Friday, July 5, 2019

July 5

Birthdays:

1972~ Gary Shteyngart, American novelist.  He was born in the USSR.

1965~ Kathryn Erbe (née Kathryn Elsbeth Erbe), American actress.

1963~ Edie Falco (née Edith Falco), American actress.  She is best known for her role as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series, The Sopranos.

1960~ Pruitt Taylor Vince, American actor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and attended Louisiana State University.

1958~ Bill Watterson (né William Boyd Watterson, II), American cartoonist and author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbs.

1953~ Caryn Navy (née Caryn Linda Navy), American mathematician.  She has been blind since birth.  Her specialty is set-theory topology and Braille technology.

1950~ Huey Lewis (né Hugh Anthony Cregg, III), American singer-songwriter.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

1946~ Gerardus ‘t Hooft, Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics.

1940~ Chuck Close (né Charles Thomas Close), American artist, painter and photographer.  He is best known for his photorealism massive-scale portraits.

1936~ Sir James Mirrlees (né James Alexander Mirrlees; d. Aug. 29, 2018), Scottish economist and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.  He died at age 82.

1936~ Shirley Knight, American actress.

1932~ Gyula Horn (d. June 19, 2013), Prime Minister of Hungary from July 1994 until July 1998.  He died 16 days before his 81st birthday.

1929~ Katherine Helmond (née Katherine Marie Helmond; d. Feb. 23, 2019), American actress who played very modest matriarchs.  She is best known for her role as Jessica Tate on Soap.  She died at age 89.

1918~ Jeno Paulucci (né Luigino Francisco Paulucci; d. Nov. 24, 2011), American visionary of frozen foods.  He started over 70 food companies, including frozen food companies such as Bellisio Foods, Pizza Rolls and Chun King Chinese food.  He died at age 93.

1915~ Babe Paley (née Barbara Cushing; d. July 6, 1978), American socialite.  Her second husband was William Paley, founder of CBS.  She was the subject of the novel Swans of Fifth Avenue.  She was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  She died of lung cancer 1 day after her 63rd birthday.

1914~ John Dunlop (né John Thomas Dunlop; d. Oct. 2, 2003), 14th United States Secretary of Labor.  He served in the Gerald Ford administration from March 1975 until January 1976.  He died at age 89.

1911~ Georges Pompidou (d. Apr. 2, 1974), French politician and President of France from June 1969 until April 1974.  He died in office at age 62.

1902~ Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (d. Feb. 27, 1985), American diplomat and 1960 Vice Presidential nominee as Richard Nixon’s running mate.  He was a United States Senator from Massachusetts from January 1947 until January 1953.  He served as the 3rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations.  He died in Beverly, Massachusetts at age 82.

1891~ John Howard Northrop (d. May 27, 1987), American chemist and recipient of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died by suicide at age 95.

1888~ Herbert Spencer Gasser (d. May 11, 1963), American physiologist and recipient of the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers.  He died at age 74.

1888~ Louise Freeland Jenkins (d. May 9, 1970), American astronomer.  She compiled a valuable catalogue of stars within 10 parsecs of the sun.  She was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.  The crater Jenkins on the moon is named in her honor.  She died at age 81.

1879~ Dwight F. Davis, Sr. (né Dwight Filley Davis; d. Nov. 28, 1945), 49th United States Secretary of War.  He served under President Calvin Coolidge from October 1925 until March 1929.  He was also an American tennis player and is remembered today for founding the Davis Cup.  He died at age 66.

1860~ Robert Bacon (d. May 29, 1919), 39th United States Secretary of State.  He served under President Theodore Roosevelt for 38 days, from January 1909 until March 1909.  He was from Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.  He died at age 58 of blood poisoning following surgery.

1853~ Cecil Rhodes (né Cecil John Rhodes; d. Mar. 26, 1902), English-born South African explorer and businessman.  He was the founder of the DeBeers diamond mining company.  The Rhodes Scholarship was established in his will and was established in 1902.  He died of heart failure at age 48.

1841~ William Whitney (né William Collins Whitney; d. Feb. 2, 1904), 31st United States Secretary of the Navy.  He served under President Grover Cleveland from March 1885 until March 1889.  He was born in Conway, Massachusetts.  He died at age 62.

1841~ Mary Arthur McElroy (née Mary Arthur; d. Jan. 8, 1917), sister of President Chester Arthur. She served as First Lady during his term as President.  She died at age 75.

1820~ William John Macquorn Rankine (d. Dec. 24, 1872), Scottish mathematician and engineer.  He died at age 52.

1810~ P.T. Barnum (né Phineas Taylor Barnum; d. Apr. 7, 1891), American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer.  He was a co-founder of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.  He was the subject of the 2017 movie, The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackson. Barnum died at age 80.

1801~ David Farragut (né David Glasgow Farragut; d. Aug. 14, 1870), American naval commander.  He was a flag officer in the United States navy during the American Civil War.  He died in what is now Kittery, Maine at age 69.

1717~ Peter III of Portugal (d. May 25, 1786).  He reigned from February 1777 until his death 9 years later.  He died at age 68.

1554~ Elisabeth of Austria (d. Jan. 22, 1592), Queen consort of France and wife of King Charles IX of France.  She was of the House of Habsburg.  She died of pleurisy at age 37.

1547~ Garzia de’Medici (d. Dec. 6, 1562), Tuscan prince.  He died of malaria at age 15.

1466~ Giovanni Sforza (d. July 27, 1510), Italian lord and ruler.  He was the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia, but their marriage was annulled due to his impotence.  He died 22 days after his 44th birthday.

1321~ Joan of The Tower (d. Sept. 7, 1362), Scottish wife of King David II of Scotland.  She was known as Joan of the Tower because she was born in the Tower of London.  She died at age 41.  She was most likely a victim of the Black Death.

Events that Changed the World:

2016~ Alton Sterling (1979 ~ 2016), an African-American was shot and killed by two police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  The police officers were responding to a call that Sterling had been illegally selling CDs.  Sterling ostensibly was reaching for a gun, when the officers seized and shot him. Following state and federal investigations, the officers were found not guilty of the shooting.

1999~ United States President Bill Clinton (b. 1946) imposed trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

1996~ Dolly (d. 2003) the sheep became the first cloned mammal.

1989~ Oliver North (b. 1943) was sentenced to a three-year suspended prison term, two-years probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours of community service for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair.  His convictions were later overturned.

1975~ Arthur Ashe (1943 ~ 1993) won the Wimbledon singles title.  He was the first African-American to do so.

1971~ The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution was formally certified by President Richard M. Nixon (1913 ~ 1994), lowering the voting age to 18 year olds.

1962~ Algeria gained its independent from France.

1950~ The Israeli Knesset passed the Law of Return, which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.

1947~ Larry Doby (1923 ~ 2003) became the first African-American baseball player in the American League when he signed with the Cleveland Indians.  Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier in the National League when he signed on with the Brooklyn Dodgers nearly 3 months earlier.

1946~ The bikini made its debut at an outdoor fashion show in Paris, France.

1937~ Spam was first placed on the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.

1935~ The National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations in the United States, was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945).

1865~ The Salvation Army was founded in the East End of London, England.

1841~ Thomas Cook (1808 ~ 1892), founder of the Thomas Cook & Son, Co., Travel Agency, organized his first package excursion.  The excursion escorted about 500 people from Leicester to Loughborough in England ~ a trip that was all of 11 miles!

1811~ Venezuela declared its independence from Spain.

1687~ Isaac Newton (1642 ~ 1726) published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.

Good-Byes:

2018~ Claude Lanzmann (b. Nov. 27, 1925), French filmmaker who chronicled the Holocaust. He is best known for the Holocaust documentary Shoah.  He died at age 92.

2017~ Pierre Henry (né Pierre Georges Henry; b. Dec. 9, 1927), French composer who pioneered electronic music.  He died at age 89.

2016~ Beatrice de Cardi (née Beatrice Eileen de Cardi; b. June 5, 1914), English archaeologist.  She is best known for her work in the Persian Gulf.  She died a month after her 102nd birthday from complications of a fall.

2015~ Uffe Haagerup (b. Dec. 19, 1949), Danish mathematician.  He drowned while swimming in the Baltic Sea.  He was 65 days old at the time of his death.

2015~ Burt Shavitz (né Ingram Berg Shavitz; b. May 15, 1935), American beekeeper and bearded hippie who co-founded Burt’s Bees personal care products.  He died at age 80 in Bangor, Maine.

2015~ Yoichiro Nambu (b. Jan. 18, 1921), Japanese-born American physicist and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 94.

2010~ Juanita Kreps (née Clara Juanita Morris; b. Jan. 11, 1921), 24th United States Secretary of Commerce.  She served under President Jimmy Carter from January 1977 through October 1979.  She was the first woman to hold that position and only the 4th woman to hold any cabinet position.  She died at age 89.

2006~ Ken Lay (né Kenneth Lee Lay; b. Apr. 15, 1942), American businessman who was known for his role in the corruption scandal that led to the downfall of the Enron Corporation.  He was found guilty of securities fraud, but died before the matter reached the appellate level.  He died of a heart attack at age 64.

2005~ James Stockdale (né James Bond Stockdale; b. Dec. 23, 1923), American admiral, recipient of the Medal of Honor, and Vice Presidential running mate of Ross Perot in the 1982 campaign.  He was a prisoner of war for over 7 years during the Vietnam War.  He died at age 81.

2002~ Katy Jurado (née María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García; b. Jan. 16, 1924), Mexican actress.  She made 72 films during her career.  She died of kidney failure and pulmonary disease at age 78.

2002~ Ted Williams (né Theodore Samuel Williams; b. Aug. 30, 1918), American baseball player who spent his entire 21-year major league baseball career with the Boston Red Sox.  He died of cardiac arrest at age 83.

1995~ Foster Furcolo (né John Foster Furcolo; b. July 29, 1911), 60th Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as governor from January 1957 to January 1961.  He was born in New Haven, Connecticut and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He died 3 weeks before his 84th birthday.

1969~ Walter Gropius (né Walter Adolph Georg Gropius; b. May 18, 1883), German architect and founder of the Bauhaus school of architecture.  He died at age 86 in Boston, Massachusetts.

1966~ George de Hevesy (né György Károly Hevesy; b. Aug. 1, 1885), Hungarian chemist and recipient of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in radioactive tracers.  He died 26 days before his 81st birthday.

1935~ Oliver Herford (b. Dec. 2, 1860), British writer, artist and illustrator.  He died at age 74.

1932~ René-Louis Baire (b. Jan. 21, 1874), French mathematician.  He died at age 58.

1927~ Albrecht Kossel (b. Sept. 16, 1853), German physician and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in determining the chemical composition of nucleic acids.  He died at age 73.

1833~ Nicéphore Niépce (né Joseph Nicéphore Niépce; b. Mar. 7, 1765), French inventor who is credited with creating the first known photograph.  He died of a stroke at age 68.

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