Died On This Date

July 17

Holiday, Billie
b. April 7, 1915 d. July 17, 1959
Jazz Singer. "Lady Day" (as she was named by Lester Young) had a small voice and did not scat but her innovative behind-the-beat phrasing made her very influential. The emotional intensity that she put into the words she sang (particularly in later years) was memorable because she often really did live the words she sang. Her original name and birthplace have been wrong for years but were finally listed correctly by Donald Clarke's definitive Billie Holiday biography "Wishing on the Moon".

Cobb, Ty
b. December 18, 1886 d. July 17, 1961
Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player. Ranks as one of Baseball's greatest players, if not the game's fiercest competitor. Everyone knows about his batting records! Ty Cobb grew up in the post Civil War South where racism was the norm. This is not to say that it was right, but it was a given and accepted practice. What shaped Tys' personality more than anything was an incident that happened when he was just 18, just a few sparse weeks before he joined the Tigers.

Spillane, Mickey
b. March 9, 1918 d. July 17, 2006
Author. Real name Frank Morrison Spillane. He is best remembered for creating the hard boiled detective Mike Hammer, who appeared in a series of violent mystery novels beginning with "I, the Jury" (1947). There have been several films adapted from his books and a "Mike Hammer" television series in the 1980s, starring Stacy Keach. Spillane himself played the character in the film "The Girl Hunters" (1963). Prior to writing novels, Spillane wrote for magazines and comic books.