May 11th

Births

1888- Legendary American composer Irving Berlin (God Bless America, White Christmas, Blue Skies, There’s No Business Like Show Business, Blue Skies, Heat Wave, Say It Isn’t So, Anything You Can Do, Alexander’s Ragtime Band).

1891- US politician Henry Morgenthau who served as Secretary of the Treasury for President Franklin Roosevelt.  Morgenthau was a principle architect of the New Deal and the US Lend-Lease Program.  He also set up the structure to finance the war effort in World War II, offering support to Nationalist China and assisting Jewish refugees.  Morgenthau designed the plan (Morgenthau Plan) to convert post-war Germany into an agrarian state, stripping it of all arms industry.  The US scrapped the Morgenthau Plan when it became apparent NATO would need a vibrant Germany to resist Soviet expansionism in Europe.  

1904- Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali.

1918- US physicist Richard Feynman who began his career in the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb.  Feynman pioneered several fields in quantum mechanics and was a leading figure in microcomputing and nanotechnology.  He received the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Deaths

1778- English Prime Minister William Pitt, the Elder who led Britain to victory in the Seven Years War and supported Robert Clive’s conquest of India (“the crown jewel of the British Empire”) establishing Britain as a major world power.  Pitt also argued in Parliament for greater independence for colonists in America and attempted to prevent the passage of the Intolerable Acts.  When the French Fort Duquesne in western Pennsylvania was captured in 1758, it was re-named Fort Pitt and the city that grew up on the spot was named Pittsburgh.  

1779- US patriot John Hart who signed the Declaration of Independence representing New Jersey.

1935- American archaeologist Edward Herbert Thompson who brought the Mayan culture to the attention of the American public and spent over 30 years excavating sites recovering valuable archaeological evidence of the Maya.

1981- Jamaican musician Bob Marley who brought reggae to the mainstream US culture (Is This Love?, Get Up, Stand Up, No Woman No Cry, Redemption Song, One Love, I Shot the Sheriff, Stir It Up).

1988- British intelligence officer and traitor Kim Philby who was part of a major spy ring called the Cambridge Five.  Philby provided intelligence that resulted in the deaths of thousands from agents to anti-communist rebels in Armenia.  According to his last wife, Philby was disappointed when he reached Moscow realizing the “socialist paradise” was not what was advertised.  Conditions were deplorable and Philby was a virtual prisoner.  He drank himself to death.  

2017- NFL Hall of Fame safety Yale Lary who played all his 11 seasons with the Detroit Lions.  Lary was a 9 time Pro Bowler and named to the All 1950s team.  He was part of a defensive backfield with Hall of Famer Jack Christansen and Jim David nicknamed “Chris Crew” a transformative group in NFL history.  Lary was a key member of the Lions’ 3 NFL Championship teams.