Today in history @ 25 July

Famous birthdays

a. American actor, comedian, television host, and producer Matthew Steven LeBlanc (b. 1967). He is best known for his role as the dim-witted womanizing actor Joey Tribbiani on the popular NBC sitcom “Friends”, which ran from 1994 to 2004.

b. English chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Elsie Franklin (b. 1920). She made major contributions to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal, and graphite. Although her works on coal and viruses were appreciated in her lifetime, her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely recognised posthumously.

c. British-Indian hunter and tracker-turned-conservationist, author and naturalist James Edward Corbett (b. 1875 at Nainital). Corbett held the rank of colonel in the British Indian Army and was frequently called upon by the government of the United Provinces, now the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, to kill man-eating tigers and leopards that were preying on people in the nearby villages of the Garhwal and Kumaon regions.

He authored “Man-Eaters of Kumaon”, “Jungle Book”, and other books recounting his hunts and experiences, which enjoyed critical acclaim and commercial success. In 1957, a park was renamed Jim Corbett National Park in his honour which is a photographers and naturalists paradise today.

d. Saudi Arabian billionaire international businessman, best known for his involvement in arms dealing Adnan Khasoggi (b. 1935). He was estimated to have had a peak net worth of around US$4 billion in the early 1980s.

e. Military officer of the Continental Army and later the United States Army Henry Knox (b. 1750). He served as the first United States Secretary of War from 1789 to 1794.

He owned and operated a bookstore there, cultivating an interest in military history and joining a local artillery company. When the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, he befriended General George Washington, and quickly rose to become the chief artillery officer of the Continental Army.

f. Indian politician Somnath Chatterjee (b. 1929). Born in Tezpur, Assam, he was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. He is known for his fiscal integrity. When in 2004, as speaker, he moved into the official residence at 20 Akbar Road, he discontinued the practice of paying for toiletries and tea from the national exchequer. On trips abroad, he bore the expenses of any accompanying family members.

g. German author Elias Canetti (b. 1905). He was a modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist and non-fiction writer. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power".

Famous death anniversaries

a. English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge (d. 1834). He, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England. His work continues to attract researchers in English.

b. American professor of computer science, human–computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University Randy Pausch (d. 2008). He gave an upbeat lecture titled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon, which became a popular YouTube video and led to other media appearances.

c. French surgeon in Napoleon's Grand Armée and an important innovator in battlefield medicine and triage Dominique Jean Larrey (d. 1842). He is often considered the first modern military surgeon.