June 30

Birthdays:

1966~ Mike Tyson (né Michael Gerard Tyson), American boxer.

1959~ Vincent D’Onofrio (né Vincent Philip D’Onofrio), American actor best known for his role as Detective Robert Goren on CSI: Criminal Intent.

1956~ David Alan Grier, African-American actor and comedian.

1952~ Athanassios Fokas (né Athanassios Spyridon Fokas), Greek mathematician.

1950~ Leonard Whiting, English actor best known for his role as Romeo in the 1968 movie, Romeo and Juliette.

1947~ Barry Bremen (d. June 30, 2011), American known as The Big Imposter who made it into the big leagues.  He was a businessman who bluffed his way into being an umpire at major league baseball games.  He died of esophageal cancer on his 64^th birthday.

1943~ Florence Ballard (née Florence Glenda Ballard; d. Feb. 22, 1976), American singer and member of The Supremes.  She died of a heart attack at age 32.

1930~ Thomas Sowell, African-American economist and social theorist.

1928~ Hassan Hassanzadeh Amoli, Islamic philosopher, religious leader and mathematician.

1926~ Paul Berg, American biochemist and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in nucleic acids.

1917~ Susan Hayward (née Edythe Marrenner; d. Mar. 14, 1975), American actress.  She died at age 57 of brain cancer.

1917~ Lena Horne (née Lena Mary Calhoun Horne; d. May 9, 2010), American singer and actress.  She died of heart failure at age 92.

1911~ Czesław Miłosz (d. Aug. 14, 2004), Polish author and recipient of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He became an American citizen in 1970.  He died at age 93.

1819~ William A. Wheeler (né William Almon Wheeler; d. June 4, 1887), 19^th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Rutherford B. Hayes from March 1877 until March 1881.  He was a graduate of the University of Vermont.  He died 26 days before his 68^th birthday.

1817~ Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (d. Dec. 10, 1911), English botanist.  He died at age 94.

1769~ Pierre Derbigny (né Pierre Augustin Charles Bourguignon Derbigny; d. Oct. 6, 1829), 6^thGovernor of Louisiana.  He served as Governor for only 10 months, the shortest term of any elected governor of Louisiana.  He was killed after being thrown from a horse-drawn carriage while visiting in Gretna, Louisiana.  He is buried in the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1.  He was 60 years old at the time of his death.  He also has the distinction of having been only one of four governors to have died while in office, three of whom also died during the month of October.

1768~ Elizabeth Monroe (née Elizabeth Jane Kortright; d. Sept 23, 1830), First Lady and wife of President James Monroe.  She died at age 62.

1470~ Charles VIII of France (d. Apr. 7, 1498).  He became king at age 13.  He was King from August 1483 until his death in April 1498.  He died at age 27 when he struck his head on the lintel of a door.  He is believed to have suffered from a subdural hematoma.

Events that Changed the World:

2013~ While controlling a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona, 19 firefighters were killed.

1997~ The United Kingdom transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.

1992~ British former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925 ~ 2013) joined the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher.  She had been named a peer of the realm earlier this month.

1986~ The United States Supreme Court ruling in Bowers v. Hardwick decriminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults. Justice Byron White drafted the majority opinion.

1971~ Ohio ratified the 26^th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which lowered the voting age to 18.  With Ohio’s ratification, the Amendment became the law of the land.

1966~ The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded.  Betty Friedan (1921 ~ 2006) and Shirley Chisholm (1924 ~ 2005) were two of its founding members.

1960~ The Congo gained its independence from Belgium.

1953~ The first Corvette was produced.

1936~ Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone with the Wind, was published.

1934~ In what is now known as the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler’s men became involved in a violent purging of his political rivals.

1921~ Former President William Taft (1857 ~ 1930) was nominated as Chief Justice of the United States by President Warren Harding (1865 ~ 1923).

1906~ The United States Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act, which is now known as the Food and Drugs Act.

1905~ Albert Einstein’s article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, was published.  This introduced his theory of special relativity to the world.

1864~ President Abraham Lincoln (1809 ~ 1865) granted Yosemite Valley to California for “public use, resort and recreation.”

1859~ French acrobat and tightrope walker Charles Blondin (né Jean François Gravelet; 1824 ~ 1897) crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope.

Good-Byes:

2014~ Paul Mazursky (né Irwin Lawrence Mazursky; b. Apr. 25, 1930), American film director. He died of cardiac arrest at age 84.

2012~ Yitzhak Shamir (né Yitzhak Yezernitsky; b. Oct. 22, 1915), Prime Minister of Israel.  He served as Prime Minister for two terms.  His first term ran from October 1983 until September 1984. His second term ran from October 1986 until July 1992.  He was born in Russia.  He died at age 96 in Tel Aviv.

2011~ Barry Bremen (b. June 30, 1947), American known as The Big Imposter who made it into the big leagues.  He was a businessman who bluffed his way into being an umpire at major league baseball games.  He died of esophageal cancer on his 64^th birthday.

2004~ Professor Dame Rosalinde Hurley (aka Mrs. Gortval, b. Dec. 30, 1929), British physician, microbiologist public health administrator and barrister.  She died at age 74.

2003~ Robert McCloskey (né John Robert McCloskey; b. Sept. 14, 1915), American children’s author and illustrator. He is best known for his book, Make Way for Ducklings.  He died at age 88 in Deer Isle, Maine.

1984~ Lillian Hellman (née Lillian Florence Hellman, b. June 20, 1905), American playwright.  She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She died in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts 10 days after her 79^th birthday.

1973~ Nancy Mitford (b. Nov. 28, 1904), British novelist.  She died at age 68.

1961~ Lee de Forest (d. Aug. 26, 1873), American inventor, best known for the invention Audion, a form of vacuum tube that amplifies weak electrical signals.  He died at age 87.

1919~ John Strutt, 3^rd Baron Rayleigh (né John William Strutt; b. Nov. 12, 1842), English physicist and recipient of the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of argon.  He died at age 76.

1816~ Paul Hamilton (b. Oct. 16, 1762), 3^rd United States Secretary of the Navy.  He was appointed to the position by President James Madison.  He served in that Office from May 1809 until January 1813.  He died at age 53.

1785~ James Oglethorpe (b. Dec. 22, 1696), English general and founder of the colony of Georgia in what would later become the United States.  He died at age 88.

1660~ William Oughtred (b. Mar. 5, 1575), English mathematician and Anglican priest.  He died at age 86.