June 27

Birthdays:

 

1975 ~ Tobey Maguire (né Tobias Vincent Maguire), American actor.  He was born in Santa Monica, California.

 

1966 ~ J.J. Abrams (né Jeffrey Jacob Abrams), American television and director, producer and screenwriter.  He was born in New York, New York.

 

1951 ~ Anita Diamant, American author.  She was born in New York, New York.

 

1949 ~ Vera Wang (née Vera Ellen Wang), American fashion designer.  She was born in New York, New York.

 

1945 ~ Norma Kamali (née Norma Arraez), American fashion designed.  She was born in New York, New York.

 

1943 ~ Rico Petrocelli (né Americo Peter Petrocelli), American baseball player.  His entire Major League career was with the Boston Red Sox.  He was born in Brooklyn, New York.

 

1938 ~ Bruce Babbitt (né Bruce Edward Babbitt), 47^th United States Secretary of the Interior.  He served under President Bill Clinton from January 1993 through January 2001.  He had previously served as the 16^thGovernor of Arizona.  He was born in Flagstaff, Arizona.

 

1936 ~ Lucille Clifton (née Thelma Lucille Sayles; d. Feb. 13, 2010), African-American poet and writer.  She was born in Depew, New York.  She died at age 73 in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

1936 ~ John Shalikashvili (né John Malchase David Shalikashvili; d. July 23, 2011), Polish-born foreign head of the Pentagon.  He was a United States Army General who served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1992 to 1992.  He was born in Warsaw, Poland.  He died in Washington, D.C., of a stroke less than a month after his 75^th birthday.

 

1933 ~ Horst Brandstätter (d. June 3, 2015), German toymaker who encouraged imaginative play.  His company began the production of the Playmobil toys that had been created by Hans Beck.  He was born in Zirndorf, Germany.  He died 24 days before his 82^nd birthday in Fürth, Germany.

 

1931 ~ Martinus Veltman (né Martinus Justinus Godefriedus Veltman; d. Jan. 4, 2021), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in particle theory.  He was born in Waalwijk, Netherlands.  He died at age 89 in Bilthoven, Netherlands.

 

1930 ~ H. Ross Perot (né Henry Ross Perot; d. July 9, 2019), American businessman and politician.  He was the fiercely independent billionaire who ran for president.  He was born in Texarkana, Texas.  He died 12 days after his 89^th birthday in Dallas, Texas.

 

1929 ~ Peter Maas (d. Aug. 23, 2001), American journalist and author.  He was born and died in New York, New York.  He died at age 72.

 

1927 ~ Bob Keeshan (né Robert James Keeshan; d. Jan. 23, 2004), American actor who played Captain Kangaroo on TV.  He was born in Lynbrook, New York.  He died in Windsor, Vermont at age 76.

 

1920 ~ Joseph P. Vaghi, Jr. (né Joseph Peter Vaghi, Jr.; d. Aug. 25, 2012), American Navy officer who helped guide the D-Day landings.  At age 23, he was the youngest beachmaster on D-Day.  He was one of the first to land on Omaha Beach and directed the arrival of new troops and the evacuation of the dead and wounded.  He was born in Bethel, Connecticut.  He died at age 92 in Bethesda, Maryland.

 

1899 ~ Juan Trippe (né Juan Terry Trippe; d. Apr. 3, 1981), American aviation pioneer and founder of Pan American World Airways.  He was born in Sea Bright, New Jersey.  He died of a stroke at age 81 in New York, New York.

 

1880 ~ Helen Keller (née Helen Adams Keller; d. June 1, 1868), American author and activist.  In her early childhood, she was stricken with scarlet fever, which left her deaf and blind.  She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama.  She died 26 days before her 88^th birthday in Easton, Connecticut.

 

1869 ~ Hans Spemann (d. Sept. 9, 1941), German embryologist and recipient of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.  He died of heart failure at age 72.

 

1869 ~ Emma Goldman (d. May 14, 1940), Lithuanian-born anarchist.  She died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada of complications of a stroke at age 70.

 

1850 ~ Jørgen Pedersen Gram (d. Apr. 29, 1916), Danish actuary and mathematician.  He died at age 65 after being hit by a bicycle.

 

1846 ~ Charles Stewart Parnell (d. Oct. 6, 1891), Irish politician.  He died of pneumonia at age 45.

 

1806 ~ Augustus De Morgan (d. Mar. 18, 1871), English mathematician.  He died at age 64.

 

1696 ~ Sir William Pepperrell, 1^st Baronet (d. July 6, 1759), Early American colonist and soldier.  He was born and died in Kittery Point in what is now Maine.  He died 9 days after his 63^rd birthday.

 

1550 ~ Charles IX, King of France (d. May 30, 1574).  He was King from December 1560 until his death at age 23 in 1574.  He was married to Elisabeth of Austria.  He was of the House of Valois-Angoulême.  He was the son of Henry II, King of France and Catherine de’Medici.  He died 28 days before his 24^th birthday, most likely of tuberculosis.  He was succeeded by his brother, Henry III.

 

1462 ~ Louis XII, King of France (d. Jan. 1, 1515), He reigned France from April 1498 until his death 17 years later.  He was forced to marry Joan of France (1464 ~ 1505) in 1476.  For political reasons, his marriage to Joan was annulled so he could marry Anne, Duchess of Brittany (1477 ~ 1514), widow of King Charles VII (1470 ~ 1498).  After Anne’s death, he married Mary Tutor (1496 ~ 1533), sister of Henry VIII, King of England (1491 ~ 1547).  He was of the House of Valois-Orléans.  He was the son of Charles, Duke of Orléans and Marie of Cleves.  He died at age 52.  Because he had no sons, he was succeeded to the throne by his cousin, Francis I (1494 ~ 1547).

 

1040 ~ Ladislaus I, King of Hungary (d. July 29, 1095).  He is also known as Saint Ladislaus.  He ruled from 1077 until his death in 1095.  He was married to Adelaide of Rheinfelden.  He was of the Árpád dynasty.  He was the son of Béla I, King of Hungary and Richeza of Poland.  The exact date of his birth is not known.  He was about 54 or 55 at the time of his death.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2018 ~ Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy (b. 1936) announced his retirement from the United States Supreme Court.

 

2007 ~ Tony Blair (b. 1953) resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.  He had been Prime Minister since 1997.  He was succeeded by Gordon Brown (b. 1951).

 

1985 ~ The infamous highway, Route 66, was decertified as a federal roadway.

 

1977 ~ Djibouti was granted its independence from France.

 

1976 ~ Air France Flight 139 was hijacked en route to Paris from Tel Aviv, by the PLO and was redirected to Entebbe, Uganda.  A counter-terrorist hostage rescue mission was carried out by the Israeli Defense Forces on July 4, 1976.

 

1974 ~ United States President Richard Nixon (1913 ~ 1994) visited the Soviet Union.

 

1973 ~ Juan María Bordaberry (1928 ~ 2011), President of Uruguay, dissolved Parliament and established a dictatorship.  He first served as a constitutional president, then staged a coup d’état and became the country’s civilian dictator until 1976 when he was forced out.  In 2006, he was arrested for the assassination of 2 legislators that occurred during his transition to become the country’s dictator.  He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

 

1967 ~ The world’s first ATM was installed at a Barclay’s bank at its Enfield branch in London, England.

 

1957 ~ Hurricane Audrey made landfall on the Texas-Louisiana border.  Cameron Parish in Louisiana was the hardest hit and over 400 people were killed by the storm.

 

1954 ~ The Soviet Union’s first nuclear power plant was opened in Obninsk, near Moscow, Russia.

 

1950 ~ The United States decided to send in troops to fight in the Korean War.

 

1941 ~ One of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history occurred when Romanian governmental forces attacked and murdered at least 13,260 Jews in the city of Iaşa, Romania.

 

1905 ~ Sailors aboard the Battleship Potemkin began a mutiny, denouncing the crimes of the autocracy and demanding liberty and an end to war.

 

1895 ~ The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Royal Blue train became the first United States passenger train to use electric locomotives.  The maiden run was from Washington, D.C. to New York City.

 

1759 ~ British Major General James Wolfe (1727 ~ 1759) began the siege of Quebec.

 

1743 ~ During the Battle of Dettingen in the War of the Austrian Succession, King George II (1683 ~ 1760) of Great Britain personally lead troops into battle.  To date, this was the last time a British monarch commanded troops in the field.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2017 ~ Michael Bond (né Thomas Michael Bond; b. Jan. 13, 1926), British soldier and author.  He created Paddington Bear.  He died at age 91.

 

2016 ~ Alvin Toffler (b. Oct. 4, 1928), American futurist who foresaw the Information Age.  He is best known for his 1970 book Future Shock, which focused on information overload.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died at age 87 in Los Angeles, California.

 

2014 ~ Bobby Womack (né Robert Dwayne Womack, b. Mar. 4, 1944), American soul music veteran who influenced the Rolling Stones.  He was born in Cleveland, Ohio.  He died at age 70 in Los Angeles, California.

 

2010 ~ Dolph Briscoe, Jr. (b. Apr. 23, 1923), 41^st Governor of Texas.  He was Governor from January 1973 until January 1979.  He was born and died in Uvalde, Texas.  He died at age 87.

 

2005 ~ Shelby Foote (né Shelby Dade Foote, Jr.; b. Nov. 17, 1917), American author and historian.  He died at age 88.

 

2004 ~ General George Patton, IV (né George Smith Patton, IV; b. Dec. 24, 1923), American general.  He served in Korea and Vietnam.  He was the son of World War II General George S. Patton, Jr.  He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in South Hamilton, Massachusetts.  He died at age 80.

 

2001 ~ Jack Lemmon (né John Uhler Lemmon, III; b. Feb. 8, 1925), American actor.  He was born in Newton, Massachusetts.  He died at age 76.

 

2001 ~ Tove Jansson (née Tove Marika Jansson; b. Aug. 9, 1914), Finnish author and painter.  She was born and died in Helsinki, Finland.  She died at age 86.

 

1975 ~ Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor (b. Mar. 7, 1886), British mathematician.  He is best known for his work in fluid dynamics and wave theory.  He died at age 89.

 

1953 ~ Mary Anderson (née Mary Elizabeth Anderson; b. Feb. 19, 1866), American real estate developer, rancher and viticulturist.  She is also credited with inventing the windshield wiper blade.  She was born in Green County, Alabama.  She died at age 87 in Monteagle, Tennessee.

 

1952 ~ Max Dehn (né Max Wilhem Dehn; b. Nov. 13, 1878), German-born mathematician.  He died at age 73.

 

1945 ~ Emil Hácha (né Emil Dominik Josef Hácha; b. July 12, 1872), 3^rd President of Czechoslovakia.  He served as President from November 1938 until March 1939, when the country came under German control.  He died three weeks before his 73^rd birthday under mysterious circumstances.

 

1944 ~ Milan Hodža (b. Feb. 1, 1878), Czech journalist and politician.  He served as the Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia from November 1935 until September 1938.  He died in Clear Water, Florida at age 66.  His remains were returned to his native Slovakia.

 

1907 ~ Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (née Elizabeth Cabot Cary; b. Dec. 5, 1822), American educator and co-founder of Radcliffe College.  She also served as the first president of Radcliff College.  She was married to Louis Agassiz, the Swiss-born geologist and biologist.  She was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Arlington, Massachusetts.  She was 84 at the time of her death.

 

1880 ~ Carl Wilhelm Borchardt (b. Feb. 22, 1817), German mathematician.  He died at age 63.

 

1844 ~ Joseph Smith, Jr. (b. Dec. 23, 1805), founder of the Mormons.  He and his brother, Hyrum Smith (b. Feb. 9, 1800), were murdered by a mob in an Illinois jail.  Joseph died at age 38 and his brother was 44.

 

1831 ~ Marie-Sophie Germain (b. Apr. 1, 1776), French mathematician.  She is best known for elasticity theory.  She died of breast cancer at age 55.

 

1829 ~ James Smithson (né Jacques-Louis Macie; b. 1764), English scientist and philanthropist.  He left his fortune to the United States, even though he had never set foot in the country, for an “establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”  His money provided the seed money for the Smithsonian museums.  He was the illegitimate son of Hugh Percy, 1^st Duke of Northumberland.  The exact date of his birth is unknown.  He died at age 64.

 

1729 ~ Élizabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (née Élizabeth Jacquet; b. Mar. 17, 1665), French musician and composer.  She was born and died in Paris, France.  She died at age 64.

 

1655 ~ Eleonora Gonzaga (b. Sept. 23, 1598), Holy Roman Empress consort and Italian 2^nd wife of Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor.  She died at age 56.