October 13 Dateline

Birthdays

1909 - Art Tatum Jr, American jazz pianist, widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. His playing encompassed the styles of earlier musicians, while adding harmonic and rhythmic imagination and complexity. Acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, Tatum extended the vocabulary and boundaries of jazz piano, and established new ground in jazz through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.

 
1921 - Yves Montand (Ivo Livi), Italian-French actor and singer. He went on to international recognition numerous films. His recognizably crooner songs, especially those about Paris, became instant classics. Montand acted in a number of American motion pictures as well as on Broadway. He was nominated for a César Award for "Best Actor" in 1980 for I comme Icare and again in 1984 for Garçon! In 1986, after his international box-office draw power had fallen off considerably, the 65-year-old Montand gave one of his most memorable performances, as the scheming uncle in the two-part film Jean de Florette, co-starring Gérard Depardieu, and Manon des Sources, co-starring Emmanuelle Béart.

1925 - Baroness Margaret Thatcher, (Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher), LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts), Former Prime Minister of U.K. was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her "The Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism. She studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist, before becoming a barrister. (Biography of the Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, Uploaded by WatchMojo.com. Accessed October 13, 2012, Maggie's Magic Moments: Margaret Thatcher Highlights. Uploaded by The Daily Beast. Accessed October 13, 2014.) 

1934 - Nana Mouskouri, Greek singer. During the span of her music career she has released over 200 albums and singles in at least twelve different languages. (I'd like to share the English version of "Le Trois Cloches" ("The Three Bells") that French chanteuse Edith Piaf popularised. Uploaded by yrrah0015. Accessed OCtober 13, 2014.)

1939 - Arleen Auger, Soprano coloratura, known for interpretation of works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Monteverdi, Gluck  (Mozart's lieder)

1941 - Paul Simon - American singer, songwriter, famous for his musical partnership with Art Garfunkel formed in 1964. He's wrote nearly all of the duo's songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence," "Mrs. Robinson," and "Bridge over Toubled Water."

1959 - Olive Marie Osmond, American singer, actress, author, philanthropist, Talk Show Host. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist. Her best known song is a remake of the country pop ballad "Paper Roses". From 1976 to 1979, she and her singer brother Donny Osmond hosted the television variety show Donny & Marie.

1969 - Nancy Ann Kerrigan, American former figure skater and actress. She won bronze medals at the 1991 World Championships and the 1992 Winter Olympics, silver medals at the 1992 World Championships and the 1994 Winter Olympics, and she was the 1993 US National Figure Skating Champion. Kerrigan was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2004. In January 1994, an assailant used a police baton to strike Kerrigan on her landing knee; the attacker was hired by the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. The attack injured Kerrigan, but she quickly recovered. Harding and Kerrigan both participated in the 1994 Winter Olympics, but after the Games, Harding was permanently banned from competitive figure skating. At the Olympics, Kerrigan won the silver medal in a controversial showdown with gold medal winner Oksana Baiul. She started touring and performed with several ice skating troupes that included Champions on Ice and Broadway on Ice. 

 
1982 - Ian James Thorpe, AM, nickname "Thorpey, "Thorpedo", Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian.

Lefties:
Singer and Songwriter Paul Simon

 

More birthdays and historical events, October 13 - On This Day

Historical Events

1775 - The Continental Navy is officially established in Philadelphia. It would later become the U.S. Navy.

1792 - The cornerstone of the White House in Washington D.C. is laid. The building was known as the U.S. Executive Mansion until 1818.

1923 - Ankara is declared the new capital of Turkey. The former capital was Constantinople, now Istanbul.

1955 - A poetry reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco turns into the birth of the Beat generation when Allen Ginsberg reads his epic "Howl" in public for the first time. 

1962 - Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway. In 1966, it is made into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  



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 October 13, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.