Birthdays:
1972 ~ Gary Shteyngart, Russian-born American novelist. He was born in Saint Petersburg, USSR.
1965 ~ Kathryn Erbe (née Kathryn Elsbeth Erbe), American actress. She is best known for her role as Detective Alexandra Eames on Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She was born in Newton, Massachusetts.
1963 ~ Edie Falco (née Edith Falco), American actress. She is best known for her role as Carmela Soprano on the HBO series, The Sopranos. She was born in New York, New York.
1960 ~ Pruitt Taylor Vince, American actor from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and attended Louisiana State University.
1958 ~ Bill Watterson (né William Boyd Watterson, II), American cartoonist and author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbs. He was born in Washington, D.C.
1953 ~ Caryn Navy (née Caryn Linda Navy), American mathematician. She has been blind since birth. Her specialty is set-theory topology and Braille technology. She was born in Brooklyn, New York.
1950 ~ Huey Lewis (né Hugh Anthony Cregg, III), American singer-songwriter. He was born in New York, New York.
1946 ~ Gerardus ‘t Hooft, Dutch physicist and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born in Den Helder, Netherlands.
1940 ~ Chuck Close (né Charles Thomas Close; d. Aug. 19, 2021), American innovative artist, painter and photographer. He is best known for his photorealism massive-scale portraits. He became an art world celebrity with his colossal, pixelated portraits. He was born in Monroe, Washington. He died of congestive heart failure at age 81 in Oceanside, New York.
1936 ~ Sir James Mirrlees (né James Alexander Mirrlees; d. Aug. 29, 2018), Scottish economist and recipient of the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He was born in Minnigaff, Scotland. He died at age 82 in Cambridge, England.
1936 ~ Shirley Knight (d. Apr. 22, 2020), American actress who turned her back on stardom. She was born in Goessel, Kansas. She died in San Marcos, Texas at age 83.
1932 ~ Gyula Horn (d. June 19, 2013), Prime Minister of Hungary from July 1994 until July 1998. He was born and died in Budapest, Hungary. He died 16 days before his 81st birthday.
1929 ~ Katherine Helmond (née Katherine Marie Helmond; d. Feb. 23, 2019), American actress who played very modest matriarchs. She is best known for her role as Jessica Tate on Soap. She was born in Galveston, Texas. She died at age 89 in Los Angeles, California.
1918 ~ Jeno Paulucci (né Luigino Francisco Paulucci; d. Nov. 24, 2011), American visionary of frozen foods. He started over 70 food companies, including frozen food companies such as Bellisio Foods, Pizza Rolls and Chun King Chinese food. He was born in Aurora, Minnesota. He died at age 93 in Duluth, Minnesota.
1915 ~ Babe Paley (née Barbara Cushing; d. July 6, 1978), American socialite. Her second husband was William Paley, founder of CBS. She was the subject of the novel Swans of Fifth Avenue. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She died of lung cancer 1 day after her 63rd birthday in Manhattan, New York.
1914 ~ John Dunlop (né John Thomas Dunlop; d. Oct. 2, 2003), 14th United States Secretary of Labor. He served in the Gerald Ford administration from March 1975 until January 1976. He was born in Placerville, California. He died at age 89 in Boston, Massachusetts.
1911 ~ Georges Pompidou (né Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou; d. Apr. 2, 1974), French politician and President of France from June 1969 until April 1974. He died in office at age 62.
1902 ~ Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (d. Feb. 27, 1985), American diplomat and 1960 Vice Presidential nominee as Richard Nixon’s running mate. He was a United States Senator from Massachusetts from January 1947 until January 1953. He served as the 3rd United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He was born in Nahant, Massachusetts. He died in Beverly, Massachusetts at age 82.
1891 ~ John Howard Northrop (d. May 27, 1987), American chemist and recipient of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was born in Yonkers, New York. He died by suicide at age 95 in Wickenburg, Arizona.
1889 ~ Jean Cocteau (né Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau; d. Oct. 11, 1963), French poet, playwright and novelist. He died of a heart attack at age 74.
1888 ~ Herbert Spencer Gasser (d. May 11, 1963), American physiologist and recipient of the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers. He was bornin Platteville, Wisconsin. He died at age 74 in New York, New York.
1888 ~ Louise Freeland Jenkins (d. May 9, 1970), American astronomer. She compiled a valuable catalogue of stars within 10 parsecs of the sun. She was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. She died at age 81.
1879 ~ Dwight F. Davis, Sr. (né Dwight Filley Davis; d. Nov. 28, 1945), 49th United States Secretary of War. He served under President Calvin Coolidge from October 1925 until March 1929. He was also an American tennis player and is remembered today for founding the Davis Cup. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He died at age 66 in Washington, D.C.
1860 ~ Robert Bacon (d. May 29, 1919), 39th United States Secretary of State. He served under President Theodore Roosevelt for 38 days, from January 1909 until March 1909. He was from Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. He died at age 58 of blood poisoning following surgery in New York, New York.
1853 ~ Cecil Rhodes (né Cecil John Rhodes; d. Mar. 26, 1902), English-born South African explorer and businessman. He was the founder of the DeBeers diamond mining company. The Rhodes Scholarship was established in his will and was established in 1902. He died of heart failure at age 48.
1841 ~ William Whitney (né William Collins Whitney; d. Feb. 2, 1904), 31st United States Secretary of the Navy. He served under President Grover Cleveland from March 1885 until March 1889. He was born in Conway, Massachusetts. He died at age 62 in New York, New York.
1841 ~ Mary Arthur McElroy (née Mary Arthur; d. Jan. 8, 1917), sister of President Chester Arthur. She served as First Lady during his term as President. She was born in Greenwich, New York. She died at age 75 in Albany, New York.
1820 ~ William John Macquorn Rankine (d. Dec. 24, 1872), Scottish mathematician and engineer. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He died at age 52 in Glasgow, Scotland.
1810 ~ P.T. Barnum (né Phineas Taylor Barnum; d. Apr. 7, 1891), American showman, businessman, scam artist and entertainer. He was a co-founder of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. He also served as the Mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut from 1875 to 1876. He was the subject of the 2017 movie, The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackson. He was born in Bethel, Connecticut. Barnum died at age 80 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
1801 ~ David Farragut (né David Glasgow Farragut; d. Aug. 14, 1870), American naval commander. He was a flag officer in the United States navy during the American Civil War. He was born in Campbell’s Station, Tennessee. The town of his birth is now known as Farragut, Tennessee. He died in what is now Kittery, Maine at age 69.
1795 ~ Benjamin Morrell (d. 1839), American sea captain, explorer, and trader. He was born in Rye, New York. The exact cause and nature of his death is not known.
1717 ~ Peter III, King of Portugal (d. May 25, 1786). He became king through his marriage to his niece, Maria I, Queen of Portugal. Maria had inherited the throne from her father. He reigned from February 1777 until his death 9 years later. He was of the House of Braganza. He was the son of John V, King of Portugal and Maria Anna of Austria. He died at age 68.
1586 ~ Thomas Hooker (d. July 7, 1647), English-born minister and founder of the Colony of Connecticut. He dissented with the Puritan colony in Massachusetts and left to create the Colony of Connecticut. He died in Hartford, Connecticut Colony 2 days after his 61st birthday.
1554 ~ Elisabeth of Austria (d. Jan. 22, 1592), Queen consort of France and wife of Charles IX, King of France. She was of the House of Habsburg. She was the daughter of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria of Spain. She died of pleurisy at age 37.
1547 ~ Garzia de’Medici (d. Dec. 6, 1562), Tuscan prince. He was of the House of Medici. He was the son of Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo. He died of malaria at age 15.
1522 ~ Margaret of Parma (d. Jan. 18, 1586), Duchess consort of Florence through her marriage to Alessandro de’Medici, Duke of Florence. He was her first husband. After his death, she married Ottavio Farnese, Duke of Parma. She was of the House of Habsburg. She was the illegitimate daughter of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Johanna Maria van der Gheynst. She died at age 63.
1466 ~ Giovanni Sforza (d. July 27, 1510), Italian lord and ruler. He was the first husband of Lucrezia Borgia, but their marriage was annulled due to his impotence. He was born and died in Pesaro, Italy. He died 22 days after his 44thbirthday.
1321 ~ Joan of The Tower (d. Sept. 7, 1362), Queen consort of Scotland and 1st wife of David II, King of Scotland. She was known as Joan of the Tower because she was born in the Tower of London. She was of the House of Plantagenet. She was the daughter of Edward II, King of England and Isabella of France. She died at age 41. She was most likely a victim of the Black Death.
Events that Changed the World:
2019 ~ A second earthquake struck in Southern California, following the one the previous day. This earthquake registered 7.1 on the Richter scale.
2019 ~ The temperature reached 90F in Anchorage, Alaska for the first time on record.
2016 ~ Alton Sterling (1979 ~ 2016), an African-American, was shot and killed by two police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The police officers were responding to a call that Sterling had been illegally selling CDs. Sterling ostensibly was reaching for a gun, when the officers seized and shot him. Following state and federal investigations, the officers were found not guilty of the shooting. In 2021, his children accepted a $4.5M offer to end a wrongful death lawsuit.
1999 ~ United States President Bill Clinton (b. 1946) imposed trade and economic sanctions against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
1996 ~ Dolly (d. 2003) the sheep became the first cloned mammal. The sheep was named Dolly after Dolly Parton because the cell used to clone the animal came from a mammary cell.
1994 ~ Jeff Bezos (b. Jan. 12, 1964) founded Amazon. The company began as an on-line bookstore.
1989 ~ Oliver North (b. 1943) was sentenced to a three-year suspended prison term, two-years’ probation, $150,000 in fines and 1,200 hours of community service for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair. His convictions were later overturned.
1975 ~ Arthur Ashe (1943 ~ 1993) won the Wimbledon singles title. He was the first African-American to do so.
1971 ~ The 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution was formally certified by President Richard M. Nixon (1913 ~ 1994), lowering the voting age to 18 year olds.
1962 ~ Algeria gained its independent from France.
1950 ~ The Israeli Knesset passed the Law of Return, which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel.
1947 ~ Larry Doby (1923 ~ 2003) became the first African-American baseball player in the American League when he signed with the Cleveland Indians. Jackie Robinson (1919 ~ 1972) had broken the color barrier in the National League when he signed on with the Brooklyn Dodgers nearly 3 months earlier.
1946 ~ The bikini made its debut at an outdoor fashion show in Paris, France. French automobile engineer and fashion designer Louis Réard (1897 ~ 1984) designed a two-piece bathing suit that he initially named Atome, which he advertised as the world’s smallest bathing suit. He renamed his creation the Bikini after the first test of a nuclear weapon at the Bikini Atoll. Micheline Bernardini (b. 1927), an exotic dancer, modeled the bikini because no runway model was willing to wear the swimsuit.
1937 ~ Spam was first placed on the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation.
1935 ~ The National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations in the United States, was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 ~ 1945).
1888 ~ London Matchgirl Strike, which was an industrial action by teenage girls working at the Bryant & May match factory in London, began. The strike resulted in working reforms.
1865 ~ The Salvation Army was founded in the East End of London, England.
1841 ~ Thomas Cook (1808 ~ 1892), founder of the Thomas Cook & Son, Co. Travel Agency, organized his first package excursion. The excursion escorted about 500 people from Leicester to Loughborough in England ~ a trip that was all of 11 miles!
1811 ~ Venezuela declared its independence from Spain.
1687 ~ Isaac Newton (1642 ~ 1726) published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Good-Byes:
2021 ~ Richard Donner (né Richard Donald Schwartzberg; b. Apr. 24, 1930), American prolific Hollywood film director who brought Superman to the big screen. He also directed such popular movies as The Omen and Lethal Weapon. He was born in New York, New York. He died at age 91 in Los Angeles, California.
2018 ~ Claude Lanzmann (b. Nov. 27, 1925), French filmmaker who chronicled the Holocaust. He is best known for the Holocaust documentary Shoah. He died at age 92 in Paris, France.
2017 ~ Pierre Henry (né Pierre Georges Henry; b. Dec. 9, 1927), French composer who pioneered electronic music. He was born and died in Paris, France. He died at age 89.
2016 ~ Beatrice de Cardi (née Beatrice Eileen de Cardi; b. June 5, 1914), English archaeologist. She is best known for her work in the Persian Gulf. She was born and died in London, England. She died a month after her 102nd birthday from complications of a fall.
2015 ~ Uffe Haagerup (b. Dec. 19, 1949), Danish mathematician. He drowned while swimming in the Baltic Sea. He was 65 years old at the time of his death.
2015 ~ Burt Shavitz (né Ingram Berg Shavitz; b. May 15, 1935), American beekeeper and bearded hippie who co-founded Burt’s Bees personal care products. He was born in Great Neck, New York. He died at age 80 in Bangor, Maine.
2015 ~ Yoichiro Nambu (b. Jan. 18, 1921), Japanese-born American physicist and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics. He died at age 94.
2010 ~ Juanita Kreps (née Clara Juanita Morris; b. Jan. 11, 1921), 24th United States Secretary of Commerce. She served under President Jimmy Carter from January 1977 through October 1979. She was the first woman to hold that position and only the 4th woman to hold any cabinet position. She was born in Lynch, Kentucky. She died at age 89 in Durham, North Carolina.
2006 ~ Ken Lay (né Kenneth Lee Lay; b. Apr. 15, 1942), American businessman who was known for his role in the corruption scandal that led to the downfall of the Enron Corporation. He was found guilty of securities fraud, but died before the matter reached the appellate level. He was born in Tyrone, Missouri. He died of a heart attack at age 64 in Snowmass, Colorado.
2005 ~ James Stockdale (né James Bond Stockdale; b. Dec. 23, 1923), American admiral, recipient of the Medal of Honor, and Vice Presidential running mate of Ross Perot in the 1982 campaign. He was a prisoner of war for over 7 years during the Vietnam War. He was born in Abingdon, Illinois. He died at age 81 in Coronado, California.
2002 ~ Katy Jurado (née María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García; b. Jan. 16, 1924), Mexican actress. She made 72 films during her career. She died of kidney failure and pulmonary disease at age 78.
2002 ~ Ted Williams (né Theodore Samuel Williams; b. Aug. 30, 1918), American baseball player who spent his entire 21-year major league baseball career with the Boston Red Sox. He was born in San Diego, California. He died of cardiac arrest at age 83 in Inverness, Florida.
1995 ~ Foster Furcolo (né John Foster Furcolo; b. July 29, 1911), 60th Governor of Massachusetts. He served as governor from January 1957 to January 1961. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died 3 weeks before his 84th birthday.
1969 ~ Walter Gropius (né Walter Adolph Georg Gropius; b. May 18, 1883), German architect and founder of the Bauhaus school of architecture. He was born in Berlin, Germany. He died at age 86 in Boston, Massachusetts.
1966 ~ George de Hevesy (né György Károly Hevesy; b. Aug. 1, 1885), Hungarian chemist and recipient of the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in radioactive tracers. He died 26 days before his 81st birthday.
1935 ~ Oliver Herford (b. Dec. 2, 1860), British writer, artist and illustrator. He was born in Sheffield, England. He died at age 74.
1932 ~ René-Louis Baire (b. Jan. 21, 1874), French mathematician. He was born in Paris, France. He died at age 58 in Chambéry, France.
1927 ~ Albrecht Kossel (b. Sept. 16, 1853), German physician and recipient of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in determining the chemical composition of nucleic acids. He died at age 73.
1867 ~ James Wayne (né James Moore Wayne; b. 1790), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Andrew Jackson. He served from January 1835 until his death in July 1867. He replaced William Johnson on the Court. After his death, this seat was abolished. The exact date of his birth is not known. He was born in Savanah, Georgia and died at about age 76 or 77 in Washington, D.C.
1833 ~ Nicéphore Niépce (né Joseph Nicéphore Niépce; b. Mar. 7, 1765), French inventor who is credited with creating the first known photograph. He died of a stroke at age 68.
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