Today LXXVII

Birthdays:

• Phineas Taylor [P. T.] Barnum, showman and author, founded the circus that eventually became Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891


• Wanda Landowska, harpsichordist, July 5, 1879 – August 16, 1959


• Jan Kubelík, violinist and composer, July 5, 1880 – December 5, 1940


• Herbert Spencer Gasser, physiologist, winner of the 1944 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, for his work with action potentials in nerve fibers, July 5, 1888 – May 11, 1963


• Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau, poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, and filmmaker. July 5, 1889 – October 11, 1963


• John Howard Northrop, Ph.D., biochemist, shared the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with James Batcheller Sumner and Wendell Meredith Stanley for purifying and crystallizing certain enzymes, July 5, 1891 – May 27, 1987


• Milburn Stone, television actor, best known "Doc" (Doctor Galen Adams) on Gunsmoke, July 5, 1904 - June 12, 1980


• George Rochberg, composer, July 5, 1918 – May 29, 2005


• János Starker, cellist and Professor of Music, 1924


• Warren Oates, character actor, July 5, 1928 - April 3, 1982


• Katherine Marie Helmond, film, theater and television actress, 1928


• Sir James Mirrlees, FBA, economist, shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Economics with William Vickrey, 1936


• Curtis Le Roy CURT Blefary, MLB left fielder from 1965 to 1972, 1965 AL Rookie of the Year, July 5, 1943 – January 28, 2001


• Jaime Robert ROBBIE Robertson, songwriter, guitarist and singer, member of The Band, 1943


• Hugh Anthony Cregg III, aka Huey Lewis, musician and singer, lead vocalist for Huey Lewis & The News, 1950


• Michael Monarch, musician, songwriter, and producer, the original lead guitarist for Steppenwolf, 1950


• Richard Michael "Goose" Gossage, former MLB relief pitcher/closer, played 21 seasons, made nine All-Star appearances, and earned 310 saves; now works in broadcasting, 1951


• William B. BILL Watterson II, cartoonist, author of Calvin and Hobbes, 1958


• Edith EDIE Falco, television and film actress, 1963


• Amélie Simone Mauresmo, professional tennis player, 1979

RIP:

• Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, inventor, pioneer in photography, produced the first successful permanent photograph, March 7, 1765 – July 5, 1833


• Ludwig Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel, physician, received the 1910 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research in cell biology, September 16, 1853 – July 5, 1927


• Hevesy György, aka George Charles de Hevesy, chemist, received the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the tracer method where radioactive tracers are used to study chemical processes, August 1, 1885 in Budapest – July 5, 1966


• Walter Adolph Gropius, architect, founder of Bauhaus, May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969


• Wilhelm Backhaus, pianist, March 26, 1884 – July 5, 1969


• Harry Haag James, trumpet virtuoso and band leader, March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983


• María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García, aka Katy Jurado, Academy Award-nominated actress, January 16, 1924 – July 5, 2002


• Theodore Samuel TED Williams, nicknamed the "Splendid Splinter", MLB left fielder, played 19 seasons with the Boston Red Sox; partial list of baseball accomplishments: 1946 and 1949 AL MVP, led the league in batting six times, and won the 1942 and 1947 Triple Crown, career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, the last player in MLB history to bat over .400 in a single season, August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002