Doctor Why: 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

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!

RIP:

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

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

Doctor Why