Born this Day

1048 Omar Khayyám - Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer. He produced a work on algebra that was used as a textbook in Persia until the 1900s. In geometry, he studied generalities of Euclid and contributed to the theory of parallel lines. Around 1074, he set up an observatory and led work on compiling astronomical tables. His contributions to other fields of science included developing methods for the accurate determination of specific gravity. He is known to English-speaking readers for his "quatrains" as The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, published in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald, although it is now regarded as an anthology of which little or nothing may be by Khayyám
1850 Oliver Heaviside - British physicist who devoted himself to study in electricity and developed theories that made long-distance telephone possible. In 1902, he theorised that an atmospheric layer reflected radio waves, allowing the waves to follow the curve of the Earth instead of travelling off into space. US physicist Arthur Kennelly independently developed the same theory at about the same time. This layer, which was called the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer for many years, is now known as the ionosphere
1868 Nicholas II – The last Russian Tsar. He was forced to abdicate at the start of the Russian Revolution
1897 Frank Capra – Italian born US film director (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take It with You, It's a Wonderful Life, Lost Horizon)
1902 Meredith Wilson – Composer (The Music Man, The Unsinkable Molly Brown)
1911 Big Joe Turner - Rhythm & blues singer (Corrine Corrina, Cherry Red, Still in the Dark, Chains of Love, Sweet Sixteen)
1912 Richard Brooks – US screenwriter (Key Largo, The Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood) He also directed many of the films he wrote
1912 Perry Como - Singer (Ko Ko Mo I Love You So, Hot Diggity, Catch a Falling Star, Dream Along With Me, And I Love You So) He was a former barber
1919 Dame Margot Fonteyn - British ballerina with the Sadler Wells Company. She also danced solo, and with Rudolph Nureyev
1920 Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla) – The 264th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and the first Polish Pope. He was the first non-Italian Pope in 450 years
1922 Bill Macy - Actor (Maude, The Jerk, Hotel, My Favourite Year) He was also in the Perry Mason TV movie, The Case of the Murdered Madam
1924 Priscilla Pointer – Stage and screen actress (The Falcon and the Snowman, Micki + Maude, Call to Glory, Dallas, Carrie) She’s the mother of Amy Irving
1928 Pernell Roberts - Actor (Bonanza, Trapper John, MD, Ride Lonesome) He played Thatcher Horton in the Perry Mason movie The Case of the All-Star Assassin
1931 Robert Morse – Actor (Mad Men, That’s Life, A Guide for the Married Man, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, City of Angels)
1934 Dwayne Hickman - Actor (The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Cat Ballou, A Night at the Roxbury) He is the brother of actor Darryl Hickman
1941 Miriam Margolyes – British actress (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Marple: Murder at the Vicarage, End of Days, Vanity Fair, Cold Comfort Farm, Frannie’s Turn, The Butcher’s Wife, Little Dorrit, Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries)
1942 Rodney Dillard - Bluegrass singer-musician with The Dillards (Deulin' Banjos) The Dillards made numerous guest appearances on The Andy Griffith Show as the bluegrass playing Darling Family
1952 George Strait - Country singer (If You Ain't Lovin' You Ain't Livin', Ace in the Hole, Overnight Success)
1953 Butch Tavares - R&B singer with his family group Tavares (More Than A Woman, Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel, Deeper in Love)
1962 Nathaniel Parker – British actor (Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Vanity Fair, Far from the Madding Crowd, Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, Squanto: A Warrior's Tale, Bleak House, The Proxy, The Adventures of Merlin, Lewis: The Dead of Winter, Land Girls) He’s the son of former British Rail chairman, Sir Peter Parker. He portrayed Jamie Jasper in the Inspector Morse episode, Deceived By Flight
1970 Tina Fey – Actress/comedienne (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, Date Night, Mean Girls)
1974 Chantal Kreviazuk – Canadian singer (God Made Me, Surrounded, Believer, Before You, Dear Life, Faraway, In This Life)
1981 Allen Leech – British actor (Downton Abbey, Rome, From Time To Time, Legend, Cowboys & Angels)


Died this Day

1911 Gustav Mahler, age 50 - Czech born Austrian composer and conductor (The Song of the Earth) He died in Vienna, Austria. His last word was "Mozart"
1917 John Nevil Maskelyne, age 77 - British illusionist who performed his magic for 31 years in London's Egyptian Hall. He made major contributions to the conjuror's repertoire, and effectively exposed spiritualist frauds prevalent at the time
1995 Alexander Godunov, age 45 - Ballet dancer
1995 Elizabeth Montgomery, age 62 - Actress (Bewitched, The Corpse Had a Familiar Face, Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan, Belle Starr, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Johnny Cool) Her father was actor Robert Montgomery


On this Day

1504 Michelangelo's statue of David was erected in Florence
1593 An arrest warrant was issued for Christopher Marlowe, after fellow writer Thomas Kyd accused him of heresy. Kyd had been arrested three days earlier and tortured on suspicion of treason when heretical documents had been found in his room. Kyd wrote a letter saying the documents belonged to Marlowe, with whom he had shared rooms previously. Marlowe was arrested two days after the arrest warrant was issued. He was released on bail, but was killed in a bar brawl almost two weeks later
1642 The city of Montréal was founded by Sieur de Maisonneuve
1783 The first of 7,000 United Empire Loyalists reached Parrtown at the mouth of the St. John River to found a settlement in what is now New Brunswick. Two years later, on the same date, Parrtown was incorporated and renamed Saint John. It was the first city incorporated in Canada
1804 The French Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of France
1830 Edwin Budding of Glouscestershire signed an agreement for the manufacture of his invention, the lawn mower. His first customer was London's Regent's Park Zoo
1897 A public reading of Bram Stoker's new novel, "Dracula, or, The Un-dead", was staged in London
1901 Alexandra Palace in London was opened to the public
1926 The popular nationally known evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson vanished while visiting a beach in Venice, California. Police dispatched planes and ships in an effort to find her, but she was nowhere to be found. Authorities later discovered that radio announcer Kenneth Ormiston, a friend of McPherson, had also vanished. In 1923, she opened Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, where she consistently amassed overflowing crowds, by claiming to have faith-healing abilities and putting on entertaining shows for the public. Because of her religious nature, McPherson's relationship with Ormiston created something of a scandal in 1925, and their disappearance in 1926 made headlines across the country. A month later, McPherson turned up in Aqua Prieta, New Mexico, with a wild tale of being kidnapped, but reporters quickly uncovered information to prove that she had been with Ormiston the entire time. Although obstruction of justice charges were filed against her, they were later dropped, allegedly because McPherson came up with $30,000 to appease law enforcement officials. McPherson attempted a comeback evangelism tour after the scandal had died down, but it flopped and she slowly faded from the public's memory.
1927 Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd, had its grand opening with the showing of Cecil B. De Mille's film, The King of Kings. Some 100,000 fans swamped the theatre, clamouring to see Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, who spoke at the opening. The theatre, named for its Asian-influenced décor, soon became famous for its sidewalk, where more than 180 film stars placed their hand, foot, or paw prints in the cement during the next seven decades. Theatre owner Sidney Patrick Grauman had opened his first theatre in Canada’s Yukon in the late 1890s. In the early 1900s, he opened theatres in San Francisco and New York. He opened his first Los Angeles theatre, the Million Dollar, in 1918, followed by the Rialto, the Metropolitan, and in 1922, the Egyptian
1953 Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier as she piloted a North American F-86 Canadair over Rogers Dry Lake, California
1955 The first Wimpy Bar opened in London, beginning the fast food invasion
1980 At 8:32 a.m., Mount St. Helens, a volcano in southwestern Washington State, suffered a massive eruption, killing or fatally wounding 61 people and levelling some 210 square miles of wilderness. Called Louwala-Clough, or "the Smoking Mountain" by Native Americans, Mount St. Helens has erupted periodically during the last 4,500 years, with its last active period between 1831 and 1857. In late-March 1980, noticeable volcanic activity began again with a series of earth tremors centred on the ground just beneath the north flank of the mountain. The volcano, which stood 9,680 feet above sea level before its eruption, began emitting steam and ash through its crater and vents. Small eruptions continued daily, and in April people familiar with the mountain noticed changes to the structure of its north face. A bulge more than a mile in diameter, caused by an intrusion of magma below the surface, was moving upward and outward over the high north slope by as much as six feet per day. Although authorities succeeded in evacuating several hundred people from the immediate area, they failed to predict the enormous scale of the eruption that occurred on May 18th. The blast blew the volcano's top into the stratosphere while a northward-directed lateral blast of rock, ash, and hot gas stripped trees from most hill slopes within six miles of the volcano and levelled nearly all vegetation for as far as thirteen miles away. In addition, the eruption caused a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that shook the northwest face of Mt. Helens into the Toutle River valley, damming Spirit Lake with debris. The landslide debris, liquefied by the violent explosion, surged down the mountain at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour. The avalanche flooded Spirit Lake and roared down the valley of the Toutle River for a distance of 13 miles, burying the river to an average depth of 150 feet. It was the largest recorded landslide in history and caused floods on the Cowlitz River that destroyed roads, bridges, parks, and 160,000 acres of forest. Ash from the eruption fell on Northwest cities and towns like snow and was determined to have drifted around the globe within two weeks. The eruption subsided by late in the afternoon of May 18, and by early the next day had essentially ceased. However, moderate volcanic activity continued at Mt. St. Helens for over four years
1991 Helen Sharman became the first Briton to rocket into space when she flew aboard the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft with two cosmonauts on an eight-day mission