December 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1856 - Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. president, politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University and as the 34th governor of New Jersey before winning the 1912 presidential election. As president, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. He also led the United States into World War I in 1917, establishing an activist foreign policy known as Wilsonianism. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations.

1896 - Roger Sessions, American composer and professor (R. Sessions' Violin Concerto /  Concerto per violino e orchestra (1935), with Paul Zukofsky, violin. Orchestre Philharmonique de l'O.R.T.F., conducted by Gunther Schuller, uploaded by TheWelleszCompany. Accessed Dec 28, 2018.)

1902 - Mortimer Jerome Adler, American philosopher, author, educator. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for long stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo, California. He taught at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, served as chairmain of the Encyclopædia Britannica Board of Editors, and founded his own Institute for Philosophical Research.

1922 - Stan Lee (born (born Stanley Martin Lieber), American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business to become Marvel Comics' primary creative leader, leading its expansion from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics industry. , comics artist and creator of Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk

1934 - Dame Maggie Smith CH DBE (Margaret Natalie "Maggie" Smith), English actress. She has had an extensive, varied career on stage, film, and television, spanning over 68 years. Smith has appeared in more than 60 films, and is one of Britain's most recognisable actresses. (Maggie Smith's BEST quotes as The Dowager Countess | SEASON 3 | Downton Abbey. Uploaded by Downton Abbey. Accessed December 28, 2019.) 

1953 - Richard Clayderman (born Philippe Pagès), French pianist famous for "Ballade pour Adelaide". He has released numerous albums including the compositions of Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint, instrumental renditions of popular music, rearrangements of movie soundtracks, ethnic music, and easy-listening arrangements of popular works of classical music.

1954 - Denzel Hayes Washington Jr., American actor, film director and producer. He has received 17 NAACP Image Awards, 3 Golden Globe Awards, 1 Tony Award, and 2 Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for playing Union Army soldier Private Trip in the historical drama film Glory, and Best Actor for his role as corrupt detective Alonzo Harris in the crime thriller Training Day. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him as the greatest actor of the 21st century. Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1980s. He has been a featured actor in films and has been a frequent collaborator of prominent directors. In 2016, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. He made his directorial debut with the biographical film Antwone Fisher. His second directorial effort was The Great Debaters. His third film, Fences, in which he also starred, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

1956 - Nigel Kennedy, English violinist and violist. His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, December 28 -  On This Day

 

Historical Events

1065 - The Westminster Abbey of London is consecrated, shortly before the funeral of King Edward the Confessor, who ordered its building. The first king to be crowned there is Harold II, who loses the Battle of Hastings, and the next king crowned there is William I, better known as William the Conqueror. 

1895 - Louis and Auguste Lumière, French brothers, screen the first true motion picture on their new invention, the cinématographe, which gave birth to the word, cinema.

1973 - U.S. President Richard Nixon signs the endangered Species Act, providing broad protection for wildlife , fish, and plant species listed as threatened or endangered in the U.S. or elsewhere.


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 28, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.