January 23 Dateline

Birthdays

1752 - Muzio Clementi, Italian-British virtuoso pianist and composer, pedagogue, conductor, music publisher, editor, and piano manufacturer, who was mostly active in England. He settled in London in 1782 and founded the present-day technique of piano playing. He was a contemporary of Wolfgang A. Mozart. Clementi is best known for his 'Gradus ad Parnassum' collection of piano studies, and for his sonatinas. (Clementi - Gradus Ad Parnassum: Complete Piano Studies (Ct.rc.: Danielle Laval / World Premiere. YouTube, uploaded by Classical Music // Reference Recording. Accessed January 23, 2023. Such a pleasure listening to this lovely performance.) 

1832 - Édouard Manet, French Modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, and a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. (E. Manet Paintings. Uploaded by Getahun Haile. Accessed January 23, 2013.)

1899 - Humphrey Bogart, American film & stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. His breakthrough from supporting roles to stardom came with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon, considered one of the first great noir films. His most significant romantic lead role was with Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, which earned him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Bogart and Lauren Bacall fell in love when they filmed To Have and Have Not. After their marriage, she played his love interest in Dark Passage and Key Largo. Bogart's performances in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and In a Lonely Place are now considered among his best. For his role as a cantankerous river steam launch skipper with Katharine Hepburn's missionary in the World War I adventure The African Queen, Bogart received the Academy Award for Best Actor. In his later years, significant roles included The Barefoot Contessa and Sabrina. ("I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved me."- H. Bogart)

1933 - Joel Spiegelman, American composer, conductor, concert pianist, harpsichordist, recording artist, arranger, author and teacher. As a composer, Spiegelman has been widely known for his blending of techniques from traditional classical music, dodecaphonic music, aleatoric music, gospel, Russian folk, and electronic idioms. He has written original music for string quartet, piano trio, piano quintet, chamber music with percussion, solo instruments, wind ensembles, symphony orchestra, ballet, film, choral and vocal music. (Joel Spiegelman: Cry of the Bird of Passage for Symphony Orchestra. YouTube, accessed January 23, 2021.

1950 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor and film producer. He began his television career playing Jeff Webber in the American soap-opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver. He later appeared in films such as Through the Eyes of a Killer, Pandora's Clock, and Firehouse. In 1997, Anderson returned to television as the lead actor of the series Stargate SG-1, a spin-off of the 1994 film Stargate. He played the lead from 1997 to 2005 and had a recurring role from 2005 to 2007. Since 1997, he has starred in only one film: Stargate: Continuum, released in 2008 as a sequel film after the Stargate SG-1 film The Ark of Truth. He appeared in the follow-up Stargate spin-off series Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe (reprising his role from SG-1 as Major General and later Lieutenant General Jack O'Neill).

1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco; Caroline, Princess of Hanover (Caroline Louise Marguerite Grimaldi), eldest child of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, and the American actress Grace Kelly. She is the elder sister of Prince Albert II and Princess Stéphanie. Until the births of her niece and nephew, Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques, in December 2014, she had been heiress presumptive to the throne of Monaco since 2005, a position which she previously held from 1957 to 1958. Caroline is married to Ernst August, Prince of Hanover, the heir to the defunct throne of the former Kingdom of Hanover, as well as the heir male of George III of the United Kingdom. 

Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events, January 23 -  On This Day

 

 

Featuring Muzio Clementi, Italian pianist and composer. 

Below is Clementi's famous Sonatina in C, Op. 36 No. 1.  (Uploaded by Phillip Sear, who played it himself. Accessed January 23, 2018.)

Historical Events

1510 - Henry VIII of England, 18 years old that time, takes part incognito in a tournament at Richmond and is applauded for his jousting before revealing his identity.

1571 - The Royal Exchange in London is opened by Queen Elizabeth I. 

1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first U.S. female doctor.

January 22 Dateline

Birthdays

1561 - Sir Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC QC, English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. His works argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. He argued that science could be achieved by use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. Although his Baconian method, did not have a long-lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a sceptical methodology makes him the father of the scientific method. This method was a new rhetorical and theoretical framework for science, the practical details of which are still central in debates about science and methodology.  Bacon was a patron of libraries and developed a functional system for the cataloging of books by dividing them into three categories—history, poetry, and philosophy. He was the first recipient of the Queen's counsel designation, which was conferred in 1597 when Elizabeth I of England reserved Bacon as her legal advisor. In 1603, Bacon was knighted, later created Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Alban in 1621. (The Philosophy of Francis Bacon by Will Durant. Uploaded by Rocky C. Accessed January 22, 2016.)

1572 - John Donne, English poet, scholar, soldier and secretary born into a recusant family, who later became a cleric in the Church of England. Under royal patronage, he was made Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London. He is considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His poetical works are noted for their metaphorical and sensual style and include sonnets, love poems, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs, and satires. He is also known for his sermons. In 1615 he was ordained Anglican deacon and then priest, although he did not want to take holy orders and only did so because the king ordered it. He also served as a member of Parliament.  (Donne's "Occasional Mercies" from his sermons preached n Christmas Day. www.Bartleby.com. Holy Sonnets by John DONNE read by David Barnes | Full Audio Book. YouTube, uploaded by LibriVox Audiobooks.  Accessed January 22, 2019.)

 

1788 - George Gordon Byron, the 6th Baron Byron, FRS, known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet, peer, and politician who became a revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence, and is considered one of the historical leading figures of the Romantic movement of his era and one of the greatest English poets. Among his best-known works are the narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Many of his shorter lyrics in Hebrew Melodies also became popular. His only legitimate child, Ada Lovelace, is regarded as a foundational figure in the field of computer programming based on her notes for Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.  Byron's illegitimate children include Allegra Byron, who died in childhood, and possibly Elizabeth Medora Leigh. ("Darkness" by Lord Byron. Read by Tom O'Bedlam. Uploaded by SpokenVerse. Accessed January 22, 2012. So poignant, brilliant in its melancholy.)

1940 - Sir John Vincent Hurt, CBE, English actor. He came to prominence for his role as Richard Rich in the film A Man for All Seasons and gained BAFTA Award nominations for his portrayals of Timothy Evans in 10 Rillington Place and Quentin Crisp in television film The Naked Civil Servant – winning his first BAFTA for the latter. He played Caligula in the BBC TV series I, Claudius. Hurt's performance in the prison drama Midnight Express earned Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards, along with an Academy Award nomination. His BAFTA-nominated portrayal of astronaut Kane, in the science-fiction horror film Alien, yielded a scene where an alien creature burst out of his chest. It has been named by several publications as one of the most memorable moments in cinema history.

 
1960 - Michael Kelland John Hutchence, Australian musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. Hutchence co-founded the rock band INXS, which sold over 60 million records worldwide and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2001. He was the lead singer and lyricist of INXS from 1977 until his death. He was a member of the short-lived pop rock group Max Q. He also recorded some solo material and acted in feature films. In July 1996, Hutchence and English television presenter Paula Yates had a daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.

1965 - Diane Colleen Lane, American actress and producer. She made her screen debut in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance. Lane has appeared in several notable films, including the 2002 film Unfaithful, which earned her Satellite, New York Film Critics Circle, and National Society of Film Critics awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Drama). Her performance in Unfaithful also garnered her Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Best Actress.

Leftie:

Actress Diane Lane

More birthdays and historical events, January 22 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1840 - The first British colonists reach New Zealand.

1859 - Johannes Brahms is soloist in the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 1, in Hanover, with Joseph Joachim conducting.

Here's Brahms's Piano concerto No. 1,  interpreted by pianist Arthur Rubinstein, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam), conducted by Bernard Haitink, in Amsterdam, 1973.