Birthdays
1686 - Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, FRS, physicist, inventor of the first practical, accurate thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale. He was born in Danzig (Gdańsk), in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but lived most of his life in the Dutch Republic, a notable figure in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A pioneer of exact thermometry, he helped lay the foundations for the era of precision thermometry by inventing the mercury-in-glass thermometer and Fahrenheit scale (first standardized temperature scale to be widely used). His inventions ushered in the first revolution in the history of thermometry. From the early 1710s until the beginnings of the electronic era, mercury-in-glass thermometers were among the most reliable and accurate thermometers ever invented.
1819 - Queen Victoria (born Alexandrina Victoria), Queen of the UK of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. She adopted the additional title of Empress of India. Her era was period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. (Tracing Queen Victoria from George III: George IV becomes king upon the death of his father, King George III, in 1820. Because of his father's madness, George IV is Prince Regent for nine years before being king. The heir apparent, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, the only daughter of George IV, dies with her child during childbirth at the age of 21, and the throne passes to William IV, George's IV's younger brother, 3rd son of George III. He too dies without heirs and the throne is passed on to Queen Victoria, the 18-year-old only child of the 4th son of George III, Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent.)
1940 - Joseph Brodsky, Russian-American poet and essayist. He was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature "for an all-embracing authorship, imbued with clarity of thought and poetic intensity" and was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1991.
1941 - Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman), American singer-songwriter, author, and visual artist who has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 50 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defied pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture of the period. (Blowin' in the Wind. Accessed May 24, 2013.)
1960 - Dame Kristin Ann Scott Thomas, DBE, English-French actress. Five times a BAFTA Award nominee and five-times Olivier Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and the Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2008 for the Royal Court revival of The Seagull. She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for The English Patient (1996).
1994 - Emma Jennifer McKeon, AM, OAM, Australian competitive swimmer. She is a four-time world record holder, in the 4x100 metre freestyle relay. Her total career haul of 11 Olympic medals following the 2020 Olympic Games made her Australia's most decorated Olympian and included one gold medal from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and four gold medals from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Emma McKeon is multi-awarded in the swimming world, member of the Order of Australia (OA) and Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), and also nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year in 2022.
Lefties:
Singer-Songwriter Bob Dylan
Queen Victoria
Singer-Songwriter Bob Dylan
Queen Victoria
Features:
Dame Nellie Melba. This day in 1888, she makes her London debut at Covent Garden in Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lamermoor. Dame Nellie Melba (Helen Porter Mitchell), GBE, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century. Listen to her sing her favourite 1904 Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor (Mad Scene), "Del ciel clemente un riso." - Here.
Sir Edward Elgar's elegiac Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 63 (Daniel Harding conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, 2013 Proms. Royal albert Hall.) Uploaded by Classicl Vault 1. Accessed 24 May 2018.
Also sharing an all-time favourite popular folk song composed by Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind," performed by Peter, Paul and Mary.
Dame Nellie Melba. This day in 1888, she makes her London debut at Covent Garden in Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lamermoor. Dame Nellie Melba (Helen Porter Mitchell), GBE, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th century. Listen to her sing her favourite 1904 Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor (Mad Scene), "Del ciel clemente un riso." - Here.
Sir Edward Elgar's elegiac Symphony No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 63 (Daniel Harding conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, 2013 Proms. Royal albert Hall.) Uploaded by Classicl Vault 1. Accessed 24 May 2018.
Also sharing an all-time favourite popular folk song composed by Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind," performed by Peter, Paul and Mary.
Historical Events
1683 - The world's first public museum opens - the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The exhibits include a stuffed dodo, which at the time no one realizes is the only preserved dodo in existence.
1810 - Ludwig van Beethoven's music to Goethe's Egmont is first performed at the Hofburg Theater, Vienna.
1844 - Samuel F.B. Morse, before a crowd of dignitaries in the U.S. Supreme Court chambers, taps out the message, "What God hath wrought?" to his associate in Baltimore, Alfred Vail, demonstrating the electrical telegraph.
1862 - The Westminster Bridge, designed by Thomas Page and Charles Berry, opens across the Thames.
1888 - Dame Nellie Melba makes her London debut at Covent Garden in Donizetti's opera Lucia di Lamermoor.
1911 - Sir Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 2 is first performed, in London.
1915 - Thomas Alva Edison invents the telescribe to record telephone conversation.
1976 - Britain and France open the trans-Atlantic Concorde service to Washington. The Concorde is the first commercial supersonic transport.
1994 - Four men convicted of bombing New York's World Trade Center are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
2000 - Israel's Government completes withdrawal of its troops from South Lebanon, ending about two decades of occupation.
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
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) June 2007. Updated May 24, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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