February 5 Dateline

Birthdays

1878 - André-Gustave Citroën, French industrialist, automobile pioneer and freemason of Dutch and Polish Jewish origin. He is remembered chiefly for the make of car named after him, but also for his application of double helical gears.

1909 - Grażyna Bacewicz, Polish composer and violinist. She is the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century. She studied with Sikorski at the Warsaw Conservatory and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Although most of her work has been described as neo-classical, her later music lso uses techniques associated with her avant-garde compatriots such as Lutoslawski. Her compositions mainly feature the violin. Her orchestral works include four numbered symphonies (1945, 1951, 1952, and 1953), a Symphony for Strings, and two early symphonies, now lost.

1914 - William Seward Burroughs II, American visual artist and novelist, famous for Naked Lunch. He was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature.

1945 - Tessa Charlotte Rampling, OBE,English actress, model and singer, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. She was cast in the role of Meredith in the 1966 film Georgy Girl, which starred Lynn Redgrave. She began making French and Italian arthouse films. She released an album of recordings in the style of cabaret, titled As A Woman. In the 2000s, she became the muse of French director François Ozon, appearing in his films. On TV, she is known for her role as Evelyn Vogel in Dexter. She has been nominated for various awards. In 2017, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 74th Venice International Film Festival for Hannah. A four-time César Award nominee, she received an Honorary César in 2001 and France's Legion of Honour in 2002. She was made an OBE in 2000 for her services to the arts, and received the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Film Awards. In 2015, she released her autobiography, which she wrote in French, titled Qui Je Suis, or Who I Am.

1948 - Barbara Hershey, American actress. She achieved critical acclaim in the latter half of the 1980s. She won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries/TV Film for her role in A Killing in a Small Town. She received Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mary Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ and for her role in The Portrait of a Lady. For the latter film, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has won two Best Actress awards at the Cannes Film Festival for her roles in Shy People and A World Apart. She was featured in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, for which she was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress and Garry Marshall's melodrama Beaches.

1962 - Jennifer Jason Leigh (born Jennifer Leigh Morrow), American actress. She received critical praise for her performances in Miami Blues, Last Exit to Brooklyn, among others. Leigh was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle. She starred in a 1995 film written by her mother, screenwriter Barbara Turner, titled Georgia. She starred in the family drama film Margot at the Wedding. In 2015, she received critical acclaim for her role as Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Since 2017, she has starred in the Netflix comedy-drama series Atypical.  She then starred in the science-fiction horror films. For her stage work, Leigh was nominated for a Drama Desk award for her off-Broadway performance as Beverly Moss in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party. Her Broadway debut occurred in 1998, when she became the replacement for the role of Sally Bowles in the musical Cabaret.
 

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, February 5 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1885 - King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.

1887 - Giuseppi Verdi opera Otello is first performed, in Milan.

Jonas Kaufmann performs Verdi's Otello - "Dio! Mi potevi scagliar" (Royal Opera House)



1936 - Charlie Chaplin releases the last ever silent movie, Modern Times.

1958 - A hydrogen bomb is lost by the U.S. Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1970 - Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra is first performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. 

2001 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announce that they have separated.   



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




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