Birth Locations – Page 136 – The Exasperated Historian

113) Isabel Martínez de Perón

113) Isabel Martínez de Perón

The First Female Argentinian President

Born: 4 February 1931, La Rioja, Argentina

Isabel's husband was president before her and married to Evita—arguably the most popular first lady of any country ever really; and it is said Evita was thinking of running for president herself before dying of cancer.

Isabel was also the world’s first female president (in modern times) serving from 1974 to 1976. Isabel was also the first female head of state in the western hemisphere. She was vice president in her husband’s administration from 1973-1974; however her husband had served as president earlier in Argentina's history as well after coming to power during a military coup.

Isabel was a dancer before entering politics, and became her husband’s personal secretary—following him to his exile in Madrid where they married in 1961. Isabel was Juan's third wife.

She succeeded Juan as president after he died in office in 1974.

Isabel refused to resign despite facing off against inflation, corruption, political violence, and labor unrest across the country. The situation grew so dire she was seized by Air Force Officers in 1976 and held under house arrest for five years. The political unrest in the country after Isabel's arrest was one of the bloodiest periods in Argentina's history, and is known as the "dirty war" today.

In 1981, she was found guilty of corruption but was paroled and went into exile in Spain. Isabel was pardoned in 1983 and officially stepped down as head of her party in 1985 from her home in Madrid.

In 2007, an Argentinian judge issued a warrant for her arrest for human rights’ violations dating back to her presidency and she was arrested for a short time. Among the charges were allegations of a rival politician's disappearance, and three decrees Isabel signed allowing the military to take action against so-called "Subversives". She was also later linked to an anti-communist "death squad" called Triple A (Alianza Anticomunista Argentina).

Despite the severity of the crimes, a Spanish judge deemed the charges did not constitute extradition (Isabel is now a Spanish citizen), even if the crimes may potentially equate crimes against humanity, but are probably more accurately politically based. For a more in-depth look into Argentinian Law and the crimes Isabel has been accused of, there is a link below from Trial International.

Isabel has remained in Spain ever since, however, I did find an article from the Financial Times in 2009 that said Isabel might have been considering running for President again. I highly doubt that was true, considering she was almost ninety at the time!

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Isabel-Peron

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/isabela-peron-takes-office-as-argentine-president

https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/isabel-peron/

https://www.ft.com/content/7e12ab56-7b07-11e9-81d2-f785092ab560

112) Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

112) Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

First Lady of the United States During Her Husband John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s Administration.

Born: 28 July 1929, Southampton, New York, United States of America

Died: 19 May 1994, New York City, New York, United States of America

She was later remembered as Jackie O after her second marriage to Aristotle Onassis.

Jackie was born into a wealthy family and it is said her mother first put her on a horse to learn to ride at the age of one. She was ten when her Catholic Parents divorced which emotionally made her withdraw further into herself and become more reserved. Her mother soon remarried, and Jackie and her younger sister now had three step-siblings as well.

Jackie’s first job was as a photographer and newspaper columnist for the Washington Times Herald.

Jackie married Jack in 1953 and she soon immersed herself into the political culture of Washington as well (Jack had just been elected Senator from Massachusetts).

Their daughter Caroline was born in 1957 (their first daughter Arabella had been born the year before but was stillborn) and Jackie was very active during the 1960 campaign for President—even after finding out she was pregnant and being told to stay home she answered letters and gave interviews—even writing a weekly newspaper column.

Two and a half weeks after Jack’s election their son John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr was born.

Jackie became First Lady at the age of thirty-one; her first major project was to restore and preserve the White House.

Eighty million Americans would watch the CBS news broadcast of Mrs. Kennedy showing off the newly restored White House—she was given an honorary Emmy for the program.

Because of her ability to speak French, Spanish, and Italian she was an important asset abroad as well.

Their son Patrick was born and died two days after he was born—and three months later Jack was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Jackie remarried in 1968 but when Aristotle died, she became an editor in New York City—a job she continued until she herself died.

Jackie is buried beside her first husband, daughter Arabella, and son Patrick in Arlington National Cemetery and is remembered for her impacts on fashion and culture.

Her son John Jr was killed alongside his wife and sister-in-law in a plane crash in 1999. Their ashes were scatted over the water where their plane crashed.

Badged Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located in My Personal Library:

Alice Princess Andrew of Greece by Hugo Vickers

Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

Dead Presidents by Brady Carlson

Eunice: The Kennedy Who Changed the World by Eileen McNamara

First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the Lives of 45 Iconic American Women by Susan Swain and C-SPAN

The House of Kennedy by James Patterson and Cynthia Fagen

Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

King Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb by Zahi Hawass

The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection by Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Amy Pastan

Sex With Presidents: The Ins and Outs of Love and Lust in the White House by Eleanor Herman

Time Magazine's 100 Women of the Year (Jackie appears in the 1962 article, "Jacqueline Kennedy”)

Where Are They Buried? How Did They Die? by Tod Benoit

Whose Who in American History: Leaders, Visionaries, and Icons who Shaped Our Nation by John M Thompson, William R Gray, and KM Kostyal

Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan

Sources:

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/life-of-jacqueline-b-kennedy

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/780/jacqueline-lee-kennedy_onassis

111) Rosalynn Carter

111) Rosalynn Carter

Former First Lady of the United States During Her Husband Jimmy Carter’s Administration

Born: 18 August 1927, Plains, Georgia, United States of America

Died: 19 November 2023, Plains, Georgia, United States of America

Original Name: Eleanor Rosalynn Smith Carter

In 1982 she and her husband founded the Carter Center which works to improve mental health, early childhood immunization, care giving, better conflict resolution, and human rights.

Rosalynn has been working in mental health since 1980 when she participated in the President’s Commission on Mental Health as an honorary member—the Commission would help pass the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.

Since 1984 she has participated with Habitat For Humanity every year in the week long Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project.

She graduated from Georgia Southwestern College in 1946.

Rosalynn has four children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren; and she has written five books.

She passed away at her family home at the age of ninety-six. Rosalynn and her husband had been married for seventy-seven years.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the Lives of 45 Iconic American Women by Susan Swain and C-SPAN

The Smithsonian First Ladies Collection by Lisa Kathleen Graddy and Amy Pastan

Sources:

https://www.cartercenter.org/about/experts/rosalynn_carter.html

https://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/2023/statement-rosalynn-carter-111923.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7748385/rosalynn-carter

120) Henryk Ross

Henryk testifying at the Eichmann trial in 1961

120) Henryk Ross

Photographer in the Łódź Ghetto

Born: 1 May 1910, Warsaw, Poland

Died: 1 May 1991, Israel

Before the war he was a sports photographer for a local newspaper.

In May of 1940, Henryk was moved into the Ghetto on account of his Jewish heritage. He soon secured a posting as one of the official photographers within the ghetto.

Henryk was charged with producing propaganda photographs and identity pictures of those within the ghetto. Because he also had access to the processing equipment, he also photographed conditions to document what was going on within the ghetto. He managed to produce thousands of these photographs.

When the ghetto began to be liquidated in 1944, Henryk buried his photographs with the hopes of returning for them someday.

His pictures were later used as evidence and he himself testified in the Eichmann Trial in 1961. Henryk’s complete collection became available in 1997, six years after his death, when his son made them public knowledge. However, despite this, his pictures remain almost unknown.

The reason for this is because his pictures cover everything from the atrocities being committed against the Jews, to the more awkward things to admit, like the Jewish Police force within the ghetto and children playing games like Police and Jew.

In 2004, Robert Jan Van Pelt published a book based on Henry’s photographs. The second source listed will show you over 400 of them.

Sources:

https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/the-jewish-photographer-henryk-ross.html

http://agolodzghetto.com/

119) Flight Lieutenant Bill Goldfinch

119) Flight Lieutenant Bill Goldfinch

Designed a Glider While Imprisoned at Colditz Castle During World War II.

Born: 12 July 1916, Whistable, Kent, United Kingdom

Died: 2 October 2007, United Kingdom

Original Name: Leslie James Edwards Goldfinch

Goldfinch and others had been taken captive by the Nazis and imprisoned in the 11^th Century Castle. While trapped there, Goldfinch and the others realized the roof of the fortress would make a perfect launching point.

They had almost finished the glider when the camp was liberated by the Americans. And though the GI’s were astounded to say the least by their work, they had to leave the glider behind. Bill took his drawings with him, but over time, people started to think he was just a man with a crazy story, that the glider hadn’t ever actually been built.

Nova has proved the glider could work in their episode, Nazi Prison Escape.

Sources:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1565889/Flight-Lieutenant-Bill-Goldfinch.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/naziprison/colditz.html

118) Robert Moog

118) Bob Moog

Invented the Synthesizer

Born: 23 May 1934, Queens, New York, United States of America

Died: 21 August 2005, Asheville, North Carolina, United States of America

Bob built his first Theremin at the age of fourteen and published his first article at nineteen. Then he earned his PhD in engineering physics.

He went on to found Moog Music and then invent the synthesizer; he would receive a Grammy Trustees Award in 1970 for his contributions to modern music.

Bands like The Police and Emerson, Lake, & Palmer used his invention in their music in the 1980’s.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://moogfoundation.org/about/humble-visionary/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11592850/robert-arthur-moog

117) Samuel Scott

117) Samuel Scott

The First Victim of the RMS Titanic

Born: c1895, Most Likely Ireland

Died: 20 April 1910, Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Samuel slipped and fell off a staging ladder, fracturing his skull upon hitting the ground and dying instantly.

Samuel was one of approximately 15,000 men who were tasked with building both the RMS Olympic and her sister ship Titanic. More specifically, Samuel worked on one of the five-man rivet teams as a catch boy. He was responsible for carrying the flaming hot torches from the furnace to their respective holes in the side of the ship.

Depending on their skill level, laborers received between $5 and $10 a week. For comparison, the nicest First-Class tickets cost $4,350.

Originally buried in an unmarked grave, the fifteen-year-old finally received a headstone in 2011.

It’s believed more than a dozen more workers were killed after Samuel.

A children’s book released under the title of Spirit of the Titanic sees a ghostly version of Samuel observing the sinking of the Titanic.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Spirit of the Titanic by Nicola Pierce

Sources:

https://www.history.com/news/titanics-first-victim-gets-headstone-at-last

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74362737/samuel-joseph-scott

116) Captain Jack Kintpuash

Principal Headman of the Modoc of California and Oregon

Born: c1837, Tule Lake, California, United States of America

Died: 3 October 1873, Fort Klamath, Oregon, United States of America

Kintpuash means “Strikes the Water Brashly”

Captain Jack led a Band from the Klamath Reservation in California during the Modoc War, where several bands of Modoc grouped together to resist the United States moving onto their tribal lands. They were able to hold off a superior force (in numbers anyway) of American men for several months before they were defeated.

Kintpuash was hung alongside three other Madoc leaders. Six had been tried in all but the other two were sentenced to life in prison on Alcatraz Island. Kintpuash was related to the Modoc woman Toby Riddle, and though she tried to spare his life during his trial, she was unsuccessful.

Captain Jack was the only Native American leader to be tried and convicted as a war criminal.

After his death, Kintpuash’s head was severed from his body and shipped to the Army Medical Museum for “study”. It was later transferred to the Smithsonian.

In the 1980’s, the Klamath tribes were able to have the skull returned to them.

Badges Earned:
Located in My Personal Library:

The Old West by Stephen G Hyslop

Wild West Women: Fifty Lives That Shaped the Frontier by Erin H Turner

Sources:

https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/kintpuash_captain_jack/#.XT4rcuhKhPY

http://www.californiaindianeducation.org/famous_indian_chiefs/captain_jack/

115) Maurice Hilleman

He Created Over 40 Different Vaccinations

Born: 30 August 1919, Miles City, Montana, United States of America

Died: 11 April 2005, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Vaccinologist and Microbiologist

His vaccine inventions include: Chicken Pox, Pneumonia, Meningitis, Measles, Mumps, Rubella (Eventually the MMR Vaccine), Varicella, Marek’s Disease, Hepatitis A, and Hepatitis B.

The Measles Vaccine alone was estimated to save one million lives, meaning he may have saved more lives than anyone else to ever live.

Maurice was the recipient of: National Medal of Science for Biological Sciences, Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award, Prince Mahidol Award, A Special Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Health Organization, The Alumni Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the University of Chicago, Special Award for Achievement and Legacy by the CDC Foundation.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC557162/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10783657/maurice-r_-hilleman

114) Frank L Mundus

114) Frank Lewis Mundus

The Real-Life Inspiration for Captain Quint in Jaws

Born: 21 October 1925, Long Branch, New Jersey, United States of America

Died: 10 September 2008, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States of America

Frank was a charter boat captain and had a habit of finding sharks.

In 1977 he captured and killed a 4,500-pound Great White Shark near his home in Montauk.

In 1986 he would also catch a 3,427-pound Great White.

The author of Jaws was reportedly one of his frequent passengers, but it should be noted the author denied Frank was the direct inspiration for the character (it just seems awfully convenient).

After the release of the movie Jaws Frank appeared on late night TV shows to promote himself as the real Captain and he would later write an autobiography on his life.

According to his obituary from the New York Times, this is how Frank felt about the movie:

“It was the funniest and the stupidest movie I’ve ever seen, because too many stupid things happened in it,” his Web site says. “For instance, no shark can pull a boat backwards at a fast speed with a light line and stern cleats that are only held in there by two bolts.”

I've included the trailer for the film in this article.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/nyregion/16mundus.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134487744/frank-lewis-mundus