Today in History- August 9th

Happy Birthday!
1896 Jean Piaget, scientist/educator (the four primary stages of cognitive development in children)
1927 Daniel Keyes, author (Flowers for Algernon)
1927 Robert Shaw, actor (Quint in Jaws, From Russia with Love)
1944 Sam Elliott, actor (Virgil from Tombstone, Road House, Mission Impossible, We Were Soldiers)
1949 Jonathan Kellerman, mystery author (Alex Delaware series)
1957 Melanie Griffith, actress (Working Girl, Now and Then, Mulholland Falls)
1963 Whitney Houston, singer, actress (The Bodyguard, The Preacher's Wife)
1967 Deion Sanders, multi-sport athlete (only athlete to play in both World Series and Super Bowl)
1968 Gillian Anderson, actress (Special Agent Dana Scully from the X-Files)
1976 Rhona Mitra, actress (The Practice, Nip/Tuck, Boston Legal,

Deaths:
1995 Jerry Garcia, singer from the Grateful Dead (Go to Heaven, Built to Last)
2003 Gregory Hines, actor/ dancer (Waiting to Exhale, The Cotton Club, Running Scared)

Events:
1936 Jesse Owens wins 4 track and field gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
1945 Nagasaki, Japan has atomic bomb dropped on it which helps end World War II.
1969 Charles Manson's "family" killed Sharon Tate (Valley of the Dolls), Jay Sebring (hair stylist), Wojciech Frykowski (author), Steven Parent (visiting the caretaker who was his friend), and Abigail Folger(coffee heiress).
1974 Richard Nixon offically leaves the White House.


History Lesson:

Sam Elliott is married Katharine Ross (The Stepford Wives (75), Elaine from the Graduate) in 1984, but they met on the set of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).

Melanie Griffith is the daughter of Tippi Hedren (Melanie from the Birds).

Flowers for Algernon is about a mentally challengered person that agrees to take part in a science study that will make him smarter. The story was ban in some places, but the lesson of the story is worth the read.