Birthdays:
1964 ~ Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer (né Charles Edward Maurice Spencer), brother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
1959 ~ Israel Kamakawino’ole (d. June 26, 1997), Hawaiian singer-songwriter and ukulele player. He was born and died in Honolulu, Hawaii. He died at age 38.
1959 ~ Bronson Pinchot (né Bronson Alcott Pinchot), American actor. He was born in Manhattan, New York.
1954 ~ David Paterson (né David Alexander Paterson), 55th Governor of New York. He became Governor after Eliot Spitzer resigned due to a sex scandal. He served as Governor from March 2008 through December 2010. He was born in Brooklyn, New York.
1949 ~ Dave Thomas (né David William Thomas), Canadian actor and comedian. He was born in St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.
1946 ~ Cher (née Cherilyn Sarkisian), American singer and actress. She was born in El Centro, California.
1944 ~ Joe Cocker (né John Robert Joseph Cocker; d. Dec. 22, 2014), British singer-songwriter. He died of lung cancer at age 70 in Crawford, Colorado.
1928 ~ Charles A. Reich (né Charles Alan Reich; d. June 15, 2019), American academic and hippy professor who promised The Greening of America, a book of the counterculture of the 1960s. He was born in New York, New York. He died 26 days after his 91st birthday in San Francisco, California.
1923 ~ Betty Willis (née Betty Jane Whitehead; d. Apr. 19, 2015), American graphic designer who made Las Vegas “fabulous” with her iconic neon sign “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas.” She was born and died in Overton, Nevada. She died a month before her 92nd birthday.
1921 ~ Hao Wang (d. May 13, 1995), Chinese-American logician and mathematician. He was born in Jinan, Shangong, China. He died 7 days before his 74th birthday in New York, New York.
1920 ~ Hephzibah Menuhin (d. Jan. 1, 1981), American concert pianist. She was the sister of Yehudi Menuhin. She was born in San Francisco, California. She died at age 60 following a long illness in London, England.
1919 ~ George Goebel (né George Leslie Goebel; d. Feb. 24, 1991), American comedian. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He died at age 71 shortly after undergoing heart surgery in Los Angeles, California.
1918 ~ Edward B. Lewis (né Edward Butts Lewis; d. July 21, 2004), American geneticist and recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He died at age 86 in Pasadena, California.
1915 ~ Moshe Dayan (d. Oct. 16, 1981), Israeli general. He died of a massive heart attack at age 66 in Tel Aviv.
1913 ~ William Hewlett (né William Reddington Hewlett; d. Jan. 12, 2001), American engineer and co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He died at age 87 in Palo Alto, California.
1908 ~ Jimmy Stewart (né James Maitland Stewart; d. July 2, 1997), American actor. He was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He died of a pulmonary embolism at age 89 in Beverly Hills, California.
1901 ~ Max Euwe (né Machgielis Euwe; b. Nov. 26, 1981), Dutch mathematician and World Chess Champion. He was born and died in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He died at age 80.
1899 ~ John Marshall Harlan, II (d. Dec. 29, 1971), Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was nominated to the High Court by President Dwight David Eisenhower. He served on the Court from March 1955 until September 1971. His grandfather, John Marshall Harlan, also served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1877 until 1911. He replaced Robert Jackson on the Court. He was succeeded by William Rehnquist. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. John Harlan II died in Washington, D.C., of spinal cancer at age 72, just 3 months after retiring from the Court.
1885 ~ Faisal I, King of Iraq (d. Sept. 8, 1933). He ruled over Iraq from August 1921 until his death 12 years later. He was married to Huzaima bint Nasser. He was of the House of Hashemite. He was the son of Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz and Abdiya bint Abdullah. He was a Sunni Muslim. He died at age 48, which was officially recorded as a heart attack, but may have been due to poisoning.
1882 ~ Sigrid Undset (d. June 10, 1949), Norwegian author and recipient of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature. She died 21 days after her 67th birthday in Lillehammer, Norway.
1860 ~ Eduard Buchner (d. Aug. 13, 1917), German chemist and recipient of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in fermentation. He was born in Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria. He died in Romania at age 57 of wounds suffered while in combat during World War I.
1851 ~ Emile Berliner (d. Aug. 3, 1929), German-born American inventor who is best known for inventing the phonograph. He died of a heart attack at age 78 in Washington, D.C.
1825 ~ Antoinette Brown Blackwell (née Antoinette Louisa Brown; d. Nov. 5, 1921), American theologian. She was the first women ordained as a Protestant minister in the United States. She was a minister in the Congregational Church. She was also a woman’s right advocate. She was born in Henrietta, New York. She died at age 96 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
1822 ~ Frédéric Passy (d. June 12, 1912), French economist and recipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded in 1901. He was born in Paris, France. He died 23 days after his 90th birthday in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
1818 ~ William Fargo (né William George Fargo; d. Aug. 3, 1881), American businessman and co-founder of Wells Fargo and American Express. He also served as the 27th Mayor of Buffalo, New York from 1862 until 1866. He was born in Pompey, New York. He died at age 63 following a long illness in Buffalo, New York.
1806 ~ John Stuart Mill (d. May 7, 1873), English philosopher. He died 13 days before his 67th birthday in Avignon, France.
1799 ~ Honoré de Balzac (d. Aug. 18, 1850), French novelist. He was born in Tours, France. He died at age 51 in Paris, France.
1768 ~ Dolley Madison (née Dorothea Dandridge Payne, d. July 12, 1849), American First Lady and wife of President James Madison. She had previously been married to John Todd. He died of yellow fever at age 29. She then married James Madison. She was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, British America. She died at age 81 in Washington, D.C.
1759 ~ Dr. William Thornton (d. Mar. 28, 1828), American physician and architect. He is best known for designing the United States Capitol. He was born in the British Virgin Islands. He died at age 68 in Washington, D.C.
1446 ~ Sandro Botticelli (né Alessandro di Mariano de Vanni Filipepi; d. May 17, 1510), Italian painter. The actual date of his birth is unknown, although some believe it was May 20, 1446. He is believed to have been about 64 at the time of his death.
1315 ~ Bonne of Luxembourg (d. Sept. 11, 1349), Duchess consort of Normandy. She was the first wife of John II, King of France (1319 ~ 1364). When they married, he was known as John, Duke of Normandy. She died before he became king, thus was never the queen consort. They were the parents of Charles V, King of France. She was also known as Bonne of Bohemia. She was of the House of Luxembourg. She was the daughter of John, King of Bohemia and Elizabeth of Bohemia. She died of the bubonic plague at age 34.
Events that Changed the World:
2013 ~ An EF-5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, a suburb of Oklahoma City, killing 24 people and injuring nearly 400 others.
2012 ~ A 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck northern Italy killing at least 27 people and injuring many more.
1996 ~ The United States Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 decision in Romer v. Evans, against any law that would have prevented any city, town, or county in Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy (b. 1936) authored the majority report.
1989 ~ Chinese authorities declared martial law in the face of pro-democracy demonstrations, setting the scene for the Tiananmen Square massacre. Protests in the square had been ongoing for several weeks before martial law was imposed.
1983 ~ French virologist Luc Montagnier (1932 ~ 2022) published his report on the discovery that the HIV virus was the cause of AIDS. His paper appeared in Science.
1969 ~ The Battle of Hamburger Hill in during the Vietnam War ended. The battle, which had begun on May 13, was fought by the United States Army and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam against the People’s Army of Vietnam. The battle was dubbed Hamburger Hill because those who fought on the hill were “ground up like hamburger meat.”
1949 ~ The United States Armed Forces Security Agency was established. In 1952, the agency would become revised into the National Security Agency.
1948 ~ Chiang Kai-shek (1887 ~ 1975) was elected as the first President of the Republic of China.
1943 ~ The Luttra Woman, a bog body from the Early Neolithic period was discovered near Luttra, Sweden. Ahe was nicknamed Hallonflickan, which is Swedish for Raspberry Girl, because the contents of her stomach indicated her last meal was raspberries.
1940 ~ The first prisoners began arriving at Auschwitz during the Holocaust.
1932 ~ Amelia Earhart (1897 ~ 1937) began the world’s first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean by a female pilot. She flew from Newfoundland to Ireland.
1927 ~ Charles Lindbergh (1902 ~ 1974) began the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean He landed in Paris on the following day, May 21.
1916 ~ The Saturday Evening Post published its first cover with a Norman Rockwell (1894 ~ 1978) painting. At the time, Rockwell was a young, unknown artist. During his 50-year career with the magazine, he painted more than 300 covers for the weekly magazine.
1902 ~ Cuba gained its independence from the United States. Thomás Estrada Palma (1832 ~ 1908) was the country’s first President. He served in that Office from May 20, 1902 until September 1906.
1883 ~ Krakatoa began to erupt. It would continue to erupt until the final explosion on August 26, 1883. An estimated 36,000 people were killed by the eruption.
1873 ~ Levi Strauss (1829 ~ 1902) and Jacob Davis (1831 ~ 1908) patented their copper-riveted jeans.
1862 ~ Abraham Lincoln (1809 ~ 1865) signed the Homestead Act into law. This allowed any applicant who had never taken up arms against the United States Government to acquire land previously owned or claimed by the United States.
1609 ~ Shakespeare’s sonnets are believed to have first been published in London by Thomas Thorpe (1569 ~ 1635), an English book publisher.
526 ~ Antioch was struck by a devastating earthquake. The earthquake probably occurred sometime between May 20 and May 29.
325 ~ The First Council of Nicaea, the first Ecumenical Council, of the Christian Church was held.
Good-Byes:
2023 ~ Brian Shul (b. Feb. 8, 1948), American fighter pilot who came back from a fireball. He was an attack pilot during the Vietnam War. He flew over 200 combat missions and was shot down near the end of the War. He was so badly burned that he was not believed to be able to survive. He was also an accomplished photographer. He was born in Quantico, Virginia. He died of cardiac arrest at age 75 in Reno, Nevada.
2022 ~ Roger Angell (b. Sept. 19, 1920), American baseball scribe who lifted the game to poetry. He was an essayist and sportswriter known for his love of baseball. He was born and died in New York, New York. He died at age 101.
2021 ~ Roger Hawkins (b. Oct. 16, 1945), American soulful drummer who powered the Muscle Shoals sound. He was born in Mishawaka, Indiana. He died at age 75 in Sheffield, Alabama.
2019 ~ Niki Lauda (né Andreas Nikolaus Luada; b. Feb. 22, 1949), Austrian Formula One race car champ who got back on the track after a fiery crash. In August 1976, while racing in the German Grand Prix, he crashed his car into a guard rail. The car burst into flames, and he suffered serious burns to his face and arms. Six weeks later, while still in bandages, he raced again. He was born in Vienna, Austria. He died at age 70 in Zurich, Switzerland.
2018 ~ Billy Cannon (né William Abb Cannon; b. Aug. 2, 1937), 1959 winner of football’s Heisman trophy winner when he played at Louisiana State University. He was later involved in a counterfeiting scheme and was sentenced to 5 years at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana. He was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He died in St. Francisville, Louisiana at age 80.
2018 ~ Eleanor Storrs (b. May 3, 1926), American biologist who studied the link between armadillos and leprosy. She was born in Cheshire, Connecticut. In 1967, she earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Texas before moving to Louisiana. She was the key scientist to discover that the armadillo is the ideal animal for leprosy research. In 1978, she and her husband, Dr. Harry P Burchfield, moved to Indialantic, Florida where she worked as a research professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. She died 17 days after her 92nd birthday in Indialantic, Florida.
2014 ~ Prince Rupert Loewenstein (b. Aug. 24, 1933), Bavarian aristocrat and merchant banker who made the Rolling Stones rich. He was the financial manager of the Rolling Stones. He was born in Palma, Spain. He died of complications from Parkinson’s disease at age 80 in London, England.
2013 ~ Ray Manzarek (né Raymond Daniel Manczarek, Jr.; b. Feb. 12, 1939), keyboardist who gave The Doors their signature sound. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He died of cancer at age 74 in Rosenheim, Germany.
2012 ~ Robin Gibb (né Robin Hugh Gibb; b. Dec. 22, 1949), Australian musician and the brother who launched the Bee Gees during the disco era. His twin brother was Maurice Gibb (1949 ~ 2003). They were born in Douglas, Isle of Man. Robin died of cancer at age 62 in London, England.
2012 ~ Eugene Polley (b. Nov. 29, 1915), American electrical engineer who invented the TV remote control. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. He died at age 96 in Downers Grove, Illinois.
2011 ~ Randy Savage (né Randy Mario Poffo; b. Nov. 15, 1952), American show-off who took wrestling mainstream. He was born in Columbus, Ohio. He died in Seminole, Florida of a heart attack while driving, which caused a car crash. He was 58 at the time of his death.
2008 ~ Hamilton Jordan (né William Hamilton McWhorter Jordan; b. Sept. 21, 1944), 8th White House Chief of Staff. He was the political advisor who had President Jimmy Carter’s ear. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He died of cancer at age 63 in Atlanta, Georgia.
2005 ~ Paul Riocœur (né Jean Paul Gustave Riocœur, b. Feb. 27, 1913), French philosopher who taught in a POW camp during World War II. He died at age 92.
2002 ~ Stephen Jay Gould (b. Sept. 10, 1941), American paleontologist. He was born in Queens, New York. He died of cancer at age 60 in Manhattan, New York.
2000 ~ Toyoichi Tanaka (b. Jan. 4, 1946), Japanese biophysicist. He is best known for his work on creating “smart” gels that are used to clean up toxic waste and to release insulin in the body. He died of heart failure while playing tennis. He was 54.
2000 ~ Jean-Pierre Rampal (né Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal; b. Jan. 7, 1922), French flutist. He was born in Marseille, France. He died at age 78 in Paris, France.
1989 ~ Gilda Radner (née Gilda Susan Radner; b. June 28, 1946), American comedian and actress. She was born in Detroit, Michigan. She died of uterine cancer about a month before her 43rd birthday in Los Angeles, California.
1989 ~ Sir John Hicks (né John Richard Hicks; b. Apr. 8, 1904), English economist and recipient of the 1972 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for his contributions to general equilibrium theory. He died at age 85.
1956 ~ Sir Max Beerbohm (né Henry Maximilian Beerbohm; b. Aug. 24, 1872), English essayist and humorist. He was born in London England. He died in Rapallo, Italy at age 83.
1947 ~ Philipp Lenard (né Phillipp Eduard Anton von Lenard; b. June 7, 1862), German physicist and recipient of the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on cathode rays. He died 17 days before his 85th birthday.
1940 ~ Verner von Heidenstam (né Carl Gustav Verner von Heidenstam; b. July 6, 1859), Swedish writer and recipient of the 1916 Nobel Prize in Literature. He died at age 80.
1896 ~ Clara Schumann (née Clara Josephine Wieck; b. Sept. 13, 1819), German pianist and composer. She was the wife of composer Robert Schumann. They married in 1840. She died at age 76 in Frankfurt, German Empire.
1885 ~ Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (né Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen; b. Aug. 4, 1817), 25th United States Secretary of State. He served in that office from December 1881 until March 1885, during the administrations of President Chester Arthur and Grover Cleveland. He had previously served as a United States Senator from New Jersey. He was born in Millstone, New Jersey. He died at age 67 in Newark, New Jersey.
1834 ~ Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (né Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette; b. Sept. 6, 1757), French soldier and statesman. He fought for American independence and was a leader in the French Revolution, which followed the American Revolutionary War. He played a pivotal role in the American Revolutionary War. He is known in the United States as simply Lafayette. He died at age 76 in Paris, Kingdom of France.
1782 ~ William Emerson (b. May 14, 1701), English mathematician. He died 6 days after his 81st birthday.
1648 ~ Władysław IV Vasa, King of Poland (b. June 9, 1595). He ruled over Poland from November 1632 until his death in May 1648. He was known for supporting religious tolerance. He was married twice. His first wife was Cecilia Renata of Austria (1611 ~ 1644). They married in 1637. She died of complications of childbirth. His second wife was Marie Louise Gonzaga (1611 ~ 1667). He was of the House of Vasa. He was the son of Sigismund III, King of Poland and Anne, Archduchess of Austria. He was Roman Catholic. He died at age 52. He was succeeded by his half-brother, John II Casimir Vasa, who subsequently married Marie Louise Gonzaga.
1506 ~ Christopher Columbus (b. 1451), Italian explorer who set sail and discovered the Americas. The exact date of his birth is unknown.
1503 ~ Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’Medici (b. Aug. 4, 1463), Italian banker and politician. He died at age 39.
1449 ~ Infante Peter, Duke of Coimbra (b. Dec. 9, 1392), member of the Portuguese royal family. He was married to Isabella of Urgell (1409 ~ 1459). He was of the House of Aviz. He was the son of John I, King of Portugal and Princess Philippa of Lancaster. He was Roman Catholic. He died at age 56.
1277 ~ Pope John XXI (né Pedro Julião, b. 1215). He was Pope from September 1276 until his death in May 1277. He was born in Lisbon, Kingdom of Portugal. The exact date of his birth is unknown.
685 ~ Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria. He ruled over Northumbria from 670 until his death. His reign ended when he was killed in the Battle of Nechtansere against the Picts of Fortriu. He was married twice. His first wife was Æthelthryth. His second wife was Eormenburg.
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