September 16 Dateline

Birthdays

1836 -  Henry V, also called Henry of Monmouth, was King of England from 1413 until his death in 1422. Despite his relatively short reign, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe. He is known and celebrated as one of the greatest warrior kings of medieval England, and is immortalised in Shakespearae's "Henriad" plays.

1887 - Nadia Boulanger, French composer, conductor, and teacher. Many of her students became prominent composers in their time. (Sharing here a favourite work by her: Faintaisie pour piano et orchestre, uploaded in YouTube by JCHBONNET. Accessed September 16, 2018)

1924 - Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske), American actress known for her distinctive voice and sultry looks. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2009 "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures".  Bacall began her career as a model before making her film debut as a leading lady in To Have and Have Not (1944). She continued in the film noir genre. She also worked on Broadway in musicals, earning Tony Awards for Applause (1970) and Woman of the Year (1981). She won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).

1925 - Charlie Lee Byrd, American jazz guitarist. Byrd was best known for his association with Brazilian music, especially bossa nova. In 1962, he collaborated with Stan Getz on the album Jazz Samba, a recording which brought bossa nova into the mainstream of North American music. Byrd played fingerstyle on a classical guitar.

1956 - David Copperfield (born David Seth Kotkin), American magician, illusionist, described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. His TV specials have won 21 Emmy Awards and 38 nominations. Copperfield's career has earned him 11 Guinness World Records, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a knighthood by the French government, and he has been named a Living Legend by the US Library of Congress. As of 2006, Copperfield has sold 33 million tickets and grossed over US$4 billion, more than any other solo entertainer in history. When not performing, he manages his chain of eleven resort islands in the Bahamas, which he calls "Musha Cay and the Islands of Copperfield Bay".

1956 - Mickey Rourke (born Philip Andre Rourke Jr.), American actor, screenwriter, and former boxer who has appeared primarily as a leading man in drama, action, and thriller films. In 2005, Rourke made his comeback in mainstream Hollywood circles with a lead role in the neo-noir action thriller Sin City, for which he won awards from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Irish Film and Television Awards, and the Online Film Critics Society. In the 2008 film The Wrestler, Rourke portrayed a past-his-prime professional wrestler; for his work in the film, Rourke received a 2009 Golden Globe award, a BAFTA award, and an Academy Award nomination. Rourke has appeared in successful films, including the Iron Man 2, The Expendables, and the Immortals.

1979 - Iestyn Davies, MBE, British Classical countertenor and chorister. From the age of eight he sang as a boy treble in the choir of St John's College, Cambridge. He began singing countertenor in his teens, at Wells Cathedral School. He returned to St John's as a choral scholar, graduating in archaeology and anthropology. He gained his DipRAM from, and was later appointed ARAM by the Royal Academy of Music. In 2004 he won the Audience Prize at the London Handel Singing Competition and in 2010 was named "Young Artist of the Year" by the Royal Philharmonic Society. Here's Album 'IF' (Michael Nyman, Henry Purcell) with Iestyn Davies and Fretwork. Accessed September 16, 2019.

Lefties: None known

 

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

 

Historical Events

1908 - General Motors is founded in Flint, Michigan, and later becoming the first U.S. corporation to make $1 billion in a year. It is now based in Detroit.

1920 - A bomb in a horse-drawn wagon explodes on Wall Street, New York City. Thirty-nine people are killed and 400 more are injured.

September 15 Dateline

Birthdays

1254 - Marco Polo, (some biographers uncertain of his birthdate, presumably in Venice), Italian merchant, explorer, and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in Livre des merveilles du monde (Book of the Marvels of the World, also known as The Travels of Marco Polo and Il Milione, c. 1300), a book that described to Europeans the then mysterious culture and inner workings of the Eastern world, including the wealth and great size of China and its capital Peking, giving their first comprehensive look into China, India, Japan and other Asian cities and countries. (Marco Polo: The World's Greatest Explorer. Uploaded by Biographics. Accessed September 15, 2019.)

1889 -  Robert Benchley, American drama critic, essayist, humourist, actor and screenwriter, best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor. From The Harvard Lampoon, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from his peers to his contemporaries in the film industry. He is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays influenced many modern humorists. He also made a name in Hollywood, when his short film How to Sleep was a popular success and won Best Short Subject at the 1935 Academy Awards.

1890 - Dame Agatha Christie, DBE - English writer, creator of famous characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Regarded the greatest crime writer of all-time. She is known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Christie also wrote the world's longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap, and, under the pen name Mary Westmacott, six romances. Guinness World Records lists her as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world's most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeare's works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author, having been translated into at least 103 languages. Christie's stage play The Mousetrap holds the world record for longest initial run. It opened at the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End on 25 November 1952, and as of April 2019 is still running after more than 27,000 performances. Want to know more about this greatest and a favourite crime writer of all time?  (Agatha Christie at Youtube. Accessed September 15, 2019. Witness for the Prosecution, 1982 version of Agatha Christie's play, with Ralph Richardson, Wendy Hiller, Beau Bridges, Deborah Kerr, Diana Rigg (as Christine) & Donald Pleasence. Uploaded by Old Curios & Antiquities. Accessed September 15, 2025.) Also, I highly recommend this video perhaps not popular in the 21st century Agatha Christie movies adaptation, it's the 1938  whodunit story, starring Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone, in black & white. Interestingly, Joan Hickson who acted as Emmy, would become the famous Miss Marple in recent times. Agatha Christie website.    

1894 - Jean Renoir, French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion and The Rules of the Game are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made.

1945 - Jessye Mae Norman, American opera singer and recitalist. A dramatic soprano, she is associated in particular with the Wagnerian repertoire. She was one of the most decorated of American singers. Multi-awarded Grammy winner, she won five Grammy Awards, four for her recordings and one for lifetime achievement. She received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor in 1997 and the National Medal of Arts in 2009. She is inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and became a Spingarn Medalist in 2013. (Richard Strauss, Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs), Jessye Norman, Kurt Masur. Uploaded by Arnold van der Waals.  Jessye Norman_Samson et Dalilah_ "Mon coeur souvre à ta-voix". Uploaded bye-mujeres.net. Accessed September 15, 2016.  Jessye Norman - O Divine Redeemer {Repentir (Charles Gounod)}. Uploaded by James. Accessed September 15, 2013. Jessye Norman - A Portrait - Purcell's When I am Laid on Earth. Uploaded by texmex0303. Accessed September 15, 2011.)

1946 - Tommy Lee Jones, American actor and filmmaker. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film The Fugitive. His other notable starring roles include Texas Ranger Woodrow F. Call in the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove, Agent K in the Men in Black film series, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell in No Country for Old Men, the villain Two-Face in Batman Forever, and Warden Dwight McClusky in Natural Born Killers. Jones has also portrayed real-life figures such as businessman Howard Hughes in The Amazing Howard Hughes, Radical Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln, U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur in Emperor, businessman Clay Shaw, the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in JFK. 

1946 - William Oliver Stone, American film director, writer and conspiracy theorist. He won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay as writer of Midnight Express (1978), and wrote the acclaimed gangster movie Scarface (1983). Stone achieved prominence as writer and director of the war drama Platoon (1986), which won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. Many of Stone's films focus on controversial American political issues during the late 20th century, and as such were considered contentious at the times of their releases. They often combine different camera and film formats within a single scene, as demonstrated in JFK, Natural Born Killers, and Nixon.

1984 - Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, KCVO ADC (Henry Charles Albert David; 15 September 1984), a member of the British Royal Family, is the younger son of King Charles III and the late Diana, then Princess of Wales. Harry launched the Invictus Games in 2014 and remains patron of its foundation. He also gives patronage to several other organisations, including the HALO Trust, the London Marathon Charitable Trust, and Walking With The Wounded. On 19 May 2018, he married American actress Meghan Markle. Hours before the wedding, his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II made him Duke of Sussex. In January 2020, the couple announced their intention to step back as senior members of the royal family and split their time between the UK and North America.

Lefties:
None known
 

 

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

Historical Events

921 - The Duchess of Bohemia (later St. Ludmila), is murdered at the command of her daughter-in-law. She and her husband built the first Christian church in Bohemia, and taught her granson, later known as Good King Wenceslaus.

1966 - The U.S. spaceship Gemini XI, with astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Richard Gordon Jr. on board, returns to Earth after 2 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes and 8 seconds.