Today XXV

Birthdays:

• John Brown, abolitionist, May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859. He was one of the first white abolitionists to advocate and to practise, guerrilla warfare as a means to the abolition of slavery


• Sir James Matthew 'J. M.' Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM, novelist and dramatist, creator of Peter Pan, May 9, 1860 – June 19, 1937


• Howard Carter, archaeologist and Egyptologist, May 9, 1873 – March 2, 1939, most famous as the discoverer of KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt


• Dr. William Moulton Marston, aka Charles Moulton, psychologist, feminist theorist, and comic book writer, May 9, 1893 – May 2, 1947. He was the co-creator of the Wonder Woman character with his wife, Elizabeth. Credited with inventing an early form of the lie detector (specifically the notion of testing systolic blood pressure to detect deception, which became one component of the polygraph), Marston was also a writer of essays in popular psychology


• Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow, Hall of Fame country music singer and songwriter, May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999


• Myron Leon Wallace, aka Michael 'Mike' Wallace, journalist and television correspondent, 1918


• Richard George Adams, novelist, best known for two novels with animal characters, Watership Down and The Plague Dogs, 1920


• Philip Klass, aka William Tenn, science fiction author, 1920


• Sophia Magdalena Scholl, resistance fighter, May 9, 1921 – February 22, 1943. She was a member of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. She was convicted of treason and executed by guillotine


• Barbara Ann Scott, World and Olympic champion figure skater, 1928


• Irene Joan Marian Sims, actress, May 9, 1930 – June 28, 2001. She was a key cast member of the Carry On films, as well as playing Madge in As Time Goes By, and Katryca in the Doctor Who episode The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet


• Albert Finney, actor, 1936


• Glenda May Jackson, CBE, two-time Academy Award-winning actress and politician, currently a Labour Member of Parliament, 1936


• James L. Brooks, Hollywood producer, writer, and film director, 1940.
  He is best known for producing classic TV shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Simpsons, Rhoda, Taxi, and The Tracey Ullman Show. His best-known film is his directorial debut, Terms of Endearment, for which he received three Academy Awards in 1984


• Paul Richard 'Richie' Furay, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, 1944. He is best known for forming the 1960's band Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin. In the late 60's, he formed the band Poco, with Jim Messina and Rusty Young. He left in 1974 to join the Souther, Hillman, Furay Band


• Candice Patricia Bergen, actress and former fashion model, 1946. She is the daughter of Edgar Bergen


• William Martin 'Billy' Joel, singer, songwriter, and pianist, 1949


• Anne-Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano opera singer and concert recitalist, 1955


• Anthony Keith "Tony" Gwynn, former Major League Baseball outfielder, 1960. I think that he's a sure thing to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in 2007

RIP:

• Diderik Buxtehude, aka Dieterich Buxtehude, organist and Baroque composer, 1637 – May 9, 1707. Later in his life he Germanized his name, and began signing documents Dieterich Buxtehude


• Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, Post-Impressionist painter, June 7, 1848 – May 9, 1903


• Albert Abraham Michelson, physicist, December 19, 1852 - May 9, 1931. He was known for his work on the measurement of the speed of light, and especially for the Michelson-Morley experiment. In 1907, he received a Nobel Prize for Physics


• Ezio Pinza, [bass] opera singer, May 18, 1892 - May 9, 1957


• Edmond O'Brien, actor, September 10, 1915 – May 9, 1985


• Namgyal Wangdi, aka Tenzing Norgay, mountaineer, May 29(?) 1914 – May 9, 1986. He and Sir Edmund Hillary were the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953. As a child, his name was changed on advice from a lama ("Norgay" means "fortunate")


• Alice Jeane Leppert, aka Alice Faye, actress and singer, May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998


• Irwin Alan Kniberg, aka Alan King, comedian and actor, December 26, 1927 – May 9, 2004

Also:

• The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy, 1941. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages


• Belgrade becomes the first Axis-conquered city to murder or eliminate its Jewish population, largely with the help of Serbian collaborators, 1942


• The U.S. FDA approves sale of the birth control pill, 1960


• The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opens formal and public impeachment hearings against president Richard M. Nixon, 1974


• The first meeting of Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury takes place in Ghana, 1980


• Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as South Africa's first black president, 1994