Friday, May 12, 2006

Today XXVIII

Birthdays:

  • Florence Nightingale, OM, pioneer of modern nursing and noted statistician, May 12, 1820 – August 13, 1910

  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti, poet, illustrator, painter, and translator, May 12, 1828 - April 10, 1882

  • Gabriel Urbain Fauré, composer, organist, pianist, and teacher, May 12, 1845 – November 4, 1924

  • William Francis Giauque, chemist, May 12, 1895 – March 28, 1982. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1949 for his studies in the properties of matter at temperatures close to absolute zero

  • Katharine Houghton Hepburn, actress, May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003. She was a four-time Academy Award-winning American star of film, television and stage, widely recognized for her wit, New England gentility and fierce independence. Screen legend Hepburn holds the record for the most Oscars won for Best Actress

  • Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, OM , FRS, chemist, the founder of protein crystallography, pioneering the technique of X-ray crystallography, a method used to determine the three dimensional structures of biomolecules; among her most influential discoveries are the determination of the structure of penicillin, insulin, and vitamin B12, for which she was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, May 12, 1910 – July 29, 1994

  • Howard Kingsbury Smith, journalist and radio reporter, May 12, 1914 – February 15, 2002

  • Farley McGill Mowat OC , BA , D.Litt, author, naturalist, and conservationist, 1921

  • Anthony John 'Tony' Hancock, television and radio comedian, May 12, 1924 – June 24, 1968

  • Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, former catcher and manager in Major League Baseball, 1925. He played almost his entire career for the New York Yankees, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. He is one of only four players to be named American League Most Valuable Player three times, and one of only six managers to lead both American and National League teams to the World Series. He picked up his nickname from a friend who said he resembled a Hindu holy man (yogi) they had seen in a movie, whenever sitting around with arms and legs crossed waiting to bat or sad after a losing game

  • Burt Bacharach, pianist and composer, 1928

  • Felipe Rojas Alou, former MLB outfielder and first baseman, and the current manager of the San Francisco Giants, 1935. He was the first Dominican to play regularly in the major leagues

  • George Dennis Carlin, Grammy-winning stand-up comedian, actor, and author, 1937

  • Ian Dury, rock and roll singer, songwriter, and bandleader, May 12, 1942 – March 27, 2000. He is best known as founder and lead singer of the British band Ian Dury and the Blockheads

  • Stephen Lawrence 'Steve' Winwood, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, 1948. Steve Winwood is one of my personal heroes! I have enjoyed his music since the early 1960's, whether with The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, or Blind Faith, or as a solo performer. Thanks for the music, Steve!

  • Bruce Boxleitner, actor, 1950

  • Gabriel Byrne, actor, 1950

  • Kim Victoria Fields, actress ["Tootie"], 1969


RIP:

  • John Dryden, poet, literary critic, August 19, 1631 – May 12, 1700

  • Bedřich Smetana, composer, March 2, 1824 - May 12, 1884

  • John Cadbury, chocolate entrepreneur, 1801 – 12 May 1889

  • Carl Henry Vogt, aka Louis Calhern, stage and silent film actor, February 19, 1895 - May 12, 1956

  • Erich von Stroheim, filmmaker and actor, September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957

  • John Edward Masefield, OM, poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death, June 1, 1878 – May 12, 1967

  • Henry Emmett "Heinie" Manush, former Major League Baseball player, July 20, 1901 – May 12, 1971. He consistently ranked among the league leaders in hitting, finishing his career with a .330 batting average and leading the league in 1926. Manush was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964

  • John Robert Rietz, Jr, aka Robert Reed, actor, October 19, 1932–May 12, 1992

  • Erik Homburger Erikson, developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst, June 15, 1902 – May 12, 1994. He was a known for his theory on social development of human beings, and for coining the phrase identity crisis

  • Pierino Ronaldo "Perry" Como, crooner, May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001

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