Birthdays:
1965 ~ Linda Evangelista, Canadian supermodel. She was born in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.
1963 ~ Lisa Nowak (née Lisa Marie Caputo), American former astronaut. She was born in Washington, D.C.
1961 ~ Candalyn Chamberlain Kubeck (d. May 11, 1996), American commercial airline pilot. She was the captain of ValuJet Flight 592 when it crashed into the Florida Everglades shortly after take-off. She was the first female commercial pilot to die in a plane crash. She was born in Los Angeles, California. She died 1 day after her 35th birthday in the Everglades.
1960 ~ Bono (né Paul David Hewson), Irish musician and lead singer of the band U2. He was born in Dublin, Ireland.
1959 ~ Victoria Rowell (née Victoria Lynn Rowell), American actress. She is best known for her role in The Young and the Restless. She was born in Portland, Maine.
1958 ~ Rick Santorum (né Richard John Santorum), American politician from Pennsylvania and presidential-hopeful candidate in 2012 campaign. He was a Republican and was a United States Senator representing Pennsylvania from January 1995 until January 2007. He was born in Winchester, Virginia.
1957 ~ Sid Vicious (né John Simon Ritchie; d. Feb. 2, 1979), English musician and singer in The Sex Pistols. He murdered his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. He died at age 21 from a drug overdose that was possibly a suicide in New York, New York.
1955 ~ Rick Steves (né Richard John Steves, Jr.), American travel television host and author of travel books. He was born in Barstow, California.
1941 ~ Nicholas Sand (d. Apr. 24, 1917), American chemist who spread the gospel of LSD. He was a strong advocate for using LSD throughout his life. He was born in New York, New York. He died 16 days before his 76th birthday in Lagunitas, California.
1940 ~ Wayne Dyer (né Wayne Walter Dyer; d. Aug. 29, 2015), American self-help guru who preached self-reliance. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. He died of a heart attack at 75 years old in Maui County, Hawaii.
1939 ~ Wayne Cochran (né Talvin Wayne Cochran; d. Nov. 21, 2017), 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.
1933 ~ Barbara Taylor Bradford (née Barbara Taylor), English novelist. She is best known for her novel, A Woman of Substance. She was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England.
1930 ~ Pat Summerall (né George Allen Summerall; d. Apr. 16, 2013), American former football player who became the voice of the NFL. He was born in Lake City, Florida. He died 24 days before his 83rd birthday in Dallas, Texas.
1930 ~ David Wise (d. Oct. 8, 2018), American investigative journalist who lifted the veil on the CIA. He was one of the foremost authorities on the CIA. He is known for his 1964 book The Invisible Government, which was a well-sourced account of the CIA’s involvement in the Bay of Pigs. He was born in Manhattan, New York. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 88 in Washington, D.C.
1930 ~ George E. Smith (né George Elwood Smith), American physicist and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics. He was born in White Plains, New York.
1922 ~ Nancy Walker (née Anna Myrtle Swoyer; d. Mar. 25, 1992), American actress. She was best known for her role on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She died at age 69 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, California.
1919 ~ Ella Grasso (née Ella Rosa Giovianna Oliva Tambussi; d. Feb. 5, 1981), 83rd Governor of Connecticut. She served as Governor from January 1975 through December 31, 1980. She was born in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. She died of ovarian cancer at age 61 in Hartford, Connecticut.
1915 ~ Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet (d. June 26, 2003), British businessman and husband of Britain’s Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. He was born and died in London, England. He died at age 88.
1911 ~ Bel Kaufman (née Bella Kaufman; d. July 25, 2014), German-born American author who skewered school bureaucracy. She is best known for book, Up the Down Staircase. She was born in Berlin, Germany. She died at age 103 in Manhattan, New York.
1908 ~ Carl Albert (né Carl Bert Albert; d. Feb. 4, 2000), Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was a politician from Oklahoma and served as Speaker of the House from January 1971 until January 1977. He was born and died in McAlester, Oklahoma. He died at age 91.
1902 ~ David O. Selznick (d. June 22, 1965), American movie producer. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He died of a heart attack at age 63 in Hollywood, California.
1900 ~ Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (née Cecilia Helena Payne; d. Dec. 7, 1979), British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist. She died at age 79 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1899 ~ Fred Astaire (né Frederick Austerlitz; d. June 22, 1987), American actor and dancer. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He died at age 88 in Los Angeles, California.
1898 ~ Ariel Durant (née Chayna Kaufman; d. Oct. 25, 1981), Ukrainian-born American historian who, along with her husband, Will Durant (1885 ~ 1981), wrote a series of books on the history of civilization. She died 2 weeks before her husband in 1981, who died on November 5, 1981. She was born in present-day Ukraine. She died in Los Angeles, California. She was 83 at the time of her death.
1886 ~ Karl Barth (d. Dec. 10, 1968), Swiss Calvinist theologian. He was born and died in Basel, Switzerland. He died at age 82.
1878 ~ Gustav Stresemann (né Gustav Ernst Stresemann; d. Oct. 3, 1929), German politician and Chancellor of German during the Weimar Republic. He served as Chancellor from August 1923 until November 1923. He was also the recipient of the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the reconciliation between Germany and France following World War I. He was born and died in Berlin, Germany. He died of a stroke at age 51.
1874 ~ Moses Schorr (d. July 8, 1941), Polish rabbi. He died in a Soviet work camp in Uzbekistan at age 67.
1847 ~ Wilhelm Killing (né Wilhelm Karl Joseph Killing; d. Feb. 11, 1923), German mathematician. He made important advances in Lie algebra. He died at age 75.
1838 ~ John Wilkes Booth (d. Apr. 26, 1865), American assassin who killed President Abraham Lincoln. He was shot by Union Calvary troopers in Virginia. He was born in Bel Air, Maryland. He was killed 14 days before his 27th birthday in Port Royal, Virginia.
1823 ~ John Sherman (d. Oct. 22, 1900), 35th United States Secretary of State. He served under President William McKinley from March 1897 until April 1898. He had previously served as the 32nd United States Secretary of the Treasury during the Rutherford B. Hayes administration from March 1877 until March 1881. He is best known for being the prime mover of the Sherman Antitrust Act that became law in 1890. He was born in Lancaster, Ohio. He died at age 77 in Washington, D.C.
1813 ~ Montgomery Blair (d. July 27, 1883), 20th Postmaster General of the United States. He served in that office from March 1861 until September 1864 during the Lincoln administration. He was born in Franklin County, Kentucky. He died at age 70 in Silver Spring, Maryland.
1760 ~ Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (d. June 26, 1836), French soldier and composer. He composed a piece of music that would later become known as La Marseillaise, which is the French national anthem. He died at age 76.
1662 ~ Mary II, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. Jan. 7, 1695). She was co-regent with her husband, William III, King of England (1650 ~ 1702). They married in 1677. She and her husband had no children. She was of the House of Stuart. She was the daughter of James II, King of England and Anne Hyde. She was of the Anglican Church. She died of smallpox at age 32. The dates of her birth and death are sometimes recorded in accordance with the Julian calendar, thus would appear as April 30, 1662 to December 28, 1694.
Events that Changed the World:
2022 ~ For the first time in 59 years, Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom (1926 ~ 2022) missed the Opening of Parliament. The new session of Parliament was opened by then then Charles, Prince of Wales (b. 1948).
2021 ~ United States Representative Liz Chaney (b. 1966) was stripped of her position as Chair of the House Republican Conference for her unrelenting criticism of Donald Trump (b. 1946) and Republican’s resistance to form a bipartisan independent commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol attack.
2021 ~ A major outbreak of violence began between Hamas and Israel and continued until May 21 when a ceasefire took effect. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacked Israel launched hundreds of rockets at the Israeli towns of Ashdod and Ashkelon, killing 2 people and injuring nearly 100 others. An Israeli airstrike hit a 13-story residential tower in Gaza, which then collapsed. Hamas then launched over 4,000 rockets into Israel.
2020 ~ Mother’s Day in the United States.
2015 ~ Mother’s Day in the United States.
2005 ~ Germany dedicated its Holocaust Memorial. Its formal name is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial opened to the public on May 12, 2005.
2002 ~ FBI agent Robert Hanssen (1944 ~ 2023) was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for selling United States secrets to Russia.
1997 ~ A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck in Iran killing over 1,500 people and injuring over 2,300 others.
1996 ~ Eight climbers died during a snowstorm as they were on an expedition to climb up Mount Everest. This incident was later recounted in the 1997 book, Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer.
1994 ~ Nelson Mandela (1918 ~ 2013) was inaugurated as South Africa’s first Black president.
1954 ~ Bill Haley and the Comets released Rock Around the Clock. This was the first rock and roll record to hit number one on the Billboard charts.
1940 ~ Winston Churchill (1874 ~ 1965) was appointed as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain (1869 ~ 1940).
1933 ~ In Germany, the Nazis began massive public book burnings. This event was depicted in the novel, The Book Thief.
1924 ~ J. Edgar Hoover (1895 ~ 1972) was appointed as the Director of the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation and remained in that position until his death in 1972.
1908 ~ Mother’s Day was observed for the first time in the United States.
1893 ~ In Nix v. Hedden, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a tomato was a vegetable and not a fruit for purposes of the Tariff Act of 1883. Associate Justice Horace Gray (1828 ~ 1902) drafted the decision.
1877 ~ Romania declared itself independent from the Ottoman Empire.
1877 ~ President Rutherford B. Hayes (1822 ~ 1893) had the first telephone installed in the White House. The telephone number was “1”. The only other telephone that had a direct line to the White House was the Department of the Treasury.
1872 ~ Victoria Woodhull (1838 ~ 1927) became the first woman to be nominated for President of the United States. The newly formed party, the Equal Rights Party nominated her for President.
1869 ~ The Transcontinental Railroad, which linked the eastern and western United States was completed.
1865 ~ Confederate President Jefferson Davis (1808 ~ 1889) was captured by Union troops.
1824 ~ The National Gallery in London, England opened to the public.
1775 ~ During the American Revolutionary War, a small colonial militia led by Ethan Allen (1738 ~ 1789) of the Green Mountain Boys and Colonel Benedict Arnold (1741 ~ 1801) captured Fort Ticonderoga.
1774 ~ Louis XVI (1754 ~ 1793) and Marie Antoinette (1755 ~ 1793) became the King and Queen of France.
1773 ~ The British Parliament passed the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Tea Company. The Act granted a monopoly to the company on the North American tea trade.
1497 ~ Amerigo Vespucci (1454 ~ 1512) is said to have left Cádiz for his first voyage to the New World.
1291 ~ Scottish nobles acknowledged the authority of Edward I, King of England (1239 ~ 1307).
70 ~ The date attributed to the Siege of Jerusalem when Titus, the son of the Roman emperor Vespasian, opened a full-scale attack on the Jerusalem and attacked the City’s Third Wall.
Good-Byes:
2022 ~ Leonid Kravchuk (né Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk; b. Jan. 10, 1934), Ukrainian Communist who midwifed a new Ukraine. He was the first President of Ukraine. He served from December 1991 until July 1994. He was born in Velykyi Zhytyn, Ukraine. He died at age 88 in Munich, Germany.
2020 ~ Nita Pippins (née Jesse Juanita Roberts; b. Feb. 2, 1927), American nurse. In 1987, at age 60, she moved from Florida to New York City to care for her only child, 33-year-old Nick, who was dying of AIDS. She then became an activist and replacement mother for other gay men suffering from AIDS who had become estranged from their families. She was born in Dothan, Alabama. She died in New York, New York at age 93 of Covid-19.
2020 ~ Francis A. Kennedy (b. June 21, 1924), American Army artillery spotter during the Korean War. He was awarded the Silver Star and 2 Purple Hearts for pulling three wounded members of his unit to safety under enemy fire. After leaving the Army, he became an inventor. He invented an early prototype of the telephone caller ID and an energy efficient concrete block. He was born in Pittson, Pennsylvania. He died in Buffalo, New York at age 95 of Covid-19.
2016 ~ Mark Lane (b. Feb. 24, 1927), American attorney who saw conspiracy in JFK’s murder. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He died of a heart attack at age 89 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
2015 ~ Chris Burden (né Christopher Lee Burden; b. Apr. 11, 1946), American performance artist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He died of cancer a month after his 69th birthday in Topanga Canyon, California.
2012 ~ Carroll Shelby (né Carroll Hall Shelby; b. Jan. 11, 1923), Texan chicken farmer and hot-rod designer. He was portrayed in the 2019 movie Ford vs. Ferrari. He was born in Leesburg, Texas. He died at age 89 in Dallas, Texas.
2012 ~ Gunnar Sønsteby (b. Jan. 11, 1918), Norwegian saboteur who foiled the Nazis. He was a member of the Norway resistance movement during German occupation. He was 94 years old.
2012 ~ Evelyn Bryan Johnson (née Evelyn Stone; b. Nov. 4, 1909), American pilot and colonel in the Civil Air Patrol. She was a female pilot at a time when women were not pilots. She was known as Mama Bird. She was born in Corbin, Kentucky. She died at age 102 in Morristown, Tennessee.
2005 ~ Jay Marshall (né James Ward Marshall; b. Aug. 29, 1919), American magician and ventriloquist. He was born in Abington, Massachusetts. He died of a heart attack at age 85 in Chicago, Illinois.
2001 ~ Dorothy Burr Thompson (née Dorothy Burr; b. Aug. 19, 1900), American archaeologist and art historian. She was a leading expert in Hellenistic figurines. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She died in Hightstown, New Jersey at age 100.
1999 ~ Shel Silverstein (né Sheldon Allen Silverstein; b. Sept. 25, 1930), American poet, composer and author of children’s books. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He died of a heart attack at age 68 in Key West, Florida.
1992 ~ K.G. Ramanathan (né Kollagunta Goplaliyer Ramanathan; b. Nov. 13, 1920), Indian mathematician best known for his work in number theory. He died at age 71 in Bombay, India.
1990 ~ Walker Percy (b. May 28, 1916), American author who wrote about Louisiana. Although born in Birmingham, Alabama, he lived and died in Covington, Louisiana. He died of prostate 18 days before his 74th birthday.
1977 ~ Joan Crawford (née Lucille Faye LeSueur; b. Mar. 23, 1904), American actress. She was born in San Antonio, Texas. She died of a heart attack in New York, New York. The year of her birth is disputed, but is generally accepted as being in 1904, making her 73 at the time of her death.
1950 ~ Belle da Costa Greene (née Belle Marion Greener; b. Nov. 26, 1879), African-American librarian. She passed for white and became the personal librarian to J.P. Morgan. She was born in Washington, D.C. She died in New York, New York at age 70. A fictional version of her life was portrayed in the 2021 novel The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.
1904 ~ Sir Henry Morton Stanley (né John Rowlands; b. Jan. 28, 1841), Welsh-born explorer and journalist. He is best known for his search for the Scottish explorer and missionary, David Livingston. He was born in Wales. He died at age 63 in London, England. Details of his life are depicted in the book King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild.
1863 ~ Stonewall Jackson (né Thomas Jonathan Jackson; b. Jan. 21, 1824), General in the Confederate Army. He was born in Clarksburg, Virginia. He had been shot by friendly fire 8 days prior to his death. He died in Guinea Station, Virginia. He was 39 years old.
1822 ~ Paolo Ruffini (b. Sept. 22, 1765), Italian mathematician. He was born in Valentano, Italy. He died at age 56 in Modena, Italy.
1818 ~ Paul Revere (b. Jan. 1, 1835), American patriot and silversmith. He was born before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, so his birthday is sometimes listed as December 21, 1734. The town of Revere, Massachusetts was named in his honor. He was born and died in Boston, Massachusetts. He died at age 83.
1798 ~ George Vancouver (b. June 22, 1757), British navy officer and explorer. The province of Vancouver, Canada was named after him. He died at age 40.
1775 ~ Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (b. July 22, 1751), Queen consort of Denmark and Norway. She was the wife of Christian VII, King of Denmark (1749 ~ 1808). They married in 1766. It was not a happy marriage and they divorced in 1772. She was of the House of Hanover. She was the daughter of Frederick, Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. She died at age of scarlet fever at 23.
1774 ~ Louis XV, King of France (b. Feb. 15, 1701). He reigned from September 1715 until his death 59 years later. He was known as Louis the Beloved. He succeeded his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, King of France. He was married to Marie Leszczyńska (1703 ~ 1768). They married in 1725. He was of the House of Bourbon. He was the son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy and Marie Adélaïde of Savoy. He was 64 years old at the time of his death.
1692 ~ Sarah Osborne (b. 1643), American woman accused of witchcraft. She was one of the first to be accused during the Salem Witch trials. She died in jail before being indicted or found guilty. The exact date of her birth is unknown. She was born in Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony. She died in Boston, Massachusetts, Province of Massachusetts Bay. The exact date of her birth is unknown.
1667 ~ Marie Louise Gonzaga (b. Aug. 18, 1611), Queen consort of Poland and first wife of John II Casimir Vasa (1609 ~ 1672). They married in 1649. He was her second husband. She had previously been married to John’s elder brother, Władysław IV Vasa (1595 ~ 1648). They married in 1645. She was Władysław’s second wife. She was of the House of Gonzaga. She was the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Mantua and Catherine of Guise. She was Roman Catholic. She was born in Nevers, France. She died at age 55 in Warsaw, Poland.
1482 ~ Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (b. 1397), Italian mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Florence, Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown.
1403 ~ Katherine Swynford (née Katherine de Roet; b. 1349), Duchess of Lancaster. She was the third wife of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340 ~ 1399). They married in 1396. She had been his mistress before they married. He was her second husband. She had previously been married to Sir Hugh Swynford. They had married in 1361 and he died in 1371. She was the daughter of Payne de Roet and an unnamed mother. The exact date of her birth is not known. She is believed to have been about 52 or 53 at the time of her death.
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