BIRTHDAYS: Hendrick van Avercamp, Dutch painter (1585); Robert
Boyle, Anglo-Irish chemist, physicist, founding member of England's
Royal Society (1627-91); Thomas Tanner, English antiquary (1674);
Pompeo Batoni, Italian painter (1708); Paul Whitehead, English poet
(1709); Joseph Louis Lagrange, French mathematician, astronomer,
developer of the calculus of variations (1736-1813); Stephanie Felicite
du Crest de Saint Aubin, Comtesse de Genlis, French novelist &
educator, governess of the children of the Duchesse de Chartres
(1746-1830); Robert Burns, Scottish poet, of whom Emerson once said,
"The Confession of Augsburg, the Declaration of Independence, the
French Rights of Man, and the `Marseillaise' are not more weighty
documents in the history of freedom than the songs of Burns" (1759-96);
William Colgate, US soapmaker, philanthropist, founder of the
eponymous upstate New York university (1783-1857);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Arne Evenson Garborg,
Norwegian novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, proponent of
"Landsmaal," a Norwegian literary language based on peasant dialect
(1851-1924); W(illiam) Somerset Maugham, English novelist, essayist,
traveller, playwright, (1874-1965); Adeline Virgina (Stephen) Woolf,
English novelist, critic, short-story writer, pioneer of stream of
consciousness writing, feminist icon (1882-1941); Paul Henri Spaak,
Belgian statesman, Premier, 1st president of U.N. General Assembly
(1899-1972); Ilya Prigogine, Belgian chemist & theorist of contradictory
biological processes (1917); Corazon Aquino, Philippine stateswoman,
president (1933); Antonio dos Santos Ramalhao Eanes, Portuguese
statesman, president (1935);
DEATHS: George Selwym (1791); William Shield (1829);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
MISCELLANEA: Today Scotland celebrates Robbie Burns Day,
commemorating the birth of the national poet of Scotland. In Wales, it's
the Feast of St. Dwyn, Welsh patron saint of lovers -- we don't know if
her feast-day is widely celebrated, but it should be! On this day in 1909,
Richard Strauss's Elektra premiered at the Dresden Royal Opera
House; in 1915, Leonard & Virginia Woolf took a lease on Hogarth
House;
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JANUARY 26
BIRTHDAYS: Guillame Bude, aka Budaeus, French humanist scholar,
responsible for the founding of the Bibliotheque Nationale (1468-1540);
Giovanni Lanfranco, Italian painter (1582); Jean Baptiste Pigalle,
French painter (1714); Claude Adrien Helvetius, French philosopher
of sensationalism (1715-71); Lord George Sackville (1716); Jean
Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, French soldier who became King Charles
XIV of Sweden & Norway 1818-44 (1763-1844);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Joseph Brown, US inventor
of universal milling machine & various precision measuring instruments
(1810-76); Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge, US children's writer, author
of Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates (1831-1905); Kees van Dongen,
French painter (1877); Sean McBride, Irish statesman, developer of
nonsectarian principles that bear his name, 1974 Nobel Peace Prize,
son of muse & revolutionary Maude Gonne (1904); Maria Augusta von
Trapp, Austrian-born US musician, one of the Trapp Family Singers,
notorious for their story as portrayed in The Sound of Music (1905);
Edward Chester Babcock, better known as Jimmy Van Heusen, US
songwriter: High Hopes, Swinging on a Star, & The Second Time
Around (1913); Nicolae Ceausescu, Rumanian dictator (1918-90); Paul
Newman, US actor, blue- eyed wonder, salad-dressing maven, auto
racer (1925); Eartha Kitt, US singer, actress, still the best Catwoman
ever (1928); Roger Vadim, French film director, "discoverer" of
Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda (Barbarella), and other actresses, many of
whom he married (1928); Jules Feiffer, US cartoonist, playwright,
satirist, philosopher ("If Christ died for our dsins, dare we make his
martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?"), critic ("Good
swiping is an art in itseld") (1929); Samuel Chao Chung Ting, US
physicist, codiscoverer of psi or J particle (1936); Angela Yvonne
Davis, African-American sociologist, activist, black militant, author
(1944); Eddy Van Halen, US rock guitarist (1957); Anita Baker, US
singer & songwriter (1958); Wayne Gretsky, Canadian hockey player
(1962)
DEATHS: Henry Brigges (1630); Dr. E. Jenner (1823);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1699, the Treaty of Karlowitz was
signed with Turkey, which ceded most of Hungary, Croatia, & Slavonia
to Austria, while Venice & Poland also gained territory; in 1788, the
First Fleet arrived at Port Sydney, Australia, carrying 717 convicts
sentenced by English courts to transportation to the antipodes.
MISCELLANEA: Today the Dominican Republic celebrates the birth
of Juan Pablo Duarte, founder of the Republic & leader in the fight for
freedom from Haiti; in India it's Basant Pancami, or Independence
Day, celebrating the proclamation of the Republic in 1950. It's also the
Feast of St. Timothy, patron saint of stomach patients. On this day in
1907, police were called in to quell rioting playgoers at the premiere of
J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World at Dublin's Abbey
Theatre; in 1911, Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier premiered more
calmly at the Dresden Opera.
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JANUARY 27:
BIRTHDAYS: WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, aka Johannes
Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, Austrian composer,
arguably the very greatest musical genius of all time (1756-91);
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, German philosopher (1775-
1854); Samuel Palmer, English painter (1805); Giovanni Prati, Italian
poet & patriot (1814-84); Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, French architect
(1814); Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll,
English don, deviser of fiendish math puzzles, photographer, author of
Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, the Hunting of the
Snark, Sylvie and Bruno (1832-98); Leopold von Sacher-Masoch,
Austrian novelist, short-story writer & dramatist; the term "masochism"
came into being to describe the things people feel driven to do in his
novels (1836-95); Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany & King of
Prussia 1888-1918 (1859-1941); Jerome Kern, US composer & lyricist
(1885-1945); Donna Mullinger, better known as Donna Reed, US film
actress, later on tv's quintessential 50s megahousewife (1921); Ingrid
Thulin, Swedish actress, appeared in Ingmar Bergman's Wild
Strawberries (1929); Mordecai Richler, Canadian novelist, critic, wit: "If
you don't count some of Jehovah's injunctions, there are no humourists
in the Bible" (1931); Troy Donahue, US actor (1937); Mairead
Corrigan, Irish pacifist, founder of the Northern Ireland Peace
Movement, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize (1944).
DEATHS: Sir William Temple (1699); Thomas Woolston (1733);
Admiral Lord Hood (1816)
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1307, Dante Alighieri was expelled
from Florence; in 1639, Robert Burton was buried in Christ Church
Cathedral, Oxford;
MISCELLANEA: Today is the Feast of St. Devote, the patron saint of
Monaco. Practically everywhere, people of discernment and culture
celebrate Mozart's birthday. On this day in 1967, 3 US astronauts died
in the Apollo fire; on the same day in 1967, representatives of 60 nations
(including the US & USSR) sign a UN treaty providing for the peaceful
uses of outer space & banning weapons of mass destruction in space.
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JANUARY 28:
BIRTHDAYS: Henry VII, King of England (1457-1509); Pope
Clement IX, pope 1667-69, composer of the 1st comic opera (1600-69);
Giovanni Borelli, Italian physiologist, physicist, mathematician,
astronomer (1608-79); John Baskerville, English printer (1706);
Frederick VI, King of Denmark 1808-39 & of Norway 1808-14 (1768-
1839);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Captain Maclure, English
explorer of the Arctic (1807); Alexander Mackenzie, 1st Liberal Prime
Minister of Canada (1822-92); Charles George Gordon, aka "Chinese
Gordon" or "Gordon Pasha," British officer sent to relieve Khartoum
under seige by the Mahdi, and killed when the city fell (1833-85);
Henry Morton Stanley, Anglo-American journalist best known for his
expedition in search of explorer David Livingstone (1841-1904); Jose
Marti, Cuban poet and patriot, perhaps best known for his poem
"Guantanamera," sung by the Weavers and washed out nearly beyond
recognition by the Sandpipers in the early 1960s (1853-95); William
Seward Burroughs, US inventor, developed 1st recording adding
machine (1855-98); Sidonie Gabriella Colette, best known by the last of
these names alone, French novelist (1873-1954); Auguste Piccard,
Swiss physicist & balloonist, discoverer of "cosmic rays" (1884-1962);
Artur Rubenstein, Polish-born US pianist (1887-1982); Jackson Pollock,
US abstract-expressionist painter (1912-56); Claes Oldenburg, US
sculptor (1929); Susan Sontag, US philosopher, critic, novelist, essayist
(1933); Alan Alda, US actor (1936); Mikhail Baryshnikov, Russian-born
US emigre ballet dancer (1948);
DEATHS: Charlemagne (814); King Henry VIII of England (1547);
Sir Francis Drake (1596); Sir Thomas Bodley (1612); Peter the Great
of Russia (1725); Esther Johnson, aka Stella (1728); J.B. Danville
(1728); Mlle. Clairon (1803);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1647, Gilbert Shakespeare, William's
brother, was buried at Stratford; in 1770, the administration of Lord
North began; in 1807, London's Pall Mall was lighted by gas, the 1st city
street so illuminated;
MISCELLANEA: Today is Democracy Day in Rwanda. It is also the
Feast of St. Peter Nolasco, patron saint of midwifes, and the Feast of St.
Thomas Aquinas, the Seraphic Doctor, patron saint of Napoli, Italy, and
of all colleges, schools, and universities, and invoked against
thunderstorms. On this day in 1939, Irish poet William Butler Yeats
died -- Horseman, pass by; in 1944, Leonard Bernstein conducted the
premiere of his 1st symphony, Jeremiah, in Pittsburgh;
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JANUARY 29:
BIRTHDAYS: Emmanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist, mystic,
philosopher, theologian, biblical interpreter, sometime influence on
William Blake (1688-72); Thomas Paine, American colonial political
philosopher, patriot, pamphleteer, son of a Quaker corsetmaker, author
of Common Sense and The Rights of Man (1737-1809); Christian VII,
King of Denmark & Norway 1766-1808 (1749-1808); William Sharpe,
English line-engraver (1749); Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee,
American Revolutionary cavalry officer, governor of Virginia (1759-
1818); Albert Gallatin, US farmer, banker, politician, diplomat (1761-
1849); Friedrich Mohs, German mineralogist, deviser of the Mohs scale
of hardness (1773-1839);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Edward Williams Morley, US
physicist, codeveloper of the test of gravitational effect on light rays
used to test Einstein's theories (1838-1923); William McKinley, US
lawyer, politician, 25th president, assassinated (1843-1901); Whitney
Warren, US architect: New York's Grand Central Terminal & the Ritz-
Carlton hotel, Belgium's Louvain Library (1864-1943); Romain Rolland,
French novelist, dramatist, biographer, critic, 1914 Nobel Laureate
(1866-1944):; Vincente Blasco Ibanez, Spanish novelist (1867-1928);
J.D. Rockefeller, Jr., US industrialist, philanthropist (1874-1960);
William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W.C. Fields, US juggler,
playwright, practical philosopher ("A thing worth having is a thing
worth cheating for"), comic genius (1880-1946); Rieinhard Johannes
Sorge, German expressionist playwright (1892-1916); Barnett Newman,
US abstract expressionist painter (1905-70); Victor Mature, US screen
actor (1916); Paddy Chayevsky, US novelist, playwright , screen-writer
(1923); Peter Voulkos, US sculptor (1924); Katherine Ross, US actress
(1943); Greg Louganis, US Olympic diver (1960);
DEATHS: Bishop Sanderson (1663); Johann Theophilus Fichte (1814);
King George III of England (1820);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1635, Cardinal Richelieu founded
the Academie Francaise; in 1728, the 1st performance of John Gay's
The Beggar's Opera took place at Lincoln's Inn's Fields, and the play
ran for 63 nights;
MISCELLANEA: Today is Martyr's Day in Nepal. On this day in 1845,
Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" 1st appeared in the New York
Evening Mirror; in 1914, the Academy of International Law was
established at the Hague; in 1932, George Gershwin's Second
Rhapsody for Piano & Orchestra premiered in Boston; in 1956, H.L.
Mencken died in Baltimore at the age of 75 -- he had written,"The
older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings
wisdom";
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JANUARY 30:
BIRTHDAYS: Charles Rollin, French historian of ancient times (1661);
Balthasar Neumann, German architect (1687); Bernardo Bellotto,
Italian painter (1720);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Walter Savage Landor,
English poet, writer, controversialist (1775-1864); Charles Lord
Metcalfe, English statesman, Governor General of Canada (1785);
Walter J. Damrosch, German-born US compuser, conductor, led 1st
symphony to be broadcast by radio in 1925 (1862-1950); Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, US politician, statesman, 32nd president , who once
wrote to Winston Churchill, "It's fun being in the same decade with
you" (1882-1945); Boris III, King of Bulgaria 1918-43 (1894-1943); Saul
Alinsky, US social activist (1909-72); Barbara Tuchman, US historian,
who, reviewing the 1980 crop of presidential candidates, exclaimed,
"God! The country that produced George Washington has got this
collection of crumb-bums!" (1912); Gene Hackman, US actor (1931);
Vanessa Redgrave, English actress (1937); Boris Spassky, Russian
chess master, 1969-72 world chess champion (1937); Eleanor Cutri
Smeal, US feminist leader (1939); Phil Collins, English rock singer,
drummer, actor (1949);
DEATHS: William Chillingworth (1644); King Charles I of England
(1649); Dr. John Robinson (1805);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1648, the 30 Years' War (between
Spain & the Netherlands) ended; in 1649, Charles I, King of England,
was decapitated by order of the Parliamentary forces -- a date
commemorated by public fasting and sermons throughout Britain
during most of the 18th century; in 1815, the US Library of Congress
acquired Thomas Jefferson's library (6,457 volumes), re-establishing
the collection destroyed by fire in the War of 1812;
MISCELLANEA: Today is Cavatee in Mauritius. On this day in 1889,
the Archduke Rudolph, heir to the throne of Austria, and his mistress,
Marie Vetsera, committed suicide at Meyerling; in 1933 the Lone
Ranger made his radio debut; in 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was
assassinated; in 1956, Newsweek asks Robert Frost about writing free
verse, and he replied irritably, "I'd just as soon play tennis without a
net";
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JANUARY 31:
BIRTHDAYS: Robert Morris, US financier, revolutionary (1734-1806);
Michael-Guillame-Jean de Crevecouer, aka Hector Saint-John de
Crevecouer, aka J. Hector St. John, aka Agricola, French-American
writer, naturalist (1735-1813); Gouverneur Morris, US revolutionary
leader, Minister of Finance, statesman (1752-1816);
LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST: Charles Green, English
balloonist (1785-1870); Franz Peter Schubert, Austrian composer (1797-
1828); William Hepburn Russell, US entrepreneur, founder of the
Pony Express (1812-72); Victor-Henri Rochefort, Marquis de
Rochefort-Lucay, French journalist, politician, & polemicist (1830-1913);
Rudolph Wurlitzer, US manufacturer (1831-1914); Zane Gray, US
cowboy novelist (1872-1939); Max Pechstein, German painter (1881);
Edward Israel Iskowitz, better known as Eddy Cantor, US comedian,
googly-eyed song & dance man (1892-1964); Tallulah Brockman
Bankhead, US actress, wit ("The less I behave like Whistler's mother
the night before, the more I look like her the morning after." "I'm as
pure as the driven slush." "If I had to live my life again, I'd make the
same mistakes, only sooner") -- what a woman! (1903-68); John Henry
O'Hara, US novelist, short-story writer, born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania
in 1905 -- his study was moved and rebuilt in the Special Collections
section of Penn State's Pattee Library (1905-70); Arnold Raymond
Cream, better known as Jersey Joe Walcott , US boxer (1914); Bobby
Hackett, US jazz cornet player (1915-76); Thomas Merton, US poet,
autobiographer, Trappist monk (1915); Rudolf Ludwig Mossbauer,
German physicist, discoverer of the eponymous effect (1919); Jackie
Roosevelt Robinson, US athlete, first black baseball player in the major
leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, civil-rights activist (1919-
72); Alfredo Arnold Cocozza, better known as Mario Lanza, US
operatic tenor, star of the silver screen (1921-59); Carol Channing, US
actress, singer, mouth, voice (1923); Joanne La Cock, better known as
Joanne Dru, US actress (1923); Norman Mailer, US novelist, journalist,
narcissist (1923); Jean Simmons, English actress (1929); James
Franciscus, US actor (1934); Suzanne Pleshette, US actress (1937);
Lynn Nolan Ryan, US baseball player (1947)'
DEATHS: Charles Edward Stuart, the "Young Pretender" (1788);
Claire Clairon (1803);
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1788, Charles Edward Stuart, the
Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie, depending on your
historical bias, died in Florence; in 1803, beacons were lit at Hume
Castle, Berwickshire, by mistake, giving rise to other beacons and
rumours of an imminent French invasion;
MISCELLANEA: Today is Independence Day in Nauru. On this day
in 1901 Chekhov's Three Sisters, directed by Konstantin Stanislavski
and featuring Olga Kniper (Mrs. Chekov), opened at the Moscow Arts
Theatre to a mixed reception; in 1973, Norman Mailer sent out 5000
invitations to a $50-a-plate birthday dinner at New York's Four Seasons
Hotel, the money supposed to finance a "democratic secret police", but
only 500 people attended.
Eddy van Halen (Dutch born - Rotterdam - US Rock Musician)
End of 30 years war between Spain and the Netherlands: we always refer to it
as the end of the 80 year war.
31 January, birthday of queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. (though her birthday
is nationally celebrated on april 30, when actually her mother has her
birthday.)
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George M. Welling - dep.Alfa-Informatica HCI - University of Groningen
phone : +31 50 63 54 74 | fax : +31 50 63 49 00 | wel...@let.rug.nl
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