Birthdays:
1963 ~ George Michael (né Georgio Kyraicos Panayiotou; d. Dec. 25, 2016), British singer-songwriter. He died at age 53.
1961 ~ Ricky Gervais (né Ricky Dene Gervais), English comedian, actor and writer.
1956 ~ Anthony Bourdain (né Anthony Michael Bourdain; d. June 8, 2018), American revel chef who explored the world through food. He wrote several books about the restaurant industry. He died of an apparent suicide 17 days before his 62nd birthday.
1954 ~ Sonia Sotomayor (née Sonia Maria Sotomayor), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She replaced David Souter on the Court. She was appointed to the High Court by President Barak Obama. She assumed office in August 2009. She was born in The Bronx, New York.
1951 ~ Eva Bayer-Fluckiger, Swiss mathematician. She was born in Budapest, Hungary.
1945 ~ Carly Simon (née Carly Elizabeth Simon), American singer and songwriter. She was born in The Bronx, New York.
1943 ~ Bill Moggridge (né William Grant Moggridge, d. Sept. 8, 2012), British-born visionary who designed the first laptop computer. He was born in London, United Kingdom. He died in San Francisco of cancer at age 69.
1935 ~ Charles Sheffield (d. Nov. 2, 2002), British mathematician, physicist and writer. He died of a brain tumor in Silver Spring, Maryland at age 67.
1935 ~ Larry Kramer (né Laurence David Kramer; d. May 27, 2020), American author, playwright and gay rights activist. He was the AIDS activist who drew power from fury. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He died in Manhattan, New York about a month before his 85th birthday.
1933 ~ James Meredith (né James Howard Meredith), American civil rights activist and writer. He was the first African-American to enroll in the segregated University of Mississippi. He was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi.
1928 ~ Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov (d. Mar. 29, 2017), Russian physicist and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics. He died at age 88.
1925 ~ Clifton Chenier (d. Dec. 12, 1987), American singer and songwriter from Opelousas, Louisiana. He died of complications from diabetes at age 62 in Lafayette, Louisiana.
1925 ~ June Lockhart, American actress who played Timmy’s mother on Lassie. She was born in New York, New York.
1924 ~ Sidney Lumet (né Sidney Arthur Lumet; d. Apr. 9, 2011), American film director. He died at age 86.
1923 ~ Dorothy Gilman (née Dorothy Edith Gilman; d. Feb. 2, 2012), American mystery writer, best known for her Mrs. Pollifax mysteries. She died at age 88.
1912 ~ William T. Cahill (né William Thomas Cahill; d. July 1, 1996), 46th Governor of New Jersey. He was Governor from January 1970 until January 1974. He died 6 days after his 84th birthday.
1911 ~ William Howard Stein (d. Feb. 2, 1980), American biochemist and recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He died at age 68.
1907 ~ J. Hans D. Jensen (né Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen; d. Feb. 11, 1973), German physicist and recipient of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics. He died at age 65.
1903 ~ George Orwell (né Eric Arthur Blair; d. Jan. 21, 1950), British writer, famous for his novels Animal Farm and 1984. He died at age 46 after an artery burst in his lungs.
1900 ~ Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma (d. Aug. 27, 1979), British admiral and statesman. He was an uncle of Prince Philip and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II. He was assassinated by a bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army that was planted on his yacht. He was 79 years old.
1874 ~ Rose O’Neill (née Rose Cecil O’Neill; d. Apr. 6, 1944), American cartoonist and illustrator. She is best known for creating the iconic Kewpie. She was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. She died of heart failure at age 69 in Springfield, Missouri.
1864 ~ Walther Nernst (né Walther Hermann Nernst; d. Nov. 18, 1941), German chemist and physicist. He was the recipient of the 1920 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He died at age 77.
1852 ~ Antoni Gaudí (d. June 10, 1926), Spanish-Catalan architect. He died 15 days before his 74th birthday from injuries sustained from being struck by a tram.
Events that Changed the World:
2015 ~ The United States Supreme Court ruled in King v. Burwell that the Affordable Health Care Act, also known as Obamacare, was constitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts (b. 1955) drafted the decision.
2006 ~ Galid Shalit (b. 1986), an Israeli soldier, was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid. He was released in October 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
1998 ~ The United States Supreme Court held in the Clinton v. City of New York, that the Line Item Veto Act of 1996 was unconstitutional. Justice John P. Stevens (1920 ~ 2019) drafted the majority decision.
1993 ~ Kim Campbell (née Avril Pædra Douglas Campbell; b. 1947) became the first female Prime Minister of Canada.
1991 ~ Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence from Yugoslavia.
1978 ~ The Rainbow flag, representing gay pride, was first displayed during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade.
1950 ~ The Korean War began after North Korea invaded South Korea.
1948 ~ The Berlin Airlift began.
1947 ~ The Diary of Anne Frank was published, depicting her life in hiding during World War II.
1943 ~ The Jews of the Częstochowa Ghetto in Poland began an uprising against the Nazis. The Nazi’s overpowered the Jews after a few days of fighting. The Jews who were not killed in the uprising were sent to concentration camps.
1938 ~ President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945) signed the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Act became effective on October 24, 1938.
1910 ~ Igor Stravinsky’s ballet, The Firebird, premiered in Paris.
1910 ~ The United States Congress passed the Mann Act, which prohibits interstate transport of females for “immoral purposes.”
1906 ~ Millionaire Harry Thaw (1871 ~ 1847) shot and killed prominent architect Stanford White (b. 1853), who had been having an affair with Thaw’s wife, the actress Evelyn Nesbit (1884 ~ 1967).
1876 ~ Native American forces and Sitting Bull (1831 ~ 1890) and Crazy Horse (d. 1877) defeated the United States Army troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Custer (1839 ~ 1876) and his 7th Calvary at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
1788 ~ Virginia became the 10th State to ratify the United States Constitution.
1741 ~ Maria Therese of Austria (1717 ~ 1780) was crowned Queen of Hungary.
1678 ~ Elena Cornaro Piscopia (1646 ~ 1684) became the first woman to be awarded a doctorate of philosophy upon her graduation from the University of Padua in Italy. Her degree was in theology.
Good-Byes:
2015 ~ Patrick Macnee (né Daniel Patrick Macnee; b. Feb. 6, 1922), British born actor best known for his role as John Steed in the television series, The Avengers. He was 93 years old.
2011 ~ Annie Easley (b. Apr. 23, 1933), African-American computer scientist and mathematician. She went to Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana. She worked for NASA. She died at age 78.
2011 ~ George Ballas, Sr. (né George Charles Ballas; b. June 28, 1925), American inventor who made millions whacking weeds. In 1971, he created what he called the Weed Eater. He was born in Ruston, Louisiana. He died of lung cancer in Houston, Texas just 3 days before his 83rd birthday.
2009 ~ Michael Jackson (né Michael Joseph Jackson; b. Aug. 29, 1958), American singer. He died at age 50 of a drug overdose.
2009 ~ Farrah Fawcett (née Ferrah Leni Fawcett; b. Feb. 2, 1947), American actress. She died of cancer at age 62.
2006 ~ Irving Kaplansky (b. Mar. 22, 1917), Canadian-born mathematician. He was born in Toronto, Ontaria, Canada. He died at age 89 in Los Angeles, California.
2003 ~ Lester Maddox, Sr. (né Lester Garfield Maddox; b. Sept. 30, 1915), American politician and 75th Governor of Georgia. He died at age 87.
1999 ~ Fred Trump (né Frederick Christ Trump; b. Oct. 11, 1905), American businessman and father of President Donald Trump. He was born in The Bronx, New York. He died at age 93 in New York, New York.
1997 ~ Jacques-Yves Cousteau (b. June 11, 1910), French oceanographer. He was also the co-developer of the aqua-lung. He died 14 days after his 87th birthday.
1995 ~ Warren E. Burger (né Warren Earl Burger; b. Sept. 17, 1907), 15th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Richard Nixon. He replaced Earl Warren on the Court. He served as Chief Justice from June 1969 until his retirement in September 1986. William Rehnquist replaced Burger as Chief Justice. He died at age 87.
1995 ~ Ernest Walton (né Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton; b. Oct. 6, 1903), Irish Physicist and recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in “atom-smashing.” He died at age 91.
1977 ~ Lady Olave Baden-Powell (née Olave Soames; b. Feb. 22, 1889), English founder of the Girl Guides, forerunner of the Girl Scouts. She was the wife of Lord Robert Baden-Powell and was born on his 32nd birthday. She died at age 88.
1974 ~ Cornelius Lanczos (né Kornél Lőwy; b. Feb. 2, 1893), Hungarian mathematician and physicist. His family fled Hungary when the Nazi’s purged Hungary of its Jews in 1944. He died at age 81.
1974 ~ Mary Ross Calvert (b. June 20, 1884), American astronomer and astrophotographer. She was born and died in Nashville, Tennessee. She died 5 days after her 90th birthday.
1971 ~ John Boyd Orr, 1st Baron Boyd-Orr (b. Sept. 23, 1880), Scottish physician and recipient of the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize for his research in to nutrition and malnutrition. He died at age 90.
1959 ~ Charlie Starkweather (né Charles Raymond Starkweather; b. Nov. 24, 1928), teenaged murderer who, along with Caril Ann Fugate (b. 1943), want on a killing spree in which 11 people were killed. He was executed for his crimes. He was 20 years old at the time of his execution. His exploits were depicted in several movies, including Badlands and Natural Born Killers.
1958 ~ Alfred Noyes (b. Sept 16, 1880), English poet. He died at age 77.
1916 ~ Thomas Eakins (né Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins; b. July 25, 1844), American artist. He died a month before his 72nd birthday.
1906 ~ Stanford White (b. Nov. 9, 1853), American architect. He was murdered by Henry Thaw because of his affair with Evelyn Nesbit, Thaw’s wife. He was 52 years old at the time of his death.
1889 ~ Lucy Webb Hayes (née Lucy Ware Webb; b. Aug. 28, 1831), First Lady of the United States. She was the wife of President Rutherford B. Hayes. She was known as Lemonade Lucy due to the fact that alcohol was banned from the White House during the Hayes administration. She instituted the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. She was born in Chillicothe, Ohio. She died of a stroke at age 57 in Fremont, Ohio.
1887 ~ James Speed (b. Mar. 11, 1812), 27th United States Attorney General. He served from December 1864 until July 1866 under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. He died at age 75.
1876 ~ George Armstrong Custer (b. Dec. 5, 1839), American Army general who lead the fateful charge at the Battle of Little Big Horn. He had been demoted to Lieutenant by the time he lead the charge of this battle. He died along with two of his brothers, Colonel Thomas Custer (né Thomas Ward Custer; b. Mar. 15, 1845) and Boston Custer (b. Oct. 31, 1848), who also died in the Battle of Little Big Horn. George Custer was 36 years old. His brother Thomas was 31 and Boston was 27.
1822 ~ E.T.A. Hofmann (né Ernst Theodor Wilhelm (Amadeus) Hoffmann; b. Jan. 24, 1776), German writer. He is best known as the author of the novella, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which became the basis of The Nutcracker. He was also the subject of Jacques Offenbach’s opera, The Tales of Hoffmann. He died at age 46.
1533 ~ Mary Tudor (b. Mar. 18, 1496), English-born Queen consort of France and third wife of Louis XII of France. She was the third daughter of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. She died of an illness at age 37.
1134 ~ Niels, King of Denmark (b. 1064). He was King from 1104 until his death 30 years later. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been 68 or 69 at the time of his death.
1031 ~ Sheng Zong (b. Jan. 16, 972), 6th Chinese Emperor of the Khitan-led Liao Dynasty. He ruled from October 982 until his death 49 years later. He died at age 59.
635 ~ Gao Zu (b. Apr. 7, 566), Chinese emperor and founder of the Tang Dynasty. He ruled from June 618 until 626, when he retired in favor of his son, Emperor Taisong. He died at age 69.
253 ~ Pope Cornelius was executed. He is said to have been beheaded. The exact dates of his birth and death are actually unknown. He began his Papacy in March 251 and was killed sometime in June 253.
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