Today CCLII

Birthdays:

• John Molson, brewer and entrepreneur, who founded the Molson Brewing Company, December 28, 1763 – January 11, 1836


• Calixte Paquet, aka Calixa Lavallée, musician, who composed the music for O Canada, December 28, 1842 – January 21, 1891


• Thomas WOODROW Wilson, the 28th president of the United States, awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924


• Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, OM, astrophysicist; the Eddington Limit is named after him; in 1919, he wrote an article, Report on the Relativity Theory of Gravitation, which announced Einstein's theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world, December 28, 1882 – November 22, 1944


• Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe, aka Friedrich Wilhelm [F. W.] Murnau, film director of the silent film era; he was one of a number of German film directors to take part in the expressionist movement; his most famous film is Nosferatu, December 28, 1888 – March 11, 1931


• Earl Kenneth FATHA Hines, jazz pianist, December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983


• John [János] von Neumann, mathematician and polymath, who made contributions to quantum physics, functional analysis, set theory, topology, economics, computer science, numerical analysis, statistics, and many other mathematical fields; he was a pioneer of the modern digital computer and the application of operator theory to quantum mechanics, and the creator of game theory and the concept of cellular automata, December 28, 1903 - February 8, 1957


• Clifford Arquette, actor and comedian, famous for his role as Charley Weaver, December 28, 1905 – September 23, 1974


• Lewis Frederick Ayre III, aka Lew Ayres, actor, December 28, 1908 – December 30, 1996


• Lou Jacobi, character actor, 1913


• Roebuck "Pops" Staples, gospel and R&B musician, songwriter, guitarist, and singer, the patriarch and member of the singing group The Staple Singers, which included his son and daughters, December 28, 1915 – December 19, 2000


• Stanley Martin Lieber aka Stan Lee, writer, editor, and Chairman Emeritus of Marvel Comics, 1922


• Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef, actress, singer, and writer, December 28, 1925 - February 1, 2002


• Morris MOE Koffman, jazz musician and composer, who played the flute, alto and tenor saxophone, and clarinet, December 28, 1928 - March 28, 2001


• Terrance Gordon TERRY Sawchuk, NHL goaltender, December 28, 1929 – May 31, 1970


• Dorsey Burnette, early rockabilly singer; with his younger brother, Johnny Burnette, and friend Paul Burlison, he was one of the founding members of The Rock and Roll Trio, December 28, 1932 - August 19, 1979


• Grace NICHELLE Nichols, singer and actress, who sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting; her most famous role is that of communications officer Uhura on the Star Trek television series, and in the Star Trek films, 1933


• Dame Margaret Natalie MAGGIE Smith, DBE, film, stage, and television actress; she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1969 for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1978 for California Suite, 1934


• David Robert Peterson, PC , LL.B , BA, politician, the twentieth Premier of Ontario, 1943


• Kary Banks Mullis, biochemist, who developed the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a central technique in molecular biology which allows the amplification of specified DNA sequences; he shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Michael Smith, 1944


• Edgar Winter, musician; he is a keyboard player, vocalist, saxophonist, and percussionist, who plays jazz, blues, and rock, 1946


• Pierre Falardeau, film and documentary director, 1946


• Aurelio Rodríguez Ituarte, Jr., MLB third baseman; he was a .237 hitter with 124 home runs and 648 RBI in 2017 games, December 28, 1947 – September 23, 2000


• William Alexander ALEX Chilton, songwriter, guitarist, singer, and producer, known for his work with the Box Tops and Big Star, 1950


• Philippe Pagès, aka Richard Clayderman, pianist, 1953


• Denzel Jermaine Washington, Jr., actor, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1989 for Glory, and the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2001 for Training Day, 1954


• Nigel Kennedy, violinist and violist, 1956


• Rachel Carmel Nicolazzo, aka Rachel Z, jazz pianist, 1962


• Michel Petrucciani, jazz pianist, December 28, 1962 – January 6, 1999


• Franklin Christenson CHRIS Ware, comic book artist and cartoonist, 1967


• Linus Benedict Torvalds, software engineer, best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel, 1969


• Benny Agbayani, former MLB outfielder, currently with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League, 1971


• John Stephens, aka John Legend, R&B singer, songwriter, and pianist, 1978


• Sienna Rose Miller, actress and model, 1981


• Mackenzie Ryann Rosman, child actress, known for her role as Ruthie Camden on 7th Heaven, 1989

R.I.P.:

• Hermann Finck, organist and composer, March 21, 1527 - December 28, 1558


• Francesco Maria Grimaldi, mathematician and physicist, April 2, 1618 - December 28, 1663


• Robert Roy MacGregor aka Rob Roy, folk hero and outlaw, March 7, 1671 - December 28, 1734


• Antonio Caldara, Baroque composer, 1670 or 1671 - December 26, 1736


• Eduard [Edi] Strauss, composer; he and his brothers, Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss, formed the Strauss musical dynasty, March 15, 1835 – December 28, 1916


• 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


• Joseph-Maurice Ravel, composer, pianist, and orchestrator, whose piano, chamber-music, and orchestral works have become staples of the classical repertoire, March 7, 1875 - December 28, 1937


• Florence Annie Bridgwood, aka Florence Lawrence, inventor and silent film actress, January 2, 1886 - December 28, 1938


• Louis Richard STEVE Evans, MLB right fielder; in an eight-season career, he posted a .287 batting average with 32 home runs, 466 RBI, 478 runs, 963 hits, 175 doubles, 67 triples, and 86 stolen bases in 978 games played, February 17, 1885 in Cleveland, Ohio - d. December 28, 1943


• Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr., pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music, December 18, 1897 – December 28, 1952


• Paul Hindemith, composer, violist, teacher, theorist, and conductor, November 16, 1895 – December 28, 1963


• Katharine Dexter McCormick, biologist, suffragette, and philanthropist, remembered today for funding most of the research necessary to develop the birth control pill, August 27, 1875 – December 28, 1967


• Maximilian Raoul Walter MAX Steiner, composer of music for films, May 10, 1888 -December 28, 1971


• Frederick Christian, aka Freddie King, blues guitarist and singer, best known for his recordings Hide Away, Have You Ever Loved A Woman, and Going Down; played with a plastic thumb pick and a metal index-finger pick, September 3, 1934 – December 28, 1976


• William Demarest, film and TV character actor, who worked in over 140 films, from 1926 to the 1970's; his most famous TV role was on My Three Sons, playing Uncle Charley, February 27, 1892 – December 28, 1983


• Dennis Carl Wilson, rock and roll musician, drummer for and a founding member of The Beach Boys, the only real surfer in the band, December 4, 1944 – December 28, 1983


• David Samuel SAM Peckinpah, film director, known for his innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence, as well as his revisionist approach to the Western genre, February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984


• Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky, film director, opera director, writer, and actor, April 4, 1932 - December 29, 1986


• Hermann Julius Oberth, physicist, one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics, June 25, 1894 - December 28, 1989


• Sandra Colleen Waites, aka Cassandra Harris, actress, the wife of Pierce Brosnan, December 15, 1948 – December 28, 1991


• Salvatore Anthony SAL Maglie, MLB pitcher, from 1945 to 1958; he won 119 games and lost 62, with an earned run average of 3.15, April 26, 1917 - December 28, 1992


• Jack Carlton CLAYTON Moore, actor, best known for playing The Lone Ranger; he was a circus acrobat as a boy, and later a model; in 1949, he was cast as the lead in the Lone Ranger TV series; in 1959, he embarked on forty years of personal appearances, TV guest spots, and commercials as the Lone Ranger, September 14, 1914 – December 28, 1999


• Jerome Bernard JERRY Orbach, actor, known for his starring role as Detective Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order, and for his musical theatre roles, October 20, 1935 – December 28, 2004