Saturday, October 17, 2020

October 17

Birthdays:

 

1962 ~ Mike Judge (né Michael Craig Judge), American animator and creator of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butt-Head.  He was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

 

1948 ~ Margot Kidder (née Margaret Ruth Kidder; d. May 13, 2018), Canadian-born Superman star who battled bipolar disorder.  She was best known for her portrayal of Lois Lane in the Superman film series.  She died at age 69.

 

1948 ~ George Wendt (né George Robert Wendt, III), American actor, best known for his portrayal of Norm on the television sit-com, Cheers.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois.

 

1947 ~ Michael McKean (né Michael John McKean), American actor and comedian.  He was born in New York, New York

 

1946 ~ Ronni Chasen (née Veronica Cohen; d. Nov. 16, 2010), American movie publicist who was mysteriously murdered.  Police ultimately concluded she was murdered during a random robbery.  She died a month after her 64th birthday.

 

1938 ~ Evel Knievel (né Robert Craig Knievel; d. Nov. 30, 2007), American stuntman.  He died at age 69.

 

1933 ~ Jeanne Paule Deckers (d. Mar. 29, 1985), Belgian singer and nun, known as The Singing Nun.  She left the convent and moved in with Annie Pécher (1944 ~ 1985), her companion of 10 years.  She and Pécher died by suicide in March 1985.  She was 51 years old.

 

1930 ~ Robert Atkins (né Robert Coleman Atkins; d. Apr. 17, 2003), American nutritionist and physician.  He was the creator of the Atkins diet.  He died at age 72.

 

1928 ~ Jimmy Breslin (né James Earle Breslin; d. Mar. 19, 2017), American streetwise columnist who spoke truth to power.  He was the voice of New York City.  In addition to newspaper columns, he wrote novels.  He is best known for his novel .44, a fictionalized account of the Son of Sam murders.  He died of pneumonia at age 88.

 

1927 ~ Friedrich Hirzenbruch (né Friedrich Ernest Peter Hirzebruch; d. May 27, 2012), German mathematician.  He died at age 84.

 

1926 ~ Julie Adams (née Betty May Adams; d. Feb. 3, 2019), American actress who survived the Black Lagoon.  She also had a recurring role as real estate agent Eve Simpson on the television mystery drama Murder, She Wrote.  She died at age 92.

 

1921 ~ Tom Poston (né Thomas Gordon Poston; b. Apr. 30, 2007), American actor.  He is best known for his portrayal of George Utley on Newhart.  He died of respiratory failure at age 85.

 

1920 ~ Montgomery Clift (né Edward Montgomery Clift; d. July 23, 1966), American actor.  He died of a heart attack at age 45.

 

1918 ~ Rita Hayworth (née Margarita Carmen Cansino; d. May 14, 1987), American actress.  She died at age 68 of Alzheimer’s disease.

 

1917 ~ Sumner Locke Elliott (d. June 24, 1991), Australian-born novelist, whose autobiographical novel was Careful, He Might Hear You.  He died of cancer at age 73.

 

1915 ~ Arthur Miller (né Arthur Asher Miller; d. Feb. 10, 2005), American playwright.  His second wife was Marilyn Monroe.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died at age 89 in Roxbury, Connecticut.

 

1914 ~ Jerry Siegel (né Jerome Siegel; d. Jan. 28, 1996), American writer and illustrator.  He, along with his friend Joseph Shuster, was the co-creator of Superman.  He died at age 81.

 

1912 ~ Pope John Paul I (né Albino Luciani; d. Sept. 28, 1978).  He served as Pope for only 33 days, from August 26 until September 28, 1978.  He died 19 days before his 66th birthday.

 

1906 ~ Andrey Nikolayevich Tikhonov (d. Oct. 7, 1993), Russian mathematician.  He died 10 days before his 87thbirthday.

 

1903 ~ Nathanael West (né Nathan Weinstein; d. Dec. 22, 1940), American author.  He was killed in a car accident at age 37.

 

1902 ~ Irene Ryan (née Jessie Irene Noblett; d. Apr. 26, 1973), American actress, best known for her role as Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies.  She died of a heart attack at age 70.

 

1898 ~ Shinichi Suzuki (d. Jan. 26, 1998), Japanese violinist and creator of the Suzuki method for teaching violin to young children.  He died at age 99.

 

1888 ~ Paul Bernays (né Paul Isaac Bernays; d. Sept. 18, 1977), Swiss mathematician.  He died a month before his 89th birthday.

 

1880 ~ Ze’ev Jabotinsky (né Vladimir Yevgingevich Zhabotinsky; d. Aug. 4 1940), Jewish-Zionist political activist and general.  He was born in Odessa, Ukraine.  He died of a heart attack at age 59 in Hunter, New York.

 

1873 ~ Alfred Polgar (d. Apr. 24, 1955), Austrian-born journalist and drama critic.  He left Austria in 1938 and moved to Hollywood.  He died at age 82.

 

1865 ~ James Garfield (né James Rudolph Garfield; d. Mar. 24, 1950), 23rd United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Theodore Roosevelt from March 1907 until March 1909.  He was also the son of slain President James Garfield.  He died at age 84.

 

1864 ~ Robert Lansing (d. Oct. 30, 1928), 42nd United States Secretary of State.  He served under President Woodrow Wilson from June 1915 until February 1920.  He was born in Watertown, New York.  He died 13 days after his 64th birthday in New York, New York.

 

1859 ~ Childe Hassam (né Frederick Childe Hassam; d. Aug. 27, 1935), American artist.  During the early 1900s, Hassam painted many scenes of New England, including the shore, country-side and life in Boston.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 75.

 

1780 ~ Richard Mentor Johnson (d. Nov. 19, 1850), 9th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President Martin Van Buren from March 1837 until March 1841.  He is the only Vice President elected by the Senate under the provisions of the 12th Amendment.  He died a month after his 70th birthday.

 

1720 ~ Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini (d. Jan. 19, 1795), Italian composer.  She died at age 74.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2018 ~ Recreational uses of marijuana became legal in Canada.

 

2016 ~ The first full day of Sukkot.  The holiday ended at sunset of October 23.

 

1992 ~ Japanese foreign exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori (1974 ~ 1992), was shot and killed by Rodney Pearis, a homeowner in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after having stopped at a wrong house on his way to a Halloween party.

 

1989 ~ A 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay area.  Over 60 people were killed from the quake.

 

1979 ~ The United States Department of Education and the United States Department of Health and Human Services were created.

 

1979 ~ Mother Teresa (1910 ~ 1997) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

1973 ~ OPEC began an oil embargo against many western countries, including the United States.

 

1965 ~ The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair closed after 2 years.  More than 51 million people attended the Fair.

 

1956 ~ Donald Byrne (1930 ~ 1976) and Bobby Fischer (1943 ~ 2008) played a famous game of chess that was dubbed The Game of the Century.  Thirteen-year old Fischer won the game.

 

1956 ~ Queen Elizabeth II (b. 1926) officially opened the first commercial nuclear power station.  It was located in Sellafield, in Cumbria, England.

 

1933 ~ Albert Einstein (1879 ~ 1955) fled from Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States.

 

1931 ~ Gangster Al Capone (1899 ~ 1947) was convicted of income tax evasion.

 

1919 ~ The Radio Corporation of American (RCA) was incorporated.

 

1912 ~ Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War.

 

1907 ~ Guglielmo Marconi’s company began the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Nova Scotia, Canada and Ireland.

 

1817 ~ The tomb of Pharaoh Seti I, located in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, was discovered by Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778 ~ 1823).

 

1781 ~ British General Lord Charles Cornwallis (1738 ~ 1805) surrendered at the Siege of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War.

 

1777 ~ British General John Burgoyne (1722 ~ 1792) surrendered his army at Sarasota, New York, after being surrounded by the newly formed American army lead by General Horatio Gates (1727 ~ 1806).

 

1610 ~ King Louis XIII (1601 ~ 1643) of France was crowned King.

 

1448 ~ During the Second Battle of Kosovo, the Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi (1406 ~ 1456) was defeated by the Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II (1404 ~ 1451).

 

1346 ~ At the Battle of Neville’s Cross, Kind David II (1324 ~ 1371) of Scotland was captured by Edward III (1312 ~ 1377) of England and imprisoned in the Tower of London for 11 years.

 

1091 ~ A tornado, believed to have been an F4 strength tornado, struck in London.  It is the earliest reported tornado to hit in the area.  The London Bridge was completely destroyed, as were many other buildings.

 

539 BCE ~ The traditional date ascribed to when Cyrus the Great marched into Babylon and released the Jews from 70 years of exile.  The Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.  Some Jews remained in Persia, where they had a flourishing community until the beginning of the 20th Century.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2019 ~ Elijah Cummings (né Elijah Eugene Cummings; b. Jan. 18, 1951), African-American civil rights pioneer who infuriated President Trump.  He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland.  He was born in Baltimore, Maryland.  He died following a long illness at age 68.

 

2019 ~ Alicia Alonso (b. Dec. 21, 1920), Cuban ballerina.  She was the grande dame who ruled Cuban ballet.  She founded the Ballet Alicia Alonso in 1948.  She died at age 98.

 

2017 ~ Danielle Darrieux (née Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux; b. May 1, 1917), French actress and great beauty who dominated the French cinema, stage and television.  She died at age 100.

 

2008 ~ Levi Stubbs (né Levi Stubbles; b. June 6, 1936), African-American soulful baritone who helped define the Motown sound.  He was the lead singer of The Four Tops.  He died at age 72.

 

2007~ Joey Bishop (né Joseph Abraham Gottlieb; b. Feb. 3, 1918), American deadpan comic who was the last member of the Rat Pack.  He died at age 89.

 

2004 ~ Uzi Hitman (b. June 9, 1952), Israeli musician.  He died of a heart attack at age 52.

 

2001 ~ Rehavam Ze’evi (b. June 20, 1926), Israeli general and politician.  He was an Israeli tourist minister.  He was the first Israeli minister to be assassinated in a terrorist attack.  He died at age 75.

 

1999 ~ Nicholas Metropolis (né Nicholas Constantine Metropolis; b. June 11, 1915), Greek-American mathematician and physicist.  He died at age 84.

 

1993 ~ Zvi Sliternik (b. May 16, 1897), Israeli entomologist.  He died at age 96.

 

1991 ~ Tennessee Ernie Ford (né Ernest Jennings Ford; b. Feb. 13, 1919), American singer and actor.  He died at age 72.

 

1979 ~ S.J. Perelman (né Sidney Joseph Perelman; b. Feb. 1, 1904), American author and humorist.  He died at age 75.

 

1973 ~ Bernt Balchen (b. Oct. 23, 1899), Norwegian-American aviation pioneer.  He was born in Tveit, Norway.  He died a week before his 74th birthday in Mount Kisco, New York.

 

1972 ~ George, Crown Prince of Serbia (b. Aug. 27, 1887).  He relinquished his right to the throne after he killed his valet by kicking him to death when he was in his early 20s.  He married for the first time at age 60.  He died at age 85.

 

1967 ~ Puyi (né Aisin Gioro Puyi; b. Feb. 7, 1906), 12th and final Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.  He was emperor from November 1908 until he was forced to abdicate in February 1912.  He died of kidney cancer and heart diseases at age 61.

 

1963 ~ Jacques Hadamard (né Jacques Salomon Hadamard; b. Dec. 8, 1865), French mathematician.  He died at age 97.

 

1937 ~ J. Bruce Ismay (né Joseph Bruce Ismay; b. Dec. 12, 1862), English businessman who was the managing director of the White Star Line, which owned the RMS Titanic.  He is best known as being a survivor of the Titanic, for which he received much criticism.  He died of a stroke at age 74.

 

1934 ~ Santiago Ramón y Cajal (b. May 1, 1852), Spanish neuroscientist and recipient of the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in histology of the central nervous system.  He is considered the father of modern neuroscience.  He died at age 82 in Madrid, Spain.

 

1920 ~ John Reed (né John Silas Reed; b. Oct. 22, 1887), American journalist and socialist activist.  He is best remembered for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution in his book Ten Days that Shook the World.  He was born in Portland, Oregon.  He died in Moscow of spotted typhus just 5 days before his 33rd birthday.

 

1910 ~ Julia Ward Howe (née Julia Ward; b. May 27, 1819), American poet and abolitionist.  She wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic.  She died at age 91 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

 

1849 ~ Frédéric Chopin (né Frédéric François Chopin; b. Mar. 1, 1810), Polish composer and pianist.  He died at age 39.

 

532 ~ Pope Boniface II.  He was Pope from September 17, 530 until his death on this date two years later.  He was the first Germanic Pope.  The date of his birth is not known.

 

33 ~ The date ascribed to the death of Agrippina the Elder (b. BCE 14).  She was the Roman wife of Germanicus.  She is believed to have been about 47 years old.

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