Today XLI

Birthdays:

• Howard Hawks, film director, producer and writer, May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977


• Irving Grant Thalberg, film producer, May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936


• Cornelia Otis Skinner, author and actress, May 30, 1901 - July 9, 1979


• Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, aka Stepin Fetchit, comedian and film actor, May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985


• Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén, physicist, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize for Physics, for his work developing magnetohydrodynamics theory, May 30, 1908 - April 2, 1995


• Melvin Jerome MEL Blanc, voice actor extraordinaire, for both classic radio programs and many animation studios, May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989


• Benő Guttman, aka Benny Goodman, aka "The King of Swing", jazz clarinettist and bandleader, May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986


• Hugh Emrys Griffith, actor, May 30, 1912 – May 14, 1980


• Harry Clement Stubbs, aka Hal Clement, science fiction writer, May 30, 1922 - October 29, 2003


• Christine Jorgensen, born George William Jorgensen, Jr., activist, one of the first people to have sex reassignment surgery ["sex change"] — in this case, male to female, May 30, 1926 – May 3, 1989


• Norman Eugene CLINT Walker, actor, best known as title character in the TV series Cheyenne, and as Posey in The Dirty Dozen, 1927


• Keir Dullea, actor, best known for his role as astronaut David Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1936


• Michael J. Pollard, Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominated actor, 1939


• James Earl Chaney, civil rights worker, murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan, May 30, 1943 – June 21, 1964


• Meredith MacRae, actress, best known for her television roles as Billie Jo on Petticoat Junction, and as Sally Ann on My Three Sons, May 30, 1944 - July 14, 2000


• Colm J. Meaney, TV actor, well known for his role as Miles O'Brien, in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and film actor, 1953


• Christina Claire Ciminella, aka Wynonna Judd, aka Wynonna, country music singer, 1964


• Manuel Arístides MANNY Ramírez Onelcida, MLB outfielder, currently with the Boston Red Sox, 1972

RIP:

• Jeanne la Pucelle, aka Jeanne d'Arc [Joan of Arc], national heroine of France and a Saint of the Catholic Church, January 6, 1412 – May 30, 1431


• Christopher Marlowe, dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era, baptised February 26, 1564 – 30 May 30, 1593


• Pieter Pauwel Rubens, aka Peter Paul Rubens, 17th century painter, June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640


• Alexander Pope, poet and satirist, May 21, 1688 – May 30, 1744


• François-Marie Arouet, aka Voltaire, writer, essayist, deist, and philosopher, November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778


• Wilbur Wright, aviation pioneer; he and his brother Orville are generally credited with making the first controlled, powered, heavier-than-air flight on December 17, 1903. In the two years afterward, they developed their flying machine into the world's first practical airplane, April 16, 1867 - May 30, 1912


• Arthur DOOLEY Wilson, actor and singer, most famous for playing Sam in the film Casablanca, April 3, 1886–May 30, 1953


• Boris Leonidovich Pasternak, poet and writer, best known in the West for his 1957 tragic novel Doctor Zhivago; it is as a poet, however, that he is most celebrated; announced as the winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature, but declined for political reasons, February 10, 1890 – May 30, 1960


• Leó Szilárd, physicist who conceived the nuclear chain reaction and worked on the Manhattan Project, but he was clearly against the atomic bomb, February 11, 1898 – May 30, 1964


• Claude Rains, theatre and film actor, whose first Hollywood role was the title character in The Invisible Man; probably his most famous role was as Captain Renault in Casablanca, November 10, 1889 - May 30, 1967


• Carl Dean Radle, musician, best known for being the bass player in Derek and the Dominos, June 18, 1942 - May 30, 1980


• Herman Poole SONNY Blount, aka Sun Ra, jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, whose various bands were called The Arkestra, or some variation thereof, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993


• Gordon Lee TEX Beneke, American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader, February 12, 1914 - May 30, 2000


• Michael Peter Hayes, aka Mickie Most, musician and record producer, June 20, 1938– May 30, 2003