January 3 Dateline

Birthdays

1892 - J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer and philologist, poet, and university professor best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. (Video Biography of J.R.R. Uploaded by manhead513. Accessed January 3, 2013, and J.R.R. Tolkien: A Creator of Worlds. Uploaded by Biographics. Accessed January 3, 2018.) 

1907 - Ray Milland (born born Alfred Reginald Jones), Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend and also for such roles as a sophisticated leading man opposite John Wayne's corrupt character in Reap the Wild Wind, the murder-plotting husband in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, and Oliver Barrett III in Love Story.

1942 - John Thaw, CBE, English actor who appeared in a range of television, stage, and cinema roles. He starred in the television series Inspector Morse as title character Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, Redcap as Sergeant John Mann, The Sweeney as Detective Inspector Jack Regan, Home to Roost as Henry Willows, and Kavanagh QC as title character James Kavanagh. He appeared in a number of films for director Richard Attenborough, including Cry Freedom, where he portrayed the conservative South African justice minister Jimmy Kruger (for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor), and Chaplin alongside Robert Downey Jr..

1950 - Victoria Principal (born Vicki Ree Principal), American actress, producer, entrepreneur, and author, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the American primetime television soap opera series Dallas. She spent nine years on the long-running series, leaving in 1987. Afterwards, she began her own production company, Victoria Principal Productions, focusing mostly on television films. In the mid-1980s, she became interested in natural beauty therapies, and in 1989, she created a self-named line of skincare products, Principal Secret. Principal became a best-selling author, writing three books about beauty, skincare, fitness, well-being, and health: The Body Principal (1983), The Beauty Principal (1984), and The Diet Principal (1987). In the 2000s, she wrote a fourth book, Living Principal (2001). She is also a two-time Golden Globe Award nominee.

1956 - Mel Gibson, AO (born Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson), American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocalyptic action series Mad Max, and as Martin Riggs in the buddy cop film series Lethal Weapon. In 1995, Gibson produced, directed, and starred in Braveheart, a historical epic, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the Academy Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award for Best Picture. He directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a biblical drama that was both financially successful and highly controversial. After several legal issues,  Gibson's public image plummeted significantly. His career saw resurgence with his performance in Jodie Foster's The Beaver, and his directorial comeback after an absence of 10 years, Hacksaw Ridge, which won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Gibson, his second nomination in the category.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, January 3 - On This Day 

Historical Events

1871 - Henry W. Bradley claims the U.S. patent for oleomargarine, a butter.

1878 - Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 receives its American first performance, in Boston.  

January 2 Dateline

Birthdays

1563 - John Dowland (b. Jan 2?), English Renaissance composer, lutenist, and singer. He is best known today for his melancholy songs such as "Come, heavy sleep", "Come again", "Flow my tears", "I saw my Lady weepe" and "In darkness let me dwell", but his instrumental music has undergone a major revival, and with the 20th century's early music revival, has been a continuing source of repertoire for lutenists and classical guitarists. (Barbara Bonney "Come again, sweet love doth now invite". Uploaded by acatalano2641. Accessed April 26, 2020.)

1837 - Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev, Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, member of The Five, a group of Russian composers. He is known for his work promoting musical nationalism and his encouragement of more famous Russian composers, notably Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He began his career as a pivotal figure, extending the fusion of traditional folk music and experimental classical music practices begun by composer Mikhail Glinka. Early in the 1860s Balakirev brought together the composers now known as The Five (a.k.a., The Mighty Handful) – the others were Alexander Borodin, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. As a composer, Balakirev finished major works many years after he had started them; he began his First Symphony in 1864 but completed it in 1897. The exception was his oriental fantasy Islamey for solo piano, which he composed quickly and remains popular among virtuosos. (Balakirev's Symphony No. 1 in C-major, in four movements.  Performed by the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Igor Golovschin. Uploaded by KuhlauDelfing2. Accessed January 2, 2014.)

1905 - Sir Michael (Kemp) Tippett OM CH CBE, English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as one of the leading British composers of the 20th century. His compositional career extended over eight decades, from juvenilia and unpublished works written in the 1920s to his final works of the 1990s. He composed across many genres, from large-scale orchestral works and full-length operas to solo songs and brass band fanfares. From the mid-1930s his music began to be published and performed publicly. (Michael Tippett: Composer of our Time. Note: This was originally Aired Sunday 11:30 AM Feb 23, 1975 on CBS. Uploaded by John Randolph. Accessed January 2, 2017.)

1920 - Isaac Asimov, American writer and professor of biochemistry. He was prolific in writing science fiction and popular science. Although born in Russia, he went to the US with his family when he was three becoming a citizen at the age of eight. His first novel, Pebble in the Sky, was published when he was 30. In the same year he published I, Robot, a collection of his famous robot stories. Asimov's knowledge of science allowed him to write science fiction stories that seemed realistic and possible. 

1961 - Todd Haynes, Film director and producer, pioneer of New Queer Cinema movement of film-making in the early 1990s. His films span four decades with consistent themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurring gender roles.

1968 - Cuba Gooding, Jr.,  American actor. He appeared in A Few Good Men, Outbreak, and Jerry Maguire, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and What Dreams May Come. His other notable films include As Good as It Gets, the ensemble farce Rat Race, Radio, American Gangster (2007), Lee Daniels' The Butler, and Selma, playing civil rights attorney Fred Gray. In 2016, he portrayed O.J. Simpson in the FX drama series The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, and co-starred in the sixth season of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, subtitled Roanoke.

1970 - Eric Whitacre (born Eric Edward Whitacre), American composer, conductor, and speaker known for his choral, orchestral, and wind ensemble music. In March 2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.(Eric Whitacre's The Seal Lullaby (Album version with lyrics.). Uploaded by AluminumHaste. Accessed January 2, 2015. Eric Whitacre: "When David Heard" performed by BYU Singers, from the album Water Night. Uploaded by Frank Halcomb. Accessed January 2, 2018. Glow - Eric Whitacre. YouTube, uploaded by BlueBass2. Accessed January 2, 2021.)

Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, January 2 - On This Day

 

Featuring Balakirev's piano fantasy Islamey, interpreted by pianist Nicholas King.
 

 

Historical Events

1757 - During the Seven Years' War, Robert Clive, better known as Clive of India, captures Calcutta from the Nawab of Bengal, avenging the deaths of those who perished in the Black Hole.

1843 - Richard Wagner conducts the first performance of his opera Der fliegende Hollander, in Dresden.