Anniversaries 9 August

Birth

Izaak Walton28

English author and biographer 1593–1683

John Dryden196

English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century 1631–1700

John Oldham (poet)7

English satirical poet and translator 1653–1683

André Bessette1

Canadian Catholic brother and saint 1845–1937

Roman Dmowski5

Polish politician 1864–1939

Jean Piaget66

Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher & acad… 1896–1980

Erich Hückel1

German physical chemist known for the Debye-Hückel Theory a… 1896–1980

Lauretta Bender2

American neuropsychiatrist 1897–1987

P. L. Travers57

Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist 1899–1996

William Alfred Fowler1

American nuclear physicist 1911–1995

Tove Jansson35

Finnish children's writer and illustrator 1914–2001

Philip Larkin42

English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian 1922–1985

Marvin Minsky65

American cognitive scientist 1927–2016

Daniel Keyes47

American author 1927–2014

Jacques Parizeau3

Canadian politician 1930–2015

Tam Dalyell3

Scottish politician 1932–2017

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi2

Japanese actress 1933

John Diamond (doctor)19

Australian doctor 1934

Leonid Kuchma13

Second president of Ukraine 1938

Barbara Delinsky4

American writer 1945

John Varley23

American science fiction author 1947

Glen Provost1

Catholic bishop 1949

Jonathan Kellerman3

novelist, psychologist 1949

Sandra Pierantozzi1

Palauan politician 1953

Lis Wiehl38

American legal scholar 1961

Whitney Houston7

American singer, actress, model, and record producer 1963–2012

Happy Rhodes37

American singer-songwriter 1965

Deion Sanders1

All-American college football player, professional football… 1967

Gillian Anderson49

American-British film, television and theatre actress, acti… 1968

Gene Luen Yang2

Chinese American graphic novelist 1973

Ben Eisenkop2

American biologist and redditor 1986

Bill Skarsgård3

Swedish actor 1990

Elizabeth Gracely1

american poet 1996

Death

Metrophanes III of Constantinople1

Patriarch of Constantinople 1520–1580

Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld1

Jesuit, author of Cautio Criminalis 1591–1635

Godfrey Higgins14

British archaeologist 1772–1833

Lincoln Steffens2

American journalist (1866-1936) 1866–1936

Hermann Hesse168

German writer 1877–1962

Marion Bauer4

American composer 1882–1955

Tobias Dantzig25

American mathematician 1884–1956

Edith Stein34

Jewish-German nun, theologian and philosopher 1891–1942

Chaim Soutine8

painter 1893–1943

Carl Clauberg1

German general 1898–1957

James Gould Cozzens2

American novelist 1903–1978

Dmitri Shostakovich32

Russian composer and pianist 1906–1975

Franz Jägerstätter1

martyr, conscientious objector 1907–1943

James Van Allen6

American nuclear physicist 1914–2006

John Harsanyi12

hungarian economist 1920–2000

Ramón Valdés7

Mexican actor 1923–1988

John H. Holland19

US university professor 1929–2015

Joe Orton50

English playwright and author 1933–1967

David Nobbs1

British author and scriptwriter 1935–2015

Mahmoud Darwich9

Palestinian writer 1941–2008

Jerry Garcia12

American musician and member of the Grateful Dead 1942–1995

Sharon Tate7

actress, victim of murder by Charles Manson followers 1943–1969

Richard Templar1

selfhelp author 1950–2006

David Rakoff7

writer 1964–2012