Today CL

Birthdays:

• Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, mathematician, made important contributions to analysis and differential geometry, some of them paving the way for the development of general relativity, September 17, 1826 - July 20, 1866


• David Dunbar Buick, inventor, founder of the Buick Motor Company, September 17, 1854 - March 5, 1929


• Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, rocket scientist and pioneer of cosmonautics, September 5, 1857 – September 19, 1935


• Christian Lous Lange, shared the 1921 Nobel Peace Prize with Hjalmar Branting, September 17, 1869 – December 11, 1938


• Andrew RUBE Foster, baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro Leagues, considered by many as the best black pitcher of the 1900's, winning 44 games in a row as a pitcher with the 1902 Cuban Giants; also founded and managed the Chicago American Giants; organized the Negro National League, the first lasting professional league for black ballplayers, which operated from 1920 to 1931; in 1981, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, September 17, 1879 - December 9, 1930


• Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Impressionist composer; after early studies on piano and organ, he went to Berlin for four years to study composition with Humperdinck, September 17, 1884 - April 8, 1920


• William Earl Webb, MLB right fielder from 1925 to 1933, had a career batting average of .306 with 56 home runs; as of 2005, he holds the record for most doubles in a season with 67 in 1931, September 17, 1897 - May 23, 1965


• John Willard Marriott, entrepreneur and businessman, the founder of Marriott International, September 17, 1900 - August 13, 1985


• Hugh Melville HUGHIE Critz, MLB second baseman in a 12-season career, September 17, 1900 - January 10, 1980


• Dr. Edgar Wayburn, environmentalist, five-time president of the Sierra Club, honoured with the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1995, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999, 1906


• Chaim Herzog, lawyer, author, soldier, and politician, served as the sixth President of Israel from 1983 to 1993, following a career in the British Army and the Israel Defense Forces, September 17, 1918 - April 17, 1997


• Hiram HANK Williams, singer, guitarist, and songwriter, an icon of country music, a leading exponent of the Honky Tonk style, he had numerous hit records; his songbook is one of the backbones of country music, and several are pop standards, September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953


• William BILL Patton Black, Jr., musician, played upright bass with guitarist Scotty Moore on Elvis Presley's That's All Right (Mama); played bass on early Presley recordings, eventually becoming one of the first bass players to use the electric bass in popular music - on Jailhouse Rock in the late 1950's; continued to work with Presley until 1958; joined a Memphis group that evolved into Bill Black's Combo in 1959; their instrumental Smokie, released late that year, made the Top Ten; they had eight singles in the Top 40 between 1959 and 1962, September 17, 1926 – October 21, 1965


• Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude RODDY McDowall, actor, voice actor, and photographer, made his first film appearance at the age of ten, and appeared in many other films as a child actor; he was one of the few child actors to continue his career successfully into adulthood, usually in character roles, such as in four of the five original Planet of the Apes movies the TV series that followed; during the 1990s, he became active in film preservation, September 17, 1928 – October 3, 1998


• Sir Stirling Moss MBE, former racing driver, 1929


• Edgar Dean Mitchell, Sc.D., test pilot and astronaut, the sixth man to walk on the Moon, which he did as part of the Apollo 14 mission on February 9, 1971, NASA's third manned Moon landing, 1930


• Thomas Patten Stafford, astronaut and Air Force Lieutenant General (retired), selected among the second group of NASA astronauts in September, 1962; he was commander of Apollo 10 in May, 1969, which included the first flight of the lunar module during a Moon orbit, the first rendezvous while in the Moon environment, and the entire lunar landing mission except for the actual landing, 1930


• Anna Maria Louisa Italiano, aka Anne Bancroft, Tony, Emmy, and [1962] Academy Award-winning actress, best known as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate; from 1964 until her death, she was married to Mel Brooks, September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005


• Dorothy Loudon, Broadway actress, began singing as a child; became a lounge singer, and was featured on television on The Perry Como Show and The Ed Sullivan Show; her best-remembered role is as Miss Hannigan in Annie, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1977; she had a series, Dorothy, in 1979, September 17, 1933 - November 15, 2003


• Claude Provost, NHL hockey player, September 17, 1933 - April 17, 1984


• Ken Elton Kesey, author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001


• Orlando Manuel Cepeda Penne, former MLB first baseman and DH, with a .297 BA, 379 homers, and 1365 RBI in 17 seasons; he was the first designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox; in his first season in 1958, he batted .312 with 25 home runs and 96 runs RBI, led the National League with 38 doubles, and was named Rookie of the Year; in 1967, he was the NL MVP; he was a seven-time All-Star, from 1959 to 1964, and in 1967; in 1999, he was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Hall's Veterans Committee, joining Roberto Clemente as the only other Puerto Rican in Cooperstown, 1937


• Robert Paul BOBBY Wine, Sr., former MLB shortstop, coach, and manager, spent 12 seasons in the National League; won the NL Gold Glove Award in 1963; he became a coach for the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves after he retired; he served as interim manager of the 1985 Braves from August 26 through season's end, and has been a scout for Atlanta since then, 1938


• Jeffrey Kenneth MacNelly, editorial cartoonist, September 17, 1948 – June 8, 2000


• John Southworth Ritter, actor, son of Tex Ritter, best known for his role of Jack Tripper on Three's Company, after which he appeared in a number of movies; in 2002 and 2003, he starred in the sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, September 17, 1948 – September 11, 2003


• Cassandra Peterson, actress, supporter of animal rights, and an active member of PETA, best known for her on-screen horror host persona Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, gaining fame as host of Movie Macabre, a weekly horror movie presentation, 1949


• Joël-François Durand, composer, studied mathematics, music education, and piano in Paris, and then composition, 1954


• Charles Martinet, voice actor, the voice of Mario, and of Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi, 1955


• Rita Rudner, comedienne and writer, appeared in the 2005 film The Aristocrats, and the not-yet-released The Last Guy on Earth, 1956


• John Anthony Franco, MLB left-handed relief pitcher, with the third most saves in Major League Baseball; for 14 of the 20 years in his career, he played for the New York Mets, 1960


• Ty Tabor, lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for King's X, 1961


• Bryan Singer, film director, directed the first two X-Men films and Superman Returns, 1965


• Ken Doherty, professional snooker player, the only player to have been both World Amateur and World Professional Champion, 1969


• Daniela Motlikova, aka Daniella Rush, actress, 1976


• Daniel John DAN Haren, MLB pitcher, currently with the Oakland Athletics, 1980

RIP:

• Blessed Hildegard of Bingen [von Bingen or Bingensis], teacher, monastic leader, mystic, author, and composer, 1098 – September 17, 1179


• Francesco Geminiani, violinist, composer, and music theorist, December 5, 1687 – September 17, 1762


• Franz Xaver Süssmayr, composer, 1766 - September 17, 1803


• Ignaz Brüll, pianist and composer, November 7, 1846 - September 17, 1907


• Fritz Wunderlich, tenor, September 26, 1930 - September 17, 1966


• Akim Tamiroff, actor; in 1936, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the title role in The General Died at Dawn, October 29, 1899 - September 17, 1972


• Hugo Winterhalter, musician, arranger, and conductor, studied at the New England Conservatory of Music; he had many hit records under his own name between the 1940's and 1960's, and was the top arranger for RCA Victor, arranging for Perry Como, Eddie Fisher, and others, August, 1909 - September 17, 1973


• Richard Basehart, actor, starred in TV's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, August 31, 1914 - September 17, 1984


• Zino Francescatti, violinist, August 9, 1902 - September 17, 1991


• Christian Nyby, editor, and television and film director, September 1, 1913 - September 17, 1993


• Richard Bernard RED Skelton, clown, comedian, star of vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, clubs and casinos, painter, short story writer, and composer, July 18, 1913 – September 17, 1997


• Alfred Reed, composer, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, wind ensemble, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble, January 25, 1921 – September 17, 2005