Doctor Why: Today CXI

Birthdays:

John Dryden, poet, literary critic, and playwright, August 9, 1631 – May 12, 1700

Johann Michael Bach, composer of the Baroque period and builder of musical instruments, brother of Johann Christoph Bach, and uncle and father-in-law of Johann Sebastian Bach, August 9, 1648 - May, 1694

Count Lorenzo Romano AMEDEO Carlo AVOGADRO di Quaregna e Cerreto, chemist, known for his contributions to the theory of molarity and molecular weight; Avogadro's Number (the number of molecules in one mole) is named in his honor, as is Avogadro's Law, August 9, 1776 – July 9, 1856

Reynaldo Hahn, composer, conductor, music critic, and diarist, studied with Massenet, Gounod, and Saint-Saëns, best known as a composer of songs, also wrote operettas, chamber music, solo piano, and orchestral compositions, August 9, 1874 - January 28, 1947

Jean Piaget, natural scientist and developmental psychologist, known for his work studying children and his theory of cognitive development, August 9, 1896 – September 16, 1980

Erich Armand Arthur Joseph Hückel, physicist and physical chemist, August 9, 1896 - February 16, 1980

Helen Lyndon Goff, aka Pamela Lyndon Travers, writer, dancer, poet, and actress, author of Mary Poppins, August 9, 1899 - April 23, 1996

Charles Farrell, film actor of the silent and 'talkies' era, and on television, where he appeared on My Little Margie, August 9, 1901 – May 6, 1990

William Alfred WILLY Fowler, astrophysicist, shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, August 9, 1911 – March 14, 1995

Ferenc Fricsay, conductor, studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Leo Weiner, Principal Conductor, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, 1948–1954 and 1959–1963, Music Director, Houston Symphony Orchestra, 1954, and General Music Directors, Bavarian State Opera, 1956–1958, August 9, 1914 - February 20, 1963

Ralph George Houk, former MLB catcher, coach, manager [1961 to 1984], and front office, best known as the successor to Casey Stengel as the manager of the New York Yankees from 1961 to 1963, winning three consecutive AL pennants, and the 1961 and 1962 World Series, 1919

Professor David Albert Huffman, Sc.D., computer scientist and educator, best known for his Huffman code, a compression scheme for lossless variable length encoding, used in nearly every application that involves the compression and transmission of digital data, August 9, 1925 - October 7, 1999

Daniel Keyes, author, primarily of science fiction, best known for his award-winning novelette Flowers for Algernon, which he adapted into his first novel of the same name; the story won a Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction, and the novel won a Nebula Award and has been adapted several times for other media, including the 1968 film Charly, 1927

Robert Shaw, stage and film actor and writer, known for his roles as Red Grant in From Russia with Love, Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons, Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting, and Quint in Jaws; I remember him as Captain Dan Tempest on The Buccaneers on 1950's television, August 9, 1927 – August 28, 1978

Charles Abraham CHUCK Essegian, Jr., former MLB utility outfielder from 1958 to 1963, 1931

Manuel Julián Javier Liranzo, former MLB second baseman, from 1960 to 1972; 1963 and 1968 NL All-Star, 1936

Tommie Lee Agee, MLB centre fielder, 1966 Rookie of the Year, All-Star in 1966 and 1967, and Gold Glove Award winner in 1966 and 1970, August 9, 1942 - January 22, 2001

William Richard BILL Campbell, former MLB relief pitcher from 1973 to 1987, 1977 AL All-Star, awarded both AL Fireman of the Year by The Sporting News and Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award, 1948

Amy Stiller, actress, daughter of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, 1961

Troy Eugene Percival, MLB closer, currently with the Detroit Tigers, 1969

Matthew Christian MATT Morris, MLB right-handed staring pitcher, currently with the San Francisco Giants, 2001 and 2002 All-Star 1974

RIP:

Ruggero Leoncavallo, opera composer, wrote all his own libretti, April 23, 1857- August 9, 1919

Hermann Hesse, poet, novelist, and painter, awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature; works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962

Cecil Frank Powell, physicist, awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize for Physics for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson), December 5, 1903 - August 9, 1969

Sharon Marie Tate, actress and model, murdered by followers of Charles Manson, January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969

Dmitri Dmitrievich Shostakovich, composer, whose greatest works are generally considered to be his symphonies and string quartets, fifteen of each; other works include operas, six concertos, and a substantial quantity of film music, September 25 – August 9, 1975

Walter Francis O'Malley, sports executive, owned the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1950 to 1979, October 9, 1903 - August 9, 1979

Jerome John JERRY Garcia, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and painter, lead guitarist and vocalist for the Grateful Dead, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995

John Charles Harsanyi, Ph.D., professor of business and economics professor, shared the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics with John Nash and Reinhard Selten, May 29, 1920 – August 9, 2000

Gregory Oliver Hines, actor, singer, and dancer, began dancing professionally at five years old with older brother Maurice; appeared in such movies as The Cotton Club, White Nights, Running Scared, and Tap; starred in his own TV series, The Gregory Hines Show, as well as in a recurring role on Will & Grace; earned Tony Award nominations for Eubie, Comin' Uptown and Sophisticated Ladies, and won a 1992 Tony for Jelly's Last Jam, February 14, 1946 – August 9, 2003

Judith Perelman Rossner, novelist, best known for her novel Looking for Mr. Goodbar, March 1, 1935 – August 9, 2005

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