February 24 Dateline

Birthdays

1766 - Samuel Wesley, English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. Wesley was a contemporary of Wolfgang A Mozart  and was called by some "the English Mozart". He was the son of noted Methodist and hymnodist Charles Wesley, the grandson of Samuel Wesley (a poet of the late Stuart period) and the nephew of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church.(Samuel Wesley (1766-1837): Twelve Short Pieces Nos. 1-3. Uploaded by einer von weitem. Accessed February 24, 2019.)

1786 - Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also known as Karl Grimm), German author and anthropologist, and the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the Brothers Grimm.Wilhelm took great delight in music, for which his brother had but a moderate liking, and he had a remarkable gift of story-telling. A collection of fairy tales was first published in 1812 by the Grimm brothers, known in English as Grimms' Fairy Tales.  From 1837–1841, the Grimm brothers joined five of their colleague professors at the University of Göttingen to form a group known as the Göttinger Sieben (The Göttingen Seven). They protested against Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, whom they accused of violating the constitution. All seven were fired by the king.He died of an infection, aged 73.

1842 - Arrigo Boito, Italian opera composer (original name: Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito). He wrote essays under the anagrammatic pseudonym of Tobia Gorrio). He was also a Poet, Journalist, Novelist, Librettist and Composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's last two monumental operas Otello and Falstaff (not to mention Amilcare Ponchielli's operatic masterpiece La Gioconda) and his own opera Mefistofele. Along with Emilio Praga and his own brother Camillo Boito, he is regarded as one of the prominent representatives of the Scapigliatura artistic movement.

1887 - Mary Ellen Chase (Mary Peters), American novelist, scholar and educator. She is regarded as one of the most important regional literary figures of the early 20th-century. Her influence as an educator was profound. Among her famous students she counselled as professor of English at Smith College included Anne Morrow (Lindbergh), Sylvia Plath and Betty Goldstein (Friedan). Author of ten novels, she brought to life her native Maine. In 1961, she gave a speech in New York: "Perhaps our present-day fiction will give us little or nothing until we return to the verities of the human spirit ... until we again live by faith, hope, courage." She also made this observation after publication of her best-selling novel The Lovely American: "Most readers think that a novel is first of all, a story. Well, it really isn't... A novel is ... an evaluation of life. Its story is merely a means to an end."

      

1932 - Michel Jean Legrand, French musical composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz pianist. Legrand was a prolific composer, having written over 200 film and television scores, in addition to many songs. His scores for two of the films of French New Wave director Jacques Demy, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), earned Legrand his first Academy Award nominations. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and additional Oscars for Summer of '42 (1971) and Yentl (1983). (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Film clip. Youtube, uploaded by SirBasildeBrush. Accessed February 24, 2023. The Windmills of your Mind. Sung by Noel Harrison, accessed February 24, 2018. From Thomas Crown Affair film/ L’Affaire Thomas Crown. Youtube, uploaded by Chad Lawson. Accessed February 24, 2022.)  

 

1938 - James Farentino,  American actor. He appeared in nearly 100 television, film, and stage roles, among them The Final Countdown, Jesus of Nazareth, and Dynasty. In the 1950s and 1960s, he performed on the stage and a few TV roles. In 1978, he was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his portrayal of Simon Peter in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth. In 1980, Farentino starred in The Final Countdown with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen, and then played Juan Perón opposite Faye Dunaway's Eva Perón in the 1981 television film Evita Perón.

1948 - Dennis Waterman, English actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy leading roles in television series including The Sweeney, Minder and New Tricks, singing the theme tune of the latter two. Waterman's acting career has spanned 60 years. He i is notable for the range of roles he played, including horror (Scars of Dracula), adventure (Colditz), comedy (Fair Exchange), comedy-drama (Minder), musical (Windy City) and sports (The World Cup: A Captain's Tale), as well as police TV series such as The Sweeney. He has appeared in 28 films but retired from acting between 2015 and 2019.

Leftie:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, February 24 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1607 - Monteverdi's opera Orfeo is first staged, in Mantua.



 

1711 - George F. Handel's opera Rinaldo, his first staged in London, is first performed.

1804 - London's Drury Lane Theatre burns to the ground, leaving owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan destitute.

1839 - William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.  

1857 - The first shipment of perforated postage stamps is received by the U.S. Government.

1876 - Edvard Grieg's incidental music to Ibsen's drama Peer Gynt is first performed with the drama at Christiania, Oslo.

1938 - The first toothbrushes made with nylon bristles instead of animal hair go on sale. 

1945 - American forces liberate the Philippine capital, Manila, from the Japanese empire.

1946 - In a coup, Juan Peron becomes President of Argentina.

1981 - Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, and Lady Diana Spencer become engaged.    


Video Credit:

Orfeo - Monteverdi.  YouTube, uploaded by Zeno Lugoboni.  Accessed February 24, 2017.


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 February 24, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.