November 8 Dateline

Birthdays

1656 - Edmond Halley, English astronomer. He went on to study the solar system and correctly predict the existence of the comet, named after him. His prediction was not proven until 1758 after his death, when "Halley's Comet" returned.

1883 - Sir Arnold Bax, English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist.(Bax's November Woods, a symphonic tone-poem for large orchestra YouTube, uploaded by gioiellidellamusica. Accessed November 8, 2018. "Tintagel", by Arnold Bax (1883-1953). YouTube, uploaded by Scot Peacock. Accessed November 8, 2019.)

1900 - Margaret Mitchell, American writer and journalist, famous for her book Gone with the Wind, a Civil War-era novel  that becomes a movie blockbuster. For this famous novel, for which she won the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. In recent years long after her death, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novella she wrote as a teenager, titled Lost Laysen, have been published. A collection of newspaper articles written by Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal was also republished in book form. (Brief history: Margaret Mitchell and Gone with the Wind. YouTube, accessed November 8, 2018.)

1922 - Christiaan Barnard, South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant on 3 December 1967 and the first one in which the patient regained consciousness. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky, with Washkansky regaining full consciousness and being able to easily talk with his wife, before dying 18 days later of pneumonia. The anti-rejection drugs that suppressed his immune system were a major contributing factor. Dr. Barnard had told Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, a claim which has been criticised as misleading. Barnard's second transplant patient Philip Blaiberg, whose operation was performed at the beginning of 1968, lived for a year and a half and was able to go home from the hospital. (Dr. Chris Barnard - Biography. Uploaded by HealthShare SA. Accessed November 8, 2015.)

1954 - Kazuo Ishiguro OBE FRSA FRSL, Japanese-born British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and praised contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. Author of novels including A Pale View of the Hills, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, he was praised by the Swedish Academy for his novels. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world". 

1954 - Rickie Lee Jones, American vocalist, musician, songwriter, producer, actress and narrator. She has recorded in various musical styles including R&B, rock, blues, pop, soul, and jazz. Jones is a two-time Grammy Award winner. She was listed at number 30 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll in 1999. Her album Pirates was number 49 on NPR's list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women.

Leftie:
None known

 

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 8 - On This Day

Historical Events

1519 - Hernando Cortes, Spanish conquistador, enters Tenochtitlan, Aztec. Soon afterwards Aztec King Montezuma II is taken and Montezuma is taken prisoner and Cortes controls the Aztec empire.

1889 - Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Juan is first performed in Weimar. (Listening Pleasure: Don Juan performed by Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Dudamel. Accessed Nov 8, 2018.)

1895 - Wilhelm Roentgen discovers radiation emitted by cathode-ray tubes while conducting electrical experiments. He names them x-rays, with the "x" standing for "unknown." He is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901.

1906 - Dame Ethel Smyth's opera The Wreckers is first performed in a German version in Leipzig and titled Strandrecht. Later, the composer translated it into English for the London performance. (Dame Ethel Mary Smyth's opera The Wreckers: Overture. Uploaded by Le Hoang. Accessed November 8, 2011. 

1965 - The Famous TV soap opera Days of Our Lives debuts. It has been running ever since.



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. "Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 9 Nov 2011 https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1901/rontgen-bio.html
7. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org


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