Birthdays
1596 - René Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. A native of the Kingdom of France, he spent about 20 years of his life in the Dutch Republic after serving for a while in the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces. His famous quote: "Cogito ergo sum." (I think; therefore I am.) Philosophy - Rene Descartes. Uploaded by The School of Life. Accessed October 28, 2015.
1732 - Franz Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. His contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet". Haydn spent much of his career as a court musician for the wealthy Esterházy family at their remote estate. Until the later part of his life, this isolated him from other composers and trends in music so that he was, as he put it, "forced to become original". Yet his music circulated widely, and for much of his career he was the most celebrated composer in Europe. He was a friend and mentor of Wolfgang A. Mozart, a tutor of Ludwig van Beethoven, and the older brother of composer Michael Haydn.
1872 - Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev), Russian art promoter, art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise. He revitalised ballet by integrating the ideas of other art forms - music, painting, and drama - with those of the dance. From 1906 he lived in Paris, where in 1909 he founded the Ballets Russes. Then he toured Europe and the Americas with his ballet company; he produced three ballet masterpieces by Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). He collaborated with other composers, including: Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Falla and Prokofiev; and a close relationship with such artists as Picasso, Rouault and Bakst, and choreographers Fokine, Nizhinsky, Massin and Balanchine. (Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes. Uploaded by National Gallery of Art. Accessed March 31, 2015. Please note: Read the comment of John Borstlap (Great comment! Couldn't agree more with him! And a book suggested by Dennis Chiapello.) 30 Interesting Facts about Diaghilev. Uploaded by Study Guides. Accessed March 31, 2018)
1914 - Octavio Paz, Mexican poet, diplomat, and critic, best known for The Other Mexico and The Bow and the Lyre. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature.
1934 - Shirley Mae Jones, American actress and singer. In her six decades in show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of musical films, such as Oklahoma!, Carousel, and The Music Man. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a vengeful prostitute in Elmer Gantry. She played the lead role of Shirley Partridge, the widowed mother of five children, in the musical situation-comedy television series The Partridge Family (1970–1974), which co-starred her real-life stepson, David Cassidy, son of Jack Cassidy. (Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel - 1956 - If I loved you duet. Beautiful Duet with Gordon MacRae and Shirely Jones. YouTube, uploaded by Anjaxo. Accessed March 30, 2021.)
1943 - Christopher Walken, (born Ronald Walken), American actor, who has appeared in more than 100 films and television programs, including Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, A View to a Kill, Batman Returns, True Romance, Catch Me If You Can, Hairspray, and Irreplaceable You, among many others. He has received a number of awards and nominations, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Deer Hunter. He was nominated for the same award and won BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Catch Me If You Can. Walken has also played the lead in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Coriolanus. Walken debuted as a film director and screenwriter with the 2001 short film Popcorn Shrimp. He also wrote and played the lead role in the 1995 play Him about his idol Elvis Presley.
1971 - Ewan Gordon McGregor, Scottish actor who has starred in various film and musical roles. Among many others, he has portrayed character roles in drama films, poet Christian in the musical film Moulin Rouge!, young Edward Bloom in Big Fish, "the ghost" in The Ghost Writer, Lumière in the live-action adaptation of the musical romantic fantasy Beauty and the Beast, the adult version in the fantasy comedy-drama Christopher Robin, and Black Mask in the superhero film Birds of Prey. McGregor won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or TV Film for his performance in the third season of FX anthology series Fargo, and received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy for both Moulin Rouge! and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. McGregor has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 2004. In 2013 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama and charity. In 2016 he received the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award.
Lefties:
Actress Shirley Jones
Listen to Haydn's Hob III:49 - String Quartet Op. 50. 50 No. 6 in D major. YouTube, uploaded by ComposersbyNumbers. (Accessed March 31, 2017). Although famous for his orchestral works, Haydn was also the first master of the string quartet, a teacher of both Mozart (his young friend) and Beethoven, for a brief period.
1814 - Paris surrenders to Russian and Prussian forces, the first time the city ha been taken by foreign forces in 4 centuries. Deserted by most of his generals, Napoleon Bonaparte is forced to abdicate on April 6 and is taken into exile on Elba on April 20.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened. Gustave Eiffel, its designer, climbs the 1710 stairs to unfurl the French flag from the third level.
1901 - The Daimler automobile company unveils the first Mercedes. It was made for Emile Jellinek, Consul-General for the Austro-hungarian Empire, who names it after his daughter.
1901 - Antonin Dvorak's opera Rusalka is first staged, in Prague.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact ends after 36 years. The Soviet Bloc alliance had begun to crumble after peaceful anti-Communist revolutions in 1989.
Resources:
1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
Historical Events
1814 - Paris surrenders to Russian and Prussian forces, the first time the city ha been taken by foreign forces in 4 centuries. Deserted by most of his generals, Napoleon Bonaparte is forced to abdicate on April 6 and is taken into exile on Elba on April 20.
1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened. Gustave Eiffel, its designer, climbs the 1710 stairs to unfurl the French flag from the third level.
1901 - The Daimler automobile company unveils the first Mercedes. It was made for Emile Jellinek, Consul-General for the Austro-hungarian Empire, who names it after his daughter.
1901 - Antonin Dvorak's opera Rusalka is first staged, in Prague.
1991 - The Warsaw Pact ends after 36 years. The Soviet Bloc alliance had begun to crumble after peaceful anti-Communist revolutions in 1989.
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 Timestables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Stanley, Sadie, Editor. The Grove Dictionary of Music, New Updated Edition. London: Macmillan, 1994.
7. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timestables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Stanley, Sadie, Editor. The Grove Dictionary of Music, New Updated Edition. London: Macmillan, 1994.
7. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org
© June 2007. Updated March 31, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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