Birthdays:
1967 ~ Naim Süleymanoğlu (b. Nov. 18, 2017), Bulgarian-born Turkish weightlifting defector who became an Olympic icon. While on a World Cup Final in Australia in 1988, he defected and found his way to Turkey. He was born in Ptichar, Bulgaria. He died in Istanbul, Turkey following complications of surgery. He was 50 years old.
1964 ~ Mariska Hargitay (née Mariksa Magdolna Hargitay), American actress. She is best known for her role as Lieutenant Olivia Benson on the television drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She was born in Santa Monica, California.
1957 ~ Princess Caroline of Monaco. Upon her marriage in 1999 to her third husband, Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, she became officially known as the Princess of Hanover. She was born in Monaco.
1953 ~ Antonio Vallaraigosa, American politician and 41st Mayor of Los Angeles. He served as Mayor from July 2005 until July 2013. He was born in Los Angeles, California.
1951 ~ Sully Sullenberger (né Chesley Burnett Sullenberger, III), American pilot and captain of US Airways Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. His actions when the plane went down saved the lives of all passengers. He was the subject of the 2016 film Sully. He was born in Denison, Texas.
1950 ~ Danny Federici (né Daniel Paul Federici; d. Apr. 17, 2008), American musician and founding member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. He was born in Flemington, New Jersey. He died of melanoma at age 58 in New York, New York.
1946 ~ Boris Berezovsky (d. Mar. 23, 2013), Russian mathematician. He died at age 67, probably of a suicide.
1944 ~ Rutger Hauer (né Rutger Oelsen Hauer; d. July 19, 2019), Dutch gentle actor who excelled in bad-guy roles. He is best known for his role as the self-away android in the movie Blade Runner. He died at age 75.
1930 ~ William R. Pogue (né William Reid Pogue; d. Mar. 3, 2014), American astronaut who staged a strike in space. In November 1973, he and two other astronauts docked on Skylab, where they lived for 84 days. They were required to work all the time and so staged a strike. Ground control eased up their workload. He was born in Okemah, Oklahoma. He died at age 84 in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
1930 ~ Sir Derek Walcott (né Derek Alton Walcott; d. Mar. 17, 2017), West Indies writer and recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 87.
1929 ~ John Polanyi (né John Charles Polanyi), German-born Canadian chemist and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in chemical kinetics. He was born in Berlin, Germany. His family moved to Britain in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution.
1928 ~ Jeanne Moreau (d. July 31, 2017), French actress. She died at age 89.
1924 ~ Frank Lautenberg (né Frank Raleigh Lautenberg; d. June 3, 2013), American politician and United States Senator from New Jersey who retired only to return again. He served New Jersey as senator for nearly 30 years. He died in office at age 89.
1923 ~ Horace Ashenfelter, III (d. Jan. 6, 2018), American FBI agent who beat the Soviets to win Olympic Gold in the 3,000 steeplechase at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. He died 17 days before his 95th birthday.
1922 ~ Tuviah Friedman (d. Jan. 13, 2011), Polish-born Israeli Nazi hunter who sought revenge. He had been imprisoned in a concentration camp from which he escaped in 1944. He was born in Radom, Poland. He died 10 days before his 89th birthday in Haifa, Israel.
1921 ~ Chester Nez (d. June 4, 2014), the Navajo warrior who baffled the Japanese. He was the last of the original World War II Navajo code-talkers. He served in the United States Marine Corps. He was born in Chi Chi Tah, New Mexico. He died of kidney failure at age 93 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
1920 ~ Walter Frederick Morrison (d. Feb. 9, 2010), American Space Age toymaker and inventor who created the Frisbee. He sold the rights to the Frisbee on his 37th birthday. He died 17 days after his 90th birthday.
1919 ~ Ernie Kovacs (né Ernest Edward Kovacs; d. Jan. 13, 1962), American actor and comedian. He was killed in a car accident 10 days before his 43rd birthday.
1918 ~ Gertrude Elion (née Gertrude Belle Elion; d. Feb. 21, 1999), American biochemist, pharmacologist and recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She died a month after her 81st birthday.
1915 ~ Potter Stewart (d. Dec. 7, 1985), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Dwight Eisenhower. He served on the Court from October 1958 until his retirement in July 1981. He is best known for his concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio, which pertained to obscenity, in which he wrote “I know it when I see it.” He replaced Harold Burton on the Court. He was succeeded by Sandra Day O’Connor. He was born in Jackson, Michigan. He died following a stroke in Hanover, New Hampshire at age 70.
1915 ~ Sir Arthur Lewis (né William Arthur Lewis; d. June 15, 1991), San Lucian economist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He died at age 76.
1907 ~ Hideki Yukawa (d. Sept. 8, 1981), Japanese physicist and recipient of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physics for his prediction of the pi meson. He died at age 74.
1876 ~ Otto Diels (né Otto Paul Hermann Diels; d. Mar. 7, 1954), German chemist and recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He died at age 78.
1862 ~ David Hilbert (d. Feb. 14, 1943), German mathematician. He died 22 days after his 81st birthday.
1846 ~ Nikolay Umov (d. Jan. 15, 1915), Russian physicist and mathematician. He died 8 days before his 69thbirthday.
1832 ~ Édouard Manet (d. Apr. 30, 1883), French painter. He died of gangrene following an operation to amputate his foot. He was 51 years old.
1786 ~ Auguste de Montferrand (d. July 10, 1858), French-born Russian architect. He designed St. Isaac’s Cathedral and Alexander Column in St. Petersburg, Russia. He died at age 72.
1783 ~ Stendhal (né Marie-Henri Beyle; d. Mar. 23, 1842), French writer, best known for his novel Le Rouge et le Noir. He was 59 years old at the time of his death.
1765 ~ Thomas Todd (d. Feb. 7, 1826), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Thomas Jefferson. This seat was established during the Jefferson administration. He served on the Court from March 1807 until his death in February 1826. He was succeeded by Robert Trimbel. He was born in Virginia when it was under British rule. He died in Frankfort, Kentucky 15 days after his 61st birthday.
1737 ~ John Hancock (d. Oct. 8, 1793), early American statesman, patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was the Governor of Massachusetts from October 1780 until January 29, 1785 and in a second term from May 1787 until his death in October 1793. He died at age 56. [Note: Under the Julian calendar his birthday is noted as January 12.].
1719 ~ John Landen (d. Jan. 15, 1790), English mathematician. He died 8 days before his 71st birthday.
1688 ~ Ulrika Eleonora (d. Nov. 24, 1741), Queen of Sweden. She was Queen from December 1718 until her abdication in February 1720 in favor of her husband, Frederick I, when she became Queen consort of Sweden. She died of smallpox at age 53.
Events that Changed the World:
2018 ~ A strong 6 magnitude earthquake struck in Java.
2018 ~ A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck in the Gulf of Alaska. It was one of the strongest earthquakes to strike the United States. There were no reports of significant damage or any fatalities.
2002 ~ Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (1963 ~ 2002) was kidnapped by radical Islamists. He would be beheaded 7 days later.
2001 ~ Five people attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
1997 ~ Madeleine Albright (b. 1937) became the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State. She served under President Bill Clinton (b. 1946).
1986 ~ Little Richard (1932 ~ 2020), Chuck Berry (1926 ~ 2017), James Brown (1933 ~ 2006), Ray Charles (1930 ~ 2004), Sam Cooke (1931 ~ 1964), Fats Domino (1928 ~ 2017), the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly (1936 ~ 1959), Jerry Lee Lewis (b. 1935) and Elvis Presley (1935 ~ 1977) were inducted into the first class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1973 ~ United States President Richard Nixon (1913 ~ 1994) announced that a peace accord had been reached with regard to the war in Vietnam.
1968 ~ The North Korean government seized the USS Pueblo, alleging the ship had been on a spying mission in Korean territorial waters.
1964 ~ The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. The Amendment prohibited the use of poll taxes in national elections.
1957 ~ American inventor Walter F. Morrison (1920 ~ 2010) sold the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company. Wham-O renamed the toy the Frisbee.
1950 ~ The Israeli Knesset passed a resolution stating that the capital of Israel is Jerusalem. Many countries, including the United States, do not recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In 2017, President Donald Trump (b. 1946) announced that the United States would be moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
1943 ~ Duke Ellington (1899 ~ 1974) played at Carnegie Hall for the first time.
1941 ~Charles Lindbergh (1902 ~ 1974) testified before the United States Congress, recommending that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler (1889 ~ 1945) and Nazi Germany.
1870 ~ United States cavalrymen killed 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, during the Marais Massacre in Montana.
1855 ~ The first bridge over the Mississippi River opened in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota. The bridge is known as the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
1849 ~ Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 ~ 1910), became the first female doctor in the United States. She earned her medical degree at the Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York.
1789 ~ Georgetown College, the first Catholic University in the United States, was founded in what is now a part of Washington, D.C.
1719 ~ The Principality of Liechtenstein was created within the Holy Roman Empire.
1571 ~ The Royal Exchange opened in London.
1556 ~ A deadly earthquake in the Shaanxi Province of China is estimated to have killed over 830,000 people.
1368 ~ Zhu Yuanzhang (1328 ~ 1398) ascended to the throne of China to become the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. This dynasty would last for over 300 years.
Good-Byes:
2020 ~ Jim Lehrer (né James Charles Lehrer; b. May 19, 1934), American journalist. He was the news anchor for the PBS NewsHour. He was straight-forward and shunned showmanship. He was born in Wichita, Kansas. He died at age 85 in Washington, D.C.
2018 ~ Nicanor Parra (né Nicanor Segundo Parra Sandoval; b. Sept. 5, 1914), Chilean physicist and mathematician. He died at age 103.
2015 ~ Ernie Banks (né Ernest Banks; b. Jan. 31, 1931), African-American baseball player. He was the optimistic shortstop who played for the Chicago Cubs and was known as “Mr. Cub.” He died 8 days before his 84th birthday.
2011 ~ Poppa Neutrino (né William David Pearlman; b. Oct. 15, 1933), American free spirit who rafted across the Atlantic Ocean. He was born in Fresno, California. He died of heart failure in New Orleans, Louisiana at age 77.
2011 ~ Jack LaLanne (né François Henri Jack LaLanne; b. Sept. 26, 1914), American fitness and nutritional expert. He was an affable salesman who made fitness popular. He died at age 96.
2007 ~ E. Howard Hunt (né Everette Howard Hunt, Jr., b. Oct. 9, 1918), American CIA officer. He, along with G. Gordon Liddy, engineered the Watergate break-in during the Nixon administration. He was convicted of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping, for which he spent 33 months in prison. He died at age 88.
2005 ~ Johnny Carson (né John William Carson; b. Oct. 23, 1925), American television host of The Late Show. He was the comedian who was the “king of late night” television. He died at age 79.
2004 ~ Bob Keeshan (né Robert James Keeshan; b. June 27, 1927), American actor who played Captain Kangarooon TV. He died in Windsor, Vermont at age 76.
2004 ~ Helmut Newton (né Helmut Neustädter; b. Oct. 31, 1920), German photographer. He was killed in a car accident at age 83.
1993 ~ Thomas Dorsey (né Thomas Andrew Dorsey; b. July 1, 1899), African-American composer and pianist. He was born in Villa Rica, Georgia. He died at age 93 in Chicago, Illinois.
1989 ~ Salvador Dalí (b. May 11, 1904), Spanish surrealist painter. He died at age 84.
1977 ~ Toots Shor (né Bernard Shor; b. May 6, 1903), American businessman who founded Toots Shor’s Restaurant in Manhattan. He died at age 73.
1976 ~ Paul Robeson (né Paul Leroy Robeson; b. Apr. 9, 1898), African-American actor, singer and civil rights activist. He died at age 77.
1944 ~ Edvard Munch (b. Dec. 12, 1863), Norwegian painter, best known for his painting, The Scream. He died at age 80.
1931 ~ Anna Pavlova (b. Feb. 12, 1881), Russian prima ballerina. She died of pleurisy 3 weeks before her 50thbirthday.
1923 ~ Max Nordau (né Simon Maximilian Südfeld; b. July 29, 1849), Hungarian physician and co-founder, along with Theodor Herzl, of the World Zionist Organization. He died at age 73.
1893 ~ Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, II (b. Sept. 17, 1825), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Grover Cleveland. He served in that Office from January 1888 until his death in January 1893. He replaced Justice William Woods on the High Court. He was succeeded by Howell Jackson. He had previously served as the 16th United States Secretary of the Interior also during the Grover Cleveland administration. He died at age 67.
1820 ~ Prince Edward (b. Nov. 2, 1767), Duke of Kent and Strathearn. He was the father of Queen Victoria. He died of pneumonia at age 52.
1806 ~ William Pitt the Younger (b. May 28, 1759), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He died at age 46.
1803 ~ Arthur Guinness (b. Sept. 24, 1725), Irish founder of the Guinness brewery. He died at age 77.
1800 ~ Edward Rutledge (b. Nov. 23, 1749), American lawyer and statesman, and the South Carolina signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was the Governor of South Carolina from December 1798 until his death in January 1800. He was 50 years old at the time of his death.
1785 ~ Matthew Stewart (b. Jan. 15, 1717) Scottish mathematician and cleric. He died 8 days after his 68thbirthday.
1622 ~ William Baffin (b. 1584), British navigator and explorer. Baffin Bay in Canada is named in his honor. The exact date of his birth is not known.
1570 ~ James Steward, 1st Earl of Moray (b. 1531) regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland. The exact date of his birth is not known. He was assassinated and is the first recorded victim of an assassination by a firearm. He is believed to have been about 38 or 39 at the time of his death.
1567 ~ Jiajing (b. Sept. 16, 1507), 12th Chinese Emperor of the Ming dynasty. He ruled from May 1521 until his death in January 1567. He died at age 59.
1516 ~ King Ferdinand V of Castile, and Ferdinand II of Aragon (b. Mar. 10, 1452), the Spanish king who supported the travels of Christopher Columbus. He was also the architect behind the Spanish Inquisition. He was known as Ferdinand the Catholic. He was married to Queen Isabella I. He died at age 63.
1002 ~ Otto III (b. 980), Holy Roman Emperor. He ruled from May 996 until his death 6 years later. The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been 21 at the time of his death.
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