July 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1781 - Mauro Giuliani, Italian guitarist, cellist, singer and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century. (Giuliani Grand Overture played by Manuel Espinás, uploaded by Guitar Salon International. Accessed July 27, 2018.)

1824 - Alexandre Dumas fil, Jr. French author and playwright, son of Alexandre Dumas, Sr. or Père, famous for The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo). Dumas, Jr. is best known for the romantic novel La Dame aux Camélias (The Lady of the Camellias), published in 1848, which was adapted into Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata (The Fallen Woman), as well as numerous stage and film productions, usually titled Camille in English-language versions. 

 
1867 - Enrique Granados, Spanish pianist and composer of classical music. He wrote piano music, chamber music (a piano quintet, a piano trio, music for violin and piano), songs, zarzuelas, and an orchestral tone poem based on Dante's Divine Comedy. Many of his piano compositions have been transcribed for the classical guitar: examples include Dedicatoria, Danza No. 5, Goyescas. Granados was a significant influence on at least two other famous Spanish composers and musicians, Manuel de Falla and Pablo Casals. (Granados plays Granados Goyescas No. 1 Los Requiebros. Updated by Gullivior. Accessed July 27, 2017.) 

1870 - Hilaire Belloc (born Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc), British-French writer and historian and one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford South from 1906 to 1910. He became a naturalised British subject in 1902 while retaining his French citizenship. His writings encompassed religious poetry and comic verse for children. His widely sold Cautionary Tales for Children included "Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion" and "Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death". He also collaborated with G. K. Chesterton on a number of works.

1877 - Ernst von Dohnanyi, Hungarian pianist and composer and conductor. He used a German form of his name on most of his published compositions. An International Ernst von Dohnányi Festival was held at Florida State University in 2002. The LSU professor Milton Hallman was a student of his and in 1987 recorded a CD called Works For Piano containing some of Dohnányi's most notable music.

1918 - Leonard Rose, American cellist ("America's Golden Age and its First Cellist"). He came much later than another favouite cellist of mine, Jacqueline du Pre. Leonard Rose, heartwarming and inspiring insights about him and his music, what fellow musicians say about him, and more. Leonard Rose: America's Golden Age and Its First Cellist. YouTube, uploaded by Steven Honigberg. Accessed July 27, 2018.)

1942 -  Barbara Gillian Ferris, English actress and former fashion model.  She appeared in a number of films and productions for television and is possibly best remembered as Dinah, the young woman who eloped with Dave Clark in the 1965 film Catch Us If You Can. Her other roles were as diverse as the female lead in Edward Bond's controversial play Saved (1965) and a vicar's wife in the television comedy series All in Good Faith in the mid-1980s. She also appeared in Interlude with Oskar Werner. Barbara Ferris is the older sister of actress Pam Ferris.
 

Lefties:
None known

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 27 July - On This Day.

Historical Events

1586 - Sir Walter Raleigh's colonists return to England from Virginia, bringing with them tobacco and potatoes. Raleigh soon plants the tobacco, so it no longer needs to be imported from Spain; he also plants the potatoes on his lands in Ireland.

1866 - The laying of the 2,000-mile (3,200 km) long copper Transatlantic Cable between Newfoundland and Ireland is completed. Telegraphs can now be sent from Europe to the U.S. Two previous attempts to lay cables had failed.

July 26 Dateline

Birthdays

 

1782 - John Field, was an Irish pianist, composer, and teacher. He is best known as the inventor of the nocturne, mentioned in passing in film War and Peace when Countess Rostova calls on the Rostov household musician to play her favourite nocturne. In London where the family moved to, he studied under Muzio Clementi, later becoming a concert pianist. Field was very highly regarded by his contemporaries and his playing and compositions influenced many major composers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt. (John Field - 18 Nocturnes. Played by John O'Conor.  YouTube, uploaded by Playliszt. Accessed July 26, 2021.)  

 

1791 - Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr., the youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze Weber. He was the younger of his parents' two surviving children. Sadly, he hardly knew his famous father for he was born little more than four months before his father's death. Franz Xaver followed in his father's footsteps: a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher from the late classical period whose musical style was of an early Romanticism, influenced by his father's mature style.

 
1856 - George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, whose play Pygmalion was the basis for Frederick Loewe's musical, My Fair Lady. He insists to be known simply as 'Bernard Shaw', was also a critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s and beyond after his death. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1875 - Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work was influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the famous Burghölzli hospital, under Eugen Bleuler. (Introduction to Carl Jung - The Psyche, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, uploaded by Ideas. Accessed July 26, 2018.)

1894 - Aldous Leonard Huxley, English writer and philosopher. He authored nearly fifty books (novels and non-fiction works) as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.He is famous for his book, Brave New World, a vision of well-ordered and highly-technological society of the future. 

1922 - Blake Edwards (born William Blake Crump), American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His best-known films include Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Great Race (1965), 10 (1979), Victor/Victoria (1982), and the hugely successful Pink Panther film series with British actor Peter Sellers. Often thought of as primarily a director of comedies, he also directed several drama, musical, and detective films. Late in his career, he took up writing, producing and directing for theater. In 2004, he received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen. For 41 years, Edwards was married to Julie Andrews, his second wife, from 1969 until his death in 2010. 

1928 - Stanley Kubrick, American film director, screenwriter, producer, and photographer. He is cited as one of the most influential filmmakers in cinematic history. His films, mostly adaptations of novels or short stories, cover a wide range of genres, and are noted for their realism, dark humor, unique cinematography, extensive set designs, and evocative use of music. He had two collaborations with Kirk Douglas, the war picture Paths of Glory and the historical epic Spartacus. His first productions in Britain were two films with Peter Sellers, Lolita and Dr. Strangelove.

1939 - John Winston Howard, OM, AC, 25th Prime Minister of Australia, former politician, in office from 1996 to 2007. He is the second-longest serving prime minister, behind only Sir Robert Menzies, and the oldest living former prime minister following the death of Bob Hawke in 2019. He was leader of the Liberal Party from 1985 to 1989 and from 1995 to 2007.

1945 - Dame Helen Mirren, DBE (née Mironoff - Elena Lydia Vasilievna Mironova), English actress. Excelling on stage with the National Youth Theatre, her performance as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in 1965 saw her invited to join the Royal Shakespeare Company before she made her West End stage debut. She has had success in television and film. She is one of the few performers who have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in the US. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen, the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the same role in The Audience, and has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie four times.(Top Ten Helen Mirren Performances. YouTube, uploaded by WatchMojo Performances. Accessed July 26, 2020.) 

1956 - Dorothy Hamill, Retired American Olympic figure skater. She is the 1976 Olympic champion and 1976 World champion in ladies' singles.

1959 - Kevin Spacey Fowler, American actor, producer, and singer. He gained critical acclaim in the 1990s, culminating in an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects and an Academy Award for Best Actor for the midlife crisis-themed drama American Beauty. His starring roles have included Glengarry Glen Ross, the comedy-drama film Swimming with Sharks, the psychological thriller Seven, and more... including the musical biopic Beyond the Sea, the superhero film Superman Returns, and the action film Baby Driver. He played Frank Underwood in the Netflix political drama series House of Cards, which won him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama and two consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and 5 consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Drama Series.

1964 - Sandra Annette Bullock, American-German actress, producer, and philanthropist. She was the highest paid actress in the world in 2010 and 2014. In 2015, Bullock was chosen as People's Most Beautiful Woman and was included in Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2010. Bullock is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. Bullock is the founder of the production company Fortis Films. She has produced some of the films in which she has starred, including Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous and All About Steve. She was an executive producer of the ABC sitcom George Lopez, and made several appearances during its runs.

Leftie:
Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 26 July - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1895 - Pierre Curie and Marie Sklodowska marry in Sceaux, France. In 1896 Marie Curie begins her doctoral thesis on the radioactivity of uranium and Pierre joins her in her work in 1898. Their daughter Irene, is born on September 12, 1897.

1945 - The Conservative Party loses the British general election and Winston Churchill is no longer Prime Minister.