Birthdays
1797 - Franz Peter Schubert, Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of piano and chamber music. His major works include the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 (Trout Quintet), the Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 (Unfinished Symphony), the ”Great” Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, the three last piano sonatas (D. 958–960), the opera Fierrabras (D. 796), the incidental music to the play Rosamunde (D. 797), and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin (D. 795) and Winterreise (D. 911).
1841 - Michael Maybrick, English composer and singer, best known under his pseudonym Stephen Adams as the composer of "The Holy City" (Words by Frederic Weatherly), one of the most popular religious songs in English. (
1902 - Tallulah Brockman Bankhead, (d. December 12, 1968), American actress. She was a member of the Brockman Bankhead family, a prominent Alabama political family; her grandfather and uncle were U.S. Senators and her father served as an 11-term member of Congress, the final two as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Tallulah's support of liberal causes such as civil rights broke with the tendency of the Southern Democrats to support a more typically aligned agenda, and she often opposed her own family publicly. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead did have one hit film—Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, also a brief but successful career on radio and appearances on television.
1921 - Mario Lanza (born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza), American tenor of Italian ancestry, and an actor and Hollywood film star of the late 1940s and the 1950s, who starred in the film "The Great Caruso." His film début for MGM was in That Midnight Kiss. A year later, in The Toast of New Orleans, his featured popular song "Be My Love" became his first million-selling hit. In 1951, he played the role of tenor Enrico Caruso, his idol, in the biopic The Great Caruso, which produced another million-seller with "The Loveliest Night of the Year" (a song which used the melody of Sobre las Olas). The Great Caruso was the top-grossing film that year. The title song of his next film, Because You're Mine, was his final million-selling hit song. The song went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. After recording the soundtrack for his next film, The Student Prince, he embarked upon a protracted battle with studio head Dore Schary arising from artistic differences with director Curtis Bernhardt, and was eventually dismissed by MGM. His singing inspired the then young Luciano Pavarotti. (Mario Lanza sings "I'll Walk with God" uploaded by EdmundStAustell, and "Serenade" uploaded by MegaMusiclover1234, both songs from "The Student Prince". Accessed January 31, 2019.)
1921 - Carol Elaine Channing, American actress, singer, dancer, and comedian, known for starring in Broadway and film musicals. Her characters had a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect. Channing was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981 and received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995. She released her autobiography Just Lucky I Guess in 2002, and Larger Than Life was released in 2012, a documentary film about her career.
1923 - Norman Kingsley Mailer, American writer, essayist, playwright, filmmaker, journalist, and actor. American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker and actor. Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II—more than any other post-war American writer. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948 and brought him early and wide renown. His 1968 nonfiction novel Armies of the Night won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction as well as the National Book Award. His best-known work is considered to be The Executioner's Song, the 1979 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Mailer is considered an innovator of "creative non-fiction" or "New Journalism", along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe, a genre which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in fact-based journalism.
1937 - Philip Glass, American composer and pianist, widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. His work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass founded the Philip Glass Ensemble, with which he still performs on keyboards. He has written operas and musical theatre works, twelve symphonies, eleven concertos, eight string quartets and various other chamber music, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards. (Soundtrack of the film 'The Hours' that Glass composed, arranged for the piano by Michael Riesman and Nico Muhly.)
1937 - Suzanne Pleshette, American theatre film, television and voice actress. Pleshette started her career in the theatre and began appearing in films in the late 1950s and later appeared in prominent films such as Rome Adventure and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. She later appeared in various television productions, often in guest roles, and played Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 until 1978, receiving several Emmy Award nominations for her work. She continued acting until 2004, which was four years before her death at age 70.
1938 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard), member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013, in favour of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Upon her mother's accession in 1948, she became heir presumptive.
1959 - Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor. He played the role of Joe in the coming-of-age comedy Empire Records and John in the film Autumn in New York, as well as FBI agent Jack Malone on the American TV series Without a Trace, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – TV Series Drama. He appeared in eight episodes of Frasier as Daphne Moon's alcoholic brother Simon. LaPaglia starred in the Australian films Looking for Alibrandi, Holding the Man, Lantana and Balibo. For the latter two films he won AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2001 and 2009.
1921 - Mario Lanza (born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza), American tenor of Italian ancestry, and an actor and Hollywood film star of the late 1940s and the 1950s, who starred in the film "The Great Caruso." His film début for MGM was in That Midnight Kiss. A year later, in The Toast of New Orleans, his featured popular song "Be My Love" became his first million-selling hit. In 1951, he played the role of tenor Enrico Caruso, his idol, in the biopic The Great Caruso, which produced another million-seller with "The Loveliest Night of the Year" (a song which used the melody of Sobre las Olas). The Great Caruso was the top-grossing film that year. The title song of his next film, Because You're Mine, was his final million-selling hit song. The song went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. After recording the soundtrack for his next film, The Student Prince, he embarked upon a protracted battle with studio head Dore Schary arising from artistic differences with director Curtis Bernhardt, and was eventually dismissed by MGM. His singing inspired the then young Luciano Pavarotti. (Mario Lanza sings "I'll Walk with God" uploaded by EdmundStAustell, and "Serenade" uploaded by MegaMusiclover1234, both songs from "The Student Prince". Accessed January 31, 2019.)
1921 - Carol Elaine Channing, American actress, singer, dancer, and comedian, known for starring in Broadway and film musicals. Her characters had a fervent expressiveness and an easily identifiable voice, whether singing or for comedic effect. Channing was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1981 and received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 1995. She released her autobiography Just Lucky I Guess in 2002, and Larger Than Life was released in 2012, a documentary film about her career.
1923 - Norman Kingsley Mailer, American writer, essayist, playwright, filmmaker, journalist, and actor. American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film-maker and actor. Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least one in each of the seven decades after World War II—more than any other post-war American writer. His novel The Naked and the Dead was published in 1948 and brought him early and wide renown. His 1968 nonfiction novel Armies of the Night won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction as well as the National Book Award. His best-known work is considered to be The Executioner's Song, the 1979 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Mailer is considered an innovator of "creative non-fiction" or "New Journalism", along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe, a genre which uses the style and devices of literary fiction in fact-based journalism.
1937 - Philip Glass, American composer and pianist, widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. His work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass founded the Philip Glass Ensemble, with which he still performs on keyboards. He has written operas and musical theatre works, twelve symphonies, eleven concertos, eight string quartets and various other chamber music, and film scores. Three of his film scores have been nominated for Academy Awards. (Soundtrack of the film 'The Hours' that Glass composed, arranged for the piano by Michael Riesman and Nico Muhly.)
1937 - Suzanne Pleshette, American theatre film, television and voice actress. Pleshette started her career in the theatre and began appearing in films in the late 1950s and later appeared in prominent films such as Rome Adventure and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. She later appeared in various television productions, often in guest roles, and played Emily Hartley on The Bob Newhart Show from 1972 until 1978, receiving several Emmy Award nominations for her work. She continued acting until 2004, which was four years before her death at age 70.
1938 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard), member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013, in favour of her eldest son, Willem-Alexander. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husband, Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Upon her mother's accession in 1948, she became heir presumptive.
1959 - Anthony LaPaglia, Australian actor. He played the role of Joe in the coming-of-age comedy Empire Records and John in the film Autumn in New York, as well as FBI agent Jack Malone on the American TV series Without a Trace, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – TV Series Drama. He appeared in eight episodes of Frasier as Daphne Moon's alcoholic brother Simon. LaPaglia starred in the Australian films Looking for Alibrandi, Holding the Man, Lantana and Balibo. For the latter two films he won AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2001 and 2009.
Leftie:
None known
To honour composer Franz Schubert's birthday anniversary, I share his beautiful Four Impromptus, D 899 interpreted by pianist Alfred Brendel. (Franz Schubert
Four Impromptus, D 899, Op 90.
No 1 in C minor.
No 2 in E-flat major.
No 3 in G-flat major.
No 4 in A-flat major.)
YouTube, uploaded by Classical Vault 1. Accessed January 31, 2021.
For reflective meditation, I'd like to share an all-time personal favourite: Schubert's Impromptu Op. 90 No. 3, with an endeared hymn, "In the Garden" performed by Priscilla Manion. In the Garden Hymn with Franz Schubert Impromptu: Op. 90 No. 3. YouTube, uploaded by Mirror of My Soul Ministries. Accessed January 31, 2016.
Historical Events
1606 - The Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes is executed by hanging. He is one of the members of the The Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament and assassinate King James I.
1929 - The Soviet Union exiles revolutionary leader and writer Leon Trotsky.
1961 - Ham the Chimp travels into outer space aboard Mercury Redstone 2.
1968 - The Viet Cong attack the U.S. embassy in Saigon, Vietnam.
1990 - The first McDonald's opens in Moscow, Russia, breaking the fast-food company's opening-day records for the number of customer served.
2005 - The child molestation trial of Michael Jackson begins in California.
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
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 31, 2023. Tel Asiado. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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