Today CXCIV

Birthdays:

• Philippe de Vitry, composer, music theorist, and poet, the defining music theorist of the early Ars Nova, and an accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, October 31, 1291 – June 9, 1361


• Johannes [or Jan] Vermeer, painter, who specialized in domestic interior scenes of ordinary bourgeois life, baptized October 31, 1632 - December 15, 1675


• John Keats, poet of the English Romantic movement, October 31, 1795 – February 23, 1821


• Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass, mathematician, who is often called the "father of modern analysis," October 31, 1815 – February 19, 1897


• Paolo Mantegazza, neurologist, physiologist, anthropologist, and writer of fiction, known for the isolation of cocaine from coca leaves and his experimental investigation into its effects on the human psyche, October 31, 1831 - 1910


• Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer, chemist, who synthesized indigo, awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, October 31, 1835 - August 20, 1917


• Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon Low, youth leader and, in 1912, the founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA, October 31, 1860 – January 17, 1927


• Chiang Kai-shek, military and political leader, who assumed the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT) after the 1925 death of Sun Yat-sen; he commmanded the Northern Expedition to unify China against the warlords and emerged victorious in 1928 as the overall leader of the Republic of China; during the Chinese Civil War, he attempted to eradicate the Chinese Communists, but ultimately failed, forcing his government to retreat to Taiwan, where he continued serving as the President of the Republic of China and Director-General of the KMT for the remainder of his life, October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975


• Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine, chess Grandmaster, the fourth World Chess Champion, October 31, 1892 – March 24, 1946


• Ethel Waters, blues vocalist, performed jazz, big band, gospel, and popular music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts; played Jeanne Crain's worldly-wise grandmother in the 1949 film Pinky, a performance that earned her an Academy Award nomination, making her only the second black actress, after Hattie McDaniel, to be thus nominated, October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977


• Lucille Wood Smith, aka Frances Octavia Smith, aka Dale Evans, writer, movie star, and singer-songwriter, the wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers, October 31, 1912 – February 7, 2001


• Thomas Hill film and television actor, 1917


• Ian Stevenson, psychiatrist, the founder of scientific research on reincarnation, 1918


• Helmut Neustädter, aka Helmut Newton, fashion photographer, noted for his nude studies of women, October 31, 1920 – January 23, 2004


• Barbara Bel Geddes, actress, October 31, 1922 – August 8, 2005


• Jean-Baptiste ILLINOIS Jacquet, jazz tenor saxophonist, October 31, 1922 - July 22, 2004


• Sir John Anthony Pople Ph.D., theoretical chemist, who received his doctorate degrees in mathematics from Cambridge University; he shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn; he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1961, and knighted in 2003, October 31, 1925 – March 15, 2004


• Lyova Haskell Rosenthal, aka Lee Grant, theatre, film, and television actress, and film director who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950's; she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1975 for Shampoo; she guest starred on Empty Nest, a TV series in which her daughter, Dinah Manoff, was a regular, 1927


• Cleouna CLEO Moore, actress, October 31, 1928 - October 25, 1973


• Eddie Charlton AM, professional snooker and billiards player, October 31, 1929 - November 7, 2004


• Michael Collins, former astronaut and test pilot; selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space on two missions: Gemini 10 and Apollo 11, 1930


• Daniel Irvin Rather, Jr., former longtime anchor for the CBS Evening News, and contributor to 60 Minutes; he is now under contract and scheduled to serve as managing editor and anchor of a new television newsmagazine, Dan Rather Reports, on the new cable channel HDNet, starting in October, 2006, 1931


• Michael Landon, actor, producer, and director, October 31, 1936 - July 1, 1991


• Thomas R. TOM Paxton, folk singer and singer-songwriter, 1937


• Ron Rifkin, film, stage, and television actor and director, who won a 1998 Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor in the Broadway revival of Cabaret; he recently starred as Arvin Sloane on Alias from 2001 to 2006, 1939


• David Arthur DAVE McNally, MLB left-handed starting pitcher from 1962 until 1975; he is famous as the only pitcher to have hit a grand slam home run, and thereby win his own game in a world series; he is also known for his role in the historic 1975 Seitz decision which led to the downfall of major league baseball's reserve clause, and ushered in the current era of free agency; McNally and Andy Messersmith were the only two players in 1975 playing on the one year reserve clause in effect at the time - neither had signed a contract at the time, but both were held with their team under the rule; the two challenged the rule, and won their free agency, October 31, 1942 – December 1, 2002


• Paul H. Frampton, theoretical physicist, 1943


• Richard S. KINKY Friedman, singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician, and former columnist for Texas Monthly, 1944


• Brian Doyle-Murray, comedian, screenwriter, actor, and voice actor, the oldest brother of Bill Murray, 1945


• Russ Ballard, singer/songwriter and musician, who played for Unit 4 + 2 in the early 1960's, before becoming the lead singer and guitarist of Argent, which he left in 1973 pursuing a solo and songwriting career,
  1945


• Norman Lovett, stand-up comedian and actor, known for the role of Holly on Red Dwarf during the first, second, seventh, and eighth series, 1946


• John Franklin Candy,comedian and actor, who rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City; he appeared in such films as Stripes, The Blues Brothers, Uncle Buck, and Planes, Trains & Automobiles, October 31, 1950 – March 4, 1994


• Margaret JANE Pauley, television news anchor and journalist, 1950


• Bernard Edwards, bass player and record producer, both as a member of CHIC and on his own, October 31, 1952 – April 18, 1996


• Michael J. Anderson, actor, known for his role as the Man from another place on Twin Peaks and its film prequel, Fire Walk With Me, 1953


• Neal Town Stephenson, writer, known primarily for his science fiction works in the postcyberpunk genre, with a penchant for explorations of society, mathematics, currency, and the history of science; he also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired Magazine, 1959


• Michael Anthony Gallego, former MLB infielder, who played from 1985 to 1997; he became the Colorado Rockies' third base and infield coach in December 2004, 1960


• Peter Jackson CNZM, filmmaker, known as the director of The Lord of the Rings, and the remake of King Kong, 1961


• Kate Campbell, folk singer/songwriter, 1961


• Frederick Stanley FRED "Crime Dog" McGriff, former MLB left-handed first baseman, who led the majors in home runs in 1989 and 1992; he as an All-Star in 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, and 2000, and the 1994 All-Star Game MVP, 1963


• John Martin Maher, aka Johnny Marr, guitarist, keyboardist, harmonica player, and singer, best known as the man behind the music of The Smiths, 1963


• Dermot Mulroney, actor, 1963


• Myint Myint Aye , aka Annabella Lwin, singer, the former lead singer of Bow Wow Wow, who created some controversy by posing nude - at the age of fifteen - for the cover of the group's first full-length album; she left the group in 1983 to embark on a solo career, 1965


• Piper Lisa Perabo, movie actress, one of the lead characters in the 2000 film The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, 1976

RIP:

• Lionardo Oronzo Salvatore de Leo, aka Leonardo Leo, composer, August 5, 1694 – October 31, 1744


• Francesco Maria Veracini, composer and violinist, known for his violin sonatas and violin concertos, February 1, 1690 – October 31, 1768


• Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle, aka Max Linder, pioneer of silent film, December 16, 1883 – October 31, 1925


• Ehrich Weiss [Weisz], aka Harry Houdini, magician, escapologist, stunt performer, and investigator of spiritualists, March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926


• Otto Rosenfeld, aka Otto Rank, psychologist, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, an editor of the two most important analytic journals, managing director of Freud's publishing house, and a creative theorist, April 22, 1884 – October 31, 1939


• Maximilian Goldmann, aka Max Reinhardt, director and actor, September 9, 1873 - October 31, 1943


• Jean Cabannes, physicist, specialising in optics; the lunar crater Cabannes is named after him, August 12, 1885 - October 31, 1959


• Indira Priyadarsins Gandhi, Prime Minister of India from January 19, 1966 to March 24, 1977, and again from January 14, 1980 until her assassination on October 31, 1984; she was the daughter of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and mother of another, Rajiv Gandhi, November 19, 1917 – October 31, 1984


• Eduardo De Filippo, actor, playwright, screenwriter, author and poet, May 24, 1900 - October 31, 1984


• Robert Sanderson Mulliken, physicist and chemist, primarily responsible for the elaboration of the molecular orbital method of computing the structure of molecules; awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, June 7, 1896 – October 31, 1986


• Joseph John Campbell, professor, writer, and orator, best known for his work in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion; his widest popular recognition came from his collaboration with Bill Moyers on the PBS series The Power of Myth, which was first broadcast in 1988, a series which presented his ideas on archetypes to millions and remains a staple on PBS; a companion book, The Power of Myth, containing expanded transcripts of their conversations, was released shortly afterward, March 26, 1904 – October 31, 1987


• Jacques Haussmann, aka John Houseman, actor and film producer; among the more than two dozen films he produced was the 1946 film noir, The Blue Dahlia; he co-produced the 1938 radio broadcast The War of the Worlds, and cofounded the Mercury Theatre with Orson Welles; he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1973 for The Paper Chase, September 22, 1902 – October 31, 1988


• Joseph Papp, theatrical producer and director, June 22, 1921 - October 31, 1991


• Federico Fellini, film-maker, whose films typically combine memory, dreams, fantasy, and desire, January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993


• River Jude Phoenix, film actor, died of a drug overdose at age 23, August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993


• Rosalind Cash, actress, whose career endured on stage, screen, and television, despite her staunch refusal to portray stereotyped "black" roles, December 31, 1938 – October 31, 1995


• Marcel Carné, film director, August 18, 1906 - October 31, 1996


• Ringgold W. RING Lardner, Jr., journalist and screenwriter, blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios the era of McCarthyism; worked as a publicist and "script doctor" before writing his own material; won an Academy Award for Original Screenplay in 1942 for Woman of the Year and an Academy Award for Adapted Screenplay in 1970 for M*A*S*H, August 19, 1915 – October 31, 2000


• Richard Elliott Neustadt, political historian, specializing in the United States presidency, and advisor to several presidents, June 26, 1919 - October 31, 2003

Today CXCIII

Birthdays:

• Harvey Washington Wiley, chemist, known for his leadership in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, and his subsequent work at the Good Housekeeping Institute laboratories, October 30, 1844 - June 30, 1930


• Galileo Ferraris, physicist and electrical engineer, known for his studies on alternating current, October 30, 1847 - February 7, 1897


• Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette, neurologist, after whom Tourette syndrome is named, October 30, 1857 — May 26, 1904


• John Frank BUCK Freeman, MLB right fielder, one of the top sluggers of his era, his most famous feat being the 25 home runs he scored during the 1899 season; he retired with a career batting average of .293, OBP of .346, a slugging percentage of .462, 82 home runs, and 713 RBIs, October 30, 1871 – June 25, 1949


• Ezra Weston Loomis Pound, poet, musician, and critic, who was a major figure of the Modernist movement in early 20th century poetry, and the driving force behind several Modernist movements, notably Imagism and Vorticism, October 30, 1885 – November 1, 1972


• Zoe Akins, playwright, October 30, 1886 - October 29, 1958


• Angelo Siciliano, aka Charles Atlas, bodybuilder, whose company, Charles Atlas, Ltd. - founded in 1929 and still in business today) - markets a fitness program for the "97-pound weakling;" he conceived the idea of working muscle against muscle, rather than working out with weights, a system referred to as Dynamic Tension, October 30, 1892 – December 24, 1972


• Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk, pathologist and bacteriologist, awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the first drug - a sulfonamide - effective against bacterial infections, October 30, 1895 – April 24, 1964


• Dr. Dickinson Woodruff Richards, Jr., physician and physiologist, shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with André Cournand and Werner Forssmann for the development of cardiac catheterization and the characterisation of a number of cardiac diseases, October 30, 1895 – February 23, 1973


• Ruth Gordon Jones, aka Ruth Gordon, actress and screenwriter, known for her role as the neighbor in Roman Polanski's film of Rosemary's Baby, for which she won the 1968 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, October 30, 1896 – August 28, 1985


• William Harold BILL Terry, MLB first baseman and manager, most remember for being the last National League player to hit .400, a feat he accomplished by batting .401 in 1930, when he won the NL Batting Champion; he as an NL All-Star in 1933, 1934, and 1935; he retired with 1120 runs scored, 154 home runs, 1078 RBI and a .341 batting average; he was the New York Giants' manager from 1932 to 1941; he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1954, October 30, 1898 - January 9, 1989


• Ragnar Arthur Granit, neuroscientist, who shared the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Haldan Keffer Hartline and George Wald, October 30, 1900 – March 12, 1991


• Ruth Carol Hussey, actress, known for her Oscar-nominated role as Liz Imbrie in The Philadelphia Story, October 30, 1911 – April 19, 2005


• Richard E. Holz, brass band composer, 1914


• Leon Day, right-handed pitcher in the Negro Leagues, who pitched a perfect season (13-0) in 1937, batting .320 that year; he retired from baseball in 1955, and died of a heart attack at age 78, just six days after being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, October 30, 1916 - March 13, 1995


• Joseph Wilbur JOE Adcock, MLB first baseman, from 1950 to 1966, with the third highest career fielding percentage by a first baseman (.994); he hit four home runs in one game in July, 1954; he was the Cleveland Indians' manager in 1967 , October 30, 1927 - May 3, 1999


• Daniel Nathans M.D., microbiologist, who shared thr 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Werner Arber and Hamilton Smith, October 30, 1928 – November 16, 1999


• Néstor Almendros, cinematographer, October 30, 1930 – March 4, 1992


• Clifford Brown, jazz trumpeter, October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956


• Louis Malle, film director, October 30, 1932 – November 23, 1995


• Frans Brüggen, virtuoso recorder soloist, flutist, and conductor who, in 1955, was appointed professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague; he founded the Orchestra of the 18th Century in 1981, 1934


• Michael Winner, film director and producer, 1935


• James Evan JIM Perry, Jr., former MLB pitcher from 1959 to 1975; he was a three-time All-Star - 1961, 1970, and 1971 - and won the 1970 AL Cy Young Award, when he posted a record of 24-12; he won 20 games in 1969, and won at least 17 games five times; in a 17-year career, he earned a 215-174 record in 630 games, 447 of them starts, and struck out 1576, while allowing 1258 earned runs in 3285.2 innings pitched; his brother is Gaylord Perry, 1935


• Claude Lelouch, film director, writer, and producer, 1937


• Leland H. LEE Hartwell Ph.D., president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Paul Nurse and Sir Richard Timothy Hunt, 1939


• Grace Barnett Wing, aka Grace Slick, singer and songwriter, who was the lead singer for Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, and a solo artist, for nearly three decades, from the mid-1960's to the mid-1990's, 1939


• Edward EDDIE Holland, Jr., singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as a member of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the songwriting and production team that was responsible for much of the Motown sound and numerous hit records; he was the team's lyricist, and also worked with producer Norman Whitfield on lyrics for the songs he produced for The Marvelettes and The Temptations, 1939


• Edward Lauter, former stand up comic, and film and television actor, , 1940


• Theodor Wolfgang Hänsch, physicist, who shared one half of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics with John L. Hall, the other half going to Roy J. Glauber, 1941


• born Otis Miles, Jr., aka Otis Williams, second tenor/baritone singer, and soul and R&B songwriter and record producer; he is the leader and founder of The Temptations, in which he continues to perform as the sole surviving original member, 1941


• Joanna Shimkus, former actress, married to Sidney Poitier, 1943


• Henry Franklin Winkler, Ph.D., actor, director, producer, and author, 1945


• Timothy Bruce Schmit, bass guitarist and singer, who has played in the Eagles and Poco, 1947


• Harry Hamlin, actor, 1951


• Charles Martin Smith, film actor, writer and director, played the role of Terry "The Toad" Fields in American Graffiti, 1953


• Diego Armando Maradona, former football player, 1960


• Scott Garrelts, former MLB pitcher for the San Francisco Giants from 1982 to 1991, whose best season was 1989, when he went 14-5 with a 2.28 ERA; he was an All-Star in 1985, 1961


• Nitara Carlynn NIA Long, actress, 1970

RIP:

• Jean Mouton, composer of the Renaissance, famous for his motets, c. 1459 – October 30, 1522


• Willebrord Snel van Royen, aka Willebrord Snellius, astronomer and mathematician, most famous for the law of refraction now known as Snell's law, the formula used to calculate the refraction of light when travelling between two media of differing refractive index, 1580–October 30, 1626


• Pietro Raimondi, composer, transitional between the Classical and Romantic eras, famous as a composer of operas and sacred music, an innovator in contrapuntal technique, December 20, 1786 – October 30, 1853


• Friedrich Robert Volkmann, composer, April 6, 1815 – October 30, 1883


• Jean Henri Dunant, businessman and social activist; in 1901, he received the first Nobel Peace Prize with Frédéric Passy, May 8, 1828 - October 30, 1910


• Frederick Leonard Beebe, MLB pitcher, who played from 1906 to 1916; in his rookie year, he led the major league's with 171 strikeouts; his career record was 62-83, December 31, 1880 - October 30, 1957


• Rose Wilder Lane, journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilde, December 5, 1886 – October 30, 1968


• José Ramón Gil Samaniego, aka Ramón Novarro, silent film actor, February 6, 1899 – October 30, 1968


• George Murphy POPS Foster, jazz musician; best known for his vigorous string bass playing, he also played tuba and trumpet, May 18, 1892 - October 30, 1969


• Gustav Ludwig Hertz, physicist, awarded the 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics for studies in cooperation with James Franck of electrons passing through gas; the Franck-Hertz experiment was an early physics experiment that provided support for the Bohr model of the atom, a precursor to quantum mechanics, July 22, 1887 – October 30, 1975


• Kirby Grant Hoon, Jr., aka Kirby Grant, musician and actor; he was a child prodigy violinist, a singer, and dance band leader; a long-time B movie actor, he is remembered today for playing the title role in the television series Sky King, November 24, 1911 - October 30, 1985


• Samuel Michael Fuller, writer of pulp novels and screenplays, and film director, August 12, 1912 – October 30, 1997


• Stephen Valentine Patrick William STEVE Allen, musician, comedian, writer, songwriter, and game show panelist, the father of TV talk shows, December 26, 1921 – October 30, 2000


• Margaret PEGGY O'Rene Ryan, dancer and dance teacher, who starred in a series of movie musicals with Donald O'Connor, August 28, 1924 - October 30, 2004


• Alfonso Ramon AL Lopez, MLB catcher and manager, who established a major league record for career games as a catcher; with a .584 career winning percentage, he ranks 4th in major league history among managers of at least 2000 games; over the course of 15 full seasons as manager, he never had a losing record; he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977, August 20, 1908 – October 30, 2005

Today CXCII

Birthdays:

• James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, lawyer, diarist, and author, best known as the biographer of Samuel Johnson, October 29, 1740 - May 19, 1795


• Daniel Decatur DAN Emmett, songwriter and entertainer; in 1842, he co-founded the Virginia Minstrels; the group's full-length blackface performance is generally considered to have performed the first true minstrel show - previous blackface acts were usually either an entr'acte for a play or one of many acts in a comic variety show, October 29, 1815 – June 28, 1904


• Abram Fedorovich Ioffe, physicist, who researched electromagnetism, radiology, features of crystals, physics of high impact, thermoelectricity, and photoelectricity, and was a leading force in building new research laboratories for radioactivity, superconductivity, and nuclear physics, October 29, 1880 – October 14, 1960


• Fania Borach, aka FANNY or FANNIE Brice, comedienne, singer, and entertainer, October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951


• 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


• Sir Alfred Jules [A. J.] Ayer, philosopher, known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books Language, Truth, and Logic, which presented his verification principle, according to which a sentence is meaningful only if it has verifiable empirical import, and The Problem of Knowledge, October 29, 1910 – June 27, 1989


• William Berenberg, M.D., physician, Harvard professor, and pioneer in the treatment and rehabilitation of cerebral palsy, October 29, 1915 - September 14, 2005


• Edward Constantinowsky, aka Eddie Constantine, actor and singer, who became a star in France in the 1950's, most notably playing the part of the detective/secret agent Lemmy Caution in a series of B-movies; his most significant film was Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, in which he reprised the role of Lemmy; he also recorded several successful songs, October 29, 1917 - February 25, 1993


• Baruj Benacerraf, M.D., immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for the discovery of the Major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self, with Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset and George Davis Snell, 1920


• William Henry BILL Mauldin, editorial cartoonist; in 1945, he won the Pulitzer Prize, winning a second Pulitzer and the National Cartoonist Society Award for Editorial Cartooning in 1959; in 1961, he received the society's Reuben Award, October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003


• Neal Hefti, jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, and banleader, known for his charts for Count Basie; wrote the themes of TV series, such as Batman and The Odd Couple, 1922


• Carl Djerassi, chemist, author, and playwright, best known for his contribution to the development of the oral contraceptive pill; he is the author of the novel Cantor's Dilemma, in which he explores the ethics of modern scientific research through his protagonist, Dr. Cantor, 1923


• Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy, CBE, actor, and an acknowledged expert on the longbow; his most famous role was as Siegfried Farnon on All Creatures Great and Small; he has played Winston Churchill in several productions; his most recent role was as Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies, 1925


• Jon S. Vickers, CC , D.Mus., tenor, who studied at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto under George Lambert and made his professional debut in 1956 in Stratford, Ontario, as Don Jose in Carmen, 1926


• Isao Takahata, anime director, 1935


• Akiko Kojima, former model, the first Miss Universe to originate from Asia, 1936


• Ralph Bakshi, director, mainly of animated films, with the occasional live-action movie, known for such films as Fritz the Cat, Heavy Traffic, Wizards, and Cool and the Crazy, 1938


• Donald Clarence DON Simpson, film producer, known for such hits as Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, and The Rock; in 1985 and 1988, he and his producing partner, Jerry Bruckheimer, were named Producers of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners, October 29, 1943 - January 19, 1996


• Brian Hines, aka Denny Laine, songwriter and musician, former guitarist and lead singer for The Moody Blues and co-founder of Wings, 1944


• Peter Allen Greenbaum, aka Peter Green, blues-rock guitarist, songwriter, and founding member of Fleetwood Mac, who wrote the song Black Magic Woman, 1946


• Richard Stephen Dreyfuss, actor, won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1977 for The Goodbye Girl, 1947


• Catherine Elise KATE Jackson, actress, played the role of Sabrina Duncan on Charlie's Angels, and co-starred in Scarecrow and Mrs. King with Bruce Boxleitner, 1948


• Daniel Louis DAN Castellaneta, actor and voice, best known for providing the voice of Homer Simpson and other characters on The Simpsons; he was a cast member on The Tracey Ullman Show where The Simpsons first appeared, 1957


• David Remnick, journalist, writer, and magazine editor, formerly the Washington Post's Moscow correspondent; he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire; he has been editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998, 1958


• Finola Hughes, actress, who appeared on the sitcom Blossom, and was a frequent guest star on Charmed playing witches' mother, Patricia Halliwell, 1960


• Joely Fisher, actress, who played Paige Clark on Ellen, Dr. Brenda Bradford in the movie Inspector Gadget, and Lucy Hudson in Nostradamus; guest appearances on TV include Growing Pains, Blossom, Caroline in the City, The Outer Limits, Grace Under Fire, and Coach; her voice work includes the role of Lana Lang in the animated series Superman; she had the title role on Zoe Busiek: Wild Card and made several appearances on Desperate Housewives as Nina Fletcher; as of the fall of 2006, she stars as the onscreen wife of Brad Garrett in the sitcom 'Til Death; she is the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Connie Stevens, 1967


• Winona Laura Horowitz, aka Winona Ryder, actress, known for her work in Heathers, Girl, Interrupted, Little Women, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Bram Stoker's Dracula, and other films, 1971


• Gabrielle Monique Union, actress and former model, who played Isis, a cheerleader, in the film Bring it On, made a guest appearance on Star Trek: DS9 as a Klingon named N'Garen, and had a role was in the 2005 series Night Stalker, 1972


• Brendan Jacob Joel Fehr, actor, known for his role as Michael Guerin on Roswell, 1977


• Ben Foster, actor, appeared in X-Men: The Last Stand as Angel/Warren Worthington III, 1980


• Dana J. Eveland, MLB relief pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, 1983

RIP:

• Sir Walter Raleigh, writer, poet, courtier, and explorer; he established the first English colony in the new world, located at Roanoke Island, 1552 or 1554 – 29 October 1618


• Jean le Rond d'Alembert, mathematician, mechanician, physicist, and philosopher, co-editor with Diderot of the Encyclopédie, the original French encyclopedia; D'Alembert's method for the wave equation is named after him, November 16, 1717 – October 29, 1783


• Joseph Pulitzer, publisher, best known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prizes; in 1872, he purchased the St. Louis Post and, in 1878, he bought the St. Louis Dispatch and merged the two papers, which became the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which remains St. Louis' daily newspaper; it was at the Post-Dispatch that he developed his role as a champion of the common man with exposès and a hard-hitting populist approach; in 1917, the first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded, in accordance with Pulitzer's wishes, April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911


• Joseph Jules François Félix Babinski, neurologist, known for his 1896 description of the Babinski sign, a pathological plantar reflex indicative of corticospinal tract damage, November 17, 1857 - October 29, 1932


• Léon Charles Albert Calmette, physician, bacteriologist, and immunologist, and an officer of the Pasteur Institute, who discovered the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, an attenuated form of Mycobacterium used in the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis, and developed the first antivenom for snake venom, the Calmette's serum, July 12, 1863 – October 29, 1933


• Paul Painlevé, mathematician and politician, who twice as Prime Minister of the [French] Third Republic; in 1921, he introduced a coordinate system for the Schwarzschild solution, the first coordinate chart which clearly reveals that the Schwarzschild radius is a mere coordinate singularity - it represents the event horizon of a black hole, December 5, 1863 – October 29, 1933


• Georges [Georgiy] Ivanovich Gurdjieff, mystic, author, and spiritual teacher, who has introduced certain esoteric ideas into Western society, for instance, the enneagram, which were previously unknown to western culture; he had a strong influence on Timothy Leary, January 13, 1872 – October 29, 1949


• William Kapell, pianist, September 20, 1922 – October 29, 1953


• Eliezer Meir, aka Louis Burt Mayer, film producer, creator of the star system within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), July 4, 1882 – October 29, 1957


• Rosalie Marie ROSEMARIE Auguste Nitribitt, call girl, whose violent death caused a scandal in late 1950's Germany, February 1, 1933 – October 29, 1957


• Zoe Akins, playwright, October 30, 1886 - October 29, 1958


• Adolphe Jean Menjou, actor, February 18, 1890 – October 29, 1963


• Howard Duane Allman, guitarist, known for his slide guitar skills, session musician, a founding member and the leader/lead guitarist of The Allman Brothers Band; he had a major role on the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos; he was killed in a motorcycle accident only a few months after the summer release and great initial success of the Allman Brothers Band's album At Fillmore East, November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971


• Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius, biochemist, awarded the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, August 10, 1902 – October 29, 1971


• Woodrow Charles WOODY Herman, jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and bandleader, May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987


• Michel Regnier, aka Greg, comic-book writer and artist, known for the series Achille Talon, May 5, 1931 – October 29, 1999


• Harry Clement Stubbs, aka Hal Clement, science fiction writer; in 1996, he received a 1946 Hugo Award for his short story Uncommon Sense, retroactively; the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) named him a Grand Master in 1998; he painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard, May 30, 1922 - October 29, 2003


• Franco Corelli, tenor, active in opera from the early 1950's to 1976, April 8, 1921 – October 29, 2003


• Abbott VAUGHN Meader, comedian and impersonator, whose rise to fame with The First Family album spoofing President John F. Kennedy was equalled by his crash into obscurity with Kennedy's assassination in 1963, March 20, 1936 – October 29, 2004


• Peter Frank George Twinn Ph.D., mathematician, World War II codebreaker, and entomologist, who joined GC&CS — Britain's codebreaking service — in early 1939, working first in London, before moving to Bletchley Park; he worked with Dilly Knox and Alan Turing on German Enigma ciphers; in early 1942, he became the head of the Abwehr Enigma section; he was the first British cryptographer to read a German military Enigma message, having obtained vital information from Polish cryptanalysts in July 1939; he had a strong interest in music. and played the clarinet and viola, January 9, 1916 – October 29, 2004

Today CXCI

Birthdays:

• Eliphalet Remington, blacksmith, and designer of the Remington rifle; he founded the firm of E. Remington and Sons, now known as the Remington Arms Co., Inc., October 28, 1793 – August 12, 1861


• Pierre François Verhulst, mathematician, who published the logistic demographic model, October 28, 1804 - February 15, 1849


• Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, novelist, short story writer, and playwright, wrote Fathers and Sons; Asteroid 3323 Turgenev is named after him, November 9, 1818 – September 3, 1883


• Georges Auguste Escoffier, chef, restaurateur, and culinary writer, who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods; he was one of the leaders in the development of modern French cuisine, October 28, 1846 – February 12, 1935


• Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor, geographer, the editor of the National Geographic Magazine from 1903 to 1954, and the president of the National Geographic Society from 1920 to 1954, October 28, 1875 – February 4, 1966


• Joseph Edward JOE Adams, MLB pitcher, appeared in one game for the St. Louis Cardinals, October 28, 1877 – October 8, 1952


• Oliver DINK Johnson, jazz pianist, clarinetist, drummer, and songwriter, who made his first recordings in 1922 on clarinet with Kid Ory's Band, October 28, 1892 – November 29, 1954


• Howard Harold Hanson, composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music, October 28, 1896 – February 26, 1981


• Elizabeth Sullivan, aka Elsa Lanchester, character actress, remembered for the title role in Bride of Frankenstein, October 28, 1902 - December 26, 1986


• Arthur EVELYN St. John Waugh, writer, October 28, 1903 – April 10, 1966


• Edith Claire Posener, aka Edith Head, costume designer, who had a long career in Hollywood, and won more Academy Awards than any other woman in history, October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981


• Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll CH OBE FRS, epidemiologist, physiologist, and a pioneer in the research linking smoking to health problems; with Ernst Wynder, Bradford Hill, and Evarts Graham, he was the first in the modern world to prove that smoking caused lung cancer and increased the risk of heart disease, October 28, 1912 – July 24, 2005


• Jonas Edward Salk, M.D., physician and researcher, best known as the inventor of the first polio vaccine, the Salk vaccine, devoting much of his later life to developing an AIDS vaccine, October 28, 1914 – June 23, 1995


• Richard Laurence Millington Synge, biochemist, awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the invention of partition chromatography, October 28, 1914 - August 18, 1994


• Paul Jarrico, screenwriter and film producer, blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism, January 12, 1915 – October 28, 1997


• Gershon Kingsley, contemporary composer, famous for composing the early electronic pop instrumental song Popcorn; he led the First Moog Quartet, the first group to ever play electronic music in Carnegie Hall, and was the first person to use the Moog synthesizer in live performance, later pioneering the use of the earliest Fairlight and Synclavier digital synthesizers, 1922


• Bowie Kent Kuhn, Commissioner of Major League Baseball from February, 1969, to September, 1984, prior to which, he had served as legal counsel for MLB owners for almost 20 years, 1926


• Clementina Dinah Campbell, aka Dame Cleo Laine, Lady Dankworth DBE, jazz singer and actress, noted for her scat singing, 1927


• Joan Ann Olivier, The Lady Olivier, DBE, aka Dame Joan Plowright, actress, 1929


• Cecilia Ann Renee SUZY Parker, model and actress, October 28, 1932 - May 3, 2003


• Charles Edward CHARLIE Daniels, country music, Southern rock, and jazz singer, fiddler, guitarist, and songwriter, 1936


• Curtis Lee, singer, 1936


• Susan Spivak Harris, television comedy writer and producer, married to television producer Paul Junger Witt; formed Witt/Thomas/Harris with her husband and [Danny Thomas' son] Tony Thomas, 1940


• John Hallam, actor, who has appeared in many film and television roles, including the part of Light in the Doctor Who serial Ghost Light, 1941


• Dennis Franz Schlachta, aka Dennis Franz, actor, known for his role as Andy Sipowicz on NYPD Blue, 1944


• Glyn Geoffrey Ellis, aka Wayne Fontana, singer, the original lead vocalist for Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, which became The Mindbenders after he left the band, 1945


• Telma Hopkins, singer and television actress, who started her career as one of the members of Tony Orlando and Dawn; she appeared on Bosom Buddies, Gimme a Break!, and Family Matters, 1948


• Annie Potts, television and film actress, known for her role as Janine Melnitz in the Ghostbusters films, and as Mary Jo Shively on Designing Women, 1952


• William Henry BILL Gates III, co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft, 1955


• Daphne Eurydice Zuniga, actress, 1962


• Lauren Michael Holly, actress, 1963


• Jami Gertz, actress, 1965


• Joaquín Rafael Phoenix, actor, 1974

RIP:

• Stefano Landi, composer and teacher of the early Baroque Roman School, an early composer of opera, baptized February 26, 1587 – October 28, 1639


• John Wallis, mathematician, who is given partial credit for the development of modern calculus; between 1643 and 1689, he served as chief cryptographer for Parliament and, later, the royal court; he is credited with introducing the symbol ∞ for infinity, November 23, 1616 - October 28, 1703


• John Locke, philosopher, contributor to liberal theory, often classified as a British Empiricist, and a social contract theorist; developed an alternative to the Hobbesian state of nature and argued a government could only be legitimate if it received the consent of the governed through a social contract and protected the natural rights of life, liberty, and estate, August 29, 1632 – October 28, 1704


• Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opera ballets, and vocal music, one of the first composers to have no patrons and earn a living by writing music, December 23, 1689 - October 28, 1755


• Michel Blavet, multi-instrumentalist, specializing in flute- and bassoon-playing, March 13, 1700 – October 28, 1768


• Paul Heinrich Gerhard Möhring, aka Paul Mohr, physician, botanist, and zoologist, July 21, 1710 - October 28, 1792


• John Smeaton, civil engineer, responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours, and lighthouses; he was also a mechanical engineer and physicist, June 8, 1724 – October 28, 1792


• Johan August Arfwedson, chemist, the discoverer of lithium; the rare mineral arfvedsonite was named after him, January 12, 1792 – October 28, 1841


• Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor, who invented a machine that could easily and quickly set movable type, which revolutionized the art of printing, May 10, 1854 – October 28, 1899


• Earl Bostic, jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, April 25, 1913 – October 28, 1965


• Sergio Tòfano, actor, director, playwright, scene designer, and illustrator, August 20, 1883 – October 28, 1973


• Georges Carpentier, boxer, who fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908 to 1826, January 12, 1894 – October 28, 1975


• Carlos Guastavino, composer and pianist, who produced over 200 works, most of them songs for piano and voice, April 5, 1912 - October 28, 2000


• Gerard Hengeveld, classical pianist, music composer, and educator, especially known for his compositions of study material for piano; other compositions include two piano concertos, a violin sonata, and a sonata for cello, 1910 - October 28, 2001


• Margaret Booth, film editor and producer, who started her Hollywood career editing films by D. W. Griffith, around 1915; she edited several films starring Greta Garbo; among films that she edited were Mutiny on the Bounty, The Way We Were, and The Goodbye Girl; she has also produced several films; she received an Honorary Academy Award in 1978 for her work in film editing, January 16, 1898 – October 28, 2002


• Robert William Patrick BOB Broeg, sportswriter; he coined the nickname Stan the Man for Stan Musial, championed the Hall of Fame causes of Red Schoendienst, Enos Slaughter, and Chick Hafey, and helped to devise and successfully push for the first pension plan for veteran MLB players; he was named to the Board of Directors of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, a position he held for 28 years, and was a long time member of the Committee on Baseball Veterans, March 18, 1918 – October 28, 2005


• Richard Errett Smalley Ph.D., professor of Chemistry, and professor of Physics and Astronomy, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of a new form of carbon, buckminsterfullerene ("buckyballs") with Robert Curl and Harold Kroto, June 6, 1943 – October 28, 2005

Today CXC - R.I.P. Joe Niekro

Birthdays:

• Niccolò Paganini, violinist, violist, guitarist and composer, widely regarded as the first ever virtuoso violinist, October 27, 1782 – May 27, 1840


• Isaac Merritt Singer, inventor, actor, and entrepreneur, who made important improvements in the design of the sewing machine, and founded the Singer Sewing Machine Company, October 26, 1811 – July 23, 1875


• Klas Pontus Arnoldson, author, journalist, politician, and pacifist, who shared the 1908 Nobel Peace Prize with Fredrik Bajer, October 27, 1844 – February 20, 1916


• Theodore TEDDY Roosevelt, Jr., the 26th president of the United States, awarded the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the peace in the Russo-Japanese War; his lasting popular legacy is the Teddy Bear, named after him following an incident on a hunting trip in 1902, when he refused to kill a captured black bear simply for the sake of making a kill, October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919


• Emily Price Post, author, who promoted proper etiquette; she wrote in various styles, including humorous travel books, early in her career; in 1922, her book Etiquette was a best seller, and updated versions continued to be popular for decades, October 27, 1873 - September 25, 1960


• Jack Carson, actor, who went to Hollywood in 1937, where he found work as an extra, soon becoming a popular character actor, playing mostly in comedies, musicals, and Westerns; in 1941, he went to Warner Brothers, where he appeared in a number of films with James Cagney and Jane Wyman, while doing some radio comedies on the side; in the 1950's, he did some television work, including The Twilight Zone and Alcoa Theatre, October 27, 1910 – January 3, 1963


• William Anderson, aka Leif Erickson, actor, October 27, 1911 – January 29, 1986


• Dylan Marlais Thomas, poet and writer; in 2004, the Dylan Thomas Prize, was created in his honour, October 27, 1914 – November 9, 1953


• Oliver Reginald Tambo, anti-apartheid politician and a central figure in the African National Congress (ANC), October 27, 1917 - April 24, 1993


• Muriel TERESA Wright, actress, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1942 for her role in Mrs. Miniver, October 27, 1918 – March 6, 2005


• Nanette Ruby Bernadette Fabares, aka Nanette Fabray, actress and advocate for the hearing-impaired, winner of three Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 1949 for Love Life, 1920


• Ralph McPherran Kiner, former MLB left fielder and current announcer; from 1947 to 1951, he topped 40 HR and 100 RBI each season - his string of seasons leading the league in home runs reached seven in 1952, when he hit 37, the last of a record six consecutive seasons in which he led Major League Baseball in home runs; he was an All-Star in six straight seasons, 1948 to 1953; he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the Pittsburgh Pirates retired his uniform number 4 in 1987, 1922


• Roy Lichtenstein, pop artist, whose work borrowed heavily from popular advertising and comic book styles, October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997


• Ruby Ann Wallace, aka Ruby Dee, actress and activist, who gained national recognition for her role in the 1950 film, The Jackie Robinson Story; her acting career has crossed all major forms of media over a span of 8 decades, including films such as A Raisin in the Sun and Edge of the City; she has been nominated for eight Emmy Awards, winning twice for her role in 1990's Decoration Day and for her guest appearance in the China Beach episode Skylark; she and her late husband, actor Ossie Davis, were well-known civil rights activists; she is a member of such organizations as CORE and the NAACP; she and Davis wrote a joint autobiography titled With Ossie and Ruby, in which they discussed their political activism, 1924


• Albert H Medwin, electrical engineer and inventor, who holds several US patents, including ones in the field of electronic encoders; he was involved in the early development of integrated circuits and, in 1960's, he led the engineering group that developed the world's first low power CMOS chips, 1925


• Sylvia Plath, poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist, known for her poetry and for The Bell Jar, her semi-autobiographical novel detailing her struggle with clinical depression, October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963


• Floyd Cramer, pianist, who was one of the architects of the Nashville Sound; in 2003, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997


• John Marwood Cleese, comedian and actor, one of the members of Monty Python, and co-writer of Fawlty Towers, in which he played Basil Fawlty - only twelve episodes of the show were produced; he appeared in a cameo in the 1979 Doctor Who episode City of Death, as an art lover in the Louvre mistaking the TARDIS as one of the exhibits - he watches The Doctor and Romana enter the TARDIS and dematerialize, all the while in constant admiration of the 'exhibit;' in 1988, he wrote and starred in A Fish Called Wanda, which became the most successful British film ever - he was nominated for an Academy Award for his script; with Robin Skynner, he wrote two books on relationships: Families and How to Survive Them and Life and How to Survive it; in 1996, he declined the British honour of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE); in 1999, he appeared in the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough as Q's assistant; in 2002, when he reprised his role in Die Another Day, the character was promoted, making him the new Q of MI6; he is currently an Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, and has been appointed a Provost's Visiting Professor through 2009; in 2003, he appeared as Lyle Finster on Will & Grace; in 2004, he was credited as co-writer of a DC Comics graphic novel entitled Superman: True Brit, which suggests what might have happened had Superman's rocket ship landed in Britain, not America, 1939


• Caroline CARRIE Snodgress, actress, whose film debut was an uncredited appearance in Easy Rider in 1969 and a credited appearance in 1970 in Rabbit, Run; her next film, Diary of a Mad Housewife, garnered her a nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress and two Golden Globe wins, including New Female Star of the Year, October 27, 1946 - April 1, 2004


• Ivan Reitman, film actor, producer, and director, who produced National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 and directed Meatballs; he is known for Stripes, Ghostbusters, and other films; in the early 1990's, he began to direct fewer films, but increased his role as a producer and executive producer, 1946


• Garry Tallent, musician and record producer, best known for being the bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, 1949


• Frances Ann FRAN Lebowitz, author, best known for her sardonic social commentary on American life through her New York sensibilities; recently, she has made recurring appearances as Judge Janice Goldberg on Law & Order, 1950


• Roberto Benigni, film and television actor and director, 1952


• Peter Firth, actor, 1953


• Simon John Charles Le Bon, lead singer and lyricist for Duran Duran, 1958


• Thomas TOM Andrew Nieto, former MLB catcher and current catching instructor for the New York Mets; played from 1984 to 1990, appearing in the 1985 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals, 1960


• Brad Radke, former MLB pitcher for the Minnesota Twins; an All-Star in 1998, he retired after the 2006 season, 1972


• Jason Michael Johnson, MLB right-handed starting pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, 1973


• Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson, classical and pop violinist, 1978


• Cassia Riley, model and actress, 1980

RIP:

• Ginette Neveu, violinist, August 11, 1919 – October 27, 1949


• Lise Meitner, physicist, who studied radioactivity and nuclear physics; she received the Max Planck Medal of the German Physics Society in 1949; element 109 is named meitnerium in her honour, November 17, 1878 – October 27, 1968


• Rex Todhunter Stout, writer, best known as the creator of the fictional detective Nero Wolfe, December 1, 1886 - October 27, 1975


• Stephen Ross Porter, aka Steve Peregrin Took, named himself after a hobbit, musician, drummer for Tyrannosaurus Rex, July 28, 1949 – October 27, 1980


• John Hasbrouck van Vleck, physicist, who developed fundamental theories of the quantum mechanics of magnetism and the bonding in metal complexes (crystal field theory); he was awarded the Lorentz Medal in 1974, and shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics Philip W. Anderson and Sir Nevill Mott, March 13, 1899 – October 27, 1980


• Julia Verlyn JUDY LaMarsh, PC, OC, politician, author, and broadcaster, first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in a 1960 by-election, as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Niagara Falls, joining the Cabinet after the Liberals defeated the Progressive Conservative government in the 1963 election; serving under Prime Minister Lester Pearson, she served as Minister of National Health and Welfare and Minister of Amateur Sport from 1963 to 1965, and as Secretary of State for Canada from 1965 to 1968; she worked as a broadcaster, including a stint for CBC Radio, hosting This Country in the Morning from 1974 until 1976; in the late 1970's, she headed the Ontario government's Royal Commission on Violence in the Communications Industry, December 20, 1924 – October 27, 1980


• Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Deulofeo, aka Xavier Cugat, bandleader, influential in the infusion of Latin music into United States popular music, who had trained as a classical violinist and played with the Orchestra of the Teatro Nacional in Havana, January 1, 1900 - October 27, 1990


• Elliott Roosevelt, World War II hero and author, the son of Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt, September 23, 1910 – October 27, 1990


• Ugo Tognazzi, film, TV, and theatre actor, director, and screenwriter, who starred in he film version of La Cage aux Folles, March 23, 1922 - October 27, 1990


• David Joseph Bohm, quantum physicist, who made significant contributions in the fields of theoretical physics, philosophy, and neuropsychology, and to the Manhattan Project, December 20, 1917 - October 27, 1992


• Morey Amsterdam, television actor and comedian, and cellist, known as The Human Joke Machine, whose most famous role may have been as comedy writer Buddy Sorrell on The Dick Van Dyke Show, a role suggested for him by his friend Rose Marie, who also appeared on the show, December 14, 1908 – October 27, 1996


• Robert L. Mills Ph.D., physicist, specializing in quantum field theory, the theory of alloys, and many-body theory, April 15, 1927 - October 27, 1999


• Walter Berry, bass-baritone, who made his debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1947; his signature roles were Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Figaro, and Bluebeard; he was also a noted interpreter of Lied and choral works, and enjoyed performing in operettas, particularly Die Fledermaus, April 8, 1929 – October 27, 2000


• Robert Ray ROD Roddy, radio and television announcer, the long-time announcer on The Price is Right, September 28, 1937 – October 27, 2003


• Joseph Franklin JOE Niekro, MLB starting pitcher, who specialized in throwing the knuckleball; in 1976, he hit his first and only big league home run in 973 lifetime at bats, off his brother Phil Niekro, who was also a knuckleball pitcher; he was an All-Star in 1979, a year in which he led the National League with 21 wins, and threw a league-leading five shutouts; when he appeared in the 1987 World Series, he set a record for the longest period of time elapsed between a player's major league debut and his first appearance in the World Series; on May 4, 1988, after compiling a 10.03 earned run average in his first five games, the Minnesota Twins released him, effectively ending his 22-year career; his 221 career victories make him one of the most successful knuckleball pitchers of all time; he finished his career with a .520 winning percentage [221 - 204] and a 3.59 ERA in 702 games, November 7, 1944 — October 27, 2006

Today CLXXXIX

Birthdays:

• Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, composer, influential in the development of the Classical period in music, October 26, 1685 – July 23, 1757


• Johan Helmich Roman, composer, October 26, 1694 - November 20, 1758


• Ferdinand Georg Frobenius, mathematician, known for his contributions to the theory of differential equations and to group theory, October 26, 1849 - August 3, 1917


• Charles William [C. W.]Post, cereal and foods manufacturer, a pioneer in the prepared-food industry, October 26, 1854 - May 9, 1914


• Benjamin Guggenheim, businessman, who died aboard RMS Titanic, October 26, 1865 – April 15, 1912


• Carl Wilhelm Kahlo, photographer, the father of artist Frida Kahlo, October 26, 1871 – April 14, 1941


• Thomas Martin Lowrey, physical chemist; in 1914, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; in 1920, he became the first holder of a chair of physical chemistry at Cambridge University; he formulated the protonic definition of acids and bases in 1923, October 26, 1874 – November 2, 1936


• Josef Paul Zukauskas, aka Jack Sharkey, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, October 26, 1902 – August 17, 1994


• Primo Carnera, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, October 26, 1906 – June 29, 1967


• Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972


• Don Siegel, film director, October 26, 1912 - April 20, 1991


• Charles Daly CHARLIE Barnet, jazz saxophonist and bandleader, October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991


• John Leslie JACKIE Coogan, actor, who began his movie career as a child actor in silent films, October 26, 1914 – March 1, 1984


• Neal Matthews, Jr., singer; in 1953, he became a member of the Nashville-based singing group, The Jordanaires; he developed the numbering system for chords that was instrumental in creating what became known as the Nashville Sound, October 26, 1929 - April 21, 2000


• Robert William BOB Hoskins, Jr., actor, 1942


• Jacquelyn Ellen JACLYN Smith, actor, known for her role in Charlie's Angels, the only female lead to remain with the series for its complete run, 1945


• Patrick Leonard PAT Sajak, current host of Wheel of Fortune, 1946


• Holly Woodlawn, actress and former Warhol superstar, 1946


• Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, the junior Senator from New York, and wife of Bill Clinton, First Lady of the United States during his two; prior to that, she was a lawyer and the First Lady of Arkansas, 1947


• Stephen Douglas STEVE Rogers, former MLB starting pitcher, who played his entire career for the Montréal Expos, he was a five-time All-Star; 1974, 1978, 1979, 1982, and 1983, 1949


• William "Bootsy" Collins, pioneering funk bassist, singer, and songwriter, played in James Brown's backing band and in Funkadelic, 1951


• Professor Andrew Motion, poet, novelist, and biographer, who is the current Poet Laureate of England, 1952


• Margarita Ibrahimoff, aka Rita Wilson, actress and producer, wife of Tom Hanks, 1956


• Mark DYLAN McDermott, actor, 1961


• Ivan Simon CARY Elwes, actor, 1962


• Natalie Anne O'Shea Merchant, musician, who joined 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and began her solo career in 1993, 1963


• Steve Valentine, actor, who has performed on stage and screen, and is best known as Nigel Townsend on Crossing Jordan, 1966


• Seth Woodbury MacFarlane, animator, screenwriter, producer, director, and voice actor, best known as the creator of Family Guy and American Dad!, 1971


• Alexandra Pauline SASHA Cohen, figure skater, 1984

RIP:

• John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada, and founder of York, now Toronto, February 25, 1752 – October 26, 1806


• John Kinder Labatt, brewer, the founder of the Labatt Brewing Company, 1803 – 26 October 26, 1866


• Charles Albert Comiskey, MLB player, manager and team owner; as owner of the Chicago White Sox from 1900 to 1931, oversaw the building of Comiskey Park in 1910; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, August 15, 1859 - October 26, 1931


• Hattie McDaniel, actress, the first black American to be nominated and to win for her Academy Award-winning supporting role of Mammy in the 1939 movie Gone with the Wind, June 10, 1895 – October 26, 1952


• Walter Wilhelm Gieseking, pianist and composer, November 5, 1895 – October 26, 1956


• Dr. Gerty Theresa Cori, biochemist and educator, shared the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori and physiologist Bernardo Houssay for their discovery of how glycogen is broken down and resynthesized in the body; the Cori crater on the Moon is named after her, August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957


• Nikos Kazantzakis, author of poems, novels, essays, plays, and travel books, and philosopher, author of Zorba the Greek, February 18, 1883 - October 26, 1957


• Alma Angela Cohen, aka Alma Cogan, singer of traditional pop music, May 19, 1932 - October 26, 1966


• Vincent Coleman, stage and film actor of the silent film era February 16, 1901 - October 26, 1971


• Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky, inventor, who designed the first four-engine airplane and the first successful helicopter of the most common configuration, (single main rotor, tail rotor), 25 May 1889 – 26 October 1972


• August Rodney GUS Mancuso, MLB catcher; in a 17-season career, he was a .265 hitter with 53 home runs and 543 RBI in 1460 games; he was an All-Star in 1935 and 1937, December 5, 1905 - October 26, 1984


• Charles John Pedersen, organic chemist, known for describing methods of synthesizing crown ethers, awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, October 3, 1904 – October 26, 1989>/li>
  
• Wilbert Harrison, singer, who had a Billboard No.1 record in 1959 with the song Kansas City, which was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2001, January 5, 1929 – October 26, 1994


• Hoyt Wayne Axton, country music singer-songwriter, and film and television actor, March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999


• Roberto Francisco BOBBY Avila González, MLB second baseman; in 1954, he won the AL Batting Champiosnhip; he was an All-Star in 1952, 1954, and 1955; in an 11-season career, he hit .281 with 80 homers, 467 RBI, 1296 hits, 725 runs, 185 doubles, 35 triples, and 78 stolen bases in 1300 games, April 2, 1924 - October 26, 2004

Also:
Dignitaries from the computer security field took the stage at the Computer History Museum this evening to note the 30th anniversary of public key cryptography and wax historical about academic, governmental, and commercial developments in security, and ponder the future.

Panelists included Whitfield Diffie, who is a cryptography pioneer and chief security officer at Sun Microsystems, Martin Hellman, a Stanford University professor, Notes founder Ray Ozzie, now Microsoft's chief software architect, and Brian Snow, retired director for the National Security Agency's Information Assurance Directorate.

Public key cryptography uses public and private keys between sender and recipient of a message for security purposes. The sender encrypts a message with a public key and the recipient uses a private key to decrypt it. Its birth is traced to the November 1976 publishing of a paper entitled, "New Directions in Cryptography," by Diffie and Hellman.

Panelist Dan Boneh, also a Stanford University professor as well as a co-inventor of identity-based encryption, said government has gone from stalling deployment of cryptography to mandating it with regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA. "There's been a complete flip, recognizing that encryption is there to help us, not just to help our enemies," Boneh said.

Today CLXXXVIII

Birthdays:

• Évariste Galois, mathematician, whose work laid the fundamental foundations for Galois Theory, a major branch of abstract algebra, and the subfield of Galois connections; he was the first to use the word group as a technical term in mathematics to represent a group of permutations, October 25, 1811 – May 31, 1832


• Johann Strauss II, or Johann Strauss, Jr., or Johann Strauss the Younger, composer, known especially for his waltzes, he became the "waltz king" by his revolutionary elevation of the waltz from lowly peasant dance to sparkling entertainment for the royal court, October 25, 1825 – June 3, 1899


• Alexandre-César-Léopold Bizet, baptized as Georges Bizet, composer and pianist, best known for his opera Carmen, October 25, 1838 – June 3, 1875


• Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov, Romantic composer, October 25, 1864 – January 3, 1956


• John Francis Dodge, automobile manufacturing pioneer, October 25, 1864 - January 14, 1920


• John William Heisman, football player and college football coach in the early era of the sport, the namesake of the Heisman Trophy awarded annually to the season's best college football player, October 23, 1869 – October 3, 1936


• Pablo Picasso, painter and sculptor, the co-founder of cubism; it has been estimated that he produced about 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, and 300 sculptures or ceramics, October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973


• Abel Gance, film director, producer, writer, actor, and editor, October 25, 1889 - November 10, 1981


• Leo G. Carroll, character actor, known for his roles in several Hitchcock films, and on TV as Cosmo Topper on Topper, and as Alexander Waverly on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., October 25, 1892–October 16, 1972


• Levi Shkolnik, aka Levi Eshkol, the third Prime Minister of Israel from 1963 until his death, October 25, 1895 - February 26, 1969


• Salvatore Massaro, aka Eddie Lang, jazz guitarist, October 25, 1902 – March 26, 1933


• William WILLY A. Higinbotham, physicist, credited with creating one of the first video games, Tennis for Two, which is similar to PONG; as the Head of the Instrumentation Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory, he created it on an oscilloscope in 1958, to entertain visitors during visitor days at the national laboratory, October 25, 1910 - November 10, 1994


• Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, aka Minnie Pearl, country comedian at the Grand Ole Opry, and on the television show Hee Haw, October 25, 1912 – March 4, 1996


• Ivan Morton Niven Ph.D., mathematician, who worked mainly in number theory, and completed the proof of Waring's problem in 1944, October 25, 1915 – May 9, 1999


• William John Bertanzetti, aka Billy Barty, film actor and activist for the promotion of rights for others with dwarfism, who founded the Little People of America to help with his activism, October 25, 1924 – December 23, 2000


• Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano opera singer and recitalist, 1926


• Barbara Cook, singer and actress, famed for her roles in musicals such as Candide and The Music Man, 1927


• Marion [Marian] Ross, Broadway, film, and television actress, who appeared on such shows as Life With Father, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Love Boat, and Night Court, as well as on Happy Days, as Marion Cunningham, on That '70s Show as Bernice Forman, and on The Gilmore Girls as Lorelei's grandmother, 1928


• Anthony George Papaleo, Jr., aka Anthony TONY Franciosa, actor, October 25, 1928 – January 19, 2006


• Russell Louis RUSTY Schweickart, former astronaut, 1935


• Robin Spry, filmmaker and television producer, October 25, 1939 - March 28, 2005,


• Anne Tyler, novelist, whose Breathing Lessons received the Pulitzer Prize in 1989; in 1985, The Accidental Tourist was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award, 1941


• Helen Reddy, pop singer and actress, 1941


• Jon Anderson, musician, the lead singer for Yes, 1944


• Glenn Raymond Tipton, one of the lead guitarists for Judas Priest, 1948


• Robin Eubanks, jazz trombonist, has played for the Jazz Messengers; currently, he plays with bassist Dave Holland's quintet and big band; he is the brother of guitarist Kevin Eubanks and trumpeter Duane Eubanks, 1955


• Nancy Campbell Cartwright, actress and voice actor, best known as the voice of Bart Simpson; she also provides the voices of Nelson Muntz, Todd Flanders, Ralph Wiggum and Kearney on The Simpsons, 1957


• Tracy Kristin Nelson, actress, the daughter of the late Ricky Nelson, 1963


• Michael Boatman, actor, appeared in Spin City, China Beach, and Arli$$, 1964


• Wendel L. Clark, former NHL hockey player, 1966


• Lloyd Edward Elwyn ED Robertson, lead singer, guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of Barenaked Ladies, 1970


• Adam Goldberg< actor, 1970


• Pedro Jaime Martínez, MLB pitcher, who plays for the New York Mets, winner of three Cy Young Awards, 1971


• Midori Goto, aka Midori, violinist, 1971


• Sarah Thompson, actress, played Eve on Angel; is now appearing as Rose on 7th Heaven, 1979


• Austin Peralta, jazz pianist, 1990

RIP:

• Geoffrey Chaucer, author, poet, philosopher, courtier, and diplomat, author of The Canterbury Tales, c. 1343 – October 25, 1400


• Evangelista Torricelli, physicist and mathematician, inventor of the barometer, October 15, 1608 – October 25, 1647


• Karl Halle, aka Charles Hallé, was a pianist and conductor, Principal Conductor, Hallé Orchestra from 1858 to 1895, and Principal Conductors Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 1883 to 1895, April 11, 1819 in Hagen, Germany – October 25, 1895


• W. B. BAT Masterson, buffalo hunter, U.S. Army scout, gambler, frontier lawman, U.S. Marshal, and sports editor and columnist for a New York newspaper, November 24, 1853 or 1856 – October 25, 1921


• Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron Dunsany, aka Lord Dunsany, writer and dramatist, known for his work in fantasy and horror, July 24, 1878 – October 25, 1957


• Henry George HARRY Ferguson, pioneering aviator and businessman, whose company merged with Massey-Harris to become Massey-Harris-Ferguson Co., later Massey-Ferguson Co., November 4, 1884 - October 25, 1960


• Roger Désormière, conductor, Principal Conductors, Orchestre National de France from 1947 to 1951, well known for having directed one of the earliest recordings of Debussy's opera Pélleas et Mélisande, September 13, 1898 - October 25, 1963


• Eduard Einstein, the second son of Albert Einstein, July 28, 1910 – October 25, 1965


• Cleouna CLEO Moore, actress, October 31, 1928 - October 25, 1973


• Virgil Fox, organist, May 3, 1912 – October 25, 1980


• Forrest Tucker, movie and television actor from the 1940's to the 1980's, February 12, 1919 - October 25, 1986


• Wolfgang Grajonca, aka Bill Graham, concert promoter, operated the Fillmore West and Winterland in San Francisco, and the Fillmore East in New York City, January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991


• Roger Dean Miller, singer, songwriter, and musician, January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992


• Vincent Leonard Price, Jr., actor, best remembered for his roles in a series of horror films where his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude were well used; in the summer of 1977, he began performing as Oscar Wilde, in the one man stage play Diversions and Delights, May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993


• Mildred Natwick, stage and film actress, June 19, 1905 – October 25, 1994


• Robert Larimore BOBBY Riggs< tennis player, February 25, 1918 – October 25, 1995


• Elsa VIVECA Torstensdotter Lindfors, stage and film actress, December 29, 1920 - October 25, 1995


• Sir Richard St. John Harris, actor, singer, and songwriter, who performed on stage and in many motion pictures, known for the film roles of King Arthur in Camelot, a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse, and Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies; he sang MacArthur Park on his A Tramp Shining album in 1968 - no comment, October 1, 1930 – October 25, 2002


• René Thom, mathematician, who made his reputation as a topologist, moving on to what would be called singularity theory, from which work he became the founder of catastrophe theory; he received the Fields Medal in 1958, September 2, 1923 – October 25, 2002


• John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE, aka John Peel, disc jockey, radio presenter, and journalist, August 30, 1939 – October 25, 2004

Also:
BT [British Telecom] announced today that it has acquired Counterpane Internet Security Inc., a leading provider of managed networked security services. Post-acquisition, Bruce Schneier, the founder of the company, will continue in his role as CTO.

Today CLXXXVII

Birthdays:

• Thonius Philips ANTON van Leeuwenhoek, tradesman and scientist, commonly known as the Father of Microbiology, best known for his work on the improvement of the microscope and for his contributions towards the establishment of microbiology, October 24, 1632 - August 30, 1723


• Ferdinand Hiller, composer of the Romantic era, October 24, 1811 - May 12, 1885


• H. W. Bakhuis Roozeboom, chemist, known for his work on phase behaviour in physical chemistry; his main work was in the field of thermodynamics, studying the equilibrium of multiple-phase systems, October 24, 1854 - February 8, 1907


• Edward Nagle Williamson, MLB catcher from 1878 to 1890, October 24, 1857 - March 3, 1894


• Dame Agnes SYBIL Thorndike CH DBE, actress, October 24, 1882 June 9, 1976


• Marianna Winchalaska, aka Gilda Gray, actress and dancer, who became famous for popularizing a dance called the shimmy, October 24, 1901 - December 22, 1959


• Melvin Purvis, lawman and FBI agent, best remembered for leading the manhunt for John Dillinger, October 24, 1903 - February 29, 1960


• Moss Hart, playwright and director of plays and musical theatre; he recalled his youth, early career, and rise to fame in his autobiography Act One, adapted to film in 1963; he was married to Kitty Carlisle, October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961


• Alexander Osipovich Gelfond, mathematician, who obtained important results in several mathematical domains including number theory, analytic functions, integral equations, and the history of mathematics, October 24, 1906 - November 7, 1968


• Saunders Terrell, aka Sonny Terry, blues musician, widely known for his energetic blues harmonica; he established a long-standing musical relationship with Brownie McGhee, and the pair recorded numerous tracks together - they became well-known, even among white audiences, as they joined the growing folk movement of the 1950's and 1960's, October 24, 1911 - March 11, 1986


• Tito Gobbi, baritone, October 24, 1913 – March 5, 1984


• Robert Kahn, aka Bob Kane, comic book artist and writer, the creator of Batman, October 24, 1915 – November 3, 1998


• Luciano Berio, composer, noted for his experimental work, and for his pioneering work in electronic music, October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003


• George Crumb, composer of modern and avant garde music, known as an explorer of unusual timbres and extended technique, 1929


• Jiles Perry [J.P.] Richardson, Jr., aka The Big Bopper, disc jockey and early rock and roll performer, guitarist, and songwriter, best known for his song Chantilly Lace; he died in the same plane crash as Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, October 24, 1930 – February 3, 1959


• Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, composer of deeply religious music, 1931


• Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, physicist, awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Physics, 1942


• Robert Alexander Mundell Ph.D. CC, professor of economics at Columbia University, awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Economics, 1932


• Malcolm Bilson, pianist, specializing in performance on the fortepiano, 1935


• William George Perks, aka Bill Wyman, musician, the bassist for The Rolling Stones from the band's founding in 1962 until 1994, 1936


• Santo Farina, guitarist and composer, with his brother Johnny Farina, one-half of the guitar duo Santo & Johnny, 1937


• Fahrid Murray [F. Murray] Abraham, actor, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1984 for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, 1939


• William H. Dobelle, biomedical researcher, who developed advanced technologies that restored limited sight to blind patients, October 24, 1941 - October 5, 2004


• Jerry McCrohan, aka Jerry Edmonton, drummer for Steppenwolf, October 24, 1946 - November 28, 1993


• Kevin Delaney Kline, stage and film actor; in 1989, he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Fish Called Wanda, 1947


• Steven Greenberg, musician, record producer, and the owner of the independent October Records label, best known for his 1980 hit song Funkytown, recorded under the name Lipps Inc., 1950


• Rawly Eastwick, former MLB pitcher from 1974 to 1981, 1950


• Ronald RON Clyde Gardenhire, former MLB shortstop, second baseman, and third baseman for the New York Mets from 1981 to 1985; he is currently the manager of the Minnesota Twins, 1957


• Bradley Darryl [B.D.] Wong, stage, film, and television actor, and director, who made his Broadway debut M. Butterfly; he is the only actor to have won the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same performance; in 2005, he directed the film Social Grace, starring Margaret Cho, 1962


• Michael Scott MIKE Matthews, MLB pitcher, 1973


• Wilton Guerrero, MLB utility player, who currently plays for the St. Louis Cardinals; he is the older brother of Vladimir Guerrero, 1974


• Tila Nguyen, aka Tila Tequila, glamour model and singer, 1981

RIP:

• Tyge Ottesen TYCHO Brahe, nobleman, best known today as an early astronomer, although in his lifetime he was also well known as an astrologer and alchemist, credited with the most accurate astronomical observations of his time; the data were used by his assistant Kepler to derive the laws of planetary motion, December 14, 1546 – October 24, 1601


• Pierre Gassendi, philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, best known for attempting to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christianity, and for publishing the first official observations of the Transit of Mercury in 1631; Gassendi crater on the Moon is named after him, January 22, 1592 – October 24, 1655


• Seki Takakazu or Seki Kowa, mathematician, who created a new mathematical notation system, and used it to discover many of the theorems and theories that were being — or were shortly to be — discovered in the West, including recreating major results in calculus, 1637 or 1642 – October 24, 1708


• Alessandro Scarlatti, composer, May 2, 1660 – October 24, 1725


• August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, composer and violinist, November 2, 1739 – October 24, 1799


• Mykola Vitaliyovych Lysenko, composer, pianist, conductor, and folksong collector, October 22, 1842 – November 6, 1912


• Louis Renault, industrialist and automobile industry pioneer, February 15, 1877 – October 24, 1944


• Franz Lehár, composer, April 30, 1870 – October 24, 1948


• Sofya Aleksandrovna Yanovskaya, mathematician and historian, specializing in the history of mathematics, mathematical logic, and philosophy of mathematics, best known for her efforts at restoring mathematical logic research in the USSR, and publishing and editing mathematical works of Karl Marx, January 31, 1896 – October 24, 1966


• Charles Sprague CARL Ruggles, composer, who wrote finely-crafted pieces using dissonant counterpoint, March 11, 1876 - October 24, 1971


• Jack Roosevelt JACKIE Robinson, the first black American Major League Baseball player in 1947; his achievement has been recognized by his uniform number, 42, being retired by all Major League Baseball Teams; he was the 1947 Rookie of the Year, the 1949 NL MVP, and the 1949 NL batting leader, hitting .342 - 1949; he was an All-Star in 1949, 1950, 1951, and 1952, as a second baseman, in 1953 as a third baseman, and in 1954 as an outfielder; in 1962, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972


• Clara Viola Cronk, aka Claire Windsor, silent film actress, April 14, 1897 – October 24, 1972


• David Fiodorovich Oistrakh, violinist; the violin concerto of Aram Khachaturian and the two violin concerti by Dmitri Shostakovichs are dedicated to him, September 30, 1908 – October 24, 1974


• Eugene Wesley GENE Roddenberry, scriptwriter and producer, creator of Star Trek, pilot, awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal in World War II; one of the first people to be buried in space; after his death, his estate allowed the creation of television series based upon some of his previously unfilmed story ideas and concepts - Earth: Final Conflict and Andromeda were produced under the guidance of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991


• Donald DON Messick, voice actor, September 7, 1926 – October 24, 1997


• Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, seamstress and civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress dubbed the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement;" she is famous for her refusal, on December 1, 1955, to obey bus driver James Blake's demand that she give up her seat to a white passenger - her subsequent arrest and trial for this act of civil disobedience triggered the Montgomery Bus Boycott, one of the largest and most successful mass movements against racial segregation in history, launching Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the organizers of the boycott, to the forefront of the civil rights movement, February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005

Today CLXXXVI

Birthdays:

• Samuel Morey, inventor, who invented an internal combustion engine and was a pioneer in steamships; he accumulated a total of 20 patents, October 23, 1762 - April 17, 1843


• Gustav ALBERT Lortzing, composer, October 23, 1801 - January 21, 1851


• Adlai Ewing Stevenson I, congressman, the twenty-third vice-president of the United States, whose grandson Adlai Ewing Stevenson II was the Democratic candidate for president of the United States in 1952 and 1956, October 23, 1835 – June 14, 1914


• Henriette Rosine Bernard, aka Sarah Bernhardt, stage and silent film actress, October 23, 1844 – March 26, 1923


• Gilbert Newton Lewis, physical chemist, best known for the 1902 valence bond theory, which he developed in coordination with Irving Langmuir; his 1923 textbook Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances, written with Merle Randall is one of the founding books in chemical thermodynamics; in 1926, he coined the term photon for the smallest unit of radiant energy, October 23, 1875 - March 23, 1946


• Agnes Teresa McGlade, aka Una O'Connor, theatre actress and film character actress, October 23, 1880 – February 4, 1959


• Lawren Stewart Harris, CC, painter, a member of the Group of Seven; at some point, he stopped signing and dating his paintings so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted, October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970


• Milton Marx, aka Gummo Marx, actor, October 23, 1892 - April 21, 1977


• Raymond Bloom RUBE Bressler, MLB left-handed pitcher from 1914 to 1920, before being converted to an outfielder and first baseman from 1918 to 1931, October 23, 1894 - November 7, 1966


• Felix Bloch, physicist; he and Edward Mills Purcell were awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics for their development of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements, October 23, 1905 – September 10, 1983


• Ilya Mikhailovich Frank, physicist, shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physics with Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov and Igor Y. Tamm for his work in explaining the phenomenon of Cherenkov radiation, October 23, 1908 – June 22, 1990


• Zellig Sabbetai Harris, linguist, mathematical syntactician, and methodologist of science, October 23, 1909 - May 22, 1992


• Doris Jensen, aka Coleen Gray, movie and television actress, 1922


• Ned Rorem, composer and diarist, 1923


• Frank Sutton, actor, known for his role as drill sergeant Vince Carter on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., October 23, 1923 - June 28, 1974


• John William JOHNNY Carson, actor, comedian, and writer, best known as the host of The Tonight Show, October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005


• James Paul David JIM Bunning, politician and former MLB pitcher from 1955 to 1971, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame via Veterans Committee in 1996; he served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 1999; he has served in the U. S. Senate since 1999, 1931


• Diana Mary Fluck, aka Diana Dors, actress, October 23, 1931 – May 4, 1984


• Juan Antonio CHI-CHI Rodríguez, former professional golfer, 1935


• Philip Kaufman, film director and screenwriter, 1936


• John MICHAEL Crichton, M.D., author, film producer, film director, and television producer, 1942


• Ang Lee, film director, who won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Director for Brokeback Mountain; directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 1954


• Dwight David Yoakam, musician, songwriter, and actor, 1956


• Nancy Grace, talk show host and former prosecutor, who frequently discusses issues from a victims' rights perspective, 1958


• Samuel Marshall Raimi, film director, producer, and writer, producer of TV's Xena: Warrior Princess, featuring his younger brother Ted Raimi, and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and director of the Spider-Man films, 1959


• Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic, musician, satirist, parodist, accordionist, and television producer, known for his humorous songs which make light of popular culture, parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts, or both, 1959


• Douglas Richard DOUG Flutie, former CFL and NFL football player, 1962


• Roberto Agustín Miguel Santiago Samuel Trujillo Veracruz, aka Robert Trujillo, bassist, currently playing for Metallica, since 2003, 1964


• Alois Terry AL Leiter, former MLB left-handed starting pitcher, who played from 1987 to 2005, and broadcaster; All-Star in 1996 and 2000; Branch Rickey Award winner in 1999; Roberto Clemente Award in 2000; he pitched a no-hitter against the Colorado Rockies on May 11, 1996; on April 30, 2002, he became the first pitcher to have defeated all 30 MLB teams, 1965


• Rhea Alexandria Devlugt, aka Jasmin St. Claire, actress, 1970


• Odalys García, actress, model, singer, and show host, 1975


• Pedro Antonio Liriano, minor league relief pitcher, 1980

RIP:

• John Boyd Dunlop, inventor, who developed the first practical pneumatic tire in 1887, and founded Dunlop Tyres, February 5, 1840 – October 23, 1921


• Pearl Zane Gray, aka Zane Grey, author of popular adventure novels and pulp fiction that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West, January 31, 1872 - October 23, 1939


• Ralph Reichenthal, aka Ralph Rainger, composer of popular music, principally for films, October 7, 1901 – October 23, 1942


• Charles Glover Barkla, physicist, who evolved the laws of X-ray scattering, and the laws governing the transmission of X rays through matter and excitation of secondary rays; for his discovery of the characteristic X-rays of elements, he received the 1917 Nobel Prize in Physics, and was awarded the Royal Society's Hughes Medal that same year, June 7, 1877 – October 23, 1944


• Asa Yoelson, aka Al Jolson, singer and actor, May 26, 1885 or 1886 - October 23, 1950


• "Mother" Maybelle Carter, nee Addington, country music musician, who was the guitarist, and also played autoharp and banjo, for the Carter Family, May 10, 1909 – October 23, 1978


• Dr. Edward Adelbert Doisy, biochemist, who shared the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with Henrik Dam for their discovery of vitamin K and its chemical structure, November 3, 1893 – October 23, 1986


• Robert Anton BOB Grim, MLB pitcher, 1954 Al Rookie of the Year, and 1957 All-Star, March 8, 1930 - October 23, 1996


• Bert Haanstra, film and documentary director; in 1958, his documentary Glas, about the production of glass, won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject, May 31, 1916 - October 23, 1997


• Barnett Slepian, physician, murdered in his home by an anti-abortion activist, the fourth doctor and seventh person in the USA to be killed because of their involvement with performing abortions; not fucking acceptable!, October 21, 1946 – October 23, 1998


• Ronald William JOSH Kirby, commercial artist, who painted film-posters and magazine and book covers; creating a total of over 400 cover paintings, his personal preference was for science fiction covers, November 27, 1928 – October 23, 2001


• Adolph Green, lyricist and playwright, who wrote most of his songs, plays, and movies with Betty Comden, December 2, 1914 – October 23, 2002


• Morris (Moishe) Miller, aka Robert Merrill, operatic baritone, June 4, 1919 – October 23, 2004

Today CLXXXV

Birthdays:

• Erasmus Reinhold, astronomer and mathematician, who catalogued a large number of stars; he was a member of the Melanchthon Circle, a group of Lutheran mathematicians who were generally friendly to Copernican astronomy, October 22, 1511 – February 19, 1553


• Franz Liszt, virtuoso pianist and composer, listen to his music!, October 22, 1811 – July 31, 1886


• Louis Riel, politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and leader of the Métis people of the Canadian prairies, who led two resistance movements against the Canadian government, seeking to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest Territories came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence, October 22, 1844 – November 16, 1885


• Clinton Joseph Davisson, physicist, shared the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics with George Paget Thomson for the discovery of electron diffraction, October 22, 1881 – February 1, 1958


• George Wells Beadle Ph.D., geneticist, who shared half of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Edward Lawrie Tatum for their discovery that genes act by regulating biochemical events within the cell, October 22, 1903 – June 9, 1989


• Jerome Lester Horwitz, aka Curly Howard, comedian and actor, one of the Three Stooges, October 22, 1903 – January 18, 1952


• Constance Campbell Bennett, actress, October 22, 1904 - July 24, 1965


• Joseph Kosma, composer, famous for his film scores and for Autumn Leaves, with lyrics by Jacques Prévert, October 22, 1905 - August 7, 1969


• James Emory JIMMIE Foxx, MLB first baseman; hit 58 home runs in 1932; was AL Batting Champion in 1933 and 1938; won the 1933 Triple Crown; won MVP awards in 1932, 1933 and 1938; finished his 20-year, 2317-game career with 534 home runs, 1922 runs batted in, and a .325 batting average; had 12 consecutive seasons with 30 or more home runs; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951, October 22, 1907 – July 21, 1967


• Frances Drake, actress, October 22, 1912 - January 18, 2000


• Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland, aka Joan Fontaine, actress, won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1941 for her performance in Suspicion; she is the younger sister of Olivia de Havilland, 1917


• Louis Frank LOU Klein, MLB infielder and manager, October 22, 1918 - June 20, 1976


• Doris May Tayler Lessing, CH, writer, 1919


• Timothy Francis Leary, Ph.D., writer, psychologist, campaigner for psychedelic drug research and use, 1960's counterculture icon, and computer software designer, most famous as a proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD, October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996


• Aleksandr (Alexander) Semenovich Kronrod, mathematician and computer scientist, October 22, 1921 – October 6, 1986


• Dory Langdon Previn, singer-songwriter, poet, and lyricist for motion picture theme songs during the 1960's and early 1970's, including the soundtrack to the Valley of the Dolls; she and her first husband, André Previn, received several Academy Award nominations for their joint efforts in motion picture songwriting; she released six albums of original songs, and one live album, between 1970 and 1976, 1925


• Bobby Seale, civil rights activist, who co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966 with Huey P. Newton, 1936


• Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE, actor and director, knighted in 1994 for his services to the theatre, in 2003, he was involved with Scream of the Shalka — a webcast based on Doctor Who, in which he played the voice of the Master, alongside Richard E. Grant as the Doctor; in the same year, he appeared in Deadline, an audio drama also based on Doctor Who, 1938


• Christopher Allen Lloyd, character actor, whose first major motion picture role was as a psychiatric patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; he is best known for his roles as Reverend Jim Ignatowski on the sitcom Taxi, and as Emmett "Doc" Brown in the Back to the Future movies, 1938


• David Anthony TONY Roberts, actor, best known for his work in the films of Woody Allen, 1939


• Annette Joanne Funicello, Mouseketeer, singer, and teen idol, who starred in a series of Beach Party movies with Frankie Avalon; she announced in 1992 that she suffers from multiple sclerosis; in 1993, she opened the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders at the California Community Foundation, 1942


• Robert Gaston BOBBY Fuller, rock singer and guitarist, the leader of The Bobby Fuller Four, best known for his hit song I Fought the Law, October 22, 1942 – July 18, 1966


• Jan de Bont, cameraman, film director, and producer, 1943


• Catherine Fabienne Dorléac, aka Catherine Deneuve, actress, sister of the late Françoise Dorléac, 1943


• Leslie Weinstein, aka Leslie West, rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter, co-founder of Mountain, 1945


• Edward EDDIE Brigati, Jr., singer, a member of Joey Dee and the Starliters, replacing his brother, David Brigati, in that group; shared vocals, and played tambourine for The Young Rascals, later The Rascals, from 1965 to 1972, 1946


• Jeffrey Lynn JEFF Goldblum, film, Broadway, and television actor, won a Saturn Award for Best Actor in 1987 for The Fly, 1952


• Frank Michael DiPino, former MLB pitcher, 1956


• Wesley Stace, aka John Wesley Harding, folk/pop singer-songwriter, 1965


• Héctor Pacheco PIPO Carrasco, MLB relief pitcher and spot starter for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; in a ten-season career, he has posted a 35-46 record with 18 saves and a 3.93 ERA in 557 relief appearances and six starts, 1969


• Helmut Lotigiers, aka Helmut Lotti, pop singer, 1969


• Ichiro Suzuki, MLB right fielder for the Seattle Mariners, who made his MLB debut in 2001, after playing for nine years for the Orix Blue Wave in Japan's Pacific League; he won the AL MVP and Rookie of the Year awards, only the second player in MLB history to receive both awards in the same season; he won a Gold Glove in each of his first five years in the majors; he was a six-time All-Star from 2001 to 2006; he completed the 2004 season with a new MLB record 262 hits, and an MLB-leading .372 batting average, 1973


• Robinson José Canó, MLB second baseman, currently playing for the New York Yankees; he was named after Jackie Robinson, 1982

RIP:

• Charles Martel [Charles the Hammer], duke of the Franks, grandfather of Charlemagne, best remembered for winning the Battle of Tours in 732, August 23, 686 – October 22, 741


• Pomponio Nenna, composer of the Renaissance, remembered for his madrigals, baptized June 13, 1556 – c. October 22, 1613


• Ludwig [Louis] Spohr, composer, violinist, and conductor, April 5, 1784 – October 22, 1859


• Paul Cézanne, Post-Impressionist painter, January 19, 1839 – October 22, 1906


• Robert James BOB Fitzsimmons, professional boxer, who beat Gentleman Jim Corbett, who had beaten John L. Sullivan, May 26, 1863 - October 22, 1917


• Myrtle Gonzalez, stage and screen actress during the early days of movies, September 28, 1891 - October 22, 1918


• Soghomon Gevorki Soghomonyan - Komitas Vardapet, priest, composer, choir leader, singer, music ethnologist, music pedagogue, and musicologist, 1869 - October 22, 1935


• Pau Carles Salvador Casals i Defilló, aka Pablo Casals, virtuoso cellist, conductor, and composer, who made many recordings of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, and as a conductor, but is best remembered for his recording of Bach's Cello Suites, December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973


• Nadia Boulanger, composer, conductor, and music professor, studied with Gabriel Fauré; her students included: Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, Roy Harris, Virgil Thomson, Burt Bacharach, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, John Eliot Gardiner, Egberto Gismonti, Philip Glass, and Gian Carlo Menotti, September 16, 1887 – October 22, 1979


• Albert Szent-Györgyi, physiologist, awarded the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; active in the Hungarian Resistance during World War II, September 16, 1893 – October 22, 1986


• Angiolino LINO Joseph Pascal Ventura, actor, July 14, 1919 - October 22, 1987


• James JIMMIE Miller, aka Ewan MacColl, folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer, January 25, 1915 - October 22, 1989


• Cleavon Little, actor, best known for his lead role in Blazing Saddles, starred in the stage musical Purlie in 1970, winning a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, June 1, 1939 - October 22, 1992


• Sir Kingsley William Amis, novelist, poet, critic, and teacher, who wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism, April 16, 1922 – October 22, 1995


• Eric Ambler, writer, who essentially invented the modern spy novel; he also wrote under the pseudonym Eliot Reed, June 28, 1909 - October 22, 1998