Today LXII

Birthdays:

• Joseph Martin Kraus, composer, sometimes referred to as "the Swedish Mozart," June 20, 1756 - December 15, 1792


• Jacques Offenbach, composer and cellist, one of the originators of the operetta form, June 20, 1819 – October 5, 1880


• Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, biochemist, awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Christiaan Eijkman for the discovery of vitamins, June 20, 1861 – May 16, 1947


• Wilfrid Pelletier, conductor; from 1935 - 1940, Music Director, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, June 20, 1896 – April 9, 1982


• Jean Moulin, member of the French Resistance during World War II, June 20, 1899 – July 8, 1943


• Lillian Florence Hellman, playwright, June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984


• Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn, film actor, famous for his romantic swashbuckler roles and flamboyant lifestyle, June 20, 1909 – October 14, 1959


• Stewart Terence Herbert Young, film director, known for directing three James Bond films: Dr. No, From Russia with Love, and Thunderball, June 20, 1915 – September 7, 1994


• Chester Burton 'Chet' Atkins, guitar legend and record producer, June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001


• Audie Leon Murphy, soldier and actor; in WWII, he became the most decorated soldier in the history of the U.S. Army, June 20, 1924 - May 28, 1971


• Magdalena Abakanowicz, abstract sculptor, notable for her use of textiles as a sculptural medium, 1930


• Olympia Dukakis, Academy Award-winning actress, cousin of Michael Dukakis, the former governor of Massachusetts, and 1988 Democratic candidate for U.S. president, 1931


• Martin Landau, Academy Award-winning film and television actor, known for his roles in the television series Mission: Impossible and Space: 1999, 1931


• Daniel Louis Aiello, Jr., actor and jazz musician, 1933


• Rossana Podesta, actress , 1934


• John Mahoney, actor, known for playing Martin Crane on Frasier, 1940


• Brian Douglas Wilson, musician, founding member of and bassist, producer, composer, and arranger for The Beach Boys, 1942


• Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, vocalist, member of the girl group The Crystals, 1947


• Candace June 'Candy' Clark, film and television actress, 1947


• Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr., R&B singer, songwriter, and composer, 1949


• Tress MacNeille, voice actor, best known for providing various voices on The Simpsons and Futurama, 1951


• John Stephen Goodman, actor, 1952


• Nicole Mary Kidman, actress, 1967


• Robert Anthony Rodríguez, film director, 1968

RIP:

• Karl Friedrich Abel, Classical composer, played the viola da gamba for which he composed, December 22, 1723 – June 20, 1787


• Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, mathematician who made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, September 17, 1826 - July 20, 1866


• Josef Breuer, physician whose works lay the foundation of psychoanalysis, January 15, 1842 – June 20, 1925


• Bruno Frank, author, poet, dramatist, and humanist, June 13, 1878 - June 20, 1945


• Benjamin Hymen Siegelbaum, aka "Bugsy" Siegel< gangster, February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947


• Kurt Alder, Ph.D., chemist, won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Otto Paul Hermann Diels, July 10, 1902 – June 20, 1958


• Howard Deering Johnson, founder of Howard Johnson's, February 2, 1897 – June 20, 1972


• Mark Robson, film editor, film director, and producer, December 4, 1913 – June 20, 1978


• Lawrence Albert Payton, singer, songwriter, and record producer for The Four Tops, March 2, 1938 - June 20, 1997


• Hans Conrad Schumann, border guard, the first, and one of the most famous, escapees from East Germany, March 28, 1942 – June 20, 1998


• Clifton Fadiman, intellectual, author, and radio and television personality, May 15, 1904–June 20, 1999


• Jack St. Clair Kilby, electrical engineer, co-won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics; invented the integrated circuit in 1958 while working at Texas Instruments, about six months before Robert Noyce created the same invention at Fairchild Semiconductor, November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005