Birthdays
1771 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish poet and novelist (A brief profile, YouTube, uploaded from World Thought Leaders / Top Influencers. Accessed 15 August 2018.) Here is one of Sir Walter Scott's famous works: The Lady of the Lake, YoutTube, uploaded by Eric Masters. Accessed 15 August 2018.)
1772 - Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, German engineer, showman, and inventor. He is best known for manufacturing a metronome and several music automatons, and displaying a fraudulent chess machine. He worked with Beethoven to compose a piece.
1769 - Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor, statesman and military leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was the first Emperor of France as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815 during the Hundred Days. He revolutionised military organization and training, sponsored the Napoleonic Code, reorganized education and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. (Napoleon's Masterpiece: Austerlitz 1805. Uploaded by Epic History TV. Accessed August 15, 2019.
1785 - Thomas De Quincey, English essayist, best known for Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West.
1875 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer and conductor of mixed race; his mother was an English woman and his father was a Sierra Leone Creole physician. He was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s. He was best known for his three cantatas on the epic poem, Song of Hiawatha by American Henry W. Longfellow. He premiered the first section in 1898, when he was 22. He married an Englishwoman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers. Their son Hiawatha adapted his father's music for a variety of performances. Their daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor became a composer-conductor.
1890 - Jacques Ibert (born Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert), French composer of classical music and former director of the Academy of Rome. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I. His final musical appointment was in charge of the Paris Opera and the Opéra-Comique.
1912 - Dame Wendy Hiller, English film and stage actress, with varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. She acted as Russian Princess Dragomiroff in Murder on the Orient Express film (1974), the version with Albert Finney as the Hercule Poirot. The movie is based on Agatha Christie's famous detective novel 1934 of the same name.
1925 - Aldo Ciccolini, Italian-French pianist, a celebrated interpreter and advocate of the piano music of the French composers Camille Saint-Saëns, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Erik Satie. He was known for playing the music of the Spanish composers Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla, as well as of Franz Liszt.
1928 - Nicolas Roeg CBE, BSC (born Nicolas Jack Roeg), English film director and cinematographer. Making his directorial debut 23 years after his entry into the film business, Roeg quickly became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterized by the use of disjointed and disorienting editing. He is considered a highly influential filmmaker, with directors Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, and Danny Boyle. In 1999, the British Film Institute acknowledged Roeg's importance in the British film industry by respectively naming Don't Look Now and Performance the 8th and 48th greatest British films of all time in its Top 100 British films poll.
1950 - Anne, Princess Royal, KG, KT, GCVO, GCStJ, QSO, CD is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. British equestrian. Princess Anne is known for her charitable work and is a patron of over 200 organisations. She is also known for her equestrian talents; she won two silver medals (1975) and one gold medal (1971) at the European Eventing Championships and she is the first member of the British royal family to have competed in the Olympic Games. She was married to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973; divorced in 1992. They have two children and four grandchildren. In 1992, within months of her divorce, Anne married Commander (now Vice Admiral) Sir Timothy Laurence, whom she had met while he served as her mother's equerry between 1986 and 1989. Since 2012, she has held the rank of Admiral and Chief Commandant of Women in the Royal Navy. ('Princess Anne: The Daughter Who Should Be Queen' - 2020 Documentary. Updated by laduchesse. Accessed May 20, 2020. Princess Anne: The Real Story of the Hardest-Working Royal. Uploaded by The Royal Family Channel. Accessed August 15, 2025.)
1972 - Ben Affleck (born Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt), American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Affleck gained wider recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Good Will Hunting, which they also starred in. He then established himself as a leading man in studio films.
Lefties:
None known
More birthdays today, 15 August - On This Day.
Featuring: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Composer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (August 15, 1875 - September 1, 1912), was an English composer and conductor who was mixed-race, with an English mother, and father, a Sierra Leone Creole physician. He achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" the time when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s. He was best known for his three cantatas based on the epic poem, "Song of Hiawatha" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coleridge-Taylor premiered the first section in 1898, at the age of 22. He married an Englishwoman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers. Their son Hiawatha adapted his father's music for a variety of performances, and their daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor also became a composer-conductor. (Further suggested listening: A Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Tribute. A short tribute to the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) with contributions from his daughter, Avril Coleridge-Taylor (recorded in 1974), and excerpts from Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast, The Death of Minnehaha and the Violin Concerto, Op.80.)
1843 - Tivoli Gardens opens in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.
1877 - The first sound recording is made when Thomas Edison says, "Mary had a little lamb" into his phonograph.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (August 15, 1875 - September 1, 1912), was an English composer and conductor who was mixed-race, with an English mother, and father, a Sierra Leone Creole physician. He achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" the time when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s. He was best known for his three cantatas based on the epic poem, "Song of Hiawatha" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coleridge-Taylor premiered the first section in 1898, at the age of 22. He married an Englishwoman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers. Their son Hiawatha adapted his father's music for a variety of performances, and their daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor also became a composer-conductor. (Further suggested listening: A Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Tribute. A short tribute to the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) with contributions from his daughter, Avril Coleridge-Taylor (recorded in 1974), and excerpts from Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast, The Death of Minnehaha and the Violin Concerto, Op.80.)
Historical Events
1843 - Tivoli Gardens opens in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.
1877 - The first sound recording is made when Thomas Edison says, "Mary had a little lamb" into his phonograph.
