Tuesday, May 12, 2026 Text is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.

Today's Anniversary – Tuesday, May 12


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Births

* 1961 Paul Begala Political consultant, commentator and was an advisor to President Bill Clinton.
* 1947 Michael Ignatieff Noted Canadian scholar, novelist and former Liberal Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons.
* 1946 L. Neil Smith Also known by his nickname El Neil, is a libertarian science fiction author and political activist, whose works include the novels Pallas, The Forge of the Elders, and The Probablity Broach, each of which won the Libertarian Futurist Society's annual Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel.
* 1937 George Carlin Grammy-winning American stand-up comedian, actor and author, noted especially for his irreverent attitude and his observations on politics, language, psychology and religion as well as some taboo subjects.
* 1933 Andrey Voznesensky One of the group of Russian poets who first came to notice during the Khrushchev era.
* 1928 Burt Bacharach American songwriter.
* 1926 James Samuel Coleman American sociologist.
* 1925 Yogi Berra Former American baseball player, manager and member of Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame.
* 1922 Marco Denevi Argentine award-winning author of novels and short stories, as well as a lawyer and journalist.
* 1921 Joseph Beuys German Conceptual artist who produced work in a number of forms including sculpture, performance art, video art and installations.
* 1915 Roger Schutz Baptised Roger Louis Schütz-Marsauche, was the founder and prior of the Taizé Community, an ecumenical monastic community.
* 1915 Brother Roger Baptised Roger Louis Schütz-Marsauche, was the founder and prior of the Taizé Community, an ecumenical monastic community.
* 1910 Dorothy Hodgkin Born Dorothy Mary Crowfoot, was a British chemist, credited with the discovery of protein crystallography.
* 1907 Katharine Hepburn American actress of film, television and stage.
* 1902 Philip Wylie U S author of social criticism, short stories, screenplays, and several science-fiction novels.
* 1895 Jiddu Krishnamurti Philosopher, public speaker, and writer, on psychological, sociological, and spiritual subjects.
* 1890 Kurt Student German Luftwaffe general who fought as a fighter pilot during the First World War and as the commander of German Fallschirmjäger troops during the Second World War.
* 1850 Henry Cabot Lodge Republican statesman and noted historian.
* 1828 Dante Gabriel Rossetti English poet, painter and translator.
* 1820 Florence Nightingale British nurse, a pioneer of modern nursing, and a noted statistician.
* 1812 Edward Lear English artist, illustrator and writer known for his nonsensical poetry and his limericks, a form which he popularised.
* 1809 Robert Charles Winthrop American philanthropist, congressman from Massachusetts and one-time Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
* 1803 Justus von Liebig German chemist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry and worked on the organization of organic chemistry.
* 1738 Jonathan Boucher English schoolmaster, clergyman and philologist, who spent some years in America, leaving in 1775 because, despite being a close friend of George Washington, he consistently campaigned against the Revolution.

Deaths

† 2008 Irena Sendler Social worker who during World War II was an activist in the Polish Underground and Polish anti-Holocaust resistance in Warsaw.
† 2008 Robert Rauschenberg American artist who came to prominence in the 1950s.
† 1994 Erik Erikson Danish-German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on social development of human beings, and for coining the phrase identity crisis.
† 1994 John (Labour Party leader) Smith British politician.
† 1987 James Jesus Angleton Long-serving chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counter-intelligence staff.
† 1985 Jean Dubuffet One of the most famous European painters and sculptors of the second half of the 20th century.
† 1985 Josephine Miles American poet and literary critic.
† 1968 Ivan Agayants Leading Soviet NKVD/KGB intelligence officer of Armenian origin.
† 1967 John Masefield English poet and writer; he was Poet Laureate from 1930 until his death.
† 1963 Aiden Wilson Tozer Also known as A W Tozer, was an American Protestant pastor, preacher, author, magazine editor, Bible conference speaker and spiritual mentor.
† 1944 Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch Cornish writer, who published under the pen name of Q.
† 1944 Max Brand American western fiction author.
† 1935 Jozef Pilsudski Polish revolutionary and statesman, marshal, first chief of state (1918–1922) and authoritarian leader (1926–1935) of renascent Poland, and founder of her armed forces.
† 1925 Amy Lowell American poet of the Imagist school who posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.
† 1916 James Connolly Scottish-born Irish socialist politician and fighter against British rule.
† 1903 Richard Henry Stoddard U S critic and poet, was born in Hingham, Massachusetts.
† 1895 Julius Hawley Seelye Missionary, author, United States Representative, and former president of Amherst College.
† 1700 John Dryden Influential English poet, literary critic, and playwright.
† 1634 George Chapman English dramatist, translator and poet.
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