REMEMBERING

May 6 birthdays

1856 ROBERT PEARY American explorer

Peary led an expedition that claimed to be the first to reach the geographic North Pole, in April 1909. Explorer Matthew Henson, part of the expedition, is thought to have reached what they believed to be the North Pole narrowly before.

1856 SIGMUND FREUD Austrian neurologist

Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies in the psyche through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. Freud’s books were among those burned by the Nazis.

1895 RUDOLPH VALENTINO Italian actor

Known in Hollywood as the Latin Lover, Valentino was a sex symbol of the 1920s. He starred in well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Shiek, Blood and Sand, The Eagle, and The Son of the Shiek.

1915 ORSON WELLES American actor

Welles rocketed to notoriety in 1938 when his narration of a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds caused some listeners to believe an alien invasion was happening. His film debut came in the all-time classic Citizen Kane.

1937 RUBIN CARTER American boxer

Carter was a middleweight boxer who was wrongfully convicted of a triple homicide. A retrial in 1976 was upheld, but it was overturned in 1985. Carter was released from prison after serving almost 20 years.