Thursday, November 21, 2019

November 21

Birthdays:

1979 ~ Stromile Swift, American basketball player from Shreveport, Louisiana.  He played college basketball for LSU.

1965 ~ Reggie Lewis (d. July 27, 1993), American basketball player.  He played for the Boston Celtics from 1987 until his death in 1993.  While practicing off-season at Brandeis University, he went into cardiac arrest and died.  He was 27 years old.

1955 ~ Cedric Maxwell (né Cedric Bryan Maxwell), American basketball player.  He played for the Boston Celtics from 1977 until 1985.

1953 ~ Tina Brown (née Christina Hambley Brown), English journalist and magazine editor.

1951 ~ John Kennedy (né John Neely Kennedy), United States Senator from Louisiana.  He assumed the Office in 2017.

1945 ~ Goldie Hawn (née Goldie Jeanne Hawn), American actress.

1944 ~ Harold Ramis (né Harold Allen Ramis; d. Feb. 24, 2014), American filmmaker who made comedy smart.  He died at age 69.

1944 ~ Earl Monroe (né Vernon Earl Monroe), American basketball player.

1937 ~ Ingrid Pitt (née Ingoushka Petrov; d. Nov. 23, 2010), Polish-born British actress, author and writer best known as the Queen of Horror, who knew the real thing after having survived the Holocaust.  She died of congestive heart failure two days after her 73rd birthday

1937 ~ Marlo Thomas (née Margaret Julia Thomas), American actress and daughter of Danny Thomas.

1936 ~ James DePreist (né James Anderson DePreist; d. Feb. 8, 2013), African-American conductor who was unfazed by polio.  He was the nephew of singer Marion Anderson.  He died at age 76.

1933 ~ Etta Zuber Falconer (née Etta Zuber; d. Sept. 18, 2002), African-American educator and mathematician.  She was one of the first African-American women to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics.  She earned her degree from Emory University in 1969.  She was from Tupelo, Mississippi.  She died at age 68.

1933 ~ Henry Hartsfield (né Henry Warren Hartsfield, Jr.; d. July 17, 2014), American shuttle pilot and astronaut who kept cool under pressure.  He died at age 80 from complications following back surgery.

1933 ~ Jean Shepard (née Ollie Imogene Shepard, d. Sept. 25, 2016), the American country star who sang of independent women.  She died at age 82.

1929 ~ Marilyn French (née Marilyn Edwards; d. May 2, 2009), American feminist author best known for her 1977 novel, The Women’s Room.  She was 79.

1920 ~ Stan Musial (né Stanisław Franciszek Musiał; d. Jan. 19, 2013), American baseball players.  He was the St. Louis slugger known as “the Man.”  He was the son of Polish immigrants, who gave him a Polish name.  He was one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.  He died at age 92.

1913 ~ Gunnar Kangro (d. Dec. 25, 1975), Estonian mathematician.  He died just over a month after his 62ndbirthday.

1908 ~ Elizabeth George Speare (née Elizabeth George; d. Nov. 15, 1994), American author, primarily of children’s literature.  She was born in Melrose, Massachusetts.  She died 6 days before her 86th birthday.

1902 ~ Isaac Bashevis Singer (d. July 24, 1991), Polish-born Yiddish author and 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He wrote primarily in Yiddish.  He died at age 88.

1898 ~ René Magritte (d. Aug. 15, 1967), Belgian painter.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 68.

1854 ~ Pope Benedict XV (né Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa; d. Jan. 22, 1922).  He was Pope from September 1914 until his death 8 years later.  He died of pneumonia at age 67.

1834 ~ Hetty Green (née Henrietta Howland Robinson; d. July 3, 1916), American businesswoman and financier.  She was the richest woman in America during the Gilded Age.  She was known for her wealth and her miserliness.  She was called the Witch of Wall Street.  She was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  She died of a stroke at age 81.

1787 ~ Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet (d. Apr. 28, 1865), Canadian businessman who founded the Cunard Line.  He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  He died at age 77.

1694 ~ Voltaire (né François-Marie Arouet; d. May 30, 1778), French writer and philosopher.  He died at age 83.

Events that Changed the World:

2017 ~ Robert Mugabe (1824 ~ 2019) formally resigned as President of Zimbabwe.  He has served in that Office for over 37 years.

2015 ~ In an election run-off, the people of Louisiana elected John Bel Edwards (b. 1966) as the next governor, defeating David Vitter (b. 1961).

1992 ~ A major tornado struck Houston, Texas.  Over the next 48 hours, over 100 tornados struck the United States, making it one of the largest tornado outbreaks to occur in the month of November.

1986 ~ National Security Council member Oliver North (b. 1943) began to shred documents that implicated him in the sale of weapon to Iran.  Proceeds from the sale helped to fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

1980 ~ A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada caused the worst disaster in Nevada history.  87 people were killed and over 650 people were injured.

1979 ~ The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan was attacked and set on fire.  Four people were killed during the attack.

1964 ~ The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to the public.  It was, at the time, the longest suspension bridge in the world.

1953 ~ The British Natural History Museum acknowledged that the Piltdown Man skull, which had been believed to be an important hominid skull, was a hoax.  The skull had first come to the public’s view in 1912, when Charles Dawson (1864 ~ 1916) claimed that it was the “missing link” between ape and man.

1927 ~ In Columbine, Colorado, striking coal miners were attacked by state police officers with machine guns.  At least 6 miners were killed and scores were injured, in an event that became known as the Columbine Mine Disaster.

1922 ~ Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835 ~ 1930) of Georgia became the first woman United States Senator.  She was almost 89 years at the time.  She served, however, for only one day.  Although she was an advocate of prison reform and women’s rights, she was a white supremacist and had been a slave owner.  She also spoke in favor of lynching.

1920 ~ In what is now known as Bloody Sunday, during the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) set out to assassinate a team of undercover British agents.  By the end of the day, 31 people were killed, including 14 British informants, 14 Irish civilians and 3 IRA prisoners.

1918 ~ During the Pogrom of Lviv, Ukraine, which took place over a period of three days, at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians were killed by Poles.

1905 ~ Albert Einstein (1879 ~ 1955) published his paper, entitled Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?, on relativity.  The paper revealed the relationship between energy and mass.

1877 ~ Thomas Edison (1847 ~ 1931) announced his invention of the phonograph.

1861 ~ Confederate President Jefferson Davis (1808 ~ 1889) appointed Louisiana native Judah Benjamin (1811 ~ 1884) as his Secretary of War during the American Civil War.

1789 ~ North Carolina ratified the United States Constitution and became the 12th State admitted into the Union.

1676 ~ Danish astronomer Ole Rømer (1644 ~ 1701) presented the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.

1620 ~ The Plymouth Colony settlers signed the Mayflower Compact.

164 BCE ~ The traditional date in the Gregorian calendar when Judas Maccabaeus restored the Temple in Jerusalem.  This event is commemorated by the festival of Chanukah.

Good-Byes:

2017 ~ David Cassidy (né David Bruce Cassidy; b. Apr. 12, 1950), American teen idol who felt trapped by fame.  He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge in the 1970s television musical-sitcom, The Partridge Family.  In early 2017, he announced that he was suffering from dementia.  He died of kidney and liver failure at age 67.

2017 ~ Wayne Cochran (né Talvin Wayne Cochran, b. May 10, 1939), American flamboyant soul singer who found religion.  He is best known for his outlandish outfits and white pompadour.  He retired from music in the early 1970s and became an evangelistic minister.  He died at age 78.

2013 ~ John Egerton (b. June 14, 1935), American journalist and writer who paid homage to the food of the South.  He died of a heart attack at age 78.

2010 ~ Norris Church Mailer (née Betty Jean Davis; b. Jan. 31, 1949), American model and widow of Norman Mailer.  She was his 6th wife.  She was born on Norman Mailer’s 26th birthday.  She died of cancer at age 61.

2010 ~ Frank Fenner (né Frank John Fenner; b. Dec. 21, 1914), Australian virologist who fought smallpox, malaria and rabbits.  He died a month before his 96th birthday.

1999 ~ Quentin Crisp (né Denis Charles Pratt, b. Dec. 25, 1908), English author.  He died about a month before his 91st birthday.

1996 ~ Abdus Salam (b. Jan. 29, 1926), Pakistani physicist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 70.

1993 ~ Bill Bixby (né Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby, III; b. Jan. 22, 1934), American actor.  He is best known for his role as Tom Corbett on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and as Dr. David Banner on The Incredible Hulk.  He died of prostate cancer at age 59.

1970 ~ Sir C. V. Raman (né Chandrasekhara Venkata Rāman; b. Nov. 7, 1888), Indian physicist and recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died 2 weeks after his 82nd birthday.

1963 ~ Robert Stroud (né Robert Franklin Stroud; b. Jan. 28, 1890), American murderer and ornithologist.  He was known as the Bird Man of Alcatraz, although he was not actually able to keep birds at that prison.  He had, however, kept birds while at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth.  He was in prison from age 18 until his death at age 73.

1959 ~ Max Baer (né Maximilian Adelbert Baer; b. Feb. 11, 1909), American boxer.  He was the father of actor Max Baer, Jr., who played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies.  He died of a heart attack at age 50.

1958 ~ Mel Ott (né Melvin Thomas Ott, b. Mar. 2, 1909), American baseball player.  He was born in Gretna, Louisiana.  He was killed in a car accident in Mississippi.  He was 49 years old at the time of his death.

1945 ~ Robert Benchley (né Robert Charles Benchley; b. Sept. 15, 1889); American humorist and actor.  He died at age 56.

1945 ~ Ellen Glasgow (née Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow; b. Apr. 22, 1873), American author.  Her novels portray the changing world in the American South.  She died at age 72.

1924 ~ Florence Harding (née Florence Mabel Kling; b. Aug. 15, 1860), First Lady and Wife of President Warren Harding.  She died of renal failure at age 64.

1916 ~ Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria (b. Aug. 18, 1830).  He reigned in Austria from December 1848 until his death in 1916.  He died at age 86.

1899 ~ Garret Hobart (né Garrett Augustus Hobart; b. June 3, 1844), 24th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President William McKinley, however, he died while in office of heart disease at age 55 and was replaced by Theodore Roosevelt.

1886 ~ Charles F. Adams, Sr. (né Charles Francis Adams, b. Aug. 18, 1807), American diplomat.  He was the son of President John Quincy Adams and the grandson of President Adams.  He was born and died in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 79.

1710 ~ Bernardo Pasquini (b. Dec. 7, 1637), Italian composer.  He died 16 days before his 73rd birthday.

1695 ~ Henry Purcell (b. Sept. 10, 1659), English composer.  He died of tuberculosis at age 36.

1652 ~ Jan Brożek (b. Nov. 1, 1585), Polish mathematician, physician and astronomer.  He died 3 weeks after his 67th birthday.

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