Birthdays:
1960 ~ Sir Kenneth Branagh (né Kenneth Charles Branagh), Northern Irish actor and film director. He was born in Belfast, North Ireland.
1956 ~ Rod Blagojevich, 40th Governor of Illinois who was convicted on federal corruption charges. He served as Governor from January 2003 until his impeachment in January 2009. He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. He was born in Chicago, Illinois.
1952 ~ Susan Dey (née Susan Hallock Dey), American actress. She is best known for her role as Grace Van Owen on the television drama LA Law.
1934 ~ Howard Temin (né Howard Martin Temin; d. Feb. 9, 1994), American geneticist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He died of lung cancer at age 59.
1928 ~ Dan Blocker (né Bobby Dan Davis Blocker; d. May 13, 1972), American actor best known for his role as Hoss Cartwright on the television show Bonanza. He died of a pulmonary embolism at age 43.
1922 ~ Agnes Nixon (née Agnes Eckhardt; d. Sept. 28, 2016), American soap opera writer who put taboo subjects on television. She died of Parkinson’s disease at age 93.
1914 ~ Dorothy Lamour (née Mary Leta Dorothy Slaton; d. Sept. 22, 1996), American actress. She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. She died at age 81.
1911 ~ Chet Huntley (né Chester Robert Huntley; d. Mar. 20, 1974), American television journalist. He died of lung cancer at age 62.
1907 ~ Rumer Godden (née Margaret Rumer Godden; d. Nov. 8, 1998), British writer. She died a month before her 91st birthday.
1903 ~ Victoria Wolff (d. Sept. 16, 1992), German-born novelist. She died at age 88.
1891 ~ Nelly Sachs (née Leonie Sachs, d. May 12, 1970), German-born, Swedish writer and recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature. She died of cancer at age 78.
1885 ~ Elizabeth Baker (née Elizabeth Faulkner Baker; d. Jan. 30, 1973), American economist. She died at age 87.
1851 ~ Melvil Dewey (né Melville Louis Kossuth Dewey; d. Dec. 26, 1913), American librarian and creator of the Dewey Decimal System for cataloging library books. He died of a stroke 16 days after his 80th birthday. In June 2019, the American Library Association voted to remove Dewey’s name from its top honor ~ the Melvil Dewey Award ~ due to Dewey’s reputation and history of racism, anti-Semitism and sexual harassment.
1830 ~ Emily Dickinson (née Emily Elizabeth Dickinson; d. May 15, 1886), American poet. She was born and died in Amherst, Massachusetts. She died at age 55.
1815 ~ Ada Lovelace, Countess of Lovelace (née Augusta Ada Byron; d. Nov. 27, 1852), British mathematician and computer scientist. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron. She married William King-Noel, 1st Earl of Lovelace. She died of uterine cancer 13 days before her 37th birthday.
1813 ~ Zachariah T. Chandler (d. Nov. 1, 1879), 12th United States Secretary of the Interior. He served under President Ulysses S. Grant from October 1875 until March 1877. He was born in Bedford, New Hampshire. He died at age 65.
1804 ~ Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi (d. Feb. 18, 1851), German mathematician. He was the first Jewish mathematician to be appointed at a German university. He died at age 46.
1787 ~ Reverend Thomas H. Gallaudet (né Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet; d. Sept. 10, 1851), American educator for the deaf. He died at age 63.
1452 ~ Johannes Stöffler (d. Feb. 16, 1531), German mathematician. He died at age 88.
553 ~ Houzhu (d. Dec. 16, 604), last Chinese emperor of the Chen dynasty. He ruled from February 582 until February 589 when his government was overthrown. He died 6 days after his 51st birthday.
Events that Changed the World:
1999 ~ Helen Clark (b. 1950) began her term as Prime Minister of New Zealand. She was the 2nd woman to hold this office and the first woman to be elected as Prime Minister. She served until November 2008.
1983 ~ Raúl Alfonsín (1927 ~ 2009) became president of Argentina, marking the restoration of democracy in the country.
1978 ~ Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Began (1913 ~ 1992) and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat (1918 ~ 1981) were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1963 ~ Zanzibar gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
1955 ~ The Mighty Mouse Playhouse debuted on television.
1953 ~ Winston Churchill (1874 ~ 1965) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1949 ~ During the Chinese Civil War, the People’s Liberation Army began its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China. This action forced Chiang Kai-shek (1887 ~ 1975), the president of the Republic of China and its government, to flee to Taiwan.
1948 ~ The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1936 ~ King Edward VIII (1894 ~ 1972) signed the Instrument of Abdication, thereby relinquishing his rights to the British throne. Following his abdication, he ceased to be King of the United Kingdom and was given the title of Duke of Windsor.
1932 ~ Thailand became a constitutional monarchy.
1909 ~ Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf (1858 ~ 1940) became the first woman writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1906 ~ United States President Theodore Roosevelt (1858 ~ 1919) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Russo-Japanese War. He was the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
1906 ~ President Theodore Roosevelt (1858 ~ 1919) became the first American to win a Nobel Prize when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was given this award for his role in the mediation of the Russo-Japanese War.
1901 ~ The first Nobel Prizes were awarded. The event took place on the 5th anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel (1833 ~ 1896).
1898 ~ The Treaty of Paris was signed, officially ending the Spanish-American War in which Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States. Wilhelm Röntgen (1845 ~ 1923) was awarded the Prize in Physics; Jacob van ’t Hoff (1852 ~ 1911) was awarded the Prize in Chemistry; Emil von Behring (1854 ~ 1917) was awarded the Prize in Physiology or Medicine; Sully Prodhomme (1839 ~ 1907) was awarded the Prize in Literature; and Henry Dunant (1828 ~ 1819) and Frédéric Passy (1822 ~ 1912) shared the Peace Prize.
1884 ~ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain (1835 ~ 1910) was published.
1869 ~ The Kappa Sigma fraternity was founded at the University of Virginia.
1869 ~ The territory of Wyoming authorized women to vote and to hold political office through the passage of the Wyoming Suffrage Act of 1869. In September 1870, Louisa Ann Swain became the first woman in the State to cast a vote in a general election.
1868 ~ The first traffic lights were installed outside of the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
1861 ~ Kentucky became the 13th State of the Confederate States of America.
1817 ~ Mississippi became the 20th State of the Union.
1799 ~ France adopted the meter as its official unit of length.
1541 ~ English courtiers Thomas Culpepper (1514 ~ 1541) and Francis Dereham (1513 ~ 1541) were executed for allegedly having affairs with Catherine Howard (1523 ~ 1542), Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
1520 ~ Martin Luther (1483 ~ 1546) burned his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine.
Good-Byes:
2014 ~ Robert B. Oakley (né Robert Bigger Oakley; b. Mar. 12, 1931), American diplomat who thrived in danger zones. He served as the 19th United States Ambassador to Pakistan. He died at age 83.
2010 ~ John Fenn (né John Bennett Fenn; b. June 15, 1917), American chemist and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He died at age 93.
2006 ~ Augusto Pinochet (b. Nov. 25, 1915), President of Chile. He ruled as a dictator from December 1874 until March 1990. He died 15 days after his 91st birthday.
2005 ~ Richard Pryor (né Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Prior; b. Dec. 1, 1940), American actor and comedian. He died of a heart attack 9 days after his 65th birthday.
2005 ~ Gene McCarthy (né Eugene Joseph McCarthy; b. Mar. 29, 1916), American United States Senator from Minnesota. In 1968, he was the Democratic candidate for President. He died at age 89.
1999 ~ Franjo Tuđman (b. May 14, 1922), Croatian politician and 1st President of Croatia following its independence from Yugoslavia. He served in Office from May 1990 until his death 9 years later. He died of cancer at age 77.
1990 ~ Armand Hammer (b. May 21, 1898), American businessman, physician and philanthropist. He founded Occidental Petroleum. He died at age 92.
1987 ~ Jascha Heifetz (b. Feb. 2, 1901), Lithuanian violinist and musician. He was born in Vilna, but moved to the United States as a teenager. He was also an advocate for environmental issues. He died at age 86.
1978 ~ Edward Wood, Jr. (né Edward Davis Wood, Jr.; b. Oct 10, 1924), American filmmaker. He is best known for his low-budget science fiction movies, such as Plan 9 From Outer Space. He died at age 54 of a heart attack.
1968 ~ Thomas Merton (b. Jan. 31, 1915), American author and Trappist monk. He died at age 53.
1967 ~ Otis Redding (né Otis Ray Redding, Jr.; b. Sept. 9, 1941), American musician. He was killed in a plane crash at age 26.
1946 ~ Damon Runyon (né Alfred Damon Runyon; b. Oct. 4, 1880), American newspaperman and short story writer. He died of throat cancer at age 66.
1936 ~ Luigi Pirandello (b. June 28, 1867), Italian writer and recipient of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 69.
1926 ~ Nikola Pašić (b. Dec. 18, 1845), Prime Minister of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He died 8 days before his 81stbirthday.
1920 ~ Horace Elgin Dodge, Sr. (b. May 17, 1868), American automobile manufacturer and co-founder, along with his brother John (1864 ~ 1920), of the Dodge car company. He died of complications of pneumonia from the Spanish Flu and liver disease at age 52.
1911 ~ Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (b. June 30, 1817), English botanist. He died at age 94.
1896 ~ Alfred Nobel (né Alfred Bernhard Nobel; b. Oct. 21, 1833), Swedish chemist and industrialist, noted for inventing dynamite. His will established a fund, largely based on profits from his dynamite, to be used to award outstanding individuals in various fields. The first Nobel prizes were awarded in 1901, the 5th anniversary of his death. Interestingly, there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics. He was 63 years old at the time of his death.
1878 ~ Henry Wells (b. Dec. 12, 1805), American businessman and co-founder of Wells Fargo and American Express. He was from Thetford, Vermont. He died two days before his 73rd birthday.
1865 ~ King Leopold I of Belgium (b. Dec. 16, 1790). He was the first king of Belgium. He ruled from July 1831 until his death 34 years later. He died 6 days before his 75th birthday.
1853 ~ Tabitha Babbitt (né Sarah Babbitt; b. Dec. 9, 1779), American tool maker and inventor. She was credited with inventing the circular saw. She was a member of the Harvard Shaker Community. Because she was a Shaker, she never patented any of her inventions. She was born in Massachusetts. She died in Harvard, Massachusetts 1 day after her 74th birthday.
1808 ~ James Sullivan (b. Apr. 22, 1744), 7th Governor of Massachusetts. He was Governor from May 1807 until his death at age 64 on December 10, 1808. He had previously served as the 2nd Massachusetts Attorney General.
1725 ~ Nicholaas Hartsoeker (b. Mar. 26, 1656), Dutch mathematician. He died at age 69.
1626 ~ Edmund Gunter (b. 1581), English mathematician. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been 45 at the time of his death.
1541 ~ Thomas Culpeper (b. 1514), English courtier and close friend of Henry VII. He was accused of adultery with Catherine Howard, the wife of Henry VII, for which he was beheaded. The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been 27 at the time of his death.
1198 ~ Averroes (né Ibn Rušd; b. Apr. 14, 1126), Spanish physician, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher. He is sometimes known as the Father of Secular Thought in Western Europe. He died at age 72.
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