Thursday, February 25, 2021

February 25

Birthdays:

 

1976 ~ Rashida Jones (née Rashida Leah Jones), American actress.  Her parents are Quincy Jones and Peggy Lipton.  She was born in Los Angeles, California.

 

1975 ~ Chelsea Handler (née Chelsea Joy Handler), American comedian and actress.  She was born in Livingston, New Jersey.

 

1971 ~ Sean Astin (né Sean Patrick Duke), American actor.  His mother was actress Patty Duke.  He was born in Santa Monica, California.

 

1966 ~ Téa Leoni (née Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni), American actress.  She was born in New York, New York.

 

1950 ~ Néstor Carlos Kirchner (d. Oct. 27, 2010), 51st President of Argentina.  He served as President from May 2003 until December 2007.  He died of cardiac arrest at age 60.

 

1949 ~ Jack Handey, American humorist.  He is best known for his “Deep Thoughts.”  He was born in San Antonio, Texas.

 

1943 ~ George Harrison (d. Nov. 29, 2001), English musician and member of the Beatles.  He died of lung cancer at age 58.

 

1937 ~ Bob Schieffer (né Bob Lloyd Schieffer), American television journalist.  He was born in Austin, Texas.

 

1935 ~ Sally Jessy Raphaël (née Sally Ray Lowenthal), American talk show host known for her signature red-framed glasses.  She was born in Easton, Pennsylvania.

 

1927 ~ Dick Jones (né Richard Percy Jones; d. July 7, 2014), American actor who voiced Disney’s Pinocchio.  He died at age 87.

 

1926 ~ Masatoshi Gündüz Ikeda (d. Feb. 9, 2003), Turkish-Japanese mathematician.  He died 16 days before his 77th birthday.

 

1922 ~ Tex Winter (né Morice Fredrick Winter; d. Oct. 10, 2018), American coach who changed the shape of basketball.  He was the innovator of the triangle offense.  He died at age 96.

 

1920 ~ Sun Myung Moon (né Mun Yong-myeong, d. Sept. 3, 2012), South Korean super-rich “messiah” who founded the Moonies.  He was the religious leader who founded the Unification Church.  He died at age 92.

 

1918 ~ Bobby Riggs (né Robert Larimore Riggs; d. Oct. 25, 1995), American tennis player.  He is best known for his 1973 tennis match with Billy Jean King, which was dubbed The Battle of the Sexes, in which he lost.  He died of prostate cancer at age 77.

 

1917 ~ Anthony Burgess (né John Anthony Burgess Wilson; d. Nov. 22, 1993), British author best known for his novel, A Clockwork Orange.  He died at age 76.

 

1913 ~ Jim Backus (né James Gilmore Backus; d. July 3, 1989), American actor, best known for his roles as Mr. Magoo and the Millionaire on Guilligan’s Island.  He died of pneumonia at age 76.

 

1910 ~ Millicent Fenwick (née Millicent Vernon Hammond; d. Sept. 16, 1992), American politician and writer.  She served in the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey.  She died at age 82.

 

1908 ~ Mary Locke Petermann (d. Dec. 17, 1975), American cellular biochemist.  She is best known for her role in the discovery and characterization of animal ribosomes.  She was the first woman to become a full professor at Cornell Medical School.  She was born in Laurium, Michigan.  She died of cancer at age 67 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

1901 ~ Zeppo Marx (né Herbert Manfred Marx; d. Nov. 30, 1979), American actor and comedian.  He was the youngest of the Marx brothers.  He was the last surviving Marx brother.  He died of lung cancer at age 78.

 

1888 ~ John Foster Dulles (d. May 24, 1959), 52nd Secretary of State.  He served under President Dwight David Eisenhower from January 1953 until his death.  He died of colon cancer at age 71.

 

1885 ~ Princess Alice of Battenberg (d. Dec. 5, 1969), great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.  She was married to Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark.  She died at age 84.

 

1883 ~ Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (d. Jan. 3, 1981), British member of the royal family and last surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria (1819 ~ 1901).  Her father was Prince Leopold (1853 ~ 1884), the eighth and youngest son of Queen Victoria.  She was married to Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone (1874 ~ 1957.  She died at age 97.

 

1873 ~ Enrico Caruso (d. Aug. 2, 1921), Italian tenor.  He died of peritonitis at age 48.

 

1841 ~ August Renoir (né Pierre-August Renoir; d. Dec. 3, 1919), French impressionist painter and sculptor.  He died at age 78.

 

1778 ~ José de San Martín y Matorras (d. Aug. 17, 1850), Argentine general and 1st President of Peru.  He died at age 72.

 

1670 ~ Maria Margaretha Kirch (née Maria Margaretha Winkelmann; d. Dec. 29, 1720), German astronomer.  She was one of the first famous astronomers of her time due to her writings on the conjunction of the sun with Saturn, Venus and Jupiter.  She died at age 50.

 

1475 ~ Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick (d. Nov. 28, 1499), last male member of the House of York.  He was beheaded at age 24 on grounds of treason.

 

1259 ~ Infanta Branca of Portugal (d. Apr. 17, 1321).  She was the eldest daughter of King Afonso III of Portugal and Beatrice of Castile.  She was of the Portuguese House of Burgundy.  She had a son out of wedlock.  She became a nun.  She died at age 62.

 

449 ~ Emperor Qianfei (d. Jan. 1, 466), Chinese emperor of the Liu Song dynasty.  His brief reign was known for his violent and impulsive acts.  He was assassinated age 16 after reigning for just a year and a half.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2020 ~ Mardi Gras.

 

1994 ~ Baruch Goldstein (1956 ~ 1994) opened fire with an automatic rifle killing 29 Palestinians and injuring an addition 125 people in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.  He was subsequently beaten to death.

 

1986 ~ Ferdinand Marcos (1917 ~ 1989), the President of the Philippines, was ousted by the People Power Revolution.  He and his wife, Imelda (b. 1929), fled the country.  Corazon Aquino (1933 ~ 2009) became the first woman president of the Philippines.

 

1954 ~ Gamal Abdul Nassar (1918 ~ 1970) became premier of Egypt.

 

1945 ~ Turkey declared war on Germany, thereby entering World War II.

 

1919 ~ Oregon became the first State to impose a gasoline tax when it placed a 1 cent per gallon tax on gasoline.

 

1901 ~ United States Steel Corporation was incorporated by J.P. Morgan (1837 ~ 1919).

 

1870 ~ Hiram Rhodes Revels (1827 ~ 1901) became the first African-American to sit in the United States Congress after he was sworn into the United States Senate.  He was a Republican from Mississippi and he represented that State from 1870 ~ 1871.

 

1836 ~ Samuel Colt (1814 ~ 1862) was granted a United States Patent for the Colt revolver.

 

1570 ~ Queen Elizabeth I (1533 ~ 1603) of England was excommunicated by Pope Pius V (1504 ~ 1572).

 

Good-Byes:

 

2020 ~ Hosni Mubarak (b. May 4, 1928), President of Egypt.  He was ousted from office during the Arab Spring in 2011.  He died at age 91.

 

2017 ~ Bill Paxton (né William Paxton; b. May 17, 1955), American actor.  He died of a stroke following complications from surgery.  He was 61 years old.

 

2015 ~ Eugenie Clark (b. May 4, 1922), American pioneering oceanographer who swam with sharks.  She was known as The Shark Lady.  She died of lung cancer at age 92.

 

2014 ~ Paco de Lucía (b. Dec. 21, 1947), the Mexican guitarist who reinvented flamenco.  He died of a heart attack at age 66.

 

2013 ~ Allan Calhamer (né Allan Brian Calhamer; b. Dec. 7, 1931), American mild-mannered mailman who invented the board game Diplomacy.  He died at age 81.

 

2013 ~ C. Everett Koop (né Charles Everett Koop; b. Oct. 14, 1916), American surgeon who became “America’s Doctor.”  He was the 13th Surgeon General of the United States.  He served from January 1982 until October 1989, during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.  He died at age 96.

 

2010 ~ Aaron Cohen (b. Jan. 5, 1931), American engineer who ran Mission Control.  He was the Acting Deputy Administrator for NASA from February 1992 until November 1992.  He died at age 79.

 

2005 ~ Peter Benenson (né Peter James Henry Solomon; b. July 31, 1921), British barrister who Amnesty International.  He died at age 83.

 

1999 ~ Glenn T. Seaborg (né Glenn Theodore Seaborg; b. Apr. 19, 1912), American chemist and recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 86.

 

1983 ~ Tennessee Williams (né Thomas Lanier Williams, III, b. Mar. 26, 1911), American playwright, best known for A Streetcar Named Desire.  He died a month before his 72nd birthday.

 

1977 ~ Bill Vaughan (né William E. Vaughan; b. Oct. 8, 1915), American columnist and author.  He died of lung cancer at age 61.

 

1975 ~ Elijah Muhammad (né Elijah Robert Poole; b. Oct. 7, 1897), American religious leader of the Nation of Islam.  He died at age 77.

 

1972 ~ Hugo Steinhaus (né Władysław Hugo Dionizy Steinhaus; b. Jan. 14, 1887), Polish mathematician and educator.  He died at age 85.

 

1971 ~ Theodor Svedberg (b. Aug. 30, 1884), Swedish chemist and recipient of the 1926 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.  He died at age 86.

 

1970 ~ Mark Rothko (né Markus Yakovlevich Rotkovich; b. Sept. 25, 1903), Latvian-born American painter.  He committed suicide at age 66.

 

1964 ~ Grace Metalious (née Marie Grace DeRepentigny; b. Sept. 8, 1924), American novelist best known for her novel, Payton Place.  She was born in Manchester, New Hampshire.  She died at age 39 in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

1950 ~ George Minot (né George Richards Minot; b. Dec. 2, 1885), American physician and recipient of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with pernicious anemia.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Brookline, Massachusetts at age 64.

 

1934 ~ Elizabeth Britton (née Elizabeth Gertrude Knight; b. Jan. 9, 1858), American botanist.  She died at age 76.

 

1899 ~ Paul Reuter (né Israel Beer Josaphat; b. July 21, 1816), German-born British journalist and founder of Reuters news service.  Although born Jewish, he converted and was baptized at St. George’s German Lutheran Chapel in London in 1845.  He died at age 82.

 

1864 ~ Anna Harrison (née Anna Elizabeth Tuthill Symmes; b. July 25, 1775), First Lady of the United States and wife of President William Henry Harrison.  Because her husband died a month after his inauguration, she never lived in the White House.  She was born in Morristown, New Jersey.  She died at age 88.

 

1841 ~ Philip Pendleton Barbour (b. May 25, 1783), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the High Court by President Andrew Jackson.  He replaced Gabriel Duval on the Court.  He was succeeded by Peter Daniel.  He served on the Court from March 1836 until his death 5 years later.  He had previously served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.  He was a Representative from Virginia.  To date, he is the only person to have served both as Speaker of the House and Supreme Court Justice.  He died of coronary thrombosis at age 57.

 

1822 ~ William Pinkney (b. Mar. 17, 1764), 7th United States Attorney General.  He served under James Madison from December 1811 until February 1814.  He argued many cases before the United States Supreme Court, including McCulloch v. Maryland.  He died 3 weeks before his 58th birthday.

 

1713 ~ Frederick I, King of Prussia (b. July 11, 1657), King of Prussia from January 1701 until his death 12 years later.  He was married three times, first to Elizabeth Henrietta of Hesse-Kassel, then to Sophia Charlotte of Hanover and then to Sophia Louise of Mencklenburg-Schwerin.  He was of the House of Hohenzollern.  He died at age 55.

 

1558 ~ Eleanor of Austria (b. Nov. 15, 1498), Queen consort of Portugal through her first marriage to Manuel I of Portugal.  They were married in 1518.  After his death, she married Francis I of France and became Queen consort of France.  She died at age 59.

 

805 ~ De Zong (b. May 27, 742), Chinese Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.  He reigned from June 779 until his death in 805.  He died at age 62.


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