Birthdays:
1968 ~ Molly Ringwald (née Molly Kathleen Ringwald), American actress. She was born in Roseville, California.
1964 ~ Matt Dillon (né Matthew Raymond Dillon), American actor. He was born in New Rochelle, New York.
1957 ~ Vanna White (née Vanna Marie Rosich), American game show presenter on The Wheel of Fortune. She was born in Conway, South Carolina.
1955 ~ Lisa See, American author, best known for her novels about China. She was born in Paris, France.
1954 ~ John Travolta (né John Joseph Travolta), American actor. He was born in Englewood, New Jersey.
1952 ~ Sir Martin J. Taylor (né Martin John Taylor), British mathematician. He was born in Leicester, England
1950 ~ John Hughes (né John Wilden Hughes, Jr.; d. Aug. 6, 2009), American filmmaker who gently captured teenage angst. He is best known for such teen films as The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. He died of a heart attack at age 59.
1950 ~ Cybill Shepherd (née Cybill Lynne Shepherd), American actress. She was born in Memphis, Tennessee.
1941 ~ Irma Thomas, American singer from Louisiana. She is known as the Soul of New Orleans. She was born in Ponchatoula, Louisiana.
1936 ~ Paul Hempill (né Paul James Hempill; d. July 11, 2009), the American writer who chronicled the blue-collar South. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He died of throat cancer at age 73 in Atlanta, Georgia.
1936 ~ Jean Auel (née Jean Marie Untinen), American author best known for her novel, The Clan of the Cave Bear. She was born in Chicago, Illinois.
1933 ~ Yoko Ono, Japanese-born American singer and performance artist. She was the wife of Beatle John Lennon. She was born in Tokyo, Japan.
1932 ~ Miloš Forman (né Jan Tomáš Forman; d. Apr. 13, 2018), Czech Oscar-winning film director who loved rebels. He died at age 86.
1931 ~ Johnny Hart (né John Lewis Hart; d. Apr. 7, 2007), American cartoonist, best known for creating the comic strip B.C. and co-creating The Wizard of Id. He was also a fundamentalist Christian. He died at age 76.
1931 ~ Charles Higham (d. Apr. 21, 2012), British celebrity biographer. He was born in London, England. He died at age 81 in Los Angeles, California.
1931 ~ Toni Morrison (née Chloe Ardelia Wofford; d. Aug. 5, 2019), American writer and recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature. She chronicled the black experience. She died at age 88.
1929 ~ Len Deighton (né Leonard Cyril Deighton), British historian and author. He is best known for his spy and espionage novels. He was born in London, England.
1927 ~ John Warner (né John William Warner), 61st United States Secretary of the Navy from May 1972 until April 1974 during the Richard Nixon administration. He subsequently became a United States Senator from the State of Virginia. In 1976, he married to Elizabeth Taylor. They divorced in 1982. He was born in Washington, D.C.
1925 ~ Jack Gilbert (d. Nov. 13, 2012), American poet who never much cared for fame. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He died at age 87 in Berkeley, California.
1925 ~ George Kennedy (né George Harris Kennedy, Jr.; d. Feb. 28, 2016), American actor best known for his role in Cool Hand Luke. He died of heart disease 10 days after his 91st birthday.
1924 ~ Creighton J. Hale (d. Oct. 8, 2017), American physiologist who made Little League safer. He designed the plastic, padded helmet with flaps to protect the temple and cheekbones. He died at age 93.
1922 ~ Helen Gurley Brown (née Helen Marie Gurley; d. Aug. 13, 2012), American editor who created the Cosmo Girl. She was the editor-in-chief for Cosmopolitan for 32 years. She died at age 90.
1921 ~ Mary Amdur (née Mary Ochsenhirt; d. Feb. 16, 1998), American toxicologist and public health researcher. The focus of her research was on air pollution. She died of a heart attack 2 days before her 77th birthday.
1920 ~ Eddie Slovik (né Edward Donal Slovik; d. Jan. 31, 1945), American Army private who was executed for desertion. He was the first such execution of an American soldier since the American Civil War. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. He was executed 18 days before his 25th birthday in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France.
1920 ~ Bill Cullen (né William Lawrence Francis Cullen; d. July 7, 1990), American game show host. He died of lung cancer at age 70.
1919 ~ Jack Palance (né Volodymyr Oalahniuk; d. Nov. 10, 2006), American actor. He was born in Pennsylvania, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. He died at age 87.
1909 ~ Wallace Stegner (né Wallace Earle Stegner; d. Apr. 13, 1993), American writer and historian. He died at age 84.
1906 ~ Hans Asperger (né Johann Friedrich Karl Asperger; d. Oct. 21, 1980), Austrian physician and psychologist. He is best known for his studies on mental disorders, especially in children. He died at age 74.
1898 ~ Enzo Ferrari (né Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari; d. Aug. 14, 1988), Italian carmaker and founder of the Ferrari company. He died at age 90.
1892 ~ Wendell Willkie (né Lewis Wendell Willkie, d. Oct. 8, 1944), American politician and 1940 Republican nominee for President. He died of a heart attack at age 52.
1883 ~ Nikos Kazantzakis (d. Oct. 26, 1957), Greek author best known for his novels, Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ. He died at age 74.
1862 ~ Charles M. Schwab (né Charles Michael Schwab; d. Sept. 18, 1939), American businessman and co-founder of Bethlehem Steel. He died at age 77.
1848 ~ Louis Comfort Tiffany (d. Jan. 17, 1933), American artist and glass designer. He died about a month before his 85th birthday.
1838 ~ Ernst Mach (né Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach; d. Feb. 19, 1916), Austrian physicist. He is best known for his contributions to the study of shock waves. The ratio of one’s speed to that of sound is named in his honor. He died 1 day after his 78th birthday.
1795 ~ George Peabody (d. Nov. 4, 1869), American financier regarded as the Father of Modern Philanthropy. He was born in Danvers, Massachusetts into a poor family. He went into the dry-goods business, then into banking. He moved to London, England, then the financial capital where he helped to establish America’s international credit. He founded several philanthropic institutions. The town of Peabody, Massachusetts was named in his honor. He died in London at age 74. His body was returned to American and he is buried in Massachusetts.
1745 ~ Alessandro Volta (d. Mar. 5, 1827), Italian physicist and pioneer in electricity. He is credited with inventing the battery. He is also credited with being the discoverer of methane. He died about 2 weeks after his 82ndbirthday.
1516 ~ Queen Mary I of England (d. Nov. 17, 1558), first reigning queen of England. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, as well as being the half-sister of Queen Elizabeth I. She was known as “Bloody Mary” because of the persecutions of Protestants during her reign. She died at age of 42 during an influenza epidemic, however, she was in ill health prior to the epidemic. When she died, her half-sister, Elizabeth I, ascended to the throne.
259 BCE ~ Qin Shi Huang (d. Sept. 10, 201 BCE), Chinese Emperor and founder of the Qin Dynasty. He was the first emperor of a unified China. He died at age 49.
Events that Changed the World:
2019 ~ President’s Day observed in the United States.
2013 ~ President’s Day was celebrated in the United States.
2001 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen (b. 1944) was arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
1979 ~ Snow fell in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the first time in recorded history. It also snowed in the Sahara Desert on January 7, 2018.
1978 ~ The first Ironman Triathlon competition took place on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. There were 15 competitors in the competition.
1970 ~ The Chicago Seven (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, and Lee Weiner) were found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1954 ~ The first Church of Scientology was established in Los Angeles, California.
1939 ~ The San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition opened.
1930 ~ The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh (1906 ~ 1997) while he was studying photographs that had been taken in January 1930, although years later, Pluto was demoted from its planet status.
1885 ~Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published.
1865 ~ During the American Civil War, Major General William Sherman (1820 ~ 1891) set the South Carolina State House on fire during the burning of Columbia, South Carolina
1861 ~ Jefferson Davis (1808 ~ 1889) was inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.
1791 ~ Congress passed a law admitting Vermont statehood, which would become effective on March 4, 1791. Vermont, however, had existed for the previous 14 years as a de facto independent state.
Good-Byes:
2018 ~ Günter Blobel (b. May 21, 1936), German biologist and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He died at age 81.
2017 ~ Norma McCorvey (née Norma Leah Nelson, b. Sept. 22, 1947), American abortion rights activist and plaintiff in the Supreme Court Decision of Roe v. Wade. She was born in Simmesport, Louisiana. She died of heart failure at age 69.
2014 ~ Maria Agatha Franziska Gobertina von Trapp (b. Sept. 28, 1914), the singer whose life inspired The Sound of Music. She was the second oldest daughter of Captain von Trapp. She died at age 99 in Stowe, Vermont.
2013 ~ Kevin Ayers (b. Aug. 16, 1944), British psychedelic guitarist who shunned stardom. He died at age 68.
2013 ~ Martin Zweig (né Martin Edward Zweig, b. July 2, 1942), American stock advisor who forecast the Black Monday crash. He died at age 70.
2013 ~ Jerry Buss (né Gerald Hatten Buss; b. Jan. 27, 1933), American businessman and basketball owner who made the Los Angeles Lakers into winners. He died of kidney failure 22 days after his 80th birthday.
2003 ~ Isser Harel (b. 1912), 2nd Director of Mossad.
2001 ~ Dale Earnhardt, Sr. (né Ralph Dale Earnhardt; b. Apr. 29, 1951), Seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. He was killed at age 49 in a racing accident during the Daytona 500.
1998 ~ Harry Caray (né Harry Christopher Carabina; b. Mar. 1, 1914), American sportscaster. He is best known for being the voice of the Chicago Cubs. He died 2 weeks before his 84th birthday.
1981 ~ John K. Northrop (né John Knudsen Northrop; b. Nov. 10, 1895), American airplane manufacturer and founder of the Northrop Corporation. He died at age 85.
1967 ~ J. Robert Oppenheimer (né Julius Robert Oppenheimer; b. Apr. 22, 1904), American physicist. He is known as the Father of the Atomic Bomb. He died of throat cancer at age 62.
1964 ~ Joseph-Armand Bombardier (b. Apr. 16, 1907), Canadian inventor of the snowmobile. He died at age 56.
1964 ~ Clarence B. Kelland (né Clarence Budington Kelland, b. July. 18, 1881), American writer who described himself as the “best second-rated writer in America.” He died at age 82.
1933 ~ James Corbett (né James John Corbett, b. Sept. 1, 1866), American boxer. He was known as Gentleman Jim. He died at age 66.
1915 ~ Frank James (né Alexander Franklin James; b. Jan. 10, 1843), American wild west outlaw. He also served as a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War. He was the older brother of outlaw Jesse James. He died at age 72.
1910 ~ Lucy Stanton (b. Oct. 16, 1831), African-American abolitionist and activist for woman’s rights. She was the first African-American woman to graduate from a four-year college or university. She died at age 78.
1906 ~ John B. Stetson (né John Batterson Stetson; b. May 5, 1830), American hat manufacturer and inventor of the cowboy hat known as the Stetson Hat. He died at age 75.
1902 ~ Charles Lewis Tiffany (b. Feb. 15, 1812), American jeweler and designer. He founded Tiffany & Co. He was the father of artist Louis Comfort Tiffany who was born on February 18, 1848, 54 years earlier. Charles Lewis Tiffany died 3 days after his 90th birthday.
1901 ~ Anna Gardner (b. Jan. 25, 1816), American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. She was born and died in Nantucket, Massachusetts. She died 24 days after her 85th birthday.
1899 ~ Sophus Lie (né Marius Sophus Lie; b. Dec. 17, 1842), Norwegian mathematician. The study of Lie algebra is named in his honor. He died of pernicious anemia at age 56.
1876 ~ Charlotte Cushman (née Charlotte Saunders Cushman; b. July 23, 1816), American stage actress. She was born and died in Boston, Massachusetts. She died of pneumonia at age 59.
1862 ~ Pierre Bretonneau (b. Apr. 3, 1778), French physician who performed the first successful tracheotomy. He died at age 83.
1851 ~ Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi (b. Dec. 10, 1804), German mathematician. He was the first Jewish mathematician to be appointed at a German university. He died at age 46.
1834 ~ William Wirt (b. Nov. 8, 1772), 9th United States Attorney General. He served under Presidents James Monroe and John Quincy Adams from November 1817 until March 1829. He is credited with turning the position of United States Attorney into one of great influence. He died at age 61.
1743 ~ Anna Marie Luisa de’Medici (b. Aug. 11, 1667), the last of the Medicis. She died at age 75.
1654 ~ Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (b. May 31, 1594), French writer. He died at age 59.
1564 ~ Michelangelo Buonarroti (né Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni; b. Mar. 6, 1475), Italian painter and sculptor. He died about 2 weeks before his 89th birthday.
1546 ~ Martin Luther (b. Nov. 10, 1483), German monk and leader of the Protestant Reformation. He died at age 62.
1478 ~ George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence (b. Oct. 21, 1449), brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England. He was convicted of treason against Edward IV and was executed in the Tower of London. His father, Richard Plantagenet was the 3rd Duke of York. His mother, Cicily Neville, was the Duchess of York. He was of the House of Plantagenet and York. He was 28 years old at the time of his execution.
1455 ~ Fra Angelico (né Guido di Pietro; b. 1395), Italian artist and muralist. The exact date of his birth is not know, but he is believed to have been about 59 at the time of his death.
1294 ~ Kublai Khan (b. Sept. 23, 1215). Mongol Emperor and founder of the Yuan Dynasty. He reigned from May 1260 until his death 34 years later.. He died at age 78.
999 ~ Pope Gregory V (né Bruno of Carinthia; b. 972). He was Pope from May 966 until his death on February 18, 999. The exact date of his birth is not known.
901 ~ Thābit ibn Qurra (b. 826), Iraqi physician and mathematician. The exact date of his birth is not known.
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