Birthdays
1801 - Joseph Lanner, Austrian violinist, dance music composer and dance orchestra conductor, credited alongside Johann Strauss, Sr., in founding the Viennese waltz. He was just as famous as his friend and musical rival Johann Strauss I. Lanner had a lesser-known son, August Lanner, who was as musically gifted and prodigious as his father, but whose budding career was cut short by his early death at age 20. His daughter Katharina became a well known international ballet dancer, settling in London where she became an influential choreographer and teacher. (featured below)
1827 - Johanna Louise Spyri (née Heusser), Swiss author of novels, notably children's stories, famous for Heidi. Born in Hirzel, a rural area in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland, as a child she spent several summers near Chur in Graubünden, the setting she later would use in her novels.
1884 - Otto Fritz Meyerhof, German physician and biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1922, "for his discovery of the fixed relationship between the consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle."
1933 - Montserrat Caballe, (born María de Montserrat Viviana Concepción Caballé i Folch), Spanish operatic soprano. She sang a wide variety of roles, but is best known as an exponent of the works of Verdi and of the bel canto repertoire, notably the works of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti. She was noticed internationally when she stepped in for a performance of Donizetti's Lucrezia Borgia at Carnegie Hall in 1965, and then appeared at leading opera houses. Her voice was described as pure but powerful, with superb control of vocal shadings and exquisite pianissimo. (Montserrat Caballe; NY Philharmonic Zubin Mehta dir Rossini "Tanti Afetti" La Donna Del Lago, from Sir Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake" Live 1986. Uploaded Jorge Liebermann. Accessed April 12, 2018.)
1940 - Herbie Jeffrey Hancock, American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer, and actor. He started his career with Donald Byrd. He shortly joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the post-bop sound. In the 1970s, Hancock experimented with jazz fusion, funk, and electro styles. Hancock's best-known compositions include the jazz standards "Cantaloupe Island", "Watermelon Man", "Maiden Voyage", and "Chameleon", as well as the hit singles "I Thought It Was You" and "Rockit". His 2007 tribute album River: The Joni Letters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to win the award, after Getz/Gilberto in 1965.
1949 - Scott Frederick Turow, American writer and lawyer. Turow has written 11 fiction and three nonfiction books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold more than 30 million copies. Films have been based on several of his books. Turow was elected the president of the Authors Guild in 2010, and was previously president from 1997 to 1998. Turow is a partner of the international law firm Dentons having been a partner of one of its constituents, the Chicago law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. Turow works pro bono in most of his cases.
1994 - Saoirse Una Ronan, Irish-American actress, primarily noted for her roles in period dramas. Since adolescence, she has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award and nominations for four Academy Awards and five British Academy Film Awards. Ronan garnered critical acclaim and second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role for playing a homesick Irish immigrant in 1950s New York in Brooklyn. At age 21, it also made her the eighth-youngest Best Actress nominee. She won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Lady Bird. On stage, Ronan portrayed Abigail Williams in the 2016 Broadway revival of The Crucible. In the same year, she was featured by Forbes in two of their 30 Under 30 lists. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her tenth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Lefties:
None known
More birthdays and historical events today, 12 April - On This Day.
Featured:
Enjoy Joseph Lanner's work, "Die Romantiker, Op. 167" (waltz), YouTube, uploaded by waldteufel78 by Robert Stolz, accessed April 12, 2017.
1606 - Great Britain unveils the Union Jack as a flag.
1633 - Galileo Galilei is convicted of heresy for believing the Earth revolves around the Sun. He spends the rest of his life in house arrest. It is not until 300 years later that the church concedes he was right and clears his name.
1826 - Carl Maria von Weber conducts his opera Oberon in its first performance in London's Covent Garden.
1861 - The American Civil War begins when Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
1945 - Harry S. Truman becomes 33rd President of the U.S.
1961 - The Soviets win the "Space Race" when Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth in the first manned space mission. He becomes the first man in space, orbiting the Earth for 108 minutes and traveling at 17,000 miles an hour.
1975 - The Khmer Rouge takes over Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The U.S. admits defeat and pulls its Embassy staff out of the capital.
1981 - The first space shuttle mission is launched, with Columbia taking its maiden flight.
1997 - A terrorist attack is thwarted at the last minute during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Sarajevo. It is believed Bosnian Serbs planted at least 20 anti-tank mines under a bridge on the Pope's route. Police were tipped off shortly before the Pope arrived in the country.
2020 - Easter Sunday. It's also called 'Pascha' or 'Resurrection Sunday', a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.
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. Wikipedia.en.wikipedia.org
Historical Events
1606 - Great Britain unveils the Union Jack as a flag.
1633 - Galileo Galilei is convicted of heresy for believing the Earth revolves around the Sun. He spends the rest of his life in house arrest. It is not until 300 years later that the church concedes he was right and clears his name.
1826 - Carl Maria von Weber conducts his opera Oberon in its first performance in London's Covent Garden.
1861 - The American Civil War begins when Confederate forces open fire on Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
1945 - Harry S. Truman becomes 33rd President of the U.S.
1961 - The Soviets win the "Space Race" when Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits Earth in the first manned space mission. He becomes the first man in space, orbiting the Earth for 108 minutes and traveling at 17,000 miles an hour.
1975 - The Khmer Rouge takes over Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The U.S. admits defeat and pulls its Embassy staff out of the capital.
1981 - The first space shuttle mission is launched, with Columbia taking its maiden flight.
1997 - A terrorist attack is thwarted at the last minute during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Sarajevo. It is believed Bosnian Serbs planted at least 20 anti-tank mines under a bridge on the Pope's route. Police were tipped off shortly before the Pope arrived in the country.
2020 - Easter Sunday. It's also called 'Pascha' or 'Resurrection Sunday', a festival and holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day after his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD.
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. Wikipedia.en.wikipedia.org
© June 2007. Updated, April 12, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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