June 13 Dateline

Quote: "To despise riches, may, indeed, be philosophic, but to dispense them worthily, must surely be more beneficial to mankind." ~ Fanny Burney

Birthdays

1752 - Fanny Burney (born Frances Burney,) and later known as Madame d'Arblay, English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. Born in Lynn Regis, now King's Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to the musician Dr Charles Burney and his first wife, Esther Sleepe Burney, she was the third of her mother's six children. Of her four novels, the first, Evelina, was the most successful, and remains the most highly regarded. Most of her plays remained unperformed in her lifetime. She also wrote a memoir of her father and many letters and journals.

1865 - William Butler (WB) Yeats, Irish poet, Nobel Prize Laureate, and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of the Irish literary establishment, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served two terms as a Senator of the Irish Free State. (W.B. Yeats Reading His Own Verse. Uploaded by brychar66. Accessed June 13, 2009. (Note: Yeats made these recordings for the wireless in 1932, 1934 and the last on 28 October 1937 when he was 72. He died on January 28 1939. The photograph shows him sitting before the microphone in 1937.) William Butler Yeats Biography. Uploaded by Roberto Cano. Accessed June 13, 2017. Yeats: Ireland, and the Poetic Place. Considered his most popular poet. Uploaded by Her Aeolian Harp. Accessed June 13, 2013.)

1892 - Basil Rathbone, MC (born Philip St. John Basil Rathbone), English actor. He was a Shakespearean stage actor in UK, and went on to appear in more than 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers and, occasionally, horror films. His most famous role was that of Sherlock Holmes in fourteen Hollywood films made between 1939 and 1946 and in a radio series. His later career included roles on Broadway, as well as self-ironic film and television work. He received a Tony Award in 1948 as Best Actor in a Play. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and was honoured with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1893 - Dorothy L. Sayers,  English crime writer and poet. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, which remain popular to this day. However, Sayers herself considered her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy to be her best work. She is also known for her plays, literary criticism, and essays.

1953 - Tim Allen (born Timothy Alan Dick), American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Tim "The Toolman" Taylor on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement and Mike Baxter on the ABC/Fox sitcom Last Man Standing. Allen's other films include For Richer or Poorer, Jungle 2 Jungle, Galaxy Quest, Big Trouble, Christmas with the Kranks, The Shaggy Dog, Wild Hogs, Redbelt, and Crazy on the Outside.

1986 - Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen, American actresses, also known as the Olsen twins as a duo, are American fashion designers and former child actresses. The twins made their acting debut as infants playing Michelle Tanner on the television series Full House. At the age of six, Mary-Kate and Ashley began starring together in TV, film, and video projects, which continued to their teenage years. Through their company Dualstar, the Olsens joined the ranks of the wealthiest women in the entertainment industry at a young age.

Lefties:
Actor Tim Allen
Actress Mary-Kate Olsen

 

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 13 June - On This Day. 

Historical Events

1774 - Rhode Island, a U.S. state, bans the importation of slaves. It is the first British colony in North America to do so.

1852 - Robert Schumann's Manfred Overture is first performed in Weimar, Germany. (Schumann: Manfred-Ouvertüre ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Marek Janowski, conducting. Uploaded by hr-S Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra. Accessed June 13, 2018.)  

June 12 Dateline

Famous Birthdays

1519 - Cosimo I de Medici, the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. A large bronze equestrian statue of Cosimo I by Giambologna, erected in 1598, still stands today in the Piazza della Signoria, the main square of Florence. Cosimo was also an enthusiast of alchemy, a passion he inherited from his grandmother Caterina Sforza.
 

1802 - Harriet Martineau, English social theorist and Whig writer often seen as the first female sociologist. She wrote many books and essays from a sociological, holistic, religious, domestic and feminine perspective, translated works by Auguste Comte. The young Princess Victoria enjoyed reading her and invited her to her coronation in 1838. Martineau believed thorough analysis was needed to understand women's status under men. 

 
1827 - Johanna Spyri, Swiss-born novelist, notably children's stories. She is best known for her famous classic book Heidi. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers near Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later used in her novels. (Johanna Spyri. Uploaded by Linda Harris. Accessed June 12, 2018. Heide, the 1937 film starring Shirley Temple as Heide, is based on Spyri's book of the same name. Uploaded by Free Mind. Accessed June 12, 2019.  Heide is a heart-warming story based on the real-life adventures of Heide Schwaller, 92, who grew up near Chur in the Swiss Alps. It's elegant yet down-to-earth. Schwaller recalled how she met Spyri when the writer spent summers near the village of Maienfeld in eastern Switzerland more than 80 years ago.)

1890 - Egon Schiele, Austrian painter and graphic artist, a protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and the many self-portraits the produced, including naked self-portraits. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize his paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism.

1924 - George H.W. Bush, American politician and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, Bush also served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, as Director of Central Intelligence, and as the 43rd vice president. He's father of George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States.

1929 - Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank, German-Jewish diarist, famous for her diary, The Diary of a Young Girl, and one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. In her diary she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War. She died February 1945, in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, Germany. (Here's "Anne Frank (The Whole Story)" film based on Melissa Muehler's biography of Anne Frank and original research and interviews by Kirk Ellis. YouTube, uploaded by Rajkamal. Accessed June 12, 2016.)

Leftie:
Former President George H.W. Bush 

More birthdays and historical events today, 12 June - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1778 - Mozart's Symphony No. 31 "Paris Symphony"  premieres in a private performance in the home of Count Karl Heinrich Joseph von Sickingen, the ambassador of the Electorate of the Palatinate.

1897 - The Swiss Officer's knife (or Army knife) is patented, becoming a staple of all camping trips and the like, though most people who use one have a story of the blade closing on their fingers.