April 4 Dateline

Birthdays

1802 - Dorothea Dix, American social reformer/activist, advocate on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums. During the Civil War, she served as a Superintendent of Army Nurses.

1843 - Hans Richter, Hungarian-born Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor. In later years, he  became a whole-hearted admirer of Sir Edward Elgar and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. On one occasion, he laid down his baton and allowed a London orchestra to play the whole second movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony itself. Never afraid to experiment on behalf of the music he loved, he lent his authority to an English-language production of The Ring at Covent Garden. In 1909, he delivered the British premiere, very shortly after the world premiere, in Boston, of Ignacy Jan Paderewski's Symphony in B minor "Polonia". Richter's approach to conducting was monumental rather than mercurial or dynamic, emphasising the overall structure of major works in preference to bringing out individual moments of beauty or passion.

1875 - Pierre Monteux (born Pierre Benjamin Monteux), French conductor. After violin and viola studies, and a decade as an orchestral player and occasional conductor, he began to receive regular conducting engagements in 1907. (Pierre Monteaux conducts Debussy's Nocturnes, L.91. Pierre Monteaux conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra · Women of the Berkshire Festival Chorus. Accessed April 4, 2019.)

1922 - Elmer Bernstein, American composer and conductor. He composed "some of the most recognizable and memorable themes in Hollywood history", including over 150 original film scores, as well as scores for nearly 80 television productions. Bernstein received an Academy Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Primetime Emmy Award. He also received seven Golden Globe Awards, five Grammy Awards, and two Tony Award nominations. He composed and arranged scores for over 100 film scores, amoang them: The Man with the Golden Arm, The Ten Commandments, Sweet Smell of Success, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Escape, Hud, Thoroughly Modern Millie, True Grit, and Far from Heaven. He is also known for his work on the comedic films, among them: Meatballs, Trading Places, Ghostbusters, Spies Like Us, and Three Amigos. He was not related to composer & conductor Leonard Bernstein, but they were friends.

  

1928 - Maya Angelou, American poet, writer, memoirist, civil rights activist. She is best known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman.  Maya Angelou's poem "Caged Bird" conveys the message that anyone oppressed or "caged" will always "wish" for freedom, believing that if others have it, they should, too. The poem's overall theme is love and its power. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.

1932 - Anthony Perkins, American actor, director, and singer. Perkins is known for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thriller Psycho, which made him an influential figure in pop culture and in horror films. He often played distinctive villainous roles in film, though he was most renowned for his romantic leads such as Goodbye Again (excerpt) with Ingrid Bergman and Yves Montand. The film earned him a Best Actor Bravo Otto nomination, a second career Bambi nomination, as well as his winning the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a Best Actor David di Donatello award. After a string of European films, he returned to America in 1968 with his first American film after an eight-year hiatus, Pretty Poison. He starred in critically successful films and also conceded to typecasting, starring in Psycho films. 

  

1932 - Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian filmmaker, theatre director, and writer. He is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential directors in the history of Russian and world cinema.

1951 - Hun Sen, Cambodian politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Cambodia since 1985, the longest-serving head of government of Cambodia, and one of the longest-serving leaders in the world. He is also the president of the Cambodian People's Party and a member of the National Assembly for Kandal.

1960 - Hugo Weaving, AO (born Hugo Wallace Weaving), British actor, resident in Australia. He is best known for playing Agent Smith in The Matrix trilogy, Elrond in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, V in V for Vendetta, and Red Skull in the movie Captain America: The First Avenger.

Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 4 April - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1581 - Sir Francis Drake becomes the first seafaring captain to circumnavigate the globe. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I on the deck of his chip, the Golden Hind. He had brought home vast revenues for the Crown.

1739 - G.F. Handel's oratorio Israel in Egypt is first performed in London. (Enjoy a performance with John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque. Soloists: Michael Chance (counter-tenor), Nigel Robson (tenor). Uploaded by Don Goncau. Accessed April 4, 2020. Trivia: Our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' ChoruzOz presented Handel's Israel in Egypt conduced by Graham Abbott. June 12, 2016, 5pm. Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.)

April 3 Dateline

Birthdays

1783 - Washington Irving, American Short-story Writer, Essayist, Biographer, Historian, and Diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Washington Irving - Rip VanWinkle. Uploaded by Lance Eaton. Accessed April 3, 2015.)

1880 - Otto Weininger, Austrian Philosopher, who lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1903, he published the book Geschlecht und Charakter (Sex and Character), which gained popularity after his suicide at the age of 23. Parts of his work were adapted for use by the Nazi regime (while at the same time denouncing him). Weininger was a large influence on Ludwig Wittgenstein, August Strindberg, and, via his lesser-known work Über die letzten Dinge, on James Joyce.

1893 -Leslie Howard Steiner, English actor, director and producer. He wrote many stories and articles for The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair and was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s. Active in both Britain and Hollywood, Howard played Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1939). He had roles in many other films, often playing the quintessential Englishman, including Berkeley Square, Of Human Bondage, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Petrified Forest, Pygmalion, Intermezzo, "Pimpernel" Smith, and The First of the Few. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Berkeley Square and Pygmalion. After his death, British exhibitors voted him the second-most popular local star at the box office.

 

1895 - Mario Castelnuove-Tedesco, Italian-American Composer, Pianist and Writer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the 20th-century with almost one hundred guitar compositions.  (Castelnuovo Tedesco's "Tarantella" is interpreted by Gulio Tampalini. Accessed April 3, 2019.) 

1905 - Lili Kraus, Hungarian-English Pianist. During World War II she was imprisoned by the Japanese in Southeast Asia, where she had been on concert tour.  After the war,  she became a New Zealand citizen and resumed her career, teaching and touring extensively. In the early 1950s she performed the entire Beethoven sonata cycle with violinist Henri Temianka. From 1967 to 1983, she taught as artist-in-residence at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.  She served on the jury of the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition.  She then made her home in Asheville, North Carolina, where she died in 1986. (Listen and enjoy the Mozart Piano Sonatas she played - here.)

1924 - Marlon Brando, Jr., American actor and film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice. One of the greatest and most influential actor in 20th-century film, Brando was also an activist for many causes, notably the civil rights movement and various Native American movements. Having studied with Stella Adler in the 1940s, he is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting, derived from the Stanislavski system, to mainstream audiences. He initially gained acclaim and an Academy Award nomination for reprising the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire, a role that he originated successfully on Broadway. He received further praise, and an Academy Award, for his performance as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, and his portrayal of the rebellious motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One proved to be a lasting image in popular culture. Brando also received various Academy Award nominations.

1924 - Doris Day (born Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff), American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. She began her career as a big band singer, with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time". Day was one of the biggest film stars in the 1950s–1960s era. Her film career began during the Golden Age of Hollywood with the film Romance on the High Seas. She starred in films of many genres, including musicals, comedies, dramas, and thrillers. She played the title role in Calamity Jane, Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. Her best-known films are those in which she co-starred with Rock Hudson, among them 1959's Pillow Talk, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She worked with many more prominent movie actors. She received various awards including: Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, among others.

1930 - Helmut Josef Michael Kohl, German statesman and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 (of West Germany, 1982–1990; and of reunified Germany, 1990–1998) and as chairman of the CDU from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longest of any German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck, and oversaw the end of the Cold War, the German reunification and the creation of the European Union.

1934 - Jane Morris Goodall, DBE (born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English Zoologist, Primatologist and Anthropologist. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 60-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees since she first went to Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania in 1960. She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. She has served on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project since its founding in 1996. In April 2002, she was named a UN Messenger of Peace. Dr. Goodall is also honorary member of the World Future Council.

1958 - Alec Baldwin, (born Alexander Rae Baldwin III), American actor, writer, producer, comedian, and political activist. He is the eldest of the four actor brothers in the Baldwin family. Baldwin first gained recognition appearing on the sixth and seventh seasons of the CBS primetime soap opera Knots Landing. In his early career he then played both leading and supporting roles in a variety of films. Baldwin gained critical acclaim starring as Jack Donaghy on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and seven Screen Actors Guild Awards, making him the male performer with the most SAG Awards in history. On stage, he portrayed Stanley Kowalski in the 1992 Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire and the title character in a 1998 Off-Broadway production of Macbeth, the former earning him a Tony Award nomination. Baldwin has received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Donald Trump on the long-running sketch series Saturday Night Live, a role that won him his third Primetime Emmy.

 

1961 - Eddie Murphy (born Edward Regan Murphy), American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has also worked as a stand-up comedian and was ranked No. 10 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. In films, Murphy has received Golden Globe Award nominations for his performances in 48 Hrs., the Beverly Hills Cop series (1984–present), Trading Places, amongothers. In 2007, Murphy won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of soul singer James "Thunder" Early in the musical film Dreamgirls. As a singer, Murphy has released three studio albums, including How Could It Be, So Happy, and Love's Alright. He has won numerous awards for his work.
 

Lefties:
None known.

More birthdays and historical events today, 3 April - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1885 - Gottlieb Daimler patents the first water-cooled engine.

1897 - Johannes Brahms dies of cancer in Vienna, aged 63. Although I love Brahms' famous German Requiem and Symphony No. 1,  an emotional attachment goes to Brahms' Symphony No.3 In F major, Op.90 (Complete, 4 movements). Conductor: Professor Nicolás Pasquet. The Orchestra of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, Neue Weimarhalle on May 10th, 2012. (Uploaded by Nathaniel Adams. Accessed April 3, 2017)