January 21 Dateline

Birthdays

1845 - Harriet Backer, Norwegian painter. She achieved recognition in her own time and was a pioneer among female artists both in the Nordic countries and in Europe generally. She is best known for her detailed interior scenes, communicated with rich colors and the interplay of light and shadow.

1858 - Mel Bonis (born Mélanie Hélène Bonis), French late-Romantic composer. She wrote more than 300 pieces, including works for piano solo and four hands, organ pieces, chamber music, mélodies, choral music, a mass, and works for orchestra. She attended the Paris Conservatoire, where her teachers included Cesar Franck, Ernest Guiraud, and Auguste Bazille.  (Mel Bonis: Eclogue, Op. 12. This beautiful piece comes from a set of five pieces published with separate opus numbers in 1889. YouTube, uploaded by PSearPianist. Accessed January 21, 2020.)

1869 - Grigori Rasputin (21 January [O.S. 9 January]), Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia. Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II, the last monarch of Russia, and gained considerable influence in late imperial Russia.

1885 - Umberto Nobile, Italian aviator, airship designer, aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer. He was a developer and promoter of semi-rigid airships between the two World Wars. He is primarily remembered for designing and piloting the airship Norge, which may have been the first aircraft to reach the North Pole, and which was indisputably the first to fly across the polar ice cap from Europe to America. Nobile also designed and flew the Italia, a second polar airship; this second expedition ended in a deadly crash and provoked an international rescue effort.

1895 - Cristobal Balenciaga (Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre), Spanish fashion designer, and founder of the Balenciaga fashion house. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior and as "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word" by Coco Chanel, who continued, "The others are simply fashion designers". On the day of his death, in 1972, Women's Wear Daily ran the headline "The king is dead". Since 2011 the purpose built Museo Balenciaga has exhibited examples of his work in his birth town Getaria. Many of the 1,200 pieces in the collection were supplied by his pupil Hubert de Givenchy and clients such as Grace Kelly.

1905 - Christian Dior, Fashion Designer (“Happiness is the secret to all beauty; there is no beauty that is attractive without happiness.” - C. Dior.) He is best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior, which is now owned by Groupe Arnault. His fashion houses are now all around the world.

1922 - Telly Savalas (Aristotelis Savalas), American actor and singer. Noted for his bald head and deep, resonant voice, he is perhaps best known for portraying Lt. Theo Kojak on the crime drama series Kojak and James Bond archvillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Savalas' other roles include Birdman of Alcatraz, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Battle of the Bulge, The Dirty Dozen, Kelly's Heroes. For Birdman of Alcatraz, he was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. As a singer, Savalas released a cover of the Bread song "If", which became a UK No. 1 single in 1975. The song also peaked at number 12 in Australia.

1941 - Placido Domingo, Spanish tenor, conductor and arts administrator (P. Domingo singing a famous Mexican song, 'La Malagueña Salerosa.' The song is about a man telling a woman (from Malaga, Spain) how beautiful she is, and how he would love to be her man, but that he understands her rejecting him for being too poor.)

1956 - Geena Davis (Virginia Elizabeth Davis), American actress, advocate, executive producer, and former model. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2019, she was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for the work she has done over the decades to fight gender bias on and off the screen in Hollywood. "If you risk nothing, then you risk everything." - Geena Davis.

Leftie:
Actor Telly Savalas

More birthdays and historical events, January 21 - On This Day

Historical Events

1189 - Phillip II, Henry II, and Richard the Lion-Heart start the third Crusade to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.

1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.

1790 - The first instrumental rehearsal for Mozart's famous opera Cosi fan tutte was held in Vienna.

1853 - Russel L. Hawes patents the envelope-folding machine.

1904 - Leos Janacek's opera Jenufa premieres in Brno; it was later performed throughout Europe and the United States.

1976 - The first commercial service of supersonic jetliner Concorde takes off.  



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 January 21, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.