Birthdays
1743 - Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS (24 February [O.S. 13 February]), English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. He made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768–1771), visiting Brazil, Tahiti, and after 6 months in New Zealand, Australia, returning to immediate fame. He held the position of president of the Royal Society for over 41 years. He is credited for bringing 30,000 plant specimens home with him; amongst them, he discovered 1,400.
1778 - Fernando Sor (baptised February 13), Spanish Classical guitarist and composer, best known for writing solo classical guitar music. He composed an opera (at the age of 19), three symphonies, guitar duos, piano music, songs, a Mass, and at least two successful ballets: Cinderella, which received over one hundred performances, and Hercule et Omphale.
1910 - William Bradford Shockley, Jr., American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. They were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for "their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect". In his later life, while a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, Shockley became a proponent of racism and eugenics. A 2019 study in the journal Intelligence found him to be the second-most controversial (behind Arthur Jensen) intelligence researcher among 55 persons covered.
1933 - Kim Novak, American film and television actress. She is widely known for her performance as Madeline Elster/Judy Barton in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Vertigo. Kim Novak starred opposite leading men, including William Holden, Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power and Kirk Douglas. In her mid-30s, she withdrew from acting and only sporadically worked in films since. Her contributions to cinema have been honored with two Golden Globe Awards, an Honorary Golden Bear Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She works as a painter and visual artist. (Kim Novak in her most famous acting role as Madeline/Judy in Hitchcock's Vertigo. (Vertigo extended scene with orchestration - Judy transforms into Madeleine / Herrmann's Scene d'Amour. Uploaded by Urwurm80. Accessed February 13, 2015.) Her film with Kirk Douglas, "Strangers when We Meet" is easy on the eyes but hard on the intellect...an old-fashioned soap opera, though brought to the screen with such skill from both Novak and Douglas.)
1934 - George Segal, American actor and musician. His most acclaimed roles are in films such as Ship of Fools, King Rat, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Touch of Class, California Split, among others. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and has won two Golden Globe Awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in A Touch of Class. On TV, he is best known for his roles as Jack Gallo on Just Shoot Me! and as Albert "Pops" Solomon on The Goldbergs. Segal is also an accomplished banjo player. He has released three albums and has performed with the instrument in several of his acting roles and on late-night television.
1938 - Robert Oliver Reed, English actor known for his upper-middle class, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. Notable films include The Trap, playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner Oliver!, Women in Love, Hannibal Brooks, The Devils, portraying Athos in The Three Musketeers, Tommy, Lion of the Desert, Castaway, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Funny Bones and Gladiator.
1969 - Joyce DiDonato (née Flaherty), American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano. She is notable for her interpretations of operas and concert works in the 19th-century romantic era in addition to works by Handel and Mozart. She has performed with many of the world's leading opera
companies and orchestras, and won multiple awards including the 2012,
2016 and 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo.
1974 - Robbie Peter Williams, English singer, songwriter, and entertainer. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That. He has released seven UK number one singles and eleven out of his twelve studio albums have reached number one in the UK. In 2006 he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1.6 million tickets of his Close Encounters Tour in a single day. Williams has received a record eighteen Brit Awards, eight German ECHO Awards, and three MTV European Music Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s". He was awarded the freedom of his home town of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as having a tourist trail created and streets named in his honour.
Leftie:
Actress Kim Novak
Leftie:
Actress Kim Novak
Feature:
Below is the famous J. Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Staatsopern ballet, with Lorin Maazel conducting. Event: New Year's Concert 2005.
1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to be tried by the Inquisition for his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation.
Historical Events
1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to be tried by the Inquisition for his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation.
