1917 births

Jacqueline Auriol (French pronunciation: [ʒaklin oʁjɔl]; 5 November 1917, Challans, Vendée – 11 February 2000) was a French aviator who set several world speed records.

Pietro Grossi (15 April 1917, in Venice – 21 February 2002, in Florence) was an Italian composer pioneer of computer music, visual artist and hacker ahead of his time. He began experimenting with electronic techniques in Italy in the early sixties.

Richard David Barr (September 6, 1917 – January 9, 1989) was an American theater director and producer. He served as the president of the League of American Theatres and Producers from 1967 until his death.

Joseph Cornelis (17 November 1917 – 2000) was a Belgian boxer who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics. He was eliminated in a quarterfinal bout of the bantamweight class after losing his fight to the eventual gold medalist Ulderico Sergo.

James Farl Powers (July 8, 1917 – June 12, 1999) was an American novelist and short story writer who often drew his inspiration from developments in the Catholic Church, and was known for his studies of Catholic priests in the Midwest. Although not a priest himself, he is known for having captured a "clerical idiom" in postwar North America. His first novel, Morte d'Urban, won the 1963 National Book Award for Fiction.

Clement Lawrence Markert (April 11, 1917 – October 1, 1999) was an American biologist credited with the discovery of isozymes (different forms of enzymes that catalyze the same reaction). He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as president of several biology societies.
Markert was born in Las Animas, Colorado and raised in Pueblo, Colorado. He attended the University of Colorado, and in 1937, left college to fight in the Spanish Civil War—stowing away aboard a freighter to circumvent government travel restrictions. After returning to college, Markert completed his bachelor's degree in 1940; upon graduation, he married Margaret Rempfer, and they moved to UCLA for graduate work. He enrolled in the United States Merchant Marine to take part in World War II; by 1954 they had three children. After the war, he finished a master's degree at UCLA followed by a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1948.Markert's Ph.D. research, and subsequent postdoctoral work at Caltech, focused on the sexuality and other physiological and genetic aspects of Glomerella, a genus of pathogenic plant fungi. At Caltech, he also worked with George Beadle on corn and Neurospora genetics.
In 1950 he began teaching at the University of Michigan, part of the new wave of what later became molecular biology. In 1954, Markert became a victim of McCarthyism; he was suspended from teaching because he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He was later reinstated, and continued at the University of Michigan until moving to Johns Hopkins in 1957, followed by Yale University—as head of the Department of Biology. In 1966, he served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. He remained at Yale until retiring in 1986 to North Carolina State University, where he continued researching until 1993.Early in his career, Markert developed the concept of isozymes based on electrophoresis and histochemical staining of enzymes. He found that often what had been assumed to be a single enzyme catalyzing a specific reaction was in fact multiple enzymes, with different proteins present in different tissues. In biochemistry, this forced a re-evaluation of some basic assumptions of enzyme kinetics; in genetics, it contributed to the shift from the "one gene-one enzyme hypothesis" to the "one gene-one polypeptide" concept. Markert's early work with isozymes, many of which are formed by gene duplication, was a precursor to the concept of gene families. Markert's later career focused on developmental biology, particularly developmental genetics in experiments with mosaic animals.Markert was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Experimental Zoology from 1963 to 1985. He also edited the Journal of Developmental Biology.In 1990, the University of Michigan created the annual "Davis, Markert, Nickerson Lecture on Academic and Intellectual Freedom" series, in honor of Markert and two other Michigan faculty suspended for refusing to testify in 1954.In 1992, it was reported in National Geographic that Markert was attempting an experiment to create a "superpig" by crossbreeding the extremely fertile Meishan pig with domestic pigs, speeding up the process by altering the genes of fertilized embryos. It was hoped that this would, within 5 years of beginning the program, create a hybrid that combined the fertility and early sexual maturation of the Meishan pig with the lean physique and quick growing times of domestic pigs.

Joseph Langland (February 16, 1917 – April 9, 2007) was an American poet.

William C. Gribble Jr. (born May 24, 1917 in Ironwood, Michigan – June 2, 1979) graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1941 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers.
During World War II, he served on the staff of the 340th Engineer General Service Regiment as it first built a section of the Alaska Highway in western Canada and later assisted MacArthur's drive in New Guinea and the Philippines. At the end of the war he commanded the 118th Engineer Combat Battalion, U.S. 43d Infantry Division.
Gribble then worked in the Los Alamos laboratory and in the Reactor Development Division of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. As Alaska District Engineer he oversaw construction of a nuclear power plant at Fort Greely, Alaska. He headed the Army's nuclear power program in 1960-61. In 1963 he was the Corps' North Central Division Engineer. Gribble's scientific skills led to his service as Director of Research and Development in the U.S. Army Materiel Command in 1964-66 and as the Army's Chief of Research and Development in 1971-73. In 1969-70 he commanded the Army Engineer Center and Fort Belvoir and was Commandant of the Army Engineer School. He became Chief of Engineers in 1973, and retired in 1976.
Gribble received a master's degree in physical science from the University of Chicago in 1948 and an honorary doctorate in engineering from Michigan Technological University. He was also an honorary member of the United Kingdom's Institute of Royal Engineers. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Brazilian Order of Military Merit. General Gribble died at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on June 2, 1979. He is interred in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Frederick Hayes Michaelis (March 4, 1917 – August 13, 1992) was an admiral in the United States Navy who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.

Fred J. Ascani (born Alfredo John Ascani; May 29, 1917 – March 28, 2010) was an American major general and test pilot of the United States Air Force. He was one of the "Men of Mach 1" and was considered the father of systems engineering at Wright Field.