October 31 Dateline

 

Birthdays

1760 - Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Born in Edo, Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series 'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji' which includes the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. (Katsushika Hokusai: A Collection of 1145 Works (HD). Uploaded by LearnFromMasters. Accessed October 31, 2018.)

1795 - John Keats, English Romantic poet, one of the great English poets of the Romantic movement in poetry.  He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25. He is famous for Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Nightingale, To Autumn, and the first line of a love Sonnet, "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art." A brief documentary of Keat's life & legacy - here, and 10 Greatest Poems by John Keats. Classical Poets Org. Accessed October 31, 2018. 

1852 - Mary Eleanor Wilkins, American writer, a prominent novelist and short-story writer. The one-act opera The Village Singer by Stephen Paulus was adapted from a Freeman short story; it was commissioned by Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and was premiered in 1979. She produced a dozen volumes of short stories and as many novels, but she is mainly remembered for the first two collections of stories, A Humble Romance and Other Stories and A New England Nun and Other Stories, and the novel Pembroke. (Britannica Encyclopedia).

 
1922 - Barbara Bel Geddes, American stage and screen actress, artist, and children's author. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in the television series Dallas. Bel Geddes also starred as Maggie in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. Her notable films included I Remember Mama (1948) and Vertigo (1958). Throughout her career, she was the recipient of several acting awards and nominations. One of her early movie roles was that of Amy Lufton in the 1948 movie, Blood on the Moon, with Robert Mitchum.

1930 - Michael Collins, American astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made the first crewed landing on the surface. He was a test pilot and major general in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

1936 - Michael Landon, (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz), American actor, writer, director, singer and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza,  Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven. Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball.

 
1957 - Brian Stokes Mitchell, American actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the 1990s. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate. Aside from stage and recordings, television and film credits, Mitchell is the Chairman of the Board of the Actors Fund of America, having been elected in 2004. He received the 2016 Tony Award Isabelle Stevenson Award "for his commitment to supporting members of the entertainment community in crisis or transition through his work with The Actors Fund". (Brian Mitchell. "This Nearly was Mine", Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'. Uploaded by brianstokesdotcom. Accessed October 31, 2012.  Brian Stokes Mitchell: "4 Amazing Broadway Songs" (B S M PICTURES). YouTube, uploaded by jeffrey a. Accessed October 31, 2022.)  

Lefties:
None known

 

Death:

2020 - Sir Thomas Sean Connery, Scottish actor and producer.

More birthdays and historical events, October 31 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1517 - Martin Luther, the great German Catholic reformist for Protestantism, posted his famous 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. (Martin Luther, the Reformation and the nation | DW Documentary), YouTube, uploaded by DW Documentary. Accessed October 31, 2018.) 

1887 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio espagnol" is first preformed by the Russian Symphonic Society in St. Petersburg.
Below,  Rimsky Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol Op 34.  Berliner Phil Directed by Zubin Mehta . YouTube, uploaded by Joao Viriato. Accessed  October 31, 2018.

1941 - After 14 years of work, drilling is finally completed on Mt. Rushmore. It is the largest work of art on earth. Gutzon Borglum selected these four presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt - because from his perspective, they represented the most important events in the history of the United States. ("Why These Four Presidents?". Accessed October 31, 2020.)

Rimsky Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol Op 34, with Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Youtube, uploaded by Joao Viriato.  Accessed October 31, 2016 

1956 - The U.K. join with France and Israel in a military intervention to prevent Egypt from nationalizing the Suez Canal.

1961 - Dame Myra Hess is soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major, K.488, Festival Hall, London.  This marks her last public appearance. (YouTube video uploaded by pianushko. Accessed October 31, 2018.)

1998 - Iraq announces it will no longer cooperate with UN weapons inspectors.



Mt. Rushmore Early Morning.
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org/Public Domain




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 31, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.