April 14 Dateline

Birthdays

1578 - King Phillip III of Spain (Spanish: Felipe), (Spanish: Felipe), also as Philip II, King of Portugal, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia and Duke of Milan from 1598 until his death in 1621. A member of the House of Habsburg, Philip III was born in Madrid to King Philip II of Spain and his fourth wife and niece Anna, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain. Philip III later married his cousin Margaret of Austria, sister of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. As the ruler of the Spanish Empire at its height and as the king who achieved a temporary peace with the Dutch (1609–1621) and brought Spain into the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) through an (initially) extremely successful campaign, Philip's reign remains a critical period in Spanish history.

1904 - Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH, English actor and theatre director. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art he worked in repertory theatre and in the West End before establishing himself at the Old Vic as an exponent of Shakespeare in 1929–31.

1925 - Rod Steiger (born Rodney Stephen Steiger), American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. Cited as "one of Hollywood's most charismatic and dynamic stars," he is associated with the art of method acting, embodying the characters he played. He starred as Marlon Brando's mobster brother Charley in On the Waterfront, the title character Sol Nazerman in The Pawnbroker, and as police chief Bill Gillespie opposite Sidney Poitier in the film In the Heat of the Night, which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.(scene from In the Heat of the Night. Uploaded by Eugenio de Olivares. Accessed April 15, 2019.)

1933 -  Shani Wallis, English-born American actress and singer of theatre, television and film, in both her native United Kingdom and in the United States. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the West End, and especially for the wonderful and moving role of Nancy in the 1968 Oscar-winning film musical Oliver!. (Oliver! Shani Wallis Interview - Nancy. www.dailymotion.com. Accessed February 6, 2020. Shani Wallis acted and sang this song beautifully - "As long as he needs me" from the 1968 Oscar-winning film Oliver!. Uploaded Jesse Braganza. Accessed April 14, 2016.)

1940 - Loretta Lynn ( (née Webb), American country music singer-songwriter. Lynn has released multiple gold albums. She is famous for hits such as "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)", "Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)", "One's on the Way", "Fist City" and "Coal Miner's Daughter" along with the 1980 biographical film of the same name. Lynn has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking role in country music. She has been nominated 18 times for a Grammy Award, and has won 3 times. Lynn is the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade (1970s). Lynn has scored 24 No. 1 hit singles and 11 number one albums.

1942 - Valentin Vitalyevich Lebedev, Soviet cosmonaut who made two flights into space. His stay aboard the Space Station Salyut 7 with Anatoly Berezovoy in 1982, which lasted 211 days, was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. Since 1989 Lebedev has dedicated himself to scientific work. In 1991 he started the Scientific Geoinformation Center of the Russian Academy of Science. He continues as that Center's Director through the present day. Lebedev is a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation.

1944 - Takako Nishizaki, BBS, Japanese violinist. She was the first student to complete the Suzuki Method course, at age nine. She went to the U.S. in 1962, where she first studied at Yale University, and later at Juilliard. In 1964, she was a runner-up in the Leventritt Competition, in which Itzhak Perlman won first prize. In 1966, she was awarded Juilliard's Fritz Kreisler Scholarship. In 1969, she won first prize in the Juilliard Concerto Competition performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. Her recordings by Naxos Records of famous violin concertos are highly ranked by The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music. She has performed and recorded with prominent pianists, and has performed in a number of chamber music ensembles. She was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star in 2003 for her work in classical music and charity.

 

Leftie:

Actor Rod Steiger 

Death:

Composer George F. Handel, February 14, 1759.  

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 14 April - On This Day.
 

 

Below is a video of the celebration concert on the occasion of Handel's 250th death anniversary, dedicated to the work of one of this greatest Baroque composers most famous for Messiah and Zadok the Priest. The concert took place in 2009 at the Marktkirche in Halle/Germany.  YouTube, uploaded by DW Classical Music. Accessed April 14, 2023.

 

 

Historical Events

1759 - G. F. Handel dies in London, aged 74. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. 

1828 - The first edition of Noah Webster's Dictionary of the English Language is copyrighted.

1865 - Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth, and dies in hospital the next day.

April 13 Dateline

Birthdays

1743 - Thomas Jefferson, American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, and philosopher. Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He previously served as the second vice president of the United States from 1797 to 1801.

1808 -  Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci, an Italian inventor and an associate of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Meucci. He is best known for developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone.

1901 - Jacques Marie Émile Lacan, French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". His work has made a significant impact on continental philosophy and cultural theory in areas such as post-structuralism, critical theory, feminist theory and film theory, and on psychoanalysis itself. Introducing controversial innovations in clinical practice led to his expulsion and his followers from the International Psychoanalytic Association. One of his most notable book is The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis.

1906 - Samuel Beckett, Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life. Nobel Prize in Literature 1969. Beckett Quote: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." 

1909 - Eudora Alice Welty, American short story writer, novelist, and photographer. She wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi, has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum.

1923 - Don Adams, (born Donald James Yarmy), American actor, comedian and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) in the television situation comedy Get Smart (1965–70, 1995), which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his performance in the series. He also provided the voices for the animated series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and Inspector Gadget as well as several revivals and spinoffs of the latter in the 1990s.

1939 - Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA, Irish poet, playwright, and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist, his first major published volume. Heaney is recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland during his lifetime. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age".  Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." 

 
1963 - Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein), Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist and commentator. From 1984 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 255 months overall for his career. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).

Lefties:
Author Samuel Beckett
Author Eudora Welty 

More birthdays and historical events today, 13 April - On This Day.
 

Historical Events

1742 - G.F. Handel's oratorio Messiah is first performed, in Dublin. It's been a carried-over custom of the audience standing during the "Hallelujah Chorus" for whatever reason transpired during its first London performance. And who won't be carried away by its grandeur! It's a tradition that our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs perform it every other year at the Sydney Opera House. Last year, 2017, our performance was conducted by Elizabeth Scott, the first woman-conductor to do so at the SOH.  Here's a link to Handel's Messiah performed by our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in 2015, for the first time incorporating the AUSLAN Sign Language.)

1829 - Roman Catholics are granted freedom to practice their religion in Britain.

1873 - More than 100 African Americans are killed in what is known as the Colefax Massacre, when more than 300 armed white men clash with militant African Americans over the outcome of a local election in Louisiana.