Birthdays:
1958 ~ Michael Flatley (né Michael Ryan Flatley), Irish-American dancer and choreographer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1956 ~ Tony Kushner (né Anthony Robert Kushner), American playwright. He is best known for his Angels in America, a play about the AIDS epidemic. Although he was born in Manhattan, shortly after his birth, his family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
1948 ~ Rubén Blades (né Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna), Panamanian actor. He was born in Panama City, Panama.
1948 ~ Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli violinist and conductor. He was born in Tel Aviv, Israel.
1947 ~ Alexis Herman (née Alexis Margaret Herman), 23rd United States Secretary of Labor. She served under President Bill Clinton from May 1997 until January 2001. She was born in Mobile, Alabama.
1944 ~ Betty Davis (née Betty Gray Mabry; d. Feb. 9, 2022), African-American funk queen who was unafraid to show her raunchy side. She was also the second wife of trumpeter Miles Davis. She was born in Durham, North Carolina. She died of cancer at age 77 in Homestead, Pennsylvania.
1934 ~ Katherine D. Ortega (née Katherine Dávalos Ortega), 38th Treasurer of the United States. She served from September 1983 until June 1989 during the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. She was born in Tularosa, New Mexico.
1932 ~ Richard Thornburgh (né Richard Lewis Thornburgh; d. Dec. 31, 2020), 76th United States Attorney General. He served under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W.H. Bush from August 1988 until August 1991. He had previously served as the 41st Governor of Pennsylvania. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He died at age 88 in Verona, Pennsylvania.
1928 ~ David Treen, Sr. (né David Connor Treen, d. Oct. 29, 2009), 51st Governor of Louisiana. He was Governor from March 1980 until March 1984. He was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and died in Metairie, Louisiana. He died at age 81.
1928 ~ Jim Rathmann (né Royal Richard Rathmann; d. Nov. 23, 2011), American Indy champ with the right stuff. He won the Indianapolis in 1960. He was born in Alhambra, California. He died at age 83 in Melbourne, Florida.
1926 ~ Irwin Rose (né Irwin Allan Rose; d. June 2, 2015), American biologist and recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He died in Deerfield, Massachusetts at age 88.
1924 ~ Bess Myerson (d. Dec. 14, 2014), first, and to date the only, Jewish Miss America. She won the title in 1945. She was born in The Bronx, New York. She died at age 90 in Santa Monica, California.
1918 ~ George Mueller (né George Edwin Mueller, d. Oct. 12, 2015), American electrical engineer who spearheaded the Apollo Program. He headed NASA’s Office of Manned Space Flight from September 1963 until December 1969. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He died at age 97 in Irving, California.
1911 ~ Ginger Rogers (née Virginia Katherine McMath; d. Apr. 25, 1995), American actress and dancer. She was born in Independence, Missouri. She died at age 83 in Rancho Mirage, California.
1907 ~ Barbara Stanwyck (née Ruby Catherine Stevens; d. Jan. 20, 1990), American actress. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She died at age 82 in Santa Monica, California.
1907 ~ Orville Redenbacher (né Orville Clarence Redenbacher; d. Sept. 19, 1995), American farmer and businessman. He was the founder of the Orville Redenbacher’s Company that manufactured popcorn. He was born in Brazil, Indiana. He died at age 88 in Coronado, California.
1903 ~ Irmgard Flügge-Lotz (d. May 22, 1974), German mathematician. She is best known for her work in aerodynamics. She was born in Hamelin, Germany. She died at age 70 in Palo Alto, California.
1896 ~ Trygve Lie (né Trygve Hlavdan Lie, d. Dec. 30, 1968), Norwegian politician and 1st Secretary-General of the United Nations. He served as the Secretary-General from February 1946 until November 1952. He died of a heart attack at age 72.
1888 ~ Frits Zernike (d. Mar. 10, 1966), Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of the phase-contrast microscope. He was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He died following a long illness at age 77 in Amersfoot, Netherlands.
1887 ~ Shoeless Joe Jackson (né Joseph Jefferson Jackson; d. Dec. 5, 1951), American baseball player associated with the 1919 Black Sox scandal. He was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. He was born in Pickens County, South Carolina. He died of a heart attack at age 64 in Greenville, South Carolina.
1872 ~ Roald Amundsen (d. June 18, 1928), Norwegian explorer who is credited with leading the first expedition to reach the South Pole. He died about a month before his 56th birthday when the plane he was flying on a rescue mission over the Arctic presumably crashed. The bodies of those in the plane were never found.
1862 ~ Ida B. Wells (née Ida Bell Wells; d. Mar. 25, 1931), African-American journalist and political activist. She was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi. She died of kidney failure at age 68 in Chicago, Illinois.
1821 ~ Mary Baker Eddy (d. Dec. 3, 1910), American religious leader and founder of the Christian Science movement. She was born in Bow, New Hampshire. She died in Newton, Massachusetts at age 89.
1796 ~ Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (d. Feb. 22, 1875), French painter. He was born and died in Paris, France. He died at age 78.
1749 ~ Cyrus Griffin (d. Dec. 14, 1810), American politician and last president of the Continental Congress. He died at age 62 in Yorktown, Virginia.
1746 ~ Guiseppe Piazzi (d. July 22, 1826), Italian mathematician. He died 6 days after his 80th birthday in Naples, Kingdom of Naples.
1731 ~ Samuel Huntington (d. Jan. 5, 1796), 18th Governor of Connecticut. He served as Governor from May 1786 until his death in January 1796. His birthday under the Julian calendar is considered to be July 5. He was born in Windham, Connecticut. He died in office at age 64 in Norwich, Connecticut.
1723 ~ Sir Joshua Reynolds (d. Feb. 23, 1792), English painter. He specialized in portraits. He died at age 68 in London, England.
1661 ~ Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville (d. July 9, 1706), French-Canadian explorer and founder of the colony of Louisiana. His brother, Jean-Baptiste le Moyne de Bienville, founded New Orleans. He died of yellow fever a week before his 45thbirthday in Havana, Spanish Cuba.
1611 ~ Cecilia Renata of Austria (d. Mar. 24, 1644), Queen consort of Poland. She was the first wife of Władysław IV Vasa, King of Poland. She was of the House of Habsburg. She was the daughter of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Anna of Bavaria. She died at age 32, most likely of complications of childbirth.
1194 ~ St. Clare of Assisi (né Chiara Offreduccio, d. Aug. 11, 1253). She founded the monastic religious order of the Poor Ladies. Following her death, the order became known as the Poor Clares. She was born and died in Assisi, Italy. She died less than a month after her 59th birthday.
Events that Changed the World:
2015 ~ Four United States Marines were killed in a shooting spree in Chattanooga, Tennessee by a deranged gunman.
2007 ~ A 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck in Japan injuring over 800 people and causing damage to a nuclear power plant.
2004 ~ Chicago’s Millennium Park was opened to the public.
1999 ~ John F. Kennedy, Jr. (1960 ~ 1999), his wife, Carolyn (1966 ~ 1999), and her sister, Lauren Bessette (1964 ~ 1999) were killed when the small plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
1995 ~ Amazon formally opened as an online retail store. It initially was an online bookstore, before moving into other merchandise.
1990 ~ A 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck in the Philippines.
1979 ~ Saddam Hussein (1937 ~ 2006) became President of Iraq.
1973 ~ Alexander Butterfield (b. 1926), Federal Aviation Administrator during the Nixon administration, informed the United States Senate that President Nixon secretly taped White House conversations.
1969 ~ Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1965 ~ The Mont Blanc Tunnel through the Alps opened linking France and Italy.
1951 ~ The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger (1919 ~ 2010) was first published.
1951 ~ Leopold III, King of Belgium (1901 ~ 1983) abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Baudouin I, King of Belgium (1930 ~ 1993).
1948 ~ The Miss Macao, a passenger seaplane, was hijacked when Wong Yu stormed the cockpit and shot the pilot. The hijacker survived, however, the plane crashed, and the passengers were killed. It was the first recorded hijacking of a commercial plane.
1945 ~ As part of the Manhattan Project, the first atomic bomb was set off in Alamogordo, New Mexico, marking the beginning of the Atomic Age.
1942 ~ The government of Vichy France ordered the arrest of over 13,100 Jews who were held at the Winter Velodrome in Paris until they were deported to Auschwitz. This became known as the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup. The event forms the basis for the 2006 book, Sarah’s Key, by Tatiana de Rosnay.
1935 ~ Oklahoma City, Oklahoma installed the world’s first parking meters.
1931 ~ Emperor Haile Selassie I (1892 ~ 1975) signed the first constitution of Ethiopia.
1862 ~ David Farragut (1801 ~ 1870) was promoted to rear admiral, becoming the first officer in the United States Navy to achieve the rank of admiral.
1790 ~ The District of Columbia was established as the capital of the United States following the signature of the Residence Act.
1782 ~ The first public performance of Mozart's opera, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio).
1769 ~ Father Junípero Serra (1713 ~ 1784) founded Mission San Diego de Alcalá, what is now California’s first mission. The mission eventually evolved into the city of San Diego, California.
1661 ~ The first banknotes in Europe were issued by the Swedish bank, Stockholms Banco.
1377 ~ Richard II (1367 ~ 1400) was crowned King of England. His reign began three weeks earlier.
1054 ~ The beginning of the East-West Schism of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Christian Church.
622 ~ The date ascribed to the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
Good-Byes:
2021 ~ Biz Markie (né Marcel Theo Hall; b. Apr. 8, 1964), American Crown Prince of Hip-Hop who scored a mainstream smash in 1989 with the self-deprecating Just a Friend. He was born in Harlem, New York. He died of complications from type 2 diabetes at age 57 in Baltimore, Maryland.
2019 ~ John Paul Stevens (b. Apr. 20, 1920), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court who became a liberal icon. He was nominated to the High Court by President Gerald Ford. He replaced William O. Douglas on the Court. He was succeeded by Elena Kagan. He served on the Court from December 1975 until June 2010. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He died at age 99 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
2017 ~ George Romero (né George Andrew Romero, b. Feb. 4, 1940), American cult film director who made zombies mainstream. He is best known for his 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead. He was born in New York, New York. He died of lung cancer at age 77 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
2016 ~ Alan Vega (né Alan Bermowitz; b. June 23, 1938), American punk pioneer who shocked and inspired. He was a vocalist and visual artist. He was half of the electronic duo Suicide. He was born and died in New York, New York. He died at age 78.
2014 ~ Johnny Winter (né John Dawson Winter, III, b. Feb. 23, 1944), American guitarist who rocked the Texas blues. His younger brother is musician Edgar Winter. He was born in Beaumont, Texas. He died while on tour at age 70 in Zurich, Switzerland.
2013 ~ Yuri Vasilyevich Prokhorov (b. Dec. 15, 1929), Russian mathematician who work in probability theory. He was born and died in Moscow, Russia. He died at age 83.
2012 ~ Stephen Covey (né Stephen Richards Covey; b. Oct. 24, 2012), American businessman, author and educator. He is best known for his book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He died at age 79 of injuries sustained when he fell from a biking accident in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
2012 ~ Kitty Wells (née Ellen Muriel Deason; b. Aug. 30, 1919), the American trailblazing “Queen of Country Music.” She was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She died at age 92 in Madison, Tennessee.
2008 ~ Jo Stafford (née Jo Elizabeth Stafford; b. Nov. 12, 1917), the American pop singer who was a World War II favorite. She was born in Coalinga, California. She died at age 90 in Los Angeles, California.
2008 ~ Sherman Maxwell (né Sherman Leander Maxwell; b. Dec. 18, 1907), African-American sportscaster who was a radio pioneer. He is believed to be the first African-American sports broadcaster. He was born in Newark, New Jersey. He died at 100 years old in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
2003 ~ Carol Shields (née Carol Ann Warner; b. June 2, 1935), American-born Canadian novelist. She is best known for her novel, The Stone Diaries. She was born in Oak Park, Illinois. She died of breast cancer at age 68 in Victoria, British Columbiam Canada.
2003 ~ Celia Cruz (b. Oct. 21, 1924), Cuban salsa singer. She was born in Havana, Cuba. She died at age 77 in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
1999 ~ Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (née Carolyn Jeanne Bessette; b. Jan. 7, 1966), wife of John F. Kennedy, Jr. She was killed when the small plane husband was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while they were on their way to Martha’s Vineyard to attend a family wedding. She was born in White Plains, New York. She was 33 years old.
1999 ~ John F. Kennedy, Jr. (né John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jr.; b. Nov. 25, 1960) and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy (1966 ~ 1999) were killed when the plane Kennedy was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. John was born in Washington, D.C. He was 38 years old.
1995 ~ May Sarton (née Eleanore Marie Sarton, b. May 3, 1912), Belgian-born author and poet. She was born in Wondelgem, Belgium. She died in of breast cancer in York, Maine at age 83.
1994 ~ Julian Schwinger (né Julian Seymour Schwinger; b. Feb. 12, 1918), American physicist and recipient of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born in New York, New York. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 76 in Los Angeles, California.
1991 ~ Frank Rizzo (né Francis Lazarro Rizzo; b. Oct. 23, 1920), American police officer who became Philadelphia’s 93rd Mayor. He was born and died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He died of a massive heart attack at age 70.
1991 ~ Robert Motherwell (b. Jan. 24, 1915), American painter. He was born in Aberdeen, Washington. He died at age 76 in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
1985 ~ Heinrich Böll (né Heinrich Theodor Böll, b. Dec. 21, 1817), German writer and recipient of the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 67.
1981 ~ Harry Chapin (né Harry Forster Chapin, b. Dec. 7, 1942), American musician. He was born in New York, New York. He was killed at age 38 in a car accident in East Meadow, New York.
1960 ~ John P. Marquand (né John Phillips Marquand, b. Nov. 10, 1893), American novelist, best known for his novel, The Late George Apley. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He died of a heart attack at age 66 in Newburyport, Massachusetts.
1930 ~ Juan Luis Sanfuentes (b. Dec. 27, 1858), President of Chile from December 1915 through December 1920. He was born and died in Santiago, Chilie. He died at age 71.
1915 ~ Ellen G. White (née Ellen Gould Harmon, b. Nov. 26, 1827), American author and religious leader. She was a co-founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. She was born in Gorham, Maine. She died at age 87 in St. Helena, California.
1896 ~ William E. Russell (né William Eustis Russell, b. Jan. 6, 1857), 37th Governor of Massachusetts. He served as Governor from January 1891 through January 1894. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died unexpectedly, probably of heart failure, at age 39 in Quebec, Canada.
1882 ~ Mary Todd Lincoln (née Mary Ann Todd, b. Dec. 13, 1818), First Lady and wife of President Abraham Lincoln. She was born in Lexington, Kentucky. She died at age 63 in Springfield, Illinois.
1740 ~ Maria Anna of Neuburg (b. Oct. 28, 1667), Queen consort of Spain and second wife of Charles II, King of Spain. Her marriage was dominated by a political struggle between French and Austrian factions over the Spanish throne, which ultimately resulted in the War of Spanish Succession in the early 1700s. She was of the House of Wittelsbach. She was the daughter of Philip William, Elector Palatine and Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. She died at age 72.
1576 ~ Isabella de’Medici (b. Aug. 31, 1542), Italian princess. She was married to Paolo Giordano Orsini. She was of the House of Medici. She was the daughter of Cosimo I de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor di Toledo. She is believed to have been murdered by her husband at age 33.
1557 ~ Anne of Cleves (b. Sept. 22, 1515), English noblewoman and fourth wife of Henry VIII, King of England. The marriage was never consummated and was annulled after a few months; thus Anne did not lose her head. She outlived all of Henry’s other wives. She was the daughter of John III, Duke of Cleves and Maria of Jülich-Berg. She died at age 41.
1342 ~ Charles I, King of Hungary (b. 1288). He ruled Hungary and Croatia from the early 1300s until his death in 1342. He was married several times. His first wife is believed to have been Maria of Galicia. His second wife was Mary of Bytom. His third wife was Beatrice of Luxembourg. His fourth and final wife was Elisabeth of Poland. He was of the Capetian House of Anjou. He was the son of Charles Martel of Anjou and Clemence of Austria. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 53 or 54 at the time of his death.
1216 ~ Pope Innocent III (né Lotario die Conti di Segni, b. 1161). He was Pope from January 1198 until his death 18 years later. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 55 of 56 at the time of his death.
716 ~ Rui Zong (b. June 22, 662), 5th and 9th Chinese Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He ruled first February 684 until October 690, then again from July 710 to September 712. He died at age 54.
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