later.  He died at age 73.

1890~ Henri Nestlé (né Heinrich Nestle, b. Aug. 10, 1814), German-born Swiss confectioner and businessman.  He was the founder of the Nestlé’s corporation.  He died about a month before his 76^th birthday.

1701~ William Stoughton (b. 1631), Governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have died at age 70.

1307~ King Edward I of England (b. June 17, 1239).  He was also known as Edward the Longshanks and The Hammer of the Scots. He died about 3 weeks after his 68^th birthday.

1304~ Pope Benedict XI (né Nicola Boccasini, b. 1240).  He was Pope from October 1303 until his death 9 months later. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been 64 years old at the time of his death.

1162~ King Haakon II of Norway (b. 1147).  The exact date of his birth is not known.