August 9 Dateline

Birthdays

1874 - Reynaldo Hahn - Venezuelan-French composer, conductor, and music critic, diarist, theatre director, and salon singer. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the mélodie. (French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky sings Hahn's L'heure exquise, excerpt from Chansons grises No.5. YouTube, uploaded by medici.tv. Accessed August 9, 2010.)

1875 - Albert William Ketelbey, English composer, conductor and pianist, best known for his short pieces of light orchestral music. After a brilliant studentship he did not pursue the classical career predicted for him, instead, becoming musical director of the Vaudeville Theatre before gaining fame as a composer of light music and as a conductor of his own works. (In a Monastery Garden)

1919 - Leona Woods Marshall Libby, American physicist who  helped build the first nuclear reactor and the first atomic bomb.

1927 - Robert Archibald Shaw, English actor, novelist, and playwright. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his role as Henry VIII in the drama film A Man for All Seasons. He played the conned mobster Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting and the shark hunter Quint in Jaws. His other notable film roles include From Russia with Love, Battle of Britain, Young Winston, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Robin and Marian and Black Sunday. Beginning his career in theatre, Shaw joined the Royal Shakespeare Company after the WWII and appeared in productions of Macbeth, Henry VIII, Cymbeline, and other Shakespeare plays.

1938 - Rod Laver (Rodney George Laver), AC, MBE, Australian former tennis player. He was the No. 1 ranked professional from 1964 to 1970, spanning four years before and three years after the start of the Open Era in 1968. He was also the No. 1 ranked amateur in 1961–62. The Laver Cup Tournament and the Rod Laver Arena are named after him.

1963 - Whitney Elizabeth Houston, American singer and actress. She was cited as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced several African-American female artists.(Whitney Houston - Greatest Hits Megamix. Youtube, uploaded by Gabriel Exequiel. Accessed August 9, 2020.)

1968 - Gillian Leigh Anderson, OBE, American-British actress. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the series The X-Files, ill-fated socialite Lily Bart in Terence Davies' film The House of Mirth, DSU Stella Gibson on the BBC crime drama television series The Fall, and sex therapist Jean Milburn in the Netflix comedy-drama Sex Education. Among other honours, Anderson has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

1968 - Eric Bana, AM (born Eric Banadinović), Australian actor. He gained critical recognition in the biographical crime film Chopper, and Hollywood's attention for his performance in the war film Black Hawk Down and the title character in Hulk. Bana played Hector in the movie Troy, the lead in Steven Spielberg's historical drama and political thriller Munich, Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl, and the villain Nero in the science-fiction film Star Trek, and played Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler's Wife. In 2013, he played Lt. Cmdr. Erik S. Kristensen in the war film Lone Survivor. He received Australia's highest film and television awards for his performances in Chopper, Full Frontal and Romulus, My Father.

Lefties:
Former Tennis player Rod Laver 

 

 

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

Historical Events

1483 - In Italy, the Sistine Chapel opens in Vatican, Rome. Pope Sixtus IV led the first mass in the chapel on this day, consecrating and dedicating it to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.         

1936 - At the Berlin Olympics, Jesse Owens, of the 4 x 100-metre men's relay, becomes the first American to win four gold medals at a single games.

1944 - Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French writer and pioneering aviator (famous for The Little Prince and Night Flight) is reported missing on a flight over France.

1945 - In Nagasaki City of Japan, an atomic bomb is dropped, killing between 70,000 and 90,000 people.

1966 - Tenor Placido Domingo makes his American debut in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. 

1969 - Charles Manson murders five people, including pregnant Sharon Tate, famously called the members of "The Family."

1974 - U.S. President Richard Nixon resigns from office. Vice-President Gerald Ford replaces him. 

1999 -  Russian President Boris Yeltsin sacks Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin and the entire Cabinet, the fourth time in 17 months that he has replaced the Government.



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



(c) June 2007. Updated August 9, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.