October 21 Dateline

Famous Birthday

1772 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English critic, poet, philosopher and theologian, a friend of William Shakespeare, best known for poems "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." (A look at the life of S.T. Coleridge, YouTube, uploaded by Heather Barton. Accessed October 21, 2018. And here's Coleridge's famous poem "Kublai Khan" discussed, a history behind this one of the most popular poems of the Romantic era. YouTube, uploaded by Bookworm History. Accessed October 21, 2018.)

1833 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist, engineer, founder of Nobel Prize, inventor and philanthropist. (Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize. Uploaded by Nobel Prize Museum. Accessed October 21, 2018)

1879 - Joseph Canteloube, Fench opera composer and pianist (Soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa interprets Canteloube's 'Chants' d'Auvergne - Baïlèro' with Julian Reynolds conducting. YouTube, uploaded by Coloraturissimo. Accessed October 21, 2018)

1912 - Sir Georg Solti, KBE (born György Stern), Hungarian-born British orchestral and operatic conductor, a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics, and being of Jewish background he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the WWII, and earned a living as a pianist. He was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The most famous of his recordings is probably Decca's complete set of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Solti's Ring has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBC's Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was honoured by the recording industry with awards throughout his career, including a record 31 Grammy Awards as a recording artist. (Sir Georg Solti / Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Mozart Symphony No.39 - I Adagio -- Allegro. YouTube, uploaded by ICA Classics. Accessed October 21, 2026.)

 
1921 - Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold CBE, English composer, conductor, and trumpet player. He composed the famous film score Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Academy Award. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films. 

1949 - Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, Israeli politician serving as Prime Minister of Israel since 2009, and previously from 1996 to 1999. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history and the first to be born in Israel after the establishment of the state.

1956 - Carrie Frances Fisher, American actress, writer, and comedienne. Fisher played Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, a role for which she was nominated for four Saturn Awards and her other film credits include Shampoo, The Blues Brothers, Hannah and Her Sisters, The 'Burbs, When Harry Met Sally..., Soapdish, and The Women. Fisher was nominated twice for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performances on the television series 30 Rock and Catastrophe. She was posthumously made a Disney Legend in 2017, and in 2018 she was awarded a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

1957 - Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research has focused on experiments that trap and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero, and he led one of the first groups to realize Bose–Einstein condensation in these systems in 1995. For this achievement, as well as early fundamental studies of condensates, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001, together with Eric Allin Cornell and Carl Wieman.

 
Leftie:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

 

More birthdays and historical events, October 21 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1805 - Admiral Lord Nelson leads the British Royal Navy to defeat the French and Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar.

1858 - Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in Hades is first performed at Bouffes-Parisiens, in Paris. (Overture of Orpheus in Hades, conducted by Arthur Fiedler with the Boston Pops Orchestra  in 1956.) 

October 20 Dateline

Birthdays

1632 - Sir Christopher Wren, British architect. As well as London's famous St. Paul's Cathedral, C Wren designed the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Library at Trinity college, Cambridge, and more than 50 other churches and secular buildings. He is buried under the words: "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" - translated in English to mean "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you."

1854 - Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, influential on modern literature and arts which prefigured surrealism. During his late adolescence and early adulthood he produced the bulk of his literary output, then completely stopped writing literature at the age of 20, after assembling his last major work, Illuminations. Rimbaud was known to have been a libertine and a restless soul, having engaged in a hectic, at-times-violent romantic relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, which lasted nearly two years. After his retirement, he traveled extensively as a merchant and explorer, until his death from cancer just after his thirty-seventh birthday. As a poet, Rimbaud is known for his contributions to symbolism and, among other works, for A Season in Hell, a precursor to modernist literature.

1859 - John Dewey, American philosopher and educational theorist, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. The overriding theme of Dewey's works was his profound belief in democracy, be it in politics, education, or communication and journalism. He considered two fundamental elements—schools and civil society. He asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by communication among citizens, experts, and politicians, with the latter being accountable for the policies they adopt. Dewey was one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the fathers of functional psychology.

1874 - Charles Edward Ives, American modernist composer, noted for experimental techniques, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early life. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized, and he came to be regarded as an "American original". He was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. His experimentation foreshadowed many musical innovations that were later more widely adopted during the 20th century, hence, he is often regarded as the 20th century leading American composer of art music. Sources of Ives' tonal imagery included hymn tunes and traditional songs. He also incorporated melodies of the town band at holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster. (The Best of Charles Ives. YouTube, uploaded by ClassicalMusic11. Accessed October 20, 2018.)

1931 - Lauris Margaret Elms, AM OBE, Australian retired contralto, renowned for her roles in opera and lieder and as a recording artist. She toured Israel in 1958 for the 10th anniversary of the State of Israel, appearing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in nine performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Rafael Kubelík. In 1958 she married Graeme de Graaff, and they have one daughter, the clarinetist Deborah de Graaff. In 2001 she published her autobiography "The Singing Elms: the autobiography of Lauris Elms". Lauris Elm debuted at Covent Garden, in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera (1957) and became principal resident artist there. She appeared with leading Australian companies and is renowned for portrayal of Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore. She toured Australia with Joan Sutherland (1965) and appeared at the opening of Sydney Opera House (1973). She made many acclaimed recordings and frequent radio broadcasts and gave regular lieder recitals with pianist Geoffrey Parsons. (The Glory of the Human Voice The Contralto Lauris Elms Great Australian Contralto. YouTube, uploaded by Virtutis Studio Productions; Lauris Elms - "Softly Awakes My Heart" Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saëns ) 1961, uploaded by Brian Castles-Onion;   Lauris Elms sings Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288. Accessed October 20, 2020.)

 
Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events, October 20 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

 

This day 20 October 1973.  Australia's iconic landmark, the Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, is formally opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  The opening was celebrated with fireworks and a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

 

The Sydney Opera House, click the link to join the celebration!

1714 - George I is crowned in Westminster Abbey - the first of the Hanoverian kings.

1827 - The Battle of Navarino ends the Greek Liberation War, marking the beginning of Modern Greece.