today.nukz.net: Almanac May 12 :: Katharine Hepburn, George Carlin

Katharine Hepburn
(May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003)
George Carlin
(May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)

Events

254 – Pope Stephen I succeeds Pope Lucius I as the 23rd pope.
303 – Roman Emperor Diocletian orders the beheading of the 14-year-old Pancras of Rome.
922 – After much hardship, Abbasid envoy Ahmad ibn Fadlan arrived in the lands of Volga Bulgars.
1191 – Richard I of England marries Berengaria of Navarre who is crowned Queen consort of England the same day.
1264 – The Battle of Lewes, between King Henry III of England and the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, begins.
1328 – Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.
1364 – Jagiellonian University, the oldest university in Poland, is founded in Kraków, Poland.
1551 – National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, is founded in Lima, Peru.
1588 – French Wars of Religion: Henry III of France flees Paris after Henry of Guise enters the city and a spontaneous uprising occurs.
1689 – King William's War: William III of England joins the League of Augsburg starting a war with France.
1743 – Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Bohemia after defeating her rival, Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: In the largest defeat of the Continental Army, Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.
1797 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice.
1821 – The first big battle of the Greek War of Independence against the Turks occurs in Valtetsi.
1862 – U.S. federal troops occupy Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Raymond: two divisions of James B. McPherson's XVII Corps (ACW) turn the left wing of Confederate General John C. Pemberton's defensive line on Fourteen Mile Creek, opening up the interior of Mississippi to the Union Army during the Vicksburg Campaign.
1864 – American Civil War: the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House: thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers die in "the Bloody Angle".
1865 – American Civil War: the Battle of Palmito Ranch: the first day of the last major land action to take place during the Civil War, resulting in a Confederate victory.
1870 – The Manitoba Act is given the Royal Assent, paving the way for Manitoba to become a province of Canada on July 15.
1873 – Oscar II is crowned King of Sweden.
1881 – In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.
1885 – North-West Rebellion: the four-day Battle of Batoche, pitting rebel Métis against the Canadian government, comes to an end with a decisive rebel defeat.
1916 – James Connolly was sat on a chair and shot dead in Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, after his role in the Easter Uprising
1926 – UK General Strike 1926: In the United Kingdom, a nine-day general strike by trade unions ends.
1932 – Ten weeks after his abduction Charles Jr., the infant son of Charles Lindbergh is found dead in Hopewell, New Jersey, just a few miles from the Lindberghs' home.
1935 – Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith (founders of Alcoholics Anonymous) meet for the first time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta Siberling.
1937 – George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
1941 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
1942 – World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov: in eastern Ukraine, Red Army forces under Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launch a major offensive from the Izium bridgehead, only to be encircled and destroyed by the troops of Army Group South two weeks later.
1942 – Holocaust: 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.
1945 – Argentinian labour leader José Peter declares the Federación Obrera de la Industria de la Carne dissolved.
1949 – The Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.
1949 – The western occupying powers approve the Basic Law for the new German state: the Federal Republic of Germany.
1952 – Gaj Singh is crowned Maharaja of Jodhpur.
1955 – Nineteen days after bus workers went on strike in Singapore, rioting breaks out and seriously impacts Singapore's bid for independence.
1955 – Austria regains its independence as the Allied occupation following World War II ends.
1958 – A formal North American Aerospace Defense Command agreement is signed between the United States and Canada.
1962 – Douglas MacArthur delivers his Duty, Honor, Country valedictory speech at the United States Military Academy.
1965 – The Soviet spacecraft Luna 5 crashes on the Moon.
1968 – Vietnam War: North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attack Australian troops defending Fire Support Base Coral, east of Lai Khe in South Vietnam on the night of 12/13 May, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides and beginning the Battle of Coral-Balmoral.
1975 – Mayagüez incident: the Cambodian navy seizes the American merchant ship SS Mayaguez in international waters.
1978 – In Zaire, rebels occupy the city of Kolwezi, the mining center of the province of Shaba (now known as Katanga). The local government asks the U.S.A., France and Belgium to restore order.
1981 – Francis Hughes starves to death in the Maze Prison in a Republican campaign for political prisoner status to be granted to Provisional IRA prisoners.
1982 – During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, believed that the Pope had to be killed for being an "agent of Moscow".
1998 – Four students are shot at Trisakti University, leading to widespread riots and the fall of Suharto
2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a five-day visit with Fidel Castro becoming the first President of the United States, in or out of office, to visit the island since Castro's 1959 revolution.
2003 – The Riyadh compound bombings, carried out by Al Qaeda, kill 26 people.
2003 – Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers bring the Texas Legislature to a standstill by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressional redistricting plan.
2006 – Mass unrest by the Primeiro Comando da Capital begins in São Paulo (Brazil), leaving at least 150 dead.
2006 – Iranian Azeris interpret a cartoon published in an Iranian magazine as insulting, resulting in massive riots throughout the country.
2007 – Riots in which over 50 people are killed and over 100 are injured take place in Karachi upon the arrival in town of the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
2008 – An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurs in Sichuan, China, killing over 69,000 people.
2008 – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts the largest-ever raid of workplace and arrests nearly 400 immigrants for identity theft and document fraud.

Births

1401 – Emperor Shoko, 101st Japanese Emperor (d. 1428)
1496 – Gustav I of Sweden (d. 1560)
1590 – Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1621)
1622 – Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor General of New France (d. 1698)
1626 – Louis Hennepin, Flemish missionary (d. 1705)
1670 – King Augustus II of Poland (d. 1733)
1700 – Luigi Vanvitelli, Italian architect (d. 1773)
1725 – Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans (d. 1785)
1739 – Johann Baptist Vanhal, Bohemian composer (d. 1813)
1754 – Franz Anton Hoffmeister, German composer and music publisher (d. 1812)
1755 – Giovanni Battista Viotti, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1824)
1767 – Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (d. 1851)
1803 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (d. 1873)
1804 – Robert Baldwin, Canadian politician (d. 1858)
1806 – Johan Vilhelm Snellman, Finnish statesman (d. 1881)
1812 – Edward Lear, British artist and poet (d. 1888)
1814 – Adolf von Henselt, German composer and pianist (d. 1889)
1820 – Florence Nightingale, British nurse (d. 1910)
1825 – Orélie-Antoine de Tounens, French adventurer in Araucania and Patagonia (d. 1878)
1828 – Dante Gabriel Rossetti, British painter (d. 1882)
1829 – Pavlos Carrer, Greek composer (d. 1896)
1839 – Tôn Th?t Thuy?t, the leading mandarin of Vietnam's Nguy?n Dynasty (d. 1913)
1840 – Alejandro Gorostiaga, Chilean military, participated on Battle of Huamachuco (d. 1912)
1842 – Jules Massenet, French composer (d. 1912)
1845 – Gabriel Fauré, French composer (d. 1924)
1850 – Henry Cabot Lodge, U.S. statesman (d. 1924)
1867 – Hugh Trumble, Australian cricketer (d. 1938)
1872 – Anton Korošec, Slovenian political leader (d. 1940)
1874 – Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician (d. 1929)
1880 – Lincoln Ellsworth, American explorer (d. 1951)
1885 – Paltiel Daykan, Russian-born Israeli jurist (d. 1969)
1889 – Yvonne de Bray, French actress (d. 1954)
1889 – Otto Frank, father of Anne Frank (d. 1980)
1892 – Fritz Kortner, Austrian-born director (d. 1970)
1895 – William Giauque, American chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1982)
1895 – Jiddu Krishnamurti, Indian philosopher (d. 1986)
1899 – Indra Devi, Latvian Yoga Instructor (d. 2002)
1900 – Helene Weigel, German actress (d. 1971)
1900 – Joseph Rochefort, American naval officer and cryptanalyst (d. 1976)
1903 – Wilfrid Hyde-White, British actor (d. 1991)
1905 – Édouard Rinfret, Canadian politician and judge (d. 1994)
1907 – Leslie Charteris, British author and screenwriter (d. 1993)
1907 – Katharine Hepburn, American actress (d. 2003)
1910 – Charles B. Fulton, American jurist (d. 1996)
1910 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, British biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1994)
1910 – Gordon Jenkins, American conductor and composer (d. 1984)
1912 – Archibald Cox, U.S. Solicitor General (d. 2004)
1914 – Bertus Aafjes, Dutch poet (d. 1993)
1914 – Howard K. Smith, American journalist (d. 2002)
1914 – James Bacon, American entertainment columnist and reporter (d. 2010)
1916 – Albert Murray, American writer
1917 – Frank Clair, American-born Canadian football coach (d. 2005)
1918 – Julius Rosenberg, American-born spy for the Soviet Union (d. 1953)
1918 – Mary Kay Ash, American businesswoman (d. 2001)
1919 – Gerald Bales, Canadian organist and composer (d. 2002)
1921 – Joseph Beuys, German artist (d. 1986)
1921 – Farley Mowat, Canadian writer and naturalist
1922 – Marco Denevi, Argentine writer (d. 1998)
1922 – Bob Goldham, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1991)
1924 – Alexander Esenin-Volpin, Russian mathematician
1924 – Tony Hancock, British comedian (d. 1968)
1924 – Maxine Cooper Gomberg, American actress (d. 2009)
1925 – Yogi Berra, American baseball player
1928 – Burt Bacharach, American composer
1928 – Henry Cosby, American songwriter (d. 2002)
1929 – Dollard St. Laurent, Canadian ice hockey player
1929 – Sam Nujoma, first President of Namibia
1930 – Jesús Franco, Spanish film director
1933 – Andrey Voznesensky, Russian poet
1935 – Felipe Alou, Dominican baseball player and manager
1935 – Johnny Bucyk, Canadian ice hockey player
1936 – Guillermo Endara, President of Panama (d. 2009)
1936 – Tom Snyder, American television personality (d. 2007)
1936 – Frank Stella, American painter
1937 – Beryl Burton, British cyclist (d. 1996)
1937 – George Carlin, American comedian (d. 2008)
1937 – Susan Hampshire, British actress
1938 – Millie Perkins, American film actress
1939 – Miltiadis Evert, Greek politician
1939 – Reg Gasnier, Australian Rugby League footballer
1939 – Ron Ziegler, U.S. White House Press Secretary (d. 2003)
1939 – Jalal Dabagh, Kurdish politician
1940 – Norman Whitfield, American songwriter and producer (d. 2008)
1942 – Ian Dury, British musician (d. 2000)
1942 – Michel Fugain, French singer and songwriter
1942 – Billy Swan, American songwriter and singer
1943 – Linda Dano, American Actress
1944 – Chris Patten, British politician
1945 – Alan Ball, Jr., English footballer (d. 2007)
1945 – Nicky Henson, British actor
1945 – Ian McLagan, British keyboardist (Small Faces)
1945 – Patrick Ricard, French businessman
1946 – L. Neil Smith, American science fiction author
1946 – Daniel Libeskind, American architect
1947 – Michael Ignatieff, Canadian politician
1947 – Micheline Lanctôt, American film actor, director and screenwriter
1947 – Catherine Yronwode, American writer and editor
1948 – David Heineman, American politician, current governor of Nebraska
1948 – Joe Tasker, British mountaineer (d. 1982)
1948 – Steve Winwood, British musician (The Spencer Davis Group; Traffic)
1950 – Bruce Boxleitner, American actor
1950 – Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor
1950 – Louise Portal, French Canadian actress
1950 – Billy Squier, American singer and musician
1951 – George Karl, American basketball player and head coach
1951 – Joe Nolan, American baseball players
1952 – Norbert Stolzenburg, German footballer
1953 – Kevin Grevey, American basketball player
1955 – Kix Brooks, American country singer (Brooks & Dunn)
1956 – Bernie Federko, Canadian ice hockey player
1956 – Sergio Marchi, Canadian diplomat and politician
1956 – Glenn Robbins, Australian comedian
1956 – Asad Rauf, Pakistani cricket umpire
1957 – Lou Whitaker, American baseball player
1958 – Andreas Petroulakis, Greek political caricaturist
1958 – Eric Singer, American drummer
1959 – Ving Rhames, American actor
1959 – Ray Gillen, American singer (d. 1993)
1960 – Paul Arcand, Quebec radio host, journalist and film director
1960 – Ian Khan, British racing driver
1961 – Paul Begala, American political commentator
1961 – Billy Duffy, British guitarist (The Cult)
1961 – Thomas Dooley, German-American soccer player
1961 – Lar Park Lincoln, American actress
1961 – Bruce McCulloch, Canadian actor
1962 – Emilio Estevez, American actor
1962 – Brett Gurewitz, American songwriter (Bad Religion) and record producer (Epitaph Records)
1963 – Panagiotis Fasoulas, Greek basketball player, Mayor of Piraeus
1963 – Gavin Hood, South African film director
1963 – Stefano Modena, Italian racing driver
1963 – Charles Pettigrew, American singer (Charles and Eddie) (d. 2001)
1963 – Jerry Trimble, American actor
1963 – Deborah Kara Unger, Canadian actress
1963 – Vanessa A. Williams, American actress
1964 – Pierre Morel, French film director
1966 – Stephen Baldwin, American actor
1966 – Bebel Gilberto, Brazilian singer
1967 – Paul D'Amour, American bass guitarist (Tool)
1967 – Joe McKinney, Irish actor
1968 – Mark Clark, American baseball player
1968 – Tony Hawk, American skateboarder
1968 – Scott Schwartz, American actor
1968 – Catherine Tate, British comedian
1969 – Kim Fields, American actress
1969 – Kevin Nalty, American YouTube personality
1970 – Jim Furyk, American golfer
1970 – Mike Weir, Canadian golfer
1970 – Samantha Mathis, American actress
1970 – Steve Palframan, South African cricketer
1970 – Mark Foster, British swimmer
1971 – Doug Basham, American professional wrestler
1971 – Jamie Luner, American actress
1973 – Kendra Kassebaum, American stage actress
1973 – Travis Lutter, American mixed martial arts fighter
1973 – Lutz Pfannenstiel, German footballer
1973 – Robert Tinkler, Canadian voice actor
1975 – Jonah Lomu, New Zealand rugby union footballer
1975 – Lawrence Phillips, American football player
1976 – Kardinal Offishall, Canadian rapper
1977 – Lorena Bernal, Argentine/Spanish model and actress
1977 – Graeme Dott, British snooker player
1977 – Rebecca Herbst, American actress
1978 – Jason Biggs, American actor
1978 – Malin Åkerman, Swedish-Canadian actress and model
1978 – Wilfred Le Bouthillier, Canadian singer
1978 – Aya Ishiguro, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
1978 – Josh Phelps, American baseball player
1978 – Hossein Reza Zadeh, Iranian weightlifter
1979 – Andre Carter, American football player
1979 – Callum Chambers, Australian rules footballer
1979 – Robert Key, English cricketer
1979 – Erdinç Saçan, Turkish-Dutch politician
1979 – Steve Smith, American football player
1979 – Aaron Yoo, Korean-American actor
1979 – Dennis Trillo, Filipino actor and singer
1980 – Keith Bogans, American basketball player
1980 – Felipe Lopez, Puerto Rican baseball player
1981 – Kentaro Sato, Japanese composer
1981 – Rami Malek, American actor
1982 – David Thaxton, British stage actor and singer
1982 – Darren Williams, American basketball player
1983 – Charilaos Pappas, Greek footballer
1983 – Alina Kabayeva, Russian gymnast
1983 – Virginie Razzano, French tennis player
1984 – Tommaso Reato, Italian rugby player
1985 – Tally Hall, American footballer
1985 – Jeroen Simaeys, Belgian footballer
1986 – Emily VanCamp, Canadian actress
1986 – Mouhamed Sene, Senegalese basketball player
1987 – Gianluca Sansone, Italian footballer
1987 – Kieron Pollard, West Indies Cricketer
1988 – Marky Cielo, Filipino dancer and actor (d. 2008)
1988 – Marcelo Vieira da Silva Júnior, Brazilian footballer
1989 – Matthew Hann, American basketball player
1990 – Jacory Harris, American football player
1990 – Oliver Kragl, German footballer
1990 – Tobias Strobl, German footballer
1992 – Malcolm David Kelley, American actor
1995 – Luke Benward, American actor
1995 – Kenton Duty, American actor

Deaths

1003 – Pope Silvester II
1012 – Pope Sergius IV
1382 – Queen Joan I of Naples (b. 1327)
1465 – Thomas Palaeologus, Titular Byzantine emperor, Despot of the Morea (b. 1409)
1634 – George Chapman, English writer
1641 – Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, English statesman (b. 1593)
1684 – Edme Mariotte, French physicist and priest
1699 – Lucas Achtschellinck, Flemish painter (b. 1626)
1700 – John Dryden, English writer (b. 1631)
1708 – Adolf Friedrich II of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (b. 1658)
1748 – Thomas Lowndes, English astronomer (b. 1692)
1759 – Lambert-Sigisbert Adam, French sculptor (b. 1700)
1784 – Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist (b. 1710)
1792 – Charles Simon Favart, French dramatist (b. 1710)
1796 – Johann Peter Uz, German poet (b. 1720)
1801 – Nicholas Repnin, Russian statesman (b. 1734)
1842 – Walenty Wankowicz, Polish painter (b. 1799)
1845 – János Batsányi, Hungarian poet (b. 1763)
1856 – Jacques Philippe Marie Binet, French mathematician (b. 1786)
1859 – Sergei Aksakov, Russian writer (b. 1791)
1860 – Charles Barry, English architect (b. 1795)
1864 – James Ewell Brown "Jeb" Stuart, American soldier from Virginia and a Confederate Army general (b. 1833)
1867 – Friedrich William Eduard Gerhard, German archaeologist (b. 1795)
1871 – Anselme Payen, French physicist (b. 1795)
1876 – Georgi Benkovski, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1843)
1884 – Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer (b. 1824)
1889 – John Cadbury, English chocolate entrepreneur (b. 1801)
1907 – Joris-Karl Huysmans, French author (b. 1848)
1916 – James Connolly, Irish socialist and leader of the Easter Rising (b. 1868)
1925 – Amy Lowell, American poet (b. 1874)
1931 – Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian violinist (b. 1858)
1935 – Józef Pilsudski, Polish statesman (b. 1867)
1944 – Max Brand, American author (b. 1892)
1944 – Arthur Quiller-Couch, English writer (b. 1863)
1956 – Louis Calhern, American actor (b. 1895)
1957 – Alfonso de Portago, Spanish bobsledder and race car driver (b. 1928)
1957 – Erich von Stroheim, film director and actor (b. 1885)
1963 – Richard Girulatis, German football manager (b. 1878)
1963 – Robert Kerr, Canadian sprinter (b. 1882)
1966 – Felix Martin Julius Steiner, German Heer and Waffen-SS officer (b. 1896)
1967 – John Masefield, British writer (b. 1878)
1970 – Nelly Sachs, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1891)
1971 – Heinie Manush, American baseball player (b. 1901)
1973 – Art Pollard, American racecar driver (b. 1927)
1978 – Robert Coogan, American actor (b. 1924)
1985 – Jean Dubuffet, French painter (b. 1901)
1986 – Elisabeth Bergner, Austrian actress (b. 1897)
1986 – Alicia Moreau de Justo, Argentine physician, politician, pacifist and human rights activist (b. 1885).
1990 – Chen Kenmin, Japanese chef (b. 1912)
1992 – Robert Reed, American actor (b. 1932)
1992 – Nikos Gatsos, Greek poet and lyricist (b. 1911)
1992 – Lenny Montana, American actor (b. 1926)
1992 – Robert Reed, American actor (b. 1932)
1994 – Erik Erikson, German psychoanalyst (b. 1902)
1994 – John Smith, British politician (b. 1938)
1995 – Mia Martini, Italian singer and songwriter (b. 1947)
1999 – Abd-al-Aziz ibn Abd-Allah ibn Baaz, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia 1993-1999 (b. 1910)
1999 – Saul Steinberg, Romanian-American cartoonist (b. 1914)
2000 – Adam Petty, American race car driver (b. 1980)
2001 – Perry Como, American singer (b. 1912)
2001 – Alexei Tupolev, Russian aircraft designer (b. 1925)
2002 – Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (b. 1905)
2003 – Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, French United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (b. 1933)
2005 – Martin Lings, English Islamic scholar (b. 1909)
2005 – Monica Zetterlund, Swedish actress and singer (b. 1937)
2006 – Hussein Maziq, Prime Minister of Libya (b. 1918)
2006 – Gillespie V. Montgomery, U.S. representative from Mississippi (b. 1920)
2007 – Mullah Dadullah Akhund, Afghan Taliban military leader
2007 – Teddy Infuhr, American former child actor (b. 1936)
2008 – Robert Rauschenberg, American artist (b. 1925)
2008 – Irena Sendler, Polish social worker, WWII heroine (b. 1910)
2009 – Antonio Vega, Spanish pop singer-songwriter (b. 1957)