Today CXXVII

Birthdays:

• Allan Pinkerton, detective and spy, founder of the Pinkerton Agency, August 25, 1819 – July 1, 1884


• 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


• Joshua Lionel Cohen, aka Joshua Lionel Cowen, inventor, the cofounder of Lionel Corporation, a manufacturer of model railroads and toy trains, August 25, 1877 - September 8, 1965


• Henry Trendley Dean, first director of the U.S. National Institute of Dental Research and a pioneer investigator of fluorine in the prevention of tooth decay, August 25, 1893 – May 13, 1962


• Helmut Hasse, mathematician, worked in algebraic number theory, August 25, 1898 – December 26, 1979


• Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, medical doctor and biochemist, best known for his development of the citric acid cycle; awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for its discovery, August 25, 1900 – November 22, 1981


• Stefan Wolpe, composer, wrote atonal music between 1929 and 1933, using Arnold Schoenberg's twelve tone technique, after which he wrote a number of pieces for worker's unions and communist theatre groups, in a more accessible style, incorporating elements of jazz and popular music, August 25, 1902 – April 4, 1972


• Árpád Emrick Élő, professor of physics and chess player, creator of the Elo rating system for rating chess players, August 25, 1903 – November 5, 1992


• Ethel Hilda RUBY Keeler, actress, singer, and dancer, the first tap dancing star of motion pictures, August 25, 1909 – February 28, 1993


• Eric Alexander MICHAEL Rennie, actor, well known for his role as Harry Lime in The Third Man TV series, and as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, August 25, 1909 – June 10, 1971


• Walter Crawford WALT Kelly, Jr, cartoonist, known for his comic strip Pogo, August 25, 1913 - October 18, 1973


• Bob Crosby, bandleader and singer, started singing with Anson Weeks, 1931 to 1934, and the Dorsey Brothers, 1934 to 1935; led his first band in 1935; his most famous band was the Bobcats, who were a Dixieland jazz group from within the Bob Crosby Orchestra; had his own radio show, Club 15, from 1946 through 1952, and a half-hour daytime show, The Bob Crosby Show from 1953 through 1957; was the Jack Benny Show's bandleader from 1952 to 1955; Bing Crosby's brother, August 25, 1913 - March 9, 1993


• Charles VAN Johnson, film and television actor, 1916


• Frederick Chapman Robbins, pediatrician and virologist, shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with John Franklin Enders and homas Huckle Weller for breakthrough work in the isolation and growth of the polio virus, paving the way for vaccines developed by Salk, Sabin, and others, August 25, 1916 – August 4, 2003


• Melchior Gaston MEL Ferrer, actor, film director, and film producer, 1917


• Leonard Bernstein, composer, pianist, conductor, and educator, known for his conducting of the New York Philharmonic, including the acclaimed Young People's Concerts series, and his multiple compositions, including West Side Story, Candide, and On The Town; wrote three symphonies, two operas, five musicals, and numerous other pieces; on November 13, 1943, having recently been appointed assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, he made his conducting debut when Bruno Walter fell ill; Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1958 until 1969; in the late 1950's, became well-known figure for his series of fifty-three televised Young People's Concerts; in 1970, began conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he recorded many pieces, including sets of the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, and Schumann; on PBS in the 1980's , he was the conductor and commentator for a special series on Beethoven's music, which featured the Vienna Philharmonic playing all nine Beethoven symphonies, several of his overtures, and the Missa Solemni; won multiple Grammy and Tony Awards, August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990


• Richard Greene, movie and television actor, best known for the TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, August 25, 1918 - June 1, 1985


• Maurice Halprin, aka Monty Hall, O.C., B.Sc., LL.D, actor, singer, and sportscaster, best known as the host of TV game shows, 1925


• Althea Gibson, professional tennis player, the first black woman to be a competitor on the world tennis tour, won five Singles, five Doubles, and one Mixed Doubles Grand Slam Titles, August 25, 1927 – September 28, 2003


• Herbert Kroemer, Ph.D., theoretical physicist, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of California, Santa Barbara; he and Zhores I. Alferov were each awarded a quarter of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work, 1928


• Darrell Dean Johnson, MLB catcher and manager, played in six major league seasons; managed the Boston Red Sox, the Seattle Mariners, and the Texas Rangers, August 25, 1928 - May 3, 2004


• Sir Thomas SEAN Connery, film and stage actor, best known as the original cinematic James Bond, won the
  Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1987 for his performance in The Untouchables; received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award on June 8, 2006; has long supported the Scottish National Party, a political party campaigning for Scottish independence, 1930


• Regis Francis Xavier Philbin, television personality, comedian, talk show host, game show host, and presenter, 1931


• Hal Fishman, news anchor, currently the longest-running news anchor in the history of television, 1931


• Wayne Shorter, jazz composer and saxophonist, has recorded dozens of albums as a leader, and appeared on dozens more with others; many of his compositions have become standards; early in his career, played briefly with Horace Silver, and with Maynard Ferguson; in 1959, joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, eventually becoming musical director for the group; in 1964, joined the Miles Davis Quintet; in 1970, formed Weather Report with Joe Zawinul; formed his current band in 2000, 1933


• Thomas Alderton TOM Skerritt, actor, made his film debut in War Hunt in 1962; was in M*A*S*H, Harold and Maude, Alien, Contact, Poison Ivy, and The Dead Zone; appeared as Evan Drake in Cheers and starred in Picket Fences as Sheriff Jimmy Brock, 1933


• Frederick Forsyth, author, known for thrillers, such as The Day of the Jackal, The Dogs of War, The Odessa File, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, and The Afghan, 1938


• Baron José van Dam, bass-baritone opera, concert, oratorio, and Lieder singer, 1940


• Roland Glen ROLLIE Fingers, former MLB relief pitcher from 1968 to 1985, won the 1974 World Series MVP Award; in 1981, won both the American League MVP and Cy Young Award; won the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year Award in 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1981; in 1992, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1946
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• Martin Amis, novelist, whose best known novels include Money, London Fields, and Time's Arrow; son of Kingsley Amis, 1949


• John Youngs, aka John Savage, film actor, producer, production manager, and composer, played Steven in The Deer Hunter and Claude Bukowski in the movie Hair, 1949


• Chaim Witz, aka Gene Simmons, performer and entertainment mogul, plays bass guitar and sings for KISS, 1949


• Geoffrey Downes, keyboard player, known as the keyboardist for Asia, and for his time with Yes, 1952


• Billy Ray Cyrus, country singer, 1961


• David Packer, actor, whose first starring role was in the mini-series V as Daniel Bernstein, a role he reprised in V: The Final Battle, 1962


• Maxim Kontsevich, Ph.D., mathematician and educator, whose work concentrates on the geometrical aspects of mathematical physics, most notably on knot theory, quantization, and mirror symmetry; in 1998, received a Fields Medal, 1964


• Albert Jojuan Belle, former MLB outfielder, the first player to hit 50 doubles and 50 home runs in a single season; won Silver Slugger Award in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1998; All-Star in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1997; ended his career in 2004 at age 34 as a result of degenerative osteoarthritis in his hip, 1966


• Rachel Sarah Bilson, actress, 1981

RIP:

• José António Carlos de Seixas, composer, organist, and teacher, June 11, 1704 - August 25, 1742


• Niccolò Jommelli, composer, wrote cantatas, oratorios, and other sacred works, but the most important part of his output were his operas, particularly his opere serie of which he composed around sixty, September 10, 1714 – August 25, 1774


• David Hume, philosopher, economist, and historian, an important figure of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment, heavily influenced by empiricists John Locke and George Berkeley, April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776


• Michael Faraday, FRS, English chemist and physicist, contributed significantly to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry; established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena, September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867


• Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philologist and philosopher, produced critiques of religion, morality, contemporary culture, and philosophy, centered around what he viewed as a fundamental question regarding the life-affirming and life-denying qualities of different attitudes and belief, October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900


• Antoine Henri Becquerel, physicist, one of the discoverers of radioactivity; shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pierre and Marie Curie "in recognition of the extraordinary services he has rendered by his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity;" the SI unit for radioactivity, the becquerel (Bq) is named after him, and also there are Becquerel craters on the Moon and Mars, December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908


• John Morrison Birch, Military Intelligence Officer and Baptist Missionary in World War II, shot by armed supporters of the Communist Party of China; the John Birch Society is named in his honour, May 8, 1918 – August 25, 1945


• Dr. Alfred Charles Kinsey, biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, who in 1947 founded what would become the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956


• Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund, aka Paul Muni, actor, won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1939 for The Story of Louis Pasteur, his fourth Oscar nomination of five that he received; nominated for a Tony Award in 1955 for the role of Henry Drummond in the play Inherit the Wind, September 22, 1895 – August 25, 1967


• Theodore Leopold Friedman, aka Ted Lewis, entertainer, bandleader, singer, and musician, whose catch-phrase was "Is Everybody Happy?", June 6, 1890 – August 25, 1971


• Eyvind Johnson, author, shared the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature with Harry Martinson, July 29, 1900 – August 25, 1976


• Stanley Newcomb STAN Kenton, musician, bandleader, educator, led some very large jazz orchestras, December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979


• Gower Champion, Tony Award-winning theatre director, choreographer, and dancer, June 22, 1919 - August 25, 1980


• Truman García Capote, writer, whose non-fiction, stories, novels, and plays are recognized literary classics; best known for In Cold Blood and the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's; at least 20 films and TV dramas have been produced from his novels, stories, and screenplays, September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984


• Waite Charles Hoyt, MLB right-handed pitcher, finished his career with a win-loss record of 237–182 and an ERA of 3.59 over 21 seasons; went into broadcasting, working as a broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds for 24 years; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, September 9, 1899 – August 25, 1984


• Edward Morley Callaghan, CC , LL.B , LL.D , FRSC, novelist, short story writer, playwright, and TV and radio personality, September 22, 1903 – August 25, 1990


• Carl Barks, Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck, Gladstone Gander, the Beagle Boys and Gyro Gearloose, won the Shazam Award for Best Writer in 1970, the Academy of Comic Book Arts Hall of Fame Award in 1973, an Inkpot in 1977 from the San Diego Comic Con, and the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Writer in 1996; the Walt Disney Company bestowed a duckster statute in 1971 and their Disney Legends award in 1991, March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000


• Bernard Alfred (JACK Nitzsche, musician, songwriter, arranger, conductor, and film score composer/orchestrator, April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000


• Aaliyah Dana Haughton, R&B singer, dancer, fashion model, and actress, died in a plane crash, January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001


• Carl Thomas Brewer, former NHL defenseman, October 21, 1938 - August 25, 2001