Birthdays:
1972 ~ Dana Perino (née Dana Marie Perino), White House Press Secretary. She served under President George W. Bush from September 2007 until January 2009. She was born in Evanston, Wyoming.
1968 ~ Scott Pruitt (né Edward Scott Pruitt), 14th Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He served in that Office during the Trump administration, from February 2017 until July 2018. As head of the Environmental Protection Agency, he expressly denied that human-producing carbon dioxide was changing the climate. He was a climate skeptic with ties to fossil-fuel interests. He was born in Danville, Kentucky.
1961 ~ John Corbett (né John Joseph Corbett), American actor. He was born in Wheeling, West Virginia.
1960 ~ Tony Gwynn, Sr. (né Anthony Keith Gwynn; d. June 16, 2014), the African-American baseball player known as the happy hitter who made pitchers weep. He played 20 seasons for the San Diego Padres and was known as Mr. Padre. He was born in Los Angeles, California. He died of cancer at age 54 in Poway, California.
1951 ~ Joy Harjo, Native American poet, and musician. She was served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate, a position she held from 2019 until 2022. She was the first Native American to hold this position. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
1949 ~ Billy Joel (né William Martin Joel), American singer-songwriter. He was born in The Bronx, New York.
1948 ~ Hans Georg Bock, German mathematician. He was born in Bottrop, Germany.
1946 ~ Candice Bergen (née Candice Patricia Bergen), American actress. She was born in Beverly Hills, California.
1942 ~ John Ashcroft (né John David Ashcroft), 79th United States Attorney General. He served under President George W. Bush from February 2001 until February 2005. He had previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri from January 1985 until January 1993. He was born in Chicago, Illinois.
1940 ~ James L. Brooks (né James Lawrence Brooks), American television producer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York.
1938 ~ Charles Simić (d. Jan. 9, 2023), Serbian-American poet. In 1954, he and his family immigrated to the United States. He was the recipient of the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In 1973, he became a professor of American literature and creative writing at the Univeristy of New Hampshire. He was born in what is now known as Belgrade, Serbia. At the time of his birth, it was Belgrade, Yugolsavia. He died of complications of dementia at age 84 in Dover, New Hampshire.
1936 ~ Albert Finney, Jr. (d. Feb. 7, 2019), British working-class actor who shunned Hollywood accolades. He is best known for his role as Tom Jones in the 1963 movie of the same name. He was born in Salford, Lancashire, England. He died of a chest infection at age 82 in London, England.
1936 ~ Glenda Jackson (née Glenda May Jackson; d. June 15, 2023), English Oscar winning actress who became a member of Parliament. She won an Oscar for Women in Love and A Touch of Class. In 1992, she quit acting and entered politics. She was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, England. She died in London, England at age 87.
1934 ~ Alan Bennett, British actor, and playwright.
1927 ~ Manfred Eigen (d. Feb. 6, 2019), German biophysicist and recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in measuring fast chemical reactions. He died at age 91.
1921 ~ Father Daniel Berrigan (né Daniel Joseph Berrigan; d. Apr 30, 2016), American Jesuit priest who led antiwar protests. He was rather political and during the Vietnam war was an anti-war/peace activist. He was born in Virginia, Minnesota. He died 9 days before his 95th birthday in The Bronx, New York.
1920 ~ Frank Perdue (né Franklin Parsons Perdue; d. Mar. 31, 2005), American businessman and founder of Perdue Chicken. He was born and died in Salisbury, Maryland. He died at age 84.
1920 ~ Richard Adams (né Richard George Adams, d. Dec. 24, 2016), British author best known for his novel Watership Down. He died at age 96 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.
1918 ~ Orville Freeman (né Orville Lothrop Freeman; d. Feb. 20, 2003), 16th United States Secretary of Agriculture. He served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson from January 1961 until January 1969. He has previously served as the 29th Governor of Minnesota from January 1955 until January 1961. He was born and died in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He died at age 84.
1918 ~ Mike Wallace (né Myron Leon Wallace; d. Apr. 7, 2012), American journalist and media personality. He was the veteran journalist who always got the scoop. His son is reporter Chris Wallace. He was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He died about a month before his 94th birthday in New Canaan, Connecticut.
1914 ~ Theodore W. Kheel (né Theodore Woodrow Kheel; d. Nov. 12, 2010), American labor lawyer with a knack for compromise. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in Manhattan, New York. He was 96 years old.
1912 ~ Géza Ottlik (d. Oct. 9, 1990), Hungarian mathematician. During World War II, he hid Jews in his home, for which he and his wife were honored as Righteous Among the Nations in Israel. He was born and died in Budapest, Hungary. He died at age 78.
1883 ~ José Ortega y Gasset (d. Oct. 18, 1955), Spanish philosopher and essayist. He was born and died in Madrid, Spain. He was born and died in Madrid, Spain. He died at age 72.
1892 ~ Zita of Bourbon-Parma, (d. Mar. 14, 1989), Empress consort of Austria and Queen consort of Hungary. In 1911, she married Charles I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary (1887 ~ 1922). She was the last Empress consort of Austria and last Queen consort of Hungary. The monarchy was abolished at the end of World War I. She was of the House of Bourbon-Parma. She was the daughter of Robert I, Duke of Parma and Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal. She was born in Tuscany, Kingdom of Italy. She died at age 96. She died in Zizers, Grisons, Switzerland.
1882 ~ Henry J. Kaiser (né Henry John Kaiser; d. Aug. 24, 1967), American industrialist who became known as the father of modern American shipbuilding. He was born in Sprout Brook, New York. He died at age 85 in Honolulu, Hawaii.
1874 ~ Howard Carter (d. Mar. 2, 1939), British archaeologist. He led the expedition that found the tomb of King Tut. He was born and died in London, England. He died of lymphoma at age 64.
1873 ~ Anton Cermak (né Antonín Josef Čermák; d. Mar. 6, 1933), Bohemian-born 44th Mayor of Chicago. He served as Mayor from April 1931 until March 1933. On February 15, 1933, he was with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Florida, when an assassin attempted to kill the President. He was hit instead. He died in Miami, Florida less than a month later from injuries suffered from the shooting. He was 59 years old.
1860 ~ Sir J.M. Barrie, 1st Baronet (né James Matthew Barrie; d. June 19, 1937), Scottish writer best known for his play, Peter Pan. He died at age 77 in London, England.
1837 ~ Adam Opel (d. Sept. 8, 1895), German engineer and founder of the German car company bearing his name. He was born and died in Rüsselsheim, Hesse (Germany). He died at age 58.
1800 ~ John Brown (d. Dec. 2, 1859), American abolitionist. He was born in Torrington, Connecticut. He was hanged in Charles Town, Virginia (current day West Virginia) for leading the October 16 raid on Harper’s Ferry. He was 59 years old at the time of his execution.
1746 ~ Gaspart Monge, Comte de Péluse (d. July 28, 1818), French mathematician. He died at age 72 in Paris, France.
1613 ~ Mattias de’Medici (d. Oct. 11, 1667), Italian noble. He was the governor of Siena. He never married. He was of the House of Medici. He never married. He was the third son of Cosimo I de’Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Archduchess Maria Maddalene of Austria. He was Roman Catholic. He died at age 54.
1439 ~ Pope Pius III (né Francesco Todechini-Piccolomini; d. Oct. 18, 1503). He was Pope for only 17 days, from September 1503 until his death on October 18, 1503, making his papacy one of the shortest in Catholic history. Interestingly, at the time of his election, he was only a deacon, so had to be ordained as a priest before being crowned as Pope. At the time of his election to Pope, he was in ill health. He was so weak, that the ceremonies had to be shortened. He was the nephew of Pope Pius II, who appointed him archbishop of Sienna when he was just 21 years old. He was 64 years old at the time of his death.
Events that Changed the World:
2023 ~ The United States Army Post in Killen, Texas, which had been known as Fort Hood was officially renamed Fort Cavazos. The army post had originally been named after Confederate General John Bell Hood (1831 ~ 1879). It was renamed to honor General Richard Edward Cavazos (1929 ~ 1917). Cavazos was a Mexican-American who had served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
2022 ~ The Covid-19 recession caused the United States unemployment rate to hit 14.9 percent. It is the worst rate since the Great Depression.
2021 ~ Mother’s Day was celebrated in the United States.
2017 ~ President Donald Trump (b. 1946) fired FBI Director James Comey (b. 1960). Comey was fired ostensibly due to the handling of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private emails server. The firing also came as the FBI was investigating possible ties between Russia and President Trump’s presidential campaign. Comey learned of his firing from a television bulletin while giving a speech in Los Angeles, California.
2016 ~ Sadiq Khan (b. 1970) assumed the office of Mayor of London, England, making London the first major Western city to elect a Muslim as its mayor.
1980 ~ The Liberian freighter MV Summit Venture crashed into the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, causing a large section of the bridge span to collapse. Thirty-five people, the occupants of six cars and a Greyhound bus, fell into the water and were killed.
1979 ~ Iranian Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian (1909 ~ 1979) was executed in Tehran. He was the president of the Tehran Jewish Society and acted as the symbolic head of the Iranian Jewish Community. His execution led to the mass exodus of the Jewish community of Iran. Only a handful of Jews remained in the country.
1974 ~ Formal impeachments hearings against President Richard Nixon (1913 ~ 1994) began by the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee.
1971 ~ The last episode of The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason (1916 ~ 1987), aired.
1960 ~ The United States Food and Drug Administration announced it would approve the oral birth control pill. The “pill”, as it was known, was made by G.D. Searle Company of Chicago.
1958 ~ Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Vertigo, premiered in San Francisco.
1955 ~ West Germany joined NATO.
1949 ~ Rainier III of Monaco (1923 ~ 2005) became the Prince of Monaco.
1946 ~ Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy (1869 ~ 1947) abdicated in the aftermath of World War II, and was succeeded by his son, Umberto II, King of Italy (1904 ~ 1983). Umbert II, however, reigned for less than a month before going into exile.
1945 ~ The Channel Islands were liberated by British forces after five years of German occupation during World War II.
1942 ~ Nazi murdered the Jewish residents of Zinkiv, Ukraine. The Zoludek Ghetto in Belarus was also destroyed, and its inhabitants murdered or deported.
1914 ~ President Woodrow Wilson (1856 ~ 1924) issued a presidential proclamation the officially established Mother’s Day as a national holiday.
1877 ~ A 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Peru. Its aftermath was felt as far away as Hawaii and Japan. Over 2,500 people were killed.
1868 ~ The city of Reno, Nevada was founded.
1671 ~ Thomas Blood (1618 ~ 1680), disguised as a priest, tried to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1386 ~ England and Portugal ratified their alliance by signing the Treaty of Windsor. The treaty established their mutual support between the two countries. This diplomatic alliance is still in force today.
1092 ~ The Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England was consecrated.
Good-Byes:
2023 ~ Heather Armstrong (née Heather Brooke Hamilton; b. July 19, 1975), American blogger who write frankly of motherhood. She was born in Bartlett, Tennessee. She died by suicide at age 47 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
2020 ~ Little Richard (né Richard Wayne Penniman; b. Dec. 5, 1932), American flamboyant showman who shaped rock ‘n roll. He was born in Macon, Georgia. He died of bone cancer in Tullahoma, Tennessee at age 87.
2014 ~ Mary, Lady Stewart (née Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow; b. Sept. 17, 1916), British novelist, best known for her 5-book Merlin Chronicles, about the Arthurian legends. She died at age 97.
2012 ~ Vidal Sassoon (b. Jan. 17, 1928), English cosmetologist and hair stylist. He was born in London, England. He died of leukemia at age 84 in Los Angeles, California.
2010 ~ Lena Horne (née Lena Mary Calhoun Horne; b. June 30, 1917), American singer and actress. She was born and died in New York, New York. She died of heart failure at age 92.
2009 ~ Chuck Daly (né Charles Jerome Daly; b. July 20, 1930), NBA baseball coach for the Detroit Pistons and coach of the 1992 United States Olympic “Dream Team.” He was born in Kane, Pennsylvania. He died of pancreatic cancer at age 78 in Jupiter, Florida.
2004 ~ Alan King (né Irwin Alan Kniberg; b. Dec. 26, 1927), American comedian and actor. He was born and died in New York, New York. He died at age 76.
2003 ~ Russell B. Long (né Russell Billiu Long; b. Nov. 3, 1918), United States Senator from Louisiana and son of former Louisiana Governor Huey P. Long. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. He died at age 84 in Washington, D.C. He is buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1999 ~ Ivan M. Niven (né Ivan Morton Niven; b. Oct. 25, 1915), Canadian mathematician. He specialized in number theory. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He died at age 83 in Eugene, Oregon.
1993 ~ Dame Freya Stark (née Freya Madeline Stark; b. Jan. 31, 1893), British-Italian explorer and travel writer. She wrote numerous books on the Middle East and Afghanistan. She was one of the first non-Arabs to travel throughout the southern Arabian Desert. She was born in Paris, France. She died in Asolo, Italy at age 100.
1986 ~ Tenzing Norgay (né Namgyl Wangdi; b. May 29, 1914), Nepalese Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary on the climb up Mount Everest in May 1953. They reached the summit on his 39th birthday. He died 20 days before his 72nd birthday.
1981 ~ Nelson Algren (né Nelson Ahlgren Abraham; b. Mar. 28, 1909), American writer. He is best known for his book, The Man with the Golden Arm. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. He died at age 72 in Long Island, New York.
1970 ~ Louise Freeland Jenkins (b. July 5, 1888), 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 in New Haven, Connecticut. The crater Jenkins on the moon is named in her honor.
1968 ~ Harold Gray (né Harold Lincoln Gray; b. Jan. 20, 1894), American cartoonist and creator of Little Orphan Annie. He was born in Kankakee, Illinois. He died at age 74 in La Jolla, California.
1950 ~ Esteban Terradas i Illa (b. Sept. 15, 1883), Catalan mathematician. He died at age 66.
1949 ~ Louis II, Prince of Monaco (né Louis Honoré Charles Antoine Grimaldi, b. July 12, 1870). He reigned over Monaco from June 1922 until his death in 1940. He was married to Ghislaine Dommanget (1900 ~ 1991). They married in 1923. He was of the House of Grimaldi. He was the son of Albert I, Prince of Monaco and Lady Mary Victoria Hamilton. He died at age 78.
1931 ~ Albert A. Michelson (né Albert Abraham Michelson; b. Dec. 19, 1852), Prussian-born American physicist and recipient of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Physics for his design of precise optical instruments. He was the first American to be awarded a Nobel Prize in science. He died at age 78 in Pasadena, California.
1914 ~ C.W. Post (né Charles William Post; b. Oct. 26, 1854), American food manufacturer and founder of Post Foods. He was born in Springfield, Illinois. He was in ill health and despondent over his illness. He died by suicide at age 59 in Santa Barbara, California.
1911 ~ Thomas Wentworth Higginson (b. Dec. 22, 1823), American abolitionist and Unitarian pastor. He was born and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He died at age 87.
1905 ~ Ann Jarvis (née Ann Maria Reeves; b. Sept. 30, 1832), American social activist and community organizer during the American Civil War. She inspiration for the creation of Mother’s Day. It was her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis (1864 ~ 1948) who is recognized as the founder of Mother’s Day. She was born in Culpeper, Virginia. She died at age 72 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1805 ~ Friedrich Schiller (né Johann Christian Friedrich von Schiller; b. Nov. 10, 1759), German poet and historian. He died of tuberculosis at age 45.
1657 ~ William Bradford (b. Mar 19, 1590), English Separatist and politician and 5-term Governor of Plymouth Colony. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but this is the date generally ascribed to his birth. He died at age 67.
1446 ~ Mary of Enghien, Queen consort of Naples. She was the third wife of Ladislaus, King of Naples (1377 ~ 1414). He was here second husband. She was forced to marry him for political reasons in 1406 after the death of her first husband. She had previously been married to Raimondo Orsini Del Balzo (1350s ~ 1406), with whom she had a loving marriage. She was of the House of Enghien. She was the daughter of John of Enghien and Sancia Del Balzo. The date of her birth is not known, but she is believed to have been in her 70s at the time of her death.
1280 ~ Magnus VI, King of Norway (né Magnús Hákonarson; b. May 1, 1238). He was King from December 1263 until his death in May 1280. His nickname was Magnus the Law-mender and was known for the modernization and nationalization of Norway. In 1261, he married Princess Ingeborg Eriksdatter of Denmark (1244 ~ 1287). He was of the House of Sverre. He was the son of Haakon IV, King of Norway and Margrete Skulesdatter. He died 8 days after his 42nd birthday.
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