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