January 3 Dateline

Birthdays

1892 - J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer and philologist, poet, and university professor best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. (Video Biography of J.R.R. Uploaded by manhead513. Accessed January 3, 2013, and J.R.R. Tolkien: A Creator of Worlds. Uploaded by Biographics. Accessed January 3, 2018.) 

1907 - Ray Milland (born born Alfred Reginald Jones), Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend and also for such roles as a sophisticated leading man opposite John Wayne's corrupt character in Reap the Wild Wind, the murder-plotting husband in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder, and Oliver Barrett III in Love Story.

1942 - John Thaw, CBE, English actor who appeared in a range of television, stage, and cinema roles. He starred in the television series Inspector Morse as title character Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, Redcap as Sergeant John Mann, The Sweeney as Detective Inspector Jack Regan, Home to Roost as Henry Willows, and Kavanagh QC as title character James Kavanagh. He appeared in a number of films for director Richard Attenborough, including Cry Freedom, where he portrayed the conservative South African justice minister Jimmy Kruger (for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor), and Chaplin alongside Robert Downey Jr..

1950 - Victoria Principal (born Vicki Ree Principal), American actress, producer, entrepreneur, and author, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes Ewing on the American primetime television soap opera series Dallas. She spent nine years on the long-running series, leaving in 1987. Afterwards, she began her own production company, Victoria Principal Productions, focusing mostly on television films. In the mid-1980s, she became interested in natural beauty therapies, and in 1989, she created a self-named line of skincare products, Principal Secret. Principal became a best-selling author, writing three books about beauty, skincare, fitness, well-being, and health: The Body Principal (1983), The Beauty Principal (1984), and The Diet Principal (1987). In the 2000s, she wrote a fourth book, Living Principal (2001). She is also a two-time Golden Globe Award nominee.

1956 - Mel Gibson, AO (born Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson), American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocalyptic action series Mad Max, and as Martin Riggs in the buddy cop film series Lethal Weapon. In 1995, Gibson produced, directed, and starred in Braveheart, a historical epic, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, the Academy Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award for Best Picture. He directed and produced The Passion of the Christ, a biblical drama that was both financially successful and highly controversial. After several legal issues,  Gibson's public image plummeted significantly. His career saw resurgence with his performance in Jodie Foster's The Beaver, and his directorial comeback after an absence of 10 years, Hacksaw Ridge, which won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another four, including Best Picture and Best Director for Gibson, his second nomination in the category.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, January 3 - On This Day 

Historical Events

1871 - Henry W. Bradley claims the U.S. patent for oleomargarine, a butter.

1878 - Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 receives its American first performance, in Boston.  

1888 - Marvin C. Stone, a manufacturer of paper cigarette holders, patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws: previously, rye grass had been used.

1895 - Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband is first performed at the Haymarket Theatre, London.

1924 - Howard Carter, English explorer, discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley if the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

1925 - German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler makes his American debut at Carnegie Hall conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He was widely regarded as one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. (Here's a rare footage of W. Furtwängler rehearsing Franz Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." Uploaded by ReSoundWorks. Accessed January 3, 2014. As spoken by W.F. to the orchestra: "The crescendo is in the middle of the bar, not already in the beginning. You were much too early. And don't be so exaggeratedly forceful, it should be more melancholic. Let's do it once more, with a proper legato." Thanks to English translation by Fort976.)

1946 - The Nazi propagandist William Joyce is hanged for treason. He is most famous for broadcasts to Britain during World War II that began "Germany calling, Germany calling..." Joyce is better known as "Lord Haw-Haw."

1957 - Hamilton Watch company introduces the fist battery-powered watch.

1988 - Margaret Thatcher, the first female prime minister in European history, becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th century. 

1993 - The U.S. and Russia agree to each cut nuclear warheads by up to 3,500, the largest reduction to date.

2000 - The popular and all-time favourite comic strip Peanuts by Charles "Sparky" M. Schulz (b. November 26, 1922 – d. February 12, 2000), has its last daily published. 

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 3, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.