November 21 Dateline

Birthdays

1694 - Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, and historian. He was known by his nom de plume Voltaire, was famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, as well as his advocacy of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile and prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. A satire on prevailing philosophical thought of its time, his book Candide is considered Voltaire's most enduring and well-read work. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.  (LITERATURE - Voltaire. The School of Life. Accessed Nov. 21, 2019.)

1852 - Francisco Tárrega (Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea), Spanish composer and classical guitarist of the Romantic period. Tarrega is known for such pieces as Recuerdos de la Alhambra. He is often called "the father of classical guitar" and is considered one of the greatest guitarists of all time. As a composer Tárrega's musical style was conservative, with a style similar to the general trends of the second half of the 19th century. A virtuoso on his instrument, he was known as the "Sarasate of the guitar". Tárrega is considered to have laid the foundations for 20th century classical guitar and for increasing interest in the guitar as a recital instrument. Tárrega preferred small intimate performances over the concert stage. (Ana Vidovic plays Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega on a Jim Redgate classical guitar. YouTube, uploaded by SiccasGuitars. Classical Guitar - Capricho Arabe, F. Tárrega, performed and uploaded by Tatyana Ryzhkova. Sanja Plohl plays Francisco Tárrega: Lágrima. YouTube, Accessed November 21, 2020.)

1912 - Eleanor Torrey Powell, American dancer and actress, best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films. At the age of sixteen, she began studying tap and started appearing in musical revues on Broadway. She made her Hollywood debut as a featured dancer in the movie George White's Scandals. She was known as one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood, appearing in a series of musical vehicles tailored especially for her talents, including Born to Dance, Broadway Melody of 1938 and Rosalie. In 1965, she was named the World’s Greatest Tap Dancer by the Dance Masters of America.

1931 - Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson, Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death. His first major success was with his Piano Concerto No. 1, premiered by Clive Lythgoe at the 1958 Cheltenham Festival to a standing ovation. Williamson was a prolific composer at this time, receiving many commissions and often performing his own works, both on organ and piano. In 1975, the death of Arthur Bliss left the title of Master of the Queen's Music vacant. He was selected for the position, the first non-Briton to hold the post. 

1941 - Juliet Mills (born Juliet Maryon Mills), British-American actress of film, stage, and television. She was nominated at age 18 for a Tony Award for her stage performance in Five Finger Exercise. She progressed to film work and TV, playing the lead role on the sitcom Nanny and the Professor in the early 1970s. She received Golden Globe Award nominations for her role in the series and for the film Avanti!. She won an Emmy Award for her performance in the TV miniseries QB VII. In 1983, Mills joined The Mirror Theater Ltd's Mirror Repertory Company, performing in repertory productions throughout their seasons. She had a role on the daytime drama series Passions, for which she was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award. She is the daughter of actor Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and the eldest of three siblings; her younger siblings are actress Hayley Mills and director Jonathan Mills. 

1945 - Goldie Jeanne Hawn, American actress, producer, dancer, and singer. She received the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Cactus Flower. She maintained bankable star status for more than three decades, while appearing in such films as There's a Girl in My Soup, Butterflies Are Free, Shampoo, Foul Play, and Private Benjamin, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the title role. She later starred in more films like: Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, The Out-of-Towners and The Banger Sisters.  Hawn is the mother of actors Oliver Hudson, Kate Hudson, and Wyatt Russell, and has been in a relationship with actor Kurt Russell since 1983. In 2003, she founded The Hawn Foundation, which educates underprivileged children.

Leftie:
Actress Goldie Hawn
 

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

 

Features: 

Leonard Bernstein's operetta Candide, based on Voltaire's famous book of the same name. 

Historical Events

1783 - The first successful free flight takes place when F.P. de Rozier and F. Laurent, M. d'Arlandes, fly for 25 minutes over Paris in a balloon.

1877 - Thomas Alva Edison announces the invention of the phonograph.

1937 - Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 is first performed in Leningrad.

1943 - American pianist Eugene Istomin wins the Leventritt Award for his performance as soloist in Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. (here - E. Istomin plays Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra in B-Flat Major, Op. 83: I. Allegro non troppo, with Eugene Ormandy conducting The Philadelphia Orchestra. For more about this beautiful Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 from this website, - click this link.)

1953 - The "Piltdown man" skull is revealed as a hoax. At first, the skull was believed to be the "missing link" in evolution, proving a connection between mankind and apes, as had been theorized. Supposed "discovered" in  1911, the skull was put together using the jawbone of an orangutan. The best suspect for the identity of Charles Dawson, the hoaxer who found the skull, but no one admitted to it.

1995 - The signing of the first Dayton Peace Accord brings three-and-a-half years of fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina to an end.



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


 

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