April 30 Dateline

Birthdays

1662 - Queen Mary II of England, Scotland and Ireland, co-reigning with her husband, King William III & II, from 1689 until her death from smallpox at the age of 32. Although their father James, Duke of York, was Roman Catholic, Mary and her younger sister, Anne, were raised as Anglicans at the behest of their uncle, King Charles II. Charles lacked legitimate children, making Mary second in the line of succession. She married her Protestant first cousin, William of Orange, in 1677. 

1777 - Carl Friedrich Gauss,  German mthematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and sciences.

1870 - Franz Lehar, Austro-Hungarian composer of operettas. He is mainly known for his operettas, of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow (Die lustige Witwe). He composed a number of waltzes (the most popular being Gold und Silber, composed for Princess Pauline von Metternich's "Gold and Silver" Ball, January 1902).  Individual songs from some of the operettas have become standards, notably "Vilja" from The Merry Widow and "You Are My Heart's Delight" ("Dein ist mein ganzes Herz") from The Land of Smiles (Das Land des Lächelns). His most ambitious work, Giuditta in 1934 is closer to opera than to operetta. It contains the ever popular "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß" ("On my lips every kiss is like wine").

1877 - Alice B. Toklas (Alice Babette Toklas), American-born writer and life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein, member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early 20th century.

1909 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (born Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina), Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in April 1980, in favour of her daughter Beatrix. Due to Wilhelmina's failing health, Juliana took over royal duties briefly in 1947 and 1948. In September 1948 Wilhelmina abdicated and Juliana ascended to the Dutch throne. Her reign saw the decolonization and independence of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and Suriname. Despite a series of controversies involving the royal family, Juliana remained a popular figure among the Dutch. Upon her death in 2004 at the age of 94, she was the longest-lived former reigning monarch in the world. 

1933 - Willie Nelson, American musician, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie, combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust, made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana. (Willie Nelson - Stardust. YouTube, uploaded by gringotroller. Accessed April 30, 2012.)

1943 - Bobby Vee (born Robert Thomas Velline), American singer, songwriter and musician who was a teen idol in the early 1960s and also appeared in films. According to Billboard magazine, he had thirty-eight Hot 100 chart hits, ten of which reached the Top 20. He had six gold singles in his career. He was famous for "Take Good Care of my Baby" (1961). (YouTube, uploaded by boopkid. Accessed April 30, 2015.) 

1954 - Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion, DNZM, New Zealand screenwriter, film director and producer, famous for the movie "The Piano". She is the second of seven women ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and the first and only female filmmaker to receive the Palme d'Or, which she received for the acclaimed film The Piano (1993), for which she also won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Among her other directed films An Angel at My Table and Bright Star are the most highly regarded. (The Piano (1993).wmv. Uploaded by circeo59. Accessed April 30, 2019.) 

Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events today, 30 April - On This Day.

 

 

Feature:

 

Below is a video of  Debussy's opera Pelléas et Mélisande, (Act III, Scene 4). Sir Simon Rattle, conductor · Berliner Philharmoniker · Gerald Finley, bass baritone (Golaud) · Elias Mädler, boy soprano [soloist of the Tölzer Knabenchor] (Yniold) · Peter Sellars, staging / Recorded at the Berlin Philharmonie, 20 December 2015. Accessed April 30, 2018.)  Brilliant boy soprano Elias!

Historical Events

1483 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit, making it the furthest planet from the sun until mid-1503.

1803 - Louisiana is sold by France to the U.S. for U.S. $15 million.

1902 - Claude Debussy's only opera in French, Pelleas et Melisande (five acts), is first staged at the Opera-Comique in Paris, with Mary Garden as Melisande. The opera is a symbolist play by Maurice Maeterlinck about the forbidden, doomed love of the title characters. It was first performed in 1893. The work was very popular. It was adapted as an opera by the composer Claude Debussy. (Here's a link to Pelleas et Melisande conducted by Maestro Claudio Abbado. Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor Wiener Philharmoniker. YouTube uploaded by Ullrich Doennebach. Accessed April 30, 2016.)

1938 - Bugs Bunny debuts in the animated short film series Porky's Hare Hunt.

1945 - Adolf Hitler kills himself in Berlin, in an underground bunker.

1993 - Monica Seles, the world number-one women's tennis star, is stabbed during a quarterfinal match in Hamburg. The perpetrator was a mentally unstable man who wanted Steffi Graf, her opponent, to regain the top ranking.



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 and Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org



(c) April 2008. Updated April 30, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.