Birthdays
1610 -
Pope Alexander VIII (born Pietro Vito Ottoboni), was Pope
from 6 October 1689 to his death in 1691. He is to date the last pope
to take the pontifical name of "Alexander" upon his election to the
papacy.
1724 -
Immanuel Kant, German philosopher, an influential great thinker. In his
doctrine of transcendental idealism, he argued that space, time and
causation are mere sensibilities; "things-in-themselves" exist, but
their nature is unknowable. (
The Life and Work of Immanuel Kant. Uploaded by Philosophy Overdose. Accessed April 22, 2019.)
1766 -
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël, novelist and critic, whose
Delphine and
Corinne are noted as the first "modern" feminist psychological romantic novels
1858 -
Dame Ethel Smyth, English composer and suffragist, whose work was notably eclectic, ranging from conventional to experimental. Born into a military family, Smyth studied at the Leipzig Conservatory and was encouraged by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák. She first gained notice with her sweeping
Mass in D (1893). Her best-known work is
The Wreckers (1906), the most-admired English opera of its time.
March of the Women (1911) reflected Smyth’s strong involvement in the woman suffrage movement. The comic opera
The Boatswain’s Mate (1916) enjoyed considerable success. (Dame E. Smyth's
The Wreckers Overture. Uploaded by Le Hoang. Accessed April 22, 2014.
1870 -
Vladimir Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1870]), better known as Lenin, Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, Russia, and later the Soviet Union, became a one-party Marxist–Leninist state governed by the Soviet Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed a variant of it known as Leninism.
1899 -
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin, Russian and American novelist, poet, translator and entomologist.
His first nine novels were written in Russian, but he achieved international prominence after he began writing English prose.
Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945. Nabokov's
Lolita (1955) was ranked fourth in the list of the Modern Library 100 Best Novels in 2007. He was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction seven times. Nabokov was also an expert lepidopterist and composer of chess problems.
1904 -
J. Robert Oppenheimer, American theoretical physicist and professor of physics. Oppenheimer was the wartime head of the Los Alamos Laboratory and is among those who are credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb" for their role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb was successfully detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico. Oppenheimer later remarked that it brought to mind words from the
Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." In August 1945, the weapons were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
1906 -
Eddie Albert (Edward Albert Heimberger), American actor and activist. He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in
Roman Holiday, and the second in 1973 for
The Heartbreak Kid. His other well-known screen roles include Bing Edwards in the
Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical
Oklahoma!. He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television sitcom
Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama
Switch. He had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on
Falcon Crest, opposite Jane Wyman.
1912 -
Kathleen Ferrier, CBE, (born Kathleen Mary Ferrier), English contralto
singer in stage, concert and
as recording artist, with a repertoire extending from folksong and popular
ballads to the classical works of Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar.
Her death from cancer at the height of her fame, was a shock to the
musical world and particularly to the general public, which was kept in
wraps. (
Kathleen Ferrier; "What is life to me without you?"; opera
Orfeo ed Euridice; Christoph Willibald Gluck. Sir Malcom Sargent--conductor
London Symphony Orchestra
1946. Uploaded by liederoperagreats. Accessed April 22 2019. Kathleen Ferrier sings
"What is Life" and "Art Thou Troubled". Uploaded by Russell Watson. Accessed March 21, 2020. KF with rendition of
Land of Hope & Glory. Live Performance from Manchester (1951) in the presence of the late Queen Mother Elizabeth. YouTube uploaded by Rip van Winkle. Accessed April 22, 2016.)
1916 -
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin,
OM KBE, American-born violinist
and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is considered one of the great violinists of the 20th century. He
played the Soil Stradivarius, considered one of the finest violins made by Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari. (
Menuhin - Paganini Concerto No. 1 (3rd Movement) - 1934 Paris Symphony Orchestra with Pierre Monteux, The Legendary Recording used to dub the 1963 video. Uploaded by adamwas. Accessed April 22, 2018.
Menuhin plays JS Bach's Chaconne. uploaded by VIRT1976. Accessed April 22, 2020.)
1926 -
Charlotte Rae (Charlotte Rae Lubotsky), American character actress, comedienne, and singer. She was known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms
Diff'rent Strokes and its spin-off,
The Facts of Life (in which she had the starring role from 1979–1986). She received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy in 1982. She voiced the character of "Nanny" in
101 Dalmatians: The Series and Aunt Pristine Figg in
Tom and Jerry: The Movie. In 2015, she returned to film in the feature film
Ricki and the Flash, with Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Rick Springfield. In 2015, Rae released her autobiography,
The Facts of My Life, which was co-written with her son, Larry Strauss.
1926 - Glen Travis Campbell, American singer, American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He
was best known for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS TV. He released 64 albums, selling
over 45 million records worldwide. In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western; "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards, while he won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
1937 - Jack Nicholson (born John Joseph Nicholson), American
actor and filmmaker. His twelve Academy Award nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academy's history. He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, once for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the other, for As Good as It Gets. He also won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Terms of Endearment. He is one of only three male actors to win three Academy Awards,
and one of only two actors to be nominated for an Academy Award for
acting in every decade from the 1960s to the 2000s. He has won six Golden Globe Awards and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2001. In 1994, he became one of the youngest actors to be awarded the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. His most known and celebrated films among others include: the road drama Easy Rider; the dramas Five Easy Pieces and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; the comedy-dramas Carnal Knowledge, Terms of Endearment, the neo-noir mysteries Chinatown, and the legal drama A Few Good Men. He has also directed three films, including The Two Jakes.
1944 - Joshua Rifkin, American pianist, conductor, and musicologist, currently a professor of music at Boston University. As a performer he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre Revueltas,
and as a scholar has published research on composers from the
Renaissance to the 20th century. He is famed among classical musicians
and aficionados for his increasingly influential theory that most of
Bach's choral works were sung with only one singer per choral line. He is best known by the general public, however, for having played a central role in the ragtime revival in the 1970s, with the three albums he recorded of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records.
Lefties:
Actor Eddie Albert
Singer Glen Campbell
Actress Charlotte Rae
More birthdays and historical events today, 22 April - On This Day.
Historical Events
1509 - Henry VIII becomes King of England upon the death of his father.
1913 - The first issue of Pavda ("The Truth"), the Soviet Communist Party newspaper is published in St. Petersburg.
