Birthdays:
2007 ~ James, Viscount Severn (né James Alexander Philip Theo Mountbatten-Windsor), member of the British royal family. He is of the House of Windsor. He is the second child and first son of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Sophie, Countess of Wessex.
1953 ~ Bill Pullman (né William James Pullman), American actor. He was born in Hornell, New York.
1946 ~ Eugene Levy, Canadian comedian, and actor. He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
1945 ~ Ernie Hudson (né Earnest Lee Hudson), African-American actor. He is best known for his role as Winston Zeddemore in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters. He was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
1937 ~ John Kennedy Toole (b. Mar. 26, 1969), American novelist from New Orleans. His most well-known novel, A Confederacy of Dunces, was published after his death by suicide at age 31. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He died in Biloxi, Mississippi.
1936 ~ Pope Francis (né Jorge Mario Bergoglio), head of the Catholic Church. He became the first Jesuit Pope and the first from South America to be elected Pope. He became Pope in March 2013. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1929 ~ William Safire (né William Lewis Safire; d. Sept. 27, 2009), American provocative political columnist who loved language. He was born in New York, New York. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 79 in Rockville. Maryland.
1923 ~ Jaroslav Pelikan (né Jaroslav Jan Pelikan; d. May 13, 2006), American historian. He specialized in Christian history and Christian theology. He was born in Akron, Ohio. He died in Hamden, Connecticut at age 82.
1923 ~ Cullen Hightower (d. Nov. 27, 2008), American writer, best known for his quips. He was born in Alabama. He died 20 days before his 85th birthday in Mary Esther, Florida.
1921 ~ William Arthur Ward (d. Mar. 30, 1994), American motivational writer known for his inspirational maxims. He died at age 82.
1921 ~ Nadezhda Popova (d. July 8, 2013), Russian “Night Witch” who bombed the Nazis. She was one of the first female Russian military pilots. During World War II, she joined a night bombing regiment and bombed Germany to revenge the death of her brother. She died at age 91 in Moscow, Russia.
1916 ~ Penelope Fitzgerald (née Penelope Mary Knox; d. Apr. 28, 2000), British author. She died at age 83 in London, England.
1913 ~ Burt Baskin (d. Dec. 24, 1967), American entrepreneur and co-founder of the Basking and Robbins ice cream franchise. He was born in Streator, Illinois. He died of a heart attack 7 days after his 54th birthday in Los Angeles, California.
1908 ~ Willard Libby (né Willard Frank Libby; d. Sept. 8, 1980), American chemist and recipient of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in carbon dating. He was born in Grand Valley, Colorado. He died of complications of pneumonia at age 71 in Los Angeles, California.
1903 ~ Erskine Caldwell (né Erskine Preston Caldwell; d. Apr. 11, 1987), American author. He is best known for his novel God’s Little Acre. He was born in Moreland, Georgia. He died of lung cancer at age 83 in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
1901 ~ Janet Graeme Travell (d. Aug. 1, 1997), American physician. She is best known for being the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy. She was the first women to hold this position. She also studied the concept of trigger points as a cause of musculoskeletal referred pain. She was born in New York New York. She died at age 95 of heart failure in Northhampton, Massachusetts.
1900 ~ Dame Mary Cartwright (née Mary Lucy Cartwright; d. Apr. 3, 1998), English mathematician. She was one of the first people to study chaos theory. She died at age 97 in Cambridge, England.
1894 ~ Arthur Fiedler (d. July 10, 1979), American conductor who led the Boston Pops for many years. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died at age 84.
1873 ~ Ford Madox Ford (né Ford Hermann Hueffer; b. June 26, 1939), English writer. He died at age 65 in France.
1853 ~ Pierre Paul Émile Roux (d. Nov. 3, 1933), French physician and immunologist. He and Alexandre Yersin were responsible for the first anti-diphtheria serum, the first effective therapy for the disease. He was a co-founder the Pasteur Institute. He died at age 79 in Paris, France.
1842 ~ Sophus Lie (né Marius Sophus Lie; d. Feb. 18, 1899), Norwegian mathematician. The study of Lie algebra is named in his honor. He died of pernicious anemia at age 56.
1835 ~ Alexander Agassiz (né Alexander Emanuel Rodolphe Agassiz; d. Mar. 27, 1910), Swiss-born ichthyologist, zoologist and engineer. He died while aboard the RMS Adriatic at age 74.
1807 ~ John Greenleaf Whittier (d. Sept. 7, 1892), American poet, Quaker, and abolitionist. He was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts and died in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. He died at age 84.
1795 ~ Benjamin Franklin Butler (d. Nov. 8, 1858), 12th United States Attorney General. He served under Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren from November 1833 until July 1838. He was born in Kinderhook Landing, New York. He died at age 62 in Paris, France.
1778 ~ Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet (d. May 29, 1829), English chemist. He is known for inventing the Davy Lamp. He died at age 50 from complications following a stroke.
1770 ~ Ludwig van Beethoven (d. Mar. 26, 1827), German composer. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he was baptized on December 17, 1770. In his later years he became deaf; yet continued to compose music. His famous Ninth Symphony was written when he was completely deaf. He died at age 56.
1734 ~ Maria I, Queen of Portugal (d. Mar. 20, 1816). She reigned from February 1777 until her death in March 1816. She was also the Queen of Brazil. She was known as Maria the Pious in Portugal and Maria the Mad in Brazil. She married Peter III, King of Portugal. She was of the House of Braganza. She was the daughter of Joseph I, King of Portugal and Mariana Victoria of Spain. She was Roman Catholic. She died at age 81.
1706 ~ Émilie du Châtelet (née Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet, d. Sept. 10, 1749), French mathematician, physicist, and author during the Age of Enlightenment. She died at age 42 of complications of childbirth a week after having given birth to her third child.
Events that Changed the World:
2014 ~ The United States and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations after over 55 years.
2010 ~ Street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi (1984 ~ 2011) set himself on fire in Tunis, which became the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring. He died of his injuries less that 3 weeks later.
1996 ~ Peruvian guerillas raided a party at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru and took hundreds of people hostage.
1989 ~ The first episode of the animated cartoon, The Simpson, aired on television.
1983 ~ The IRA bombed Harrod’s Department store in London, killing 6 people.
1975 ~ John Paul Stevens (1920 ~ 2019) began his term as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He had been nominated to the High Court by President Gerald Ford (1913 ~ 2006). He served until his retirement in June 2010.
1973 ~ In an attack by Palestinian terrorists at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome, 34 passengers were killed. The Pan Am Flight 110 from Rome to Teheran was attacked shortly before take-off.
1963 ~ The Clean Air Act became law.
1938 ~ Otto Hahn (1879 ~ 1968), a German chemist, discovered the nuclear fission of uranium, thus marking the beginning of the so-called Atomic Age. He went on to win the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is considered to be the Father of Nuclear Chemistry.
1935 ~ The Douglas DC-3 made its maiden flight.
1903 ~ Wilber (1867 ~ 1912) and Orville (1871 ~ 1948) Wright made the first successful airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1892 ~ The fashion magazine Vogue began publication.
1862 ~ General Ulysses S. Grant (1822 ~ 1885) issued General Order No. 11 expelling the Jews from Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Abraham Lincoln subsequently quashed this Order. This marked the only time in United States history that Jews were expelled.
1837 ~ A fire at the Winter Palace of St. Petersburg occurred. Thirty guards were killed in the fire.
1835 ~ The Great Fire of New York leveled lower Manhattan.
1790 ~ The Aztec Sun Stone was rediscovered by workers who were doing repairs on the Mexico City Cathedral. The Stone is a circular stone marked by carvings of calendar sign and images relating to the Aztec creation myth. It is believed to have been carved sometime in the early 1500s and is one of the most famous works of Aztec sculpture. It is currently housed in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.
1777 ~ France formally recognized the new country of the United States of America following the American Revolution.
1538 ~ Pope Paul III (1468 ~ 1549) excommunicated Henry VIII, King of England (1491 ~1547).
Good-Byes:
2018 ~ Penny Marshall (née Carole Penny Marshall; b. Oct. 15, 1943), American sit-com star who became a big-time director. She directed Tom Hanks in the movie Big. Her brother was actor Garry Marshall. She was born in The Bronx, New York. She died at age 75 of heart failure caused by diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Los Angeles, California.
2016 ~ Henry Heimlich (né Henry Judah Heimlich; b. Feb. 3, 1920), American thoracic surgeon who developed the Heimlich maneuver, a technique for removing an obstacle lodged in one’s throat to prevent a patient from choking. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware. He died at age 96 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
2013 ~ Janet Rowley (née Janet Davidson; b. Apr. 5, 1925), American biologist and geneticist. She was the first scientist to identify chromosomal translocation as the cause of leukemia and other cancers. She was born in New York, New York. She died at age 88 in Chicago, Illinois of complications of ovarian cancer.
2012 ~ Daniel Inouye (né Daniel Ken Inouye; b. Sept. 7, 1924), American politician and United States Senator from Hawaii. He was born in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. He died at age 88 in Bethesda, Maryland.
2012 ~ James Gower (b. Aug. 17, 1922), American Catholic priest and peace activist. He was the co-founder, along with Les Brewer, of the College of the Atlantic, a private liberal arts college in Mount Desert Island, Maine. He was born in Noank, Connecticut. He died at age 90 in Bar Harbor, Maine.
2011 ~ Kim Jong-il (b. Feb. 16, 1941), 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea. He died at age 70.
2005 ~ Jack Anderson (né Jack Northman Anderson; b. Oct. 19, 1922), American journalist. He was born in Long Beach, California. He died of Parkinson’s disease at age 83 in Bethesda, Maryland.
2002 ~ Hank Luisetti (né Angelo Guiseppi Luisetti; b. June 16, 1916), American athlete who revolutionized basketball with his one-handed jump shots. He was born in San Francisco, California. He died at age 86 in San Mateo, California.
1975 ~ Mary Locke Petermann (b. Feb. 25, 1908), 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.
1967 ~ Harold Holt (b. Aug. 5, 1908), Prime Minister of Australia. He served in that that Office from January 1966 until his disappearance in December 1967. He disappeared while swimming and was presumed to have drowned. He was born in Stanmore, New South Wales, Austria. He was 59 years old at the time of his disappearance.
1964 ~ Victor Franz Hess (b. June 24, 1883), Austrian-American physicist and recipient of the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of cosmic rays. He died at age 81 in Mount Vernon, New York.
1957 ~ Dorothy L. Sayers (née Dorothy Leigh Sayers; b. June 13, 1893), English writer of crime novels and creator of detective Lord Peter Wimsey. She was born in Oxford, England. She died of coronary thrombosis at age 64.
1940 ~ Alicia Boole Stott (née Alicia Boole; b. June 8, 1960), British mathematician. She was born in Cork, Ireland. She died at age 80 in Middlesex, England.
1933 ~ 13th Dalai Lama (né Thubten Gyatso, b. Feb. 12, 1876). He died at age 57.
1917 ~ Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (née Elizabeth Garrett; b. June 9, 1836), English physician and woman’s rights advocate. She was the first woman in Britain to qualify as a physician and surgeon. She was born in London, England. She died at age 81.
1912 ~ Spiru Haret (b. Feb. 15, 1851), Romanian-born Armenian mathematician and astronomer. He died at age 61 in Bucharest, Romania.
1909 ~ Leopold II, King of Belgium (b. Apr. 9, 1835). He reigned over Belgium from December 1865 until his death exactly 44 years later. He was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State. He is known for exploiting the people living in the Congo. He was married to Archduchess Marie Henrietta of Austria. After her death, he may have married his mistress, Caroline Lacroix. He was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He was the son of Leopold I, King of Belgium and Louise of Orléans. He died at age 74. The horrifying account of how Leopold exploited the Congo depicted King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild.
1907 ~ William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (b. June 26, 1824), Irish mathematical physicist who introduced the temperature scale that begins at absolute zero (-273.15o C). Absolute temperatures stated in units of Kelvin are named in his honor. He died at age 83.
1847 ~ Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria (b. Dec. 12, 1791). She was the duchess of Palma in her own right. She was the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. They married in 1810. He was her first husband. After Napoleon died, she married Adam Albert von Neipperg. They married in 1821. They had two children. After his death, she married Charles René, Count of de Bombelles. They married in 1834. She was of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. She was the daughter of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and Princess Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. She was Roman Catholic. She died of what is believed to be pleurisy just 5 days after her 56th birthday.
1830 ~ Simón Bolívar (b. July 24, 1783), Venezuelan military commander and 2nd President of Venezuela. He had also served as the President of Peru and President of Bolivia. He died at age 47.
1559 ~ Irene di Spilimbergo (b. Oct. 17, 1538), Italian Renaissance poet and painter. She died in Venice at age 21.
1471 ~ Infanta Isabella of Portugal (b. Feb. 21, 1397), Duchess consort of Burgundy and 3rd wife of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. She was of the House of Avis. She was the daughter of John I, King of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster. She was Roman Catholic. She died at age 74.
1273 ~ Rumi (b. Sept. 30, 1207), Turkish poet and Islamic Sufi mystic. His poetry is some of the most widely read in the world today. Rumi is also known as the founder of the sect of Whirling Dervishes. He is buried in Konya, Turkey, which is a major pilgrimage site. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but he is believed to have been about 65 or 66 at the time of his death.
1187 ~ Pope Gregory VIII (né Alberto di Morra; b. 1100). He was Pope for only 2 months, from October 1187 until his death on this date the same year. The exact date of his birth is not known, but he is believed to have been born between 1100 and 1105.
942 ~ William I, Duke of Normandy (b. 893). He was assassinated at age 49. The exact date of his birth is not known.
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