Today CCXLIX - RIP James Brown

Birthdays:

• Orlando Gibbons, composer and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods, baptised December 25, 1583 – June 5, 1625


• Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, aka Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, violinist and composer, December 25, 1711 - October 8, 1772


• Claude Chappe, inventor, who demonstrated a practical semaphore system in 1792 that eventually spanned all of France; this was the first practical telecommunications system, December 25, 1763 – January 23, 1805


• Clarissa Harlowe CLARA Barton, teacher, nurse, and humanitarian, the founder of the American Red Cross, December 25, 1821 –April 12, 1912


• Charles Pathé, pioneer of the film and recording industries; in 1894, he formed Pathé Records with his brother, Émile; two years later, they created the Société Pathé Frères, a motion picture production and distribution company, December 25, 1863 – December 26, 1957


• Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, chemist, awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, December 25, 1876 – June 9, 1959


• Louis-Joseph Chevrolet, racing driver and founder of the Chevrolet Motor Car Company, December 25, 1878 - June 6, 1941


• Evelyn Nesbit, artists' model and chorus girl, December 25, 1884 – January 17, 1967


• Edward KID Ory, jazz trombonist and bandleader, who had one of the best-known bands in New Orleans in the 1910's, including among its members Joe "King" Oliver, Johnny Dodds, and Louis Armstrong, December 25, 1886 – January 23, 1973


• Conrad Nicholson Hilton, hotelier and founder of the Hilton Hotel chain, December 25, 1887 – January 3, 1979


• Robert LeRoy Ripley, entrepreneur, anthropologist, and cartoonist, who created the Ripley's Believe It or Not! series, December 25, 1890 - May 27, 1949


• Humphrey DeForest Bogart, actor, who started his career as a Broadway stage player and B-movie actor during the 1920's and 1930's; his later accomplishments have made him an acting icon; he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1951 for The African Queen, December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957


• Gerhard Herzberg, PC, CC, D.Sc, LL.D, FRSC, FRS, physicist and physical chemist, awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, December 25, 1904 – March 3, 1999


• Louis Winogradsky, aka Lew Grade, Baron Grade, showbusiness impresario and television company executive in the United Kingdom, whose interests included Pye Records and ATV, December 25, 1906 – December 13, 1998


• Ernst August Friedrich Ruska, physicist, who posited that microscopes using electrons, with waves 100,000 shorter than those of light, could provide a more detailed picture of an object than a microscope utilizing light, in which magnification is limited by the size of the wavelengths; in 1931, he built an electron lens, and used several of these in a series to build the first electron microscope in 1933; he shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, December 25, 1906 – May 25, 1988


• Cabell CAB Calloway III, jazz singer and bandleader, a masterful scat singer, who led one of the most popular American big bands from the start of the 1930's through the late 1940's, December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994


• Mihailo Mazurski, aka Mike Mazurki, actor and professional wrestler, who appeared in over 100 movies, December 25, 1907 - December 9, 1990


• Joseph Gregg JOJO Moore, Sr., MLB left fielder, who played his entire career with the New York Giants from 1930 through 1941; in a 12-season career, he was a .298 hitter with 79 home runs and 513 RBI in 1335 games, December 25, 1908 - April 1, 2001


• Alvin Morris, aka Tony Martin, actor and pop singer, 1912


• Natale Codognotto, aka Natalino Otto, singer; he started the swing genre in Italy, December 25, 1912 - October 4, 1969


• Pete Rugolo, jazz composer and arranger, 1915


• Field Marshal Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, soldier and politician, the third President of Egypt from September 28, 1970, until his assassination on October 6, 1981; he shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Menachem Begin, December 25, 1918 – October 6, 1981


• Paul David, CC, GOQ, MD, cardiologist, founder of the Montreal Heart Institute, and Canadian senator, December 25, 1919 – April 5, 1999


• Rodman ROD Edward Serling, screenwriter, famous for The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, wrote movie screenplays, including Seven Days in May, Planet of the Apes, and The Man, December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975


• Jacob Nelson NELLIE Fox, MLB second baseman, the AL MVP in 1959; he was a 12-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove Award winner; he had only 216 strikeouts in over 9,200 at-bats; the Veterans Committee elected him to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997, December 25, 1927 – December 1, 1975


• Richard DICK Miller, character actor, 1928


• Chris Kenner, R&B singer and songwriter, known for I Like It Like That and Land of 1,000 Dances, among other songs, December 25, 1929 - January 25, 1976


• Donnie Mabel Elizabeth Washington, aka Mabel King, actress, known for playing the Wicked Witch of the West in the Broadway and movie versions of The Wiz, December 25, 1932 - November 9, 1999


• Alvin Neill AL Jackson, former MLB left-handed pitcher, who played from 1959 to 1969, 1935


• Ismail Merchant, film producer, best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala; their films won six Academy Awards, December 25, 1936 – May 25, 2005


• O'Kelly Isley, Jr., singer-songwriter, one of the founding members of The Isley Brothers; he co-wrote many of the Isleys' hits, December 25, 1937 – March 31, 1986


• Pete Brown, performance poet, lyricist, and musical producer, best known for his collaborations with Jack Bruce, 1940


• Hanna Schygulla, actress and chanson singer, 1943


• Maurice Cole, aka Kenny Everett, radio DJ and television entertainer, December 25, 1944 - April 4, 1995


• Noel Redding, musician; who played violin at school, mandolin at about age 12, and guitar at 14 years old; he was a rock & roll guitarist, best known as the bassist for The Jimi Hendrix Experience, December 25, 1945 – May 11, 2003


• Gary Sandy, actor, known for his role as program director Andy Travis on WKRP in Cincinnati, 1945


• James William JIMMY Buffett, singer, songwriter, and film producer, 1946


• Gene William Lamont, former MLB catcher and manager, who managed the Chicago White Sox from 1992 to 1995, and the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1997 to 2000; he is currently the third base coach for the Detroit Tigers, 1946


• Barbara Ann Mandrell, country music singer and steel guitar player, 1948


• Mary Elizabeth SISSY Spacek, actress and singer, who has been nominated for six Oscars, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1980 for Coal Miner's Daughter, 1949


• Joe Louis Walker, blues guitarist, singer, and producer, 1949


• Jesús Manuel Marcano MANNY Trillo, former MLB second baseman, who played from 1973 to 1989; he was a four-time All-Star, won three Gold Gloves, and was the MVP of the 1980 NLCS; he batted .263 in his career, with 61 home runs, 571 RBI, 598 runs scored, 1562 hits, 239 doubles, 33 triples, 56 stolen bases, and 452 walks, for a .316 on base percentage, 1950


• Carol Christine Hilaria [CCH] Pounder, film, television, and voice actress, who made her film debut in 1979 in All That Jazz, 1952


• Claudie Fritsch-Mentrop, aka Desireless, singer, 1952


• Annie Lennox, rock musician and vocalist, both as a solo artist and as the lead singer of The Eurythmics; in 2004, she won the Academy Award for Best Song for Into the West from the film The Return of the King, 1954


• Alannah Myles, musician, 1955


• Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan, musician, known as the original singer and songwriter for The Pogues, 1957


• Rickey Henley Henderson, former MLB outfielder, baseball's major-league all-time leader in stolen bases; at the time of his retirement, he was also the career leader in walks; he holds the record for most games led off with a home run, 81; he was the 1989 ALCS MVP and the 1990 AL MVP; he is a ten-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger winner, and 1981 Gold Glove winner, 1948


• Michael Phillip Anderson, USAF Lieutenant Colonel, NASA astronaut, and the Space Shuttle payload commander of STS-107 [Columbia], who was killed when the craft disintegrated after reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, December 25, 1959 – February 1, 2003


• DIDO Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong , singer and songwriter, 1971


• Justin Trudeau, media guy, 1971


• Noel Anthony Hogan, guitarist and co-songwriter of The Cranberries, and solo artist, 1971


• Alexandre SACHA Trudeau, journalist, 1973


• Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen, the keyboardist and main songwriter for Nightwish, 1976


• Willy Taveras, MLB centre fielder for the Colorado Rockies; in December, 2006, he was traded from the Houston Astros to the Colorado Rockies, 1981


• Georgia Elizabeth Moffett, actress, the daughter of actors Peter Davison and Sandra Dickinson; she acted with her father in Red Dawn, a Doctor Who audio drama, 1984

R.I.P.:

• Samuel de Champlain, geographer, draftsman, explorer, and founder of Quebec City, c. 1567 – 25 December 1635


• Linus Yale, Jr., mechanical engineer, inventor, and manufacturer, known for his inventions of locks, especially the cylinder lock, April 4, 1821 - December 25, 1868


• Karl Abraham, psychoanalyst and a correspondent of Sigmund Freud, May 3, 1877 - December 25, 1925


• Karel Capek, writers, who introduced and made popular the word robot, which first appeared in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1921, January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938


• Agnes Hinkle , aka Agnes Ayres, 1920's silent film star, April 4, 1898 – December 25, 1940


• William Claude Dukenfield, aka W. C. Fields, comedian, actor, and juggler, who left home at age 18 and entered vaudeville; by age 21, he was traveling as a comedy juggling act, becoming a headliner in both North America and Europe; in 1906, he made his Broadway debut in the musical comedy The Ham Tree, signing with Florenz Ziegfeld, he worked in silent films and one-reelers, first achieving theatrical fame in 1923 in the Broadway musical Poppy, where he perfected his persona as an oily, failed confidence man; as he was often also a writer on his films, the writing credits often include quite unusual names substituting for his own, such as Otis Criblecoblis, which contains an embedded homophone for "scribble," or Mahatma Kane Jeeves, a pun on a phrase of an aristocrat walking out: "My hat, my cane, Jeeves;" See as many of his films as you can!, January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946


• Patrick Joseph PATSY Donovan, MLB right fielder and manager, who played for several teams from 1890 to 1907, March 16, 1865 - December 25, 1953


• Otto Loewi, pharmacologist, who discovered acetylcholine, and shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Henry Dale, June 3, 1873 – December 25, 1961


• Sir Charles Spencer CHARLIE Chaplin, Jr. KBE, comedy actor, one of the most famous performers in the early to mid Hollywood cinema era, and director, considered to be one of the finest mimes and clowns caught on film , April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977


• Rose JOAN Blondell, actress, appeared in more than 100 movies and television productions, August 30, 1906 – December 25, 1979


• Alfred Manuel BILLY Martin, former MLB player and manager, May 16, 1928 - December 25, 1989


• Monica Enid Dickens, writer, the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, May 10, 1915 - December 25, 1992


• Pierre Victor Auger, physicist, who worked in the fields of atomic physics, nuclear physics, and cosmic ray physics, May 14, 1899 – December 25, 1993,


• Dino Paul Crocetti, aka Dean Martin, singer and film actor, half of the comedy team of Martin and [Jerry] Lewis, June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995


• Denver Dell Pyle, actor; after World War II, he began his film career, and starred in several motion pictures throughout the 1950's and 1960's; he made several appearances as Briscoe Darling on The Andy Griffith Show, and appeared in a number of John Ford Westerns, including The Horse Soldiers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; one of his early roles was as a villain in an Adventures of Superman episode called Beware the Wrecker; his best known television role was that of Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard, May 11, 1920 - December 25, 1997


• John Pulman, professional snooker player, seven-time World Champion, December 12, 1923 - December 25, 1998


• Peter Jeffrey, TV and film actor, who appeared on Doctor Who as the Colony Pilot in The Macra Terror and as Count Grendel in The Androids of Tara, April 8, 1929 - December 25, 1999


• Willard Van Orman Quine, Ph.D., philosopher and logician, whose doctoral thesis and early publications were on formal logic and set theory; later, he emerged as a major philosopher, by virtue of papers on ontology, epistemology, and language; known for five texts: Elementary Logic, Methods of Logic, Philosophy of Logic, Mathematical Logic, and Set Theory and Its Logic, June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000


• Birgit Nilsson, soprano, May 17, 1918 – December 25, 2005


• James Joseph Brown, Jr., singer, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer, a seminal force in the evolution of gospel and rhythm and blues into soul and funk, May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006