February 6 Dateline

Birthdays

1802 - Charles Wheatstone, FRS HFRSE DCL LLD, English scientist and inventor of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope (a device for displaying three-dimensional images), and the Playfair cipher (an encryption technique). He is best known for his contributions in the development of the Wheatstone bridge, originally invented by Samuel Hunter Christie, which is used to measure an unknown electrical resistance, and as a major figure in the development of telegraphy.

1895 - Babe Ruth (George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr.), American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons. Nicknamed "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", he achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth established many MLB batting (and some pitching) records. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members.

1903 - Claudio Arrau León, Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the Baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. (video below)

1911 - Ronald Wilson Reagan, American actor and politician who was the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and became a highly influential voice of modern conservatism. Prior to his presidency, he was a Hollywood actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975. When Reagan left office in January 1989, he held an approval rating of 68%, matching those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and later Bill Clinton as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the 20th Century. Although he had planned an active post-presidency, Reagan disclosed in November 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier that year. Afterward, his informal public appearances became more infrequent as the disease progressed.

1917 - Zsa Zsa Gabor (born Sári Gábor), Hungarian-American actress and socialite. Her sisters were actresses Eva and Magda Gabor. She began her stage career in Vienna and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the US in 1941. Her first film role was a supporting role in Lovely to Look At. She later acted in We're Not Married! and played one of her few leading roles in the John Huston-directed film, Moulin Rouge. Gabor was known for her extravagant Hollywood lifestyle, her glamorous personality, and her many marriages. She had nine husbands, including hotel magnate Conrad Hilton and actor George Sanders. She once stated, "Men have always liked me and I have always liked men. But I like a mannish man, a man who knows how to talk to and treat a woman—not just a man with muscles."

1922 - Daniel Patrick Macnee, British film and television actor. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War II, he began his acting career in Canada. Despite having some small film roles, Macnee spent much of his early career in playing small parts in American and Canadian television shows. In 1961 he landed the role of secret agent John Steed in the British television series The Avengers. The show was a success running for eight seasons from 1961 to 1969, in particular with Diana Rigg (1965-1968) in the role of Emma Peel. It was revived in 1976 as The New Avengers. The show was a major breakthrough for Macnee and led to his roles in many films including A View to a Kill and This is Spinal Tap as well as continuing to appear in both Britain and US Television shows up until 2001.
 

1932 - François Roland Truffaut, French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic,  regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. Truffaut's film The 400 Blows is a defining film of the French New Wave movement, and has four sequels. His 1973 film Day for Night earned him critical acclaim, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His other notable films include among others: Shoot the Piano Player, Jules and Jim, Two English Girls, and The Woman Next Door. Truffaut also wrote the notable book Hitchcock/Truffaut which detailed his interviews with film director Alfred Hitchcock during the 1960s.

1950 - Natalie Maria Cole, American singer, songwriter, and actress. Cole was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to success in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the hits "This Will Be", "Inseparable", and "Our Love". She returned as a pop singer on the 1987 album Everlasting and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she sang traditional pop by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and won her seven Grammy Awards. She sold over 30 million records worldwide.

1951 - Kevin Whately, English actor primarily known for his role as Robert "Robbie" Lewis in the television crime drama series Inspector Morse and Lewis. He has also appeared in other numerous roles, including his role as Neville "Nev" Hope in the British comedy-drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and as Jack Kerruish in the drama series Peak Practice. 

Lefties:
Singer Natalie Cole
Former President Ronald Reagan

More birthdays and historical events, February 6 - On This Day

 

Featuring pianist Claudio Arrau interpreting Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata." YouTube, uploaded by Farookhq17. Accessed February 6, 2018.  

Historical Events

1819 - Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.  

1840 - The British and the Maoris sign the Treaty of Waitangi, founding New Zealand.   

1851 - Robert Schumann conducts the premiere of his Symphony No. 3, "Rhenish," in Düsseldorf, Germany.

1952 - Elizabeth II becomes Queen upon the death of her father George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she is in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. (Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II marks 68 years on the throne. Royal Central Co. UK. Accessed 6 February 2020. Long live the Queen!)

1959 - Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments (TI) files the first patent for an integrated circuit which initiaties the digital revolution and eventually wins Nobel Prize.

The components of Kilby's integrated circuit formed on one small piece of semiconducting material.  Within two decades, technology has so advanced where chips became as small a a pen. Today, by altering small areas on a sliver of silicon, resistors, capacitors, transistors, and other electronic components that work together to form a circuit, can be created. Integrated circuits can control everything, from laptops to vehicles to satellite transmissions.

       Integrated Circuit. 

Image Credit:  Wiki, David Carron. Accessed Feb 6, 2013. 

2005 - Jerrick De Leon, born 13 weeks premature, becomes the world's smallest infant to survive an open-heart procedure, called an arterial switch.


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) February 6, 2007. Updated February 6, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.