October 28 Dateline

Birthdays

1803 - Caroline Unger, Hungarian contralto. She turned the deaf Beethoven's head around to hear applause at the performance of his famous Ninth Symphony.

1903 - Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh, English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books, a prolific Journalist and book Reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires Decline and Fall and A Handful of Dust, the novel Brideshead Revisited, and the Second World War trilogy Sword of Honour. Waugh s recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century. Waugh converted to Catholicism in 1930 after his first marriage failed. His traditionalist stance led him to strongly oppose all attempts to reform the Church, and the changes by the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) greatly disturbed his sensibilities, especially the introduction of the vernacular Mass. That blow to his religious traditionalism, his dislike for the welfare state culture of the postwar world, and the decline of his health all darkened his final years, but he continued to write. He displayed to the world a mask of indifference, but he was capable of great kindness to those whom he considered his friends. After his death, he acquired a following of new readers through the film and television versions of his works, such as the television serial Brideshead Revisited (1981). (Evelyn Waugh Face to Face BBC Interview. Uploaded by george harris. Accessed October 28, 2017.)

1907 - Edith Head, American costume designer. She won a record eight Academy Awards for Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973. She started her career as a Spanish teacher, but was interested in design. After studying at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, she was hired as a costume sketch artist at Paramount Pictures in 1923. She won acclaim for her design of Dorothy Lamour’s trademark sarong in the film The Jungle Princess, and became a household name after the Academy Award for Best Costume Design was created in 1948. Head was considered exceptional for her close working relationships with her subjects, with whom she consulted extensively; these included virtually every top female star in Hollywood.She worked at Paramount for 44 years. In 1967, the company declined to renew her contract, and she was invited by Alfred Hitchcock to join Universal Pictures where she earned her eighth and final Academy Award for her work on the famous The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

1909 - Francis Bacon - Irish-born English figurative painter known for his raw, unsettling imagery. Focusing on the human form, his subjects included crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-portraits, and portraits of close friends, with abstracted figures sometimes isolated in geometrical structures. He rejected various classifications of his work and claimed that he strove to render "the brutality of fact." 

 

1927 -  Dame Cleo Laine DBE, English jazz and pop singer and an actress, known for her scat singing and for her vocal range. Though her natural range is that of a contralto, she is able to produce a G above high C, giving her an overall compass of well over three octaves. (Cleo Laine with John Williams (guitar) - He was beautiful (Cavatina). Uploaded by Betaman31252. Accessed May 11, 2021. Cleo Laine - Not a Day Goes By. YouTube, uploaded by pbamse. Accessed June 25, 2022.)

1955 - Bill Gates (William Henry Gates III) - American principal founder/pioneer of Microsoft, business magnate / entrepreneur, philanthropist, author. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of Chairman, CEO and Chief Software Architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.(Bill Gates Breaks Down 6 Moments from his Life / WIRED. Uploaded by WIRED. Accessed October 28, 2019.)

1967 - Julia Roberts, American actress and producer. She established herself as a leading lady in Hollywood after headlining the romantic comedy film Pretty Woman, which grossed $464 million worldwide. She has won three Golden Globe Awards, from eight nominations, and has been nominated for four Academy Awards for her film acting, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Erin Brockovich. Roberts was the highest-paid actress in the world throughout most of the 1990s and in the first half of the 2000s. People magazine has named her the most beautiful woman in the world a record five times.

Lefties:
Bill Gates

Julia Roberts - In the film "Erin Brockovich" lefty Julia Roberts played in the character role of Erin Brockovich-Ellis who is right-handed. Julia had to learn how to use her right hand, naturally. She obviously did very well. She won the Oscar for Best Actress, didn't she?

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

 

Historical Events

1636 - Harvard University is founded with a bequest from John Harvard, an English-born Puritan. It is the oldest univeristy in the U.S.

1893 - Tchaikovsky conducts the first performance of his Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique," in St. Petersburg, nine days before his death. It's his final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The music lasts for 45 minutes in four movements. Tchaikovsky dedicated it to his nephew Vladimir Davidov. This symphony might be about death, but he considered: "the best thing I have composed"; indeed, for any lover of the composer's music, it is deeply engaging, so full of confidence and energy.  


 

1948 - Swiss chemist Paul Mueller is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT.

October 27 Dateline

Birthdays

1728 - Captain James Cook, FRS, British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Most modern references note James Cook’s date of birth as 27th of October 1728, which is the Julian calendar date, and for those who believe the correct date is 7th of November 1728, this is the Gregorian calendar date.

1782 - Niccolo Paganini,  Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, a towering figure who left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices for Solo Violin Op. 1 are among the best known of his compositions, and have served as an inspiration for many prominent composers.(The Best of Paganini. Uploaded by Top Classical Music. Accessed October 27, 2014. Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1, beautifully interpreted by young Korean violinist In Mo Yang. Uploaded by SoundProfessional Boston. Accessed October 17, 2016. 

 
1858 - Theodore Roosevelt Jr, 26th U.S. President from 1901 to 1909, referred to as Teddy Roosevelt or his initials T. R., American statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian and writer. He previously served as 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900 and the 25th vice president of the United States from March to September 1901. Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for the anti-trust policy while supporting Progressive Era policies in the early 20th century. His face is depicted on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.

1872 - Emily Post, American author and socialite famous for writing about etiquette, on how to behave graciously in society and business. She wrote in various styles, including humorous travel books. She published her first etiquette book Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home (1922, frequently referenced as Etiquette) when she was 50;  it became a best-seller, with updated versions continued to be popular for decades, and it made her career. After 1931, Post spoke on radio programs and wrote a column on good taste for the Bell Syndicate. It appeared daily in some 200 newspapers after 1932. In 1946, Post founded The Emily Post Institute, which continues her work.

1914 - Dylan Thomas (born Dylan Marlais Thomas), Welsh poet and playwright whose works include the poems "Do not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" and "And Death Shall Have No Dominion"; the 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. One of his most famous and best-loved poems, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is a villanelle, a poem divided into three-line stanzas where the same two repeated lines of verse comprise the last line of each alternating stanza. 

 
1923 - Roy Fox Lichtenstein, American pop artist. Along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting".

1932 - Sylvia Plath, American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England. They had two children, before separating in 1962. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times. She died by suicide in 1963. Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry, best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems and Ariel, and a semi-autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, published shortly before her death. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. (Sylvia Plath Interview. YouTube, uploaded by nagusd. Accessed October 27, 2013.)

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1886 - The Night on Bald Mountain of Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky is first performed posthumously in St. Petersburg. It is re-orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov.

1904 - One of the biggest subway lines in the world, and the biggest in the U.S., opens in New York.

October 26 Dateline

Birthdays

1466 - Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist and scholar, considered the greatest scholar of the northern Renaissance, the first editor of the New Testament, and also an important figure in patristics and classical literature.

1685 - Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer and harpsichord virtuoso. Son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti, the younger Domenico Scarlatti is classified primarily as a Baroque composer, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style and he was one of the few Baroque composers to transition into the classical period. Like his renowned father, Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard single-movement sonatas (Exercises). (Scarlatti: 42 Sonatas. YouTube, uploaded by Brilliant Classics. Accessed October 26, 2020.)
 
1854 - Charles William "C. W." Post, American innovator, entrepreneur,  breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry. He was the founder of what is now Post Consumer Brands.

1865 - Benjamin "Ben" Guggenheim, American businessman. Notable for being a passenger of RMS Titanic, he died aboard when the ship sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, and his body was never recovered. In 1894, he married Florette Seligman, daughter of James Seligman, a senior partner in the firm J. & W. Seligman & Co. and Rosa Seligman, née Content. They had three daughters: Benita Rosalind Guggenheim, Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim and Barbara Hazel Guggenheim. Ben Guggenheim inherited a great deal of money from his mother. Due to business concerns, he grew distant from his wife and was frequently away from their New York City home.

1911 - Mahalia Jackson (born Mahala Jackson), American gospel singer. Possessing a contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel". She became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers. "I sing God's music because it makes me feel free", Jackson said about her choice of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues."

1916 - Francois Mitterrand (François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand), French statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he was the first left-wing politician to assume the presidency under the Fifth Republic.

1947 - Hillary Rodham Clinton (born Hillary Diane Rodham), American politician, diplomat, lawyer, writer, and public speaker who served as the 67th United States secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, as a United States senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and as First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president of the United States by a major political party when she won the Democratic Party nomination in 2016. She was the first woman to win the popular vote in an American presidential election, which she lost to Donald Trump.

Lefties:
None known

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

 

 

Historical Events

1919 - Sir Edward Elgar conducts the first performance of his Cello Concerto at Queen's Hall, London with cellist Felix Salmond.

1977 - The last case of smallpox is diagnosed in Somalia. After this case, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declare that smallpox is officially eradicated, due to the success of vaccination.

October 25 Dateline

Birthdays

1825 - Johann Strauss II (Jr.), Austrian composer, famous for "The Blue Danube Waltz" and Die Fledermaus ("The Bat"). He's the eldest son of composer and orchestra leader Johann Strauss I. Johann strauss II is known as "The Waltz King", with his waltzes melodic and charming. He wasn't also limited to dances, as he composed a series of brilliant operettas. His music exudes the same love of melody and graceful Viennese mood.

1838 - Georges Bizet (born Alexandre César Léopold Bizet) French composer of the Romantic era, famous for opera Carmen, the tragic tale of a Spanish gypsy girl, is one of the most popular and frequently performed operas ever written. During his brilliant student career at the Conservatoire de Paris, Bizet won many prizes, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1857. His two other works are Symphony in C and Les Pecheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). (Bizet - Symphony in C 1/4, Avi Ostrowsky, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. Uploaded by avihu4. Accessed October 25, 2015. Note: I've enabled the autoplay at Youtube so the next three movements will play until 4/4.)

1881 - Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer. Regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by the German and Italian airforces during the Spanish Civil War. He spent most of his adult life in France.    

1923 - Don Oscar Banks, Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music. Jazz was Banks' earliest and strongest musical influence. He studied composition privately with Matyas Seiber, who was himself much interested in jazz. He became a friend and associate of Gunther Schuller and was much involved with Tubby Hayes, writing several compositions for him. Banks's best-known works include Nexus, his major 'Third Stream' composition, the Sonata da Camera for flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola, and cello (1961 - dedicated to Matyas Seiber); a Horn Concerto (1965); a Trio for horn, violin, and piano (1962); and a Violin Concerto (1968).

1928 - Marion Eileen Ross, American retired actress. Her best-known role is that of Marion Cunningham on the ABC television sitcom Happy Days, on which she starred from 1974 to 1984 and received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Before her success on Happy Days, Ross appeared in a variety of film roles, appearing in The Glenn Miller Story, Sabrina, Lust for Life, Teacher's Pet, Some Came Running, Operation Petticoat, and Honky, as well as several minor television roles, one of which was on television’s The Lone Ranger. Ross also starred in The Evening Star, for which she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Since the 1990s, Ross has been known for voice-over work on animated television series.

1942 - Helen Maxine Reddy, Australian-American singer, songwriter, author, actress, and activist. She moved to Chicago, and subsequently, Los Angeles, where she made her debut singles "One Way Ticket" and "I Believe in Music". The B-side of the latter single, "I Don't Know How to Love Him", reached number eight on the pop chart of Canadian magazine RPM. She was signed to Capitol Records a year later. Reddy's song "I Am Woman" played a significant role in popular culture, becoming an anthem for second-wave feminism. She came to be known as a "feminist poster girl" or a "feminist icon". In 2011, Billboard named her the number-28 adult contemporary artist of all time (number-9 woman). In 2013, the Chicago Tribune dubbed her as the "Queen of '70s Pop" (Helen Reddy - I don't know how to love Him [Andrew Lloyd Webber]  - "The Queen of Pops 70s. ReddyRockedThe70s. Accessed October 25, 2020.) 

 
Leftie:
Artist Pablo Picasso

 

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

 

Historical Events

1415 - Henry V of England defeats the French at the Battle of Agincourt in northern France.

1823 - Carl Maria von Weber's opera Euryanthe stars Henrietta Sontag at its premiere, in Vienna.

October 24 Dateline

Birthdays

1632 - Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, FRS, Dutch businessman and scientist (Microbiologist) in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists. (Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Biography. Uploaded by CloudBiography. Accessed October 24, 2013.)

1811 - Ferdinand (von) Hiller, German composer, conductor, pianist, writer and music critic. He was very successful lecturer and a forceful writer, his contributions to reviews and newspapers having been in book form. He also published among others: Musikalisches und Persönliches (1870), Wie hören wir Musik? (How do we hear [or: listen to] music?, 1880); Goethes musikalisches Leben (Goethe's musical life, 1880); and Erinnerungsblätter (Reminiscences, 1884). He published an account of his friendship with Mendelssohn in 1874. Part of his vast correspondence with other musicians and artists of his period has been published in seven volumes.

1868 -  Alexandra David-Néel, Belgian–French explorer, spiritualist, anarchist and writer. She is most known for her 1924 visit to Lhasa, Tibet, when it was forbidden to foreigners. She was unhappy as a child. She tried running away over and over, starting when she was two years old. As a teenager, she traveled by herself through European countries, including a bike trip across Spain. When she was 21, she inherited money from her parents, and she used it all to go to Sri Lanka. She worked as an opera singer for a while to finance her travels. She was especially interested in Buddhism. She wrote over 30 books about Eastern religion, philosophy, and her travels, including Magic and Mystery in Tibet which was published in 1929. Her teachings influenced the beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the populariser of Eastern philosophy Alan Watts, and the esotericist Benjamin Creme.

1925 - Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI, Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition Sinfonia and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled Sequenza), and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.

1932 - Perre-Gilles de Gennes, French physicist and the Nobel Prize Laureate in physics in 1991. He worked on granular materials and on the nature of memory objects in the brain and was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering that "methods developed for studying order phenomena in simple systems can be generalized to more complex forms of matter, in particular to liquid crystals and polymers".

1947 - Kevin (Delaney) Kline, American actor. He has won an Oscar and three Tony Awards and is a 2003 American Theatre Hall of Fame inductee. A multi-awarded actor, Kline began his career on stage in 1972 with The Acting Company. He has gone on to win three Tony Awards for his work on Broadway, winning Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the 1978 original production of On the Twentieth Century, Best Actor in a Musical for the 1981 revival of The Pirates of Penzance, and Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the 2017 revival of Present Laughter.

Lefties:
None known

 

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

 

Historical Events

1260 - Chartres Cathedral in France, is dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

1861 - The first transcontinental telegraph line across the U.S., between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, is completed by the Western Union Company.

1885 - Johann Strauss, Jr.'s operetta The Gipsy Baron is first staged in Vienna. 

WATCH VIDEO in YOUTUBE!  Playback is ONLY made available there.  Johann Strauss • Overture to 'The Gipsy Baron' - Der Zigeunerbaron • Volker Hartung, conductor.

October 23 Dateline

Birthdays

1844 - Sarah Bernhardt, (see October 22 or 23), French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas fils; Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand.

1844 - Robert Seymour Bridges, OM, English poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is the author of many well-known hymns. It was through Bridges’ efforts that Gerard Manley Hopkins achieved posthumous fame. ("Seven Poems" of Robert Bridges, composed by Gerard Finzi, and sung by Sheffield University Sheffield Chamber Choir. YouTube, uploaded by SUCC. The Poems: I Praise the Tender Flower, I have loved flowers that fade, My spirit sang all day, Clear and gentle stream, Nightingales, Haste on my Joys, Wherefore tonight so full of care.)

1893 - Milton "Gummo" Marx,  American vaudevillian performer, actor, comedian and theatrical agent. He was the second youngest of the five Marx Brothers. Born in Manhattan, New York City, he worked with his brothers on the vaudeville circuit, but left acting when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War I.

1893 - Jean Absil, Belgian composer, organist, and professor at the Brussels Conservatoire. Initially, Absil was influenced by the late Romantic school, particularly Wagner and Richard Strauss. Around the time he made his trip to Paris in 1934, he began to adopt a more modern style. Absil concentrated especially on writing piano works, himself a skilled pianist. These works include Ballade, op. 129, for solo piano (which is played with the left hand only) as well as 3 Pièces (played with the right one only). The Grand Suites (Op.110, composed in 1965) served as a tribute to Frédéric Chopin. In 1946, he composed another work, Hommage à Schumann and in 1957 the Passacaglia in Memoriam Alban Berg, both of them for piano. His last finished composition was the Piano Concerto no. 3, op. 162. Non-piano music of Absil's includes one opera, Les Voix de la mer, and a cycle of five symphonies, the first of which (op. 1) he composed at 27, when he was a pupil of Paul Gilson. It won the Prix Agniez in 1921.

1905 - Felix Block, Swiss-American physicist and Nobel Peace Laureate who made fundamental theoretical contributions to the understanding of electron behavior in crystal lattices, ferromagnetism, and nuclear magnetic resonance. He worked mainly in the U.S. He and Edward Mills Purcell were awarded the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics for "their development of new ways and methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements." In 1954–1955, he served for one year as the first Director-General of CERN.

1940 - Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento), Brazilian retired professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, he was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century. During his playing days, Pelé was for a period the best-paid athlete in the world. In 1999, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). That same year, Pelé was elected Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. His total of 1279 goals in 1363 games, which included friendlies, is a Guinness World Record. 

1945 -  Hugh Fraser, English actor, theatre director and author, best known for his portrayal of Captain Hastings in the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot opposite David Suchet, and his role as the Duke of Wellington (replacing David Troughton) in the Sharpe television series. He studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Fraser's first big break came after portraying Anthony Eden in the 1978 television series Edward & Mrs. Simpson, with Edward Fox, after which he was frequently cast as upper class or aristocratic characters, such as Mr Talmann in Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract.  He has regularly appeared on film and in television.

Leftie:
Brazilian professional footballer Pelé

 

 

More birthdays andhistorical events, October 23 - On This Day

Historical Events

425 - Valentinian III becomes Emperor of Rome at the age of six.

1897 - Alexander Scriabin is soloist in the first performance of his Piano Concerto, in Odessa. The Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20, is an early work of Russian composer Scriabin written in 1896, when he was 24. It was his first work for orchestra and the only concerto he composed. Scriabin completed the concerto in only a few days in the fall of 1896, but did not finish the orchestration until the following May. The work consists of three movements: Allegro, Andante, and Allegro Moderato, typically lasting about 28 minutes in total.

Here's a recording of Scriabin's First Concerto interpreted by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. It's beautiful and moving, especially coming from Scriabin, known more for his atonal works.
 
 

 

October 22 Dateline

Birthdays

1811 - Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, and organist of the Romantic era. He was also a writer, a philanthropist, a Hungarian nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. He gained renown in Europe during the early 19th century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was a friend, musical promoter and benefactor to many composers of his time, including Frédéric Chopin, Richard Wagner, Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, Edvard Grieg, Ole Bull, Joachim Raff, Mikhail Glinka, and Alexander Borodin. Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School (Neudeutsche Schule). He produced extensive and diverse body of work which influenced contemporaries and anticipated 20th-century ideas and trends. Among Liszt's musical contributions were the symphonic poem and radical innovations in harmony. (Liszt: Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude (Hough). YouTube, uploaded by A.X. Kumar. Accessed October 22, 2018.)

1844 - Sarah Bernhardt, French stage actress (22 or 23 Oct), starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas, fils, Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", while Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures. (Movie Legends - Sarah Bernhardt. Uploaded by Movie Legends. Accessed October 22, 2015.)

1917 -  Joan Fontaine (born: Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland), British-American actress, best known for her starring roles in cinema during the Classical Hollywood era. Fontaine appeared in more than 45 feature films in a career that spanned five decades. Sister of another famous actress, Olivia de Havilland. 

1919 - Doris May Lessing CH OMG (née Tayler), British-Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925 as her family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), eventually moving to London in 1949. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing, the sequence of five novels collectively called Children of Violence, The Golden Notebook, The Good Terrorist, five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos: Archives, The Fifth Child, and Love, Again. Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, the oldest person ever to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was also awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in British literature. In 2008, The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

1925 - Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg, American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. He is well known for his "Combines", a group of artworks which incorporated everyday objects as art materials and which blurred the distinctions between painting and sculpture. The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation fosters the legacy of the artist's life, work, and philosophy.

1938 - Sir Derek Jacobi, CBE, (born Derek George Jacobi), English actor and stage director. A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King.

1943 - Catherine Deneuve (born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac), French actress, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recognition for her portrayal of icy, aloof and mysterious beauties for various directors. In 1985, she succeeded Mireille Mathieu as the official face of Marianne, France's national symbol of liberty. A 14-time César Award nominee, she won for her performances in Truffaut's The Last Metro (1980), for which she also won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, and Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). Deneuve made her film debut aged 13 and came to prominence in Jacques Demy's 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. ('Umbrellas of Cherbourg' | Critics' Picks | The New York Times. Accessed Oct. 22, 1918.) She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress for Belle de Jour, and the Academy Award for Best Actress for Indochine. She also won the 1998 Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Place Vendôme

1963 - Brian Boitano (born Brian Anthony Boitano), American figure skater from Sunnyvale, California. He is the 1988 Olympic champion, the 1986 and 1988 World Champion, and the 1985–1988 U.S. National Champion. He turned professional following the 1988 season. He returned to competition in 1993 and competed at the 1994 Winter Olympics, where he placed sixth.

Leftie:
None known

 

 

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

 

Historical Events

1836 - Sam Houston becomes the President of Texas. The state became a breakaway republic for nearly a decade after the Texas Revolution.

1881 - The Boston Symphony Orchestra presents its first concert. 

1883 - The Metropolitan Opera House in New York opens with Charles Gounod's opera Faust. (French Chorus presents Gounod's Faust "Soldiers Chorus") 

 The "Met" Auditorium, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

October 21 Dateline

Famous Birthday

1772 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English critic, poet, philosopher and theologian, a friend of William Shakespeare, best known for poems "Kubla Khan" and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." (A look at the life of S.T. Coleridge, YouTube, uploaded by Heather Barton. Accessed October 21, 2018. And here's Coleridge's famous poem "Kublai Khan" discussed, a history behind this one of the most popular poems of the Romantic era. YouTube, uploaded by Bookworm History. Accessed October 21, 2018.)

1833 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist, engineer, founder of Nobel Prize, inventor and philanthropist. (Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Prize. Uploaded by Nobel Prize Museum. Accessed October 21, 2018)

1879 - Joseph Canteloube, Fench opera composer and pianist (Soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa interprets Canteloube's 'Chants' d'Auvergne - Baïlèro' with Julian Reynolds conducting. YouTube, uploaded by Coloraturissimo. Accessed October 21, 2018)

1912 - Sir Georg Solti, KBE (born György Stern), Hungarian-born British orchestral and operatic conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied there with Béla Bartók, Leó Weiner and Ernő Dohnányi. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis' influence on Hungarian politics, and being of Jewish background he fled the increasingly harsh Hungarian anti-Jewish laws in 1938. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War, and earned a living as a pianist. He recorded many works and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The most famous of his recordings is probably Decca's complete set of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Solti's Ring has twice been voted the greatest recording ever made, in polls for Gramophone magazine in 1999 and the BBC's Music Magazine in 2012. Solti was repeatedly honoured by the recording industry with awards throughout his career, including a record 31 Grammy Awards as a recording artist. (Maestro or Mephisto: The Real Georg Solti. YouTube, uploaded by The Georg Solti Accademia. Accessed October 21, 2017.)

 
1921 - Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold CBE, English composer, conductor, and trumpet player. He composed the famous film score Bridge on the River Kwai, for which he won an Academy Award. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band and wind band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness. He wrote extensively for the theatre, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films. 

1949 - Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, Israeli politician serving as Prime Minister of Israel since 2009, and previously from 1996 to 1999. He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history and the first to be born in Israel after the establishment of the state.

1956 - Carrie Frances Fisher, American actress, writer, and comedienne. Fisher played Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, a role for which she was nominated for four Saturn Awards and her other film credits include Shampoo, The Blues Brothers, Hannah and Her Sisters, The 'Burbs, When Harry Met Sally..., Soapdish, and The Women. Fisher was nominated twice for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performances on the television series 30 Rock and Catastrophe. She was posthumously made a Disney Legend in 2017, and in 2018 she was awarded a posthumous Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

1957 - Wolfgang Ketterle, German physicist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research has focused on experiments that trap and cool atoms to temperatures close to absolute zero, and he led one of the first groups to realize Bose–Einstein condensation in these systems in 1995. For this achievement, as well as early fundamental studies of condensates, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001, together with Eric Allin Cornell and Carl Wieman.

 
Leftie:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

 

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

 

Historical Events

1805 - Admiral Lord Nelson leads the British Royal Navy to defeat the French and Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar.

1858 - Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in Hades is first performed at Bouffes-Parisiens, in Paris. (Overture of Orpheus in Hades, conducted by Arthur Fiedler with the Boston Pops Orchestra  in 1956.) 

October 20 Dateline

Birthdays

1632 - Sir Christopher Wren, British architect. As well as London's famous St. Paul's Cathedral, C Wren designed the Monument to the Great Fire of 1666, the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the Library at Trinity college, Cambridge, and more than 50 other churches and secular buildings. He is buried under the words: "Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice" - translated in English to mean "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you."

1854 - Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, influential on modern literature and arts which prefigured surrealism. During his late adolescence and early adulthood he produced the bulk of his literary output, then completely stopped writing literature at the age of 20, after assembling his last major work, Illuminations. Rimbaud was known to have been a libertine and a restless soul, having engaged in a hectic, at-times-violent romantic relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, which lasted nearly two years. After his retirement, he traveled extensively as a merchant and explorer, until his death from cancer just after his thirty-seventh birthday. As a poet, Rimbaud is known for his contributions to symbolism and, among other works, for A Season in Hell, a precursor to modernist literature.

1859 - John Dewey, American philosopher and educational theorist, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. The overriding theme of Dewey's works was his profound belief in democracy, be it in politics, education, or communication and journalism. He considered two fundamental elements—schools and civil society. He asserted that complete democracy was to be obtained by ensuring that there exists a fully formed public opinion, accomplished by communication among citizens, experts, and politicians, with the latter being accountable for the policies they adopt. Dewey was one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the fathers of functional psychology.

1874 - Charles Edward Ives, American modernist composer, noted for experimental techniques, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early life. Later in life, the quality of his music was publicly recognized, and he came to be regarded as an "American original". He was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatory elements, and quarter tones. His experimentation foreshadowed many musical innovations that were later more widely adopted during the 20th century, hence, he is often regarded as the 20th century leading American composer of art music. Sources of Ives' tonal imagery included hymn tunes and traditional songs. He also incorporated melodies of the town band at holiday parade, the fiddlers at Saturday night dances, patriotic songs, sentimental parlor ballads, and the melodies of Stephen Foster. (The Best of Charles Ives. YouTube, uploaded by ClassicalMusic11. Accessed October 20, 2018.)

1931 - Lauris Margaret Elms, AM OBE, Australian retired contralto, renowned for her roles in opera and lieder and as a recording artist. She toured Israel in 1958 for the 10th anniversary of the State of Israel, appearing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in nine performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Rafael Kubelík. In 1958 she married Graeme de Graaff, and they have one daughter, the clarinetist Deborah de Graaff. In 2001 she published her autobiography "The Singing Elms: the autobiography of Lauris Elms". Lauris Elm debuted at Covent Garden, in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera (1957) and became principal resident artist there. She appeared with leading Australian companies and is renowned for portrayal of Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore. She toured Australia with Joan Sutherland (1965) and appeared at the opening of Sydney Opera House (1973). She made many acclaimed recordings and frequent radio broadcasts and gave regular lieder recitals with pianist Geoffrey Parsons. (The Glory of the Human Voice The Contralto Lauris Elms Great Australian Contralto. YouTube, uploaded by Virtutis Studio Productions; Lauris Elms - "Softly Awakes My Heart" Samson and Delilah (Saint-Saëns ) 1961, uploaded by Brian Castles-Onion;   Lauris Elms sings Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288. Accessed October 20, 2020.)

 
Lefties:
None known 

 

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

 

Historical Events

 

This day 20 October 1973.  Australia's iconic landmark, the Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon, is formally opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  The opening was celebrated with fireworks and a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

 

The Sydney Opera House, click the link to join the celebration!

1714 - George I is crowned in Westminster Abbey - the first of the Hanoverian kings.

1827 - The Battle of Navarino ends the Greek Liberation War, marking the beginning of Modern Greece.

October 19 Dateline

Birthdays

1916 - Jean Dausset (Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset), French immunologist. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 along with Baruj Benacerraf and George Davis Snell for their discovery and characterisation of the genes making the major histocompatibility complex. Using the money from his Nobel Prize and a grant from the French Television, Dausset founded the Human Polymorphism Study Center (CEPH) in 1984, which was later renamed the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH in his honour. He married Rose Mayoral in 1963, with whom he had two children, Henri and Irène. 

 

 1931 - John Le Carre (David John Moore Cornwell), better known by his pen name John le Carré, British author of espionage novels. During the 1950s and 1960s, he worked for both the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963), became an international best-seller and remains one of his best-known works. Following the success of this novel, he left MI6 to become a full-time author. His books include The Looking Glass War, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Smiley's People, The Little Drummer Girl, The Night Manager, The Tailor of Panama, The Constant Gardener, A Most Wanted Man and Our Kind of Traitor,  all of which have been adapted for film or television. 

 
1932 - Robert Reed (born John Robert Rietz Jr.), American actor. He played Kenneth Preston on the legal drama The Defenders from 1961 to 1965 alongside E. G. Marshall, and is best known for his role as the father Mike Brady, opposite Florence Henderson's role as Carol Brady, on the ABC sitcom The Brady Bunch, which aired from 1969 to 1974. He later reprised his role of Mike Brady on several of the reunion programs. In 1976, he earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his guest-starring role in a two-part episode of Medical Center and for his work on the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. The following year, Reed earned a third Emmy nomination for his role in the miniseries Roots.

Lefties:
None known

 

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

 

Historical Events

1781 - The American Revolutionary War ends as Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.

1845 - Richard Wagner's opera Tannhauser is first performed, in Dresden.

October 18 Dateline

Birthdays

1697 - Canaletto (born Giovanni Antonio Canal), Italian painter of city views or vedute, of Venice, Rome, and London. He also painted imaginary views (referred to as capricci), although the demarcation in his works between the real and the imaginary is never quite clearcut. He was further an important printmaker using the etching technique. In the period from 1746 to 1756 he worked in England where he painted many views of London and other sites including Warwick Castle and Alnwick Castle. He was highly successful in England, thanks to the British merchant and connoisseur Joseph "Consul" Smith, whose large collection of Canaletto's works was sold to King George III in 1762. 

1706 - Baldassare Galuppi, Italian/Venetian opera composer, harpsichordist, and teacher. He belonged to a generation of composers, including Johann Adolph Hasse, Giovanni Battista Sammartini, and C. P. E. Bach, whose works are emblematic of the prevailing galant music that developed in Europe throughout the 18th century. He achieved international success, spending periods of his career in Vienna, London and Saint Petersburg, but his main base remained Venice, where he held a succession of leading appointments. Galuppi's name persists in the English poet Robert Browning's 1855 poem "A Toccata of Galuppi's", Poetry Foundation. (Here's a heartwarming Galuppi sonata, Sonata No. 5 in C, beautifully performed by Vadim Chaimovich. Accessed October 18, 2020)

1859 - Henri-Louis Bergson, French philosopher influential in the tradition of continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the Second World War. Bergson is known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality.  He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his rich and vitalizing ideas and the brilliant skill with which they have been presented". In 1930 France awarded him its highest honour, the Grand-Croix de la Legion d'honneur.

1919 - Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau), PC CC CH QC FRSC  or by the initials PET, Canadian politician, the 15th prime minister of Canada and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, between 1968 and 1984, with a brief period as Leader of the Opposition, from 1979 to 1980. His tenure of 15 years and 164 days makes him Canada's third longest-serving Prime Minister, behind William Lyon Mackenzie King and John A. Macdonald.

1927 - George C. Scott, American actor, director, and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayals of the prosecutor Claude Dancer in Anatomy of a Murder, General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, General George S. Patton in the film Patton, and Ebenezer Scrooge in Clive Donner's film A Christmas Carol. He was the first actor to refuse the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Patton in 1970), having warned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences months in advance that he would do so on philosophical grounds if he won. Scott believed that every dramatic performance was unique and could not be compared to others.

1948 - Ntozake Shange (born Paulette Linda Williams), American playwright and poet, As a Black feminist, she addressed issues relating to race and Black power. She is best known for her Obie Award-winning play, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She also penned novels including Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, Liliane, and Betsey Brown, about an African-American girl runaway from home. Among Shange's honors and awards were fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund, and a Pushcart Prize. In April 2016, Barnard College announced it had acquired Shange's archive.

 
1956 - Martina Navratilova, Czechoslovak-born American former professional tennis player and coach. In 2005, Tennis magazine selected her as the greatest female tennis player for the years 1975 through 2005 and she is considered one of the best female tennis players of all time.

 
1960 - Jean-Claude Van Damme (born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg), Belgian actor and retired martial artist best known for his martial arts action films. His most popular projects include Bloodsport, Cyborg, Kickboxer, Lionheart, Death Warrant, Double Impact, Universal Soldier, Nowhere to Run, Hard Target, Timecop, Street Fighter, Sudden Death, The Quest, Maximum Risk, JCVD), Jean-Claude van Johnson (2016–2017 series), and The Bouncer.

1961 - Wynton Learson Marsalis, American trumpeter, composer, teacher, and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has promoted classical and jazz music, often to young audiences. Marsalis has won at least nine Grammy Awards, and his Blood on the Fields was the first jazz composition to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He is the only musician to win a Grammy Award in jazz and classical during the same year. (Wynton Marsalis Tribute to Louis Armstrong. YouTube, getgs. Accessed October 18, 2020. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra ft. Wynton Marsalis (Live) | JAZZ NIGHT IN AMERICA. YouTube, uploaded by Jazz Night in America. Accessed October 18, 2022.)

Leftie:
Tennis champion player Martina Navratilova

 

 

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

Historical Events

1851 - Herman Melville's Moby Dick, one of the greatest literary works in English language, is published by Richard Bentley of London.

1860 - British troops destroy the Emperor's Summer Palace in Peking (Beijing), China.

October 17 Dateline

Birthdays

1912 - Pope John Paul 1 (born Albino Luciani), Italian former head of the Catholic Church of the Vatican City from 26 August 1978 to his death 33 days later. He was the first pope to have been born in the 20th century. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent year of three popes and the first to occur since 1605. John Paul I remains the most recent Italian-born pope, the last in a succession of such popes that started with Clement VII in 1523. He was declared a servant of God by his successor, John Paul II, on 23 November 2003, the first step on the road to sainthood. Pope Francis confirmed his heroic virtue on 8 November 2017 and named him as venerable. In Italy, he is remembered with the appellatives of "Il Papa del Sorriso" (The Smiling Pope) and "Il Sorriso di Dio" (The smile of God). Time magazine and other publications referred to him as "The September Pope".

1915 - Arthur Asher Miller, American playwright, essayist, and a controversial figure in the twentieth-century American theater whose most popular plays include: All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View from the Bridge. He also wrote several screenplays and was most noted for his work on The Misfits. (Celebrating Arthur Miller at 100. Uploaded by WestportPlayhouse. Accessed October 17, 2016. Arthur Miller Interview on The Death of a Salesman. Uploaded by Manufacturing Intellect. Accessed October 17, 2017.)  

1918 - Rita Hayworth (Margarita Carmen Hayworth (née Cansino), American actress and dancer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined the term "The Love Goddess" to describe Hayworth after she had become the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s. She's best known for her performance in the 1946 film noir Gilda, opposite Glenn Ford, in which she played the femme fatale in her first major dramatic role. She is also known for her performances in Only Angels Have Wings, The Lady from Shanghai, Pal Joey, and Separate Tables. She starred in the Technicolor musical Cover Girl, with Gene Kelly. She is listed as one of the top 25 female motion picture stars of all time in the American Film Institute's survey, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars.

 
1920 - Edward Montgomery Clift, American actor. A four-time Academy Award nominee, The New York Times said he was known for his portrayal of "moody, sensitive young men". He is best known for his roles in Howard Hawks' Red River, William Wyler's The Heiress, George Stevens' A Place in the Sun, Alfred Hitchcock's I Confess, Fred Zinnemann's From Here to Eternity, Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions, Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg, and John Huston's The Misfits. Along with Marlon Brando and James Dean, Clift was one of the original method actors in Hollywood. He executed a rare move by not signing a contract after arriving in Hollywood, only doing so after his first two films were a success. This was described as "a power differential that would go on to structure the star-studio relationship for the next 40 years".

Leftie:
None known

 

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

Historical Events

1604 - German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the last supernova in the Milky Way in the constellation Ophiuchuc and calls it Kepler's Star.

1761 - Christoph W. Gluck's ballet Don Juan opens successfully in Vienna.

October 16 Dateline

Birthdays

1758 - Noah Webster, Jr., American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, prolific writer. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education." His "Blue-backed Speller" books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read.

1821 - Albert Franz Doppler, Polish composer and flautist. He was a flute virtuoso best known for his flute music. He also wrote one German and several Hungarian operas for Budapest, all produced with great success. His ballet music was popular during his lifetime.

1854 - Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright, novelist, and poet. A celebrated poet and playwright, he was best known for his wit. His only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was written in a form of a fable and tells a much darker story. (Oscar Wilde Biography: His "Wild" Life. YouTube, uploaded by Biographics. Accessed October 16, 2018. Here's his "The Happy Prince" from wilde-online.info.)

1925 - Dame Angela (Brigid) Lansbury DBE, British-American-Irish actress in theatre, television and film, Famous for Murder, She Wrote, as Jessica Fletcher, and as Mame in the original 1966 Broadway musical Mame. Her career has spanned eight decades. She received an Honorary Oscar and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and has won five Tony Awards, six Golden Globes, and an Olivier Award. She was nominated for numerous other awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress on three occasions, and various Primetime Emmy Awards on eighteen occasions, and a Grammy Award. In 2014, Lansbury was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. (The Legendary Dame Angela Lansbury Talks about her Career. Uploaded by picturefan2009.  Mame - Angela Lansbury - If He Walked into my Life (Very rare rehearsal take, recorded during the first rehearsal for the musical "Mame." Uploaded by orvgg.  Accessed October 16, 2019.)  

1956 - Marin Alsop,  American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Ravinia Festival. She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008 and to the American Philosophical Society in 2020.  (Trailblazing conductor Marin Alsop's message on breaking the glass ceiling. Youtube, uploaded by ABC News.  Oct 16, 2022.  Dvorák: Symphony No. 9, Peabody Symphony Orchestra (PSO), Marin Alsop. Youtube, uploaded by Peabody Institute of the John Hopkins University. Accessed October 16, 2022) 

 

1958 - Tim Francis Robbins, Academy Award winning American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, and musician. He is notable for his portrayal of Andy Dufresne in the film The Shawshank Redemption. His other roles include starring as Nuke LaLoosh in Bull Durham, Jacob Singer in Jacob's Ladder, Griffin Mill in The Player, Dave Boyle in Mystic River, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Harlan Ogilvy in War of the Worlds. He also directed the films Bob Roberts and Dead Man Walking. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for Dead Man Walking. For TV, he played Secretary of State Walter Larson in the HBO comedy The Brink, and in Here and Now portrayed Greg Boatwright. 

1962 - Dmitri Aleksandrovich Hvorostovsky, Russian operatic baritone. He came to international prominence in 1989 when he won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, beating local favourite Bryn Terfel in the final round. His performance included Handel's "Ombra mai fu" and "Per me giunto...O Carlo ascolta" from Verdi's Don Carlos. In later years his repertoire almost entirely consisted of Verdi operas. He won First Prizes at both the Glinka Vocal Competition in 1987 and the Toulouse Singing Competition in 1988. His highest awards in Russia include the Glinka State Prize in 1991 and the People's Artist of Russia honorary title in 1995.

Lefties:
None known

 

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

 

Quote: "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that's all." - Oscar Wilde


Featuring: (Albert) Franz Doppler, Composer & Flautist

Franz Doppler (16 October 1821 - 27 July 1883), was born in Poland in Lemberg (Austrian Empire), now Lviv, Ukraine. He was a flute virtuoso, a composer best known for his flute music, and a brilliant orchestrator. He also wrote one German and Hungarian operas for Budapest, with great success. His ballet music was popular during his lifetime.  Doppler composed chiefly for the flute, as well as opera, composing many pieces including concertos, flute duets, played by himself and his brother Karl. His work contains aspects of Russian and Hungarian music. His operas included Judith (his only German opera), and a Russian work entitled Benyovsky. He wrote seven operas and fifteen ballets in total.

Historical Events

1791 - Wolfgang A Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major,  K.622, is first  performed in Prague (citation needed, refer resource Wiki from the 'clarinet concerto' link.)

1793 - Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI of France, is executed by guillotine, without proof of her crimes.

1847 - Charlotte Brontë publishes her famous classic novel Jane Eyre.

October 15 Dateline

Birthdays

70 B.C.E. -  Virgil or Vergil, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to him. Virgil is traditionally ranked as one of Rome's greatest poets. His Aeneid has been considered the national epic of ancient Rome since the time of its composition. Modeled after Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Aeneid follows the Trojan refugee Aeneas as he struggles to fulfill his destiny and reach Italy, where his descendants Romulus and Remus were to found the city of Rome. Virgil's work has had wide and deep influence on Western literature, most notably Dante's Divine Comedy, in which Virgil appears as Dante's guide through Hell and Purgatory. (Virgil's Rome - The Historical Context of the Aeneid. uploaded by Eric Luttrell. Accessed October 15, 2018.)

1775 - Bernhard Henrik Crusell, Swedish-Finnish composer, clarinetist and translator considered as the the most significant and internationally best-known Finnish-born classical composer and indeed, — the outstanding Finnish composer before Sibelius.

1844 - Friedrich (Wilhelm) Nietzsche, German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist, and Latin and Greek scholar. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. His work has exerted an enormous and  profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history - writings on truth, morality, language, aesthetics, cultural theory, history, nihilism, power, consciousness, and the meaning of existence. (Friedrch Nietzsche's Life and Philosophy. Uploaded by Wes Cecil. Accessed October 15, 2019.)  

1880 - Marie Stopes (Marie Charlotte Carmichael Stopes), British author, palaeobotanist and campaigner for eugenics and women's rights. She made significant contributions to plant palaeontology and coal classification, and was the first female academic on the faculty of the University of Manchester. With her second husband, Humphrey Verdon Roe, Stopes founded the first birth control clinic in Britain. She edited the newsletter Birth Control News, which gave explicit practical advice. Her sex manual Married Love brought the subject of birth control into wide public discourse. 

 
1920 - Mario Gianluigi Puzo, American author, screenwriter, and journalist. He is known for his crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably The Godfather (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film trilogy directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the first film in 1972 and Part II in 1974. Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 Superman film. His final novel, The Family, was released posthumously in 2001.

1924 - Lee Iacocca, (Lido Anthony Iacocca), American automobile executive best known for Ford Mustang and Pinto cars, while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and for reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s. He was president and CEO of Chrysler until his retirement at the end of 1992. He was one of the few executives to preside over the operations of two of the Big Three automakers. Iacocca authored or co-authored several books, including Iacocca: An Autobiography (with William Novak), and Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Portfolio Magazine named Iacocca the 18th-greatest American CEO of all time. 

1940 - Peter Charles Doherty, AC FRS FMedSci, Australian immunologist, veterinary surgeon and researcher in the field of medicine. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Rolf M. Zinkernagel in 1996 and was named Australian of the Year in 1997, and named a Companion of the Order of Australia for his work with Zinkernagel. He is also a National Trust Australian Living Treasure. In 2009's Q150 celebrations, Doherty's immune system research was one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an iconic "innovation and invention".

2005 - Prince Christian of Denmark, Count of Monpezat (Christian Valdemar Henri John), Danish Royal, the eldest child of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary. A grandson of Queen Margrethe II, he is second in the line of succession to the Danish throne, after his father.

Leftie:
None known

 

 

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

Historical Events

1815 - Napoleon I of France begins his exile on St. Helena on the Atlantic Ocean.

1878 - The U.S. Edison Electric Company and American Electric and Illumination in Canada begin operation.

October 14 Dateline

Birthdays:

1633 - James II and VII, King of England and Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland. His reign is remembered mainly for struggles over religious tolerance. It also involved the principles of absolutism and divine right of kings, and his deposition ended a century of political and civil strife by confirming the primacy of Parliament over the Crown.

1644 - William Penn, London-born American writer, founder of Pennsylvania, son of the admiral and politician Sir William Penn. He was an early member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the English North American colony the Province of Pennsylvania. He was an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed. The streets are named with numbers and tree names. He chose to use the names of trees for the cross streets because Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woods".

1890 - Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, 34th U.S. President from 1953 to 1961, American army general and statesman. During World War II, he was a five-star general in the United States Army and served as supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe. (Dwight D. Eisenhower Biography: Military General & U.S. President. Uploaded by WatchMojo.com. Accessed October 14, 2013. Ike '52: The Best known Candidate of All  by Feather S. Foster. Presidential History Blog. Accessed 19 Sept 2020.)

1898 - Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot, French cellist, inventor, and a radio telegrapher during the first World War. He is best known for his invention of the ondes Martenot. He unveiled a microtonal model in 1938. He was responsible for teaching the first generation of ondes Martenot performers, including Karel Goeyvaerts, Jeanne Loriod, Georges Savaria, Gilles Tremblay, and his sister Ginette Martenot. Martenot himself performed as an 'ondist' with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski in 1930. The 1937 World's Fair in Paris awarded him "Le Grand Prix de l'Exposition Mondiale". He taught lessons at the Paris Conservatoire during the 1940s.

1927 - Roger Moore, KBE, English actor, famous in the roles of British secret agent James Bond 007, The Saint, and Lord Sinclair in The Persuaders! He played James Bond in seven feature films from 1973 to 1985, beginning with Live and Let Die. His most notable television role was playing the main character, Simon Templar, in the British television series The Saint from 1962 to 1969. He also had roles in some American television shows and films in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including replacing James Garner and portraying Beau Maverick in the Maverick series in 1960 to 61. Moore starred with Tony Curtis in The Persuaders television series in 1971 to 1972, and had roles in several theatrical films in the 1970s and 1980s. Sir Roger Moore was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for services to charity. In 2007, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television and film. In 2008, the French government appointed him a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. (Refer below for his documentary video.)

1939 - Ralph Lauren, honorary KBE (né Lifshitz), American fashion designer, philanthropist, and businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become known for his collection of rare automobiles, some of which have been displayed in museum exhibits. Lauren stepped down as CEO of the company in September 2015 but remains executive chairman and chief creative officer. As of 2019, Forbes estimates his wealth at $6.3 billion, which makes Ralph Lauren the 102nd richest person in America.

 
1940 - Sir Cliff Richard OBE (born Harry Rodger Webb), British singer, musician, performer, actor and philanthropist. Richard has sold more than 250 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He has total sales of over 21 million singles in the United Kingdom and is the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Over a career spanning 60 years, Richard has amassed several gold and platinum discs and awards, including two Ivor Novello Awards and three Brit Awards. (Cliff Richard - Blue Moon (Cliff!, 23 Feb. 1961). YouTube, accessed June 9, 2022).

 

Leftie:
None known.

Death:
1990 - Leonard Bernstein, Composer

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

 

 

 

In Memoriam:  
Sir Roger Moore (14 Oct 1927 - 23 May 2017) :

Sir Roger George Moore, KBE, was an English actor. He is best known for having played secret agent James Bond in seven feature films from 1973 to 1985. He also played Simon Templar in the television series The Saint from 1962 to 1969 and Lord Brett Sinclair in The Persuaders! with Tony Curtis from 1971 to 1972. He took over the role of Bond from Sean Connery in 1972, and made his first appearance as 007 in Live and Let Die (1973). The longest serving Bond, he went on to portray the spy in six more films until his retirement from the role in 1985. He was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for "services to charity". In 2007, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and 2008, the French government appointed him a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Historical Events

1066 - Duke William of Normandy defeats Harold II of England in the Battle of Hastings and becomes William the Conqueror.

1926 - The first Winnie-the-Pooh book by A.A. Milne is published, becoming one of the most successful children's books of all-time. It was inspired by his son Christopher Robin's love for a bear in the London Zoo called Winnipeg.

October 13 Dateline

Birthdays

1909 - Art Tatum Jr, American jazz pianist, widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. His playing encompassed the styles of earlier musicians, while adding harmonic and rhythmic imagination and complexity. Acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, Tatum extended the vocabulary and boundaries of jazz piano, and established new ground in jazz through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.

 
1921 - Yves Montand (Ivo Livi), Italian-French actor and singer. He went on to international recognition numerous films. His recognizably crooner songs, especially those about Paris, became instant classics. Montand acted in a number of American motion pictures as well as on Broadway. He was nominated for a César Award for "Best Actor" in 1980 for I comme Icare and again in 1984 for Garçon! In 1986, after his international box-office draw power had fallen off considerably, the 65-year-old Montand gave one of his most memorable performances, as the scheming uncle in the two-part film Jean de Florette, co-starring Gérard Depardieu, and Manon des Sources, co-starring Emmanuelle Béart.

1925 - Baroness Margaret Thatcher, (Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher), LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts), Former Prime Minister of U.K. was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold that office. A Soviet journalist dubbed her "The Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies known as Thatcherism. She studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist, before becoming a barrister. (Biography of the Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, Uploaded by WatchMojo.com. Accessed October 13, 2012, Maggie's Magic Moments: Margaret Thatcher Highlights. Uploaded by The Daily Beast. Accessed October 13, 2014.) 

1934 - Nana Mouskouri, Greek singer. During the span of her music career she has released over 200 albums and singles in at least twelve different languages. (I'd like to share the English version of "Le Trois Cloches" ("The Three Bells") that French chanteuse Edith Piaf popularised. Uploaded by yrrah0015. Accessed OCtober 13, 2014.)

1939 - Arleen Auger, Soprano coloratura, known for interpretation of works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Monteverdi, Gluck  (Mozart's lieder)

1941 - Paul Simon - American singer, songwriter, famous for his musical partnership with Art Garfunkel formed in 1964. He's wrote nearly all of the duo's songs, including three that reached No. 1 on the U.S. singles charts: "The Sound of Silence," "Mrs. Robinson," and "Bridge over Toubled Water."

1959 - Olive Marie Osmond, American singer, actress, author, philanthropist, Talk Show Host. Although she was never part of her family's singing group, she gained success as a solo country music artist. Her best known song is a remake of the country pop ballad "Paper Roses". From 1976 to 1979, she and her singer brother Donny Osmond hosted the television variety show Donny & Marie.

1969 - Nancy Ann Kerrigan, American former figure skater and actress. She won bronze medals at the 1991 World Championships and the 1992 Winter Olympics, silver medals at the 1992 World Championships and the 1994 Winter Olympics, and she was the 1993 US National Figure Skating Champion. Kerrigan was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2004. In January 1994, an assailant used a police baton to strike Kerrigan on her landing knee; the attacker was hired by the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding. The attack injured Kerrigan, but she quickly recovered. Harding and Kerrigan both participated in the 1994 Winter Olympics, but after the Games, Harding was permanently banned from competitive figure skating. At the Olympics, Kerrigan won the silver medal in a controversial showdown with gold medal winner Oksana Baiul. She started touring and performed with several ice skating troupes that included Champions on Ice and Broadway on Ice. 

 
1982 - Ian James Thorpe, AM, nickname "Thorpey, "Thorpedo", Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the most won by any Australian.

Lefties:
Singer and Songwriter Paul Simon

 

More birthdays and historical events, October 13 - On This Day

Historical Events

1775 - The Continental Navy is officially established in Philadelphia. It would later become the U.S. Navy.

1792 - The cornerstone of the White House in Washington D.C. is laid. The building was known as the U.S. Executive Mansion until 1818.