March 5 Dateline

Birthdays

1133 - Henry II, King of England. Born at Le Mans in France. Also known as Henry Curtmantle, Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189. He was the first king of the House of Plantagenet. King Louis VII of France made him Duke of Normandy in 1150. He became Count of Anjou and Maine upon the death of his father, Count Geoffrey V, in 1151. His marriage in 1152 to Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII had recently been annulled, made him Duke of Aquitaine. He became Count of Nantes by treaty in 1185. Before he was 40 he controlled England, large parts of Wales, the eastern half of Ireland and the western half of France; an area that was later called the Angevin Empire. Henry also partially controlled Scotland, Wales and the Duchy of Brittany. He fathered four sons, including two who go on to rule: Richard I and John.

1817 - Austen Henry Layard, English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, politician and diplomat. Best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.

1870 - Frank Norris Jr., American novelist and journalist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague (1899), The Octopus: A Story of California (1901), and The Pit (1903).

1887 - Heitor Villa-lobos, Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, pianist, and guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music", often considered the best-known South American composer of all time. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959.

1908 - Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (born Reginald Carey Harrison), English actor of stage and screen. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in the play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of My Fair Lady in 1957. In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. In June 1989, Harrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1975, Harrison released his first autobiography. His second, A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy, was published posthumously in 1991.

 

1948 - Elaine Jill Paige OBE (née Bickerstaff) English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut. For her role as Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in 1978, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. (Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson - I Know Him So Well "From CHESS" (Official Video). YouTube, uploaded by ChessVEVO. Accessed March 5, 2017. Elaine Paige Performs 'Memory' - Royal Albert Hall | Cats the Musical. Uploaded by Cats the Musical. Accessed Marcy 5, 2020.)

1958 - Andy Gibb (born Andrew Roy Gibb), English singer and songwriter. He was the younger brother of the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. Gibb came to international prominence in the late 1970s with six singles that reached the Top 10 in the United States, starting with "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" (1977), followed by three other top 20 singles. Gibb's success was brief due to drug addiction and depression. He died five days after his 30th birthday while attempting a comeback.

Lefties:
Actor Rex Harrison
Singer Andy Gibb

 

More birthdays and historical events, March 5 - On This Day

 

Featuring:  Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Basileiras Suite No. 4.

Historical Events

1940 - Members of the Soviet Politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign the order to kill 25, 700 Polish "nationalists."  The Nazis, blamed for the massacres at the end of World War II, later discover the first of the mass graves at Katyn. The U.S.S.R. finally admits to the murders in 1990.

1946 - Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, delivers the speech that warns of the Soviet Union threat that poses to the West. His speech popularizes the term "iron curtain" and signals the beginning of the Cold War.

March 4 Dateline

Birthdays

1678 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian Baroque composer regarded as one of the greatest. He is known as the "Red Priest," and whose best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as the Four Seasons. He composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas.

1754 - Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician, pioneer in Smallpox vaccination. He was co-founder and professor of Harvard Medical School. He is most well known for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States, which he carried out on his own family.

1921 - Joan Mary Waller Greenwood, English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She is perhaps best remembered for her role as Sibella in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and also appeared in The Man in the White Suit, The Importance of Being Earnest, Stage Struck, Tom Jones and Little Dorrit. Greenwood worked mainly on the stage, where she had a long career, appearing with Donald Wolfit's theatre company in the years following World War II. Later, after the war, her appearances in Ealing comedies are among her memorable screen appearances. In 1960, Greenwood appeared as the title character in a production of Hedda Gabler at the Oxford Playhouse.

1929 - Bernard Haitink (born Bernard Johan Herman Haitink), CH KBE, Dutch conductor. He led master classes in conducting for young conductors in Lucerne for several years. In June 2015, the European Union Youth Orchestra announced the appointment of Haitink as its conductor laureate, effective immediately. His final concerts as conductor were done with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. His final UK concert was at The Proms in London on 3 September 2019, his 90th Prom, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. His last concert was in Lucerne at the KKL on 6 September 2019, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

1939 - Paula Prentiss, American actress best known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, In Harm's Way, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View, and the cult television series He & She.

1944 - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron), ONZ CH DBE AC, New Zealand former opera singer. Her career included a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". She received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini. Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. (Kiri Sings Mozart. Uploaded by KiriOnLine - Kiri Te Kanawa. Recorded at St. David's Hall, Cardiff. Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, Charles Mackerras / Conductor, Cardiff, UK, 1990. Accessed March 4, 2015. Kiri Te Kanawa - Montreal Concert 1986. KiriOnLine. Accessed March 4, 2019.)
 

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, March 4 - On This Day

 

 

 

Historical Events

1461 - King Edward IV of England (Yorkist), usurps his cousin, King Henry VI (Lancastrian), from the English throne in the War of the Roses.

1787 - The U.S. Congress convenes for the first time forming the American constitution.