JULY 4/TAMMUZ 8

1883:

Birthday of Rube Goldberg, American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor, best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. It is estimated that Goldberg created 50,000 (!) cartoons in his lifetime, and received a Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 1948.

Rube Goldberg (Public domain)

1902:

Birthday of Meyer Lansky (born Maier Suchowlansky), gangster, buddy of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano. He was smart, avoided violence where possible, ran some guns to Israel, and died in bed. He has been played in the movies by Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Lee Strasberg and Richard Dreyfuss.