Today in history @ 07 Feb

Famous birth anniversaries

a. English writer and social critic Charles Dickens (b. 1812). He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His many volumes include such works as A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and Our Mutual Friend.

He is buried in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey and he has appeared on the British ￡10 note.

b. Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology Alfred Adler (b. 1870). His emphasis on the importance of feelings of inferiority, the inferiority complex, is recognized as an isolating element which plays a key role in personality development. He considered human beings as an individual whole, therefore he called his psychology "Individual Psychology"

c. American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Sinclair Lewis (b. 1885). In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American capitalism and materialism between the wars.

d. Irish businessman and shipbuilder Thomas Andrews Jr. (b. 1873). He was managing director and head of the drafting department of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. As the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic, he was travelling on board that vessel during her maiden voyage when the ship hit an iceberg on 14 April 1912. He perished along with more than fifteen hundred others. His body was never recovered.

e. Swiss banker and former chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann (b. 1948).

f. American blacksmith and manufacturer John Deere (b. 1804). He founded the Deered & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the world.

g. English mathematician Godfrey H Hardy (b. 1877). He is known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In addition to his research, Hardy is remembered for his 1940 essay on the aesthetics of mathematics, titled “A Mathematician's Apology”.

He was the mentor of the Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan; he was responsible for bringing Ramanujam to Cambridge, polishing his skills, popularizing him and many say that he was the single person responsible for the FRS degree awarded to Ramanujam.

h. Indian author and screenwriter Ashok Banker (b. 1964).

Famous death anniversaries

a. American author, aviator, and the wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh, Ann Lindbergh (d. 2001). She was an acclaimed author, whose books and articles spanned the genres from poetry to nonfiction, touching upon topics as diverse as youth and age, love and marriage, peace, solitude and contentment, and the role of women in the 20th century.

b. Filipino poet, literary critic, short story writer, and painter Jose Garcia Villa (d. 1997). He is known to have introduced the "reversed consonance rhyme scheme" in writing poetry, as well as the extensive use of punctuation marks—especially commas, which made him known as the Comma Poet. He used the penname Doveglion(derived from "Dove, Eagle, Lion"), based on the characters he derived from himself.

c. American industrialist Robert Wood Johnson I (d. 1910). He was one of the three brothers who founded Johnson & Johnson.

Famous events

a. 1959 Fidel Castro proclaimed the new Cuban constitution

b. 1964 Cassius Clay converts to Islam, and is renamed Muhammad Ali.

c. 1969 Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat becomes president of PLO.

d. 1915 1st wireless message sent from a moving train to a station received.