August 1 Dateline

Birthdays

1815 - Richard Henry Dana Jr, American lawyer and politician, a descendant of a colonial family from Massachusetts. He gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir Two Years Before the Mast. Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves and freedmen.

1936 - Yves Saint Laurent (born Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent), French fashion designer who founded his eponymous fashion label in 1961. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers in the twentieth century. In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its 1960s ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable." He was able to adapt his style to accommodate the changes in fashion during that period. He approached fashion in a different perspective by wanting women to look comfortable yet elegant at the same time. He is also credited with having introduced the tuxedo suit for women and was known for his use of non-European cultural references, and non-white models.

1953 - Robert William Cray, American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards. He records and tours. He appeared at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, and supported Eric Clapton on his 2006-2007 world tour. In Fargo, North Dakota, he joined Clapton on backup guitar for the Cream song "Crossroads". In 2011, Cray was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame and received the Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance in 2017.

Lefties:
None known.

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 1 August - On This Day.

Historical Events

1740 - Thomas Arne's masque Alfred, the finale of which contains the famous "Rule Britannia," is first produced, at Cliveden, England.

Alfred is a sung stage work about Alfred the Great. The music, composed by Thomas Arne and a libretto by David Mallet and James Thomson, is an opera in three acts initially devised as a masque in 1740. It was first performed at Cliveden, country home of Frederick, Prince of Wales, this day (1740), to commemorate the accession of George I and the birthday of the Princess Augusta. Thomas Arne later revised it into an all-sung oratorio in 1745, and an opera in May 12, 1753. It is best known for its finale "Rule, Britannia!" (sung by mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly, conducted by David Robertson). The video below is  Overture of Alfred. Performed by Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.



1798 - British Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson wins over the Battle of the Nile. One of the French ships destroyed is Napoleon's flagship L'Orient. Nelson collects some of the timbers to have them made into his coffin. Famously known, he had to be pickled first in alcohol to keep him fresh for the trip home after Trafalgar.

1834 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire, including its North American colonies. 

July 31 Dateline

Birthdays

1912 - Milton Friedman, American economist, he received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the complexity of stabilization policy. He was among the intellectual leaders of the Chicago school of economics, a neoclassical school of economic thought associated with the work of the faculty that rejected Keynesianism in favor of monetarism until the mid-1970s. He was an advisor to Republican President Ronald Reagan and Conservative British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. His political philosophy extolled the virtues of a free market economic system with minimal intervention, based on rational expectations. 

1919 - Primo Levi (born Primo Michele Levi), Italian Jewish chemist, writer, and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, novels, collections of short stories, essays, and poems. His notable works include: The Periodic Table (short story collection) and If This Is a Man, and The Drowned and the Saved. (Primo Levi... Uploaded by Eranocento. Accessed July 31, 2018. An English translation has been provided by one of the commenters, Dan L.) 

1944 - Geraldine Chaplin, English-American actress. She is the daughter of Charlie Chaplin, the first of eight children with fourth wife Oona O'Neill. She made made her English-language acting debut (and came to prominence in what would be a Golden Globe-nominated role) in her portrayal of Tonya in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago. She made her Broadway acting debut in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes in 1967, and received her second Golden Globe nomination for Robert Altman's Nashville (1975). She played her grandmother Hannah Chaplin in the biopic, Chaplin (1992) for which she received her third Golden Globe nomination.

1951 - Barry Van Dyke, American actor and the second son of actor and entertainer Dick Van Dyke and Margie Willett, and nephew of Jerry Van Dyke. He has often worked with his father. He is best known to audiences as Lieutenant Detective Steve Sloan, a homicide detective and the son of Dr. Mark Sloan (played by Dick Van Dyke) on Diagnosis: Murder. 

1965 - J.K. Rowling, CH, OBE, HonFRSE, FRCPE, FRSL (born Joanne Rowling), British author writing under the pen names J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith. She is a novelist, philanthropist, film producer, television producer and screen writer, best known for writing the Harry Potter fantasy series. The books have won multiple awards, and sold more than 500 million copies, becoming the best-selling book series in history. They have also been the basis for a film series, over which she had overall approval on the scripts and a producer on the final films in the series.(J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement. Uploaded by Harvard Magazine. Accessed July 31, 2013.)

Leftie:
Actor Barry Van Dyke

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 31 July - On This Day.

 

In memoriam:  Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist who passed away this day in 1886. Here's Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6, interpreted by the piano child prodigy Martha Argerich in her younger years. A rather turbulent nevertheless splendid interpretation by her of one of Liszt's many rhapsodies, and her apparent getting carried away in the final octaves nearing the finale. Right, it seems that Martha can get the better of Martha. What an inspired performance! (In Munich, 1966)

Historical Events

1703 - Writer Daniel Defoe is out in pillory for publishing a satirical political pamphlet but instead of being thrown with rotten fruit and vegetables, flowers are thrown at him. He is famous for his classic novels Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe. 


1845 - The French Army successfully introduces the saxophone to its band. The saxophone was invented by a Belgian, Adolphe Sax, patented by him in 1846.