May 3 Dateline

Birthdays

1469 - Niccolò Machiavelli (or Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli), Italian diplomat, politician, historian, philosopher, humanist, writer, playwright and poet of the Renaissance period. He has often been called the father of modern political science. Machiavelli is most famous for a short political treatise, The Prince, written in 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. The adjective Machiavellian became a term describing someone or something that is "marked by cunning, duplicity, or bad faith".  (The Prince explained in 3 minutes. Uploaded by Eudaimonia. Accessed May 3, 2019.)
 
1898 - Golda Meier (born Golda Mabovitch), Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, stateswoman, politician and the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Born in Kyiv, she emigrated to the United States as a child with her family in 1906, and was educated there, becoming a teacher. After marrying, she and her husband emigrated to then Palestine in 1921, settling on a kibbutz. Meir was elected prime minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. The world's fourth and Israel's first and only woman to hold the office of Prime Minister, she has been described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics.

1904 - Bing Crosby (born Harry Lillis Crosby Jr.), American singer, comedian and actor. In his time, he was leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses. He was extremely famus for singing "White Christmas". In  1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive". Crosby won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's opposite Ingrid Bergman the next year. In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. He is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the categories of motion pictures, radio, and audio recording. (Bing Crosby - White Christmas (1942) Original Version. BingCrosbyLegacy. When Irish Eyes are Smiling. (1939). Accessed May 3, 2017.)

1906 - Mary Astor, American actress, best remembered for her performance as Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of concert pianist Sandra Kovak in The Great Lie.

1912 - May Sarton (born Eleanore Marie Sarton), Belgian-American prolific American poet, novelist and memoirist. She is considered an important contemporary figure in American literature, as well as a 'poet's poet', and is lauded by literary and feminist critics for her works addressing themes in gender, sexuality, and universality. Sarton was born in Wondelgem, Belgium, the only child of historian of science George Sarton and his wife, the English artist Mabel Eleanor Elwes. When German troops invaded Belgium in 1914, her family fled to Ipswich, England, where Sarton's maternal grandmother lived.  A year later, they moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where her father started working at Harvard University. May Sarton is known as a complex individual who often struggled in her relationships. A selected edition of her letters was edited by Susan Sharman in 1997 and many of Sarton's papers are held in the New York Public Library. (May Sarton reads "My Sisters, O My Sisters". Uploaded by awetblackbough. Accessed May 3, 2012. Poem from the Autumn Sonnets by May Sarton. Uploaded by Mykelangelo Buonarroti. Accessed May 3, 2019.)

1934 - Frankie Valli (born Francesco Stephen Castelluccio), American singer, the frontman of the Four Seasons beginning in 1960. He is known for his unusually powerful lead falsetto voice. Valli scored 29 top 40 hits with the Four Seasons, one top 40 hit under the Four Seasons alias the Wonder Who?, and nine top 40 hits as a solo artist. As a member of the Four Seasons, his number-one hits include "Sherry", "Big Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", "Rag Doll" and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)". As a solo artist, Valli scored number-one hits with the songs "My Eyes Adored You" (1974) and "Grease" (1978). 

1950 - Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer-songwriter, credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists to be signed to the Beatles' Apple label. (Mary Hopkin Those were the days lyrics. Youtube, uploaded by GPITRAL2 Music for learning English with lyrics. Accessed May 3, 2022.)

Leftie:
Singer Frankie Valli

More birthdays and historical events today, May 3 - On This Day.

 

Historical Events

1737 - American writer Margaret Mitchell wins a Pulitzer Prize for her novel Gone with the Wind, first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of poverty following Sherman's destructive "March to the Sea". This historical novel features a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, with the title taken from a poem written by Ernest Dowson. The novel was made into a blockbuster movie starring Rhett Butler, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland, produced by David O. Selznick. Here's the 1939 movie trailer. Uploaded by BFITrailers. Accessed May 3, 2015.)

1794 - Joseph Haydn's "Clock Symphony" is first performed, at London's Haymarket Theatre. The second movement's ryhthmic tick-tock provides its nickname.  (Here's a link: Haydn's  Symphony  No. 101 in D major ("Clock Symphony")  performed by Sir Charles Mackerras and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. Recorded by Telarc in 1992. Enjoy!)

May 2 Dateline

Birthdays

1660 - Alessandro Scarlatti, Italian Baroque composer, known especially for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera, and one of the most important opera composers of the Baroque era. Alessandro was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti. His notable work includes: Griselda, Il trionfo dell'onore and Sento nel core. He has composed his own Magnificat. Here's one we love: A. Scarlatti's "Messa di Santa Cecilia" conducted by Maurice Abravanel, Utah Symphony Orchesta and University of Utah Chorus. Soloists: Blanche Christensen, soprano; Jean Preston, soprano; Beryl Jensen Smiley, alto; Ronald Christensen, tenor; Warren Wood, bass. Uploaded by addiobelpassato. Accessed May 2, 2019.

1729 - Catherine the Great of Russia, Catherine II, (born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, Empress regnant of All Russia from 1762 until 1796 – the country's longest-ruling female leader. She came to power following a coup d'état that overthrew her husband and second cousin, Peter III. Under her reign, Russia grew larger, its culture was revitalised, and it was recognised as one of the great powers of Europe.

1794 - Novalis (pseudonym of Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg), German poet, author, mystic, and philosopher of Early German Romanticism. His best known for his literary production—including the prose poem Hymns to the Night (1800) and the unfinished novels The Apprentice from Said and Heinrich von Ofterdingen. He has professional work and university background of mineralogy and management of salt mines in Saxony. In spite of his death at 28, von Hardenberg left behind a complex philosophical legacy that encompasses discussions of subjectivity and self-consciousness, issues in epistemology, moral theory, political philosophy, problems of interpretation, philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, the proto-existentialist experience of the finality of human life, as well as a significant contribution to aesthetics and philosophy of art.  (Hardenberg Biography. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Accessed May 2, 2015.)  
 
1905 - Alan Rawsthorne, English composer and teacher. His first public success was his Theme and Variations for Two Violins at the 1938 International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) Festival in London. The next year, his large-scale Symphonic Studies for orchestral was performed in Warsaw, again at the ISCM Festival. His other acclaimed works among others, include a viola sonata, an oboe concerto, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a concerto for string orchestra, three symphonies, and the Elegy for guitar, a piece written for and completed by Julian Bream after the composer's death. Rawsthorne also wrote a number of film scores. His best–known work in this field was the music for the 1953 British war film The Cruel Sea (Swynnoe 2002), and his other scores included many popular British films, such as The Captive Heart, School for Secrets, Uncle Silas, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, West of Zanzibar, The Man Who Never Was and Floods of Fear.

1936 - Engelbert Humperdinck (born Arnold George Dorsey), English pop singer. Humperdinck has been described as "one of the finest middle-of-the-road balladeers around." His singles "Release Me" and "The Last Waltz" both topped the UK music charts in 1967, and sold more than a million copies each. In North America, he also had chart successes with "After the Lovin'" and "This Moment in Time". He has sold more than 140 million records worldwide.

1946 - David Courtney Suchet, CBE, English stage and television actor. He played Edward Teller in the TV serial Oppenheimer (1980) and received the RTS and BPG awards for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in the British serial The Way We Live Now (2001). International acclaim and recognition followed his performance as Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989–2013), for which he received a 1991 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nomination. (Being Poirot. Youtube, uploaded by kokopiko. Accessed May 2, 2019.)

1985 - Sarah Elizabeth Hughes, former American competitive figure skater. She is the 2002 Olympic Champion and the 2001 World bronze medalist in ladies' singles. Her skating technique: Hughes had a variety of triple-triple jump combinations, including a triple loop-triple loop, triple salchow-triple loop, and a triple toe-triple loop. Her best jump was perhaps the triple loop which she often completed out of a back spiral. She was also known for her camel spin with change of edge, and her spiral position.

Leftie:
Olympic figure skater Sarah Hughes
 

More birthdays and historical events today, May 2 - On This Day.

Historical Events

1887 - Rev. Hannibal W. Goodwin applies for the patent on his invention of celluloid photographic film.

1936 - Sergei Prokofiev's symphonic fairy tale Peter and the Wolf, is first performed at a children's concert, in Moscow.

May 1 Dateline

Birthdays

1850 - Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Arthur William Patrick Albert), the seventh child and third son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He served as the Governor General of Canada, the tenth since Canadian Confederation and the only British prince to do so. In 1910 he was appointed Grand Prior of the Order of St John and held this position until 1939. 

1854 - William Percy French, Irish songwriter and painter, one of Ireland's foremost songwriters and entertainers in his day. In more recent times, he has become recognised for his watercolour paintings. French was renowned for composing and singing comic songs and gained distinction with songs as Phil the Fluther's Ball, Slattery's Mounted Foot, and The Mountains of Mourne (this last was one of several written with his friend and and fellow composer, Houston Collisson). French also wrote many sketches and amusing parodies, the most famous of which is The Queen's After-Dinner Speech, written on the occasion of Queen Victoria's visit to Dublin in 1900. Many of his poems are on the theme of emigration, some he called "poems of pathos". (Mountains of Mourne, lyrics by P. French, sung by Don McLean - beautiful version with captions. YouTube, uploaded by Discover Ulster. Accessed May 1, 2017.)

1872 - Hugo Emil Alfven, Swedish composer, violinist, and choral conductor. Alfvén became known as one of Sweden's principal composers of his time, together with his contemporary Wilhelm Stenhammar. His music is in a late-Romantic idiom. His orchestration is skillful and colorful, reminiscent of that of Richard Strauss. Like Strauss, Alfvén wrote a considerable amount of program music. Some of Alfvén's music evokes the landscape of Sweden. Among his works are a large number of pieces for male voice choir, five symphonies and three orchestral "Swedish Rhapsodies." The first of these rhapsodies, Midsommarvaka is his best known piece.

 
1881 - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, French Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, paleontologist and idealist philosopher. He trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. He also conceived the vitalist idea of the Omega Point, and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of noosphere, the sphere of human thought.

1913 - Jan Walter Susskind, Czech-born British conductor, teacher and pianist. He began his career in his native Prague, and fled to Britain when Germany invaded the city in 1939. He worked for substantial periods in Australia, Canada and the United States, as a conductor and teacher. 

1923 - Joseph Heller, American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel Catch-22, a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for an absurd or contradictory choice. He briefly worked for Time Inc., before taking a job as a copywriter at a small advertising agency, where he worked alongside future novelist Mary Higgins Clark. At home, Heller wrote. He was first published in 1948, when The Atlantic ran one of his short stories. The story nearly won the "Atlantic First".
 

1937 - Bo Nilsson, Swedish composer and lyricist. He first drew notice as a composer at the age of 18 when his Zwei Stücke (Two Pieces) for flute, bass clarinet, percussion, and piano were performed in a 1956 West German Radio (WDR) “Musik der Zeit” concert in Cologne. His early style owes much to Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, but it also displays a number of personal features: the use of bright percussion sounds behind finely wrought vocal or flute (usually alto flute) lines, a “nervous” fluttering of tonal nuances, and a feeling for miniature, calculated forms. He attracted considerable attention in Germany with a succession of small chamber-music compositions characterised by their refined and unusual instrumentation. The best-known of these is Frequensen (German: Frequenzen, 1957) for piccolo, flute, vibraphone, xylophone, electric guitar, double bass, and percussion.

1944 - Rita Coolidge, American recording artist. During the 1970s and 1980s, her songs were on Billboard magazine's pop, country, adult contemporary, and jazz charts. She won two Grammy Awards with fellow musician and then-husband Kris Kristofferson. Her recordings include "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," "We're All Alone", "I'd Rather Leave While I'm in Love" and the theme song for the 1983 James Bond film Octopussy: "All Time High".

1946 - Joanna Lamond Lumley, OBE FRGS, British actress, presenter, former model, author, TV producer, and activist. She won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, and was nominated for the 2011 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in the Broadway revival of La Bête. In 2013 she received the Special Recognition Award at the National TV Awards, and in 2017 she was honoured with the BAFTA Fellowship award. Her other TV credits include The New Avengers, Sapphire & Steel, and Jam & Jerusalem, among others. Her film appearances include On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Trail of the Pink Panther, Shirley Valentine, and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie, etc. Lumley supports charities and animal welfare groups. 

Leftie:
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn

More birthdays and historical events today, 1 May - On This Day. 

 

Historical Events

1707 - Scotland and England are united by an Act of Parliament - England, Wales, and Scotland are united to form Great Britain. The first article of the act describes the Union flag as a combination of the cross of St. Andrew and the cross of St. George. the final design will  also incorporate the cross of St. Patrick of Ireland. It is often called the "Union Jack" as British ships fly the flag on the jackstaff. Otherwise, it is simply called "Union flag."

1761 - Joseph Haydn joins the service of Prince Esterhazy as Kapellmeister, in Eisenstadt, Austria. His association lasts some thirty years.

1772 -  In the Archbishop's Palace in Salzburg, on May 1, 1772, although not in its entirety, Wolfgang A. Mozart renders a private performance of his Il sogno di Scipione, K. 126, a dramatic serenade  in one act (azione teatrale), to Pietro Metastasio's libretto (which has been set to music several times), based on the book Somnium Scipionis by Cicero. Mozart had originally composed the work at the age of 15 for his patron, Prince-Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach. After the bishop's death before it could be performed, Mozart dedicated it to Schrattenbach's successor, Count Colloredo. Only one aria, the final chorus and the recitative dedicating it to the new Prince-Archbishop were performed. It is highly unlikely that it was ever performed in its entirety in Mozart's lifetime. (Il Sogno video:  Il sogno di Scipione 2019 Buzza Boncompagni Bobro. Accessed February 25, 2019.)

1786 - The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), K. 492, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premieres in Vienna, Austria. It is an opera buffa in four acts, with an Italian libretto written by Lorenzo Da Ponte.