May 24

Birthdays:

1965~ John C. Reilly (né John Christopher Reilly), American actor.

1963~ Michael Chabon, American author.

1960~ Dame Kirstin Scott Thomas (née Kristin Ann Scott Thomas), English actress.

1953~ Alfred Molina (né Alfredo Molina), English actor.

1949~ Tomaž Pisanski, Slovenian mathematician.

1945~ Priscilla Presley (née Priscilla Ann Wagner), wife of Elvis Presley.

1944~ David Berger (né David Mark Berger; d. Sept. 6, 1972), American-born Israeli weightlifter.  He was murdered by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich.  He died at age 28.

1944~ Patti LaBelle (née Patricia Louise Holte), African-American singer.

1943~ Gary Burghoff (né Gary Rich Burghoff), American actor best known for his role as Radar O’Reilly on M*A*S*H.

1941~ Bob Dylan (né Robert Allen Zimmerman), American singer-songwriter.  He was the recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature.

1940~ Joseph Brodsky (né Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky; d. Jan. 28, 1996), Russian-born poet and recipient of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died of a heart attack at age 55.

1938~ Tommy Chong (né Thomas B. Kin Chong), American actor.

1933~ Jane Byrne (née Jayne Margaret Burke; d. Nov. 14, 2014), American politician and first female mayor of Chicago.  She was the City’s 50^thMayor and served from April 1979 until April 1983.  She died of complications of a stroke at age 81.

1918~ Coleman Young (né Coleman Alexander Young; d. Nov. 29, 1997), American politician and Mayor of Detroit. He served as Mayor from January 1974 until January 1994.  He died of emphysema at age 79.

1917~ Florence Knoll Bassett (née Florence Schust; d. Jan.25, 2019), American designer who revolutionized the workplace.  She was an architect and furniture designed.  She created modern post-war streamlined office furniture.  She died at age 101.

1909~ Wilbur Mills (né Wilber Daigh Mills; d. May 2, 1992), American politician, whose political career ended when he was found cavorting with stripper Fanne Foxe in 1974.  He died 22 days before his 83^rdbirthday.

1905~ Mikhail Sholokhov (né Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov; d. Feb. 21, 1984), Russian writer and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He died at age 78.

1899~ Suzanne Lenglen (née Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen; d. July 4, 1938), French tennis player.  She dominated women’s tennis from 1914 to 1926. She died of leukemia at age 39.

1879~ H.B. Reese (né Harry Burnett Reese; d. May 16, 1956), American candy-maker and creator of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  He died 8 days before his 77^thbirthday.

1878~ Harry Emerson Fosdick (d. Oct. 5, 1969), American pastor.  He was one of the most liberal religious leader in the early 20^thcentury.  He was also an anti-Zionist.  He died at age 91.

1878~ Lillian Moller Gilbreth (née Lillian Evelyn Moller, d. Jan. 2, 1972), American psychologist and industrial engineer.  She was one of the first American women to earn a Ph.D. in engineering.  She and her husband had twelve children and they are the subject of the book, Cheaper by the Dozen.  She died at age 93.

1870~ Benjamin Cardozo (né Benjamin Nathan Cardozo; d. July 9, 1938), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President Herbert Hoover. He replaced Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., on the Court.  He served on the Court from March 1932 until his death 6 years later.  He died of a heart attack at age 68.

1819~ Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Empress of India (née Alexandrina Victoria; d. Jan. 22, 1901).  She reigned as Queen of the United Kingdom beginning when she was 18 years old in June 1835 until her death 66 years later.  She was married to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  She died at age 81.

1810~ Abraham Geiger (d. Oct. 23, 1874), German rabbi and scholar.  He is considered the founding father of the Reform Movement.  He died at age 64.

1743~ Jean-Paul Marat (d. July 13, 1793), journalist and one of the most radical leaders of the French Revolution.  He was assassinated at age 50 in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a French aristocrat and member of the opposing political faction.

1686~ Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (d. Sept. 16, 1736), German physicist, engineer and glass blower.  He is best known for inventing the mercury thermometer and the temperature scale that is named after him.  He developed the Fahrenheit temperature scale.  He died at age 50.

1671~ Gian Gastone de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. July 9, 1737). He died at age 66.

1335~ Margaret of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary (d. 1349).  At age 7, she was married to Louis I of Hungary.  The exact date of her death is not known, but she was 13 or 14 at the time of her death.

Events that Changed the World:

2014~ Four people were killed in Brussels in a shooting at the Jewish Museum of Belgium.

2014~ A 6.4 magnitude earthquake occurred in the Aegean Sea.  Over 300 people were killed.

2001~ The Versailles wedding hall collapsed during a wedding in Jerusalem killed and 23 people.  Over 200 other individuals were injured.  This was the worst civil disaster in Israel. Three years later, the owners of the wedding hall were convicted of negligence for failing to properly maintain the safety of the building.

2000~ Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon after being there for 22 years.

1999~ Slobodan Milošević (1941 ~ 2006) was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes that were committed in Kosovo.

1993~ Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia.

1993~ Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia.

1991~ In Operation Solomon, Israel successfully evacuated Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

1967~ Egypt imposed a blockade and siege of the Red Sea off the coast of Israel.

1961~ The Freedom Riders, a group of American civil rights activists, were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for allegedly disturbing the peace.

1943~ Josef Mengele (1911 ~ 1979) became the chief medical officer at Auschwitz.

1935~ The first night game in Major League Baseball took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies.

1930~ Amy Johnson (1903 ~ 1941) became the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.  The trip took her 19 days.

1921~ The trial of anarchists Nicola Sacco (1891 ~ 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888 ~ 1927) began.  They were convicted and executed on August 23, 1927.

1883~ The Brooklyn Bridge opened for traffic, thereby linking Brooklyn and Manhattan.  Construction on the bridge took 14 years.

1844~ Samuel Morse (1791 ~ 1872) sent out his message, "What hath G~d wrought” in the first telegraph line which ran from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in United States Capitol building to Baltimore, Maryland.

1830~ Service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which ran between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland began.

1830~ Sarah Josepha Hale’s ditty Mary Had a Little Lambwas first published.

1798~ The Irish Rebellion of 1798 against the British rule began.

1738~ John Wesley (1703 ~ 1791) began the Methodist movement of the protestant religion.  This is now a holiday in the Methodist church known as Aldersgate Day.

1689~ The English Parliament passed the ironically titled Act of Tolerance, which protected Protestants.  Roman Catholics were specifically excluded.

1683~ The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University in England opened as the world’s first university museum.

1626~ Peter Minuit (1580 ~ 1638) purchased the Island of Manhattan.

1543~ Copernicus (1473 ~ 1543) published his proof that the planets revolve around the sun.

1218~ The Fifth Crusade left Acre for Egypt.

Good-Byes:

2011~ Huguette Clark (née Huguette Marcelle Clark, b. June 9, 1906), 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.

2008~ Dick Martin (né Thomas Richard Martin, b. Jan. 30, 1922), American comedian and goofy co-host of Laugh-In.  He died at age 86.

1995~ Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (né James Harold Wilson, b. Mar. 11, 1916), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He died of cancer at age 79.

1974~ Duke Ellington (né Edward Kennedy Ellington; b. Apr. 29, 1899), African-American jazz musician. He died 25 days before his 76^thbirthday.

1960~ Avraham Arnon (b. 1887), Israeli educator.

1959~ John Foster Dulles (b. Feb. 25, 1888), 52^ndSecretary of State. He served under President Dwight David Eisenhower from January 1953 until his death.  He died of colon cancer at age 71.

1861~ Elmer E. Ellsworth (né Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, b. Apr. 11, 1837), American soldier.  He has the distinction of being the first casualty in the American Civil War.  He was killed while removing a Confederate flag from the roof of an inn in Alexandria, Virginia.  He was 24 years old.

1843~ Sylvestre François Lacroix (b. Apr. 28, 1765), French mathematician.  He died less than a month after his 78^thbirthday.

1632~ Robert Hues (b. 1553), English mathematician.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.

1543~ Nicolaus Copernicus (b. Feb. 19, 1473), Polish mathematician and astronomer who published his proof that the planets revolve around the sun. He died at age 70.

1153~ David I of Scotland (b. 1083).  The exact date of his birth is unknown.