Today CCXXVI

Birthdays:

• Agostino Agazzari, composer and music theorist, December 2, 1578 - April 10, 1640


• Georges-Pierre Seurat, painter, the founder of Neoimpressionism; one of his most famous paintings is Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, December 2, 1859 – March 29, 1891


• Charles Ringling, one of the owners of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, December 2, 1863 – 1926


• George Richards Minot, shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with William P. Murphy and George H. Whipple for their work in the study of anemia, December 2, 1885 – February 25, 1950


• Harry Thacker Burleigh, baritone singer and classical composer, December 2, 1866 – December 12, 1949


• Leo Ornstein, experimental composer and pianist, December 2, 1893 – February 24, 2002


• Warren William Krech, aka Warren William, Broadway and Hollywood actor, December 2, 1894 - September 24, 1948


• Harriet Cohen CBE, pianist; the last six pieces in the collection Mikrokosmos - known as Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythms - by Béla Bartók are dedicated to her, December 2, 1895 – November 13, 1967


• Sir John (Giovanni Battista) Barbirolli, conductor and cellist, December 2, 1899 - July 29, 1970


• Howard Koch, screenwriter, who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950's; he moved to the UK with other blacklisted writers, where he wrote under the pseudonym Peter Howard; his work includes the radio drama The War of the Worlds, collaboration on the screenplay of Casablanca, for which he received an Academy Award, and Letter from an Unknown Woman, December 2, 1902 - August 17, 1995


• Peter Carl Goldmark, engineer who, during his time with Columbia Records, was instrumental in developing the 33-1/3 rpm LP vinyl record, December 2, 1906 – December 7, 1977


• Adolph Green, lyricist and playwright, who wrote most of his songs, plays, and movies with Betty Comden, December 2, 1914 – October 23, 2002


• Herman RAY Walston, stage, television and feature film character actor, whose first major role was Mr. Applegate in Damn Yankees!; he played the title character on My Favorite Martian, and Judge Henry Bone on Picket Fences, December 2, 1914 – January 1, 2001


• Sylvia Blagman , aka Sylvia Syms, jazz singer, December 2, 1917 - May 10, 1992


• Maria Callas, operatic soprano, who combined an impeccable bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts, making her the most famous opera singer of her era, December 3, 1923 – September 16, 1977


• Julia Ann JULIE Harris, actress; she is a five-time Tony Award-winning, three-time Emmy Award-winning, and Academy Award nominated actress, and an American Theatre Hall of Fame member; she has received more Tony Award nominations (ten) and wins (five) than any other performer; in 1966, won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre, 1925


• Gary Stanley Becker, economist and professor at the University of Chicago, awarded the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economics, 1930


• Kenneth ANDRE Ian Rodgers, MLB shortstop, who played from 1957 to 1967; in an 11-year career, he compiled a .249 batting average, with 45 home runs and 245 RBI in 854 games, December 2, 1934 - December 13, 2004


• Yael Dayan, writer and political figure, the daughter of Moshe Dayan, 1939


• Penelope Spheeris, director, producer, and screenwriter, 1945


• Paul ADRIAN Devine, former MLB relief pitcher, who played from 1973 to 1980, 1951


• Daniel E. DAN Butler, actor, known for his role as Bulldog Briscoe on Frasier, 1954


• Stone Stockton Phillips, television journalist, 1954


• Liú Yùlíng, aka Lucy Alexis Liu, actress, who starred on Ally McBeal, and appeared in Kill Bill and the Charlie's Angels films, 1968


• Darryl Andrew Kile, MLB pitcher, who last played with the St. Louis Cardinals, December 2, 1968 – June 22, 2002


• Sarah Kate Silverman, stand-up comedian, actress, and writer, 1970


• Eddy Jorge Garabito, second basemen, currently playing for the Baltimore Orioles' minor league affiliate Ottawa Lynx, 1976


• Nelly Kim Furtado, singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer, 1978


• Yvonne Catterfeld, singer, actress, and TV host, 1979


• Angela D'Amato, aka Isabella Soprano, actress and model, 1981


• Britney Jean Spears, singer, 1981


• Teairra Maria Thomas, aka Teairra Marí, R&B singer, 1987


• Cassandra CASSIE Rae Steele, television actress and singer/songwriter, 1989

R.I.P.:

• Hernándo Cortés, Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca, conquistador, who led the military expedition that initiated the Spanish conquest of Mexico, 1485 – December 2, 1547


• Gerard de Cremere, aka Gerardus Mercator, cartographer and engraver of brass plates, March 5, 1512 – December 2, 1594


• Johann Friedrich Agricola, aka Flavio Anicio Olibrio, composer, organist, singer, teacher, and writer on music, January 4, 1720 – December 2, 1774


• Donatien Alphonse François, le Marquis de Sade, writer of philosophy-laden and often violent pornography, as well as some strictly philosophical works, whose reputation for sexual cruelty led to the term sadism being named after him, June 2, 1740 - December 2, 1814


• John Brown, abolitionist, one of the first white abolitionists to advocate and to practise guerrilla warfare as a means to the abolition of slavery, May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859


• Alfred Bunn, theatrical manager, April 8, 1796 - December 20, 1860


• Edmond Eugène Alexis Rostand, French poet and dramatist, associated with neo-romanticism, best-known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac, April 1, 1868 - December 2, 1918


• Paul Marie Théodore VINCENT d'Indy, pianist, composer, and teacher, a student of César Franck , March 27, 1851 – December 2, 1931


• John Ringling, most well-known of the five Ringling brothers, who merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Brothers Circus to create a virtual monopoly of traveling circuses, May 31, 1866 - December 2, 1936


• Dinu Lipatti, classical pianist and composer, March 19, 1917 – December 2, 1950


• Sabu Dastagir, aka Sabu, actor, whose first role was that of an elephant driver in the 1937 film Elephant Boy, based on Toomai of the Elephants by Kipling; he was Abu in the film The Thief of Bagdad, and Mowgli in Jungle Book, January 27, 1924 – December 2, 1963


• Daniel Edward DANNY Murtaugh, MLB second baseman and manager, October 8, 1917 - December 2, 1976


• Martin Alan MARTY Feldman, trumpet player, writer, comedian, and film and television actor, famous for his bulging eyes, July 8, 1933 – December 2, 1982


• Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier, aka Fifi D'Orsay, actress, April 16, 1904 - December 2, 1983


• Philip Arthur Larkin, poet, novelist and jazz critic, August 9, 1922 – December 2, 1985


• Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha, III, aka Desi Arnaz, musician, actor, comedian, and television producer, who began his career as a professional musician in 1936, playing guitar and percussion for a Latin orchestra; in Miami, he led his own combo, and introduced American audiences to the Conga Line, which soon became a national rage; he was a successful recording artist, beginning in 1937, and had a hit with the Babalu, his signature song, in 1946; he produced and starred in I Love Lucy, in which he played a fictitious version of himself, Ricky Ricrado, and starring his real wife, Lucille Ball, as Ricky's wife, Lucy; with her, he founded Desilu Productions in 1951; they were divorced in 1960, March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986


• Luis Federico Leloir, biochemist, awarded the 1970 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, September 6, 1906 – December 2, 1987


• Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich, physicist, who played an important role in the development of Soviet nuclear and thermonuclear weapons, and made important contributions to the fields of adsorption and catalysis, shock waves, nuclear physics, particle physics, astrophysics, physical cosmology, and general relativity, March 8, 1914 – December 2, 1987


• Giovanni TATA Giacobetti, singer and lyricist, a member of the Quartetto Cetra vocal quartet, June 24, 1922 - December 2, 1988


• Aaron Copland, composer of concert and film music, teacher, and lecturer, who also wrote books and articles, and served as a conductor, most frequently for his own works; he was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition; his music achieved a balance between modern music and American folk styles; he incorporated percussive orchestration, changing meter, polyrhythms, polychords, and tone rows in his compositions, November 14, 1900 – December 2, 1990


• Robert BOB Cummings, motion picture and television actor, noted for his fresh faced youthful look, which lasted long after he was young, June 10, 1908 – December 2, 1990


• William ROBERTSON Davies, CC, FRSC, FRSL, novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor, one of Canada's best-known and most popular authors, and one of its most distinguished "men of letters;" the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate college at the University of Toronto; participated in theatrical productions as a child, where he developed a lifelong interest in drama; during his tenure as editor of the Examiner, from 1942 to 1955, and when he was publisher from 1955 to 1965, published 18 books, produced several of his own plays, and wrote articles for various journals, August 28, 1913 - December 2, 1995


• Lilian Alice Marks, aka Dame Alicia Markova, DBE, prima ballerina, December 1, 1910 – December 2, 2004>/li>