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.)

February 17 Dateline

Birthdays

1653 - Arcangelo Corelli, Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era, and Creator of the concerto grosso. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the pre-eminence of the violin, and as the first coalescing of modern tonality and functional harmony. (Arcangelo Corelli: Concerto in D Major Op. 6 No. 4, complete. Voices of Music; original instruments. YouTube, uploaded by Voices of Music. Accessed Februray 17, 2018.)

1862 - Ogai Mori, Japanese writer and physician, Lieutenant-General Mori Rintarō, known by his pen name Mori Ōgai, was an Army Surgeon general officer, translator, novelist, poet and father of famed author Mari Mori. He obtained his medical license at a very young age and introduced translated German literary works to the Japanese public.

1864 - Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, CBE, Australian bush poet, journalist and author. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas, including the district around the historical village of Binalong, New South Wales, where he spent much of his childhood. Banjo Paterson is most famous for writing 'Waltzing Matilda' and 'The Man From Snowy River'. It could be said that his writing, based on his own experiences of the Australian bush life, has shaped Australia's identity. (Slim Dusty - Waltzing Matilda. YouTube, uploaded by orthodoxquaker. Note: "Waltzing" does not mean dancing but refers to walking across Australia, walking with all belongings wrapped up in a blanket attached to a long stick this Aussie carries across his shoulder - this is his "swag," hence the term "swag-man." His swag he affectionately calls "Matilda", his only companion. A "billabong" is a lake, a "billy" is a tin can for boiling water, a "jumbuck" is a sheep, and a "tucker" bag whatever else he's carrying. Accessed February 17, 2009. A.B. (Banjo) Paterson "The Man from Snowy River" Poem animation. YouTube, uploaded by poetryreincarnations. Accessed February 17, 2012.)

1888 - Otto Stern, German-American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics. He was the second most nominated person for a Nobel Prize with 82 nominations in the years 1925–1945, ultimately winning in 1943. As an experimental physicist Stern contributed to the discovery of spn quantization in the Stern-Gerlach experiment with Walter Gerlach in February 1922 at the Physikalischer Verein in Frankfurt am Main; demonstration of the wave nature of atoms and molecules; measurement of atomic magnetic moments; discovery of the proton's magnetic moment; and development of the molecular beam method which is utilized for the technique of molecular beam epitaxy.

1929 - Dame Katherine Patricia Routledge, DBE, British actress, comedian and singer. She is best known for her role as Hyacinth Bucket in the BBC sitcom Keeping Up Appearances, for which she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Light Entertainment Performance in 1992 and 1993. Her film appearances include To Sir, with Love and Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River. Routledge made her professional stage debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1952 and her Broadway debut in How's the World Treating You in 1966. She won the 1968 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in Darling of the Day, and the 1988 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for Candide. (Dame Patricia Routledge. Studio 10. Accessed February 17, 2018. A beautiful uplifting speech from a lovely lady, Dame Patricia Routledge! University of Chester. Accessed February 17, 2020.)

1930 - Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE (née Grasemann), English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell's best-known creation, Chief Inspector Wexford, was the main character of many popular police stories, some of them successfully adapted for TV. A second string of works was a series of unrelated crime novels, that deeply explored the psychological background of criminals and their victims, many of them mentally afflicted or otherwise socially isolated. This theme was developed further in a third series of novels, published under the pseudonym Barbara Vine.

1934 - Sir Alan Arthur Bates, CBE, English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story Whistle Down the Wind (with Hayley Mills) to the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving. He performed with Anthony Quinn in Zorba the Greek, as well as in King of Hearts, Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd and The Fixer, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. In 1969, he starred in the film Women in Love with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson. He then starred in The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman, Nijinsky and in The Rose with Bette Midler, also in TV dramas, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Harold Pinter's The Collection, among others. He also appeared on the stage. (Whistle Down the Wind in Bryan Forbes 1961 Film, Part 1/2, Part 2/2, starring Hayley Mills and Alan Bates. Accessed February 17, 2019.)

1941 - Julia Kathleen Nancy McKenzie, CBE, English actress, singer, presenter, and theatre director. She's one of the few British performers to merit the title of "Triple Threat", she has premièred leading roles by both Sir Alan Ayckbourn and Stephen Sondheim. On television, she has BAFTA Award nomination for her role as Hester Fields in the sitcom Fresh Fields and its sequel French Fields, and as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple. McKenzie has also starred in musicals, receiving a 1977 Tony Award nomination for her work in the Broadway revue, Side by Side by Sondheim. A six-time Olivier Award nominee, she has twice won the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical; for the 1982 revival of Guys and Dolls and the 1993 revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. [Wiki] (Falling in Love with Love - Julia McKenzie. Uploaded by You'reGonnaLoveTomorrow. Accessed February 17, 2018.) 

1944 - Sir Karl William Pamp Jenkins,  CBE, FRAM, HonFLSW, Welsh multi-instrumentalist and composer. His best known works include the song "Adiemus" and the Adiemus album series; Palladio; The Armed Man; and his Requiem.  Jenkins was educated in music at Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music (he's a fellow and an Associate). He joined the jazz-rock band Soft Machine in 1972 and became the group's lead songwriter in 1974. Jenkins continued to work with Soft Machine up to 1984, but has not been involved with any incarnation of the group since. Jenkins has composed music for advertisement campaigns and has won the industry prize twice. (Sir Karl Jenkins was expecting to conduct his 'Palladio' on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, but Scotland’s national orchestra had other ideas... pranks him with a birthday surprise. Uploaded by Classic FM. YouTube. Accessed June 18, 2024.)

 

1954 - Rene Marie Russo,  American actress, producer, and model. She made her film debut in the comedy Major League, and rose to international prominence in a number of thrillers and action films then took a five-year break from acting. She returned to the screen as Frigga, the mother of the titular hero, in the superhero film Thor, a role she reprised in Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Endgame. In 2014, Russo starred in the acclaimed crime thriller Nightcrawler, for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She has also appeared in The Intern, Just Getting Started, and Velvet Buzzsaw.

1957 - Loreena McKennitt, CM OM CD - Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (harpist, accordionist, and pianist), and composer who writes, records and performs world music with Celtic and Middle Eastern influences. McKennitt is known for her refined and clear soprano vocals. She has sold more than 14 million records worldwide. McKennitt is known for her refined and clear dramatic soprano vocals. (Lady of Shalott sung by Loreena McKennitt, with Alfred Lord Tennyson's famous poem, same name. Uploaded by Midieval Fantasy. Accessed February 17, 2015. L McKennitt Dante's Prayer with lyrics. It is a reference to Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. YouTube, uploaded by HaveFaithNH. Accessed February 17, 2019.)

1981 - Paris Hilton, American socialite, actress, businesswoman, media personality, model, singer, and DJ. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. Hilton began her modeling career as a teenager when she signed with New York-based modeling development agency Trump Model Management. She was proclaimed "New York's leading It Girl" in 2001. In 2003, a leaked 2001 sex tape with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, later released as 1 Night in Paris, catapulted her into global fame, and the reality television series The Simple Life, in which she starred with her socialite counterpart Nicole Richie, started its five-year run with 13 million viewers, on FOX.

Leftie:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, February 17 - On This Day.

Historical Events

1904 - Giacomo Puccini's masterpiece, Madama Butterfly premiered at Teatro alla Scala, sung in Italian. 

 

1909 - The Apache leader Geronimo dies, aged 80. The name 'Geronimo' was a nickname given by Mexican soldiers. It is synonymous with wild bravery. His real name was Goyaałé, sometimes spelled 'Goyathlay' meaning "yawner." He led the last major force of Native American Indians in resistance against the white settlers. He finally surrendered in 1886.

1930 - The Comedie Francaise performs Jean Cocteau's one-act monologue, La Voix Humaine / The Human Voice.

February 16 Dateline

Birthdays

1838 - Henry Brooks Adams, American historian and novelist, and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. Presidents. He served as secretary to his father, Charles Francis Adams, Abraham Lincoln's ambassador to the UK. The posting influenced the younger man through the experience of wartime diplomacy, and absorption in English culture, especially the works of John Stuart Mill. After the American Civil War, he became a political journalist who entertained America's foremost intellectuals at his homes in Washington and Boston. He was best known for The History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, a nine-volume work, praised for its literary style, command of the documentary evidence, and deep (family) knowledge of the period and its major figures. His posthumously published memoir, The Education of Henry Adams, won the Pulitzer Prize and went on to be named by the Modern Library as the best English-language nonfiction book of the 20th century.

1935 - Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono, American singer-songwriter, film producer, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher, as the popular singing duo Sonny and Cher. He was mayor of Palm Springs, California, from 1988 to 1992, and the Republican congressman for California's 44th district, elected during the Republican Revolution and serving from 1995 until his death in 1998. The United States Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the term of copyright by 20 years, was named in honor of Bono when it was passed by Congress nine months after his death. Mary Bono (Sonny's last wife) had been one of the original sponsors of the legislation, commonly known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

1959 - John Patrick McEnroe, Jr., American retired tennis player, considered among the greatest in the history of the sport. He was known for his shot-making artistry and volleying skills, as well as his confrontational on-court behavior that frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities. McEnroe attained the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, finishing his career with 77 singles and 78 doubles titles; this remains the highest men's combined total of the Open Era. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles, four at the US Open and three at Wimbledon, and nine men's Grand Slam doubles titles. His singles match record of 82–3 in 1984 remains the best single season win rate of the Open Era. McEnroe also excelled at the year-end tournaments, winning eight singles and seven doubles titles, both of which are records.

1973 - Cathy Freeman, OAM (born Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman), Australian former sprinter, who specialised in the 400 metres event. She would occasionally compete in other track events, but 400m was her main event. Her personal best of 48.63 currently ranks her as the eighth-fastest woman of all time, set at the 1996 Olympics. She became the Olympic champion for the women's 400 metres at the 2000 Summer Olympics, at which she lit the Olympic Flame. Freeman was the first Australian Indigenous person to become a Commonwealth Games gold medallist at age 16 in 1990. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada, she won gold in both the 200 m and 400 m. She also won the silver medal at the 1996 Olympics and came first at the 1997 World Championships in the 400 m event. She returned from her 1998 injury in form with a first place in the 400 m at the 1999 World Championships. 

 
Leftie:
John McEnroe

More birthdays and historical events, February 16 - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

600 - Pope Gregory I decrees that "God bless you" is the correct response to a sneeze.

1568 - The entire population of the Netherlands - three million people - is sentenced to death by the Roman Catholic church for heresy.

1937 - Wallace H. Carothers receives a patent for nylon, a synthetic polymer.  It is later used for stockings.

1892 - The four-act lyric drama Werther by French composer Jules Massenet is first performed. Libretto was written by Edouard Balu, Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont Hartmann, based on a 1774 novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther. The venue was Vienna, Opéra Impérial de Vienne. The setting is in Wetzlar near Frankfurt, circa 1780.

1959 - Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba.

2005 - The Kyoto Protocol on climate change comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.  




Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org



(c) June 2007. Updated February 16, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

February 15 Dateline

Birthdays

1571 - Michael Praetorius, German Composer, Organist, and Music Historian/Theorist, who also died the same day, in 1621 (video:  Praetorius: Danses di Terpsichore. Accessed Feb. 15, 2018.) He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns.

1564 - Galileo Galilei, Italian Astronomer, Physicist and Engineer. (born Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaulti de Galilei), He's described as a polymath, from Pisa. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science".

1820 - Susan Brownell Anthony, American social reformer and women's rights activist, famous for The History of Woman Suffrage. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. When she first began campaigning for women's rights, Anthony was ridiculed and accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. However, public perception of her changed radically during her lifetime. Her 80th birthday was celebrated in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley. She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin.

1861 - Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS FBA, English Mathematician and Philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas.

1874 - Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, British polar explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. (Documentary on the Endurance, a documentary on Sir Shackleton's trip to reach the south pole. Uploaded by historical-oracle. Accessed February 15, 2015.)

1882 - John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15), American Actor on stage, screen and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly attempted a career as an artist, but appeared on stage together with his father Maurice in 1900, and then his sister Ethel the following year.

1899 - Georges Auric, Composer and Member of "Les Six" group of French Composers associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie.  Before turning 20 years old, he had orchestrated and written incidental music for several ballets and stage productions, and also became a distinguished film composer. ("The Song from Moulin Rouge" also known as "Where Is Your Heart"), a popular song that first appeared in the 1952 film 'Moulin Rouge.' (The Les Six: Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, and Germaine Tailleferre.)

1907 - Cesar Julio Romero Jr., American Actor, Singer, Dancer, and Vocal artist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and the Joker on the Batman television series, which was included in TV Guide's 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.

1931 - Claire Bloom, CBE (born Patricia Claire Blume), English Actress. She is known for leading roles in plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire, A Doll's House, and Long Day's Journey into Night, and has starred in nearly sixty films. Bloom was discovered by Hollywood film star Charlie Chaplin to co-star alongside him in Limelight. During her film career, she starred alongside numerous major actors. In 2010, Bloom played the role of Queen Mary in the British film The King's Speech. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

1946 - Marisa Berenson (Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson), American Actress and Model. She appeared on the front covers of Vogue and Time, and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film Cabaret. The role also earned her Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of Design for Living. Her other film appearances include Death in Venice, Barry Lyndon, S.O.B. and I Am Love.

1947 - John Coolidge Adams,  American Composer and Conductor of classical music and opera, with strong roots in minimalism. Among over 60 major compositions are his breakthrough piece for string septet, Shaker Loops, his first significant large-scale orchestral work, Harmonielehre, the popular fanfare Short Ride in a Fast Machine, and On the Transmigration of Souls, a piece for orchestra and chorus commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003. He has written several operas, notably Nixon in China, which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, among others. In addition In addition to the Pulitzer, Adams has received the Erasmus Prize, five Grammy Awards, the Harvard Arts Medal, France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and six honorary doctorates. (Nixon in China - John Adams. YouTube, uploaded by Mofaxx. Accessed February 15, 2017.)

1951 - Jane Seymour,  OBE, (born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg), British-American Actress, best known for her performances in the James Bond film Live and Let Die; Somewhere In Time; East of Eden; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Onassis: The Richest Man in the World; War and Remembrance; the French epic La Révolution française as the ill-fated queen Marie Antoinette; Wedding Crashers; and the American television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. She has earned an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.

1951 - Melissa Manchester, American Singer-Songwriter and Actress, Since the 1970s, her songs have been carried by adult contemporary radio stations. She has appeared on television, in films, and on stage. She learned the piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music, began singing commercial jingles at age 15, and became a staff writer for Chappell Music while attending Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. Melissa Manchester beautifully sings "I'll Never Say Goodbye" / (with Lyrics)  and "Through The Eyes of Love". The song was nominated for an Oscar in 1979, resulting in her having two movie theme songs "Through the Eyes of Love" (from Ice Castles) and "I'll Never Say Goodbye" (from The Promise) nominated for Best Original Song in the same year at the 52nd Academy Awards.

1954 - Matt Groening, American Cartoonist, Producer, and Animator. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell and the television series The Simpsons, Futurama, and Disenchantment. The Simpsons is the longest-running U.S. primetime-television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom. Groening has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 for The Simpsons and 2 for Futurama and a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy". In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell.

Lefties:
Cartoonist Matt Groening
Singer Melissa Manchester

More birthdays and historical events, February 15 -  On This Day.

 

Historical Events

399 B.C.E. - The Athenian philosopher Socrates is tried and sentenced to death.

1868 - Piotr Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 1, "Winter Dreams," is first performed in Moscow.

This is one gem of a symphony by Tchaikovsky that I love which I think is underrated. Below, I'm sharing one performed by MRSO, Alte Oper Frankfurt, with Vladimir Fedoseyev, conducting. Great ensemble. Flawless intonation, technique and phrasing.  Conductor is in perfect communication with the orchestra, little direction he uses, yet on queue with every measure, and the orchestra knows. Certainly, brilliantly rehearsed.

February 14 Dateline

Birthdays

1404 - Leon Battista Alberti, Italian Renaissance Humanist painter, poet, architect, cryptographer and philosopher. He epitomised the Renaissance Man.  Although often characterized as an architect, Alberti was also an artist and a mathematician of many sorts and made great advances to this field during the 15th century. His two most important buildings are the churches of S. Sebastiano (1460) and S. Andrea, both in Mantua.

1894 - Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky), American comedian & entertainer, who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to a highly popular comedic career in radio, TV and film. He was known for his comic timing and ability to cause laughter with a pregnant pause or a single expression, his signature exasperated "Well!". His radio and TV programs were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny often portrayed his character as a miser who played his violin badly, and ridiculously claimed to be 39 years of age, regardless of his actual age.

1934 - Florence Henderson, American actress and singer, best remembered for her starring role as Carol Brady on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974. She also appeared in film, as well as on stage, and hosted several long-running cooking and variety shows over the years. She appeared as a guest on many scripted and unscripted (talk and reality show) television programs and as a panelist on numerous game shows. She was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars in 2010.

1944 - Carl Bernstein, American investigative journalist and author. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Bernstein was teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did much of the original news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon. Bernstein's focus is on the theme of the use and abuse of power. He has also done reporting for television and opinion commentary. He is the author or co-author of bestselling books: All the President's Men, The Final Days, and The Secret Man, with Bob Woodward; His Holiness: John Paul II and the History of Our Time, with Marco Politi; Loyalties; and A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is also a regular political commentator on CNN.

1959 - Renée Lynn Fleming, American operatic lyric soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, and film. She has performed operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, among others. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for 17 Grammy Awards and has won four times. Fleming has received international recognition including the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur from the French government, Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden's Polar Music Prize and honorary membership in England's Royal Academy of Music. (Renée Fleming sings Mozart's "L'amerò, sarò costante"; Il re pastore (The Shepherd King). YouTube, uploaded by liederoperagreats. Accessed February 14, 2018.)

Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, February 14 - On This Day.

 

 

Feature:

 
Introduction from Bellini's opera La Straniera (The Foreign Woman or The Stranger Woman.) It is in two acts with libretto by Felice Romani, based on the novel L'étrangère by Charles-Victor Prévot, the opera was composed by Bellini in 1828 and the premiere was this day, 14 February, 1829, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. La Straniera Synopsis: Opera-Arias/Bellini/La Straniera.

Historical Events

270 or 271 AD - Famously known as Valentine's Day. Valentine is beheaded this day, so the story goes... evolving from "Lupercalia," a racy festival in the Roman calendar. St Valentine was a priest who married Christian couples, therefore disobeying the Roman emperor, who had forbidden soldiers to marry.

1779 - Navigator and explorer Captain James Cook is killed by the Hawaiian islanders, natives of the Sandwich Islands. Originally, he and his crew were welcomed as "gods", until one of them died, giving the game away. The natives took a dark view of the "deception." one of the men who collects Captain Cook's dismembered body parts is William Bligh, most famous for the later mutiny on the Bounty.  (Bligh is appointed master of the Resolution, then setting out on Cook's third voyage on 17th March 1776.

February 13 Dateline

Birthdays

1743 - Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS (24 February [O.S. 13 February]),  English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. He made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage (1768–1771), visiting Brazil, Tahiti, and after 6 months in New Zealand, Australia, returning to immediate fame. He held the position of president of the Royal Society for over 41 years. He is credited for bringing 30,000 plant specimens home with him; amongst them, he discovered 1,400.

1778 - Fernando Sor (baptised February 13), Spanish Classical guitarist and composer, best known for writing solo classical guitar music. He composed an opera (at the age of 19), three symphonies, guitar duos, piano music, songs, a Mass, and at least two successful ballets: Cinderella, which received over one hundred performances, and Hercule et Omphale.

1910 - William Bradford Shockley, Jr., American physicist and inventor. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. They were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for "their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect". In his later life, while a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, Shockley became a proponent of racism and eugenics. A 2019 study in the journal Intelligence found him to be the second-most controversial (behind Arthur Jensen) intelligence researcher among 55 persons covered.

1933 - Kim Novak, American film and television actress. She is widely known for her performance as Madeline Elster/Judy Barton in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Vertigo. Kim Novak starred opposite leading men, including William Holden, Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power and Kirk Douglas. In her mid-30s, she withdrew from acting and only sporadically worked in films since. Her contributions to cinema have been honored with two Golden Globe Awards, an Honorary Golden Bear Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She works as a painter and visual artist. (Kim Novak in her most famous acting role as Madeline/Judy in Hitchcock's Vertigo. (Vertigo extended scene with orchestration - Judy transforms into Madeleine / Herrmann's Scene d'Amour. Uploaded by Urwurm80. Accessed February 13, 2015. Strangers When We Meet. (Kim Novak and Kirk Douglas). "...easy on the eyes but hard on the intellect...an old-fashioned soap opera brought to the screen with such skill..."- Variety American media. Uploaded by Paul Gazel. Accessed February 13, 2020.)

1934 - George Segal, American actor and musician. His most acclaimed roles are in films such as Ship of Fools, King Rat, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Touch of Class, California Split, among others. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?  and has won two Golden Globe Awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in A Touch of Class. On TV, he is best known for his roles as Jack Gallo on Just Shoot Me! and as Albert "Pops" Solomon on The Goldbergs.  Segal is also an accomplished banjo player. He has released three albums and has performed with the instrument in several of his acting roles and on late-night television.

1938 - Robert Oliver Reed, English actor known for his upper-middle class, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. Notable films include The Trap, playing Bill Sikes in the Best Picture Oscar winner Oliver!, Women in Love, Hannibal Brooks, The Devils, portraying Athos in The Three Musketeers, Tommy, Lion of the Desert, Castaway, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Funny Bones and Gladiator.

1969 - Joyce DiDonato (née Flaherty), American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano. She is notable for her interpretations of operas and concert works in the 19th-century romantic era in addition to works by Handel and Mozart. She has performed with many of the world's leading opera companies and orchestras, and won multiple awards including the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo.  

 

1974 - Robbie Peter Williams, English singer, songwriter, and entertainer. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That. He has released seven UK number one singles and eleven out of his twelve studio albums have reached number one in the UK. In 2006 he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1.6 million tickets of his Close Encounters Tour in a single day. Williams has received a record eighteen Brit Awards, eight German ECHO Awards, and three MTV European Music Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s". He was awarded the freedom of his home town of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as having a tourist trail created and streets named in his honour.

Leftie:
Actress Kim Novak

 

More birthdays and historical events, February 13 - On This Day.

 

Feature: 

 

Below is the famous  J. Strauss's Blue Danube Waltz performed by the Wiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Staatsopern ballet, with Lorin Maazel conducting. Event: New Year's Concert 2005.

 

Historical Events

1633 - Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to be tried by the Inquisition for his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

1668 - Spain recognizes Portugal as an independent nation.

February 12 Dateline

Birthdays

1567 - Thomas Campion (sometimes called Campian), English Renaissance composer, poet and physician. He wrote over a hundred lute songs, masques for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music.

1809 - Charles Thomas Darwin, English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted, and considered a foundational concept in science.

1809 - Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President, American Statesman and Lawyer. He served as the 16th President of tthe U.S. from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led his country through the American Civil War, considered its bloodiest war.

1818 - Otto Ludwig, German dramatist, novelist and critic. He was one of Germany's first modern realists and one of the most notable dramatists of the period.

1828 - George Meredith, English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. Before his death, Meredith was honoured from many quarters: he succeeded Alfred Lord Tennyson as president of the Society of Authors; in 1905 he was appointed to the Order of Merit by King Edward VII.

1881 - Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina  of the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev. Pavlova is most recognized for the creation of the role The Dying Swan and with her own company, she became the first ballerina to tour ballet around the world.  (Anna Pavlova dancing "The Dying Swan", famous short ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine to the music of Saint-Saens in 1905. Uploaded by DarkDancer06, Accessed February 12, 2019.)

Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, Febraury 12 - On This Day.

 

Feature:

Countertenor Alfred Deller sings an Elizabethan song, "Shall I Come, Sweet Love, to Thee," composed by Thomas Campion. Lute played by Robert Spencer. YouTube, uploaded by kadoguy. Accessed February 12, 2018.

"SHALL I come, sweet Love, to thee
When the evening sun is set?
Shall I not excluded be?
Will you find no feignèd let?
Let me not, for pity, anymore
Tell the long hours at your door."

Historical Events

1541 - Santiago, Chile is founded by Spanish conquistador, Pedro de Valdivia.  

1879 - The first artificial ice rink in North America opens at New York City's Madison Square Garden.

February 11 Dateline

Birthdays

1847 - Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor and businessman, described as America's greatest inventor. He is credited with developing many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. (Story of Thomas Alva Edison, uploaded by PublicResourceOrg. Accessed February 11, 2011)

1906 - Yves Marie Baudrier, French composer. Along with André Jolivet, Olivier Messiaen and Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, he was a founder of the La jeune France group of composers. Self-taught, Baudrier had advice from Messiaen. He became a romantic and expert film composer. Honneger is the main influence on his few works, which include the orchestral Le musicien dans la cite for orchestra.

1909 - Joseph L. Mankiewicz, American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He set a record in Hollywood by winning a pair of writing and directing Academy Awards two years in a row. He won the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for A Letter to Three Wives, and both the Academy Award for Best Director and Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for All About Eve, the latter of which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six.

1917 - Sidney Sheldon, American writer, director and producer. Sheldon was prominent in the 1930s, first working on Broadway plays and then in motion pictures, notably writing the successful comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer which earned him an Oscar in 1948. Working in television, created The Patty Duke Show (1963–66), I Dream of Jeannie (1965–70) and Hart to Hart (1979–84). After turning 50, he began writing best-selling romantic suspense novels, such as Master of the Game, The Other Side of Midnight and Rage of Angels. His 18 novels have sold over 300 million copies in 51 languages. Sheldon is consistently cited as one of the top ten best selling fiction writers of all time.

1919 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian-American actress, businesswoman, singer, and socialite. She was widely known for her role on the 1965–71 television sitcom Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas.

1934 - Dame Barbara Mary Quant, Mrs Plunket Greene, DBE, FCSD, RDI, English (of Welsh heritage) fashion designer and icon. She became an instrumental figure in the 1960s London-based Mod and youth fashion movements.

1936 - Burt Leon Reynolds, Jr.,  American actor, director, and producer of film and television, considered a sex symbol and icon of American popular culture. Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in several different television series such as Gunsmoke, Hawk, and Dan August. His breakthrough role was as Lewis Medlock in Deliverance. Reynolds was voted the world's number one box office star for five consecutive years (from 1978 to 1982) in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll, a record he shares with Bing Crosby.

1969 - Jennifer Joanna Aniston, American actress, producer, and businesswoman. The daughter of actors John Aniston and Nancy Dow, she began working as an actress at an early age with an uncredited role in the 1987 film Mac and Me. Aniston rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, for which she earned Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen Actors Guild awards. Her character became widely popular and is regarded as one of the greatest female characters in television history.


Leftie:
Thomas Alva Edison

More birthdays and historical events, February 11 - On This Day.

Below video, features the legendary Martha Argerich perform a favourite Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466. She was merely a child of 8 years old, an original broadcast from Buenos Aires "Radio Nacional" in 1950, with Alberto Castellanos and Gran Orquestra Clásica de LR1. YouTube, uploaded by Pedro Taam. Accessed February 11, 2014.

Historical Events

660 B.C.E. - Traditional founding date of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.

1785 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the soloist in the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor (K. 466) in Vienna, at the Mehlgrube Casino this day in 1785. Having come directly to the concert hall from the copyists, he performs it without rehearsal. Martha Argerich passionately performs Mozart's piano concerto No. 20 - one of the most, if not the most, romantic and often considered the greatest concerto of Mozart. A beautiful interpretation by M. Argerich of this loved piano concerto with a Mozart-inspired Cadenzas by Ludwig van Beethoven. (I. Allegro II. Romance III. Allegro Assai.)Alexandre Rabinovitch, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto. Martha Argerich, piano. Palazzo Giusti, Padova, September 1998. YouTube, uploaded by Facconti. Accessed February 11, 2014.

February 10 Dateline

Famous Birthdays

1890 - Boris Leonidvich Pasternak,  Soviet Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator, best known for his novel Doctor Zhivago. His first book of poems, My Sister, Life, was published in Berlin in 1922 became an important collection in the Russian language. Pasternak's translations of stage plays by Goethe, Schiller, Calderón de la Barca and Shakespeare remain very popular with Russian audiences. His novel Dr Zhivago, made into a movie of the same name, takes place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the World War II. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958, an event that enraged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which forced him to decline the prize, but his descendants were able to accept it in his name in 1988. Doctor Zhivago has been part of the main Russian school curriculum since 2003. Doctor Zhivago (film) Soundtrack - here. A film by Andrei Nekrasov: Pasternak (1990). Uploaded by Rebel-Held Docs. Accessed February 10, 2019.  

1898 - Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht, German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. His themes were often influenced by his Marxist thought. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Kurt Weill and began a lifelong collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler. Immersed in Marxist thought during this period, he wrote didactic Lehrstücke and became a leading theoretician of epic theatre (which he preferred to call "dialectical theatre"). In East Berlin after the war, he established the theatre company Berliner Ensemble with his wife and long-time collaborator, actress Helene Weigel. 

1927 - Mary Violet Leontyne Price, American soprano, the first African American to become a prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera, and one of the most popular American classical singers of her generation. A lirico spinto (Italian for "pushed lyric") soprano, she is considered well suited to the heroines of Verdi's "middle period" operas. She has a 3-1/2 octave range. Her rock-solid vocal technique, purity and her dramatic flair have been combined to create a mix suitable both for the opera and concert stages. (Leontyne Price sings "Libera me" in Verdi's Requiem. Uploaded by Addiobelpassato. Accessed February 10, 2023.)  She is also noted for her interpretations of leading roles in operas by Puccini and Mozart. Among her many honors and awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Spingarn Medal, the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Arts, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, numerous honorary degrees, and 19 Grammy Awards for operatic and song recitals and full operas, and a Lifetime Achievement Award, more than any other classical singer. (Leontyne Price - Kennedy Center Honors, 1980. Uploaded by John Randolph. Kennedy Center Honors Legend: Leontyne Price (In-Depth Interview). Accessed March 10, 2023.  NEA Opera Honors: Renee Fleming on Leontyne Price. Uploaded by National Endowment for the Arts. Accessed February 10, 2021.)
 

1930 - Robert John Wagner Jr., American actor of stage, screen, and television. He is also known for starring in the television shows It Takes a Thief, Switch, and Hart to Hart. He also had a recurring role as Teddy Leopold in the TV sitcom Two and a Half Men. In films, Wagner is known for his role as Number 2 in the Austin Powers trilogy of films, as well as for A Kiss Before Dying, The Pink Panther and its 1983 sequel, Harper, The Towering Inferno, The Concorde ... Airport '79 and many more.
 

1937 - Roberta Cleopatra Flack, American singer. She is known for her No. 1 singles "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "Killing Me Softly with His Song", "Feel Like Makin' Love"; and "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of her many duets with Donny Hathaway. Flack is the only solo artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" won at the 1973 Grammys and "Killing Me Softly with His Song" won at the 1974 Grammys.  

 

1944 - Peter Allen (born Peter Richard Woolnough), Australian singer-songwriter, musician and entertainer, known for his flamboyant stage persona, boundless energy, and lavish costumes. His songs were made popular by many recording artists, including Elkie Brooks, Melissa Manchester and Olivia Newton-John, with one, "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" by Christopher Cross, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1981. In addition to recording many albums, he enjoyed a cabaret and concert career, including appearances at the Radio City Music Hall riding a camel. His patriotic song "I Still Call Australia Home", has been used extensively in advertising campaigns, and was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2013.[
 

1950 - Mark Andrew Spitz, American former competitive swimmer and nine-time Olympic champion. He was the most successful athlete at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, winning seven gold medals, all in world record time. This was an achievement that lasted for 36 years until it was surpassed by fellow American Michael Phelps, who won eight golds at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Swimming World Magazine named him World Swimmer of the Year in 1969, 1971, and 1972. He was the third athlete to win nine Olympic gold medals. 

1952 - Lee Hsien Loong, Singaporean politician and former army general who has served as Prime Minister of Singapore and secretary-general of the People's Action Party (PAP) since 2004. He was deputy prime minister to Goh Chok Tong from 1990 to 2004 and finance minister from 2001 to 2007. Lee is the eldest son of Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. From 1971 to 1984, he served in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), where he rose to the rank of brigadier general. Entering civilian politics in 1984, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Teck Ghee SMC and since its dissolution in 1991 has represented Ang Mo Kio GRC. In foreign policy, Lee's government's policy has been to stay neutral in an era of great power competition between China and the United States.

1955 - Gregory John Norman, AO, Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as the world's Number 1 Official World Golf Rankings ranked golfer in the 1980s and 1990s. He has won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournaments and two majors: The Open Championships in 1986 and 1993. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001 with the highest percentage of votes (80%) of any golfer to date. Norman's nickname is "The Great White Shark" (often shortened to just "The Shark"), which he earned after his play at the 1981 Masters. During and after his golf playing career, Norman engaged in numerous entrepreneurial and philanthropic endeavors

Lefties:

Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong

Swimmer Mark Spitz

More birthdays and historical events, February 10 - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1763 - The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War and France cedes Canada to Great Britain, said to be the real World War I, and by far the most successful war ever fought by Britain, as it brought India and Canada into the fold.

1744 - George Frideric Handel's dramatic oratorio Semele was first performed in London. The work actually took shape as an opera but the composer eyed a place for it on the Theatre Royal's Lenten concert series the following February. It can be inferred therefore that Semele was fashioned for presentation "in the manner of an oratorio."

February 9 Dateline

Birthdays

1854 - Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs, Dutch physician, Family Planning pioneer, and Women's Suffrage activist. As the first woman officially to attend a Dutch university, she became one of the first female physicians in the Netherlands. In 1882, she founded the world's first birth control clinic and was a leader in both the Dutch and international women's movements. She led campaigns aimed at deregulating prostitution, improving women's working conditions, promoting peace and calling for women's right to vote.

1883 - Garnet Carter, American entrepreneur, and inventor, considered as one of the fathers of miniature golf. In 1927, Carter was the first to patent a version of the game which he called "Tom Thumb Golf". His course was built on Lookout Mountain in Georgia where Carter owned a hotel. Within a few years, thousands of Tom Thumb courses opened all over the United States. Carter eventually sold the rights to his patent and used his fortune to found the Rock City Gardens.

 
1885 - Alban Berg, Austrian composer. He studied under Arnold Schoenberg and developed a personal 12-tone idiom. With Schoenberg and Webern, they are known as composers of the Second Viennese School. He passed from the extended tonality of his early works to atonality and later, serialism. A friend of Alma Mahler, the death of her daughter, Manon, inspired his last completed work, the Violin Concerto. His relatively small output includes two operas: Wozzeck, a grim story of working-class life, and the unfinished Lulu. (Alban Berg's Lulu Suite. Arleen Auger, soprano. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Simon Rattle conducting. Painting: Arnold Gerstl, Reclining Woman and Approaching Figures, Leicester, Leicester City Arts and Museums Gallery. Uploaded by MrVektriol. Accessed February 9, 2017.)

1923 - Norman Edward Shumway, American surgeon and pioneer in heart transplant surgery at Standford University. He was the 67th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the first to perform an adult human to human heart transplantation in the United States.

1942 - Carole King, American composer and singer-songwriter, considered the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1955 and 1999. She also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1952 and 2005. (Carole King, You've got a friend. Uploaded by Mirelladue. Accessed February 9, 2012.)

1943 - Joe Frank Pesci, American actor and musician. He is known for portraying tough, volatile characters and for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese films. His comedy roles include such films as Home Alone, My Cousin Vinny, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and the Lethal Weapon franchise. Pesci won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the psychopathic gangster Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas and received two other nominations in the same category for his portrayals of Joey LaMotta and Russell Bufalino in 1980's Raging Bull and in 2019's The Irishman, respectively.

1945 - Mia Farrow (born María de Lourdes Villiers Farrow, American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Farrow has appeared in more than 50 films and won numerous awards, including a Golden Globe Award and three BAFTA Award nominations. She is also known for her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In 2008, Time magazine named her one of the most influential people in the world. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the TV soap opera Peyton Place. Her feature film debut in Guns at Batasi earned her a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. Farrow's portrayal of Rosemary Woodhouse in the horror film Rosemary's Baby earned her a nomination for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. In 1971, Farrow became the first American actress in history to join the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing as Joan of Arc in a production of Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher. This was followed by other stage productions. She also starred in several successful films throughout the 1970s. 

Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, February 9 - On This Day.


Below, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Placido Domingo perform a love duet from Verdi's opera Otello.

Historical Events

1893 - Verdi's opera Falstaff is first performed, in La Scala, Milan.

1895 - The first Japanese People arrive in Hawaii.

February 8 Dateline

Birthdays

1516 - Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. After the death of her half-bother, Edward VI, she's next in line to become queen of England and Ireland. Referred to as "Bloody Mary," she's a devout Catholic. Her struggle between her equally ruthless sister Elizabeth tears the realm apart in religious war. Although she's married to Philip II of Spain, she has no heirs, paving the way for her sister to come to power.

1741 - André (Ernest Modeste) Grétry, French opera composer, famous for his opéras comiques. He was from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, Belgium, who worked from 1767 onwards in France and took French nationality. He is most famous for his opéras.  (Two operas, in French language (apology to my English-speaking readers, I can't find videos in English: Zémire et Azor (André Modeste Grétry). Uploaded by Opéra royal de Wallonie. Guillaume Tell by A.M.Grétry. Uploaded by Dynamic Opera and Classical Music. Both videos accessed February 8, 2020.  Note: The legend of the Swiss national hero William Tell has not been that popular a subject with opera composers. Lovers of music probably only remember Gioachino Rossini's famous Guillaume Tell. However, it's not the only one that revolves around the famous archer's legend, having been preceded, thirty-eight years earlier, by this one composed in 1791 by the Belgian composer André-Modeste Grétry for Paris's Comédie Italienne. Grétry's Guillaume Tell was revived in June 2013 at Liège's Opéra Royal de Wallonie to celebrate the bicentenary of the composer's death in 1813.)

1828 - Jules Verne, French novelist, poet, and playwright. Initially trained to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, he quit the profession early in life to write for magazines and the stage. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a widely popular series of scrupulously researched adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1873).

1851 - Kate O'Flaherty Chopin (born Katherine O'Flaherty), American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. She is considered by scholars to have been a forerunner of American 20th-century feminist authors of Southern or Catholic background, such as Zelda Fitzgerald, and is one of the most frequently read and recognized writers of Louisiana Creole heritage. Her major works were two short story collections: Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie. Her important short stories included "Désirée's Baby", a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana and "The Storm" among others. "The Storm" is a sequel to "At the Cadian Ball," which appeared in her first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk.  Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault and The Awakening, which are set in New Orleans and Grand Isle, respectively. Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time. 

1921 - Lana Turner (born Julia Jean Turner), American actress. In the mid-1940s, she was one of the highest-paid actresses in the United States, and one of MGM's biggest stars, with her films earning more than $50 million during her 18-year contract with them. Frequently cited as a popular culture icon of Hollywood glamour and a screen legend of classical Hollywood cinema, Turner's reputation as a glamorous femme fatale was enhanced by her critically acclaimed performance in the noir The Postman Always Rings Twice, a role which established her as a serious dramatic actress. Her popularity continued in dramas such as The Bad and the Beautiful  and Peyton Place, the  latter for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. Her film, Imitation of Life, was one of the greatest commercial successes of her career, and her final starring role in Madame X earned her a David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Actress.

1925 - Jack Lemmon (born John Uhler Lemmon III), American actor, film director, and musician who was nominated for an Academy Award eight times, winning twice. He starred in over 60 films, such as Mister Roberts (1955, for which he won the year's Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Days of Wine and Roses, Irma la Douce, The Great Race, The Odd Couple, and its sequel The Odd Couple II, (both with frequent co-star Walter Matthau), Save the Tiger, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, The China Syndrome, Missing, Long Day's Journey into Night, for which he won a Golden Globe, and Glengarry Glen Ross.

1931 - James Byron Dean, American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant. After his death in a car crash, Dean became the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, and remains the only actor to have had two posthumous acting nominations. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 18th best male movie star of Golden Age Hollywood in AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars list.

1932 - John Williams, American composer, conductor, and pianist, famous for film music.  His career spans over six decades, composing some of the most popular and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history, including those of the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List, and the first three Harry Potter films, and more... Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but three of his feature films. (Best Star Wars Music by John Williams. (10 hours).  Uploaded by Dualme. Accessed February 8, 2019.

1938 - Elisabeth Sara "Elly" Ameling, Dutch soprano, known mainly as a concert and lieder singer with some excursions into opera, and became world-renowned for her recitals of French and German songs and for her superlative interpretive gifts. Listen to her sing Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs (complete with text). Live in 1982, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Sawallisch conducting.  The songs are "Frühling" (Spring), "September", "Beim Schlafengehen" (When Falling Asleep) and "Im Abendrot" (At Sunset). The title 'Four Last Songs' was provided posthumously by Strauss's friend Ernst Roth, who published the four songs as a single unit in 1950 after Strauss's death in September 1949. (Play List - Elly Ameling. Youtube, accessed February 8, 2022.)

1941 - Nick Nolte (born Nicholas King Nolte), American actor, producer, author, and former model. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film The Prince of Tides. He went on to receive Academy Award nominations for Affliction and Warrior. Numerous films followed. He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for his role in the TV series Graves. 

 
1955 - John Ray Grisham, Jr., American novelist, attorney, politician, and activist, best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide. His first novel, A Time to Kill, was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. According to Academy of Achievement his books have sold 300 million copies and he has written 28 consecutive number one bestsellers. A Galaxy British Book Awards winner, Grisham is one of only three authors to sell two million copies on a first printing, the other two being Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling. Grisham's first bestseller, The Firm, sold more than seven million copies. The book was adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name, and a 2012 TV series which continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. His other novels have also been adapted into films.

 
Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays today, 8 February - On This Day.


John Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his film score in the 1971 film  Fiddler on the Roof.  Below are excerpts from the movie sound track, conducted by John Williams with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl - September 2, 2006.

Historical Events

1587 - Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded, accused of plotting against her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England.

1874 - Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov is first  staged at the Imperial Opera House in St. Petersburg.