Today LXXVI

Birthdays:

• Louis-Claude Daquin, composer, and virtuoso organist and harpsichordist, July 4, 1694 – June 15, 1772


• Nathaniel Hathorne, aka Nathaniel Hawthorne, novelist and short story writer, July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864


• Giuseppe Garibaldi, patriot and soldier, led many of the military campaigns that brought about the formation of a unified Italy, July 4, 1807 – June 2, 1882


• Stephen Collins Foster, songwriter, July 4, 1826 - January 13, 1864


• George Michael Cohan, entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, director, and producer, July 4, 1878 – November 5, 1942


• Eliezer Meir, aka Louis Burt Mayer, film producer, creator of the star system within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), July 4, 1882 – October 29, 1957


• Reuben Garret L. RUBE Goldberg, cartoonist, cofounder and president of the American National Cartoonists Society, July 4, 1883 - December 7, 1970


• George Lloyd Murphy, dancer, actor and politician, July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992


• Madeline Angela Clinton-Baddeley CBE, aka Angela Baddeley, character actress, elder sister of actress Hermione Baddeley, July 4, 1904, in London - February 22, 1976


• Gloria Frances Stewart, aka Gloria Frances Stewart, Gloria Stuart, stage, television and film actress, and artist, 1910


• Mitchell William MITCH Miller, oboe and English horn player, recording artist, and record executive, 1911


• Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman Lederer, aka Ann Landers, advice column writer, July 4, 1918 – June 22, 2002


• Pauline "Popo" Esther Friedman Phillips, aka Abigail Van Buren, advice column writer ["Dear Abby"], 1918


• Gerard Debreu, economist and mathematician, winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Economics, July 4, 1921 – December 31, 2004


• Tibor Varga, violinist and conductor, July 4, 1921 – September 4, 2003


• Eva Marie Saint, Academy Award-winning actress, 1924


• Luigina GINA Lollobrigida, actress, 1927


• Marvin NEIL Simon, comedy writer, playwright, and screenwriter, 1927


• William Robert BILL Tuttle, MLB centre fielder from 1952 to 1963, July 4, 1929 - July 27, 1998


• George Michael Steinbrenner III, principal owner of the New York Yankees, 1930


• William Millar, aka Stephen Boyd, actor, July 4, 1931 – June 2, 1977


• Bill Withers, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, known for such songs as Lean On Me, Just the Two of Us, and Ain't No Sunshine, 1938


• Konrad CONNY Bauer, free jazz trombonist., 1943


• Ronald L. RON Kovic, anti-war activist, author of the memoir Born on the Fourth of July, 1946


• Vinicio VINNY Castilla Soria, MLB third baseman, 1995 and 1998 All-Star, 1995, 1997, and 1998 Silver Slugger, 1967

RIP:

• Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, astronomer, named the seas and continents of Mars, on which he believed he had observed long straight features he called canali; the first to demonstrate that the Perseid and Leonid meteor showers were associated with comets, March 14, 1835 – July 4, 1910


• Joseph Crawford, aka Buddie Petit, jazz cornetist, 1890 - 4 July 1931


• Maria Sklodowska-Curie, aka Marie Curie, chemist, pioneer in the early field of radiology, and the first two-time Nobel laureate and the only person with Nobel Prizes in two different fields of science (physics and chemistry), November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934


• August William Derleth, writer and anthologist; co-founder of publishing company, Arkham House, to publish the works of H. P. Lovecraft, February 24, 1909 – July 4, 1971


• Ástor Piazzolla, tango composer, March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992


• Dr. Victor Peter Chang Yam Him, AC, heart surgeon, one of the pioneers of modern heart transplantation, November 21, 1936 – July 4, 1991


• Eva Gabor, actress, February 11, 1919 – July 4, 1995


• Charles Kuralt, journalist, winner of three Peabody awards and ten Emmy awards, September 10, 1934 – July 4, 1997


• Barry Eugene Carter, aka Barry White, soul and disco singer and record producer, September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003


• Jean-Marie Auberson, conductor and violinist, May 2, 1920 – July 4, 2004