January 25 Dateline

Birthdays

1759 - Robert Burns, Scottish Poet, considered the most famous poet of Scotland, famous for "Auld Lang Syne" (sung by Dougie Maclean) and "O My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" (Sung by soprano Taryn Fiebig, accompanied by harpist Jayne Hockley), R. Burns: The Man and his Legend (Documentary)

1874 - William Somerset Maugham, CH, English Playwright, Novelist and Short Story Writer, most famous for Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, and The Razor's Edge.  Of Human Bondage (1915) initially was criticized in both England and the United States; the New York World described the romantic obsession of the protagonist Philip Carey as "the sentimental servitude of a poor fool". The influential American novelist and critic Theodore Dreiser rescued the novel, referring to it as a work of genius and comparing it to a Beethoven symphony. His review gave the book a lift, and it has never been out of print since.  (Maugham reads his own short story "The Happy Couple". Uploaded by TheMaughamCollection. Accessed January 25, 2018.)

1882 - Virginia Woolf (born Adeline Virginia Stephen), English Writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. She was a founder of the Bloomsbury Group of Writers and artists. Her works have since garnered much attention and widespread commentary for "inspiring feminism" and they have been translated into more than 50 languages. A large body of literature is dedicated to her life and work, and she has been the subject of plays, novels and films. During the interwar period, Woolf was an important part of London's literary and artistic society. In 1915 she published her first novel, The Voyage Out. Her best-known works include the novels Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse and Orlando. She is also known for her essays, including A Room of One's Own, in which she wrote the much-quoted dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."   (The Recorded Voice of Virginia Woolf, uploaded by goshawk, accessed January 25, 2009. Virginia Woolf Documentary, uploaded by vocalissimo1, accessed January 25, 2013.)

1913 - Witold Lutoslawski, Polish Composer and orchestral Conductor. He was one of the major European composers of the 20th century, and one of the pre-eminent Polish musicians during his last three decades. He earned many international awards and prizes. His compositions (of which he was a notable conductor) include four symphonies, a Concerto for Orchestra, a string quartet, instrumental works, concertos, and orchestral song cycles.(Witold Lutoslawski SymphonyNo. 4, OPRF, Salonen conducting. Uploaded by Justin Geplaveid. Accessed January 25, 2016.) 

1919 -  Eula Beal Garnett, billed as Eula Beal, American opera Contralto. During her relatively short touring career, she performed with distinguished collaborators not only in concert on the US West Coast but also in Concert Magic, a 1947 film billed as "the first motion picture concert".

1933 - Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office, wife of former Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., and mother of Benigno Aquino III, 15th President of the Philippines.

1944 - Leigh Taylor-Young, American Actress. She has appeared on stage, screen, podcast, radio and television. The most famous films in which she had important roles include I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, The Horsemen, The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, Soylent Green, and Jagged Edge). She is an ordained minister in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness

1979 - Christine Helen Lakin, American Actress. She is best known for her role as Alicia "Al" Lambert on the 1990s ABC/CBS sitcom Step by Step. She also played Joan of Arc on Showtime's Reefer Madness, was the sidekick on Craig Kilborn's 2010 Fox talk show The Kilborn File, and provides the voice of Joyce Kinney in Family Guy.

Leftie:
Actress Christine Lakin

More birthdays and hisstorical events, January 25 - On This Day
 

 

Features:

1.  More on Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Virginia Woolf spent her literary life testing effective means of fulfilling her mission as a novelist, as set out in her essay "Modern Fiction".  Among the books in which Virginia Woolf moved from "realism" to much more experimental forms are Night and Day (1919), Jacob's Room (1922) and The Waves (1931). She was co-owner of Hogarth Press (with her husband Leonard Woolf), publishing some of the day's most brilliant authors.

Since her youth V. Woolf was plagued by terrifying mental disturbances and became increasingly aware of life's dark counterparts. Having endured German bombs alongside completing a book which that did not satisfy her, she felt her personal darkness plummet, and eventually took her own life.

"Life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end. Is it not the task of the novelist to convey this varying, this unknown and uncircumscribed spirit, whatever aberration or complexity it may convey...? - Virginia Woolf.

2. Felix Mendelssohn's Wedding March from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Video below is a performance by the Berliner Philharmoniker, with Claudio Abbado conducting. (Uploaded by Berliner Philharmoniker, accessed January 24, 2018)

Historical Events

1858 - "The Wedding March" by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recession after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, to Friedrich of Prussia.

1924 - The first winter Olympics is held.

1949 - In the first Israeli election, David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.

1980 - Ex-Beatles singer/musician Paul McCartney is deported from Japan for possession of marijuana after spending nine days in jail.

2004 - The NASA rovers, Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars and begin their research. Among other things, they learn that liquid water once existed on Mars. (NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars.)



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 January 25, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.