Today CCII

Birthdays:

• Edmond Halley, astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist; while an an undergraduate at The Queen's College, Oxford, he published papers on the solar system and sunspots; in 1679, he published Catalogus Stellarum Australium, which included details of 341 southern stars; in 1686, he published a paper and chart on trade winds and monsoons, in which he identified solar heating as the cause of atmospheric motions, also establishing the relationship between barometric pressure and height above sea level; in 1705, applying historical astronomy methods, he published Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae, which stated his belief that the comet sightings of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 related to the same comet, which he predicted would return in 1758 - when it did, it became generally known as Halley's Comet, November 8, 1656 – January 14, 1742


• Abraham BRAM Stoker, author, the author of the horror novel Dracula, November 8, 1847 - April 20, 1912


• Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege, mathematician, logician, and philosopher, helped found modern mathematical logic and analytic philosophy, November 8, 1848 – July 26, 1925


• Johannes Robert JANNE Rydberg, physicist, mainly known for devising the Rydberg formula, in 1888, which is used to predict the wavelengths of photons of light and other electromagnetic radiation emitted by changes in the energy level of an electron in an atom; the physical constant known as the Rydberg constant is named after him, as is the Rydberg unit; excited atoms with very high values of the principal quantum number, represented by n in the Rydberg formula, are called Rydberg atoms; a crater on the moon is named Rydberg in his honour, November 8, 1854 - December 28, 1919


• Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin KBE, automobile designer and builder, November 8, 1866 – May 23, 1941


• Felix Hausdorff,mathematician, considered to be one of the founders of modern topology, who contributed to set theory, descriptive set theory, measure theory, function theory, and functional analysis, November 8, 1868 – January 26, 1942


• Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO, composer and poet, November 8, 1883 — October 3, 1953


• Hermann Rorschach, Freudian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, best known for developing a projective test known as the Rorschach inkblot test, November 8, 1884 - April 2,1922


• Clarence Williams, jazz pianist, composer, promoter, and vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher, October 8, 1898 – November 6, 1965


• Stanley Raymond BUCKY Harris, MLB player, manager, and executive; second baseman from 1919 to 1931; he ended his 29-year managing career with the 1956 Detroit Tigers; he spent two years, 1959 and 1960, as general manager of the Boston Red Sox, and was a special assistant for the expansion Washington franchise that existed from 1961 to 1971, November 8, 1896 - November 8, 1977


• Mary Bickford Dunn, aka Marie Prevost, actress in the early days of cinema, November 8, 1898 - January 23, 1937


• Margaret Lauren Mitchell, author, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1937 for her novel Gone with the Wind, November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949


• Hermann Zapf, typeface designer, married to calligrapher and typeface designer Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse, 1918


• Esther Rolle, actress, known for her role as Florida Evans on Maude and its spinoff Good Times; she had a major role in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, based on Maya Angelou's memoir; she won the first Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie in 1979 for her work in the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier; another memorable role was that of Aunt Sarah in the 1997 film Rosewood, November 8, 1920 – November 17, 1998


• Christiaan Neethling Barnard, cardiac surgeon, performed the world's first heart transplant, November 8, 1922 – September 2, 2001


• Jack St. Clair Kilby, electrical engineer, co-won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics; invented the integrated circuit in 1958 while working at Texas Instruments, about six months before Robert Noyce created the same invention at Fairchild Semiconductor, November 8, 1923 – June 20, 2005


• Joe Flynn, character actor, best known for his role in the TV sitcom McHale's Navy; later in his career, he served as a voice actor in various Walt Disney animated features, November 8, 1924 - July 19, 1974


• Clara Ann Fowler, aka Patti Page, pop music singer, who came to traditional pop from country music, considered the first major crossover artist to popularize country music to the general public; her records span from 1949 to 1981, and she continues to sing and perform live all around the U.S., 1927


• Darla Jean Hood, child actress, who made her debut in The Bohemian Girl with Laurel and Hardy; from 1935 to 1941, she played Darla in Our Gang, November 8, 1931 – June 13, 1979


• Morley Safer, reporter and correspondent for CBS News; he is a 12-time Emmy Award winner, a three-time Overseas Press Award winner, a three-time George Foster Peabody Award winner, a two-time Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award winner, winner of the Paul White Award from the Radio/Television News Directors Association, and recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; he received the 2003 George Polk Memorial Career Achievement Award from Long Island University and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards’ first prize for domestic television for his insightful report about a controversial school, 1931


• Alain Delon, actor, 1935


• Bonnie Lynn O'Farrell Bramlett, singer, who started her musical career at fifteen as a backup singer for blues acts such as Fontella Bass, Albert King, and Little Milton; she sang with Ike and Tina Turner as one of the Ikettes; she and husband Delaney Bramlett signed with Stax Records, and became known as Delaney & Bonnie, soon touring Europe with Eric Clapton - with frequent drop-in performances by other musicians such as Duane Allman, George Harrison, and Dave Mason, the group became known as Delaney & Bonnie & Friends; she continued her career as a solo songwriter and recording artist, releasing Sweet Bonnie Bramlett in 1973, backed by the Average White Band; in the late '70s, she toured with Stephen Stills; she continues to record and tour today, 1944


• Roy Adrian Wood, songwriter, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist, a member and co-founder of The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard; as a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these groups; he played many instruments, both in the studio and on the stage - on some of his albums, he played every instrument himself, 1946


• Minnie Julia Riperton, soul singer with a five octave vocal range, November 8, 1947 - July 12, 1979


• Bonnie Raitt, blues/R&B singer, songwriter, and guitarist, the daughter of John Raitt, 1949


• John Allen Denny, former MLB pitcher, from 1974 to 1986; his best season came in 1983, when he posted a 19-6 won-loss record with a 2.37 ERA, winning the NL Cy Young Award; he retired with a career 123 - 108 record, and an ERA of 3.59, 1952


• Alfre Woodard, actress, who received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance in the 1983 film Cross Creek; she also appeared as Lily Sloane in Star Trek: First Contact; she has won four Emmy Awards for her television performances in Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, the TV movie Miss Evers' Boys, and The Practice; from 2005 to 2006, she appeared on Desperate Housewives, and receiving an Emmy nomination for her role; I first saw her on Sara in 1985, 1952


• Rickie Lee Jones, vocalist and songwriter; her first, self-titled album, included the hit single Chuck E's in Love, and won her the Best New Artist Grammy Award, 1954


• Don Byron, composer and jazz clarinet, bass clarinet, and saxophone player, who has also recorded klezmer music, German lieder, cartoon music, and a Jimi Hendrix song, 1958


• Leif Per Nervik, aka Leif Garrett, singer and actor, who achieved fame as a teen idol, 1961


• Jeffrey Michael JEFF Blauser, former MLB shortstop, who made his big league debut in July, 1987; he was an NL All-Star in 1993 and 1997, and won the Silver Slugger Award in 1997; he played his final game in October, 1999, retiring with a lifetime batting average of .262 and 122 home runs; he managed the Mississippi Braves, the AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves for the 2006 season, 1965


• Courtney Thorne-Smith, actress, 1967


• Henry Anderson Rodríguez Lorenzo, former MLB outfielder, an NL All-Star in 1996, 1967


• Parker Christian Posey, actress and mandolin player, named after 1950's model Suzy Parker, 1968


• Esther Kooiman, aka Zara Whites, actress, 1968


• Diana King, R&B/pop singer, 1970


• Carlos Atanes, film director, 1971


• Gretchen Mol, actress, 1972


• Masashi Kishimoto, mangaka (cartoonist), the creator and author of the manga Naruto, twin brother of Seishi Kishimoto, 1974


• Seishi Kishimoto, mangaka, twin brother of Masashi Kishimoto, 1974


• Tara Reid, actress, 1975


• Flo Jalin, car model and gogo dancer, 1977

R.I.P.:

• John Duns Scotus, theologian, philosopher, and logician, c. 1266 – November 8, 1308


• Francisco Guerrero, composer of the Renaissance, October 4, 1528 – November 8, 1599


• Michel Rolle, mathematician, invented the current standardized notation to denote the nth root of x, April 21, 1652 - November 8, 1719


• John Henry DOC Holliday, dentist, gambler, and gunfighter, remembered for his associations with Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, August 14, 1851 – November 8, 1887


• César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck, composer, organist, and music teacher, December 10, 1822 – November 8, 1890


• Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, writer and translator, awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Literature, October 10, 1870 – November 8, 1953


• Wendell Reid Corey, actor, March 20, 1914 – November 8, 1968


• Ivory Joe Hunter, R&B singer, songwriter, and pianist, best known for his 1956 hit recording Since I Met You, Baby, October 10, 1914 - November 8, 1974


• Stanley Raymond BUCKY Harris, MLB player, manager and executive, see Birthdays, above, November 8, 1896 - November 8, 1977


• Norman Percevel Rockwell, painter and illuistrator, famous for the cover illustrations he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over more than four decades, February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978


• Andrey Nikolayevich Tychonoff, mathematician, who made contributions to topology, functional analysis, mathematical physics, and certain classes of ill-posed problems; Tikhonov regularization, one of the most widely used methods to solve inverse problems, is named in his honour; he is best known for his work on topology, including the metrization theorem that he proved in 1926, and the Theorem of Tychonoff; in his honor, completely regular topological spaces are also named Tychonoff spaces, October 30, 1906, Gzhatsk – November 8, 1993


• Lester Bowie, jazz trumpet player and composer, cofounder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, October 11, 1941 – November 8, 1999