August 26

Birthdays:

1970~ Melissa McCarthy (née Melissa Ann McCarthy), American actress and comedian.

1963~ Stephen J. Dubner, American journalist and author.

1949~ Leon Redbone (né Dickran Gobalian), Canadian-born American musician.

1945~ Tom Ridge (né Thomas Joseph Ridge), American politician and 1^st Secretary of Homeland Security.  He served in that capacity from January 2003 to February 2005 in the George W. Bush administration.

1935~ Geraldine Ferraro (née Geraldine Anne Ferraro, d. Mar. 26, 2011), American Congresswoman and Vice Presidential nominee in the 1984 presidential campaign. Walter Mondale selected her to be his running mate.  She died of multiple myeloma at age 75 in Boston, Massachusetts.

1923~ Wolfgang Sawallisch (d. Feb. 22, 2013), old-school German conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  He died at age 89.

1921~ Shimshone Amitsur (d. Sept. 5, 1994), Israeli mathematician.  He died two weeks after his 73^rd birthday.

1922~ Irving R. Levine (né Irving Raskin Levine, d. Mar. 27, 2009), American journalist.  He died at age 86.

1921~ Benjamin C. Bradlee (né Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, d. Oct. 21, 2014), American journalist newspaper editor who brought down a president.  He was the editor of the Washington Postduring the presidency of Richard Nixon when the Watergate scandal broke. He died at age 93.

1918~ Katherine Johnson (née Katherine Coleman), African-American mathematician and physicist.  She was hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (predecessor of NASA) as a mathematician.  She was one of the African-American woman mathematicians depicted in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures.

1910~ Mother Teresa (née AnjezëGonxhe Bojaxhiu, d. Sept. 5, 1997), Albanian-born missionary and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize.  She died less than 2 weeks after her 87^thbirthday.  On September 4, 2016, she became a Saint in the Catholic Church.

1909~ Jim Davis (né Marlin Davis, d. Apr. 26, 1981), 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.

1906~ Albert Sabin (né Albert Saperstein, d. Mar. 3, 1993), Polish-born American medical researcher, best known for his role in developing the oral polio vaccine.  He died of heart failure at age 86.

1898~ Peggy Guggenheim (née Marguerite Guggenheim, d. Dec. 23, 1979), American art collector.  She died at age 81.

1882~ James Franck (d. May 21, 1964), German physicist and recipient of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 81.

1873~ Lee de Forest (d. June 30, 1961), American inventor, best known for the invention Audion, a form of vacuum tube that amplifies weak electrical signals.  He died at age 87.

1819~ Albert, Prince Consort (d. Dec. 14, 1861), husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.  He died at age 42.

1792~ Manuel Oribe (d. Nov. 12, 1857), Constitutional President of Uruguay. He was in Office from March 1835 until October 1838.  He died at age 65.

1743~ Antoine Lavoisier (d. May 8, 1794), French chemist known as the Father of Modern Chemistry.  He was branded as a traitor by the revolutionists during the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution for being a tax collector.  He was tried, convicted and guillotined on the same day.  He was 50 years old at the time of his execution.

1740~ Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (d. June 26, 1810), French inventor and co-inventor along with his brother, Jacques-Étienne (1845 ~ 1799), of the hot air balloon.  He died at age 69; his brother died at age 54.

1728~ Johann Heinrich Lambert (d. Sept. 25, 1777), Swiss mathematician.  He died a month after his 49^th birthday.

1676~ Sir Robert Walpole, 1^st Earl of Orford (d. Mar. 18, 1745), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He is considered to effectively be the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He was Prime Minister from April 1721 until February 1742, was during the reigns of King George I and George II.  He died at age 68.

Events that Changed the World:

2015~ Two television journalists, Alison Parker (1991 ~ 2005) and Adam Ward (1988 ~ 2015), were shot and killed while conducting a live human-interest television interview in Virginia.  The gunman was a disgruntled former employee of the television station.  He subsequently committed suicide following a police car chase.

1978~ Pope John Paul I (1912 ~ 1978) was elected Pope.  He would die 33 days later.

1970~ Betty Friedan (1921 ~ 2006) lead a nation-wide Women’s Strike for Equality.

1942~ In Chortkiav in western Ukraine, the German police began driving the Jews out of their homes, packed them into rail cars and deported them to the Bełżec concentration camp.  Over 500 children, elderly and sick Jews were murdered before being deported.

1920~ The 19^th Amendment to the United States Constitution became effective, thereby giving women the right to vote.

1883~ The volcano Krakatoa began its final stage of eruption.  The eruption had begun the day before.

1826~ Major Gordon Laing (1794 ~ 1826) entered Timbuktu, the first European and non-Muslim to enter the city.  He was killed a month later, shortly after he left Timbuktu, by Tuareg raiders.

1791~ John Fitch (1743 ~ 1798) was granted a United States patent for the steamboat.

1498~ Michelangelo (1475 ~ 1564) was commissioned to carve the Pietà.

1346~ At the Battle of Crécy during Hundred Years’ War, the military supremacy of the English longbow prevailed over the French army’s weapons of armored knights carrying crossbows.

55 BCE~ The traditional date when Roman forces were said to have invaded Great Britain under the leadership of Julius Caesar.

Good-Byes:

2018~ Neil Simon (né Marvin Neil Simon, b. July 4, 1927), American playwright.  He died at age 91.

2017~ Tobe Hooper (néWillard Tobe Hooper, b. Jan. 25, 1943), American film director who combined horror and chain saws.  He is best known for directing 1974 film, The Chain Saw Massacre.  He died at age 74.

2009~ Dominick Dunne (né Dominick John Dunne, b. Oct. 29, 1925), American elegant writer who chronicled the famous and infamous.  He died of cancer at age 83.

2007~ Edward Brandt, Jr. (né Edward Newman Brandt, Jr., b. July 3, 1933), American physician and mathematician.  He served as Acting Surgeon General of the United States in 1981.  He died of lung cancer at age 74.

2007~ Judah Nadich (b. May 13, 1912), American rabbi in the Conservative movement.  He died at age 95.

2004~ Laura Branigan (née Laura Ann Branigan, b. July 3, 1957), American singer.  She died of a brain aneurysm at age 47.

1998~ Frederick Reines (b. Mar. 16, 1918), American physicist and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in neutrino experimentation.  He died following a long illness at age 80.

1992~ Daniel E. Gorenstein (b. Jan. 1, 1923), American mathematician.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 69.

1989~ Irving Stone (né Irving Tennenbaum, b. July 14, 1903), American writer.  He is best known for his biographical novels such as The Agony and the Ecstasy about the life of Michelangelo.  He died at age 86.

1987~ Georg Wittig (b. June 16, 1897), German chemist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the synthesis of alkenes.  He died at age 90.

1986~ Ted Knight (né Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konkpka, b. Dec. 7, 1925), America actor.  He died of colon cancer at age 62.

1981~ Roger Nash Baldwin (b. Jan. 21, 1884), American civil rights activist and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.  He was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  He died at age 97.

1977~ H.A. Rey (né Hans Augusto Rey, b. Sept. 16, 1898), German-born American children’s author and illustrator.  He, along with his wife Margret Rey (1906 ~ 1996), created Curious George.  Although born in Germany, he fled with his family when the Nazis came to power.  He died 3 weeks before his 79^th birthday.

1974~ Charles Lindbergh (né Charles Augustus Lindbergh, b. Feb. 4, 1902), American aviator and pioneer in early aviation.  In 1927, he was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. He died at age 72.

1950~ Ransom E. Olds (né Ransom Eli Olds, b. June 3, 1864), American automobile pioneer.  He died at age 86.

1937~ Andrew Mellon (né Andrew William Mellon, b. Mar. 24, 1855), American banker, industrialist and financier. He was the 49^th United States Secretary of the Treasury and served under Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.  He was in that Office from March 1921 until February 1932.  He died at age 82.

1930~ Lon Chaney (né Leonidas Frank Chaney, Sr. b. Apr. 1, 1883), American actor of silent films and the father of Lon Chaney, Jr.  He died of a throat hemorrhage, complicated by lung cancer, at age 47.

1923~ Hertha Ayrton (née Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton, b. Apr. 28, 1854), British engineer and mathematician.  She died of blood poisoning following a bug bite.  She was 69 years old.

1921~ Sándor Wkekrle (b. Nov. 14, 1848), Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Hungary.  He served in this Office from November 1892 until January 1895. He died at age 72.

1910~ William James (b. Jan. 11, 1842), American philosopher and psychologist.  He has been called the Father of American Psychology.  He died of heart failure at age 68 in Chocorua, New Hampshire.

1871~ Charles Scribner I (b. Feb. 21, 1821), American publisher and founder of Charles Scribner’s and Sons.  He died of typhoid at age 50.

1850~ King Louis Philippe I of France (b. Oct. 6, 1773).  He was King from August 1830 until February 1848.  He was forced to abdicate in 1848 and lived in exile in the United States until his death.  He died at age 76.

1723~ Anton van Leeuwenhoek (néAntonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek, b. Oct. 24, 1632), Dutch microbiologist known as the Father of the Modern Microscope.  He essentially founded the science of microbiology.  He is best known for his work on the improvement of the microscope.  He first recorded seeing live cells under the microscope, which paved the way for the study of microbiology.  He died at age 90.

1713~ Denis Papin (b. Aug 22, 1647), French physicist, mathematician and inventor.  He developed a process for pressure cooking.  He died 4 days after his 66^th birthday.

1666~ Frans Hals (b. 1580), Dutch painter.  He was known as Franz Hals the Elder, as his five sons, including Frans Hals, Junior, were also artists and painters.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 83 or 84 at the time of his death.

1551~ Margaret Leijonhufvud (b. Jan. 1, 1516), Swedish wife of King Gustav I of Sweden.  She died at age 35.

1349~ Thomas Bradwardine (b. 1300), English archbishop and mathematician.  The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 49 at the time of his death.