Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Today CCIX

Birthdays:

  • Sir Frederick William [Friedrich Wilhelm] Herschel, astronomer and composer, who discovered the planet Uranus and infrared radiation, November 15, 1738 – August 25, 1822

  • Joseph Quesnel, composer, poet, and playwright; among his works were two operas, Colas et Colinette, considered to be the first Canadian opera, and Lucas et Cécile, November 15, 1746 – July 3, 1809

  • Gerhart Hauptmann, dramatist, awarded the 1912 Nobel Prize in Literature, November 15, 1862 – June 6, 1946

  • Schack AUGUST Steenberg Krogh, professor of zoophysiology at the University of Copenhagen from 1916 to 1945, who made fundamental discoveries within several fields of physiology; he was was awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the mechanism of regulation of the capillaries in skeletal muscle, November 15, 1874 – September 13, 1949

  • Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965

  • Georgia Totto O'Keeffe, artist, known for paintings in which she synthesizes abstraction and representation in paintings of flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes, November 15, 1887 — March 6, 1986

  • William AVERELL Harriman, politician, businessman and diplomat, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, November 15, 1891 – July 26, 1986

  • Aneurin NYE Bevan, Labour politician and socialist, the Secretary of State responsible for the formation of the National Health Service in the UK, November 15, 1897 – July 6, 1960

  • Guy Green OBE, film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer, a founding member of the British Society of Cinematographers; in 1946, he won an Academy Award as cinematographer on the film version of Great Expectations; in 2002, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the BAFTA; in 2004, he was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, November 15, 1913 – September 15, 2005

  • Edward ED Asner, actor and voice actor, known for his Emmy-winning role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and on Lou Grant; he is also known as the slaver Captain Davies, from the mini-series Roots, who kidnapped Kunta Kinte into bondage, 1929

  • James Graham [J. G.] Ballard, novelist and short story writer, a prominent member of the New Wave in science fiction; his best known books are Crash and the autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, both of which have been adapted to film, 1930

  • Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE, singer, actress, and composer, best known for her upbeat popular international hits of the 1960's; with nearly 70 million recordings sold worldwide, she is the most successful British female solo recording artist to date, 1932

  • Clyde McPhatter, R&B singer, founder of The Drifters, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, November 15, 1932 – June 13, 1972

  • William Edgar LITTLE WILLIE John, R 'n' B singer, posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, November 15, 1937 – May 26, 1968

  • Prince Yaphet Frederick Kotto, actor and author; at 19, he made his professional acting debut in Othello; he was a member of the Actors Studio in New York; he got his start in acting on Broadway, where he appeared in The Great White Hope, among other productions; his first big movie break came in Nothing But a Man in 1964, 1937

  • Samuel Atkinson SAM Waterston, actor, noted for his portrayal of Jack McCoy on tthe TV series Law & Order; he has also performed in many feature films, 1940

  • Daniel Barenboim, pianist and conductor, who first achieved fame as a pianist but now is as well-known as a conductor, and for his work with mixed orchestras of Arabs and Jews; in 2001, he sparked a controversy in Israel by conducting the music of Wagner, 1942

  • Beverly D'Angelo, singer and actress, who had a string of hit movies in the late 1970'; her biggest break came in the 1983 National Lampoon film Vacation - she reprised her role in three Vacation sequels from 1985 through 1997, 1951

  • Michael Hampton, guitarist, the lead guitarist for Funkadelic after original guitarist Eddie Hazel left to join The Temptations in 1975; he who made his debut on the album Let's Take It To The Stage, 1956

  • Kevin Tyrone Eubanks, jazz guitarist, who has been the leader of the Tonight Show Band since 1995; he played with Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Slide Hampton, and Sam Rivers before starting to lead his own groups in 1983; in 2005, he received an honorary doctorate degree from the Berklee College of Music, of which he is an alumnus, 1957

  • Nigel Bond, professional snooker player, 1996

  • Rachel True, actress, 1966

  • François Ozon, writer and director, 1967

  • Pedro Felix Borbón Marte, former MLB pitcher, who played for nine seasons, 1992 to 2003, mainly as a relief pitcher; his father was also an MLB pitcher, 1967


R.I.P.:

  • Johannes Kepler, mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, and an early writer of science fiction stories, best known for his laws of planetary motion; he also did fundamental work in the field of optics, and helped to legitimize the telescopic discoveries of his contemporary Galileo Galilei, December 27, 1571 – November 15, 1630

  • Tsangyang Gyatso, the sixth Dalai Lama, 1683 – November 15, 1706

  • Christoph Willibald (von) Gluck, composer, July 2, 1714 – November 15, 1787

  • Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Oszyk-Sienkiewicz, novelist, the author of Quo Vadis; he was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature, May 5, 1846 - November 15, 1916

  • Alfred Werner, chemist, who was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and discovered hexol, a cobalt compound, December 12, 1866 - November 15, 1919

  • Lionel Barrymore, actor, won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1931 for A Free Soul, April 28, 1878 – November 15, 1954

  • Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr., actor, May 5, 1914 – November 15, 1958

  • Charles Thomson Rees Wilson CH, physicist, awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the cloud chamber, February 14, 1869 – November 15, 1959

  • Frederick Martin FRITZ Reiner, conductor of opera and symphonic music; Chief Conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle from 1914 to 1921; Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1922 to 1931, the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1938 to 1948, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1953 to 1963, December 19, 1888 - November 15, 1963

  • Edith Minturn EDIE Sedgwick, socialite, debutante, and heiress, who starred in many of Andy Warhol's short films in the 1960's, April 20, 1943 – November 15, 1971

  • Jean-Alexis Moncorgé, aka Jean Gabin, actor and war hero, May 17, 1904 – November 15, 1976

  • Margaret Mead Ph.D., cultural anthropologist, December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978

  • Charles John CHARLIE Grimm, MLB first baseman and manager, August 28, 1898 - November 15, 1983

  • Billo Frómeta, orchestra conductor, arranger, and composer, November 15, 1915 - May 5, 1988

  • Elizabeth George Speare, children's author, who won many awards for her historical fiction novels, including two Newbery Medals, November 21, 1908 – November 15, 1994

  • Saul Kaplan, aka Saul Chaplin, Hollywood composers and musical directors, inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985, February 19, 1912 – November 15, 1997

  • Stokely Carmichael, aka Kwame Ture, civil rights activist, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and member of the Black Panther Party, June 29, 1941 – November 15, 1998

  • Dorothy Loudon, Broadway actress, began singing as a child; became a lounge singer, and was featured on television on The Perry Como Show and The Ed Sullivan Show; her best-remembered role is as Miss Hannigan in Annie, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Actress in 1977; she had a series, Dorothy, in 1979, September 17, 1933 - November 15, 2003

  • John Morgan, comedian and writer, who played numerous characters on the CBC series Royal Canadian Air Farce from 1993 to 2001, and on its predecessor on CBC Radio; he wrote the pilot for King of Kensington, was co-creator of the CBC radio series Funny You Should Say That; he had his own BBC Radio series called It's All in the Mind of John Morgan, September 21, 1930 — November 15, 2004

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