October 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1803 - Caroline Unger, Hungarian contralto. She turned the deaf Beethoven's head around to hear applause at the performance of his famous Ninth Symphony.

1903 - Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh, English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books, a prolific Journalist and book Reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires Decline and Fall and A Handful of Dust, the novel Brideshead Revisited, and the Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour. Waugh s recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century. Waugh converted to Catholicism in 1930 after his first marriage failed. His traditionalist stance led him to strongly oppose all attempts to reform the Church, and the changes by the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) greatly disturbed his sensibilities, especially the introduction of the vernacular Mass. That blow to his religious traditionalism, his dislike for the welfare state culture of the postwar world, and the decline of his health all darkened his final years, but he continued to write. He displayed to the world a mask of indifference, but he was capable of great kindness to those whom he considered his friends. After his death, he acquired a following of new readers through the film and television versions of his works, such as the television serial Brideshead Revisited (1981). (Evelyn Waugh Face to Face BBC Interview. Uploaded by george harris. Accessed October 28, 2017.)

1907 - Edith Head, American costume designer. She won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973. She started her career as a Spanish teacher, but was interested in design. After studying at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, she was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in 1923. She won acclaim for her design of Dorothy Lamour’s trademark sarong in the film The Jungle Princess, and became a household name after the Academy Award for Best Costume Design was created in 1948. Head was considered exceptional for her close working relationships with her subjects, with whom she consulted extensively; these included virtually every top female star in Hollywood.She worked at Paramount for 44 years. In 1967, the company declined to renew her contract, and she was invited by Alfred Hitchcock to join Universal Pictures where she earned her eighth and final Academy Award for her work on the famous The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

1909 - Francis Bacon - Irish-born English figurative painter known for his raw, unsettling imagery. Focusing on the human form, his subjects included crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-portraits, and portraits of close friends, with abstracted figures sometimes isolated in geometrical structures. He rejected various classifications of his work and claimed that he strove to render "the brutality of fact." 

 

1927 -  Dame Cleo Laine DBE, English jazz and pop singer and an actress, known for her scat singing and for her vocal range. Though her natural range is that of a contralto, she is able to produce a G above high C, giving her an overall compass of well over three octaves. (Cleo Laine with John Williams (guitar) - He was beautiful (Cavatina). Uploaded by Betaman31252. Accessed May 11, 2021. Cleo Laine - Not a Day Goes By. YouTube, uploaded by pbamse. Accessed June 25, 2022.)

1955 - Bill Gates (William Henry Gates III) - American principal founder/pioneer of Microsoft, business magnate / entrepreneur, philanthropist, author. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of Chairman, CEO and Chief Software Architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.(Bill Gates Breaks Down 6 Moments from his Life / WIRED. Uploaded by WIRED. Accessed October 28, 2019.)

1967 - Julia Roberts, American actress and producer. She established herself as a leading lady in Hollywood after headlining the romantic comedy film Pretty Woman, which grossed $464 million worldwide. She has won three Golden Globe Awards, from eight nominations, and has been nominated for four Academy Awards for her film acting, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Erin Brockovich. Roberts was the highest-paid actress in the world throughout most of the 1990s and in the first half of the 2000s. People magazine has named her the most beautiful woman in the world a record five times.

Lefties:
Bill Gates

Julia Roberts - In the film "Erin Brockovich" lefty Julia Roberts played in the character role of Erin Brockovich-Ellis who is right-handed. Julia had to learn how to use her right hand, naturally. She obviously did very well. She won the Oscar for Best Actress, didn't she?

More birthdays and historical events, October 28 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1636 - Harvard University is founded with a bequest from John Harvard, an English-born Puritan. It is the oldest univeristy in the U.S.

1893 - Tchaikovsky conducts the first performance of his Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique," in St. Petersburg, nine days before his death. It's his final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The music lasts for 45 minutes in four movements. Tchaikovsky dedicated it to his nephew Vladimir Davidov. This symphony might be about death, but he considered: "the best thing I have composed"; indeed, for any lover of the composer's music, it is deeply engaging, so full of confidence and energy.  

1948 - Swiss chemist Paul Mueller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

October 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1728 - Captain James Cook, FRS, British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Most modern references note James Cook’s date of birth as 27th of October 1728, which is the Julian calendar date, and for those who believe the correct date is 7th of November 1728, this is the Gregorian calendar date.

1782 - Niccolo Paganini,  Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, a towering figure who left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions, and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.(The Best of Paganini. Uploaded by Top Classical Music. Accessed October 27, 2014. Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1, beautifully interpreted by young Korean violinist In Mo Yang. Uploaded by SoundProfessional Boston. Accessed October 17, 2016. 

 
1858 - Theodore Roosevelt Jr, 26th U.S. President from 1901 to 1909, referred to as Teddy Roosevelt or his initials T. R., American statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian and writer. He previously served as 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900 and the 25th vice president of the United States from March to September 1901. Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for the anti-trust policy while supporting Progressive Era policies in the early 20th century. His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.

1872 - Emily Post, American author and socialite famous for writing about etiquette, on how to behave graciously in society and business. She wrote in various styles, including humorous travel books. She published her first etiquette book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home (1922, frequently referenced as Etiquette) when she was 50;  it became a best-seller, with updated versions continued to be popular for decades, and it made her career. After 1931, Post spoke on radio programs and wrote a column on good taste for the Bell Syndicate. It appeared daily in some 200 newspapers after 1932. In 1946, Post founded The Emily Post Institute, which continues her work.

1914 - Dylan Thomas (born Dylan Marlais Thomas), Welsh poet and playwright whose works include the poems "Do not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" and "And Death Shall Have No Dominion"; the 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. One of his most famous and best-loved poems, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a villanelle, a poem divided into three-line stanzas where the same two repeated lines of verse comprise the last line of each alternating stanza. 

 
1923 - Roy Fox Lichtenstein, American pop artist. Along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting".

1932 - Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England. They had two children, before separating in 1962. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times. She died by suicide in 1963. Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry, best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel, and a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, published shortly before her death. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. (Sylvia Plath Interview. YouTube, uploaded by nagusd. Accessed October 27, 2013.)

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, October 27 - On This Day

Historical Events

1886 - The Night on Bald Mountain of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky is first performed posthumously in St. Petersburg. It is re-orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov.

1904 - One of the biggest subway lines in the world, and the biggest in the U.S., opens in New York.