Birthdays:
1998 ~ Amanda Gorman, African-American poet and activist. She delivered a poem at President Joseph Biden’s 2021 inauguration. She was born in Los Angeles, California.
1974 ~ Jenna Fischer (née Regina Marie Fischer), American actress best known for her role as Pam in the television sit-com, The Office. She was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
1964 ~ Wanda Sykes (née Wanda Yvette Sykes), African-American comedian. She was born in Portsmouth, Virginia.
1960 ~ Ivan Lendl, Czech-born tennis player. He was born in Ostrava, Czechia.
1956 ~ Mercia Bowser (d. Feb. 24, 2021), African-American older sister of Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser. She spent her career with Catholic charities helping children, seniors, and people with developmental disabilities. She died of complications of Covid-19 just 11 days before her 64th birthday in Washington, D.C.
1956 ~ Bryan Cranston (né Bryan Lee Cranston), American actor. He is best known for his role as Walter White on the crime drama Breaking Bad. He had previously played the father, Hal, on the sit-com Malcolm in the Middle, and as the dentist Tim Whatley on Seinfeld. He was born in Hollywood, California.
1945 ~ John Heard, Jr. (d. July 21, 2017), American actor. He was born in Washington, D.C. He died of a heart attack at age 71 in Palo Alto, California.
1944 ~ Sir Ranulph Fiennes, 3rd Baronet (né Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham Fiennes), British explorer and author. He was born in Windsor, United Kingdom.
1942 ~ Tammy Faye Bakker Messner (née Tammy Faye LaValley; d. July 20, 2007), American televangelist. She was married to Jim Bakker before his sex scandal. She was born in International Falls, Minnesota. She died of colon cancer at age 65 in Loch Lloyd, Missouri.
1942 ~ Michael Eisner (né Michael Dammann Eisner), American businessman. He is best known for being the Chairman and Chief Executive Office of the Walt Disney Company from September 1984 until September 2005. He was born in Mount Kisco, New York.
1940 ~ Daniel J. Travanti (né Danielo Giovanni Travanty), American actor. He is best known for his role as Captain Frank Furillo on Hill Street Blues. He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
1938 ~ David Baltimore, American biologist and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was born in New York, New York.
1938 ~ Janet Guthrie, American racecar driver. She was the first woman to qualify and compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. She was born in Iowa City, Iowa.
1934 ~ Willard Scott (né Willard Herman Scott, Jr.; d. Sept. 4, 2021) American television broadcaster. He is best known for being the weather presenter on NBC’s Today show. He also portrayed the original Ronald McDonald in the early McDonald advertisements. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia. He died at age 87 in Delaplane, Virginia.
1933 ~ Jane Juska (d. Oct. 24, 2017), American memoirist who wrote of lust in later life. After she retired as a school teacher, she authored a memoir entitled A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance. She was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She died in Chico, California. She was 84 years old.
1930 ~ Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon (né Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones; d. Jan. 13, 2017), the British photographer who married British royalty. His first wife was Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom. His wedding to Princess Margaret was the first televised royal wedding. They divorced after 18 years. He was born and died in London, England. He died at age 86.
1927 ~ James D. Watkins (né James David Watkins; d. July 26, 2012), 6th United States Secretary of Energy. He served under President George H. W. Bush from March 1989 until January 1993. He was born in Alhambra, California. He died of congestive heart failure at age 85 in Alexandria, Virginia.
1922 ~ Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya (d. Jan. 12, 2004), Russian mathematician. She died at age 81 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
1917 ~ Betty Holberton (née Frances Elizabeth Snyder; d. Dec. 8, 2001), American engineer and computer programmer. She was one of the original 6 programmers of ENIAC. She also invented breakpoints in computer debugging. She was born in Philadelphhia, Pennsylvania. She died at age 84 in Rockville, Maryland.
1886 ~ Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor (d. June 27, 1975), British mathematician. He is best known for his work in fluid dynamics and wave theory. He died at age 89 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England.
1875 ~ Maurice Ravel (né Joseph Maurice Ravel; d. Dec. 28, 1937), French composer. He is best known writing Boléro. He died at age 62.
1872 ~ Piet Mondriaan (né Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan; d. Feb. 1, 1944), Dutch artist. He was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands. He died of pneumonia about a month before his 72nd birthday in New York, New York.
1857 ~ Julius Wagner-Jauregg (né Julius Wagner; d. Sept. 27, 1940), Austrian neuroscientist and recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In later years, he became known as a Nazi sympathizer and advocated forced sterilization and eugenics. He died at age 83 in Vienna, Nazi Germany.
1850 ~ Champ Clark (né James Beauchamp Clark; b. Mar. 2, 1921), American lawyer and United States Representative from Missouri. He served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was born in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. He died 5 days before his 71st birthday in Washington, D.C.
1849 ~ Luther Burbank (d. Apr. 11, 1926), American horticulturist. He was a pioneer in agricultural science. He was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts. He died just over a month after his 77th birthday in Santa Rosa, California.
1792 ~ Sir John Herschel, 1st Baronet (né John Frederick William Herschel; d. May 11, 1871), English mathematician and astronomer. He died at age 79.
1765 ~ Nicéphore Niépce (né Joseph Nicéphore Niépce; d. July 5, 1833), French inventor who is credited with creating the first known photograph. He died of a stroke at age 68.
1693 ~ Pope Clement XIII (né Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico; d. Feb. 2, 1769). He was Pope from July 1758 until his death in February 1769. He died just over a month before his 76th birthday.
1671 ~ Rob Roy MacGregor (né Robert Roy MacGregor; d. Dec. 28, 1734), Scottish outlaw who became a folk hero. The exact date of his birth is not known, but he was baptized on March 7, 1671. He died at age 63.
Events that Changed the World:
1994 ~ The United States Supreme Court, in the case of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, ruled that parodies of an original work are generally qualify as fair use under the copyright law. The opinion was authored by Chief Justice William Rehnquist (1924 ~ 2005).
1965 ~ In what became known as Bloody Sunday, 600 civil rights marchers were forcefully broken up and dispersed in Selma, Alabama. They had begun their march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1923 ~ Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, was first published.
1912 ~ Roald Amundsen (1872 ~ 1928) announced that his expedition had reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911.
1876 ~ Alexander Graham Bell (1847 ~ 1922) was granted a patent for the invention of the telephone.
Good-Byes:
2020 ~ Mart Crowley (né Edward Martino Crowley; b. Aug. 21, 1935), American playwright who revealed gay life. He was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He is best known for his play The Boys in the Band. He died at age 84 of a heart attack in Manhattan, New York.
2019 ~ Dan Jenkins (né Daniel Thomas Jenkins; b. Dec. 2, 1928), American journalist who cracked up sports fans. His articles often appeared in Sports Illustrated. He is best known for his novel Semi-Tough. He was born and died in Fort Worth, Texas. He died at age 90.
2017 ~ Hans Georg Dehmelt (b. Sept. 9, 1922), German-American physicist and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics. He died at age 94 in Seattle, Washington.
2015 ~ F. Ray Keyser, Jr. (né Frank Ray Keyser, Jr.; b. Aug. 17, 1927), 72nd Governor of Vermont. He served as Governor from January 1961 until January 1963. He was born in Chelsea, Vermont. He died at age 87 in Brandon, Vermont.
2015 ~ Brian Sutton-Smith (b. July 15, 1924), New Zealander scholar who made a life’s work of play. He is best known for his work, The Ambiguity of Play. He was born in Wellington, New Zealand. He died of Alzheimer’s disease at age 90 in White River Junction, Vermont.
2006 ~ Gordon Parks (né Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks; b. Nov. 30, 1912), African-American photographer and film director. He was born in Fort Scott, Kansas. He died at age 93 in Manhattan, New York.
2004 ~ Paul Winfield (né Paul Edward Winfield; b. May 22, 1939), African-American actor. He died of a heart attack at age 64 in Los Angeles, California.
2000 ~ Edward H. Levi (né Edward Hirsch Levi; b. June 26, 1911), 71st United States Attorney General. He served under President Gerald Ford from February 1975 until January 1977. He was born and died in Chicago, Illinois. He died at age 88.
1999 ~ Stanley Kubrick (b. July 26, 1928), American film director. He was born in New York, New York. He died of a heart attack at age 70 in England.
1997 ~ Edward Mills Purcell (b. Aug. 30, 1912), American physicist and recipient of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born in Taylorville, Illinois. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts at age 84.
1988 ~ Divine (né Harris Glenn Milstead; b. Oct. 19, 1945), American actor, singer and drag queen. He appeared in many films directed by John Waters. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He died of an enlarged heart at age 42 in Los Angeles, California.
1986 ~ Jacob K. Javits (né Jacob Koppel Javits; b. May 18, 1904), United States Senator from New York State. He was born in New York, New York. He died of ALS at age 81 in West Palm Beach, Florida.
1982 ~ Ida Barney (b. Nov. 6, 1886), American mathematician and astronomer. She is best known for her 22 volumes of astrometric measurements on over 150,000 stars. She was born and died in New Haven, Connecticut. She died at age 95.
1971 ~ Richard Montague (né Richard Merritt Montague; b. Sept. 20, 1930), American mathematician. He was born in Stockton, California. He was murdered in Los Angeles in an unsolved crime. He was 40 years old at the time of his death.
1967 ~ Alice B. Toklas (né Alice Babette Toklas; b. Apr. 30, 1877), American writer and companion of Gertrude Stein. She was born in San Francisco, California. She died at age 89 in Paris, France.
1954 ~ Otto Diels (né Otto Paul Hermann Diels; b. Jan. 23, 1876), German chemist and recipient of the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He died at age 78.
1932 ~ Aristide Briand (b. Mar. 28, 1862), French politician and recipient of the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize. He also served several non-consecutives terms as the Prime Minister of France. He died 21 days before his 70th birthday in Paris, France.
1889 ~ Angelo Genocchi (b. Mar. 5, 1817), Italian mathematician. He was born in Piacenza, Italy. He died in Turin, Italy just 2 days after his 72nd birthday.
1809 ~ Jean-Pierre Blanchard (b. July 4, 1553), French inventor best known for being a pioneer in balloon flight. He died at age 55 in The Hague, Holland.
1767 ~ Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville (b. Feb. 23, 1680), French colonizer and colonial Governor of Louisiana. He was born in Montreal, New France. He died 2 weeks after his 87th birthday in Paris, France.
1724 ~ Pope Innocent XIII (né Michelangelo dei Conti; b. May 13, 1655). He was Pope from May 1721 until his death on this date 3 years later. To date, he is the last pope to select Innocent as his papal name. He died at age 68.
1517 ~ Maria of Aragon (b. June 29, 1482), Queen consort of Portugal and the Algarves. She was the 2nd wife of Manuel I, King of Portugal. She was of the House of Trastámara. She was the daughter of Ferdinand II, King of Aragon and Isabella I, Queen of Castile. She died of complications of pregnancy at age 34.
1274 ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas (b. 1225), Italian priest and philosopher. The date of his birth is unknown. He is believed, however, to have been about 48 or 49 at the time of his death.
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