July 29 Dateline

Birthdays

1869 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist and playwright, best known for his novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only three novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, along with William Faulkner and John Updike. (Booth Tarkington. Uploaded by Audiopedia. Accessed July 29, 2017.)

1887 - Sigmund Romberg (July 29, 1887 – November 9, 1951), was an Austro-Hungarian composer who spent most of his adult life in the United States. He is best known for his musicals and operettas, particularly The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926) and The New Moon (1928). Listen and enjoy tenor William Olvis sing the famous 'Serenade' from "The Student Prince." YouTube, accessed July 29, 2018. Another popular song is 'Desert Song' from the 1953 film of the same name, starring Kathryn Grayson and Gordon MacRae. It was based on the 1926 play/book by Oscar Hammerstein II, etal... music composed by Romberg. 

1892 - William Horatio Powell, American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for The Thin Man, My Man Godfrey, and Life with Father.

1925 - Mikis Theodorakis, Greek songwriter, lyricist and composer, famous for film score Zorba the Greek. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek, Z, and Serpico. He composed the "Mauthausen Trilogy", also known as "The Ballad of Mauthausen", which has been described as the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust" and possibly his best work. In his time, he was viewed as Greece's best-known living composer. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. (Zorba the Greek - Mikis Theodorakis (Official Video Clip). YouTube, accessed July 29, 2020)

1935 - Peter Schreier, German tenor in opera, concert and lied, and a conductor. He was regarded as one of the leading lyric tenors of the 20th century. A member of the Berlin State Opera from 1963, he appeared in Mozart roles such as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, and in the title role of Pfitzner's Palestrina, among others. He appeared at the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, as one of few singers from the German Democratic Republic to perform internationally. He made recordings, especially of Bach's works; many lieder including the song cycles by Schubert and Schumann. Schreier received awards including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize and Léonie Sonning Music Prize. (Schubert Ständchen (Serenade) Peter Schreier. YouTube, uploaded by elegant 110, accessed July 29, 2020.)

1972 - Wil Wheaton (born Richard William Wheaton III), American actor, blogger and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Aside from appearing in other recurring roles, he appeared regularly as a fictionalized version of himself on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory and in the roles of Fawkes on The Guild, Colin Mason on Leverage and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton was also the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop.

Leftie:
Actor Wil Wheaton

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 29 July - On This Day.

Historical Events

1588 - Off the coast of France, the Battle of Gravelines begins. The Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England and restore Catholicism is defeated. Philip, the Spanish king, sent 130 ships to land in Portsmouth, but they are beaten by better seamanship and gunnery off the coast of Dorset and the Isle of Wight. By August 8, the swifter ships of the English navy, commanded by Sir Francis Drake and Lord Charles Howard, defeats the 130-ship Spanish Armada.

1907 - Robert Baden-Powell, veteran of the Boer War, takes a group of boys on a camp to England's Brownsea Island, and launches the Boy Scouts movement.

1954 - The Fellowship of the Ring, the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, is published in Britain.

1981 - Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, and heir apparent to the British throne, and Lady Diana Spencer marry at St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

2005 - Astronomers announce the discovery of the 10th planet in the outer solar system larger than Pluto. The temporary name given is 2003 UB313.



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 Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org 

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