Today CLXV - Yom Kippur

Birthdays:

• Sir William Ramsay, chemist who discovered the noble gases; received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, October 2, 1852 – July 23, 1916


• Mohandas Karamchand MAHATMA [Great Soul] Gandhi, political and spiritual leader of the Indian independence movement; he was the pioneer of Satyagraha — resistance through mass civil disobedience, strongly founded upon ahimsa (non-violence), October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948


• Cordell Hull, U.S. Secretary of State from 1933-1944, awarded the 1945 Nobel Peace Prize, October 2, 1871 – July 23, 1955


• Julius Henry GROUCHO Marx, comedian, working with his siblings as one of the Marx Brothers, and on his own; acted in vaudeville, on radio, in films, and on television - his You Bet Your Life lasted 11 years on TV; wrote several books, including an autobiography; in the 1970s, did a live one-man show, including one recorded at Carnegie Hall and released as a double album, An Evening with Groucho, October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977


• William Alexander BUD Abbott, comedian, one-half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, October 2, 1897 – April 24, 1974


• Henry GRAHAM Greene, OM, CH, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and critic, whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world, October 2, 1904 – April 3, 1991


• Alexander Robert Todd, Baron Todd, PC , OM , FRS, biochemist, awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes; he was the President of the Royal Society from 1975 to 1980, October 2, 1907 – January 10, 1997


• Jack Finney, author of science fiction and thrillers, whose novel The Body Snatchers was the basis for the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its remakes, October 2, 1911 - November 16, 1995


• John JACK Whiteside Parsons, rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology, and co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Aerojet Corporation, October 2, 1914 – June 17, 1952


• Christian René de Duve, cytologist and biochemist, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Albert Claude and George E. Palade, for describing the structure and function of organelles in biological cells, 1917


• George Robert Phillips SPANKY McFarland, actor, most famous for his childhood role as Spanky in the movie series Our Gang, aka The Little Rascals, October 2, 1928 - June 30, 1993


• Moses Gunn, actor; an Obie award-winning stage performer, he co-founded the Negro Ensemble Company in the 1960's; his 1962 Broadway debut was in Jean Genet's The Blacks; he was nominated for a 1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for The Poison Tree, October 2, 1929 – December 16, 1993


• Maurice Morning MAURY Wills, former switch-hitting MLB shortstop from 1959 to 1969, credited with reviving the stolen base as part of baseball strategy; in 1960, his first full season, he hit .295 and led the league with 50 stolen bases; he stole 104 bases in 1962 to establish a new record in baseball, and hit .299, led the league with 10 triples, and was selected the NL MVP; he was a five-time All-Star from 1961 to 1963, and 1965 to 1966; he was the All-Star Game MVP in 1962; he won Gold Glove awards in 1961 and 1962; he led the NL in stolen bases for six consecutive seasons, from 1960 to 1965, 1932


• Robert EARL Wilson, MLB starting pitcher; in an 11-season career, he posted a 121-109 record with 1452 strikeouts and a 3.69 ERA in 2051.2 innings pitched; on June 26, 1962, he pitched a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Angels, a 2-0 victory in which he hit a home run; his most productive season came in 1967, when he won 22 games, October 2, 1934 – April 23, 2005


• Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., defense attorney best-known for his role in the Dream Team of legal defense for O.J. Simpson during his highly publicized murder trial; he successfully defende many celebrities, October 2, 1937 – March 29, 2005


• Rex Taylor Reed, movie critic and actor, 1938


• Don McLean, singer-songwriter, most famous for his 1971 hit American Pie, 1945


• Avery Franklin Brooks, actor, singer, and jazz pianist, whose television work includes the series Spenser: For Hire, where he played the character Hawk, and his spinoff series A Man Called Hawk; he is best known for the leading role of Captain Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, of which he also directed some episodes, 1948


• Anna-Lou ANNIE Leibovitz, photographer; she is a well-regarded portrait photographer, whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject; she became well known during her 13 [1970 to 1983] years as staff photographer for Rolling Stone Magazine, 1949


• Persis Khambatta, model and actress, played Lieutenant Ilia in Star Trek: The Motion Picture; wrote and published a coffee table book called Pride of India which featured former Miss Indias, dedicated to Mother Teresa, with part of the royalties going to the Missionaries of Charity, October 2, 1950 – August 18, 1998


• Michael John Cleote Crawford Rutherford, musician, a founding member of Genesis, initially as a bassist, 12-string guitarist, and backup vocalist, who later became the lead guitarist; he also fronted Mike and the Mechanics, 1950


• Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, CBE, aka Sting, musician, the lead singer, principal composer, and bassist for The Police; has pursued a successful solo career sine the band broke up, 1951


• Lorraine Bracco, actress, kown for her role as Dr. Jennifer Melfi on The Sopranos, 1951


• Sam Roberts, singer-songwriter, 1974

RIP:

• Jacques Colebault, aka Jacquet of Mantua, composer of the Renaissance, 1483 – October 2, 1559


• Antonio Cifra, composer of the Roman School of the Renaissance and early Baroque eras, one of the significant transitional figures between the Renaissance and Baroque styles, producing music in both idioms, 1584–October 2, 1629


• Samuel Adams, politican and revolutionary, the chief Massachusetts leader of the Patriot cause leading to the American Revolution, September 27, 1722 – October 2, 1803


• Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, inventor, who built what may have been the world's first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile; he appears to have been the first to convert the back-and-forth motion of a steam piston into rotary motion, February 26, 1725 – October 2, 1804


• Svante August Arrhenius, chemist, one of the founders of the science of physical chemistry, awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; the Arrhenius equation and the lunar crater Arrhenius are named after him, February 19, 1859 – October 2, 1927


• Peter D. Ouspensky, philosopher and author with an analytic and mystical bent who combined geometry and psychology in his discussion of higher dimensions of existence, best known for his expositions of the early work of G.I. Gurdjieff, March 5, 1878, - October 2, 1947


• Paul Hartman, television character actor, best known for playing Emmett Clark on The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D., March 1, 1904 - October 2, 1973


• Harry Goldhirsch, aka Harry Lewis Golden, writer and newspaper publisher, author of Only in America and For 2 Cents Plain, May 6, 1902–October 2, 1981


• Hazel Dorothy Scott, jazz and classical pianist and singer, the first black woman to have her own television show, The Hazel Scott Show; however, she publicly opposed McCarthyism and racial segregation, and the show was cancelled in 1950 when she was accused of being a Communist sympathizer, June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981


• Roy Harold Scherer Jr., aka Rock Hudson, film and television actor, who appeared in many movies; his popularity on the big screen diminished by the 1970's, but he was quite successful on television starring in a number of made-for-TV movies; his most successful series was McMillan and Wife from 1971 to 1977; he was diagnosed with HIV on June 5, 1984, but when the signs of illness became apparent, his publicity staff and doctors told the public that he had liver cancer - in July 25, 1985, while in Paris for treatment, he issued a press release announcing that he was dying of AIDS, November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985


• Sir Peter Brian Medawar, scientist, best known for his work on how the immune system rejects or accepts organ transplants, co-winner of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet for their work in tissue grafting, which is the basis of organ transplants, and their discovery of acquired immunological tolerance, February 28, 1915 – October 2, 1987


• Peggy Lou Snyder, aka Harriet Hilliard Nelson, singer and actress; in 1932, she was performing in vaudeville, when she met the saxophone-playing Ozzie Nelson, and was hired by him as vocalist for his orchestra; they married three years later, and with him and their children, she starred in the radio and television series The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet between 1944 and 1966, for which she is best known, despite the movies and singing career, July 18, 1909 - October 2, 1994


• Orvon GENE Autry, performer and businessman, September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998


• Franz Xaver Biebl, composer of classical music, most of whose compositions were for choral ensembles, September 1, 1906 – October 2, 2001


• Julius NIPSEY Russell, comedian, known for being a guest panelist on many 1970's and 1980's game shows - in addition to his game-playing skills, he delighted audiences with short poems; in the late 1950's, he was featured on The Ed Sullivan Show, which led to a small part in the comedy Car 54, Where Are You? in 1960; in the mid-60's, he became a co-host of the Les Crane Show; during the 1970's, he appeared regularly on The Dean Martin Show and The Dean Martin Comedy World; he was guest host on The Tonight Show during the Johnny Carson era, September 15, 1918 – October 2, 2005


• Frederick August Kittell, aka August Wilson, playwright, whose outstanding achievement and literary legacy is a cycle of ten plays, each set in a different decade, depicting the comedy and tragedy of the black experience in the 20th century; his most famous plays are Fences, which won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, The Piano Lesson, which won a Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Joe Turner's Come and Gone, April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005