March 9 Dateline

Birthdays

1454 - Amerigo Vespucci, Italian merchant navigator, explorer, and adventurer from the Republic of Florence, by which the name America is coined. He became a Castillian citizen in 1505.

1737 - Josef Mysliveczek, Opera composer and friend of Mozart, who contributed to the formation of late eighteenth-century classicism in music. (Josef Mysliveček Il Bellerofonte, Opera in 3 acts Complete. Uploaded by HarpsichordVal. Accessed March 9 2018.)

1892 - Vita Sackville-West (Victoria Mary Sackville-West, Lady Nicolson), English novelist, poet, critic, and garden designer. She was also a prolific letter writer and diarist. (Who was Vita Sackville-West by Allison Adler Kroll. Accessed March 9, 2019.)

1910 - Samuel Barber (born  Samuel Osmond Barber II),  American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. He is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century.  His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music twice: for his opera Vanessa (1956–57) and for the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a setting for soprano and orchestra of a prose text by James Agee.  (Barber Adagio for Strings, performed by Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Accessed March 9, 2018.)

1934 - Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, Soviet Union cosmonaut, Soviet Air Forces pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space, achieving a major milestone in the Space Race; his capsule, Vostok 1, completed one orbit of Earth on 12 April 1961. Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, his nation's highest honour.

1943 - Bobby Fischer (born Robert James Fischer), American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. Many consider him to be the greatest chess player of all time. He showed great skill in chess from an early age; at 13, he won a brilliancy known as "The Game of the Century". At age 14, he became the youngest ever U.S. Chess Champion, and at 15, he became both the youngest grandmaster (GM) up to that time and the youngest candidate for the World Championship. At age 20, Fischer won the 1963/64 US Championship with 11 wins in 11 games, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. His book My 60 Memorable Games, published in 1969, is regarded as essential reading. He won the 1970 Interzonal Tournament by a record 3½-point margin, and won 20 consecutive games, including two unprecedented 6–0 sweeps, in the Candidates Matches. In July 1971, he became the first official FIDE number-one-rated player.

1964 - Juliette Binoche, French actress, artist and dancer. She has been the recipient of numerous international awards, and performed frequently on stage – both as an actress and dancer. After performing in several stage productions, she was cast in the films of such notable auteur directors as Jean-Luc Godard (Hail Mary, 1985), Jacques Doillon (Family Life, 1985), and André Téchiné; the latter would make her a star in France with the leading role in his 1985 drama Rendez-vous. Her sensual performance in her English-language debut The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), directed by Philip Kaufman, launched her international career.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, March 9 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1074 - Pope Gregory VII excommunicates married priests from the Catholic Church.

1785 - The Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467, was completed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, four weeks after the completion of the previous No. 20 in D minor concerto, K. 466.

1796 - French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte marries Josephine de Beauharnais in a civil ceremony.

1842 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Nabucco is first performed, in Milan's La Scala.

March 8 Dateline

Birthdays

1714 - Carl Philipp Emanuel (C.P.E.) Bach, German Classical period composer, the fifth child and second (surviving) son of Johann Sebastian Bach and Maria Barbara Bach. His second name was given in honor of his godfather Georg Philipp Telemann, a friend of Johann Sebastian Bach. C. P. E. Bach was an influential composer working at a time of transition between his father's Baroque style and the Classical style that followed it.  To his contemporaries, he was known simply as Emanuel. (Mozart's Tribute: Through the later half of the 18th century, the reputation of Emanuel Bach was very strong. Mozart said of him, ‘He is the father, we are the children.’ Haydn studied his work and Beethoven expressed the highest admiration and regard for his music. Later composers to be inspired by his music included Mendelssohn and Weber. 

 

1856 - Thomas "Tom"  William Roberts, English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. His life was dramatised in the 1985 Australian mini series One Summer Again. A "lost" painting titled Rejected was featured in a 2017 episode of the BBC series Fake or Fortune?. It was determined by experts to be a genuine Roberts, dating from his student years in London. Roberts' granddaughter considered it a self-portrait. If so, it would make it his oldest surviving self-portrait.

 

1859 - Kenneth Grahame, Scottish writer. He is most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as The Reluctant Dragon. Both books were later adapted for stage and film, of which A. A. Milne's Toad of Toad Hall, based on part of The Wind in the Willows, was the first. Other adaptations include Cosgrove Hall Films' The Wind in the Willows (and its subsequent long-running television series), and the Walt Disney films (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and The Reluctant Dragon).  

1879 - Otto Hahn, German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered radioactive isotopes of radium, thorium, protactinium and uranium. He also discovered the phenomena of atomic recoil and nuclear isomerism, and pioneered rubidium–strontium dating. In 1938, Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission, for which Hahn received the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Nuclear fission was the basis for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

Lefties:
None Known

 

More birthdays and historical events, March 8 - On This Day

Feature:

C.P.E. Bach: Cello Concerto in A Minor Wq. 170; William Skeen, Voices of Music, First Mvt. 4K UHD. (Uploaded by Voices of Music.)  Accessed March 8, 2018.  The opening Allegro Assai from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Concerto in A minor, Wq.170, presented in celebration of his 300th anniversary. Performed on original instruments by the Early Music ensemble Voices of Music, William Skeen, soloist; 4K UHD video from our Virtuoso Concertos concert, November, 2014.

Historical Events

1265 - The first English "parliament" meets in which Simon de Montfort defeats Prince Edward - meeting of bishops, knights, and ordinary men from each city and borough, in England at Westminster Hall to discuss how the country should be governed.

1702 - Queen Anne inherits the throne of Britain when William III dies in a riding accident.

March 7 Dateline

Birthdays:

1785 - Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni, Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel The Betrothed (orig. Italian: I promessi sposi) (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. The novel is also a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, both for its patriotic message and because it was a fundamental milestone in the development of the modern, unified Italian language. Manzoni contributed to the stabilization of the modern Italian language and helped to ensure linguistic unity throughout Italy. He was an influential proponent of Liberal Catholicism in Italy. Considered Manzoni's noblest monument was Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem, written to honour his memory.

 

1792 - Sir John Herschel (born  John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet), KH FRS, English polymath, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint; he also did botanical work. Herschel originated the use of the Julian day system in astronomy. He named seven moons of Saturn and four moons of Uranus—the seventh planet, discovered by his father William Herschel. He made many contributions to the science of photography, and investigated colour blindness and the chemical power of ultraviolet rays. His Preliminary Discourse (1831), which advocated an inductive approach to scientific experiment and theory-building, was an important contribution to the philosophy of science. His greatest influences were William Herschel (father) and Caroline Herschel (aunt).

1872 - Piet Mondrian (born Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, after 1906, Piet Mondrian), Dutch painter and theoretician regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and whose art always remained rooted in nature. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art, as he changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements. Mondrian's art was highly utopian and was concerned with a search for universal values and aesthetics. He proclaimed in 1914: "Art is higher than reality and has no direct relation to reality. To approach the spiritual in art, one will make as little use as possible of reality, because reality is opposed to the spiritual. We find ourselves in the presence of an abstract art. Art should be above reality, otherwise it would have no value for man." (Deconstructing Mondrian: The Story Behind the Iconic Design. Uploaded by Wall Street Journal. Accessed March 7 2018. Piet Mondrian: A Life in 10 Snippets. Art in School. Accessed March 7, 2020.)

1875 - Maurice Ravel (born Joseph Maurice Ravel), French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. Ravel developed a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development.  Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies or church music. Many of his works exist in two versions: first, a piano score and later an orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit, is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé require skilful balance in performance. Ravel was among the first composers to recognise the potential of recording to bring their music to a wider public. (Here's an amazing flash mob of Ravel's Bolero. Societat Musical D'algemesi in Spain. Accessed March 7, 2015.) 

1960 - Ivan Lendl, Czech-American professional tennis player. He was world No. 1 for 270 weeks and won 94 singles titles. At the majors he won eight titles and was runner-up a record 11 times. He also won seven year-end championships. Lendl pioneered a new style of tennis; his game was built around his forehand, hit hard with heavy topspin, and his success is cited as a primary influence in popularizing the currently common playing style of aggressive baseline power tennis. After retirement, he became a tennis coach for multiple players. He has helped Andy Murray win three major titles and reach the No. 1 ranking.

Leftie:
Composer Maurice Ravel

Deaths:
322 B.C.E. - Aristotle, Philosopher
1999 - Stanley Kubrick, Film director

More birthdays and historical events, March 7 - On This Day

 

 

Features:

To the tune of Ravel's Bolero, I'm featuring the famous and most spectacular ice skaters Torvill & Dean perform their routine during the 1984 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (inc Medals & Anthem).  World Figure Skating Championships in Ottawa, Canada, March 1984. YouTube, uploaded by Spader Holic. Accessed March 7, 2018.)

Historical Events

1530 - The 12-day siege of Alamo ends, leaving only six of 155 men alive.

1897 - Johannes Brahms attends his last concert and hears his symphony No. 4 being  conducted by Hans Richter.

March 6 Dateline

Birthdays

1475 - Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni or more commonly known as Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance period born in the Republic of Florence. He exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. (Michelangelo Matter & Spirit, uploaded by Alvin T. Abrea. Accessed March 6, 2015. Michelangelo Biography, uploaded by Biographics. Accessed March 6, 2019.)

1619 - Cyrano de Bergerac, (6th of March is actually the date of his baptism, but often cited as his date of birth. At the time, it was usual for a baptism to take place within 3 days of birth and in Paris, with easy access to a priest, it would have been possible that it happened on the same day. However, the actual date remains unknown.), French Writer and Playwright. An innovative writer, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th Today he is best known as the inspiration for Edmond Rostand's most noted drama Cyrano de Bergerac, which, although it includes elements of his life, also contains invention and myth. Since the 1970s, there has been a resurgence in the study of Cyrano, demonstrated in the abundance of theses, essays, articles and biographies published in France and elsewhere.

1754 - Josepha Duschek, Czech soprano. She was an outstanding soprano of the Classical era, a contemorary and friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who wrote a few works for her to sing. Her name is most often given in its German version as above. In Czech her name was Josefína Dušková or Josepha Duschkova. She was a pupil of Frantisek Xavier Dusek, and married him on Oct 21, 1776. The Duseks occasionally visited Salzburg, the hometown of Josef's mother. In spring 1786 Mozart accompanied her at aprivate concert before the Viennese court, and the following year he wrote her the recitative and aria "Bella mia fiamma, addio" K528. In 1789 she sang at Mozart's concerts inDresden and Leipzig. She died January 8, 1824. (Biblio: M. Flothius:'Welche Arien sang Josepha Duschek am 26.Apr 1791?', MISM, xxxvii (1989), 81-2.)

1806 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett), English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime. Her work had a major influence on prominent writers of the day, including the American poets Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson. She is remembered for such poems as "How Do I Love Thee?" (Sonnet 43, 1845) and Aurora Leigh (1856).

1926 - H.C. Robbins Landon (Howard Chandler Robbins Landon), American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering huge neglected music by Joseph Haydn and in correcting misunderstandings about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He co-founded the Haydn Society in 1949. He published his five-volume study, Haydn: Chronicle and Works. He and the society also recorded neglected works of Mozart, publishing five popular books about Mozart, and dispelling myths about the composer's life. He had written 28 books by 1996. Landon wrote regularly for music magazines and newspapers, especially the longest-established London paper, The Times. He was a popular broadcaster for the BBC on radio and television and was praised for his ability to enthuse general audiences with his chosen subject. From the 1970s, he was a sought-after lecturer and held appointments with colleges.

1928 - Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo or Gabito throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literataure. He is best known for his novels,  such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), The Autumn of the Patriarch (1975), and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). (Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Literary Giant. Uploaded by Al Jazeera English. Accessed March 6, 2016.)

1930 - Lorin Maazel, (born Lorin Varencove Maazel), American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight. He had established a reputation in the concert halls of Europe by 1960 but, by comparison, his career in the U.S. progressed far more slowly. However, he would later be appointed music director of The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, among other posts. Maazel was well-regarded in baton technique and possessed a photographic memory for scores. Described as mercurial and forbidding in rehearsal, he mellowed in old age. (New Year's Concert 2005. Lorin Maazel conducts Wiener Philharmoniker / Vienna Philharmonic. Accessed March 4, 2018.)

1944 - Dame Kiri Jeanette Claire Te Kanawa ( born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron), New Zealand opera singer. She had a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Te Kanawa had three top 40 albums in Australia in the mid-1980s. She is most famous for "O mio babbino" from Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi. She has received accolades, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini. She rarely sang opera later in her career but frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. (Gramophone Lifetime Achievement Award 13/9/2017, KiriOnline - K.T. Kanawa. Accessed March 6, 2018).

1947 - Dick Fosbury (born Richard DouglasFosbry), American retired High jumper, inventor of the "Fosbury flop." , 1947) considered one of the most influential athletes in the history of track and field. Besides winning a gold medal at the 1968 Olympics, he revolutionized the high jump event with a "back-first" technique, now known as the Fosbury Flop, adopted by almost all high jumpers today. His method was to sprint diagonally towards the bar, then curve and leap backwards over the bar, which gave him a much lower center of mass in flight than traditional techniques.

1980 -  Shaun Francis Evans, English actor, best known for playing as young Endeavour Morse in the ITV drama series Endeavour.

Leftie:
Artist Michelangelo

Deaths:
1836 - Davy Crockett, American Frontiersman
1888 - Louisa May Alcott, Writer
2016 - Nancy Reagan, former U.S. First Lady

More birthdays and historical events, March 6 - On This Day

FEATURES:  ARTIST MICHELANGELO  (March 6, 1475 to February 18, 1564)

Michelangelo Art Documentary. Artist and Man. Biography Film. Video uploaded by artandfilm21. Accessed March 6, 2018. 

Historical Events

1836 - The 12-day siege of Alamo ends, leaving only six of 155 men alive.

1831 - Vincenzo Bellini's opera La Sonnambula is first performed in Milan. 

1853 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera La Traviata is first staged in Venice. 

March 5 Dateline

Birthdays

1133 - Henry II, King of England. Born at Le Mans in France. Also known as Henry Curtmantle, Henry FitzEmpress or Henry Plantagenet, King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189. He was the first king of the House of Plantagenet. King Louis VII of France made him Duke of Normandy in 1150. He became Count of Anjou and Maine upon the death of his father, Count Geoffrey V, in 1151. His marriage in 1152 to Eleanor of Aquitaine, whose marriage to Louis VII had recently been annulled, made him Duke of Aquitaine. He became Count of Nantes by treaty in 1185. Before he was 40 he controlled England, large parts of Wales, the eastern half of Ireland and the western half of France; an area that was later called the Angevin Empire. Henry also partially controlled Scotland, Wales and the Duchy of Brittany. He fathered four sons, including two who go on to rule: Richard I and John.

1817 - Austen Henry Layard, English traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, politician and diplomat. Best known as the excavator of Nimrud and of Nineveh, where he uncovered a large proportion of the Assyrian palace reliefs known, and in 1851 the library of Ashurbanipal.

1870 - Frank Norris Jr., American novelist and journalist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague (1899), The Octopus: A Story of California (1901), and The Pit (1903).

1887 - Heitor Villa-lobos, Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, pianist, and guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music", often considered the best-known South American composer of all time. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works, totaling over 2000 works by his death in 1959.

1908 - Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison (born Reginald Carey Harrison), English actor of stage and screen. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for his performance as Henry VIII in the play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949. He won his second Tony for the role of Professor Henry Higgins in the stage production of My Fair Lady in 1957. In addition to his stage career, Harrison also appeared in numerous films. In June 1989, Harrison was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. In 1975, Harrison released his first autobiography. His second, A Damned Serious Business: My Life in Comedy, was published posthumously in 1991.

 

1948 - Elaine Jill Paige OBE (née Bickerstaff) English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut. For her role as Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in 1978, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show. In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. (Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson - I Know Him So Well "From CHESS" (Official Video). YouTube, uploaded by ChessVEVO. Accessed March 5, 2017. Elaine Paige Performs 'Memory' - Royal Albert Hall | Cats the Musical. Uploaded by Cats the Musical. Accessed Marcy 5, 2020.)

1958 - Andy Gibb (born Andrew Roy Gibb), English singer and songwriter. He was the younger brother of the Bee Gees: Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. Gibb came to international prominence in the late 1970s with six singles that reached the Top 10 in the United States, starting with "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" (1977), followed by three other top 20 singles. Gibb's success was brief due to drug addiction and depression. He died five days after his 30th birthday while attempting a comeback.

Lefties:
Actor Rex Harrison
Singer Andy Gibb

 

More birthdays and historical events, March 5 - On This Day

 

Featuring:  Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Basileiras Suite No. 4.

Historical Events

1940 - Members of the Soviet Politburo, including Joseph Stalin, sign the order to kill 25, 700 Polish "nationalists."  The Nazis, blamed for the massacres at the end of World War II, later discover the first of the mass graves at Katyn. The U.S.S.R. finally admits to the murders in 1990.

1946 - Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, delivers the speech that warns of the Soviet Union threat that poses to the West. His speech popularizes the term "iron curtain" and signals the beginning of the Cold War.

March 4 Dateline

Birthdays

1678 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian Baroque composer regarded as one of the greatest. He is known as the "Red Priest," and whose best-known work is a series of violin concertos known as the Four Seasons. He composed many instrumental concertos, for the violin and a variety of other musical instruments, as well as sacred choral works and more than forty operas.

1754 - Benjamin Waterhouse, American physician, pioneer in Smallpox vaccination. He was co-founder and professor of Harvard Medical School. He is most well known for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States, which he carried out on his own family.

1921 - Joan Mary Waller Greenwood, English actress. Her husky voice, coupled with her slow, precise elocution, was her trademark. She is perhaps best remembered for her role as Sibella in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and also appeared in The Man in the White Suit, The Importance of Being Earnest, Stage Struck, Tom Jones and Little Dorrit. Greenwood worked mainly on the stage, where she had a long career, appearing with Donald Wolfit's theatre company in the years following World War II. Later, after the war, her appearances in Ealing comedies are among her memorable screen appearances. In 1960, Greenwood appeared as the title character in a production of Hedda Gabler at the Oxford Playhouse.

1929 - Bernard Haitink (born Bernard Johan Herman Haitink), CH KBE, Dutch conductor. He led master classes in conducting for young conductors in Lucerne for several years. In June 2015, the European Union Youth Orchestra announced the appointment of Haitink as its conductor laureate, effective immediately. His final concerts as conductor were done with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. His final UK concert was at The Proms in London on 3 September 2019, his 90th Prom, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. His last concert was in Lucerne at the KKL on 6 September 2019, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

1939 - Paula Prentiss, American actress best known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, In Harm's Way, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View, and the cult television series He & She.

1944 - Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron), ONZ CH DBE AC, New Zealand former opera singer. Her career included a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". She received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini. Though she rarely sang opera later in her career, Te Kanawa frequently performed in concert and recital, gave masterclasses, and supported young opera singers in launching their careers. (Kiri Sings Mozart. Uploaded by KiriOnLine - Kiri Te Kanawa. Recorded at St. David's Hall, Cardiff. Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, Charles Mackerras / Conductor, Cardiff, UK, 1990. Accessed March 4, 2015. Kiri Te Kanawa - Montreal Concert 1986. KiriOnLine. Accessed March 4, 2019.)
 

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, March 4 - On This Day

 

 

 

Historical Events

1461 - King Edward IV of England (Yorkist), usurps his cousin, King Henry VI (Lancastrian), from the English throne in the War of the Roses.

1787 - The U.S. Congress convenes for the first time forming the American constitution.

March 3 Dateline

Birthdays

1847 - Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator who is credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone, although there have been debates about this, though not conclusively proven. The other claimant is Antonio Meucci, an Italian inventor. Bell also founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885. (Alexander Bell Biography. Uploaded by CloudBiography. Accessed March 3, 2014.)

1869 - Sir Henry Joseph Wood, English conductor and composer, best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hundreds of new works to British audiences. After his death, the concerts were officially renamed in his honour as the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts", although they continued to be generally referred to as "the Proms". Wood declined the chief conductorships of the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras, believing it his duty to serve music in the UK. He also conducted concerts and festivals and trained the student orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music. He had an enormous influence on the musical life of Britain over his long career.

1871 - Ada Jemima Crossley, Australian contralto notable as the first Red Seal recording artist engaged in the US by the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1903. Her first appearance was with the Philharmonic Society at Melbourne in 1889. She sang frequently at concerts and in oratorio. She made her début performance in Sydney in January 1892. Her first appearance in London was at the Queen's Hall on 18 May 1895. She gave five command performances before Queen Victoria in two years. She was also successful in America. She also visited South Africa. She sang regularly at English festivals until 1913 but retired a few years later. Her tours were a series of triumphs. (First Victor Red Seal): Australian Contralto Ada CROSSLEY: Caro mio ben (1903). YouTube, uploaded by CurzonRoad. Miss Ada Crossley, Contralto. National Library of Australia. Accessed March 3, 3021.

1911 - Jean Harlow Carpenter, American actress and sex symbol. Often nicknamed the "Blonde Bombshell" and the "Platinum Blonde", she was popular for her "Laughing Vamp" screen persona. Harlow was in the film industry for only nine years, but she became one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, whose image in the public eye has endured. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Harlow No. 22 on their greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema list.

1918 - Arthur Kornberg, American biochemist and physician, shared 1959 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discovery of "the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)" together with Dr. Severo Ochoa of New York University. He was also awarded the Paul-Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society in 1951, L.H.D. degree from Yeshiva University in 1962, as well as National Medal of Science in 1979. In 1991, Kornberg received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement and the Gairdner Foundation Award in 1995. His primary research interests were in biochemistry, especially enzyme chemistry, deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis (DNA replication) and studying the nucleic acids which control heredity in animals, plants, bacteria and viruses.

1962 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American retired track and field athlete, ranked among the all-time greatest athletes in the heptathlon and long jump. She won three gold, one silver, and two bronze Olympic medals in those two events at four different Olympic Games. Sports Illustrated for Women magazine voted Joyner-Kersee the Greatest Female Athlete of All-Time. She is on the Board of Directors for USA Track & Field (U.S.A.T.F.), the national governing body of the sport. Joyner-Kersee is an active philanthropist in children's education, racial equality and women's rights. She is a founder of the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation, which encourages young people in East St. Louis to pursue athletics and academics.
 

Leftie:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, March 3 - On This Day

Historical Events

1539 - Sir Nicholas Carew, a very accomplished knight and once a favourite of King Henry VIII is beheaded. He was a distant relative of Anne Boleyn. Carew was present at "The Field of the Cloth of Gold", Henry VIII's meeting with the French king near Calais. At the jousting on that day, Carew was successful against all-comers and not unhorsed. The story goes that when King Henry VIII spoke rudely to him at a game of bowls, he forgot caution and treated the king in the same manner, deeply offending the king. Carew was eventually charged with exchanging letters with Exeter, a traitor, and was executed at London's Tower Hill.

1817 - John Keats' first volume of poems is published. His first work, a poem, the sonnet O Solitude appeared in the Examiner in May 1816, followed by his first book, Poems (1817).  After 1817, Keats devoted himself entirely to poetry, becoming a master of the Romantic sonnet and trying his hand at epic poems like Hyperion. The year 1818 was a tragic one for Keats. His collection Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and other poems was published in July 1820 before his last visit to Rome. (Selected Poems by John Keats (Full Audiobook). Accessed March 3, 2014. A Thing of Beauty by John Keats - Poetry Reading. Uploaded by Pearls of Wisdom. Accessed March 3, 2018.)  

March 2 Dateline

Birthdays

1824 - Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style that became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He has been regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. He is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride and for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native country and contains the famous symphonic poem "The Moldau". Smetana: Má Vlast. Gimnazija Kranj Christmas Concert 2015 - Slavic Night. Gimnazija Kranj Symphony Orchestra performed Bedřich Smetana symphonic poem: Moldau from a symphonic poem set: Má vlast (My homeland), Conductor: maestro Nejc Bečan. YouYube, uploaded by zevnikov. Accessed March 2, 2019.)

1900 - Kurt Julian Weill, German Composer, best known for his opera The Threepenny Opera. He was active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States, becoming a U.S. citizen on August 27, 1943. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht, he developed productions such as his best-known work The Threepenny Opera, which included the popular ballad "Mack the Knife". Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful purpose. He also wrote several works for the concert hall. 

 

 1904 - Dr. Seuss, (Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel), American Children's Writer and Publisher, Political Cartoonist, Illustrator, Poet, Animator, Screenwriter, and Filmmaker. He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss.

1931 - Tom Wolf, (born Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr.), American Author and Journalist widely known for his association with New Journalism, a style of news writing and journalism developed in the 1960s and 1970s that incorporated literary techniques. His best-selling books include: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters) and two collections of articles and essays, Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. In 1979, he published the influential book The Right Stuff about the Mercury Seven astronauts, which was made into a 1983 film of the same name directed by Philip Kaufman.  His first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, was met with critical acclaim and also became a commercial success. It was adapted as a major motion picture of the same name directed by Brian De Palma.

1931 - Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Russian and former Soviet politician. The eighth and last leader of the Soviet Union, he was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991. He was also the country's head of state from 1988 until 1991, serving as the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 1988 to 1989, chairman of the Supreme Soviet from 1989 to 1990, and president of the Soviet Union from 1990 to 1991. Ideologically, Gorbachev initially adhered to Marxism–Leninism, although he had moved towards social democracy by the early 1990s.

1942 - John Irving, American Novelist and Screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978. Many of Irving's novels, including The Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and A Widow for One Year have been bestsellers.

1950 - Karen Anne Carpenter, American Singer and Drummer, who was part of the duo the Carpenters alongside her older brother Richard. She was praised for her contralto vocals, and her drumming abilities were viewed positively by other musicians and critics. Her struggles with eating disorders later raised awareness of anorexia and body dysmorphia. Her work continues to attract praise, including being listed among Rolling Stone's 100 greatest singers of all time.(Carpenters Best Songs / Top 20 of all time. Uploaded by Dream Music. Accessed March 2, 2018.)

1961 - Simone Margaret Young, AM, Australian Conductor. She has worked with numerous companies in a principal role. Young was the first female conductor at the Vienna State Opera in 1993. She conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 2000 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Sydney. In November 2005, she was the first female conductor to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. In the major operatic anniversary year 2013, Young conducted the entire 'Bayreuth Canon' of ten Wagner operas at a festival entitled 'Wagner-Wahn' in Hamburg, along with three rarely performed Giuseppe Verdi operas from his 'galley years' as a trilogy in September to November - La battaglia di Legnano, I due Foscari, I Lombardi alla prima crociata. In March 2016, Simone Young was appointed Member of the Board of the European Academy of Music Theatre. Simone Young's website: here. Below, Simone Young &  Philharmoniker Hamburg on Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection").

1962 - Jon Bon Jovi, (born John Francis Bongiovi Jr.), American Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer, Philanthropist, and Actor. Bon Jovi is best known as the founder and frontman of the Grammy Award-winning rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2009.  In 2012, Bon Jovi ranked #50 on the list of Billboard Magazine's "Power 100", a ranking of "The Most Powerful and Influential People In The Music Business". In 1996, People Magazine named him one of the "50 Most Beautiful People in the World". Bon Jovi was a founder and majority owner of the Arena Football League team, the Philadelphia Soul. He is the founder of The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.

1968 - Daniel Wroughton Craig, CMG, English actor. He gained international fame playing the secret agent James Bond in five installments in the film series, from Casino Royale up to No Time to Die. In 2011, Craig made his Broadway debut in the revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal opposite his wife, the actress Rachel Weisz. In 2016, he starred in the New York Theatre Workshop production of Othello as Iago. In 2022, he returned to Broadway in the title role of Macbeth with Ruth Negga.

Leftie:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, March 2 - On This Day

Historical Events

1807 - The U.S. Congress abolishes the slave trade, made effective from January 1, 1808.

1933 - The movie King Kong is first performed in New York. It's the story of a gigantic gorilla from Skull Island and it is considered a classic. The gorilla falls in love with a girl, acted by actress Fay Wray.