REMEMBERING
October 27 birthdays
1728 JAMES COOK English explorer
Cook is most famous for his three journeys to the Pacific Ocean and Australia between 1768 and 1779, during which he made the first known
European contact with Australia’s east coast. He was attacked and killed in Hawaii in 1779.
1858 THEODORE ROOSEVELT American President
Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States, and held the office from 1901 until 1909. He assumed the presidency after William McKinley was assassinated, and became a driving force for antitrust and progressive policies.
1917 OLIVER TAMBO South African politician
Tambo was an anti-Apartheid politician and revolutionary who served as president of the African National Congress from 1967 until 1991. He was forced to spend more than 30 years in exile, returning home in 1990.
1932 SYLVIA PLATH American poet
Plath is best known for her two published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems (1960) and Ariel (1965). She won a posthumous Pullitzer Prize for The Collected Poems, which was published in 1981.
1939 JOHN CLEESE English comedian
Cleese first achieved success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he cofounded Monty Python, the comedy troupe which was responsible for a popular television series and a string of movies.
1940 JOHN GOTTI American gangster
Gotti was head of the Gambino crime family in New York. He took over the family after ordering the murder of boss Paul Castellano. Gotti’s underboss, Salvatore Gravano, helped the FBI convict Gotti in 1992. He was convicted for five murders.
1952 ROBERTO BENIGNI Italian actor
Benigni gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust drama, Life is Beautiful, in 1997. He won an Academy Award as Best Actor for his role in the film.