July 30 Dateline

Birthdays

1751 - Nannerl Mozart (born Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart), Austrian musician, the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and daughter of Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart. She was caled "Marianne" and nicknamed "Nannerl".

1818 - Emily Brontë, English novelist and poet best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature (Top 10 notes about 'Wuthering Heights'. YouTube, uploaded by WatchMojo.com. Accessed July 30, 2018.   Remembrance, A poem by Emily Brontë, read by Frankie MacEachen. Uploaded by Radio TheatreGroup. Accessed July 30, 2019.)

1863 - Henry Ford, American industrialist and business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that middle-class Americans could afford, he converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into an accessible conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the 20th century. 

1931 - Brian Horace Clemens, OBE, English screenwriter and television producer, possibly best known for his work on The Avengers and The Professionals. Clemens was related to Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), a fact reflected in the naming of his two sons, Samuel Joshua Twain Clemens and George Langhorne Clemens. Art & Hue: Remembering Brian Clemens. Accessed January 11, 2020. 
 

1939 - Peter Bogdanovich, American director, writer, actor, and producer. Part of the wave of "New Hollywood" directors, his best-known and critically most acclaimed film is The Last Picture Show. Bogdanovich also directed the the screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?, the comedy-drama Paper Moon, They All Laughed, the drama Mask, and The Cat's Meow. His most recent film, She's Funny That Way, was released in 2014.

1947 - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-American actor, businessman, and politician and professional bodybuilder. He served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 to 2011. 

 
1958 - Kate Bush, English singer, songwriter and record producer. In 1978, aged 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. (Sharing a favourite: Kate Bush  - The Man I Love - Official Music Video. uploaded by KateBushMusic. Written by George and Ira Gershwin "The Man I Love" was recorded as part of an album by Larry Adler called "The Glory of Gershwin". The song was released as a single on 18th July 1994, and the video was directed by Kevin Godley Accessed July 30, 2019.)

1963 - Lisa Kudrow, American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. After making guest appearances in several television sitcoms, including Cheers, she came to prominence with her main role of Phoebe Buffay in Friends (1994–2004), receiving a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination. Kudrow has received several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series from six nominations, two Screen Actors Guild Awards from 12 nominations, and a Golden Globe Award nomination.

1974 - Hilary Swank, American actress and film producer. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her career, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Swank received critical acclaim for her performance as Brandon Teena, in the biographical drama film Boys Don't Cry, for which she received her first Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. For her portrayal of Maggie Fitzgerald in Clint Eastwood's sports drama film Million Dollar Baby, she received her second Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress.  In 2018, she portrayed Gail Getty on the FX television series Trust.

Lefties:
Automobile inventor Henry Ford
Actress Lisa Kudrow
Actress Hilary Swank

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 30 July - On This Day.

Link:  
We honour Emily Brontë and Kate Bush’s birthday by celebrating ‘Wuthering Heights’
FarOutMagazine.co.uk. Accessed July 30, 2018. 

Historical Events

1898 - William Kellogg invents corn flakes. With his brother Dr. John Kellogg, he had been experimenting on grain-based health foods to offer patients at their sanitarium. He William Kellogg founded the Battle Creek Toaster Corn Flake Company in 1906 to sell his healthy cereals.

1945 - The U.S.S. Indianapolis is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine after delivering the components of the bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima. The survivors are spotted by chance four days later. Only about 316 men were saved from the shark-infested waters.

July 29 Dateline

Birthdays

1869 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only three novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner and John Updike. (Booth Tarkington. Uploaded by Audiopedia. Accessed July 29, 2017.)

1887 - Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951), was an Austro-Hungarian composer who spent most of his adult life in the United States. He is best known for his musicals and operettas, particularly The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928). Listen and enjoy Mario Lanza sing the famous 'Serenade' from "The Student Prince", lip-synched by Edmund Purdom.  YouTube, accessed July 29, 2018. Another popular song is 'Desert Song' from the 1953 film of the same name, starring Kathryn Grayson and Gordon MacRae. It was based on the 1926 play/book by Oscar Hammerstein II, etal... music composed by Romberg. 

1892 - William Horatio Powell, American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for The Thin Man, My Man Godfrey, and Life with Father.

1925 - Mikis Theodorakis, Greek songwriter, lyricist and composer, famous for film score Zorba the Greek. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek, Z, and Serpico. He composed the "Mauthausen Trilogy", also known as "The Ballad of Mauthausen", which has been described as the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust" and possibly his best work. In his time, he was viewed as Greece's best-known living composer. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. (Zorba the Greek - The Final Dance (Anthony Quinn.  YouTube, uploaded by Super Top Songs. Accessed July 29, 2026)

1935 - Peter Schreier, German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. A member of the Berlin State Opera from 1963, he appeared in Mozart roles such as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, and in the title role of Pfitzner's Palestrina, among others. He appeared at the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, as one of few singers from the German Democratic Republic to perform internationally. He made recordings, especially of Bach's works; many lieder including the song cycles by Schubert and Schumann. Schreier received awards including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize and Léonie Sonning Music Prize. (Schubert Ständchen (Serenade) Peter Schreier. YouTube, uploaded by elegant 110, accessed July 29, 2020.)

1972 - Wil Wheaton (born Richard William Wheaton III), American actor, blogger and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Aside from appearing in other recurring roles, he appeared regularly as a fictionalized version of himself on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and in the roles of Fawkes on The Guild, Colin Mason on Leverage and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton was also the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop.

Leftie:
Actor Wil Wheaton

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 29 July - On This Day.

Historical Events

1588 - Off the coast of France, the Battle of Gravelines begins. The Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England and restore Catholicism is defeated. Philip, the Spanish king, sent 130 ships to land in Portsmouth, but they are beaten by better seamanship and gunnery off the coast of Dorset and the Isle of Wight. By August 8, the swifter ships of the English navy, commanded by Sir Francis Drake and Lord Charles Howard, defeats the 130-ship Spanish Armada.

1907 - Robert Baden-Powell, veteran of the Boer War, takes a group of boys on a camp to England's Brownsea Island, and launches the Boy Scouts movement.