November 2 Dateline

Birthdays

1734 - Daniel Boone, American pioneer, explorer, woodsman, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Although he also became a businessman, soldier and politician who represented three different counties in the Virginia General Assembly following the American Revolutionary War, Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky, that remained part of Virginia until it became a state in 1791.

1739 - Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian violinist and composer. His German-language two-act singspiel Doktor und Apotheker (Doctor and Apothecary), uploaded by Musikacademie Rheinsberb, is considered the his masterpiece.  Accessed November 2, 2018)

1755 - Marie Antoinette (born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna), the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She became dauphine of France in May 1770 at age 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen.

1868 - Yokoyama Taikan (pseudonym Sakai Hidemaro), Japanese painter, a major figure in pre-World War II Japanese painting. He is notable for helping create the Japanese painting technique of Nihonga. Among Yokoyama’s works are “Mountain Path,” “Vicissitudes,” and “Cherry Blossoms.” (Y. Taikan brief profile from Britannica.com. Accessed October 27, 2019)

1906 -  Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo, Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, also a screenwriter. He is best known for his films Ossessione (1943), Senso (1954), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), The Leopard (1963) and Death in Venice (1971). He was formally known as Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone, and his family is a branch of the Visconti of Milan. In his early years, he was exposed to art, music and theatre: he studied cello with the Italian cellist and composer Lorenzo de Paolis (1890–1965) and met the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.(The Films of Luchino Visconte. Uploaded by Eddie Lensweiger. Accessed November 2, 2017.  Visconti's Actors / Visconte Y Sus Actores. Uploaded by  pereznuix. Accessed November 2, 2014.)

1913 - Burt Stephen Lancaster,  American actor and producer. Initially known for playing "tough guys" with a tender streak, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year career in film and, later, television. He was a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor (winning once), and also winning two BAFTA Awards and one Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor. His breakthrough role was the film noir The Killers alongside Ava Gardner.  He played the illicit lover of Deborah Kerr in the military drama From Here to Eternity. A box office smash, it won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and landed a Best Actor nomination for Lancaster. In 1956, he starred in The Rainmaker, earning a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination.

Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 2 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1899 - The Boers begin their siege of British-occupied Ladysmith in South Africa. The siege lasts 118 days before the Gordon Highlanders arrive, driving off the Boers.

1950 - Italian-French pianist Aldo Ciccolini makes his American debut playing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Below's performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B flat minor was recorded July 25 July, 1951, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.  The uploader recorded this track from the LP, "Tchaikovsky - Concerto No. 1," issued by RCA Victor on the Bluebird Classics label (LBC 1020).

 

 

November 1 Dateline

Birthdays

All Saints Day or All Hallows Day

0846 A.D. - King Louis II of France, Louis II, known as Louis the Stammerer, king of Aquitaine and later the king of West Francia. He was the eldest son of Emperor Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orléans. Louis the Stammerer was physically weak and outlived his father by a year and a half. He succeeded his younger brother Charles the Child as the ruler of Aquitaine in 866 and his father in West Francia in 877, but he was never crowned emperor. 

1844 -  Olga Wisinger-Florian, Austrian Impressionist painter, who painted mainly of landscapes and flower still life. She was a representative of the Austrian "Stimmungsimpressionismus", a loose group of Austrian impressionist painters that was considered avant-garde in the 1870s and 1880s. The work she showed at the Paris and Chicago international exhibitions earned her worldwide acclaim. She exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. She was also active in the middle-class women's movements of the time, was awarded numerous distinctions and prizes. Wisinger-Florian's early paintings can be assigned to what is known as Austrian Mood Impressionism. In her landscape paintings she adopted her teacher Schindler's sublime approach to nature, displayed in the motifs she used, such as views of tree-lined avenues, gardens and fields, before she went her own way. Her conception of landscapes became more realistic. Her late work is notable for a lurid palette, with discernible overtones of Expressionism. With landscape and flower pictures that were already Expressionist in palette by the 1890s, she was years ahead of her time. Despite her late start as a painter, Wisinger-Florian enjoyed renown in fin de siècle Vienna. (Olga Wiisinger-Florian Paintings, with Wolfgang Mozart's Concerto No. 5. Uploaded by fanfanchatblanc. Accessed November 1, 2017.)

1923 - Victoria de los Angeles, Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. She was ranked number 3, after Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland, in the BBC Music Magazine 's List of The Top Twenty Sopranos of All Time (2007).  (Victoria de los Angeles: rare and fabulous concert in 1957. YouTube, uploaded by Opera Nostalgia. Accessed November 1, 2019.)

1935 - Gary Player, DMS, OIG, South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers ever. Player won nine major championships on the regular tour and nine major championships on the Champions Tour. At the age of 29, Player won the 1965 U.S. Open and became the only non-American to win all four majors in a career, known as the career Grand Slam. At the time, he was the youngest player to do this, though Jack Nicklaus (26) and Tiger Woods (24) subsequently broke this record. Player became only the third golfer in history to win the Career Grand Slam, following Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen, and only Nicklaus and Woods have performed the feat since. He won over 150 professional tournaments on six continents over seven decades and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

1972 - Toni Colette (Toni Collette-Galafassi, born Toni Collett), Australian actress, producer, and singer-songwriter, known for her work in independent films as well as supporting roles in studio films. After making her feature film debut in Spotswood for which she was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, her breakthrough role came in the comedy-drama Muriel's Wedding, for which she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination and won the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Collette achieved greater international recognition for her role in the horror film The Sixth Sense, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Leftie:
King Louis of France (or Louis the Stammerer)

 

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 1 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1512 - Michelangelo begins to paint the 5,000 square foot (1,520 sq m) ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel in July 1508. He finished it on October 31, removed the scaffolding, and the completed ceiling becomes visible to the public.

1884 - Greenwich Mean Time is adopted as the universal 0-degree longitude line, or International Date Line, at a meeting  of the International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C.