Today CCXLIV

Birthdays:

• Oronce Finé, aka Orontius Finnaeus, mathematician and cartographer, December 20, 1494 - August 8, 1555


• Pietro Raimondi, composer, transitional between the Classical and Romantic eras, famous as a composer of operas and sacred music, an innovator in contrapuntal technique, December 20, 1786 – October 30, 1853


• Ferdinand Édouard Buisson, academic, educational bureaucrat, Protestant pastor, pacifist, and Socialist politician, who presided over the Human Rights League (LDH) from 1914 to 1926; he helped create France's system of universal, secular primary education in the 1880's; he shared the 1927 Nobel Peace Prize with Ludwig Quidde, December 20, 1841 – February 16, 1932


• Harvey Samuel Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, December 20, 1868 - February 7, 1938


• Wesley BRANCH Rickey, MLB executive known for breaking baseball's colour barrier by signing Jackie Robinson, and drafting the first Hispanic superstar, Roberto Clemente; he created the framework for the modern minor league farm system, December 20, 1881 - December 9, 1965


• Yvonne Arnaud, pianist, singer, and actress, December 20, 1892 - September 20, 1958


• Jaroslav Heyrovský, chemist and inventor, the father of electroanalytical chemistry, who invented the polarographic method; he was awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, December 20, 1890 – March 27, 1967


• Irene Marie Dunn, aka Irene Dunne, film actress, one of the most famous screwball comediennes of her time, remembered for performance in The Awful Truth, and as Martha Hanson in I Remember Mama; introduced the song Smoke Gets in Your Eyes in the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film Roberta; other roles included Anna Owens in Anna and the King of Siam and Vinnie in Life with Father; received five Oscar nominations for Best Actress, December 20, 1898 - September 4, 1990


• Robert Jemison van de Graaff, physicist and instrument maker, and professor of physics at Princeton University; he designed the Van de Graaff generator, a device which produces high voltages, December 20, 1901 – January 16, 1967


• Virgil Lawrence SPUD Davis, MLB catcher and manager, December 20, 1904 - August 14, 1984


• Paul Francis Webster, lyricist, December 20, 1907 - March 18, 1984


• David Joseph Bohm, quantum physicist, who made significant contributions in the fields of theoretical physics, philosophy, and neuropsychology, and to the Manhattan Project, December 20, 1917 - October 27, 1992


• Audrey Totter, actress, 1918


• George Roy Hill, film director, who won the Academy Award for Best Director in
  1973 for The Sting, December 20, 1921 – December 27, 2002


• John Harris Harbison, composer, known for his operas and large choral works, 1938


• Robert BOBBY Colomby, founding member and drummer for Blood, Sweat & Tears, 1944


• Peter George John Criscuola, aka Peter Criss, musician, co-founder and drummer for KISS, 1945


• John Speshock , aka John Spencer, actor, known for the role of Leo McGarry on The West Wing, December 20, 1946 – December 16, 2005


• Gigliola Cinquetti, singer, 1947


• Cecil Celester Cooper, former MLB first baseman from 1971 through 1987; in a 17-season career, he posted a .298 batting average with 241 home runs and 1125 RBI in 1896 games, 1949


• Jennifer Ann JENNY Agutter, actress, who appeared in Logan's Run, 1952


• Stephen William BILLY Bragg, musician, 1957


• Michael David MIKE Watt, bass guitarist, singer, and songwriter, 1957


• Christopher Michael CHRIS Robinson, singer for The Black Crowes, 1966


• Nicole de Boer, actress, who played Ezri Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and currently appears on The Dead Zone, 1970


• Aubrey Lewis Huff, MLB player, who has played third base, first base, left field, right field, and designated hitter; he is currently with the Houston Astros, 1976


• David Allen Wright, MLB third baseman for the New York Mets, 1982


• Lucy Katherine Pinder, glamour model, 1983

R.I.P.:

• Johannes Lupi, composer of the Renaissance, a minor but skilled composer of polyphony, c. 1506 – December 20, 1539


• Antonio Francisco Javier José Soler Ramos, aka Padre Antonio Soler, composer whose works span the late Baroque and early Classical music eras; he is best known for his keyboard sonatas, baptized December 3, 1729 - December 20, 1783


• Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman who accompanied the Corps of Discovery with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in their exploration of the Western United States, c. 1787 – December 20, 1812


• Moss Hart, playwright and director of plays and musical theatre; he recalled his youth, early career, and rise to fame in his autobiography Act One, adapted to film in 1963; he was married to Kitty Carlisle, October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961


• John Ernst Steinbeck, writer, awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature; he is best known for his novella Of Mice and Men and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath, February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968


• Walden Robert Cassotto, aka Bobby Darin, rock and roll singer, May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973


• André Jolivet, composer, August 8, 1905 – December 20, 1974


• Arthur Rubinstein, pianist, considered as one of the greatest piano virtuosos of the 20th Century; he received international acclaim for his performances of Chopin and Brahms, and for his championing of Spanish music, January 28, 1887 – December 20, 1982


• Gonzalo Enrique Márquez Moya, aka Gonzalo Márquez, MLB first baseman; in four seasons in the majors, he batted .235 (27-for-115) with one home run, 10 runs batted in, nine runs, three doubles, and one stolen base in 76 games, March 31, 1946 - December 20, 1984


• Joseph JOE DeSa, MLB first baseman, who made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals on September 6, 1980, and appeared in his final game on October 3, 1985, July 27, 1959 – December 20, 1986


• J. Alphonse Ouimet, Canadian television pioneer and president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 1958 to 1967, who helped design, build, and demonstrate the first Canadian television set, June 12, 1908 – December 20, 1988


• Kurt Böhme, bass, known for his interpretations of Wagnerian roles, May 5, 1908 – December 20, 1989


• Carl Edward Sagan, astronomer, astrobiologist, and science popularizer, who pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI); he wrote popular science books, and co-wrote and presented the 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage; he wrote the novel Contact, the basis for the 1997 film of the same name; he published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books; in his works, he advocated scientific skepticism, humanism, and the scientific method, November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996


• Irene Hervey, actress, who was married to Allan Jones; their son is Jack Jones, July 11, 1910 - December 20, 1998


• Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, OM, KBE, FRS, physiologist and biophysicist, who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Andrew Fielding Huxley and John Carew Eccles, February 5, 1914 – December 20, 1998


• Clarence Eugene HANK Snow, Hall of Fame country music singer and songwriter, May 9, 1914 – December 20, 1999


• Riccardo Freda, film director, best known for horror and thriller movies, February 24, 1909 - December 20, 1999


• Foster Brooks, actor and comedian, May 1, 1912 - December 20, 2001