Alexander Charles Vasa (1614 – 1634). Fifth son of King Sigismund III of Poland and his wife Constance of Austria.
Friday, 31 December 2021
1424) Alexander Charles Vasa
Sunday, 19 December 2021
1423) Marie Steiner-von Sivers
Marie Steiner-von Sivers (born Marie von Sivers, 1867 – 1948). Second wife of Rudolf Steiner and one of his closest colleagues. She made a great contribution to the development of anthroposophy, particularly in her work on the renewal of the performing arts (eurythmy, speech and drama), and the editing and publishing of Rudolf Steiner's literary estate.
Marie von Sivers was born to an aristocratic family in Włocławek, Poland, then part of Imperial Russia. She was well-educated and was fluent in Russian, German, English, French and Italian. She studied theater and recitation with several teachers in Europe.
She "appeared one day" at one of Rudolf Steiner's early lectures in 1900. In the autumn of 1901, she posed the question to Steiner, "Would it be possible to create a spiritual movement based on European tradition and the impetus of Christ?" Rudolf Steiner later reported: "With this, I was given the opportunity to act in a way that I had only previously imagined. The question had been put to me, and now, according to spiritual laws, I could begin to answer it."
Wednesday, 8 December 2021
1422) Arlene Dahl
Arlene Carol Dahl (1925 – 2021). American actress active in films from the late 1940s. She had three children, the eldest of whom is actor Lorenzo Lamas.
She was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants.
She worked for MGM, Eagle-Lion, Paramount, Universal and Columbia, as well as in TV productions.
In 1952, Dahl began writing a syndicated beauty column and opened Arlene Dahl Enterprises in 1954, marketing cosmetics and designer lingerie.
In 1953, on the set of the film Sangaree, Dahl met Fernando Lamas, whom she would marry the following year.
In 1956 she starred in the film noir Slightly Scarlet, alongside Rhonda Fleming, another red-haired star.
Wednesday, 17 November 2021
1421) Georgie Hyde-Lees
Georgie Hyde-Lees (born Bertha Hyde-Lees, 1892 – 1968). Wife of the poet William Butler Yeats.
In 1917, when she was 25 and Yeats 52, he asked Georgie to marry him. Only a few weeks earlier Iseult Gonne, the daughter of Maud Gonne whom Yeats had loved for many years, had rejected Yeats' marriage proposal. Georgie and Yeats married just three weeks later, on 20 October, in a public registry office, witnessed by her mother and Ezra Pound. During the honeymoon, while Yeats was still brooding about Iseult's rejection, Georgie began the automatic writing which fascinated him. Yeats wrote about her psychography days later in what was to be A Vision, and it held the marriage together for many years. Within a year of marriage Yeats declared her name of Georgie to be insufferable, and henceforth called her George.
Saturday, 30 October 2021
1420) John Bell Hood
John Bell Hood (1831 – 1879). Confederate general during the American Civil War. Although brave, Hood's impetuosity led to high losses among his troops as he moved up in rank.
After the war, Hood moved to Louisiana and worked as a cotton broker and in the insurance business. His business was ruined by a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans during the winter of 1878–79 and he succumbed to the disease himself, dying just days after his wife and oldest child, leaving ten destitute orphans.
- "At six feet, two inches tall, with blonde/auburn hair, John Bell Hood’s physical characteristics can probably be attributed to his Nordic ancestry." https://www.genealogy.com/.../WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0656.html
- "I remember him as a strong, tall man with auburn hair and beard..." https://books.google.it/books?id=h_CZBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA225...
Saturday, 2 October 2021
1419) Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine
Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, later Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia (canonised as Holy Martyr Elizabeth Feodorovna; 1864 – 1918). German Hessian and Rhenish princess of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, the fifth son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine. She was also a maternal great-aunt of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the consort of Queen Elizabeth II.
A granddaughter of Queen Victoria and an older sister of Alexandra, the last Russian Empress, Elisabeth became famous in Russian society for her beauty and charitable works among the poor. After the Socialist Revolutionary Party's Combat Organization assassinated her husband with a bomb in 1905, Elisabeth publicly forgave Sergei's murderer, Ivan Kalyayev, and campaigned without success for him to be pardoned. She then departed the Imperial Court and became a nun, founding the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent dedicated to helping the downtrodden of Moscow. In 1918 she was arrested and ultimately murdered by the Bolsheviks.
In 1981 Elisabeth was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and in 1992 by the Moscow Patriarchate.
Wednesday, 18 August 2021
1418) Janusz Korczak
Janusz Korczak, pen name of Henryk Goldszmit ( 1878 or 1879 – 1942). Polish Jewish educator, children's author and pedagogue known as Pan Doktor ("Mr. Doctor") or Stary Doktor ("Old Doctor").
Tuesday, 17 August 2021
1417) Betty Skelton
Betty Skelton Frankman Erde (1926 – 2011). American land speed record holder and aerobatics pilot who set 17 aviation and automobile records. She was known as "The First Lady of Firsts".
1416) William Langhorne Bond
William Langhorne Bond (1893- 1985). American aviator and aviation executive.
Monday, 16 August 2021
1415) Emily Howell Warner
1414) Enola Gay Tibbets
Enola Gay Tibbets (née Haggard, 1890 - 1966). Born in Iowa, she was the daughter of Alfred Allen Haggard and Mary Lavina Wareham. In 1912, Haggard married Paul Warfield Tibbets and they had two children: Paul Warfield Jr. and Barbara Ann.
1413) Charles K. Hamilton
Charles Keeney Hamilton (1885 – 1914). American pioneer aviator nicknamed the "crazy man of the air".He was, in the words of the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, "known for his dangerous dives, spectacular crashes, extensive reconstructive surgeries, and ever present cigarette" and was "frequently drunk". He survived more than 60 crashes.
1412) Theodore G. Ellyson
Theodore Gordon Ellyson (1885 – 1928), nicknamed "Spuds". First United States Navy officer designated as an aviator ("Naval Aviator No. 1"). Ellyson served in the experimental development of aviation in the years before and after World War I. He also spent several years before the war as part of the Navy's new submarine service. A recipient of the Navy Cross for his antisubmarine service in World War I, Ellyson died in 1928 when his aircraft crashed over the Chesapeake Bay.
Sunday, 15 August 2021
1411) Leroy Grumman
Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman (1895 – 1982). American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist. In 1929, he co-founded Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co., later renamed Grumman Aerospace Corporation, and now part of Northrop Grumman.
1410) Henry E. Erwin
Henry Eugene Erwin Sr. (1921 – 2002) United States Army Air Forces airman and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in World War II. He earned the award as a staff sergeant and radio operator aboard a B-29 Superfortress in the Asia-Pacific theater. During a 1945 bombing mission over Koriyama, Japan, a white phosphorus bomb prematurely ignited in his aircraft and seriously wounded him. As smoke filled the plane, he picked up the burning device and carried it through the aircraft to the cockpit where he tossed it out a window. Although he suffered severe burns, he successfully saved his plane and all crew members aboard by disposing of the incendiary/smoke-generating bomb.
1409) Allan Lockheed
Saturday, 14 August 2021
1408) Patrick Watkins
Patrick Watkins. Irish sailor who was marooned on Floreana, an island of the Galápagos Islands, from 1807 to 1809. He was the first resident of the Galapagos. According to later accounts, Watkins managed to survive by hunting, growing vegetables, and trading with visiting whalers, before finally stealing an open boat and navigating to Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Thursday, 12 August 2021
1407) Abigail Adams Smith
Abigail Adams Smith or Nabby Adams (1765-1813). Eldest daughter of 2nd U.S. president John Adams and Former first lady Abigail Adams, as well as sister of John Quincy Adams the 6th U.S. president.
1406) Mamie Eisenhower
Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower (1896 – 1979). Wife of United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
Wednesday, 11 August 2021
1405) Ida McKinley
Ida McKinley (née Saxton; 1847 – 1907). First Lady of the United States from 1897 until 1901, as wife of president William McKinley.
Possessed of a fragile, nervous temperament, Mrs. McKinley broke down under the loss of her mother and two young daughters within a short span of time. She developed epilepsy and became totally dependent on her husband. Her seizures at times occurred in public; she had one at McKinley's inaugural ball as Governor of Ohio. Although she battled her illness for the rest of her life, she kept busy with her hobby, crocheting slippers, making gifts of literally thousands of pairs to friends, acquaintances and charities, which would auction pairs for large sums.
She often took barbiturates, laudanum, and other sedatives for her condition.
- "... a slender bride with sky-blue eyes and fair skin and masses of auburn hair..." https://www.whitehouse.gov/.../first.../ida-saxton-mckinley/
- "When Major William McKinley, who had come to Canton to set up a law practice, met the vivacious, auburn-haired Ida..." https://www.encyclopedia.com/.../mckinley-ida-saxton-1847...
- "Fairly tall, with auburn hair (which, before her illness, was very long)..." https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html...
Monday, 9 August 2021
1404) Jesse K. Dubois
Jesse Kilgore Dubois (sometimes styled DuBois, 1811 – 1876). American politician from Illinois. The son of a prominent early Illinois citizen, Dubois was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives while he was attending Indiana College. Nicknamed Uncle Jesse, he served four two-year terms there. An early Republican, Dubois was named the party's first candidate for Auditor of Public Accounts. He was elected in 1856 and served two four-year terms. He was the father of Senator Fred Dubois.
1403) George E. Pickett
George Edward Pickett (1825 – 1875). United States Army officer who became a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is best remembered for being one of the commanders at Pickett's Charge, the futile and bloody Confederate offensive on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg that bears his name.
1402 Allan J. Pinkerton
Allan J. Pinkerton (1819 – 1884). Scottish–born American detective and spy, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
Born in Gorbals, Glasgow, he left school at the age of 10, after his father's death, and was largely self-educated. He secretly married Joan Carfrae (1822–1887) then a singer, on 13 March 1842 and they emigrated to the United States in the same year.
Pinkerton first became interested in criminal detective work while wandering through the wooded groves around Dundee, looking for trees to make barrel staves (he worked as a cooper), when he came across a band of counterfeiters. After observing their movements for some time he informed the local sheriff, who arrested them. This later led to Pinkerton being appointed, in 1849, as the first police detective in Chicago. In 1850, he partnered with Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in forming the North-Western Police Agency, which later became Pinkerton & Co, and finally Pinkerton National Detective Agency, still in existence today as Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, a subsidiary of Securitas AB. Pinkerton's business insignia was a wide open eye with the caption "We never sleep." As the US expanded in territory, rail transport increased. Pinkerton's agency solved a series of train robberies during the 1850s, first bringing Pinkerton into contact with George McClellan, then Chief Engineer and Vice President of the Illinois Central Railroad, and Abraham Lincoln, the company's lawyer.
Thursday, 5 August 2021
1401) Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin
Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1748 – 1784), anglicized as Owen Roe O'Sullivan ("Red Owen"). Irish poet. Ó Súilleabháin is known as one of the last great Gaelic poets. A recent anthology of Irish-language poetry speaks of his "extremely musical" poems full of "astonishing technical virtuosity" and also notes that "Eoghan Rua is still spoken of and quoted in Irish-speaking districts in Munster as one of the great wits and playboys of the past."
1400) Delia Jarvis Tudor
Delia Jarvis Tudor (1753 - 1843). Born in Boston, she was the daughter of Elias and Deliverance Atkins Jarvis.
Wednesday, 4 August 2021
1399) Walter "Spec" O'Donnell
Tuesday, 3 August 2021
1398) Camilo Cienfuegos
Camilo Cienfuegos Gorriarán (1932 – 1959). Cuban revolutionary. Along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro, he was a member of the 1956 Granma expedition, which launched Fidel Castro's armed insurgency against the government of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. He became one of Castro's top guerilla commanders, known as the "Hero of Yaguajay" after winning a key battle of the Cuban Revolution.