Birthdays
1743 - Thomas Jefferson, American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, and philosopher. Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He previously served as the second vice president of the United States from 1797 to 1801.
1808 - Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci, an Italian inventor and an associate of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Meucci. He is best known for developing a voice-communication apparatus that several sources credit as the first telephone.
1901 - Jacques Marie Émile Lacan, French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who has been called "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud". His work has made a significant impact on continental philosophy and cultural theory in areas such as post-structuralism, critical theory, feminist theory and film theory, and on psychoanalysis itself. Introducing controversial innovations in clinical practice led to his expulsion and his followers from the International Psychoanalytic Association. One of his most notable book is The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis.
1906 - Samuel Beckett, Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life. Nobel Prize in Literature 1969. Beckett Quote: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
1909 - Eudora Alice Welty, American short story writer, novelist, and photographer. She wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi, has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum.
1923 - Don Adams, (born Donald James Yarmy), American actor, comedian and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) in the television situation comedy Get Smart (1965–70, 1995), which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his performance in the series. He also provided the voices for the animated series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and Inspector Gadget as well as several revivals and spinoffs of the latter in the 1990s.
1939 - Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA, Irish poet, playwright, and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist, his first major published volume. Heaney is recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland during his lifetime. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller."
1906 - Samuel Beckett, Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life. Nobel Prize in Literature 1969. Beckett Quote: "Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
1909 - Eudora Alice Welty, American short story writer, novelist, and photographer. She wrote about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the South. She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America. Her house in Jackson, Mississippi, has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum.
1923 - Don Adams, (born Donald James Yarmy), American actor, comedian and director. In his five decades on television, he was best known as Maxwell Smart (Agent 86) in the television situation comedy Get Smart (1965–70, 1995), which he also sometimes directed and wrote. Adams won three consecutive Emmy Awards for his performance in the series. He also provided the voices for the animated series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and Inspector Gadget as well as several revivals and spinoffs of the latter in the 1990s.
1939 - Seamus Justin Heaney, MRIA, Irish poet, playwright, and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist, his first major published volume. Heaney is recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland during his lifetime. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller."
1963 - Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein), Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, and political activist and commentator. From 1984 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 255 months overall for his career. His peak rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11).
Lefties:
Author Samuel Beckett
Author Eudora Welty
More birthdays and historical events today, 13 April - On This Day.
Historical Events
1742 - G.F. Handel's oratorio Messiah is first performed, in Dublin. It's been a carried-over custom of the audience standing during the "Hallelujah Chorus" for whatever reason transpired during its first London performance. And who won't be carried away by its grandeur! It's a tradition that our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs perform it every other year at the Sydney Opera House. Last year, 2017, our performance was conducted by Elizabeth Scott, the first woman-conductor to do so at the SOH. Here's a link to Handel's Messiah performed by our Sydney Philharmonia Choirs in 2015, for the first time incorporating the AUSLAN Sign Language.)
1829 - Roman Catholics are granted freedom to practice their religion in Britain.
1873 - More than 100 African Americans are killed in what is known as the Colefax Massacre, when more than 300 armed white men clash with militant African Americans over the outcome of a local election in Louisiana.
1943 - The 200th anniversary of third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson's birth is commemorated with a dedication ceremony for the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C.
1945 - German SS and Luftwaffe troops kill more than 1,000 prisoners of war (POW) near the town of Gardlegen in Germany.
1964 - Sidney Poitier becomes the first African American actor to receive an Academy Award for his role in Lilies of the Field. It was his second nomination.
1989 - Israeli soldiers attack Arab villagers on the West Bank, killing six Palestinians. in May it is found that the Israeli Army violated regulations.
1997 - Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Master Tournament. Eldrick "Tiger" Woods, born on Dec 30, 1975, was not only the youngest player to win, but did so with a record margin of 12 strokes, 3 more than the previous record holder. by the end of the 1997 PGA season, he had also broken the record for earnings mad in a single season - more than U.S. $2 million. In June 2000, he beat his own record by winning the U.S. Open by a 15-stroke margin. He was the world's number -one golfer for a record 264 weeks.
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
(c) June 2007. Updated April 13, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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