July 4, 2009

2009Brenda Joyce, American actress (born 1917)^[†]

Brenda Joyce was an American film actress. She was best known for playing Jane Porter in RKO's Tarzan films from 1945 to 1949.

2009Allen Klein, American businessman and talent agent, founded ABKCO Records (born 1931)^[†]

Allen Klein was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits for his musician clients by negotiating new record company contracts. He first scored monetary and contractual gains for Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen, one-hit rockabillies of the late 1950s, then parlayed his early successes into a position managing Sam Cooke, and eventually managed the Beatles and the Rolling Stones simultaneously, along with many other artists, becoming one of the most powerful individuals in the music industry during his era.

2009Drake Levin, American guitarist (born 1946)^[†]

Drake Maxwell Levin was an American musician best known as the guitarist for the pop-rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders.

2009Steve McNair, American football player (born 1973)^[†]

Stephen LaTreal McNair, nicknamed "Air McNair", was an American professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He started his first two seasons with the Houston Oilers before the team relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. There, McNair would become the first franchise quarterback of the Tennessee Titans. He also played for two seasons with the Baltimore Ravens.

2009Lasse Strömstedt, Swedish author and actor (born 1935)^[†]

Folke Lars-Olov Strömstedt, better known as Lasse Strömstedt, was a Swedish writer who wrote of and about his own life in prison and drug abuse. Strömstedt was born in Gävle in 1935. He was a casual laborer whose working life was frequently disrupted by imprisonment. After 1971 he changed his life and became a writer, debater and actor. In 1974, Strömsted published his first novel, Grundbulten, written together with reporter Christer Dahl under the pseudonym Kennet Ahl. Strömstedt was married to Swedish singer and writer Ann-Christine Bärnsten. He died aged 74 of natural causes in Gränna on 4 July 2009.

2009Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard, Congolese poet and politician (born 1938)^[†]

Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard was a Congolese politician and poet. Having previously served as Minister of Higher Education and Minister of Arts and Culture, he was Minister of Hydrocarbons in the government of Congo-Brazzaville from 1997 to 2009; he was also the founder and President of the Action Movement for Renewal (MAR), a political party. Aside from politics, Tati Loutard published numerous books of his own poetry and literature in general.

2009The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after eight years of closure due to security concerns following the September 11 attacks.^[†]

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel. The statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886.

2009The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao.^[†]

The Mindanao bombings was a series of seemingly unrelated bomb attacks that took place on July 4, 5, and 7, 2009 in the towns of Datu Piang and Jolo, and the cities of Cotabato and Iligan in Mindanao, Philippines. The bombings killed around 7 people and injured at least 66. The Armed Forces of the Philippines has blamed several militant organizations active in Mindanao, such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Abu Sayyaf, and Jemaah Islamiyah.