today.nukz.net: Almanac May 11 :: Irving Berlin, Salvador Dalí, Richard Feynman

Irving Berlin
(May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989)
Salvador Dalí
(May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989)
Richard Feynman
(May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988)

Events

330 – Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but it is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.
912 – Alexander becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1310 – In France, fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake as heretics.
1502 – Christopher Columbus leaves for his fourth and final voyage to the West Indies.
1647 – Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to replace Willem Kieft as Director-General of New Netherland, the Dutch colonial settlement in present-day New York City.
1745 – War of Austrian Succession: Battle of Fontenoy – French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army.
1792 – Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River.
1812 – Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, London.
1813 – In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
1820 – Launch of HMS Beagle, the ship that took Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage.
1846 – President James K. Polk asked for and received a Declaration of War against Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War
1857 – Indian Revolution: Indian rebels seize Delhi from the British.
1858 – Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. State.
1862 – American Civil War: The ironclad CSS Virginia is scuttled in the James River northwest of Norfolk, Virginia.
1867 – Luxembourg gains its independence.
1880 – Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a gun battle in California
1891 – The Otsu incident: Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich of Imperial Russia (later Nicholas II) suffers a critical head injury during a sword attack by Japanese policeman Tsuda Sanzo. He is rescued by Prince George of Greece and Denmark.
1894 – Pullman Strike: Four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers go on a wildcat strike in Illinois.
1907 – 32 Shriners are killed when their chartered train derails at a switch near Surf Depot in Lompoc, California.
1910 – An act of the U.S. Congress establishes Glacier National Park in Montana.
1918 – The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus is officially established.
1924 – Mercedes-Benz is formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging their two companies.
1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded.
1942 – William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published.
1943 – World War II: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces.
1944 – World War II: The Allies begin a major offensive against the Axis Powers on the Gustav Line.
1945 – World War II: Off the coast of Okinawa, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill, is hit by two kamikazes, killing 346 of her crew. Although badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
1946 – UMNO is created.
1949 – Siam officially changes its name to Thailand for the second time. The name had been in use since 1939 but was reverted in 1945.
1949 – Israel joins the United Nations.
1953 – The 1953 Waco tornado outbreak: an F5 tornado hits downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114.
1960 – In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents capture fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann who is living under the alias of Ricardo Klement.
1967 – Andreas Papandreou, Greek economist and socialist politician, is imprisoned in Athens by the Greek military junta.
1968 – The Toronto Transit Commission opens the largest expansion of its Bloor–Danforth line, going to Scarborough in the East, and Etobicoke in the West.
1970 – The Lubbock Tornado, a F5 tornado, hits Lubbock, Texas, killing 26 and causing $250 million in damage.
1973 – Citing government misconduct, Daniel Ellsberg has charges for his involvement in releasing the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times dismissed.
1983 – Aberdeen F.C. defeat Real Madrid 2-1 to win the European Cup Winners' Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1985 – Bradford City stadium fire: Fifty-six spectators die and more than 200 are injured in a flash fire at Valley Parade football ground during a match against Lincoln City in Bradford, England.
1987 – Klaus Barbie goes on trial in Lyon for war crimes committed during World War II.
1987 – In Baltimore, Maryland, the first heart-lung transplant takes place. The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
1995 – In New York City more than 170 countries decide to extend the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty indefinitely and without conditions.
1996 – After the aircraft's departure from Miami, Florida, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades killing all 110 on board.
1996 – The 1996 Mount Everest disaster: on a single day eight people die during summit attempts on Mount Everest.
1997 – Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.
1998 – India conducts three underground atomic tests in Pokhran to include a thermonuclear device.
2000 – Second Chechen War: Chechen separatists ambush Russian paramilitary forces in the Republic of Ingushetia.

Births

482 – Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor (d. 565)
1571 – Niwa Nagashige, Japanese warlord (d. 1637)
1715 – Johann Gottfried Bernhard Bach, fourth child to reach adulthood of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach (d. 1739)
1715 – Ignazio Fiorillo, Italian composer (d. 1787)
1720 – Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German adventurer (d. 1797)
1722 – Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (d. 1789)
1733 – Victoire of France, daughter of king Louis XV of France (d. 1799)
1752 – Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (d. 1840)
1763 – János Batsányi, Hungarian poet (d. 1845)
1771 – Laskarina Bouboulina, Greek naval commander in the Greek War of Independence (d. 1825)
1799 – John Lowell, American philanthropist (d. 1836)
1801 – Henri Labrouste, French architect (d. 1875)
1811 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Thai/American conjoined twins (d. 1874)
1811 – Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1893)
1817 – Fanny Cerrito, Italian ballet dancer (d. 1909)
1824 – Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter and sculptor (d. 1904)
1827 – Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (d. 1875)
1835 – Karlis Baumanis, Latvian composer (d. 1905)
1838 – Walter Goodman, British painter, illustrator and author (d. 1912)
1852 – Charles W. Fairbanks, 26th United States Vice President (d. 1918)
1854 – Jack Blackham, Australian cricketer (d. 1932)
1861 – Frederick Russell Burnham, American inspiration and "father" of the international scouting movement (d. 1947)
1870 – Otto von Friesen, Swedish runologist and linguist (d. 1942)
1871 – Frank Schlesinger, American astronomer (d. 1943)
1881 – Al Cabrera, Spanish-born Cuban baseball player (d. 1964)
1881 – Theodore von Kármán, Hungarian physicist (d. 1963)
1881 – Jan van Gilse, Dutch composer and conductor (d. 1944)
1888 – Irving Berlin, American composer (d. 1989)
1888 – Willis A. Lee, World War II U.S. naval admiral (d. 1945)
1890 – Woodall Rodgers, mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1961)
1892 – Margaret Rutherford, English actress (d. 1972)
1894 – Martha Graham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 1991)
1895 – William Grant Still, American composer (d. 1978)
1896 – Josip Štolcer-Slavenski Croatian composer (d. 1955)
1897 – Kurt Gerron, German director (d. 1944)
1897 – Robert E. Gross, American businessman (d. 1961)
1899 – Paulino Masip, Spanish playwright (d. 1963)
1903 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player (d. 1993)
1904 – Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter (d. 1989)
1907 – Rose Ausländer, German poet (d. 1988)
1907 – Rip Sewell, American baseball player (d. 1989)
1909 – Ellis R. Dungan, American born Indian film director (d. 2001)
1909 – Herbert Murrill, English composer (d. 1952)
1911 – Mitchell Sharp, Canadian politician (d. 2004)
1911 – Phil Silvers, American actor and comedian (d. 1985)
1912 – Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
1912 – Saadat Hasan Manto, Pakistani short story writer (d. 1955)
1913 – Robert Jungk, Austrian publicist (d. 1994)
1914 – Haroun Tazieff, French volcanologist (d. 1998)
1916 – Camilo José Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 2002)
1918 – Richard Feynman, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
1920 – Denver Pyle, American actor (d. 1997)
1921 – Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, German politician
1922 – Nestor Chylak, American baseball umpire (d. 1992)
1922 – Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
1924 – Eugene Dynkin, Russian mathematician
1924 – Antony Hewish, English radio astronomer, Nobel laureate
1924 – Ninfa Laurenzo, restaurateur in Houston, Texas
1925 – Edward J. King, 66th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 2006)
1927 – Mort Sahl, Canadian comedian and political commentator
1927 – Bernard Fox, English actor
1927 – Gene Savoy, American author, explorer, scholar and cleric (d. 2007)
1928 – Yaacov Agam, Israeli sculptor
1928 – Brother Andrew, Dutch missionary
1928 – Marco Ferreri, Italian film director and screenwriter (d. 1997)
1928 – Vern Rapp, American baseball manager and coach
1929 – Fernand Lindsay, Canadian churchman, educator, organist and festival director (d. 2009)
1930 – Edsger Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist (d. 2002)
1930 – Bud Ekins, American stuntman (d. 2007)
1932 – Valentino Garavani (Valentino), Italian designer
1933 – Louis Farrakhan, American Nation of Islam leader
1934 – Jim Jeffords, former American politician
1934 – Arthur Labatt, Canadian businessman (Labatt Brewing Company)
1935 – Kit Lambert, English record producer and manager for The Who (d. 1981)
1935 – Doug McClure, American actor (d. 1995)
1935 – Francisco Umbral, Spanish novelist (d. 2007)
1936 – Carla Bley, American musician and composer
1939 – Carlos Lyra, Brazilian musician
1939 – Dante Tinga, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
1940 – Juan Downey, Chilean video artist (d. 1993)
1941 – Eric Burdon, British singer (The Animals)
1941 – Graham Miles, English snooker player
1942 – Rachel Billington, British author
1943 – Les Chadwick, English musician (Gerry and the Pacemakers)
1943 – Nancy Greene, Canadian alpine skier
1943 – Juliet Harmer, English actress
1946 – Robert Jarvik, American physician and inventor
1946 – Plume Latraverse, Quebec singer and musician
1947 – Butch Trucks, American drummer (The Allman Brothers Band)
1948 – Nirj Deva, Sri Lankan-British politician
1948 – Shigeru Izumiya, Japanese folk musician
1950 – Dane Iorg, American baseball player
1950 – Jeremy Paxman, British journalist and author
1951 – Ed Stelmach, Premier of Alberta, Canada
1952 – Shohreh Aghdashloo, Iranian actress
1952 – Frances Fisher, English-born actress
1952 – Mike Lupica, American sports journalist
1952 – Renaud, French composer
1952 – Warren Littlefield, American television executive
1953 – David Gest, American television producer
1953 – Céline Lomez, Quebec singer and actress
1954 – John Gregory, English football manager
1954 – Lubomir Stoykov, Bulgarian journalist and broadcaster
1955 – John DeStefano, Jr., American politician
1956 – Theresa Burke, Canadian journalist
1956 – Alex Lester, British broadcaster
1957 – Peter North, Canadian pornographic actor
1958 – Christian Brando, American actor; son of Marlon Brando (d. 2008)
1958 – Dan Ireland, American film director
1958 – Phil Smyth, Australian basketball player
1958 – Walt Terrell, American baseball player
1959 – Martha Quinn, American television personality
1960 – Gildor Roy, French Canadian actor and singer
1961 – Luis Felipe, Cuban gangster
1963 – Gunilla Carlsson, Swedish politician
1963 – Masatoshi Hamada, Japanese comedian
1963 – Natasha Richardson, English/American actress (d. 2009)
1963 – Roark Critchlow, Canadian actor
1964 – Tim Blake Nelson, American actor
1964 – John Parrott, English snooker player
1964 – Katie Wagner, American television reporter
1964 – Bobby Witt, American baseball player
1964 – Floyd Youmans, American baseball player
1965 – Stefano Domenicali, Italian Formula One team principal (Ferrari)
1965 – Greg Dulli, American musician
1965 – Monsour del Rosario, Filipino martial artist and actor
1966 – Christoph Schneider, German drummer (Rammstein)
1968 – Jeffrey Donovan, American actor
1970 – Nicky Katt, American actor
1970 – Glenn Hugill, British television presenter and producer
1970 – Harold Ford Jr., Political commentator and former U.S. Congressman
1972 – Anita Hegh, Australian actress
1972 – Daniel Ornellas, Zimbabwean musician
1974 – Kevin Brown, English-born Canadian ice hockey player
1974 – Stanley Gene, Papua New Guinean rugby league footballer
1974 – Billy Kidman, American professional wrestler
1974 – Benoît Magimel, French actor
1974 – Darren Ward, Welsh footballer
1975 – Coby Bell, American actor
1975 – Francisco Cordero, Dominican baseball player
1977 – Janne Ahonen, Finnish ski jumper
1977 – Gonzalo Colsa, Spanish footballer
1977 – Pablo García, Uruguayan footballer
1977 – Victor Matfield, South African rugby union footballer
1978 – Laetitia Casta, French supermodel and actress
1978 – Perttu Kivilaakso, Finnish cellist (Apocalyptica)
1979 – Erin Lang, Canadian musician
1981 – Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
1981 – Daniel Ortmeier, American baseball player
1981 – Dusán Mukics, Slovene journalist and reporter in Hungary
1981 – Austin O'Brien, American actor
1982 – Jonathan Jackson, American actor
1982 – Andrew Walter, American football player
1982 – Cory Monteith, Canadian actor and singer
1982 – Guji Lorenzana, Filipino singer and actor
1983 – Matt Leinart, American football player
1983 – Daizee Haze, American professional wrestler
1983 – Holly Valance, Australian-born actress and singer
1983 – Hanna Verboom, Dutch actress
1983 – Frédéric Xhonneux, Belgian decathlete
1984 – John Bowie, American football player
1984 – Gerald Clayton, Dutch/American jazz pianist
1984 – Andrés Iniesta, Spanish football player
1984 – Marvin Wijks, Dutch footballer
1985 – Matt Giraud, American singer
1985 – sifow, Japanese singer and businesswoman
1986 – Abou Diaby, French footballer
1986 – Rodney K-R.O.K Gilcreast- Recording artist and record producer
1986 – Ronny Heberson Furtado de Araújo, Brazilian footballer
1986 – Manuel Schenkhuizen, Dutch gamer
1986 – Miguel Veloso, Portuguese footballer
1987 – Justin King, American football player
1987 – Louis Murphy, American football player
1987 – Monica Rosu, Romanian gymnast
1988 – Ace Hood, American rapper
1988 – Jeremy Maclin, American football player
1988 – Brad Marchand, Canadian-born hockey player
1989 – Gianluigi Bianco, Italian footballer
1989 – Giovani dos Santos, Mexican footballer
1989 – Cam Newton, American football player
1991 – Alex Nimely, Liberian-English footballer
1993 – Jirapong Meenapra, Thai sprinter
1994 – David Alvarez, Canadian dancer and actor

Deaths

912 – Leo VI, Byzantine Emperor (b. 866)
1304 – Mahmud Ghazan, Mongol ruler (b. 1271)
1610 – Matteo Ricci, Italian Jesuit missionary (b. 1552)
1672 – Charles Seton, 2nd Earl of Dunfermline, Scottish royalist (b. 1615)
1708 – Jules Hardouin Mansart, French architect (b. 1646)
1723 – Jean Galbert de Campistron, French dramatist (b. 1656)
1760 – Alaungpaya, Founder of Konbaung Dynasty of Burma (b. 1714)
1777 – George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (b. 1719)
1778 – William Pitt, the Elder, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1708)
1779 – John Hart, delegate from New Jersey to the Continental Congress and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1711)
1812 – Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1762)
1848 – Tom Cribb, English boxer (b. 1781)
1849 – Juliette Récamier, French socialite (b. 1777)
1871 – John Herschel, British mathematician and astronomer (b. 1792)
1887 – Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist (b. 1802)
1891 – A. E. Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1820)
1916 – Max Reger, German composer (b. 1873)
1916 – Karl Schwarzschild, German astronomer and physicist (b. 1873)
1920 – William Dean Howells, American writer (b. 1837)
1927 – Juan Gris, Spanish cubist artist (b. 1887)
1929 – Jozef Murgaš, Slovak inventor (b. 1864)
1934 – Blaise Diagne, Sengalese politician (b. 1872)
1934 – Orest Khvolson, Russian physicist (b. 1852)
1939 – Evgenii Miller, Russian counter-revolutionary (b. 1867)
1940 – Chujiro Hayashi, Japanese Reiki Master (b. 1880)
1955 – Gilbert Laird Jessop, English cricketer (b. 1874)
1960 – John D. Rockefeller, Jr., American philanthropist (b. 1874)
1963 – Herbert Spencer Gasser, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
1966 – Alfred Wintle, British WW1 & WW2 soldier; author of "The Last Englishman" (b. 1897)
1970 – Johnny Hodges, American musician (b. 1906)
1973 – Lex Barker, American actor (b. 1919)
1976 – Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect (b. 1898)
1979 – Lester Flatt, American bluegrass musician (b. 1914)
1981 – Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1897)
1981 – Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1945)
1985 – Chester Gould, American cartoonist (b. 1900)
1986 – Henry P. McIlhenny, American philanthropist (b. 1910)
1986 – Fritz Pollard, American football player (b. 1894)
1988 – Kim Philby, British spy (b. 1912)
1990 – Stratos Dionysiou, Greek singer (b. 1935)
1994 – Timothy Carey, American actor (b. 1928)
1996 – Ademir Marques de Menezes, Brazilian footballer (b. 1922)
1996 – Nnamdi Azikiwe, President of Nigeria (b. 1904)
1997 – Ernie Fields, American trombonist, pianist, arranger and bandleader (b. 1905)
1998 – Oreste Kirkop, Maltese tenor and actor (b. 1923)
1999 – Giorgos Kappis, Greek actor (b. 1929)
2000 – René Muñoz, Cuban actor, screenwriter of telenovelas (b. 1938)
2000 – Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (b. 1907)
2001 – Douglas Adams, English author (b. 1952)
2002 – Joseph Bonanno, Sicilian-born American mafioso (b. 1905)
2002 – Renaude Lapointe, French Canadian journalist and senator (b. 1912)
2003 – Noel Redding, English bassist (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) (b. 1945)
2004 – Mick Doyle, Irish rugby union footballer and coach (b. 1941)
2004 – John Whitehead, American singer (McFadden & Whitehead) (b. 1949)
2005 – Michalis Genitsaris, Greek rebetiko singer and composer (b. 1917)
2005 – Léo Cadieux, Canadian politician (b. 1908)
2006 – Floyd Patterson, American boxer (b. 1935)
2006 – Frankie Thomas, American actor (b. 1921)
2006 – Yossi Banai, Israeli singer (b. 1932)
2007 – Malietoa Tanumafili II, Samoan Head of State (O le Ao o le Malo) (b. 1913)
2007 – Bernard Gordon, blacklisted American screenwriter and producer (b. 1918)
2008 – Dottie Rambo, American gospel singer (b. 1934)
2008 – John Rutsey, Canadian drummer (Rush) (b. 1953)
2008 – Bruno Neves, Portuguese cyclist (b. 1981)