April 20 Dateline

Birthdays

1818 - Heinrich Göbel, or Henry Goebel, German precision mechanic and inventor. He emigrated to NewYork in 1848, received American citizenship in 1865. Göbel was reported to have developed incandescent light bulbs comparable to those invented in 1879 by Thomas Alva Edison though he did not apply for a patent. In 1893, the Edison Electric Light Company sued three manufacturers of incandescent lamps for infringing Edison's patent. The defense of these companies claimed the Edison patent was void because of the same invention by Göbel 25 years earlier, which came to be known as the "Göbel defense".

1881 - Nikolai Myaskovsky (or Miaskovsky), Russian and Soviet composer, sometimes referred to as "Father of the Soviet Symphony". (Myaskovsky - Cello Concerto, Op. 66 with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Kirill Kondrashin. Live recording, Moscow, 27.XII.1972. Uploaded by Incontrario motu. Accessed April 20, 2015.)

1893 - Joan Miró i Ferrà, Spanish painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in Barcelona (1975), and another, the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, was established in his adoptive city of Palma de Mallorca (1981).

1941 - Ryan O'Neal (born Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal), American actor and former boxer. In 1964, he landed the role on the ABC nighttime soap opera Peyton Place. The series was an instant hit and boosted O'Neal's career. He later found success in films, most notably Love Story, for which he received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations as Best Actor, Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? and Paper Moon, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far, and Walter Hill's The Driver.

1951 - Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr., American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sweet and soulful vocals, Vandross sold over 40 million records worldwide. He achieved eleven consecutive Platinum albums and eight Grammy Awards, including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four different times. In 2004, Vandross won a total of four Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for a song recorded not long before his death, "Dance with My Father". (L Vandross Jr. sings 'The Impossible Dream' (from Always and Forever: An Evening of Songs at The Royal Albert Hall). YouTube, uploaded by Luther Vandross Jr. Accessed April 20, 2023).

 

Leftie:
Actor Ryan O'Neal

 

More birthdays and historical events today, April 20 - On This Day.

Historical Events

1657 - The Battle of Santa Cruz takes place in the Canary Islands. It is the greatest victory over the Spanish since the Armada in 1588. Commanded by Admiral Blake, 16 Spanish ships are destroyed by an English fleet.

1792 - France declares war on Austria.

April 19 Dateline

Birthdays

1832 - Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre, Spanish civil engineer, mathematician, statesman, writer, Nobel laureate, and one of the leading Spanish dramatists of the last quarter of the 19th century. He was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature "in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama".

 

1892 - Germaine Tailleferre (born Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse), French composer, the only woman in the French group of composers known as "Les Six".  Her work includes serious concert compositions, film and television score, arrangements, harmonisations or transcriptions. She was accompanist for a children's music and movement class at the École alsacienne, a private school in Paris. During the last period of her life, she concentrated mainly on smaller forms due to increasing problems with arthritis in her hands. She nevertheless produced the Sonate champêtre for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and piano; the Sonata for Two Pianos; and Chorale and Variations for Two Pianos or Orchestra. Her last major work was the Concerto de la fidelité for coloratura soprano and orchestra, premièred at the Paris Opera the year before her death.

1933 - Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer), American film, theater, and television actress. She was also a singer and nightclub entertainer as well as one of the early Playboy Playmates. She was a major Hollywood sex symbol during the 1950s and early 1960ss while under contract at 20th Century Fox. Mansfield everal box-office successes and won a Theatre World Award and a Golden Globe. Among other major movie oerformances, she enjoyed success in the role of fictional actress Rita Marlowe, both in the 1955–1956 Broadway version and the 1957 film version of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?.

 
1935 - Dudley Stuart John Moore, CBE, English actor, comedian, musician, and composer. Moore He was one of the four writer-performers in the comedy revue Beyond the Fringe from 1960 that created a boom in satiric comedy, and with one member of that team, Peter Cook, collaborated on the BBC television series Not Only... But Also. His career as a comedy film actor was marked by hit Hollywood films, particularly Foul Play, 10 and Arthur. For Arthur, Moore was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor and won a Golden Globe Award. He received a second Golden Globe for his performance in Micki & Maude.
 

1947 - Murray Perahia, KBE, American pianist and conductor. He is widely considered as one of the greatest living pianists. He was the first North American pianist to win the Leeds International Piano Competition, in 1972. Known as a leading interpreter of Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, among other composers, Perahia has won numerous awards, including three Grammy Awards from a total of 18 nominations, and 9 Gramophone Awards in addition to its first and only "Piano Award".

1979 - Kate Garry Hudson, American actress, author, and fashion entrepreneur. She rose to prominence for her performance in the film Almost Famous, for which she won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. For her film Music, she received her second Golden Globe nomination. Hudson co-founded the fitness brand and membership program, Fabletics, operated by JustFab. In 2016, Hudson released her first book, Pretty Happy: Healthy Ways to Love Your Body, and in 2017, she released her second book, Pretty Fun: Creating and Celebrating a Lifetime of Tradition.

1987 - Maria Yuryevna Sharapova, Russian former professional tennis player. She played under the banner of Russia with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) but has lived in and been a United States permanent resident since 1994. She had been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an  Olympic medalist, having won a silver medal in women's singles at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. 

 
Leftie:
Actress Kate Hudson
 

More birthdays and historical events today, April 19 - On This Day.

 

Feature:

 

Enjoy Germaine Tailleferre's "Romance."

Historical Events

1774 - Christoph W. Gluck's opera Iphigenie en Aulide, adapted from Racine, is first staged at the Paris Opera, with the Dauphiane Marie Antoinette attending. (Here's Overture of this opera with Maestro Riccardo Muti conducting Philadelphia Orchestra, uploaded by mvvm18. Accessed April 19, 2018.)

1775 - The American War of Independence begins. When British soldiers try to confiscate colonists' firearms, a gun battle breaks out and the locals force the English out of town.

April 18 Dateline

Birthdays

1580 - Thomas Middleton (baptised this day), English Jacobean playwright and poet. He stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson among the most successful and prolific of the playwrights at work during the Jacobean period.

1882 - Leopold Stokowski, English conductor of Polish and Irish descent. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appearance in the Disney film Fantasia. He led orchestras into the tones of what is called "the Stokowski sound". Innovative, he experimented with orchestral seating and was one of the first modern conductors to lead orchestras without a baton. Stokowski created immensely popular transcriptions of thirty-seven of the works of J.S Bach - most notably the orchestral version of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, originally composed for the organ. (Portrait of Stokowski (1970). Uploaded by Burtw47. Accessed April 18, 2018.)

1907 - Miklos Rozsa, Hungarian-American composer, best known for film scores, such as Ben-Hur, Spellbound, Quo Vadis, and The Thief of Baghdad (Rozsa Documentary), though he maintained an allegiance to concert music. He trained in Germany, France, the UK, and the US, with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953 onward. Rózsa achieved early success in Europe with his orchestral Theme, Variations, and Finale (Op. 13) of 1933, and became prominent in the film industry from his early scores. He became American citizen in 1946. During his Hollywood career, he received 17 Oscar nominations including three successes for Spellbound, A Double Life, and Ben-Hur, while his concert works were championed by such major artists as Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, and János Starker.  

 

1922 - Barbara Hale, American actress, best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street in the television series Perry Mason, earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason movies for television.

1946 - Hayley Mills (born Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills), English actress, famous as child star in Tiger Bay, Pollyanna, and the dual role as twins, The Parent Trap. The daughter of Sir John Mills and actress/writer Mary Hayley Bell, and younger sister of actress Juliet Mills, Hayley Mills began her acting career as a child, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in the British crime drama film Tiger Bay, the final Academy Juvenile Award in 1960 (Disney Legend Award) for her work in Disney's famous Pollyanna, and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961. (Why We Love Pollyanna (1960). YouTube, uploaded by Better with Bob?. Accessed April 18, 2022.) During her early career, she appeared in six films for Walt Disney, including her dual role as twins in the Disney film The Parent Trap (1961). Her performance in Whistle Down the Wind (a 1961 adaptation of the novel written by her mother) saw Mills nominated for BAFTA Award for Best British Actress. During the late 1960s Mills began performing in theatrical plays, in more mature roles. She is recipient of the Disney Legend Award. She continues to make films and TV appearances. Tiger Bay 1959 John Mills, Horst Bucholz, Hayley Mills. Uploaded by DK Classics. Accessed April 18, 2023.)  

1950 - Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov, Russian concert pianist. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque period such as Bach, Couperin or Rameau up to Schoenberg and Arapov. He regularly tours Europe (excluding the UK) and resides in Italy.  (Grigory Sokolov, A Conversation That Never Was:  A documentary by Nadezhda Zhdanova. Accessed April 18, 2017.)

1969 - Sayako Kuroda,  formerly Sayako, Princess Nori, youngest child and only daughter of Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko, and the younger sister of the current Emperor of Japan, Naruhito. She is an imperial Shinto priestess of the Ise Grand Shrine, currently serving as the Supreme Priestess. Kuroda held the appellation "Nori-no-miya" (Princess Nori), until her marriage to Yoshiki Kuroda on 15 November 2005. As a result of her marriage, she gave up her imperial title and left the Japanese Imperial Family, as required by the Imperial Household Law.

Lefties:

None known

More birthdays and historical events, 18 April - On This Day.

 

Feature: 

 

One of Miklos Rozsa's famous compositions based on the music he wrote for Hitchcock's psychological thriller 1945 American film Spellbound. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, it tells the story of the new head of a mental asylum who turns out not to be what he claims. The film stars  Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Micahel Chekhov and Leo G. Carroll. It is an adaptation of the novel The House of Dr. Edwardes (!927). Performance: Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer Rozsa himself with Leonard Pennario, pianist, in 1960.  

 

Historical Events

1906 - An earthquake hits San Francisco measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale. More than 3,000 people die and almost 300,000 are left homeless due to the quake itself and fires that resulted.

1958 - Poet Ezra Pound is released from an insane asylum on orders from the U.S. Federal Court. The American expatriate had been brought back to the U.S. from Italy to face charges of treason, but he was imprisoned on the basis of insanity due to "a gandiosity of beliefs."