April 6 Dateline

Birthdays

1660 - Johann Kuhnau, German polymath, composer, organist and theorist, who preceded JS Bach as cantor at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. He was also active as a novelist, translator, lawyer, and music theorist, and was able to combine these activities with his duties in his official post as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, which he occupied for 21 years. Much of his music, including operas, masses, and other large-scale vocal works, is lost. His reputation today rests on his Biblical Sonatas, a set of programmatic keyboard sonatas published in 1700, in which each sonata depicted in detail a particular story from the Bible. 

1890 - Anthony Fokker (Anton Herman Gerard Fokker), Dutch aviation pioneer, aviation entrepreneur, aircraft designer, and aircraft manufacturer. He is most famous for the fighter aircraft he produced in Germany during the First World War such as the Eindecker monoplanes, the Dr.1 triplane and the D.VII biplane. After the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to produce aircraft, Fokker moved his business to the Netherlands. There, his company was responsible for a variety of successful aircraft including the Fokker F.VII/3m trimotor, a successful passenger aircraft of the inter-war years. 
 

1892 - Lowell Jackson Thomas, American writer, actor, broadcaster, and traveler, whose lectures and articles help create the legend of "Lawrence of Arabia" and best remembered for publicising T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). He was also involved in promoting the Cinerama widescreen system. In 1954, he led a group of New York City-based investors to buy majority control of Hudson Valley Broadcasting, which, in 1957, became Capital Cities Television Corporation.

1928 - James Dewey Watson KBE, American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist. He co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Watson, Crick and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material". In subsequent years, it has been recognized that Watson and his colleagues did not properly attribute colleague Rosalind Franklin for her contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure.

1929 - Andre Previn, German-born and American conductor, pianist and composer of film-scores. Below is a video profiling Andre Previn. Uploaded by wpsu, accessed April 6, 2017. This profile was completed while he was the conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony.  He was honored at the 2005 Grammy awards.



Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events today, 6 April - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

648 B.C.E.  - First solar eclipse recorded by the ancient Greeks.

1895 - Oscar Wilde is arrested for the crime of homosexuality after losing a libel case to the Marquess of Queensbury. He is sentenced to two years and hard labour.

April 5 Dateline

Birthdays

1588 - Thomas Hobbes (Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury), English philosopher, considered one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book Leviathan, in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. In addition to political philosophy, Hobbes contributed to a diverse array of other fields, including history, jurisprudence, geometry, the physics of gases, theology, and ethics, as well as philosophy in general.

 

1784 - Louis Spohr (baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig) German composer, violinist and conductor. He composed ten symphonies, ten operas, eighteen violin concerti, four clarinet concerti, four oratorios, and various works for small ensemble, chamber music, and art songs. Spohr invented the violin chinrest and the orchestral rehearsal mark. His output occupies a pivotal position between Classicism and Romanticism. The late 20th century saw a revival of interest in his oeuvre, especially in Europe. (Ludwig Spohr's Symphony No. 1, Op. 20 (1811). Uploaded by Jose Ignacio H. Accessed April 5, 2018.)

1827 - Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, OM, PC, PRS, known between 1883 and 1897 as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., was a British Surgeon and a Pioneer of antiseptic surgery, considered "the father of anti-septic surgery". He promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. On the 12th of August 1865, Lister carried out the world's first antiseptic surgery. (Uploaded by HistoryPod. Accessed April 5, 2018.)

1856 -  Booker Taliaferro Washington, American educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African American community and of the contemporary black elite.Washington was from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. He was a key proponent of African-American businesses and one of the founders of the National Negro Business League.

1900 - Spencer Tracy (Spencer Bonaventure Tracy), American actor, one of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, known for his natural performing style and versatility. Tracy won two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Actor from nine nominations. Tracy became estranged from his wife in the 1930s, but the couple never divorced; he conducted a long-term relationship with Katharine Hepburn in private. Towards the end of his life, Tracy worked almost exclusively for director Stanley Kramer, with whom he made his last film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, completed just 17 days before he died. During his career, Tracy appeared in 75 films. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Tracy as the 9th greatest male star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

 

1908 - Herbert von Karajan, Austrian composer. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 35 years. Generally regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, he was a dominant figure in European classical music from the mid-1950s until his death. (Karajan & Berliner Philharmoniker - Rossini: Guillaume Tell: Ouvertüre (Excerpt) and Karajan conducting  Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40: Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung. Uploaded Deutsche Grammophon. Accessed April 5, 2026.)

1908 - Bette Davis (Ruth Elizabeth Davis), American actress with 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her performances in a range of various film genres, although her greater successes were in romantic dramas. A recipient of two Academy Awards, she was the first thespian to accrue ten nominations. Davis received 10 Oscar nominations over her career, all in the Best Actress category. Meryl Streep and Katharine Hepburn are the only actresses to exceed that number. Davis won Oscars on her first two nominations for Dangerous and Jezebel. The other bids were for: Dark Victory, The Letter, The Little Foxes, Now, Voyager , Mr. Skeffington, All About Eve, The Star and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. That’s a pretty accomplished group of films, to say the least.

1912 - Carlos Guastavino, Argentine composer, one of the foremost Argentine composers of the 20th century. His production amounted to over 500 works, most of them songs for piano and voice, many still unpublished. His style was quite conservative, always tonal and lusciously romantic. Guastavino's "Bailecito" interpreted by legendary pianist Martha Argerich with Nelson Freire, uploaded by Facconti. Accessed April 5, 2011. Guastavino's Clarinet Sonata, with Paquito D'Rivera (Clarinet), Pablo Zinger (Piano), uploaded by A. von Kugland. Accessed April 5, 2015.

1916 - Eldred Gregory Peck, American actor, one of the most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s. He received five Academy Award for Best Actor nominations, and won once – for his performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 drama film To Kill a Mockingbird, based on the all-time bestseller book of the same name by Harper Lee. Peck's other Oscar-nominated roles are in The Keys of the Kingdom, The Yearling, Gentleman's Agreement, and Twelve O'Clock High. His other notable films include: Spellbound, Roman Holiday, Moby Dick, The Big Country, The Guns of Navarone, Cape Fear, and The Boys from Brazil . U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among Greatest Male Stars of Classic Hollywood cinema, ranking him at No. 12.

1937 - Colin Luther Powell, Former U.S. Secretary of State, American politician, diplomat and retired four-star general who served as the 65th United States Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. A member of the Republican Party, Powell was the first African-American Secretary of State. Until the election of Barack Obama as President in 2008, Powell and his successor, Condoleezza Rice, were the highest-ranking African Americans in the history of the federal executive branch (by virtue of the Secretary of State standing fourth in the presidential line of succession). He as the 16th United States National Security Advisor and as the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

1942 - Peter Greenaway, CBE, British Film Director, Screenwriter, and Artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his film are the scenic composition and illumination and the contrasts of costume and nudity, nature and architecture, furniture and people, sexual pleasure and painful death.

Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events today, 5 April - On This Day.

 

Feature: 

 

In Memoriam: "HERBERT VON KARAJAN  (April 5, 1908 - July 16, 1989) 

"Karajan conducted symphonic music with his eyes shut - A much debated and analyzed idiosyncrasy - his visual isolation from the orchestral sounds around him was, however, more purported than real, for his eyelids were only lightly closed." ~ by Klaus Stoll

Historical Events

1614 - Pocahontas, Powhatan Indian chief's daughter marries British tobacco farmer John Rolfe.

1804 - The High Possil meteorite hits Earth near Glasgow in Scotland. This is the first recorded meteorite strike to be both witnessed and fully investigated.