February 16 Dateline

Birthdays

1838 - Henry Brooks Adams, American historian and novelist, and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. He served as secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams, Abraham Lincoln's ambassador to the UK. The posting influenced the younger man through the experience of wartime diplomacy, and absorption in English culture, especially the works of John Stuart Mill. After the American Civil War, he became a political journalist who entertained America's foremost intellectuals at his homes in Washington and Boston. He was best known for The History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, a nine-volume work, praised for its literary style, command of the documentary evidence, and deep (family) knowledge of the period and its major figures. His posthumously published memoir, The Education of Henry Adams, won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to be named by the Modern Library as the best English-language nonfiction book of the 20th century.

1935 - Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono, American singer-songwriter, film producer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher, as the popular singing duo Sonny and Cher. He was mayor of Palm Springs, California, from 1988 to 1992, and the Republican congressman for California's 44th district, elected during the Republican Revolution and serving from 1995 until his death in 1998. The United States Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the term of copyright by 20 years, was named in honor of Bono when it was passed by Congress nine months after his death. Mary Bono (Sonny's last wife) had been one of the original sponsors of the legislation, commonly known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

1959 - John Patrick McEnroe, Jr., American retired tennis player, considered among the greatest in the history of the sport. He was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, as well as his confrontational on-court behavior that frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities. McEnroe attained the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, finishing his career with 77 singles and 78 doubles titles; this remains the highest men's combined total of the Open Era. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles, four at the US Open and three at Wimbledon, and nine men's Grand Slam doubles titles. His singles match record of 82–3 in 1984 remains the best single season win rate of the Open Era. McEnroe also excelled at the year-end tournaments, winning eight singles and seven doubles titles, both of which are records.

1973 - Cathy Freeman, OAM (born Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman), Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She would occasionally compete in other track events, but 400m was her main event. Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the eighth-fastest woman of all time, set at the 1996 Olympics. She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame. Freeman was the first Australian Indigenous person to become a Commonwealth Games gold medallist at age 16 in 1990. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, she won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m. She also won the silver medal at the 1996 Olympics and came first at the 1997 World Championships in the 400 m event. She returned from her 1998 injury in form with a first place in the 400 m at the 1999 World Championships. 

 
Leftie:
John McEnroe

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

 

Historical Events

600 - Pope Gregory I decrees that "God bless you" is the correct response to a sneeze.

1568 - The entire population of the Netherlands - three million people - is sentenced to death by the Roman Catholic church for heresy.

1937 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon, a synthetic polymer.  It is later used for stockings.

1892 - The four-act lyric drama Werther by French composer Jules Massenet is first performed. Libretto was written by Edouard Balu, Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont Hartmann, based on a 1774 novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther. The venue was Vienna, Opéra Impérial de Vienne. The setting is in Wetzlar near Frankfurt, circa 1780.

1959 - Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba.

2005 - The Kyoto Protocol on climate change comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.  




Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org



(c) June 2007. Updated February 16, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

February 15 Dateline

Birthdays

1571 - Michael Praetorius, German Composer, Organist, and Music Historian/Theorist, who also died the same day, in 1621 (video:  Praetorius: Danses di Terpsichore. Accessed Feb. 15, 2018.) He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns.

1564 - Galileo Galilei, Italian Astronomer, Physicist and Engineer. (born Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaulti de Galilei), He's described as a polymath, from Pisa. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science".

1820 - Susan Brownell Anthony, American social reformer and women's rights activist, famous for The History of Woman Suffrage. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. When she first began campaigning for women's rights, Anthony was ridiculed and accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. However, public perception of her changed radically during her lifetime. Her 80th birthday was celebrated in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley. She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin.

1861 - Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS FBA, English Mathematician and Philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas.

1874 - Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, British polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. (Documentary on the Endurance, a documentary on Sir Shackleton's trip to reach the south pole was uploaded by historical-oracle that I accessed February 15, 2015. Unfortunately, it's no longer available. February 15, 2026.)

1882 - John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15), American Actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly attempted a career as an artist, but appeared on stage together with his father Maurice in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year.

1899 - Georges Auric, Composer and Member of "Les Six" group of French Composers associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie.  Before turning 20 years old, he had orchestrated and written incidental music for several ballets and stage productions, and also became a distinguished film composer. ("The Song from Moulin Rouge" also known as "Where Is Your Heart"), a popular song that first appeared in the 1952 film 'Moulin Rouge.' (The Les Six: Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, and Germaine Tailleferre.)

1907 - Cesar Julio Romero Jr., American Actor, Singer, Dancer, and Vocal artist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and the Joker on the Batman television series, which was included in TV Guide's 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.

1931 - Claire Bloom, CBE (born Patricia Claire Blume), English Actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire, A Doll's House, and Long Day's Journey into Night, and has starred in nearly sixty films. Bloom was discovered by Hollywood film star Charlie Chaplin to co-star alongside him in Limelight. During her film career, she starred alongside numerous major actors. In 2010, Bloom played the role of Queen Mary in the British film The King's Speech. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

1946 - Marisa Berenson (Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson), American Actress and Model. She appeared on the front covers of Vogue and Time, and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film Cabaret. The role also earned her Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of Design for Living. Her other film appearances include Death in Venice, Barry Lyndon, S.O.B. and I Am Love.

1947 - John Coolidge Adams,  American Composer and Conductor of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism. Among over 60 major compositions are his breakthrough piece for string septet, Shaker Loops, his first significant large-scale orchestral work, Harmonielehre, the popular fanfare Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and On the Transmigration of Souls, a piece for orchestra and chorus commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003. He has written several operas, notably Nixon in China, which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, among others. In addition In addition to the Pulitzer, Adams has received the Erasmus Prize, five Grammy Awards, the Harvard Arts Medal, France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and six honorary doctorates. (Nixon in China - John Adams. YouTube, uploaded by Mofaxx. Accessed February 15, 2017.)

1951 - Jane Seymour,  OBE, (born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg), British-American Actress, best known for her performances in the James Bond film Live and Let Die; Somewhere In Time; East of Eden; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Onassis: The Richest Man in the World; War and Remembrance; the French epic La Révolution française as the ill-fated queen Marie Antoinette; Wedding Crashers; and the American television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. She has earned an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

1951 - Melissa Manchester, American Singer-Songwriter and Actress, Since the 1970s, her songs have been carried by adult contemporary radio stations. She has appeared on television, in films, and on stage. She learned the piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music, began singing commercial jingles at age 15, and became a staff writer for Chappell Music while attending Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. Melissa Manchester beautifully sings "I'll Never Say Goodbye" / (with Lyrics)  and "Through The Eyes of Love". The song was nominated for an Oscar in 1979, resulting in her having two movie theme songs "Through the Eyes of Love" (from Ice Castles) and "I'll Never Say Goodbye" (from The Promise) nominated for Best Original Song in the same year at the 52nd Academy Awards.

1954 - Matt Groening, American Cartoonist, Producer, and Animator. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell and the television series The Simpsons, Futurama, and Disenchantment. The Simpsons is the longest-running U.S. primetime-television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom. Groening has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 for The Simpsons and 2 for Futurama and a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy". In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell.

Lefties:
Cartoonist Matt Groening
Singer Melissa Manchester

More birthdays and historical events, February 15 -  On This Day.

 

Historical Events

399 B.C.E. - The Athenian philosopher Socrates is tried and sentenced to death.

1868 - Piotr Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, "Winter Dreams," is first performed in Moscow.

This is one gem of a symphony by Tchaikovsky that I love which I think is underrated. Below, I'm sharing one performed by MRSO, Alte Oper Frankfurt, with Vladimir Fedoseyev, conducting. Great ensemble. Flawless intonation, technique and phrasing.  Conductor is in perfect communication with the orchestra, little direction he uses, yet on queue with every measure, and the orchestra knows. Certainly, brilliantly rehearsed.