Today CXXXVIII

Birthdays:

• Hans Sachs, meistersinger, poet, playwright and shoemaker, September 5, 1494 - January 19, 1576


• Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri, priest and mathematician, the intent of whose work was to establish the validity of Euclid, by assuming that the parallel postulate was false, and attempting to derive a contradiction; he was unable to do this, and instead derived many unlikely results, forming theorems of hyperbolic geometry, September 5, 1667 - October 25, 1733


• Jean-Étienne Montucla, mathematician, wrote the first comprehensive history of mathematics, September 5, 1725 – December 18, 1799


• Johann Christian Bach, composer of the Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach, served as copyist to his father, opon whose death in 1750, he became the pupil of his half-brother CPE Bach; studied counterpoint under Giovanni Battista Martini, and from 1760 to 1762 held the post of organist at Milan Cathedral, for which he wrote two Masses, a Requiem, a Te Deum, and other works; in 1762, moved to London in 1762, where he spent the rest of his life, for which he is often referred to as the "London Bach;" met a very young Mozart in London and many scholars claim that he was one of the most important influences on Mozart, who learned from him how to produce a brilliant and attractive surface texture in his music; 99 symphonies are ascribed to Bach, but only 48 are considered authentic, September 5, 1735 – January 1, 1782


• Jacob Liebmann Beer, aka Giacomo Meyerbeer, composer, September 5, 1791 – May 2, 1864


• Jesse Woodson James, outlaw, September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882


• Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, rocket scientist and pioneer of cosmonautics, September 5, 1857 – September 19, 1935


• Amy Marcy Cheney Beach, pianist and composer of classical music, the first successful female American composer; a child prodigy, she could sing forty songs by age one, and composed her first song at the age of four; made her professional debut in Boston in 1883 and shortly thereafter appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; compositions include the Gaelic Symphony, the Mass in E flat Major, a piano concerto, a piano quintet, a quantity of choral music, chamber music, including the Pastorale for winds, piano music, and the opera Cabildo (1932); was most popular for her songs, September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944


• Napoleon NAP Lajoie, MLB second baseman, started his career in the National League with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1896; in 1901, he joined the Philadelphia Athletics, and batted .422, still a league record; won the AL Triple Crown in 1901; was the AL Batting Champion from 1901 to 1904 and in 1910; finished his career with a lifetime .339 average, and a career total of 3242 hits, 2521 in the AL; was among the second group of players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, inducted when the Hall opened in 1939, September 5, 1874 – February 7, 1959


• Joseph Szigeti, violinist, a child prodigy who made his concert debut at age 13; made his American concert debut in December of 1925, playing the Beethoven concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski; was a life-long friend of composer Béla Bartók, with whom he shared his ardent nationalism and anti-fascism; Bartok wrote his Contrasts for piano, violin and clarinet for himself, Szigeti, and Benny Goodman, and the Rhapsody #1 for Szigeti, September 5, 1892 – February 19, 1973


• Darryl Francis Zanuck, producer, writer, actor, and director, played a major part in the Hollywood studio system; worked for Mack Sennett and then Warner Brothers, where he wrote stories and scripts from 1924 to 1929, moving into management in 1929 and becoming head of production in 1931; in 1933 he left Warners to found Twentieth Century Pictures with Joseph Schenck and William Goetz, buying out Fox studios in 1935 to become Twentieth Century-Fox; won three Thalberg Awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, September 5, 1902 – December 22, 1979


• Kösztler Artúr, aka Arthur Koestler, journalist and writer of novels, social philosophy, and books on scientific subjects; studied science and psychology at the University of Vienna, where he became involved in Zionism; during the Second World War, continually spoke out against the atrocities of the Nazi regime in Germany; was among the first to experiment with LSD (in a laboratory); wrote about Japanese and Indian mysticism in The Lotus and the Robot; participated in Timothy Leary's early experiments with psilocybin at Harvard; among his works are: Lotus and the Robot, Control of the Mind, Hanged by the Neck, Suicide of a Nation, The Act of Creation, The Ghost in the Machine, Drinkers of Infinity: Essays 1955-1967, The Roots of Coincidence, and The Thirteenth Tribe, September 5, 1905 – March 3, 1983


• John Milton Cage, experimental music composer, writer and visual artist, September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992


• Franklin FRANK Thomas, animator, one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men, joined The Walt Disney Company on September 24, 1934, where he animated dozens of feature films and shorts, and also was a member of the Dixieland band Firehouse Five Plus Two, playing the piano; worked on animated cartoon shorts including The Brave Little Tailor; also worked on Pooh and Piglet in two of the Winnie the Pooh featurettes; worked on the feature films Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book; was directing animator for several villains, including the evil stepmother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, and Captain Hook in Peter Pan; voiced a character in The Incredibles, September 5, 1912 - September 8, 2004


• George Robert BOB Newhart, stand-up comedian and actor, signed by Warner Brothers Records based solely on auditionn tapes that he made; expanded his material into a stand-up routine which he began to perform at nightclubs; his 1960 album, The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart, went to number one on the charts, and received the 1961 Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and he won the Best New Artist Grammy; the follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back, won Best Comedy Performance - Spoken Word; relased more albums from 1961 to 1973, and The Button-Down Concert in 1997; 1961's The Bob Newhart Show lasted only a single season, but earned him an Emmy Award nomination and a Peabody Award; from 1972 to 1978, starred in the successful Bob Newhart Show; from 1982 to, starred in Newhart; neither 1992's Bob nor 1997's George and Leo were successful, though I thought that Bob was hilarious; appeared in several movies, most notably Hell Is for Heroes and Catch-22, in which he portrayed Major Major Major Major; inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993; in 2002 he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, 1929


• Carol Marie Laraia, aka Carol Lawrence, musical theater, film, and television actress, made her Broadway debut in 1952, achieving outstanding success when she created the role of Maria in the original 1957 Broadway production of West Side Story, 1932


• William Stanley Bill Mazeroski, former MLB player, originally signed as a shortstop, but moved to second base; best known for winning the 1960 World Series with a game-ending home run in the seventh game, the only Game 7 "walk-off" home run in World Series history; seven-time All-Star, from 1958 to 1960, 1962 to 1964, and 1967; eight-time NL Gold Glove in 1958, 1960, 1961, and from 1963 to 1967; was part of two triple plays as a fielder, 1966 and 1968; winner of the Babe Ruth Award; in 2001, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, 1936


• William Devane, film and television actor, the son of Joe Devane, who was FDR's chauffeur when Roosevelt was Governor of New York, 1937


• George Robert Lazenby, model and actor, best known for portraying James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service; appeared in a recurring guest role on The Pretender as Jarod's father Major Charles, 1939


• Jo Raquel Tejada, aka Raquel Welch, model and actress, her role in Fantastic Voyage made her a star; appeared in the remake of One Million Years B.C., and in Bedazzled, Bandolero!, and Lady in Cement; her first real starring role was in Myra Breckinridge, which was a flop; appeared in The Three Musketeers in 1974 and in the 1987 TV drama Right to Die, 1940


• Werner Stipetic, aka Werner Herzog, film director, screenwriter, actor, and opera director, often associated with the German New Wave movement; directed five films starring Klaus Kinski; in 1999 directed and narrated the documentary film My Best Fiend, a retrospective on his often rocky relationship with Kinski; won the best director award for Fitzcarraldo at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival; his Grizzly Man won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, 1942


• Al Stewart, singer-songwriter and musician, best known for his 1976 single Year of the Cat and 1978's Time Passages, both produced by Alan Parsons, 1945


• Farrokh Bulsara, aka Freddie Mercury, rock musician and songwriter, best known as the frontman, pianist, and vocalist for Queen, and for his powerful vocal abilities and charisma as a live performer, September 5, 1946 – November 24, 1991


• Loudon Wainwright III, songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor, best known for his 1972 song hit Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road); is a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant; son Rufus Wainwright and daughter Martha Wainwright, children from his onetime marriage to Kate McGarrigle, are both singer/songwriters, 1946


• George BUDDY Miles, musician the drummer for Jimi Hendrix's short-lived Band of Gypsys, and vocalist for The California Raisins commercials, began his career at twelve when he joined his father's jazz band The Bebops; as a teenager, played in a variety of bands, including Ruby & the Romantics, the Ink Spots, and the Delfonics; in 1967, formed Electric Flag with Mike Bloomfield; formed the Buddy Miles Express; played on an album in the early 1970's with Carlos Santana, 1947


• Cathy Lee Guisewite, cartoonist, creator of the comic strip Cathy; in 1993, received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society; in 1987, received an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy, 1950


• Michael John Douglas, aka Michael Keaton, actor, was in sitcom Working Stiffs, which attracted attention, and led to the co-lead in Night Shift; scored leads in Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously, Gung Ho, Beetlejuice, Batman, and Batman Returns; his films since tham have not been as successful as the Batman films, 1951


• Marc-André Hamelin, classical pianist and composer, Officer of the Order of Canada and a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Québec, 1961


• Juan Alderete, musician, bassist for Racer X, 1963


• Jeffrey Hoke JEFF, former MLB relief pitcher with a 14 year career from 1988 to 2001; 1990 All-Star; led the National League in 1996 with 44 saves; is currently a baseball colour commentator for ESPN, 1963


• Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa, aka Dweezil Zappa, heavy metal guitarist, the son of Frank Zappa; in 2006, organized the Zappa Plays Zappa tour, assembling a band of young musicians with a view to bring the music of Frank Zappa to a younger audience, 1969


• Rose Jane McGowan, actress, best known as Paige Matthews in Charmed, 1973


• Rodrigo Richard Barajas, MLB catcher, currently with the Texas Rangers, 1975

RIP:

• Domenico Allegri, composer and singer of the early Baroque Roman School, c. 1585 – September 5, 1629


• François Devienne, composer and professor of flute at the Paris Conservatory, January 31, 1759 - September 5, 1803


• Isidore Marie AUGUSTE François Xavier Comte, positivist thinker, came up with the term sociology to describe that discipline, January 17, 1798 - September 5, 1857


• Tasunka Witko, aka Crazy Horse, Sioux warrior and chief, December 4, 1849 – September 5, 1877


• Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann, physicist and educator, famous for his contributions in kinetic theory, and in the fields of statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics, February 20, 1844 – September 5, 1906


• Marian Ritter von Smolan Smoluchowski, scientist, pioneer of statistical physics, and a mountaineer, May 28, 1872 - September 5, 1917


• Richard Chace Tolman Ph.D., mathematical physicist and physical chemist, an authority on statistical mechanics, who made important contributions to the early development of theoretical cosmology; professor of physical chemistry and mathematical physics at Caltech, March 4, 1881 – September 5, 1948


• John Frank JACK Fournier, MLB first baseman, hit 136 career home runs in 14 seasons from 1912 to 1918 and 1920 to 1927, hitting .313 with a .393 on-base percentage; AL leader in home runs in 1924 with 27, September 28, 1889 – September 5, 1973


• Karl Gerhart GERT Fröbe, actor, starred in many films, including Goldfinger as Auric Goldfinger and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as Baron Bomburst; although a member of the Nazi Party before and during WWII, he aided German Jews by hiding them from the Gestapo, February 25, 1913 - September 5, 1988


• Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr., writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction, chess player, and champion fencer, whose science fiction novels The Big Time and The Wanderer, and the short stories Gonna Roll the Bones and Ship of Shadows all won Hugo awards - Bones also won a Nebula; many of his most-acclaimed works are short stories, especially in the horror genre, and he is widely regarded as one of the forerunners of the modern urban horror story; created Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser;
  Our Lady of Darkness, serialised in 1977, won the World Fantasy Award; the short parallel worlds story Catch That Zeppelin added another Nebula and Hugo award to his collection - the story shows a plausible alternate reality that is much better than our own, as oppose to the usual dystopian alternate universe; Belsen Express won him another World Fantasy Award; fans awarded him the Gandalf (Grand Master) award at the World Science Fiction Convention; in 1981, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America voted him the recipient of their Grand Master award; he was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s', December 24, 1910 – September 5, 1992


• György Stern, aka Sir Georg Solti, KBE, orchestral and operatic conductor, learned the piano and studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music; General Music Director, Bavarian State Opera from 1946 to 1952; Music Director, Dallas Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1962; Music Director, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1961 to 1971; Music Director, Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1991; Music Director, Orchestre de Paris from 1972 to 1975; Principal Conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1979 to 1983; , 21 October 1912 - 5 September 1997


• Leo Penn, actor and director, blacklisted after he attended a pro-union meeting in which support for the Hollywood Ten was voiced; returned to Broadway, where Actors' Equity had refused to go along with the ban; won the Theatre World Award in 1954 for his performance in the play The Girl on the Via Flaminia; worked as a television director; won an Emmy Award in 1973 for an episode of Columbo; father of singer Michael Penn, and actors Sean Penn and the late Chris Penn, August 27, 1921 – September 5, 1998


• Allen Funt, producer-director, best known as the creator and host of Candid Camera from 1951 to 1954 and from 1960 to 1966 on television, a show that he began as Candid Microphone on radio, September 16, 1914 – September 5, 1999


• Gisèle Marie-Louise Marguerite LaFlèche, aka Gisèle MacKenzie, singer, most famous for her performances on TV's Your Hit Parade; studied violin and voice at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto; performed many comedic violin duets with mentor Jack Benny; in the 1960's, she appeared as a regular on The Sid Caesar Show; in later years, she performed widely in musical theater in such shows as Mame, Gypsy, The Sound of Music, and Hello Dolly, January 10, 1927 - September 5, 2003