Today XXVII

Birthdays:

• Paul Wittgenstein, pianist, May 11, 1887 – March 3, 1961. He lost his right arm in World War I, but continued to give concerts playing with only his left arm, and commissioned several works from prominent composers. Maurice Ravel wrote his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, for which Wittgenstein became famous


• Israel Isidore Beilin, aka Irving Berlin, composer and lyricist, May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989. He was one of the most prodigious and famous American songwriters in history. His G-d Bless America proved so popular that, during the 1930's, it was considered for the American National Anthem, but was rejected by the press in part because it written by a Jewish composer


• Dame Margaret Rutherford DBE, Academy Award-winning character actress, May 11, 1892 – May 22, 1972


• Martha Graham, dancer and choreographer, known as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance, May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991


• Kurt Gerson, aka Kurt Gerron, Jewish actor and film director, May 11, 1897 – October 28, 1944. He was interned in the transit camp at Westerbork before being sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he ran a cabaret called The Karussell to entertain the inmates. He was subsequently blackmailed by the National Socialists to make a propaganda film showing how 'nice' concentration camps were, entitled Der Führer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt - The Fuehrer Gives a City to the Jews. After the film was completed, he was sent to Auschwitz near the end of the war, where he was gassed


• Salvador Felip Jacint Dalí Domènech, aka Salvador Dalí artist, May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989. He was one of the most influential painters of the 20th century, best known for his surrealist work


• Philip Silversmith, aka Phil Silvers, comedy actor, May 11, 1911 – November 1, 1985. His best-known work is The Phil Silvers Show, a 1950's sitcom set on a US Army post in which he played Sergeant Bilko


• Richard Phillips Feynman, physicist, May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988. He was one of the most influential American physicists of the 20th century, expanding greatly the theory of quantum electrodynamics, quark theory, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium. For his work on quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1965. Apart from pure physics, Dr. Feynman is also credited with the revolutionary concept and early exploration of quantum computing, and first publicly envisioning nanotechnology


• Morton Lyon 'Mort' Sahl, actor, comedian, and humourist, 1927. He wrote several speeches for John F. Kennedy


• Prof Dr Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, computer scientist, May 11, 1930 – Nuenen, August 6, 2002


• Douglas Osborne 'Doug' McClure, film and television actor, May 11, 1935 – February 5, 1995


• Carla Bley, née Borg, jazz composer, pianist, organist and band leader, 1938


• Eric Victor Burdon, singer, lead singer and founding member of The Animals, 1941


• Alden Brown, aka Peter North, actor, 1957


• Natasha Richardson, actress, 1963


• John Parrott MBE, professional snooker player, 1964