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