Today XXXVIII

Birthdays:

• Amelia Jenks Bloomer, women's rights and temperance advocate; one of the major causes promoted by Amelia was a change in dress standards for women so that they would be less restrictive; supported the wearing of shorter skirts, but with undergarments reaching to the ankles to preserve modesty; these ankle-length garments came to be known as "bloomers," May 27, 1818 — December 30, 1894


• Julia Ward Howe, abolitionist, social activist, and poet who wrote the words for "Battle Hymn of the Republic," May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910


• James Butler WILD BILL Hickok, gunfighter, May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876


• Samuel Dashiell Hammett, author of "hard-boiled" detective novels and short stories; among the characters he created are Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), and Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man), May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961


• Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, physicist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atomic nucleus, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power, May 27, 1897 - September 18, 1967


• Hubert Horatio Humphrey II, former vice president of the United States; the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, usually simply called The Metrodome, a domed sports stadium in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, is named after him, May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978


• Vincent Leonard Price, Jr., actor, best remembered for his roles in a series of horror films where his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude were well used; in the summer of 1977, he began performing as Oscar Wilde, in the one man stage play Diversions and Delights, May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993


• John Cheever, novelist and short story writer, he won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, May 27, 1912–June 18, 1982


• Samuel Jackson SAM Snead, golfer, May 27, 1912 – May 23, 2002


• Herman Wouk, author of such novels as The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance, 1915


• Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, actor, known for his versatility, his professional longevity, and his distinctive basso delivery, and famous for his portrayal of memorable villains, 1922


• Harlan Jay Ellison, writer of short stories, novellas, essays, and criticism, wrote for the original series of The Outer Limits and Star Trek, edited the multiple award-winning short story anthology series Dangerous Visions, and served as creative consultant to the science fiction TV series The New Twilight Zone and Babylon 5; has won the Hugo Award eight and a half times, the Nebula Award three times, the Bram Stoker Award, five times, including, in 1996, the Lifetime Achievement Award, 1943


• Lee Ann Meriwether, actress, 1935


• Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis, Jr., jazz and pop pianist and keyboardist, 1935


• Louis Cameron Gossett, Jr., Academy Award-winning actor, 1936


• Priscilla Maria Veronica White, aka Cilla Black, singer, actor, and television personality, 1943


• Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, jazz bassist, played with the Oscar Peterson Trio among many others, May 27, 1946 – April 19, 2005


• Susan Janet Ballion, aka Siouxsie Sioux, singer, 1957


• Peri Kay O'Brien, aka Peri Gilpin, actress, 1961


• Jeffrey Robert Bagwell, first baseman, who has played his entire Major League career with the Houston Astros, 1968


• Frank Edward Thomas, aka "The Big Hurt", Major League baseball player, 1968


• Joseph Alberic Fiennes actor, 1970


• Monika Schnarre, model and actress, 1971

RIP:

• Niccolò Paganini, violinist, violist, guitarist and composer, widely regarded as the first ever virtuoso violinist, October 27, 1782 – May 27, 1840


• Robert LeRoy Ripley, entrepreneur, anthropologist and cartoonist, who created the Ripley's Believe It or Not! series, December 25, 1890 - May 27, 1949


• Jawaharlal "Pandit" Nehru, politician, November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964


• Henry Herman McKinnies, Jr, aka Jeffrey Hunter, film and television actor, who played Captain Christopher Pike in the pilot episode of Star Trek, November 25, 1926 - May 27, 1969


• Joseph-Henri-Maurice ROCKET Richard PC, CC, OQ hockey player, August 4, 1921 - May 27, 2000