Tuesday, November 21, 2023

November 21

Birthdays:

 

1979 ~ Stromile Swift, African-American professional basketball player.  He briefly played college basketball at the Louisiana State University.  He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana.

 

1965 ~ Reggie Lewis (d. July 27, 1993), African-American professional basketball player.  He played for the Boston Celtics from 1987 until his death in 1993.  While practicing off-season at Brandeis University, he went into cardiac arrest and died.  He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and died in Waltham, Massachusetts.  He was 27 years old.

 

1955 ~ Cedric Maxwell (né Cedric Bryan Maxwell), African-American professional basketball player.  He played for the Boston Celtics from 1977 until 1985.  He was born in Kinston, North Carolina.

 

1953 ~ Tina Brown, Lady Evans (née Christina Hambley Brown), English journalist and magazine editor.

 

1951 ~ John Kennedy (né John Neely Kennedy), Republican United States Senator from Louisiana.  He assumed the Office in 2017.  He had previously been a Democrat and served as the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue.  He was born in Centreville, Mississippi.

 

1948 ~ Mick Rock (né Michael Edward Chester Smith; d. Nov. 18, 2021), British maverick photographer who shot rock icons.  He was known as the Man who Shot the 70s because he portrayed so many rock artist of that era.  He was born in London, England.  He died 3 days before his 73rd birthday in Staten Island, New York.

 

1945 ~ Goldie Hawn (née Goldie Jeanne Hawn), American actress.  She was born in Washington, D.C.

 

1944 ~ Harold Ramis (né Harold Allen Ramis; d. Feb. 24, 2014), American filmmaker who made comedy smart.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois.  He died at age 69 in Glencoe, Illinois.

 

1944 ~ Earl Monroe (né Vernon Earl Monroe), African-American professional basketball player.  He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

1937 ~ Ingrid Pitt (née Ingoushka Petrov; d. Nov. 23, 2010), Polish-born British actress, author and writer best known as the Queen of Horror, who knew the real thing after having survived the Holocaust.  She was born in Czestochowa, Poland.  She died of congestive heart failure two days after her 73rd birthday in London, England.

 

1937 ~ Marlo Thomas (née Margaret Julia Thomas), American actress and daughter of Danny Thomas.  She is best known for her role as Ann Marie on the television sit-com That Girl.  In 1980, she married Phil Donahue.  She was born in Detroit. Michigan.

 

1936 ~ James DePreist (né James Anderson DePreist; d. Feb. 8, 2013), African-American conductor who was unfazed by polio.  He was one of the first African-American conductors on the world stage.  He was the nephew of singer Marion Anderson.  He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He died at age 76 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

 

1933 ~ Etta Zuber Falconer (née Etta Zuber; d. Sept. 19, 2002), African-American educator and mathematician.  She was one of the first African-American women to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics.  She earned her degree from Emory University in 1969.  She was from Tupelo, Mississippi.  She died of pancreatic cancer at age 68 in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

1933 ~ Henry Hartsfield (né Henry Warren Hartsfield, Jr.; d. July 17, 2014), American astronaut and shuttle pilot and astronaut who kept cool under pressure.  He was born in Birmingham, Alabama.  He died at age 80 from complications following back surgery in Houston, Texas.

 

1933 ~ Jean Shepard (née Ollie Imogene Shepard; d. Sept. 25, 2016), the American country star who sang of independent women.  She was born in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.  She died of Parkinson’s disease at age 82 in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

 

1929 ~ Marilyn French (née Marilyn Edwards; d. May 2, 2009), American feminist author best known for her 1977 novel, The Women’s Room.  She was born in Brooklyn, New York.  She died of heart failure at age 79 in Manhattan, New York.

 

1924 ~ Christopher Tolkien (né Christopher John Reuel Tolkien; d. Jan. 16, 2020), English Tolkien heir who guarded his father’s legacy.  He was the son of author J.R.R. Tolkien and editor of much of his father’s posthumously published work.  He was born in Leeds, England.  He died at age 95 in Draguignan, France.

 

1922 ~ Abe Lemons (né A.E. Lemons; d. Sept. 2, 2002), American professional basketball player and college coach.  He was born in Ryan, Oklahoma.  He died at age 79 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma of complications from Parkinson’s disease.

 

1920 ~ Stan Musial (né Stanisław Franciszek Musiał; d. Jan. 19, 2013), American professional baseball player.  He was the St. Louis slugger known as “Stan the Man.”  He is considered one of the greatest hitters in baseball history.  He was the son of Polish immigrants, who gave him a Polish name.  He was born in Donora, Pennsylvania.  He died at age 92 in Ladue, Missouri.

 

1913 ~ Gunnar Kangro (d. Dec. 25, 1975), Estonian mathematician.  He died just over a month after his 62nd birthday.

 

1908 ~ Elizabeth George Speare (née Elizabeth George; d. Nov. 15, 1994), American author, primarily of children’s literature.  She was born in Melrose, Massachusetts.  She died of an aortic aneurysm just 6 days before her 86th birthday in Tucson, Arizona.

 

1902 ~ Isaac Bashevis Singer (né Izaak Zynger; d. July 24, 1991), Polish-born Yiddish author and recipient of the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature.  He wrote primarily in Yiddish.  He was born in Leoncin, Poland.  He died at age 88 in Surfside, Florida.

 

1898 ~ René Magritte (né René François Ghislain Magritte; d. Aug. 15, 1967), Belgian surrealist artist and painter.  He was born in Lessines, Belgium.  He died of pancreatic cancer at age 68 in Brussels, Belgium.

 

1889 ~ Hugh Kingsmill (né Hugh Kingsmill Lund; d. May 15, 1949), British author and journalist.  He was born in London, England.  He died at age 59.

 

1894 ~ Cecil M. Harden (née Cecil Murray; d. Dec. 5, 1984), American Republican politician.  She was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana.  She served in that Office from January 1949 until January 1959.  She was an advocate for women’s rights.  She was born in Covington, Indiana.  She died 2 weeks after her 90th birthday in Lafayette, Indiana.

 

1854 ~ Pope Benedict XV (né Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa; d. Jan. 22, 1922).  He was Pope from September 1914 until his death 8 years later.  His pontificate was overshadowed by World War I.  He died of pneumonia at age 67.

 

1840 ~ Victoria, Princess Royal of England (née Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa; d. Aug. 5, 1901), Empress consort of Germany and wife of Frederick III, German Emperor (1831 ~ 1888).  They married in 1858.  After his death in 1888, she became known as the Empress Frederick.  They had eight children, including Wilhelm II, German Emperor.  She was of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  She was the eldest child of Victoria, Queen of England and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  She died of breast cancer at age 60.

 

1834 ~ Hetty Green (née Henrietta Howland Robinson; d. July 3, 1916), American businesswoman and financier.  She was the richest woman in America during the Gilded Age.  She was known for her wealth and her miserliness.  She was called the Witch of Wall Street.  She was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  She died of a stroke at age 81 in New York, New York.

 

1787 ~ Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet (d. Apr. 28, 1865), Canadian businessman who founded the Cunard Line.  He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  He died at age 77 in London, England.

 

1785 ~ William Beaumont (d. Apr. 25, 1853), American surgeon in the United States Army.  He is considered the Father of Gastric Physiology for his research on human digestion.  He was born in Lebanon, Connecticut.  He died at age 67 in St. Louis, Missouri following a fall on ice-covered steps.

 

1694 ~ Voltaire (né François-Marie Arouet; d. May 30, 1778), French writer and philosopher.  He was born and died in Paris, France.  He died at age 83.

 

Events that Changed the World:

 

2021 ~ A driver of an SUV plowed into a Christmas parade being held in Waukesha, Wisconsin.  Six people were killed and over 60 others were injured.  The driver was arrested and charged with numerous criminal offenses.

 

2019 ~ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (b. 1949) was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.

 

2017 ~ Robert Mugabe (1824 ~ 2019) formally resigned as President of Zimbabwe.  He has served in that Office for over 37 years.

 

2012 ~ A bomb was thrown into a bus in Tel Aviv, Israel.  Twenty-eight people were injured.

 

2015 ~ In an election run-off, the people of Louisiana elected John Bel Edwards (b. 1966) as the next governor, defeating David Vitter (b. 1961).  His election marked the first Democrat to be elected in the Deep South in 12 years.

 

1992 ~ A major tornado struck Houston, Texas.  Over the next 48 hours, over 100 tornados struck the United States, making it one of the largest tornado outbreaks to occur in the month of November.

 

1986 ~ National Security Council member Oliver North (b. 1943) began to shred documents that implicated him in the sale of weapon to Iran.  Proceeds from the sale helped to fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

 

1980 ~ A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada caused one of the worst disasters in Nevada history.  Eighty-five people were killed and over 650 people were injured.

 

1979 ~ The United States Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan was attacked and set on fire.  Four people were killed during the attack.

 

1964 ~ The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, opened to the public.  It was, at the time, the longest suspension bridge in the world.

 

1953 ~ The British Natural History Museum acknowledged that the Piltdown Man skull, which had been believed to be an important hominid skull, was a hoax.  The skull had first come to the public’s view in 1912, when Charles Dawson (1864 ~ 1916) claimed that it was the “missing link” between ape and man.

 

1927 ~ In Columbine, Colorado, striking coal miners were attacked by state police officers with machine guns.  At least 6 miners were killed, and scores were injured, in an event that became known as the Columbine Mine Disaster.

 

1922 ~ Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835 ~ 1930) of Georgia became the first woman United States Senator.  She was almost 89 years at the time.  She served, however, for only one day.  Although she was an advocate of prison reform and women’s rights, she was a white supremacist and had been a slave owner.  She also spoke in favor of lynching.

 

1920 ~ In what is now known as Bloody Sunday, during the Irish War of Independence, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) set out to assassinate a team of undercover British agents.  By the end of the day, 31 people were killed, including 14 British informants, 14 Irish civilians and 3 IRA prisoners.

 

1918 ~ During the Pogrom of Lviv, Ukraine, which took place over a period of three days, at least 50 Jews and 270 Ukrainian Christians were killed by Poles.

 

1905 ~ Albert Einstein (1879 ~ 1955) published his paper, entitled Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?, on relativity.  The paper revealed the relationship between energy and mass.

 

1877 ~ Thomas Edison (1847 ~ 1931) announced his invention of the phonograph.

 

1861 ~ Confederate President Jefferson Davis (1808 ~ 1889) appointed Louisiana native Judah Benjamin (1811 ~ 1884) as his Secretary of War during the American Civil War.

 

1789 ~ North Carolina ratified the United States Constitution and became the 12th State admitted into the Union.

 

1676 ~ Danish astronomer Ole Rømer (1644 ~ 1701) presented the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.

 

1620 ~ The Plymouth Colony settlers signed the Mayflower Compact.

 

164 BCE ~ The traditional date in the Gregorian calendar when Judas Maccabaeus restored the Temple in Jerusalem.  This event is commemorated by the festival of Chanukah.

 

Good-Byes:

 

2021 ~ Robert Bly (né Robert Elwood Bly; b. Dec. 23, 1926), American anti-war poet who launched a men’s movement by urging men to reconnect with their “interior Warrior.”  In 1990, he published Iron John: A Book About Men.  In his book, he argued that men, without rites of initiation into manhood, had become feminized.  He was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota.  He died about a month before his 95th birthday in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

2017 ~ David Cassidy (né David Bruce Cassidy; b. Apr. 12, 1950), American teen idol who felt trapped by fame.  He was best known for his role as Keith Partridge in the 1970s television musical-sitcom, The Partridge Family.  In early 2017, he announced that he was suffering from dementia.  He was born in New York, New York.  He died of kidney and liver failure at age 67 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

2017 ~ Wayne Cochran (né Talvin Wayne Cochran; b. May 10, 1939), American flamboyant soul singer who found religion.  He is best known for his outlandish outfits and white pompadour.  He retired from music in the early 1970s and became an evangelistic minister.  He was born in Thomaston, Georgia.  He died of cancer at age 78 in Miramar, Florida.

 

2013 ~ John Egerton (b. June 14, 1935), American journalist and writer who paid homage to the food of the South.  He was known for his writings on the Civil Rights Movement, Southern food, and Southern culture.  He was born in Atlanta, Georgia.  He died of a heart attack at age 78 in Nashville, Tennessee.

 

2010 ~ Norris Church Mailer (née Betty Jean Davis; b. Jan. 31, 1949), American model and widow of Norman Mailer.  She was his 6th wife.  She was born on Norman Mailer’s 26th birthday.  She was born in Atkins, Arkansas.  She died of cancer at age 61 in New York, New York.

 

2010 ~ Frank Fenner (né Frank John Fenner; b. Dec. 21, 1914), Australian virologist who fought smallpox, malaria, and rabbits.  He was born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.  He died a month before his 96th birthday in Canberra, Australia.

 

1999 ~ Quentin Crisp (né Denis Charles Pratt, b. Dec. 25, 1908), English author.  He died about a month before his 91stbirthday in Manchester, England.

 

1996 ~ Abdus Salam (b. Jan. 29, 1926), Pakistani physicist and recipient of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died at age 70 in Oxford, England.

 

1993 ~ Bill Bixby (né Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby, III; b. Jan. 22, 1934), American actor.  He is best known for his role as Tom Corbett on The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and as Dr. David Banner on The Incredible Hulk.  He was born in San Francisco, California.  He died of prostate cancer at age 59 in Los Angeles, California.

 

1970 ~ Sir C. V. Raman (né Chandrasekhara Venkata Rāman; b. Nov. 7, 1888), Indian physicist and recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.  He died 2 weeks after his 82nd birthday.

 

1964 ~ Catherine Bauer Wurster (née Catherine Krause Bauer; b. May 11, 1905), American architect and public housing advocate.  She was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  She died from injuries in a fall from a solo hike on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California.  She was 59 years old at the time of her death.

 

1963 ~ Robert Stroud (né Robert Franklin Stroud; b. Jan. 28, 1890), American convicted murderer and ornithologist.  He was known as the Bird Man of Alcatraz, although he was not actually able to keep birds at that prison.  He had, however, kept birds while at the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth.  He was born in Seattle, Washington.  He was in prison from age 18 until his death at age 73.

 

1959 ~ Max Baer (né Maximilian Adelbert Baer; b. Feb. 11, 1909), American boxer.  He was the father of actor Max Baer, Jr., who played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies.  He was born in Omaha, Nebraska.  He died of a heart attack at age 50 in Hollywood, California.

 

1958 ~ Mel Ott (né Melvin Thomas Ott, b. Mar. 2, 1909), American professional baseball player.  He was born in Gretna, Louisiana.  He was in a car accident in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi.  He was transported to a hospital in New Orleans where he died.  He was 49 years old at the time of his death.

 

1945 ~ Robert Benchley (né Robert Charles Benchley; b. Sept. 15, 1889); American humorist and actor.  He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts.  He died at age 56 in New York, New York.

 

1945 ~ Ellen Glasgow (née Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow; b. Apr. 22, 1873), American author.  Her novels portray the changing world in the American South.  She was born and died in Richmond, Virginia.  She died at age 72.

 

1926 ~ Joseph McKenna (b. Aug. 10, 1843), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  He was nominated to the Court by President William McKinley.  He served on the Court from March 1897 until January 1898.  He replaced Stephen Field on the Court.  He was replaced by Harlan Stone.  He has the distinction of serving in all three branches of the United States federal government.  He had previously served as the 42nd United States Attorney General from March 1892 until March 1897 during the McKinley administration.  Prior to that he had served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from California.  He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He died at age 83 in Washington, D.C.

 

1924 ~ Florence Harding (née Florence Mabel Kling; b. Aug. 15, 1860), First Lady and wife of President Warren Harding.  He was her second husband.  She had previously been married and divorced.  She was born and died in Marion, Ohio.  She died of renal failure at age 64.

 

1916 ~ Franz Josef I, Emperor of Austria (b. Aug. 18, 1830).  He reigned in Austria from December 1848 until his death in 1916.  He was married to Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria.  They married in 1854.  He was of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.  He was the son of Franz Karl, Archduke of Austria and Princess Sophie of Bavaria.  He was Roman Catholic.  He was born and died in Vienna, Austria.  He died at age 86 of pneumonia.

 

1899 ~ Garret Hobart (né Garrett Augustus Hobart; b. June 3, 1844), 24th Vice President of the United States.  He served under President William McKinley, however, he died while in office and was replaced by Theodore Roosevelt.  He was born in Long Branch, New Jersey.  He died in Paterson, New Jersey of heart disease at age 55.

 

1886 ~ Charles F. Adams, Sr. (né Charles Francis Adams, b. Aug. 18, 1807), American diplomat.  He served as a Representative from Massachusetts in Congress.  He was the son of President John Quincy Adams and the grandson of President Adams.  He was born and died in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died at age 79.

 

1710 ~ Bernardo Pasquini (b. Dec. 7, 1637), Italian composer.  He was born in Massa, Italy.  He died 16 days before his 73rd birthday in Rome, Italy.

 

1695 ~ Henry Purcell (b. Sept. 10, 1659), English composer.  He was born and died in London, England.  He died of tuberculosis at age 36.

 

1652 ~ Jan Brożek (b. Nov. 1, 1585), Polish mathematician, physician, and astronomer.  He died 3 weeks after his 67thbirthday.


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