Today CII

Birthdays:

• Gabriel Cramer, mathematician, known for his treatise on algebraic curves, published in 1750, July 31, 1704 - January 4, 1752


• Richard Dixon Oldham, geologist who argued that the Earth must have a molten interior, July 31, 1858 – July 15, 1936


• George Liberace, musician and television performer, elder brother of Liberace, appearing regularly on his brother's TV show as violin accompanist and orchestral arranger, July 31, 1911 - October 16, 1983


• Milton Friedman, economist, known for his work on macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history, statistics, and for his advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism, awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize in Economics, 1912


• William Clyde BILLY Hitchcock, MLB infielder, coach, manager, and scout, manager of Detroit Tigers, 1960, manager of Baltimore Orioles Manager, 1962 to 1963, manager of Atlanta Braves, 1966 to 1967, July 31, 1916 – April 9, 2006


• William BILL Todman, television producer, teamed up with Mark Goodson in producing game shows for radio; they moved into television, producing some of the longest-running game shows in history, July 31, 1916 - July 29, 1979


• Paul Delos Boyer, biochemist, one of the winners of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1918


• Henry HANK Jones, jazz pianist, brother of trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Elvin Jones, 1918


• Curtis Edward CURT Gowdy, sportscaster, longtime voice of the Boston Red Sox, July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006


• Primo Levi, chemist and author of memoirs, short stories, poems, and novels, best known for his work on the Holocaust, and in particular his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in Auschwitz, July 31, 1919 – April 11, 1987


• Whitney Moore Young, Jr., civil rights leader, July 31, 1921 – March 11, 1971


• Peter James Henry Solomon Benenson, lawyer and the founder of Amnesty International, serving as president from 1961 to 1966, worked at Bletchley Park from 1941 to 1945, July 31, 1921 – February 25, 2005


• Ahmet Ertegün, executive at Atlantic Records, which he co-founded in the late 1940's; in 1987, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which he founded; in 1993, awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements, 1923


• Lynne Reid Banks, author of books for children and adults, has written forty books, including the best-selling children's novel The Indian in the Cupboard, 1929


• Kenneth Earl KENNY Burrell, jazz guitarist, Director of Jazz Studies at UCLA, 1931


• Víctor VIC José Davalillo Romero, former MLB outfielder, All-Star in 1965, winner of Gold Glove Award in 1964, 1936


• France Nguyen Vannga, aka France Nuyen, actress, portrayed Suzie Wong in the theatrical production of The World of Suzie Wong in 1958; played Elaan of Troyius in an episode of Star Trek, 1939


• Geraldine Chaplin, actress, first child of Charlie Chaplin and Oona O'Neill, 1944


• Robert Carhart Merton, Ph.D., economist, shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics with Myron S. Scholes for their work on stock options, 1944


• Gary Harold Lee Lewis, musician, drummer and vocalist for Gary Lewis and the Playboys, 1945


• Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley, former tennis player, 1951


• Barry Van Dyke, actor, director, and writer, 1951


• Robin McLaurin Williams, comedian and Academy Award-winning television, stage, film, and voice actor, won the 1997 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting; was Mork in Mork and Mindy, 1951


• Michael Biehn, actor, 1956


• Leon Durham, former MLB first baseman and outfielder, played for 10 seasons; in 1982, won a Silver Slugger Award as an outfielder; 1982 and 1983 All-Star, 1957


• Stanley Jordan, jazz/fusion guitarist, known for his development of the touch technique for playing guitar, a form of tapping, 1959


• Wesley Trent Snipes, actor, martial artist, and producer, known for his role as Blade in the Blade trilogy of movies, 1962


• James Steven Ignatius JIM Corr, MBE, guitarist for the folk-rock band The Corrs, 1964


• Joanne JO [J. K.] Rowling, OBE, writer, author of the Harry Potter books, 1965


• Dean George Cain, actor, known for playing Superman in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, 1966

RIP:

• Franz Liszt, virtuoso pianist and composer, listen to his music!, October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886


• James Travis JIM Reeves, country singer and minor league baseball player, August 20, 1923 – July 31, 1964


• Theodore Shaw TEDDY Wilson, jazz pianist, November 24, 1912 - July 31, 1986


• Poul William Anderson, science fiction author, sixth President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, won the Gandalf Grand Master in 1978, the Hugo Award seven times, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 2000, the Nebula Award three times, the Prometheus Award four times, including Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2001, and the SFWA Grand Master Award in 1997, November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001


• Guido Crepas, aka Guido Crepax, comics artist, July 15, 1933 - July 31, 2003


• Virginia Grey, actress, March 22, 1917 - July 31, 2004

Today CI

Birthdays:

• Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect, known for his biographies of Italian artists, July 30, 1511 - June 27, 1574


• Regnier de Graaf, physician and anatomist, July 30, 1641 – August 17, 1673


• Emily Jane Brontë, novelist and poet, author of Wuthering Heights, July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848


• Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, physicist and inventor, a pioneer of television technology, invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes,and was instrumental in the practical development of television from the early thirties, July 30, 1889 - July 29, 1982


• Charles Dillon CASEY Stengel, MLB outfielder and manager, played from 1912 to 1925; the only person to manage a team [the New York Yankees] to five consecutive World Series championships; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, July 30, 1890 - September 29, 1975


• Henry Spencer Moore OM CH, artist and sculptor, best known for his large, abstract bronzes which can be seen in many places around the world as public works of art, July 30, 1898 – August 31, 1986


• Riccardo DeGuglielmo, aka Dick Wilson, actor, 1916


• Grant Johannesen, concert pianist, director of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 1974 to 1985, July 30, 1921 – March 27, 2005


• Christine McGuire, singer, member of the McGuire Sisters trio, 1926


• Edward Byrne Breitenberger, aka Edward EDD Byrnes, actor, most famous as Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III on 77 Sunset Strip, 1933


• Allan Huber "Bud" Selig, Jr., current Commissioner of Baseball, 1934


• George BUDDY Guy, blues guitarist and singer, 1936


• Peter Bogdanovich, film director, writer and actor, 1939


• Paul Albert Anka, OC, singer and songwriter, 1941


• David Sanborn, jazz saxophonist, 1945


• Frank Stallone, Jr., actor, singer, and amateur boxer, 1950


• Delta Ramona Leah Burke, television and film actress, 1956


• Anita F. Hill, lawyer, author, and professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University, 1956


• Clinton Merrick CLINT Hurdle, former MLB outfielder and the current manager of the Colorado Rockies, 2002, 1957


• Catherine KATE Bush, singer-songwriter, 1958


• Richard Linklater, film director and writer, 1961


• Laurence Fishburne III, actor, 1961


• Alton Brown, creator and host of Good Eats, and author, 1962


• Vivica Anjanetta Fox, film and television actress, 1964


• Hilary Ann Swank, two-time Academy Award-winning actress, 1974

RIP:

• György Széll, aka George Szell, conductor and composer, music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1946 to 1970, June 7, 1897 – July 30, 1970


• Lillie Louise LYNNE Fontanne, actress, with her husband Alfred Lunt part of the most acclaimed acting team in the history of the American theatre, December 6, 1887 – July 30, 1983


• Julia Hall Bowman Robinson< mathematician, December 8, 1919 – July 30, 1985


• Joseph JOE Shuster, artist and cartoonist, best known for co-creating Superman with Jerry Siegel, July 10, 1914 - July 30, 1992


• Ardis Ankerson Gaines, aka Brenda Marshall, actress, September 29, 1915 – July 30, 1992


• Lily Claudette Chauchoin, aka Claudette Colbert, Academy Award-winning actress, September 13, 1903 - July 30, 1996


• Samuel Cornelius SAM Phillips, record producer, discovered Elvis Presley, January 5, 1923 – July 30, 2003


• Anthony Walker, black student, murdered with an ice axe by white youths in a racially motivated crime, February 21, 1987 – July 30, 2005


• Raymond Lee RAY Cunningham, MLB third baseman in 1931 and 1932, January 17, 1905 - July 30, 2005

Today C

Birthdays:

• George Bradshaw, cartographer, printer, and publisher, originator of the railway timetable, July 29, 1801 - August, 1853


• Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville, political thinker and historian, July 29, 1805 – April 16, 1859


• Johannes Schmidt, linguist, developed the wave theory of language development, July 29, 1843 – July 4, 1901


• Newton BOOTH Tarkington, novelist and dramatist, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams, July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946


• Sigmund Romberg, composer, best known for his operettas, July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951


• William Horatio Powell, actor, most famous as Nick Charles in six Thin Man films, July 29, 1892 - March 5, 1984


• Isidor Isaac Rabi, physicist, awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize for Physics, July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988


• Eyvind Johnson, author, shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature with Harry Martinson, July 29, 1900 – August 25, 1976


• Clara Bow, actress, best known for her silent film work in the 1920's; referred to as the original "It girl," July 29, 1905 - September 27, 1965


• Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld, diplomat, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, posthumously received the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize, July 29, 1905 – September 18, 1961


• Melvin Mouron Belli, lawyer and actor, appeared in the Star Trek episode, "And the Children Shall Lead," July 29, 1907 - July 9, 1996


• Charlie Christian, jazz guitarist, an important early performer on the electric guitar, the first great soloist on the amplified guitar, July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942


• Edwin O'Connor, journalist and novelist, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1962, July 29, 1918 - 23 March 23, 1968


• Lloyd Bochner, actor, July 29, 1924 - October 29, 2005


• Mikis Theodorakis, composer, 1925


• Robert Blake Theodore TED Lindsay, former NHL hockey player, 1925


• Peter Schreier, tenor and conductor, 1935


• Daniel L. McFadden, Ph.D., econometrician, awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics jointly with James Heckman, 1937


• Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM, broadcaster and news anchor, July 29, 1938 – August 7, 2005


• David Warner, stage, film, television, and voice actor, 1941


• David Taylor, former professional snooker player, 1943


• Kenneth Lauren Burns, documentary filmmaker, winner of three Emmy Awards, 1953


• Gary Lee Weinrib, aka Geddy Lee OC, musician, the vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for Rush, 1953


• Nellie Vladimirovna Kim, retired gymnast, 1957


• LUIS Rene ALICEA de Jesus, former MLB second baseman, 1965


• Richard William WIL Wheaton III, actor, writer, and geek icon, best known as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1972


• Stephen Dorff, actor, 1973

RIP:

• Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher, youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, July 26, 1791 – July 29, 1844


• Robert Schumann, composer, pianist, and music critic, June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856


• Vincent Willem van Gogh, Post-Impressionist painter, March 30, 1853 – July 29, 1890


• Tobias Michael Carel Asser, jurist, co-winner with Alfred Fried of the 1911 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the formation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the first Hague peace conference, April 28, 1838 – July 29, 1913


• Sir John (Giovanni Battista) Barbirolli, conductor and cellist, December 2, 1899 - July 29, 1970


• Ellen Naomi Cohen, aka "Mama" Cass Elliot, Baroness von Wiedenman, singer, with The Mamas & The Papas, and in a solo career, September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974


• Erich Kästner, author and children's writer, February 23, 1899 - July 29, 1974


• Herbert Marcuse, philosopher and sociologist, July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979


• William BILL Todman, television producer, teamed up with Mark Goodson in producing game shows for radio; they moved into television, producing some of the longest-running game shows in history, July 31, 1916 - July 29, 1979


• Vladimir Kosma Zworykin, physicist and inventor, a pioneer of television technology, invented a television transmitting and receiving system employing cathode ray tubes,and was instrumental in the practical development of television from the early thirties, July 30, 1889 - July 29, 1982


• Luis Buñuel Portoles, director and filmmaker, February 22, 1900 – July 29, 1983


• Raymond Hart Massey, actor, famous for his quintessential American roles, especially that of Abraham Lincoln, August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983


• James DAVID Graham Niven, Academy Award-winning actor, March 1, 1910 – July 29, 1983


• Fredrick Malcolm FRED Waring, musician, bandleader, and radio and TV personality, inventor of the Waring blender, awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor in 1983, June 9, 1900 - July 29, 1984


• 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


• Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz, aka Jerome Robbins, choreographer, awarded 5 Tony Awards, 2 Academy Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, the National Medal of the Arts, the French Legion of Honor, three Honorary Doctorates, and an Honorary Membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, October 11, 1918 – July 29, 1998

Today XCIX

Birthdays:

• Helen BEATRIX Potter, children's book author and illustrator, whose most famous character is Peter Rabbit, July 28, 1866 – December 22, 1943


• Marcel Duchamp, artist, painted Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, in which motion was expressed by successive superimposed images, July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968


• Hubert Prior Vallée, aka Rudy Vallee, singer, actor, musician, bandleader, and entertainer, July 28, 1901 - July 3, 1986


• Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, physicist, recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics, July 28, 1904 - January 6, 1990


• Earl Silas Tupper, inventor of Tupperware, July 28, 1907 – October 5, 1983


• Carmen Dragon, conductor, composer, and arranger, active in pops music conducting, composed scores for several films, July 28, 1914 – March 28, 1984


• Charles Hard Townes, Ph.D., physicist and educator, known for his work on the theory and application of the maser, and other work in quantum electronics connected with both maser and laser devices; shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics with N. G. Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov, 1915


• Frankie Yankovic, polka musician, July 15, 1915 Davis, West Virginia - October 14, 1998


• Baruch Samuel Blumberg, Ph.D., biochemist, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on infectious diseases; identified the Hepatitis B virus, and later developed the diagnostic test and vaccine for it; from 1999 to 2002, was the Director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, 1925


• Jacques d'Amboise, ballet dancer and choreographer, 1934


• Philip PHIL Proctor, comedian and voice actor, a member of The Firesign Theatre, 1940


• Riccardo Muti, conductor, Principal Conductor and Musical Director, Philharmonia Orchestra from 1973 to 1982, Musical Director, Philadelphia Orchestra from 1980 to 1992, and Musical Director, La Scala from 1986 to 2005, 1941


• Michael Bernard MIKE Bloomfield, musician, guitarist and composer, member of Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Electric Flag, played on albums with Bob Dylan and Al Kooper, July 28, 1943 – February 15, 1981


• Richard William RICK Wright, pianist, keyboard player, and composer with Pink Floyd, 1943


• James Robert JIM Davis, cartoonist, creator of Garfield, 1945


• Georgia Bright Engel, film and television actress, known as Georgette Franklin Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show, and for recurring roles on Coach and Everybody Loves Raymond, 1948


• Sally Ann Struthers, actress and voice actor, Gloria Bunker Stivic on All in the Family; has a recurring role on Gilmore Girls, 1948


• Stephen Ross Porter, aka Steve Peregrin Took, named himself after a hobbit, musician, drummer for Tyrannosaurus Rex, July 28, 1949 – October 27, 1980


• Vida Rochelle Blue, Jr., MLB starting pitcher for 17 years; in 1971, had a 24 - 8 record, struck out 301 batters, and won the Cy Young and MVP awards; was the starting pitcher for the AL in the 1971 All-Star Game, and for the NL in the 1978 All-Star Game; 1949


• Steven J. STEVE Morse, rock guitarist, played for the Dixie Dregs, Kansas and Deep Purple, and as a solo artist, in a career encompassing rock, country, funk, jazz, classical, and fusions of these genres, 1954


• Terrance Stanley TERRY Fox, CC, humanitarian, athlete, and cancer treatment activist, famous for his Marathon of Hope, a cross-Canada run to raise money for cancer research, running with only one leg, July 28, 1958 – June 28, 1981

RIP:

• Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, dramatist, best remembered for the many works of fiction which have been woven around his life story, March 6, 1619 – July 28, 1655


• Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, nicknamed Il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest"), priest, Baroque music composer, and violinist, March 4, 1678 – July 28, 1741


• Johann Sebastian Bach, composer and organist, listen to his music!, March 21, 1685 - July 28, 1750


• Allvar Gullstrand, ophthalmologist, awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, June 5, 1862 – July 28, 1930


• Leila Marie Koerber, aka Marie Dressler, Academy Award-winning actress, November 9, 1868 - July 28, 1934


• Otto Hahn, Ph.D, chemist, pioneer in the field of radioactivity, awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, March 8, 1879 – July 28, 1968


• Myril Hoag, MLB outfielder from 1931 to 1945, AL All-Star in 1939, March 9, 1908 - July 28, 1971


• Helen Traubel, operatic soprano, best known for Wagnerian, roles, especially that of Brünnhilde, June 16, 1899-July 28, 1972


• Trygve Magnus Haavelmo, economist, awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Economics, December 13, 1911 – July 28, 1999


• Archer John Porter Martin, biochemist, specializing in techniques that laid the foundation for chromatography, awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, March 1, 1910 - July 28, 2002

Today XCVIII

Birthdays:

• Jeremiah Dixon, surveyor and astronomer, worked with Charles Mason in determining the Mason-Dixon line, July 27, 1733 – January 22, 1779


• Mauro Giuliani, guitarist and composer, July 27, 1781 – May 8, 1828


• Alexandre Dumas, fils, author and playwright, July 27, 1824 – November 27, 1895


• Vásárosnaményi Báró Eötvös Loránd, aka Loránd Eötvös, physicist, known for his experimental work on gravity, July 27, 1848 - April 8, 1919


• Giosuè Carducci, poet and teacher, awarded the 1906 Nobel Prize in Literature, July 27, 1835 – February 16, 1907


• ENRIQUE Costanzo GRANADOS y Campiña, composer and pianist of classical music, and painter, July 27, 1867 – March 24, 1916


• Ernő Dohnányi, aka Ernst von Dohnányi, conductor, composer, and pianist, July 27, 1877 – February 9, 1960


• Hans Fischer, M.D., organic chemist, awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, July 27, 1881 – March 31, 1945


• Sir Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland, aircraft designer, July 27, 1882 - May 21, 1965


• Leo Ernest "Leo the Lip" Durocher, MLB infielder and manager, with 2,008 career victories; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994, July 27, 1905 — October 7, 1991


• Mario del Monaco, tenor, July 27, 1915 - October 16, 1982


• Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah KEENAN Wynn, character actor, July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986


• Leonard Rose, Grammy award-winning cellist and teacher , July 27, 1918 – November 16, 1984


• Choi Yeong-eui, aka Choi Bae-dal, aka Masutatsu Oyama, martial artist, founder of Kyokushinkai, July 27, 1923 - July 27, 1923


• Vincent Canby, film critic, July 27, 1924 – September 15, 2000


• Jerry Van Dyke, comedian and actor, 1931


• Ernest GARY Gygax, author/co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, 1938


• Peggy Gale Fleming, figure skater; in 1968, won an Olympic gold medal, 1948


• Maureen Therese McGovern, singer and Broadway actress, 1949


• William Ray BILL Engvall, Jr., comedian, 1957


• Shea Matthew Hillenbrand, MLB first baseman/third baseman/DH, recently traded to the San Francisco Giants by the Toronto Blue Jays, 1975


• Alexander Emmanuel ALEX Rodríguez, MLB third baseman for the New York Yankees, 2003 and 2005 AL MVP, whose 10-year, $252 million dollar contract has left him open to criticism by fans and sportswriters whenever he isn't playing up to their expectations, 1975

RIP:

• John Dalton, chemist and physicist, advocate of the atomic theory, September 6, 1766 – July 27, 1844


• Emil Theodor Kocher, awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland, August 25, 1841 – July 27, 1917


• Dante Michelangelo Benvenuto FERRUCCIO Busoni, composer, pianist, music teacher, and conductor, April 1, 1866 – July 27, 1924


• Gertrude Stein, writer, poet, feminist, and playwright, February 3, 1874 - July 27, 1946


• Charles Benjamin BABE Adams, MLB right-handed pitcher from 1906 to 1926, May 18, 1882 - July 27, 1968


• William Wyler, Oscar-winning film director, July 1, 1902 – July 27, 1981


• James Neville Mason, actor, May 15, 1909 – July 27, 1984


• Aleksandr Danilovich Aleksandrov, Ph.D., mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and mountaineer, August 4, 1912–July 27, 1999


• Leon Russell Wilkeson, musician, bass guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 until his death, April 2, 1952 - 27 July 27, 2001


• John Alec Entwistle, aka "The Ox", multi-instrumental musician, songwriter, and artist, bass guitar player for The Who, October 9, 1944 – June 27, 2002


• Leslie Townes BOB Hope KBE, KCSG, entertainer, May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003

Today XCVII

Birthdays:

• John Field, composer and pianist, first composer to write nocturnes, July 26, 1782 – January 23, 1837


• Auguste Marie François Beernaert, statesman, shared the 1909 Nobel Peace Prize with Paul d'Estournelles de Constant, July 26, 1829 – October 6, 1912


• George Bernard Shaw, playwright, winner of the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature and the Academy Award in 1938 for Pygmalion, July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950


• Dr. Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky, conductor, Musical Director, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra from 1917 to 1920, and Music Director, Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949, July 26, 1874 – June 4, 1951


• Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961


• Samuel Pond "Sad Sam" Jones, MLB starting pitcher from 1914 to 1935; in 1923, he pitched a no-hitter, and finished 21-8 with a 3.63 ERA,,July 26, 1892 - July 6, 1966


• Aldous Leonard Huxley, writer, known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays; also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts, July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963


• Vivian Roberta Jones, aka Vivian Vance, actress and singer, known for her role as Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy, and other second banana roles on The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy; first person to win the Best Supporting Actress Emmy, July 26, 1909 – August 17, 1979


• William Blake McEdwards, aka Blake Edwards, actor, script-writer, film director, and producer, 1922


• Jason Nelson Robards, Jr., theatre, film, and television actor; won the 1959 Tony Award for Best Actor for The Disenchanted, the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for All the President's Men in 1976 and Julia in 1977, and the Emmy for Inherit the Wind in 1988, July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000


• James HOYT Wilhelm, MLB relief pitcher, threw a no-hitter in 1958; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985, July 26, 1922 - August 23, 2002


• Stanley Kubrick, Academy Award-winning film director and producer, July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999


• Robert Von BOBBY Hebb, singer and songwriter, known for his 1966 recording of Sunny, July 26, 1938 - November 23, 1963


• Alfred Jesse Smith, aka Brenton Wood, singer-songwriter, known for his two 1967 hits: The Oogum Boogum Song and Gimme Little Sign, 1941


• Sir Michael Philip MICK Jagger, rock musician, actor, songwriter, and record and film producer, lead singer and co-founder of The Rolling Stones, 1943


• Ilyena Lydia Mironova, aka Dame Helen Mirren, DBE, stage, television, and movie actress, 1945


• Roger Meddows-Taylor, aka Roger Taylor, drummer and backing vocalist for Queen, 1949


• Nana Tucker, aka Nana Visitor, actress, Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. 1957


• Rick Bragg, writer, won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing in 1996 for his work at the New York Times, 1959


• Kevin Spacey Fowler, aka Kevin Spacey, film and stage actor, and theatre director; won 1995 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects, and 1999 Academy Award for Best Actor for American Beauty, 1959


• Sandra Annette Bullock, film actress, 1964


• Kate Beckinsale, actress, 1973

RIP:

• Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege, mathematician, logician, and philosopher, helped found modern mathematical logic and analytic philosophy, November 8, 1848 – July 26, 1925


• Winsor McCay, artist and pioneer in the art of comic strips and animation; known for the newspaper comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, and the animated cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur, September 26, 1867 – July 26, 1934


• Frank Henry Loesser, composer and lyricist, June 29, 1910 - July 26, 1969


• Diane Nemerov Arbus, photographer, March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971


• William AVERELL Harriman, politician, businessman and diplomat, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, November 15, 1891 – July 26, 1986


• Mary Esther Wells, soul, R&B, and pop singer, one of the signature voices of the Motown sound, most famous for My Guy, May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992

Today XCVI

Birthdays:

• Frederick MAXFIELD Parrish, painter and illustrator, July 25, 1870 - March 30, 1966


• Alfredo Casella, composer and piano teacher,re-populizer of Vivaldi's work, July 25, 1883 - March 5, 1947


• Walter Brennan, character actor, the first actor to win three Academy Awards, and the only person to have won three Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor; starred in the TV series The Real McCoys, July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974


• Eric Hoffer, social writer and philosopher, produced ten books, and, in February, 1983, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom , July 25, 1902 – May 21, 1983


• Elias Canetti, novelist, awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature, July 25, 1905 – August 14, 1994


• John Cornelius JOHNNY Hodges, alto saxophonist and lead player of Duke Ellington's saxophone section, July 25, 1906 - May 11, 1970


• Rosalind Elsie Franklin, physical chemist and crystallographer, made important contributions to the understanding of the fine structures of DNA, viruses, coal and graphite; best known for her contribution to the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953; there is no doubt that Rosalind Franklin's experimental data were used by Crick and Watson to build their model of DNA in 1953, July 25, 1920 – 16 April 16, 1958


• Estelle Scher, aka Estelle Getty, actress, played Harvey Fierstein's mother on Broadway in Torch Song Trilogy; best known for her role as Sophia on The Golden Girls, 1925


• Kathleen Stewart, aka Maureen Forrester CC, operatic contralto, 1930


• Iman Abdulmajid, model and actress, wife of David Bowie, 1955


• Alain Robidoux, professional snooker player, 1960


• Julian Michael Hodgson, chess player, International Grandmaster and former British Chess Champion, 1963


• Illeana Hesselberg, aka Illeana Douglas, actress, writer, director, and producer, 1965


• Linda Ann Hopkins Shapiro, aka Tera Patrick, actress, 1976


• Louise Joy Brown, world's first baby to be conceived by in vitro fertilisation, 1978


• Allister Carter, professional snooker player, 1979

RIP:

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, and philosopher, one of the founders of the Romantic Movement in England, and one of the Lake PoetsOctober 21, 1772 – July 25, 1834


• Charles Macintosh, chemist, inventor of waterproof fabrics; the Mackintosh raincoat is named after him, December 29, 1766 – July 25, 1843


• Ugo Cerletti, neurologist, developed the method of electroconvulsive therapy in psychiatry, September 26, 1877 - July 25, 1963


• Leroy Robertson, composer and music educator, December 21, 1896 – July 25, 1971


• Louis Stephen St. Laurent, baptized Louis-Étienne St-Laurent, PC, CC, QC, BA, LL.L, DCL, LL.D, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada February 1, 1882 – July 25, 1973


• Lester Anthony Minnelli, aka Vincente Minnelli, director, February 28, 1903 – July 25, 1986


• William BEN Hogan, professional golfer, August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997


• John Richard Schlesinger CBE, film director, February 16, 1926 – July 25, 2003


• Albert Mangelsdorff, jazz trombonist, famous for his distinctive technique of playing multiphonics, September 5, 1928 – July 25, 2005

Today XCV

Birthdays:

• Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Ponte Palacios y Blanco, known as "El Libertador," South American independentist leader, credited with leading the fight for independence in what are now the countries of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Bolivia, President of Bolivia from 1825 to 1826, July 24, 1783 - December 17, 1830


• Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, aka Jean-Nicolas Nicollet, geographer and mathematician, known for mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin during the 1830's, July 24, 1786 – September 11, 1843


• Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, aka Alexandre Dumas, père, writer, best known for his numerous historical novels, such as The Count of Monte Cristo; also wrote plays and magazine articles, and was a prolific correspondent, July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870


• Adolphe Charles Adam, composer and music critic, July 24, 1803 – May 3, 1856


• Friedrich Hermann Schottky, mathematician, worked on elliptic, abelian, and theta functions, and invented Schottky groups, July 24, 1851 - August 12, 1935


• Henrik Pontoppidan, realist writer, who shared the 1917 Nobel Prize for Literature with Karl Gjellerup, July 24, 1857 – August 21, 1943


• Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, aka Lord Dunsany, writer and dramatist, known for his work in fantasy and horror, July 24, 1878 – October 25, 1957


• Ernest Bloch, teacher and composer, the first Musical Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music, July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959


• Amelia Mary Earhart, aviator and early female pilot who mysteriously disappeared in 1937, over the Pacific Ocean during a circumnavigational flight, July 24, 1897 – missing as of July 2, 1937


• Geswanouth Slahoot aka Dan Slaholt aka Chief Dan George, chief of the Tsleil-Waututh, a Salish First Nations people, and actor; at age 71, won several awards for his role in Little Big Man, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, continued to act in movies, television, and stage, July 24, 1899 – September 23, 1981


• Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams, jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter, rose to prominence as a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra, July 24, 1910 - 1985


• John Dann [John D.] MacDonald, writer, known for his series of detective novels featuring Travis McGee; named a grand master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1972; won the American Book Award in 1980, July 24, 1916 – December 28, 1986


• Robert Joseph Farnon, composer, conductor, musical arranger, and trumpet player, July 24, 1917 – April 22, 2005


• Ruggiero Ricci, violin virtuoso, famous for his performances and recordings of Paganini, 1918


• Bella Savitsky Abzug, political figure, attorney, and a leader of the women's movement, member of the House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977, July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998


• Oriana Fallaci, journalist, author, and political interviewer, 1929


• Patrick 'Pat' Oliphant, syndicated political cartoonist, 1935


• Ruth Buzzi, actor and comedian of theatre, film, and television, known for her performances on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, 1936


• Charles Goddard, aka Mark Goddard, actor, known as Major Don West in the Lost in Space TV series, and special education teacher, 1936


• Chris Sarandon, actor; in his teens, he played drums and sang back-up with The Teen Tones, 1942


• Robert Hays, actor, 1947


• Peter Serkin, pianist, son of pianist Rudolf Serkin, 1947


• Michael Richards, actor, comedian, writer, and producer, 1949


• Linda Jean Córdoba Carter, aka Lynda Carter, actress and voice actor, known for her title role in Wonder Woman, 1951


• Gus Van Sant, Jr., film director, photographer, musician, and author, 1952


• Pam Tillis, country music singer and actress, daughter of singer Mel Tillis, 1957


• Kadeem Hardison, actor, 1965


• Stephanie Adams, model, the first Playboy Playmate to come out as a lesbian; advocate on LGBT issues and a spirituality author, 1970


• Nathan Louis 'Nate' Bump, MLB relief pitcher for the Florida Marlins, 1976


• José Rafael Valverde, MLB relief pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks, 1979


• Gauge, actress and exotic dancer, 1980


• Summer Glau, dancer, classically trained as a ballerina, and actress, known for her role as River Tam in Firefly and Serenity, 1981


• Anna Helene Paquin, actress, won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Piano; plays Rogue in the X-Men movies, 1982


• Teagan Presley, actress, 1985

RIP:

• Benedetto Marcello, composer, writer, advocate, magistrate, and teacher, July 31 or August 1, 1686 - July 24, 1739


• Constance Campbell Bennett, actress, October 22, 1904 - July 24, 1965


• Sir James Chadwick, physicist; for his discovery of the neutron, was awarded the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society in 1932, and the 1935 Nobel Prize for Physics, October 20, 1891 – July 24, 1974


• Richard Henry "Peter" Sellers, CBE, comedian, actor, and performer, September 8, 1925 – July 24, 1980


• Fritz Albert Lipmann, biochemist, a co-discoverer in 1945 of coenzyme A; awarded half the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; professor of biological chemistry at Harvard Medical School; awarded the National Medal of Science in 1966, June 12, 1899 – July 24, 1986


• Icek-Hersz Zynger, aka Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer of both short stories and novels, awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize in Literature, November 21, 1902 or July 14, 1904 - July 24, 1991


• George Rodger, photojournalist, noted for his work in Africa, and for taking the first photographs of the death camps at Bergen-Belsen at the end of the Second World War, 1908 - July 24, 1995


• Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll CH OBE FRS, epidemiologist, physiologist, and a pioneer in the research linking smoking to health problems; with Ernst Wynder, Bradford Hill and Evarts Graham, he was the first in the modern world to prove that smoking caused lung cancer and increased the risk of heart disease, October 28, 1912 – July 24, 2005

Today XCIV

Birthdays:

• Etienne-Louis Malus, officer, engineer, physicist, and mathematician, whose mathematical work was concerned almost entirely with the study of light, July 23, 1775 – February 24, 1812


• Franz Adolf Berwald, Romantic composer, July 23, 1796 - April 3, 1868


• Edouard Judas Colonne, violinist, July 23, 1838 – March 28, 1910


• Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, aka Emil Jannings, actor, winner of the first Academy Award for Best Actor, July 23, 1884 - January 3, 1950


• Walter Hermann Schottky, physicist, invented the screen-grid vacuum tube and the tetrode, July 23, 1886 – March 4, 1976


• Raymond Thornton Chandler, author of crime stories and novels, and creator of Philip Marlowe, July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959


• Arthur Veary Treacher, actor, played a butler in several films; Merv Griffin's announcer and sidekick on the The Merv Griffin Show, July 23, 1894 - December 14, 1975


• Vladimir Prelog, chemist, awarded the 1975 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, July 23, 1906 – January 7, 1998


• Michael Wilding, commercial artist and actor, July 23, 1912 – July 8, 1979


• Harold Henry PEE WEE Reese, MLB shortstop for the Dodgers from 1940 to 1958; ten-time All Star In; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984; TV play-by-play announcer, July 23, 1918 - August 14, 1999


• Luis Aloma WITTO Barba, MLB relief pitcher, July 23, 1923 - April 7, 1996


• Hubert Selby, Jr., writer, author of Last Exit to Brooklyn, July 23, 1928 – April 26, 2004


• Bernard Whalen BERT Convy, game show host and panelist, actor, and singer, July 23, 1933 – July 15, 1991


• Donald Scott DON Drysdale, MLB right-handed pitcher; in 1962, won 25 games and the Cy Young Award; set a record with 58 consecutive scoreless innings in 1968; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, July 23, 1936 – July 3, 1993


• Judith Carr, aka Juliet Anderson, aka Aunt Peg, actress, 1938


• John Donald DON Imus, Jr., radio talk show host, 1940


• Tony Joe White, singer-songwriter and guitarist, best known for Polk Salad Annie and Rainy Night in Georgia, 1943


• Gardner Dozois, science fiction author and editor; editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004; has won a record 15 Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor; writing mostly in shorter forms, he has won the Nebula Award for best short story twice, 1947


• David Albert Cook, aka David Essex, actor and singer, 1947


• Edie McClurg, character and voice actress, 1951


• Theo van Gogh, film director, television producer, publicist, and actor, whose great-grandfather was art dealer Theo van Gogh, brother of Vincent van Gogh; working from a script written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, created the 10-minute movie Submission, dealing with the topic of violence against women in Islamic societies; after the movie was released in 2004, both van Gogh and Hirsi Ali received death threats; an alleged terrorist murdered van Gogh in the early morning of Tuesday November 2, 2004, July 23, 1957 – November 2, 2004


• Woodrow Tracy WOODY Harrelson, actor and outspoken supporter for the legalization of marijuana and hemp in the U.S., 1961


• Robert Edward ED Forchion, Jr., marijuana activist, political activist, and civil rights activist, 1964


• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Academy Award-winning actor, 1967


• Charisma Lee Carpenter, actress, best known as Cordelia Chase in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, 1970


• Alison Krauss, bluegrass/country singer and fiddle player, has won 20 Grammy Awards, 1971


• Anthony NOMAR Garciaparra, MLB first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers; previously played shortstop and third base; AL Rookie of the Year in 1997; AL Batting Champion in 1999 and 2000; six-time All-Star, 1973


• Monica Samille Lewinsky, former White House intern, 1973


• Judit Polgár, chess player, easily the strongest female player in history; in 1991, earned the title of Grandmaster, 1976


• Daniel Jacob Radcliffe, actor, known for his role as Harry Potter, 1989

RIP:

• Domenico Scarlatti, Baroque composer, October 26, 1685 – July 23, 1757


• Sir William Ramsay, chemist who discovered the noble gases; received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, October 2, 1852 – July 23, 1916


• José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, aka Francisco PANCHO Villa, one of the foremost leaders and best known generals of the Mexican Revolution, June 5, 1878 – July 20, 1923


• David Llewelyn Wark [D. W.] Griffith, film director, January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948


• Robert Joseph Flaherty, filmmaker, directed and produced the first commercially successful feature length documentary film, Nanook of the North in 1922, February 16, 1884 - July 23, 1951


• Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State from 1933-1944, awarded the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize, October 2, 1871 – July 23, 1955


• Edward MONTGOMERY Clift, actor, October 17, 1920 - July 23, 1966


• Sir Henry Hallett Dale OM GBE FRS, neuroscientist, shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Otto Loewi, for his study of acetylcholine as agent in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses, June 9, 1875 – July 23, 1968


• Emmett Evan VAN Heflin, Jr., film and theater actor, won the 1942 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, December 13, 1910 – July 23, 1971


• Edward Vernon EDDIE Rickenbacker, race car driver, automotive designer, and World War I hero/fighter pilot, October 8, 1890 – July 27, 1973


• Keith Godchaux, musician, former pianist for the Grateful Dead, July 19, 1948 – 23 July 1980


• Victor VIC Morrow, actor, February 14, 1929 - July 23, 1982


• Georges Auric, composer, February 15, 1899 – July 23, 1983


• Reginald LEO McKern, AO, stage, film, and television, made several appearances as Number Two on The Prisoner; was the murderous holy man in The Beatles' movie Help!, March 16, 1920 – July 23, 2002


• Rabbi Dr. Chaim Tzvi Potok, author and rabbi, February 17, 1929 - July 23, 2002

Today XCIII

Birthdays:

• Gustav Ludwig Hertz, physicist, awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics for studies in cooperation with James Franck of electrons passing through gas; the Franck-Hertz experiment was an early physics experiment that provided support for the Bohr model of the atom, a precursor to quantum mechanics, July 22, 1887 – October 30, 1975


• Selman Abraham Waksman, biochemist, famous for his research into organic substances and their decomposition, which in 1943 led to the discovery of streptomycin; awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his lifetime of achievements, July 22, 1888 – August 16, 1973


• Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy, matriarch, July 22, 1890 – January 22, 1995


• James Whale, film director, best known for his work in the horror genre, making such pictures as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man, July 22, 1889 – May 29, 1957


• Stephen Vincent Benét, author, poet, short story writer, and novelist, known for his narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943


• Roger Maxwell "Doc" Cramer, MLB center fielder, played for four AL teams from 1929 to 1948, July 22, 1905 – September 9, 1990


• Amy Vanderbilt, authority on etiquette; in 1952, she published Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette, July 22, 1908 - December 27, 1974


• Margaret Whiting, 1940's and 1950's pop music singer, 1924


• Dallas Frederick Burroughs, aka Orson Bean, film, television, stage actor, and author, known as a long-time panelist on To Tell the Truth, 1928


• Louise Fletcher, actress, known for her Best Actress Oscar-winning role as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Kai Winn Adami in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,1934


• Terence Stamp, actor, I've seen him in The Collector, Modesty Blaise, Superman II, and Elektra, 1938


• George Alexander 'Alex' Trebek, television personality, best known as the host of Jeopardy!, 1940


• George Clinton, musician, one of the pioneers of funk, the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic, 1941


• Estelle Bennett, singer, member of the Ronettes, 1944


• Richard 'Rick' Davies, musician, founder and member Supertramp, for whom he played keyboards and harmonica, and composed many of their songs, 1944


• Albert Walter "Sparky" Lyle, former MLB left-handed relief pitcher, AL All-Star in 1973, 1976, and 1977, 1977 AL Cy Young Award winner, 1944


• Daniel Lebern Glover, actor, film director, and activist, 1946


• Mireille Mathieu, singer, 1946


• Albert Lawrence Einstein, aka Albert Brooks, actor, writer, comedian, and director, 1947


• Donald Hugh 'Don' Henley, musician, drummer and one of the lead singers and songwriters of the Eagles, 1947


• Alan Menken, Broadway and film music composer, 1949


• Al Di Meola, musician, jazz fusion guitarist, 1954


• William "Willem" Dafoe, Jr., film and theatre actor, a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group, 1955


• Emily Saliers, musician, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, member of the Indigo Girls, 1963


• Bonita Melody Lysette 'Bonnie' Langford, actress, dancer, and entertainer, first achieved fame as a child actor, in the TV series Just William and the film Bugsy Malone, appeared in Doctor Who as the Doctor's companion Mel; stage work includes Peter Pan: The Musical, Cats and The Pirates of Penzance, 1964


• Patrick Laborteaux, actor, Lt. Cmdr. Bud Roberts on JAG, 1965


• David Wayne Spade, actor, comedian, and producer, 1965


• Michael John 'Mike' Sweeney, MLB first baseman/DH, played his entire career for the Kansas City Royals, AL All-Star from 2000 to 2003, and in 2005, 1973


• Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright, singer-songwriter, son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, 1973


• Kinzie Kenner, actress and model, 1984

RIP:

• Giuseppe Piazzi, astronomer, discovered asteroid Ceres, July 7, 1746 - July 22, 1826


• Sir William Randal Cremer, MP and pacifist, awarded the 1903 Nobel Peace Prize, March 18, 1828 – July 22, 1908


• Sir Sandford Fleming, engineer and inventor, known for the introduction of Universal Standard Time, Canada's first postage stamp, a huge body of surveying and map making, engineering much of the Intercolonial Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway, a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada and founder of the Royal Canadian Institute, January 7, 1827 – July 22, 1915


• Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., Broadway impresario who achieved fame by perfecting the United States revue, best known for the Ziegfeld Follies, March 21, 1869 – July 22, 1932


• William Lyon Mackenzie King, PC, LL.B, Ph.D, MA, BA, tenth Prime Minister of Canada, December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950


• Carl August Sandburg, poet, historian, novelist, balladeer, and folklorist, won two Pulitzer Prizes, January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967


• Martti Talvela, [6' 7" tall] operatic bass, February 4, 1935 – July 22, 1989


• Hermann Prey, baritone and teacher, July 11, 1929 – July 22, 1998

Today XCII

Birthdays:

• Alexander the Great, king of Macedon, conqueror, July 21, 356 BC — June 11, 323 BC


• Jean-Felix Picard, astronomer and priest, July 21, 1620 – July 12, 1682


• Henri Victor Regnault, French chemist and physicist, best known for his careful measurements of the thermal properties of gases; designed sensitive thermometers, hygrometers, and calorimeters, and measured the specific heats of many substances and the coefficient of thermal expansion of gases, in the course of which he discovered that not all gases expand equally when heated and that Boyle's Law is only an approximation, especially at temperatures near a substance's boiling point, July 21, 1810 – January 19, 1878


• Ernest Miller "Papa" Hemingway, novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature,, July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961


• Herbert Marshall McLuhan CC, educator, philosopher, and scholar, professor of English literature, literary critic, and communications theorist, one of the founders of the study of media ecology, July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980


• Isaac Stern, violin virtuoso, July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001


• Rudolph 'Rudy' Arthur Marcus, chemist, awardeded the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his theory of Electron transfer, 1923


• Katherine Laverne Starks, aka Kay Starr, jazz and popular singer, 1922


• Jesse Donald 'Don' Knotts, comedic actor, best known as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, a role for which he earned five Emmy Awards, and as Ralph Furley on Three's Company, July 21, 1924 – February 24, 2006


• Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, BA, LL.D, film director, producer, and actor, 1926


• Edward Herrmann, film and television character actor, and narrator, 1943


• Tony Scott, film director, 1944


• Steven Demetre Georgiou, aka Cat Stevens, musician and singer-songwriter, 1948


• Garretson Beekman 'Garry' Trudeau, M.F.A., cartoonist, creator of Doonesbury; in 1975, became the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning; other awards include the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award for 1994, and their 1995 Reuben Award, 1948


• Robin McLaurin Williams, Academy Award-winning actor and comedian, 1951


• Howard Norman 'Howie' Epstein, musician, bass guitarists, July 21, 1955 - February 23, 2003


• Jonathan 'Jon' Lovitz, comedic actor and voice actor, 1957


• Carsten Charles [C. C.] Sabathia, MLB starting pitcher, currently plays for the Cleveland Indians, 2003 and 2004 AL All-Star, 1980

RIP:

• Robert Burns, poet and songwriter, January 25, 1759 – July 21, 1796


• Josef Strauss, composer, son of Johann Strauss I and brother of Johann Strauss II and Eduard Strauss, August 20, 1827 - July 22, 1870


• Louis Victor Jules Vierne, organist and composer, October 8, 1870 – June 2, 1937


• Claus Philipp Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, German army officer, one of the leading figures of the July 20 Plot of 1944 to kill the Führer, November 15, 1907 – July 21, 1944


• James Emory 'Jimmie' Foxx, MLB first baseman; hit 58 home runs in 1932; was AL Batting Champion in 1933 and 1938; won the 1933 Triple Crown; won MVP awards in 1932, 1933 and 1938; finished his 20-year, 2317-game career with 534 home runs, 1922 runs batted in, and a .325 batting average; had 12 consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951, October 22, 1907 – July 21, 1967


• Albert John Lutuli, teacher and politician, awarded the 1960 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the ANC and its fight against apartheid, 1898 – 21 July 1967


• Philip St. John Basil Rathbone, actor, appeared in Shakespearean roles on the British stage, and in silent movies, famous for playing suave villains in many swashbucklers of the 1930's, starred in fourteen Sherlock Holmes movies, June 13, 1892 – July 21, 1967


• Ruth St. Denis, dancer and choreographer, January 20, 1878 – July 21, 1968


• Dave Garroway, founding host of the Today Show, one of the pioneers of television talk, July 13, 1913 - July 21, 1982


• Alan Bartlett Shepard, Jr., Rear Admiral, USN, Ret., the first U.S. astronaut in space, November 18, 1923 – July 21, 1998


• Robert Young, actor, known for his roles in Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby, M.D.; he won Emmy awards for both, February 22, 1907 - July 21, 1998


• Walter Matthew 'Matt' Jefferies, aviation and mechanical artist, set designer, and writer, designed the original starship Enterprise interiors & exterior, for the Star Trek TV series; also responsible for designing props (including phasers), sets, and the Klingon logo and D-7 battle cruiser; years later, his concept sketches were used to design the spaceship Enterprise, the U.S.S. Pasteur, the Daedalus class, and pre-Federation Vulcan ships; Jefferies tubes are named in his honor, August 12, 1921 - July 21, 2003


• Jerrald King 'Jerry' Goldsmith, film and TV score composer, nominated for eighteen Academy Awards, winning one for The Omen; won five Emmy Awards, February 10, 1929 – July 21, 2004


• Edward B. Lewis, geneticist, awarded the 1995 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, May 20, 1918 – July 21, 2004


• John William "Long John" Baldry, blues musician and voice actor, January 12, 1941 – July 21, 2005

Today XCI - cumpleaños felices, Carlos Santana

Birthdays:

• Ivan Vučetić, aka Juan Vucetich, anthropologist and police official who pioneered the use of fingerprinting, July 20, 1858 – January 25, 1925


• Antoine Louis Claude Destutt, comte de Tracy, aristocrat and philosopher who coined the term "ideology," July 20, 1754 - March 9, 1836


• Gregor Johann Mendel, abbot, often called the "father of genetics" for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants; he demonstrated that the inheritance of traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him, July 20, 1822 – January 6, 1884


• Erik Axel Karlfeldt, poet, awarded Nobel Prize in Literature posthumously in 1931; he had refused it in 1918, July 20, 1864 – April 8, 1931


• Theodosia Burr Goodman, aka Theda Bara, silent film actress, July 29, 1885 - 7 April 1955


• László Moholy-Nagy, painter and photographer, and professor in the Bauhaus school, July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946


• Tadeus Reichstein, chemist, succeeded, independently of a team in Britain, in synthesizing vitamin C; with E. C. Kendall and P. S. Hench, he was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for their work which resulted in the isolation of cortisone, July 20, 1897 – August 1, 1996


• Henry Emmett HEINIE Manush, MLB player, American League Batting Champion in 1926, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964. ,July 20, 1901–May 12, 1971


• Jimmy Kennedy, songwriter, July 20, 1902 - April 6, 1984


• Vilém Tauský< conductor and composer, student of Leos Janacek, July 20, 1910 - March 16, 2004


• Cindy Walker, singer/songwriter and dancer, July 20, 1918 - March 23, 2006


• Sir Edmund Percival Hillary KG ONZ KBE, mountaineer and explorer; he and Tenzing Norgay were the first men proven to reach the 29,028-foot summit of Mount Everest, 1919


• Mort Garson, pianist, arranger, and composer, 1924


• Lola Albright, singer and actress, 1925


• Nam June Paik, artist, pioneered video art, July 20, 1932 - January 29, 2006


• Rex Williams, former professional snooker player, 1933


• Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE, stage and TV actress, known as Mrs. Peel in The Avengers, 1938


• Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, aka Natalie Wood, actress , July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981


• Judy Cohen, aka Judy Chicago, feminist artist, author, and educator, 1939


• Pedro Oliva López, aka , former MLB right fielder, played his entire career in the AL Minnesota Twins between 1962 and 1976, 1964 Rookie of the Year, 8-time All-Star from 1964 to 1971, 3-time batting title winner, 1964, 1965, and 1971, 1966 Gold Glove Award winner, 1940


• Kim Carnes, singer-songwriter, 1945


• John Lodge< musician, bass guitar player for the Moody Blues, 1945


• Gerd Binnig, physicist, shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physics with Heinrich Rohrer for their invention of the scanning tunneling microscope; Ernst Ruska won the other half of the prize, 1947


• Carlos Augusto Alves Santana, Grammy Award-winning musician, guitarist, and songwriter; Carlos is one of those few musicians whose playing is recognizable after the first note is played; without Carlos, many of my geneartion would never have heard of congas or timbales, let alone a clavé beat; Carlos' recent collaboration albums, Supernatural, Shaman, and All That I Am, have been less and less satisfying to my ear; Viva Santana!, 1947


• Tantoo Cardinal, film and television actress, who played roles in many notable films and television series, 1950


• Thomas L. Friedman, journalist, columnist, and author, three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize; in 2004, awarded the Overseas Press Club Award for lifetime achievement, and the title, Order of the British Empire (OBE), by Queen Elizabeth II, 1953


• Charles Edward Johnson, Jr., MLB catcher, All-Star in 1997 and 2001, 4-time Gold Glove Award winner from 1995 to 1998, 1971


• Benjamin José BENGIE Molina, MLB catcher, currently with the Toronto Blue Jays, 2002 and 2003 Gold Glove winner, one of three brothers who are MLB catchers, 1974

RIP:

• Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, mathematician, made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them paving the way for the development of general relativity, September 17, 1826 - July 20, 1866


• William Cosmo Monkhouse, poet and critic, March 18, 1840 – July 20, 1901


• Andrey (Andrei) Andreyevich Markov, mathematician, best known for his work on theory of stochastic processes; his research later became known as Markov chains, June 14, 1856 – July 20, 1922


• José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, aka Francisco PANCHO Villa, one of the foremost leaders and best known generals of the Mexican Revolution, June 5, 1878 – July 20, 1923


• Guglielmo Marchese Marconi, GCVO, electrical engineer, known for the development of a practical wireless telegraphy system, the joint recipient of the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun, April 25, 1874 – July 20, 1937


• Mildred Harris, silent film actress, November 29, 1901 - July 20, 1944


• Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry, author and Symbolist poet; in addition to his fiction (poetry, drama, and dialogues), he also wrote many essays and aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events, October 30, 1871 – July 20, 1945


• Bruce Jun Fan Lee, martial artist and actor, perhaps the most influential, well-known, and celebrated martial artist of the 20th century, November 27, 1940 - July 20, 1973


• James Montgomery Doohan, Scotty!, character and voice actor; using his considerable vocal skills, Doohan devised the Vulcan and Klingon dialogue heard in Star Trek: The Motion Picture; later, professional linguists expanded Klingon into a fully constructed language with a working grammar, March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005


• Charles Chibitty, Comanche code talker who used his native language to relay messages for the Allies during World War II, November 20, 1921 – July 20, 2005

Today XC

Birthdays:

• Richard Leveridge, bass singer and composer of baroque music, July 19, 1670 - March 22, 1758


• John Martin, painter and engraver, July 19, 1789 – February 17, 1854


• Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt revolver, July 19, 1814 – January 10, 1862


• Edgar Degas, painter, sculptor, and draughtsman, one of the fathers of Impressionism, July 19, 1834 – September 27, 1917


• Charles Horace Mayo, surgeon and a co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, July 19, 1865 – May 26, 1939


• Max Fleischer, pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon, brought such characters as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen, responsible for follow the bouncing ball sing-along cartoons, produced the first sound animated cartoons in May 1924; Jack Kirby was an employee of Fleischer, July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972


• Archibald Joseph [A. J.] Cronin, novelist, author of The Citadel, July 19, 1896 – January 9, 1981


• Herbert Marcuse, philosopher and sociologist, July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979


• Marius Ugo Russo, MLB starting pitcher, played for the New York Yankees, July 19, 1914 – March 26, 2005


• Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, Ph.D., medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique, 1921


• Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona, aka Vikki Carr, singer, whose music genres have included jazz, pop, country, and Spanish-language, 1941


• Alan Gorrie, musician, founding member of the Average White Band, 1946


• Bernie Leadon, musician, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, a founding member of The Eagles, 1947


• Brian Harold May CBE, musician, guitarist and songwriter for Queen, 1947


• Allen Larkin Collins, musician, guitarist and songwriter, one of the founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, July 19, 1952 - January 23, 1990


• Atom Egoyan, OC, filmmaker, 1960


• Anthony Charles Edwards, actor, 1962


• Preston James Richard Wilson, outfielder for the Houston Astros, nephew and stepson of Mookie Wilson, 1974

RIP:

• Sarah Margaret Fuller, journalist, critic, and women's rights activist, May 23, 1810 - June 19, 1850


• Janusz Andrzej Zajdel, science fiction author, the second most popular Polish science-fiction writer after Stanislaw Lem, August 15, 1938 – July 19, 1985


• Elmer William Valo, MLB right fielder, coach, and scout, played in the major leagues for 20 years, March 5, 1921 - July 19, 1998


• Alan Lomax, folklorist and musicologist, one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recorded substantial interviews with many musicians, including Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Muddy Waters, and Jelly Roll Morton; in 2003, awarded a posthumous Grammy Trustees Award for his lifetime achievements, January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002

Today LXXXIX

Birthdays:

• Hermannus Contractus, monk, scholar, composer, and music theorist, July 18, 1013 – September 24, 1054


• William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist, famous for his satirical works, notably Vanity Fair, July 18, 1811 – December 24, 1863


• Pauline Garcia-Viardot, mezzo-soprano and composer, July 18, 1821 – May 18, 1910


• Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, physicist, awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on electromagnetic radiation, July 18, 1853 – February 4, 1928


• Chill Theodore Wills, actor, singer, and movie voice of Francis the Mule, July 18, 1903 – December 15, 1978


• Clifford Odets, playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester, July 18, 1906 - August 18, 1963


• Hume Blake Cronyn, OC , LL.D, stage and film actor, husband of the late actress Jessica Tandy, July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003


• Richard Bernard RED Skelton, clown, comedian, star of vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, clubs and casinos, painter, short story writer, and composer, July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997


• Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela OM, CC, AC, QC, anti-apartheid activist, first democratically-elected President of South Africa, recipient of the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, 1918


• John Herschel Glenn, Jr., astronaut, Marine Corps fighter pilot, ordained Presbyterian elder, corporate executive, and politician, 1921


• Kurt Masur, conductor, Principal Conductor, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra 1967–1972, Principal Conductor, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, 1970–1996, Musical Director, New York Philharmonic 1991–2002, Principal Conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra, 2000–present, Principal Conductor, Orchestre National de France, 2002-present, 1927


• Jalacy Hawkins, aka Screamin' Jay Hawkins, singer, famous for such songs as I Put a Spell on You, July 18, 1929 – February 12, 2000


• Burt Kwouk, actor, Cato in the Pink Panther films, Lin Futu in the Doctor Who serial Four to Doomsday, 1930


• Roald [Safran] Hoffmann, Ph.D., theoretical chemist, shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kenichi Fukui, awarded the Priestley Medal 1n 1990, 1937/li>
  
• Hunter Stockton Thompson, journalist and author, credited as the creator of gonzo journalism, July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005


• Paul Verhoeven, director, 1938


• James Bruderlin, aka James Brolin, television and film, character actor, producer, and director, 1940


• Joseph Paul JOE Torre, manager of the New York Yankees, former MLB catcher and NL manager, All-Star from 1963 to 1967, Gold Glove Award winner in 1965, 1971 NL Batting Champion; on May 7, 2006, won his 1,000th game as Yankees manager, 1940


• Martha Rose Reeves, R&B and soul singer, lead singer of Martha & the Vandellas, 1941


• Hartmut Michel, biochemist, received the 1988 Nobel Prize for Chemistry jointly with Johann Deisenhofer and Robert Huber, 1948


• Anne-Marie Johnson, actress, 1960


• Elizabeth McGovern, movie and theater actress, 1961


• Michael Lewis MIKE Greenwell, former MLB left fielder, All Star in 1988 and 1989, tit for the cycle on September 14, 1988, hit an inside-the-park grand slam on September 1, 1990, 1963


• Torii Kedar Hunter, MLB outfielder, currently plays for the Minnesota Twins, 5-time Gold Glove award winner, 1975


• Ben M. Sheets, MLB pitcher, currently plays for the Milwaukee Brewers, 1978

RIP:

• Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, artist, September 29, 1571 – July 18, 1610


• Jane Austen, novelist, December 16, 1775 – July 18, 1817


• Thomas Cook, travel agent, November 22, 1808 – July 18, 1892


• Vítězslav Novák, composer and teacher, December 5, 1870 – July 18, 1949


• Dr. Corneille Jean François Heymans, physiologist, awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for demonstrating how blood pressure and oxygen content of the blood are measured by the body and transmitted to the brain, March 28, 1892 – July 18, 1968


• Donnie Ray Moore, MLB relief pitcher; in a 14-season career, Moore posted a 43-40 record with 89 saves, 416 strikeouts, and a 3.67 ERA in 655 innings; All-Star in 1985, February 13, 1954 – July 18, 1989


• James Howard Hatfield, American author, wrote Fortunate Son, a book which alleges that George W. Bush received preferential treatment throughout his life; on July 18, 2001, his body was found by a hotel housekeeper, an apparent suicide; the mysterious events surrounding Hatfield's death, and the focus of his controversial work in life, have led to persistent allegations that his suicide was precipitated by reprisals from those whom he had embarrassed, January 7, 1958 - July 18, 2001


• Victor John Emery, Ph.D., theoretical physicist, specialist on superconductors and superfluidity, 1933 – July 18, 2002

Today LXXXVIII

Birthdays:

• Shmuel Yosef [S.Y.] Agnon, writer, awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature jointly with poet Nelly Sachs, July 17, 1888 – February 17, 1970


• Erle Stanley Gardner, lawyer and author of detective stories, creator of Perry Mason, July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970


• James Francis 'Jimmy' Cagney, Jr.,, film actor, July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986


• Art Linkletter, born Gordon Arthur Kelly, TV host and author, 1912


• Phyllis Ada Driver, aka Phyllis Diller, comedian, pianist, and painter, 1917


• Louis 'Lou' Boudreau, MLB shortstop, manager, and radio color commentator, 1948 AL MVP Award winner, 7-time All-Star, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970, July 17, 1917 - August 10, 2001


• Vince Guaraldi, jazz musician, pianist, and composer, known for composing music for the Peanuts animated cartoons, July 17, 1928 - February 6, 1976


• Carol Diahann Johnson, aka Diahann Carroll, actress and singer, 1935


• Johann Peter Schickele, composer, musical educator and parodist, known for his comedy music albums featuring music he wrote as P. D. Q. Bach, 1935


• Donald McNicol Sutherland OC, actor, 1935


• Spencer Davis, musician, founder of the Spencer Davis Group, 1939


• Ron Asheton, guitarist, bassist and co-songwriter with Iggy Pop for The Stooges, 1948


• Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler, musician, founding bassist for Black Sabbath, 1949


• Charley Steiner, sportscaster, 1949


• Lucie Desiree Arnaz, actress, the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz; in 1986, won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre; in 1993, won an Emmy Award for her documentary Lucy and Desi: A Home Movie, 1951


• Phoebe Laub, aka Phoebe Snow, singer-songwriter, 1952


• Nicolette Larson, singer, July 17, 1952 – December 16, 1997


• Joseph Michael [J. Michael] Straczynski, writer/producer of television series, novels, short stories, comic books, and radio dramas, playwright, journalist, and author of The Complete Book of Scriptwriting; was the creator, executive producer, and head writer for Babylon 5 and Crusade; awards include two Hugo Awards, the Ray Bradbury Award, a Saturn Award, the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation, the Eisner Award, the Inkpot Award, and three technical Emmy Awards, 1954


• Elizabeth Natalie "Bitty" Schram, actress, cried in front of manager Tom Hanks during a baseball game in A League of Their Own, played Sharona Fleming in Monk, 1968

RIP:

• Adam Smith, FRSE, political economist ["laissez-faire"] and moral philosopher, baptised June 5, 1723 – July 17, 1790


• Gaetano Maria, aka Aleardo Aleardi, poet, one of the Neo-romanticists, November 14, 1812 - July 17, 1878


• Jules Henri Poincaré, mathematician, theoretical physicist, and philosopher of science, his accomplishments are too numerous to record here, April 29, 1854 – July 17, 1912


• Eleanora Fagan Gough, aka Billie "Lady Day" Holiday, jazz singer, a beautiful and talented woman, who struggled against racism and sexism her entire career, and achieved fame despite a turbulent life, April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959


• Tyrus Raymond 'Ty' Cobb, MLB centre fielder; when he retired in 1928, he was the holder of ninety major league records; elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, AL Batting Champion 1907 - 1909, 1911 - 1915, and 1917 - 1919, AL Triple Crown in 1909, AL MVP in 1911, December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961


• John William Coltrane, jazz saxophonist and composer, his accomplishments are too numerous and his legacy too large to record here, September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967


• Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean, MLB pitcher, NL MVP in 1934, a season in which he had a 30–7 record with a 2.66 ERA, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, sportscaster, January 16, 1910 – July 17, 1974


• Boris Nikolaevich Delaunay, mathematician, worked in the fields of modern algebra, the geometry of numbers, and mathematical crystallography, March 15, 1890 – July 17, 1980


• Bryan "Chas" Chandler, musician, record producer, and manager, played bass guitar for The Animals, managed Jimi Hendrix and recruited musicians to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience, whose first two albums he produced, December 18, 1938 – July 17, 1996


• David Christopher Kelly CMG, employee of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, expert in biological warfare, and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq; his talk with a journalist about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq caused a major political scandal, and he was found dead days after appearing before a Parliamentary committee; the Hutton Inquiry, a public inquiry into his death, ruled that he had committed suicide; although suicide was officially accepted as the cause of death, some medical experts have raised doubts, suggesting that the evidence does not back this up, May 17, 1944 – July 17, 2003


• Rosalyn Tureck, pianist and harpsichordist, particularly associated with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, December 14, 1914 - July 17, 2003


• Lorenzo Aitken, aka Laurel Aitken, one of the originators of Jamaican ska music in the late 1950's, April 22, 1927 – July 17, 2005

Today LXXXVII

Birthdays:

• Eugène Ysaÿe, violinist, composer, and conductor, July 16, 1858 – May 12, 1931


• Ida B. Wells, later known as Ida Wells-Barnett, black civil rights advocate, who led a strong cause against lynching; she was a fearless anti-lynching crusader, suffragist, women's rights advocate, journalist and speaker, July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931


• Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen, explorer, leader of the Antarctic expedition of 1910–1912, which was the first to reach the South Pole, July 16, 1872 – June 18, 1928


• Percy Kilbride, character actor, July 16, 1888 - December 11, 1964


• Frederik Zernike, physicist, awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the phase contrast microscope, July 16, 1888 – March 10, 1966


• Joseph Jefferson "Shoeless Joe" Jackson, MLB left fielder; one of the greatest hitters of his era, he was one of eight players banished for life from professional baseball for his alleged participation in the Black Sox scandal, July 16, 1888 – December 5, 1951


• Trygve Halvdan Lie, politician, the first Secretary-General of the United Nations [1946 to 1952], July 16, 1896 – December 30, 1968


• Carmen Lombardo, musician and songwriter, the younger brother of bandleader Guy Lombardo; took flute lessons, and later learned to play saxophone, forming a band, with his brother Guy as conductor, which became The Royal Canadians in 1923, in which Carmen both sang and wrote music; he frequently collaborated with American composers and his music was recorded by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, and others, July 16, 1903 - April 17, 1971


• Orville Redenbacher, American farmer and businessman; in his spare time, he bred corn and developed several hybrid strands of corn designed to be eaten as popcorn, July 16, 1907 – September 19, 1995


• Ruby Katherine Stevens, aka Barbara Stanwyck, film and TV actress, July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990


• Virginia Katherine McMath, aka Ginger Rogers, actress and dancer, July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995


• Bowen Charlton "Sonny" Tufts III, film actor, July 16, 1911 - June 4, 1970


• Bernard Aloysius Kiernan "Barnard" Hughes, character actor in theater, film, and TV; I remember him as the family patriarch in the TV series The Cavanaughs, co-starring Christine Ebersole, July 16, 1915 – July 11, 2006


• Bess Myerson, the first Jew to win the Miss America pageant [1945]; appeared in various television shows in the 1950's and 1960's; became a social activist for civil rights, 1924


• Cal Tjader, jazz musician, played the vibes, and the drums, bongos, congas, timpani, and the piano, performing Latin jazz; although fusing jazz with Latin music is often categorized as Latin jazz (or, earlier, Afro-Cuban jazz), his music swung freely between both styles; won a Grammy in 1980, July 16, 1925 – May 5, 1982


• Irwin A. Rose, Ph.D., biologist; along with Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1926


• Leslie Merrill Behunin, Jr., aka Buddy Merrill, musician, guitarist on The Lawrence Welk Show, 1936


• Desmond Adolphus Dacres, aka Desmond Dekker, ska and reggae singer and songwriter; with his backing group, The Aces, he had one of the first international Jamaican hits with Israelites, July 16, 1941 – May 25, 2006


• Reinaldo Arenas, poet, novelist, and playwright who, despite his early sympathy for the 1959 revolution, grew critical of and then rebellious against the Fidel Castro regime, July 16, 1943 – December 7, 1990


• Victor Sloan, photographer and artist, 1945


• Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna, salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, and politician, 1948


• Pinchas Zukerman, violinist, violist, and conductor; in April 1998, was appointed Music Director of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, 1948


• Stewart Armstrong Copeland, musician, was the drummer for The Police, 1952


• Tony Kushner, playwright, awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Angels in America, 1956


• Pierre Roland Renoir, painter, the great-grandson of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1958


• Phoebe Belle Katz, aka Phoebe Cates, film actress, 1963


• Lawrence Mark 'Larry' Sanger, Ph.D., organizer of various online encyclopedia projects, most notably, organizing Wikipedia, 1968


• Corey Feldman, actor, 1971

RIP:

• Johann David Heinichen, Baroque composer and music theorist, April 17, 1683 - July 16, 1729


• Francis Cotes, painter, one of the pioneers of English pastel painting, and a founding member of the Royal Academy, May 20, 1726 - July 16, 1770


• Mary Ann Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States when her husband, Abraham Lincoln, served as president, from 1861 until 1865, December 13, 1818 – July 16, 1882


• Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, aka Eli Metchnikoff, microbiologist, remembered for his pioneering research into the immune system, awarded the 1908 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on phagocytosis, May 16, 1845 – July 16, 1916


• Alfred Deller, singer, one of the main figures in popularising the use of the countertenor voice in renaissance and baroque music, May 31, 1912 - July 16, 1979


• Harry Chapin, documentary film-maker, singer, and songwriter, December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981


• Heinrich Theodor Böll, writer, awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize for Literature, December 21, 1917 – July 16, 1985


• Herbert von Karajan, conductor, one of the most prominent conductors of the postwar period, widely regarded as the world's most recorded conductor; Principal Conductor, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, 1948–1960; Musical Director, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1954–1989; Director, Vienna State Opera, 1956–1964; Music Director, Orchestre de Paris, 1969–1971, April 5, 1908 – July 16, 1989


• Robert Motherwell, abstract expressionist painter, youngest of the New York School, January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991


• Julian Seymour Schwinger, Ph.D., theoretical physicist, formulated the theory of renormalization, and posited a phenomenon of electron-positron pairs known as the Schwinger effect; awarded the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on quantum electrodynamics, along with Richard Feynman and Shinichiro Tomonaga, February 12, 1918 - July 16, 1994


• John Anthony Panozzo, musician, drummer for Styx; his twin brother Chuck Panozzo was the guitarist and, later, the bassist, September 20, 1947 - July 16, 1996


• Maurice de Bevere, aka Morris, cartoonist, the creator of Lucky Luke, December 1, 1923 - July 16, 2001


• John Cocke, Ph.D., computer scientist, "the father of RISC architecture", May 30, 1925 – July 16, 2002


• Úrsula Hilaria Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso, salsa singer, one of the most successful Cuban performers of the 20th century, with twenty-three gold albums to her name; the "Queen of Salsa", October 21, 1925 – July 16, 2003


• Carol Shields, CC , OM , D.Litt. , LL.D , FRSC, author, June 2, 1935 – July 16, 2003


• Pietro Consagra, abstract sculptor, October 6, 1920 - July 16, 2005

Today LXXXVI

Birthdays:

• Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, painter, printmaker, and draughtsman, July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669


• Thomas Bulfinch, writer and mythologist, author of The Age of Fable, aka Bulfinch's Mythology, July 15, 1796 - May 27, 1867


• Ralph Hammond Innes, author, July 15, 1914 – June 10, 1998


• Bertram Neville Brockhouse, CC, Ph.D, D.Sc, FRSC, physicist, shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics with Clifford Shull for developing neutron scattering techniques for studying condensed matter, July 15, 1918 – October 13, 2003


• Jean IRIS Murdoch DBE, writer and philosopher, best known for her novels, July 15, 1919 – February 8, 1999


• Robert Bruce Merrifield, biochemist, winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, July 15, 1921 – May 14, 2006


• Leon Max Lederman, experimental physicist, awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on neutrinos, 1922


• Philip Carey, actor, 1925


• Stephen Smale, Ph.D., mathematician, winner of the Fields Medal in 1966, politically active in various movements in the past, such as the Free Speech movement, 1930


• Julian Bream, classical guitarist and lutenist, for whom numerous pieces have been composed, 1933


• Guido Crepas, aka Guido Crepax, graphic artist, advertisement illustrator, and comics artist, July 15, 1933 - July 31, 2003


• Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH, contemporary composers, 1934


• Millie Jackson, R&B singer, 1944


• Jan-Michael Vincent, actor, 1944


• Linda Marie Ronstadt, singer, 1946


• Peter William Brockbanks, aka Peter Banks, musician, original guitarist for Yes, 1947


• Alicia Bridges, singer, 1948


• Trevor Charles Horn, pop music producer and musician, one-time vocalist for Yes, 1949


• Terrance Quinn, aka Terry O'Quinn, actor, 1952


• Marc Bell, aka Marky Ramone, musician, for drummer for The Ramones, 1956


• Joe Satriani, rock guitarist and teacher, 1956


• William Scott Ritter, Jr., former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, foreign policy critic, 1961


• Forest Steven Whitaker, actor, producer, and director, 1961


• Lolita Davidovich, actress, 1961

RIP:

• Annibale Carracci, painter, etcher, and engraver, November 3, 1560 - July 15, 1609


• Carlo Broschi, aka Farinelli, 18th century soprano castrato singer, January 24, 1705 – July 15, 1782


• Jacques Duphly, harpsichordist, teacher, and composer, January 12, 1715 – July 15, 1789


• Carl Czerny, pianist, composer, and teacher, remembered for his books of piano etudes; took piano lessons from Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri, and Ludwig van Beethoven; taught Franz Liszt, among many others, February 21, 1791 – July 15, 1857


• Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, physician, writer of short stories, of which he wrote several hundred, and playwright, January 29, 1860 – July 15, 1904


• Hermann Emil Fischer, chemist, noted for his work on sugars, awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, October 9, 1852 - July 15, 1919


• Hugo von Hofmannsthal, novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist, February 1, 1874 - July 15, 1929


• Leopold Auer, violinist, teacher, conductor, and composer, June 7, 1845 – July 15, 1930


• Irving Babbitt, academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement now known as the New Humanism, August 2, 1865 – July 15, 1933


• Freddie Keppard, jazz cornetist, February 27, 1890 - July 15, 1933


• Walter Donaldson, popular songwriter, published some 600 original songs, February 15, 1893 - July 15, 1947


• Ernest Bloch, teacher and composer, the first Musical Director of the Cleveland Institute of Music, July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959


• Lawrence Mervil Tibbett, actor and singer, sang the title role in the original production of The Emperor Jones, November 16, 1896 - July 15, 1960


• Bernard Whalen BERT Convy, game show host and panelist, actor, and singer, July 23, 1933 – July 15, 1991

Yesterday

I've been sick.

Birthdays:

• Jacques Eugène D'Allonville, Chevalier de Louville par Fontenelle, astronomer and mathematician, noted for determining a method for precisely calculating the occurrence of solar eclipses, July 14, 1671 – September, 1732


• Emmeline Gouldine Pankhurst, one of the founders of the British suffragette movement, associated with the struggle for the enfranchisement of women in the period immediately preceding World War I, July 14, 1858 – June 14, 1928


• Willy Hess, violin virtuoso and violin teacher, a student of Joseph Joachim, July 14, 1859 – February 17, 1939


• Gustav Klimt, Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau (Vienna Secession) movement, July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918


• Albert Benjamin [A. B.] Happy Chandler I, politican and the second Baseball Commissioner, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, July 14, 1898 – June 15, 1991


• Gerald Raphael Finzi, composer, July 14, 1901 – September 27, 1956


• William Denby BILL Hanna, animator, director, producer, cartoon artist, and co-founder, together with Joseph Barbera, of Hanna-Barbera, producer of cartoons such as The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo, July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001


• Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens, aka Terry-Thomas, comic actor, July 14, 1911 – January 8, 1990


• Herman NORTHROP Frye, CC, MA, D.Litt., FRSC one of the most distinguished literary critics and literary theorists of the twentieth century, July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991


• Woodrow Wilson WOODY Guthrie, influential and prolific folk musician, noted for his identification with the common man, and for his abhorrence of fascism and economic exploitation, father of Arlo Guthrie, July 14, 1912 - October 3, 1967


• Ernst INGMAR Bergman, stage and film director, 1918


• Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson, chemist, received the 1973 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Ernst Otto Fischer for his work on organometallic compounds, July 14 1921 - September 26, 1996


• Dale Robertson, actor, 1923


• Sir James Whyte Black, OM, FRS, FRSE, FRCP, pharmacologist, received the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1924


• Harry Dean Stanton, character actor, 1926


• John Chancellor, journalist and news correspondent, July 14, 1927 — July 12, 1996


• Nellie Paulina Burgin, aka Polly Bergen, actress and singer, 1930


• Roosevelt ROSEY Grier, football player, actor, and minister, 1932


• Jerry Rubin, social activist, organizer of the VDC (Vietnam Day Committee), led some of the first protests against the war in Vietnam, a cofounder of the Yippies (Youth International Party) with Abbie Hoffman, one of the "Chicago Seven," July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994


• Ron Everett, aka Ron Karenga, author and Marxist political activist, founder of Kwanzaa, 1941


• Gwendolyn GWEN Guthrie, singer/songwriter, backing vocalist for Aretha Franklin and Billy Joel, among others, wrote songs made famous by Ben E. King and Roberta Flack, July 14, 1950 – February 3, 1999


• Igor Khoroshev, musician, from 1998 to 2000, played keyboards for Yes, 1965


• Ellen Reid, musician, vocalist, pianist, keyboardist, and accordionist for Crash Test Dummies, 1966


• Robin Mark Ventura, former MLB third baseman, only the fifth third baseman to hit at least 250 home runs and win at least five Gold Glove Awards [he has six], 1992 and 2002 All-Star, 1967


• Timothy Adam TIM Hudson, MLB starting pitcher, 1975


• Bernie Castro, MLB second baseman, 1979

RIP:

• Augustin-Jean Fresnel, physicist, contributed to the establishment of the theory of wave optics, invented the Fresnel lens, May 10, 1788 – July 14, 1827


• Sir William Henry Perkin, chemist, discovered the first aniline dye, mauveine, March 12, 1838 – July 14, 1907


• Jacinto Benavente y Martínez, dramatist, received the 1922 Nobel Prize for Literature, August 12, 1866 – July 14, 1954


• Adlai Ewing Stevenson II, politician, unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States in 1952 and 1956, February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965


• Ernest Tidyman, author and Academy Award-winning screenwriter, known for his novels featuring detective John Shaft, January 1, 1928 - July 14, 1984


• Philippe Wynne, gospel singer and R&B vocalist, sang with Bootsy Collins, James Brown, and George Clinton, best known as lead singer of The Spinners, April 3, 1941 - July 14, 1984


• César Leonardo Tovar, MLB infielder/outfielder; in 1972, he hit for the cycle, July 3, 1940 - July 14, 1994