August 18 Dateline

Birthdays

1750 - Antonio Salieri, Italian opera composer, accused of trying to poison his rival, the younger Wolfgang Mozart, but likely untrue. Pushkin wrote a drama based on this rumour, which composer Rimsky-Korsakov set to music. (And there's the famous Peter Shaffer's film, Amadeus, winner of eight 1984 Academy Awards.) Listen to Salieri's Requiem - here.

1936 - Robert Redford (born Charles Robert Redford Jr., American actor and director, best known for his many Hollywood films. Over his more than 60 year career, he has won several film awards, including an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2002. He is also the founder of the Sundance Film Festival. In April 2014, Time magazine included Redford in their annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World", declaring him the "Godfather of Indie Film". In 2016, he was honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1952 - Patrick Swayze (born Patrick Wayne Swayze), American actor, dancer, singer, and songwriter. He became popular for playing tough and romantic male leads. He was named by People magazine as its Sexiest Man Alive in 1991. Swayze received three Golden Globe Award nominations, for Dirty Dancing, Ghost, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. He wrote and recorded the popular song "She's Like the Wind" and was posthumously awarded the Rolex Dance Award in 2012.

1969 - Christian Slater (born Christian Michael Leonard Slater, American actor, voice actor, and producer. He made his film debut with a leading role in The Legend of Billie Jean and gained wider recognition as Jason "J.D." Dean, a sociopathic high school student, in the satire Heathers. He has received critical acclaim for his title-role in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), for which he earned the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film in 2016, with additional nominations in 2017 and 2018.

Lefties:
Actor and director Robert Redford
Christian Slater, actor

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 18 August - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1887 - A "manifesto" in which five young novelists fiercely critique Emile Zola's novel La Terre is published in Le Figaro.

1946 - John Henry Antill's suite from the ballet Corroboree is given its premiere by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sir Eugene Goossens conducting.

August 17 Dateline

Birthdays

1878 - Oliver St. John Gogarty, Irish poet, author and physician (otolaryngologist), Athlete and Politician, and well-known Conversationalist. He served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses.

1879 - Samuel Goldwyn, also known as Samuel Goldfish, (birth sometimes given as c. July, 1879), Polish-American Film producer. He was most well known for being the founding contributor and executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood. His awards include the 1973 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1947, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1958.

1893 - Mae West (born Mary Jane West), American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter, comedian, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades.

1920 - Maureen O'Hara (born Maureen FitzSimons), Irish-born actress and singer. She was a famous redhead who was known for playing passionate, but sensible heroines, often in westerns and adventure films.

1930 - Ted Hughes, OM OBE FRSL (born Edward James Hughes), English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation, and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers.

1943 - Robert De Niro (Robert Anthony De Niro Jr.), American actor, producer, and director who holds both American and Italian citizenship. He is particularly known for his collaborations with filmmaker Martin Scorsese.

1958 - Belinda Carlisle (born Belinda Go Carlisle), American singer, musician, and author. She gained worldwide fame as the lead singer of the Go-Go's, one of the most successful all-female bands in history, and went on to have a prolific career as a solo artist. 

1960 - Sean Penn (born Sean Justin Penn), American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama Mystic River and the biopic Milk. In addition to his film work, Penn has engaged in political and social activism

1963 - James Whitbourn, British composer and conductor, whose "Son of God Mass" has had many performances. In 2005, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the Choir of Clare College Cambridge, under Leonard Slatkin, premiered Annelies, his largest choral work, a setting of the Diary of Anne Frank, Cadogan Hall in London to wide acclaim. The work was later re-scored, premiered in The Netherlands on Anne Frank's 80th birthday by the British violinist Daniel Hope and the American soprano Arianna Zukerman. Annelies, Kyrie -- Sinfonia. YouTube, uploaded by violinist Daniel Kurganov. Various artists. Accessed August 17, 2018. This first major choral setting of The Diary of Anne Frank takes the teenager's remarkable and penetrating observations, written whilst hiding in an Amsterdam attic, as the basis of this libretto. His work has been described as 'woundingly beautiful' by the The Daily Telegraph.

1970 - Jim Courier (born James Spencer Courier), American former world No. 1 professional tennis player. He has been a commentator on the Australian Open for the host broadcaster, the Seven Network, and now the Nine Network. He is also an analyst for Tennis Channel. During his career, he won four Grand Slam singles titles, two at the French Open and two at the Australian Open. He holds the record for being the youngest man to have reached the finals of all four Grand Slam singles tournaments, at the age of 22 years and 11 months. He also won five Masters 1000 series titles. Until Novak Djokovic in 2016, Courier was the last man to win both the Australian and French Open titles in the same calendar year.

Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 17 August - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1876 - Richard Wagner's opera Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) is first performed as part of the first complete performance of the Ring, at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in Bayreuth, Germany. Götterdämmerung is the last in Wagner's cycle of four music dramas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, or The Ring for short).

1896 - Mrs. Bridget Driscoll (44 years old), becomes Britain's first pedestrian to be killed by a car. She froze in shock and suffered a fatal head injury as she fell.