August 23 Dateline

 Birthdays

1754 - King Louis XVI of France, Louis XVI was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as Citizen Louis Capet during the four months just before he was executed by guillotine. In 1765, upon the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, he became the new Dauphin.

1884 - Will Cuppy, American humourist, author of The Decline and Fall of Practically Everything and How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes.

1904 - William Primrose, Scottish violist and teacher, formed Primrose Quartet.

1905 - Constant Lambert, English composer, conductor, and author. His work as a composer included ballets, incidental music, and film scores. He wrote his first orchestral works at the age of 13, and at 20 received a commission to write a ballet for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (Romeo and Juliet). Lambert's best-known composition is The Rio Grande (1927) for piano and alto soloists, chorus, and orchestra of brass, strings and percussion. It achieved success, and Lambert made two recordings of the piece as conductor (1930 and 1949).(Lambert: The Rio Grande. Uploaded by Xi Chen. Xi Chen, Piano; Rebecca Galick, Alto: Eastman Rochester Chorus, Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, William Weinert, Conductor. Accessed August 23, 2016. Constant Lambert: Horoscope, Suite from the ballet (1937). Performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth. Uploaded by Rodders. Accessed August 23, 2018.

Note about Lambert's "Horoscope": Constant Lambert wrote this ballet, some say, for the young ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn, (Fonteyn later became widely considered to be the greatest female ballet dancer of all time). It had its first performance by the Vic-Wells Ballet at Sadler's Wells Theatre on 27 January 1938, starring Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes, and it made stars of both principal dancers. At that time Constant Lambert was conducting an affair with the young Margot Fonteyn, but they later separated, never to wed. The ballet has been described as a symbolic representation of their affair together.)

1912 - Gene Kelly, Academy multi-awarded American dancer, actor, film director, producer, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks, and the likable characters that he played on screen, in particular, musical films. Best known for his performances in An American in Paris, Anchors Aweigh - for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor—and Singin' in the Rain. Among other awards, Kelly received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952 for his career achievements, the same year An American in Paris won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He later received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors (1982) and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him as the 15th greatest male screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema. (Singin' in the Rain with Gene Kelly. Uploaded by lbarnard86. Accessed August 23, 2011.)

1934 - Barbara Eden (born Barbara Jean Morehead), American actress in film, stage and television, and Singer, best known for her starring role of "Jeannie" in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.

Leftie:
King Louis XVI of France

 

More birthdays and historical events today, 23 August - On This Day.

 

 Historical Events

1939 - The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, also known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact, is signed.        

1942 - The Battle of Stalingrad begins during World War II.

1964 - Igor Stravinsky's cantata to Hebrew texts, Abraham and Isaac, for baritone and orchestra, is first performed, in Jerusalem.

1990 - In an effort to stop an impending war, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appears on state television talking with a number of Western hostages.

2005 - Israeli troops remove the last of the Jewish settlers in the Gaza Strip.




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 23, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.