Today XXV - Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Birthdays:

• Thomas Gainsborough, portrait and landscape painter, May 14, 1727 – August 2, 1788


• Otto Klemperer, conductor and composer, May 14, 1885 – July 6, 1973


• Sidney Bechet, jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer' May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959


• Richard Deacon, television and motion picture actor, whose best-known roles are Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show and Fred Rutherford on Leave It to Beaver, May 14, 1921 - August 8, 1984


• John Eric Bartholomew, aka Eric Morecambe OBE, comedian, part of the act Morecambe and Wise, May 14, 1926 – May 28, 1984


• Lorne John "Gump" Worsley, former hockey goaltender, 1929


• Walden Robert Cassotto, aka Bobby Darin, rock and roll singer, May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973


• Atanasio Pérez Rigal, aka Tony Pérez, former Major League baseball player, 1942. After playing third base in the early part of his career with the Cincinnati Reds, from 1972 onward he starred at first base. In the early part of the 1970's, he was a key member of Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine." In 2000, Pérez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame


• John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce, musician, multi-instumentalist, composer, and singer. He is a very influential electric bassist, and was a member of seminal rock band Cream, 1943


• Derek 'Lek' Leckenby, musician; he played lead guitar for Herman's Hermits, 1943


• George Walton Lucas, Jr., film director, producer, and screenwriter, 1944


• Eric Peterson, actor, 1946


• David Byrne, singer and musician, best known as a founding member and the principal songwriter of Talking Heads, 1952


• Robert Lee Zemeckis, Academy Award-winning movie director, producer and writer, 1952


• Tom Cochrane, D.Mus(hon), singer and songwriter, 1953


• José Dennis Martínez Emilia, aka Dennis Martínez, MLB pitcher. He was the first baseball player from Nicaragua to play in Major League Baseball. During his career, he was known by the nickname El Presidenté. He is the winningest Latin pitcher of all-time, 1955


• Catherine Elise 'Cate' Blanchett, Academy Award-winning actress, 1969


• Sofia Carmina Coppola, film director, actress, producer, and Academy Award-winning screenwriter. She is the first American woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Director, 1971


• Harry Leroy 'Roy' Halladay, aka "Doc", starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, had his best seasons in 2002, when he made the All-Star Team, and posted a 19-7 record with 168 strikeouts and a 2.93 earned run average, and 2003, when he won the American League Cy Young Award, 1977


• Amber Rose Tamblyn, Emmy-nominated actress and poet, 1983

RIP:

• Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn, pianist and composer, November 14, 1805 – May 14, 1847


• Johan August Strindberg, writer, playwright and painter, January 22, 1849 – May 14, 1912


• Sir Henry Rider Haggard, writer of adventure novels set in locations considered exotic by readers in his native England, June 22, 1856 – May 14, 1925


• Emma Goldman, anarcho-communist, known for her anarchist writings and speeches, June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940


• Sidney Bechet, see Birthdays, above, May 14, 1897 – May 14, 1959


• Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke, Oscar-nominated actress, primarily known to modern audiences for her role as Glinda, the Good Witch of the North in the musical The Wizard of Oz, August 7, 1884 – May 14, 1970


• Keith Relf, lead singer and harmonica player for The Yardbirds, March 22, 1943 - May 14, 1976


• Eugene Hugh Beaumont, actor, television director, and Methodist minister, February 16, 1909 - May 14, 1982


• Margarita Carmen Cansino, aka Rita Hayworth, actress and dancer, who reached fame during the 1940s as the era's leading sex symbol, October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987


• Harry Blackstone, Jr., author, stage magician, and television performer, June 30, 1934 - May 14, 1997


• Francis Albert Sinatra, singer, December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998


• Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE, Academy Award-winning film and stage actress, August 15, 1912 – May 14, 2003


• Charles Langford "Robert" Stack, actor, January 13, 1919 – May 14, 2003

Baseball:
Josh Towers (1 - 7) won his first game of the year, snapping a seven-game losing streak, as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 8-3 in Tampa.