Today CCLVII - Wrestling Day ;o)

Today CCLVI - Happy New Year 2007

Birthdays:

• Paul Revere, silversmith, who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military, January 1, 1735 – May 10, 1818


• Betsy Ross, seamstress, who is said to have sewn the first American flag, January 1, 1752 - January 30, 1836


• Edward Neumann, aka Snitz Edwards, character actor of the early silent film era, January 1, 1868 - May 1, 1937


• Harriet Brooks, the first Canadian woman nuclear physicist, January 1, 1876 - January 1, 1933


• Agner Krarup Erlang mathematician, statistician, and engineer, who invented the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory, January 1, 1878 – February 3, 1929


• Artur Rodzinski, conductor, Musical Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1929 to 1933, the Cleveland Orchestra from 1933 to 1943, the New York Philharmonic from 1943–1947, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1947 to 1948, January 1, 1892 - November 27, 1958


• Satyendra Nath Bose, physicist, specializing in mathematical physics, known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920's, providing the foundation for Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose-Einstein condensate, January 1, 1894 – February 4, 1974


• Francisco de Asis Javier Cugat Mingall de Bru y Deulofeo, aka Xavier Cugat, bandleader, influential in the infusion of Latin music into United States popular music, who had trained as a classical violinist and played with the Orchestra of the Teatro Nacional in Havana, January 1, 1900 - October 27, 1990


• Ethan Nathan Allen, MLB centre fielder from 1926 to 1938; he invented the board game All Star Baseball, which entered production in the early 1940's and remains available, with few changes, today, January 1, 1904 - September 15, 1993


• Giovanni D'Anzi, songwriter, January 1, 1906 - April 15, 1974


• Dana Andrews, actor, January 1, 1909 - December 17, 1992


• Barry Morris Goldwater, politician, January 1, 1909 – May 29, 1998


• Henry Benjamin HANK Greenberg, MLB first baseman and outfielder, AL Most Valuable Player, 1935 and 1940; AL All-Star team, 1937 to 1940, and 1945; elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956; in 1948, became the Cleveland Indians' farm system director and, two years later, their general manager and part-owner along with Bill Veeck; followed Veeck to the Chicago White Sox as part-owner, selling his share of the White Sox in 1961, January 1, 1911 – September 4, 1986


• Albert Mol, author, actor, and TV personality, who appeared in movies and TV shows in a career spanning nearly 60 years, January 1, 1917 – March 9, 2004


• Antonio Virgilio Savona, singer, one of the members of the vocal group, the Quartetto Cetra, 1920


• Thomas Rocco Barbella, aka Rocky Graziano, World Middleweight Boxing Champion and, after retirement, television comedian, January 1, 1922 – May 22, 1990


• Milton MILT "Bags" Jackson, jazz vibraphonist, an important figure in the hard bop style, member of the Modern Jazz Quartet, January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999


• Matthew Beard, Jr., child actor, famous for portraying Stymie in the Our Gang short films from 1930 to 1935, January 1, 1925 – January 8, 1981


• Raymond Pellegrin, actor, 1925


• Richard Verreau, tenor, January 1, 1926 - July 7, 2005


• Vernon Lomax Smith Ph.D., professor of economics and law, who shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics with Daniel Kahneman, 1927


• Maurice Béjart, choreographer, who runs the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland, 1927


• Robert Jankel, designer of limousines, armoured cars, and other specialty vehicles, January 1, 1938 – May 25, 2005


• Jocelyne Yvonne Renée Mercier, aka Michèle Mercier, actress, 1939


• Frank Langella, stage, film, and television actor, 1940


• Joseph COUNTRY JOE McDonald, musician, the leader and lead singer of Country Joe and the Fish, 1942


• Gennadi Vasiliyevich Sarafanov, cosmonaut, January 1, 1942 - September 29, 2005


• Don Novello, writer, film director, producer, actor, known for his portrayal of the fictional Father Guido Sarducci, 1943


• Greg Carmichael, guitarist, member of smooth jazz group Acoustic Alchemy, 1953


• Dorothy DEDEE Pfeiffer, actress, known for her role on Cybill as Cybill's daughter Rachel, 1964


• Verne J. Troyer, actor and stunt man, who played Mini-Me in the Austin Powers series of movie, 1969

R.I.P.:

• Johann Christian Bach, composer of the Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, served as copyist to his father, opon whose death in 1750, he became the pupil of his half-brother CPE Bach; studied counterpoint under Giovanni Battista Martini, and from 1760 to 1762 held the post of organist at Milan Cathedral, for which he wrote two Masses, a Requiem, a Te Deum, and other works; in 1762, moved to London in 1762, where he spent the rest of his life, for which he is often referred to as the "London Bach;" met a very young Mozart in London and many scholars claim that he was one of the most important influences on Mozart, who learned from him how to produce a brilliant and attractive surface texture in his music; 99 symphonies are ascribed to Bach, but only 48 are considered authentic, September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782


• Alexandre-Théophile Vandermonde, musician [violinist] and chemist, who worked with Bezout and Lavoisier; he is now principally associated with determinant theory in mathematics, February 28, 1735 – January 1, 1796


• Martin Heinrich Klaproth, chemist, who did much to improve and systematize the processes of analytical chemistry and mineralogy; he was the first to discover uranium, zirconium, and titanium, December 1, 1743 – January 1, 1817


• Mikhail Vasilievich Ostrogradsky, mathematician, mechanician, and physicist, September 24, 1801 - January 1, 1862


• Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, physicist and mechanician for whom the hertz unit of frequency is named; in 1888, he was the first to demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic radiation by building an apparatus to produce UHF radio waves, February 22, 1857 - January 1, 1894


• Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev, physicist, noted for his contribution to experimental studies of waves; he was the first to measure the pressure of light on a solid body; the lunar crater Lebedev is named after him, February 24, 1866 - January 1, 1912


• Martinus Willem Beijerinck, microbiologist and botanist, famous as the founder of virology, March 16, 1851 - January 1, 1931


• Harriet Brooks, the first Canadian woman nuclear physicist, January 1, 1876 - January 1, 1933


• Hiram HANK Williams, singer, guitarist, and songwriter, an icon of country music, a leading exponent of the Honky Tonk style, he had numerous hit records; his songbook is one of the backbones of country music, and several are pop standards, September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953


• Margaret Brooke Sullavan, actress, May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960


• Maurice Chevalier, actor, singer, and popular entertainer, whose signature songs included Louise, Mimi, and Valentine; he made his name as a star of musical comedy, appearing in public as a singer and dancer at an early age, September 12, 1888 – January 1, 1972


• Victor Charles Buono, actor and comedian, February 3, 1938 - January 1, 1982


• Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner, aka Alexis Korner, blues musician, guitarist, and vocalist; often referred to as "the Father of British Blues," he was instrumental in bringing together various English blues musicians, April 19, 1928 - January 1, 1984


• Samuel BUCK Ram, songwriter and businessman, who signed The Platters to a management contract in 1953, November 21, 1907 - January 1, 1991


• Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, naval officer and computer scientist; she was the first programmer of the Mark I Calculator, and developed the first compiler for a computer programming language, December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992


• Cesar Julio Romero, Jr., actor, who played "Latin lovers" in films from the 1930's until the 1950's, usually in supporting roles; he starred as the Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941; in 1966, he played The Joker on the Batman television series, and in the Batman movie spinoff, February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994


• Eugene Paul [E. P.] Wigner, physicist and mathematician, who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics with Maria Goeppert-Mayer and Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen,
  November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995


• Townes Van Zandt, folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet, March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997


• Hugh HAGOOD Hardy, CM , BA, composer, pianist, and vibraphonist, February 26, 1937 – January 1, 1997


• Herman RAY Walston, stage, television and feature film character actor, whose first major role was Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees!; he played the title character on My Favorite Martian, and Judge Henry Bone on Picket Fences, December 2, 1914 – January 1, 2001


• Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, politician, educator, and author; she was a U.S. Congresswoman, representing New York's 11th District for seven terms from 1968,when she became the first black American woman elected to Congress, to 1983; on January 23, 1972, she became the first black American woman to make a bid to be President of the United States, November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005