December 29 Dateline

Birthdays

1876 - Pablo "Pau" Casals (born Pau Casals i Defilló), Spanish cellist, composer, and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century and one of the greatest cellists of all time. He made many recordings throughout his career of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, including some as conductor, but he is perhaps best remembered for the recordings of the Bach Cello Suites he made from 1936 to 1939. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy (though the ceremony was presided over by Lyndon B. Johnson).

1912 - Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Australian composer and music critic, the first Australian composer whose work was performed at an International Society for Contemporary Musicc (ISCM) Festival, in 1938. This was her Choral Suite. (Peggy Glanville-Hicks' (Concertino da Camera Finale, performed by Fortunata Trio with Li-Ly Chang. Uploaded by Musical Arts Int'l. Accessed Dec 29, 2018.)

1936 - Mary Tyler Moore, American actress, producer, and social advocate. She was widely known for her prominent television sitcom roles in The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Her film work included 1967's Thoroughly Modern Millie and 1980's Ordinary People, the latter earning Moore a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Moore was an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism and diabetes prevention.

1938 - Jon Voight, American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Oscar-nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo in Midnight Cowboy. During the 1970s, he became a Hollywood star with his portrayals of a businessman mixed up with murder in Deliverance; a paraplegic Vietnam veteran in Coming Home, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor; and a penniless ex-boxing champion in the remake of The Champ. He is the winner of one Academy Award, having been nominated for four. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards and has been nominated for eleven. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2019. He is the father of actress Angelina Jolie and actor James Haven.

1947 - Ted Danson (born Edward Bridge Danson III), American actor and producer who played the lead character Sam Malone on the NBC sitcom Cheers, Jack Holden in the films Three Men and a Baby and Three Men and a Little Lady, and Dr. John Becker on the CBS sitcom Becker. Among others, he also starred in the CBS dramas CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Cyber as D.B. Russell. He also plays recurring roles on HBO sitcoms. Danson has been nominated for 18 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning two; 11 Golden Globe Awards nominations, winning three; one Screen Actors Guild Award, and one American Comedy Award. A longtime activist in ocean conservation, he published his book, Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them, written with journalist Michael D'Orso.

1972 - Jude Law (born David Jude Heyworth Law), English actor. He has received multiple awards including a BAFTA Film Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Tony Awards. In 2007, he received an Honorary César and was named a knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. Law gained recognition for his role in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role and was nominated for an Academy Award. He was praised for starring in the war film Cold Mountain, the drama Closer, and the romantic comedy The Holiday, gaining Academy Award and BAFTA nominations for the first of these. Law played roles all of which rank among his highest-grossing releases. He also had an accomplished career on stage, performing in West End and Broadway productions such as Les Parents terribles, Hamlet, and Anna Christie. He received Tony Award nominations for the first and second of these.

Leftie:

Cellist Pablo Casals 

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

Pau Casals - El cant dels ocells / Song of the Birds
(Concert at the White House)

Historical Events

1170 - The murder is committed of Thomas a Becket (also Marcellus the Righteous), the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the order of Henry II. He is killed by four knights at an altar in Canterbury Cathedral, later to become a pilgrimage place, until Henry VIII had the remains burnt.

1916 - James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is published in New York. The semi-autobiographical book becomes one of his best-known works, despite being initially rejected for publication.

December 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1856 - Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th U.S. president, politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University and as the 34th governor of New Jersey before winning the 1912 presidential election. As president, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in 1933. He also led the United States into World War I in 1917, establishing an activist foreign policy known as Wilsonianism. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations.

1896 - Roger Sessions, American composer and professor (R. Sessions' Violin Concerto /  Concerto per violino e orchestra (1935), with Paul Zukofsky, violin. Orchestre Philharmonique de l'O.R.T.F., conducted by Gunther Schuller, uploaded by TheWelleszCompany. Accessed Dec 28, 2018.)

1902 - Mortimer Jerome Adler, American philosopher, author, educator. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for long stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo, California. He taught at Columbia University and the University of Chicago, served as chairmain of the Encyclopædia Britannica Board of Editors, and founded his own Institute for Philosophical Research.

1922 - Stan Lee (born (born Stanley Martin Lieber), American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business to become Marvel Comics' primary creative leader, leading its expansion from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics industry. , comics artist and creator of Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk

1934 - Dame Maggie Smith CH DBE (Margaret Natalie "Maggie" Smith), English actress. She has had an extensive, varied career on stage, film, and television, spanning over 68 years. Smith has appeared in more than 60 films, and is one of Britain's most recognisable actresses. (Maggie Smith's BEST quotes as The Dowager Countess | SEASON 3 | Downton Abbey. Uploaded by Downton Abbey. Accessed December 28, 2019.) 

1953 - Richard Clayderman (born Philippe Pagès), French pianist famous for "Ballade pour Adelaide". He has released numerous albums including the compositions of Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint, instrumental renditions of popular music, rearrangements of movie soundtracks, ethnic music, and easy-listening arrangements of popular works of classical music.

1954 - Denzel Hayes Washington Jr., American actor, film director and producer. He has received 17 NAACP Image Awards, 3 Golden Globe Awards, 1 Tony Award, and 2 Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for playing Union Army soldier Private Trip in the historical drama film Glory, and Best Actor for his role as corrupt detective Alonzo Harris in the crime thriller Training Day. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him as the greatest actor of the 21st century. Washington has received much critical acclaim for his film work since the 1980s. He has been a featured actor in films and has been a frequent collaborator of prominent directors. In 2016, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards. He made his directorial debut with the biographical film Antwone Fisher. His second directorial effort was The Great Debaters. His third film, Fences, in which he also starred, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

1956 - Nigel Kennedy, English violinist and violist. His early career was primarily spent performing classical music, and he has since expanded into jazz, klezmer, and other music genres.

Lefties:
None known

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

 

Historical Events

1065 - The Westminster Abbey of London is consecrated, shortly before the funeral of King Edward the Confessor, who ordered its building. The first king to be crowned there is Harold II, who loses the Battle of Hastings, and the next king crowned there is William I, better known as William the Conqueror. 

1895 - Louis and Auguste Lumière, French brothers, screen the first true motion picture on their new invention, the cinématographe, which gave birth to the word, cinema.

December 27 Dateline

Birthdays

 

1571 - Johannes Kepler, German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. He is a key figure in the 17th-century scientific revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion, based on his works Astronomia nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy. (Understanding Kepler's Three Laws and Orbits, uploaded by dcaulf. Accessed Dec 27, 2014)

1822 - Louis Pasteur, French bacteriologist, biologist, microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and prevention of diseases. His discoveries have saved many lives. (Brief biography of L. Pasteur, uploaded by Famous People Bio. Accessed Dec 27, 2018.)

1901 - Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich, German-American actress and singer. Throughout her long career, which spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s, she maintained popularity by continually reinventing herself. In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich acted on the stage and in silent films.

1906 - Oscar Levant, American pianist, composer, and entertainer (Levant performing George Gershwin's Concerto in F, from the famous classic movie "An American in Paris" starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. Uploaded by L.Q. Baltiysky. Accessed Dec 27, 2018.)

1911 -  Anna Russell (Claudia Russell-Brown), English–Canadian singer and comedian. She gave many concerts in which she sang and played comic musical sketches on the piano.  Among her best-known works are her concert performances and famous recordings of The Ring of the Nibelungs (An Analysis) – a humorous 22-minute synopsis of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen – and (on the same album) her parody How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera. I'm sharing my favourite: Anna Russell's 1953 sketch of Wagner's Ring Cycle: The Ring of the Nibelungs (Der Ring des Nibeungen). Uploaded by dwslive. Accessed December 27, 2013.)

1942 - Charmian Carr ( (born Charmian Anne Farnon), American actress and singer, best known as Liesl, eldest Von Trapp daughter in film version of The Sound of Music. Carr worked with Van Johnson on a pilot for a television program, Take Her, She's Mine. She then appeared in Evening Primrose, a one-hour musical written by Stephen Sondheim, which aired on ABC Stage 67 in 1966. The following year, she married a dentist, Jay Brent, and left show business; they divorced in 1991. She owned an interior design firm, Charmian Carr Designs, in Encino, California, and wrote two books, Forever Liesl and Letters to Liesl. She reunited with many of her co-stars from The Sound of Music on The Oprah Winfrey Show in October 2010 to celebrate the film's 45th anniversary. In 2014, Carr recorded "Edelweiss" with the great-grandchildren of the von Trapps on the album Dream a Little Dream by the von Trapps and Pink Martini.

 
1948 - Gerard Depardieu, CQ (Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu), French actor. He has received acclaim for his performances in The Last Metro (1980), for which he won the César Award for Best Actor, in Police, for which he won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, Jean de Florette, and Cyrano de Bergerac, winning the Cannes Film Festival for Best Actor, his second César Award for Best Actor, and his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He co-starred in Peter Weir's comedy Green Card, winning a Golden Globe Award and later acted in many big budget Hollywood movies. He is a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur and Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite. He was granted citizenship of Russia in January 2013 (officially adopted name in Russian: Жерар Депардьё, romanized: Zherar Depardyo), and became a cultural ambassador of Montenegro during the same month. 

 
Lefties:
None known 

 

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

 

Historical Events

1831 - Naturalist Charles Darwin sets sail from Plymouth, England in HMS Beagle on his journey to the Galapagos Islands, bound for South America, which becomes a five-year voyage. His discoveries there will inform and influence his theory of evolution.

1904 - James M. Barrie's Peter Pan opens at the Duke of York's Theatre, London.

December 26 Dateline

Birthdays

1891 - Henry Miller, American writer. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical reflection, stream of consciousness, explicit language, sex, surrealist free association, and mysticism. His most characteristic works of this kind are Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn and The Rosy Crucifixion trilogy, which are based on his experiences in New York and Paris (all of which were banned in the United States until 1961). He also wrote travel memoirs and literary criticism, and painted watercolors. (Henry Miller - To Paint is to Love Again. Uploaded by 'your future'.Accessed December 26, 2011.)

1893 - Mao Zedong, Founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC), also known as Chairman Mao, Chinese Communist Revolutionary. He ruled as the chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist, his theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism.

1975 - Marcelo Rios (Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga), Chilean tennis player, former world No. 1. Nicknamed El Chino ("The Chinese") and El zurdo de Vitacura ("The Lefty from Vitacura"), he became the first Latin American player to reach the top position on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles rankings in 1998. He held the world No. 1 ranking for six weeks. He was the first player to win all three clay-court Masters Series tournaments (Monte Carlo, Rome, and Hamburg) since the format began in 1990. He was also the third male in the history (after Michael Chang and Pete Sampras) to complete the Sunshine Double (winning Indian Wells and Miami Masters in one year), which he achieved in 1998. He retired prematurely in July 2004, after a back injury. 

 
Leftie:
Tennis player Marcelo Rios

 

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

 

Historical Events

Boxing Day is celebrated in Australia as public holiday; mainly in other Commonwealth countries.  There are various theories about its origin. One comes from the fact that servants were given presents in boxes on this day, that is, the servants' Christmas. 

1492 - Navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus founds his first settlement, La Navidad, in South America, with crew members from the Santa Maria, which he ran aground on Christmas Eve.

December 25 Dateline

25 December - Christmas Day 

Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, Judaea. Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. The earliest source stating 25 December as the date of birth of Jesus is likely by Hippolytus of Rome, written very early in the 3rd century, based on the assumption that the conception of Jesus took place at the Spring equinox which he placed on 25 March, and then added nine months – festivals on that date were then.  In modern times, however, the secular aspects of Christmas have tended to overshadow the religious significance of the day.  (Recommended reading: Date of birth of Jesus / Wikipedia. Listening: Libera - O Holy Night. YouTube. Accessed December 25, 2013. Handel: Messiah | Barnaby Smith, AAM, VOCES8, Apollo5 and VOCES8 Foundation Choir. YouTube, uploaded by Academy of Ancient Music. Accessed December 7, 2021.)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS Everyone! 

As we celebrate the birth of Christ, let us treasure -

the COMFORT of sharing,

the WARMTH of love,

the great JOY of peace on earth,

and keep CHRISTMAS in our hearts.

Josh Groban sings - O Come All Ye Faithful (featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) [Official HD Audio] YouTube, accessed December 25, 2021.

 

Birthdays

1642 - Sir Isaac Newton, PRS, English physician, mathematician, astronomer, theologian, and author (described in his day as a "natural philosopher"). (Originally, according to the "old" Julian calendar, he was born on Christmas Day in 1642, although today his birthday is celebrated as January 4, 1643.) Newton is widely recognised as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, laid the foundations of classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for developing the infinitesimal calculus.   A short biography of Isaac Newton, a key figure in the scientific revolution who is most famous for formulating laws of gravity. Accessed December 25, 2015.

1720 - Anna Maria Walburga Mozart (née Pertl), mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna "Nannerl" Mozart
 

1745 - Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, French (colonyof Guadaloupe) champion fencer, classical composer, virtuoso violinist, and conductor of the leading symphony orchestra in Paris. He was educated in France, becoming a champion fencer. During the French Revolution, he served as a colonel of the Légion St.-Georges, the first all-black regiment in Europe. He fought on the side of the Republic. He is best remembered as the first known classical composer who was of African ancestry. He composed numerous string quartets and other instrumental music, and opera. (Buskaid - Symphonie Concertante in G major - Allegro - Chevalier de Saint-George. YouTube uploaded by Buskaid South Africa. Accessed December 25, 2019.)

1887 - Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Hotel Mogul, American businessman and politician who founded the Hilton Hotels chain. Hilton developed entrepreneurial skills working at his father's general store in Socorro County, New Mexico, which was partially converted into a 10-room hotel. This was followed by varied experiences, including a stint as a representative in New Mexico's first State Legislature. Hilton's autobiography, Be My Guest, was published in 1958 by Prentice Hall. In 1966, Hilton was succeeded as president by his son Barron and was elected chairman of the board.

1899 - Humphrey DeForest Bogart, American film and stage actor. His performances in Classical Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. His breakthrough from supporting roles to stardom came with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. Bogart's private detectives, Sam Spade (in The Maltese Falcon) and Phillip Marlowe (in 1946's The Big Sleep), became the models for detectives in other noir films. His most significant romantic lead role was with Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, which earned him his first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Bogart and 19-year-old Lauren Bacall fell in love when they filmed To Have and Have Not; soon after the filming for The Big Sleep (1946, their second film together), he filed for divorce from his third wife and married Bacall. Bogart's performances in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and In a Lonely Place are considered among his best. The Caine Mutiny earned him another Best Actor nomination. As a cantankerous river steam launch skipper with Katharine Hepburn's missionary in the WWI adventure The African Queen, Bogart received the Academy Award for Best Actor. In his later years, significant roles included The Barefoot Contessa and Sabrina.

1918 - Anwar Sadat,  the 3rd president of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers. Sadat was a senior member of the Free Officers who overthrew King Farouk in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and a close confidant of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, under whom he served as Vice President twice and whom he succeeded as President in 1970.  As president, he changed Egypt's trajectory, departing from the political and economic tenets of Nasserism, re-instituting a multi-party system, and launching the Infitah economic policy. He led Egypt in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 to regain Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967, making him a hero in Egypt and the wider Arab World. Afterwards, he engaged in negotiations with Israel, culminating in the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, which won him and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin the Nobel Peace Prize, making Sadat the first Muslim Nobel laureate. The peace treaty was also one of the primary factors that led to his assassination.

 
1949 - Sissy Spacek (Mary Elizabeth Spacek), American actress and singer. She is the recipient of various accolades including an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and nominations for four British Academy Film Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. In 2011, Spacek was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On television, Spacek received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the television films The Good Old Boys, Last Call, and for her guest role on the HBO drama series Big Love. As a singer, Spacek recorded the soundtrack album of Coal Miner's Daughter, which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and garnered her a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

1954 - Annie Lennox, OBE, Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. She and fellow musician Dave Stewart achieved international success as Eurythmics. Appearing in the 1983 music video for "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" with orange cropped hair and wearing a man's business suit, the BBC states, "all eyes were on Annie Lennox, the singer whose powerful androgynous look defied the male gaze". Subsequent hits with Eurythmics include "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" and "Here Comes the Rain Again". Lennox's vocal range is contralto. She has been named "The Greatest White Soul Singer Alive" by VH1 and one of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. Lennox is political and social activist, notable for raising money and awareness for HIV/ AIDS as it affects women and children in Africa

Lefties:
None known

 

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

 

Historical Events

1066 - William the Conqueror is crowned king in Westminster Abbey. His claim to the throne is partly through conquest.

1734- Johann Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio is first performed, in Leipzig.

December 24 Dateline

Birthdays

1167 (or 1166?) - John, King of England, son of Henry II, is born at Beaumont Palace in Oxford. He becomes the king of England and Ireland. He is most famous for being forced to seal the Magna Carta.

1837 - Empress Elisabeth of Austria (born Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria, nicknamed Sissi or Sisi), Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary by marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I. She was born into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. She enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of 16. The marriage thrust her into the more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared. Early in the marriage she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie (also her aunt). The birth of the heir apparent, Crown Prince Rudolf, improved her standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867. The death of her only son and his mistress Mary Vetsera in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had a palace built on the Greek Island of Corfu that she visited often. In 1897, her favourite sister, Duchess Sophie in Bavaria, died in an accidental fire at the "Bazar de la Charité" in Paris. While travelling in Geneva in 1898, she was mortally wounded by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress of Austria at 44 years. (Empress Elisabeth (Sisi) of Austria 1837-1898. Uploaded by Rebecca Pattison. Accessed December 24, 2019.  Sisi - Empress Elisabeth of Austria - Vienna/Now. Uploaded: Vienna. Accessed December 24, 2019.)

1905 - Howard Robard Hughes Jr., American business magnate, record-setting aviator, engineer, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most financially successful individuals in the world. 

 
1971 - Ricky Martin, (born Enrique Martín Morales), Puerto Rican singer, actor, and author who is known as the "King of Latin Pop" and "Latin Music King". His first English-language album (titled Ricky Martin), sold 15 million copies and is his best selling album to date. Martin also acted on stage and TV in Mexico, where he achieved modest fame in the early 1990s. In 1994, he appeared on the US TV soap opera General Hospital as a Puerto Rican singer. In 2018, he portrayed Antonio D'Amico in the miniseries The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

Leftie:
Ricky Martin 

 

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

 

Historical Events

1851 - Fire got through the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington D.C., destroying 35,000 volumes, including most of Thomas Jefferson's personal collection, acquired in 1815.

1865 - Six confederate veterans of the American Civil War establish the Ku Klux Klan, in Pulaski, Tennessee.  

December 23 Dateline

Birthdays

1689 - Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, French Baroque composer of instrumental music, cantatas, opera-ballets, and vocal music. He was one of the first composers without patrons. Having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in 1724, he made enormous monies by publishing his music for public sale. 

 
1805 - Joseph Smith Jr, American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, he had attracted tens of thousands of followers and founded a religion that continues to the present. His teachings discuss the nature of God, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious collectivism. His followers regard him as a prophet comparable to Moses and Elijah, and several religious denominations consider themselves the continuation of the church that he organized, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Community of Christ.

1918 - Helmut Schmidt (Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt), German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming Chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence and as Minister of Finance. In the latter role he gained credit for his financial policies. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting Foreign Minister. As Chancellor, he focused on international affairs, seeking "political unification of Europe in partnership with the United States" and issuing proposals that led to the NATO Double-Track Decision in 1979 to deploy US Pershing II missiles to Europe. He sought European co-operation and international economic co-ordination and was the leading force in creating the European Monetary System in 1978. In 1986 he was a leading proponent of European monetary union and a European Central Bank.

1931 - Maria Tipo, Italian pianist. She was taught originally by her mother, Ersilia Cavallo, who was a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. She studied under Alfredo Casella and Guido Agosti. At 17, she won the Geneva international piano competition. In her first appearance in North America in the late 1950s, she played over 300 concerts. Her first recording, an LP of 12 Scarlatti sonatas, was hailed by Newsweek magazine as the most spectacular record of the year. Her recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations and of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti have been awarded the "Diapason d’Or". She has championed the music of Muzio Clementi. Martha Argerich, in an interview with Rai Radio 3, referred to her as "sensational". (Maria Tipo: Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major K 467 (Mozarteum Orchestra, Hans Graf). YouTube, uploaded by LOFTmusic. Accessed May 10, 2021.)

1943 - Ross Edwards, Australian composer. His music include orchestral and chamber music, choral music, children's music, opera and film music. His distinctive sound world reflects his interest in deep ecology and his belief in the need to reconnect music with elemental forces, as well as restore its traditional association with ritual and dance. He also recognises the profound importance of music as an agent of healing. His music, universal in that it is concerned with age-old mysteries surrounding humanity, is at the same time connected to its roots in Australia, whose cultural diversity it celebrates, and from whose natural environment it draws inspiration, especially birdsong and the mysterious patterns and drones of insects. As a composer living and working on the Pacific Rim, he is aware of the exciting potential of this vast region. (Selby & Friends presents Ross Edwards Piano Trio - recorded live in Adelaide Sept 2015. Artists: Sophie Rowell, violin; Julian Smiles, cello; Kathryn Selby, piano.  Accessed December 23, 2016. Water Spirit Song for solo cello by Ross Edwards, played by 14 year-old Charlotte, uploaded by MilesOfSmiles2002. Accessed Dec 23, 2017)

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1806 - Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto is first performed by violinist Franz Clement (for whom Beethoven wrote it), in Vienna. (BEETHOVEN Concerto for Violin and Orchestra - Hilary Hahn, violin; Leonard Slatkin, conductor. Uploaded by Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Accessed December 23, 2018.)

1823 - Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (later titled "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") is published in the Troy, New York, Sentinel.

December 22 Dateline

Birthdays

1639 - Jean Racine, baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine, French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. He was primarily a tragedian. He wrote one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther for the young.  Racine's plays displayed his mastery of the dodecasyllabic (12 syllable) French alexandrine. His writing is renowned for its elegance, purity, speed, and fury, and for what American poet Robert Lowell described as a "diamond-edge", and the "glory of its hard, electric rage". Racine's dramaturgy is marked by his psychological insight, the prevailing passion of his characters, and the nakedness of both plot and stage.The linguistic effects of Racine's poetry are widely considered to be untranslatable, although many eminent poets have attempted to translate Racine's work into English, including Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Ted Hughes, Tony Harrison, and Derek Mahon, and Friedrich Schiller into German. (Cappella Amsterdam - Gabriel Fauré's Cantique de Jean Racine (Live @ Bimhuis - Amsterdam). This video was recorded @ Bimhuis Amsterdam for VPRO Vrije Geluiden. Brilliant performace for such a small group! Vrije Geluiden is a music program made by the Dutch public broadcast organisation VPRO. Accessed December 22, 2015. Here's another Cantique de Jean Racine by Fauré performed by the Choir of King's College, with Stephen Cleobury. "Prom 03: Mozart, Haydn and Faure" BBC, Royal Albert Hall London, 17.07.2016. Uploaded by Chor Gesang - Das Musikmagazin. Accessed December 22, 2017.)

1723 - Carl Friedrich Abel, German Composer of the Classical era. He was a renowned player of the viola da gamba, and produced significant compositions for that instrument. (One of Abel's works became famous due to a mis-attribution; in the 19th century, a manuscript symphony in the hand of Mozart was catalogued ( by Ludwig von Kochel in 1862 ) as his Symphony No 3 in E flat major. Later, it was discovered that this symphony was actually that work of Abel, copied by the boy Mozart while he was visiting London in 1764. Here's a link to C.F. Abel's Six Symphonies. Uploaded by HarpsichordM. Accessed December 22, 2017.)

1858 - Giacomo Puccini, Italian opera Composer, He has been called "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi". Puccini's early work was rooted in traditional late-19th-century romantic Italian opera. Later, he successfully developed his work in the realistic verismo style, of which he became one of the leading exponents. Puccini's most renowned works are La bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924), all of which are among the important operas played as standards.

1890 - Charles de Gaulle (Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle), French Army Officer and Statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to reestablish democracy in France. In 1958, he came out of retirement when appointed President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) by President René Coty. He rewrote the Constitution of France and founded the Fifth Republic after approval by referendum. He was elected President of France later that year, a position to which he was reelected in 1965 and held until his resignation in 1969. Many French political parties and figures claim a Gaullist legacy; after his death many streets and monuments in France were dedicated to his memory.

1907 - Dame Peggy Ashcroft (Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft), English actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. Always attracted by the ideals of permanent theatrical ensembles, she did much of her work for the Old Vic in the early 1930s, John Gielgud's companies in the 1930s and 1940s, the Royal Shakespeare Company from the 1950s and the National Theatre from the 1970s. While well regarded in Shakespeare, Ashcroft was also known for her commitment to modern drama, appearing in plays by Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. In the 1980s, she turned to television and cinema with considerable success, winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and several British and European awards.

1943 - Billie Jean King (née Moffitt), 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 was a member of the victorious United States team in seven Federation Cups and nine Wightman Cups. For three years, she was the United States' captain in the Federation Cup. King is an advocate for gender equality and social justice. In 1973, she won the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match against the 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. She was also the founder of the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation. In 2018, she won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.

1949 - Robin and Maurice Gibb, British musicians, singers, songwriters, and record producers, born in the Isle of Man. They achieved fame as a member of the pop group Bee Gees.They are fraternal twin brothers, with Robin older by 35 minutes to Maurice. They have one sister, Lesley Evans, and two brothers, Barry and Andy. (Bee Gees My World (1972), uploaded by Conoce a Los Bee Gees. Accessed Dec 22, 2014.)

1961 - Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko, Retired Russian cosmonaut. He became the first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was 240 miles over New Zealand, on the International Space Station. As of June 2016, Malenchenko ranks second for career time in space due to his time on both Mir and the International Space Station (ISS). He is a former Commander of the International Space Station.

1962 - Ralph Fiennes (Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes), English actor, film producer, and director. A Shakespeare interpreter, he first achieved success onstage at the Royal National Theatre. His portrayal of Nazi war criminal Amon Göth in Schindler's List earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, and he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. His performance as Count Almásy in The English Patient garnered him a second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor, as well as BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. Fiennes has appeared in a number of other notable films. In 2011, Fiennes made his directorial debut with his film adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus, in which he also played the title character. In 1995, he won a Tony Award for playing Prince Hamlet on Broadway. Fiennes has served as an ambassador for UNICEF UK since 1999.

Lefties:
None known 

 

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

Historical Birthdays

1715 - James Stuart, the Catholic "Old Pretender," lands at Peterhead to begin the first Jacobite rebellion against George I. The attempt to restore the Stuart line to the thrones of England and Scotland fails.

1894 - In a miscarriage of justice, French army captain Alfred Dreyfus is found guilty of passing military secrets to the Germans. His cause later taken up by writer Emile Zola.

December 21 Dateline

Birthdays

c. 1119 (or 1120) - Thomas Becket, known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket, was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. He engaged in conflict with Henry II, King of England, over the rights and privileges of the Church and was murdered by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral. Soon after his death, he was canonised by Pope Alexander III.  (The London History Show: Thomas Becket. Uploaded by J Rennocks. Accessed December 21, 2018. Murder in the Cathedral! King Henry II and Thomas Becket). Uploaded by Lagan History. Accessed December 21, 2019).

1804 - Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, British politician of the Conservative Party who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation of the modern Conservative Party. Disraeli is remembered for his influential voice in world affairs, his political battles with the Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone, and his one-nation conservatism or "Tory democracy". He made the Conservatives the party most identified with the glory and power of the British Empire. He is the only British prime minister to have been of Jewish birth. He was also a novelist, publishing works of fiction even as prime minister. British Statesman

1892 - Dame Rebecca West DBE (Cicily Isabel Fairfield), British author, critic, journalist, and travel writer. West reviewed books for The Times, the New York Herald Tribune, The Sunday Telegraph, and The New Republic, and she was a correspondent for The Bookman. Her major works include Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, on the history and culture of Yugoslavia; A Train of Powder, her coverage of the Nuremberg trials; The Meaning of Treason, later The New Meaning of Treason, a study of the trial of the British fascist William Joyce and others; The Return of the Soldier, a modernist World War I novel; and the "Aubrey trilogy" of autobiographical novels, The Fountain Overflows, This Real Night (published posthumously in 1984), and Cousin Rosamund. She was made CBE in 1949, and DBE in 1959. She took the pseudonym "Rebecca West" from the rebellious young heroine in Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen. She was a recipient of the Benson Medal. (Meet Rebecca West, uploaded by Open Road Media. Accessed December 21, 2014)

1937 - Jane Seymour Fonda, American actress, political activist, and former fashion model. She is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the AFI Life Achievement Award, and the Honorary Golden Lion and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1982, she released her first exercise video, Jane Fonda's Workout, which became the highest-selling VHS of all time. It would be the first of 22 such videos over the next 13 years, which would collectively sell over 17 million copies. Fonda was a visible political activist in the counterculture era during the Vietnam War. In 2005, along with Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem, she co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that works to amplify the voices of women in the media through advocacy, media and leadership training, and the creation of original content. Fonda serves on the board of the organization.

1944 - Michael Tilson Thomas, American conductor, pianist and composer. He is music director of the San Francisco Symphony and artistic director of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida. (Michael Tilson Thomas: Music and emotion through time. Uploaded by TED. Accessed December 21, 2014).

1953 - Sir András Schiff, Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor, who has received numerous major awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize, and was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2014 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to music. Schiff is distinguished visiting professor of piano at the Barenboim–Said Akademie in Berlin, and the first artist-in-residence of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. (Andras Schiff plays and conducts Mozart's Piano Concerto No.20 in D minor, K. 466. YouTube, uploaded by SW, accessed Dec 21, 2022.)

 1954 - Chris Evert or Chris Evert Lloyd (Christine Marie Evert), former American World No. 1 tennis player, She won 18 Grand Slam singles championships and three doubles titles. She was the year-ending world No. 1 singles player in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, and 1981. Overall, Evert won 157 singles championships and 32 doubles titles. Evert reached 34 Grand Slam singles finals, more than any other player in the history of professional tennis. She holds the record of most consecutive years (13) to win at least one Grand Slam title. In singles, Evert reached the semifinals or better in 52 of the 56 Grand Slams she played, including the semifinals or better of 34 consecutive Grand Slams entered from the 1971 US Open through the 1983 French Open. She never lost in the first or second round of a Grand Slam singles tournament and lost in the third round only twice. In Grand Slam women's singles play, Evert won a record seven championships at the French Open and a co-record six championships at the US Open (tied with Serena Williams).

1966 - Kiefer Sutherland (Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland),  British-born Canadian actor, producer, director, and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the Fox drama series 24, for which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Satellite Awards. Sutherland has been inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and to Canada's Walk of Fame, and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival.

Lefties:
None known 

 

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

Historical Events

This day is Midwinter's Day, and Midsummer in Australia. The winter solstice, or shortest day. It is also known as the festival of the Holly King, just as the summer solstice is traditionally the festival of the Oak King. The winter solstice (or hibernal solstice), also known as midwinter, is an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year. Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment in time, the term sometimes refers to the day on which it occurs.

1620 - Pilgrims on the Mayflower land at Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they establish one of America's earliest successful colonies.

December 20 Dateline

Birthdays

1868 - Harvey Firestone, American industrialist, first to manufacture pneumatic tires, Founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.

1890 - Jaroslav Heyrovsky, Czech chemist. Discovered Polarography. 1959 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the first Czech national to win the award. (MLA style: Jaroslav Heyrovsky – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2018. Thu. 20 Dec 2018.)

1894 - Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, QC, FAA, FRS, Australian politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1949 to 1966. He played a central role in the creation of the Liberal Party of Australia, defining its policies and its broad outreach. He is Australia's longest-serving prime minister, serving over 18 years in total.

1952 - Jenny Ann Agutter, British actress. She began her career as a child actress in 1964, appearing in East of Sudan, Star!, and two adaptations of The Railway Children—the BBC's 1968 television serial and the 1970 film version. She starred in the critically acclaimed film Walkabout and the TV film The Snow Goose (both 1971), for which she won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama.

1969 - Alain de Botton, FRSL Swiss-born British philosopher and author. His books discuss contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published Essays in Love in 1993, which went on to sell two million copies. Other bestsellers include How Proust Can Change Your Life, Status Anxiety and The Architecture of Happiness. Alain de Botton co-founded The School of Life and Living Architecture. In 2015, he was awarded "The Fellowship of Schopenhauer", an annual writers' award from the Melbourne Writers Festival. Quote: "Work finally begins when the fear of doing nothing exceeds the fear of doing it badly." - Alain de Botton. (How Proust Can Change Your Life. YouTube, uploaded by Big Think. Accessed December 20, 2014.)

Lefties:
None known 

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

Historical Events

1803 - France turns over New Orleans to the U.S. as part of the Louisiana Purchase, by which America bought a fifth of their entire country from French ownership for 27.25 million dollars, roughly three cents an acre. For what is worth, the reason the French were willing to sell the land is because Napoleon was fighting Great Britain and needed money desperately.

1860 - The U.S. state of South Carolina secedes, setting the course for the American Civil War.

December 19 Dateline

Birthdays

1888 - Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-born and trained composer, opera coach, conductor. He was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. He emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to prominence as a conductor with several orchestras. He reached the pinnacle of his career while music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s and early 1960s. (Fritz Reiner conducts Mozart (vaimusic.com). Accessed December 19, 2018. Sorry the video is improperly cut-off... great conducting by Reiner of Mozart's Symphony No. 39.  Fritz Reiner conducting Tchaikovsky's violin concerto with the great violinist Jascha Heifetz, soloist. YouTube, uploaded by vovcek. Accessed December 19, 2016.)

1894 - Paul Dessau - German composer, opera coach and conductor. He collaborated with German poet and playwright Bertold Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them. (Deutsches Miserere - Paul Dessau / Bertolt Brecht (Kegel). Paul Dessau / Bertolt Brecht "Deutsches Miserere" (1947). Dagmar Schellenberger - Soprano. Christiane Röhr - Alto. Manfred Hopp - Tenor.  Bernd Grabowski - Bass.  Rundfunkchor Berlin Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin. Conductor/Dirigent: Herbert Kegel. Uploaded by hitzikon. Accessed December 19, 2007.) 

1902 - Sir Ralph Richardson,  English actor who, along with his contemporaries Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, and Laurence Olivier, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career and played more than sixty cinema roles. Richardson had no thought of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1931 he joined the Old Vic, playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company, a series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and on Broadway. Sir Ralph Richardson as Sir Wilfred in Agatha Christie's famous play: Witness for the Prosecution, with Dame Diana Rigg and Deborah Kerr. YouTube, Uploaded by Old Curios & Untiquities. Accessed December 19, 2019.)   

1906 - Leonid Ilyich Breshnev, Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union as General Secretary of the governing Communist Party (1964–1982) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1977–1982). His 18-year term as general secretary was second only to Joseph Stalin's in duration. While Brezhnev's rule was characterized by political stability and notable foreign policy successes, it was also marked by corruption, inefficiency, economic stagnation, and rapidly growing technological gaps with the West.

1910 - Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later took to writing. His major works include the novels The Thief's Journal and Our Lady of the Flowers, and the plays The Balcony, The Maids and The Screens.

1915 - Edith Piaf, French singer, songwriter and actress  known as "The Little Sparrow." She became widely regarded as France's national chanteuse, as well as being one of France's greatest international stars. (The Best of Edith Piaf. YouTube, uploaded by Edith Piaf Official. Accessed December 2025. "Je ne regrette rien"). Accessed December 19, 2025.

1923 - Gordon Jackson, OBE , Scottish actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals. He also portrayed Flt. Lt. Andrew MacDonald, "Intelligence", in The Great Escape.

1924 -  Edmund Purdom, English actor, voice artist, and director. He worked first on stage in Britain, performing various works by Shakespeare, then later in America on Broadway, until making his way to Hollywood, and eventually spent the remainder of his life appearing in Italian cinema. He starred in 1954's historical epic The Egyptian. By taking over important roles exited by Mario Lanza and Marlon Brando, Purdom was known by the mid-1950s as "The Replacement Star".

Leftie:
Writer Jean Genet

 

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

 

Historical Events

1932 - BBC begins shortwave transmission overseas with its Empire Service, which is the forerunner of its World Service.

1984 - Christoph Wolff, a Harvard Professor, announces his find of a collection of 33 unknown organ preludes, attributed to Baroque composer  J.S. Bach, discovered in a Yale University library. 

 

December 18 Dateline

Birthdays

1707 - Charles Wesley, Co-founder of Methodist Movement, poet and famous for writing hundreds of loved hymns.(C. Wesley Movie, uploaded by Gayle Lawson. Accessed December 18, 2017. The Life & Hymns of C. Wesley, uploaded by Grace Church. Accessed December 18, 2018.)

1856 - Sir Joseph John Thomson, English physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, and the first subatomic particle. He also pioneered mass spectrometry and discovered the existence of isotopes of elements. He wins the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906.

1879 - Paul Klee, Swiss-born painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting for the Renaissance. He and his colleague, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. Klee's works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality. (Paul Klee: A collection of 277 works (HD). Uploaded by LearnFromMasters. Accessed December 18, 2019.)

1908 -  Dame Celia Johnson, DBE, English actress, whose career included stage, television and film. Best known for her roles in the films In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944), Brief Encounter (1945) and The Captain's Paradise (1953). For Brief Encounter, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. A six-time BAFTA Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).

1913 - Willy Brandt (born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm), German politician and statesman, former leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. He was the first Social Democrat chancellor since 1930.

1915 - Betty Grable (born Elizabeth Ruth Grable), American actress, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films grossed more than $100 million, for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reigned in the Quigley Poll's Top 10 box office stars (a feat only matched by Doris Day and Barbra Streisand). The U.S. Treasury Department in 1946 and 1947 listed her as the highest-salaried American woman; she earned more than $3 million during her career.

1946 - Steven Spielberg, American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is considered one of the founding pioneers of he "New Hollywood era" and also viewed as one of the most popular and influential directors and producers in movie history. Spielberg is one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studio. Spielberg is the recipient of various accolades, including three Academy Awards, a Kennedy Center honor, a Cecil B. DeMille Award, and an AFI Life Achievement Award. Seven of his films been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

1950 - Gillian May Armstrong, Australian film and documentary director, who specializes in period drama. Her films often feature female perspectives and protagonists.

1963 - Brad Pitt (born William Bradley Pitt), American actor and film producer. He has received multiple awards, including two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award for his acting, in addition to another Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award as producer under his production company, Plan B Entertainment. His first leading roles came with the drama films A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall, and the horror film Interview with the Vampire. He gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven (1995) and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination.

1978 - Katie Holmes (born Katherine Noelle Holmes), American actress, producer, and director. She first achieved fame as Joey Potter on the television series Dawson's Creek, then Subsequent film roles followed. In 2008, she made her Broadway theatre debut in a production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. In 2011, she played Jacqueline Kennedy in the TV miniseries The Kennedys, a role she reprised in The Kennedys: After Camelot in 2017. She made her directorial debut with the 2016 film All We Had, in which she also starred.

1980 - Christina Maria Aguilera, American Pop singer, songwriter, actress, and TV personality. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, one Latin Grammy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Aguilera ranked at number 58 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2008, and was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013. She is considered one of the world's best-selling music artists.

Lefties:
Actress Betty Grable
Painter Paul Klee
Actor Brad Pitt 

 

More birthdays and historical events, December 18 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

 
1880 - Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italien" premieres in Moscow.  

1892 - Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is first staged, in St. Petersburg. 

Here's  a performance from the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, December 2012
Valery Gergiev - conductor, Vasily Vainonen - choreography, Benjamin Tyrrell - stage and costumes.

WATCH on YouTube. This video is blocked from display on other websites. Accessed December 18, 2016.

1916 - The Battle of Verdun, the longest engagement of World War I, ends with close to half a million French and German troops killed and a similar number wounded.

December 17 Dateline

Famous Birthdays

1749 - Dominico Cimarosa, Italian opera composer of the Neapolitan school and of the Classical period. He wrote more than eighty operas, the best known of which is Il matrimonio segreto. Most of his operas are comedies. He also wrote instrumental works and church music. He was principally based in Naples but spent some of his career in various other parts of Italy, composing for the opera houses of Rome, Venice, Florence. He was engaged by the empress of Russia Catherine the Great as her court composer and conductor between 1787 and 1791. In his later years, returning to Naples, he backed the losing side in the struggle to overthrow the monarchy there, and was imprisoned and then exiled. (Cimarosa Oboe Concerto,  conducted by Jean Thorel, François Leleux (oboist), City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. Uploaded by CCOHK. Accessed December 17, 2016.)

1778 - Sir Humphry Davy, English scientist. He discovered the anaesthetic properties of laughing gas, and the elements potassium,sodium, barium, strontium, magnesium and calcium. He is famous for devising safety lamps for use in mining. (Humphry Davy, uploaded by Ananas Science. Accessed Dec 17, 2018; Davy's Lamp - Periodic Table of Videos, uploaded by Periodic Videos. Accessed Dec 17, 2018)

1862 - Moriz Rosenthal, Polish virtuoso pianist and composer. He was an outstanding pupil of Franz Liszt and a friend and colleague of some of the greatest musicians of his age, including Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Anton Rubinstein, Hans von Bülow, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jules Massenet and Isaac Albéniz. (Moriz Rosenthal (1862-1946): Papillons ("Butterflies". YouTube, uploaded by d60944. Accessed December 17, 2014.) 

1936 - Tommy Steele (Sir Thomas Hicks, OBE), English entertainer, songwriter, author, an sculptor. He is regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. He reached number one with "Singing the Blues" in 1957, and The Tommy Steele Story was the first album by a UK act to reach number one in his native country. Steele's film credits include Half a Sixpence, The Happiest Millionaire and Finian's Rainbow (musical). In 2012, Steele was among the cultural icons selected by pop-artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in "Vintage Blake", a montage to celebrate Blake's 80th birthday.

1936 - Pope Francis, 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio), the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas (from Buenos Aires, Argentina), the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since the Syrian Gregory III, who reigned in the 8th century.

Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events, December 17 - On This Day

Historical Events

1538 - King Henry VIII is excommunicated by Pope Paul III after declaring himself head of the Church of England.

1843 - A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is published, to critical acclaim.(A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - Listen and Read. Uploaded by DingLabs. Accessed December 17, 2016)

 

December 16 Dateline

Birthdays

1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist, a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in classical music, he remains one of the most recognised and influential of all composers. His mastery of musical expression made him a dominant influence on 19th-century music. His best-known compositions include: 9 symphonies; 5 piano concertos; 1 violin concerto; 32 piano sonatas; 16 string quartets; a mass, the Missa solemnis; and the only opera he composed, Fidelio.

1775 - Jane Austen, English novelist mainly known for her six major novels, which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. The six famous novels of Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey. Her plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security.  Literature - Jane Austen, uploaded by The School of Life. Accessed December 16, 2018)

1866 - Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky, Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, although Swedish artist Hilma af Klimt produced paintings five years before him.  Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated from Odessa Art School. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession, he was offered a professorship (chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat (today Tartu, Estonia). Kandinsky began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30. (Wassily Kandinsky. Art History School.)
 

1867 - Amy Beatrice Carmichael, Protestant christian missionary and writer. She was a missionary in India who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for 55 years without furlough and wrote many books about the missionary work there.

1882 - Zoltan Kodaly, Hungarian composer, pedagogue, music critic, linguist, ethnomusicologist. He is well known as the creator of the Kodály Method. Kodály was very interested in the problems of many types of music education, and he wrote a large amount of material on teaching methods, also composing plenty of music for children's use. Beginning in 1935, along with his colleague Jenő Ádám (14 years his junior), he embarked on a long-term project to reform music teaching in Hungary's lower and middle schools. His work resulted in the publication of several highly influential books. The Hungarian music education program that developed in the 1940s became the basis for Kodály Method. While Kodály himself did not write down a comprehensive method, he did establish a set of principles to follow in music education, and these principles were widely taken up by pedagogues. (Zoltán Kodály-Dances of Galánta (Rajkó orchestra). YouTube, uploaded by Robert Lucaks. Accessed December 16, 2020.  Zoltán Kodály: Psalmus Hungaricus, Op. 13. YouTube, uploaded by Rique Borges. Accessed November 19, 2025.)

1899 - Sir Noël Peirce Coward, English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise". His plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. He did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.

1901 - Margaret Mead,  American cultural anthropologist who featured frequently as an author and speaker in the mass media during the 1960s and 1970s. She served as President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1975. Mead was a communicator of anthropology in modern American and Western culture and was often controversial as an academic. Her reports detailing the attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures influenced the 1960s sexual revolution. She was a proponent of broadening sexual conventions within a context of traditional Western religious life.

1917 - Sir Arthur Charles Clarke CBE FRAS, English science-fiction writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most influential films of all time. He wrote many books and many essays for popular magazines. In 1961, he received the Kalinga Prize, a UNESCO award for popularising science. Clarke's science and science-fiction writings earned him the moniker "Prophet of the Space Age". His science-fiction writings earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, which along with a large readership, made him one of the towering figures of the genre.

1938 - Liv Johanne Ullmann, Norwegian actress and film director. Recognised as one of the greatest European actresses, Ullmann is known as the muse and frequent partner of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Ulmann won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1972 (Motion Picture Drama) for the film The Emigrants, and has been nominated for another four. In 2000, she was nominated for the Palme d'Or for her second directorial feature film, Faithless. She has also received two BAFTA Award nominations and two Academy Award nominations, both for her performances in Scenes from a Marriage (1973) and Face to Face.

1946 - Benny Anderson (Göran Bror Benny Andersson), Swedish musician, composer, producer, songwriter, member of the Swedish music group ABBA, and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!. For the 2008 film version of Mamma Mia! and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, he worked also as an executive producer. Since 2001, he has been active with his own band Benny Anderssons orkester.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, December 16 - On This Day

Historical Events

1653 - Oliver Cromwell is declared Lord Protector of England, following the execution of Charles I.

1773 - Popularly known as "Boston Tea Party," colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians fling a cargo of tea into the harbor in protest of British taxes and trade restrictions. 

December 15 Dateline

Birthdays

   

1832 - Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (born Bonickhausen dit Eiffel), French Civil Engineer. A graduate of the prestigious École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures of France, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics after his retirement from engineering, making significant contributions in both fields.

1892 - Jean Paul Getty, known widely as J. Paul Getty, American-born British Petrol-Industrialist, and the patriarch of the Getty family. He founded the Getty Oil Company, and in 1957 Fortune magazine named him the richest living American, while the 1966 Guinness Book of Records named him as the world's richest private citizen, worth an estimated $1.2 billion (approx. $7.4 billion in 2019). At his death, he was worth more than $6 billion (approximately $21 billion in 2019). A book published in 1996 ranked him as the 67th richest American who ever lived, based on his wealth as a percentage of the concurrent gross national product. Getty was infamously frugal, notably negotiating his grandson's Italian kidnapping ransom in 1973. Getty was an avid collector of art and antiquities. His collection formed the basis of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, and more than $661 million of his estate was left to the museum after his death. He established the J. Paul Getty Trust in 1953. The trust is the world's wealthiest art institution, and operates the J. Paul Getty Museum Complexes.

1932 - Josephine Edna O'Brien, DBE, Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short story writer. Former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, cited her as "one of the great creative writers of her generation". Her works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men, and to society as a whole. Her first novel, The Country Girls, is often credited with breaking silence on sexual matters and social issues during a repressive period in Ireland following World War II. The book was banned, burned and denounced from the pulpit. O'Brien received the Irish PEN Award in 2001. Saints and Sinners won the 2011 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the world's richest prize for a short story collection. Faber and Faber published her memoir, Country Girl, in 2012. In 2015, she was bestowed Saoi by the Aosdána. O'Brien lives in London.

1949 - Don Johnson (Donnie Wayne Johnson), American actor, film producer and director, singer, and songwriter. He played the role of James "Sonny" Crockett in the 1980s television series Miami Vice, winning a Golden Globe for his work in the role. He also had the eponymous lead role in the 1990s cop series Nash Bridges. Johnson has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, December 15 - On This Day

Historical Events

1791 - The Bill of Rights becomes part of the U.S. Constitution.

1809 - Emperor Napoleon divorces Josephine for her failure to produce an heir. Reportedly, the divorce causes great anguish for both of them. He marries Marie Louise of Austria in 1811 and has a son with her soon after.

December 14 Dateline

Birthdays

1738 - Johann Anton Kozeluch (Jan Antonín Koželuh), Bohemian / Czech composer and choirmaster. He studied in Vienna under Christoph Willibald von Gluck and Florian Gassmann. He became a concert master in St. Vitus Cathedral for thirty years and the organist at the Strahov Monastery. Kozeluch's works includes 45 Masses, a Requiem, an oratorio, two operas, four symphonies, and several woodwind concertos. As one of the most respected Czech composers of his time, he also composed serious Italian operas: Allesandro nell' Indie, performed in 1769 and Demofoonte, in 1772. He was the teacher of (his cousin) Leopold Kozeluch, whose name was originally also Jan Antonin Koželuh but  changed his name, in 1773. (Jan Antonín Kozeluh - Bassoon Concerto in C-Dur. Uploaded by Pau NG. Accessed December 14, 2018.)

1895 - George VI, (Albert Frederick Arthur George), King of the UK and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also Emperor of India from 1936 until 1947, when the British Raj was dissolved. In September 1939, the British Empire and Commonwealth—except Ireland—declared war on Nazi Germany. War with the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan followed in 1940 and 1941, respectively. George was seen as sharing the hardships of the common people and his popularity soared. Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz while the King and Queen were there, and his younger brother, the Duke of Kent, was killed on active service. George became known as a symbol of British determination to win the war. Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945. He was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.

1935 - Lee Remick, American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for the 1962 film Days of Wine and Roses, and for the 1966 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her Broadway theatre performance in Wait Until Dark. Remick made her film debut in 1957 in A Face in the Crowd. Her other notable film roles include Anatomy of a Murder, Wild River, The Detective, The Omen, and The Europeans. She won Golden Globe Awards for the 1973 TV film The Blue Knight, and for playing the title role in the 1974 miniseries Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill. For the latter role, she also won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. In April 1991, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1946 - Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE, English actress, singer, songwriter, and model. She attained international fame and notability for her decade-long musical and romantic partnership with Serge Gainsbourg. She also had a prolific career as an actress in British and French cinema. She appeared in various independent films and recording numerous solo albums. In 1991, she appeared in the miniseries Red Fox, and in the American drama film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries. In 2016, she starred in the Academy Award-nominated short film La femme et le TGV, which she said would be her final film role.

1979 - Sophie Monk (Sophie Charlene Akland Monk), Australian singer, actress, model, and media personality. Monk was a member of the girl group Bardot, winners of the first season of Popstars Australia in 2000, and later released a solo album called Calendar Girl (2003). She has appeared in films, such as Date Movie, Click, Sex and Death 101, The Hills Run Red, and Spring Breakdown. Monk was the winner of the fourth season of The Celebrity Apprentice Australia in 2015. In 2016, she was a judge on Australia's Got Talent. She starred on the third season of The Bachelorette Australia, and the following year, she became the host of Love Island Australia.

Leftie:

King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. 

 

King George VI whose full name was Albert Frederick Arthur George (14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the U.K. and the British Dominions from December 11, 1936 until his death. He was the last Emperor of India until 1947), the last King of Ireland (until 1949), and the first Head of the Commonwealth.

As the second son of King George V, his older brother Edward was expected to inherit the throne, but became the king instead when Edward abdicated.  King George V served in the Royal Navy during World War I, and after the war took on the usual round of public engagements.

He married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923, later known as the Elizabeth Queen Mother when her daughter became Queen Elizabeth II. They had two daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, and Princess Margaret. 

 

 

More birthdays and historical events, December 14 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1900 - Max Planck presents a paper to the German Physical Society, proposing that energy exists in discrete packets, he called "quanta." This marks the beginning of quantum physics.

1918 - In Britain, for the first time, women exercise their rights to vote in a general election.

1924 - Ottorino Respighi's symphonic poem Pini di Roma (Pines of Rome, 1924) is first performed, in Rome.  It is considered part of the "Roman Trilogy" of symphonic poems along with Fontane di Roma (Fountains of Rome, 1916) and  Feste Romane (Roman Festivals, 1928). Here's a performance of Pines of Rome, uploaded by Zevnikov, with the Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra. Performed  in Gallus Hall, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Conductor Maestro Nejc Bečan. Accessed December 14, 2018.