today.nukz.net: Almanac June 13 :: James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This unites all previously unrelated observations, experiments, and equations of electricity, magnetism, and optics into a consistent theory. Maxwell's equations demonstrate that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of the same phenomenon, namely the electromagnetic field. Subsequently, all other classic laws or equations of these disciplines became simplified cases of Maxwell's equations. Maxwell's achievements concerning electromagnetism have been called the "second great unification in physics", after the first one realised by Isaac Newton.

Events

313 – The Edict of Milan, signed by Constantine the Great and co-emperor Valerius Licinius granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire, is posted in Nicomedia.
1249 – Coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots.
1373 – Anglo-Portuguese Alliance between England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal is the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force.
1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, against the celibacy rule decreed by the Roman Catholic Church for priests and nuns.
1625 – King Charles I marries Henrietta Maria of France, Princess of France
1645 – Miyamoto Musashi passes away in Reigando, the cave in which he wrote the Book of Five Rings.
1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: Marquis de Lafayette lands near Charleston, South Carolina, in order to help the Continental Congress to train its army.
1805 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River.
1881 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
1886 – A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia.
1886 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria is found dead in Lake Starnberg south of Munich at 11:30 PM.
1893 – Grover Cleveland undergoes secret, successful surgery to remove a large, cancerous portion of his jaw; operation not revealed to US public until 1917, nine years after the president's death.
1898 – Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital.
1910 – The University of the Philippines College of Engineering is established. This unit of the university is said to be the largest degree granting unit in the Philippines.
1917 – World War I: the deadliest German air raid on London during World War I is carried out by Gotha G bombers and results in 162 deaths, including 46 children, and 432 injuries.
1927 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh receives a ticker-tape parade down 5th Avenue in New York City.
1934 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet in Venice, Italy; Mussolini later describes the German dictator as "a silly little monkey".
1944 – World War II: German combat elements - reinforced by the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division - launch a counterattack on American forces near Carentan.
1944 – World War II: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England. Only four of the eleven bombs actually hit their targets.
1952 – Catalina affair: a Swedish Douglas DC-3 is shot down by a Soviet MiG-15 fighter.
1955 – Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered.
1966 – The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1969 – Governor of Texas Preston Smith signs a bill into law converting the former Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, originally founded as a research arm of Texas Instruments, into the University of Texas at Dallas.
1970 – "The Long and Winding Road" becomes the Beatles' last Number 1 song.
1971 – Vietnam War: The New York Times begins publication of the Pentagon Papers.
1977 – Convicted Martin Luther King Jr. assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison three days before.
1978 – Israeli Defense Forces withdraw from Lebanon.
1981 – At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager, Marcus Sarjeant, fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
1982 – Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid.
1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System when it passes beyond the orbit of Neptune (the furthest planet from the Sun at the time).
1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

1996 – The Montana Freemen surrender after an 81-day standoff with FBI agents.
1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
1997 – Uphaar cinema fire, in New Delhi, India, killed 59 people, and over 100 people injured.
2000 – President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, in the northern capital of Pyongyang.
2000 – Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2002 – The United States withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
2002 – Two 14-year-old South Korean girls are struck and killed by a United States Army armored vehicle, leading to months of public protests against the US.
2005 – A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.
2007 – The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time.
2010 – A capsule of the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, containing particles of the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, returns to Earth.

Births

40 AD – Gnaeus Julius Agricola ,Roman general (d. 93 AD)
823 – Charles the Bald, Holy Roman Emperor and King of the West Franks (d. 877)
839 – Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Franks {d. 888}
1584 – Miyamoto Musashi, Legendary Samurai warrior, artist, and author of The Book of Five Rings (d. 1645)
1595 – Jan Marek Marci, Bohemian doctor and scientist (d. 1667)
1649 – Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (d. 1706)
1672 – Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, Grand Duchess of Tuscany (d. 1741)
1752 – Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist (d. 1840)
1761 – Antonín Vranický, Czech violinist and composer (d. 1820)
1763 – José Bonifácio de Andrade e Silva, Brazilian statesman (d. 1838)
1773 – Thomas Young, English scientist (d. 1829)
1775 – Antoni Radziwill, Polish politician (d. 1833)
1786 – Winfield Scott, U.S. general (d. 1866)
1809 – Heinrich Hoffmann, German painter, author of Struwwelpeter (d. 1894)
1822 – Carl Schmidt, German chemist (d. 1884)
1827 – Alberto Henschel, German-Brazilian photographer and businessman (d. 1882)
1831 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist (d. 1879)
1863 – Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon, English fashion designer (d. 1935)
1864 – Rudolf Kjellén, Swedish political scientist (d. 1922)
1864 – Dwight B. Waldo, American educator and historian (d. 1939)
1865 – William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1937)
1870 – Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1961)
1876 – William Sealey Gosset, English chemist, statistician (d. 1937)
1884 – Anton Drexler, German political figure (d. 1942)
1884 – Gerald Gardner, British occultist (d. 1964)
1884 – Étienne Gilson, French philosopher (d. 1978)
1885 – Henry George Lamond, Australian novelist (d. 1969)
1887 – Bruno Frank, German author (d. 1945)
1888 – Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet (d. 1935)
1892 – Basil Rathbone, English actor (d. 1967)
1893 – Dorothy L. Sayers, English author (d. 1957)
1894 – Dr. Leo Kanner, Austrian-American physician (d. 1981)
1894 – Jacques Henri Lartigue, French photographer (d. 1986)
1897 – Paavo Nurmi, Finnish runner (d. 1973)
1899 – Carlos Chávez, Mexican composer (d. 1978)
1901 – Tage Erlander, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1985)
1903 – Red Grange, American football player (d. 1991)
1905 – Xian Xinghai, Chinese composer (d. 1945)
1905 – Doc Cheatham, jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader (d. 1997)
1906 – Bruno de Finetti, Italian mathematician (d. 1985)
1909 – E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Indian politician (d. 1998)
1910 – Mary Whitehouse, British campaigner (d. 2001)
1910 – Gonzalo Torrente Ballester, Galician writer (d. 1999)
1910 – Mary Wickes, American actress (d. 1995)
1911 – Luis Alvarez, American physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1988)
1911 – Erwin Wilhelm Müller, German-born physicist (d. 1977)
1912 – Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, French Canadian poet (d. 1943)
1915 – Don Budge, American tennis player (d. 2000)
1917 – Teddy Turner, British comedian (d. 1992)
1918 – Ben Johnson, American actor (d. 1996)
1918 – Helmut Lent, German night fighter pilot (d. 1944)
1920 – Rolf Huisgen, German chemist
1922 – Etienne Leroux, Afrikaans author, (d. 1989)
1924 – Percy Rodriguez, Canadian actor (d. 2007)
1926 – Paul Lynde, American actor (d. 1982)
1927 – Slim Dusty, Australian Singer (d. 2003)
1928 – John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, Nobel laureate
1928 – Li Ka-shing, Chinese business magnate
1929 – Alan Civil, English French horn player (d. 1989)
1929 – Robert W. Scott, American politician, governor of North Carolina (d. 2009)
1930 – Ryszard Kuklinski, Polish colonel (d. 2004)
1931 – Irvin D. Yalom, American psychotherapist
1931 – Nora Kovach, Hungarian-born American ballerina (d. 2009)
1932 – Bob McGrath, American actor
1933 – Tom King, British politician
1935 – Christo, Bulgarian artist
1935 – Jeanne-Claude, French artist (d. 2009)
1935 – Samak Sundaravej, Thai 25th Prime Minister (d. 2009)
1936 – Michael H. Jordan, American businessman and Chief Executive Officer (d. 2010)
1937 – Erich Ribbeck, German football player/manager
1939 – Tom Cheek, American baseball broadcaster (d. 2005)
1940 – Bobby Freeman, American soul singer
1941 – Esther Ofarim, Israeli singer
1941 – Marcel Lachemann, American baseball player
1943 – Malcolm McDowell, English actor
1943 – Jim Guy Tucker, American politician, governor of Arkansas
1944 – Ban Ki-moon, South Korean United Nations Secretary-General
1945 – Whitley Strieber, American author
1947 – A. G. Lafley, American executive director
1948 – Garnet Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player and executive (d. 2001)
1948 – Joe Roth, American executive, producer and film director
1949 – Dennis Locorriere, American singer and guitarist (Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show)
1949 – Ulla Schmidt, German politician
1950 – Belinda Bauer, Australian actress
1950 – Michael Stark, Australian actor
1950 – Gerd Zewe, German footballer
1951 – Richard Thomas, American actor
1951 – Stellan Skarsgård, Swedish actor
1951 – Robert P. Young, Jr., Michigan Supreme Court justice
1952 – Tony Bruno, American talkshow host
1952 – Jean-Marie Dedecker, Belgian politician and former judoka
1953 – Tim Allen, American comedian and actor
1954 – Andrzej Lepper, Polish politician
1954 – Rita Cadillac, Brazilian dancer
1955 – Leah Ward Sears, Chief Justice Georgia Supreme Court
1955 – Alan Hansen, Scottish football pundit
1959 – Boyko Borisov, Bulgarian politician
1959 – Steve Georganas, Australian politician
1959 – Lance Kinsey, Canadian actor
1961 – Anders Järryd, Swedish tennis player
1962 – Ally Sheedy, American actress
1962 – Glenn Michibata, Canadian professional tennis player
1962 – Davey Hamilton, American racing driver
1962 – Hannah Storm, American television personality
1963 – Bettina Bunge, German tennis player
1963 – Paul De Lisle, American musician (Smash Mouth)
1963 – Catarina Lindqvist, Swedish tennis player
1964 – Kathy Burke, English actress
1964 – Sarunas Marciulionis, Lithuanian basketball player
1964 – Christian Wilhelm Berger, Romanian composer
1965 – Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca
1965 – Vassilis Karapialis, Greek footballer
1965 – Lukas Ligeti, Austrian composer and drummer
1965 – Lisa Vidal, American actress
1966 – Naoki Hattori, Japanese racing driver
1966 – Grigori Perelman, Russian mathematician
1967 – Taskin Aksoy, Turkish footballer
1968 – Fabio Baldato, Italian cyclist
1968 – Spike Breakwell, British comedian
1968 – Darren Dreger, Canadian sportscaster
1968 – David Gray, British musician
1968 – Denise Pearson, British singer (Five Star)
1968 – Marcel Theroux, British writer and broadcaster
1969 – Svetlana Krivelyova, Russian athlete
1969 – Søren Rasted, Danish musician
1970 – Chris Cairns, New Zealand cricketer
1970 – Rivers Cuomo, American musician (Weezer)
1970 – Mikael Ljungberg, Swedish wrestler (d. 2004)
1971 – Nóra Köves, Hungarian tennis player
1972 – Natalie MacMaster, Canadian musician
1973 – Sam Adams, American football player
1973 – Tanner Foust, American racing driver
1973 – Mattias Hellberg, Swedish musician (The Hellacopters)
1973 – Ville Laihiala, Finnish musician (Sentenced, Poisonblack)
1973 – Kasia Kowalska, Polish pop rock singer
1973 – Leeann Tweeden, American model and television presenter
1974 – Selma Björnsdóttir, Icelandic singer
1974 – Brande Roderick, American actress
1974 – Takahiro Sakurai, Japanese voice actor
1974 – Valeri Bure, Russian ice hockey player
1974 – Steve-O, American stunt performer and television personality
1975 – Ante Covic, Australian footballer
1975 – Johannes Grenzfurthner, Austrian artist, writer, curator and director
1975 – Riccardo Scimeca, English footballer
1975 – Jennifer Nicole Lee, American model
1976 – Kym Marsh, English singer, actress and T.V. presenter
1976 – Jason 'J' Brown, English Singer
1978 – Ethan Embry, American actor
1978 – Mathis Künzler, Swiss actor
1978 – Jason Michael Carroll, country musician
1978 – Mikako Ichikawa, Japanese actress and model
1979 – Nila Håkedal, Norwegian beach volleyball player
1980 – Darius Vassell, English footballer
1980 – Florent Malouda, French footballer
1980 – Jamario Moon, American basketball player
1980 – Markus Winkelhock, German racing driver
1980 – Sarah Connor, German singer
1981 – Chris Evans, American actor
1982 – Kenenisa Bekele, Ethiopian athlete
1983 – Matt Allison, British racing driver
1983 – Ryan Conferido, American dancer
1983 – Jason Spezza, Canadian ice hockey player
1984 – Nery Castillo, Mexican-Uruguayan footballer
1985 – Filipe Albuquerque, Portuguese racing driver
1985 – Silvio Bankert, German footballer
1985 – Danny Syvret, Canadian ice hockey player
1986 – Kat Dennings, American actress
1986 – Keisuke Honda, Japanese footballer
1986 – Ashley Olsen, American actress
1986 – Mary-Kate Olsen, American actress
1988 – Gabe Carimi, American football player
1988 – Austin Thornton, American drummer (Woe, Is Me)
1989 – Tommy Searle, English motocross racer
1989 – Lisa Tucker, American singer
1990 – Aaron Johnson, English actor

Deaths

1036 – Ali az-Zahir, caliph (b. 1005)
1231 – Anthony of Padua, Portuguese saint (b. 1195)
1256 – Tankei, Japanese sculptor (b. 1173)
1636 – George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly, Scottish politician (b. 1562)
1645 – Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese swordsman
1665 – Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, Dutch admiral (b. 1604)
1760 – Antoine Court, French Huguenot minister (b. 1696)
1784 – Henry Middleton, American president of the Continental Congress (b. 1717)
1881 – Josef Skoda, Czech physician (b. 1805)
1886 – King Ludwig II of Bavaria (b. 1845)
1898 – Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau, Canadian lawyer and politician (b. 1840)
1904 – Nikiphoros Lytras, Greek painter (b. 1832)
1918 – Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia, younger brother of Tsar Nicholas II (b. 1878) (murdered)
1930 – Henry Segrave, British racing driver who held land speed records and the water speed record (b. 1896)
1931 – Kitasato Shibasaburo, Japanese physician (b. 1851)
1943 – Koco Racin, Macedonian poet (b. 1908)
1951 – Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1885)
1954 – Henry Blogg, English lifeboatman, George Cross and British Empire Medal recipient (b. 1876)
1958 – Edwin Keppel Bennett, British writer (b. 1887)
1965 – Martin Buber, Austrian-born Israeli philosopher (b. 1878)
1965 – David Drummond, Australian politician (b. 1890)
1972 – Clyde McPhatter, American musician (b. 1932)
1972 – Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
1972 – Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Austrian-born German World War II spy (b. 1891)
1972 – Dündar Taser, Turkish nationalist (b. 1925)
1977 – Matthew Garber, British child actor (Mary Poppins) (b. 1956)
1979 – Darla Hood, American actress (b. 1931)
1979 – Demetrio Stratos, Italian musician (b. 1945)
1980 – Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure (b. 1942)
1982 – King Khalid of Saudi Arabia (b. 1912)
1982 – Peter Maivia, wrestler (b. 1935)
1982 – Riccardo Paletti, Formula One driver (b. 1958)
1984 – António Variações, Portuguese hairdresser and musician (b. 1944)
1986 – Benny Goodman, American musician (b. 1909)
1987 – Geraldine Page, American actress (b. 1924)
1989 – Fran Allison, American, early television personality (Kukla, Fran and Ollie) (b. 1907)
1993 – Deke Slayton, astronaut (b. 1924)
1993 – Gérard Côté, Canadian runner (b. 1913)
1997 – Nguyen Manh Tuong, Vietnamese lawyer and intellectual (b. 1909)
1998 – Birger Ruud, Norwegian athlete (b. 1911)
1998 – Reg Smythe, British comic artist (Andy Capp) (b. 1917)
2002 – John Hope, American meteorologist (b. 1919)
2003 – Malik Meraj Khalid, Former caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan (b. 1916)
2004 – Dick Durrance, American skier (b. 1914)
2004 – Ralph Wiley, American journalist and writer (b. 1952)
2005 – Jonathan Adams, English actor (b. 1931)
2005 – Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese politician and writer (b. 1913)
2005 – David Diamond, American composer (b. 1915)
2005 – Lane Smith, American actor (b. 1936)
2006 – Charles Haughey, Taoiseach (b. 1925)
2007 – Walid Eido, Lebanese MP (b. 1942)
2008 – Tim Russert, American television host, NBC News Meet the Press moderator (b. 1950)
2008 – Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner, Austrian politician (b. 1926)
2009 – Mitsuharu Misawa, Japanese professional wrestler (b. 1962)
2009 – Fathi Yakan, Lebanese leader and Muslim cleric (b. 1933)