Birthdays
1763 - Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais (born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie), the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the first Empress of the French after he proclaimed himself Emperor. Her first husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais, was guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she was imprisoned in the Carmes Prison until five days after his execution. Her two children by Beauharnais became significant to royal lineage. Through her daughter, Hortense, she was the maternal grandmother of Napoleon III. Through her son, Eugène, she was the great-grandmother of later Swedish and Danish kings and queens. The reigning houses of Belgium, Norway and Luxembourg also descend from her. She did not bear Napoleon any children and as a result, he divorced her in 1810 to marry Marie Louise of Austria. Joséphine was the recipient of numerous love letters written by Napoleon, many of which still exist. Her Château de Malmaison was noted for its magnificent rose garden, which she supervised closely, owing to her passionate interest in roses, collected from all over the world.(Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais. Updated by KaiserineFrederick. Accessed June 23, 2019.)
1889 - Anna Andreyevna Gorenko, Leading Russian poet of 20th Century, better known by the pen name Anna Akhmatova. She was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in 1965 and received second-most nominations for the award the following year. Quoted from Anna Akhmatova: "Courage: Great Russian word, fit for the songs of our children's children, pure on their tongues, and free." (Requiem by Anna Akhmatova. Uploaded by A Poetry Channel. Accessed June 23, 2016.)
1894 - Edward VIII, later Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David), King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire, and Emperor of India, from 20 January 1936 until his abdication on 11 December of that year. When it became apparent he could not marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson and remain on the throne, he abdicated. He was succeeded by his younger brother, George VI, father of then Princess Elizabeth. With a reign of 326 days, Edward is the shortest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. After his abdication, Edward was created Duke of Windsor. He married Wallis in France on 3 June 1937, after her second divorce became final.
1894 - Alfred Charles Kinsey, American biologist, professor of entomology and zoology, and sexologist. In 1947 he founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, previously known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.
1910 - Jean Anouilh, French dramatist. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's Vichy government. It is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name by Sophocles. In English, it is often distinguished from its antecedent through its pronunciation (French pronunciation: [ɑ̃tiɡɔn], approximately an-tee-gon). One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining ntegrity in a world of moral compromise.
1912 - Alan Mathison Turing, OBE FRS, English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist. Turing was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, considered a model of a general-purpose computer. He is considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. Despite these accomplishments, he was never fully recognised in his home country during his lifetime, due to his homosexuality, which was then a crime in the UK. During the Second World War, Turing played a pivotal role in cracking intercepted coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many crucial engagements, including the Battle of the Atlantic, therefore, helped win the war. (Alan Turing - Celebrating the Life of a Genius. Uploaded by Cambridge University. Accessed June 23, 2013.)
1927 - Robert "Bob" Louis Fosse, American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sweet Charity, Pippin, and Chicago. His films include Sweet Charity, Cabaret, Lenny, All That Jazz, and Star 80. Fosse's distinctive style of choreography included turned-in knees and "jazz hands". He is the only person ever to have won Oscar, Emmy, and Tony awards in the same year. He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Director for Cabaret, and won the Palme D'Or in 1980 for All That Jazz. He won a record eight Tonys for his choreography, as well as one for direction for Pippin.
(All That Jazz (Bob Fosse Tribute - w/ scenes from Chicago, Cabaret and Sweet Charity. YouTube, uploaded by Eduardo Barauna. Accessed June 23, 2018. Movie stars: Catherine Zeta-Jones (Chicago), Liza Minnelli (Cabaret), and Sweet Charity (Shirley Maclaine).
1929 - Henri Pousseur, Belgian composer, teacher and music theorist. He is considered one of the experimenters of the new music techniques during his time. (Henri Pousseur, Rhymes for Different Sound Sources, 1958.
(French title: "Rimes pour differentes sources sonores"), performed in 1967 by The Rome Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bruno Maderna. Updated by Michael Berridge. Accessed June 23, 2015.)
1943 - James Lawrence Levine, American pianist and conductor, primarily known for his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, a position he held for 40 years.
Lefties:
None known
1943 - James Lawrence Levine, American pianist and conductor, primarily known for his tenure as Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, a position he held for 40 years.
Lefties:
None known
More birthdays and historical events today, 23 June - On This Day.
Historical Events
1757 - The Battle of Plassey takes place, part of the Seven Years' War. Robert Clive (known as "Clive of India") and his force is many times outnumbered, fighting the Nawab of Bengal and French artillerymen. Despite odds, Clive pulls off an amazing victory that helps to secure the British in India denying the French their claim.
1934 - Modern forensics is born. William Bayly is convicted of murder in New Zealand, based on traces of bone and ash. It is the first murder to be proved by modern forensics.
