Today CLXXX

Birthdays:

• Domenico Zipoli, Baroque composer, the most famous European composer to travel to the Americas during the Colonial era, October 17, 1688 – January 2, 1726


• Jupiter Hammon, black poet, the first published black writer in America, October 17, 1711 – 1806


• Spring Byington, actress, began acting on the stage in Denver, Colorado at the age of 14; made her Broadway debut in 1924 in Beggar on Horseback, and became a regular on Broadway throughout the 1920's and 30s', including roles in Once in a Lifetime, When Ladies Meet, and Jig Saw; debuted in movies in Little Women as Marmee in 1933; nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for You Can't Take it With You in 1938; in 1954, she was cast as the mother-in-law in sitcom December Bride; in 1961, she appeared in the Western series Laramie; her last role was as Larry Hagman's mother on I Dream of Jeannie, October 17, 1886 - September 7, 1971


• Shin'ichi Suzuki, violin teacher, creator of the Suzuki method of teaching music, October 17, 1898 - January 26, 1998


• Gladys Georgianna Greene, aka Jean Arthur, actress and comedienne, October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991


• Irene Noblette , aka Irene Ryan, actress, appeared in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway; known for her portrayal of Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, October 17, 1902 – April 26, 1973


• Samuel PAUL Derringer, MLB right-handed pitcher, played from 1931 to 1945; he won 20 games four times between 1935 and 1940, peaking with a 25-7 season in 1939, October 17, 1906 - November 17, 1987


• Jerome JERRY Siegel, cartoonist, co-creator of Superman, October 17, 1914 – January 28, 1996


• Arthur Asher Miller, playwright, essayist, and author, October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005


• Margarita Carmen Cansino, aka Rita Hayworth, actress and dancer, who reached fame during the 1940's as the era's leading sex symbol, October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987


• Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov, physicist, 1919


• Edward MONTGOMERY Clift, actor, October 17, 1920 - July 23, 1966


• Tom Poston, television and film actor and comedian; in a career that goes back to 1950, he has appeared as a comic actor, game show panelist, game show host, movie actor, and Broadway performer, 1921


• Pierre Juneau, PC, OC, retired film and broadcast executive, 1922


• Luiz Bonfá, guitarist and composer, known for the music that he composed for the film Black Orpheus, October 17, 1922 - January 12, 2001


• Barney Kessel, jazz guitarist, who began his career as a teenager touring with local dance bands before moving on to bands such as that led by Chico Marx, October 17, 1923 – May 6, 2004


• Betty May JULIE Adams, film actress, her photo appears on the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, 1926


• Jimmy Breslin, columnist and author, who won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, 1930


• Jeanine [Jeanne-Paule Marie] aka Sister Luc Gabriel, nun of the Dominican Fichermont Convent; popular in the convent for her music, she was encouraged by the other nuns to record an album in 1963 - one song from that album, Dominique, rose to the top of the charts in the United States; she became an international celebrity as Soeur Sourire, giving concerts and appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, October 17, 1933 – March 29, 1985


• Hiroo Kanamori, seismologist, who has made fundamental contributions to understanding the physics of earthquakes and the tectonic processes that cause them., 1936


• Robert Craig EVEL Knievel, Jr., stuntman and daredevil, 1938


• Earl Thomas Conley, country music singer and songwriter, 1941


• Jim Seals, musician, one-half of the soft rock duo Seals and Crofts, 1941


• Gary Puckett, former lead singer for Gary Puckett & The Union Gap and solo artist, 1942


• Sir Cameron Mackintosh, theatrical producer, 1946


• Michael Hossack, musician, one of the drummers for The Doobie Brothers, 1946


• Michael McKean, actor, comedian, composer, and musician, known as Lenny on Laverne and Shirley, and as a member of Spinal Tap, 1947


• Margaret Ruth MARGOT Kidder, film actress, who played Lois Lane in the Superman movies with Christopher Reeve, 1948


• George Robert Wendt, actor, played Norm Peterson on Cheers, 1948


• Howard Ellsworth Rollins, Jr., actor, appeared in the movie Ragtime, and as Virgil Tibbs on the TV series In the Heat of the Night, October 17, 1950 – December 8, 1996


• Mae Carol Jemison, M.D. astronaut, the first black woman to travel into space, 1956


• Alan Eugene Jackson, country music singer and songwriter, 1958


• Mike Judge, animator, voice actor, writer, and producer, the creator and star of King of the Hill, 1962


• Norm MacDonald, actor and comedian, 1963


• Mark Gatiss, actor and writer, and long-time fan of Doctor Who; much of his writing has been devoted to the series, including the BBV video spin-off series P.R.O.B.E., four novels, two audio plays for Big Finish Productions and two episodes for the 2005-revived BBC television series - season one's The Unquiet Dead and season two's The Idiot's Lantern; he is the narrator for the 2006 season of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential; he played the Master in the Doctor Who Unbound play Sympathy for the Devil, 1966


• David Nesta ZIGGY Marley, musician, the oldest son of Rita and Bob Marley, 1968


• Richard Vincent RICK Mercer, comedian and television personality, 1969


• John Steven Mabry, MLB utility player for the Chicago Cubs, has played third base, first base, left field, right field, and centre field, and as designated hitter, 1970


• Joseph Earl JOE McEwing, MLB utility player who has played every position on the field, except for pitcher, currently in the Houston Astros organization, 1972


• John Loy Rocker, former MLB relief pitcher, 1974

RIP:

• René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, scientist, who made contributions in many fields, especially entomology, February 28, 1683 - October 17, 1757


• William Cookworthy, chemist, who discovered china clay in Cornwall and devised a way of making porcelain, April 12, 1705 – October 17, 1780


• Johann Nepomuk Hummel, composer and virtuoso pianist, whose music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era, November 14, 1778 – October 17, 1837


• Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, aka Frédéric François Chopin, pianist and composer, who wrote mostly for the piano, March 1, 1810 – October 17, 1849


• Laura Secord, Canadian heroine of the War of 1812, September 13, 1775 – October 17, 1868


• Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, physicist, who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects, coining the term "black body" radiation in 1862, March 12, 1824 – October 17, 1887


• Julia Ward Howe, abolitionist, social activist, and poet who wrote the words for the Battle Hymn of the Republic, May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910


• Alfons Maria Jakob, neurologist, July 2, 1884 - October 17, 1931


• Santiago Ramón y Cajal, histologist and physician, considered to be one of the founders of modern neuroscience, shared the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Camillo Golgi, May 1, 1852 – October 17, 1934


• Jacques Solomon Hadamard, mathematician, known for his proof of the prime number theorem in 1896, December 8, 1865 – October 17, 1963


• Puyi, the last Emperor of China between 1908 and 1924 - ruling emperor between 1908 and 1912, and non-ruling emperor between 1912 and 1924 - the tenth and last emperor of the Qing Dynasty to rule over China, February 7, 1906 – October 17, 1967


• Vola Smith, aka Vola Vale, silent film actress, February 12, 1897 - October 17, 1970


• Walter Edward TURK Broda, NHL goaltender for the Toronto Maple Leafs, May 15th, 1914 - October 17th, 1972


• Sidney Joseph [S.J.] Perelman, humorist, author, and screenwriter, known for his humorous short pieces written over many years for The New Yorker magazine, and for co-writing scripts for the Marx Brothers films Horse Feathers and Monkey Business, February 1, 1904 – October 17, 1979


• Ernest Jennings TENNESSEE ERNIE Ford, recording artist and television host, who enjoyed success in the country & western, pop, and gospel musical genres, February 13, 1919 – October 17, 1991


• Joan Hickson OBE, theatre, film, and television actress, achieved fame in her later years playing Miss Marple, August 5, 1906 – October 17, 1998


• Derek Bell, oboist, harpist, and composer, became an oboist and harpist with the BBC Northern Ireland Orchestra in 1965; became a full-time member of The Chieftains in 1975, October 21, 1935 - October 17, 2002