May 21 Dateline

Birthdays

1471 - Albrecht Dürer, German painter, printmaker, and art theorist of the German Renaissance. He established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in communication with the major Italian artists of his time, and was patronized by Emperor Maximilian I. Dürer is commemorated by both the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches. His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series, are more Gothic than the rest of his work. His well-known engravings include the Knight, Death and the Devil, Saint Jerome in his Study, and Melencolia I which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium. (Decoding art: Dürer's Melencolia I. Uploaded by Smarthistory. Accessed May 21, 2020.)

1527 - Philip II, King of Spain and Portugal, (Spanish: Felipe II), King of Spain (1556–98), King of Portugal (1581–98, as Philip I, Portuguese: Filipe I), King of Naples and Sicily (both from 1554), and jure uxoris King of England and Ireland (during his marriage to Queen Mary I from 1554 to 1558). He was also Duke of Milan, and from 1555, lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.  The son of Holy Roman Emperor and King of the Spanish kingdoms Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, Philip was called Felipe el Prudente ("Philip the Prudent") in the Spanish kingdoms; his empire included territories on every continent, including his namesake the Philippines. His reign is called the Spanish Golden Age.

1688 - Alexander Pope, foremost 18th Century English poet. He is regarded as one of the greatest English poets. He is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry, including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, as well as for his translation of Homer. After Shakespeare, Pope is the second-most quoted writer in the English language, as per The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having even become popular idioms in common parlance (e.g., Damning with faint praise). He is considered a master of the heroic couplet. I'm sharing a favourite short poem Pope wrote when he was just 12 years old. At that age he was diagnosed with Potts Disease, and he grew up hunchbacked, asthmatic, frail, and prone to violent headaches. As an adult he was 4'6" tall. "Ode to Solitude". Uploaded by Mohammed Emad. Accessed May 21, 2019. An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope (Full Audiobook). Uploaded by Inez Clotilde. Accessed May 21, 2019.)
 
1844 - Henri Rousseau (born Henri Julien Félix Rousseau), French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time. Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists.

1904 - Fats Waller (born Thomas Wright), American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid the groundwork for modern jazz piano. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999. Waller copyrighted over 400 songs, many of them co-written with his closest collaborator, Andy Razaf.

 

1917 - Raymond William Stacy Burr, Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside.  Burr's acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television, and film, usually as the villain. His portrayal of the suspected murderer in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Rear Window (1954) is his best-known film role, although he is also remembered for his role in the 1956 film Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, which he reprised in the 1985 film Godzilla 1985. He won Emmy Awards for acting in 1959 and 1961 for the role of Perry Mason, which he played for nine seasons (1957–1966) and reprised in a series of 26 Perry Mason TV movies (1985–1993). His second TV series, Ironside, earned him six Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations.

 
1944 - Mary B. Robinson (Mary Therese Winifred Robinson), Irish independent politician, First woman President of Ireland, she served as the seventh President of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and a Senator for the University of Dublin. She first rose to prominence as an academic, barrister and campaigner. She became the first Independent candidate nominated by the Labour Party, the Workers' Party and Independent Senators. She was the first elected President in the office's history not to have had the support of Fianna Fáil. She is widely regarded as a transformative figure for Ireland, and for the Irish presidency, revitalising and liberalising a previously conservative, low-profile political office. She resigned the presidency two months ahead of the end of her term of office to take up her post in the United Nations.

Leftie:
Artist Albrecht Dürer

 

More birthdays and historical events today, May 21 - On This Day

 

Featured Video:

 

Albrecht Dürer's Melencolia.  "Decoding art: Dürer's Melencolia I", uploaded by Smarthistory. This famous image, full of meanings, tell us what each object symbolizes, and how they relate to the overall theme of melancholy. Special thanks to the Minneapolis Institute of Art Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia I, 1514, engraving (Minneapolis Institute of Art). Accessed May 21, 2020.
 

Historical Events

1471 - Henry VI, King of England and France, is killed in the Tower of London. Edward IV takes the throne.

1536 - Geneva, Switzerland, officially adopts the Reformation. 

1840 - The Treaty of Waitangi is signed by Maori chiefs of New Zealand and representatives of Queen Victoria. It becomes the cause of much controversy and disagreements with regards to land ownership.

1929 - Georges Auric's ballet Les Enchantements d'Aleine is first pperformed, in Paris.  

1991 - A Tamil suicide bomber assassinates Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at a campaign rally near Madras. Gandhi's mother, Indira, had been assassinated in 1984.

1892 - Ruggiero (or Ruggero) Leoncavallo's opera I Pagliacci is first staged, in Milan's Teatro dal Verme, with Arturo Toscanini conducting. 

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



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