April 17 Dateline

Birthdays

1870 - Ray Stannard Baker (also known by his pen name David Grayson), American journalist, historian, biographer, and author. (Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters, and Following the Color Line).

1882 - Artur Schnabel, Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and teacher. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century's most respected and important pianists, his playing displayed marked vitality, profundity and spirituality in the Austro-German classics, particularly the works of Beethoven and Schubert.

1885 - Karen Blixen (Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke), Danish author who wrote under the pseudonym, Isak Dinesen. She used the alias Tania Blixen in German-speaking countries. She also published works using the pseudonym Osceola and Pierre Andrézel. She is best known for her memoir Out of Africa, an account of her 17 years life while living in Kenya (a multi-awarded Academy winner film adaptation starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep), and for one of her stories, Babette's Feast, also adapted into Academy Award-winning motion picture. In Denmark, she is particularly noted for her Seven Gothic Tales. Karen Blixen was considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Out of Africa is a lyrical meditation on Blixen's life on her coffee plantation, as well as a tribute to some of the people who touched her life there. It provides a vivid snapshot of African colonial life in the last decades of the British Empire.

1894 - Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Leader of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War as the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and as chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, for backing the progress of the early Soviet space program, and for several relatively liberal reforms in areas of domestic policy. His party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

1903 - Gregor Piatigorsky, Russian-born American cellist. (Here's a  documentary film about this famed cellist, An Afternoon with Gregor Piatigorsky. Directed, photographed and edited by Steve Grumette. Accessed April 17, 2018.

1918 - William Holden, American actor, Academy Award for Best Actor, Stalag 17. He was one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s and winning the Oscar for Best Actor for the film Stalag 17, and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for the television film The Blue Knight. (Stalag 17 - Full movie. Uploaded by Afeem Charas. Accessed April 17, 2018.)

1929 - James Last (born Hans Last, also known as Hansi), German composer and big band leader of the James Last Orchestra. (James Last & Derek Watkins (trumpet)  with "My Way".  Accessed April 17, 2012). 

1951 - Olivia Hussey, Argentine-British actress, who was chosen to play the role of Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Romeo and Juliet. She won a Golden Globe and the David di Donatello Award for her performance, and gained international recognition.

1957 - Nick Hornby, English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir Fever Pitch and novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, all of which were adapted into feature films.
 

1985 - Rooney Mara, American actress,  born into the Rooney and Mara sports business families. She began acting in television and independent films, such as the coming-of-age drama Tanner Hall (2009), and first gained recognition for a supporting role in David Fincher's biographical drama The Social Network. She has received various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events today, 17 April - On This Day.

 

Feature:

 

Listen and enjoy pianist Artur Schnabel's beautiful interpretation of Wolfgang A. Mozart's Rondo in A minor, K. 511.

Historical Events

1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells his Canterbury Tales in the court of King Richard II.

1865 - Mary Surratt is arrested for her part in conspiring to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. In July, she becomes the first woman executed by the U.S. Government. 

1924 - MGM Studios is born from a merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures.

1961 - "The Bay of Pigs" invasion, in which CIA-trained Cuban refugees land in Cuba from the US with the purpose of ousting Fidel Castro. It was a failure.

1964 - The first Ford Mustang is unveiled at the World's Fair in New York. It is considered the most successful automotive launch in history and the vehicle is still one of the most popular muscle cars of all time.

1970 - The aborted Apollo 13 lunar module returns to Earth safely, touching down in the Pacific Ocean.

1975 -  Cambodia falls to the Khmer Rouge during the Vietnam War.

Video Credit:

Artur Schabel plays Mozart Rondo in A minor, K.511. YouTube, uploaded by xper2xper.  Accessed April 17, 20017.


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)  Posted June 2007. Updated April 17, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.