Today CCXX

Birthdays:

• Sarah Moore Grimké, attorney and judge, abolitionist and feminist, who fought as hard for women's rights was as for the abolition of slavery; she taught her personal slave how to read, even though doing so was against the law, November 26, 1792 - December 23, 1873


• Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, spy, prisoner of war, surgeon, and the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor, November 26, 1832 – February 21, 1919


• Karl RUDOLPH Koenig, physicist, chiefly concerned with acoustic phenomena, known for his tuning forks; acoustical research was his real interest, and to that he devoted all the time and money he could spare from his business, November 26, 1832 - October 2, 1901


• Karl Friedrich Benz, engine designer and automobile engineer, considered to be the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile; among other things, he invented the carburetor, the speed regulation system [accelerator], ignition using sparks from a battery, the spark plug, the clutch, the gear shift, and the water radiator, November 26, 1844 – April 4, 1929


• Willis Haviland Carrier, engineer and inventor, the man who invented modern air conditioning, November 26, 1876 – October 9, 1950


• Alfred Denis Cortot, pianist and conductor, September 26, 1877 – June 15, 1962


• Albert Dieudonné, actor, screenwriter, film director, and novelist, November 26, 1889 - March 19, 1976


• Norbert Wiener Ph.D., theoretical and applied mathematician, a pioneer in the study of stochastic and noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems, best known as the founder of cybernetics, a field that formalizes the notion of feedback and has implications for engineering, systems control, computer science, biology, philosophy, and the organization of society, November 26, 1894 – March 18, 1964


• William Griffith BILL Wilson, co-founder, with Dr. Bob Smith, of Alcoholics Anonymous, November 26, 1895 – January 24, 1971


• Karl Waldemar Ziegler, chemist, shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for work on high polymers, with Giulio Natta, November 26, 1898 – August 12, 1973


• Dr. Armand Frappier CC, physician, microbiologist, and expert, who was instrumental in the fight against tuberculosis in Canada, and as one of the first researchers to confirm the safety and usefulness of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine, November 26, 1904 – December 17, 1991


• Robert Lee BOB Johnson, MLB left fielder, who played from 1933 to 1945; he had nine consecutive seasons of 20 or more home runs, batting .300 five times, and had eight seasons with 100 runs batted in; he compiled a .296 career batting average with 2051 hits, 396 doubles, 95 triples, 96 stolen bases, 1283 RBI, 1239 runs, .506 slugging average, 3501 total bases, and 1075 walks, in 1863 games; he hit for the cycle on July 6, 1944, November 26, 1905 - July 6, 1982


• Dr. Ruth Myrtle Patrick Ph.D., botanist and limnologist, specializing in diatoms and freshwater ecology, who developed ways to measure the health of freshwater ecosystems, 1907


• Vernon Louis LEFTY Gómez, MLB left-handed pitcher, who played for the New York Yankees from 1930 and 1942; he had a 189 - 102 record with 1468 strikeouts and a 3.34 ERA in 2503 innings pitched; a 20-game winner four times, and an All-Star every year from 1933 to 1939, he led the league twice each in wins, winning percentage, and ERA, and three times each in shutouts and strikeouts; in 1934 and 1937, he won pitching's Triple Crown by leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts, and led the AL both seasons in shutouts; he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1972, November 26, 1908 - February 17, 1989


• Eugen Ionescu, aka Eugène Ionesco, playwright, poet, essayist, novelist and story writer, and librettist, November 26, 1909 – March 29, 1994


• Frances Marion Dee, actress, November 26, 1909 – March 6, 2004


• Cyril Cusack, actor, November 26, 1910 – October 7, 1993


• Eric Sevareid, news journalist and war correspondent, November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992


• Earl Wild, virtuoso pianist, 1951


• Daniel M. Petrie, television and movie director; one of his most famous credits was 1961's Raisin in the Sun, November 26, 1920 - August 22, 2004


• Charles Monroe Schulz, cartoonist, famous for his Peanuts comic strip, November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000


• Eugene George Istomin, pianist, November 26, 1925 – October 10, 2003


• Ernest ERNIE Coombs, CM, children's entertainer, best known as Mr. Dressup, November 26, 1927 – September 18, 2001


• Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, architect, sculptor, professor of architecture, and human rights activist, who led protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas; he was awarded the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize, 1931


• Robert Gerard Goulet, singer and actor, who achieved fame in 1960 as Lancelot in Lerner and Loewe's Broadway musical Camelot; his career encompasses theatre, radio, television, and film, 1933


• Boris Borisovich Yegorov, doctor and cosmonaut, earned a doctorate in medicine, with his specialisation being the sense of balance, November 26, 1937 – September 12, 1994


• Professor Rodney Leonard Jory AM, physicist, 1938


• Richard Caruthers RICH Little, comedian, best known for his celebrity impersonations, 1938


• Anna Mae Bullock, aka Tina Turner, singer and actress, 1939


• Bruce Paltrow, television and film producer, father of Gwyneth Paltrow, November 26, 1943 – October 3, 2002


• Jean Terrell, R&B and jazz singer, best known for having replaced Diana Ross in The Supremes in 1970, 1944


• Daniel Davis, actor, known for his role of Niles, the butler, on The Nanny, and as Professor Moriarty in two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, 1945


• John Graham McVie, musician, the bass guitarist for Fleetwood Mac, with whom he has played from very soon after its formation in 1967 to the present day, 1945


• Shlomo Artzi, singer and composer, 1948


• Anna Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina, porn star turned politician, the first hardcore performer to be elected to a democratic parliament, 1951


• Harold Craig Reynolds, former MLB switch-hitting second baseman, who played from 1983 to 1994; he was an All-Star in 1987 and 1988, and led the American League in stolen bases with 60 in 1987, in triples with 11 in 1988, and in at-bats with 642 in 1990; he was a career .258 hitter with 21 home runs and 353 RBI in 1374 games; a superb fielder, he regularly led the league in double plays turned and won three Gold Glove Awards; he was a studio analyst on ESPN's Baseball Tonight from 1996 to 2006, and a commentator for ESPN's coverage of the College World Series and Little League World Series, 1960


• Charles Edward CHUCK Finley, former MLB left-handed pitcher, who played from 1986 to 2002, compiling a 200-173 record with a 3.85 ERA and 2,610 strikeouts over 3197 1/3 innings; he is the only pitcher to strike out four players in one inning more than once, having done it three times, 1962


• Adriana Molinari, aka Alex Taylor, actress, 1970


• Brian Duncan Schneider, MLB catcher, currently the starting catcher for the Washington Nationals, 1976


• Aurora Snow, actress and occasional director, 1981

R.I.P.:

• Daniel Purcell, composer, the younger brother of Henry Purcell, 1664 - November 26, 1717


• John Loudon McAdam, engineer and road-builder, who invented a new process, for building roads with a smooth hard surface that would be more durable and less muddy than soil-based tracks; this construction method became known as macadamization or macadam; the most significant later improvement was the introduction of tar to bind the road surface's stones together, producing tarmac (Tar Macadam), September 21, 1756 - November 26, 1836


• Thomas Andrews, chemist and physicist, who did important work on phase transitions between gases and liquids, December 19, 1813 – November 26, 1885


• Bill Doak, MLB pitcher, who played for 11 years; his lifetime record is 169-157, with an ERA of 2.98 and 1014 strikouts; in 1920, he suggested to Rawlings that a web should laced between the first finger and thumb, creating a natural pocket; the Bill Doak glove soon replaced all other baseball gloves, and is the standard to this day,January 28, 1891 - November 26, 1954


• Thomas Francis TOMMY Dorsey, Jr., jazz trombonist and bandleader in the Big Band era, the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey, with whom he formed the original Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, in 1934, November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956


• Albert William Ketèlbey, composer, conductor, and pianist, who wrote In a Monastery Garden and In a Persian Market among other works, August 9, 1875 - November 26, 1959


• Amelita Galli-Curci, operatic coloratura soprano, November 18, 1882 – November 26, 1963


• Machgielis MAX Euwe, chess player, the fifth player to become World Chess Champion (1935–1937), May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981

Michael Bentine, comedian and comic actor, a member of the Goons, January 26, 1922 - November 26, 1996

• Phillipe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac, film director, best known for his comedies with Jean-Paul Belmondo, March 15, 1933 - November 26, 2004


• Stan Berenstain, writer and illustrator best known for creating the children's book series The Berenstain Bears, with his wife, Jan, September 29, 1923 - November 26, 2005