March 1 Dateline

Birthdays

1810 - Frederic Chopin, (born Frédéric François Chopin), Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leading musician of his era, one whose "poetic genius was based on a professional technique that was without equal in his generation." All of Chopin's compositions include the piano. His piano writing was technically demanding and expanded the limits of the instrument: his own performances were noted for their nuance and sensitivity. Chopin invented the concept of the instrumental ballade. His major piano works also include mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes, polonaises, études, impromptus, scherzos, preludes and sonatas, some published only posthumously. Among the influences on his style of composition were Polish folk music, the classical tradition of J. S. Bach, Mozart, and Schubert, and the atmosphere of the Paris salons of which he was a frequent guest. His innovations in style, harmony, musical form, and his association of music with nationalism, were influential throughout and after the late Romantic period.

1904 - Glenn Miller, (born Alton Glenn Miller), American big-band trombonist, arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was the best-selling recording artist from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best-known big bands.American Trombonist and big-band Leader. Here's one popular in his day: Glenn Miller - In the Mood. AF117. Accessed March 1, 2009.

1910 - David Niven, (born James David Graham Niven), English actor, memoirist and novelist. His many roles included Squadron Leader Peter Carter in A Matter of Life and Death, Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days, and Sir Charles Lytton ("the Phantom") in The Pink Panther. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Separate Tables (1958) with Deborah Kerr. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Niven returned to Britain and rejoined the army, being recommissioned as a lieutenant. Niven appeared in nearly a hundred films, and many shows for television. He also began writing books, with considerable commercial success. In 1982 he appeared in Blake Edwards' final "Pink Panther" films Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther, reprising his role as Sir Charles Lytton.

1917 - Robert Lowell (Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV), American poet. His family, past and present, were important subjects in his poetry. Growing up in Boston also informed his poems, which were frequently set in Boston and the New England region. The literary scholar Paula Hayes believes that Lowell mythologized New England, particularly in his early work. He was appointed the sixth Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, where he served from 1947 until 1948. In addition to winning the National Book Award, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1947 and 1974, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977, and a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award in 1947. He is "widely considered one of the most important American poets of the postwar era."

1922 - Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until his assassination in 1995. In 1992, Rabin was re-elected as prime minister on a platform embracing the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He signed several historic agreements with the Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with long-time political rival Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Rabin also signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. In November 1995, he was assassinated by an extremist named Yigal Amir, who opposed the terms of the Oslo Accords. Rabin has become a symbol of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.

1927 - Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.), Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor. One of the most successful Jamaican-American pop stars in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Trinidadian Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso was the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is known for his recording of "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded and performed in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards. He has also starred in several films.

1935 - Robert Conrad, American film and television actor, singer, and stuntman, best known for his role in the 1965–69 television series The Wild Wild West, playing the sophisticated Secret Service agent James T. West. He also portrayed World War II ace Pappy Boyington in the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep, the series Hawaiian Eye, and many other TV shows and films.

1954 - Ron Howard (born Ronald William Howard), American film director, producer, writer and actor. Howard first came to prominence as a child actor, guest-starring in several television series, including an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Leftie:
None known 

 

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

 

Features:  

Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11.
Martha Argerich, Pianist.  Charles Dutoit, conductor. NHK Symphony Orchestra. 1996.11.21 Tokyo. Japan Live. (1) Allegro Maestoso (2) Romanze – Larghetto (in E major) (3) Rondo – Vivace (in E major). Encores: (1) Chopin: Mazurka in C major, Op. 24 No. 2  (2) Schumann: Traumes Wirren from Fantasiestücke, Op. 12

Historical Events

1692 - The Salem witch trials begin in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1932 - Charles Lindbergh III, the 22-month-old son of celebrated aviator and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, is kidnapped and held for ransom. He is found dead in May. This event is the basis of Agatha Christie's famous book adaptation "Murder on the Orient Express" also made into a popular star-studded movie with Christie's famous character Hercule Poirot.

February 29 Dateline

Birthdays

1792 - Gioachino Rossini (b. Gioachino Antonio Rossini), Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas. His works also include many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards for both comic and serious opera before retiring from large-scale composition at the height of his popularity, while still in his thirties. His famous comic operas include:  L'italiana in Algeri, Il barbiere di Siviglia (English: The Barber of Seville) and La Cenerentola, which brought to a peak the opera buffa tradition he inherited from masters such as Domenico Cimarosa. He also composed opera seria works such as Otello, Tancredi and Semiramide. All these operas attracted admiration for their innovation in melody, harmonic and instrumental colour, and dramatic form. In 1824 Rossini was contracted by the Opéra in Paris, for which he produced an opera to celebrate the coronation of Charles X, Il viaggio a Reims (later amended for his first opera in French, Le comte Ory), revisions of two of his Italian operas, Le siège de Corinthe and Moïse, and in 1829 his last opera , Guillaume Tell.  (The Best of Rossini. Uploaded by Top Classical Music. Accessed February 29, 2020.)

1840 - John Philip Holland, American modern submarine inventor, known as the 'father of the modern submarine', who designed and built the first underwater vessel accepted by the U.S. Navy.

1896 - Morarji Ranchhodji Desai, Indian independence activist and served between 1977 and 1979 as the 4th Prime Minister of India and led the government formed by the Janata Party. During his long career in politics, he held many important posts in government such as Chief Minister of Bombay State, Home Minister, Finance Minister and 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of India.

1904 - Jimmy Dorsey (James Francis Dorsey), American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. Dorsey recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards "I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary People)" and "It's The Dreamer In Me". His other major recordings were "Tailspin", "John Silver", "So Many Times", "Amapola", "Brazil (Aquarela do Brasil)", "Pennies from Heaven" with Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, and Frances Langford, "Grand Central Getaway", and "So Rare". He played clarinet on the seminal jazz standards "Singin' the Blues" in 1927 and the original 1930 recording of the popular "Georgia on My Mind", which were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

1916 - Dinah Shore (born Fannye Rose Shore), American Singer, Actress, and Television Personality, and the top-charting female Vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during the Big Band era.  (Dinah Shore - It Had to be You. Uploaded by ssou02. Accessed February 29, 2019.)

1960 - Tony Robbins (Anthony Jay Robbins, born Anthony J. Mahavoric), American author, coach, motivational speaker, and philanthropist.  Robbins is known for his infomercials, seminars, and self-help books including the books Unlimited Power (published in 1987) and Awaken the Giant Within (published in 1993). His seminars are organized through Robbins Research International. 

 
Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

45 B.C.E. - Julius Caesar adjusts 46 B.C.E., known as the Year of Confusion, with 445 days, by fixing 365 days and six hours as a year's length, with an extra day added every four years.  

1288 - in Scotland it becomes legal for women to propose marriage to men only on this day (that is, leap year). 

1960 - An earthquake in Morocco kills one third of the population of Agadir in just 15 seconds. Populace: about 12,000 people.

February 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1895 - Guiomar Novaes, Brazilian Pianist noted for individuality of tone and phrasing, singing line, and a subtle and nuanced approach to her interpretations. (Novaes plays Chopin: Ballade in F minor, Op. 52, No.4)

1901 - Linus Pauling, American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, educator, a scientist and Nobel Prize laureate in chemistry and peace. He's husband of American human rights activist Ava Helen Pauling. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. New Scientist called him one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time, and as of 2000, he was rated the 16th most important scientist in history. For his scientific work, Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He is one of four individuals to have won more than one Nobel Prize (the others being Marie Curie, John Bardeen and Frederick Sanger). Of these, he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes, and one of two people to be awarded Nobel Prizes in different fields, the other being Marie Curie. Pauling was one of the founders of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. (Linus Pauling - Conversations with History. Uploaded by UCTV. Accessed February 28, 2017.)

1903 - Vincente Minnelli, American stage director and film director. He directed the classic movie musicals Meet Me in St. Louis, An American in Paris, The Band Wagon, and Gigi. An American in Paris and Gigi both won the Academy Award for Best Picture, with Minnelli winning Best Director for Gigi. In addition to having directed some of the best known musicals of his day, Minnelli made many comedies and melodramas. He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 until 1951; the couple were the parents of Liza Minnelli. (Heartwarming interview of Liza Minelli on her father. Uploaded by Elisabet Petersen. Accessed February 28, 2017.)

1909 - Sir Stephen Spender, CBE, British poet, novelist, essayist and critic, whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the United States Library of Congress in 1965.

1923 - Charles Edward Durning, American actor who appeared in over 200 movies, TV shows and plays. Durning's best-known films include The Sting, Dog Day Afternoon, True Confessions, Tootsie, Dick Tracy, among others. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for both The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) and To Be or Not to Be (1983). Prior to his acting career, Durning served in World War II and was decorated for valor in combat.

1948 - Bernadette Peters (née Lazzara), American actress, singer, and children's book author. She has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two (plus an honorary award), and nine nominations for Drama Desk Awards, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards. Regarded by many as the foremost interpreter of the works of Stephen Sondheim, Peters is particularly noted for her roles on the Broadway stage.(B. Peters - Not a Day Goes By. Youtube, uploaded by neergecyt. Accessed February 28, 2021.)

1948 - Mercedes J. Ruehl, an American screen and stage actor. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, two Obie Awards, and two Outer Critics Circle Awards. Ruehl is known for her leading performance in the play Lost in Yonkers and supporting performance in the film The Fisher King. Her other film credits include Big, Married to the Mob, Last Action Hero, Roseanna's Grave, and Hustlers.

1969 - Robert Sean Leonard (born Robert Lawrence Leonard), American actor. He is known for playing Dr. James Wilson in the TV series House (2004–2012) and Neil Perry in the film Dead Poets Society. Leonard won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in The Invention of Love. His other theater credits include Candida, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Breaking the Code, The Music Man, Born Yesterday, and To Kill a Mockingbird. From 2013 to 2014, Leonard had a recurring role as Dr. Roger Kadar on the television series Falling Skies. He also starred as the leading role in Swing Kids playing Peter Muller.

Death:

2019 - Andre Previn, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer. Winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings.

Lefties:

• Scientist Linus Pauling - American chemist, 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 1962 Nobel Peace Prize for Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
• Actress Mercedes Ruehl - American theater, television and film actress.
• Cartoonist Milt Caniff - American cartoonist famous for the Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon comic strips.
• Actor Robert Sean Leonard - He regularly starred in Broadway and off-Broadway productions. He has played the role of Dr. James Wilson on the TV series House. He played Neil Perry in the 1989 movie Dead Poets Society.

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

 

Historical Events

0364 - Valentinian I is appointed Roman Emperor.

1862 - Charles Gounod's opera La Reine de Saba (The Queen of Sheba), is first staged, in Salle le Peletier, Paris.  

February 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet and educator. His works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He was the first American to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy and was one of the Fireside Poets from New England. (Life of Henry W. Longfellow. Uploaded by The Story of Liberty. Accessed February 27, 2015. An all-time favourite "A Psalm of Life", uploaded by SpokenVerse. Accessed February 27, 2010.)

1848 - Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet, English composer, teacher and historian of music.  Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is best known for the choral song "Jerusalem", his 1902 setting for the coronation anthem "I was glad", the choral and orchestral ode Blest Pair of Sirens, and the hymn tune "Repton", which sets the words "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind". His orchestral works include five symphonies and a set of Symphonic Variations.(Refer below for "Jerusalem".)

1861 - Rudolf Steiner, (born Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 27 or 25 February), Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, economist and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained recognition at the end of the 19th century as a literary critic and published philosophical works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the 20th century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy; other influences include Goethean science and Rosicrucianism.

1897 - Marian Anderson, American contralto. She performed with renowned orchestras in major concert and recital venues throughout the US and Europe. Anderson was an important figure in the struggle for African-American artists to overcome racial prejudice in the US during the mid-20th century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for her to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. With the aid of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the capital. Anderson was the first African-American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955. She was recipient of numerous awards and honors. (M. Anderson sings Schubert's loved "Ave Maria", Stokowski conducting the Westminster Choir and a small orchestral ensemble. YouTube, Adam28xx. Accessed February 27, 2020.)

1902 - John Steinbeck, American film writer, playwright, novelist, Nobel Prize laureate. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." In his writings, Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, Tortilla Flat, The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row, among others, he best expressed his belief in the power of the human spirit to endure great disasters and to overcome the erosive aspects of materialism. (John Steinbeck Biography, updated by Gary Criddle. Accessed February 27, 2018.)

1926 - David Hunter Hubel, FRS, Canadian American neurophysiologist noted for his work on visual cortex. He was co-recipient with Torsten Wiesel of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with Roger W. Sperry), for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system. Hubel was the John Franklin Enders University Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. In 1978, Hubel and Wiesel were awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 1983, Hubel received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

1930 - Joanne Woodward (born Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward, American actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is the recipient of an Academy Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. She is perhaps best known for her performance in The Three Faces of Eve, which earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In a career spanning over six decades she starred or co-starred in many feature films, receiving four Oscar nominations (winning one), ten Golden Globe Award nominations (winning three), four BAFTA Film Award nominations (winning one), and nine Primetime Emmy Award nominations (winning three).

1932 - Dame Elizabeth Taylor, DBE (born Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor), British-American actress, businesswoman, and humanitarian, considered the most beautiful woman in her day. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s, in particular, Lassie Come Home, then in National Velvet aged 12, she became a truly movie star. She was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. She continued her career successfully into the 1960s, and remained a well-known public figure for the rest of her life. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her the seventh-greatest female screen legend. (Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet, 1944. Uploaded by Storylan. Accessed February 27, 2012. Elizabeth Taylor BBC Tribute, wilsol70. Accessed February 27, 2013.)

1934 - Ralph Nader, American political activist, author, lecturer, lawyer, noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism and government reform causes.

1980 - Chelsea Victoria Clinton, American author and global health advocate. She's is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Leftie:
Joanne Woodward

Deaths:
1892 - Louis Vuitton, Entrepreneur Maker of Bags and Luggage
1936 - Ivan Pavlov, Physiologist
1993 - Lillian Gish, Actress
2002 - Spike Milligan, Comedian 

 

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

 

Features:

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadieis an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and published in 1847.  The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.  The idea for the poem came from Longfellow's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, fellow American writer, novelist and short story writer. It became Longfellow's most famous work in his lifetime and remains one of his most popular and enduring works. (Evangeline, uploaded by Musee McCord Museum. Accessed February 27, 2010.)


"Jerusalem" with words from poet William Blake and music composed by Sir Charles H. H. Parry, performed at the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton (The Royal Wedding - Jerusalem - 29 April 2011.  YouTube, uploaded by pishposhx.  Accessed February 27, 2017.)

Historical Events

1740 - Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato ("The Cheerful, the Thoughtful, and the Moderate Man"; HWV 55) is premiered. It is a pastoral ode by George Frideric Handel based on the poetry of John Milton. Handel composed the work over the period of 19 January to 4 February 1740, and the work was premiered on 27 February 1740 at the Royal Theatre of Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the urging of Handel's librettist, Charles Jennens, Milton's two poems, "L'Allegro" and "il Penseroso", were arranged by James Harris, interleaving them to create dramatic tension between the personified characters of Milton's poems: L'Allegro or the "Joyful man" and il Penseroso or the "Contemplative man". The first two movements consist of this dramatic dialog between Milton's poems. At Handel's request, Jennens added a new poem, "il Moderato", to create a third movement. The popular concluding aria and chorus, "As Steals the Morn" is adapted from Shakespeare's Tempest, V.i.65–68. [Wiki]

Here's a beautiful interpretation of Handel's "As Steals the Morn" (L'Allegro, HWV 55), with soloists Amanda Forsythe and Thomas Cooley, performed by Voices of Music 4K. Accessed February 27, 2020.



1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from the Island of Elba, beginning the Hundred Days' War, which ended his defeat in Waterloo.

1879 - Constantine Fahlberg discovers the artificial sweetener saccharin by accident.

February 26 Dateline

Birthdays

1564 - Christopher Marlowe, English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. (baptised this day, although actual birth date is uncertain). He greatly influenced William Shakespeare, who was born in the same year as Marlowe and who rose to become the pre-eminent Elizabethan playwright after Marlowe's mysterious early death.  (Christopher Marlowe - Elizabethan Dramatist. Uploaded by Biography. Accessed Februay 26, 2015.)

1802 - Victor Marie Hugo, French writer, poet, dramatist of the Romantic movement. He's famous for the classic novels Les Miserables (1862) and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). Hugo is considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. (Victor Hugo: Biography... Uploaded by Way Back. Accessed February 26, 2017. Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert in Full. Uploaded by Potato Gel. Accessed February 26, 2018.)

1829 - Levi Strauss, German-American businessman, clothing designer. He founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. Now known as simply "Levi's", his firm of Levi Strauss & Co. began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.

1879 - Frank Bridge, English composer, violist, conductor, and teacher. He was one of the most accomplished musicians of his day, known especially for his chamber music and songs. After a period in the Joachim Quartet (1906) he played with the English String Quartet until 1915. Although he composed in many genres, he was particularly successful in his smaller forms, such as the Phantasie Quartet for piano and strings (1910), four string quartets, and songs and piano pieces. His early works were Romantic in style. While he never abandoned Romanticism in later years, he moved toward atonality. He was widely respected as a teacher, and his pupils included Benjamin Britten. (Frank Bridge's Pensiero, interpreted by Timothy Ridout (Violin) and Frank Dupree (Piano). Uploaded by France Musique. Accessed February 26, 2020.)

1914 - Robert Alda (born Alfonso Giuseppe Giovanni Roberto D'Abruzzo), American theatrical and film actor, a singer, and a dancer. He was the father of actors Alan and Antony Alda. Robert Alda was featured in a number of Broadway productions, then he moved to Italy during the early 1960s. He appeared in many European films over the next two decades, occasionally returning to the U.S. for film appearances such as The Girl Who Knew Too Much.

1916 - Jackie Herbert Gleason, American actor, comedian, writer, composer, and conductor known affectionately as "The Great One." Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his Ralph Kramden character in the TV series The Honeymooners. He developed high ratings The Jackie Gleason Show. Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats in 1961's The Hustler (co-starring with Paul Newman), and Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit series. Gleason also enjoyed a prominent secondary music career, producing a series of best-selling "mood music" albums. His first album, Music for Lovers Only, still holds the record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first 10 albums sold over a million copies each. His output spans some 20-plus singles, nearly 60 long-playing record albums, and over 40 CDs.

1950 - Helen Elizabeth Clark, ONZ SSI PC, New Zealand politician who served as the 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was New Zealand's fifth-longest-serving prime minister, and the second woman to hold that office.

1953 - Michael Bolton (born Michael Bolotin), American singer and songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, both on his early solo albums and those he recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack. He became better known for his series of pop rock ballads, recorded after a stylistic change in the late 1980s. His achievements include selling more than 75 million records, recording eight top 10 albums and two number-one singles on the Billboard charts, as well as winning six American Music Awards and two Grammy Awards.

Leftie:
None known

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

Historical Events

1797 - The Bank of England issues the first £1 note.

1922 - Camille Saint-Saens's suite "Carnival of the Animals" is first performed, in Paris.

February 25 Dateline

Birthdays:

1841 - Pierre-Auguste Renoir (or August Renoir), French painter and sculptor,  known as Auguste Renoir, was an artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. (Renoir's Works, 1841-1919. Uploaded by Brendan. Accessed February  25, 2019. Pierre Auguste Renoir: A collection of 1549 paintings (HD). Uploaded by LearnFromMasters. Accessed February 25, 2019.) Here's a favourite quote from Renoir: "Go and see what others have produced, but never copy anything except nature. You would be trying to enter into a temperament that is not yours andnothing that you would do would have any character."

1873 - Enrico Caruso, Italian operatic tenor. He sang to great acclaim at the major opera houses of Europe and the Americas, appearing in a wide variety of roles from the Italian and French repertoires that ranged from the lyric to the dramatic. Caruso was the first gramophone star to sell more than a million copies with his 1907 recording of 'Vesti la giubba' (as Canio) from the opera 'Pagliacci' by Ruggero Leoncavallo. Here are his recordings from 30th of November 1902, 1st of February 1904 and 17th of March 1907, Caruso singing 'Vesti la giubba', uploaded by Tom Frokjaer. Accessed February 25, 2009.

1890 - Dame Julia Myra Hess, English pianist (featured below), best known for her performances of the works of  Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann. Her influence was enormous. Her protégés included Clive Lythgoe and Richard and John Contiguglia. She also taught Stephen Kovacevich (then known as Stephen Bishop). She also has a link to jazz, having given lessons in the 1920s to Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck, mother of Dave Brubeck.  Arnold Bax's 1915 piano piece In a Vodka Shop is dedicated to her. (Dame Myra Hess plays Bach's famous Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. YouTube, uploaded by Beckmesser2. Accessed February 25, 2011.)

1901 - Herbert Manfred "Zeppo" Marx, American actor, comedian, theatrical agent, and engineer. He was the youngest and last survivor of the five Marx Brothers. He appeared in the first five Marx Brothers feature films, from 1929 to 1933, but then left the act to start his second career as an engineer and theatrical agent.

1917 - Anthony Burgess, FRSL (John Anthony Burgess Wilson), English writer and composer. He composed over 250 musical works; considered himself as much a composer as an author, although he enjoyed considerably more success in writing. Burgess was predominantly a comic writer, his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange remains his best-known novel. In 1971, it was adapted into a controversial film by Stanley Kubrick. He produced numerous other novels, including the Enderby quartet, and Earthly Powers. He wrote librettos and screenplays, including the 1977 TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth. He worked as a literary critic for publications, including The Observer and The Guardian, and wrote studies of classic writers, notably James Joyce. A versatile linguist, Burgess lectured in phonetics, and translated Cyrano de Bergerac, Oedipus Rex, and the opera Carmen, among others.

1937 - Sir Tom Courtenay, English actor. Since the mid-1960s, he has been known primarily for his work in the theatre, although he received Academy Award nominations for Doctor Zhivago and the film adaptation of The Dresser, which he had performed in the West End and on Broadway. He was created a Knight Bachelor in February 2001 for his services to cinema and theatre. Aside from his role in Doctor Zhivago, my personal favourite is his title character in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, a joint Norwegian-British film, based on the novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn released in 1970. The Norwegian title is En dag i Ivan Denisovitsj' liv. In this film, Courtenay is a prisoner in the Soviet gulag system of the 1950s who endures a long prison sentence. It tells of one routine day in his life.

1938 - Diane Carol Baker, American actress, producer and educator who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.  She is known for the films: The Diary of Anne Frank, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Prize, Marnie, and Mirage. She appeared in many more. After Mirage, she appeared frequently on television and began producing films, including the drama film Never Never Land (1980) and the miniseries A Woman of Substance (1984), in which she played Laura. She then re-emerged on the big screen. Baker spent more than a decade teaching acting at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She was formerly the executive director of the School of Motion Pictures-Television and the School of Acting. 

1943 - George Harrison, MBE, English musician, singer-songwriter, rock singer, music and film producer, and member of The Beatles. He achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles group. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work.

Leftie:
Tenor Enrico Caruso

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

 

 

 

Feature:

Dame Myra Hess (25 February 1890 – 25 November 1965), and her famous arrangement of Bach's Chorale "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."

Her favourite anecdote relating to Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" concerned a British soldier who whistled it on a train during the war. "Are you interested in Bach?" The soldier was asked by a journalist. "No," he answered. "But you are whistling a Bach composition," the newsman insisted. "That's no Bach," he replied indignantly. "That's Myra Hess." (From Marian McKenna's "Myra Hess -- A Portrait"). Below, video uploaded by pianopera.  Accessed February 25, 2018.





Deaths:

 
1723 - Sir Christopher Wren, Considered greatest architect of his time.  Along with more than fifty other churches and secular buildings, he designed London's St Paul's Cathedral, Monument to the Great Fire of 1666, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and library at Trinity, Cambridge.

1983 - Tennessee Williams, Playwright

Historical Events:

1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicates English Queen Elizabeth I from the Catholic Church and absolves from having to pledge allegiance to her.

1836 - Samuel Colt receives a patent for a pistol that uses a revolving cylinder containing powder and bullets in 6 individual tubes.

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.

February 23 Dateline

Birthdays

1633 - Samuel Pepys, FRS, English diarist, administrator of the navy of England and Member of Parliament who is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man.

1685 - George Frideric Handel (born Georg Friederich Händel⁾ [(O.S.) 23 February and (N.S.) 5 March], German, later British, Baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, concerti grossi and organ concertos. He is especially famous for his oratorio "Messiah". Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712; he became a naturalised British subject in 1727. He was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition.

1863 - Charles Joseph Chamberlain, Ph.D., American botanist, known for pioneering the use of zoological techniques on the study of plants, particularly in the realm of microscopic studies of tissues and cells; his specialty was the cycad. He made contributions to the Botanical Gazette, and was the author of Methods in Plant Histology and The Morphology of Angiosperms. In collaboration with John M. Coulter, he wrote The Morphology of Gymnosperms.

1928 - Vasily Grigoryevich Lazarev, Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 12 spaceflight as well as the abortive Soyuz 18a launch in 5 April 1975. He was injured by the high acceleration of the abort and landing and was initially denied his spaceflight bonus pay, having to appeal directly to Leonid Brezhnev to receive it. Brezhnev was at the time the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Lazarev held a degree in medicine and the rank of colonel in the Soviet Air Force. He never fully recovered from the injuries sustained on Soyuz 18a. He was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the title Pilot-Cosmonaut of the USSR and the Order of Lenin.

1940 - Peter Fonda, American actor, film director and screenwriter. He was the son of Henry Fonda, younger brother of Jane Fonda, and father of Bridget Fonda. He was a part of the counterculture of the 1960s. Fonda was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Easy Rider, and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Ulee's Gold. For the latter, he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Fonda also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for The Passion of Ayn Rand.

1951 - Shigefumi Mori, Japanese mathematician, known for his work in algebraic geometry, particularly in relation to the classification of three-folds.

1994 - Dakota Fanning, American actress. She rose to prominence at the age of seven for her performance as Lucy Dawson in the drama film I Am Sam, for which she received a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination at age eight, making her the youngest nominee in SAG history. Fanning played major roles in the films Uptown Girls, The Cat in the Hat, Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, Dreamer, and Charlotte's Web. She then followed with more mature roles. Fanning made her modelling debut in 2009 when she was featured on the cover of fashion magazines Elle, Vanity Fair, and Cosmopolitan, among others. She also appeared in the fashion week in New York in 2014 and at the opening ceremony of Fashion Week New York S/S 2015.

Leftie:
Actor Peter Fonda

 

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

Feature:

 

In memory of Handel's birthday, I share two videos of Handel's most famous work, "Messiah" - one performed by the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs (December, 2015, with Australian sign language, AUSLAN) and another, "Hallelujah" Chorus performed as a flash mob.  Whether you are a God-believer or not, this optimistic work of Handel is universal. This wonderful and majestic music reinforces that hope is universal.



On November 13, 2010, unsuspecting shoppers got a wonderful big surprise while enjoying their lunch from this awesome Christmas Flash Mob.

 

Historical Events

1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.

1689 - Dutch Prince William III is proclaimed King of England.

February 22 Dateline

Birthdays

1732 - George Washington, First U.S. President, American Political Leader, Military General, Statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Previously, he led Patriot forces to victory in the nation's War for Independence. He presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal government. Washington has been called the "Father of His Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the new nation.

1817 - Niels Gade, Danish composer, conductor, violinist, organist and teacher. He is considered the most important Danish musician of his day. Among Gade's works are eight symphonies, a violin concerto, chamber music, organ and piano pieces and a number of large-scale cantatas, Comala and Elverskud among them, which he called "concert pieces" (koncertstykker). Gade's music works, embraced post-1848 as works of Romantic nationalism, are sometimes based on Danish folklore. Apparently Gade never rated "The Bridal Waltz" (Brudevalsen). It was rescued by August Bournonville in his ballet A Folk Tale (Et folkesagn) and became an essential part of Danish weddings. (Niels Wilhelm Gade - Frühlings-Phantasie, Op.23 (1852). Uploaded by KuhlauDilfeng4. Accessed February 22, 2021.)     

1857 - Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell (Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell), OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB, KStJ, DL), British Army Officer, writer, founder and First Chief Scout of the world-wide Scout Movement, with his sister Agnes, of the world-wide Girl Guide / Girl Scout Movement. Baden-Powell authored the first editions of the seminal work Scouting for Boys, which was an inspiration for the Scout Movement.  

 

1908 - Sir John Mills, CBE, (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills), English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Ryan's Daughter in 1970.  Sir Mill's climb to stardom began with his lead role in We Dive at Dawn, a film about submariners. He was top billed in This Happy Breed, directed by David Lean and adapted from a Noël Coward play. Also popular was Waterloo Road, in which Mills played a man who goes AWOL to retrieve his wife from a draft-dodger (played by Stewart Granger). Mills played a pilot in The Way to the Stars, directed by Asquith from a script by Terence Rattigan, and another big hit in Britain. He did Duet for Two Hands (1945) on stage. Considered his greatest was his role as the adult Pip in Great Expectations, directed by David Lean. It was the third biggest hit at the British box office that year and Mills was voted the sixth most popular star. (Great Expectations Official Trailer #1 - John Mills Movie (1946) HD. MovieClips Classic Thrillers. Accessed February 22, 2016.) 

1950 - Dame Julie Walters, DBE (Julia Mary Walters), English actress, comedian, and author. She is the recipient of four British Academy Television Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, two International Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Fellowship, and a Golden Globe. Walters has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, once for Best Actress and once for Best Supporting Actress. She rose to prominence for playing the title role in Educating Rita. On stage, she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress for the 2001 production of All My Sons. On television, Walters collaborated with Victoria Wood; they appeared together on several television shows. She has won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress four times, more than any other actress. Walters and Helen Mirren are the only actresses to have won this award three consecutive times, and Walters is tied with Judi Dench for the most nominations in the category with seven. In 2006, the British public voted Walters fourth in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars as part of ITV's 50th anniversary celebrations. She starred in A Short Stay in Switzerland, which won her an International Emmy for Best Actress. Walters was made a Dame (DBE) in 2017 for services to drama.

1962 - Steve Robert Irwin, Australian herpetologist, zookeeper, television personality, environmentalist, and conservationist. He achieved worldwide fame from the TV series The Crocodile Hunter, an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series that he co-hosted with his wife Terri. The couple also hosted the series Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and New Breed Vets. They also co-owned and operated Australia Zoo, founded by Irwin's parents in Beerwah, Queensland. Irwin died in 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb while filming in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Numerous parks, zoos, streets, and an asteroid have been named in his honour. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society named its island-class patrol vessel MY Steve Irwin after Irwin. His widow Terri Irwin, with whom he had two children, continues to operate Australia Zoo.

1975 - Drew Blythe Barrymore, American actress, film producer and director, talk show host and entrepreneur, recipient of awards, including a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA nomination. She is a member of the Barrymore family of actors, and the granddaughter of John Barrymore. Barrymore achieved fame as a child actress with her role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In 1995, Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen formed the production company Flower Films. Barrymore also launched a range of cosmetics under the Flower banner, which has grown to include lines in makeup, perfume and eyewear. Her other business ventures include a range of wines and a clothing line. In 2015, Dutton published a collection of Barrymore's autobiographical essays in a book titled, Wildflower. Barrymore received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.

 

Leftie:
Boy Scouts Founder Lord Baden-Powell

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

 

 

Feature:

 
The work of Danish composer Niels Wilhelm Gade - Symphony No.1 in C-minor, Op.5 "On Sjoland's Fair Plains" (1842). Gade (22 February 1817 – 21 December 1890). Gade is considered the most important Danish musician of his day. Work: Symphony No.1 in C-minor, Op.5 "Paa Sjølunds fagre Sletter" / "On Sjoland's Fair Plains" (1842).  Scored for Piccolo, Flutes, oboes, clarinets in B♭, bassoons, horns in E♭ and C, trumpets in C, trombones (alto, tenor, bass), bass tuba or contrabassoon, timpani, strings 

Mov.I: Moderato con moto - Allegro energico - Con più moto 00:00​ 

Mov.II: Scherzo: Allegro risoluto quasi presto 09:32​ 

Mov.III: Andantino grazioso 15:09​ 

Mov.IV: Finale: Molto allegro ma con fuoco - Molto marcato 23:54​ 

Performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christopher Hogwood
(YouTube, uploaded by KuhlauDilfeng4. Accessed February 22, 2021.)

Historical Events

1879 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many five-and-ten-cent Woolworth stores.

1940 - Five-year-old Tenzin Gyatso is enthroned in Tibet as His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.

February 21 Dateline

Birthdays

1801 - Johann W. Kalliwoda, composer, conductor and violinist. (Alternative Names/Transliterations: Jan Křtitel Václav Kalivoda, Johannes Wenzeslaus Kalliwoda, Jan Kalivoda. He is the father of Wilhelm Kalliwoda, who followed in his father's music career footsteps. Listening pleasure: Concertino for Oboe.)

1836 - Léo Delibes, French composer of operas and ballets, whose works include the ballets Coppelia and Sylvia, and the opera Lakme. After composing light comic opérettes in the 1850s and 1860s, while also serving as a church organist, Delibes achieved public recognition for his music for the ballet La Source in 1866. His later ballets Coppélia and Sylvia were key works in the development of modern ballet, giving the music much greater importance than previously. He composed a small number of mélodies, some of which are still performed frequently. Coppélia and Sylvia remain core works in the international ballet repertoire, and from on occasion, Lakmé is revived in opera houses. (Léo Delibes Ballet Coppélia (1. partie). Uploaded by Volodimir Valik. Accessed February 22, 2019.)
 
1893 - Andrés Segovia Torres, 1st Marquis of Salobreña, Virtuoso Spanish Classical guitarist from Linares, Spain. Many professional classical guitarists were students of Segovia, or students of his students. His contribution to the modern-romantic repertoire not only included commissions but also his own transcriptions of classical or baroque works. He is remembered for his expressive performances: his wide palette of tone, and his distinctive musical personality, phrasing and style. (Andrés Segovia - Recital 1962 (rare video live !). Uploaded by Daniel Magli. Accessed February 22, 2019.)

1903 - Anaïs Nin (Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell), French-American diarist, essayist, novelist, and writer of short stories and erotica. Nin was the daughter of composer Joaquín Nin and Rosa Culmell, a classically trained singer. Nin spent her early years in Spain and Cuba, about 16 years in Paris, and the remaining half of her life in the U.S., where she became an author. She wrote journals prolifically that detail her private thoughts and personal relationships. Her journals describe her marriages to Hugh Parker Guiler and Rupert Pole, and her numerous affairs, including those with psychoanalyst Otto Rank and writer Henry Miller, both of whom profoundly influenced Nin and her writing. Nin also wrote novels, critical studies, essays, short stories, and volumes of erotica. Much of her work was published posthumously amid renewed critical interest in her life and work.1907 - W.H. Auden, (Wystan Hugh Auden), English-American poet. His poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, and its variety in tone, form and content. He is best known for poems about love such as "Funeral Blues"; poems on political and social themes such as "September 1, 1939" and "The Shield of Achilles"; poems on cultural and psychological themes such as The Age of Anxiety; and poems on religious themes such as "For the Time Being" and "Horae Canonicae". Auden was a prolific writer of prose essays and reviews on literary, political, psychological, and religious subjects, and he worked at various times on documentary films, poetic plays, and other forms of performance. (W.H. Auden - Tell Me The Truth About Love (Documentary). Uploaded by BuyKurious. Accessed February 21, 2020.)

1927 - Erma Louise Bombeck (née Fiste), American humourist who achieved great popularity for her syndicated newspaper humor column describing suburban home life. She also published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers. Between 1965 and April 17, 1996 – five days before her death – Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns, using broad and sometimes eloquent humor, chronicling the ordinary life of a midwestern suburban housewife. By the 1970s, her columns were read semi-weekly by 30 million readers of the 900 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada.

1927 - Hubert de Givenchy (Count Hubert James Marcel Taffin de Givenchy), French fashion designer who founded the house of Givenchy in 1952. He is famous for having designed much of the personal and professional wardrobe of Audrey Hepburn and clothing for Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1970.

1933 - Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon), American singer & songwriter. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Simone started playing piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She chose to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She had a hit single in the United States with "I Loves You, Porgy". Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

1946 - Alan Rickman (born Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman), English actor and film director. Known for his languid tone and delivery, Rickman's signature sound was the result of a speech impediment when he could not move his lower jaw properly as a child. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), performing in modern and classical theatre productions. He played the Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, and after the production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987 he was nominated for a Tony Award. His final film roles were as Lieutenant General Frank Benson in the thriller Eye in the Sky, and reprising his role as the voice of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland in Alice Through the Looking Glass.

1961 - Christopher Atkins, American actor, perhaps best known for his debut in the 1980 film The Blue Lagoon. He was a sailing instructor with no acting experience when he was cast in the film.  In 2009, Atkins appeared on VH1's Confessions of a Teen Idol, a reality show featuring former teen idols. He was ranked no. 76 on VH1's list of 100 Greatest Teen Stars. Atkins became a luxury pool builder and co-developed the Christopher Atkins Strike Jacket E.F.L. (Extreme Fishing Lure)--"a rubbery slipcovering for traditional baits."

1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress, film producer, and singer. Hewitt began her career as a child actress and singer, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel series Kids Incorporated. She had her breakthrough as Sarah Reeves Merrin on the Fox teen drama Party of Five (1995–1999) and rose to fame as a teen star for her role as Julie James in the horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer and its 1998 sequel, as well as Amanda Beckett in the teen comedy film Can't Hardly Wait. She has other notable films. In music, she has also released some studio albums.

1983 - Melanie Laurent,  French actress, filmmaker, singer, and pianist. The recipient of two César Awards and a Lumières Award, she has established herself as an accomplished actress in the French film industry. Laurent has appeared in stage productions in France. She made her theatre debut in 2010 in Nicolas Bedos's Promenade de santé. The short film De moins en moins marked her debut as a filmmaker. Her feature film directorial debut is The Adopted. Respire, her second production as a director, was screened at the International Critics' Week section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. She made her singing debut with a studio album En t'attendant in May 2011; the album contains twelve songs, five of which are co-written and co-produced by Irish folk musician Damien Rice.

Leftie:
Actress Melanie Laurent

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

 

 

 

In Memoriam:  
Rev. Billy Graham, American Christian evangelist who passed, Feb 21, 2018, aged 99. Arguably, he was the most influential preacher of the 20th century.  Billy Graham Documentary: Leadership and Legacy in History (Accessed Feb. 21, 2018),  Billy Graham, America's Pastor has Died (USA Today, Accessed Feb. 21, 2018)

 

Historical Events

1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins.   

1842 - John J. Greenough patents his sewing machine invention.   

February 20 Dateline

Birthdays

1802 - Charles Auguste de Bériot, Belgian violinist and composer. Bériot lived with the opera singer Maria Malibran and had a child (Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot, a piano professor who taught Maurice Ravel and Enrique Granados amongst other) with her in 1833. They were married in 1836 when Malibran obtained an annulment of her previous marriage. De Bériot composed a great amount of violin music including ten concertos. His pioneering violin technique and Romantic style of composition make his concertos and etudes an important stepping stone for the serious violin student wishing to gain a firm foundation before studying the major concertos of the Romantic era. His most popular concertos are No. 9 in A minor Op. 104 and No. 7 in G major Op. 76. (Here, beautifully interpreted by Bernard Chevalier, De Beriot's Violin Concerto #9 Op. 104 in A minor. Accessed February 20, 2019. Charles Auguste de Bériot: Violin Concerto No. 2 in B minor, Op. 32. Uploaded by Johann Rufinatscha. Accessed February 20, 2020. Artists: Philippe Quint, Violin. Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Kirk Trevor, Conductor.)

1924 - Gloria Laura Vanderbilt, American clothing designer and entrepreneur, artist, author, actress, socialite. She was a member of the Vanderbilt family of New York and the mother of CNN television anchor Anderson Cooper. During the 1930s, she was the subject of a high-profile child custody trial in which her mother, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and her paternal aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, each sought custody of her and control over her trust fund. Called the "trial of the century" by the press, the court proceedings were the subject of wide press coverage due to the wealth and prominence of the involved parties, and the scandalous evidence presented to support Whitney's claim that Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt was an unfit parent. As an adult in the 1970s, Vanderbilt launched a line of fashions, perfumes, and household goods bearing her name. She was particularly noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans.

1925 - Robert Bernard Altman, American film director, screenwriter, and producer. A five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and an enduring figure from the New Hollywood era, Altman was considered a "maverick" in making films with a highly naturalistic but stylized and satirical aesthetic, unlike most Hollywood films. He is consistently ranked as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in American cinema. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Altman's body of work with an Academy Honorary Award. He never won a competitive Oscar despite seven nominations. His films MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Nashville have been selected for the United States National Film Registry.

1927 - Sidney Poitier, KBE, Bahamian-American actor and film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first black actor to win that award, and was nominated a second time. In addition, he was nominated six times for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award (BAFTA) for Best Foreign Actor, winning each once. From 1997 to 2007, he served as the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan. Poitier also received critical acclaim for A Raisin in the Sun and A Patch of Blue. Poitier continued to break ground in three successful 1967 films, each dealing with issues of race and race relations: To Sir, with Love; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night, making him the top box-office star of that year. He received nominations for the Golden Globes and BAFTAs for the latter film, but not for the Oscars, likely due to vote splitting between his roles. After twice reprising his Virgil Tibbs character from In the Heat of the Night and acting in a variety of other films, Poiter turned to acting/directing with the action-comedies. (In the Heat of the Night (1967) Movie. Accessed February 20, 2018.  Note: I consider this movie an absolute classic film about the horror as well as absurdity of racial attitudes. Sidney Poitier is excellent as Virgil Tibbs, the more experienced African-American police detective, whilst Rod Steiger's performance is superb as the weary, frustrated police chief of a small town struggling to cope with a murder he can't solve without accepting reluctant help from the more experienced officer, Tibbs. As their respect for each other begin and develop, there is awesome chemistry between them.)

1937 - Nancy Sue Wilson, American Jazz singer. She was notable for her single "(You Don't Know) How Glad I Am" and her version of the standard "Guess Who I Saw Today". Wilson recorded more than 70 albums and won three Grammy Awards for her work. She was labeled a singer of blues, jazz, R&B, pop, and soul; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer". The title she preferred, however, was "song stylist". She received many nicknames including "Sweet Nancy", "The Baby", "Fancy Miss Nancy" and "The Girl With the Honey-Coated Voice".

1947 - Peter Lawrence Strauss, American television and film actor, known for his roles in several television miniseries. He is five-time Golden Globe Awards nominee. He won an Emmy Award for his role on the 1979 made-for-television movie The Jericho Mile, and he starred in a television remake of the classic film Angel on My Shoulder in 1980. He played Abel Roznovski in the miniseries Kane & Abel based on Jeffrey Archer's book. His other noted television miniseries credits include starring roles in Rich Man, Poor Man, its sequel Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, and Masada. Strauss played Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. in the 1977 TV movie Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy. In 1973, he portrayed Stephen Linder, Mary Richards' suave younger boyfriend in The Mary Tyler Moore Show fourth-season episode, "Angels in the Snow."

1966 - Cynthia "Cindy" Ann Crawford, American model, actress and businesswoman. Her years of success at modeling made her an international celebrity that have led to roles in television and film as well as other business ventures. During the 1980s and 1990s, Crawford was among the most popular supermodels and a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers, runways, and in fashion campaigns.

Leftie:
Musician Kurt Cobain

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

 

Feature:
The Barber of Seville Overture by G. Rossini.  YouTube, uploaded by Classical Music Only. Accessed 20 February 2016.  

Historical Events

1472 - Christian I, King of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, pawns the isles of Orkney and Shetland to James III of Scotland in lieu of a royal dowry for his daughter Princess Margaret.

1724 - George F. Handel's opera Julius Caesar is first performed at King's Theatre, London.(Two excerpts from Julius Caesar exquisitely performed by Dame Janet Baker. Produced in 1984: British production of Handel's Giulio Cesare (Julius Ceasar),  starring the magnificent voice of mezzo soprano Janet Baker. The Chorus & Orchestra of the English National Opera is conducted by the legendary Charles Mackerras. Scene 1. "Empio diro, tu sei" ("Tyrant, avoid my sight!") Scene 2."Va tacito e nascosto" ("How silently, how slyly"). Uploaded by GreatPerformers1. Accessed February 20, 2015.)

February 19 Dateline

Birthdays

1473 - Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer, a Renaissance polymath, mathematician, and Catholic canon. His understanding of the solar system overturns the idea that the universe revolves around the earth. He was the first to describe the planets revolving around the sun.

1743 - Luigi Boccherini, Italian cellist and composer, best known for a minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No. 5 (G275), and Cello Concerto in B flat major (G 482). The latter work was long known in the heavily altered version by German cellist and prolific arranger Friedrich Grützmacher, but has recently been restored to its original version.He also composed guitar quintets, including the "Fandango", which was influenced by Spanish music. (Boccherini: Complete Flute Quintets. YouTube, uploaded by Brilliant Classics. Accessed February 19, 2022.) 

1873 - John Reed Swanton, American anthropologist, folklorist, ethnologist, and linguist. He worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States. Swanton achieved recognition in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory. He is noted for his work with indigenous peoples of the Southeast and Pacific Northwest. He was one of the founding members of the Swedenborg Scientific Association in 1898 and was president of the American Anthropological Association in 1932. He also served as editor of the American Anthropological Association's flagship journal, American Anthropologist.

1902 - Kay Boyle, American short story writer, novelist, educator, and political activist. She was a Guggenheim Fellows and O. Henry Award winner. Boyle published more than 40 books, including 14 novels, 8 volumes of poetry, 11 collections of short fiction, 3 children's books, and French to English translations and essays. A comprehensive assessment of Boyle's life and work was published in 1986 titled Kay Boyle, Artist and Activist by Sandra Whipple Spanier. In 1994 Joan Mellen published a voluminous biography of Kay Boyle, Kay Boyle: Author of Herself. In 1980 she received the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship for "extraordinary contribution to American literature over a lifetime of creative work".

1924 - Lee Marvin, American film and television actor known for his distinctive voice and premature white hair. He initially appeared in supporting roles, and hardboiled characters. A prominent TV role was that of Detective Lieutenant Frank Ballinger in the crime series M Squad. Marvin is best remembered for his lead roles as "tough guy" characters such as Rico Fardan in The Professionals, Major John Reisman in The Dirty Dozen, Walker in Point Blank. One of Marvin's notable movie projects was Cat Ballou, a comedy Western in which he played dual roles. For portraying both gunfighter Kid Shelleen and criminal Tim Strawn, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, along with a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an NBR Award, and the Silver Bear for Best Actor.

1940 - Smokey Robinson (William "Smokey" Robinson Jr.), American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter and producer. His genres: R&B (Rhythm & Blues), Soul, and Pop.

1952 - Amy Ruth Tan, American author known for The Joy Luck Club, which was adapted into a film in 1993 by director Wayne Wang. Tan has written several other novels, including The Kitchen God's Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter's Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and The Valley of Amazement.

1960 - Prince Andrew, Duke of York, KG, GCVO, CD, ADC, member of the British Royal family. He is the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. He was second in the line of succession to the British throne when he was born, and is eighth in line as of June 2020.

Lefties:
None known

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

 

 

Feature:

Luigi Boccherini's beautiful Complete Cello Concerti, with Julius Berger.  Played on Boccherini's Stradivari-Violoncello. The painting is "Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains" by Albert Bierstadt.

Historical Events

1878 - The phonograph is patented by Thomas Alva Edison.  

1906 - Wheat flakes made by Dr. John Kellogg and his brother Will go on sale in the U.S.  

1915 - The Battle of Gallipoli officially begins.

February 18 Dateline

Famous Birthdays

1745 - Alessandro Volta,  Italian physicist, chemist, and pioneer of electricity and power credited as the Inventor of the electric battery and the Discoverer of methane. He invented the Voltaic pile, and reported the results of his experiments in 1800 in a two-part letter to the President of the Royal Society. With this invention Volta proved that electricity could be generated chemically and debunked the prevalent theory that electricity was generated solely by living beings. Volta's invention sparked a great amount of scientific excitement and led others to conduct similar experiments which eventually led to the development of the field of electrochemistry. The International System of Units (SI), unit of electric potential is named in his honour as the volt.

1896 - André Robert Breton, French writer and poet, co-founder, leader, principal theorist and chief apologist of surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme) of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism". He is the author of celebrated books such as Nadja and L'Amour fou. His activities combined with his critical and theoretical work for writing and the plastic arts, made André Breton a major figure in twentieth-century French art and literature.

1925 - George Harris Kennedy Jr., American actor. He played "Dragline" opposite Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role and being nominated for the corresponding Golden Globe. He received a second Golden Globe nomination for portraying Joe Patroni in Airport.  Among the notable films he had a significant role in are Charade, McHale's Navy, Shenandoah, The Dirty Dozen, The Boston Strangler, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, among others. Kennedy was the only actor to appear in all four films in the Airport series, having reprised the role of Joe Patroni three times. He also played Police Captain Ed Hocken in the Naked Gun series of comedy films, and corrupt oil tycoon Carter McKay on the original Dallas television series.

1931 - Toni Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford), American novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987). She gained worldwide recognition when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. 

1932 - Jan Tomáš (Miloš) Milos Forman, Czech and American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the U.S. in 1968. In 1975, he directed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest starring Jack Nicholson as a patient in a mental institution. The film received acclaim and was the second in history to win all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor in Leading Role, and Actress in Leading Role. His featured period biographical film, Amadeus (1984), based on the life of famed composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart starring Tom Hulce, and F. Murray Abraham was both a critical & financial success earning eleven nominations with eight wins including for Best Picture, and another win for Forman as Best Director. In 1996, Forman received another Academy Award nomination for Best Director for The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996). Throughout Forman's career he won two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, a British Academy Film Award, a César Award, David di Donatello Award, and the Czech Lion.
 

1950 - Cybill Lynne Shepherd, American actress and former model. Shepherd's better-known roles include Jacy in Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, Kelly in Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid, Betsy in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, and Nancy in Woody Allen's Alice. She was also known for her roles in television, such as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting (1985–1989), Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, Phyllis Kroll on The L Word (2007–2009), Madeleine Spencer on Psych, Cassie in the television film The Client List, and Linette Montgomery on The Client List.

1954 - John Travolta, American actor and singer. He rose to fame appearing on the TV sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Carrie, Saturday Night Fever, and Grease. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for performances in Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty and has received a total of six nominations. In 2014, he received the IIFA Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Cinema. From 2016, other distinguished awards followed. Travolta is also a private pilot and owns four aircraft.

1960 - Greta Scacchi, OMRI, Italian–Australian actress. She holds dual Italian and Australian citizenship. She is best known for her roles in the films White Mischief, Presumed Innocent, The Player, Emma and Looking for Alibrandi. Her first leading role in Heat and Dust earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer to Film. For her portrayal of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in the television film, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, she won a Primetime Emmy Award and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In 2006, Scacchi received a second Emmy nomination for her role in the television film Broken Trail, and earned her first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

1964 - Matt Raymond Dillon, American actor and film director. He established himself as a teen idol by starring in the films My Bodyguard, Little Darlings, the three S. E. Hinton book adaptations and The Flamingo Kid. From the late 1980s onward, Dillon achieved further success. In the 2000s, he made his directing debut with City of Ghosts and went on to star in other films. For Crash, he won an Independent Spirit Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He had earlier been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for narrating Jack Kerouac's On the Road. In 2015, he starred in the first season of the FOX television series Wayward Pines, for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award.

1968 - Molly Kathleen Ringwald, American actress and author. She was cast in her first major role as Molly in the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life (1979–80) after a casting director saw her playing an orphan in a stage production of the musical Annie. She subsequently made her motion-picture debut as Miranda in the independent film Tempest, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. She is known for her collaborations with filmmaker John Hughes. She established herself as a teen icon after appearing in the successful Hughes films Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink. She later starred in other films. Ringwald is part of the "Brat Pack" and she was ranked number one on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars. Since 2017, Ringwald has portrayed Mary Andrews on The CW television series Riverdale.

Lefties:
Actor Matt Dillon
Actor George Kennedy

More birthdays and historical events, February 18 - On This Day.

Historical Events

1743 - G.F. Handel's oratorio Samson is first performed at London's Covent Garden Theatre.

1885 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published. (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Updated by Bjgtjme. Accessed February 18, 2019.)