Inspired Pen Web

October 22 Dateline

2026-10-21T15:00:00.000-04:00

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")

1962 - U.S. President J.F. Kennedy announces the discovery of Soviet missile sites in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis develops. JFK demands publicly that they be removed, and for six days the world totters on the brink of nuclear war. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, blinks first and agrees to remove the missiles.

1962 - Over thirty poets take part in the U.S. Library of Congress's first National Poetry Festival.

1964 - Existentialist philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre turns down the Nobel Prize in Literature.

1964 - Akira Miyoshi's Concerto for Orchestra is first performed, in Tokyo.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com

3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

October 21 Dateline

2026-10-20T16:00:00.000-04:00

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, a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Born in Budapest, he studied 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 WWII, and earned a living as a pianist. He 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 honoured by the recording industry with awards throughout his career, including a record 31 Grammy Awards as a recording artist. (Sir Georg Solti / Chicago Symphony Orchestra - Mozart Symphony No.39 - I Adagio -- Allegro. YouTube, uploaded by ICA Classics. Accessed October 21, 2026.)

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.)

1926 - Carl Nielsen's Flute Concerto is first performed, in Paris.

1945 - Argentine leader Juan Peron marries his mistress, actress Eva Duarte, "Evita", who would help him lead the country.

1959 - New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens to the public.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

October 20 Dateline

2026-10-19T16:00:00.000-04:00

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.

1842 - Richard Wagner's opera Rienzi is first staged, at the Dresden Opera, with libretto from Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name.

1955 - Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, is published.

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.

Video Credit:

The Queen In Australia (4K version here https://youtu.be/OCCpuB356IQ). Uploaded by NFSA Films. Accessed October 20, 2022. From the Film Australia Collection. Made by The National Film Board 1954. Directed by Colin Dean. This film is the official record of the 1954 tour of Australia by Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen in Australia is a landmark in Australian history. It not only records the first visit by a reigning monarch to Australia, it was also the first colour, feature-length documentary made in this country. This historic program provides nationwide coverage of the 1954 Royal Tour by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh - a two-month journey that took in every facet of Australian life.

Image Credit:
The Opera House, Twilight / Tel

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

October 19 Dateline

2026-10-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

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.

1901 - Sir Edward Elgar's amazing Pomp and Circumstance Marches (the first two) - "land of hope and glory" - one that have their first performances, in Liverpool.

1922 - Modest Mussoorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, orchestrated by Maurice Ravel from the original piano suite, is first performed,in Paris, Serge Koussevitzky conducting.

1943 - Streptomysin, used as an antibiotic for tuberculosis, is isolated by Selman A Waksman at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

1987 - Dubbed "Black Monday", the Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22.6 percent in the second highest one-day percentage decline in stock market history.

2005 - Saddam Hussein's trial starts in Baghdad for crimes committed against humanity in the city of Dujail, where 143 were killed.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

October 18 Dateline

2026-10-17T16:00:00.000-04:00

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.

1887 - Russia sells Alaska to the U.S. for seven million dollars seeing it as a worthless, frozen wilderness. Oil is later found.

1904 - Gustav Mahler conducts the first performance of his Symphony No. 5 "The Giant," in Cologne, with the famous heartwarming "Adagietto", poignantly interpreted by Maestro Valery Gergiev with the World Orchestra for Peace. Mahler Symphony No.5, 4th Mvt "Adagietto". Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms Live 5th August 2010. Read also the beautiful article from The Marginalian, "Gustav Mahler's Letters to His Wife", written by Maria Popova.

1912 - Balkan Allies declare war on Germany 10 days after Montenegro's lead, starting the First Balkan War.

1946 - Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3, is first performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

1954 - The first transistor radio is manufactured.

1985 - Nintendo releases the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the U.S. This 8-bit video game console becomes the most successful game system in its time with the game "Super Mario Bros."

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Edward Winslow Biography. Mayflower History. Accessed October 18, 2011.
6. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
7. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

October 17 Dateline

2026-10-16T16:00:00.000-04:00

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.

1831 - Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 is first performed, in Munich.

1930 - France announces the creation of the Maginot Line, a defence of concrete and machine-gun positions against German invasion. The Germans, unfortunately, go round it by invading Belgium first.

1967 - The rock musical "Hair," created by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, opens on Broadway.

1978 - Marian Anderson, American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century, is presented a Congressional Gold Medal by U.S. President Carter at a White House ceremony in Washington.

1979 - Mother Teresa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her services to humanity as leader of the Order of the Missionaries of Charity.

2003 - Taipei 101 becomes the world's tallest building, taking over from Kuala Lumpur's (Malaysia) Petronas Twin Towers.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

October 16 Dateline

2026-10-15T16:00:00.000-04:00

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.

1925 - Richard Strauss's Perergon zur Symphonia domestica, for piano left-handand orchestra, is first performed, in Dresden, with Paul Wittgenstein (who commissioned the work) as soloist.

1978 - Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla is appointed Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope since Pope Adrian VI in 1523.

1995 - More than 250,000 African Americans gather in Washington D.C. for the Million Man March.

On October 16, 1995, a march happened in Washington D.C.'s National Mall. It is known as "The Million Man March," one of the largest marches ever seen in the U.S. in which more than 250,000 African Americans gathered for a peaceful day of praying, speeches, singing, in a successful awareness-raising campaign for race relations.
As a result of the march, race issues were brought out to the fore. It is believed that the march contributed to building a stronger community among African Americans, and also a greater awareness of racial injustices in a wider community.

1996 - In Guatemala City, more than 80 people are crushed to death and 180 injured when 47,000 soccer fans squeeze into the 36,000-seat Mateo Flores Stadium.

Video Credit:

Albert Franz Doppler Hungarian Pastorale Fantasy for flute and piano. YouTube, uploaded by Aleksandr Haskin. Accessed 16 October, 2017. (Forbidden City Concert Hall, Beijing China Young Concert Artists Chamber Music Festival Aleksandr Haskin, flute Louis Schwizgebel-Wang, piano. June, 2012)

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica.www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org.

October 15 Dateline

2026-10-14T16:00:00.000-04:00

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 - Christian, Crown Prince of Denmark, Count of Monpezat RE (Christian Valdemar Henri John, the heir apparent to the Danish throne. He is the eldest child of King Frederik X and Queen Mary. He was born during the reign of his paternal grandmother, Queen Margrethe II. He became Crown Prince of Denmark following his grandmother's abdication and his father's subsequent ascension to the Danish throne in January 2024.

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.

1905 - Claude Debussy's La Mer is first performed, in Paris, with Camille Chevillard conducting.

1951 - Sitcom I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball premieres on the U.S. TV Network CBS.

1969 - National Moratorium peace demonstration across the U.S., protesting against the Vietnam War.

1990 - USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his leading role in the peace process."

2001 - The Galileo spacecraft gets within 112 miles or 180 km of Jupiter's moon, Io.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

October 14 Dateline

2026-10-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

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.

1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when U.S. U-2 spy planes flying over Cuba take photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed.

1994 - Naguib Mahfouz, (aged 82), the first Arab to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1988), is stabbed as he leaves his Cairo apartment.

Video Credit:
Roger Moore: A Matter of Class (1 Hour Documentary). Youtube, uploaded by The Hollywood Collection. Accessed October 14, 2017.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

October 13 Dateline

2026-10-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

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.

1923 - Ankara is declared the new capital of Turkey. The former capital was Constantinople, now Istanbul.

1955 - A poetry reading at the Six Gallery in San Francisco turns into the birth of the Beat generation when Allen Ginsberg reads his epic "Howl" in public for the first time.

1962 - Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway. In 1966, it is made into a movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

October 12 Dateline

2026-10-11T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1725 - Etienne Louis Geoffroy, French entomologist and pharmacist. He followed the binomial nomenclature of Carl von Linné and devoted himself mainly to beetles. He was the author of Histoire abrégée des Insectes qui se trouvent aux environs de Paris. Paris : Durand Vol. 1 8 + 523 pp. 10 pls (1762) and co-author with Antoine François of Entomologia Parisiensis, sive, Catalogus insectorum quae in agro Parisiensi reperiuntur ... (1785).

1872 - Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over sixty years. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century.

1935 - Luciano Pavarotti, Italian operatic tenor who also crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most commercially successful tenors of all time. He made numerous recordings gaining worldwide fame for the quality of his tone, and eventually established himself as one of the finest tenors of the 20th century, achieving the honorific title "king of the high C's". From the beginning of his professional career as a tenor in 1961 in Italy to his final performance of "Nessun dorma" at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Pavarotti was at his best in bel canto operas, pre-Aida Verdi roles, and Puccini's famous works. Pavarotti was also noted for his charity work on behalf of refugees and the Red Cross, amongst others. (Pavarotti sings Nessun Dorma and Torna a Surriento. YouTube, uploaded by dreamer100pre. Accessed October 12, 2015.)

1968 - Hugh Jackman, Australian actor, singer, and producer. He is best known for playing Wolverine in the X-Men film series from 2000 to 2017, a role for which he holds the Guinness World Record for "longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero". Jackman is also recognised for his lead roles in romantic comedy, action and drama films. Versatile and multi-talented, Hugh Jackman has also played the roles for period romance Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), the thriller Prisoners (2013), and the musical The Greatest Showman (2017), for which he received a Grammy Award for Best Soundtrack Album. For playing Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Leftie:
Actor and Film Producer Hugh Jackman

Death:

Singer & Songwriter John Denver (October 12, 1997). In remembrance: John Denver / Live at The Apollo Theatre, 26 October 1982. Uploaded by M masassa. Accessed Oct 12, 2018.

More birthdays and historical events, October 12 - On This Day

Historical Events

1910 - Ralph Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony, for soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra (after American poet Walt Whitman's poem of the same name), is first performed at the Leeds Festival in England.

1931 - Johnny Weismuller, Olympic swimmer, is offered the role of Tarzan by MGM after being spotted at a hotel swimming pool. He makes Tarzan movies throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

1933 - The U.S. Department of Justice acquires the Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay for use as a federal prison.

1994 - The Magellan mission to Venus of NASA ends when radio contact is lost and the spacecraft burns up in the atmosphere of the planet.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush requests a special screening of the documentary of America's Most Wanted, showing 22 of the world's most dangerous terrorists.

2002 - Terrorists detonate bombs at the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar in Indonesia that killed 202 people and wounded hundreds.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com

October 11 Dateline

2026-10-10T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1815 - Prince Pierre-Napoléon Bonaparte, French nobleman, revolutionary and politician, the son of Lucien Bonaparte and his second wife Alexandrine de Bleschamp. He was a nephew of Napoleon I of France.

1884 - Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Former U.S. First Lady, American political figure, Diplomat and Activist. Then President Harry Truman called her the "First Lady of the World" in tribute to her human rights achievements. She served as the First Lady of the United States from March 4, 1933, to April 12, 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office, making her the longest-serving First Lady of the United States. She was the niece of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. Her husband, FDR (the 32nd President), was her distant cousin. (Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Speech. Uploaded by PublicResourceOrg. Eleanor Roosevelt - Her Star Shines. Uploaded by FDRLibrary. Both accessed October 11, 2011.) Eleanor Roosevelt advocated for expanded roles for women in the workplace, the civil rights of African Americans and Asian Americans, and the rights of World War II refugees. Following her husband's death in 1945, she remained active in politics for the remaining 17 years of her life.

1884 - Friedrich Bergius, German chemist and inventor, Nobel Laureate, known for the Bergius process for producing synthetic fuel from coal, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in recognition of contributions to the invention and development of chemical high-pressure methods.

1885 - Francois Charles Mauriac, French author, poet, playwright, critic and journalist. He was a member of the Académie française (from 1933), and laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1952. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur in 1958.

1966 - Luke Perry (born Coy Luther Perry III), American actor. He became a teen idol for playing Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210 from 1990 to 1995, and again from 1998 to 2000. He also starred as Fred Andrews on the CW series Riverdale . He had guest roles on notable shows which are Criminal Minds, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Simpsons, and Will & Grace, and also starred in several films, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 8 Seconds, The Fifth Element, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, his final feature performance.

1974 - Rachel Barton Pine (born Rachel Elizabeth Barton), American violinist. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony at age 10, and was the first American and youngest ever gold medal winner of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition. Pine tours worldwide as a soloist with prestigious orchestras, has an active recording career, and runs The Rachel Barton Pine Foundation since 2001 which provides services and funding to promote classical music education and performances. (Rachel Barton Pine plays Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs with the Highland Park Strings at Ravinia. Accessed October 11, 2015. Rachel Barton Pine On Mozart, with Sir Neville Mariner, St Martin in the Fields. Accessed October 11, 2018.)

Leftie:
Actor Luke Perry

More birthdays and historical events, October 11 - On This Day

Historical Events

1727 - One of George Frideric Handel's best-known works, Zadok the Priest: The Coronation Anthem (HWV 258), alongside other three coronation anthems: The King Shall Rejoice, My Heart is Inditing, and Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened, premiered on October 11, 1727, when King George II was crowned in London's Westminster Abbey. Zadok the Priest has been sung prior to the anointing of the sovereign at the coronation of every British monarch since its composition and has become recognised as a British patriotic anthem.

1811 - The first steam-powered ferry begins service between New York and Hoboken, New Jersey

1830 - Frederic Chopin is soloist in his Piano Concerto No. 1, in a Warsaw theatre, Poland.

1968 - Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission, is launched, manned by Walter "Wally" Schirra, Donn F. Eisele, and Walter Cunningham.

1984 - Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first U.S. woman to walk in space, on board the space shuttle Challenger.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com

October 10 Dateline

2026-10-09T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1731 - Henry Cavendish, FRS, English scientist, philosopher, and an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. Amongst other discoveries, he is noted for his discovery of chemical element hydrogen, which he termed "inflammable air". Using his exacting experimental skills, Cavendish was the first to distinguish this inflammable air from ordinary air and to investigate its specific properties. He presented a paper detailing his findings in 1766. He is also known for the Cavendish Experiment, the first experiment to measure the force of gravity between masses in the laboratory and the first to yield accurate values for the gravitational constant (G). (The Cavendish Experiment, uploaded by Sixty Symbols. Accessed October 10, 2013.)

1895 - Lin Yutang, Hokkien Chinese writer, scholar, translator, linguist, philosopher and inventor. His informal but polished style in both Chinese and English made him one of the most influential writers of his generation. His compilations and translations of classic Chinese texts into English were bestsellers in the West. ("Human Life as a Poem" - Souvenirs From Dreamland Ep2 ~Lin Yutang. Uploaded by souvenirs of dreamland. Accessed October 10, 2012.) "Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." ~ Lin Yutang

1813 - Giuseppe Verdi, (Oct 9 or 10?), Italian opera composer. He came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Gioachino Rossini, whose works significantly influenced him. In his early operas, Verdi demonstrated a sympathy with the Risorgimento movement which sought the unification of Italy. He also participated briefly as an elected politician. The famous chorus "Va, pensiero" from his early opera Nabucco (1842), and similar choruses in later operas, were much in the spirit of the unification movement, and the composer himself became esteemed as a representative of these ideals. An intensely private person, however, he did not seek to ingratiate himself with popular movements and as he became professionally successful was able to reduce his operatic workload and sought to establish himself as a landowner in his native region. He surprised the musical world by returning, after his success with the opera Aida (1871), with three late masterpieces: his Verdi Requiem (1874), and the operas Otello (1887) and Falstaff (1893). His operas remain extremely popular, especially Rigoletto, Il trovatore and La traviata.(Verdi:Aida - triumphal march "Gloria all´Egitto". Czech Philharmony choir Brno choirmaster - Petr Fiala Czech Radio symphony orchestra cond. Vladimir Valek. Uploaded by AchillesValda. Accessed October 10, 2011.)

1930 - Harold Pinter, British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Trial, and Sleuth. He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works. Despite being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape, for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006.

1971 - Evgeny Kissin, Russian concert pianist. He has been a British citizen since 2002 and an Israeli citizen since 2013. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He has a wide repertoire and is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic era, particularly those of Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Ludwig van Beethoven. He is commonly viewed as a great successor of the Russian piano school because of the depth, lyricism and poetic quality of his interpretations.

Leftie:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, October 10 - On This Day

Featured Video Watch: Verdi Requiem.

Proms 2016 - Verdi - Requiem [Marin Alsop, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment]. YouTube, uploaded by hollowchatter. Accessed October 10, 2020.

Historical Events

1919- Richard Strauss's opera Die Frau ohne Schatten, is first performed, at the Vienna State Opera.

1931 - Sir William Walton's oratorio Belshazzar's Feast, is first performed, at the Leeds Festival, England.

1967 - The Outer Space Treaty comes into force, detailing guidelines for exploration of space and banning the stationing of weapons of mass destruction in outer space.

1971 - Rebuilding of London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, is completed.

1972 - Sir John Betjeman becomes the poet laureate. His best-known works include "A Subaltern's Love Song" and "Slough."

1979 - Pac-Man is released to the Japanese market by Namco, soon to become a worldwide craze.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Britannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6.Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

(c) June 2007. Updated October 9, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

October 9 Dateline

2026-10-08T13:30:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1201 - Robert de Sorbon, French theologian, the Chaplain of Louis IX of France, and founder of the Sorbonne college in Paris. He was noted for his piety and attracted the patronage of the Comte d'Artois and King Louis IX of France, later known as Saint Louis. Sorbon established the Maison de Sorbonne, a college in Paris originally intended to teach theology to twenty poor students. Sponsored by King Louis and received the endorsement of Pope Alexander IV in 1259, it grew into a major centre of learning and became the core of what would become the University of Paris. Sorbon served as chancellor of the university, taught and preached there from 1258 until his death. The library at the University of Reims, which opened in 2006, is named after him.

1832 - Elizabeth Akers Allen (pen name, Florence Percy), American poet and journalist, popular with "Rock Me to Sleep" especially during the U.S. Civil War. Many of them were first published in the Portland Transcript. She came to Portland, Maine in 1855, and a volume of her fugitive poems appeared in that city just before her marriage to Paul Akers, the sculptor, whom she accompanied to Italy, and buried there. For several years, she was on the editorial staff of the Portland Advertiser. She wrote for most of the leading magazines, and several editions of her collected poems were published.

1835 - Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Second Piano Concerto (1868), the First Cello Concerto (1872), Danse macabre (1874), the opera Samson and Delilah (1877), the Third Violin Concerto (1880), the Third ("Organ") Symphony (1886) and Carnival of the Animals - A Visualll Journey Through Nature's Orchestra. YouTube, uploaded by Classical Relaxation. Accessed October 9, 2026.

1852 - Hermann Emil Louis Fischer FRS FRSE FCS, German organic chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of drawing asymmetric carbon atoms. He also hypothesized lock and key mechanism of enzyme action.

1940 - John Lennon, MBE (born John Winston Lennon), English musician, singer, songwriter, Beatles Band/Group and peace activist who gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. His songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history. In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, Yoko Ono. After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Lennon continued as a solo artist and as a collaborator of Ono's music. (John Lennon - Imagine. Uploaded by EMI Records Italy. Accessed October 9, 2014.)

1966 - David William Donald Cameron, Former U.K. Prime Minister. British Conservative Party Politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Witney from 2001 to 2016 and leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016.

Leftie:
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron

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

Historical Events

1776 - Father Francisco Palou founds Mission San Francisco de Asis, which becomes the U.S. City of San Francisco.

1891 - Antonin Dvorak conducts his Requiem Mass at Birmingham, England.

1921 - Leos Janacek's Slavonic rhapsody Taras Bulba, after Gogol, is first performed, in Brno.

1930 - Pioneer aviatrix Laura Ingalls becomes the first woman to fly across the U.S., from New York to California with nine stops.

1986 - The Phantom of the Opera musical premieres in Her Majesty's Theatre, London's West End. Lyrics by Charles Hart, and a libretto by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe. It is based on the 1910 French novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux. The plot revolves around a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, masked musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opéra House. It opened on Broadway in New York in 1988. English classical soprano Sarah Brightman (Lloyd Webber's then-wife) was cast as Christine Daaé. It won the 1986 Olivier Award and the 1988 Tony Award for Best Musical, and Michael Crawford (in the title role) won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Musical.

1989 - A Soviet Union news agency reports that scientists confirm the landing of a UFO in Voronesh, Southern Russia, and the alien spaceship carries giant "humanoids."

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

October 8 Dateline

2026-10-07T12:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1585 - Heinrich Schütz, German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach. (Listen to Schütz's sublime, beautiful music, "Schwanengesang" ("Swan Song"), with Paul Hillier conducting The Tapiola Chamber Choir. YouTube, uploaded by baroque6hiro. Accessed October 8, 2018).

1895 - Juan Domingo Peron, Argentinian president, an Argentine army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labor and Vice President, he was elected President of Argentina three times, serving from June 1946 to September 1955, when he was overthrown in a coup d'état, and then from October 1973 until his death in July 1974. Peronism is a political phenomenon that draws support from both the political left and political right. Peronism is not considered a traditional ideology, but a political movement, because of the wide variety of people who call themselves Peronists.

1930 - Toru Takemitsu, Japanese composer (Toru Takemitsu: From me flows what you call time. Uploaded by Silicua hibrido. Accessed October 8, 2017.)

1939 - Paul Hogan, AM, Australian actor, comedian, writer and television presenter. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as outback adventurer Michael "Crocodile" Dundee in Crocodile Dundee, the first in the Crocodile Dundee film series. He married American actress Linda Kozlowski, after meeting her on the set of Crocodile Dundee.

1941 - Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. ((né Burns), American civil rights activist, baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He is the founder of the organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH.

1943 - Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase, American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He became a key cast member in the first season of Saturday Night Live, where his recurring Weekend Update segment became a staple of the show. As both a performer and writer, he earned three Primetime Emmy Awards out of five nominations. Chase had his first leading film role in the comedy Foul Play, earning two Golden Globe Award nominations. He is also known for his portrayals of Clark W. Griswold in five National Lampoon's Vacation films and Irwin "Fletch" Fletcher in Fletch and its sequel Fletch Lives. Other prominent film titles followed. He hosted the Academy Awards twice, and briefly, had his own late-night talk show, The Chevy Chase Show.

1956 - Stephanie Zimbalist, American actress in film, television and theater, best known for her role as Laura Holt in the NBC detective series Remington Steele. Zimbalist took roles in plays concerning 19th century artists including Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Van Gogh. She attended the Juilliard School before commencing her acting career. Her paternal grandfather, Efrem Zimbalist, was a world-famous concert violinist, music teacher at the Curtis Institute, and a composer. Her paternal grandmother, Alma Gluck, was a leading soprano of her day. Zimbalist's aunt, Marcia Davenport, was a prominent author, music journalist and historian. In 2009 she portrayed actress Katharine Hepburn in Tea at Five. Zimbalist has also released audiobooks, including The Girls, which won a Listen-Up award. She appeared in the 2006 documentary Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars, and also played Christa McAuliffe in the play Defying Gravity, written by Jane Anderson.

1970 - Matt Paige Damon, American actor, producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among Forbes' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.12 billion at the North American box office, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. He came to prominence in 1997 when he and Ben Affleck wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting, which won them the Academy and Golden Globe awards for Best Screenplay and earned Damon a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He has received various awards and nominations, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Damon has also performed voice-over work in both animated and documentary films, and has established two production companies with Affleck. He has been actively involved in charitable work with organizations.

Leftie:
Actress Stephanie Zimbalist

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

Featuring the music of Toru Takemitsu:

From me flows what you call time. Uploaded by Silicua hibrido. Accessed October 8, 2017.

Historical Events

1871 - The Great Chicago Fire starts, killing 300 people and leaving 100,000 homeless.

1908 - The book The Wind in the Willows, written by Kenneth Grahame, is published. It becomes a classic, introducing the world to Rat, Mole and the wonderful Mr. Toad.

1998 - Oslo's modern, larger Gardermoen Airport opens, taking over from Fornebu as Norway's gateway to the world.

2004 - Martha Stewart, business magnate and media personality, goes to jail for "obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale."

2005 - A 7.6 magnitude earthquake hits mountainous Northern Pakistan and India, with epicenter in Kashmir, killing 87,350 people.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

October 7 Dateline

2026-10-06T16:00:00.000-04:00

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

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.

1919 - Airline KLM is founded by pilot Albert Plesman in the Netherlands.

1931 - The first infrared photograph is taken in Rochester, New York. This process allows pictures to be taken in total darkness.

1982 - The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical CATS opens on Broadway. It is based on T.S. Eliot's book of children's poems, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, published in 1939. Lloyd-Webber's CATS which opened at the Winter Garden Theatre went on to be seen by more than 10 million people during its 18-year Broadway run. CATS had its final curtain call on Broadway on September 10, 2000. The winner of seven Tony Awards, it still holds top honors, followed by Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables, as Broadway's longest-running show.

Resources:

October 6 Dateline

2026-10-05T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1820 - Jenny Lind, (born Johanna Maria Lind), Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily popular concert tour of the United States beginning in 1850.) She became famous after her performance in Der Freischütz in Sweden in 1838. Within a few years, she had suffered vocal damage, but the singing teacher Manuel García saved her voice. She was in great demand in opera roles throughout Sweden and northern Europe during the 1840s, and was closely associated with Felix Mendelssohn. After two acclaimed seasons in London, she announced her retirement from opera at the age of 29.

1846 - George Westinghouse, Jr., American entrepreneur and engineer based in Pennsylvania who created the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry, receiving his first patent at the age of 19. Westinghouse saw the potential of using alternating current for electric power distribution in the early 1880s, putting his business in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who marketed direct current for electric power distribution. In 1911 Westinghouse received the American Institute of Electrical Engineers's (AIEE) Edison Medal "For meritorious achievement in connection with the development of the alternating current system."

1887 - Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930. His career spanned five decades, and he designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, and North and South America.

1908 - Carole Lombard, American actress, (born Jane Alice Peters), noted for her roles in screwball comedies. She was the highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her 23rd on its list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema. After a successful appearance in The Arizona Kid, she was signed to a contract with Paramount Pictures. Paramount began casting her as a leading lady, mainly in drama films. Her profile increased when she married William Powell, but the couple divorced amicably after two years. A turning point in Lombard's career came when she starred in Howard Hawks's pioneering screwball comedy Twentieth Century. She continued to appear in films forming a popular partnership with Fred MacMurray. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in My Man Godfrey. Lombard married "The King of Hollywood", Clark Gable, and the super couple gained much attention from the media.

1931 - Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-American Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist who laid down the foundations of X-ray astronomy. He was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University. Giacconi was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002 "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, which have led to the discovery of cosmic X-ray sources". The other shares of the Prize in that year were awarded to Masatoshi Koshiba and Raymond Davis, Jr. for neutrino astronomy. Giacconi held the positions of professor of physics and astronomy (1982–1997) and research professor (from 1998 to his death in 2018) at Johns Hopkins University, and was a university professor. During the 2000s he was principal investigator for the major Chandra Deep Field-South project with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

1942 - Britt Ekland, Swedish actress and singer. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday, including roles in William Friedkin's The Night They Raided Minsky's, and the British crime film Get Carter, which established her as a movie sex symbol. She also starred in the British cult horror film The Wicker Man and appeared as a Bond girl in The Man with the Golden Gun. Her high-profile social life and her 1964 marriage to actor Peter Sellers attracted considerable press attention, leading to her being one of the most photographed celebrities in the world during the 1970s.

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1600 - Jacopo Peri's opera Euridice, written for the wedding of Maria de Medici and Henry IV of France, is performed in Florence, Italy. Her uncle, Duke of Tuscany, is proxy for Henry, who was not allowed to leave his country.

1769 - Captain James Cook discovers New Zealand, amazing the Maoris with this claim. Decades of fighting follow as they argue about it.

1802 - Composer Ludwig van Beethoven, increasingly deaf at this time, writes his Will, the "Heiligenstadt Testament."

1889 - Thomas Alva Edison shows his first motion picture on a predecessor to the modern film projector.

1927 - Opening on Broadway, the first feature-length talking movie, The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson.

1937 - In a letter to American writer E.B. White from Europe, cartoonist, writer and celebrated wit James Thurber writes: "Up in Warsaw, owls attacked an old woman who was just walking along the road. Owl knows what they are doing, too."

1995 - The planet Bellerophon is found orbiting 51 Pegasi.

2000 - Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia, is forced to resign after a public rebellion.

Resources:

October 5 Dateline

2026-10-04T15:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1829 - Chester A. Arthur, American attorney and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States, from 1881 to 1885. Previously the 20th vice president, he succeeded to the presidency upon the death of President James A. Garfield in September 1881, two months after Garfield was shot by an assassin.

1902 - Larry Fine (born Louis Feinberg), American actor, comedian, violinist, and boxer, best known as a member of the comedy act the Three Stooges.

1902 - Ray Albert Kroc, American businessman, fast food entrepreneur, pioneer of MacDonald's chain of food. He joined the California company McDonald's in 1954, after the McDonald brothers had franchised six locations out from their original 1940 operation in San Bernardino. This set the stage for national expansion with the help of Kroc, eventually leading to a global franchise, making it the most successful fast food corporation in the world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a multi-million dollar fortune during his lifetime. He owned the San Diego Padres baseball team from 1974 until his death in 1984.

1919 - Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, English actor. He played supporting and character roles including RAF Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape (1963), the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), SEN 5241 in THX 1138, and the deranged Clarence "Doc" Tydon in Wake in Fright (1971). Pleasence gained widespread recognition for his role as psychiatrist Dr Samuel Loomis in Halloween and four of its sequels, a role for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor. He collaborated with Halloween director, John Carpenter, twice more, as the President of the United States in Escape from New York, and as the Priest in Prince of Darkness.

1933 - Diane Cilento, Australian actress and producer, Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for her portrayal of Molly Seagrim in Tom Jones. Her other films include: The Admirable Crichton, The Agony and the Ecstasy, and Hombre. Cilento studied at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her stage debut in 1953. She earned a Tony Award nomination (1956) on Broadway as Helen of Troy in Jean Giraudoux’s Tiger at the Gates. Cilento achieved minor celebrity status in the 1960s when her second husband, actor Sean Connery, starred in a series of James Bond movies. She later married (1985) playwright Anthony Shaffer, whom she met while filming The Wicker Man, for which he wrote the screenplay. The pair settled in Queensland, where she founded and ran the open-air Karnak Theatre. She also wrote two novels and an autobiography, My Nine Lives (2006). Cilento was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal in 2001.

1951 - Bob Geldof, KBE (Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof), Irish singer-songwriter, author, political activist, and occasional actor. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s. The band had UK number one hits with his compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays". Geldof co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles of all time, and starred in Pink Floyd's 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall as "Pink". He is widely recognised for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa.

1967 - Guy Edward Pearce, British-Australian actor, musician, singer and songwriter. He starred in the role of Mike Young in the Australian television series Neighbours and for appearing in films such as The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, L.A. Confidential, Ravenous, Memento, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Time Machine, The Road, The King's Speech, 33 Postcards, Prometheus, and Iron Man 3. He has won a Primetime Emmy Award and received nominations for Golden Globe Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and AACTA Awards. Since 2012, he has played the title role in the TV adaptations of the Jack Irish stories by Australian crime writer Peter Temple.

1975 - Kate Elizabeth Winslet, English actress. She is known for her work in period dramas, and often portrays angst-ridden women. Winslet is the recipient of various accolades, including three British Academy Film Awards, and is among the few performers to have won Academy, Emmy, and Grammy Awards. She made her film debut playing a teenage murderess in Heavenly Creatures, and received her first BAFTA Award for playing Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility. Global stardom followed soon after with her leading role in the epic romance Titanic (1997). It was the highest-grossing film of all time to that point. For her narration of a short story in the audiobook Listen to the Storyteller (1999), Winslet won a Grammy Award. A co-founder of the charity Golden Hat Foundation, which aims to create autism awareness, she has written a book on the topic, The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism (2010). Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2009, and in 2012, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Lefties:
Comedian and Actor Larry Fine
Musician and Political Activist Bob Geldof

Death:

2026 - Jeffrey Archer, English bestseller novelist and politician.

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

Historical Events

1936 - The first installment of The Harvest Gypsies, a series of articles by John Steinbeck (famous for The Grapes of Wrath) about the migrant workers pouring into California - where armed guards often try to keep them out - is published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

1905 - Wilbur Wright sets a world record in Flyer III with 39 minutes in the air for a flight of 24 1/2 miles (39 km.)

1947 - U.S. President Harry S. Truman gives the first televised White House address, in which he asks citizens to refrain from eating meat on Tuesdays and poultry on Thursdays to help stockpile grain for starving Europeans.

2001 - A man from Boca Raton, Florida, dies of anthrax poisoning when he receives a contaminated mail.

Resources:

October 4 Dateline

2026-10-03T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1626 - Richard Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, English statesman who was the second Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland and son of the first Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. On his father's death Richard became Lord Protector but lacked authority. He tried to mediate between the army and civil society and allowed a Parliament containing many disaffected Presbyterians and Royalists to sit. Suspicions that civilian councillors were intent on supplanting the army were brought to a head by an attempt to prosecute a major-general for actions against a Royalist. The army made a threatening show of force against Richard and may have had him in detention. He formally renounced power nine months after succeeding.

1814 - Jean-Francois Millet, French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his scenes of peasant farmers; he can be categorized as part of the Realism art movement. (The Complete Works of Jean-Francois Millet. Uploaded by 1st Gallery com. The Pain of Pastoral Life: Millet's Impact on Vincent van Gogh. Uploaded by Fora.tv. Accessed October 4, 2023.)

1924 - Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter), American Actor and Political Activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film The Ten Commandments (1956), for which he received his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. He starred in The Greatest Show on Earth, Secret of the Incas, Touch of Evil, The Big Country, Ben-Hur (1959), for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor, El Cid, The Greatest Story Ever Told, and Planet of the Apes. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak against racism, and was an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. He left the Democratic Party in 1971 to become a Republican, founding a conservative political action committee and supporting Ronald Reagan. Heston was a five-term president of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

1941 - Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien), pen name Anne Rampling, A. N. Roquelaure, American Author of gothic fiction, Christian literature, and erotic literature. She is best known for her series of novels The Vampire Chronicles, of which books from it were the subject of two film adaptations, Interview with the Vampire, and Queen of the Damned. Rice has also authored books such as The Feast of All Saints (adapted for television in 2001) and Servant of the Bones, which formed the basis of a 2011 comic book miniseries. Rice has also authored erotic fiction under the pen names Anne Rampling and A. N. Roquelaure, including Exit to Eden, which was later adapted into a film. Rice's books have sold nearly 100 million copies, placing her among the most popular authors in recent American history.

1946 - Susan Abigail Sarandon ( (née Tomalin), American Actress. She has received an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards. Sarandon was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and received the Action Against Hunger Humanitarian Award in 2006. Sarandon won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Dead Man Walking (1995). She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Client, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress for Dead Man Walking. Sarandon made her Broadway debut in the play An Evening with Richard Nixon and went on to receive Drama Desk Award nominations for the Off-Broadway plays A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking and Extremities. On TV, Sarandon is a six-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee, including for her guest roles on the sitcoms Friends and Malcolm in the Middle, as well as supporting role in the film You Don't Know Jack. She was also nominated for her leading roles as Doris Duke in the film Bernard and Doris (2008) and Bette Davis in the miniseries Feud.

Lefties:
None known

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

Featured Music:

D. Shostakovich's Cello concerto No. 1 in E-flat major.
Performed by hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra), conducted by Stanisław Skrowaczewski, performs Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. Johannes Moser, Violoncello.

Historical Events

1537 - The book of Matthew in the Holy Bible is printed under the pseudonym Thomas Matthew. It is the first complete English Bible which is translated from the original languages.

1582 - The Gregorian calendar is decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, and today this year is followed by October 15 in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Poland.

1824 - Mexico becomes a republic.

1957 - Russian satellite Sputnik I is launched, becoming the first artificial object to leave Earth's atmosphere. Along with the first probe to planet Venus, the first man and woman in space and the first moon probe, this is the beginning of a period of achievement so incredible that forced the U.S. to catch up.

1959 - Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concert No. 1 is first performed, in Leningrad.

Video Credit:

Schostakowitsch: 1. Cellokonzert ∙ Johannes Moser ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Stanisław Skrowaczewski. YouTube, uploaded by hr-Sinfonieorchester - Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. (hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra)∙ Johannes Moser, Violoncello∙ Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Dirigent).

Resources:

October 3 Dateline

2026-10-02T17:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1900 - Thomas Clayton Wolfe, American novelist of the early 20th century. He wrote four lengthy novels as well as many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. Wolfe's influence extends to the writings of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, and of authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others. He remains an important writer in modern American literature, as one of the first masters of autobiographical fiction, and is considered North Carolina's most famous writer.

1916 - James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS, known by the pen name 'James Herriot', British veterinary surgeon and writer. He used his many years of experiences as a veterinary surgeon to write a series of books consisting of stories about animals and their owners. He wrote humourous books. Best known for It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet and If Only They Could Talk.

1925 - Gore Vidal, American writer, political commentator and essayist, a public intellectual known for his patrician manner, epigrammatic wit, and polished style of writing. As a public intellectual, Gore Vidal's topical debates delve on sex, politics, and religion. Vidal thought all men and women are potentially bisexual. As a novelist, Vidal explored the nature of corruption in public and private life. His third novel, The City and the Pillar, offended the literary, political, and moral sensibilities of conservative book reviewers, the plot being about a dispassionately presented male homosexual relationship. In the historical novel genre, he re-created the imperial world of Julian the Apostate (r. AD 361–63) in Julian, Julian, the Roman emperor who used general religious toleration to re-establish pagan polytheism to counter the political subversion of Christian monotheism. In social satire, Myra Breckinridge explores the mutability of gender role and sexual orientation as being social constructs established by social mores. In Burr and Lincoln, the protagonist is presented as "A Man of the People" and as "A Man" in a narrative exploration of how the facets of personality affect the U.S. national politics.

1936 - Steve Reich, American composer who, along with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass, pioneered minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. (Steve Reich: Variations for Winds, Strings, Keyboards. A complete recording by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Edo De Waart in 1983. Uploaded by R D Jazzboy. Accessed October 3, 2019.)

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1789 - U.S. President George Washington proclaims the first Thanksgiving Day, setting aside November 26 as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.

1895 - Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is published in book form.

1900 - Sir Edward Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius is first performed, conducted by Hans Richter at Birmingham Festival. It is regarded as Elgar's masterpiece.

1962 - Spacecraft Sigma 7, manned by astronaut Walter "Wally" Schirra, completes six Earth orbits, a part of NASA's Mercury 8 Project.

1990 - Reunification of Germany. East Germany and West Germany reunite to become the Federal Republic of Germany.The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).

2004 - The movie "Desperate Housewives" premieres in the U.S. with phenomenal success. It stars Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Nicollette Sheridan, and Marcia Cross.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

2. Bitannica. www.britannica.com
3. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
4. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
5. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
6. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

(c) June 2007. Updated October 3, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

October 2 Dateline

2026-10-01T17:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1869 - Mahatma Gandhi, (full name: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi), Indian political leader of the Indian Independence Movement in British-ruled India. Indian Lawyer, anti-colonial Nationalist, and Political Ethicist. He employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British Rule, and in turn inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. (Mahatma - A Great Soul of the 20th Century. Uploaded by Indian Diplomacy. Accessed October 2, 2019.)

1890 - Groucho Marx (born Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx), American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star. He is considered a master of quick wit and one of America's greatest comedians. He made 13 feature films as a team with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born. He also had a successful solo career, notably as the host of the game show You Bet Your Life. His distinctive appearance included quirks such as an exaggerated stooped posture, spectacles, cigar, a thick greasepaint mustache, and eyebrows. These exaggerated features resulted in the creation of one of the most recognizable and ubiquitous novelty disguises, known as Groucho glasses: a one-piece mask consisting of horn-rimmed glasses, a large plastic nose, bushy eyebrows and mustache.

1895 - Bud Abbott (born William Alexander Abbott, American comedian, the other half of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello. Groucho Marx declared Abbott "the greatest straight man ever."

1945 - Don McLean, American singer-songwriter, best known for his 1971 hit song "American Pie". His other hit singles include "Vincent" (US #12, UK #1 in 1972), "Dreidel" (US #21 in 1972), a rendition of Roy Orbison's "Crying" (US #5, UK #1 in 1980), a rendition of the Skyliners' "Since I Don't Have You" (US #23 in 1980), and "Wonderful Baby" (US AC #1 in 1975). His composition "And I Love You So" has been sung by Elvis Presley, Perry Como, Helen Reddy, Glen Campbell, and others, and in 2000, Madonna had a hit with a rendition of "American Pie". In 2004, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. (Don McLean - The Meaning of American Pie (Update). Uploaded by lonestarsound. Don McLean - Vincent ( Starry, Starry Night) With Lyrics. Uploaded by wysty67. Accessed October 2, 2014.)

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1836 - British naturalist Charles Darwin completes his journey of four years, nine months and five days on H.M.S. Beagle to South America, where he collects data and specimens for research into his evolution theory.

1890 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's comic opera, Bastien und Bastienne (Bastien and Bastienne), K. 50 (revised in 1964 to K. 46b) is known to be first performed this day at Architektenhaus in Berlin. It's a one-act singspiel, a form of German light opera, typically with spoken dialogue, popular especially in the 18th century. It was one of the earliest operas written by Mozart in 1768 when he was only 12 years old.

1913 - Frederick Delius's two orchestral works "Summer Night on the River and "On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring" are first performed, in Leipzig.

1950 - The syndicated daily comic strip Peanuts, by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, is first printed in seven U.S. newspapers that continues until the year 2000 (Schulz's death).

1968 - Ten days of demonstrations before the Olympic Dames in Mexico City end in the Tlatelolco Massacre; 300 civilians are killed by army and police personnel.

1974 - American scientists announce that cannabis (plant Cannabis sativa) causes brain damage, after testing monkeys' reactions to the drug.

1991 - Joseph Brodsky, Nobel Laureate in Literature 1987, delivers his first lecture as U.S. poet laureate at the Library of Congress: "By failing to read or listen to poets, society dooms itself to inferior modes of articulation, those of the politician or the salesman or the charlatan."

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

October 1 Dateline

2026-09-30T16:30:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1881 - William Edward Boeing, American Aviator, aviation pioneer who founded The Boeing Company in 1916.

1903 - Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz, Russian-born American Classical pianist and composer, who lived most of his life in the United States. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. He was acclaimed for his virtuoso technique, his tone color, and the excitement engendered by his playing. (Horowitz Rachmaninoff 3rd Concerto Mehta NYPO 1978. YouTube, uploaded by Pedro Taam.)

1920 - Walter Matthau (born Walter John Matthow), American actor. He is most popularly known for his film roles opposite Jack Lemmon, playing Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, and its sequel, The Odd Couple II. Matthau also appeared opposite Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Charade, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie. Aside from the Oscar, he won BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony awards. His performances in Hopscotch (1980) and First Monday in October (1981) earned him nominations for the Golden Globe Best Actor—Motion Picture Musical or Comedy two years in a row. On Broadway, Matthau originated the role of Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple play by playwright Neil Simon in 1965.

1921 - James Whitmore (James Allen Whitmore Jr.), American film, theatre, and television actor. During his career, Whitmore won three of the four EGOT honors: an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony. Whitmore also won a Golden Globe and was nominated for two Academy Awards.

1924 - Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter Jr.), 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. He's a politician, philanthropist, and former farmer. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. Since leaving the presidency, Carter has remained engaged in political and social projects as a private citizen. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.

1930 - Sir Richard John Harris, Irish actor and singer. He appeared on stage and in many films, appearing as Frank Machin in This Sporting Life, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and King Arthur in the 1967 film Camelot, as well as the 1981 revival of the stage musical. (Camelot (1967). He played an aristocrat captured by Native Americans in A Man Called Horse (1970), a gunfighter in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992), Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator (2000), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) as Abbé Faria, and Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films. Harris had a number-one singing hit in Australia, Jamaica and Canada, and a top-ten hit in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and United States with his 1968 recording of Jimmy Webb's song "MacArthur Park." In 2020, he was listed at number 3 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. "I wonder what the King is doing tonight". Sung by Richard Harris, as King Arthur. Accessed October 1, 2018.)

1935 - Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells), English actress, singer and author. She appeared in the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in The Boy Friend. She is famous for her roles as Maria in The Sound of Music and as Mary Poppins in the title role. She rose to prominence starring in Broadway musicals such as My Fair Lady (1956) playing Eliza Doolittle, and Camelot (1960) playing Queen Guinevere. In 1957, Andrews starred in the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's written-for-television musical Cinderella, a live, network broadcast seen by over 100 million viewers. Andrews has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA, five Golden Globes, three Grammys, two Emmys, the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honors Award, and the Disney Legends Award. She is also an author of children's books and has published an autobiography, Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (2008). (Julie Andrews Sings Her Favourite Songs. Uploaded by TheMissingReels. Accessed October 1, 2017. Julie Andrews Accepts the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award. YouTube, uploaded by AFI. Accessed June 30, 2022.)

Lefties:
Actor James Whitmore

More birthdays and historical events, October 1 - On This Day

Featuring:

Celebrating the birthday of incomparable Dame Julie Andrews. Below is a video: Talking Pictures: Julie Andrews, with interviews from archive and classic clips of her life and career. Uploaded by Simon Ingram. Accessed October 1, 2020.

Historical Events

1869 - Dr. Emanuel Herrmann, Austrian economics professor, sends the world's first postcard. It is "no longer than an envelope, sent open via the mails."

1964 - Bullet Trains, or Shinkansen, begin service in Japan.

1971 - The Walt Disney World Resort opens in Orlando, Florida, in the U.S. It is the second Disney theme park after Disneyland, which opened in California, 1955.

1975 - Muhammad Ali wins his third fight against Joe Frazier in "Thrilla in Manila", and retaining the world heavyweight boxing title.

Video Credit:
Julie Andrews The Hills are Alive. Youtube, Accessed October 1, 2010.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

September 30 Dateline

2026-09-29T17:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1921 - Deborah Kerr, CBE, (born Deborah Jane Trimmer), Scottish actress of film, theatre and television. She won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Anna Leonowens in the musical film The King and I (1956) and a Sarah Siddons Award for her performance as Laura Reynolds in the play Tea and Sympathy (a role she originated on Broadway). She was also a three-time winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and holds the record for an actress nominated in the lead actress category without winning. In 1994, however, having already received honorary awards from the Cannes Film Festival and BAFTA, Kerr received an Academy Honorary Award with a citation recognising her as "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance". (Videos from YouTube: Capturing Deborah Kerr in pure emotions from some of her famous films. D. Kerr Documentary, uploaded by Marmar. Accessed April 30, 2018. Deborah Kerr - Top 10 Best Performances. YouTube, uploaded by The Classic Film Lover's Guide. Accessed September 30, 2022.)

1924 - Truman Capote (born Truman Garcia Capote), American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood, which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." His childhood best friend was Harper Lee, widely known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee and Truman were neighbors in Monroeville and met when they were only about five years old. At first glance, Harper Lee’s friendship with Truman Capote looks unlikely. Lee shied away from publicity while Capote courted it. Lee sought out a quiet life with her sister at home in Alabama, while Capote lived a hard partying, jet-setting existence among celebrities. Capote wrote prolifically, publishing novels, short stories, magazines articles and TV scrips. Lee published one novel in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, and only released her second, Go Set a Watchman, July 14, 2015. Yet these opposites were childhood companions whose bond helped them become two of the most revered American writers of all time.(Truman Capote Reads from his Breakfast at Tiffany's. Uploaded by 92nd Street Y. Accessed September 30, 2019.)

1928 - Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. (Remembering Nobel Laureate and Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel. PBS NewsHour. Accessed September 30, 2015.)

1931 - Angie Dickinson (Angeline Dickinson née Brown), American actress. She began her career on television, appearing in many anthology series during the 1950s, before landing her breakthrough role in Gun the Man Down (1956) with James Arness and the Western film Rio Bravo (1959), for which she received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. She starred in several TV movies and miniseries, also playing supporting roles in films.

1950 - Victoria Tennant - English film and TV actress. She is known for her roles in the TV miniseries The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, in which she appeared as actor Robert Mitchum's on-screen love interest, Pamela Tudsbury. After a number of roles in British and other European films, she emigrated to the United States. Aside from TV mini-series, she appeared in films such as The Handmaid's Tale and Best Seller. She starred in two films with Steve Martin, her future husband: All of Me and L.A. Story. In 2014, she published a memoir about her mother titled Irina Baronova and The Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo.

1952 - Jack Wild, English actor and singer, best known for his debut role as the Artful Dodger in the film Oliver!, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor as well as Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. His performance in Oliver was brilliant and this along with his other work as a child outshone his adult career. (Oliver! - 'What you starin' at?' with Oliver (Mark Lester) and Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and Oliver! - "Reviewing the Situation 2" with Fagin (Ron Moody). Accessed September 30, 2015.)

1957 - Fran Drescher (Born Francine Joy Drescher), American actress, comedian, writer, and activist. She is best known for her role as Fran Fine in the hit TV series The Nanny (1993–99), and for her nasal voice and thick New York accent.

1975 - Marion Cotillard, French actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, a European Film Award, a Lumières Award and two César Awards. She became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010, and was promoted to Officer in 2016. She has served as a spokeswoman for Greenpeace since 2001. In particular, for her portrayal of French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007), Cotillard won her second César Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Lumières Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first and (as of 2023) only actor to win an Academy Award for a French-language performance, and also the second actress to have won this award for a non-English language performance. Cotillard was also the face of the Lady Dior handbag for nine years. Since 2020, she is the face of Chanel's fragrance Chanel No. 5.

1980 - Martina Hingis (born Martina Hingisová), Swiss former professional tennis player. She spent a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1 and 90 weeks as doubles world No. 1, holding both No. 1 rankings simultaneously for 29 weeks. She won 5 Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar-year doubles Grand Slam in 1998, and 7 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles; for a combined total of 25 major titles. She also won the season-ending WTA Finals two times in singles and three times in doubles, an Olympic silver medal, and a record 17 Tier I singles titles.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, September 30 - On This Day

Historical Events

1791 - Austrian wunderkind composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premieres his opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), in Vienna. It is just two months before his death. He doesn't live to see its immense success.

1846 - The use of ether as an anesthetic is recorded for the first time by Boston dentist William Morton, who painlessly removes a tooth.

1868 - The first volume of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is published.

1927 - American baseballer Baby Ruth, famous of the New York Yankees, becomes the first player to hit 60 home runs in a season, a record that stands for 34 years.

1938 - British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is applauded for bringing peace to Europe, after signing a non-aggression deal, the Munich Pact, with Adolf Hitler, who promises Germany will never go to war with Britain again. Eleven months later, Hitler invades Poland, and says the agreement was "just a scrap of paper."

1955 - Actor James Dean dies in a car crash in California a month before his acclaimed film Rebel Without a Cause is released.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

September 29 Dateline

2026-09-28T16:30:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1547 - Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer, best known for his novel Don Quixote. He was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. His novel Don Quixote, is often cited as both the first modern novel and one of the pinnacles of world literature. His first significant novel, titled La Galatea, was published in 1585, but he continued to work as a purchasing agent, and later as government tax collector. His other works include the 12 Novelas ejemplares (Exemplary Novels); a long poem, the Viaje del Parnaso (Journey to Parnassus); and Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses (Eight Plays and Eight Interludes). Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda), was published posthumously in 1616.

1703 - Francois Boucher, French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes. He was one of the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century.

1758 - Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB, also known simply as Admiral Nelson, a British Flag Officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories, particularly during the apoleonic Wars. Aged 35, he was wounded in combat, losing sight in one eye in Corsica, and most of one arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife when he was 40. He was fatally shot during his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. His death at Trafalgar secured his position as one of Britain's most heroic figures. The significance of the victory and his death during the battle led to his signal, "England expects that every man will do his duty", being regularly quoted and referenced up to the modern day. Numerous monuments, including Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London, and the Nelson Monument in Edinburgh, have been created in his memory, and his legacy remains highly influential.

1810 - Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, English Victorian novelist, biographer, and short story writer. The best-known of her remaining novels are Mary Barton (1848), Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.

1901 - Enrico Fermi, Italian and naturalised-American physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". Fermi was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical physics and experimental physics. He held several patents related to the use of nuclear power, and was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of transuranium elements. He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics. (The World of Enrico Fermi. This documentary is part of the collection: Academic Film Archive of North America. Accessed September 29, 2017.)

1903 - Diana Vreeland, French-American columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, being the editor-in-chief of the latter, and as a special consultant at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was named on the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1964.

1904 - Greer Garson, CBE (born Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson), British-American actress and singer. She was a major star at MGM during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homefront. She was also listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top-ten box office draws from 1942 to 1946. Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record-tying five consecutive nominations (1941–45) in the Best Actress category, winning the award for her performance in the title role of the 1942 film Mrs. Miniver.

1931 - Anita Ekberg (born Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg), Swedish actress both in American and European films. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960). Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.

Lefties:
None known

More birthdays and historical events, September 29 - On This Day

Historical Events

1829 - The Metropolitan Police in London becomes the first official police department in the world. It is founded by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, later the Prime Minister.

1902 - In Paris, Émile Zola dies of carbon monoxide poisoning resulting from a faulty chimney.

1918 - Gustav Holst's suite The Planets, for voices and orchestra, premieres in Queen's Hall, London.

1921 - Sigmund Romberg's operetta Blossom Time is first staged, in New York City.

1979 - In the first visit by a reigning Pope, John Paul II, to the Catholic country of Ireland, he calls on the nation to "turn away from the paths of violence and return to the ways of peace."

1988 - NASA launches the space shuttle Discovery, the first to take off since flights were grounded following the Challenger disaster two-and-a-half years earlier.

1995 - The O.J. Simpson criminal trial in Los Angeles is sent to the jury. the former pro footballer is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

1997 - A link between a human brain disease and one found in cows is established by British scientists. It is concluded that a new version of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has infected 21 people, was caused by eating meat infected with BSE or "mad cow disease."

1998 - Stacy Allison becomes the first American woman to conquer Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)

September 28 Dateline

2026-09-27T16:30:00.000-04:00

Famous Birthdays

1573 - Caravaggio, (Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio), Italian Painter active from the early 1590s to 1610. His paintings combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting. He is famous for the intense and unsettling realism of his large-scale religious works. Caravaggio employed close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro. He made the technique a dominant stylistic element, darkening shadows and transfixing subjects in bright shafts of light. Caravaggio vividly expressed crucial moments and scenes, often featuring violent struggles, torture and death. His influence on the new Baroque style that emerged from Mannerism was profound... seen directly or indirectly in the work of Peter Paul Rubens, Jusepe de Ribera, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Rembrandt, and artists in the following generation heavily under his influence were called the "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques", as well as tenebrists or tenebrosi ("shadowists"). (Caravaggio: His life and style in three paintings / National Gallery. Accessed September 28, 2018)

1916 - Peter Finch, English-Australian actor, best remembered for his role as crazed television anchorman Howard Beale in the film Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes.

1924 - Marcello Mastroiani (born Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni), Italian Film Actor, regarded as his country's biggest film star of all time. His films include: La Dolce Vita; 8½; La Notte; Divorce Italian Style; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; Marriage Italian Style; The 10th Victim; A Special Day; City of Women; Henry IV; Dark Eyes and Everybody's Fine. His honours included BAFTAs, Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, two Golden Globes and three Oscar nominations.

1934 - Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, often referred to by her initials B.B., French Former Actress and Singer, and Animal Rights Activist. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated personae with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the best known sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s. Although she withdrew from the entertainment industry in 1973, she remains a major popular culture icon.

1968 - Naomi Ellen Watts, British Actress and Film Producer. She made her film debut in the Australian drama For Love Alone and then appeared in the Australian television series Hey Dad..!, Brides of Christ, Home and Away, and the film Flirting. After moving to the United States, Watts struggled as an actress for years, with appearances in small-scale films. Watts rose to international prominence for playing an aspiring actress in David Lynch's psychological thriller Mulholland Drive and a tormented journalist in the horror remake The Ring. 1972 - Gwyneth Kate Paltrow, American actress, Businesswoman and Author. She has received accolades for her work, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She garnered wider critical acclaim for her performance as Viola de Lesseps in the historical romance film Shakespeare in Love which won her several awards. After becoming a mother, Paltrow reduced her film workload, making occasional appearances in films. In 2009, she received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for the children's audiobook Brown Bear and Friends and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her guest role as Holly Holliday on the Fox musical comedy-drama television series Glee in 2011. Paltrow has been the face of Estée Lauder's Pleasures perfume and Coach fashion brand, owner of Goop, a lifestyle company, and author of several cookbooks.

1987 - Hilary Duff, American Actress, Singer, Businesswoman, Songwriter, Producer, and Writer. She began her acting career at a young age and became labeled a teen idol as the title character of the television series Lizzie McGuire and in the theatrical film based on the series, The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003). She appeared in numerous films She later began appearing in independent films such as War, Inc., According to Greta, and The Haunting of Sharon Tate while serving as executive producer for the latter two. Since 2015, she has starred as Kelsey Peters on the TV Land comedy-drama series Younger, for which she has received nominations for People's Choice Awards in 2016 and 2017. Duff has also been hailed as an inspiration by some subsequent Walt Disney teen stars, and has sold an estimated 15 million records since her debut in 2002.

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1066 - William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invades England to fight King Harold, who believes has stolen the crown from him. He is crowned at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day.

1745 - Around this date, the national anthem 'God Save the King' is sung for the first time in London theatres. The relevant king is George II.

1871 - Brazil passes the Law of Free Womb, which emancipates the children of slaves. Any children born after this date must serve their mothers' masters without any pay from the age of 8 to 21, at which point they become fully free.

1978 - Pope John Paul I is found dead only 33 days after being elected.

1994 - MS Estonia, a car ferry, sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people, while sailing from Estonia to Sweden.

Resources:

1. Asiado, Tel. The World's Movers and Shapers. New Hampshire: Ore Mountain Publishing House (2005)
2. Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 19th Ed. London: Chambers Harrap, 2011
3. Dateline. Sydney: Millennium House, (2006)
4. Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History, New 3rd Revised Ed. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (1991)
5. Wikipedia. en..wikipedia.org

(c) June 2007. Updated September 28, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.