September 27 Dateline

Birthdays

Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici, Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth as a banker, and he was a patron of arts, learning and architecture. Despite his influence, his power was not absolute; Florence's legislative councils at times resisted his proposals throughout his life, and he was viewed as first among equals, rather than an autocrat.

 

1601 - King Louis XIII of France. (Sometimes called the Just), King of France from 1610 to 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.  Shortly before his ninth birthday, Louis became king of France and Navarre after his father Henry IV was assassinated. His mother, Marie de' Medici, acted as regent during his minority. Mismanagement of the kingdom and ceaseless political intrigues by Marie and her Italian favourites led the young king to take power in 1617 by exiling his mother and executing her followers, including Concino Concini, the most influential Italian at the French court. He relied heavily on his chief ministers, first Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes and then Cardinal Richelieu. By the end of the 1620s, Richelieu had established "the royal monopoly of force" as the ruling doctrine. His reign was also marked by the struggles against the Huguenots and Habsburg Spain.

 
1879 - Cyril Meir Scott, English composer, writer, poet, and occultist. He created around four hundred musical compositions including piano, violin, cello concertos, symphonies, and operas. He also wrote around 20 pamphlets & books on occult topics and natural health. (Cyril Scott - Piano Concerto featuring cellist Paul Watkins. Accessed September 27, 2013. Lotus Land (original recording), uploaded by OrchestraOne. Accessed September 27, 2012.) 

1917 - Louis Stanton Auchincloss, American lawyer, novelist, historian, and essayist. He is best known as a novelist who parlayed his experiences into books exploring the experiences and psychology of American polite society and old money. Famous for The Romantic Egoists and The Winthrop Covenant.

1947 - Barbara Ruth Dickson OBE, Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well", "Answer Me" and "January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums in the UK Albums Chart and had a number of hit singles, including four which reached the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart. She is also a twice Olivier Award-winning actress, with roles including Viv Nicholson in the musical Spend Spend Spend, and was the original Mrs. Johnstone in Willy Russell's long-running musical Blood Brothers. On TV she starred as Anita Braithwaite in Band of Gold. (Barbara Dickson - Her Greatest Hits: January, February - Answer Me - Caravans - I Know Him So Well. YouTube. Accessed September 27, 2020.)

 

1958 - Shaun Paul Cassidy, American singer, actor, writer and producer. He starred in the television series The Hardy Boys Mysteries and Breaking Away. In the 1980s and 90s, Cassidy worked almost exclusively as an actor in the theater, performing on Broadway and in the West End of London. Since the mid-1990s, he has been a writer and producer in television, creating and producing a number of television series, including American Gothic, Roar and Invasion. Cassidy is the eldest son of Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Jones and Tony Award-winning actor Jack Cassidy. David Cassidy was his older half-brother.

 
1961 - Irvine Welsh, Scottish Novelist, Playwright and Short Story Writer. His novel Trainspotting was made into a film of the same name. His work is characterised by a raw Scots dialect and brutal depiction of Edinburgh life. He has written plays and screenplays, and directed several short films.

Lefties:
None known

 

 
More birthdays and historical events, September 27 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1066 - William the Conqueror crosses the channel in his ship, the Mora, and lands a fleet at Pevensey spending the night in an ancient Roman fort.

1822 - Jean-Francois Champollion, a French linguist, deciphers the Rosetta stone, a slab of granite found in Egypt that has a text in three scripts inscribed on it.

1935 - Judy Garland, aged 13, signs her first contract with MGM. She becomes a major star four years later when she stars as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, winning a special Oscar for her performance.

1964 - The Warren Commission releases its report into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy after a 10-month investigation. It concludes that killer Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Not everyone accepts the ruling.   

1988 - The national League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, is founded in Burma, struggling for freedom from the military-led regime.

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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