Today CCXXII

Birthdays:

• Friedrich Engels, political philosopher, developed communist theory alongside Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto and editing several volumes of Das Kapital after Marx's death, November 28, 1820 – August 5, 1895


• Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein, pianist, composer, and conductor, who wrote at least twenty operas, five piano concerti, six symphonies, and a large number of solo piano works, along with works for chamber ensemble, two concertos for cello and one for violin, free-standing orchestral works, and tone poems, November 28, 1829 – November 20, 1894


• John Wesley Hyatt, inventor, known for simplifying the production of celluloid, while researching a substitute for ivory to produce billiard balls, November 28, 1837 – 1920


• Jose Iturbi, conductor and pianist, November 28, 1895 - June 28, 1980


• Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropologist, who developed structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture, 1908


• Gloria Hallward, aka Gloria Grahame, film actress, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1952 for The Bad and the Beautiful, November 28, 1923 - October 5, 1981


• Berry Gordy, Jr., record producer and founder of the Motown record label, 1929


• Hope Elise Ross Lange, stage, film, and television actress, November 28, 1931 – December 19, 2003


• Jean-Thomas TOMI Ungerer, illustrator, known for his erotic and political illustrations, and for children's books, 1931


• Ray Perkins, vocalist, bass singer for the vocal quartet, The Crew-Cuts, 1932


• Michael Ritchie, film director, November 28, 1938 - April 16, 2001


• Bruce McMeans, aka Bruce Channel, singer, songwriter, and harmonica player, who had a hit with Hey! Baby, which he co-wrote with Margaret Cobb, 1940


• Randall Stuart RANDY Newman, songwriter, arranger, singer, and pianist, 1943


• Ronald Bertram Aloysius [R.B.] Greaves III, singer, whose 1969 song Take A Letter Maria, went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U. S., 1944


• Joseph Domenick JOE Dante, film director and producer of films, generally with humorous and scifi content, 1946


• Aleksandr Borisovich Godunov, ballet dancer and actor, whose defected from Russia to the United States; he played the terrorist, Karl, in Die Hard, November 28, 1949, Sakhalin, USSR — May 18, 1995


• Paul Allen Wood Shaffer, musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian, and composer, 1949


• Edward Allen ED Harris, actor, director and producer, 1950


• Russell Alan Hulse Ph.D., physicist, a specialist in pulsar studies and gravitational waves, who shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics with his thesis advisor Joseph Hooton Taylor. Jr. for the discovery of the first binary pulsar, 1950


• S. Epatha Merkerson, award-winning actress, known for her role as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on Law & Order, 1952


• Sixto Joaquin Lezcano Curras, former MLB outfielder, who played from 1974 to 1985; his best season came in 1979 with the Milwaukee Brewers, when he hit a for .321 batting average, with 28 home runs and 101 RBI's; he won a Gold Glove in 1979, 1953


• David Allan DAVE Righetti, former MLB left-handed pitcher, who was a starter and a reliever at different points in his 16-year career; he was the Al Rookie of the Year in 1981; he was an All-Star and the Rolaids Relief Man of the Year in 1986 and 1987; he led the American League in saves in 1986, with 46; on the July 4, 1983, he threw a 4-0 no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox; he finished his career with 252 saves, a 3.46 ERA, and a record of 82-79 in 718 games, 1958


• Judd Asher Nelson, actor and writer, 1959


• Martin Clunes, actor, known as Gary in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly; his first television appearance was on the Doctor Who serial Snakedance, 1961


• Alfonso Cuarón Orozco, film director, screenwriter, and producer, 1961


• Jane Sibbett, actress, 1962


• Paul Dinello, actor, writer, and director, an alumnus of Chicago's Second City, known for his role on Strangers with Candy, with Stephen Colbert, 1962


• Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, aka Jon Stewart, comedian, satirist, actor, author, and producer, best known as the host of The Daily Show and for his political satire; he is a nine-time Emmy Award winner, 1962


• Matthew D. MATT Cameron, musician, drummer and back-up vocalist for Soundgarden, 1986 to 1997, and Pearl Jam, 1998 to the present, 1962


• Walter William WALT Weiss, former MLB shortstop from 1987 to 2000; he won the 1988 Rookie of the Year Award, and was an NL All-Star in 1998, 1963


• Matthew Derrick MATT Williams, former MLB third baseman, who played from 1987 to 2003; he was an All-Star in 1990, 1994 to 1996, and 1999, and a Gold Glove Award winner in 1991, 1993, 1994, and 1997; he led NL in home runs in 1994 with 43; he holds the Arizona Diamondbacks' record for RBI with 142 in 1999; he is now a part owner in the Diamondbacks franchise, and occasionally serves as color commentator on Diamondbacks radio and television broadcasts, 1965


• Vickie Lynn Hogan, aka Anna Nicole Smith, model, actress, and celebrity, who first gained fame as the 1993 Playmate of the Year, 1967


• Stephnie Weir, actress and comedian, one of the recurring cast on MADtv, 1967


• Robert Allan ROBB Nen, former MLB right-handed closer, who played from 1993 to 2002, after which he injured his pitching arm, and has not played since; he has 314 career saves, and is currently the all-time saves leader for the San Francisco Giants with 206; on February 20, 2005, he announced his retirement, 1969


• born Clifton Todd Britt, aka Lexington Steele, actor and director, 1969


• Mary Elizabeth Winstead, actress, 1984


• Scarlett Noelle Pomers, actress and singer, who works in television, film, theatre, and music; she made her acting debut at the age of three in a music video; her best-known roles have been as Naomi Wildman on Star Trek: Voyager, and as Kyra Hart on Reba; as a singer, she founded the band Scarlett, 1988

R.I.P.:

• Hernando Franco, composer of the Renaissance,


• Giovanni Paolo Colonna, musician and composer, c. 1637 - November 28, 1695


• Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, Governor General of New France from 1672 to 1682, and from 1689 to 1698; he established a number of forts on the Great Lakes, and engaged in a series of battles against the English and the Iroquois; in his first term, he supported the expansion of the fur trade, establishing Fort Frontenac, now Kingston, Ontario; Quebec's most famous building and landmark, the Château Frontenac, is named after him, May 12, 1622 – November 28, 1698


• Johann Peter Salomon, violinist, composer, conductor, and musical impresario, baptized February 20, 1745 - November 28, 1815


• Washington Irving, author, best known for his short stories, such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle, but a prolific writer of essays, biographies, and other forms as well, April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859


• Erich Moritz von Hornbostel, ethnomusicologist and scholar of music, known for his pioneering work in ethnomusicology, and for the Sachs-Hornbostel system of musical instrument classification which he co-authored with Curt Sachs; he studied the piano, harmony, and counterpoint as a child, but his Ph.D. was in chemistry, February 25, 1877 - November 28, 1935


• James Naismith, M.A., M.D., D.D., physical education teacher and coach, the inventor of basketball, and the first to introduce the use of a helmet in American football, November 6, 1861 – November 28, 1939


• Dwight Filley Davis, tennis player and politician, known as the founder of the Davis Cup international tennis competition, July 5, 1879 – November 28, 1945


• Enrico Fermi, physicist most noted for his work on beta decay, the development of the first nuclear reactor, and for the development of quantum theory; he was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity - the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, September 29, 1901–November 28, 1954


• Enid Mary Blyton, children's author, whose most widely known character is Noddy, August 11, 1897 – November 28, 1968


• William HAVERGAL Brian, composer, who acquired an almost legendary status at the time of his rediscovery in the 1950's and 1960's for the number of symphonies he had written - thirty-two, an unusually large number for any composer since Beethoven, January 29, 1876 – November 28, 1972


• Ernestine JANE Geraldine Russell, actress, recipient of the 1989 Women's International Center Living Legacy Award, 1921


• Trevor Bardette, actor, who made over 170 movies and seventy TV appearances in his career; he had a couple of roles on Adventures of Superman, in the 1951 episode The Human Bomb, and the 1954 episode Great Caesar's Ghost, November 19, 1902 – November 28, 1977


• Christopher John George, actor, known for his role on The Rat Patrol, as the bounty hunter in the John Wayne movie Chisum, and as Ben Richards on The Immortal, February 25, 1929 - November 28, 1983


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


• Jerry Rubin, social activist, organizer of the VDC (Vietnam Day Committee), led some of the first protests against the war in Vietnam, a cofounder of the Yippies (Youth International Party) with Abbie Hoffman, one of the "Chicago Seven," July 14, 1938 – November 28, 1994


• Kalman Cohen, aka Kal Mann, lyricist, who began his career in entertainment as a comedy writer, until songwriter Bernie Lowe encouraged him to try writing lyrics; he co-wrote songs with Lowe and Dave Appell, resulting in a number of rock and roll No.1 hits such as Elvis Presley's Teddy Bear, Bobby Rydell's Wild One, and Chubby Checker's Let's Twist Again, May 6, 1917 - November 28, 2001


• Dave "Snaker" Ray, blues singer and guitarist, August 17, 1943 – November 28, 2002


• Patricia Guilia Caulfield Kate Rubinstein, aka Antonia Forest, children's author, May 26, 1915 - November 28, 2003