May 7 Dateline

Birthdays

1812 - Robert Browning, English poet and playwright whose mastery of the dramatic monologue made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. His poems are known for their irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings, and challenging vocabulary and syntax. In 1846, Browning married the older poet Elizabeth Barrett, and went to live in Italy. By the time of her death in 1861, he had published the crucial collection Men and Women. The collection Dramatis Personae and the book-length epic poem The Ring and the Book followed, and made him a leading British poet. He continued to write prolifically, but his reputation today rests largely on the poetry he wrote in this middle period. (Robert Browning - My Last Duchess. Poetry Lecture and Analysis by Dr. Andrew Barker. Uploaded by mycroftlectures. Accessed May 7, 2015.)

1833 - Johannes Brahms, German composer, pianist, and conductor of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the 19th-century conductor Hans von Bülow. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire. (Johannes Brahms Biography. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Accessed May 7, 2018.) 

1840 - Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer of the Romantic period, whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, bolstered by his appearances as a guest conductor in Europe and the United States. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. His sudden death at the age of 53 is generally ascribed to cholera, but there is an ongoing debate as to whether cholera was indeed the cause of his death. (Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Biography. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Accessed May 7, 2018.)

1901 - Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper), American actor known for his natural, authentic, and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, as well as receiving an Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements in 1961. He was one of the top 10 film personalities for 23 consecutive years, and one of the top money-making stars for 18 years. The American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Cooper at No. 11 on its list of the 25 greatest male stars of classic Hollywood cinema.

1909 - Edwin Herbert Land, ForMemRS, FRPS, Hon. MRI, American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. He invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and the retinex theory of color vision, among other things.

1919 - Eva "Evita" Peron (born María Eva Duarte), better known as María Eva Duarte de Perón, Eva Perón and Evita, was the wife of Argentine President Juan Perón and First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She was born in poverty in the rural village of Los Toldos, in the Pampas, as the youngest of five children.

1943 - Peter Philip Carey, AO is an Australian novelist. He has won the Miles Franklin Award three times and is frequently named as Australia's next contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Carey is one of only five writers to have won the Booker Prize twice—the others being J. G. Farrell, J. M. Coetzee, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood. Carey won his first Booker Prize in 1988 for Oscar and Lucinda, and won for the second time in 2001 with True History of the Kelly Gang. In May 2008 he was nominated for the Best of the Booker Prize. In addition to writing fiction, he collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders. 

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays today, May 7 - On This Day.

Related Links: 

Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Wife of Robert Browning)

Tchaikovsky's Mozartiana: Orchestral Suite No. 4

Historical Events

1663 - In London, the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane opens.

1824 - Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, "Choral," is first performed, in Kaerntnerthor Theater, Vienna, with Michael Umlauf conducting.

1910 - George V of England becomes king.

1915 - Lusitania, the British Cunard ocean liner, on a voyage from New York to Liverpool, sinks off the cost of Ireland after being struck by a German U-boat. More than a thousand people including children were killed.

1941 - Glenn Miller, American jazz musician, and his orchestra record "Chattanooga Choo Choo," which is to become the first gold record in history.
1945 - Germany surrenders formally to the Allied forces, marking the end of World War II in Europe.  The military conflict, between 1939 to 1945, took more than 40 million lives. It is the largest and deadliest war in world history. May 8, the following day was declared Victory to Europe of VE Day. The Allies had agreed to celebrate Mark 9 to mark the VE Day, but western journalists broke the news of Germany's surrender prematurely, so the celebration on May 8. However, Russia and other Soviet states kept the agreed date and still celebrate in Moscow yearly on May 9 with a traditional military parade in Red Square.

1954 - After 55 days, the French lose the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam, bringing the first Indochina War to a close. Three years later, the Second Indochina War - better known as the Vietnam War - begins.

1995 - Jacques Chirac, the conservative mayor of Paris, wins the presidency of France.

1998 - The merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation is confirmed. At the time of the event, it is the largest industrial merger in history. 





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 May 7, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web.  All rights reserved.