Birthdays
1746 - William Billings, American composer, regarded as the first American choral composer, and leading member of the First New England School. Billings' music can be forceful and stirring, as in his patriotic song "Chester"; ecstatic, as in his hymn "Africa"; or elaborate and celebratory, as in his "Easter Anthem" and "Rose of Sharon". He also wrote several Christmas carols, including "Judea" in 1778 and "Shiloh" in 1781.
1849 - James Whitcomb Riley, American writer, poet, best-selling author. In his lifetime, known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and children's poetry. His poems tend to be humorous or sentimental. Of the approximately 1,000 poems Riley wrote, the majority are in dialect. His famous works include "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man". Riley's chief legacy was his influence in fostering the creation of a Midwestern cultural identity and his contributions to the Golden Age of Indiana Literature.
1885 - Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist, made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research. He developed the Bohr model of the atom, in which he proposed that energy levels of electrons are discrete and that the electrons revolve in stable orbits around the atomic nucleus but can jump from one energy level (or orbit) to another. Although the Bohr model has been supplanted by other models, its underlying principles remain valid. He conceived the principle of complementarity: that items could be separately analysed in terms of contradictory properties, like behaving as a wave or a stream of particles. The notion of complementarity dominated Bohr's thinking in both science and philosophy.
1917 - June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman), American actress (stage, film, and television) dancer, and singer. She began her career as a dancer in short films and on Broadway. She signed with MGM and rose to fame in Two Girls and a Sailor. Her "girl next door" image was solidified when she was paired with actor Van Johnson in six films. In 1951, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss. She also hosted and starred in her own anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, which aired on CBS. In the 1970s, she returned to the stage starring in Forty Carats and No, No, Nanette. In 1982, Allyson released her autobiography June Allyson by June Allyson. She later established the June Allyson Foundation for Public Awareness and Medical Research and worked to raise money for research for urological and gynecological diseases affecting senior citizens.
1931 - Desmond Mpilo Tutu, OMSG CH GCStJ, South African Anglican cleric and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was the Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.
1935 - Thomas Michael Keneally, Australian Author, a prolific novelist, playwright, and essayist. He is best known for his non-fiction novel Schindler's Ark, the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, which won the Booker Prize in 1982. The book was later made into a film titled Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg, earning the director his first Best Director Oscar. Keneally's meeting with Pfefferberg and their research tours are detailed in Searching for Schindler: A Memoir. Some of the Pfefferberg documents that inspired Keneally are now housed in the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney. In 1996 the State Library purchased this material from a private collector.
1939 - Clive James, AO CBE FRSL (born Vivian Leopold James), Australian author, critic, essayist, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist. He lived and worked in the UK from 1961 until his death. James began his career specialising in literary criticism before becoming television critic for The Observer, where he made his name for his wry, deadpan humour. He also earned an independent reputation as a poet and satirist. He achieved success in the UK first as a writer for television, and eventually as the lead in his own programmes. James published several books of poetry, he also collaborated on six albums with singer-songwriter Pete Atkin. James' lyrics were far from mainstream popular music, being frequently dense with poetic references. For instance, they might describe the life of a machine tool shop supervisor, as in "Carnations on the Roof". In contrast, the song "My Egoist", is translated almost entirely from a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire. Other references include Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies and William Shakespeare's sonnets.(Everything I do is writing: Clive James. ABC. Accessed October 17, 2017.)
1943 - Oliver Laurence North, American colonel and author, political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and (retired) United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he was a National Security Council staff member during the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s. It involved the illegal sale of weapons to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to encourage the release of American hostages then held in Lebanon. North formulated the second part of the plan, which was to divert proceeds from the arms sales to support the Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua, sales which had been specifically prohibited under the Boland Amendment. He was granted limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before Congress about the scheme. North was initially convicted on three felony charges, but the convictions were vacated and reversed and all charges against him dismissed in 1991.
1952 - Vladimir Putin, President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 2000 until 2008. He was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. In between his presidential terms, he was also the Prime Minister of Russia under president Dmitry Medvedev.
1955 - Yo-Yo Ma, Chinese-American cellist. Born in Paris, he spent his schooling years in New York City and was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world. (Enjoy Yo-Yo Ma's performance of the entire Six Unaccompanied Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on the 5th of September, 2015. He played for nearly three hours. A truly remarkable performance. Amazing!)
1959 - Simon Phillip Cowell, English principal, founder and chief executive of the British entertainment company Syco. Businessman, A&R executive, talent manager, television producer, record executive, and entrepreneur. Cowell has judged on the British television talent competition series Pop Idol, The X Factor UK and Britain's Got Talent, and the American television talent competition series American Idol, The X Factor US, and America's Got Talent.
Lefties:
Actress June Allyson
Colonel Oliver North
1885 - Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist, made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research. He developed the Bohr model of the atom, in which he proposed that energy levels of electrons are discrete and that the electrons revolve in stable orbits around the atomic nucleus but can jump from one energy level (or orbit) to another. Although the Bohr model has been supplanted by other models, its underlying principles remain valid. He conceived the principle of complementarity: that items could be separately analysed in terms of contradictory properties, like behaving as a wave or a stream of particles. The notion of complementarity dominated Bohr's thinking in both science and philosophy.
1917 - June Allyson (born Eleanor Geisman), American actress (stage, film, and television) dancer, and singer. She began her career as a dancer in short films and on Broadway. She signed with MGM and rose to fame in Two Girls and a Sailor. Her "girl next door" image was solidified when she was paired with actor Van Johnson in six films. In 1951, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance in Too Young to Kiss. She also hosted and starred in her own anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, which aired on CBS. In the 1970s, she returned to the stage starring in Forty Carats and No, No, Nanette. In 1982, Allyson released her autobiography June Allyson by June Allyson. She later established the June Allyson Foundation for Public Awareness and Medical Research and worked to raise money for research for urological and gynecological diseases affecting senior citizens.
1931 - Desmond Mpilo Tutu, OMSG CH GCStJ, South African Anglican cleric and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was the Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology.
1935 - Thomas Michael Keneally, Australian Author, a prolific novelist, playwright, and essayist. He is best known for his non-fiction novel Schindler's Ark, the story of Oskar Schindler's rescue of Jews during the Holocaust, which won the Booker Prize in 1982. The book was later made into a film titled Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg, earning the director his first Best Director Oscar. Keneally's meeting with Pfefferberg and their research tours are detailed in Searching for Schindler: A Memoir. Some of the Pfefferberg documents that inspired Keneally are now housed in the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney. In 1996 the State Library purchased this material from a private collector.
1939 - Clive James, AO CBE FRSL (born Vivian Leopold James), Australian author, critic, essayist, broadcaster, poet, translator and memoirist. He lived and worked in the UK from 1961 until his death. James began his career specialising in literary criticism before becoming television critic for The Observer, where he made his name for his wry, deadpan humour. He also earned an independent reputation as a poet and satirist. He achieved success in the UK first as a writer for television, and eventually as the lead in his own programmes. James published several books of poetry, he also collaborated on six albums with singer-songwriter Pete Atkin. James' lyrics were far from mainstream popular music, being frequently dense with poetic references. For instance, they might describe the life of a machine tool shop supervisor, as in "Carnations on the Roof". In contrast, the song "My Egoist", is translated almost entirely from a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire. Other references include Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies and William Shakespeare's sonnets.(Everything I do is writing: Clive James. ABC. Accessed October 17, 2017.)
1943 - Oliver Laurence North, American colonel and author, political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and (retired) United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he was a National Security Council staff member during the Iran–Contra affair, a political scandal of the late 1980s. It involved the illegal sale of weapons to the Khomeini government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to encourage the release of American hostages then held in Lebanon. North formulated the second part of the plan, which was to divert proceeds from the arms sales to support the Contra rebel groups in Nicaragua, sales which had been specifically prohibited under the Boland Amendment. He was granted limited immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before Congress about the scheme. North was initially convicted on three felony charges, but the convictions were vacated and reversed and all charges against him dismissed in 1991.
1952 - Vladimir Putin, President of Russia since 2012, previously holding the position from 2000 until 2008. He was also the Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. In between his presidential terms, he was also the Prime Minister of Russia under president Dmitry Medvedev.
1955 - Yo-Yo Ma, Chinese-American cellist. Born in Paris, he spent his schooling years in New York City and was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras around the world. (Enjoy Yo-Yo Ma's performance of the entire Six Unaccompanied Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on the 5th of September, 2015. He played for nearly three hours. A truly remarkable performance. Amazing!)
1959 - Simon Phillip Cowell, English principal, founder and chief executive of the British entertainment company Syco. Businessman, A&R executive, talent manager, television producer, record executive, and entrepreneur. Cowell has judged on the British television talent competition series Pop Idol, The X Factor UK and Britain's Got Talent, and the American television talent competition series American Idol, The X Factor US, and America's Got Talent.
Lefties:
Actress June Allyson
Colonel Oliver North
More birthdays and historical events, October 7 - On This Day
Historical Events
1571 - The Battle of Lepanto is fought. It is a victory against the Moslem Ottoman Empire fleet by Don John of Austria, leading a fleet of Papal forces. It is the last major battle to involve galleys, a form of sea warfare going back for many thousands of years.
1769 - Captain James Cook discover and maps New Zealand.
