August 16 Dateline

Birthdays

 

1619 - Barbara Strozzi (also called Barbara Valle; baptised 6 August 1619), Italian composer and singer of the Baroque Period. During her lifetime, Strozzi published eight volumes of her own music, and had more music in print than any other composer of the era. This was achieved without any support from the Church and with no consistent patronage from the nobility. Her life and career have been overshadowed by the claims of her being a courtesan, which cannot be completely confirmed as at the time female music making was often assumed to be an intellectual asset of a courtesan. (Barbara Strozzi, Che si puo Fare, Mariana Flores. YouTube, uploaded by Cappella Meditteranea. The aria “Che si può fare?”  translation to English, by Christ DiMatteo. Accessed July 1, 2021.)

 

1888 - Lawrence of Arabia (born Thomas Edward (T.E.) Lawrence), British archaeologist, diplomat, linguist, writer, soldier, pilot and adviser to young Winston Churchill. At the age of 46, he dies in a motorcycle accident and buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

1901 - Olav Kielland, Norwegian conductor and composer.

1923 - Shimon Peres (born Szymon Perski), Israeli politician, the ninth President of Israel (2007–2014), the prime minister of Israel (twice), and the interim prime minister, in the 1970s to the 1990s. Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. He was a member of twelve cabinets and represented five political parties in a political career spanning 70 years. At the time of his retirement in 2014, he was the world's oldest head of state and was considered the last link to Israel's founding generation. 

1928 - Ann Blyth, American actress and singer (Some of her famous films include musicals:  Kismet, "And This is My Beloved", based on music by Alexander Borodin and Student Prince, "Come Boys, Let's All Be Gay, Boys" music by Sigmund Romberg.)

1929 - Bill Evans (born William John Evans), American jazz pianist and composer. He mostly played in trios. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, block chords, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continue to influence jazz pianists today.

1940 - Bruce Beresford, Australian film director. He has made more than 30 feature films over a 50-year career. Notable films he has directed include Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies, Crimes of the Heart and Driving Miss Daisy.

 
1946 - Lesley Ann Warren, American actress and singer. She received wide recognition for her role in the TV musical production of Cinderella. She later starred in the Disney musical films. Warren received a Golden Globe nomination for playing Dana Lambert in the CBS drama series Mission: Impossible (1970–71). In 1978, she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for the NBC miniseries Harold Robbins' 79 Park Avenue. Warren was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Norma Cassidy in Victor/Victoria. She also received two additional Golden Globe nominations for Songwriter and Family of Spies.  

 

1954 - James (Frances) Cameron, Canadian filmmaker and environmentalist. He is best known for making science fiction and epic films. He gained recognition for directing The Terminator. His other big-budget productions include Titanic and Avatar, with the former earning him Academy Awards in Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing. Avatar, filmed in 3D technology, also garnered him nominations in the same categories.

1958 - Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone), American singer-songwriter, actress, author, and record executive. Having been referred to as the "Queen of Pop" since the 1980s, she is regarded as one of the most impactful figures in popular culture. Madonna is noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, and visual presentation.

1960 - Timothy (Tarquin) Hutton, American actor and film director. American actor and director. He is the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at age 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People.

Leftie:

Film director James Cameron

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 16 August - On This Day.

Historical Events

1868 - An earthquake of density 8.5 occurs off the coast of Arica, Peru, creating a tsunami that kills up to 70,000 South Americans.

1876 - Richard Wagner's opera Siegfried is first staged  at Bayreuth, Germany. Hans Richter conducting.  

August 15 Dateline

Birthdays

1771 - Sir Walter Scott, Scottish poet and novelist  (A brief profile, YouTube, uploaded from World Thought Leaders / Top Influencers. Accessed 15 August 2018.) Here is one of Sir Walter Scott's famous works: The Lady of the Lake, YoutTube, uploaded by Eric Masters. Accessed 15 August 2018.)

1772 - Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, German engineer, showman, and inventor. He is best known for manufacturing a metronome and several music automatons, and displaying a fraudulent chess machine. He worked with Beethoven to compose a piece.

1769 - Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor, statesman and military leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was the first Emperor of France as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again in 1815 during the Hundred Days.  He revolutionised military organization and training, sponsored the Napoleonic Code, reorganized education and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy.  (Napoleon's Masterpiece: Austerlitz 1805. Uploaded by Epic History TV. Accessed August 15, 2019.

1785 - Thomas De Quincey, English essayist, best known for Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. Many scholars suggest that in publishing this work De Quincey inaugurated the tradition of addiction literature in the West.

1875 - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, English composer and conductor of mixed race; his mother was an English woman and his father was a Sierra Leone Creole physician. He was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s. He was best known for his three cantatas on the epic poem, Song of Hiawatha by American Henry W. Longfellow. He premiered the first section in 1898, when he was 22. He married an Englishwoman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers. Their son Hiawatha adapted his father's music for a variety of performances. Their daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor became a composer-conductor.

1890 - Jacques Ibert (born Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert), French composer of classical music and former director of the Academy of Rome. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I. His final musical appointment was in charge of the Paris Opera and the Opéra-Comique.

1912 - Dame Wendy Hiller, English film and stage actress, with varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. She acted as Russian Princess Dragomiroff  in Murder on the Orient Express film (1974), the version with Albert Finney as the Hercule Poirot. The movie is based on Agatha Christie's famous detective novel 1934 of the same name.   

1925 - Aldo Ciccolini, Italian-French pianist, a celebrated interpreter and advocate of the piano music of the French composers Camille Saint-Saëns, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Erik Satie. He was known for playing the music of the Spanish composers Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla, as well as of Franz Liszt.

 
1928 - Nicolas Roeg CBE, BSC (born Nicolas Jack Roeg), English film director and cinematographer. Making his directorial debut 23 years after his entry into the film business, Roeg quickly became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterized by the use of disjointed and disorienting editing. He is considered a highly influential filmmaker, with directors Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, and Danny Boyle. In 1999, the British Film Institute acknowledged Roeg's importance in the British film industry by respectively naming Don't Look Now and Performance the 8th and 48th greatest British films of all time in its Top 100 British films poll.

1950 - Anne, Princess Royal, KG, KT, GCVO, GCStJ, QSO, CD is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. British equestrian. Princess Anne is known for her charitable work and is a patron of over 200 organisations. She is also known for her equestrian talents; she won two silver medals (1975) and one gold medal (1971) at the European Eventing Championships and she is the first member of the British royal family to have competed in the Olympic Games. She was married to Captain Mark Phillips in 1973; divorced in 1992. They have two children and four grandchildren. In 1992, within months of her divorce, Anne married Commander (now Vice Admiral) Sir Timothy Laurence, whom she had met while he served as her mother's equerry between 1986 and 1989. Since 2012, she has held the rank of Admiral and Chief Commandant of Women in the Royal Navy. ('Princess Anne: The Daughter Who Should Be Queen' - 2020 Documentary. Updated by laduchesse. Accessed May 20, 2020. Princess Anne: The Real Story of the Hardest-Working Royal. Uploaded by The Royal Family Channel. Accessed August 15, 2025.)

1972 - Ben Affleck (born Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt), American actor and filmmaker. His accolades include two Academy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Affleck gained wider recognition when he and childhood friend Matt Damon won the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for writing Good Will Hunting, which they also starred in. He then established himself as a leading man in studio films.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays today, 15 August - On This Day.
 

 

Featuring: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Composer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (August 15, 1875 - September 1, 1912), was an English composer and conductor who was mixed-race, with an English mother, and father, a Sierra Leone Creole physician. He achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the "African Mahler" the time when he had three tours of the United States in the early 1900s. He was best known for his three cantatas based on the epic poem, "Song of Hiawatha" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Coleridge-Taylor premiered the first section in 1898, at the age of 22.  He married an Englishwoman, Jessie Walmisley, and both their children had musical careers. Their son Hiawatha adapted his father's music for a variety of performances, and their daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor also became a composer-conductor. (Further suggested listening: A Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Tribute. A short tribute to the English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) with contributions from his daughter, Avril Coleridge-Taylor (recorded in 1974), and excerpts from Hiawatha's Wedding-Feast, The Death of Minnehaha and the Violin Concerto, Op.80.) 

Historical Events

1843 - Tivoli Gardens opens in Copenhagen, Denmark. It's one of the oldest amusement parks in the world.

1877 - The first sound recording is made when Thomas Edison says, "Mary had a little lamb" into his phonograph.