Birthdays:
1974 ~ Elizabeth Banks (née Elizabeth Irene Mitchell), American actress. She was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
1967 ~ Laura Dern (née Laura Elizabeth Dern), American actress. She was born in Los Angeles, California.
1961 ~ George Stephanopoulos (né George Robert Stephanopoulos), American journalist. He was the White House Communications Director under President Bill Clinton. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts.
1954 ~ Peter Kaplan (né Peter Wennik Kaplan; d. Nov. 29, 2013), American New York editor who mentored a generation. He is known for modernizing New Journalism for the digital age. He died of cancer at age 59.
1950 ~ Mark Spitz (né Mark Andrew Spitz), American Olympian swimmer. He won 7 gold medals at the 1972 Olympics. He was born in Modesto, California.
1944 ~ Peter Allen (né Peter Richard Woolnough; d. June 18, 1992), Australian singer and songwriter, and first husband of Liza Minelli. He died of AIDS at age 48.
1941 ~ Michael Apted (né Michael David Apted), British movie director. He was born in Aylesbury, England.
1937 ~ Roberta Flack (née Robert Cleopatra Flack), American singer. She was born in Asheville, North Carolina.
1932 ~ Robert Taylor (né Robert William Taylor; d. Apr. 13, 2017), American computer scientist and tech pioneer who kick-started the internet. He died at age 85.
1930 ~ E.L. Konigsburg (née Elaine Lobl; d. Apr. 19, 2013), author of children’s books. She is one of two writers to be the recipient of the Newbery Medal. She died at age 83 of complications of a stroke.
1930 ~ Lewis L. Judd (né Lewis Lund Judd; d. Dec. 16, 2018), American psychiatrist who championed brain science. He died at age 88.
1930 ~ Robert Wagner (né Robert John Wagner, Jr.), American actor. He was married to Natalie Wood when she died under mysterious circumstances. He was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1927 ~ Leontyne Price (née Mary Violet Leontyne Price), African-American soprano and opera star. She was born in Laurel, Mississippi.
1922 ~ Árpád Göncz (d. Oct. 5, 2015), 1st President of Hungary. He served in Office from May 1990 until August 2000. He died at age 93.
1920 ~ Alex Comfort (né Alexander Comfort; d. Mar. 26, 2000), English physician and author. He is best known for his book The Joy of Sex. He died at age 80.
1910 ~ Dominique Pire (né George Charles Clement Ghislain Pire; d. Jan. 30, 1969), Belgian monk and recipient of the 1958 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in assisting refugees following World War II. He died of complications following surgery 11 days before his 59th birthday.
1906 ~ Lon Chaney, Jr. (né Creighton Tull Chaney; d. July 12, 1973), American actor best known for his role in early silent horror films. He died of heart failure at age 67.
1905 ~ Walter A. Brown (d. Sept. 7, 1964), American businessman and founder of the Boston Celtics basketball team. He died at age 59.
1902~ Walter H. Brattain (né Walter Houser Brattain; d. Oct. 13, 1987), American physicist and recipient of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the transistor. He died at age 85.
1901 ~ Stella Adler (d. Dec. 21, 1992), American actress and acting coach. She died at age 91.
1898 ~ Bertolt Brecht (né Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht; d. Aug. 14, 1956), German writer and playwright. He is best known for his play, Three Penny Opera. He died of a heart attack at age 58.
1897 ~ John Franklin Enders (d. Sept. 8, 1985), American biomedical scientist and recipient of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with the polio virus. He is known as the Father of Modern Vaccines. He died at age 88.
1894 ~ Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (né Maurice Harold Macmillan; d. Dec. 29, 1986), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He served as Prime Minister from January 1957 until October 1963 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. He died at age 92.
1893 ~ Jimmy Durante (né James Francis Durante; d. Jan. 29, 1980), American actor and comedian. He died 11 days before his 87th birthday.
1890 ~ Fanya Kaplan (née Feiga Haimovna Roytblat; d. Sept. 3, 1918), Russian activist who was executed after an attempt to assassinate Lenin. She was 28 at the time of her death.
1890 ~ Boris Pasternak (d. May 30, 1960), Russian writer and recipient of the 1958 Nobel Peace Prize. The Communist Party forced him to decline the award. His descendants were able to accept the Prize in his name in 1988. He is best known for his novel, Dr. Zhivago. He died of lung cancer at age 70.
1883 ~ Edith Clarke (d. Oct. 29, 1959), American electrical engineer. She was the first female electrical engineer and first female electrical engineer to teach at the University of Texas, Austin. She died at age 76.
1859 ~ Alexandre Millerand (d. Apr. 7, 1943), French lawyer and President of France from September 1920 until June 1924. He died at age 84.
1846 ~ Ira Remsen (d. Mar. 4, 1927), American chemist. He is credited with discovering the artificial sweetener saccharin. He was born in New York City and died in Carmel, California less than a month after his 81st birthday.
1842 ~ Agnes Mary Clerke (d. Jan. 20, 1907), Irish astronomer. The lunar crater Clerke is named in her honor. She died 21 days before her 65th birthday.
1831 ~ Nadezhda von Meck (d. Jan. 13, 1894), Russian businesswoman best known as being the financial support for Peter Tchaikovsky. Although they never met, she provided him with financial support for over 13 years. She died of tuberculosis less than a month before her 63rd birthday.
1806 ~ Orville Browning (né Orville Hickman Browning; d. Aug. 10, 1881), 9th United States Secretary of the Interior. He served under President Andrew Johnson from September 1866 until March 1869. He also served as a United States Senator from Illinois. He died at age 75.
1775 ~ Charles Lamb (d. Dec. 27, 1834), English essayist. He is best known for his Essays of Elia. He died at age 59.
1606 ~ Christine of France (d. Dec. 27, 1663) Duchess consort of Savoy and wife of Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy. She was the daughter of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de’Medici. She was of the House of Bourbon. She died at age 57.
Events that Changed the World:
2007 ~ Barack Obama (b. 1961), then a United States Senator from Illinois, declared his candidacy for President in the 2008 elections.
1996 ~ The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov (b. 1963) in a chess match.
1981 ~ A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel killed 8 people and injured about 200 others. The fire was determined to have been caused by arson.
1971 ~ Carole King’s Tapestry album was released.
1967 ~ The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. The amendment provides the succession plans in the event of a vacancy of the Office of President or Vice President.
1962 ~ Captured American U2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers (1929 ~ 1977) was exchanged for the captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (1903 ~ 1971). The prisoner exchange was recounted in the 2015 movie Bridge of Spies, which was based on a book of the same name.
1954 ~ President Dwight Eisenhower (1890 ~ 1969) warned against United States intervention in Vietnam.
1942 ~ The first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for his song, Chattanooga Choo-Choo.
1923 ~ Texas Tech University was founded as the Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas.
1870 ~ The YMCA was founded in New York City.
1863 ~ The fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.
1840 ~ Queen Victoria (1819 ~ 1901) of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert (1819 ~ 1861) of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
1763 ~ The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War. France ceded Quebec to Great Britain.
1258 ~ Baghdad fell to the Mongols and the Abbasid Caliphate was destroyed. The Siege of Baghdad had begun 11 days earlier, on January 29.
Good-Byes:
2019 ~ Jan-Michael Vincent (b. July 15, 1945), American hard-living actor and star of Airwolf who crashed and burned. He died at age 73.
2017 ~ Mike Ilitch, Sr. (né Michael Ilitch; b. July 20, 1929), American entrepreneur who founded the Little Caesars pizza chain and relentlessly promoted Detroit. He died at age 87.
2014 ~ Shirley Temple Black (b. Apr. 23, 1928), American child star who became a United States Ambassador. She died at age 85.
2010 ~ Charlie Wilson (né Charles Nesbitt Wilson; b. June 1, 1933), American Representative from Texas and “party animal” behind the movie Charlie Wilson’s War. He died of a heart attack at age 76.
2008 ~ Roy Scheider (né Roy Richard Scheider; b. Nov. 10, 1932), American actor, best known for his role in Jaws. He died of multiple myeloma at age 75.
2007 ~ Charles Walgreen, Jr. (né Charles Rudolph Walgreen, Jr.; b. Mar. 4, 1906), American businessman and son of the founder of the Walgreen drug store chain. He died less that a month before his 101st birthday.
2005 ~ Arthur Miller (né Arthur Asher Miller; b. Oct. 17, 1915), American playwright. His second wife was Marilyn Monroe. He died at age 89.
2003 ~ Ron Ziegler (né Ronald Louis Ziegler; b. May 12, 1939), White House Press Secretary. He served during the Nixon Administration from January 1969 until August 1974. He died of a heart attack at age 63.
2002 ~ Vernon Walters (b. Jan. 3, 1917), 17th Ambassador to the United Nations during the Ronald Reagan administration, from May 1985 until March 1989. He died at age 85.
2001 ~ Abe Beame (né Abraham David Beame; b. Mar. 20, 1906), 104th Mayor of New York City. He served as Mayor from January 1974 through December 1977. He died at age 94.
1999 ~ Joan Struthers Curran (né Joan Elizabeth Curran; b. Feb. 26, 1916), Welsh scientist. She was instrumental in the development of radar and the atomic bomb during World War II. She invented the chaff, a radar countermeasure technique. She attended Cambridge University to study physics, however, because she was a woman, she was not awarded her degree. After she finished her courses, she began a graduate program. Again, she was not awarded an advanced degree because she was female. She was born in Swansea, Wales. She died of cancer in Glasgow, Scotland 16 days before her 83rd birthday.
1992 ~ Alex Haley (né Alexander Murray Palmer Haley; b. Aug. 11, 1921), African-American historian and writer, best known for his book, Roots, which was later made into a television mini-series. He was born in Ithaca, New York. He died of a heart attack at age 70.
1989 ~ Wayne Hays (né Wayne Levere Hays; b. May 13, 1911), American politician from Ohio whose career was cut short due to a sex scandal. He was a Member of the United States House of Representatives. He died of a heart attack at age 77.
1966 ~ Billy Rose (né William Samuel Rosenberg; b. Sept. 6, 1899), American composer and bandleader. His first wife was Fanny Brice. He was born in New York City. He died in Montego Bay, Jamaica of lobar pneumonia at age 66.
1957 ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder (née Laura Elizabeth Ingalls; b. Feb. 7, 1867), American author. She is best known for her children’s books, such as The Little House on the Prairie, which depict life growing up in the American west. She died 3 days after her 90th birthday.
1939 ~ Pope Pius XI (né Ambrogio Damiano Archille Ratti; b. May 31, 1857). He was Pope from February 1922 until his death in February 1939. He was 81 at the time of his death.
1923 ~ Wilhelm Röntgen (né Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen; b. Mar. 27, 1845), German physicist and recipient of the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the X-ray. He died at age 77.
1918 ~ Ernesto Toedoro Moneta (b. Sept. 20, 1833), Italian pacifist and recipient of the 1907 of the Nobel Peace Prize. He died at age 84.
1912 ~ Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister (b. Apr. 5, 1827), English surgeon, who developed the practice of antiseptic surgery. He died at age 84.
1904 ~John A. Roche (b. Aug. 12, 1844), 30th Mayor of Chicago. He was Mayor from 1887 until 1889. He died at age 59 of uremic poisoning.
1891 ~ Sofia Kovalevskaya (b. Jan. 15, 1850), Russian mathematician. She is known for her contributions to analysis, differential equations and mechanics. She died of influenza 26 days after her 41st birthday.
1887 ~ Ellen Wood (née Ellen Price; b. Jan. 17, 1814), English author. She died 24 days after her 73rd birthday.
1879 ~ Honoré-Victorin Daumier (b. Feb. 26, 1808), French artist, painter, illustrator and sculptor. He died 16 days before his 71st birthday.
1868 ~ Sir David Brewster (b. Dec. 11, 1781), Scottish mathematician and physicist. He is best known for his work in physical optics. He died at age 86.
1837 ~ Alexander Pushkin (b. June 6, 1799), Russian poet and author. He is considered the father of modern Russian literature. He died at age 37 from injuries sustained in a duel with his brother-in-law.
1829~ Pope Leo XII (né Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiore Girolamo Nocola Sermattei della Genga; b. Aug. 22, 1760). He was Pope from September 1823 until his death 5.5 years later at age 68.
1755 ~ Montesquieu (né Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu; b. Jan. 18, 1689), French lawyer and philosopher during the Age of Enlightenment. He died 23 days after his 66th birthday.
1722 ~ Bartholomew Roberts (né John Roberts; b. May 17, 1682), Welsh pirate. He raided ships off the Americas and West Africa. He is said to have raided over 400 ships. He was known as Black Bart. He was killed at age 39 while in the trying to raid the HMS Swallow.
1660 ~ Judith Jans Leyster (b. July 28, 1609), Dutch painter. She died at age 50.
1567 ~ Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (b. Dec. 7, 1545), King consort of the Scots and English husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was Mary’s second husband. He was murdered at age 21. His body was found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o’Field house in Edinburgh.
1524 ~ Catherine of Saxony, Archduchess of Austria (b. July 24, 1468). Her first husband was Sigismund, Archduke of Austria. He was 40 years her senior. She was his second wife and she was her first husband. After his death, she married Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. She died at age 55.
1307 ~ Temür Öljeytü Khan (b. Oct. 15, 1265), Mongolian Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. He ruled from May 10, 1294 until his death on Feb. 10, 1307. He died at age 41.
1162 ~ King Baldwin III of Jerusalem (b. 1130). The date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been 33 at the time of his death.
547 ~ St. Scholastica (b. 480), Christian nun and saint. She is the patron saint of education. The date of her birth is not known.
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