today.nukz.net: Almanac August 24

James Tiptree, Jr. (August 24, 1915 – May 19, 1987) was the pen name of American science fiction author Alice Bradley Sheldon, used from 1967 to her death. She also occasionally wrote under the pseudonym Raccoona Sheldon (1974–77). Tiptree/Sheldon was most notable for breaking down the barriers between writing perceived as inherently "male" or "female" — it was not publicly known until 1977 that James Tiptree, Jr. was a woman.

Major Awards
Hugo Awards: 1974 (Best Novella, "The Girl Who Was Plugged In") and 1977 (Best Novella, "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?")
Nebula Awards: 1973 (Short Story, "Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death"), 1976 (Novella, "Houston, Houston, Do You Read?") and 1977 (Novelette, "The Screwfly Solution", published
under the pseudonym Raccoona Sheldon.)
World Fantasy Award: 1987 for the collection Tales of the Quintana Roo
Locus Award: 1984 (short story) 'Beyond the Dead Reef', and 1986 (novella) 'The Only Neat Thing to Do'
Science Fiction Chronicle Award: 1986 (novella) 'The Only Neat Thing to Do'
Jupiter Award: 1977 (novella) 'Houston, Houston, Do You Read?'
Seiun Award: 2008 (Best Foreign Language Novel of the Year) Brightness Falls from the Air

Events

49 BC – Julius Caesar's general Gaius Scribonius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under Publius Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio commits suicide to avoid capture.
79 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash (note: this traditional date has been challenged, and many scholars believe that the event occurred on October 24).
410 – The Visigoths under king Alaric I begin to pillage Rome.
455 – The Vandals, led by king Genseric, begin to plunder Rome. Pope Leo I requests Genseric not destroy the ancient city or murder its citizens. He agrees and the gates of Rome are opened. However, the Vandals loot a great amount of treasure.
1185 – Sack of Thessalonica by the Normans.
1200 – King John of England, signee of the first Magna Carta, marries Isabella of Angouleme in Bordeaux Cathedral.
1215 – Pope Innocent III declares Magna Carta invalid.
1349 – Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.
1391 – Jews are massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
1456 – The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
1482 – The town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed is captured from Scotland by an English army
1561 – Willem of Orange marries duchess Anna of Saxony.
1608 – The first official English representative to India lands in Surat.
1662 – The Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.
1682 – William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
1690 – Job Charnock of the East India Company establishes a factory in Calcutta, an event formerly considered the founding of the city (in 2003 the Calcutta High Court ruled that the city has no birthday).
1812 – Peninsula War: A coalition of Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces succeed in lifting the two-and-a-half-year-long Siege of Cádiz.
1814 – British troops invade Washington, D.C. and during the Burning of Washington the White House is set ablaze, though not burned to the ground; as well as several other buildings.
1815 – The modern Constitution of the Netherlands is signed.
1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.
1820 – Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal.
1821 – The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
1857 – The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history.
1870 – The Wolseley Expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River Rebellion.
1875 – Captain Matthew Webb became first person to swim the English Channel
1891 – Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
1898 – Count Muravyov, Foreign Minister of Russia presents a rescript that convoked the First Hague Peace Conference.
1909 – Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
1912 – Alaska becomes a United States territory.
1914 – World War I: German troops capture Namur.
1929 – Second day of two-day Hebron massacre during the 1929 Palestine riots: Arab attacks on the Jewish community in Hebron in the British Mandate of Palestine, result in the death of 65-68 Jews and the remaining Jews being forced to leave the city.
1931 – France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
1931 – Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
1932 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
1933 – The Crescent Limited train derails in Washington, D.C., after the bridge it is crossing is washed out by the 1933 Chesapeake–Potomac hurricane.
1936 – The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
1937 – In the Spanish Civil War, the Basque Army surrenders to the Italian Corpo Truppe Volontarie following the Santoña Agreement.
1941 – Adolf Hitler orders the cessation of Nazi Germany's systematic T4 euthanasia program of the mentally ill and the handicapped due to protests, although killings continue for the remainder of the war.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryujo is sunk and US carrier USS Enterprise heavily damaged.
1944 – World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris.
1949 – The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
1950 – Edith Sampson becomes the first black U.S. delegate to the United Nations.
1954 – The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
1954 – Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commits suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho.
1963 – Buddhist crisis: As a result of the Xa Loi Pagoda raids, the US State Department cables the US Embassy in Saigon to encourage Army of the Republic of Vietnam generals to launch a coup against President Ngo Dinh Diem if he did not remove his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu.
1967 – Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the NYSE by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them.
1981 – Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
1989 – Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
1989 – Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.
1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1991 – Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
1992 – Hurricane Andrew makes landfall just south of Miami as a Category 5 hurricane.
1994 – Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.
1998 – First RFID human implantation tested in the United Kingdom.
2001 – Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from Toronto) and makes an emergency landing in the Azores.
2004 – Eighty-nine passengers die after two airliners explode after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow. The explosions are caused by suicide bombers (reportedly female) from the Russian Republic of Chechnya.
2006 – The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is now considered a Dwarf Planet.
2010 – In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 72 illegal immigrants are killed by Los Zetas and eventually found dead by Mexican authorities.

Births

1113 – Geoffrey of Anjou, Count of Anjou (d. 1151)
1198 – King Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249)
1358 – King John I of Castile (d. 1390)
1393 – Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1458)
1552 – Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter (d. 1614)
1578 – John Taylor, English poet (d. 1653)
1591 – Robert Herrick, English poet (d. 1674)
1635 – Peder Griffenfeld, Danish statesman (d. 1699)
1669 – Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (d. 1747)
1707 – Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, English Evangelical Revivalist (d. 1791)
1750 – Letizia Ramolino, mother of Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1836)
1758 – Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, queen of Denmark and Norway (d. 1794)
1759 – William Wilberforce, English abolitionist (d. 1833)
1772 – King William I of the Netherlands (d. 1840)
1787 – James Weddell, English explorer of Antarctica (d. 1834)
1824 – Antonio Stoppani, Italian geologist and scholar (d. 1891)
1837 – Théodore Dubois, French composer and teacher (d. 1924)
1845 – James C. Calhoun, American soldier, brother-in-law of George Armstrong Custer (d. 1876)
1851 – Tom Kendall, Australian cricketer (d. 1924)
1852 – Deacon White, American baseball player (d. 1919)
1863 – Dragutin Lerman, Croatian explorer (d. 1918)
1865 – King Ferdinand I of Romania (d. 1927)
1872 – Max Beerbohm, British caricaturist (d. 1956)
1880 – Joshua Lionel Cowen, American entrepreneur, creator of Lionel Trains (d. 1965)
1884 – Earl Derr Biggers, American author (d. 1933)
1887 – Harry Hooper, American baseball player (d. 1974)
1890 – Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaiian swimmer and surfer (d. 1968)
1890 – Jean Rhys, British writer (d. 1979)
1893 – Haim Ernst Wertheimer, German-born Israeli biochemist, recipient of the Israel Prize (d. 1978)
1895 – Richard Cushing, archbishop of Boston (d. 1970)
1897 – Fred Rose, American songwriter and publishing executive (d. 1954)
1898 – Malcolm Cowley, American literary critic (d. 1989)
1899 – Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
1899 – Albert Claude, Belgian biologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1983)
1899 – Gaylord DuBois, American comic book writer (d. 1993)
1901 – Preston Foster, American actor (d. 1970)
1902 – Fernand Braudel, French historian (d. 1985)
1902 – Carlo Gambino, Sicilian-born American mafioso (d. 1976)
1903 – Karl Hanke, Nazi official (d. 1945)
1904 – Alice White, American actress (d. 1983)
1904 – Ida Cook (aka Mary Burchell), British heroine and novelist (d. 1986)
1905 – Arthur Crudup, American singer and guitarist (d. 1976)
1905 – Siaka Stevens, President of Sierra Leone (d. 1988)
1907 – Bruno Giacometti, Swiss architect (d. 2012)
1908 – Shivaram Rajguru, Indian revolutionary (d. 1931)
1909 – Ronald Grieveson, South African cricketer (d. 1998)
1911 – Lofty England, English automotive engineer and race team manager (d. 1995)
1911 – Michel Pablo, Greek Trotskyist leader (d. 1996)
1911 – Viktor Barna, Hungarian table tennis player (d. 1972)
1911 – Durward Kirby, American television personality (d. 2000)
1913 – Charles Houston, American mountaineer (d. 2009)
1914 – Ivar Iversen, Norwegian canoe racer (d. 2012)
1915 – James Tiptree, Jr., American writer (d. 1987)
1916 – Ruy de Freitas, Brazilian basketball player (d. 2012)
1916 – Léo Ferré, French composer and singer (d. 1993)
1916 – Hal Smith, American actor (d. 1994)
1917 – Dennis James, American game show host (d. 1997)
1918 – Sikander Bakht, Governor of Kerala (d. 2004)
1919 – Enrique Llanes, Mexican professional wrestler (d. 2004)
1920 – Alex Colville, Canadian painter
1921 – Sam Tingle, Zimbabwean racing driver (d. 2008)
1922 – René Lévesque, Premier of Quebec (d. 1987)
1922 – Howard Zinn, American historian and activist (d. 2010)
1923 – Arthur Jensen, American psychologist
1924 – Alyn Ainsworth, British bandleader (d. 1990)
1924 – Jimmy Gardner, British actor (d. 2010)
1927 – David Ireland, Australian author
1927 – Harry Markowitz, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 – Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader (d. 2004)
1929 – Betty Dodson, American feminist and sex educator
1930 – Roger McCluskey, American racing driver (d. 1993)
1932 – Robert D. Hales, LDS apostle
1932 – W. Morgan Sheppard, English actor
1934 – Kenny Baker, English actor
1936 – A. S. Byatt, English novelist
1936 – Kenny Guinn, American politician (d. 2010)
1936 – Arthur B. C. Walker, Jr., American solar physicist (d. 2001)
1937 – Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, Nigerian politician (d. 1998)
1938 – Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
1938 – David Freiberg, American bassist (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
1938 – Mason Williams, American guitarist and composer
1940 – Francine Lalonde, Quebec politician
1942 – Max Cleland, American politician
1942 – Howard Jacobson, British novelist and newspaper columnist
1943 – John Cipollina, American guitarist (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (d. 1989)
1943 – Pini Zahavi, Israeli football agent
1944 – Bill Goldsworthy, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1996)
1944 – Gregory Jarvis, American astronaut (d. 1986)
1944 – Rocky Johnson, Canadian professional wrestler
1945 – Ronee Blakley, American singer and actress
1945 – Ken Hensley, English musician (Uriah Heep)
1945 – Vince McMahon, American professional wrestling promoter
1947 – Anne Archer, American actress
1947 – Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author
1947 – Roger De Vlaeminck, Belgian cyclist
1947 – Joe Manchin, American politician, governor and junior senator of West Virginia
1947 – Vladimir Masorin, Russian admiral
1948 – Jean-Michel Jarre, French musician
1948 – Kim Sung-Il, Chief of Staff of Republic of Korea Air Force
1948 – Alexander McCall Smith, Rhodesian-born Scottish writer
1948 – Sauli Niinistö, Finnish politician, President of Finland
1949 – Joe Regalbuto, American actor
1949 – Charles Rocket, American actor (d. 2005)
1949 – Pia Degermark, Swedish actress
1950 – John Banaszak, American football player and coach
1950 – Tim White, American anthropologist
1951 – Orson Scott Card, American writer
1951 – Oscar Hijuelos, American author
1952 – Bob Corker, American politician
1952 – Carlo Curley, American organist (d. 2012)
1952 – Holly Hallstrom American model
1952 – Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jamaican dub poet
1952 – Mike Shanahan, American football coach
1952 – Peter Vogel, German footballer
1952 – John Cowan, American bluegrass singer and bassist
1953 – Ron Holloway, American saxophonist
1954 – Philippe Cataldo, French singer
1954 – Alain Daigle, French Canadian ice hockey player
1955 – Mike Huckabee, American politician, Governor/Presidential candidate
1956 – John Culberson, American politician
1956 – Dick Lee, Singaporean singer-songwriter
1957 – Jeffrey Daniel, American dancer and singer (Shalamar)
1957 – Stephen Fry, English comedian and actor
1958 – Steve Guttenberg, American actor
1958 – Tracy Harris, American artist
1958 – Chris Offutt, American author
1959 – Adrian Kuiper, former South African cricketer
1960 – Kim Christofte, Danish footballer
1960 – Takashi Miike, Japanese filmmaker
1960 – Cal Ripken, Jr., American baseball player
1961 – Ingrid Berghmans, Belgian judoka
1961 – Jared Harris, English actor
1962 – Craig Kilborn, American talk show host
1962 – David Koechner, American actor
1962 – Major Garrett, American journalist
1963 – John Bush, American singer (Anthrax)
1963 – Hideo Kojima, Japanese video game director
1964 – Éric Bernard, French racing driver
1964 – Dana Gould, American comedian and writer
1964 – Salizhan Sharipov, Russian cosmonaut
1965 – Marlee Matlin, American actress
1965 – Reggie Miller, American basketball player
1965 – Brian Rajadurai, Sri Lankan cricketer
1967 – Ian D. Marsden, cartoonist
1967 – Michael Thomas, English footballer
1968 – Benoît Brunet, French Canadian ice hockey player
1968 – Shoichi Funaki, Japanese professional wrestler
1968 – Andreas Kisser, Brazilian guitarist (Sepultura)
1968 – Tim Salmon, American baseball player
1968 – James Toney, Professional boxer
1970 – David Gregory, American television journalist
1970 – Dan Henderson, American mixed martial artist
1970 – Tugay Kerimoglu, Turkish footballer
1971 – Pierfrancesco Favino, Italian actor
1972 – Jean-Luc Brassard, Canadian freestyle skier
1973 – Andrew Brunette, Canadian ice hockey player
1973 – Dave Chappelle, American actor and Comedian
1973 – Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer
1973 – Grey DeLisle, voice actress
1973 – Carmine Giovinazzo, American actor
1974 – Orla Fallon, Irish Vocalist for Celtic Woman
1974 – Jennifer Lien, American actress
1975 – Mark de Vries, Surinamese-Dutch footballer
1975 – Roberto Colombo, Italian footballer
1976 – Alex O'Loughlin, Australian actor
1976 – Nordin Wooter, Dutch footballer
1977 – Denílson, Brazilian footballer
1977 – Robert Enke, German footballer (d. 2009)
1977 – Per Gade, Danish footballer
1977 – John Green, American author
1977 – Jürgen Macho, Austrian footballer
1978 – Rafael Furcal, Dominican baseball player
1978 – Derek Morris, Canadian ice hockey player
1978 – Beth Riesgraf, American actress
1979 – Orlando Engelaar, Dutch footballer
1979 – Elva Hsiao, Taiwanese singer
1979 – Kaki King, American guitarist and composer
1979 – Michael Redd, American basketball player
1979 – Markus Walger, German rugby player
1980 – Sonja Bennett, Canadian actress
1981 – Jiro Wang, Taiwanese singer, actor, model
1981 – Chad Michael Murray, American actor
1982 – Kim Kallstrom, Swedish footballer
1982 – José Bosingwa, Portuguese footballer
1983 – Brett Gardner, American baseball player
1983 – Marcel Goc, German ice hockey player
1983 – Christopher Parker, English actor
1983 – Maher Abu Remeleh, Palestinian judoka
1984 – Kyle Schmid, Canadian actor
1984 – Yesung, Korean singer (Super Junior)
1984 – Charlie Villanueva, American basketball player
1986 – Joseph Akpala, Nigerian footballer
1986 – Nick Adenhart, American baseball player (d. 2009)
1986 – Fabiano Santacroce, Italian footballer
1986 – Shanthnu Bhagyaraj, Indian Tamil actor
1986 – Arian Foster, American football player
1987 – Anže Kopitar, Slovenian ice hockey player
1987 – Jon Scheyer, American basketball player
1988 – Rupert Grint, English actor
1988 – Helga Krapf, Filipina actress
1988 – Dávid Verrasztó, Hungarian swimmer
1990 – Juan Pedro Lanzani, Argentine actor and singer
1992 – Gerardo Alvarado, a normal person

Deaths

79 – Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and naturalist (b. 23)
1042 – Michael V Kalaphates, Byzantine Emperor (b. 1015)
1103 – King Magnus III of Norway (b. 1073)
1217 – Eustace the Monk, French mercenary and pirate (b. c.1170)
1540 – Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian painter (b. 1503)
1542 – Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (b. 1483)
1572 – Victims of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre:

Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (b. 1519)
Pierre de la Ramée, French humanist (b. 1515)
Charles de Téligny, French Huguenot soldier (b. c.1535)

1595 – Thomas Digges, English astronomer (b. 1546)
1647 – Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (b. 1586)
1664 – Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer (b. c.1610)
1679 – Jean François Paul de Gondi, French cardinal and agitator (b. 1614)
1680 – Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels (b. 1618)
1683 – John Owen, English non-conformist theologian (b. 1616)
1759 – Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (b. 1715)
1779 – Saint Cosmas of Aetolia, Greek Orthodox martyr (b. 1714)
1798 – Thomas Alcock, English clergyman (b. 1709)
1818 – James Carr, U.S. Congressman (b. 1777)
1831 – August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1760)
1832 – Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French mathematician (b. 1796)
1841 – Theodore Edward Hook, English author (b. 1788)
1841 – John Ordronaux, privateer of the War of 1812 (b. 1778)
1888 – Rudolf Clausius, German physicist (b. 1822)
1895 – Albert F. Mummery, British mountaineer (b. 1855)
1921 – Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (b. 1886)
1930 – Tom Norman, English freak showman (b. 1860)
1940 – Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German television pioneer (b. 1860)
1943 – Simone Weil, French philosopher and social activist (b. 1909)
1943 – Antonio Alice, Argentine portrait painter (b. 1886)
1945 – Midori Naka, Japanese actress, survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, died of radiation poisoning (b. 1909)
1946 – James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1862)
1954 – Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (b. 1882)
1956 – Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (b. 1898)
1958 – Paul Henry, Northern Irish artist (b. 1876)
1961 – Günter Litfin, the first person to be shot at the Berlin Wall
1967 – Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist (b. 1882)
1967 – Lam Bun, Hong Kong radio commentator (murdered) (b. 1930)
1974 – Alexander de Seversky, Russian-American aviation pioneer (b. 1894)
1977 – Buddy O'Connor, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1916)
1978 – Louis Prima, American band leader (b. 1910)
1979 – Hanna Reitsch, German test pilot (b. 1912)
1979 – Sampson Sievers, Russian Orthodox Christian monk and wonder-worker (b. 1898)
1980 – Yootha Joyce, British actress (b. 1927)
1982 – Félix-Antoine Savard, French Canadian catholic priest and novelist (b. 1896)
1983 – Scott Nearing, American writer, educator and activist (b. 1883)
1985 – Paul Creston, American composer (b. 1906)
1987 – Malcolm Kirk, English wrestler (b. 1936)
1990 – Sergei Dovlatov, Russian writer (b. 1941)
1990 – Gailli AbedElrhman, Sudanese writer (b. 1931)
1991 – Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (b. 1904)
1995 – Alfred Eisenstaedt, German-born photographer (b. 1898)
1997 – Werner Abrolat, German actor (b. 1924)
1998 – E.G. Marshall, American actor (b. 1910)
1999 – Alexandre Lagoya, Greek-Italian classical guitarist (b. 1929)
2000 – Andy Hug, Swiss karateka and kickbox champion (b. 1964)
2001 – Jane Greer, American actress (b. 1924)
2002 – Nikolay Guryanov Russian Orthodox Christian mystic and priest (b. 1909)
2003 – Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer (b. 1910)
2004 – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (b. 1926)
2005 – Kaleth Morales, Colombian Vallenato singer (b. 1984)
2005 – Harold "Hal" Kalin, American singer (The Kalin Twins) (b. 1934)
2006 – Léopold Simoneau, French Canadian tenor (b. 1916)
2006 – Cristian Nemescu, Romanian film director (b. 1979)
2006 – Rocco Petrone, American engineer (b. 1926)
2007 – Andrée P. Boucher, Mayor of Quebec City (b. 1937)
2007 – Aaron Russo, American film producer and director (b. 1943)
2010 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese film director (b. 1963)
2011 – Mike Flanagan, American baseball pitcher (b. 1951)