December 1 Dateline

Birthdays

1913 - Mary Martin, American actress, singer, and Broadway star. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles over her career including Nellie Forbush in South Pacific (1949) and Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music (1959). She was named a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1989. Her next major success was in the role of Peter in the Broadway production of Peter Pan in October 1954 with Martin winning the Tony Award. She opened on Broadway in The Sound of Music as Maria on November 16, 1959, and stayed in the show until October 1961. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Amongst her other numerous awards, she was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1973. She received the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual honor for career achievements, in 1989. She was the mother of Dallas actor Larry Hagman. (Mary Martin's Peter Pan (1954) Colored Televised Musical. YouTube, uploaded by ObamaBin Lama. Mary Martin and Larry Hagman - Royal Variety Performance 1980. YouTube, uploaded by Video Rarities. Accessed 1 Dec. 2020.)

 
1930 - Matt Monro (born Terence Edward Parsons), English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s and 1970s. Known as The Man with the Golden Voice, he filled cabarets, nightclubs, music halls, and stadiums across the world. His recordings include the UK Top 10 hits: "Portrait of My Love", "My Kind of Girl", "Softly As I Leave You", "Walk Away" and "Yesterday" (originally by The Beatles). He also recorded several film themes such as "From Russia with Love" for the James Bond film of the same name, "Born Free" for the film of the same name and "On Days Like These" for The Italian Job. (Matt Monro. Four All time Classics. Uploaded, thisboy 91554. The Precious Moments.  Accessed December 1, 2020. )

1932 - Dame Isoleen Heather Begg, DNSM OBE, New Zealand-born operatic soprano who spent most of her career in the UK and Australia. She was renowned in roles such as the title role in Bizet's Carmen, Amneris in Verdi's Aida and in lighter operas such as The Gondoliers. (Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado - Act 1 Finale. Uploaded by DancairoOpera. Accessed December 1, 2016. The Act 1 finale to the 1973 production with the marvelous Heather Begg as Katisha. )

1933 - Louis Allen Rawls, American songwriter, actor, singer, and record producer. Rawls released more than 60 albums, sold more than 40 million records, and had numerous charting singles, most notably his song "You'll Never Find Another Love like Mine".

1935 - Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg), American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans multiple Academy Award-winning movies. He began his career as a comedy writer, working alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart and Neil Simon. He also began writing material for television, published several books featuring short stories, and writing humor pieces for The New Yorker. In the early 1960s, he performed as a stand-up comedian in Greenwich Village. He released three comedy albums during the mid to late 1960s, even earning a Grammy Award nomination for his 1964 comedy album entitled simply, Woody Allen. In 2004 Comedy Central ranked Allen fourth on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians, while a UK survey ranked Allen the third-greatest comedian.

1939 - Lee Buck Trevino, American retired professional golfer who is regarded as one of the greatest players in golf history. He was inducted to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1981. Trevino won six major championships and 29 PGA Tour events. He is one of only four players to twice win the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship. The Masters was the only major that eluded him. He is an icon for Mexican Americans, and is often referred to as "The Merry Mex" and "Supermex," affectionate nicknames given to him by other golfers.

1940 - Richard Pryor (Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor), American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He is regarded as one of the most influential stand-up comedians of all time. His work includes the concert movies and recordings. As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies and occasionally in dramas. He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. Pryor won an Emmy Award (1973) and five Grammy Awards. In 1974, he also won two American Academy of Humor awards and the Writers Guild of America Award. The first-ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor was presented to him in 1998. He was listed at number one on Comedy Central's list of all-time greatest stand-up comedians.  

 
1945 - Bette Midler, American actress, singer and entertainer. Many of her songs became chart hits, such as "The Rose", "Wind Beneath My Wings", and "From a Distance." She won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "The Rose", and Record of the Year for "Wind Beneath My Wings". She made her motion picture debut in 1979 with The Rose, which earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She went on to star in numerous hit films. In her starring roles in For the Boys and Gypsy, she won two additional Golden Globe Awards and received a second Academy Award nomination for the former. She starred in the Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly!, which premiered at the Shubert Theatre in April 2017. The show was her first leading role in a Broadway musical. Midler received the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance. (B. Midler singing "The Rose." YouTube, Accessed December 1, 2018.  Bette Midler - From A Distance (Official Music Video, YouTube, uploaded by RHINO. Accessed July 26, 2020.)

1946 - Gilbert O'Sullivan, Irish singer-songwriter who achieved his most significant success with his hit songs "Alone Again (Naturally)", "Clair", and "Get Down". O'Sullivan's songs are often marked by his distinctive, percussive piano playing style and observational lyrics using word play. Born in Waterford, Ireland, he settled in Swindon, England, as a child. He has charted 16 top 40 records including six No. 1 songs, the first of which was 1970's "Nothing Rhymed". Across his career, he has recorded 19 studio albums, up to his UK top 20 self-titled record in 2018. The music magazine Record Mirror voted him the top UK male singer of 1972. He has received three Ivor Novello Awards, including “Songwriter of the Year” in 1973. (Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again (original version). YouTube, uploaded by valliseasons1. Accessed March 17, 2021.)

1951 - Richard Treat Williams, American actor, writer, and aviator who has appeared on film, stage and television. He first became well known for his starring role in the 1979 musical film Hair, and later also starred in the films Prince of the City, Once Upon a Time in America, The Late Shift and 127 Hours. From 2002 to 2006, he was the lead of the television series Everwood and was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has additionally been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, two Satellite Awards, and an Independent Spirit Award.

Lefties:
None known
 

More birthdays and historical events, December 1 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1804 - Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine of Martinique.  

1886 - Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde in its American premiere is enormously successful. Anton Seidl conducted the Metropolitan Opera in the New York opening.

November 30 Dateline

Birthdays

1667 - Jonathan Swift, Anglo-Irish author, satirist, essyaist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift". Aside from Gulliver's Travel  which he is famous for, Swift is also remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Modest Proposal. He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms – such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier, or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian and Juvenalian styles. His ironic writing style, particularly in A Modest Proposal  led to such satire subsequently termed "Swiftian".

1835 - Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, and lecturer. He created most memorable characters in The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. (The Adventures of of Tom Sawyer is a 1938 American literature adaptation produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Norman Taurog starring Tommy Kelly. Accessed November 30, 2018.)  He was lauded as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter often called "The Great American Novel".

1874 - Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, Former British prime minister of the UK during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was Member of Parliament (MP) from 1900 to 1964 and represented a total of five constituencies. Ideologically an economic liberal and imperialist, he was for most of his career a member of the Conservative Party. (Winston Churchill/A Giant in History. Accessed November 30, 2018.)

1937 - Ridley Scott, English film director and producer. He is best known for directing the science fiction horror film Alien, the neo-noir dystopian film Blade Runner, the road adventure film Thelma & Louise, the historical drama film Gladiator (2000), the war film Black Hawk Down, and the science fiction film The Martian. Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing, which he received for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Scott himself received a nomination in that category for the 2015 film The Martian. In 2003, he was knighted for services to the British film industry. He received an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art in London in 2015, and the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2018.

1965 - Ben Stiller, (Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller), American actor, comedian, film producer and director, writer. He is the son of the late comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Stiller wrote several mockumentaries and was offered his own show, titled The Ben Stiller Show, which he produced and hosted for its 13-episode run. He made his directorial debut with Reality Bites. He has written, starred in, directed, or produced more than 50 films. He has also made cameos in music videos, television shows, and films. Stiller is a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known as the Frat Pack. His films have grossed more than $2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, with an average of $79 million per film. He has received various awards and honors, including an Emmy Award, multiple MTV Movie Awards, a Britannia Award and a Teen Choice Award.

Lefties:
Former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill
Film director and producer Ridley Scott
Actor Ben Stiller
Author Mark Twain

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 30 - On This Day

 
 

Below, Sir Simon Rattle conducts Berliner Philharmoniker perform Jules Massenet's Le Cid in a concert. Le Cid is an opera in four acts and ten tableaux by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet, Édouard Blau and Adolphe d'Ennery. It is based on the play of the same name by Pierre Corneille.

 

Historical Events

1609 - In Padua, Italy, Galileo Galilei peers through his telescope at the Moon and makes several drawings. He notes that the Moon is not smooth, but pitted, changing forever people's notions of objects in the sky.

1885 - Jules Massenet's opera Le Cid is first performed. 

November 29 Dateline

Birthdays

1797 - Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer, best known for his almost 70 operas.  Along with Gioachino Rossini and Vincenzo Bellini, Donizetti was a leading composer of the bel canto opera style during the first half of the 19th century.(featured below is Donizetti's opera L'Elixir D'amore.) Donizetti's close association with the bel canto style was undoubtedly an influence on other composers such as Giuseppe Verdi. Although he did not come from a musical background, at an early age he was taken under the wing of composer Simon Mayr who had enrolled him by means of a full scholarship in a school which he had set up. There he received detailed training in the arts of fugue and counterpoint. Mayr was also instrumental in obtaining a place for Donizetti at the Bologna Academy, where, at the age of 19, he wrote his first one-act opera, the comedy Il Pigmalione.

1803 - Christian Andreas Doppler, Austrian mathematician and physicist (best known for Doppler Effect). He is celebrated for his principle — known as the Doppler effect — that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the relative speed of the source and the observer. He used this concept to explain the color of binary stars.

1832 - Louisa May Alcott, American writer, famous for "Little Women," "Little Men," and "Jo's Boys." She was raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, she grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She was active in such reform movements as temperance and women's suffrage. Alcott's brief biography in short and rare photos - here. (Uploaded by World Wide Biographies. Accessed November 29, 2018)

1898 - C.S. Lewis (Clive Staples Lewis), British writer and lay theologian, famous for various best known works of fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy, and for his non-fiction Christian apologetics, such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Four Loves, A Grief Observed, The Problem of Pain, and Surprised by Joy. He was a close friend of J. R.R. Tolkien. (C.S. Lewis life with a purpose. Uploaded by Kevin Lancast. Accessed November 29, 2018.)

1918 - Madeleine L'Engle, American writer of young adult fiction, including A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels: A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptabale Time. Her works reflect both her Christian faith and her strong interest in science.(Madeleine L'Engle. Accessed November 29, 2018)

1940 - Charles "Chuck" Frank Mangione, American flugelhorn player, trumpeter and composer. He was a member of Art Blakey's band and co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother, Gap. He achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single "Feels So Good". Mangione has released more than 30 albums since 1960. On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Chuck Mangione among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.

1954 - Joel Coen, American screenwriter, film director & producer. With brother Ethan Coen, they're collectively referred to as the Coen Brothers. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody.  The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until The Ladykillers (2004) Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing editing credits under the alias Roderick Jaynes. They have been nominated for 13 Academy Awards together, and individually for one award each, winning Best Original Screenplay for Fargo and Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country for Old Men. The duo also won the Palme d'Or for Barton Fink. 

1962 - Andrew Thomas McCarthy, American actor, travel writer and Television director. He is most known as a member of the Brat Pack, with roles in 1980s films such as St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, and Less Than Zero. He is ranked #40 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars of all-time list.

Lefties:
Writer and director Joel Coen
Musician Chuck Mangione
Actor Andrew McCarthy

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 29 -  On This Day
 

 

Below is a performance of Gaetano Donizetti's opera, L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love).  The story of this opera is a mere comedy with respect to the elixir of love. It is a comic opera in two acts, about a poor man who tries to win the heart of a beautiful woman. Donizetti not only excelled in serious operas, e.g., Lucia di Lammermoor (his greatest success) and Anna Bolena, but also in comic operas, for instance, L'elisir d'amore. Singers in their roles:  Adina - Laura Giordano, Nemorino - Juan Diego Florez, Dulcamara - Alfonso Antoniozzi, Belcore - Jose Julian Frontal, Giannetta - Lavinia Rodriguez.  Conductor - Riccardo Frizza. Orchestra - Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria. Chorus - Coro

Historical Events

1907 - Nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, at the age of 87, is awarded the Order of Merit for her services during the Crimean War more than 50 years earlier and for setting up the first school of nursing after the war.

1947 - The United Nations (UN) General Assembly passes a resolution to divide Palestine between Arab and Jewish people.

November 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1628 - John Bunyan (birthday is in question, but recorded as baptised Nov 30), English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress. It is a religious allegory that John Bunyan published in two parts, in 1678 and 1684. The work is a symbolic vision of the good man's pilgrimage through life. At one time second only to the Bible in popularity, The Pilgrim's Progress is the most famous Christian allegory still in print. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

 
1632 - Jean Baptiste Lully, Italian-born French composer, instrumentalist, and dancer. He's largely noted as the founder of French opera. He spent of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered a master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in 1661. (Lully's Le Roi Danse (The King is Dancing). Soundtrack from the movie of the same name. YouTube, uploaded by VSP Musicali. Accessed November 28, 2020.)

1757 - William Blake, English poet, painter, and printmaker, visionary and artist, famous for writing 'Jerusalem' (which starts with "And did those feet in ancient time")  and 'The Tyger'. Blake is considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Although Blake was considered mad by contemporaries for his views, he is held in high regard by later critics for his expressiveness and creativity, and for the philosophical and mystical undercurrents within his work. His paintings and poetry have been characterised as part of the Romantic movement and as "Pre-Romantic". (W. Blake biography uploaded by Socratica. Accessed Nov 28, 2018.)

1820 - Friedrich Engels, sometimes anglicised as Frederick Engels, German philosopher, historian, political scientist and revolutionary socialist. He developed what is now known as Marxism together with Karl Marx. In 1845, he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research in English cities. In 1848, Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with Marx) other works. Later, Engels supported Marx financially, allowing him to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes of Das Kapital. Additionally, Engels organised Marx's notes on the Theories of Surplus Value which were later published as the "fourth volume" of Das Kapital.

1829 - Anton Rubinstein, Russian composer, pianist, and founder of the Imperial Conservatory in St. Petersburg. One of the great virtuosos of his day, he did not join the Russian Nationalist Movement of his contemporaries but followed a European style. (Anton Rubinstein - Piano Concerto No.5 in E-flat major, Op.94 (1874). Uploaded by KuhlauDilfeng2. Accessed November 28, 2015.)

1904 - Nancy Mitford, CBE (Nancy Freeman-Mitford), English novelist, biographer, and journalist. The eldest of the Mitford sisters, she was regarded as one of the "Bright Young People" on the London social scene in the years between the world wars. Mitford wrote several novels about upper-class life in England and France, and is considered a sharp and often provocative wit. She also has a reputation as a writer of popular historical biographies.

 

1908 - Claude Levi-Strauss, French anthropologist and ethnologist, born in Belgium to French-Jewish parents living in Brussels. His work was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France between 1959 and 1982, was elected a member of the Académie française in 1973, and was a member of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. He received numerous honors from universities and institutions throughout the world and has been called, alongside James George Frazer and Franz Boas, the "father of modern anthropology".

1933 - Hope Elise Rose Lange, American, actress on stage, television and film. Lange was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Selena Cross in the film Peyton Place. She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Carolyn Muir in the sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir. This success was followed by three seasons on The New Dick Van Dyke Show as Dick Van Dyke's wife, Jenny Preston. She appeared in twelve television movies, one being Crowhaven Farm where she played the role of a witch. In 1977, she returned to the Broadway stage where her acting career had originally begun. She also played the murdered wife of Charles Bronson's vigilante character in Death Wish. She appeared in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, and in Blue Velvet. Lange took a Broadway role in Same Time, Next Year and then made appearances in the TV movie based on Danielle Steel's Message from Nam and in Clear and Present Danger.

Leftie:

 
Actress Hope Lange

More birthdays and historical events, November 28 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1520 - Ferdinand Magellan rounds the tip of South America. He completed his navigation of the Straits of Magellan, and reaches the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic.

1660 - The Royal Society is founded at Gresham College by 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray.

November 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1701 - Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer, physicist and mathematician. best known for invention of the Celsius temperature scale. He was professor of astronomy at Uppsala University from 1730 to 1744, but traveled from 1732 to 1735 visiting notable observatories in Germany, Italy and France. He founded the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in 1741, and the following year proposed (an inverted form of) the Centigrade temperature scale which was later renamed Celsius in his honour. 

1759 - Franz Krommer, Czech violinist, conductor, composer of classical music. Three years younger than Mozart, his 71-year lifespan began half a year after the death of George Frideric Handel and ended nearly four years after that of Ludwig van Beethoven. Krommer's output was prolific, with at least 300 published compositions in at least 110 opus numbers including at least 9 symphonies, seventy string quartets and many others for winds and strings, about fifteen string quintets and much sonorous, idiomatic and at times powerful music for wind ensemble, for which he is best known today.(Franz Krommer - Clarinet Concerto in E-flat major, Op. 36. Uploaded by KuhlauDilfeng2. Accessed November 27, 2014.)

1880 - Sir Ralph Freeman, English structural engineer, responsible for the design of several of the world's most impressive bridges. He  is best remembered for his design work on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Birchenough Bridge in the Chipinge area of Zimbabwe. His son, also called Ralph Freeman, was also an engineer, senior partner at Freeman Fox & Partners, and President of the Institution of Civil Engineers; had been responsible for the design of the Humber Suspension Bridge. Sir Freeman's grandson, Ralph Anthony Freeman, was also an engineer who worked on numerous bridges including The RAMA IX Bridge in Bangkok.  

 

1909 - James Rufus Agee, American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S. His autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family, won the author a posthumous 1958 Pulitzer Prize.

1932 - Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. (Nov 27, 1932 – Aug 21, 1983), Filipino politician who served as a senator of the Philippines (1967–1972) and governor of the province of Tarlac. He was the husband of former Philippine President Corazon Aquino and father of former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III. Shortly after the imposition of martial law, he was arrested in 1972 and incarcerated for seven years. He ran in the 1978 Philippine parliamentary election, but lost in the election. In 1980, Aquino was permitted by Marcos to travel to the United States for medical treatment following a heart attack. He was assassinated at the Manila International Airport in 1983 upon returning from his self-imposed exile. His death revitalized opposition against Marcos, catapulted his widow, Corazon, into the political limelight, and prompted her to successfully run for a six-year term as President of the Philippines. Among other public structures, Manila International Airport has since been renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honour, and the anniversary of his death is a national holiday.

1942 - Jimi Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix), American musician, singer, and songwriter. His mainstream career spanned only four years but he was widely regarded one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music".

1957 - Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, American lawyer, author, the only daughter of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, older sister of John F. Kennedy, Jr.  After Obama selected United States Senator Hillary Clinton to serve as Secretary of State, Kennedy expressed interest in being appointed to Clinton's vacant Senate seat from New York, but she later withdrew from consideration, citing "personal reasons." In 2013, President Obama appointed Kennedy as the United States Ambassador to Japan. Aside from co-authoring and editing some New York Times best-selling volumes, Kennedy is author of A Family Christmas, a collection of poems, prose, and personal notes from her family history (2007). In April 2011, a new collection of poetry, She Walks In Beauty – A Woman's Journey Through Poems, edited and introduced by Caroline Kennedy, was published. She launched the book at the John F Kennedy Library & Museum at Columbia Point, Dorchester, MA.

Leftie:
Author and lawyer Caroline Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg 

More birthdays and historical events, November 27 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1582 - English Poet and playwright William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway by special license. He is 18 years old. She is 26 and pregnant.

1770 - Horatio Nelson joins the Royal Navy as a 12-year-old midshipman on the HMS Raisonnable.

November 26 Dateline

Birthdays

 

1731 - William Cowper, English poet and hymnodist. Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside. A forerunner of Romantic poetry, Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him "the best modern poet", whilst William Wordsworth particularly admired his poem Yardley-Oak. After being institutionalised for insanity, Cowper found refuge in a fervent evangelical Christianity. He recovered and wrote more religious hymns. His religious sentiment and association with John Newton (who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace") led to much of the poetry, and to the series of Olney Hymns. His poem "Light Shining out of Darkness" gave English the phrase: "God moves in a mysterious ways." He also wrote a number of anti-slavery poems and his friendship with Newton, who was an avid anti-slavery campaigner, resulted in Cowper being asked to write in support of the Abolitionist campaign. 

1910 - Cyril James Cusack, Irish actor. He appeared in numerous films and television productions lasting more than 70 years. In 2020, he was listed at number 14 on The Irish Times' list of Ireland's greatest film actors. In 1963, Cusack joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. By this stage he established a successful career in films which started at the age of eight; he also won a Jacob's Award for his performance in the Telefís Éireann production of Triptych. He received honorary degrees in 1977 and 1980 from the NUI and the University of Dublin respectively.  Cusack, who was bilingual in English and Irish, had a leading part in the controversial Irish language film Poitín. His last stage performance was in Chekhov's Three Sisters, in which three of his daughters played the sisters.

1915 - Earl Wild, American  pianist and composer, known for his transcriptions of jazz and classical music, and played for seven U.S. presidents. Wild recorded for several labels, including RCA Records, where he recorded an album of Liszt and a collection of music by George Gershwin, including Rhapsody in Blue, Cuban Overture, Concerto in F, and "I Got Rhythm" Variations, all with the Boston Pops Orchestra and Arthur Fiedler. Later in his career, Wild recorded for Ivory Classics. (Earl Wild plays his own Fantasy on the themes of opera Gershwin Porgy and Bess. Accessed  November 26, 2016.) 

1922 - Charles "Sparky" (Monroe) Schulz, American cartoonist, creator of the famous cartoon Peanuts with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the Gang. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time, cited by cartoonists including Jim Davis, Bill Watterson, Matt Groening, Dav Pilkey and Stephan Pastis. In addition to comics, Schulz was interested in art in general; his favorite artist in his later years was Andrew Wyeth. As a young adult, Schulz also developed a passion for classical music. Although the character Schroeder in Peanuts adored Beethoven, Schulz's personal favorite composer was reportedly Brahms. (C. Schulz interview on Peanuts, 1997 - here). and the trailer of Snoopy & Charlie Brown: The Movie - here. The Untold Story of Charles Schulz. Uploaded by TechnoLogical. Accessed November 26, 2018.)

1925 - Eugene Istomin, American pianist, later married Marta Casals, widow of cellist Pablo Casals.  He was famous for his work in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose (Schubert Piano Trio No. 2. II. Andante con moto.  Istomin-Stern-Rose. Uploaded by Alja Mandic. Accessed November 26, 2013.)

1939 - Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock), American-born singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress who later became a Swiss citizen. She rose to prominence as part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before launching a successful career as a solo performer. Turner is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, trademark legs, and career longevity. Her 1983 single "Let's Stay Together" was followed by the release of her fifth solo album, Private Dancer. The album contained the hit song "What's Love Got to Do with It", which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and it became her first and only Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit. Having sold over 100 million records, Turner is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She has won 12 Grammy Awards, which include eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Leftie:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 26 - On This Day

Historical Events

1857 - In Australia, the Legislative Assembly in the colony of Victoria proclaims universal manhood suffrage for the first time.

1922 - Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon opens the tomb of Tutankhamen in the Valley of Kings, Egypt. A slow, painstaking process, it takes months before they lay eyes on the inner tomb, containing the famous gold sarcophagus of the young pharaoh and many other incredible valued and antiquity items.

November 25 Dateline

Birthdays

1844 - Carl Friedrich Benz, sometimes also Karl Friedrich Benz, German engine designer and automotive engineer, car inventor/manufacturer. His Benz Patent Motorcar from 1885 is considered the first practical automobile. He received a patent for the motorcar in 1886. Karl Benz was a member of the new Daimler-Benz board of management for the remainder of his life. A new logo was created in 1926, consisting of a three pointed star surrounded by traditional laurels from the Benz logo, and the brand of all of its automobiles was labeled Mercedes-Benz. Model names would follow the brand name in the same convention as today.

1926 -  Jeffrey Hunter (born Henry Herman "Hank" McKinnies Jr.), American film and television actor and producer known for his roles in films such as The Searchers and King of Kings, No Man is an Island, and a 1953 UK film Sailor of the King, with Wendy Hiller and Michael Rennie. On television, he was known for his 1965 role as Capt. Christopher Pike in the original pilot episode of Star Trek and the later use of that footage in "The Menagerie".

1950 - Yvonne Kenny AM, Australian soprano, particularly associated with Handel and Mozart roles. In 2009 Kenny appeared as Blanche DuBois in the Australian premiere of Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire for Opera Australia. After her initial success with Opera Rara, she appeared in many recordings with them, notably: Donizetti's Ugo, conte di Parigi and Emilia di Liverpool, Meyerbeer's Il crociato in Egitto, and Simon Mayr's Medea in Corinto. She provided the voice for the title role in the TV mini-series Melba, about Dame Nellie Melba. She is the Chairman and Life President of the Australian Music Foundation. (The Best of Yvonne Kenny.  YouTube, Universal Music Group. Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. ABC. Accessed April 12, 2020.) 

1960 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., referred to as John-John or JFK Jr., American lawyer, journalist, and magazine publisher. Trained as a lawyer, he worked as a New York City assistant district attorney for almost four years. In 1995, he launched George magazine, using his political and celebrity status to publicize it.  JFK Jr. was a son of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and a younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. Three days after his father was assassinated, he rendered a final salute during the funeral procession on his third birthday. From his childhood years at the White House, Kennedy was the subject of much media scrutiny, and later became a popular social figure in Manhattan. He died in a plane crash in 1999 at the age of 38. 

Lefties:
None known

 

 
More birthdays and historical events, November 25 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1703 - In the British Isles the worst recorded gale strikes the south of England. About 30,000 sailors drown when 300 ships sink. On land, 9,000 people are killed.

1882 - Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Iolanthe opens in London.  Here's a performance, Proms 2000.

November 24 Dateline

Birthdays

1632 - Baruch Spinoza (or Benedictus de Spinoza), Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin. One of the early thinkers of the Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. (Philosophy - Baruch Spinoza. Uploaded by The School of Life. Accessed November 24, 2018.)

1849 - Frances Hodgson Burnett, British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden. During the serialization of Little Lord Fauntleroy in St. Nicholas in 1885, readers looked forward to new installments. The fashions in the book became popular, with velvet Fauntleroy suits being sold; other Fauntleroy merchandise included velvet collars, playing cards, and chocolates. Sentimental fiction was then the norm; in time, Little Lord Fauntleroy though still popular, was overtaken by The Secret Garden in popularity. Several of Burnett's novels for adults were also very popular in their day. A Lady of Quality was second in 1896, The Shuttle was fourth in 1907 and fifth in 1908, T. Tembarom was tenth in 1913 and sixth in 1914, and The Head of the House of Coombe was fourth in 1922. (15 Facts on Frances  H. Burnett / Author Facts - here. The Secret Garden, her famous book - here.)

1864 - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa), French post-Impressionist painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colorful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century allowed him to produce a collection of enticing, elegant, and provocative images of the modern affairs of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec is among the best-known painters of the Post-Impressionist period, with Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat. In a 2005 auction at Christie's auction house, La Blanchisseuse, his early painting of a young laundress, sold for US$22.4 million and set a new record for the artist for a price at auction.

1868 - Scott Joplin, African-American composer and pianist, known as the "King of Ragtime" because of the fame achieved for his ragtime compositions, music that was born out of the African-American community. He wrote over 100 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. One of his first and most popular pieces, the "Maple Leaf Rag", became ragtime's first and most influential hit, and has been recognized as the archetypal rag. In 1976, he was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize. His talents and a combination of gospel hymns, spirituals, dance music, classical music and work songs contributed significantly to the invention of a new style called “Ragtime” in his day. (The Best of Scott Joplin. YouTube, uploaded by Jazz & Blues Experience. Accessed Nov. 24, 2018. Scott Joplin: Complete Works (Rags, Marches, Waltzes & Songs). YouTube, uploaded by Majestic George. Accessed Nov. 24, 2023.) 

1888 - Cathleen Nesbitt CBE (born Kathleen Mary Nesbitt), English actress of stage, film and television. She is most likely popular as the grandmother of Cary Grant in the romantic film "An Affair to Remember" starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Nesbitt lived for many years in the United States, but returned to the United Kingdom where she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1978. Her autobiography, A Little Love and Good Company, was published in 1973.

Lefties: 
None known

 

 

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

 

 



Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer" was used as theme music for the movie The Sting starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

Historical Events

1642 - Abel Tasman sights Tasmania (one of Australia's present states) from his ship, the first European to do so. On November 25, he named the island "Anthony van Dieman's Land, in honour of the Hon. Governor General our high Superior, who has sent us out to make this discovery."

1859 - Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection is published. It is an immediate and controversial bestseller putting forward the evolution theory that challenges the idea of Biblical creation.

November 23 Dateline

Birthdays

1719 -  Johann Gottlob Breitkopf, German publisher/printer and founder of the famous Breitkopf & Härtel. Son of Bernhard Cristoph Breitkopf. Johann Breitkopf devised a font with a smaller division of the musical elements, enabling piano reductions of scores.

1876 - Manuel de Falla, Spanish composer and pianist. Along with Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, and Enrique Granados, he was one of Spain's most important musicians of the first half of the 20th century. His image appeared on Spain's 1970 100-pesetas banknote. His first important work was the one-act opera La vida breve (Life is Short, or The Brief Life, written in 1905, revised before its premiere in 1913.) With a libretto by Carlos Fernández Shaw, La vida breve won Falla first prize in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando musical competition, with a prize of 2500 pesetas and a promise of a production at the Teatro Royal in Madrid—a pledge which unfortunately was not fulfilled (Harper 1998, 17). In April 1905 he won the first prize in a piano competition sponsored by the firm of Ortiz and Cussó. On 15 May his work Allegro de concierto premiered in the Ateneo de Madrid and on 13 November the Real Academia presented him with his prize for La vida breve. (Manuel de Falla's "El Paño Moruno" from "Siete canciones populares españolas", sung by Spanish mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza, with Gabriel Estarellas, guitar accompanist. Manuel de Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain.)

Also listen to de Falla's famous "Noches en los Jardines de España" (Nights in the Gardens of Spain),  interpreted by Martha Argerich, and another link played by Daniel Barenboim.



1888 - Harpo Marx (born Adolph Marx), American comedian, actor, mime artist, musician, the second-oldest of the Marx Brothers. He was one of the most noted comedians of the 20th century as part of the famous Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo). In contrast to the mainly verbal comedy of his brothers, Harpo's comic style was visual, an example of both clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish blond wig, and never spoke during performances (he blew a horn or whistled to communicate). He frequently used props such as a horn cane, made up of a pipe, tape, and a bulbhorn, and he played the harp in most of his films.

1933 -  Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki, Polish composer and conductor. Among his best known works are Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Symphony No. 3, his St. Luke Passion, Polish Requiem, Anaklasis and Utrenja. He won many prestigious awards, including the Prix Italia in 1967 and 1968; the Wihuri Sibelius Prize of 1983; four Grammy Awards in 1987, 1998 (twice), and 2017; the Wolf Prize in Arts in 1987; and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992.  In 2012, Sean Michaels of The Guardian called him 'arguably Poland's greatest living composer'. (Penderecki Violin Concerto No.2. 'Metamorphosen'. YouTube, uploaded by OPUS... Accessed Nov. 23, 2020.)

1955 - Ludovico (Maria Enrico) Einaudi, OMRI, Italian pianist and composer. He began his career as a classical composer, later incorporating other styles and genres such as pop, rock, folk, and world music. Einaudi has composed the scores for a number of films and television productions, including This Is England, The Intouchables (Untouchable), I'm Still Here, the TV miniseries Doctor Zhivago, and Acquario (1996), for which he won the Grolla d'oro award. He has also released a number of solo albums for piano and other instruments, notably I Giorni in 2001, Nightbook in 2009, and In a Time Lapse in 2013. On 1 March 2019, Einaudi announced a seven-part project named Seven Days Walking, which was released over the course of seven months in 2019. (Ludovico Einaudi's "I Giorni",  performed by Sally Maer (cello) and Sally Whitwell (piano). Arranged by Sally Whitwell for cello & piano. Uploaded by ABC Classic. Accessed November 23, 2018.)

1956 - Shane Elizabeth Gould, Australian former competition swimmer who won three gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In 2018, she won Australian Survivor: Champions vs. contenders. She was initially on the Champions tribe.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, November 23 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1815 - Canada's first street lights are lit in Montreal. They are fueled by whale oil.

1852 - About this date, the first red post boxes, commonly known as pillar boxes, are introduced in the Channel Islands. The idea for them came from novelist Anthony Trollope. At that time, he worked for the Post Office. It is a year later, in 1853, when the pillar boxes are installed in the mainland.

November 22 Dateline

Birthdays

1710 - Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer and organist, he second child and eldest son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. Despite his acknowledged genius as an organist, improviser and composer, his income and employment were unstable and sadly, he died in poverty. His compositions include many church cantatas and instrumental works, of which the most notable are the fugues, polonaises and fantasias for clavier, and the duets for two flutes. He incorporated more elements of the contrapuntal style learned from his father than any of his three composer brothers, but his use of the style has an individualistic and improvisatory edge which endeared his work to musicians of the late 19th century.

1819 - George Eliot (real name: Mary Ann Evans), English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She was known by her pen name George Eliot. She wrote seven novels, including Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Romola, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, most of which are set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight. Her Middlemarch has been described by the novelists Martin Amis and Julian Bernes as the greatest novel in the English language. In using a pen name, she wanted to escape the stereotype of women's writing being limited to lighthearted romances. Another factor in her use of a pen name may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny, thus avoiding the scandal that would have arisen because of her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes. [Wiki] (George Eliot - Short Biography. Uploaded by podcasts for Curious Minds. Accessed November 22, 2019.)

1890 - Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, French officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic in order to reestablish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. De Gaulle was elected President of France later that year, a position to which he was reelected in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. He was the dominant figure of France during the early part of the Cold War era. His memory continues to influence French politics.

1899 - Hoagy Carmichael (born Hoagland Howard Carmichael), American jazz pianist, composer, singer, songwriter, and actor. He is famous for songs "Stardust", "The Nearness of You", Heart and Soul" (in collaboration with lyricist Frank Loesser), and "Georgia on my Mind" (lyrics by Stuart Gorrell), four of the most-recorded American songs ofall time. He was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and was among the first singer-songwriters to utilize new communication technologies, such as the TV and the use of electronic microphones and sound recordings. He collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on "Lazybones" and "Skylark." Carmichael's "Ole Buttermilk Sky" was an Academy Award nominee in 1946, from Canyon Passage. "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," with lyrics by Mercer, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1951. Carmichael also appeared as a character actor and musical performer in several films, hosted three musical-variety radio programs, performed on TV, and wrote two autobiographies.

1901 - Joaquin Rodrigo, Spanish composer and virtuoso Pianist. His music is among the most popular of the 20th century. His music is particularly written for that most of Spanish instruments, the guitar. While evoking something of the colourful Spanish landscape and character in the melodies, it also dances lightly to the rhythms of flamenco and other traditional types of Spanish song and dance. His most famous work, Concierto de Aranjuez, is considered one of the pinnacles of Spanish music and of the guitar concerto repertoire. It captures all the passion and romance of Spain, with its orchestration and evocative writing for the solo instrument.

1913 - Benjamin Britten, English composer, conductor, and pianist. (Britten's interview, 1968.) He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include: Peter Grimes, War Requiem, the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Billy Budd. Together with Peter Pears and the librettist and producer Eric Crozier, Britten founded the annual Aldeburgh Festival in 1948, and he was responsible for the creation of Snape Maltings concert hall. In his last year, he was the first composer to be given a life peerage.

1943 - Billie Jean King, American former World No. 1 professional tennis player. King won 39 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, 16 in women's doubles, and 11 in mixed doubles. She won the singles title at the inaugural WTA Tour Championships. For three years, she was the United States' captain in the Federation Cup. King is an advocate for gender equality and a pioneer for equality and social justice. In 1973, at age 29, she won the "Batte of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. She was the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. Regarded by many in the sport as one of the greatest women's tennis players of all time, King was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987.

1961 - Stephen Hough (born Stephen Andrew Gill Hough), CBE, British-born Australian Classical pianist, composer, writer, poet and painter. Hough is a polymath. He is an Honorary Member of various distinguished institutions, including the Royal Academy of Music in London. He became the first classical music performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. In 2009 he was named by The Economist and Intelligent Life magazines as one of twenty living polymaths. In 2010 he was named Instrumentalist of the Year at the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. As a painter, Hough had a solo exhibition of his paintings at the Broadbent Gallery in London in October 2012. (Stephen Hough Plays Brahms First Piano Concert Pt. 1, where he plays an extended excerpt from the first movement, with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer. Uploaded by MartinaSemenova. Accessed November 22, 2008.

1967 - Boris Franz Becker, Former world No. 1 German professional tennis player. He won the first of his six major singles titles at age 17. His Grand Slam singles titles included three Wimbledons, two Australian Opens and one US Open. He also won three year-end championships, 13 Masters Series titles and an Olympic gold medal in doubles. In 1989, he was voted the Player of the Year by both the ATP and the ITF. Since his playing career ended, he has engaged in numerous ventures, including coaching Novak Djokovic for three years, and working in the field of poker.

1984 - Scarlett Johansson, American actress and singer. The world's highest-paid actress since 2018, she has made multiple appearances in the Forbes Celebrity 100. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Tony Award and a BAFTA Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. She shifted to adult roles in 2003 with her performances in Lost in Translation, which won her a BAFTA Award for Best Actress, and Girl with a Pearl Earring. She was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for these films, and for playing an estranged teenager in the drama A Love Song for Bobby Long, and a seductress in the psychological thriller Match Point. She debuted on Broadway in a revival of A View from the Bridge, which won her a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress. She received critical acclaim and two Academy Award nominations for playing an actress going through a divorce in the drama Marriage Story and a single mother in Nazi Germany in the satire Jojo Rabbit. Her films have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide, making Johansson the ninth-highest-grossing box office star of all time.

 
Leftie:
Actress Scarlett Johansson

More birthdays and historical events, November 22 - On This Day
 

 

In memory of birthday celebrants, composers Joaquin Rodrigo and Benjamin Britten. Below, enjoy videos of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez, performed by Petrit Ceku (guitar) - Parkening Competition 2012 Finals and Britten's Violin Concerto.  A later interpretation of Britten's Violin Concerto was performed by the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra, with Giulio Plotino (violin), conducted by Simone Young. - Here.    

Historical Events

St. Cecilia's Feast Day - celebrated this day, November 22, to honour the patroness of Musicians.

Saint Cecilia (Latin: Sancta Caecilia). It is written that as the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord".  Her feast day is celebrated in the Latin Catholic, Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches and in some churches of the Anglican Communion on November 22. She is one of seven women, in addition to the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass in the Roman Catholic Church. While the details of her story may be apocryphal, her existence and martyrdom are considered a historical fact. She is said to have been beheaded with a sword. An early church, Santa Cecilia, was founded in the 3rd century by Pope Urban I in the Trastevere section of Rome, reputedly on the site of the house in which she lived. A number of musical compositions are dedicated to her, and her feast day has become the occasion for concerts and musical festivals. [Wiki]

1739 - G. F. Handel's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day is first performed, in London. (G.F. HÄNDEL: Ode for St. Cecilia's Day HWV 76, I Barocchisti, conducted by Diego Fasolis. Uploaded by Ispirazione Barocca. Accessed November 22, 2018. Here's also Henry Purcell's Ode to St. Cecilia (Z 328): I-II. Uploaded by SimplyBaroque. Accessed November 22, 2018.) 

1906 - The International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin adopted "SOS" ("Save Our Souls") as the international distress call.

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.

November 20 Dateline

Birthdays

1752 - Thomas Chatterton, English poet. His precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. At 17, he sought outlets for his political writings in London, having impressed the Lord Mayor, William Beckford, and the radical leader John Wilkes, but his earnings were not enough to keep him, and he poisoned himself in despair. The oil painting The Death of Chatterton by Pre-Raphaelite artist Henry Wallis has enjoyed lasting fame. His unusual life and death attracted much interest among the romantic poets, and Alfred de Vigny wrote a play about him that is still performed today.

1765 - Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, German opera composer and conductor who originally studied theology at Halle before turning to music. During a stay at Potsdam he showed his self-acquired skill as a pianist before King Frederick William II, who made him a yearly allowance to enable him to complete his musical studies under Johann Gottlieb Naumann, a German composer of the Italian school, and the style of that school Himmel adopted in his operas. The first was a pastoral opera, Il primo navigatore, produced at Venice in 1794 with great success. In 1792 he went to Berlin, where his oratorio Isaaco was produced, in consequence of which he was made court Kapellmeister to the king of Prussia, and he wrote a great deal of official music, including cantatas, and a coronation Te Deum. His Italian operas were all received with great favour. Of greater importance is a Singspiel Fanchon to words by Kotzebue. Himmel's gift of writing simple melody is also observable in his Lieder, including An Alexis send ich dich (To Alexis).(Friedrich Heinrich Himmel / Ernst Pauer - Prayer (D flat major. Uploaded by Erakko Ippolitov - Piano Channel. Accessed Nov. 20, 2016.) 

1889 - Edwin Hubble, American astronomer (Hubble Space Telescope) who played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. He is regarded as one of the most important astronomers of all time and he is widely recognized for the Hubble Space Telescope, named in his honour. Hubble discovered that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as "nebulae" were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way. He used the strong direct relationship between a classical Cepheid variable's luminosity and pulsation period (discovered in 1908 by Henrietta Swan Leavitt) for scaling galactic and extragalactic distances. He provided evidence that the recessional velocity of a galaxy increases with its distance from the Earth, a property now known as "Hubble's law", despite the fact that it had been both proposed and demonstrated observationally two years earlier by Georges Lemaître. The Hubble–Lemaître law implies that the universe is expanding.

1923 - Nadine Gordimer,  South African writer, political activist and recipient of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature. She was recognized as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity". Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly apartheid in South Africa. Under that regime, works such as Burger's Daughter and July's People were banned. She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned, and gave Nelson Mandela advice on his famous 1964 defence speech at the trial which led to his conviction for life. She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes.

1925 - Robert Francis Kennedy, American politician and lawyer, also referred to by his initials RFK and occasionally by the nickname Bobby, who served as the 64th U.S. Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. Senator from New York from January 1965 until his assassination in June 1968. He was, like his brothers John and Edward, a prominent member of the Democratic Party and has come to be viewed by some historians as an icon of modern American liberalism. His tenure is best known for its advocacy for the civil rights movement, the fight against organized crime and the Mafia, and involvement in U.S. foreign policy related to Cuba. He authored his account of the Cuban Missile Crisis in Thirteen Days. After his brother's assassination, he remained in office in the Johnson Administration. He left to run for the United States Senate from New York in 1964 and defeated Republican incumbent Kenneth Keating. Kennedy opposed racial discrimination and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

1927 - Estelle Margaret Parsons, American actress, singer and stage director. After studying law, Parsons became a singer. She worked for the TV program Today. Parsons established her career on Broadway before progressing to film. She received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Blanche Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde, and was nominated for her work in Rachel, Rachel . She later directed several Broadway productions. Her television work included her most well-known role, playing Beverly Harris, mother of the title character, on the sitcom Roseanne, and its spinoff The Conners. She has been nominated five times for the Tony Award (four times for Lead Actress of a Play and once for Featured Actress). Parsons was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2004.

1956 - Bo Derek (born Mary Cathleen Collins), American actress, film producer, and model perhaps best known for her breakthrough film role in the sex comedy 10  in 1979. She was directed by husband John Derek in Fantasies, Tarzan, the Ape Man, Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can't Do It (1989), unfortunately, all of which received negative reviews. A widow since 1998, she lives with actor John Corbett. Now in semi-retirement, she makes occasional film, television, and documentary appearances. 

 
Lefties:
Actress Estelle Parsons

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 20 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1805 - Ludwig van Beethoven conducts Fidelio, his only opera, in its first performance, in Vienna.



1889 - Gustav Mahler conducts his Symphony No. 1, "Titan," in its first performance, in Budapest.



1947 - Princess Elizabeth, 21 marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, 26, at Westminster Abbey in London. She is crowned Queen Elizabeth II six years later.

November 19 Dateline

Birthdays

1600 - Charles I, King of Great Britain and Ireland. He enters into a struggle against parliamentary power. and rules for 11 years without them. The Royalists and Parliamentarians fight the English Civil War, which King Charles loses.

1831 - James Abram Garfield, 20th U.S. President, serving from March 4, 1881, until his death by assassination six and a half months later. He is the only sitting member of the United States House of Representatives to be elected to the presidency.

 

1888 - Felix Adrian Norman Salmond, English cellist and cello teacher who achieved success in the UK and the US. His father was a baritone, and his mother was a pianist who had studied with Clara Schumann He played the cello at the premiere of Elgar's famous Cello Concerto.  His other performances also included the premieres, on 21 May 1919, of Edward Elgar's String Quartet in E minor and Piano Quintet in A minor at the Wigmore Hall (formerly Bechstein Hall).

1905 - Tommy Dorsey (Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr.), American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombone playing. His theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You". His technical skill on the trombone gave him renown among other musicians. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey.  After Dorsey broke with his brother in the mid-1930s, he led an extremely popular and highly successful band from the late 1930s into the 1950s. He is best remembered for standards such as "Opus One", "Song of India", "Marie", "On Treasure Island", and his biggest hit single, "I'll Never Smile Again".

1917 - Indira Gandhi, Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, only female Prime Minister of India. Indira Gandhi was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. She served as prime minister from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984, making her the second longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father. During Nehru's time as Prime Minister of India, Gandhi was considered a key assistant accompanying her father on his foreign trips. She was elected President of the Indian National Congress in 1959. Upon her father's death in 1964, she was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house) and became a member of Lal Bahadur Shastri's cabinet as Minister of Information and Broadcasting. She succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India. In 1999, Indira Gandhi was named "Woman of the Millennium" in an online poll organised by the BBC. In 2020 Gandhi was named by the Time magazine among world's 100 powerful women who defined the last century.

1921 - Géza Anda, Swiss-Hungarian pianist, a celebrated interpreter of classical and romantic repertoire, particularly noted for his performances and recordings of Mozart. He was also considered to be an interpreter of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Bartók. In his heyday he was regarded as an amazing artist, possessed of a beautiful, natural and flawless technique that gave his concerts a unique quality. Most of his recordings were made on the Deutsche Grammophon label. (Anda plays Mozart / Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat major, K. 450. YouTube, uploaded by scrymgeour34. Accessed November 19, 2020.)

1942 - Calvin Richard Klein, American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewellery.

1954 -  Kathleen Denise Quinlan, American film and television actress. She received a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination for the 1977 film I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1995 film Apollo 13. Her other film appearances include American Graffiti, Airport '77, The Promise, The Runner Stumbles, Sunday Lovers, Sunset, Clara's Heart, The Doors, Breakdown, and Breach.

1961 - Meg Ryan (born Margaret Mary Emily Hyra), American actress and producer. She appeared in supporting roles in films during the mid 1980s like box office hit Top Gun, achieving recognition in independent films such as Promised Land before her performance in the Rob Reiner-directed romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally... brought her widespread attention and her first Golden Globe nomination. Ryan subsequently established herself, as one of the most successful actresses in the 1990s and early 2000s, particularly in romantic comedy films such as Sleepless in Seattle, French Kiss, You've Got Mail, and Kate & Leopold. Her other films include The Doors, When a Man Loves a Woman, Courage Under Fire, Addicted to Love, City of Angels, Proof of Life, and The Women. In 2015, she made her directorial debut with Ithaca, a film in which she also acted.

1962 - Jodie Foster (born Alicia Christian Foster), American actress and director. She has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. As a director, she has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. Foster began her professional career as a child model when she was three years old. She made her film debut with Disney's Napoleon and Samantha. Foster's breakthrough came with Scorsese's psychological thriller Taxi Driver in which she played a child prostitute; she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other roles as a teenager include the musical Bugsy Malone and the thriller The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and she became a popular teen idol by starring in Disney's Freaky Friday and Candleshoe. She gained critical acclaim into adult roles for playing a rape survivor in the legal drama The Accused, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She won her second Academy Award three years later for the psychological horror The Silence of the Lambs. Foster made her debut as a film director the same year with Little Man Tate, and founded her own production company, Egg Pictures, in 1992. The company's first production was Nell, in which she also played the title role, garnering her fourth nomination for an Academy Award. Her other successful films in the 1990s were the romantic drama Sommersby, western comedy Maverick, science fiction Contact, and period drama Anna and the King.  She has focused on directing in the 2010s and also starred in the films.

Leftie:
20th U.S. President James Garfield

 

More birthdays and historical events, November 19 - On This Day
 

 

Feature: 

 

Zoltan Kodaly's Psalmus Hungaricus, Op. 13.  Kertész conducting the London Symphony Orchestra; Kosma, Brighton Festival Chorus. (For those of us who don't understand Hungarian text, translation below. Glorious music. Beautiful.)

"Mikoron Dávid nagy búsultában, [When as King David sore was afflicted,]
Baráti miatt volna bánatban, [By those he trusted basely deserted,]
Panaszolkodván nagy haragjában [In his great anger bitterly grieving]
Ilyen könyörgést kezde ı magában: [Thus to Jehovah pray'd he within his heart.]

Istenem Uram, kérlek tégedet, [God of my fathers, bow Thine ear to me,]
Fordítsad reám szent szemeidet, [Turn not away the light of Thy countenance,]
Nagy szükségemben ne hagyj engemet [Leave me not lonely in my misery,]
Mert megemészti nagy bánat szívemet. [Sore is my heart and sorrow o'erwhelmeth me.]"

 

Historical Events

1850 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet, becomes Poet Laureate, an office he holds until his death in 1892. 

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address when dedicating a national military cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania. It begins with the famous: "Four score and seven years ago, our father brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Notable orator Edward Everett spoke before the president for two hours. Lincoln spoke for two minutes.