February 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator. His works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England. (Life of Henry W. Longfellow. Uploaded by The Story of Liberty. Accessed February 27, 2015. An all-time favourite "A Psalm of Life", uploaded by SpokenVerse. Accessed February 27, 2010.)

1848 - Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet, English composer, teacher and historian of music.  Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", his 1902 setting for the coronation anthem "I was glad", the choral and orchestral ode Blest Pair of Sirens, and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations.(Refer below for "Jerusalem".)

1861 - Rudolf Steiner, (born Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 27 or 25 February), Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, economist and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained recognition at the end of the 19th century as a literary critic and published philosophical works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the 20th century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy; other influences include Goethean science and Rosicrucianism.

1897 - Marian Anderson, American contralto. She performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the US and Europe. Anderson was an important figure in the struggle for African-American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the US during the mid-20th century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for her to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the capital. Anderson was the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955. She was recipient of numerous awards and honors. (M. Anderson sings Schubert's loved "Ave Maria", Stokowski conducting the Westminster Choir and a small orchestral ensemble. YouTube, Adam28xx. Accessed February 27, 2020.)

1902 - John Steinbeck, American film writer, playwright, novelist, Nobel Prize laureate. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." In his writings, Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, Tortilla Flat, The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row, among others, he best expressed his belief in the power of the human spirit to endure great disasters and to overcome the erosive aspects of materialism. (John Steinbeck Biography, updated by Gary Criddle. Accessed February 27, 2018.)

1926 - David Hunter Hubel, FRS, Canadian American neurophysiologist noted for his work on visual cortex. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with Roger W. Sperry), for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system. Hubel was the John Franklin Enders University Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. In 1978, Hubel and Wiesel were awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 1983, Hubel received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

1930 - Joanne Woodward (born Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward, American actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is the recipient of an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. She is perhaps best known for her performance in The Three Faces of Eve, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In a career spanning over six decades she starred or co-starred in many feature films, receiving four Oscar nominations (winning one), ten Golden Globe Award nominations (winning three), four BAFTA Film Award nominations (winning one), and nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations (winning three).

1932 - Dame Elizabeth Taylor, DBE (born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor), British-American actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian, considered the most beautiful woman in her day. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, in particular, Lassie Come Home, then in National Velvet aged 12, she became a truly movie star. She was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She continued her career successfully into the 1960s, and remained a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend. (Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, 1944. Uploaded by Storylan. Accessed February 27, 2012. Elizabeth Taylor BBC Tribute, wilsol70. Accessed February 27, 2013.)

1934 - Ralph Nader, American political activist, author, lecturer, lawyer, noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism and government reform causes.

1980 - Chelsea Victoria Clinton, American author and global health advocate. She's is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Leftie:
Joanne Woodward

Deaths:
1892 - Louis Vuitton, Entrepreneur Maker of Bags and Luggage
1936 - Ivan Pavlov, Physiologist
1993 - Lillian Gish, Actress
2002 - Spike Milligan, Comedian 

 

More birthdays and historical events, February 27 - On This Day

 

Features:

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadieis an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and published in 1847.  The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.  The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, fellow American writer, novelist and short story writer. It became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime and remains one of his most popular and enduring works. (Evangeline, uploaded by Musee McCord Museum. Accessed February 27, 2010.)


"Jerusalem" with words from poet William Blake and music composed by Sir Charles H. H. Parry, performed at the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (The Royal Wedding - Jerusalem - 29 April 2011.  YouTube, uploaded by pishposhx.  Accessed February 27, 2017.)

Historical Events

1740 - Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato ("The Cheerful, the Thoughtful, and the Moderate Man"; HWV 55) is premiered. It is a pastoral ode by George Frideric Handel based on the poetry of John Milton. Handel composed the work over the period of 19 January to 4 February 1740, and the work was premiered on 27 February 1740 at the Royal Theatre of Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the urging of Handel's librettist, Charles Jennens, Milton's two poems, "L'Allegro" and "il Penseroso", were arranged by James Harris, interleaving them to create dramatic tension between the personified characters of Milton's poems: L'Allegro or the "Joyful man" and il Penseroso or the "Contemplative man". The first two movements consist of this dramatic dialog between Milton's poems. At Handel's request, Jennens added a new poem, "il Moderato", to create a third movement. The popular concluding aria and chorus, "As Steals the Morn" is adapted from Shakespeare's Tempest, V.i.65–68. [Wiki]

Here's a beautiful interpretation of Handel's "As Steals the Morn" (L'Allegro, HWV 55), with soloists Amanda Forsythe and Thomas Cooley, performed by Voices of Music 4K. Accessed February 27, 2020.



1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from the Island of Elba, beginning the Hundred Days' War, which ended his defeat in Waterloo.

1879 - Constantine Fahlberg discovers the artificial sweetener saccharin by accident.

1883 - Oscar Hammerstein patents the first practical cigar-rolling machine.

1900 - The British Labour Party is formed.

1990 - The Exxon Corporation and Exxon shipping are indicted on five criminal counts after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

1991 - U.S. President George Bush declares on live television, "Kuwait is liberated. Iraq's army is defeated. I am pleased to announce that at midnight tonight, exactly 100 hours since ground operations began and six weeks since the start of Operation Desert Storm, all United States and coalition forces will suspend offensive combat operations."

2004 - A large ferry carrying 900 people is bombed by terrorists in the Philippines killing 116 passengers.



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 February 27, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.