November 11 Dateline

Birthdays

1821 - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, (sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky), was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His body of work consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories, and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.(Literature - Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Uploaded by The School of Life. Accessed November 11, 2017. Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment (1987). Uploaded by Manufacturing Intellect. Accessed November 11, 2019.)

1869 - Victor Emmanuel III, Italy's last monarch. He also held the thrones of Ethiopia and Albania as Emperor of Ethiopia (1936–1941) and King of the Albanians (1939–1943). During his reign of nearly 46 years, which began after the assassination of his father Umberto I, the Kingdom of Italy became involved in two world wars. His reign encompassed the birth, rise, and fall of Italian Fascism and its regime. He abdicated his throne in 1946 in favour of his son Umberto II, hoping to strengthen support for the Monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it. He then went into exile to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died and was buried the following year in Saint Catherines's Cathedral of Alexandria. In 2017 his remains were returned to rest in Italy. Victor Emmanuel was also called by some Italians Sciaboletta ("little saber"), due to his height of 1.53 m (5 ft 0 in), and il Re soldato (the Soldier King), for having led his country during both world wars.

1885 - George Smith Patton, Jr., American general, World War II. Gen. Patton led U.S. troops into the Mediterranean theater with an invasion of Casablanca during Operation Torch in 1942, and soon established himself as an effective commander by rapidly rehabilitating the demoralized U.S. II Corps. He commanded the U.S. Seventh Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily, where he was the first Allied commander to reach Messina.  During the Allied occupation of Germany, Patton was named military governor of Bavaria, but was relieved for making aggressive statements towards the Soviet Union. He commanded the United States Fifteenth Army for slightly more than two months. Severely injured in an auto accident, he died in Germany twelve days later, on December 21, 1945.His hard-driving personality and success as a commander were at times overshadowed by his controversial public statements. His emphasis on rapid and aggressive offensive action nonetheless proved effective, and he was regarded highly by his opponents in the German High Command. An award-winning biographical film released in 1970, Patton, helped solidify his image as an American folk hero.

1922 - Kurt Vonnegut Jr., American science-writer. Vonnegut published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of nonfiction, with further collections being published after his death. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, bestselling novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. Later in his career, Vonnegut published several autobiographical essays and short-story collections, including Fates Worse Than Death (1991), and A Man Without a Country (2005). After his death, he was hailed as a black-humor commentator on the society in which he lived and as one of the most important contemporary writers.

1962 - Demi Gene Moore (née Guynes), American actress and film producer. She gained recognition as a member of the Brat Pack with roles in Blame It on Rio, St. Elmo's Fire, and About Last Night.... Her starring role in Ghost, the highest-grossing film of that year, earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She had further box-office success in the early 1990s, with the films A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal, and Disclosure. In 1996, Moore became the highest-paid actress in film history when she received an unprecedented $12.5 million to star in the critically-reviled Striptease. Her next major role, G.I. Jane, was followed by a lengthy hiatus and significant downturn in Moore's career. Intermittently, she has held leading roles in the independent films Passion of Mind, Flawless and Blind. In 2019, Moore released a memoir titled Inside Out, which became a New York Times Best Seller. Moore has been married three times, to the musician Freddy Moore and the actors Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher. She has three children with Willis. 

1962 - James Lloyd Morrison, AM, Australian jazz musician. Although his main instrument is trumpet, he has also performed on trombone, tuba, euphonium, flugelhorn, saxophone, clarinet, double bass, guitar, and piano. He is a composer, writing jazz charts for ensembles. He composed and performed the opening fanfare at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.  In 2009, he joined Steve Pizzati and Warren Brown as a presenter on Top Gear Australia. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 Morrison and a cappella group, The Idea of North, won Best Jazz Album, for their collaboration on Feels Like Spring. In 2012 Morrison was appointed as Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival for the 2013 and 2015 festivals. He was inducted into the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame 2013 at the Australian Jazz Bell Awards.  In July 2013 he conducted the World's Largest Orchestra in Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, consisting of 7,224 musicians. In March 2015 Morrison opened the James Morrison Academy of Music in Mount Gambier, South Australia – a tertiary level school offering a degree in jazz performance.

1974 - Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio, American actor, producer and environmentalist. He achieved international stardom in the epic romance Titanic, which became the highest-grossing film to that point. He starred in two successful features in 2002: the biographical crime drama Catch Me If You Can and the historical drama Gangs of New York, which marked his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio portrayed Howard Hughes in The Aviator and continued to receive acclaim for his other performances. In the 2010s, he starred in films, all of which were critical and commercial successes. His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe Award for The Revenant as well as two other Golden Globes for The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street. DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions that has produced some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. He supports charitable causes and has produced several documentaries on the environment. In 2005, he was named the commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts, and in 2016, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

Lefties:
1962 - Demi Moore, Actress
1885 - George S. Patton, Jr., General

More birthdays and historical events, November 11 - On This Day

Celebrating Remembrance Day (informally known as Poppy Day) observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities of WWI, in 1918.  It is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations member states since the end of the First World War to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Following a tradition inaugurated by King George V in 1919, the day is also marked by war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries. Hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month," in accordance with the armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente between 5:12 and 5:20 that morning. ("At the 11th hour" refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 am.) The First World War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919. (Source: en.wikipedia.org)

Historical Events

1906 - Dame Ethel Smyth's opera The Wreckers is first produced in a German version in Leipzig and titled Strandrecht.

A video of  The Wreckers Overture (Youtube, uploaded by BARSymphony. Accessed November 11, 2017.  Dawn Harms, Music Director and Conductor, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony performance at SF Conservatory of Music June 14, 2014.


 

1918 - Armistice Day. Germany signs a treaty with the Allies in a railway carriage outside Compiegne in France, bringing World War I to a close on the Western Front. Hostilities officially cease at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Also, on the closest Sunday, silence is held and members of the government and opposition lay wreaths at the cenopath in London in memory of the British who died during the war.  Since that day, a 2-minute silence is held at 11 AM on the 11th day of the 11th month.

1975 - The elected Federal Government in Australia is dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr.

1977 - Greek archaeologists announce that the recently discovered tomb in Vergina holds Macedonian King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

2000 - In the Austrian Alps at Kaprun, a funicular train catches on fire in a tunnel leading to ski fields. Around 155 people die in the fierce blaze.




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 November 11, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.