December 19 Dateline

Birthdays

1888 - Fritz Reiner, Hungarian-born and trained composer, opera coach, conductor. He was a prominent conductor of opera and symphonic music in the twentieth century. He emigrated to the United States in 1922, where he rose to prominence as a conductor with several orchestras. He reached the pinnacle of his career while music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s and early 1960s. (Fritz Reiner conducts Mozart (vaimusic.com). Accessed December 19, 2018. Sorry the video is improperly cut-off... great conducting by Reiner of Mozart's Symphony No. 39.  Fritz Reiner conducting Tchaikovsky's violin concerto with the great violinist Jascha Heifetz, soloist. YouTube, uploaded by vovcek. Accessed December 19, 2016.)

1894 - Paul Dessau - German composer, opera coach and conductor. He collaborated with German poet and playwright Bertold Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them. (Deutsches Miserere - Paul Dessau / Bertolt Brecht (Kegel). Paul Dessau / Bertolt Brecht "Deutsches Miserere" (1947). Dagmar Schellenberger - Soprano. Christiane Röhr - Alto. Manfred Hopp - Tenor.  Bernd Grabowski - Bass.  Rundfunkchor Berlin Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin. Conductor/Dirigent: Herbert Kegel. Uploaded by hitzikon. Accessed December 19, 2007.) 

1902 - Sir Ralph Richardson,  English actor who, along with his contemporaries Peggy Ashcroft, John Gielgud, and Laurence Olivier, dominated the British stage of the mid-20th century. He worked in films throughout most of his career and played more than sixty cinema roles. Richardson had no thought of a stage career until a production of Hamlet in Brighton inspired him to become an actor. He learned his craft with a touring company and later the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1931 he joined the Old Vic, playing mostly Shakespearean roles. He led the company the following season, succeeding Gielgud, who had taught him much about stage technique. After he left the company, a series of leading roles took him to stardom in the West End and on Broadway. Sir Ralph Richardson as Sir Wilfred in Agatha Christie's famous play: Witness for the Prosecution, with Dame Diana Rigg and Deborah Kerr. YouTube, Uploaded by Old Curios & Untiquities. Accessed December 19, 2019.)   

1906 - Leonid Ilyich Breshnev, Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union as General Secretary of the governing Communist Party (1964–1982) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1977–1982). His 18-year term as general secretary was second only to Joseph Stalin's in duration. While Brezhnev's rule was characterized by political stability and notable foreign policy successes, it was also marked by corruption, inefficiency, economic stagnation, and rapidly growing technological gaps with the West.

1910 - Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later took to writing. His major works include the novels The Thief's Journal and Our Lady of the Flowers, and the plays The Balcony, The Maids and The Screens.

1915 - Edith Piaf, French singer, songwriter and actress  known as "The Little Sparrow." She became widely regarded as France's national chanteuse, as well as being one of France's greatest international stars. (The Best of Edith Piaf. YouTube, uploaded by Edith Piaf Official. Accessed December 2025. "Je ne regrette rien"). Accessed December 19, 2025.

1923 - Gordon Jackson, OBE , Scottish actor best remembered for his roles as the butler Angus Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs and as George Cowley, the head of CI5, in The Professionals. He also portrayed Flt. Lt. Andrew MacDonald, "Intelligence", in The Great Escape.

1924 -  Edmund Purdom, English actor, voice artist, and director. He worked first on stage in Britain, performing various works by Shakespeare, then later in America on Broadway, until making his way to Hollywood, and eventually spent the remainder of his life appearing in Italian cinema. He starred in 1954's historical epic The Egyptian. By taking over important roles exited by Mario Lanza and Marlon Brando, Purdom was known by the mid-1950s as "The Replacement Star".

Leftie:
Writer Jean Genet

 

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

 

Historical Events

1932 - BBC begins shortwave transmission overseas with its Empire Service, which is the forerunner of its World Service.

1984 - Christoph Wolff, a Harvard Professor, announces his find of a collection of 33 unknown organ preludes, attributed to Baroque composer  J.S. Bach, discovered in a Yale University library. 

 

December 18 Dateline

Birthdays

1707 - Charles Wesley, Co-founder of Methodist Movement, poet and famous for writing hundreds of loved hymns.(C. Wesley Movie, uploaded by Gayle Lawson. Accessed December 18, 2017. The Life & Hymns of C. Wesley, uploaded by Grace Church. Accessed December 18, 2018.)

1856 - Sir Joseph John Thomson, English physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, and the first subatomic particle. He also pioneered mass spectrometry and discovered the existence of isotopes of elements. He wins the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1906.

1879 - Paul Klee, Swiss-born painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting for the Renaissance. He and his colleague, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. Klee's works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality. (Paul Klee: A collection of 277 works (HD). Uploaded by LearnFromMasters. Accessed December 18, 2019.)

1908 -  Dame Celia Johnson, DBE, English actress, whose career included stage, television and film. Best known for her roles in the films In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944), Brief Encounter (1945) and The Captain's Paradise (1953). For Brief Encounter, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. A six-time BAFTA Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).

1913 - Willy Brandt (born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm), German politician and statesman, former leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. He was the first Social Democrat chancellor since 1930.

1915 - Betty Grable (born Elizabeth Ruth Grable), American actress, dancer, model, and singer. Her 42 films grossed more than $100 million, for 10 consecutive years (1942–1951) she reigned in the Quigley Poll's Top 10 box office stars (a feat only matched by Doris Day and Barbra Streisand). The U.S. Treasury Department in 1946 and 1947 listed her as the highest-salaried American woman; she earned more than $3 million during her career.

1946 - Steven Spielberg, American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is considered one of the founding pioneers of he "New Hollywood era" and also viewed as one of the most popular and influential directors and producers in movie history. Spielberg is one of the co-founders of DreamWorks Studio. Spielberg is the recipient of various accolades, including three Academy Awards, a Kennedy Center honor, a Cecil B. DeMille Award, and an AFI Life Achievement Award. Seven of his films been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

1950 - Gillian May Armstrong, Australian film and documentary director, who specializes in period drama. Her films often feature female perspectives and protagonists.

1963 - Brad Pitt (born William Bradley Pitt), American actor and film producer. He has received multiple awards, including two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award for his acting, in addition to another Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award as producer under his production company, Plan B Entertainment. His first leading roles came with the drama films A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall, and the horror film Interview with the Vampire. He gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven (1995) and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination.

1978 - Katie Holmes (born Katherine Noelle Holmes), American actress, producer, and director. She first achieved fame as Joey Potter on the television series Dawson's Creek, then Subsequent film roles followed. In 2008, she made her Broadway theatre debut in a production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons. In 2011, she played Jacqueline Kennedy in the TV miniseries The Kennedys, a role she reprised in The Kennedys: After Camelot in 2017. She made her directorial debut with the 2016 film All We Had, in which she also starred.

1980 - Christina Maria Aguilera, American Pop singer, songwriter, actress, and TV personality. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, one Latin Grammy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Aguilera ranked at number 58 on Rolling Stone's list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2008, and was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2013. She is considered one of the world's best-selling music artists.

Lefties:
Actress Betty Grable
Painter Paul Klee
Actor Brad Pitt 

 

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

 

Historical Events

 
1880 - Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italien" premieres in Moscow.  

1892 - Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is first staged, in St. Petersburg. 

Here's  a performance from the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, December 2012
Valery Gergiev - conductor, Vasily Vainonen - choreography, Benjamin Tyrrell - stage and costumes.

WATCH on YouTube. This video is blocked from display on other websites. Accessed December 18, 2016.

1916 - The Battle of Verdun, the longest engagement of World War I, ends with close to half a million French and German troops killed and a similar number wounded.