today.nukz.net: Almanac August 17

Mary Jane West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980), known as Mae West, was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades.

Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress and writer in the motion picture industry. In consideration of her contributions to American cinema, the American Film Institute named West 15th among the greatest female stars of all time. One of the more controversial movie stars of her day, West encountered many problems, including censorship. When her cinematic career ended, she continued to perform on stage, in Las Vegas, in the United Kingdom, on radio and television, and recorded rock and roll albums. She used the alias Jane Mast early in her career.

Events

986 – A Byzantine army is destroyed in the pass of Trajan's Gate by the Bulgarians under the Comitopuli Samuel and Aron. The Byzantine emperor Basil II narrowly escaped.
1807 – Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat leaves New York City for Albany, New York on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
1862 – American Indian Wars: The Dakota War of 1862 begins in Minnesota as Lakota warriors attack white settlements along the Minnesota River.
1862 – American Civil War: Major General J.E.B. Stuart is assigned command of all the cavalry of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
1863 – American Civil War: In Charleston, South Carolina, Union batteries and ships bombard Confederate-held Fort Sumter.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Gainesville – Confederate forces defeat Union troops near Gainesville, Florida.
1883 – The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.
1907 – Pike Place Market, a popular tourist destination and registered historic district in Seattle, opened.
1908 – Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, is shown in Paris.
1914 – World War I: Battle of Stalluponen – The German army of General Hermann von François defeats the Russian force commanded by Pavel Rennenkampf near modern-day Nesterov, Russia.
1915 – Jewish American Leo Frank is lynched for the alleged murder of a 13-year-old girl in Marietta, Georgia, United States.
1915 – A Category 4 hurricane hits Galveston, Texas with winds at 135 miles per hour (217 km/h).
1918 – Bolshevik revolutionary leader Moisei Uritsky is assassinated.
1942 – World War II: U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari).
1943 – World War II: The U.S. Eighth Air Force suffers the loss of 60 bombers on the Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission.
1943 – World War II: The U.S. Seventh Army under General George S. Patton arrives in Messina, Italy, followed several hours later by the British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery, thus completing the Allied conquest of Sicily.
1943 – World War II: First Québec Conference of Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and William Lyon Mackenzie King begins.
1943 – World War II: The Royal Air Force begins Operation Hydra, the first air raid of the Operation Crossbow strategic bombing campaign against Germany's V-weapon programme.
1945 – Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta proclaim the independence of Indonesia, igniting the Indonesian National Revolution against the Dutch Empire.
1947 – The Radcliffe Line, the border between Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan is revealed.
1950 – Hill 303 massacre: American POWs were massacred by North Korean Army.
1953 – Addiction: First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California.
1958 – Pioneer 0, America's first attempt at lunar orbit, is launched using the first Thor-Able rocket and fails. Notable as one of the first attempted launches beyond Earth orbit by any country.
1959 – Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana.
1959 – Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, the much acclaimed and highly influential best selling jazz recording of all time, is released.
1960 – Decolonization: Gabon gains independence from France.
1962 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall.
1969 – Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage.
1970 – Venera Program: Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus).
1978 – Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
1979 – Two Soviet Aeroflot jetliners collide in mid-air over Ukraine, killing 156.
1980 – Azaria Chamberlain disappears, probably taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history.
1982 – The first Compact Discs (CDs) are released to the public in Germany.
1988 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel are killed in a plane crash.
1998 – Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about the relationship.
1999 – A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes Izmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.
2004 – The National Assembly of Serbia unanimously adopts new state symbols for Serbia: Boze Pravde becomes the new anthem and the coat of arms is adopted for the whole country.
2005 – The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts.
2005 – Over 500 bombs are set off by terrorists at 300 locations in 63 out of the 64 districts of Bangladesh
2008 – American swimmer Michael Phelps becomes the first person to win eight gold medals in one Olympic Games.
2009 – An accident at the Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam in Khakassia, Russia, kills 75 and shuts down the hydroelectric power station, leading to widespread power failure in the local area.

Births

1473 – Richard, Duke of York
1556 – Alexander Briant, English Jesuit and martyr (d. 1581)
1578 – Francesco Albani, Italian painter (d. 1660)
1601 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (d. 1665)
1629 – King John III of Poland (d. 1696)
1686 – Nicola Porpora, Italian composer (d. 1768)
1753 – Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist (d. 1828)
1768 – Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, French general (d. 1800)
1786 – Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and soldier (d. 1836)
1786 – Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, mother of Queen Victoria (d. 1861)
1794 – Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest (d. 1849)
1828 – Jules Bernard Luys, French neurologist (d. 1897)
1840 – Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, English poet and writer (d. 1922)
1844 – Emperor Menelek II of Ethiopia (d. 1913)
1863 – Gene Stratton-Porter, American author and naturalist (d. 1924)
1866 – Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad (d. 1911)
1866 – Julia Marlowe, English actress (d. 1950)
1873 – John A. Sampson, American gynecologist (d. 1946)
1878 – Reggie Duff, Australian cricketer (d. 1911)
1880 – Percy Sherwell, South African cricketer (d. 1948)
1887 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born Black rights activist (d. 1940)
1887 – Charles I of Austria (d. 1922)
1888 – Monty Woolley, American actor (d. 1963)
1890 – Harry Hopkins, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce (d. 1946)
1890 – Stefan Bastyr, Polish aviator (d. 1920)
1893 – Mae West, American actress (d. 1980)
1895 – Aris Maliagros, Greek actor (d. 1984)
1896 – Leslie Groves, American military engineer (d. 1970)
1904 – Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
1904 – Mary Cain, American newspaper editor and politician (d. 1984)
1909 – Larry Clinton, American trumpeter and bandleader (d. 1985)
1911 – Mikhail Botvinnik, Russian chess player (d. 1995)
1911 – Martin Sandberger, German military officer (d. 2010)
1913 – W. Mark Felt, American Watergate informant (d. 2008)
1913 – Rudy York, American baseball player (d. 1970)
1913 – Óscar Alfredo Gálvez, Argentine racing driver (d. 1989)
1914 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (d. 1988)
1916 – Moses Majekodunmi, Nigerian politician (d. 2012)
1918 – Evelyn Ankers, British actress (d. 1985)
1919 – Georgia Gibbs, American singer (d. 2006)
1920 – Maureen O'Hara, Irish actress
1921 – Geoffrey Rudolph Elton, British historian (d. 1994)
1922 – Roy Tattersall, England cricketer (d. 2011)
1926 – Jiang Zemin, Chinese politician
1926 – Valerie Eliot, surviving widow and second wife of the Nobel prize-winning poet, T. S. Eliot.
1926 – George Melly, British singer (d. 2007)
1926 – Jean Poiret, French actor, director and screenwriter (d. 1992)
1928 – T. J. Anderson, African American composer, conductor, orchestrator and educator
1929 – Francis Gary Powers, American U-2 pilot (d. 1977)
1929 – Jimmy Donley, American singer (d. 1963)
1930 – Glenn Corbett, American actor (d. 1993)
1930 – Ted Hughes, English poet (d. 1998)
1932 – V. S. Naipaul, West Indian writer, Nobel Laureate
1933 – Eugene F. Kranz, American NASA executive
1933 – Mark Dinning, American singer (d. 1986)
1935 – Oleg Tabakov, Russian actor
1936 – Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Native American musician and actor (d. 2007)
1937 – Ronnie Butler, Bahamian singer
1937 – Spiros Focás, Greek actor
1938 – Abu Bakar Bashir, Indonesian Muslim cleric
1938 – Theodoros Pangalos, Greek politician
1939 – Luther Allison, American musician (d. 1997)
1939 – Anthony Valentine, British actor
1940 – Eduardo Mignogna, Argentinian film director (d. 2006)
1941 – Jean Pierre Lefebvre, French Canadian film director
1941 – Boog Powell, American baseball player
1943 – Robert De Niro, American actor
1943 – John Humphrys Welsh broadcaster and journalist
1943 – Dave "Snaker" Ray, American musician (d. 2002)
1944 – Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation, billionaire
1946 – Martha Coolidge, American film director
1946 – Patrick Manning, 4th and 6th Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago
1947 – Gary Talley, American musician (Box Tops)
1947 – Sylvia Nasar, German-born American economist and author
1948 – Rod MacDonald, American musician
1949 – Julian Fellowes, English actor
1949 – Sib Hashian, American musician (Boston)
1949 – Norm Coleman, American politician
1951 – Wesley Eure, American actor
1951 – Robert Joy, Canadian actor
1951 – Alan Minter, British boxer
1952 – Nelson Piquet, Brazilian race car driver
1952 – Dr. Mario Theissen, German F1 team principal of BMW Sauber
1952 – Guillermo Vilas, Argentinian tennis player
1953 – Michael Malthouse, Premiership winning Australian football coach
1953 – Judith Regan, American book publisher
1953 – Kevin Rowland, English musician (Dexys Midnight Runners)
1954 – Eric Johnson, American guitarist
1955 – Richard Hilton, American heir
1955 – Colin Moulding, English bass player, singer and songwriter (XTC)
1955 – Kevin Welch, American country music singer-songwriter
1956 – Gail Berman, American film executive
1956 – Álvaro Pino, Spanish cyclist
1957 – Robin Cousins, British figure skater
1957 – Laurence Overmire, American poet and actor
1958 – Belinda Carlisle, American singer
1958 – Fred Goodwin, British banker
1958 – Kirk Stevens, Canadian snooker player
1959 – Chika Sakamoto, Japanese voice actress and singer
1959 – Jonathan Franzen, American author
1959 – David Koresh, American cult leader (d. 1993)
1959 – Eric Schlosser, American author
1960 – Stephan Eicher, Swiss singer
1960 – Sean Penn, American actor and director
1962 – Gilby Clarke, American musician (Guns N' Roses)
1962 – John Marshall Jones, American actor
1962 – Buddy Landel, American professional wrestler
1962 – Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss, German actor and director
1963 – Jon Gruden, American football coach
1963 – S. Shankar, Indian film director
1964 – Colin James, Canadian musician
1964 – Maria McKee, American singer
1966 – Maysa Leak, American jazz singer
1966 – Rodney Mullen, American skateboarder
1966 – Don Sweeney, Canadian ice hockey player
1967 – David Conrad, American actor
1967 – Kevin Max, American singer (dc talk)
1967 – Spencer Rice, Canadian actor
1968 – Ed McCaffrey, American football player
1968 – Helen McCrory, English actress
1969 – Christian Laettner, American basketball player
1969 – Donnie Wahlberg, American actor and singer (New Kids On The Block)
1969 – Kelvin Mercer, American rapper (De La Soul)
1970 – Jim Courier, American tennis player
1970 – Rupert Degas, English actor and voice artist
1970 – Øyvind Leonhardsen, Norwegian footballer
1971 – Uhm Jung-hwa, South Korean singer and actress
1971 – Jorge Posada, Puerto Rican baseball player
1971 – Shaun Rehn, Australian Rules footballer
1972 – Habibul Bashar, Bangladeshi cricketer
1972 – Ken Ryker, American pornographic actor
1974 – Tony Hajjar, Lebanese musician (At the Drive-In, Sparta)
1974 – Nicola Kraus, American novelist
1975 – Giuliana DePandi, Italian-born American television personality
1976 – Scott Halberstadt, American actor
1976 – Geertjan Lassche, Dutch reporter
1977 – Nathan Deakes, Australian race walker
1977 – William Gallas, French footballer
1977 – Thierry Henry, French footballer
1977 – Mike Lewis, Welsh musician (Lostprophets and Public Disturbance)
1977 – Matthew Oakley, English footballer
1977 – Tarja Turunen, Finnish singer
1978 – Karena Lam, Hong Kong actress
1978 – Vibeke Stene, Norwegian singer (Tristania)
1979 – Antwaan Randle El, American football player
1979 – Marcus Patric, British actor
1980 – Keith Dabengwa, Zimbabwean cricketer
1980 – Jan Kromkamp, Dutch footballer
1980 – Daniel Güiza, Spanish footballer
1980 – Lene Marlin, Norwegian singer
1981 – Kristin Holt, American television personality
1982 – Cheerleader Melissa, American professional wrestler
1982 – Phil Jagielka, English footballer
1982 – Mark Salling, American actor and singer
1983 – Dustin Pedroia, American baseball player
1984 – Dee Brown, American basketball player
1984 – Garrett Wolfe, American football player
1985 – Yu Aoi, Japanese actress
1986 – Rudy Gay, American basketball player
1986 – Tyrus Thomas, American basketball player
1986 – Bryton McClure, American actor & singer
1987 – Kemp Muhl, American model, actress & singer
1987 – Matthew Shultz, American musician (Cage the Elephant)
1988 – Bianca Collins, American actress
1988 – Brady Corbet, American actor
1988 – Nichole Cordova, American singer (Girlicious)
1988 – Erika Toda, Japanese actress
1989 – Elena Hight, American snowboarder
1989 – Frederick Lau, German actor
1989 – Lil B, American rapper
1990 – Colin Bates, American actor
1990 – Rachel Hurd-Wood, BEnglish actress
1991 – Austin Butler, American actor
1991 – Qory Sandioriva, Indonesian beauty queen, Puteri Indonesia 2009
1996 – Ella Cruz, Filipino actress

Deaths

1153 – Eustace IV of Boulogne, son of Stephen of England (b. 1130)
1304 – Emperor Go-Fukakusa of Japan (b. 1243)
1510 – Edmund Dudley, English statesman (b. 1462)
1657 – Robert Blake, British admiral (b. 1599)
1673 – Regnier de Graaf, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1641)
1676 – Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen, German novelist (b. 1621)
1720 – Anne Lefèvre, French scholar (b. 1654)
1723 – Joseph Bingham, English scholar (b. 1668)
1768 – Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, Russian poet (b. 1703)
1785 – Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut (b. 1710)
1786 – King Frederick II of Prussia (b. 1712)
1834 – Husein Gradašcevic, Bosnian rebel leader (b. 1802)
1838 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, Italian librettist (b. 1749)
1850 – José de San Martín, Argentine general (b. 1778)
1861 – Alcée Louis la Branche, American Politician (b. 1806)
1870 – Pedro Figueredo, Cuban poet, musician, and freedom fighter of the 19th century (b. 1818)
1875 – Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (b. 1827)
1880 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)
1896 – Bridget Driscoll, British automobile fatality
1897 – Sir William Jervois, British colonial administrator, Governor-General of New Zealand (b. 1821)
1901 – Edmond Audran, French composer (b. 1842)
1903 – Hans Gude, Norwegian landscape painter (b. 1825)
1909 – Madan Lal Dhingra, Indian Revolutionary (b. 1883)
1918 – Moisei Uritsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1873)
1920 – Ray Chapman, American baseball player (b. 1891)
1924 – Tom Kendall, Australian cricketer (b. 1851)
1925 – Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer (b. 1848)
1935 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman, American feminist and writer (b. 1860)
1935 – Adam Gunn, American athlete (b. 1872)
1940 – Billy Fiske, American aviator (b. 1911)
1945 – Reidar Haaland, Norwegian Nazi collaborator (b. 1919)
1949 – Gregorio Perfecto, Filipino jurist and politician (b. 1891)
1954 – Billy Murray, American recording artist (b. 1877)
1958 – Arthur Fox, American fencer (b. 1878)
1962 – Peter Fechter, East German defector (b. 1944)
1964 – Happy Felsch, American baseball player best known for his involvement in the Black Sox Scandal
1969 – Otto Stern, German physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
1970 – Rattana Pestonji, Thai filmmaker (b. 1908)
1971 – Wilhelm List, German field marshal (b. 1880)
1971 – Maedayama Eigoro, Japanese sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna (b. 1914)
1973 – Jean Barraqué, French composer (b. 1928)
1973 – Paul Williams, American singer (The Temptations) (b. 1939)
1973 – Conrad Aiken, American author (b. 1889)
1976 – William Redfield, American actor (b. 1927)
1979 – John C. Allen, American roller coaster designer (b. 1907)
1979 – Vivian Vance, American actress (b. 1909)
1983 – Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (b. 1896)
1987 – Rudolf Hess, Nazi deputy (b. 1894)
1987 – Shaike Ophir, Israeli actor (b. 1929)
1987 – Gary Chester, Italian studio drummer (b. 1924)
1988 – Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistani politician, Former Martial Law Administrator and President of Pakistan (b. 1924)
1988 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr., son of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (b. 1914)
1988 – Victoria Shaw, Australian-born American actress (b. 1935)
1990 – Pearl Bailey, American singer and actress (b. 1918)
1992 – Al Parker, American adult film actor (b. 1952)
1993 – Feng Kang, Chinese mathematician (b. 1920)
1994 – Luigi Chinetti, Italian-American race car driver and team owner (b. 1901)
1994 – Jack Sharkey, American boxer (b. 1902)
1995 – Howard Koch, American screenwriter (b. 1902)
1995 – Ted Whitten, Australian rules footballer (b. 1933)
1998 – Wladyslaw Komar, Polish track and field athlete (b. 1940)
1998 – Raquel Rastenni, Danish singer (b. 1915)
1998 – Tadeusz Slusarski, Polish track and field athlete (b. 1950)
2003 – Mazen Dana, Palestinian journalist (b. 1962)
2004 – Thea Astley, Australian writer (b. 1925)
2004 – Gérard Souzay, French baritone (b. 1918)
2005 – John Bahcall, American astrophysicist (b. 1934)
2006 – Shamsur Rahman, Bangladeshi poet, columnist and journalist (b. 1929)
2007 – Bill Deedes, British journalist and politician (b. 1913)
2007 – Eddie Griffin, American basketball player (b. 1982)
2008 – Franco Sensi, Italian businessman and football team owner (b. 1926)
2010 – Francesco Cossiga, Italian politician and eighth President of the Italian Republic (b. 1928)