February 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1895 - Guiomar Novaes, Brazilian Pianist noted for individuality of tone and phrasing, singing line, and a subtle and nuanced approach to her interpretations. (Novaes plays Chopin: Ballade in F minor, Op. 52, No.4)

1901 - Linus Pauling, American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, educator, a scientist and Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry and peace. He's husband of American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time, and as of 2000, he was rated the 16th most important scientist in history. For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of four individuals to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie, John Bardeen and Frederick Sanger). Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes, and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being Marie Curie. Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. (Linus Pauling - Conversations with History. Uploaded by UCTV. Accessed February 28, 2017.)

1903 - Vincente Minnelli, American stage director and film director. He directed the classic movie musicals Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, and Gigi. An American in Paris and Gigi both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Minnelli winning Best Director for Gigi. In addition to having directed some of the best known musicals of his day, Minnelli made many comedies and melodramas. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951; the couple was Liza Minnelli's parents. 

 
1909 - Sir Stephen Spender, CBE, British poet, novelist, essayist and critic, whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the United States Library of Congress in 1965.

1923 - Charles Edward Durning, American actor who appeared in over 200 movies, TV shows and plays. Durning's best-known films include The Sting, Dog Day Afternoon, True Confessions, Tootsie, Dick Tracy, among others. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and To Be or Not to Be (1983). Prior to his acting career, Durning served in World War II and was decorated for valor in combat.

1948 - Bernadette Peters (née Lazzara), American actress, singer, and children's book author. She has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two (plus an honorary award), and nine nominations for Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards. Regarded by many as the foremost interpreter of the works of Stephen Sondheim, Peters is particularly noted for her roles on the Broadway stage.(B. Peters - Not a Day Goes By. Youtube, uploaded by neergecyt. Accessed February 28, 2021.)

1948 - Mercedes J. Ruehl, an American screen and stage actor. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, two Obie Awards, and two Outer Critics Circle Awards. Ruehl is known for her leading performance in the play Lost in Yonkers and supporting performance in the film The Fisher King. Her other film credits include Big, Married to the Mob, Last Action Hero, Roseanna's Grave, and Hustlers.

1969 - Robert Sean Leonard (born Robert Lawrence Leonard), American actor. He is known for playing Dr. James Wilson in the TV series House (2004–2012) and Neil Perry in the film Dead Poets Society. Leonard won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in The Invention of Love. His other theater credits include Candida, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Breaking the Code, The Music Man, Born Yesterday, and To Kill a Mockingbird. From 2013 to 2014, Leonard had a recurring role as Dr. Roger Kadar on the television series Falling Skies. He also starred as the leading role in Swing Kids playing Peter Muller.

Death:

2019 - Andre Previn, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. Winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings.

Lefties:

• Scientist Linus Pauling - American chemist, 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 1962 Nobel Peace Prize for Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• Actress Mercedes Ruehl - American theater, television and film actress.
• Cartoonist Milt Caniff - American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.
• Actor Robert Sean Leonard - He regularly starred in Broadway and off-Broadway productions. He has played the role of Dr. James Wilson on the TV series House. He played Neil Perry in the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society.

More birthdays and historical events, February 28 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

0364 - Valentinian I is appointed Roman Emperor.

1862 - Charles Gounod's opera La Reine de Saba (The Queen of Sheba), is first staged, in Salle le Peletier, Paris.  

February 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator. His works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England. (Life of Henry W. Longfellow. Uploaded by The Story of Liberty. Accessed February 27, 2015. An all-time favourite "A Psalm of Life", uploaded by SpokenVerse. Accessed February 27, 2010.)

1848 - Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet, English composer, teacher and historian of music.  Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", his 1902 setting for the coronation anthem "I was glad", the choral and orchestral ode Blest Pair of Sirens, and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations.(Refer below for "Jerusalem".)

1861 - Rudolf Steiner, (born Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 27 or 25 February), Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, economist and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained recognition at the end of the 19th century as a literary critic and published philosophical works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the 20th century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy; other influences include Goethean science and Rosicrucianism. 

The Waldorf School Education is a holistic, child-centred approach to learning based on Steiner's philosophy focusing on developing intellectual, artistic, and practical skills through an imaginative and creative curriculum. 

 

1897 - Marian Anderson, American contralto. She performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the US and Europe. Anderson was an important figure in the struggle for African-American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the US during the mid-20th century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for her to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the capital. Anderson was the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955. She was recipient of numerous awards and honors. (M. Anderson sings Schubert's loved "Ave Maria", Stokowski conducting the Westminster Choir and a small orchestral ensemble. YouTube, Adam28xx. Accessed February 27, 2020.)

1902 - John Steinbeck, American film writer, playwright, novelist, Nobel Prize laureate. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." In his writings, Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, Tortilla Flat, The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row, among others, he best expressed his belief in the power of the human spirit to endure great disasters and to overcome the erosive aspects of materialism. (John Steinbeck Biography, updated by Gary Criddle. Accessed February 27, 2018.)

1926 - David Hunter Hubel, FRS, Canadian American neurophysiologist noted for his work on visual cortex. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with Roger W. Sperry), for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system. Hubel was the John Franklin Enders University Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. In 1978, Hubel and Wiesel were awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 1983, Hubel received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

1930 - Joanne Woodward (born Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward, American actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is the recipient of an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. She is perhaps best known for her performance in The Three Faces of Eve, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In a career spanning over six decades she starred or co-starred in many feature films, receiving four Oscar nominations (winning one), ten Golden Globe Award nominations (winning three), four BAFTA Film Award nominations (winning one), and nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations (winning three).

1932 - Dame Elizabeth Taylor, DBE (born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor), British-American actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian, considered the most beautiful woman in her day. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, in particular, Lassie Come Home, then in National Velvet aged 12, she became a truly movie star. She was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She continued her career successfully into the 1960s, and remained a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend. (Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, 1944. Uploaded by Storylan. Accessed February 27, 2012. Elizabeth Taylor BBC Tribute, wilsol70. Accessed February 27, 2013.)

1934 - Ralph Nader, American political activist, author, lecturer, lawyer, noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism and government reform causes.

1980 - Chelsea Victoria Clinton, American author and global health advocate. She's is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

1981 -  Joshua Winslow Groban, American singer, songwriter, and actor. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and he was charted in 2007 as the number-one best selling artist in the United States, with over 22.3 million records. As of 2022, he had sold over 25 million records worldwide.  Josh Groban Website.J Groban sings "The Mystery of Your Gift" from the film Boychoir. YouTube, accessed February 27, 2024.

 

Leftie:
Joanne Woodward

Deaths:
1892 - Louis Vuitton, Entrepreneur Maker of Bags and Luggage
1936 - Ivan Pavlov, Physiologist
1993 - Lillian Gish, Actress
2002 - Spike Milligan, Comedian 

 

More birthdays and historical events, February 27 - On This Day

 

Features:

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadieis an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and published in 1847.  The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.  The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, fellow American writer, novelist and short story writer. It became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime and remains one of his most popular and enduring works. (Evangeline, uploaded by Musee McCord Museum. Accessed February 27, 2010.)


"Jerusalem" with words from poet William Blake and music composed by Sir Charles H. H. Parry, performed at the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (The Royal Wedding - Jerusalem - 29 April 2011.  YouTube, uploaded by pishposhx.  Accessed February 27, 2017.)

Historical Events

1740 - Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato ("The Cheerful, the Thoughtful, and the Moderate Man"; HWV 55) is premiered. It is a pastoral ode by George Frideric Handel based on the poetry of John Milton. Handel composed the work over the period of 19 January to 4 February 1740, and the work was premiered on 27 February 1740 at the Royal Theatre of Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the urging of Handel's librettist, Charles Jennens, Milton's two poems, "L'Allegro" and "il Penseroso", were arranged by James Harris, interleaving them to create dramatic tension between the personified characters of Milton's poems: L'Allegro or the "Joyful man" and il Penseroso or the "Contemplative man". The first two movements consist of this dramatic dialog between Milton's poems. At Handel's request, Jennens added a new poem, "il Moderato", to create a third movement. The popular concluding aria and chorus, "As Steals the Morn" is adapted from Shakespeare's Tempest, V.i.65–68. [Wiki]

Here's a beautiful interpretation of Handel's "As Steals the Morn" (L'Allegro, HWV 55), with soloists Amanda Forsythe and Thomas Cooley, performed by Voices of Music 4K. Accessed February 27, 2020.



1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from the Island of Elba, beginning the Hundred Days' War, which ended his defeat in Waterloo.

1879 - Constantine Fahlberg discovers the artificial sweetener saccharin by accident.