Inspired Pen Web

November 11 Dateline

2026-11-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1821 - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, (sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky), was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His body of work consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories, and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.(Literature - Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Uploaded by The School of Life. Accessed November 11, 2017.)

1869 - Victor Emmanuel III, Italy's last monarch. He also held the thrones of Ethiopia and Albania as Emperor of Ethiopia (1936–1941) and King of the Albanians (1939–1943). During his reign of nearly 46 years, which began after the assassination of his father Umberto I, the Kingdom of Italy became involved in two world wars. His reign encompassed the birth, rise, and fall of Italian Fascism and its regime. He abdicated his throne in 1946 in favour of his son Umberto II, hoping to strengthen support for the Monarchy against an ultimately successful referendum to abolish it. He then went into exile to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died and was buried the following year in Saint Catherines's Cathedral of Alexandria. In 2017 his remains were returned to rest in Italy. Victor Emmanuel was also called by some Italians Sciaboletta ("little saber"), due to his height of 1.53 m (5 ft 0 in), and il Re soldato (the Soldier King), for having led his country during both world wars.

1885 - George Smith Patton, Jr., American general, World War II. Gen. Patton led U.S. troops into the Mediterranean theater with an invasion of Casablanca during Operation Torch in 1942, and soon established himself as an effective commander by rapidly rehabilitating the demoralized U.S. II Corps. He commanded the U.S. Seventh Army during the Allied invasion of Sicily, where he was the first Allied commander to reach Messina. During the Allied occupation of Germany, Patton was named military governor of Bavaria, but was relieved for making aggressive statements towards the Soviet Union. He commanded the United States Fifteenth Army for slightly more than two months. Severely injured in an auto accident, he died in Germany twelve days later, on December 21, 1945.His hard-driving personality and success as a commander were at times overshadowed by his controversial public statements. His emphasis on rapid and aggressive offensive action nonetheless proved effective, and he was regarded highly by his opponents in the German High Command. An award-winning biographical film released in 1970, Patton, helped solidify his image as an American folk hero.

1922 - Kurt Vonnegut Jr., American science-writer. Vonnegut published fourteen novels, three short story collections, five plays, and five works of nonfiction, with further collections being published after his death. He is most famous for his darkly satirical, bestselling novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano, in 1952. Later in his career, Vonnegut published several autobiographical essays and short-story collections, including Fates Worse Than Death (1991), and A Man Without a Country (2005). After his death, he was hailed as a black-humor commentator on the society in which he lived and as one of the most important contemporary writers.

1962 - Demi Gene Moore (née Guynes), American actress and film producer. She gained recognition as a member of the Brat Pack with roles in Blame It on Rio, St. Elmo's Fire, and About Last Night.... Her starring role in Ghost, the highest-grossing film of that year, earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She had further box-office success in the early 1990s, with the films A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal, and Disclosure. In 1996, Moore became the highest-paid actress in film history when she received an unprecedented $12.5 million to star in the critically-reviled Striptease. Her next major role, G.I. Jane, was followed by a lengthy hiatus and significant downturn in Moore's career. Intermittently, she has held leading roles in the independent films Passion of Mind, Flawless and Blind. In 2019, Moore released a memoir titled Inside Out, which became a New York Times Best Seller. Moore has been married three times, to the musician Freddy Moore and the actors Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher. She has three children with Willis.

1962 - James Lloyd Morrison, AM, Australian jazz musician. Although his main instrument is trumpet, he has also performed on trombone, tuba, euphonium, flugelhorn, saxophone, clarinet, double bass, guitar, and piano. He is a composer, writing jazz charts for ensembles. He composed and performed the opening fanfare at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. In 2009, he joined Steve Pizzati and Warren Brown as a presenter on Top Gear Australia. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2010 Morrison and a cappella group, The Idea of North, won Best Jazz Album, for their collaboration on Feels Like Spring. In 2012 Morrison was appointed as Artistic Director of the Queensland Music Festival for the 2013 and 2015 festivals. He was inducted into the Graeme Bell Hall of Fame 2013 at the Australian Jazz Bell Awards. In July 2013 he conducted the World's Largest Orchestra in Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, consisting of 7,224 musicians.In March 2015 Morrison opened the James Morrison Academy of Music in Mount Gambier, South Australia – a tertiary level school offering a degree in jazz performance.

1974 - Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio, American actor, producer and environmentalist. He achieved international stardom in the epic romance Titanic, which became the highest-grossing film to that point. He starred in two successful features in 2002: the biographical crime drama Catch Me If You Can and the historical drama Gangs of New York, which marked his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese. DiCaprio portrayed Howard Hughes in The Aviator and continued to receive acclaim for his other performances. In the 2010s, he starred in films, all of which were critical and commercial successes. His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and a Golden Globe Award for The Revenant as well as two other Golden Globes for The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street. DiCaprio is the founder of Appian Way Productions that has produced some of his films and the documentary series Greensburg, and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness. He supports charitable causes and has produced several documentaries on the environment. In 2005, he was named the commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contributions to the arts, and in 2016, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine.

Lefties:
1962 - Demi Moore, Actress
1885 - George S. Patton, Jr., General

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

Celebrating Remembrance Day (informally known as Poppy Day) observed on 11 November to recall the end of hostilities of WWI, in 1918. It is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations member states since the end of the First World War to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Following a tradition inaugurated by King George V in 1919, the day is also marked by war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth countries. Hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month," in accordance with the armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente between 5:12 and 5:20 that morning. ("At the 11th hour" refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 am.) The First World War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919. (Source: en.wikipedia.org)

Historical Events

1906 - Dame Ethel Smyth's opera The Wreckers is first produced in a German version in Leipzig and titled Strandrecht.

A video of The Wreckers Overture (Youtube, uploaded by BARSymphony. Accessed November 11, 2017. Dawn Harms, Music Director and Conductor, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony performance at SF Conservatory of Music June 14, 2014.

1918 - Armistice Day. Germany signs a treaty with the Allies in a railway carriage outside Compiegne in France, bringing World War I to a close on the Western Front. Hostilities officially cease at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Also, on the closest Sunday, silence is held and members of the government and opposition lay wreaths at the cenopath in London in memory of the British who died during the war. Since that day, a 2-minute silence is held at 11 AM on the 11th day of the 11th month.

1975 - The elected Federal Government in Australia is dismissed by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr.

1977 - Greek archaeologists announce that the recently discovered tomb in Vergina holds Macedonian King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

2000 - In the Austrian Alps at Kaprun, a funicular train catches on fire in a tunnel leading to ski fields. Around 155 people die in the fierce blaze.

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 November 11, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

November 10 Dateline

2026-11-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1483 - Martin Luther, German founder of Protestant Reformation, Catholic church reformer (Luther and the Protestant Reformation, YouTube, uploaded by CrashCourse. Accessed November 10, 2015), hymn writer, and considered the "Father of Hymn-Singing" as important part of Protestant worship. Felix Mendelssohn and J.S. Bach wrote music reflecting the significance of music in the Reformation. Bach wrote Cantata No. 80, Ein' feste Burg, for the bicentennial of the Lutheran Church. Mendelssohn composed The Reformation Symphony intended to celebrate the 1830 Augsburg Confession, and The Lobgesang, or "Song of Praise" (Symphony No. 2), that marked the 400th anniversary in 1840 of Gutenberg's printing invention, which greatly helped the Reformation possible. (Hymn history of "A Mighty Fortress is our God", with text and music by Martin Luther. YouTube, uploaded by David Duerr. Accessed Noveember 10, 2018. Felix Mendelssohn honoured Martin Luther with his magnificent Symphony No. 5 in D Major, Op. 107, "Reformation": IV. Choral: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott: A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. Performed by Ireland National Symphony Orchestra, Reinhard Seifried, conducting.) YouTube, uploaded by Classical Gold Music. Accessed November 10, 2021.)

1668 - Francois Couperin, French Baroque organist, harpsichordist, and composer. He was known as Couperin le Grand ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family. He acknowledged his debt to the Italian composer Corelli and introduced Corelli's trio sonata form to France. Couperin's most famous book, L'art de toucher le clavecin ("The Art of Harpsichord Playing"), contains suggestions for fingerings, touch, ornamentation and other features of keyboard technique. He influenced later future prominent composers: Couperin's four volumes of harpsichord music, published in Paris in 1713, 1717, 1722, and 1730, contain over 230 individual pieces, and he also published a book of Concerts Royaux which can be played as solo harpsichord pieces or as small chamber works. The four collections for harpsichord alone are grouped into ordres, a synonym of suites, containing traditional dances as well as pieces with descriptive titles. These volumes were admired by JS Bach, who exchanged letters with Couperin, and later by Brahms, Richard Strauss, and by Ravel, the latter of whom memorialized the composer in Le Tombeau de Couperin (Couperin's Memorial). Many of Couperin's keyboard pieces have evocative, picturesque titles (such as "The little windmills" and "The mysterious barricades") and express a mood through key choices and adventurous harmonies.

1697 - William Hogarth, FRSA, English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects". He is perhaps best known for his series A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian". Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving, his works are mostly satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual, mostly of realistic portraiture. They became popular and mass-produced via prints in his lifetime, and he was the most significant English artist of his generation. Charles Lamb deemed Hogarth's images to be books, filled with "the teeming, fruitful, suggestive meaning of words. Other pictures we look at; his pictures we read."

1759 - (Johann Christoph) Friedrich von Schiller, German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents of their philosophical vision. Famous composers set their music from Schiller's poems: Beethoven's setting of "An die Freude" (Ode to Joy) in the final movement of his Ninth Symphony, Johannes Brahms' choral setting of "Nänie" and "Des Mädchens Klage" by Franz Schubert, who set 44 of Schiller's poems as Lieder, mostly for voice and piano, also including "Die Bürgschaft". Giuseppe Verdi admired Schiller greatly and adapted several of his stage plays for his operas: I masnadieri is based on The Robbers; Giovanna d'Arco on The Maid of Orleans; Luisa Miller on Intrigue and Love; La forza del destino is based partly on Wallenstein; and Don Carlos on the play of the same title. Donizetti's Maria Stuarda is based on Mary Stuart, and Rossini's Guillaume Tell is an adaptation of William Tell. Tchaikovsky's 1881 opera The Maid of Orleans is partly based on Schiller's work. The 20th-century composer Giselher Klebe adapted The Robbers for his first opera of the same name, which premiered in 1957.

1893 - John Phillips Marquand, American writer, Pulitzer Prize winner (The Late George Apley and the Mr. Moto detective stories). Originally best known for his Mr. Moto spy stories, he achieved popular success and critical respect for his satirical novels, winning a Pulitzer Prize for The Late George Apley in 1938. One of his abiding themes was the confining nature of life in America's upper class and among those who aspired to join it. Marquand treated those whose lives were bound by these unwritten codes with a characteristic mix of respect and satire.

1925 - Richard Burton, CBE, Welsh actor. Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and giving a memorable performance of Hamlet in 1964. He was called "the natural successor to Olivier" by critic and dramaturge Kenneth Tynan. Burton was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, but never won an Oscar. He was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globes, and Tony Awards for Best Actor. In the mid-1960s, Burton ascended into the ranks of the top box office stars. By the late 1960s, Burton was one of the highest-paid actors in the world, receiving fees of $1 million or more plus a share of the gross receipts. He remained closely associated in the public consciousness with his second wife, actress Elizabeth Taylor.

1928 - Ennio Morricone, OMRI, Knight Grand Cross. Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpet player, who writes music in a wide range of styles. Morricone composed over 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as over 100 classical works. His score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is considered one of the most influential soundtracks in history and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. His filmography includes over 70 award-winning films, all Sergio Leone's films since A Fistful of Dollars, all Giuseppe Tornatore's films since Cinema Paradiso, The Battle of Algiers, Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy, 1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven, several major films in French cinema, as well as The Thing, Once Upon A Time In America, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of Fire, Bulworth, Ripley's Game and The Hateful Eight. (Ennio Morricone - Cinema Paradiso (The Original Soundtrack)(Official Audio), YouTube, accessed Nov. 10, 2018.) Ennio Morricone - Concerto Arena di Verona - 28 Settembre 2002. YouTube, uploaded by Paolo Gavi. Accessed November 10, 2022.

1944 - Sir Tim Rice, English lyricist, author and multi-awarded lyricist: Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Emmy Award, Tony Award, and Grammy Award. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber; Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson of ABBA, and for his work with Alan Menken. He also worked with famous musicians like Elton John and Ennio Morricone.

1949 - Ann Reinking, American dancer, actress, choreographer and singer. She worked in musical theater, starring in Broadway productions such as Coco, Over Here!, Goodtime Charley, Chicago, Dancin' and Sweet Charity. Reinking won the Tony Award for Best Choreography for her work in the 1996 revival of Chicago, which she choreographed while reprising the role of Roxie Hart. For the 2000 West End production of Fosse, she won the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer. She also appeared in the films All That Jazz, Annie, and Micki & Maude.

Leftie:
None known

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

Featured Hymn:

Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." YouTube, uploaded by Christian Praise and Worship. Accessed November 10, 2017.

Historical Events

1775 - The Continental Marines, later renamed the U.S. Marine Corps, is founded early in the War of American Independence to serve with the new Continental Navy.

1862 - Verdi's opera La forza del destino, opens in St Petersburg. This work was commissioned by the Russian Imperial Opera. Below is Verdi's Overture of La forza del destino, performed by Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia - Lorin Maazel, director. Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña, May 17, 2012. Mozart Festival.

1871 - American journalist Henry Stanley is sent to Africa by his newspaper to find the lost Scottish missionary Dr. David Livingstone. This day, Stanley finds the man and famously says, "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?"

1928 - Michinomiya Hirohito is crowned the 124th Emperor of japan. He was Emperor until his death in 1989.

1970 - The Great Wall of China is opened to foreign tourists for the first time. Its construction began under orders from the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang Di, in around 220 B.C.E. and was last built in the 17th century. It is billed as the only artificial structure visible from space. Now, around 10,000 people visit the Great Wall each day.

1995 - Massive avalanches in the Everest region of Himalayas caused by heavy snowfalls trap close to 600 people. Thirty two Nepalese and twenty four tourists are found dead.

Video Credit:

The 95 Theses. YouTube, uploaded by Ryan Reeves. Accessed November 11, 2016

G. Verdi: La forza del destino (obertura) - Maazel - Sinfónica de Galicia. Youtube, uploaded by SinfonicadeGalicia. Accessed November 10, 2017.

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 November 10, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

November 9 Dateline

2026-11-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1841 - Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and her consort Albert, King of the UK of Great Britain and Ireland and the first Emperor of India, whose reign is later known as the Edwardian Period, 1901 to 1910. He was Prince of Wales and heir apparent to the British throne for almost 60 years. During the long reign of his mother, he was largely excluded from political power, but came to personify the fashionable, leisured elite. He travelled throughout Britain performing ceremonial public duties, and represented Britain on visits abroad. His tours of North America in 1860 and the Indian subcontinent in 1875 were popular successes, but despite public approval, his reputation as a playboy prince soured his relationship with his mother. As king, Edward played a role in the modernisation of the British Home Fleet and the reorganisation of the British Army after the Second Boer War. He re-instituted traditional ceremonies as public displays and broadened the range of people with whom royalty socialised. He fostered good relations between Britain and other European countries, especially France, popularly calling him "Peacemaker", but his relationship with his nephew, the German Emperor Wilhelm II, was poor. The Edwardian era, which covered Edward's reign and was named after him, coincided with the start of a new century and heralded significant changes in technology and society, including steam turbine propulsion and the rise of socialism.

1914 - Hedy Lamarr (born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler), Austrian-American actress, inventor, and film Producer. Aside from being a film actress, she co-invented an early version of frequency-hopping spread spectrum. In 1937, she fled from her wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer husband, secretly moving to Paris and then to London. There she met Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood and promoted as "the world's most beautiful woman". She became a star with her performance in Algiers, her first film made in the United States. She starred opposite famous actors like Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart. Dismayed by being typecast, Lamarr co-founded a new production studio and starred in its films. Her greatest success was as Delilah in Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah (1949). She also acted on television before the release of her final film, The Female Animal . in 1960, she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. Lamarr shared her concept for using “frequency hopping” with the U.S. Navy and co-developed a patent with Antheil in 1941. Today, her innovation helped make possible a wide range of wireless communications technologies, including Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth. (The brilliant mind of Hollywood legend actress Hedy Lamarr. Uploaded by PBS NewsHour. Accessed November 9, 2020.)

1928 - Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey), American poet known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book Live or Die. Her poetry details her long battle with depression, suicidal tendencies, and intimate details from her private life, including relationships with her husband and children.

1929 - Imre Kertesz, Hungarian author and recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for writing that upholds the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric arbitrariness of history". He was the first Hungarian to win the Nobel in Literature. His works deal with themes of The Holocaust (he was a survivor of a German concentration camp), dictatorship and personal freedom.

1934 - Carl Sagan, American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, best known for his work as a science popularizer, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. (Wiki)

1982 - Jana Pittman, Australian athlete who specialises in the 400 metres run and 400 metre hurdles events. She is a two-time world champion in the 400m hurdles, from 2003 and 2007. Pittman is one of only nine athletes to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior level of an athletic event. She also competed in the two-woman bobsleigh at the 2014 Winter Olympics, making her the first Australian female athlete to compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympic games.

1984 - Delta Lea Goodrem, Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. She signed to Sony Music at the age of 15. Her debut album, Innocent Eyes, topped the ARIA Albums Chart for 29 consecutive weeks. It is one of the highest-selling Australian albums of all time, with over four million copies sold. Goodrem has several number-one singles and 17 top-ten hits on the ARIA Singles Chart. She has sold over eight million albums globally and overall has won three World Music Awards, 9 ARIA Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award and several other awards.

Leftie:
None known

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

Historical Events

1799 - Just returned from Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte takes over France in a coup. He is declared First Consul on November 11 and holds absolute power until his abdication in 1814.

1825 - Thomas Drummond, after watching a demonstration of light created by burning lime, sets up a limelight in front of a reflector in which the light can be seen 66 miles (106 kms) away. He performed this on a hill near Belfast, Ireland. As a result, limelights come to be used in lighthouses and theatres.

1921 - Albert Einstein is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics." His name is synonymous to the Theory of Relativity. This award confirmed his world recognition, eventually synonymous to genius.

1940 - Joaquin Rodrigo's famous Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra is first performed in Barcelona.

1967 - The Rolling Stone magazine's first issue goes on sale.

1967 - Toru Takemitsu's orchestral November Steps is first performed, in New York City.

1985 - Russian Garry Kasparov becomes the youngest World Chess Champion at athe age of 22 when he defeats Anatoly Karpov, who had held the title for 10 years.

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

November 8 Dateline

2026-11-07T15:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1656 - Edmond Halley, English astronomer. He went on to study the solar system and correctly predict the existence of the comet, named after him. His prediction was not proven until 1758 after his death, when "Halley's Comet" returned.

1883 - Sir Arnold Bax, English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist.(Bax's November Woods, a symphonic tone-poem for large orchestra YouTube, uploaded by gioiellidellamusica. Accessed November 8, 2018. "Tintagel", by Arnold Bax (1883-1953). YouTube, uploaded by Scot Peacock. Accessed November 8, 2019.)

1900 - Margaret Mitchell, American writer and journalist, famous for her book Gone with the Wind, a Civil War-era novel that becomes a movie blockbuster. For this famous novel, for which she won the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. In recent years long after her death, a collection of Mitchell's girlhood writings and a novella she wrote as a teenager, titled Lost Laysen, have been published. A collection of newspaper articles written by Mitchell for The Atlanta Journal was also republished in book form. (Brief history: Margaret Mitchell and Gone with the Wind. YouTube, accessed November 8, 2018.)

1922 - Christiaan Barnard, South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first human-to-human heart transplant on 3 December 1967 and the first one in which the patient regained consciousness. On 3 December 1967, Barnard transplanted the heart of accident-victim Denise Darvall into the chest of 54-year-old Louis Washkansky, with Washkansky regaining full consciousness and being able to easily talk with his wife, before dying 18 days later of pneumonia. The anti-rejection drugs that suppressed his immune system were a major contributing factor. Dr. Barnard had told Mr. and Mrs. Washkansky that the operation had an 80% chance of success, a claim which has been criticised as misleading. Barnard's second transplant patient Philip Blaiberg, whose operation was performed at the beginning of 1968, lived for a year and a half and was able to go home from the hospital. (Dr. Chris Barnard - Biography. Uploaded by HealthShare SA. Accessed November 8, 2015.)

1954 - Kazuo Ishiguro OBE FRSA FRSL, Japanese-born British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and praised contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. Author of novels including A Pale View of the Hills, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, he was praised by the Swedish Academy for his novels. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".

1954 - Rickie Lee Jones, American vocalist, musician, songwriter, producer, actress and narrator. She has recorded in various musical styles including R&B, rock, blues, pop, soul, and jazz. Jones is a two-time Grammy Award winner. She was listed at number 30 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll in 1999. Her album Pirates was number 49 on NPR's list of the 150 Greatest Albums Made by Women.

Leftie:
None known

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

Historical Events

1519 - Hernando Cortes, Spanish conquistador, enters Tenochtitlan, Aztec. Soon afterwards Aztec King Montezuma II is taken and Montezuma is taken prisoner and Cortes controls the Aztec empire.

1889 - Richard Strauss's tone poem Don Juan is first performed in Weimar. (Listening Pleasure: Don Juan performed by Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Dudamel. Accessed Nov 8, 2018.)

1895 - Wilhelm Roentgen discovers radiation emitted by cathode-ray tubes while conducting electrical experiments. He names them x-rays, with the "x" standing for "unknown." He is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901.

1906 - Dame Ethel Smyth's opera The Wreckers is first performed in a German version in Leipzig and titled Strandrecht. Later, the composer translated it into English for the London performance. (Dame Ethel Mary Smyth's opera The Wreckers: Overture. Uploaded by Le Hoang. Accessed November 8, 2011.

1965 - The Famous TV soap opera Days of Our Lives debuts. It has been running ever since.

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. "Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 9 Nov 2011 https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1901/rontgen-bio.html
7. Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org

(c) June 2007. Updated November 8, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

November 7 Dateline

2026-11-06T14:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1867 - Marie Curie, (Marie Skłodowska Curie), Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, is the only woman to win the Nobel prize twice, and is the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields. She was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris, and in 1995 became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris.

1879 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, Marxist theorist, and Soviet politician whose particular strain of Marxist thought is known as Trotskyism. Trotsky joined the Bolshevik Party a few weeks before the October Revolution and became one of the leaders of the party. Trotsky became more prominent as the leader of the Red Army in the post of Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs. Trotsky was a vital leading figure in the Red victory in the Russian Civil War. He was one of the seven members of the first Politburo. Trotsky was openly critical of Stalinism.

1905 - William Alwyn CBE, (born William Alwyn Smith), English conductor, virtuoso flautist, music teacher, and composer, including film scores. He was a distinguished polyglot, poet, and artist, as well as musician.^[5] He helped found the Composers' Guild of Great Britain (now merged into the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors), and was its chairman in 1949, 1950 and 1954. He was sometime Director of the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, a Vice-President of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (S.P.N.M.) and Director of the Performing Right Society. He was one of the panel engaged by the BBC to read new scores to help assess whether the works should be performed and broadcast. He was appointed a CBE in 1978. His compositional output was varied, including five symphonies, four operas, several concertos, film scores and string quartets.

1913 - Albert Camus, Algerian-born French writer, journalist, and philosopher. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957, the second-youngest recipient in history. His works include The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. His citizenship was French. He joined the French Resistance where he served as editor-in-chief at Combat, an outlawed newspaper. After the war, he was a celebrity figure and gave many lectures around the world. Camus was politically active; he was part of the Left that opposed the Soviet Union because of its totalitarianism. Camus leaned towards anarcho-syndicalism. He was part of many organisations seeking European integration. Philosophically, Camus's views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He is considered to be an existentialist, though he firmly rejected the term.

1918 - Billy Graham, (William Franklin Graham Jr.), American evangelist, a prominent evangelical Christian figure, an ordained Southern Baptist minister who became well-known internationally. One of his biographers has placed him "among the most influential Christian leaders" of the 20th century. As a preacher, he held large indoor and outdoor rallies with sermons that were broadcast on radio and television; some were still being re-broadcast into the 21st century. In his six decades on television, Graham hosted annual "Crusades", evangelistic campaigns that ran from 1947 until his retirement in 2005. He also hosted the radio show Hour of Decision. Graham was a spiritual adviser to U.S. presidents, from Harry S. Truman (33rd) to Barack Obama (44th). He was particularly close to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson (one of Graham's closest friends), and Richard Nixon. Graham was on Gallup's list of most admired men and women a record 61 times. (Billy Graham's Last Message to America and the world ... uploaded by Len Hummel. Accessed November 7, 2016.)

1926 - Dame Joan Sutherland, Australian Coloratura Soprano, wife of Conductor Richard Bonynge. She was noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s. Dame Joan possessed a voice combining extraordinary agility, accurate intonation, "supremely" pinpoint staccatos, a trill and a tremendous upper register. She was the first Australian to win a Grammy Award, for Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist (with or without orchestra) in 1962.

1943 - Joni Mitchell, Singer and Songwriter (Famous for the pop song, "Both Sides Now." YouTube, uploaded by Newport Folk Festival, accessed Nov 7, 2025. If you think you really know "life" and "love" at all, think again. But then I do agree with Leonard Bernstein's Candide: "Life is neither good nor bad, they're woven fine.")

1962 - Phyllis Nagy, American Theatre and Film Director, Screenwriter and Playwright. In 2006, Nagy was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for writing and directing Mrs. Harris (2005), her screen debut. In 2016, Nagy received an Academy Award nomination, among numerous other accolades, for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2015 film Carol.

1969 - Hélène Grimaud, French Classical Pianist and Founder of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. (H. Grimaud performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, with NHSO conducted by David Zinman. Accessed Nov. 21, 2018.)

Lefties:
Marie Curie
Billy Graham

More birthdays and historical events, November 7 - On This Day

In remembrance of Dame Joan Sutherland, her performance of "Sempre libera" from Verdi's opera La Traviata. Magnificent!

Historical Events

1861 - The Melbourne Cup, one of the world's most famous horse races, is run for the first time, won by Archer, ridden by J. Cutts. They win again in 1862.

This year, Tuesday, Nov 3, 2015, The Melbourne Cup was won by Michelle Payne, an Australian jockey, riding Prince of Penzance. Payne is the first female jockey to win the event.

1917 - Led by Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik revolutionaries with almost no bloodshed in Petrograd, now St. Petersburg, from the provisional Government that came to power after Nicholas II was deposed in March. This is known as the October Revolution, as it falls in October (according to the Julian calendar, used in Russia that time.

1934 - Sergei Rachmaninoff is soloist in his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra, in its first performance, in Baltimore

1991 - "Magic" Johnson announces he is HIV positive.

1996 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor. It travels 466 million miles to reach Mars on September 11, 1997.

2002 - This day, in 2002, 98.97 per cent of Gibraltar residents vote not to share British sovereignty with Spain.

Video Credit:

Joan Sutherland - sempre libera (verdi - la traviata). YouTube, uploaded by fabiancamposparedes. Accessed November 7, 2016.

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 November 7, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All right reserved.

November 6 Dateline

2026-11-05T15:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1661 - Charles II, King of Spain, also known as El Hechizado or the Bewitched, was the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish Empire. He is best remembered for his alleged physical disabilities, and the war that followed his death. Charles suffered ill-health throughout his life; from the moment he became king at the age of four, the succession was a prominent consideration in European politics. Despite two marriages, he remained childless. When he died in 1700, his heir was 16-year-old Philip of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV and his first wife, Charles's elder half-sister, Maria Theresa. The succession of Charles was less important than the division of his territories, and the failure to resolve that question led to war in 1701.

1814 - Adolph Sax, Belgian inventor and musician who created the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the flute and clarinet.

1854 - John Philip Sousa, American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to distinguish him from his British counterpart Kenneth J. Alford. Among his best-known marches are "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (National March of the United States of America), "Semper Fidelis" (official march of the United States Marine Corps), "The Liberty Bell", "The Thunderer", and "The Washington Post".

1860 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish composer, pianist, and former Prime Minister, a spokesman for polish independence. He was a favorite of concert audiences around the world and his musical fame opened access to diplomacy and the media. Paderewski played an important role in meeting with President Woodrow Wilson and obtaining the explicit inclusion of independent Poland as point 13 in Wilson's peace terms in 1918, called the Fourteen Points. He was the Prime Minister of Poland and also Poland's foreign minister in 1919, and represented Poland at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. He served 10 months as prime minister, and soon thereafter left Poland, never to return. (Paderewski plays his Minuet in G, Op 14, No. 1. Recorded 1937. Uploaded by Bechmesser2. Accessed November 6, 2019.)

1883 - Hubert Charles Bath, English film composer, music director, and conductor. His credits include the music to the Oscar-winning documentary Wings Over Everest (1934), as well as to the films Tudor Rose (1936), A Yank at Oxford (1938), and Love Story (1944). Cornish Rhapsody, the theme music featured in the film Love Story is often played as a companion piece to the more famous Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto. Love Story stars Margaret Lockwood and Stewart Grainger, with Lockwood playing as concert pianist, and in the film her composition of the Rhapsody reflects her love both for Grainger and the Cornish landscape that provides much of the setting for the film. (Cornish Rhapsody - Hubert Bath). YouTube, uploaded by Montezuma48. Accessed Nov 6, 2012)

1892 - Harold Ross, American journalist, founder of New Yorker (1925)

1901 - Juanita Hall, American musical theatre and film actress, remembered for her roles in the original stage and screen versions of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals South Pacific as Bloody Mary - a role that gave her the Tony Award - and Flower Drum Song as Madame Liang. (Link from the film South Pacific with Juanita Hall's exquisite voice from the original Broadway cast recording, synched to the film. The clip also includes a deleted scene, apparently due to its gay overtones that time - Here. YouTube, uploaded by Lost Vocals. Accessed August 16, 2018.)

1916 - Ray Conniff, American bandleader and arranger, leader of popular vocal groups, best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the1960s. (Feeling nostalgic about the good old days? Here: some of his greatest hits, YouTube, uploaded by Natural Relax. Accessed Nov 6, 2025.)

1946 - Sally Field, American actress and director. She is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and she has been nominated for a Tony Award and two BAFTA Awards. Field began her professional career on television, starring in the short-lived comedies Gidget, The Flying Nun, and The Girl with Something Extra. In 1976, she garnered critical acclaim for her performance in the miniseries Sybil, for which she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie. More successful movies and television roles followed. As a director, Field is known for the television film The Christmas Tree, an episode of the 1998 HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, and the feature film Beautiful. In 2014, she was presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 2019 received the Kennedy Center Honors.

1955 - Maria Owings Shriver, American journalist and writer, former First Lady of California, and the founder of the nonprofit organization The Women's Alzheimer's Movement. She was married to former Governor of California and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, from whom she filed for divorce in 2011. Shriver has received a Peabody Award and was co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics. As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences award for developing a "television show with a conscience". She is a member of the Kennedy family; her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, was a sister of John F. Robert and Ted Kennedy.

Lefties:
None known

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

Featured Music:

Ignacy Paderewski's exciting Polish Fantasy (Fantazja polska) in G minor for piano and orchestra, Op. 19, 1st Movement. The Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic European Art Centre. Marcin Nałęcz-Niesiołowski, conductor. Kevin Kenner, piano. The Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra.

Historical Events

1860 - Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th U.S. President. He is the first Republican President, and his party's anti-slavery stance leads to the secession of the southern states soon after.

1889 - Fusajiro Yamauchi forms the Nintendo company to produce and distribute the card game "Hanafuda."

1935 - Great Britain's first single-wing fighter plane, the Hawker Hurricane, makes her maiden flight. Although it is not quite as fast as the Supermarine Spitfire, Hurricanes could still reach 300 mph and have a smaller turning radius. The plane plays a vital role in World War II.

1991 - In Kuwait, the last of more than 600 oil wells set alight by invading Iraqi forces in January, is extinguished. The smoke had created pollution problems on a global scale and the fires had left the Kuwaiti oil industry in ruins.

Video Credit:

Ignacy J. Paderewski, "Polish Fantasy" for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 19, First Movement. Youtube, oipf, Accessed November 6, 2017.

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

November 5 Dateline

2026-11-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1494 - Hans Sachs, German Burgher, meistersinger, composer, master shoemaker, and poet who was outstanding for his popularity, output, and aesthetic and religious influence. He surpassed all his contemporaries in artistic power; for there was nowhere in which he did not try his hand, no interest of the time which did not find an echo in his writings. He is considered the greatest poetical genius that had appeared in Germany since the Minnesingers. Richard Wagner made him the principal in his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. (Image: Hans Sachs' Reflection and David Song. Sachs ponders about last day's riot, while David tries to gain his attention. Music: Overture and beginning of the first scene of the third act of the music drama "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" Composer: Richard Wagner Orchestra: Herbert von Karajan with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Uploaded by Arthur Carmonario. Accessed November 5, 2016.)

1887 - Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-American concert pianist notable for commissioning new piano concerti for the left hand alone, following the amputation of his right arm during the First World War. He devised novel techniques, including pedal and hand-movement combinations, that allowed him to play chords previously regarded as impossible for a five-fingered pianist. He was an older brother of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. (Wittgenstein plays Ravel, Piano Concerto For the Left Hand (Solo Excerpts). YouTube, uploaded by Eoin Alllen. Accessed Novembr 5, 2018.)

1913 - Vivien Leigh (born Vivian Mary Hartley), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947), British stage and film actress. She won two Academy Awards for Best Actress, for her definitive performances as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in 1949. She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of Tovarich.

1940 - Elke Sommer (born Elke Baronin von Schletz), German actress, entertainer and artist who starred in many Hollywood films. After the 1990s, Sommer concentrated more on painting than on acting. As an actress, she had worked in countries learning the languages (she speaks seven languages) and storing up images which she has subsequently expressed on canvas. Her artwork shows a strong Marc Chagall influence. In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her. As of early May 2017, Frau Baronin (Baroness) von Sommer was living in Los Angeles, California.

1941 - Art Garfunkel, American musician and singer, poet, and actor. He is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Highlights of his solo music career include a top 10 hit, three top 20 hits, six top 40 hits, 14 Adult Contemporary top 30 singles, five Adult Contemporary number ones, two UK number ones and a People's Choice Award. Through his solo and collaborative work, Garfunkel has earned eight Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1990, he and Simon were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2008, Garfunkel was ranked 86th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. (The Sound of Silence from the famous Duo: Simon and Garfunkel).

1943 - Sam Shepard Rogers III, American actor, author and playwright, screenwriter, and director. He won ten Obie Awards for writing and directing. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. He received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009. Shepard's plays are known for their bleak, poetic, surrealist elements, black comedy, and rootless characters living on the outskirts of American society.

1954 - Geoffrey Peter Bede Hawkshaw Tozer, Australian classical pianist and composer. A child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight and became the youngest recipient of a Churchill Fellowship award at 13. His career included worldwide tours, where he performed the Yellow River Concerto to an estimated audience of 80 million people. Tozer had more than 100 concertos in his repertoire, including those of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Medtner, Rachmaninoff, Bartók, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Gerhard.Tozer recorded for the Chandos label. Regarded as a "superb recitalist", he had the ability to improvise, transpose "instantly" and reduce an orchestral score to a piano score at sight. Tozer won numerous awards and much recognition worldwide. (Geoffrey Tozer - Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 with own cadenza (1987 Canberra)-LP transfer. YouTube, uploaded by Oceania Classics. Accessed May 20, 2023)

Leftie:
Pianist Paul Wittgenstein

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

Historical Events

1605 - The Gunpowder Plot is foiled when Guy Fawkes is discovered in a cellar below the English Houses of Parliament lighting a long fuse, set to explode as King James I opens Parliament. Fawkes is executed later.

1846 - Robert Schumann's Symphony No.2 is first performed and conducted by Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig.

1935 - Early this year in 1935 Parker Brothers buys the game Monopoly from Charles B. Darrow. They later learn the game is played with homemade sets all over the eastern U.S. and derives from the Landlord's Game, patented in 1904 by a Quaker named Elizabeth Magie. This day, on November 5, they buy her patent for $500, leaving the way open to expand the production of their board game.

1955 - The rebuilt Vienna State Opera opens with a performance of Beethoven's only opera Fidelio. A bomb had destroyed it during an Allied air raid on March 12, 1945.

2003 - NASA announces that the Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached the edge of our solar system as scientists at Johns Hopkins reported that readings being sent back by Voyager indicated it had entered the termination shock zone where hot solar winds blow. Critics didn't believe this point had been reached. It was earlier on September 1977 that NASA launched this spacecraft. But it was beyond dispute that Voyager 1 had traveled more than 8 billion miles (13 billion km).

Resources:

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

November 4 Dateline

2026-11-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1841 - Carl "Karl" Tausig (born Karol Tausig), Polish virtuoso pianist, composer, and arranger, a student of Franz Liszt, generally regarded as Liszt's most esteemed pupil, and also considered one of the greatest pianists of his time. (Carl Tausig - Ballade 'The Ghost Ship' Op.1c - Michael Ponti, pianist. Uploaded by deviantrake. Accessed Nov 4, 2020)

1937 - Loretta Swit, an American stage and television actress known for her character roles. Swit is best known for her portrayal of Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan on M*A*S*H, for which she won two Emmy Awards.

1941 - Richard James Gill, AO, Australian conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic works. He was known as a music educator and for his advocacy for music education of children.

1955 - Matti T. Vanhanen, Finnish politician, Prime Minister of Finland from 2003 to 2010. He was also Chairman of the Centre Party, and in the second half of 2006 he was President of the European Council. In his earlier career he was a journalist. On June 9, 2020, he became the Minister of Finance.

Leftie:
Former Prime of Finland, Minister Matti T. Vanhanen

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

Historical Events

1783 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 36 "Linz" is first performed. Below, Mozart's Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 "Linz" (Staatskapelle Dresden & Horst Stein). YouTube, updated by LOFTMusic, from the Great Hall of the Mozarteum, Salzburger Festspiele 1991 Staatskapelle Dresden Horst Stein - conductor. Accessed November 4, 2021.

1876 - Johannes Brahms's Symphony No. 1 is first performed, at Karlsruhe, with Otto Dessoff conducting.

1899 - The Interpretation of Dreams, a book by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, is published in Switzerland. The book introduces the theory of Freud of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation. Dreams, Freud argues, were all forms of a kind of "wish fulfillment", attempts by the unconscious to resolve some conflict, whether recent or something from the past.

1942 - During World War II, the Second Battle of El Alamein ends after 12 days when Field Marshal Erwin Rommel orders German and Italian forces to retreat, turning the tide against the Axis powers in Northern Africa.

1956 - Soviet forces enter Hungary to end the uprising that had begun on October 23.

1979 - Iranian students storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 90 hostages, demanding the deposed Shah be returned to stand trial. (The Shah had been allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment.) The last 52 hostages are released 14 months later, after the Shah has died of cancer and when the U.S. government agrees to return $8 billion of assets to Iran.

1995 - Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel of Israel, attends a peace rally in Tel Aviv. While returning to his car, he is shot by Yigal Amir, a right -wing Israeli. He dies in hospital soon after.

2008 - Barack Obama is elected as the 44th president of the U.S. He is the first African-American to obtain the position.

Resources:

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

November 3 Dateline

2026-11-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

Famous Birthdays

1801 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer known for his long-flowing melodic lines, famous for operas Norma and La Sonnambula/The Sleepwalker. He was the quintessential composer of the Italian bel canto era of the early 19th century. (A biography of Bellini from Encyclopaedia Britannica - here.) Bellini was admired by fellow composers like Verdi as he was by the public. A large amount of what is known about him comes from surviving letters written over his lifetime to his friend Francesco Florimo, whom he had met as a fellow student in Naples and with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. Other sources of information come from correspondence saved by other friends and business acquaintances. (Listen to "Casta Diva" from Norma, famously sung by Maria Callas, with the depth and richness of her feelings. YouTube, uploaded by Th Paw. Accessed November 3, 2011. Featuring Bellini's opera Norma, performed by The Australian Opera & The Elizabethan Sydney Orchestra, with Dame Joan Sutherland, Norma, conducted by Richard Bonynge. Sydney Opera House, 1978)

1841 - Isabella MacDonald Alden (pseudonym: Pansy), author. She wrote more than 120 books focusing on private religious commitment, Bible study and a moral duty to improve lives of the poor.

1921 - Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky), American actor who was often cast in roles of police officers, gunfighters, or vigilantes in revenge-oriented plot lines. He had long-term collaborations with film directors Michael Winner and J. Lee Thompson and appeared in 15 films with his second wife, Jill Ireland. At the height of his fame in the early 1970s, he was the world's No. 1 box office attraction, commanding $1 million per film.

1933 - John Barry, OBE, English composer and conductor of film music (Here's Top 10 John Barry Scores, including 'Out of Africa', 'Somewhere in Time' and 'Dances with Wolves' aside from the famous James Bond movies soundtracks. Barry composed the scores for 11 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the "James Bond Theme" to the first film in the series, 1962's Dr. No. He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, as well as the theme for the British television cult series The Persuaders!, in a career spanning over 50 years. In 1999, he was appointed OBE for services to music.

1933 - Jeremy Brett (Peter Jeremy William Huggins), English actor. He played fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in four Granada TV series from 1984 to 1994 in all 41 episodes. His career spanned from stage, to television and film, to Shakespeare and musical theatre.

Leftie:
English actor Jeremy Brett, best known for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes.

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

Recommended Listening:

In memory of John Barry: Here's his Academy Award-Winning for music score, "Out of Africa" movie soundtrack (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1985). Composed and Conducted by John Barry.)

Historical Events

1871 - After six months in Africa searching for missionary Dr. David Livingstone, Henry Stanley finds him living in Lake Tanganyika. Dr. Livingstone had not seen another white man for six and a half years. He refused returning to England and died two years later.

1899 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Tsar's Bride opens in Moscow.
1954 - The first Godzilla movie is released in Japan. The classic monster film is the story of a giant beast awoken from a million-year slumber by the nuclear weapons being tested in the South Pacific.

1957 - The U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik II carrying Laika, the first living animal to be sent into space. The dog is provided the basic food, water and air. Laika does not return to planet Earth and dies when her oxygen runs out.

1958 - Per Norgaard's Constellations, a concerto for 12 solo strings or twelve string groups, is first performed, in Copenhagen.

1966 - The Arno River breaks its banks that causes flooding in Florence, Italy for three days. It destroys and damages art treasures, and drown an estimated 150 people.

Resources:

November 2 Dateline

2026-11-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

Birthdays

1734 - Daniel Boone, American pioneer, explorer, woodsman, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Although he also became a businessman, soldier and politician who represented three different counties in the Virginia General Assembly following the American Revolutionary War, Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now Kentucky, that remained part of Virginia until it became a state in 1791.

1739 - Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian violinist and composer. His German-language two-act singspiel Doktor und Apotheker (Doctor and Apothecary), uploaded by Musikacademie Rheinsberb, is considered the his masterpiece. Accessed November 2, 2018)

1755 - Marie Antoinette (born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna), the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria and was the penultimate child and youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I. She became dauphine of France in May 1770 at age 14 upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne. On 10 May 1774, her husband ascended the throne as Louis XVI and she became queen.

1868 - Yokoyama Taikan (pseudonym Sakai Hidemaro), Japanese painter, a major figure in pre-World War II Japanese painting. He is notable for helping create the Japanese painting technique of Nihonga. Among Yokoyama’s works are “Mountain Path,” “Vicissitudes,” and “Cherry Blossoms.” (Y. Taikan brief profile from Britannica.com. Accessed October 27, 2019)

1906 - Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo, Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, also a screenwriter. He is best known for his films Ossessione (1943), Senso (1954), Rocco and His Brothers (1960), The Leopard (1963) and Death in Venice (1971). He was formally known as Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone, and his family is a branch of the Visconti of Milan. In his early years, he was exposed to art, music and theatre: he studied cello with the Italian cellist and composer Lorenzo de Paolis (1890–1965) and met the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.(The Films of Luchino Visconte. Uploaded by Eddie Lensweiger. Accessed November 2, 2017. Visconti's Actors / Visconte Y Sus Actores. Uploaded by pereznuix. Accessed November 2, 2014.)

1913 - Burt Stephen Lancaster, American actor and producer. Initially known for playing "tough guys" with a tender streak, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year career in film and, later, television. He was a four-time nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actor (winning once), and also winning two BAFTA Awards and one Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor. His breakthrough role was the film noir The Killers alongside Ava Gardner. He played the illicit lover of Deborah Kerr in the military drama From Here to Eternity. A box office smash, it won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and landed a Best Actor nomination for Lancaster. In 1956, he starred in The Rainmaker, earning a Best Actor Golden Globe nomination.

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1899 - The Boers begin their siege of British-occupied Ladysmith in South Africa. The siege lasts 118 days before the Gordon Highlanders arrive, driving off the Boers.

1950 - Italian-French pianist Aldo Ciccolini makes his American debut playing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Below's performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto in B flat minor was recorded July 25 July, 1951, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The uploader recorded this track from the LP, "Tchaikovsky - Concerto No. 1," issued by RCA Victor on the Bluebird Classics label (LBC 1020).

1960 - A literary milestone when the unexpurgated novel Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence was eventually published. Penguin Publishing in London is found by the court that it hasn't broken obscenity laws in its unexpurgated version. (Ref: Lady Chatterley's Lover Summary. YouTube uploaded by K12 Language Arts. Accessed Sept 11, 2026.)

In 1928, D.H. Lawrence wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover but was unable to find a publisher. He printed it privately, selling all his copies. Lawrence died of tuberculosis in 1930. In 1960, Penguin publishers tested the Obscene Publications Act in the UK by publishing the unexpurgated version of the book. The case hit the headlines, with many people testifying as to its literary merit. This day, November 1, 1960, the London courts decided that Penguin had not breached the law and D.H. Lawrence's unexpurgated book was released to the public. Lady Chatterley's Lover is available to this day.

Lady Chatterley's Lover has been adapted for film several times. One of the popular ones is the 1981 film version starring Sylvia Kristel and Nicholas Clay, directed by Just Jaeckin.

1963 - South Vietnamese President Ngo Dien Diem is assassinated after a military coup. U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war increases.

2000 - The first crew including two Russians and an American, arrives in a Russian spacecraft to live for 4 months in the International Space Station (ISS).

2003 - Explorer Ranulph Fiennes and Dr. Mike Stroud complete the last of seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. Considering Fiennes is 59 years old and previously had undergone double heart bypass surgery, this is a remarkable undertaking.

Image Credit:

Lady Chatterley's Lover Book Cover, Wiki Commons

Video Credit:

Aldo Ciccolini: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 - Movement 1: Allegro non troppo (Part 1 of 2), recorded 1951. Youtube, uploaded by davidhertzberg1. Accessed November 2, 2016.

Resources:

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

November 1 Dateline

2026-10-31T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

All Saints Day or All Hallows Day

0846 A.D. - King Louis II of France, Louis II, known as Louis the Stammerer, king of Aquitaine and later the king of West Francia. He was the eldest son of Emperor Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orléans. Louis the Stammerer was physically weak and outlived his father by a year and a half. He succeeded his younger brother Charles the Child as the ruler of Aquitaine in 866 and his father in West Francia in 877, but he was never crowned emperor.

1844 - Olga Wisinger-Florian, Austrian Impressionist painter, who painted mainly of landscapes and flower still life. She was a representative of the Austrian "Stimmungsimpressionismus", a loose group of Austrian impressionist painters that was considered avant-garde in the 1870s and 1880s. The work she showed at the Paris and Chicago international exhibitions earned her worldwide acclaim. She exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. She was also active in the middle-class women's movements of the time, was awarded numerous distinctions and prizes. Wisinger-Florian's early paintings can be assigned to what is known as Austrian Mood Impressionism. In her landscape paintings she adopted her teacher Schindler's sublime approach to nature, displayed in the motifs she used, such as views of tree-lined avenues, gardens and fields, before she went her own way. Her conception of landscapes became more realistic. Her late work is notable for a lurid palette, with discernible overtones of Expressionism. With landscape and flower pictures that were already Expressionist in palette by the 1890s, she was years ahead of her time. Despite her late start as a painter, Wisinger-Florian enjoyed renown in fin de siècle Vienna. (Olga Wiisinger-Florian Paintings, with Wolfgang Mozart's Concerto No. 5. Uploaded by fanfanchatblanc. Accessed November 1, 2017.)

1923 - Victoria de los Angeles, Spanish operatic lyric soprano and recitalist whose career began after the Second World War and reached its height in the years from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. She was ranked number 3, after Maria Callas and Dame Joan Sutherland, in the BBC Music Magazine 's List of The Top Twenty Sopranos of All Time (2007). (Victoria de los Angeles: rare and fabulous concert in 1957. YouTube, uploaded by Opera Nostalgia. Accessed November 1, 2019.)

1935 - Gary Player, DMS, OIG, South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers ever. Player won nine major championships on the regular tour and nine major championships on the Champions Tour. At the age of 29, Player won the 1965 U.S. Open and became the only non-American to win all four majors in a career, known as the career Grand Slam. At the time, he was the youngest player to do this, though Jack Nicklaus (26) and Tiger Woods (24) subsequently broke this record. Player became only the third golfer in history to win the Career Grand Slam, following Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen, and only Nicklaus and Woods have performed the feat since. He won over 150 professional tournaments on six continents over seven decades and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

1972 - Toni Colette (Toni Collette-Galafassi, born Toni Collett), Australian actress, producer, and singer-songwriter, known for her work in independent films as well as supporting roles in studio films. After making her feature film debut in Spotswood for which she was nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, her breakthrough role came in the comedy-drama Muriel's Wedding, for which she earned a Golden Globe Award nomination and won the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Collette achieved greater international recognition for her role in the horror film The Sixth Sense, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Leftie:
King Louis of France (or Louis the Stammerer)

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

Historical Events

1512 - Michelangelo begins to paint the 5,000 square foot (1,520 sq m) ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel in July 1508. He finished it on October 31, removed the scaffolding, and the completed ceiling becomes visible to the public.

1884 - Greenwich Mean Time is adopted as the universal 0-degree longitude line, or International Date Line, at a meeting of the International Meridian Conference in Washington D.C.

1948 - Aaron Copland's suite from the film The Red Pony if first performed, in Houston, Texas.

1954 - Maria Callas makes her American debut in Chicago, starring in Bellini's famous opera Norma.

1986 - A fire at a chemical factory near Basel, Switzerland, causes tons of toxic waste to spill into the Rhine River.

Rhine river from the Swiss Alps, through Germany, and to Holland’s North Sea.

1993 - The Maastricht Treaty comes into effect, creating the European Union. The aim of the union is to engender greater cooperation, especially in the fields of security and economics.

Image Source:

avalonwaterways.com/cruise-vacations/rhine-river/

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 31 Dateline

2026-10-30T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1760 - Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Born in Edo, Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series 'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji' which includes the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. (Katsushika Hokusai: A Collection of 1145 Works (HD). Uploaded by LearnFromMasters. Accessed October 31, 2018.)

1795 - John Keats, English Romantic poet, one of the great English poets of the Romantic movement in poetry. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25. He is famous for Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to Nightingale, To Autumn, and the first line of a love Sonnet, "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art." A brief documentary of Keat's life & legacy - here, and 10 Greatest Poems by John Keats. Classical Poets Org. Accessed October 31, 2018.

1852 - Mary Eleanor Wilkins, American writer, a prominent novelist and short-story writer. The one-act opera The Village Singer by Stephen Paulus was adapted from a Freeman short story; it was commissioned by Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and was premiered in 1979. She produced a dozen volumes of short stories and as many novels, but she is mainly remembered for the first two collections of stories, A Humble Romance and Other Stories and A New England Nun and Other Stories, and the novel Pembroke. (Britannica Encyclopedia).

1922 - Barbara Bel Geddes, American stage and screen actress, artist, and children's author. She was best known for her starring role as Miss Ellie Ewing in the television series Dallas. Bel Geddes also starred as Maggie in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955. Her notable films included I Remember Mama (1948) and Vertigo (1958). Throughout her career, she was the recipient of several acting awards and nominations. One of her early movie roles was that of Amy Lufton in the 1948 movie, Blood on the Moon, with Robert Mitchum.

1930 - Michael Collins, American astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made the first crewed landing on the surface. He was a test pilot and major general in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

1936 - Michael Landon, (born Eugene Maurice Orowitz), American actor, writer, director, singer and producer. He is known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza, Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie, and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven. Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball.

1957 - Brian Stokes Mitchell, American actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the 1990s. He won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate. Aside from stage and recordings, television and film credits, Mitchell is the Chairman of the Board of the Actors Fund of America, having been elected in 2004. He received the 2016 Tony Award Isabelle Stevenson Award "for his commitment to supporting members of the entertainment community in crisis or transition through his work with The Actors Fund". (Brian Mitchell. "This Nearly was Mine", Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'. Uploaded by brianstokesdotcom. Accessed October 31, 2012. Brian Stokes Mitchell: "4 Amazing Broadway Songs" (B S M PICTURES). YouTube, uploaded by jeffrey a. Accessed October 31, 2022.)

Lefties:
None known

Death:

2020 - Sir Thomas Sean Connery, Scottish actor and producer.

More birthdays and historical events, October 31 - On This Day

Historical Events

1517 - Martin Luther, the great German Catholic reformist for Protestantism, posted his famous 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. (Martin Luther, the Reformation and the nation | DW Documentary), YouTube, uploaded by DW Documentary. Accessed October 31, 2018.)

1887 - Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio espagnol" is first preformed by the Russian Symphonic Society in St. Petersburg.
Below, Rimsky Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol Op 34. Berliner Phil Directed by Zubin Mehta . YouTube, uploaded by Joao Viriato. Accessed October 31, 2018.

1941 - After 14 years of work, drilling is finally completed on Mt. Rushmore. It is the largest work of art on earth. Gutzon Borglum selected these four presidents - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt - because from his perspective, they represented the most important events in the history of the United States. ("Why These Four Presidents?". Accessed October 31, 2020.)

Rimsky Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol Op 34, with Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Youtube, uploaded by Joao Viriato. Accessed October 31, 2016

1956 - The U.K. join with France and Israel in a military intervention to prevent Egypt from nationalizing the Suez Canal.

1961 - Dame Myra Hess is soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major, K.488, Festival Hall, London. This marks her last public appearance. (YouTube video uploaded by pianushko. Accessed October 31, 2018.)

1998 - Iraq announces it will no longer cooperate with UN weapons inspectors.

Mt. Rushmore Early Morning.
Image Source: en.wikipedia.org/Public Domain

Resources:

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

October 30 Dateline

2026-10-29T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1683 - King George II of England, born to his parents George I and Sophia. Like his father, he is born in Hanover, remaining more German than English throughout his reign. His heir, Frederick, dies when he is hit in the eye by a tennis ball. George III, Frederick's son is born in England, but manages to lose the American colonies.

1735 - John Adams, American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and founding father who served as the second president of the United States, from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain, and he served as the first vice president of the United States. Adams was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with many important figures in early American history, including his wife and adviser Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson. During his term, he became the first president to reside in the executive mansion now known as the White House. He and his wife generated a family of politicians, diplomats, and historians now referred to as the Adams political family, which includes their son John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States.

1857 - Gertrude Atherton (Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton), American novelist, biographer and historian. Many of her novels are set in her home state of California. Her bestseller Black Oxen (1923) was made into a silent movie of the same name. She wrote short stories, essays, and articles for magazines and newspapers on such issues as feminism, politics, and war. She was strong-willed, independent-minded, and sometimes controversial, especially for her anti-communism and her white supremacist views.

1885 - Ezra Pound, an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a fascist sympathizer. His contribution to poetry began with his development of Imagism, a movement derived from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, stressing clarity, precision, concision, and economy of language. His works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920) and the unfinished 120-section epic, The Cantos (1917–1969). Ezra Pound. Uploaded by Steve Ward. Accessed October 30, 2018. (9. Ezra Pound. Uploaded by YaleCourses. Accessed October 30, 2013. Read the description from the Youtube's description. This video introduces the poetry of E. Pound. Ezra Pound. Cantos - Cantos I. Uploaded by MusicBox. Accessed October 30, 2019. Essentially, Cantos consists of three parts: first, those living in hell and content with it; the second, those who experience a metamorphosis and see that things could be better; and the third, those who leading man to a better life.)

1945 - Henry Franklin Winkler OBE, American actor, comedian, director, producer, and author. He rose to fame for his role as Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli, a greaser who became the breakout character of the sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984), for which he won two Golden Globe Awards and earned three Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He later played Barry Zuckerkorn on the comedy series Arrested Development, Sy Mittleman on the dark comedy series Childrens Hospital, Dr. Saperstein on the comedy series Parks and Recreation, and Eddie R. Lawson on the comedy-drama series Royal Pains. He plays Gene Cousineau on the dark comedy series Barry, for which he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

1973 - Novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn publishes in Paris The Gulag Archipelago, considered his powerful literary account of the Soviet Union's prison camp system.

1938 - Orson Welles recites H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds on radio, causing a nationwide panic as people mistake the fiction for a news report.

1944 - Aaron Copland's ballet "Appalachian Spring" is first staged by the Martha Graham Ballet, in Washington.

1970 - The worst monsoon to hit Vietnam in six years causes flooding, kills 293 people, and leaves 200,000 homeless.

1975 - Prince Juan Carlos officially becomes Spain's acting head after taking over from General Francisco Franco.

1991 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush opens a Middle East peace conference in Spain with a speech encouraging Arabs and Israelis to "lay down the past."

1811 - This day Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility is published. She became a published author with its release. The novel was first advertised for sale in "The Star" this day. Read more about it here:

https://jasna.org/austen/works/sense-sensibility/ (Thanks to Jane Austen Society of North American (JASNA).

Video Credit:

Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring". Youtube, uploaded by Royal Duke Jam. Accessed October 30, 2016.

Resources:

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

October 29 Dateline

2026-10-28T15:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

1656 - Edmond Halley, English astronomer famous for "Halley's Comet." Halley's Comet is arguably the most famous comet. It is a "periodic" comet and returns to Earth's vicinity about every 75 years, making it possible for a human to see it twice in his or her lifetime. The last time it was here was in 1986, and it is projected to return in 2061.

1947 - Richard Stephen Dreyfus, American actor, best known for starring in popular films during the 1970s and 1980s, including American Graffiti, Jaws, Stand by Me, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, The Goodbye Girl, Tin Men, Stakeout, Always, What About Bob?, and Mr. Holland's Opus. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1978 for The Goodbye Girl, and was nominated in 1995 for Mr. Holland's Opus. He has also won a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and was nominated in 2002 for Screen Actors Guild Awards in the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie categories.

1948 - Lucy Kate Jackson, American actress and television producer, best known for her television roles as Sabrina Duncan in the series Charlie's Angels and Amanda King in the series Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Her film roles include Making Love and Loverboy. She is a three-time Emmy Award nominee and four-time Golden Globe Award nominee. Her role as Sabrina Duncan on Charlie's Angels saw her appear on the front cover of Time magazine, alongside co-stars Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith, while her role as Mrs. King won her Germany's Bravo Golden Otto Award for Best Female TV Star three times. She starred in numerous TV movies, including Quiet Killer, Empty Cradle and Satan's School for Girls, a remake of the 1973 TV movie of the same name in which she also starred.

1971- Winona Ryder (Winona Laura Horowitz), American actress. She gained attention with her performance in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice. She garnered two consecutive Academy Award nominations for her portrayals of socialite May Welland in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence and Jo March in the film adaptation of Little Women. Her other films were Reality Bites, How to Make an American Quilt, The Crucible, Celebrity, and Girl, Interrupted, which she also executive produced. In 2002, Ryder took a break from films, returning in 2009 with the high-profile film Star Trek. In 2010, she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: as the lead actress in the television film When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story and as part of the cast of Black Swan. Since 2016, she has starred as Joyce Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series Stranger Things, for which she has received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations; in 2020, she starred in the HBO drama miniseries The Plot Against America. Ryder is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Lefties:
Richard Dreyfuss
Kate Jackson
Winona Ryder

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

Historical Events

1787 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni is first performed in Prague, the composer himself conducting. Don Giovanni remained a favourite for many years to this day. Playing in the title role is baritone Luigi Bassi.

1929 - The US stock market collapses, causing mass panic, with investors in panic and selling shares. The loss of millions of dollars led to The Great Depression bringing in a decade of mass unemployment and poverty.

1955 - Dmitri Shostakovitch's violin Concerto No. 1 is first ppperformed, in Leningrad.

1956 - Maria Callas debuts at Metropolitan Opera, starring in Bellini's Norma, with Fausto Cleva conducting.

1969 - The U.S. Defence Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) creates ARPAnet, precursor to the Internet.

1992 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera for use.

1998 - John Glenn becomes the oldest person to go into space, in space shuttle Discovery. Astronaut John Herschel Glenn Jr. was the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962. He made another one, this time in 1998, when he was 77, becoming the oldest person to venture into space.

Astronaut John Glenn in 1998.

Resources:

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

October 28 Dateline

2026-10-27T15:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lefties:
Bill Gates

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

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

Historical Events

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

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

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

1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis ends as the U.S.S.R. promises to dismantle its bases in Cuba.

1975 - Antal Dorati's Piano Concerto is first performed, in Washington.

1986 - New York celebrates the centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication.

Statue of Liberty

French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi designed New York's Statue of Liberty, the "Liberty Enlightening the World." Given to the U.S. by France in 1886 as a gesture of friendship between the two nations and as a centennial gift, the massive structure celebrated its hundredth birthday on this day, October 28, 1986.

Image Credit:

Statue of Liberty. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain.

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 27 Dateline

2026-10-26T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

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

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

1961 - SA-1 is launched in Cape Canaveral, Florida, as part of NASA's Mission Saturn - Apollo 1.

2005 - Iran launches its first satellite, Sina 1, on Russia's Kosmos-3M rocket. The satellite is intended for telecommunications and research purposes.

Video Credit:

Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain. Youtube, uploaded by TheWickedNorth. Accessed October 27, 2016.

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 27, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

October 26 Dateline

2026-10-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

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

1685 - Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer and harpsichord virtuoso. Son of composer Alessandro Scarlatti, the younger Domenico Scarlatti is classified primarily as a Baroque composer, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style and he was one of the few Baroque composers to transition into the classical period. Like his renowned father, Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard single-movement sonatas (Exercises). (Scarlatti: 42 Sonatas. YouTube, uploaded by Brilliant Classics. Accessed October 26, 2020.)

1854 - Charles William "C. W." Post, American innovator, entrepreneur, breakfast cereal and foods manufacturer and a pioneer in the prepared-food industry. He was the founder of what is now Post Consumer Brands.

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

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

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

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

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

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

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

1979 - Park Chung Hee, the President of South Korea, is assassinated by the country's Chief of Intelligence, Kim Jea Kyu.

1984 - Baby Fae, born on October 12, receives a heart transplant from a baboon, and lives for another 20 days.

1994 - Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty in a symbolic ceremony on the Israeli-Jordanian aborder, ending 46 years of war. U.S. President Clinton attends.

2000 - The "mad cow disease" in the U.K. reveals that Government ministers misled the public by waiting six months before revealing incidences of the disease.

Resources:

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

October 25 Dateline

2026-10-24T15:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leftie:
Artist Pablo Picasso

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

Historical Events

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

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

1854 - The British Light Brigade is overcome by Russian fire in the Battle of Balaclave in the Crimean War.

1875 - Piotr I. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 receives if first performance in Boston, with Hans von Bulow, soloist.

1885 - Johannes Brahms conducts the premiere of his symphony No. 4, at Meiningen, Germany.

1962 - This day it is announced that the Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to John Steinbeck.

1983 - U.S. forces invade Caribbean island Grenada, restoring democratic rule after 4 years pf Marxist Government.

2003 - The Cedar Fire becomes the largest wildfire in Californian history.

2004 - President Fidel Castro of Cuba announces the ban of the U.S. dollar, which comes into effect on November 8.

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 25, 2026. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

October 24 Dateline

2026-10-23T14:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lefties:
None known

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

Historical Events

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

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

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

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

1929 - "Black Thursday" is one of the worst days of the stock market at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It leads to the Great Crash of 1929.

1945 - The five founding United Nations members ratify the UN Charter in Washington D.C. The UN Charter- the constitution of the United Nations - was signed in San Francisco by the original member countries, 50 of them, on June 26, 1945, and ratified later that year, on October 24, by the founding members: Great Britain, the United States of America, France, U.S.S.R., and the Republic of China.

1973 - The Yom Kippur War, between Israel and a coalition of Arab nations, end.

1998 - Deep Space 1 is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a mission to study comets and asteroids.

2004 - A Hendrick Motorsports plane carrying 10 NASCAR drivers and their relatives crashes en route to Martinsville Speedway, Virginia, killing all on board.

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 23 Dateline

2026-10-22T16:00:00.000-04:00

Birthdays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leftie:
Brazilian professional footballer Pelé

More birthdays andhistorical events, October 23 - On This Day

Historical Events

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

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

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

1942 - In Egypt, the second battle of El Alamein takes place where Axis powers are forced to retreat.After three years of war, this is a crucial victory and boost to morale. Churchill describes it as "not the beginning of the end, but, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

1973 - U.S. President Richard Nixon agrees to turn over audiotapes of his Oval Office conversations about the Watergate Scandal.

2001 - Apple Inc.'s handy product, iPod, a hard drive that puts thousands songs that we can carry anywhere, is released in the U.S.

2002 - Chechen rebels seize the House of Culture theater in Moscow and take 900 hostages. After two days, Russian special forces raid the building with knockout gas. The 42 rebels and 130 hostages are killed.

2004 - An earthquake, 6.8 on the Richter scale, hits Nigata in Japan killing 35 people, and leaving thousands homeless.

Video Credit:

Scriabin – Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, op. 20 (Vladimir Ashkenazy/Maazel) [Complete]. Youtube, uploaded by Valentin Malanetski. Accessed October 23, 2017.

Resources:

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

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

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)

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