December 22 Dateline

Birthdays

1639 - Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine, French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. He was primarily a tragedian. He wrote one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther for the young.  Racine's plays displayed his mastery of the dodecasyllabic (12 syllable) French alexandrine. His writing is renowned for its elegance, purity, speed, and fury, and for what American poet Robert Lowell described as a "diamond-edge", and the "glory of its hard, electric rage". Racine's dramaturgy is marked by his psychological insight, the prevailing passion of his characters, and the nakedness of both plot and stage.The linguistic effects of Racine's poetry are widely considered to be untranslatable, although many eminent poets have attempted to translate Racine's work into English, including Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Ted Hughes, Tony Harrison, and Derek Mahon, and Friedrich Schiller into German. (Cappella Amsterdam - Gabriel Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine (Live @ Bimhuis - Amsterdam). This video was recorded @ Bimhuis Amsterdam for VPRO Vrije Geluiden. Brilliant performace for such a small group! Vrije Geluiden is a music program made by the Dutch public broadcast organisation VPRO. Accessed December 22, 2015. Here's another Cantique de Jean Racine by Fauré performed by the Choir of King's College, with Stephen Cleobury. "Prom 03: Mozart, Haydn and Faure" BBC, Royal Albert Hall London, 17.07.2016. Uploaded by Chor Gesang - Das Musikmagazin. Accessed December 22, 2017.)

1723 - Carl Friedrich Abel, German Composer of the Classical era. He was a renowned player of the viola da gamba, and produced significant compositions for that instrument. (One of Abel's works became famous due to a mis-attribution; in the 19th century, a manuscript symphony in the hand of Mozart was catalogued ( by Ludwig von Kochel in 1862 ) as his Symphony No 3 in E flat major. Later, it was discovered that this symphony was actually that work of Abel, copied by the boy Mozart while he was visiting London in 1764. Here's a link to C.F. Abel's Six Symphonies. Uploaded by HarpsichordM. Accessed December 22, 2017.)

1858 - Giacomo Puccini, Italian opera Composer, He has been called "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi". Puccini's early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera. Later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Puccini's most renowned works are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924), all of which are among the important operas played as standards.

1890 - Charles de Gaulle (Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle), French Army Officer and Statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to reestablish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, a position to which he was reelected in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. Many French political parties and figures claim a Gaullist legacy; after his death many streets and monuments in France were dedicated to his memory.

1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft (Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft), English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. Always attracted by the ideals of permanent theatrical ensembles, she did much of her work for the Old Vic in the early 1930s, John Gielgud's companies in the 1930s and 1940s, the Royal Shakespeare Company from the 1950s and the National Theatre from the 1970s. While well regarded in Shakespeare, Ashcroft was also known for her commitment to modern drama, appearing in plays by Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. In the 1980s, she turned to television and cinema with considerable success, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and several British and European awards.

1943 - Billie Jean King (née Moffitt), American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. For three years, she was the United States' captain in the Federation Cup. King is an advocate for gender equality and social justice. In 1973, she won the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. She was also the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. In 2018, she won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.

1949 - Robin and Maurice Gibb, British musicians, singers, songwriters, and record producers, born in the Isle of Man. They achieved fame as a member of the pop group Bee Gees.They are fraternal twin brothers, with Robin older by 35 minutes to Maurice. They have one sister, Lesley Evans, and two brothers, Barry and Andy. (Bee Gees My World (1972), uploaded by Conoce a Los Bee Gees. Accessed Dec 22, 2014.)

1961 - Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko, Retired Russian cosmonaut. He became the first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was 240 miles over New Zealand, on the International Space Station. As of June 2016, Malenchenko ranks second for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station (ISS). He is a former Commander of the International Space Station.

1962 - Ralph Fiennes (Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes), English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage at the Royal National Theatre. His portrayal of Nazi war criminal Amon Göth in Schindler's List earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, and he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His performance as Count Almásy in The English Patient garnered him a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor, as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Fiennes has appeared in a number of other notable films. In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus, in which he also played the title character. In 1995, he won a Tony Award for playing Prince Hamlet on Broadway. Fiennes has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 1999.

Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events, December 22 - On This Day

Historical Birthdays

1715 - James Stuart, the Catholic "Old Pretender," lands at Peterhead to begin the first Jacobite rebellion against George I. The attempt to restore the Stuart line to the thrones of England and Scotland fails.

1894 - In a miscarriage of justice, French army captain Alfred Dreyfus is found guilty of passing military secrets to the Germans. His cause later taken up by writer Emile Zola.

1938 - The coelacanth, a fish considered extinct for 70 million years, is discovered in the Indian Ocean.

1965 - Opera singer Montserrat Caballe makes her first appearance with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

1974 - A bomb explodes at the London home of the Conservative leader and former prime Minister Edward Heath. He was absent and there were no casualties, although property is extensively damaged.

2000 - Pop singer Madonna marries British film director Guy Richie in Scotland.


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 December 22, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.