September 28 Dateline

Famous Birthdays

1573 - Caravaggio, (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio), Italian Painter active from the early 1590s to 1610. His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting. He is famous for the intense and unsettling realism of his large-scale religious works. Caravaggio employed close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro. He made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening shadows and transfixing subjects in bright shafts of light. Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture and death. His influence on the new Baroque style that emerged from Mannerism was profound... seen directly or indirectly in the work of Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques", as well as tenebrists or tenebrosi ("shadowists"). (Caravaggio: His life and style in three paintings / National Gallery. Accessed September 28, 2018)

1916 - Peter Finch, English-Australian actor, best remembered for his role as crazed television anchorman Howard Beale in the film Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes.

1924 - Marcello Mastroiani (born Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni), Italian Film Actor, regarded as his country's biggest film star of all time. His films include: La Dolce Vita; 8½; La Notte; Divorce Italian Style; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Marriage Italian Style; The 10th Victim; A Special Day; City of Women; Henry IV; Dark Eyes and Everybody's Fine. His honours included BAFTAs, Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, two Golden Globes and three Oscar nominations.

 
1934 - Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, often referred to by her initials B.B., French Former Actress and Singer, and Animal Rights Activist. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated personae with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s. Although she withdrew from the entertainment industry in 1973, she remains a major popular culture icon.

1968 - Naomi Ellen Watts, British Actress and Film Producer. She made her film debut in the Australian drama For Love Alone and then appeared in the Australian television series Hey Dad..!, Brides of Christ, Home and Away, and the film Flirting. After moving to the United States, Watts struggled as an actress for years, with appearances in small-scale films. Watts rose to international prominence for playing an aspiring actress in David Lynch's psychological thriller Mulholland Drive and a tormented journalist in the horror remake The Ring. 1972 - Gwyneth Kate Paltrow, American actress, Businesswoman and Author. She has received accolades for her work, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She garnered wider critical acclaim for her performance as Viola de Lesseps in the historical romance film Shakespeare in Love which won her several awards. After becoming a mother, Paltrow reduced her film workload, making occasional appearances in films. In 2009, she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for the children's audiobook Brown Bear and Friends and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her guest role as Holly Holliday on the Fox musical comedy-drama television series Glee in 2011. Paltrow has been the face of Estée Lauder's Pleasures perfume and Coach fashion brand, owner of Goop, a lifestyle company, and author of several cookbooks.

1987 - Hilary Duff, American Actress, Singer, Businesswoman, Songwriter, Producer, and Writer. She began her acting career at a young age and became labeled a teen idol as the title character of the television series Lizzie McGuire and in the theatrical film based on the series, The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003). She appeared in numerous films She later began appearing in independent films such as War, Inc., According to Greta, and The Haunting of Sharon Tate while serving as executive producer for the latter two. Since 2015, she has starred as Kelsey Peters on the TV Land comedy-drama series Younger, for which she has received nominations for People's Choice Awards in 2016 and 2017. Duff has also been hailed as an inspiration by some subsequent Walt Disney teen stars, and has sold an estimated 15 million records since her debut in 2002.

Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, September 28 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1066 - William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invades England to fight King Harold, who believes has stolen the crown from him. He is crowned at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day.

1745 - Around this date, the national anthem 'God Save the King' is sung for the first time in London theatres. The relevant king is George II.

September 27 Dateline

Birthdays

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici, Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth as a banker, and he was a patron of arts, learning and architecture. Despite his influence, his power was not absolute; Florence's legislative councils at times resisted his proposals throughout his life, and he was viewed as first among equals, rather than an autocrat.

 

1601 - King Louis XIII of France. (Sometimes called the Just), King of France from 1610 to 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.  Shortly before his ninth birthday, Louis became king of France and Navarre after his father Henry IV was assassinated. His mother, Marie de' Medici, acted as regent during his minority. Mismanagement of the kingdom and ceaseless political intrigues by Marie and her Italian favourites led the young king to take power in 1617 by exiling his mother and executing her followers, including Concino Concini, the most influential Italian at the French court. He relied heavily on his chief ministers, first Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes and then Cardinal Richelieu. By the end of the 1620s, Richelieu had established "the royal monopoly of force" as the ruling doctrine. His reign was also marked by the struggles against the Huguenots and Habsburg Spain.

 
1879 - Cyril Meir Scott, English composer, writer, poet, and occultist. He created around four hundred musical compositions including piano, violin, cello concertos, symphonies, and operas. He also wrote around 20 pamphlets & books on occult topics and natural health. (Cyril Scott - Piano Concerto featuring cellist Paul Watkins. Accessed September 27, 2013. Lotus Land (original recording), uploaded by OrchestraOne. Accessed September 27, 2012.) 

1917 - Louis Stanton Auchincloss, American lawyer, novelist, historian, and essayist. He is best known as a novelist who parlayed his experiences into books exploring the experiences and psychology of American polite society and old money. Famous for The Romantic Egoists and The Winthrop Covenant.

1947 - Barbara Ruth Dickson OBE, Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well", "Answer Me" and "January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums in the UK Albums Chart and had a number of hit singles, including four which reached the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart. She is also a twice Olivier Award-winning actress, with roles including Viv Nicholson in the musical Spend Spend Spend, and was the original Mrs. Johnstone in Willy Russell's long-running musical Blood Brothers. On TV she starred as Anita Braithwaite in Band of Gold. 

 

1958 - Shaun Paul Cassidy, American singer, actor, writer and producer. He starred in the television series The Hardy Boys Mysteries and Breaking Away. In the 1980s and 90s, Cassidy worked almost exclusively as an actor in the theater, performing on Broadway and in the West End of London. Since the mid-1990s, he has been a writer and producer in television, creating and producing a number of television series, including American Gothic, Roar and Invasion. Cassidy is the eldest son of Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Jones and Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy. David Cassidy was his older half-brother.

 
1961 - Irvine Welsh, Scottish Novelist, Playwright and Short Story Writer. His novel Trainspotting was made into a film of the same name. His work is characterised by a raw Scots dialect and brutal depiction of Edinburgh life. He has written plays and screenplays, and directed several short films.

Lefties:
None known

 

 
More birthdays and historical events, September 27 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1066 - William the Conqueror crosses the channel in his ship, the Mora, and lands a fleet at Pevensey spending the night in an ancient Roman fort.

1822 - Jean-Francois Champollion, a French linguist, deciphers the Rosetta stone, a slab of granite found in Egypt that has a text in three scripts inscribed on it.