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