February 6 Dateline

Birthdays

1802 - Charles Wheatstone, FRS HFRSE DCL LLD, English scientist and inventor of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope (a device for displaying three-dimensional images), and the Playfair cipher (an encryption technique). He is best known for his contributions in the development of the Wheatstone bridge, originally invented by Samuel Hunter Christie, which is used to measure an unknown electrical resistance, and as a major figure in the development of telegraphy.

1895 - Babe Ruth (George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr.), American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons. Nicknamed "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", he achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth established many MLB batting (and some pitching) records. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members.

1903 - Claudio Arrau León, Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the Baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. (video below)

1911 - Ronald Wilson Reagan, American actor and politician who was the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and became a highly influential voice of modern conservatism. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. When Reagan left office in January 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Bill Clinton as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the 20th Century. Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year. Afterward, his informal public appearances became more infrequent as the disease progressed.

1917 - Zsa Zsa Gabor (born Sári Gábor), Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Her sisters were actresses Eva and Magda Gabor. She began her stage career in Vienna and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the US in 1941. Her first film role was a supporting role in Lovely to Look At. She later acted in We're Not Married! and played one of her few leading roles in the John Huston-directed film, Moulin Rouge. Gabor was known for her extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, her glamorous personality, and her many marriages. She had nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders. She once stated, "Men have always liked me and I have always liked men. But I like a mannish man, a man who knows how to talk to and treat a woman—not just a man with muscles."

1922 - Daniel Patrick Macnee, British film and television actor. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War II, he began his acting career in Canada. Despite having some small film roles, Macnee spent much of his early career in playing small parts in American and Canadian television shows. In 1961 he landed the role of secret agent John Steed in the British television series The Avengers. The show was a success running for eight seasons from 1961 to 1969, in particular with Diana Rigg (1965-1968) in the role of Emma Peel. It was revived in 1976 as The New Avengers. The show was a major breakthrough for Macnee and led to his roles in many films including A View to a Kill and This is Spinal Tap as well as continuing to appear in both Britain and US Television shows up until 2001.
 

1932 - François Roland Truffaut, French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic,  regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. Truffaut's film The 400 Blows is a defining film of the French New Wave movement, and has four sequels. His 1973 film Day for Night earned him critical acclaim, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His other notable films include among others: Shoot the Piano Player, Jules and Jim, Two English Girls, and The Woman Next Door. Truffaut also wrote the notable book Hitchcock/Truffaut which detailed his interviews with film director Alfred Hitchcock during the 1960s.

1950 - Natalie Maria Cole, American singer, songwriter, and actress. Cole was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the hits "This Will Be", "Inseparable", and "Our Love". She returned as a pop singer on the 1987 album Everlasting and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she sang traditional pop by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and won her seven Grammy Awards. She sold over 30 million records worldwide.

1951 - Kevin Whately, English actor primarily known for his role as Robert "Robbie" Lewis in the television crime drama series Inspector Morse and Lewis. He has also appeared in other numerous roles, including his role as Neville "Nev" Hope in the British comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and as Jack Kerruish in the drama series Peak Practice. 

Lefties:
Singer Natalie Cole
Former President Ronald Reagan

More birthdays and historical events, February 6 - On This Day

 

Featuring pianist Claudio Arrau interpreting Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata." YouTube, uploaded by Farookhq17. Accessed February 6, 2018.  

Historical Events

1819 - Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.  

1840 - The British and the Maoris sign the Treaty of Waitangi, founding New Zealand.   

February 5 Dateline

Birthdays

1878 - André-Gustave Citroën, French industrialist, automobile pioneer and freemason of Dutch and Polish Jewish origin. He is remembered chiefly for the make of car named after him, but also for his application of double helical gears.

1909 - Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish composer and violinist. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century. She studied with Sikorski at the Warsaw Conservatory and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Although most of her work has been described as neo-classical, her later music lso uses techniques associated with her avant-garde compatriots such as Lutoslawski. Her compositions mainly feature the violin. Her orchestral works include four numbered symphonies (1945, 1951, 1952, and 1953), a Symphony for Strings, and two early symphonies, now lost.

1914 - William Seward Burroughs II, American visual artist and novelist, famous for Naked Lunch. He was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature.

1945 - Tessa Charlotte Rampling, OBE,English actress, model and singer, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film Georgy Girl, which starred Lynn Redgrave. She began making French and Italian arthouse films. She released an album of recordings in the style of cabaret, titled As A Woman. In the 2000s, she became the muse of French director François Ozon, appearing in his films. On TV, she is known for her role as Evelyn Vogel in Dexter. She has been nominated for various awards. In 2017, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 74th Venice International Film Festival for Hannah. A four-time César Award nominee, she received an Honorary César in 2001 and France's Legion of Honour in 2002. She was made an OBE in 2000 for her services to the arts, and received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Film Awards. In 2015, she released her autobiography, which she wrote in French, titled Qui Je Suis, or Who I Am.

1948 - Barbara Hershey, American actress. She achieved critical acclaim in the latter half of the 1980s. She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries/TV Film for her role in A Killing in a Small Town. She received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mary Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ and for her role in The Portrait of a Lady. For the latter film, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has won two Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival for her roles in Shy People and A World Apart. She was featured in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, for which she was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress and Garry Marshall's melodrama Beaches.

1962 - Jennifer Jason Leigh (born Jennifer Leigh Morrow), American actress. She received critical praise for her performances in Miami Blues, Last Exit to Brooklyn, among others. Leigh was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. She starred in a 1995 film written by her mother, screenwriter Barbara Turner, titled Georgia. She starred in the family drama film Margot at the Wedding. In 2015, she received critical acclaim for her role as Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Since 2017, she has starred in the Netflix comedy-drama series Atypical.  She then starred in the science-fiction horror films. For her stage work, Leigh was nominated for a Drama Desk award for her off-Broadway performance as Beverly Moss in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party. Her Broadway debut occurred in 1998, when she became the replacement for the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret.
 

Lefties:
None known

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

 

Historical Events

1885 - King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.

1887 - Giuseppi Verdi opera Otello is first performed, in Milan.

Jonas Kaufmann performs Verdi's Otello - "Dio! Mi potevi scagliar" (Royal Opera House)