Sunday, October 6, 2019

October 6

Birthdays:

1978 ~ Liu Yang, Chinese astronaut.  She was the first Chinese woman in space when she was a crew member on the Space mission Shenzhou 9 in 2012.

1965 ~ John McWhorter (né John Hamilton McWhorter, V), African-American linguist.  He hosts the podcast, Lexicon Valley.

1963 ~ Elisabeth Shue (née Elizabeth Judson Shue), American actress.

1936 ~ Julius Chambers (né Julius LeVonne Chambers; d. Aug. 2, 2013), African-American civil rights lawyer who won many landmark cases against racial segregation.  He died at age 76.

1935 ~ Bruno Sammartino (né Bruno Laopardo Francesco Sammartino; d. Apr. 18, 2018), Italian champion pro wrestler who fought for authenticity.  He is best known for his work with the World Wide Wrestling Federation.  He died at age 82.

1931 ~ Riccardo Giacconi (d. Dec. 9, 2018), Italian physicist and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics.  His work formed the foundation for X-ray astronomy.  He died at age 87.

1925 ~ Shana Alexander (née Shana Ager; d. June 23, 2005), American journalist who became a fixture on 60 Minutes.  She died at age 79.

1921 ~ Evgenii Landis (d. Dec. 12, 1997), Ukrainian mathematician.  He died at age 76.

1914 ~ Thor Heyerdahl (d. Apr. 18, 2002), Norwegian explorer and adventurer.  He wrote about his experience traversing the Pacific Ocean in a raft in his 1947 book Kon-Tiki.  He died at age 87.

1908 ~ Carole Lombard (née Jane Alice Peters; d. Jan. 16, 1942), American actress who was killed when the plane in which she was a passenger crashed.  She was married to Clark Gable.  She was 33 at the time of her death.

1908 ~ Sergei Sobolev (né Sergei Lvovich Sobolev; d. Jan. 3, 1989), Russian mathematician.  He died at age 80.

1903 ~ Ernest Walton (né Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton; d. June 25, 1995), Irish Physicist and recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in “atom-smashing.”  He died at age 91.

1897 ~ Florence B. Seibert (née Florence Barbara Seibert; d. Aug. 23, 1991), American biochemist best known for isolating a pure form of tuberculin used in the standard Tuberculosis, or TB, tests.  She died at age 93.

1887 ~ Le Corbusier (né Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris; d. Aug. 27, 1965), Swiss-born French architect and designer.  He died at age 77.

1874 ~ Frank G. Allen (né Frank Gilman Allen; d. Oct. 9, 1950), 51st Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1929 until January 1931.  He was born in Lynn, Massachusetts and died in Norwood, Massachusetts.  He died 3 days after his 76th birthday.

1846 ~ George Westinghouse, Jr. (d. Mar. 12, 1914), American inventor, engineer, manufacturer, and entrepreneur.  He earned his first patent, which was a railway air break, at age 22.  He died at age 67.

1831 ~ Richard Dedekind (né Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind; d. Feb. 12, 1916), German mathematician.  He died at age 84.

1820 ~ Jenny Lind (née Johanna Marie Lind; d. Nov. 2, 1887), Swedish soprano.  She was known as the Swedish Nightingale.  She died less than a month after her 67th birthday.

1773 ~ King Louis Philippe I of France (d. Aug. 26, 1850).  He was King of France 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.

1744 ~ James McGill (d. Dec. 19, 1813), Scottish-Canadian businessman.  He founded McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.  He died at age 69.

1729 ~ Sarah Crosby (d. Oct. 29, 1803), British theologian and first female Methodist preacher.  She died 23 days after her 74th birthday.

1552 ~ Matteo Ricci (d. May 11, 1610), Italian priest and missionary.  He was one of the founding fathers of the Jesuit China missions and was the first European to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing.  He died at age 57.

1289 ~ King Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland (d. Aug. 4, 1306).  He was assassinated at age 16.  His murder remains unsolved.

Events that Changed the World:

2009 ~ Hilary Mantel was awarded the Booker Prize for her historical novel Wolf Hall, a novel about Thomas Cromwell.

2009 ~ A Louisiana Justice of the Peace made news when he refused to marry an interracial couple.  The United States Supreme Court determined that forbidding interracial couples is unconstitutional.  This was decided back in 1963 in the case, Loving v. Virginia.  In November, 2009, the Justice of the Peace who had refused to marry the couple resigned his position.

1981 ~ Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918 ~ 1918) was murdered by Islamic extremists.

1979 ~ Pope John Paul II (1920 ~ 2005) became the first pope to visit the White House where he was hosted by President Jimmy Carter (b. 1924)

1973 ~ Egypt began a coordinated attach with Syria against Israel leading to the Yom Kippur War.  The conflict ran through October 25, 1973.

1927 ~ The Jazz Singer, which was the first prominent talking movie, made its premier.

1884 ~ The Naval War College of the United States Navy was founded in Newport, Rhode Island.

1876 ~ The American Library Association was founded.

1683 ~ German immigrant families founded Germantown in the Pennsylvania colony.  This group of immigrants was the first major German immigration to America.

1582 ~ Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain implemented the Gregorian calendar, thus this day was skipped in these countries.

Good-Byes:

2018 ~ Montserrat Caballé (née María de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé I Folch; b. Apr. 12, 1933), Spanish soprano who became an opera superstar.  She epitomized the prima donna and had a very hot temper.  She died at age 85.

2017 ~ Connie Hawkins (né Cornelius Lance Hawkins; b. July 17, 1942), African-American basketball star who was blocked in his prime.  He played for the Phoenix Suns from 1969 to 1973, but was barred from playing in the NBA after being linked to a college point-shaving scandal.  He wasn’t involved but it took years to clear his name.  He died at age 75.

2015 ~ Árpád Göncz (b. Feb. 10, 1922), 1st President of Hungary.  He served in Office from May 1990 until August 2000.  He died at age 93.

2014 ~ Vic Branden, Jr. (né Victor Kenneth Branden, Jr.; b. Aug. 2, 1929), American tennis player and sporting ambassador who popularized tennis.  He died at age 85.

2014 ~ Marian Seldes (née Marian Hall Seldes; b. Aug. 23, 1928), American stage actress and Broadway stalwart who lived for the stage.  She died at age 86.

2008 ~ Nadia Nerina (b. Oct. 21, 1927), South African-born ballerina who combined acrobatics with beauty.  She died 15 days before her 81st birthday.

2000 ~ Richard Farnsworth (né Richard William Farnsworth, b. Sept. 1, 1920), American actor.  He died of prostate cancer at age 80.

1989 ~ Bette Davis (née Ruth Elizabeth Davis; b. Apr. 5, 1908), American actress.  She was born in Lowell, Massachusetts.  She died at age 81 of breast cancer.

1986 ~ Alexander Kronrod (b. Oct. 22, 1921), Russian mathematician.  He died 16 days before his 65th birthday.

1983 ~ Cardinal Terrance Cooke (né Terrance James Cooke; b. Mar. 1, 1921), American Catholic Cardinal of New York.  He died of leukemia at age 62.

1981 ~ Anwar el-Sadat (né Mohamed Anwar el-Sadat; b. Dec. 25, 1981), President of Egypt from 1970 until his assassination.  He was the recipient of the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was assassinated at age 62 by Islamic extremist.

1981 ~ Blanche Noyes (née Blanche Wilcox; b. June 23, 1900), American aviator.  She was one of the first 10 women to receive a transport aviation license.  She died at age 81.

1968 ~ Phyllis Nicholson (né Phyllis Lockett; b. Sept. 21, 1917), English mathematician.  She died of breast cancer less than 3 weeks after her 51st birthday.

1956 ~ Charles Merrill (né Charles Edward Merrill; b. Oct 19, 1885), American banker and co-founder of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.  He died 2 weeks before his 71st birthday.

1951 ~ Otto Meyerhof (né Otto Fritz Meyerhof; b. Apr. 12, 1884), German physician and biochemist.  He was the recipient of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on muscle metabolism.  He fled Germany and the Nazi regime in 1938.  In 1940, he immigrated to the United States.  He died at age 67.

1951 ~ Will Keith Kellogg (b. Apr. 7, 1860), American industrialist and food manufacturer.  He was the founder of the Kellogg’s Company.  He died at age 91 of heart failure.

1912 ~ Susie Taylor (née Susan Ann Baker; b. Aug. 6, 1848), African-American nurse.  She was the first African-American Army nurse.  She served in the all-Black army troop, the 1st South Carolina Volunteer unit during the American Civil War.  She, like many other nurses at the time, was never paid for her service.  She was also an educator and opened a school for freed slaves in Georgia.  She died at age 64.

1912 ~ August Beernaert (né August Marie François Beernaert; b. July 26, 1829), Prime Minister of Belgium and recipient of the 1909 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was awarded the Peace Prize for his work at the Court of Permanent Arbitration.  He served as Prime Minister from October 1884 until March 1894.  He died at age 83.

1892 ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (né Alfred Tennyson, b. Aug. 6, 1809), British poet.  He died at age 83.

1891 ~ Charles Stewart Parnell (b. June 27, 1846), Irish politician.  He died of pneumonia at age 45.

1885 ~ Thomas Talbot (b. Sept. 7, 1818), 31st Governor of Massachusetts.  He served as Governor from January 1879 until January 1880.  He died in Lowell, Massachusetts a month after his 67th birthday.

1829 ~ Pierre Derbigny (né Pierre Augustin Charles Bourguignon Derbigny; b. June 30, 1769), 6th Governor 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 in office, three of whom also died during the month of October.

1536 ~ William Tyndale (b. 1494), English scholar and leader in the Protestant Reformation.  He is known for having translated the Bible into English using Hebrew and Greek texts.  Because of his role in the Protestant Reformation, he was charged with heresy and executed by strangling and being burned at stake.  The exact date of his birth is not know, but he is believed to have been about 41 or 42 at the time of his death.

1349 ~ Joan II (b. Jan. 28, 1312), Queen consort of Navarre and wife of Philip III, King of Navarre.  Her father was King Louis X of France.  She was of the House of Capet.  She died at age 37.

1014 ~ Samuel of Bulgaria (b. 958).  Tsar of Bulgaria.  He ruled Bulgaria from 997 until his death 17 years later.  The exact date of his birth is not known.  He is believed to have been about 56 at the time of his death.

866 ~ Charles the Bald (b. June 13, 823), Roman Emperor.  He was the Holy Roman Emperor from 875 until his death 2 years later.  He is believed to have been 54 at the time of his death.

23 A.D. ~ Wang Mang (b. 45 B.C.E.), Chinese emperor of the Han Dynasty.  He ruled from 9 A.D. until his death 14 years later.  The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been 67 at the time of his death.

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