May 9 Dateline

Birthdays

1265 - Dante Alighieri, Italian poet during the Late Middle Ages. (actual date of his birth is debatable, as some biographers say it's sometime in June. Here's a brief history of Dante Alighieri. Uploaded by Nick Tvrdy. Accessed May 9, 2018.)  Dante's Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio, is widely considered the most important poem of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language.  Dante was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy, and his depictions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art. He is cited as an influence on John Milton, Geoffrey Chaucer and Alfred Tennyson, among many others.

1936 - Albert Finney,  English actor who worked in film, television and theatre. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining prominence on screen in the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer, directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in the theatre. A recipient of BAFTA , Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild awards, Finney was nominated for an Academy Award five times, as Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, The Dresser, and Under the Volcano, and as Best Supporting Actor for Erin Brockovich. He received several awards for his performance as Winston Churchill in the 2002 BBC–HBO television biographical film The Gathering Storm.

1936 - Glenda May Jackson, CBE, English actress and politician. A professional actress from the late 1950s onwards, Jackson spent four years as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1964. She has won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, receiving the first for her role as Gudrun Brangwen in the romantic drama film Women in Love and the second for her role as Vickie Allessio in the romantic comedy film A Touch of Class. She also received praise for her performances as Alex Greville in the drama film Sunday Bloody Sunday and Elizabeth I in the BBC television serial Elizabeth R, winning two Primetime Emmy Awards for the latter. In 2018, she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in a revival of Edward Albee's Three Tall Women, thus becoming one of the few performers to have achieved the "Triple Crown of Acting" in the US. 

1946 - Candice Patricia Bergen, American actress and former fashion model. She won five Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her portrayal of the title character on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown. She is also known for her role as Shirley Schmidt on the ABC drama Boston Legal. In films, Bergen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Starting Over, and for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Gandhi. starred in The Sand Pebbles, Soldier Blue, Carnal Knowledge, and The Wind and the Lion. She made her Broadway debut in the 1984 play Hurlyburly and starred in the revivals of The Best Man and Love Letters. From 2002 to 2004, she appeared in three episodes of the HBO series Sex and the City.  

 

1949 - Billy Joel (born William Martin Joel), American singer-songwriter, composer, and pianist. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man", he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released twelve studio albums from 1971 to 1993 as well as one studio album in 2001. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, with over 150 million records sold worldwide.

Leftie:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events today, May 9 - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1754 - In Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette, the first American newspaper cartoon is published.

1812 - Gioachino Rossini's opera La Scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) is first staged, in Venice.





1868 - Anton Bruckner conducts the first performance of his Symphony No. 1, in Linz, Austria.

1960 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a pill for birth control use. Two days later it goes on sale.

1962 - Louis Smullin and Giorgio Foccio from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology successfully bounces off a ruby laser beam off the moon for the first time.

1978 - The body of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who had been abducted by the Red Brigades, is found in a car in the center of Rome. 

2006 - Todd Russell and Brant Webb, two miners, are freed after being trapped underground for 14 days in a goldmine at Beaconsfield, Australia.


Video Credit:

 
G. Rossini: La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) performed by Orchestra Cantelli. YouTube, uploaded by Orchestra Cantelli. Accessed May 9, 2017. The third of the one-act operatic farces Rossini composedfor the Teatro S. Moise, La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) is probably the best-known, at least by name, because its overture has become one of the most popular of all Rossini's contributions to that genre, a lively perpetuo moto that anticipates the energy of the comedy to follow. The secret marriage of Giulia and Dorvil goes much against the wishes of Giulia's teacher and guardian, Dormont. Each night Dorvil visits his wife by climbing up a silken ladder she lowers from her balcony. The disguises, romantic confusions and door slammings that occur in only 90minutes are breathtaking. In the end Giulia and Dorvil reveal their secret marriage to Dormont despite his reluctance.



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 9, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.