Birthdays
1867 - Marie Curie, (Marie Skłodowska Curie), Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, is the only woman to win the Nobel prize twice, and is the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields. She was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.
1879 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, Marxist theorist, and Soviet politician whose particular strain of Marxist thought is known as Trotskyism. Trotsky joined the Bolshevik Party a few weeks before the October Revolution and became one of the leaders of the party. Trotsky became more prominent as the leader of the Red Army in the post of Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Trotsky was a vital leading figure in the Red victory in the Russian Civil War. He was one of the seven members of the first Politburo. Trotsky was openly critical of Stalinism.
1905 - William Alwyn CBE, (born William Alwyn Smith), English conductor, virtuoso flautist, music teacher, and composer, including film scores. He was a distinguished polyglot, poet, and artist, as well as musician.[5] He helped found the Composers' Guild of Great Britain (now merged into the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors), and was its chairman in 1949, 1950 and 1954. He was sometime Director of the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, a Vice-President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (S.P.N.M.) and Director of the Performing Right Society. He was one of the panel engaged by the BBC to read new scores to help assess whether the works should be performed and broadcast. He was appointed a CBE in 1978. His compositional output was varied, including five symphonies, four operas, several concertos, film scores and string quartets.
1913 - Albert Camus, Algerian-born French writer, journalist, and philosopher. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. His citizenship was French. He joined the French Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief at Combat, an outlawed newspaper. After the war, he was a celebrity figure and gave many lectures around the world. Camus was politically active; he was part of the Left that opposed the Soviet Union because of its totalitarianism. Camus leaned towards anarcho-syndicalism. He was part of many organisations seeking European integration. Philosophically, Camus's views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He is considered to be an existentialist, though he firmly rejected the term.
1918 - Billy Graham, (William Franklin Graham Jr.), American evangelist, a prominent evangelical Christian figure, an ordained Southern Baptist
minister who became well-known internationally. One of his biographers has placed him "among the most influential Christian
leaders" of the 20th century. As a preacher, he held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons that were broadcast on radio and television; some were still being re-broadcast into the 21st century. In his six decades on television, Graham hosted annual "Crusades", evangelistic campaigns that ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005. He also hosted the radio show Hour of Decision. Graham was a spiritual adviser to U.S. presidents, from Harry S. Truman (33rd) to Barack Obama (44th). He was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson (one of Graham's closest friends), and Richard Nixon. Graham was on Gallup's list of most admired men and women a record 61 times. (Billy Graham's Last Message to America and the world ... uploaded by Len Hummel. Accessed November 7, 2016.)
1926 - Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian Coloratura Soprano, wife of Conductor Richard Bonynge. She was noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. Dame Joan possessed a voice combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "supremely" pinpoint staccatos, a trill and a tremendous upper register. She was the first Australian to win a Grammy Award, for Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist (with or without orchestra) in 1962.
1943 - Joni Mitchell, Singer and Songwriter (Famous for the pop song, "Both Sides Now." YouTube, uploaded by Mary Plagiannakou, accessed Nov 7, 2018. If you think you really know "life" and "love" at all, think again. But then I do agree with dear Leonard Bernstein's Candide: "Life is neither good nor bad, they're woven fine.")
1962 - Phyllis Nagy, American Theatre and Film Director, Screenwriter and Playwright. In 2006, Nagy was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for writing and directing Mrs. Harris (2005), her screen debut. In 2016, Nagy received an Academy Award nomination, among numerous other accolades, for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2015 film Carol.
1969 - Hélène Grimaud, French Classical Pianist and Founder of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. (H. Grimaud performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, with NHSO conducted by David Zinman. Accessed Nov. 21, 2018.)
Lefties:
Marie Curie
Billy Graham
1926 - Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian Coloratura Soprano, wife of Conductor Richard Bonynge. She was noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. Dame Joan possessed a voice combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "supremely" pinpoint staccatos, a trill and a tremendous upper register. She was the first Australian to win a Grammy Award, for Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist (with or without orchestra) in 1962.
1943 - Joni Mitchell, Singer and Songwriter (Famous for the pop song, "Both Sides Now." YouTube, uploaded by Mary Plagiannakou, accessed Nov 7, 2018. If you think you really know "life" and "love" at all, think again. But then I do agree with dear Leonard Bernstein's Candide: "Life is neither good nor bad, they're woven fine.")
1962 - Phyllis Nagy, American Theatre and Film Director, Screenwriter and Playwright. In 2006, Nagy was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for writing and directing Mrs. Harris (2005), her screen debut. In 2016, Nagy received an Academy Award nomination, among numerous other accolades, for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2015 film Carol.
1969 - Hélène Grimaud, French Classical Pianist and Founder of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. (H. Grimaud performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, with NHSO conducted by David Zinman. Accessed Nov. 21, 2018.)
Lefties:
Marie Curie
Billy Graham
In remembrance of Dame Joan Sutherland, her performance of "Sempre libera" from Verdi's opera La Traviata. Magnificent!
Historical Events
1861 - The Melbourne Cup, one of the world's most famous horse races, is run for the first time, won by Archer, ridden by J. Cutts. They win again in 1862.
This year, Tuesday, Nov 3, 2015, The Melbourne Cup was won by Michelle Payne, an Australian jockey, riding Prince of Penzance. Payne is the first female jockey to win the event.
1917 - Led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionaries with almost no bloodshed in Petrograd, now St. Petersburg, from the provisional Government that came to power after Nicholas II was deposed in March. This is known as the October Revolution, as it falls in October (according to the Julian calendar, used in Russia that time.
1934 - Sergei Rachmaninoff is soloist in his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra, in its first performance, in Baltimore
1991 - "Magic" Johnson announces he is HIV positive.
1996 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor. It travels 466 million miles to reach Mars on September 11, 1997.
2002 - This day, in 2002, 98.97 per cent of Gibraltar residents vote not to share British sovereignty with Spain.
Video Credit:
Joan Sutherland - sempre libera (verdi - la traviata). YouTube, uploaded by fabiancamposparedes. Accessed November 7, 2016.
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 7, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All right reserved.
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