Today CXXIV

Birthdays:

• Denis Papin, physicist, mathematician and inventor, best known for his pioneering work with steam power, August 22, 1647 - c. 1712


• Achille-Claude Debussy, composer, worked within the style now known as Impressionist music, whose music represents the transition from late-romantic music to 20th century modernist music, August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918


• George Joseph Herriman, cartoonist, best known for his comic strip Krazy Kat, August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944


• Dorothy Rothschild, aka Dorothy Parker, writer and poet, best known for her caustic wit, wisecracks, and sharp eye for 20th century Urban foibles, August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967


• Helene Bertha Amalie LENI Riefenstahl, dancer, actor, and film director widely noted for her aesthetics and advances in film technique, whose most famous works are documentary propaganda films for the Nazi Party, August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003


• Henri Cartier-Bresson, photographer, considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, one of the first serious photographers to shoot in the 35mm format, August 22, 1908 – August 3, 2004


• Julius J. Epstein, screenwriter, best known for the adaptation - in partnership with his twin brother, Philip, and others —- of the unproduced play Everybody Comes to Rick's that became the screenplay for the Casablanca, for which its team of writers won an Academy Award; great-uncle of Boston Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein, August 22, 1909 - December 30, 2000


• Bruno Pontecorvo, atomic physicist, an early assistant of Enrico Fermi, and the author of numerous studies in high energy physics, especially on neutrinos, August 22, 1913 - September 24, 1993


• John Lee Hooker, blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter, August 22, 1917 – June 21, 2001


• Ray Douglas Bradbury, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer, author of The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, among many others; awarded the National Medal of Arts, the World Fantasy Award life achievement, Stoker Award life achievement, SFWA Grand Master, SF Hall of Fame Living Inductee, and First Fandom Award, 1920


• Karlheinz Stockhausen, composer, 1928


• Edna Annie Proulx, journalist and author, won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for her first novel, Postcards; her second novel, The Shipping News, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1994; her short story Brokeback Mountain was adapted as a BAFTA and Academy Award-winning motion picture, 1935


• Carl Michael Yastrzemski, former MLB left fielder, first baseman and DH played for 23 years with the Boston Red Sox, and is currently a roving instructor with the Red Sox; won the American League Batting Championship in 1963, 1967 [as part of the AL Triple Crown], and 1968; was the AL MVP in 1967 and the All-Star Game MVP in 1970; 18-time All-Star; won seven Gold Glove Awards; inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989; 1939


• Valerie Harper, actress, best known as Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and on Rhoda, 1940


• Cindy Williams, actress, played Shirley Feeney on Laverne & Shirley; starred in American Graffiti, 1947


• Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux Mackay, singer, former vocalist for The Grateful Dead, 1947


• Charles Douglas DOUG Bair, former MLB pitcher, currently the pitching coach of the Billings Mustangs, theCincinnati Reds' rookie-level minor league team , 1949


• Bertram RAY Burris, former MLB pitcher from 1973 to 1987, 1950


• Paul Leo Molitor, former MLB infielder and DH, played for 21 seasons, with the Milwaukee Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Minnesota Twins; the first only player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame [in 2004] as a designated hitter; 1993 World Series MVP Award, batting 12-24 (.500) in the series; seven-time All-Star; one of only four players in MLB history with at least 3,000 hits, a .300 lifetime batting average, and 500 stolen bases, 1956


• Steve Davis OBE, professional snooker and nine-ball player, has won more professional snooker titles than any other player, a record 73 professional titles, 28 of them in ranking events, including six World Championships and six UK championships, 1957


• Colm Feore, actor, spent 14 seasons at the Stratford Festival of Canada, won a Gemini Award for his portrayal of Pierre Trudeau in the mini-series mini-series Trudeau, 1958


• Vernon Reid, musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter of Living Colour, 1958


• Myra Ellen TORI Amos, pianist, singer-songwriter, and producer, in June 1994, co-founded RAINN, The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network, 1963


• Giada De Laurentiis, chef and host of the Food Network program Everyday Italian; studied at Le Cordon Bleu; the granddaughter of Dino De Laurentiis and Silvana Mangano, 1970


• Steve Kline, MLB relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, 1972

RIP:

• Luca Marenzio [or Marentio], composer of the late Renaissance, one of the most famous composers of madrigals, October 18, 1553 – August 22, 1599


• Franz Joseph Gall, neuroanatomist and physiologist, a pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain, March 9, 1758 - August 22, 1828


• Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, physicist and writer, involved in the development of the wireless telegraph, June 12, 1851 - August 22, 1940


• Mikhail Mikhailovich Fokin, aka Michel Fokine, choreographer and dancer, April 23, 1880 – August 22, 1942


• James Reubin JIM Tabor, MLB third baseman from 1938 to 1944 and 1946 to 1947, November 5, 1916 - August 22, 1953


• Roger Martin du Gard, author, trained as a paleographer and archivist, awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize for Literature, March 23, 1881 – August 22, 1958


• Gregory Goodwin Pincus, physician, biologist, and researcher, studied hormonal biology and steroidal hormones early in his career; co-inventor of the contraceptive pill, April 9, 1903 - August 22, 1967


• Jacob Bronowski, Ph.D., mathematician [wrote his doctoral dissertation in algebraic geometry], poet, and host of the documentary series The Ascent of Man, January 18, 1908 - August 22, 1974


• Sebastian Cabot, film and television actor, narrator, and voice actor, July 6, 1918 – August 22, 1977


• James Smith McDonnell, aviation pioneer, founder of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, April 9, 1899 - August 22, 1980


• Huey Percy Newton, activist, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989


• Colleen Dewhurst, actress whose career lasted 45 years, won the 1974 Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre, two Tony Awards, two Obies and two Gemini Awards; nominated for twelve Emmy Awards, winning four, two for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for Murphy Brown [1989 and 1991], and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special for Between Two Women in 1986 and Those She Left Behind in 1989, June 3, 1924 - August 22, 1991


• Konstantin Aseev, chess Grandmaster and trainer, October 20, 1960 – August 22, 2004


• Luc Ferrari, composer and filmmamker, particularly noted for his tape music; studied piano under Alfred Cortot, musical analysis under Olivier Messiaen, and composition under Arthur Honegger; first works were freely atonal; made a number of documentary films on contemporary composers in rehearsal, February 5, 1929 – August 22, 2005