September 2

Birthdays:

1966~ Salma Hayek (née Selma Hayek Jiménez), Mexican-American actress.

1964~ Keanu Reeves (né Keanu Charles Reeves), Canadian actor.

1959~ Guy Labiberté, Canadian businessman, professional poker player and founder of Cirque de Soleil.

1952~ Jimmy Connors (né James Scott Connors), American tennis player.

1951~ Mark Harmon (né Thomas Mark Harmon), American actor.

1948~ Christa McAuliffe (née Sharon Christa Corrigan; d. Jan. 28, 1986), American schoolteacher from Concord, New Hampshire, who was selected to join the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challengercrew. The shuttle exploded upon take-off and she was one of the seven crew members and the only civilian killed in the disaster. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was 37 years old.

1948~ Tiny Archibald (né Nathaniel Archibald), American baseball player who had a long career with the Boston Celtics.  Because of his height, at 6 ft. 1 in., he was known as Tiny Archibald.

1948~ Terry Bradshaw (né Terry Paxton Bradshaw), American football player from Shreveport, Louisiana.  After his football career ended, he became a sportscaster.

1946~ Dan White (né Daniel James White, d. Oct. 21, 1985), American politician.  He assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone (1929 ~ 1978) and Supervisor Harvey Milk (1930 ~ 1978).  He was convicted of the murders and served time in prison.  Less than two years after his release from prison, he committed suicide at age 39.

1946~ Billy Preston (né William Everett Preston, b. June 6, 2006), American singer-songwriter and musician.  He died of kidney disease at age 59.

1937~ Peter Ueberroth (né Peter Victor Ueberroth), 6^thCommissioner of Major League Baseball.  He served from 1984 until 1989.

1936~ Reiko Douglas (d. Sept. 9, 2013), Japanese woman who prevailed on TV.  She was the third wife of comedy writer Jack Douglas.  She and her husband were popular guests on talk shows.  She died of lung cancer a week after her 77^thbirthday.

1932~ Sue Mengers (née Susi Mengers, d. Oct. 15, 2011), German-born American Hollywood talent agent who mastered her part. She died of pneumonia at age 79.

1932~ Arnold Greenberg (né Arnold Shepard Greenberg, d. Oct. 26, 2012), American businessman and co-founder of Snapple.  He died of cancer at age 80.

1931~ Alan Simpson (né Alan Kooi Simpson), United States Senator from Wyoming.  He served in the Senate from January 1979 until January 1997.

1926~ Joachim A. Nitsche (d. Jan. 12, 1996), German mathematician.  He died at age 69.

1923~ René Thom (né René Frédéric Thom, d. Oct. 25, 2002), French mathematician.  He was the recipient of the 1958 Fields Medal.  He died at age 79.

1920~ George Hendry (né George Jack Hendry, d. Aug. 17, 2011), American comeback kid of table tennis.  He died 16 days before his 91^stbirthday.

1918~ Allen Drury (né Allen Stuart Drury, d. Sept. 2, 1998), American novelist, best known for his novel, Advice and Consent.  He died on his 80^thbirthday.

1917~ Cleveland Amory (d. Oct. 14, 1997), American author.  He was born in Nahant, Massachusetts.  He died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm at age 81.

1913~ Israel Gelfand (d. Oct. 5, 2009), Russian-born mathematician who could not be contained.  He made significant contributions to many fields of mathematics, including group theory and functional analysis.  He died about a month after his 96^thbirthday.

1912~ Richard G. Hendrickson (né Richard Granger Hendrickson; d. Jan. 9. 2016), American stalwart volunteer who recorded the weather for 85 years.  He was the longest serving volunteer with the National Weather Service to observe weather conditions.  He recorded conditions such as temperatures, wind speed, rainfall, snow and other data from a small weather station in Long Island, New York.  He died at age 103.

1878~ Maurice Fréchet (né Maurice René Fréchet, d. June 4, 1973), French mathematician.  He died at age 94.

1877~ Frederick Soddy (d. Sept. 22, 1956), French chemist and recipient of the 1921 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in nuclear reactions.  He died less than 3 weeks after his 79^thbirthday.

1855~ M. Hoke Smith (né Michael Hoke Smith, d. Nov. 27, 1931), 19^thUnited States Secretary of the Interior. He served under President Grover Cleveland from March 1893 until September 1896.  He died at age 76.

1853~ Wilhelm Ostwald (né Friedrich Wilhlem Ostwald, d. Apr. 4, 1932), German chemist and recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria and reaction velocities.  He is sometime known as being the father of modern physical chemistry.  He died at age 78.

1850~ Albert Spalding (né Albert Goodwill Spalding, d. Sept. 9, 1915), American baseball player and co-founder of the Spalding Sporting Goods Company.  He died of a stroke a week after his 66^thbirthday.

1838~ Queen Lili’uokalani (d. Nov. 11, 1917) of Hawaii.  She was the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands.  She died at age 79.

1830~ William P. Frye (néWilliam Pierce Frye, d. Aug. 8, 1911), United States Senator from Maine.  He served as Senator from March 1881 until his death in August 1911.  He was born and died in Lewiston, Maine.  He died less than a month before his 81^stbirthday.

1820~ Lucretia Peabody Hale (d. June 12, 1900), American journalist and author.  She died at age 79.

Events that Changed the World:

2019~ Labor Day.

2016~ Hurricane Hermine made landfall in Florida.

2013~ Labor Day.

1998~ Swissair Flight 111 crashed in Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard.

1992~ A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck in Nicaragua and killed over 100 people.

1963~ The CBS Evening Newsbecame the first U.S. network television news program to begin broadcasting for 30 minutes.

1958~ A United States Air Force plane was shot down by when it strayed into Soviet airspace in Armenia.  All crew members were killed.

1945~ V-J Day, which stands for Victory over Japan, which also marked the end of World War II after Japan surrendered to Allied forces.  There was a formal surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay aboard the battleship the USS Missouri.

1945~ Vietnam declared its independence and formed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

1935~ The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 made landfall in the Florida Keys.  Over 400 people were killed by the storm.

1901~ Vice President Theodore Roosevelt (1858 ~ 1919) made his famous “Speak Softly and Carry A Big Stick” speech at the Minnesota State Fair.

1859~ A solar super storm disrupted electrical telegraph services.  The storm, known as the Carrington Effect, occurred when a solar coronal mass ejection hit the Earth’s magnetosphere.

1833~ Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio was founded by John Jay Shipherd (1808 ~ 1844) and Philo Stewart.

1811~ The University of Oslo was founded as the Royal Fredericks University.

1789~ The United States Department of the Treasury was established.

1752~ Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar, nearly 200 years after most other countries in Western Europe.

1666~ The Great Fire of London began. It burned for three days and destroyed numerous buildings, including St. Paul’s Cathedral.  It is believed to have started in a bakery.

1192~ King Richard I (1157 ~ 1199) of England and Saladin (1137 ~ 1193) signed the Treaty of Jaffa, which led to the end of the Third Crusade.

Good-Byes:

2013~ Ronald Coase (né Ronald Harry Coase, b. Dec. 29, 1910), British economist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Economic Science.  He was the Nobel winner who reshaped economics.  He was 102 at the time of his death.

2007~ Esther Hoffe (née Ilse Esther Hoffe, b. May 8, 1906), Czech-born Israeli mistress of Max Brod.  She died in Tel Aviv at age 101.

2005~ Bob Denver (néRobert Osbourne Denver, b. Jan. 9, 1935), American actor, best known for his role as Gilligan on the television sit-com Gilligan’s Island.  He died of cancer at age 70.

2002~ Sheila May Edmonds (b. Apr. 1, 1916), British mathematician.  She died at age 86.

2001~ Christiaan Barnard (né Christiaan Neethling Bernard, b. Nov. 8, 1922), South African cardiac surgeon who performed the first human heart-to-heart transplant.  He died of a severe asthma attack at age 78.

1998~ Allen Drury (né Allen Stuart Drury, d. Sept. 2, 1918), American novelist, best known for his novel, Advice and Consent.  He died on his 80^thbirthday.

1997~ Viktor Frankl (né Viktor Emil Frankl, b. Mar. 26, 1905), Austrian neurologist and psychologist. He survived several concentration camps during the Holocaust.  He died at age 92.

1992~ Barbara McClintock (née Eleanor McClintock, b. June 16, 1902), American geneticist and recipient of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  She was born in Hartford, Connecticut.  She died at age 90.

1991~ Alfonso García Robles (b. Mar. 20, 1911), Mexican diplomat and recipient of the 1982 Nobel Peace Prize.  He died at age 80.

1975~ Mabel Vernon (b. Sept. 19, 1883), American suffragist.  She died 3 weeks before her 92^ndbirthday.

1973~ J.R.R. Tolkien (né John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, b. Jan. 3, 1892), British author best known for his novels The Hobbitand the Lord of the Ringsseries.  He died at age 81.

1969~ Hô Chí Minh (b. May 19, 1890), 1^stPresident of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.  He assumed the Office of 1^StPresident of the Democratic Republic Of Vietnam on his 55^thbirthday.  He served in this Office from September 1945 until his death 24 years later. He died at age 79.

1944~ Bella Rosenfeld (b. Nov. 15, 1895), Russian-born wife of Marc Chagall (1887 ~ 1985), and subject of many of his paintings.  She died of a viral infection at age 49.

1910~ Henri Rousseau (né Henri Julien Félix Rousseau, b. May 21, 1844), French painter.  He died following surgery for gangrene in his leg.  He was 66 at the time of his death.

1865~ Sir William Hamilton (né William Rowan Hamilton, b. Aug. 4, 1805), Irish mathematician. He died of a severe gout attack about a month after his 60^thbirthday.

1820~ Jiaqing Emperor (néAixin-Jueluo Yongyan, b. Nov. 13, 1760), 7^thEmperor of the Qing Dynasty.  He died at age 59.

1768~ Antoine Deparcieux (b. Oct. 28, 1703), French mathematician.  He died at age 64.

1764~ Reverend Nathaniel Bliss (b. Nov. 28, 1700), British astronomer, mathematician, and clergyman.  He died at age 63.

1332~ Jayaatu Khan Tugh Temür (b. Feb. 16, 1304), Chinese Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty.  He died at age 28.