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| John William Friso, Prince of Orange (1710) by Lancelot Volders |
Basketball star Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. was born on August 14, 1959. Magic Johnson earned significant earnings during his career as a point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. After retiring from basketball due to his HIV diagnosis in 1991, he went on to establish a successful business empire under the name "Magic Johnson Enterprises."
For more August 14 anniversaries, including the first printed book in Europe to bear the name of its printer, the marriage of Daniel Boone and Rebecca Bryan and the stage debut of John Wilkes Booth, the American actor who shot Abraham Lincoln, check out OnThatDay.
The son of a Scottish minister, television pioneer John Logie Baird, was born in Helensburgh, a small coastal town in the west of Scotland on August 13, 1888. An inventor from a young age, as a boy Baird installed not only a telephone exchange in his father’s manse but also a system of electric lighting, even entangling passing traffic in the wires. He demonstrated the first wirelessly transferred image in January 1926.
The movie director Sir Alfred Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1899 in Leytonstone, which is now part of London. Around the age of five, young Alfred was sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for five minutes as punishment for behaving badly. This incident not only implanted a lifetime fear of policemen in him, but such harsh treatment and wrongful accusations would be found frequently throughout his films.
Fidel Castro was born out of wedlock at his father's Cuban farm on Friday August 13, 1926. Known as a rebellious, loud, and troublesome child, Fidel Castro was sent to a Jesuit boarding school in Santiago de Cuba, where he was often teased by his wealthier classmates who called him a "peasant." Castro became embroiled in student activism while studying law at the University of Havana. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, he established a government based on Marxist-Leninist principles.
For more August 13 anniversaries, including the birthdays of sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Fiat S.p.A. founder Giovanni Agnelli and Ethel Roosevelt Derby, the youngest daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, check out OnThatDay.
Philanthropist Jonas Hanway was born on August 12, 1712. Hanway became the first Englishman to display an umbrella as part of a city "uniform" in around 1750. He had to suffer ridicule by carrying one habitually in London, suitably fortified against the inclement English climate. The hackney coachmen tried to hoot and hustle him down as they saw a threat to their livelihood in the new contraption. But in spite of the abuse, Hanway continued to carry his "guard from chilly showers."
George IV of the United Kingdom was born at St James's Palace, London, on August 12, 1762. He was the first child of King George III and Queen Charlotte. From 1811 until his accession, he served as Prince Regent during his father's final mental illness. However, once he became king in 1820, George's s heavy drinking, indulgent lifestyle, callousness and weak-mindedness made him unable to govern effectively.
For more August 12 anniversaries, including the deaths of England's Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, English poet, painter, and printmaker William Blake, George Stephenson, the "father of railways," James Bond creator Ian Fleming and legendary actress Lauren Bacall, check out OnThatDay.
Children's author Enid Mary Blyton was born on August 11, 1897 in East Dulwich, London to Thomas Carey Blyton, a cutlery salesman, and his wife Theresa Mary Harrison Blyton. She was educated at St. Christopher's School in Beckenham leaving as head girl. In 1922 Enid Blyton published her first book, Child Whispers, a collection of verse, but it was in the late 1930s that she began writing her many children's stories featuring such characters as Noddy, the Famous Five, and the Secret Seven.
For more August 11 anniversaries, including the establishment of the British colony of Penang in Malaysia, the arrival of the first batch of prisoners at Alcatraz and the death of Robin Williams, check out OnThatDay.
31st President of the United States Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, of German and Swiss ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was of English and Irish ancestry. Both of his parents were Quakers. As a child, young Bertie was often called by his father "my little stick in the mud", since he repeatedly was trapped in the mud while crossing an unpaved street.
31st President of the United States Herbert Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in West Branch, Iowa. His father, Jesse Hoover, was a blacksmith and farm implement store owner, of German and Swiss ancestry. Hoover's mother, Hulda Randall Minthorn, was of English and Irish ancestry. Both of his parents were Quakers. As a child, young Bertie was often called by his father "my little stick in the mud", since he repeatedly was trapped in the mud while crossing an unpaved street.
For more August 10 anniversaries, including the most successful indigenous rebellion in American history, the admission of Missouri as the 24th U.S. state. the discovery of aspirin and the debut of Spider-Man check out OnThatDay.
King Henry V of England was born in the tower above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle in the Principality of Wales on August 9, 1387. His father was Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV of England, and his mother Mary de Bohun, who died in 1394 giving birth to her last child, a daughter, Philippa of England. As king, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe.
King Henry V of England was born in the tower above the gatehouse of Monmouth Castle in the Principality of Wales on August 9, 1387. His father was Henry of Bolingbroke, later Henry IV of England, and his mother Mary de Bohun, who died in 1394 giving birth to her last child, a daughter, Philippa of England. As king, Henry's outstanding military successes in the Hundred Years' War against France made England one of the strongest military powers in Europe.
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| Detail of a miniature of Henry V of England. |
Grocer Clarence Saunders, who pioneered the modern retail sales model of self service, was born on a farm in Amherst County, Virginia on August 9, 1881. Saunders launched the self-service revolution in the United States by opening the first self-service Piggly Wiggly supermarket, at 79 Jefferson Street in Memphis, Tennessee on September 6, 1916. The checkouts and turnstile entrance at Saunders' stores proved such a success that by 1923 a further 2,800 Piggly Wigglies had sprung up across the U.S.
For more August 9 anniversaries, including the founding of Bulgaria, beginning of the construction of The Leaning Tower of Pisa and the first printed edition of the Quran in Arabic check out OnThatDay.
Roger Federer was born at the Basel Cantonal Hospital in Basel, Switzerland on August 8, 1981 to a Swiss father Robert Federer and South African mother, Lynette Federer (born Durand), whose ancestors were Dutch and French Huguenots. Roger Federer holds both Swiss and South African citizenships.
Roger Federer was born at the Basel Cantonal Hospital in Basel, Switzerland on August 8, 1981 to a Swiss father Robert Federer and South African mother, Lynette Federer (born Durand), whose ancestors were Dutch and French Huguenots. Roger Federer holds both Swiss and South African citizenships.
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| By Sirquine - Own work, CC BY 3.0, $3 |
Federer became the #1 ranked men's singles player on February 2, 2004, a position he would hold for a record 237 weeks. He has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles—the most in history for a male player.
For more August 8 anniversaries, including the first Spanish settlement on Puerto Rico, the birth of modern mountaineering. and the Battle of Amiens, check out OnThatDay.
Hungarian noblewoman Countess Elizabeth Báthory was born on August 7, 1560. Báthory was the most prolific female serial killer of all time. She tortured and killed over 650 people, believing the blood of young girls would maintain her youth. For a long time, she was protected by her high social status.
Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle who was born on August 7, 1876. A Dutch-Frisian exotic dancer, she had relationships with both German and French officers during World War I and was the archetype of the seductive female spy. She was arrested in February 1917, put on trial and found guilty of spying for Germany, and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Mata Hari was executed by a firing squad of the French Army in October 1917.
Hungarian noblewoman Countess Elizabeth Báthory was born on August 7, 1560. Báthory was the most prolific female serial killer of all time. She tortured and killed over 650 people, believing the blood of young girls would maintain her youth. For a long time, she was protected by her high social status.
Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle who was born on August 7, 1876. A Dutch-Frisian exotic dancer, she had relationships with both German and French officers during World War I and was the archetype of the seductive female spy. She was arrested in February 1917, put on trial and found guilty of spying for Germany, and consequently causing the deaths of at least 50,000 soldiers. Mata Hari was executed by a firing squad of the French Army in October 1917.
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| Mata Hari In Amsterdam, 1915 |
Randy Gardner was born August 7, 1949. He set the record for the longest period anyone has stayed awake when he was a 17-year-old high school student in San Diego, California, going without sleep for 11 days, or 264 hours. He was raising money for charity.
The poet Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6, 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. Alfred's father, the Reverend George Tennyson, had fallen out with his family and been disinherited; he drank heavily, was an opium addict and had become mentally unstable. Alfred and two of his elder brothers, Charles and Frederick were writing poetry in their teens. A collection of poems by Alfred and Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers, was published locally when Alfred was seventeen.
Scottish physician and microbiologist Sir Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881 at Lochfield, a remote small sheep farm outside Darvel, a small town in Ayrshire, Scotland east of Kilmarnock. Alexander's parents ran an 800-acre farm a mile from the nearest house. The four Fleming children spent much of their time ranging through the streams, valleys, and moors of the countryside. "We unconsciously learned a great deal from nature," Fleming said later in his life
Actress and comedienne Lucille Ball was born to Henry and Desiree Ball in Jamestown, New York on August 6, 1911. Her father contracted typhoid fever and died when she was three. Ball recalls little from the day she lost her father, only fleeting memories of a picture falling and a bird getting trapped in the house. Ever since that day she had an intense bird phobia. She banned all pictures of birds from her house and any hotel room she was staying in.
For more August 6 anniversaries, including the founding of the Colombian city of Bogotá, the first woman to swim the English Channel and the largest ever bank robbery, check out OnThatDay.
Joseph Merrick, whose very severe face and body deformities were exhibited at a freak show as the "Elephant Man," was born on August 5, 1862. Merrick had to sleep sitting up because of the extra weight his deformities put on his head. According to his autopsy, he died of a dislocated neck by trying to sleep lying down, in order to "be like other people."
Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel in Auglaize County, near Wapakoneta, Ohio. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and served in the Korean War. He flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, most of which was in January 1952. After the war, he served as a test pilot before joining the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962.
The engineer William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi on August 5, 1987. At the age of 15 he taught himself how to build windmills out of junk from the scrap yard to provide electricity for his family. Later on he built another windmill to power water pumps to irrigate fields. He did all of this through library books, as his family couldn't afford schooling.
For more August 5 birthdays, including Leonardo Da Vinci's earliest known dated work, the first recorded user of a fountain pen and the first ever recreational rock climb, check out OnThatDay.
Jazz great Louis Armstrong was born into a very poor family on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Raised by his mother in extreme poverty, at the age of 12 Louis served a term for delinquency at the Colored Waifs Home, after celebrating the New Year by running out on the street and firing a pistol. It was at the Colored Waifs Home, where Louis Armstrong learned to play the the bugle and the clarinet. He eventually became the leader of the home's brass band.
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapiʻolani Maternity Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hawaii only became a state in 1959. If it had become a state two years later than it did, Obama could not have become US president. His father was a black exchange student from Kenya named Barack Obama Sr. His mother was a white woman from Kansas named Ann Dunham, who was an anthropologist.
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex was born Rachel Meghan Markle on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, worked as a lighting director on Married…with Children and General Hospital. Her mother, Doria Loyce Ragland, is a social worker and yoga instructor. She calls her famous daughter "Flower," Meghan's parents divorced when she was six years old.
For more August 4 birthdays, including romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, French author Jules Verne's only child, and Sir Harry Lauder the first British singer to sell a million records, check out OnThatDay.
Stanley Baldwin, one of Britain’s most prominent 20th-century Prime Ministers, was born at Lower Park House in Worcestershire, England, on August 3, 1867. A member of the Conservative Party, Baldwin served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on three separate occasions: from 1923 to 1924, 1924 to 1929, and again from 1935 to 1937.
Dwight D. Eisenhower's second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower, was born on August 3, 1922, in Panama. John served in the United States Army, retired as a brigadier general, became an author and served as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium from 1969 to 1971.
Creme Puff, the oldest cat ever recorded was born on August 3, 1967. She died 38 years and 3 days later on August 6, 2005. Creme Puff lived with her owner, Jake Perry, in Austin, Texas. Perry also owned Granpa, who died in 1998, aged 34. Both cats lived off a diet of bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee.
For more August 3 anniversaries, including the first time an official US flag was flown during battle, the introduction of the Mickey Mouse wristwatch, and the opening of the world's first themed amusement park, check out OnThatDay.
Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski on August 2, 1923 in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), to Sara and Yitzhak Perski. In 1932, Peres's father immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. The family followed him two years later. Peres became involved in Israeli politics and was a member of twelve cabinets over the course of his career. As Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Rabin, Peres engineered the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty sharing the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat.
The poet Alfred Tennyson was born on August 6, 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England. Alfred's father, the Reverend George Tennyson, had fallen out with his family and been disinherited; he drank heavily, was an opium addict and had become mentally unstable. Alfred and two of his elder brothers, Charles and Frederick were writing poetry in their teens. A collection of poems by Alfred and Charles entitled Poems by Two Brothers, was published locally when Alfred was seventeen.
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| Somersby Rectory, where Tennyson was raised and began writing |
Scottish physician and microbiologist Sir Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881 at Lochfield, a remote small sheep farm outside Darvel, a small town in Ayrshire, Scotland east of Kilmarnock. Alexander's parents ran an 800-acre farm a mile from the nearest house. The four Fleming children spent much of their time ranging through the streams, valleys, and moors of the countryside. "We unconsciously learned a great deal from nature," Fleming said later in his life
Actress and comedienne Lucille Ball was born to Henry and Desiree Ball in Jamestown, New York on August 6, 1911. Her father contracted typhoid fever and died when she was three. Ball recalls little from the day she lost her father, only fleeting memories of a picture falling and a bird getting trapped in the house. Ever since that day she had an intense bird phobia. She banned all pictures of birds from her house and any hotel room she was staying in.
For more August 6 anniversaries, including the founding of the Colombian city of Bogotá, the first woman to swim the English Channel and the largest ever bank robbery, check out OnThatDay.
Joseph Merrick, whose very severe face and body deformities were exhibited at a freak show as the "Elephant Man," was born on August 5, 1862. Merrick had to sleep sitting up because of the extra weight his deformities put on his head. According to his autopsy, he died of a dislocated neck by trying to sleep lying down, in order to "be like other people."
Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, to Stephen Koenig Armstrong and Viola Louise Engel in Auglaize County, near Wapakoneta, Ohio. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was in the United States Navy and served in the Korean War. He flew 78 missions over Korea for a total of 121 hours in the air, most of which was in January 1952. After the war, he served as a test pilot before joining the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1962.
The engineer William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi on August 5, 1987. At the age of 15 he taught himself how to build windmills out of junk from the scrap yard to provide electricity for his family. Later on he built another windmill to power water pumps to irrigate fields. He did all of this through library books, as his family couldn't afford schooling.
For more August 5 birthdays, including Leonardo Da Vinci's earliest known dated work, the first recorded user of a fountain pen and the first ever recreational rock climb, check out OnThatDay.
Jazz great Louis Armstrong was born into a very poor family on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Raised by his mother in extreme poverty, at the age of 12 Louis served a term for delinquency at the Colored Waifs Home, after celebrating the New Year by running out on the street and firing a pistol. It was at the Colored Waifs Home, where Louis Armstrong learned to play the the bugle and the clarinet. He eventually became the leader of the home's brass band.
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at Kapiʻolani Maternity Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii. Hawaii only became a state in 1959. If it had become a state two years later than it did, Obama could not have become US president. His father was a black exchange student from Kenya named Barack Obama Sr. His mother was a white woman from Kansas named Ann Dunham, who was an anthropologist.
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| Obama (right) with his father in Hawaii. ca. 1971 Wikipedia |
Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex was born Rachel Meghan Markle on August 4, 1981, in Los Angeles, California. Meghan's father, Thomas Markle, worked as a lighting director on Married…with Children and General Hospital. Her mother, Doria Loyce Ragland, is a social worker and yoga instructor. She calls her famous daughter "Flower," Meghan's parents divorced when she was six years old.
For more August 4 birthdays, including romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, French author Jules Verne's only child, and Sir Harry Lauder the first British singer to sell a million records, check out OnThatDay.
Stanley Baldwin, one of Britain’s most prominent 20th-century Prime Ministers, was born at Lower Park House in Worcestershire, England, on August 3, 1867. A member of the Conservative Party, Baldwin served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on three separate occasions: from 1923 to 1924, 1924 to 1929, and again from 1935 to 1937.
Baldwin led the country through major crises, including the General Strike of 1926 and the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936. He was known for his calm, conciliatory style and for promoting a moderate, consensus-driven form of conservatism that sought stability during times of upheaval.
Creme Puff, the oldest cat ever recorded was born on August 3, 1967. She died 38 years and 3 days later on August 6, 2005. Creme Puff lived with her owner, Jake Perry, in Austin, Texas. Perry also owned Granpa, who died in 1998, aged 34. Both cats lived off a diet of bacon, eggs, broccoli and coffee.
For more August 3 anniversaries, including the first time an official US flag was flown during battle, the introduction of the Mickey Mouse wristwatch, and the opening of the world's first themed amusement park, check out OnThatDay.
Shimon Peres was born Szymon Perski on August 2, 1923 in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), to Sara and Yitzhak Perski. In 1932, Peres's father immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and settled in Tel Aviv. The family followed him two years later. Peres became involved in Israeli politics and was a member of twelve cabinets over the course of his career. As Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Rabin, Peres engineered the 1994 Israel–Jordan peace treaty sharing the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin, and Yasser Arafat.
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| Peres in 2009.By Elza Fiúza - Agência Brasil |
He served as the ninth President of Israel from 2007 to 2014 and as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and 1995 to 1996 and the ninth President of Israel from 2007 to 2014. When Shimon Peres stepped down as Israel’s president in July 2014, he was at 91 the world’s oldest head of state.
For more August 2 anniversaries, including the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok in the back as he played poker, Robert Zimmerman legally changing his name to Bob Dylan and the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq leading to the Gulf War, check out OnThatDay.
The Roman Emperor Claudius was born at the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls in what is now Lyon, France on August 1, 10BC. His uncle was the second Emperor Tiberius and Mark Antony was one of his grandfathers. Claudius had a stammer as well as a limp when walking, and his family kept him from public office until he was 38. He became Roman Emperor in January 41AD following the assassination of his nephew Caligula.
The author Herman Melville was born in New York City August 1, 1819 as the third child of a merchant in French dry goods. In 1840 Melville signed aboard the whaler Acushnet for his first whaling voyage, but jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands, where he lived for a time with a tribe of cannibals. Melville's further adventures included working as a beachcomber in Tahiti. Moby-Dick his epic and tragic novel about the whaling industry, was first published in October 1851.
For more August 1 anniversaries, including the start of the Georgian era in British history, the admission of Colorado as the 38th U.S. state, and the first scout camp, check out OnThatDay.
Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson was born on July 31, 1803. He came to New York in 1839 with a commission to build a ship for the U.S. Navy. His propulsion system was adopted by commercial steamers and by the USS Princeton (1844), the world's first screw-propelled war vessel.
American chemist Stephanie Kwolek was born on July 31, 1923. Kwolek's career at the chemical company DuPont spanned over forty years. She is best known for inventing the first of a family of synthetic fibers of exceptional strength and stiffness, Kevlar, which is used in bullet-proof vests. The Kevlar Survivors Club, founded by police officers whose lives were saved by Kevlar body armor, has more than 3,000 members.
Harry Potter author Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, England. The original concept for Harry Potter came to Rowling in 1990 on a Manchester to London train that was delayed for four hours. She was staring out of the train's window of the train when the idea, plot and characters came to her.
For more July 31 anniversaries, including the first European to visit the island of Trinidad, the first U.S. patent, and the release of the Game Boy device in North America, check out OnThatDay.
Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë was born in a bleak, Georgian Vicarage in Market Street, Thornton, West Yorkshire on July 30, 1818. Emily had four sisters including Charlotte who wrote Jane Eyre and Anne who penned Agnes Grey. They were bought up by their Irish clergyman father, Patrick, at Haworth Rectory, in Church Street, Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. Their Cornish mother, Maria, had died in 1821 at the age of 37 of cancer.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 on a prosperous farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan. Henry was passionate about mechanics, preferring to tinker in his father's shop over doing farm chores. He became fascinated by engines and one day Henry noticed a tractor parked by the side of the road. He studied the mechanism and asked the driver how fast the engine could run. The reply of 200 turns a minute gave Henry the inspiration for the motor car business.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 in Thal, a small village in Austria to Aurelia (née Jadrny) and Gustav Schwarzenegger, who was the local chief of police. Schwarzenegger began weight training at the age of 15. and won the Mr. Universe title at age 20 . He is widely considered to be among the greatest bodybuilders of all time. Two years after he immigrated to America in 1968, Schwarzenegger made his film debut with Hercules in New York a.k.a. Hercules Goes Bananas
For more July 30 anniversaries, including the founding of Baghdad, the first football World Final, and the signing into law of Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, check out OnThatDay.
Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Romagna, Italy. His father, Alessandro was a socialist blacksmith, who bored his customers with his relentless propaganda. His mother, Rosa Maltoni, was a devoutly Catholic school teacher. Always in trouble, Benito caused his family much worry and in 1894 Benito he was expelled from his catholic boarding school for stabbing a fellow student in the buttocks with a pen knife.
Silent movie actress Clara Bow was born on July 29, 1905 in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn, to a schizophrenic mother and a chronically destitute, physically abusive father. Her last name "Bow" was short for her actual last name "Bowtinelli". Her best friend Johnny burned to death in her arms when she was 10 years old. Years later, she could make herself cry at will on a movie set by listening to the lullaby "Rock-A-Bye Baby". She claimed it reminded her of her small friend.
For more July 29 anniversaries, including the death of Vincent Van Gogh, the publication of the first volume of Lord of the Rings, and the marriage of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, check out OnThatDay.
Helen Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1866 at 2 Bolton Gardens, West Brompton, Kensington, London. Beatrix was educated by three able governesses, the last of whom was Annie Moore (née Carter), just three years older than Beatrix. Annie and Beatrix remained friends throughout their lives and Annie's eight children were the recipients of many of Potter's delightful picture letters. It was Annie who later suggested that these letters might make good children's books.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 37th First Lady of the United States, was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Southampton, Long Island on July 28, 1929 to Wall Street stockbroker John "Black Jack" Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee. When a 12-year-old Jackie toured the White House with her mother and sister, she found it frustrating that there was so little information offered to visitors. So when Jackie eventually moved into the White House herself, she made it her mission to fix this.
For more July 28 anniversaries, including the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine Howard, the declaration by José de San Martín of Peru's independence from Spain and the first ever show jumping competition, check out OnThatDay.
French explorer and botanist Jeanne Baret was born on July 27, 1740. An assistant botanist on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769 that explored the Southern Hemisphere. Baret is recognized as the first woman to have completed a voyage of circumnavigation of the globe. Because French naval regulations prohibited female crew members, she spent most of the voyage disguised as a young man, calling herself Jean Baret. She extensively collected and categorized plants during her travels.
For more July 27 anniversaries, including the arrival of Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier in Japan, the proof that the hormone insulin regulates blood sugar and the longest ever prison sentence check out OnThatDay.
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and critic who had a major influence on Western theater, culture and politics. He was born July 26, 1856 at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, Dublin to retail corn merchant George Carr Shaw and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw. George attended four schools in Dublin, all of which he hated. He was lazy in class and disliked games, but the Irish youngster was an early reader, (Shaw was reading Shakespeare before he was 10).
American author Paulette Cooper was born July 26, 1942. Her 1971 book, The Scandal of Scientology, resulted in series of lawsuits against her by The Church of Scientology. As she continued to investigate the movement, Cooper became the target of harassment campaigns, which included an attempt to get her committed to a psychiatric ward, subscribing her to pornographic mail lists, and faking bomb threats with her stationary and fingerprints.
For more July 26 anniversaries, including New York becoming the 11th state of the United States, the opening of the world's first public railway and the establishment of the FBI, check out OnThatDay.
German judge Daniel Paul Schreber was born on July 25, 1842. A paranoid schizophrenic, Schreber believed he was receiving cosmic rays through his anal glands by God in order to transform him into a woman so that he could herald and breed a new race. He described his mental illness in his book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, an account which served as Sigmund's Freud's primary source to understand the condition.
English chemist Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25, 1920. She is considered to be the unsung hero of DNA research; James Watson and Francis Crick got the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix after Franklin's lab partner showed Watson one of her best images — an X-ray labelled ‘photograph 51'. Many believe she should have shared in their Nobel Prize.
The world's first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born on July 25, 1978 at Oldham General Hospital, in Oldham, England. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years.
For more July 25 anniversaries, including the marriage of Mary I of England to Philip of Spain, the first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history and the first man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, check out OnThatDay.
Eugene Vidocq, the French father of modern criminal investigation, was born on July 24, 1775. He introduced record keeping and the science of ballistics into police work. Originally a crook, as a fugitive from French justice, Vidcoq offered his services as a police informer. Later Vidcoq became so successful at catching criminals that he was named the first chief of police at the Surete in 1811. Vidocq eventually directed a force of 28 detectives, all of whom were former criminals.
Alexandre Dumas was born in Paris, France on July 24, 1802. He was the grandson of a woman slave from the Saint Domingue island (later renamed, Haiti), where his French father was born in 1762, and lived a large part of his life. Dumas wrote in a wide variety of genres and published a total of 100,000 pages in his lifetime. He is best known for his adventure novels with historical elements, which include The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Count of Monte Cristo.
Pioneering aviation pilot Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. As a child, Milly spent long hours playing with her younger sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle and "belly-slamming" her sled downhill. Earhart wasn't impressed the first time she saw an airplane at the age of 10. In Last Flight, a collection of diary entries published posthumously, she recalled feeling unmoved by “a thing of rusty wire and wood” at the Iowa State Fair in 1908.
For more July 24 anniversaries, including the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, the founding of Detroit and the launch of Nescafe, check out OnThatDay.
British artist and illustrator Edward Frank Gillett was born on July 23, 1874. He passed away on May 1, 1927, but still competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics. Two of his works were in the Olympics art competition.
Judit Polgár who is widely considered the best female chess player of all time was born on July 23, 1976. She and her two sisters were intentionally raised to be chess masters by their father, László Polgár, to prove his theory that "Geniuses are made, not born." Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by Bobby Fischer.
For more July 23 anniversaries, including the establishment of The Communist Party of China, the longest hijacking of a commercial flight, and the marriage of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson check out OnThatDay.
Prince George of Cambridge, the third in line to the British throne, was born on July 22, 2013. The eldest child of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the little prince was born weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. His birth certificate reveals an officially long, royal-sounding name: Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. Along with his parents names on the sheet of paper are their jobs which they list as as “prince” and “princess.” For his first public appearance, Prince George wore an Aden + Anais swaddling blanket that quickly sold out in the UK.
For more August 2 anniversaries, including the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok in the back as he played poker, Robert Zimmerman legally changing his name to Bob Dylan and the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq leading to the Gulf War, check out OnThatDay.
The Roman Emperor Claudius was born at the Sanctuary of the Three Gauls in what is now Lyon, France on August 1, 10BC. His uncle was the second Emperor Tiberius and Mark Antony was one of his grandfathers. Claudius had a stammer as well as a limp when walking, and his family kept him from public office until he was 38. He became Roman Emperor in January 41AD following the assassination of his nephew Caligula.
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| Claudius Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011) Wikipedia |
The author Herman Melville was born in New York City August 1, 1819 as the third child of a merchant in French dry goods. In 1840 Melville signed aboard the whaler Acushnet for his first whaling voyage, but jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands, where he lived for a time with a tribe of cannibals. Melville's further adventures included working as a beachcomber in Tahiti. Moby-Dick his epic and tragic novel about the whaling industry, was first published in October 1851.
For more August 1 anniversaries, including the start of the Georgian era in British history, the admission of Colorado as the 38th U.S. state, and the first scout camp, check out OnThatDay.
Swedish-American inventor John Ericsson was born on July 31, 1803. He came to New York in 1839 with a commission to build a ship for the U.S. Navy. His propulsion system was adopted by commercial steamers and by the USS Princeton (1844), the world's first screw-propelled war vessel.
American chemist Stephanie Kwolek was born on July 31, 1923. Kwolek's career at the chemical company DuPont spanned over forty years. She is best known for inventing the first of a family of synthetic fibers of exceptional strength and stiffness, Kevlar, which is used in bullet-proof vests. The Kevlar Survivors Club, founded by police officers whose lives were saved by Kevlar body armor, has more than 3,000 members.
Harry Potter author Joanne Kathleen Rowling was born July 31, 1965 in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol, England. The original concept for Harry Potter came to Rowling in 1990 on a Manchester to London train that was delayed for four hours. She was staring out of the train's window of the train when the idea, plot and characters came to her.
For more July 31 anniversaries, including the first European to visit the island of Trinidad, the first U.S. patent, and the release of the Game Boy device in North America, check out OnThatDay.
Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë was born in a bleak, Georgian Vicarage in Market Street, Thornton, West Yorkshire on July 30, 1818. Emily had four sisters including Charlotte who wrote Jane Eyre and Anne who penned Agnes Grey. They were bought up by their Irish clergyman father, Patrick, at Haworth Rectory, in Church Street, Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. Their Cornish mother, Maria, had died in 1821 at the age of 37 of cancer.
Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863 on a prosperous farm in Greenfield Township, Michigan. Henry was passionate about mechanics, preferring to tinker in his father's shop over doing farm chores. He became fascinated by engines and one day Henry noticed a tractor parked by the side of the road. He studied the mechanism and asked the driver how fast the engine could run. The reply of 200 turns a minute gave Henry the inspiration for the motor car business.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 in Thal, a small village in Austria to Aurelia (née Jadrny) and Gustav Schwarzenegger, who was the local chief of police. Schwarzenegger began weight training at the age of 15. and won the Mr. Universe title at age 20 . He is widely considered to be among the greatest bodybuilders of all time. Two years after he immigrated to America in 1968, Schwarzenegger made his film debut with Hercules in New York a.k.a. Hercules Goes Bananas
For more July 30 anniversaries, including the founding of Baghdad, the first football World Final, and the signing into law of Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, check out OnThatDay.
Benito Mussolini was born on July 29, 1883 in Dovia di Predappio, a small town in the province of Forlì in Romagna, Italy. His father, Alessandro was a socialist blacksmith, who bored his customers with his relentless propaganda. His mother, Rosa Maltoni, was a devoutly Catholic school teacher. Always in trouble, Benito caused his family much worry and in 1894 Benito he was expelled from his catholic boarding school for stabbing a fellow student in the buttocks with a pen knife.
Silent movie actress Clara Bow was born on July 29, 1905 in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn, to a schizophrenic mother and a chronically destitute, physically abusive father. Her last name "Bow" was short for her actual last name "Bowtinelli". Her best friend Johnny burned to death in her arms when she was 10 years old. Years later, she could make herself cry at will on a movie set by listening to the lullaby "Rock-A-Bye Baby". She claimed it reminded her of her small friend.
Helen Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1866 at 2 Bolton Gardens, West Brompton, Kensington, London. Beatrix was educated by three able governesses, the last of whom was Annie Moore (née Carter), just three years older than Beatrix. Annie and Beatrix remained friends throughout their lives and Annie's eight children were the recipients of many of Potter's delightful picture letters. It was Annie who later suggested that these letters might make good children's books.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 37th First Lady of the United States, was born Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Southampton, Long Island on July 28, 1929 to Wall Street stockbroker John "Black Jack" Bouvier III and Janet Norton Lee. When a 12-year-old Jackie toured the White House with her mother and sister, she found it frustrating that there was so little information offered to visitors. So when Jackie eventually moved into the White House herself, she made it her mission to fix this.
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| Six-year-old Bouvier in 1935 |
French explorer and botanist Jeanne Baret was born on July 27, 1740. An assistant botanist on Louis Antoine de Bougainville's expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and Étoile in 1766–1769 that explored the Southern Hemisphere. Baret is recognized as the first woman to have completed a voyage of circumnavigation of the globe. Because French naval regulations prohibited female crew members, she spent most of the voyage disguised as a young man, calling herself Jean Baret. She extensively collected and categorized plants during her travels.
Hilaire Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France on July 27, 1870 to a French father, Louis Belloc and an English mother. After the death of his father in 1872, he was raised in West Sussex, England by his mother. A prolific poet, essayist and historian, Belloc is best known for Cautionary Tales for Children (1907), a collection of humorous poems with satirical morals. He also wrote historical biographies and numerous travel works, including The Path to Rome. (1902).
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| Hilaire Belloc portrait by E. O. Hoppé (1915) |
Belloc married American-born Elodie Hogan in 1896. The couple subsequently had five children before she died in 1914 of influenza — after which he wore mourning for the rest of his life. Asked why he wrote so much, he said: "Because my children are howling for pearls and caviar."
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and critic who had a major influence on Western theater, culture and politics. He was born July 26, 1856 at 3 Upper Synge Street in Portobello, Dublin to retail corn merchant George Carr Shaw and Lucinda Elizabeth (Bessie) Shaw. George attended four schools in Dublin, all of which he hated. He was lazy in class and disliked games, but the Irish youngster was an early reader, (Shaw was reading Shakespeare before he was 10).
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| Shaw's birthplace By J.-H. Janßen |
American author Paulette Cooper was born July 26, 1942. Her 1971 book, The Scandal of Scientology, resulted in series of lawsuits against her by The Church of Scientology. As she continued to investigate the movement, Cooper became the target of harassment campaigns, which included an attempt to get her committed to a psychiatric ward, subscribing her to pornographic mail lists, and faking bomb threats with her stationary and fingerprints.
For more July 26 anniversaries, including New York becoming the 11th state of the United States, the opening of the world's first public railway and the establishment of the FBI, check out OnThatDay.
German judge Daniel Paul Schreber was born on July 25, 1842. A paranoid schizophrenic, Schreber believed he was receiving cosmic rays through his anal glands by God in order to transform him into a woman so that he could herald and breed a new race. He described his mental illness in his book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, an account which served as Sigmund's Freud's primary source to understand the condition.
English chemist Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25, 1920. She is considered to be the unsung hero of DNA research; James Watson and Francis Crick got the Nobel Prize for discovering the double helix after Franklin's lab partner showed Watson one of her best images — an X-ray labelled ‘photograph 51'. Many believe she should have shared in their Nobel Prize.
The world's first test tube baby, Louise Brown, was born on July 25, 1978 at Oldham General Hospital, in Oldham, England. She weighed 5 pounds, 12 ounces (2.608 kg) at birth. Her parents, Lesley and John Brown, had been trying to conceive for nine years.
For more July 25 anniversaries, including the marriage of Mary I of England to Philip of Spain, the first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history and the first man to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, check out OnThatDay.
Eugene Vidocq, the French father of modern criminal investigation, was born on July 24, 1775. He introduced record keeping and the science of ballistics into police work. Originally a crook, as a fugitive from French justice, Vidcoq offered his services as a police informer. Later Vidcoq became so successful at catching criminals that he was named the first chief of police at the Surete in 1811. Vidocq eventually directed a force of 28 detectives, all of whom were former criminals.
Alexandre Dumas was born in Paris, France on July 24, 1802. He was the grandson of a woman slave from the Saint Domingue island (later renamed, Haiti), where his French father was born in 1762, and lived a large part of his life. Dumas wrote in a wide variety of genres and published a total of 100,000 pages in his lifetime. He is best known for his adventure novels with historical elements, which include The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Count of Monte Cristo.
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| Dumas in 1855 |
Pioneering aviation pilot Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas. As a child, Milly spent long hours playing with her younger sister Pidge, climbing trees, hunting rats with a rifle and "belly-slamming" her sled downhill. Earhart wasn't impressed the first time she saw an airplane at the age of 10. In Last Flight, a collection of diary entries published posthumously, she recalled feeling unmoved by “a thing of rusty wire and wood” at the Iowa State Fair in 1908.
For more July 24 anniversaries, including the abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, the founding of Detroit and the launch of Nescafe, check out OnThatDay.
British artist and illustrator Edward Frank Gillett was born on July 23, 1874. He passed away on May 1, 1927, but still competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Olympics. Two of his works were in the Olympics art competition.
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| Judit Polgár, 2008 By Stefan64 - Self-photographed |
The actor Woody Harrelson was born on July 23, 1961, in Midland, Texas. His father Charles was a convicted hitman who assassinated a federal judge. He was largely absent from Woody's life, with Woody describing him as having "no valid part in my upbringing." Harrelson first became known for his role as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom Cheers (1985–1993). He went on to star in notable movies such as White Men Can't Jump, No Country for Old Men, and The Hunger Games films.
Prince George of Cambridge, the third in line to the British throne, was born on July 22, 2013. The eldest child of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the little prince was born weighing 8 pounds, 6 ounces at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. His birth certificate reveals an officially long, royal-sounding name: Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge. Along with his parents names on the sheet of paper are their jobs which they list as as “prince” and “princess.” For his first public appearance, Prince George wore an Aden + Anais swaddling blanket that quickly sold out in the UK.
George embarked on his first royal tour with his parents in April 2014, during which the Cambridges spent three weeks in New Zealand and Australia. He made his first public appearance in June 2015 on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the Trooping the Colour parade marking the Queen's Official Birthday.
For more July 22 anniversaries, including the first recorded person to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, the loudest airplane ever built, and the longest dive by a pig, check out OnThatDay.
The writer Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago to Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a physician, and Grace Hall-Hemingway, a painter and musician. His mother dressed and raised Ernest as a girl for some of the early part of his life, calling him "Ernestine". His boyhood was spent in the wild country round the Great Lakes which gave him a love for the outdoor life.
Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated dog of World War I and the only dog to be promoted by combat, was born on July 21, 1916. He saved his regiment from mustard gas attacks comforted the wounded and notified his troop of oncoming artillery. Back home, his exploits were front page news in major newspapers. After the war, Sergeant Stubby led parades across the country met three presidents and became a university mascot.
The comedian and actor Robin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1951. Robin Williams was one of just 20 students accepted into Julliard School in New York City in 1973. While his comedic genius was immediately obvious, he wasn't taken seriously until his portrayal of a wheelchair-bound old man in the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana during a third-year acting class. Christopher Reeve was Williams' roommate and best friend at Juilliard.
For more July 21 anniversaries, including the creation of Central Park, the conviction of John T. Scopes for teaching the theory of evolution to his class, and the christening of the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, check out OnThatDay.
Alexander the Great was born on the sixth day of the ancient Greek month of Hekatombaion, which is thought to correspond to July 20, 356 BC, in Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedon.
Alexander's father was Philip II, King of Macedon and his mother was Olympias, the hot tempered princess of Epirus. Between the ages of 13 and 16, Alexander came under the tuition of the philosopher Aristotle. From him he learnt rhetoric, medicine, geometry, art, literature and music.
Ziona Chana was born on July 20, 1945 at Hmawngkawn village in Serchhip district, India. The leader of the "Chana" sect, which allows polygamy, he lived in a 100-room four storey mansion with his jumbo sized family in Baktawng village, Mizoram, India. His family consisted of 39 wives, 94 children, 14-daughters-in-laws and 33 grandchildren, setting the world record for the "world's largest existing family."
For more July 20 anniversaries, including the patenting of the world's first internal combustion engine, the live debut of Elvis Presley and The Blue Moon Boys and the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, check out OnThatDay.
Lizzie Andrew Borden was born July 19, 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts, to successful property developer Andrew Borden and his wife Sarah. Three years after the death of Lizzie mother Sarah, Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray. Lizzie believed that Abby had married her father for his wealth.
For more July 19 anniversaries, including the launch of Brunel's passenger ship the SS Great Britain, the first women's rights and feminist convention held in the United States and the first unassisted triple play in major-league baseball, check out OnThatDay.
The British polymath Robert Hooke was born on July 18, 1635. When Hooke published his 1665 masterpiece, Micrographia, people were astounded by its depictions of the miniature world. Samuel Pepys called it "the most ingenious book that I ever read in my life". Until then, few people knew that fleas had hairy legs or that plants comprised cells (Hooke coined the term "cell"). Hooke used a hand-crafted, leather and gold-tooled microscope to make the observations for Micrographia,
Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, Transkei South Africa on July 18, 1918 to a Thembu royal family. Mandela's original name was Rolihlahla Mandela. In his Xhosa tribe, the name means pulling the branch of a tree or troublemaker. The name "Nelson" was given to him by his teacher Miss Mdingane on his first day of elementary school. African children were given English names so colonial masters could pronounce them easily.
The astronaut and politician John Glenn was born on July 18, 1921. He became the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes abroad Friendship 7 in 1962.
Following his retirement from NASA, Glenn served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States senator from Ohio. In 1998, he flew into space again at age 77 becoming the oldest astronaut ever.
Businessman Richard Branson was born in Blackheath, London on July 18, 1950. Despite being dyslexic, he started a magazine called Student whilst at school, which was relatively successful at selling ads. Branson is the founder of Virgin. He chose the company name after it was suggested by one of his friends that they were all 'virgins' in business.
For more July 18 anniversaries, including the Great Fire of Rome, the first black soldier to earn the Medal of Honor, and gymnast Nadia Comaneci scoring a perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics, check out OnThatDay.
The father of English hymnody Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, England on July 17, 1674. He was brought up in a home of committed Christians; his father, also Isaac Watts, was a respected nonconformist who had twice been imprisoned for his religious beliefs. His mother was of Huguenot origin. Watts is credited with some 750 hymns, as well as many books. His joyful hymns expressed wonder, praise and adoration covering the whole range of Christian experience.
Businessman and philanthropist John Jacob Astor was born on July 17, 1763 in Germany. Astor moved to the United States after the American Revolutionary War. He entered the fur trade and built a monopoly, managing a business empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast, becoming America's first multi-millionaire. He got out of the fur trade in 1830, diversifying by investing in New York City real estate.
For more July 22 anniversaries, including the first recorded person to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America north of Mexico, the loudest airplane ever built, and the longest dive by a pig, check out OnThatDay.
The writer Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago to Clarence Edmonds Hemingway, a physician, and Grace Hall-Hemingway, a painter and musician. His mother dressed and raised Ernest as a girl for some of the early part of his life, calling him "Ernestine". His boyhood was spent in the wild country round the Great Lakes which gave him a love for the outdoor life.
Sergeant Stubby, the most decorated dog of World War I and the only dog to be promoted by combat, was born on July 21, 1916. He saved his regiment from mustard gas attacks comforted the wounded and notified his troop of oncoming artillery. Back home, his exploits were front page news in major newspapers. After the war, Sergeant Stubby led parades across the country met three presidents and became a university mascot.
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| Sergeant Stubby wearing military uniform and decorations. |
The comedian and actor Robin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 21, 1951. Robin Williams was one of just 20 students accepted into Julliard School in New York City in 1973. While his comedic genius was immediately obvious, he wasn't taken seriously until his portrayal of a wheelchair-bound old man in the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana during a third-year acting class. Christopher Reeve was Williams' roommate and best friend at Juilliard.
For more July 21 anniversaries, including the creation of Central Park, the conviction of John T. Scopes for teaching the theory of evolution to his class, and the christening of the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, check out OnThatDay.
Alexander the Great was born on the sixth day of the ancient Greek month of Hekatombaion, which is thought to correspond to July 20, 356 BC, in Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedon.
Alexander's father was Philip II, King of Macedon and his mother was Olympias, the hot tempered princess of Epirus. Between the ages of 13 and 16, Alexander came under the tuition of the philosopher Aristotle. From him he learnt rhetoric, medicine, geometry, art, literature and music.
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| Bust of a young Alexander the Great |
Ziona Chana was born on July 20, 1945 at Hmawngkawn village in Serchhip district, India. The leader of the "Chana" sect, which allows polygamy, he lived in a 100-room four storey mansion with his jumbo sized family in Baktawng village, Mizoram, India. His family consisted of 39 wives, 94 children, 14-daughters-in-laws and 33 grandchildren, setting the world record for the "world's largest existing family."
For more July 20 anniversaries, including the patenting of the world's first internal combustion engine, the live debut of Elvis Presley and The Blue Moon Boys and the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars, check out OnThatDay.
Lizzie Andrew Borden was born July 19, 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts, to successful property developer Andrew Borden and his wife Sarah. Three years after the death of Lizzie mother Sarah, Andrew married Abby Durfee Gray. Lizzie believed that Abby had married her father for his wealth.
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| Borden in 1889 |
On August 4, 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were killed with an axe. In one of the most sensational trials in US history, Lizzie Borden was accused of murdering her wealthy father and hated step-mother with a hatchet. She claimed to have been outside in the barn at the time of the murder, and despite a wealth of circumstantial evidence, Borden was acquitted of the double murder. She lived out her life in Fall River, and was buried alongside her father and step-mother.
The British polymath Robert Hooke was born on July 18, 1635. When Hooke published his 1665 masterpiece, Micrographia, people were astounded by its depictions of the miniature world. Samuel Pepys called it "the most ingenious book that I ever read in my life". Until then, few people knew that fleas had hairy legs or that plants comprised cells (Hooke coined the term "cell"). Hooke used a hand-crafted, leather and gold-tooled microscope to make the observations for Micrographia,
Nelson Mandela was born in Mvezo, Transkei South Africa on July 18, 1918 to a Thembu royal family. Mandela's original name was Rolihlahla Mandela. In his Xhosa tribe, the name means pulling the branch of a tree or troublemaker. The name "Nelson" was given to him by his teacher Miss Mdingane on his first day of elementary school. African children were given English names so colonial masters could pronounce them easily.
The astronaut and politician John Glenn was born on July 18, 1921. He became the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes abroad Friendship 7 in 1962.
Following his retirement from NASA, Glenn served from 1974 to 1999 as a Democratic United States senator from Ohio. In 1998, he flew into space again at age 77 becoming the oldest astronaut ever.
Businessman Richard Branson was born in Blackheath, London on July 18, 1950. Despite being dyslexic, he started a magazine called Student whilst at school, which was relatively successful at selling ads. Branson is the founder of Virgin. He chose the company name after it was suggested by one of his friends that they were all 'virgins' in business.
For more July 18 anniversaries, including the Great Fire of Rome, the first black soldier to earn the Medal of Honor, and gymnast Nadia Comaneci scoring a perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics, check out OnThatDay.
The father of English hymnody Isaac Watts was born in Southampton, England on July 17, 1674. He was brought up in a home of committed Christians; his father, also Isaac Watts, was a respected nonconformist who had twice been imprisoned for his religious beliefs. His mother was of Huguenot origin. Watts is credited with some 750 hymns, as well as many books. His joyful hymns expressed wonder, praise and adoration covering the whole range of Christian experience.
Businessman and philanthropist John Jacob Astor was born on July 17, 1763 in Germany. Astor moved to the United States after the American Revolutionary War. He entered the fur trade and built a monopoly, managing a business empire that extended to the Great Lakes region and Canada, and later expanded into the American West and Pacific coast, becoming America's first multi-millionaire. He got out of the fur trade in 1830, diversifying by investing in New York City real estate.
Angela Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner on July 17, 1954 in Hamburg, Germany to German Protestant theologian Horst Kasner and Herlind Jentzsch, a teacher of English and Latin. In the same year that Angela was born, her father received a pastorate at the Lutheran church in Quitzow (a quarter of Perleberg in Brandenburg, East Germany,) so she grew up in the German Democratic Republic.
For more July 17 anniversaries, including the first performance of Handel's Water Music, the execution of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and his family, and the first town powered entirely by nuclear power energy, check out OnThatDay.
Mary Baker Eddy was born in a farmhouse in Bow, New Hampshire, on July 16, 1821. Mary spent much of her youth sick with obscure nervous disorders. Inspired by a miraculous healing Eddy experienced after reading the account in Matthew 9 of how Jesus healed the paralytic, her success led her to developing the Christian Science sect, which regards sickness as a mere illusion to be overcome by right thinking.
Roald Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg on July 16, 1872. Amundsen's father, Jens was a ship owner and many of his family were also ship owners and captains. His mother encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. This freed him to become an explorer and he led the first expedition to reach the South Pole.
Gemina was a 12-foot-tall Baringo giraffe who lived in the Santa Barbara Zoo in California. Born on July 16, 1986, when she was three years old her neck vertebrae began to jut out from her neck. Gemina's crooked neck was an inspiration to disabled children and was featured in an episode of a reality show about a girl with scoliosis. Despite her mysterious deformity Gemina lived longer than the average giraffe by about six years.
For more July 16 anniversaries, including the beginning of the Islamic calendar, the banning of kissing in England, Mozart's most successful opera during his lifetime and the installation of the world’s first parking meter, check out OnThatDay.
The artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden in the Dutch Republic, now the Netherlands. In 1621 Rembrandt to dedicate himself fully to painting. His parents apprenticed him to a history artist, Jacob van Swanenburgh in his home town of Leiden, with whom he spent three years. After a brief but important apprenticeship in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden
For more July 17 anniversaries, including the first performance of Handel's Water Music, the execution of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia and his family, and the first town powered entirely by nuclear power energy, check out OnThatDay.
Mary Baker Eddy was born in a farmhouse in Bow, New Hampshire, on July 16, 1821. Mary spent much of her youth sick with obscure nervous disorders. Inspired by a miraculous healing Eddy experienced after reading the account in Matthew 9 of how Jesus healed the paralytic, her success led her to developing the Christian Science sect, which regards sickness as a mere illusion to be overcome by right thinking.
Roald Amundsen was born to a family of Norwegian shipowners and captains in Borge, between the towns Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg on July 16, 1872. Amundsen's father, Jens was a ship owner and many of his family were also ship owners and captains. His mother encouraged him to become a doctor, a promise that Amundsen kept until his mother died when he was aged 21. This freed him to become an explorer and he led the first expedition to reach the South Pole.
Gemina was a 12-foot-tall Baringo giraffe who lived in the Santa Barbara Zoo in California. Born on July 16, 1986, when she was three years old her neck vertebrae began to jut out from her neck. Gemina's crooked neck was an inspiration to disabled children and was featured in an episode of a reality show about a girl with scoliosis. Despite her mysterious deformity Gemina lived longer than the average giraffe by about six years.
For more July 16 anniversaries, including the beginning of the Islamic calendar, the banning of kissing in England, Mozart's most successful opera during his lifetime and the installation of the world’s first parking meter, check out OnThatDay.
The artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden in the Dutch Republic, now the Netherlands. In 1621 Rembrandt to dedicate himself fully to painting. His parents apprenticed him to a history artist, Jacob van Swanenburgh in his home town of Leiden, with whom he spent three years. After a brief but important apprenticeship in Amsterdam, Rembrandt opened a studio in Leiden
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| Self-Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar (1659), |
Rembrandt established his name with his 1632 painting Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. This work established his name and made him famous. It gave Rembrandt access to the money-spinning society portrait paintings. After the death of his wealthy wife Saskia in 1642, Rembrandt fell out of love with society and did not paint anymore lucrative society portraits. Rembrandt's fame waned from then on, only to be restored much later after his death.
Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst was born Emmeline Goulden on July 15, 1858 in the Manchester suburb of Moss Side. Her father was a prosperous Calico printer with radical sympathies. A pretty, spirited girl, when she was small, Emmeline was consuming the Odyssey, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Pilgrim's Progress and abolitionist materials. Emmeline's earliest memories included hearing US suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton speak.
For more July 15 anniversaries, including the first European landfall in Alaska, the creation of margarine, the first shut out in baseball and the first sale of a Ford car, check out OnThatDay.
Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, was born on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska. Ford was involved in The Boy Scouts of America, and earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He was the only American president who was an Eagle Scout. A male model during his time between leaving for World War II and graduating from Yale Law, Ford was in Look magazine and on the cover of a 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan.
Suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst was born Emmeline Goulden on July 15, 1858 in the Manchester suburb of Moss Side. Her father was a prosperous Calico printer with radical sympathies. A pretty, spirited girl, when she was small, Emmeline was consuming the Odyssey, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Pilgrim's Progress and abolitionist materials. Emmeline's earliest memories included hearing US suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton speak.
For more July 15 anniversaries, including the first European landfall in Alaska, the creation of margarine, the first shut out in baseball and the first sale of a Ford car, check out OnThatDay.
Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, was born on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, Nebraska. Ford was involved in The Boy Scouts of America, and earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He was the only American president who was an Eagle Scout. A male model during his time between leaving for World War II and graduating from Yale Law, Ford was in Look magazine and on the cover of a 1942 issue of Cosmopolitan.
For more July 14 anniversaries, including the first ascent of the Matterhorn, the first demonstration of dynamite, the world's first sitcom and the marriage of Stephen Hawking to Jane Wilde, check out OnThatDay.
Julius Caesar was born on July 13, 100 BC. in Rome. He was untimely ripped from his mother's womb at birth hence his name Caesarian. (from the Latin verb to cut, caedere). His father Caius Julius Caesar, was a Roman Praetor of the most ancient and aristocratic lineage who had encountered hard times. As a young child Caesar used to race around in a little cart pulled by a goat. A show-off as he grew older he would ride at top speed without stirrups with his hands behind his head.
Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942, at Chicago, Illinois's Swedish Covenant Hospital and graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1960. Hillary Clinton attended Maine East from 1961–1964. Though Ford didn't meet her at the school, he later became a close friend and golf partner of Bill Clinton. Ford worked as a carpenter in Los Angeles before achieving fame in movies, garnering a reputation as one of the best cabinetmakers in the city.
Julius Caesar was born on July 13, 100 BC. in Rome. He was untimely ripped from his mother's womb at birth hence his name Caesarian. (from the Latin verb to cut, caedere). His father Caius Julius Caesar, was a Roman Praetor of the most ancient and aristocratic lineage who had encountered hard times. As a young child Caesar used to race around in a little cart pulled by a goat. A show-off as he grew older he would ride at top speed without stirrups with his hands behind his head.
| The only surviving statue created during Caesar's lifetime Wikipedia |
Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942, at Chicago, Illinois's Swedish Covenant Hospital and graduated from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1960. Hillary Clinton attended Maine East from 1961–1964. Though Ford didn't meet her at the school, he later became a close friend and golf partner of Bill Clinton. Ford worked as a carpenter in Los Angeles before achieving fame in movies, garnering a reputation as one of the best cabinetmakers in the city.
For more July 13 anniversaries, including the first federal law that prohibited slavery in a U.S. territory, the marriage of Walt Disney to ink artist Lillian Bounds and Frank Sinatra's first commercial recording, check out OnThatDay.
The pottery designer and manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood was born on July 12, 1730 in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. By the age of nine, Josiah was proving himself to be a skilled potter. However a bout of smallpox limited his strength in his leg and ultimately left him unable to work the foot pedal of a potter's wheel. Wedgwood originally worked in the family pottery business. In 1754 he became a partner of Thomas Whieldon, and began to devise improved wares.
George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, was born on July 12, 1854. Interested in photographic processes from an early age, he started a company in 1881 that made photographic plates for photographers. The company released its first hand-held camera that uses roll film in April 1888, which Eastman called the Kodak. Eastman began to mass produce his inventions, transforming photography from an expensive hobby of the few to a relatively inexpensive, popular pastime.
The pottery designer and manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood was born on July 12, 1730 in Burslem, Staffordshire, England. By the age of nine, Josiah was proving himself to be a skilled potter. However a bout of smallpox limited his strength in his leg and ultimately left him unable to work the foot pedal of a potter's wheel. Wedgwood originally worked in the family pottery business. In 1754 he became a partner of Thomas Whieldon, and began to devise improved wares.
George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, was born on July 12, 1854. Interested in photographic processes from an early age, he started a company in 1881 that made photographic plates for photographers. The company released its first hand-held camera that uses roll film in April 1888, which Eastman called the Kodak. Eastman began to mass produce his inventions, transforming photography from an expensive hobby of the few to a relatively inexpensive, popular pastime.
Lyudmila Pavlichenko of the Soviet Union was born on July 12, 1916. She was the most successful female sniper in history with 309 credited kills during World War II. Lyudmila Pavlichenko toured the US in 1942 to gain support for a second front in Nazi-occupied Europe; the press was more interested in her appearance and if she wore make-up on the front lines.
For more July 12 anniversaries, including the marriages of King Henry VIII of England to Catherine Parr and Pablo Picasso to Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, the first US president to ride in a helicopter and The Rolling Stones' first concert, check out OnThatDay.
Robert I, popularly known as Robert the Bruce, was born on July 11, 1274. He was likely born at Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, the head of his mother's earldom. His mother was by all accounts a formidable woman who, legend would have it, kept Robert Bruce's father captive until he agreed to marriage. A key figure in the Wars of Scottish Independence, his coronation took place in defiance of the English claims of suzerainty over Scotland after the execution of Sir William Wallace.
Robert I, popularly known as Robert the Bruce, was born on July 11, 1274. He was likely born at Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, the head of his mother's earldom. His mother was by all accounts a formidable woman who, legend would have it, kept Robert Bruce's father captive until he agreed to marriage. A key figure in the Wars of Scottish Independence, his coronation took place in defiance of the English claims of suzerainty over Scotland after the execution of Sir William Wallace.
John Quincy Adams the sixth US president, was born on July 11, 1767 at Braintree, (now Quincy), Massachusetts, U.S.). He was named for his mother's maternal grandfather, Colonel John Quincy, after whom Quincy, Massachusetts, is named. He was the son of the second President, of the United States, President John Adams and Abigail Adams. John Quincy Adams did not attend school, but was tutored by his cousin James Thax and his father's law clerk, Nathan Rice.
Fashion designer Giorgio Armani was born on July 11, 1934 in the northern Italian town of Piacenza to a humble family. Giorgio was curious about the human form from an early age. He recalled to The Guardian that as a child, he would "make dolls out of mud with a coffee bean hidden inside." After studying medicine at the University of Milan for two years, Armani pursued a career in photography before going to work at La Rinascente department store in Milan in the mid-1950s.
The inventor Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia). His father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Nikola was able to do integral calculus in his head, leading his teachers to believe he was cheating. The picture below shows Tesla's house (parish hall) in Smiljan where he was born, and the rebuilt church, where his father served.
The inventor Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia). His father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Nikola was able to do integral calculus in his head, leading his teachers to believe he was cheating. The picture below shows Tesla's house (parish hall) in Smiljan where he was born, and the rebuilt church, where his father served.
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| By I, MayaSimFan, Wikipedia |
The novelist Marcel Proust was born in Auteuil, Paris on July 10, 1871. Marcel's father, Adrien Proust, was a famous doctor and epidemiologist, who wrote numerous articles and books on medicine and hygiene. From the age of 9 he suffered from asthma and Marcel's studies at Lycee Condorcet were interrupted from time to time by his illness but he wrote for the school magazines and was a good student. However he was shunned and mocked by his fellow students for his effeminacy.
Harvey Ball was born on July 10, 1921. A commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts, he was the man who created and popularized the two-dots-and-a-grin smiley logo. World Smile Day, which inaugurated in 1999 by Harvey Ball is held annually on the first Friday in October. The catchphrase of World Smile Day is “Do an act of kindness. Help one person smile.”
For more July 10 anniversaries, including the Battle of Northampton, the highest recorded temperature on Earth and Boris Yeltsin taking office as the first elected President of Russia, check out OnThatDay.
Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, was born on July 9, 1819. Howe was working in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, cotton machinery factory when he dreamed up the idea of a machine that could sew. The idea fascinated him, and he spent all his spare time during the next five years developing a practical sewing machine. Eventually, Howe left his job to work on his invention. Howe eventually completed his first successful sewing machine in 1845.
Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, was born on July 9, 1819. Howe was working in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, cotton machinery factory when he dreamed up the idea of a machine that could sew. The idea fascinated him, and he spent all his spare time during the next five years developing a practical sewing machine. Eventually, Howe left his job to work on his invention. Howe eventually completed his first successful sewing machine in 1845.
Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson was born July 9, 1947 in San Francisco, California. Simpson originally attained stardom as a football running back at the collegiate and professional levels. After retiring from football, he began new careers in acting and football broadcasting. He was put on trial in 1994 for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. He was acquitted of the charges after a widely disputed verdict.
Tom Hanks was born on July 9, 1956 in Concord, California. His father was an itinerant cook and his mother, a hospital worker of Portuguese ancestry. After dropping out of college, Hanks moved from California to Ohio to join the Great Lakes Theater Festival. While there, Hanks won the Cleveland Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Hanks got his first big break starring in the TV sitcom Bosom Buddies.
For more July 9 anniversaries, including the marriage of writer Samuel Johnson to Elizabeth "Tetty" Porter, the Battle of the Monongahela, the introduction of paper napkins. and the largest wave ever recorded, check out OnThatDay.
German general Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born July 8, 1838 in Konstanz, Grand Duchy of Baden. On retiring from the army in 1891, von Zeppelin devoted himself to the study of aeronautics, and his first airship was built and tested in 1900. During World War I a number of Zeppelin airships were employed in bombing England: they were also used for passenger transport.
German general Ferdinand von Zeppelin was born July 8, 1838 in Konstanz, Grand Duchy of Baden. On retiring from the army in 1891, von Zeppelin devoted himself to the study of aeronautics, and his first airship was built and tested in 1900. During World War I a number of Zeppelin airships were employed in bombing England: they were also used for passenger transport.
The American oil industry business magnate John D Rockefeller was born in Richford, New York on July 8, 1839. He was America's first-ever billionaire (not even including inflation) and is widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller amassed his fortune from the Standard Oil company, of which he was a founder, chairman and major shareholder.
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| John D. Rockefeller |
For more July 8 anniversaries, including Vasco da Gama setting sail on the first direct European voyage to India. the Battle of Poltava, the marriage of Warren G Harding and Florence DeWolfe and the last bare knuckle heavyweight title boxing bout check out OnThatDay.
Gustav Mahler was born on July 7, 1860 in Kalischt, Bohemia (then part of the Austrian Empire) to Jewish parents of humble origins. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment on October 8, 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera.
For more July 7 anniversaries, including the first woman executed by the federal U.S. government, the sale of the first Citroën car, and the sale of the first ever pre-sliced loaf of bread, check out OnThatDay.
The Dalai Lama is a religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism. He is its highest spiritual teacher of the Gelugpa School. The current Dalai Lama was born Lhamo Dondup on July 6, 1935 on a straw mat in a cowshed to a farming and horse trading family. His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, was formally enthroned as Dalai Lama in November 1950, during the Chinese invasion of Tibet.
Gustav Mahler was born on July 7, 1860 in Kalischt, Bohemia (then part of the Austrian Empire) to Jewish parents of humble origins. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment on October 8, 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera.
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| Gustav Mahler photographed in 1907 |
For much of Mahler's life composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. The Austrian's compositional style combined 19th-century Austrian/German musical tradition with hints of early 20th-century modernism.
Mahler's work was largely overlooked for half a century after his death, but he has since been recognized as a key influence on everyone from Benjamin Britten to Dmitri Shostakovich.
For more July 7 anniversaries, including the first woman executed by the federal U.S. government, the sale of the first Citroën car, and the sale of the first ever pre-sliced loaf of bread, check out OnThatDay.
The Dalai Lama is a religious figure in Tibetan Buddhism. He is its highest spiritual teacher of the Gelugpa School. The current Dalai Lama was born Lhamo Dondup on July 6, 1935 on a straw mat in a cowshed to a farming and horse trading family. His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, was formally enthroned as Dalai Lama in November 1950, during the Chinese invasion of Tibet.
In 1959, the Dalai Lama had to flee from Tibet to Dharamsala, India. This is still his base today.
George Walker Bush, the 43rd President of the United States, was born on July 6, 1946, at Grace-New Haven Hospital (now Yale–New Haven Hospital) in New Haven, Connecticut. Both George W Bush and his father George H W Bush have ‘Walker’ as a middle name. George W Bush graduated from Yale University with a degree in history, and then earned an MBA from Harvard University. He is the only president to have a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.
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| George W. Bush with his parents, Barbara and George H. W. Bush, c.1947 |
The actor Sylvester Stallone was born on July 6, 1946 in New York City, the son of hairdresser Frank Stallone, Sr and dancer Jackie Stallone. The lower left side of Sylvester Stallone's face has been paralyzed from birth resulting in his slurred speech. It was the result of a doctor misusing tongs during his birth, severing the nerves in the newborn's lower left cheek.
He made his screen debut in Woody Allen's 1971 comedy Bananas played a thug who intimidates Allen on a subway train.
For more July 6 anniversaries, including the execution of Sir Thomas More, the last major battle fought on English soil, the first meeting of Paul McCartney and John Lennon and the release of Pokémon Go, check out OnThatDay.
Sylvester Graham was born on July 5, 1794. An American Presbyterian minister, Graham preached nutrition and wanted to reform the eating habits of America and the world. He advocated vegetarianism and the use of only coarse, whole grain flour. He also strongly recommended the reduction, if not total exclusion, of fats from one's daily diet. By 1838 Sylvester Graham was America's premier health-food promoter.
Sylvester Graham was born on July 5, 1794. An American Presbyterian minister, Graham preached nutrition and wanted to reform the eating habits of America and the world. He advocated vegetarianism and the use of only coarse, whole grain flour. He also strongly recommended the reduction, if not total exclusion, of fats from one's daily diet. By 1838 Sylvester Graham was America's premier health-food promoter.
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous 1831-36 voyage to the Pacific was born on July 5, 1805. He is also known as the man who invented the weather forecast. When The Royal Charter sank in an 1859 storm, Fitzroy established fifteen land stations to use the telegraph to transmit to him daily reports of weather at set times leading to the first gale warning service. His warning service for shipping was initiated in February 1861.
British businessman, mining magnate and politician Cecil Rhodes was born on July 5, 1853 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. At the age of 17 tuberculous prevented Rhodes from entering Oxford University so he went to South Africa where the active lifestyle restored his health. Rhodes joined the gold rush at Kimberley. Over the next two decades Rhodes gained near-complete domination of the world diamond market.
Harvard student and keen tennis player, Dwight Filley Davis, was born on July 5, 1879. The Davis Cup was named after him after in 1900 he bought a trophy made of 217oz of sterling silver and invited male tennis players from Britain to play against the U.S. America won the first tournament.
For more July 5 anniversaries, including the publication of Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, the introduction of spam luncheon meat and the birth of the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, check out OnThatDay.
Songwriter Stephen Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1826 of well-to-do parents. He entered Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, but his only interest was music and he left college after only a month. Foster's first great musical success was "Oh! Susanna" which was first performed in the Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in September 1847. It became an anthem of the California Gold Rush.
For more July 4 anniversaries, including the establishment of the first London bus service, the first performance of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", and the Philippines attaining full independence from the United States, check out OnThatDay.
French physician and bacteriologist Paul-Félix Armand-Delille was born on July 3, 1874. In 1952, Armand-Delille introduced the contagious and deadly myxomatosis virus to kill rabbits on his estate. It spread out of control, killing up to 98% of rabbits in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and Spain. He was later given a medal by the head of the Department of Rivers and Forests.
Songwriter Stephen Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1826 of well-to-do parents. He entered Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, but his only interest was music and he left college after only a month. Foster's first great musical success was "Oh! Susanna" which was first performed in the Eagle Ice Cream Saloon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in September 1847. It became an anthem of the California Gold Rush.
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. the 30th president of the United States, was born on July 4, 1872 in Plymouth Notch, Windsor County, Vermont. He was the only US president to be born on Independence Day.
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| The Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont By Magicpiano Wikipedia |
For more July 4 anniversaries, including the establishment of the first London bus service, the first performance of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", and the Philippines attaining full independence from the United States, check out OnThatDay.
French physician and bacteriologist Paul-Félix Armand-Delille was born on July 3, 1874. In 1952, Armand-Delille introduced the contagious and deadly myxomatosis virus to kill rabbits on his estate. It spread out of control, killing up to 98% of rabbits in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain, Italy and Spain. He was later given a medal by the head of the Department of Rivers and Forests.
The actor Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, in Syracuse, New York on July 3, 1962. His parents were Mary Lee, a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. He has often referred to his father as an abusive coward who couldn't be trusted. Cruise was raised as Catholic and actually wanted to be a priest in his earlier days. He left seminary school a year after enrolling in order to pursue acting.
For more July 3 anniversaries, including the only time George Washington surrendered to an enemy in his career, the admission of Idaho as the 43rd U.S. State of the Union, and the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon check out OnThatDay.
Thomas Cranmer was born on July 2, 1489 in Aslockton in Nottinghamshire, England. His parents, Thomas and Agnes (née Hatfield) Cranmer, were of modest wealth. He was appointed as a royal chaplain in 1529 by Henry VIII. Cranmer had won the King’s favor by suggesting the King appeal for his divorce from Catherine of Aragon to the universities of Christendom.
Thomas Cranmer was born on July 2, 1489 in Aslockton in Nottinghamshire, England. His parents, Thomas and Agnes (née Hatfield) Cranmer, were of modest wealth. He was appointed as a royal chaplain in 1529 by Henry VIII. Cranmer had won the King’s favor by suggesting the King appeal for his divorce from Catherine of Aragon to the universities of Christendom.
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| Portrait by Gerlach Flicke, 1545 |
Wendy's founder Dave Thomas was born on July 2, 1932. He dropped out of high school but picked up his GED in 1993. His GED class voted him Most Likely to Succeed. Before he founded Wendy's in 1969, Dave Thomas worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken ending up as a Regional Director.
For more July 2 anniversaries, including The Battle of Marston Moor, the shooting of President James Garfield and the invention of the sport of water skiing check out OnThatDay.
The French writer George Sand (real name Aurora Dupin) was born in Paris on July 1, 1804. She was notorious for wearing trousers, smoking cigars and penning her literary works under a male pseudonym. Dupin's refusal to act like a "real woman" made her popular among the artists and intelligentsia of her time and helped ignite the woman's revolution.
The French writer George Sand (real name Aurora Dupin) was born in Paris on July 1, 1804. She was notorious for wearing trousers, smoking cigars and penning her literary works under a male pseudonym. Dupin's refusal to act like a "real woman" made her popular among the artists and intelligentsia of her time and helped ignite the woman's revolution.
Diana, Princess of Wales was born on July 1, 1961, in Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk. She was named after Diana Russell, an 18th century ancestor. Russell was born Lady Diana Spencer, was often called Di, and very nearly the married the then Prince of Wales. Diana failed all her O-level school examinations twice, and described herself as being "as thick as a plank." She did win a school award for having the ‘best-kept guinea pig’ and a school cup for ‘helpfulness’.
For more July 1 anniversaries, the closest passing of a comet to The Earth in recorded history, the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg and the marriage of Dwight Eisenhower to Mamie Geneva Doud check out OnThatDay
American bank robber Willie Sutton was born on June 30, 1901. During his forty-year robbery career Sutton stole an estimated $2 million. He never robbed a bank with a loaded gun because he didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and allegedly never robbed a bank when a woman screamed or a baby cried. He eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times.
American bank robber Willie Sutton was born on June 30, 1901. During his forty-year robbery career Sutton stole an estimated $2 million. He never robbed a bank with a loaded gun because he didn’t want anyone to get hurt, and allegedly never robbed a bank when a woman screamed or a baby cried. He eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison and escaped three times.
Michael Gerard Tyson was born on June 30, 1966 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. Tyson had been arrested 38 times by the age of 13. He said he was bullied as a "pudgy kid" who spoke with a lisp, causing him to turn to crime and drugs. He learned boxing at reform school, and by 20 was the heavyweight champion.
American swimmer Michael Phelps was born on June 30, 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland. Phelps was diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder when he was nine and was bullied as a kid for his gangly form and big ears. The first swimming stroke Michael Phelps learned as a child was the backstroke, because he was afraid to put his head underwater.
For more June 30 anniversaries, including the largest impact event on Earth in recent history, the birth of the oldest living parrot in the world, and the opening of the Trans-Canada highway check out OnThatDay.
American right wing historian and political theorist Lothrop Stoddard was born on June 29, 1883. Stoddard's analysis divided world politics and situations into "white," "yellow," "black," "Amerindian," and "brown" peoples and their interactions. He argued that race and heredity were the guiding factors of history and civilization and that the elimination or absorption of the "white" race by "colored" races would result in the destruction of Western civilization.
For more June 29 anniversaries, including the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii, T. S. Eliot conversion to Anglicanism from Unitarianism and the marriage of Marilyn Monroe to Arthur Miller check out OnThatDay.
Henry Tudor was born June 28, 1491 at Greenwich Palace, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. A charming and loveable boy, Henry was bought up at his mother's home, Eltham Palace in South East London. By the age of 3, Henry was riding a horse from Greenwich to Westminster Palace. His older brother, Arthur was the heir to the throne, but died of tuberculosis aged 15. When his father died Henry succeeded him becoming at 18 Henry VIII of England.
John Wesley was born on June 28, 1703 in Epworth, 23 miles (37 km) NW of Lincoln. His father, Samuel was a staunch High Churchman whose lifework was to minister to the inhabitants of the North Lincolnshire marshlands. His Mother Susannah was also very devout and both his parents were influenced by the Pietist movement. John was brought up in poverty; his father served in one of England's lowest-paying parishes and was rarely out of debt even spending time in debtor's prison.
Jean Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 at 40, Grand Rue, Geneva. He was bought up his watchmaker father and an aunt after his mother died nine days after his birth. Jean Jacques left Geneva aged 16 and traveled around France, where he met his benefactress, the Baronnesse de Warens. She furthered his education to such a degree that the boy who had arrived on her doorstep having never been to school developed into a philosopher, a man of letters, and a musician.
For more June 28 anniversaries, including the invention of the saxophone, the marriage of Harry S. Truman and Bess Wallace, and the signing of The Treaty Of Versailles, check out OnThatDay.
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Kate Adams and newspaper editor and Confederate Army Captain, Arthur H. Keller. Helen lost her sight and hearing at 19 months, probably from scarlet fever or meningitis. As a child, she developed her own sign language to communicate with her parents, then learned to lip-read by putting her fingers on the lips of the person to whom she was talking.
At the turn of the 20th century blindness was a forbidden subject in women's magazines because so many cases were related to venereal disease. However after Helen Keller graduated with honors from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1904, she became a crusader for the handicapped.
American right wing historian and political theorist Lothrop Stoddard was born on June 29, 1883. Stoddard's analysis divided world politics and situations into "white," "yellow," "black," "Amerindian," and "brown" peoples and their interactions. He argued that race and heredity were the guiding factors of history and civilization and that the elimination or absorption of the "white" race by "colored" races would result in the destruction of Western civilization.
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| Lothrop Stoddard |
For more June 29 anniversaries, including the first transpacific flight, from the mainland United States to Hawaii, T. S. Eliot conversion to Anglicanism from Unitarianism and the marriage of Marilyn Monroe to Arthur Miller check out OnThatDay.
Henry Tudor was born June 28, 1491 at Greenwich Palace, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. A charming and loveable boy, Henry was bought up at his mother's home, Eltham Palace in South East London. By the age of 3, Henry was riding a horse from Greenwich to Westminster Palace. His older brother, Arthur was the heir to the throne, but died of tuberculosis aged 15. When his father died Henry succeeded him becoming at 18 Henry VIII of England.
John Wesley was born on June 28, 1703 in Epworth, 23 miles (37 km) NW of Lincoln. His father, Samuel was a staunch High Churchman whose lifework was to minister to the inhabitants of the North Lincolnshire marshlands. His Mother Susannah was also very devout and both his parents were influenced by the Pietist movement. John was brought up in poverty; his father served in one of England's lowest-paying parishes and was rarely out of debt even spending time in debtor's prison.
Jean Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 at 40, Grand Rue, Geneva. He was bought up his watchmaker father and an aunt after his mother died nine days after his birth. Jean Jacques left Geneva aged 16 and traveled around France, where he met his benefactress, the Baronnesse de Warens. She furthered his education to such a degree that the boy who had arrived on her doorstep having never been to school developed into a philosopher, a man of letters, and a musician.
Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama to Kate Adams and newspaper editor and Confederate Army Captain, Arthur H. Keller. Helen lost her sight and hearing at 19 months, probably from scarlet fever or meningitis. As a child, she developed her own sign language to communicate with her parents, then learned to lip-read by putting her fingers on the lips of the person to whom she was talking.
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| Helen Keller portrait, 1904. |
A leftist political activist and women's suffragist, Keller ended up being investigated by the FBI most of her adult life.
A prolific author, she wrote 14 books and hundreds of speeches including her 1903 autobiography, The Story of My Life, detailing her early life and childhood education with radical teacher, Anne Sullivan.
For more June 27 anniversaries, including the patent for a pin-tumbler lock and key, the first man to sail single-handedly around the world, and the first identifiable case of the Ebola virus in humans check out OnThatDay.
The tallest woman ever, Zeng Jinlian, was born on June 26, 1964. Jinlian was from Yujiang village in the Bright Moon Commune, Hunan Province, China. The giant Chinese teenager measured 246.3 cm (8 ft 1 in) and because of spine curvature she could not stand at full height. The only woman verified to have reached 8 feet (240 cm) Zeng suffered from diabetes, dying aged 17 in 1982.
The tallest woman ever, Zeng Jinlian, was born on June 26, 1964. Jinlian was from Yujiang village in the Bright Moon Commune, Hunan Province, China. The giant Chinese teenager measured 246.3 cm (8 ft 1 in) and because of spine curvature she could not stand at full height. The only woman verified to have reached 8 feet (240 cm) Zeng suffered from diabetes, dying aged 17 in 1982.
For more June 26 anniversaries, including the worst lightning strike disaster ever recorded, the unveiling of the first electric/gasoline hybrid motor vehicle, and the marriage of T.S. Eliot to Vivienne Haigh-Wood check out OnThatDay.
The Reverend Samuel Marsden was born on June 25, 1765 in Farsley, near Pudsey, Yorkshire in England. After emigrating to Australia on 1793 he became the colony's senior Anglican cleric. Marsden developed an interest in evangelizing New Zealand. and in late 1814 he took his brig, the "Active" on an exploratory journey to the Bay of Islands, during which time he conducted the first Christian service on New Zealand soil to a 400-strong Māori congregation.
The Reverend Samuel Marsden was born on June 25, 1765 in Farsley, near Pudsey, Yorkshire in England. After emigrating to Australia on 1793 he became the colony's senior Anglican cleric. Marsden developed an interest in evangelizing New Zealand. and in late 1814 he took his brig, the "Active" on an exploratory journey to the Bay of Islands, during which time he conducted the first Christian service on New Zealand soil to a 400-strong Māori congregation.
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| Marsden 1833 |
English writer George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, Bengal Presidency (present-day Bihar), in the then British colony of India. His father worked there for the Opium Department of the Civil Service. With his characteristic humor, Orwell would later describe his family's background as "lower-upper-middle class." Eric's mother brought him to England at the age of one. Orwell is best known for his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
For more June 25 anniversaries, including the first female student in history to receive a PhD, the invention of barbed wire and the publication of the first Sherlock Holmes story, check out OnThatDay.
Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 24, 1813. His siblings included Uncle Tom's Cabin writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and educator Catharine Beecher. Henry had a childhood stammer and was considered slow-witted; his less than stellar performance at Biston Latin school earned him punishments such as being forced to sit for hours in the girls' corner wearing a dunce cap.
Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut on June 24, 1813. His siblings included Uncle Tom's Cabin writer Harriet Beecher Stowe and educator Catharine Beecher. Henry had a childhood stammer and was considered slow-witted; his less than stellar performance at Biston Latin school earned him punishments such as being forced to sit for hours in the girls' corner wearing a dunce cap.
Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi was born on June 24, 1987 in Rosario, Argentina the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a steel factory manager, and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. Lionel's parents were huge Lionel Richie fans and they named their son after the singer. Messi began football at a young age and his potential was quickly seen by Barcelona FC. He left Newell's Old Boys's youth team in 2000 and moved with his family to Spain.
For more June 24 anniversaries, including the first European since the Vikings to set foot on the North America mainland, the founding of Manila and Butch Cassidy's first major crime, check out OnThatDay.
The powerful Japanese feudal lord Oda Nobunaga was born on June 23, 1534. He attempted to unify Japan during the late Sengoku period, and successfully gained control over most of Honshu Nobunaga's rule was noted for innovative military tactics, fostering free trade, reform of Japan's civil administration, and encouraging the start of the Momoyama historical art period, but also the brutal suppression of opponents.
The powerful Japanese feudal lord Oda Nobunaga was born on June 23, 1534. He attempted to unify Japan during the late Sengoku period, and successfully gained control over most of Honshu Nobunaga's rule was noted for innovative military tactics, fostering free trade, reform of Japan's civil administration, and encouraging the start of the Momoyama historical art period, but also the brutal suppression of opponents.
Joséphine de Beauharnais was born in Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique on June 23, 1763. Her father was a manager of a plantation there having retired from French naval service. The willowy Joséphine was among the gayest of French women in her era. She was good-natured, with refined manners, grace and charm.
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| Baron François Gérard - Joséphine in coronation costume - Google Art Project |
Joséphine was the first wife of Napoleon and the first Empress of the French after he proclaimed himself Emperor.
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom was born on June 23, 1894, White Lodge, Richmond Park, on the outskirts of London as the first son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, (later King George V and Queen Mary). He was christened Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David, the last four names being patron saints of the British Isles countries. He was known to his family and close friends as David.
Just 11 months after becoming king, Edward VIII abdicated because of the furor over his liaison with the American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
For more June 23 anniversaries, including The Battle of Bannockburn, the longest ever professional baseball game and the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tightrope, check out OnThatDay.
The actress Meryl Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey on June 22, 1949. Meryl Streep had operatic lessons at the age of 12 from vocal coach Estelle Liebling. Later she played the title role in Florence Foster Jenkins, about an opera singer who was known for her painful lack of singing skill. Streep originally applied to Law School but slept in on the morning of her interview and took it as a sign she was destined for other things.
The actress Meryl Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey on June 22, 1949. Meryl Streep had operatic lessons at the age of 12 from vocal coach Estelle Liebling. Later she played the title role in Florence Foster Jenkins, about an opera singer who was known for her painful lack of singing skill. Streep originally applied to Law School but slept in on the morning of her interview and took it as a sign she was destined for other things.
For more June 22 anniversaries, including the invention of the ring-shaped doughnut, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee procession and France's surrender to Nazi Germany, check out OnThatDay
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge was born at 9:03 pm on June 21, 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London. Since birth, William has been second in the line of succession to the British throne.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge was born at 9:03 pm on June 21, 1982 at St Mary's Hospital, London. Since birth, William has been second in the line of succession to the British throne.
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| Prince William visiting a Royal Navy facility in June 2021. By Royal Navy |
William was the first ever heir to the throne to be born in a hospital. His father is Charles III and his mother was Diana, Princess of Wales. He has one younger brother, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
For more June 21 anniversaries, including the launch of the first Ferris wheel, the marriage of Richard Nixon and Pat Ryan and the world's first stored-program computer running its first computer program, check out OnThatDay.
Audie Leon Murphy, one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II, was born on June 20, 1925. He received every military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. Murphy received the Medal of Honor, the USA's highest and most prestigious personal military decoration, for valor that he demonstrated at the age of 19 for holding off an entire German company alone.
Audie Leon Murphy, one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II, was born on June 20, 1925. He received every military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. Murphy received the Medal of Honor, the USA's highest and most prestigious personal military decoration, for valor that he demonstrated at the age of 19 for holding off an entire German company alone.
The actress Nicole Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 20, 1967 while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on educational visas. As a result Kidman can claim citizenship in Australia and the United States. At school her nickname was 'Stalk' - at 13 she was already 5.9 inches. At 5'11" Kidman is taller than most actresses. Kidman's first movie was in 1983. It was called BMX Bandits.
For more June 20 anniversaries, including the granting of a royal charter for Oxford University, West Virginia becoming the thirty-fifth state of the United States, and the first man-made object to reach space, check out OnThatDay.
James VI and I of the UK was born on June 19, 1566. He was the eldest son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley. He became King of Scotland at 13 months old when his mother was forced to abdicate the throne. James was seen as the most likely heir to the English throne through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, who was Henry VIII's oldest sister. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I, the last of Henry VIII's descendants, he became James I of the UK in March 1603.
James VI and I of the UK was born on June 19, 1566. He was the eldest son of Mary Queen of Scots and Lord Darnley. He became King of Scotland at 13 months old when his mother was forced to abdicate the throne. James was seen as the most likely heir to the English throne through his great-grandmother Margaret Tudor, who was Henry VIII's oldest sister. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth I, the last of Henry VIII's descendants, he became James I of the UK in March 1603.
French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal was born on June 19, 1623 in Clermont-Ferrand, which is in France's Auvergne region. His father, Étienne Pascal, was a local judge, who also had an interest in science and mathematics. Beginning in 1631, Blaise's father devoted himself entirely to the education of his son, who showed extraordinary mental and intellectual abilities, occasionally taking him along to the Academy of Science meetings.
Though best known for his works in mathematics, including the creation of Pascal's Triangle, which is named after him, and developments in the field of probability, Pascal's earliest contributions were in the applied and natural sciences where he focused on fluids and the concepts of pressure and vacuum. He also invented the mechanical calculator.
German pharmacist Frederick Sertürner was born on June 19, 1783. In December 1804 Sertürner isolated the alkaloid compound morphine from unripe poppy blossoms. As he found it gave relief from severe pain, and relaxed the patient by making him drowsy, he named the drug after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. Morphine was the first ever alkaloid to be isolated from any plant.
Charles Spurgeon, the "Prince of Preachers," was born on June 19, 1834, in Kelvedon, in the English county of Essex. His father and grandfather were both independent ministers. In 1854, three months before his 20th birthday, Spurgeon was appointed Baptist pastor at New Park Street Chapel, in Southwark, London. Spurgeon quickly gained fame for his directness in preaching, which seemed to some to border on irreverence. But the power of his sermons led to many conversions.
For more June 19 anniversaries, including the declaration of The War of 1812, The Great Whiskey Fire of Dublin and the marriage of Martin Luther King Jr to Coretta Scott King, check out OnThatDay.
Paul McCartney was born June 18, 1942 in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, where his mother, Mary had qualified to practice as a nurse. His father, James ("Jim") McCartney was absent from his son's birth due to his work as a volunteer firefighter during World War II.
Paul McCartney was born June 18, 1942 in Walton Hospital, Liverpool, where his mother, Mary had qualified to practice as a nurse. His father, James ("Jim") McCartney was absent from his son's birth due to his work as a volunteer firefighter during World War II.
Paul McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", when he was 14 in 1956. A 15-year-old Paul McCartney first met 16-year-old John Lennon at a St Peter’s Parish Church party in Woolton, Liverpool in 1957.
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| McCartney, holding a guitar, in 2010. By Oli Gill Wikipedia Commons |
A 15-year-old Paul McCartney first met 16-year-old John Lennon at a St Peter’s Parish Church party in Woolton, Liverpool in 1957. Lennon's group, The Quarrymen were performing at the do whilst Paul, who was baptized a Roman Catholic but was being raised without religion attended the function. Lennon's group The Quarrymen were performing at the do. Impressed by McCartney's ability to tune a guitar and by his knowledge of song lyrics, Lennon asked him to join his band as lead guitarist.
In the late 1950s The Quarrymen was renamed the Silver Beatles (a wordplay on the musical term beat that also paid tribute to rocker Buddy Holly's Crickets) before being shortened to The Beatles.
The Beatles are the best-selling group of all time, estimated to have sold over one billion records worldwide. They have had more #1 singles and albums than any other musical group and are the only band with 6 diamond albums, meaning sales of 10 million each: Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, The Beatles 1962-1966, The Beatles 1967-1970, The White Album, The Beatles.
For more June 18 anniversaries, including the declaration of The War of 1812, The Great Whiskey Fire of Dublin and the marriage of Martin Luther King Jr to Coretta Scott King, check out OnThatDay.
The German musical instrument maker Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann was born on June 17, 1805. There is a persistent legend that Buschmann invented the harmonica (and maybe the accordion) but this cannot be substantiated. Buschmann stated in a letter of 1828 that he had just invented a new instrument, but the manufacture of harmonicas had begun some years previously in Vienna.
The German musical instrument maker Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann was born on June 17, 1805. There is a persistent legend that Buschmann invented the harmonica (and maybe the accordion) but this cannot be substantiated. Buschmann stated in a letter of 1828 that he had just invented a new instrument, but the manufacture of harmonicas had begun some years previously in Vienna.
Harold Gillies, the father of plastic surgery, was born in Dunedin, New Zealand on June 17, 1882. Following the outbreak of World War I he joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. He developed during this time many of the techniques of modern facial surgery in caring for soldiers suffering from disfiguring facial injuries usually from gunshot wounds during the war.
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| Sir Harold Delf Gillies, a famous plastic surgeon |
The creator of the chocolate chip cookie, Ruth Wakefield, was born on June 17, 1903. She created the chocolate chip cookie for her guests at the Toll House Inn, near Whitman, Massachusetts. In 1937. Ruth Wakefield sold her chocolate chip cookie recipe to Nestle for $1 and a lifetime supply of chocolate and toured the country.
For more June 17 anniversaries, including The Battle of Bunker Hill, the last public guillotining in France and the first human kidney transplant surgery, check out OnThatDay.
Philosopher and economist, Adam Smith "The Father of Economics," was born in Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fife, Scotland on June 16, 1723. At around the age of four, Adam was kidnapped by a band of gypsies, but he was quickly rescued by his uncle and returned to his mother. Smith's biographer, John Rae, commented wryly that he feared Smith would have made "a poor gypsy."
Philosopher and economist, Adam Smith "The Father of Economics," was born in Kirkcaldy, in the County of Fife, Scotland on June 16, 1723. At around the age of four, Adam was kidnapped by a band of gypsies, but he was quickly rescued by his uncle and returned to his mother. Smith's biographer, John Rae, commented wryly that he feared Smith would have made "a poor gypsy."
Apache leader Geronimo was born June 16, 1829 near Turkey Creek, a tributary of the Gila River in the modern-day state of Arizona, then part of Mexico. In March 5, 1851, while he was away on a trading expedition, Geronimo's camp near Janos was attacked by 400 Mexican soldiers led by Colonel Jose Maria Carrasco. Among those killed were Geronimo's wife, children, and mother. The incident sparked a life-long hatred of the white man.
Comic actor Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson on June 16, 1890 in Ulverston, Lancashire, England. In 1910, with the stage name of "Stan Jefferson", Laurel joined Fred Karno's troupe of actors, which also included a young Charlie Chaplin. The British music hall nurtured him, and he got his first break as understudy for Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin and Laurel arrived in the United States on the same ship from Britain with the Karno troupe and toured the country.
For more June 16 anniversaries, including the opening of the first roller coaster designed as an amusement ride in America, the founding of Ford Motor Company, and the first woman in space, check out OnThatDay.
Prince Edward of Woodstock, better known as Edward the Black Prince , was born at Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, on June 15, 1330. He was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Edward began his military career with his father's Norman campaign. When a messenger told Edward III that his 16-year-old son was in the thick of the fighting and in some danger at the Battle of Crécy, the king refused to recall or help young Edward. "Let the boy win his spurs", was all his father said.
Prince Edward of Woodstock, better known as Edward the Black Prince , was born at Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, on June 15, 1330. He was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and Philippa of Hainault. Edward began his military career with his father's Norman campaign. When a messenger told Edward III that his 16-year-old son was in the thick of the fighting and in some danger at the Battle of Crécy, the king refused to recall or help young Edward. "Let the boy win his spurs", was all his father said.
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| An old print of the Palace of Woodstock |
Edvard Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway, on June 15, 1843. His mother, Gesine Hagerup, the daughter of Bergen's mayor, was a concert pianist and was Edvard's first piano teacher. Edvard started composing when he was about 12 and took his compositions to school, but the teacher did not show much interest in them. In the summer of 1858 the great Norwegian violinist Ole Bull visited the family and persuaded his parents to send their son to the Leipzig Conservatory to study music.
For more June 15 anniversaries, including the sealing of The Magna Carta, the end of The Peasants Revolt, and the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a high wire, check out OnThatDay.
Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811. Harriet was the seventh child of an Evangelical Protestant clergyman, Lyman Beecher. By the age of 6, Harriet could read well and had memorized two long chapters of the Bible. Harriet began writing aged 12 as a hobby, mainly tales and sketches. One of her first works was a prize essay on the subject "Can the Immortality of the Soul be Proved by the Light of Nature."
Uncle Tom's Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on June 14, 1811. Harriet was the seventh child of an Evangelical Protestant clergyman, Lyman Beecher. By the age of 6, Harriet could read well and had memorized two long chapters of the Bible. Harriet began writing aged 12 as a hobby, mainly tales and sketches. One of her first works was a prize essay on the subject "Can the Immortality of the Soul be Proved by the Light of Nature."
Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, was born in Queens, New York City on June 14, 1946. He is the son of Fred Trump, a real estate developer, and his wife, Mary Anne. Donald was enrolled at the age of 13 in the New York Military Academy, a private boarding school, He received an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
For more June 14 anniversaries, including the marriage of Rembrandt to Saskia van Uylenburg, the adoption of the "Stars and Stripes" as the national flag of the United States, and the first African-American singer to perform on television, check out OnThatDay.
James Clerk Maxwell was born on June 13, 1831 at 14 India Street, Edinburgh. In Maxwell's 1865 publication, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,, he proposed that light is an undulation in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. The unification of light and electrical phenomena proved that radio waves are possible.
George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States, was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts on June 12, 1924. Before he went to college, Bush served in the Navy until the end of World War II. Bush began his career in 1948 working in the oil industry in Texas. He gained the nomination in 1988 to run for president winning with 54% of the popular vote and 426 out of 537 electoral votes.
James Clerk Maxwell was born on June 13, 1831 at 14 India Street, Edinburgh. In Maxwell's 1865 publication, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field,, he proposed that light is an undulation in the same medium that is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. The unification of light and electrical phenomena proved that radio waves are possible.
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| James Clerk Maxwell, painted by Jemima Blackburn |
The development of radio, TV and radar were the direct consequences of his research. Maxwell also carried out pioneering work in optics and color vision.
For more June 13 anniversaries, including the marriage of Charles I of England to Henrietta Maria, the first British monarch to travel by train, and The Beatles last US number one single, check out OnThatDay.
George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States, was born at 173 Adams Street in Milton, Massachusetts on June 12, 1924. Before he went to college, Bush served in the Navy until the end of World War II. Bush began his career in 1948 working in the oil industry in Texas. He gained the nomination in 1988 to run for president winning with 54% of the popular vote and 426 out of 537 electoral votes.
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| Portrait of President George H.W. Bush cropped and reuploaded by Emiya1980 |
For more June 12 anniversaries, including the marriage of Frederick the Great of Prussia to Princess Elisabeth Christine, the first flight by a Boeing 777 airliner, and the world’s oldest message in a bottle check out OnThatDay.
English poet, playwright and critic Ben Jonson was born on June 11, 1572 in Westminster, London. As a child, Ben was said to be so ugly and ridiculously clothed that he was tormented by his schoolmates. He spent his time reading to forget his misery. The second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I, today he is best remembered for his satiric comedies and his lyric and epigrammatic poetry.
English poet, playwright and critic Ben Jonson was born on June 11, 1572 in Westminster, London. As a child, Ben was said to be so ugly and ridiculously clothed that he was tormented by his schoolmates. He spent his time reading to forget his misery. The second most important English dramatist, after William Shakespeare, during the reign of James I, today he is best remembered for his satiric comedies and his lyric and epigrammatic poetry.
English landscape painter John Constable was born in East Bergholt, in Suffolk on June 11, 1776. He was the son of a wealthy corn merchant, Golding Constable, who owned several windmills and watermills. Constable's father was reluctant to let him pursue the uncertain career of an artist and insisted he went into the family business. Realizing that his son’s passion for art would not abate, Constable's father gave him an allowance enabling him to study at the Royal Academy in London.
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| John Constable by Daniel Gardner, 1796. By Stephencdickson - Wikipedia |
Politician Jeannette Pickering Rankin was born on June 11, 1880. In 1916, she became the first woman to hold national office in the United States when, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives by the state of Montana. An ardent pacifist, she believed that President Franklin D. Roosevelt provoked war with the Japanese, and was the only member of Congress to vote against the declaration of war on Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
For more June 11 anniversaries, including the marriage of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg to his cousin Nina Hagerup, the graduation of George S Patton from West Point, and the creation of the Pizza Margherita, check out OnThatDay.
Prince Philip was born on a kitchen table in Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921. He was born into the Greek and Danish royal families, the fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. In December 1922, following unrest after Greece’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, Philippos' family was exiled, and fled the country aboard HMS Calypso. The royal baby was carried aboard in a cot made from a fruit box.
Prince Philip was born on a kitchen table in Mon Repos on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921. He was born into the Greek and Danish royal families, the fifth and final child of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg. In December 1922, following unrest after Greece’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War, Philippos' family was exiled, and fled the country aboard HMS Calypso. The royal baby was carried aboard in a cot made from a fruit box.
Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on June 10, 1922.
Garland's birthplace in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, now a museum. Her parents were vaudevillians who settled in Grand Rapids to run a movie theater that featured vaudeville acts. Judy Garland's first appearance came at the age of one-and-a-half when she joined her two older sisters on the stage of her father's movie theater and sang a chorus of "Jingle Bells". She was billed as Baby Frances.
For more June 10 anniversaries, including the first marketing of mustard powder, the first use of the SOS distress signal and the first mass market personal computer, check out OnThatDay.
Peter the Great was born on June 9, 1672 in Moscow and given the name Pyotr Alekseyevich. He was the 14th child of Czar Alexis of Russia and the first of his father's second wife Nataliya Naryshkina. Peter's mother had the benefit of a progressive education and her influence helped develop his natural intelligence and abilities as a leader. When his elder half-brother Fyodor III died in 1682, Peter, who was an intelligent and boisterous lad of ten, was chosen as his successor.
Peter the Great was born on June 9, 1672 in Moscow and given the name Pyotr Alekseyevich. He was the 14th child of Czar Alexis of Russia and the first of his father's second wife Nataliya Naryshkina. Peter's mother had the benefit of a progressive education and her influence helped develop his natural intelligence and abilities as a leader. When his elder half-brother Fyodor III died in 1682, Peter, who was an intelligent and boisterous lad of ten, was chosen as his successor.
As Tsar, Peter the Great modernized his nation, remodeling the legal systems, centralizing Russian administration and encouraging education. He also extended Russian territory to the west and south east and made Russia one of the major sea powers of Europe. His reign was the golden age of Russia.
George Stephenson, "the father of railways," was born on June 9, 1781 in Wylam, Northumberland. By 1801 his skill with steam-driven machinery had become well known and he was given the important job of engineer at the Killingworth collieries. In 1814 Stephenson persuaded the Killingworth manager to allow him to build a steam-powered locomotive for hauling coal on the Killingworth wagonway. Altogether he produced 16 locomotives there.
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| One of the Killingworth engines |
George Stephenson is most famous for constructing the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, which was the first public, steam-operated, urban rail system in history.
For more June 9 anniversaries, including the marriage of Louis XIV of France to Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, the coining of the term piano recital, and the first car commercial on television, check out OnThatDay
The composer Robert Schumann was born on June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany. Robert inherited a love of romantic poetry from his bookstore owning father. Robert began to study law at Leipzig, largely to please his mother, but his real interest lay in music, and in 1830 his piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck, persuaded Schumann's mother to let him give up law. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era was also an influential music critic.
The composer Robert Schumann was born on June 8, 1810, in Zwickau, Germany. Robert inherited a love of romantic poetry from his bookstore owning father. Robert began to study law at Leipzig, largely to please his mother, but his real interest lay in music, and in 1830 his piano teacher, Friedrich Wieck, persuaded Schumann's mother to let him give up law. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era was also an influential music critic.
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| Schumann's birthplace, now the Robert Schumann House |
Frank Lloyd Wright was born in the farming town of Richland Center, Wisconsin, United States, on June 8, 1867. His education included attending Madison High School. Wright turned to architecture on seeing their newly erected wing of the Wisconsin state capitol collapse. One of the outstanding architects of the 20th century, Wright influenced design over the world by his freedom from convention and rule.
Tim Berners-Lee was born on June 8, 1955, in London, the son of Mary Lee Woods, a mathematician, and Conway Berners-Lee, a mathematician and computer scientist. Tim Berners-Lee is famous for inventing the World Wide Web, revolutionizing the way information is shared and accessed on the internet.
For more June 8 anniversaries, including the beginning of the Viking invasion of the British Isles. the publication of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and the celebration of the first World Oceans Day, check out OnThatDay.
George Bryan "Beau" Brummell was born in London on June 7, 1778. After inheriting a reasonably sized family fortune, Brummell dedicated his life to maintaining the lifestyle of a "gentleman of fashion." His main claim to fame was that he got rid of the prevalent fashion for massive wigs, powder and face paint. Brummel wanted men to look manly again and one way he achieved this was to popularize the wearing of trousers, which sounded the death knell for breeches.
George Bryan "Beau" Brummell was born in London on June 7, 1778. After inheriting a reasonably sized family fortune, Brummell dedicated his life to maintaining the lifestyle of a "gentleman of fashion." His main claim to fame was that he got rid of the prevalent fashion for massive wigs, powder and face paint. Brummel wanted men to look manly again and one way he achieved this was to popularize the wearing of trousers, which sounded the death knell for breeches.
For more June 7 anniversaries, including the coronation of The Sun King, 15-year-old King Louis XIV of France, the deadliest non-nuclear man-made explosion in history and the first British monarch to make an official visit to the United States of America, check out OnThatDay.
Louis Antoine Godey, the publisher of Godey's Lady's Book, was born on June 6, 1804. The largest magazine circulation of its time, Godey's Lady's Book,'s illustrations not only influenced nineteenth century women's fashions, but would become documents for social historians and prized items for collectors.
Louis Antoine Godey, the publisher of Godey's Lady's Book, was born on June 6, 1804. The largest magazine circulation of its time, Godey's Lady's Book,'s illustrations not only influenced nineteenth century women's fashions, but would become documents for social historians and prized items for collectors.
A publisher also of children's and music journals, Godey was among the first to copyright magazine contents.
English sailor and explorer Robert Falcon Scott was born on June 6, 1868, in Stoke Damerel, near Devonport, Plymouth, Devon to John Edward, a brewer and magistrate, and Hannah (née Cuming) Scott. Robert was educated from a young age for a career in the armed services He began his naval career in 1881, as a 13-year-old cadet. Scott attempted to be the first person to reach the South Pole, but Roald Amundsen reached the location first and he perished on his return journey.
Tennis star Bjorn Borg was born on June 6, 1956, in Stockholm, Sweden. Borg is famous for being one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He is particularly known for his dominance in the late 1970s and early 1980s, winning multiple Grand Slam titles and revolutionizing the sport with his cool demeanor and baseline play.
For more June 6 anniversaries, including first US President to ride on the railway, the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century and the first sale of frozen foods, check out OnThatDay.
Sarah Jennings, later Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was born on June 5, 1660. Sarah was a confidante of the future Queen Anne who created Marlborough a duke on her accession to the throne. In later life, the Duke of Marlborough was undermined by political intrigue and he fell heavily from royal favor reputedly because his wife’s constant bad temper became too much for even the devoted Queen Anne. When Sarah Jennings died in 1744, she left a fortune of £3 million.
British furniture maker Thomas Chippendale was born at Otley, West Riding of Yorkshire on June 5, 1718. He was the only child of a joiner John Chippendale, and his first wife Mary (née Drake). Chippendale was famous for his graceful Neoclassical furniture, especially cabinets and chairs and his self-promotional zeal ensured they became a by-word for elegance among England's 18th-century elite. However his lack of business acumen saw him die like a pauper.
Sarah Jennings, later Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, was born on June 5, 1660. Sarah was a confidante of the future Queen Anne who created Marlborough a duke on her accession to the throne. In later life, the Duke of Marlborough was undermined by political intrigue and he fell heavily from royal favor reputedly because his wife’s constant bad temper became too much for even the devoted Queen Anne. When Sarah Jennings died in 1744, she left a fortune of £3 million.
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| Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough |
British furniture maker Thomas Chippendale was born at Otley, West Riding of Yorkshire on June 5, 1718. He was the only child of a joiner John Chippendale, and his first wife Mary (née Drake). Chippendale was famous for his graceful Neoclassical furniture, especially cabinets and chairs and his self-promotional zeal ensured they became a by-word for elegance among England's 18th-century elite. However his lack of business acumen saw him die like a pauper.
For more June 5 anniversaries, including the founding of the city of Houston, the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin and the opening of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, check out OnThatDay.
George III of the United Kingdom was born at Norfolk House, London on June 4, 1738. He was the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. As Prince George was born two months premature and was thought unlikely to survive, he was baptized the same day.
George III of the United Kingdom was born at Norfolk House, London on June 4, 1738. He was the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. As Prince George was born two months premature and was thought unlikely to survive, he was baptized the same day.
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| George III by Allan Ramsay, 1762 |
George succeeded to the UK throne when his grandfather, George II, died suddenly on October 25, 1760. His father had died unexpectedly from a lung injury nine years earlier). He reigned for 59 years and 2 months, which was longer than any other British monarch before him.
Pal, the star of Lassie Come Home and six other Lassie films was born on June 4, 1940. Lassie Come Home, starring Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor was filmed by MGM in 1943. Altogether, 298 dogs were auditioned for the title role, a male Rough Collie called Pal was chosen to play the female dog. He would star in six more Lassie films and died in 1958 at the grand old age of 18.
For more June 4 anniversaries, including the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, the release of Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA album and the suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests, check out OnThatDay.
American businessman William Phelps Eno was born on June 3, 1858. He was responsible for many of the earliest traffic laws. In 1903, Eno developed the first city traffic code in the world at Columbus Circle, New York City. Among the innovations credited to Eno are traffic regulations, the stop sign, the pedestrian crosswalk, the traffic circle, the one-way street, the taxi stand, and pedestrian safety islands. Ironically, William Phelps Eno never drove a car himself.
American businessman William Phelps Eno was born on June 3, 1858. He was responsible for many of the earliest traffic laws. In 1903, Eno developed the first city traffic code in the world at Columbus Circle, New York City. Among the innovations credited to Eno are traffic regulations, the stop sign, the pedestrian crosswalk, the traffic circle, the one-way street, the taxi stand, and pedestrian safety islands. Ironically, William Phelps Eno never drove a car himself.
King George V was born on June 3, 1865, in Marlborough House, London. He was the second and eldest-surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra). George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from May 6. 1910 until his death in 1936.
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| George as a young boy in 1870 |
Tennis star Rafael Nadal was born June 3, 1986 in Manacor, Majorca, Spain. Rafael first began playing tennis at the age of three under the guidance of his Uncle Tom, a former professional tennis player. Rafael was born right-handed. He played two-handed on both sides as a small child and then with a one-handed forehand with his natural right arm. At the age of 9 or 10, his uncle switched him to a left-handed forehand and serve after seeing his perfect backhand moves.
For more June 3 anniversaries, including the completion of the first long-distance electric power transmission line in the US, Britain’s first ever live sport TV broadcast and the first American to take a spacewalk, check out OnThatDay.
The writer and poet Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840 in a thatched, stonemason's cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, Dorset in south west England.
For more June 3 anniversaries, including the completion of the first long-distance electric power transmission line in the US, Britain’s first ever live sport TV broadcast and the first American to take a spacewalk, check out OnThatDay.
The writer and poet Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840 in a thatched, stonemason's cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, Dorset in south west England.
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| A portrait of Thomas Hardy in 1923 |
He acquired an early interest in books, which his well-read mother encouraged. Thomas was reading Dryden and Johnson before the age of 10.
After several years working as an architect in London, Hardy settled at Weymouth in 1867 because of concerns about his health and decided to dedicate himself to writing.
He wrote his first novel Poor Man and the Lady the same year, but he failed to find a publisher partly because it was deemed too politically controversial.
He gained fame as the author of novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure(1895).
Hardy thought his poetry would outlive his prose, however, his novels won more laurels with the public than the critics and to this day none of his novels have ever gone out of print.
English composer Edward Elgar was born on June 2, 1857 in Broadheath, Worcestershire to the owner of a music shop, William and Ann, the daughter of a farm worker.
English composer Edward Elgar was born on June 2, 1857 in Broadheath, Worcestershire to the owner of a music shop, William and Ann, the daughter of a farm worker.
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| Edward Elgar, c. 1900 |
In 1899 Elgar wrote an orchestral piece, the Enigma Variations. Its variations are based on the countermelody to an unheard theme, a supposedly well-known tune that Elgar never identified. Each variation describes one of his friends, but he did not say which friends they were: he only put their initials or nickname at the top of each variation.
Elgar’s most popular piece is the first of his five Pomp and Circumstance Marches. It has the tune which is sung to the words “Land of Hope and Glory” and the audience always join in singing it at the Last Night of the Proms. Also American high school, college, and university graduates often march down the aisles of auditoriums to the work.
Elgar was the first composer to take the gramophone seriously. Between 1914 and 1925, he conducted a series of acoustic recordings of his works.
For more June 2 anniversaries, including the only presidential wedding performed in the White House, the granting of citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States, and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, check out OnThatDay.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jean was reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. She was discovered while building drone aircraft at Radioplane Company in 1944 and signed a contract with the Blue Book Model Agency.
In 1946 Mortenson signed a contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. After two short-lived film contracts, Monroe was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1951. She became one of the most bankable Hollywood actresses with starring roles in comedies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire(1953), The Seven Year Itch(1955).
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortenson in Los Angeles on June 1, 1926. Her mother was emotionally unstable and frequently confined to an asylum, so Norma Jean was reared by a succession of foster parents and in an orphanage. She was discovered while building drone aircraft at Radioplane Company in 1944 and signed a contract with the Blue Book Model Agency.
In 1946 Mortenson signed a contract with 20th Century Fox, taking as her screen name Marilyn Monroe. After two short-lived film contracts, Monroe was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1951. She became one of the most bankable Hollywood actresses with starring roles in comedies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire(1953), The Seven Year Itch(1955).
Troubled by mental health and addiction problems, Monroe was found dead by her housekeeper in her Los Angeles home at age 36 in the early morning hours of August 5, 1962.
For more June 1 anniversaries, including Kentucky's admission as the 15th state of the United States, the first demonstration of wirelessly controlling at a distance, and the launch of the television station CNN check out OnThatDay.
Walter Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island, USA. His parents Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman immediately nicknamed him "Walt" to distinguish him from his father. Whitman is considered one of the most important and influential American poets both for the style and subject matter of his work. He is best known for his free verse poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which scandalized the public with for its overt celebration of sexuality.
For more May 31 anniversaries, including Samuel Pepys' last entry in his diary, the premiere of Gioachino Rossini's La Gazza Ladra (The Thieving Magpie) opera , and the oldest bride in history check out OnThatDay.
Penny Ann Early was born May 30, 1943. She became the first licensed female jockey in the United States in 1968. In protest, male jockeys unanimously refused to ride in the first few races in which Early was slated to appear at the Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky to prevent her from competing.
Walter Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills, Long Island, USA. His parents Walter and Louisa Van Velsor Whitman immediately nicknamed him "Walt" to distinguish him from his father. Whitman is considered one of the most important and influential American poets both for the style and subject matter of his work. He is best known for his free verse poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which scandalized the public with for its overt celebration of sexuality.
Clint Eastwood was born in San Francisco, California on May 31. 1930. His parents were Clinton Eastwood Sr., a steelworker and migrant worker, and Margaret Ruth (née Runner) Eastwood, an IBM factory worker. He was nicknamed "Samson" by the hospital nurses at birth as he weighed 11 lbs 6 ounces. (5.2 kg) Eastwood was a logger, steel furnace stoker and gas station attendant before becoming an actor. His first starring role was Rowdy Yates in the US TV Western series Rawhide.
Penny Ann Early was born May 30, 1943. She became the first licensed female jockey in the United States in 1968. In protest, male jockeys unanimously refused to ride in the first few races in which Early was slated to appear at the Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky to prevent her from competing.
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| Penny Ann Early |
Early also achieved another notable first when she became the first woman to play major professional basketball. She came on during a time out for the Kentucky Colonels in an ABA game against the Los Angeles Stars on November 27, 1968. (At just 5'3" and 112 pounds, she was also the smallest pro basketball player ever).
For more May 30 anniversaries, including the beginning of the Peasants' Revolt in England, the marriage of Oscar Wilde to Constance Lloyd, and the founding of Nike, check out OnThatDay.
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope was born on May 29, 1903, in London, England to a Welsh mother and English father. In 1908, the Hopes migrated to Cleveland, Ohio. From the age of 12, he entered many dancing and amateur talent contests (as Lester Hope) and won a prize in for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. He changed his name from Leslie to Bob, because in school they would call the roll as 'Hope, Leslie' and classmates shortened it to hopeless.
For more May 30 anniversaries, including the beginning of the Peasants' Revolt in England, the marriage of Oscar Wilde to Constance Lloyd, and the founding of Nike, check out OnThatDay.
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope was born on May 29, 1903, in London, England to a Welsh mother and English father. In 1908, the Hopes migrated to Cleveland, Ohio. From the age of 12, he entered many dancing and amateur talent contests (as Lester Hope) and won a prize in for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin. He changed his name from Leslie to Bob, because in school they would call the roll as 'Hope, Leslie' and classmates shortened it to hopeless.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born May 29, 1917, at 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts to businessman/politician Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. (1888–1969) and philanthropist/socialite Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald-Kennedy (1890–1995).
According to the Miller Center, John F. Kennedy enjoyed a "privileged childhood of elite private schools, sailboats, servants and summer homes" during the Great Depression. He later claimed that he only learned about the Great Depression in the books he read at college.
On November 8, 1960, John F Kennedy was elected President of the United States, beating Richard Nixon by the narrowest of margins - 113,000 votes out of the 69 million cast. Kennedy was just 43, the youngest President ever to be elected. The first Roman Catholic to become president, Kennedy made a great impact on the nation before he was assassinated in 1963.
For more May 29 anniversaries, including the overthrow of the Byzantine Empire, the marriage of Oscar Wilde to Constance Lloyd, and the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring", check out OnThatDay.
William Pitt the Younger was born at Hayes Place in the village of Hayes, Kent on May 28, 1759. His father William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, was British Prime Minister between 1756-61 and 1766-68. He is regarded as the founder of the British Empire. Three years after Pitt the Younger entered Parliament as the member for Appleby in 1781, he became the youngest British prime minister at age 24.
William Pitt the Younger was born at Hayes Place in the village of Hayes, Kent on May 28, 1759. His father William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, was British Prime Minister between 1756-61 and 1766-68. He is regarded as the founder of the British Empire. Three years after Pitt the Younger entered Parliament as the member for Appleby in 1781, he became the youngest British prime minister at age 24.
James Bond author Ian Fleming was born on May 28, 1908 at 27 Green Street in the wealthy London district of Mayfair. His mother was Evelyn St Croix Rose, and his father was Valentine Fleming, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910. Fleming worked for Britain's Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War. He modeled the character of James Bond after Merlin Minshall, a man who worked for Fleming during the war as a spy.
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| Ian Fleming. By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Wikipedia Commons |
Ian Fleming got the name 'James Bond' from a real-life ornithologist from Philadelphia who was named 'James Bond'. Fleming had a copy of his book, The Birds of the West Indies and took a liking for that name.
For more May 28 anniversaries, including the trademarking of Jell-O, the first all-talking, all-color feature length movie and the establishment of The Volkswagen company, check out OnThatDay.
American women's clothing reformer Amelia Bloomer was born on May 27, 1818 in Homer, New York. Bloomer founded and edited the journal Lily where she advocated a move away from starched petticoats and whale-bone fitted corsets to something giving women freedom of movement. In 1851, she told her American readers how to make the Turkish-style pantaloons and short skirt that she had adopted — and within weeks newspapers dubbed it the ‘Bloomer’ dress.
American women's clothing reformer Amelia Bloomer was born on May 27, 1818 in Homer, New York. Bloomer founded and edited the journal Lily where she advocated a move away from starched petticoats and whale-bone fitted corsets to something giving women freedom of movement. In 1851, she told her American readers how to make the Turkish-style pantaloons and short skirt that she had adopted — and within weeks newspapers dubbed it the ‘Bloomer’ dress.
The singer Dolores DeFina was born on May 27, 1909. In February 1934, Dolores DeFina married Bob Hope - she had been one of his co-stars on Broadway in Roberta. The couple adopted four children: Eleanora, Anthony, Linda, and Kelly. The couple lived at 10342 Moorpark Street in Toluca Lake, California from 1937 until his death.
For more May 27 anniversaries, including Louis IX of France's marriage to Marguerite de Provence, the opening of the Chrysler Building in New York City and Snoop Dogg breaking the world record for "the largest paradise cocktail", check out OnThatDay.
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough was born on May 26, 1650 at Ash House, near Axminster, Devon. He yearned to be a courtier and in 1662 Churchill became a page at the court of the House of Stuart. He earned military and political advancement through his courage and diplomatic skill. His victories at Blenheim, Ramillie, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet during the War of the Spanish Succession, ensured his place in history as one of Europe's great generals.
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough was born on May 26, 1650 at Ash House, near Axminster, Devon. He yearned to be a courtier and in 1662 Churchill became a page at the court of the House of Stuart. He earned military and political advancement through his courage and diplomatic skill. His victories at Blenheim, Ramillie, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet during the War of the Spanish Succession, ensured his place in history as one of Europe's great generals.
John Wayne, the archetypal Western star, was born Marion Morrison on May 26, 1907 at 224 South Second Street in Winterset, Iowa. Wayne's college buddy, director Raoul Walsh, saw him moving studio furniture while working as a prop boy and cast him in his first starring role in The Big Trail (1930). It was during this time that Marion Morrison became "John Wayne," when Raoul Walsh didn't think Marion was a good name for an actor playing a tough western hero.
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| John Wayne Pixiebay |
Born May 26, 1951, astronaut Dr. Sally K. Ride became the first American woman to be sent into space when she was selected to serve on a six- day flight of the orbiter Challenger in 1983. At the time, she was the youngest American to enter outer space.
For more May 26 anniversaries, including Nicholas II's formal coronation as Russian Tsar, publication of the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for stocks, and the adoption of the European flag, check out OnThatDay.
American philosopher, poet, and academic Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1803. His father was a Unitarian minister, and Emerson initially followed his footsteps, attending Harvard Divinity School. Boston's Second Church invited Emerson to serve as its junior pastor and in time Emerson developed a belief system that espoused a non-traditional appreciation of nature called Transcendentalism. He first wrote about this view in an essay called Nature in 1836.
American philosopher, poet, and academic Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1803. His father was a Unitarian minister, and Emerson initially followed his footsteps, attending Harvard Divinity School. Boston's Second Church invited Emerson to serve as its junior pastor and in time Emerson developed a belief system that espoused a non-traditional appreciation of nature called Transcendentalism. He first wrote about this view in an essay called Nature in 1836.
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| Emerson |
For more May 25 anniversaries, including the last outbreak of bubonic plague in Western Europe, the world's first fountain pen patent, and the release of Star Wars, check out OnThatDay.
German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit was born on May 24, 1686 in Danzig (Gdańsk), then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit constructed the mercury thermometer, the first sealed thermometer. He discovered a method for cleaning mercury so that it would not stick to a glass tube, which enabled him to use this element rather than alcohol, which had given less accurate results.
German physicist Gabriel Fahrenheit was born on May 24, 1686 in Danzig (Gdańsk), then in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit constructed the mercury thermometer, the first sealed thermometer. He discovered a method for cleaning mercury so that it would not stick to a glass tube, which enabled him to use this element rather than alcohol, which had given less accurate results.
Queen Victoria was born at 4.15 a.m. on May 24, 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. She was the only child of Edward, the Duke of Kent, the fourth son of George III, and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Victoria was eleven when she realized she would be next in line for the UK throne. When the implication sank in she had a good cry. Then she controlled herself and said solemnly to her Governess. "I will be good."
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| Portrait of Victoria (aged four) by Stephen Poyntz Denning 1823 |
Robert Zimmerman was born on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. His parents, Abram Zimmerman and Beatrice "Beatty" Stone, were part of the area's small but close-knit Jewish community. He briefly attended the University of Minnesota, where he began performing in coffeehouses as Bob Dylan. The former Robert Zimmerman told in 1978 “I just chose that name and it stuck.
For more May 24 anniversaries, including the purchase of Manhattan Island, the publication of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and the opening of New York City's Brooklyn Bridge, check out OnThatDay.
Austrian physician and hypnosis pioneer Franz Mesmer was born on May 23, 1734. Mesmer took up an idea that a power existed which he referred to as "animal magnetism" and a person became ill when their "animal magnetism" was out of balance. Mesmer claimed to use it as a medical treatment to heal certain nervous ailments. As he claimed the attention of scientists Mesmer's name became renowned through the coining of the term's "mesmerism" and "mesmerise".
Austrian physician and hypnosis pioneer Franz Mesmer was born on May 23, 1734. Mesmer took up an idea that a power existed which he referred to as "animal magnetism" and a person became ill when their "animal magnetism" was out of balance. Mesmer claimed to use it as a medical treatment to heal certain nervous ailments. As he claimed the attention of scientists Mesmer's name became renowned through the coining of the term's "mesmerism" and "mesmerise".
For more May 23 anniversaries, including the patenting of the first accordion, the establishment of the Mounties and the killing of Bonnie and Clyde, check out OnThatDay.
Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 to an ethnic German family in the Jewish quarter of Leipzig. He was the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was the Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of the Police. Several of his elder sisters became opera singers or actresses.
Richard Wagner was born on May 22, 1813 to an ethnic German family in the Jewish quarter of Leipzig. He was the ninth child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was the Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of the Police. Several of his elder sisters became opera singers or actresses.
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| Richard Wagner in 1871 |
Wagner attended an 1829 performance by famed dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, and he would credit her with inspiring his sense of music and drama and how they could be most effectively used in opera. He was the first person to see opera as a unification of the musical, poetical and scenic elements. By directing romantic music into the field of dramatic storytelling, Wagner transformed the opera into a new art form.
The author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born the third of ten children on May 22, 1859 at 11 Picardy Street, Edinburgh. Even at school he had the impulse to write and he produced his first story at the age of six. Doyle practiced between 1882-90 as a family doctor at Southsea, England. His medical practice was unsuccessful and his income was so small that he begun writing stories to help make ends meet. The popularity of Doyle's detective, Sherlock Holmes, created a pattern for the crime tale and popularized it as a genre.
Predominantly of Native Indian descent, all-round sportsman James "Jim" Thorpe was born near Prague, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), on May 22, 1888. In 1907 Thorpe began his athletic career there when he walked past his school's athletic track and beat all the school's high jumpers with an impromptu 5-ft 9-in leap despite being in street clothes. He won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, and played American football, professional baseball, and basketball.
For more May 22 anniversaries, including the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, the Wright brothers receiving a patent for their "Flying-Machine," and the most powerful earthquake ever recorded, check out OnThatDay.
Philip II of Spain was born on May 21, 1527 at Palacio de Pimentel in the Spanish capital of Valladolid. His father was Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, and his mother Infanta Isabella of Portugal. Philip was their only son to survive childhood. Charles V became convinced of Philip's potential statesmanship, and so he determined to leave in his hands the regency of Spain in 1543. Philip began governing the most extensive empire in the world at the young age of sixteen.
Philip II of Spain was born on May 21, 1527 at Palacio de Pimentel in the Spanish capital of Valladolid. His father was Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, and his mother Infanta Isabella of Portugal. Philip was their only son to survive childhood. Charles V became convinced of Philip's potential statesmanship, and so he determined to leave in his hands the regency of Spain in 1543. Philip began governing the most extensive empire in the world at the young age of sixteen.
English poet Alexander Pope was born on May 21, 1688. From his early childhood Alexander suffered numerous health problems, including Pott's disease (a form of tuberculosis affecting the spine) which deformed his body and stunted his growth. Considered the foremost English poet of the early 18th century, Pope is remembered for his frequent poetic use of the heroic couplet. After Shakespeare, he is the second-most quoted author in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
Elizabeth Fry was born on May 21, 1780 in the family's town house at Gurney Court, off Magdalen Street in Norwich, Norfolk. Elizabeth's mother, Catherine, was the most important influence on her life. A devout Quaker, she was very involved in charity work and when Catherine visited and helped the sick and poor in the district, Betsy loved to go with her mother. From her mid 30s onwards, Elizabeth made it her life's work to improve the conditions in prisons in England.
For more May 21 anniversaries, including the marriage of Catherine of Braganza to Charles II of England, the conversion of hymn writer Charles Wesley from High Church to Evangelical Christianity and the patenting of the first shopping bag, check out OnThatDay.
English economist and political philosopher John Stuart Mill was born on Rodney Street in the Pentonville area of London on May 20, 1806. John Stuart was a notably precocious child. At the age of three, he was taught the Greek alphabet and long lists of Greek words with their English equivalents. By the age of eight, he had read Aesop's Fables, Xenophon's Anabasis, the whole of Herodotus and other great Greek and Roman authors.
English economist and political philosopher John Stuart Mill was born on Rodney Street in the Pentonville area of London on May 20, 1806. John Stuart was a notably precocious child. At the age of three, he was taught the Greek alphabet and long lists of Greek words with their English equivalents. By the age of eight, he had read Aesop's Fables, Xenophon's Anabasis, the whole of Herodotus and other great Greek and Roman authors.
Antoinette Blackwell, the first ever Protestant woman minister, was born on May 20, 1825. Blackwell was inspired by evangelical revivals to enrol at the Presbyterian Oberlin College and study theology, but as a woman she was refused a degree and ordination. After lecturing on women's rights and occasionally preaching at progressive churches, she was appointed in 1853 pastor by the First Congregational Church in South Butler, New York.
Uruguayan politician José Mujica was born on May 20, 1935. A former left-wing guerrilla leader who spent almost 15 years in prison during the country's military rule, Mujica served as the 40th President of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015. He was called "the world's 'poorest' president" as he donated around 90 percent of his $12,000 monthly salary to charities to help poor people and small entrepreneurs.
For more May 20 anniversaries, including Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India, the first modern atlas and the establishment of the oldest public elementary school in North America, check out OnThatDay.
André René Roussimoff was born on May 19, 1946, Best known as André the Giant, he was a French professional wrestler, actor and giant who grew to the height of 7 ft 4 in (224 cm). André the Giant grew so fast that his own parents didn't recognize him. He left home at 14 and returned at 19, having already become a professional wrestler. As he explained his career choice, they realized they had seen him wrestle on TV under his alias, without knowing it was their son.
André René Roussimoff was born on May 19, 1946, Best known as André the Giant, he was a French professional wrestler, actor and giant who grew to the height of 7 ft 4 in (224 cm). André the Giant grew so fast that his own parents didn't recognize him. He left home at 14 and returned at 19, having already become a professional wrestler. As he explained his career choice, they realized they had seen him wrestle on TV under his alias, without knowing it was their son.
For more May 19 anniversaries, including the first man-made object to fly-by another planet, the death of the oldest ever tortoise and the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, check out OnThatDay.
Nicholas II of Russia was born in Alexander Palace, Saint Petersburg on May 18, 1868. He was the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III, who was a repressor of all liberal ideas. His mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark), was the sister of Britain's Queen Alexandra.
For more May 18 anniversaries, including the marriage of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, the founding of Boston by John Winthrop and the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in U.S. history, check out OnThatDay.
The most successful pirate captain of the Golden Age of Piracy, Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts was born on May 17, 1682. Roberts had very strict rules on his ship, prohibiting all lights and drinking after eight in the evening. There was also a complete ban on gambling. If a crew member got hurt, he received a pension proportionate to his injury.
For more May 17 anniversaries, including the establishment of the first American Academy, the relief by British troops of Mafeking during the Second Boer War and the first televised sports event in the US, check out OnThatDay.
Welsh-born scientist and professor of music David Edward Hughes was born on May 16, 1831. The first microphone that enabled proper voice telephony was the (loose-contact) carbon microphone (then called transmitter). This was independently developed by David Edward Hughes in England and Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison in the US in the mid 1870s. Hughes' microphone used a piece of pine board to pick up sound.
Nicholas II of Russia was born in Alexander Palace, Saint Petersburg on May 18, 1868. He was the eldest son of Emperor Alexander III, who was a repressor of all liberal ideas. His mother, Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia (formerly Princess Dagmar of Denmark), was the sister of Britain's Queen Alexandra.
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| Nicholas, unbreeched at two years old, with his mother, Maria Feodorovna, in 1870 |
Nicholas was seen as too soft by his hard, demanding father who, not anticipating his own premature death, did nothing to prepare his son for the crown. When his father passed away on November 1, 1894, the 26-year-old Nicholas was poorly prepared to rule. He faced the task of being autocrat of Russia in a time of major turmoil. Nicholas reportedly said “what am I to do. What is to become of Russia? I am not yet prepared to be Tsar.”
During his reign the Russian Empire fell from one of the foremost great powers of the world to economic and military collapse. Nicholas II chose to abdicate as Russian Tsar at the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917. After the Bolsheviks seized power Nicholas and his family were all killed by a firing squad.
Pope Saint John Paul II was born in the Polish town of Wadowice on May 18, 1920. He was the youngest of three children born to Karol Wojtyła, an ethnic Pole and Emilia Kaczorowska. In mid-1938, Wojtyła enrolled at the Jagiellonian University. While studying such topics as philology and various languages, he learned as many as 12 foreign languages, nine of which he used extensively as pope. Karol Wojtyla was ordained to the priesthood on November 1, 1946.
The most successful pirate captain of the Golden Age of Piracy, Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts was born on May 17, 1682. Roberts had very strict rules on his ship, prohibiting all lights and drinking after eight in the evening. There was also a complete ban on gambling. If a crew member got hurt, he received a pension proportionate to his injury.
Reverend Robert Shields was born on May 17, 1918. He was a former minister and high school English teacher who lived in Dayton, Washington, USA. His 37.5-million-word diary , the world’s longest, chronicled every five minutes of his life from 1972 until a stroke disabled him in 1997.
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| Rev Robert Shields |
For more May 17 anniversaries, including the establishment of the first American Academy, the relief by British troops of Mafeking during the Second Boer War and the first televised sports event in the US, check out OnThatDay.
Welsh-born scientist and professor of music David Edward Hughes was born on May 16, 1831. The first microphone that enabled proper voice telephony was the (loose-contact) carbon microphone (then called transmitter). This was independently developed by David Edward Hughes in England and Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison in the US in the mid 1870s. Hughes' microphone used a piece of pine board to pick up sound.
Herman Webster Mudgett, more commonly known as H. H. Holmes, was born on May 16, 1861. He was the first recognized serial killer in United States history. While he confessed to 27 murders, only nine could be plausibly confirmed. Holmes, who sold the skeletons of his victims to medical science, was hanged in Philadelphia in 1896.
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| Full confession of Holmes |
The gymnast Olga Korbut was born on May 16, 1955, in Grodno, Belorussian S.S.R. (now Belarus). Korbut captivated the world at the 1972 Olympics at Munich with her lithe grace and charm. She won a gold medal as a member of the winning Soviet team, as well as individual golds in the beam and floor exercises. The Associated Press awarded her the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Trophy, which had not been given to a competitor from the Soviet Union or its satellite countries since 1931.
For more May 16 anniversaries, including the first known public performance in Britain to use a piano, the marriage of Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste (later Louis XVI of France) and the first optical laser, check out OnThatDay
Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi was baptized (birth date unknown) on May 15, 1567, in Cremona, Duchy of Milan (now Lombardy, Italy). During his childhood, Claudio was taught by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, the maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Cremona. Claudio learned composition, singing and how to play string instruments such as the viol and viola da braccio. He was only 15 when he published his first pieces of music; a book of three part motets.
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Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi was baptized (birth date unknown) on May 15, 1567, in Cremona, Duchy of Milan (now Lombardy, Italy). During his childhood, Claudio was taught by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri, the maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Cremona. Claudio learned composition, singing and how to play string instruments such as the viol and viola da braccio. He was only 15 when he published his first pieces of music; a book of three part motets.
| Monteverdi by Bernardo Strozzi, c. 1630 |
For more May 15 anniversaries, including the he first European to see Cape Cod, the first machine gun and the founding of Las Vegas, check out OnThatDay.
Welsh textile manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen was born on May 14, 1771. Owen raised the demand for a ten-hour working day in 1810, and instituted it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan: "Eight hours' labor, Eight hours' recreation, Eight hours' rest".
Welsh textile manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen was born on May 14, 1771. Owen raised the demand for a ten-hour working day in 1810, and instituted it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan: "Eight hours' labor, Eight hours' recreation, Eight hours' rest".
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| Robert Owen |
Hans Albert Einstein, the first son of Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić, was born on May 14, 1904. Hans became a professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, after having little interaction with his father during his childhood.
Peruvian Lina Medina became on May 14, 1939 the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of at the age of five years, seven months and 17 days. Medina's son weighed 6.0 lb at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor. Gerardo was raised believing that Medina was his sister, but found out at the age of 10 that she was his mother. The biological father who impregnated Lina was never identified.
For more May 14 anniversaries, including four-year-old Louis XIV becoming King of France, the premiere of Felix Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture also known as "Fingal's Cave" and the establishment of the State of Israel, check out OnThatDay.
Arthur Sullivan was born in London on May 13, 1842, the son of a poor Irish musician. Before he met W S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan was Victorian England's most famous composer of popular and sacred songs and oratorios. "Onward! Christian Soldiers" is his best-known hymn; "The Lost Chord" is one of his songs. Sullivan did not want to be remembered for his comic operas as one half of Gilbert and Sullivan. "My sacred music is that on which I base my reputation as a composer."
Arthur Sullivan was born in London on May 13, 1842, the son of a poor Irish musician. Before he met W S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan was Victorian England's most famous composer of popular and sacred songs and oratorios. "Onward! Christian Soldiers" is his best-known hymn; "The Lost Chord" is one of his songs. Sullivan did not want to be remembered for his comic operas as one half of Gilbert and Sullivan. "My sacred music is that on which I base my reputation as a composer."
British physician Sir Ronald Ross was born on May 13, 1857. Intrigued by the theory that mosquitoes transmitted malaria, Ross undertook an investigation of the long-known disease. Using birds that were already sick with malaria, Ross located in 1897 the malaria parasite in the spotted winged Anopheles mosquito. He revealed that the ailment is carried in the mosquito's salivary glands and transferred to healthy birds through biting them.
Stevie Wonder was born Steveland Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, on May 13, 1950. He was born six weeks premature and blinded soon after birth when too much oxygen was pumped into his incubator, Stevie Wonder mastered piano, bass, drums and harmonica before hitting his teenage years. In 1961 Wonder sang his own composition, "Lonely Boy" for Smokey Robinson of The Miracles. This earned him a contract with Motown.
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| Wonder rehearsing for a performance on Dutch TV in 1967 |
In 1969, Motown gave Wonder complete control of his recordings. He was one of the first artists to write, produce, arrange, and perform his own songs.
For more May 13 anniversaries, including the longest marriage ever recorded, the first ever Formula One race and the first person to circumnavigate the Earth by amphibious vehicle, check out OnThatDay.
German chemist Justus von Liebig was born on May 12, 1803. The invention of the silvered-glass mirror is credited to Liebig in 1835. His process involved the deposition of a thin layer of metallic silver onto glass through the chemical reduction of silver nitrate. Liebig improved the technique twenty years later by adding copper to ammoniated silver nitrate and sugar.
German chemist Justus von Liebig was born on May 12, 1803. The invention of the silvered-glass mirror is credited to Liebig in 1835. His process involved the deposition of a thin layer of metallic silver onto glass through the chemical reduction of silver nitrate. Liebig improved the technique twenty years later by adding copper to ammoniated silver nitrate and sugar.
Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820 into a rich, upper-class, well-connected British family at the Villa Colombaia, near the Porta Romana, in Florence, Italy. She was named after the city of her birth. Florence had a strong desire to devote her life to the service of others from her late teens but at first she was respectful of her family's opposition to her working as a nurse, only announcing her decision to enter the field in 1844.
The composer Gabriel Fauré was born in Pamiers, Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées, in the south of France on May 12, 1845. The young Fauré often played the harmonium at the small chapel attached to the school where his father was director. An old blind lady heard him and told his father that he ought to send his boy to a good music school. The 9-year-old Fauré was sent to a music college in Paris, where among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend.
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| Fauré as a student, 1864 |
For more May 12 anniversaries, including the marriage of Richard I of England and Berengaria of Navarre, George VI of the UK's coronation and the presentation of the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer check out OnThatDay.
Irving Berlin was born in Tyumen, Russia on May 11, 1888. Tyumen is situated just east of the Ural Mountains and is often regarded as the first Siberian city, from the western direction. His father was a Jewish cantor who moved his family to New York to escape religious persecution in 1893.
Irving Berlin was born in Tyumen, Russia on May 11, 1888. Tyumen is situated just east of the Ural Mountains and is often regarded as the first Siberian city, from the western direction. His father was a Jewish cantor who moved his family to New York to escape religious persecution in 1893.
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| Berlin at his first job with a music publisher, age 18 |
Berlin's big break came in 1906 when he was hired as a singing waiter at the Pelham Café in New York's Chinatown. He caught the eye of Harry Von Tilzer, who hired him to sing his songs at Tony Pastor's Music Hall, considered by many to be the birthplace of vaudeville. He had his first song published the following year.
Salvador Dalí was born on May 11, 1904 in the town of Figueres close to the French border in Catalonia, Spain. His father was a middle-class lawyer and notary. His mother tempered her husband's strict disciplinary approach and encouraged her son's artistic endeavors. In the 1920s, Salvador Dalí read Freud, took up with other emerging Surrealists, and began actively seeking his subconscious mind so as to paint the visions there.
For more May 11 anniversaries, including the consecration of the city of Constantinople, the oldest known dated printed book and the first documented use of the phrase "heavy metal," check out OnThatDay.
American publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was born on May 10, 1841. A successful publisher of the New York Herald, he sponsored explorers including Henry Morton Stanley's trip to Africa to find David Livingstone, and the ill-fated USS Jeannette attempt on the North Pole.
American publisher James Gordon Bennett, Jr. was born on May 10, 1841. A successful publisher of the New York Herald, he sponsored explorers including Henry Morton Stanley's trip to Africa to find David Livingstone, and the ill-fated USS Jeannette attempt on the North Pole.
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| Portrait of James Gordon Bennett, Jr. |
An outlandish international playboy, he’d turn up in restaurants drunk and cause havoc. Bennett's exploits gave rise to the exclamation ‘Gordon Bennett!’, to express shock.
Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska on May 10, 1899. Fred began dancing at the age of four. Fred formed a child act with his sister, Adele, that became popular at the time. Their first act was called "Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty." Adele eventually married, leaving Astaire to begin his solo career.
"Can't sing. Can't act. Slightly balding. Can dance a little." Fittingly, the studio toad who wrote that screen-test evaluation of a young Fred Astaire is long forgotten, but the greatest dancer in movie history is not.
For more May 10 anniversaries, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette becoming King and Queen of France, the Treaty of Frankfurt ending the Franco-Prussian War and the completion of the first submerged circumnavigation of Earth, check out OnThatDay
James Matthew Barrie was born on May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland to a conservative Calvinist family. He was a small child and only grew to just over 5 ft 3 inches as an adult. He didn't shave until he was 24.
James Matthew Barrie was born on May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland to a conservative Calvinist family. He was a small child and only grew to just over 5 ft 3 inches as an adult. He didn't shave until he was 24.
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| J. M. Barrie by George Charles Beresford, 1902 |
When he was 6-years-old, James Barrie's older brother David (his mother's favorite) died two days before his 14th birthday in an ice-skating accident. This left his mother devastated, and Barrie tried to fill David's place in his mother's attentions, even dressing as him and whistling in the manner that he did. Gradually his mother drew comfort in the thought of a boy who would never grow up.
Barrie was friends with Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies and entertained their sons George and Jack regularly with his ability to wiggle his ears and eyebrows. The character of Peter Pan was invented to entertain George and Jack. Barrie would say, to amuse them, that their little brother Peter could fly. He claimed that babies were birds before they were born; parents put bars on nursery windows to keep the little ones from flying away. This grew into a tale of a baby boy who did fly away.
The first appearance of Peter Pan came in Barrie's novel The Little White Bird, which was serialized in the United States, then published in a single volume in the UK in 1902.
Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up had its first stage performance on 27 December 1904.
After the death of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies, he adopted their five sons: Peter, Jack, George, Michael and Nicholas. Barrie was very close to all the boys, and was heartbroken when Michael drowned in 1921 and George was killed in action in 1915.
For more May 9 anniversaries, including Thomas Blood's attempt to steal the Crown Jewels, the creation of root beer, and the designation of the bison as the official mammal of the United States, check out OnThatDay.
Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. Harry spent most of his youth on his family's 550-acre farm near Independence, Missouri.
Harry S. Truman had no middle name. His parents gave him the middle initial S to honor his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. Truman was the last U.S. President to not have a college degree. However, he was a voracious reader and remained so all of his life.
Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri. Harry spent most of his youth on his family's 550-acre farm near Independence, Missouri.
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| Truman's birthplace and childhood home in Lamar, Missouri. By Kbh3rd |
Harry S. Truman had no middle name. His parents gave him the middle initial S to honor his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. Truman was the last U.S. President to not have a college degree. However, he was a voracious reader and remained so all of his life.
For more May 8 anniversaries, including the first documented Europeans to reach the Mississippi River, the first sale of Coca-Cola and Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces, check out OnThatDay.
Among the famous people born on May 7th are:
Among the famous people born on May 7th are:
The English poet Robert Browning was born on May 7, 1812 at Southampton Way, Camberwell, London, England. Robert's father Robert Browning, a man of fine intellect and character, was a well-off clerk for the Bank of England. Robert was an extremely bright child and voracious reader and his father encouraged his interest in literature and the arts. By the age of twelve, Browning had written a book of poetry which he later destroyed when no publisher could be found.
The German composer Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, Germany on May 7, 1833. Johannes came from a humble but happy background. His father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was a poor (financially) musician who played the double bass in the orchestra of the Stadtheatre at Hamburg. His mother, Henrika Christiane Nissen, was a seamstress never previously married, who was seventeen years older than he was.
Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was born on May 7, 1840 in Votkinsk, a grim industrial town halfway between Moscow and the Ural mountains. His father, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky was a Ukrainian mining engineer who managed the Kamsko-Votkinsk Ironworks. Pyotr was a withdrawn child, who was affected by abnormal insensitivity. He sought refuge in music from an early age and began piano lessons at the age of five showing remarkable gifts.
For more May 7 anniversaries, including the founding of the city of New Orleans, the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the deadliest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, check out OnThatDay.
The Father of Modern Psychiatry, Sigmund Freud, was born to Jewish Galician parents on May 6, 1856.
His Psychoanalysis method aimed to bring to the surface the conflicts of the unconscious mind to help find the reason for disturbance. Patients revealed their unconscious conflict through talking. He was able to teach his patients to stand on their feet by lying on couches. Freud's work changed the whole approach to mental illness, for the first time symptoms had meaning and they were seen as sick people rather than weirdos.
Sigmund Freud published Interpretation Of Dreams on November 4, 1899 in which he argued that understanding dreams can give an insight into our personality. It was slow to take off, the first edition selling only 351 copies in its first six years. However, in time it became the book that gave Freud worldwide recognition.
The Father of Modern Psychiatry, Sigmund Freud, was born to Jewish Galician parents on May 6, 1856.
His Psychoanalysis method aimed to bring to the surface the conflicts of the unconscious mind to help find the reason for disturbance. Patients revealed their unconscious conflict through talking. He was able to teach his patients to stand on their feet by lying on couches. Freud's work changed the whole approach to mental illness, for the first time symptoms had meaning and they were seen as sick people rather than weirdos.
Sigmund Freud published Interpretation Of Dreams on November 4, 1899 in which he argued that understanding dreams can give an insight into our personality. It was slow to take off, the first edition selling only 351 copies in its first six years. However, in time it became the book that gave Freud worldwide recognition.
Rudolph Valentino, the archetypical romantic lead of the silent movie era was born Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi in Castellaneta, Italy on May 6, 1895. He featured in several films in a minor role until 1921. Valentino got his major break when he appeared in the role of Julio in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and he went on to play leading roles in fourteen films as a romantic figure.
George Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky. His mother, Nina Bruce (née Warren) was a beauty queen. His father, Nick Clooney is a former anchorman and television host. While he was a struggling actor in Los Angeles, George Clooney's friend let him stay in his apartment – but owing to a lack of spare room, he had to sleep in a closet.
For more May 6 anniversaries, including the invention of mechanical refrigeration, the Hindenburg zeppelin disaster and the opening of The Channel Tunnel, check out OnThatDay.
Karl Marx was born into a progressive middle class Jewish family on May 5, 1818 at Bruckenstrausse 10, Trier, Prussia, (now Germany). The Marx household hosted many visiting intellectuals and artists during Karl's early life.
Karl Marx was born into a progressive middle class Jewish family on May 5, 1818 at Bruckenstrausse 10, Trier, Prussia, (now Germany). The Marx household hosted many visiting intellectuals and artists during Karl's early life.
In 1830 Karl Marx started attending Trier High School. His senior thesis, which anticipated his later development of a social analysis of religion, was a treatise entitled Religion: The Glue That Binds Society Together, for which he won a prize.
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| Marx's birthplace in Trier. By Berthold Werner, Wikipedia Commons |
John Batterson Stetson was born into a family of New Jersey hatters on May 5, 1830, the 8th of 12 children. Stetson was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he left New Jersey to explore the American West. In 1865 he designed The Boss of the Plains, a lightweight all-weather hat for the demands of the American West. Stetson's cowboy hat was later renamed "Stetson" after the maker. The Stetson soon became the most well-known headgear in the West.
The singer Adele was born on May 5, 1988 in Tottenham, London. Her first public singing performance was in a school presentation where she sang "Rise" by Gabrielle. When she got her first record deal, Adele made just one change to her smoking habit: she moved from roll-up cigarettes to Marlboro Lights. One of the executive producers told Adele to lose weight. But she replied: "I write music for ears; not eyes.
For more May 5 anniversaries, including Christopher Columbus landing in Jamaica, the death of Napoleon and Ben and Jerry opening their first ice cream parlor, check out OnThatDay.
Florentine harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori was born on May 4, 1655. In 1709 the Cristofori came up with an instrument, which merged the clavichord's ability to vary notes dynamically with the harpsichord's crisp sound. He called it called a un cimbalo di cipresso di piano e forte ("a keyboard of cypress with soft and loud"). The name was abbreviated over time as pianoforte, fortepiano, and later, simply, piano.
Audrey Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston at 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, a municipality in Brussels, Belgium on May 4, 1929. She didn't start calling herself Audrey Hepburn until 1948.
Florentine harpsichord maker Bartolomeo Cristofori was born on May 4, 1655. In 1709 the Cristofori came up with an instrument, which merged the clavichord's ability to vary notes dynamically with the harpsichord's crisp sound. He called it called a un cimbalo di cipresso di piano e forte ("a keyboard of cypress with soft and loud"). The name was abbreviated over time as pianoforte, fortepiano, and later, simply, piano.
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| 1720 Cristofori piano in the Metropolitan Museum New York. By Shriram Rajagopalan |
Alice Liddell, the model for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was born on May 4, 1852. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland grew out of a story told by Charles Dodgson to amuse three little girls, Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of Christchurch (see below) and her two sisters during a rowing trip. Afterwards he wrote down the story for the ten-year-old Alice. Alice Hargreaves (Liddell) died in 1934 and is buried at St Michael's Church, Lyndhurst, Hants.
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| Alice Liddell, aged 7, photographed by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in 1860 |
Audrey Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston at 48 Rue Keyenveld in Ixelles, a municipality in Brussels, Belgium on May 4, 1929. She didn't start calling herself Audrey Hepburn until 1948.
During the Battle of Arnheim, 16-year-old Audrey Hepburn was a volunteer nurse in a Dutch hospital. She helped a young British paratrooper, Terence Young, who later directed her in Wait until Dark in 1967.
For more May 4 anniversaries, including the first meeting between The Honorable Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce, the surrender of the German forces preceding the end of World War II in Europe, and the first Grammys ceremony, check out OnThatDay.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy on May 3, 1469. Niccolò was the third child and first son of Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute and his wife, Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy on May 3, 1469. Niccolò was the third child and first son of Bernardo di Niccolò Machiavelli, a lawyer of some repute and his wife, Bartolomea di Stefano Nelli. Both parents were members of the old Florentine nobility.
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| Statue at the Uffizi |
Early in 1498 Machiavelli was prompted to the rank of second chancellor and secretary to Florentine head of state Piero Soderini. Between 1503 and 1506 Machiavelli was responsible for the Florentine militia. He distrusted mercenaries and instead, inspired by ancient Roman history, staffed his army with citizens. His attempts to fortify Florence failed, and the soldiery that he raised astonished everybody by their cowardice.
In August 1512, the Medici, backed by Pope Julius II used Spanish troops to defeat the Florentines at Prato. Machiavelli was dismissed from his role as chancellor and on November 7, 1512; he was arrested, imprisoned, and subjected to the rack as a suspected schemer against the Medici family.
Machiavelli was only released upon Giovanni de' Medici's election to the papacy in March 1513 as Pope Leo X.
In 1513, Machiavelli wrote Il Principe (The Prince), a handbook for rulers written whilst struggling to make ends meet after getting sacked by the Medici. It was based on his observations of Cesare Borgia.
Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby on May 3, 1903 in Spokane, Washington to parents of Anglo-Irish heritage.
Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby on May 3, 1903 in Spokane, Washington to parents of Anglo-Irish heritage.
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| Bing Crosby |
The nickname Bing that he would carry with him throughout his life is attributable to the Bingville Bugle, which was a newspaper parody that he was fond of.
The invention of the microphone enabled a soft, intimate vocal tone to be amplified and projected into a large hall, thus making possible the art of crooners such as Crosby. His singing career was around fifty years long and more than 500 million records of his have been sold worldwide.
For more May 3 anniversaries, including the first codified national constitution in Europe, the first duel from two hot air balloons, and the first spam e-mail, check out OnThatDay.
Catherine the Great was born on May 2, 1729 in Stettin in the Prussian province of Pomerania (now Szczecin), Poland) to Christian von Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German prince, and Elizabeth of Holstein. She was christened Princess Sophie Auguste Von Anhalt-Zerbst.
Catherine the Great was born on May 2, 1729 in Stettin in the Prussian province of Pomerania (now Szczecin), Poland) to Christian von Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German prince, and Elizabeth of Holstein. She was christened Princess Sophie Auguste Von Anhalt-Zerbst.
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| Portrait of Empress Catherine the Great by Russian painter Fyodor Rokotov |
In 1744, the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth selected Sophie as the wife for her nephew, Peter, her chosen successor. Sophie changed her name to "Catherine" (Ekaterina or Yekaterina) when she accepted the Russian Orthodox faith.
Six months after Peter succeeded to the Russian throne in 1762, becoming Peter III, he was removed in a coup and assassinated eight days later. Some speculate that Catherine had ordered this, but there is no evidence to back this theory.
Catherine, although not descended from any previous Russian emperor, succeeded her husband on July 17, 1762. The coup was popular among the masses as the ex Tsar was greatly hated. The cheering soldiers called her "little mother." With a series of advisers who were also her lovers, Catherine expanded Russian territory by wars against the Turks and Poland. Influenced by the ideas circulating in Western Europe, she entertained writers and philosophers at her court.
For more May 2 anniversaries, including the arrest of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, the first jetliner flight with fare-paying passengers, and the killing of Osama Bin Laden, check out OnThatDay.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was born on May 1, 1769 at 6 Lepper Merrion Street, Dublin, Ireland. Arthur was a rather delicate withdrawn child whose greatest love was playing the violin. Arthur enrolled at Eton College at the age of 12 where he failed to shine. He went on to attend a French military academy at Angers in France against the wishes of his mother who believed he had no talent for soldiering.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was born on May 1, 1769 at 6 Lepper Merrion Street, Dublin, Ireland. Arthur was a rather delicate withdrawn child whose greatest love was playing the violin. Arthur enrolled at Eton College at the age of 12 where he failed to shine. He went on to attend a French military academy at Angers in France against the wishes of his mother who believed he had no talent for soldiering.
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| The Duke of Wellington wearing Field Marshal’s uniform |
Wellesley proved her wrong becoming one of the leading military of 19th-century Britain, leading British campaign against Napoleon in Spain and Portugal then ending the Napoleonic Wars when he defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He also served twice as prime minister.
For more May 1 anniversaries, including The Act of Union forming the Kingdom of Great Britain, the premiere of Mozart's comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro, and the marriage of Elvis Presley to Priscilla Beaulieu, check out OnThatDay.
Mary II of England was born at St. James's Palace in London on April 30, 1662. She was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York (the future James II), and his first wife, Anne Hyde. On April 11, 1689. William III (Prince of Orange) and Mary II were crowned at Westminster as joint monarchs. Mary II governed the realm for William, while he was away fighting, but acted on his advice. Each time he returned to England, Mary gave up her power to him unbegrudgingly. Such an arrangement lasted until her death from smallpox in 1694.
Mary II of England was born at St. James's Palace in London on April 30, 1662. She was the eldest daughter of James, Duke of York (the future James II), and his first wife, Anne Hyde. On April 11, 1689. William III (Prince of Orange) and Mary II were crowned at Westminster as joint monarchs. Mary II governed the realm for William, while he was away fighting, but acted on his advice. Each time he returned to England, Mary gave up her power to him unbegrudgingly. Such an arrangement lasted until her death from smallpox in 1694.
For more April 30 anniversaries, including The Louisiana Purchase, the founding of the first gas company in the world to provide a public supply, the announcement of the discovery of the electron, and the first US president to speak on television, check out OnThatDay.
Czar Alexander II was born Alexander Nikolaevich in Moscow on April 29, 1818. He was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz). Alexander II succeeded to the Russian throne upon the death of his father and was the emperor of Russia from 1855 until 1881. He was also the king of Poland and the grand duke of Finland.
For more April 29 anniversaries, including James Cook's arrival in Australia at Botany Bay, Luciano Pavarotti's opera début, and the wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton, check out OnThatDay.
Ferruccio Lamborghini, founder of Automobili Lamborghini, was born on April 28, 1916. Ferrucio Lamborghini began by making tractors out of parts from American and British military circles after the Second World War before turning to sports cars. He founded Lamborghini because he wanted to build a good touring car to compete against the cars of such makers as Ferrari.
The author Harper Lee was born Nelle Harper Lee in Monroeville, Alabama on April 28, 1926. Lee was named in honor of a grandmother called Ellen; (Nelle is Ellen spelled backwards). Until the day she died, the people in her life referred to Lee as Nelle. Her father an editor, lawyer and politician (he served in the Alabama House of Representatives) is purported to be the model upon some of the characteristics for Atticus Finch (from To Kill a Mockingbird) was based.
For more April 28 anniversaries, including the first battle in history won by gunpowder weapons, the death of the world's most traveled goat, and the first commercial airline flight across the Pacific, check out OnThatDay.
The historian Edward Gibbon was born on April 27, 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. Never a strong or active man, Gibbon was of diminutive stature, little more than 5 ft tall with a large head and uncommonly small bones. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.
Czar Alexander II was born Alexander Nikolaevich in Moscow on April 29, 1818. He was the eldest son of Nicholas I of Russia and Charlotte of Prussia (daughter of Frederick William III of Prussia and of Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz). Alexander II succeeded to the Russian throne upon the death of his father and was the emperor of Russia from 1855 until 1881. He was also the king of Poland and the grand duke of Finland.
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| Alexander II by E Botman 1856 |
Jazz musician Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born to James Edward Ellington and Daisy Kennedy Ellington on April 29, 1899. They lived with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place (now Ward Place), NW in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Daisy and J.E. were both pianists. Daisy primarily played parlor songs and J.E. preferred operatic arias. Ellington's friends noticed that he acted like a gentleman, and gave him a nickname, "Duke."
Ferruccio Lamborghini, founder of Automobili Lamborghini, was born on April 28, 1916. Ferrucio Lamborghini began by making tractors out of parts from American and British military circles after the Second World War before turning to sports cars. He founded Lamborghini because he wanted to build a good touring car to compete against the cars of such makers as Ferrari.
The historian Edward Gibbon was born on April 27, 1737, the son of Edward and Judith Gibbon at Lime Grove, in the town of Putney, Surrey. Never a strong or active man, Gibbon was of diminutive stature, little more than 5 ft tall with a large head and uncommonly small bones. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.
Samuel Morse was born on April 27, 1791. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse devoted his middle age to creating a fast way of sending messages. He was prompted to do this after being told his his wife was ill via a horse messenger; but the letter had taken so long to reach him that by the time he arrived home, she was not only dead, but had been buried. The system of dots and dashes he came up with by which telegraphic messages are conveyed is named after him.
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| Samuel Finley Breese Morse, 1840 |
General Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, to Jesse Root Grant, a tanner and merchant, and Hannah Simpson Grant. President Grant’s real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant - the 'S' was a typo when he secured a nomination to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Grant changed his name at West Point to avoid having his military uniforms marked with initials "H.U.G."
For more April 27 anniversaries, including Ludwig Van Beethoven's composition of "Für Elise," the worst maritime disaster in US history, and the declaration of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII as saints, check out OnThatDay.
Emma, Lady Hamilton was born Amy Lyon, at Ness, near Neston in Cheshire, England on April 26, 1765. She was the daughter of Henry Lyon, a blacksmith who died when she was two months old. Emma is best remembered for being the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of the portrait painter George Romney.
Emma, Lady Hamilton was born Amy Lyon, at Ness, near Neston in Cheshire, England on April 26, 1765. She was the daughter of Henry Lyon, a blacksmith who died when she was two months old. Emma is best remembered for being the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of the portrait painter George Romney.
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| Lady Hamilton as Titania with Puck and Changeling, by George Romney 1793 |
For more April 26 anniversaries, including the first ever cocktail party in England. the premiere of Giacomo Puccini's final opera, Turandot, and the first voyage of the world's first commercially successful container ship, check out OnThatDay.
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector after the English Civil War, was born on April 25, 1599. He was the only son of a small but well to do landowner, Robert Cromwell, who died in 1617. He was related to Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry VIII's ministers.
A talented soldier, Cromwell was largely responsible for the parliamentary successes over Charles I during the English Civil War. Although at first he sought a reconciliation with the king, he eventually signed Charles' death warrant. The unconstitutional uncertainty that followed finally compelled Cromwell to assume the office of Lord Protector.
Guglielmo Marconi, known for his work on long distance radio transmission, was born into the Italian nobility in Bologna on April 25, 1874. Due to his father's dislike of his immature hobby of Morse code, the 10-year-old Giuseppe set up a laboratory in the attic, among his mother's trays of silkworms. He fiddled around with his early electrical transmitters, making his signals travel further and further. He had no idea they would lead to broadcasting.
For more April 25 birthdays, including Louis IX of France, Edward II of England and the world’s longest-serving soap opera star William Roach, check out OnThatDay.
The novelist Anthony Trollope was born at 6 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London on April 24, 1815. Anthony was a large, dirty boy with a large voice. He was unpopular and had no friends as he was thought to be uncouth and clumsy. Anthony was despised at school by both pupils and teachers taking repeated floggings. Because of his miserable school experiences, he took to daydreaming. Walking a mile walk to and from school young Trollope would be lost in his elaborate inner worlds.
Barbra Streisand was born Barbara Joan Streisand to Jewish parents on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. She changed her name to Barbra when she was 18-years-old as she wanted to be unique, but didn't want to change her name completely. At Erasmus Hall High School she sang in the school choir alongside Neil Diamond. The pair teamed up again in 1978 for the smash hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers."
The artist Stephen Wiltshire was born April 24, 1974. An autistic savant, Wiltshire draws detailed landscapes from memory. A 250-foot (76 m) long panoramic memory drawing of New York is on display at JFK Airport. He was appointed an MBE in 2006 and in the same year, he opened a permanent gallery on the Royal Opera Arcade in London.
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector after the English Civil War, was born on April 25, 1599. He was the only son of a small but well to do landowner, Robert Cromwell, who died in 1617. He was related to Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry VIII's ministers.
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| A 1656 Samuel Cooper portrait of Cromwell |
A talented soldier, Cromwell was largely responsible for the parliamentary successes over Charles I during the English Civil War. Although at first he sought a reconciliation with the king, he eventually signed Charles' death warrant. The unconstitutional uncertainty that followed finally compelled Cromwell to assume the office of Lord Protector.
Guglielmo Marconi, known for his work on long distance radio transmission, was born into the Italian nobility in Bologna on April 25, 1874. Due to his father's dislike of his immature hobby of Morse code, the 10-year-old Giuseppe set up a laboratory in the attic, among his mother's trays of silkworms. He fiddled around with his early electrical transmitters, making his signals travel further and further. He had no idea they would lead to broadcasting.
For more April 25 birthdays, including Louis IX of France, Edward II of England and the world’s longest-serving soap opera star William Roach, check out OnThatDay.
The novelist Anthony Trollope was born at 6 Keppel Street, Bloomsbury, London on April 24, 1815. Anthony was a large, dirty boy with a large voice. He was unpopular and had no friends as he was thought to be uncouth and clumsy. Anthony was despised at school by both pupils and teachers taking repeated floggings. Because of his miserable school experiences, he took to daydreaming. Walking a mile walk to and from school young Trollope would be lost in his elaborate inner worlds.
Barbra Streisand was born Barbara Joan Streisand to Jewish parents on April 24, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. She changed her name to Barbra when she was 18-years-old as she wanted to be unique, but didn't want to change her name completely. At Erasmus Hall High School she sang in the school choir alongside Neil Diamond. The pair teamed up again in 1978 for the smash hit "You Don't Bring Me Flowers."
The artist Stephen Wiltshire was born April 24, 1974. An autistic savant, Wiltshire draws detailed landscapes from memory. A 250-foot (76 m) long panoramic memory drawing of New York is on display at JFK Airport. He was appointed an MBE in 2006 and in the same year, he opened a permanent gallery on the Royal Opera Arcade in London.
For more April 24 anniversaries, including the debut of the first regular newspaper in North America, the first man to sail single-handedly around the world, and the birth of the first cloned dog, check out OnThatDay
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Henley Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, to John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on April 23, Saint George's Day. An actor and playwright, Shakespeare's own acting abilities were not great, and he was fortunate to have other actors of stature to create such roles as Hamlet and Lear. Shakespeare's plays are known and performed in every country of the world, and he is considered the greatest of playwrights.
The English romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was born on April 23, 1775 in Maiden Lane, an alley, north of the Strand in London. Joseph's father William Turner was a wig-maker who later became a Covent Garden barber. He first expressed an interest in painting around the age of 10. Soon Joseph was creating many paintings, which his father exhibited in his barber shop window.
William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Henley Street, Stratford-Upon-Avon, to John Shakespeare, an alderman and a successful glover (glove-maker) and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning family. His date of birth is unknown, but is traditionally observed on April 23, Saint George's Day. An actor and playwright, Shakespeare's own acting abilities were not great, and he was fortunate to have other actors of stature to create such roles as Hamlet and Lear. Shakespeare's plays are known and performed in every country of the world, and he is considered the greatest of playwrights.
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| William Shakespeare |
The English romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner was born on April 23, 1775 in Maiden Lane, an alley, north of the Strand in London. Joseph's father William Turner was a wig-maker who later became a Covent Garden barber. He first expressed an interest in painting around the age of 10. Soon Joseph was creating many paintings, which his father exhibited in his barber shop window.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California, the third child of homemaker Gertrude Temple and bank worker George Temple. The 1934 comedy drama movie Bright Eyes was the first film to be written and developed specifically for Shirley Temple, and the first in which her name was raised above the title. The movie featured her singing her best known musical number, "On the Good Ship Lollipop."
For more April 23 anniversaries, including the founding of the first public school in the United States, the first confirmed men to set foot at the Geographic North Pole, and the marriage of C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, check out OnThatDay.
Vladimir "Volodya" Ilych Ulyanov was born on April 22, 1870 in the Russian city of Simbirsk (renamed Ulyanovsk in 1924) on the Volga. He adopted the name of Lenin in December 1901 to hide his identity from the police, possibly taking the River Lena as a basis. The Premier of Russia and later the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1924, under his administration his country became a one-party socialist state governed by the Soviet Communist Party.
For more April 22 anniversaries, including the first appearance of roller skates, the Oklahoma Land Run, and the first people to row across the Pacific Ocean, check out OnThatDay.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on April 21, 1816. She was bought up by her clergyman father, Patrick. Charlotte had four sisters including Emily who wrote Wuthering Heights and Anne who wrote Agnes Grey. She acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters." At school, Charlotte's English was considered indifferent. There was no indication that she would ever write a novel, let alone one as successful as Jane Eyre.
Queen Elizabeth II was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary at 2.40 am (GMT) on April 21, 1926 at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. She was the first child of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), and Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth), the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon. She was named after her mother. The house in which she was born is now a fancy Cantonese restaurant called Hakkasan.
Queen Elizabeth II had two birthdays: one on her actual date of birth, April 21, and one on the second Saturday in June, because April weather is too cold for a parade in the UK.
For more April 21 anniversaries, including the founding of Bangkok, the Battle of San Jacinto, the founding of The New York Times and the release of Nintendo's Game Boy, check out OnThatDay.
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire.
For more April 23 anniversaries, including the founding of the first public school in the United States, the first confirmed men to set foot at the Geographic North Pole, and the marriage of C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, check out OnThatDay.
Vladimir "Volodya" Ilych Ulyanov was born on April 22, 1870 in the Russian city of Simbirsk (renamed Ulyanovsk in 1924) on the Volga. He adopted the name of Lenin in December 1901 to hide his identity from the police, possibly taking the River Lena as a basis. The Premier of Russia and later the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1924, under his administration his country became a one-party socialist state governed by the Soviet Communist Party.
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| Vladimir aged 4 |
For more April 22 anniversaries, including the first appearance of roller skates, the Oklahoma Land Run, and the first people to row across the Pacific Ocean, check out OnThatDay.
Charlotte Brontë was born in Thornton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on April 21, 1816. She was bought up by her clergyman father, Patrick. Charlotte had four sisters including Emily who wrote Wuthering Heights and Anne who wrote Agnes Grey. She acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters." At school, Charlotte's English was considered indifferent. There was no indication that she would ever write a novel, let alone one as successful as Jane Eyre.
Queen Elizabeth II was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary at 2.40 am (GMT) on April 21, 1926 at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. She was the first child of Prince Albert, Duke of York (later King George VI), and Elizabeth, Duchess of York (later Queen Elizabeth), the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon. She was named after her mother. The house in which she was born is now a fancy Cantonese restaurant called Hakkasan.
Queen Elizabeth II had two birthdays: one on her actual date of birth, April 21, and one on the second Saturday in June, because April weather is too cold for a parade in the UK.
For more April 21 anniversaries, including the founding of Bangkok, the Battle of San Jacinto, the founding of The New York Times and the release of Nintendo's Game Boy, check out OnThatDay.
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire.
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| Adolf Hitler as an infant (c. 1889–90) |
He was the fourth of six children of Alois Hitler (1837–1903), a petty clerk in the Austrian Customs Service, and Klara Pölzl, Alois' niece and third wife. Klara was a simple uneducated Bavarian girl. Their marriage was not a happy one.
A stone monument erected near the birthplace of Hitler in 1989 bears the lines "For Peace, Freedom & Democracy-Never Again Fascism-millions of dead are a warning."
For more April 20 anniversaries, including the creation of Wisconsin Territory, Chicago Cubs playing their first game at Wrigley Park, and orange juice becoming the official state beverage of Florida, check out OnThatDay.
A Japanese man, Jiroemon Kimura, was born on April 19, 1897. He died 116 years and 54 days later, having become the first man to indisputably reach 116 years of age.
Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, later known as Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of April 19-20, 1808. His father was Louis Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was Louis the King of Holland 1806 -1810. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleon's wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. Charles-Louis attended the gymnasium school at Augsburg, Bavaria. As a result, his French had a slight but noticeable German accent.
For more April 19 anniversaries, including the establishment of Belgium as a kingdom, the first bloodshed of the American Civil War, and the death of Pierre Curie in a street accident, check out OnThatDay.
James McCune Smith was born on April 18, 1813. The first African-American doctor, he was rejected from all American colleges and had to attend the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where he graduated at the top of his class in 1837. Smith returned to New York City in 1837 and established his practice in Lower Manhattan in general surgery and medicine, treating both black and white patients.
The writer George Henry Lewes was born in London on April 18, 1817. He was the illegitimate son of the minor poet John Lee Lewes and Elizabeth Ashweek. Lewes was unattractive with a straggly mustache, pitted complexion and a head too large for his small body. In 1851 Lewes met the writer Marian Evans, later to be famous as George Eliot. Within three years, with a scandalous disregard of the conventions of their time, had decided to live together.
For more April 18 anniversaries, including the first anti-slavery petition in the New World, Paul Revere's midnight ride to warn the colonial militia of the approach of British troops, and the debut of Superman, check out OnThatDay.
Spanish ventriloquist Señor Wences was born on April 17, 1896. His popularity grew with his frequent appearances on CBS-TV's The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s and 1960s. He was still working in his 90s and in 1986, Wences made a guest appearance on The Garry Shandling Show.
For more April 17 anniversaries, including the formation of the English Football League, the first woman to fly solo around the world, and the Khmer Rouge taking over Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, check out OnThatDay.
Wilbur Wright was born near Millville, Indiana, on April 16, 1867. He was the older of the two flight pioneering Wright Brothers and had four other siblings. Wilbur first developed his interest in aviation during three years of reclusiveness after being badly injured in an ice hockey game, when another player's stick hit him in the face. He lost his two front teeth in the accident. The player who knocked his teeth out, Oliver Cook Haugh, grew up to become a notorious Midwest serial killer.
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin was born to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin, Sr on April 16, 1889. His parents were both music hall entertainers.
Klara Hitler lost three children in infancy before Adolf was born. She was seriously considering an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor. Klara was constantly fearful of Adolf's death and constantly pinned all her hopes on him.
Young Adolf wanted to become an artist, but after being was rejected twice by the Academy of Arts in Vienna (1907 and 1908) for "lack of talent", which he resented deeply, he didn't try to find a different job or learn a profession.
Young Adolf wanted to become an artist, but after being was rejected twice by the Academy of Arts in Vienna (1907 and 1908) for "lack of talent", which he resented deeply, he didn't try to find a different job or learn a profession.
A stone monument erected near the birthplace of Hitler in 1989 bears the lines "For Peace, Freedom & Democracy-Never Again Fascism-millions of dead are a warning."
For more April 20 anniversaries, including the creation of Wisconsin Territory, Chicago Cubs playing their first game at Wrigley Park, and orange juice becoming the official state beverage of Florida, check out OnThatDay.
A Japanese man, Jiroemon Kimura, was born on April 19, 1897. He died 116 years and 54 days later, having become the first man to indisputably reach 116 years of age.
Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, later known as Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of April 19-20, 1808. His father was Louis Bonaparte, the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was Louis the King of Holland 1806 -1810. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleon's wife Joséphine de Beauharnais. Charles-Louis attended the gymnasium school at Augsburg, Bavaria. As a result, his French had a slight but noticeable German accent.
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| Franz Xaver Winterhalter Napoleon III |
For more April 19 anniversaries, including the establishment of Belgium as a kingdom, the first bloodshed of the American Civil War, and the death of Pierre Curie in a street accident, check out OnThatDay.
James McCune Smith was born on April 18, 1813. The first African-American doctor, he was rejected from all American colleges and had to attend the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where he graduated at the top of his class in 1837. Smith returned to New York City in 1837 and established his practice in Lower Manhattan in general surgery and medicine, treating both black and white patients.
The writer George Henry Lewes was born in London on April 18, 1817. He was the illegitimate son of the minor poet John Lee Lewes and Elizabeth Ashweek. Lewes was unattractive with a straggly mustache, pitted complexion and a head too large for his small body. In 1851 Lewes met the writer Marian Evans, later to be famous as George Eliot. Within three years, with a scandalous disregard of the conventions of their time, had decided to live together.
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| George Henry Lewes |
For more April 18 anniversaries, including the first anti-slavery petition in the New World, Paul Revere's midnight ride to warn the colonial militia of the approach of British troops, and the debut of Superman, check out OnThatDay.
Spanish ventriloquist Señor Wences was born on April 17, 1896. His popularity grew with his frequent appearances on CBS-TV's The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1950s and 1960s. He was still working in his 90s and in 1986, Wences made a guest appearance on The Garry Shandling Show.
For more April 17 anniversaries, including the formation of the English Football League, the first woman to fly solo around the world, and the Khmer Rouge taking over Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, check out OnThatDay.
Wilbur Wright was born near Millville, Indiana, on April 16, 1867. He was the older of the two flight pioneering Wright Brothers and had four other siblings. Wilbur first developed his interest in aviation during three years of reclusiveness after being badly injured in an ice hockey game, when another player's stick hit him in the face. He lost his two front teeth in the accident. The player who knocked his teeth out, Oliver Cook Haugh, grew up to become a notorious Midwest serial killer.
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin was born to Hannah Chaplin (née Hill) and Charles Chaplin, Sr on April 16, 1889. His parents were both music hall entertainers.
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| Charlie Chaplin |
When Chaplin turned eighteen, he was awarded the lead in a comedy play for Fred Karno and the Karno Troupe. Two years later whilst touring America with the Karno Troupe, Chaplin’s character of the English drunk caught the eye of Mack Sennett, the head of Keystone Studios. Chaplin took up the offer of a contract with the New York Motion Picture Co. at $150 per week to join the Keystone Studios in Los Angeles.
Charlie Chaplin became the highest-paid film star in the world when he signed a contract with Mutual Film Corporation for $675,000 a year on April 6, 1916. He made 82 movies over a career that spanned 50 years.
For more April 16 anniversaries, including the founding of the Franciscan Order, Lenin's return to Russia from exile in Switzerland, and the creation of the Bloody Mary cocktail, check out OnThatDay.
Poet and mystic Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of Sikhism and a revered figure in Indian history, was born on April 15, 1469, in Talwandi, now known as Nankana Sahib, in present-day Pakistan. He is celebrated as the first of the ten Sikh gurus and is remembered for his teachings on equality, service, and devotion to God. His birthday is celebrated by Sikhs around the world as Guru Nanak Gurpurab, one of the most important festivals in the Sikh calendar.
Leonardo da Vinci, the famous Italian polymath, was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci, in the Tuscan region of Italy. He is widely considered to be one of the most brilliant and versatile minds in human history, and his achievements in fields such as painting, sculpture, architecture, engineering, and science continue to inspire people around the world today. Some of his most famous works include the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Vitruvian Man.
Joe Davis, one of the greatest snooker players of all time, was born on April 15, 1901, in Whitwell, Derbyshire, England. He is credited with popularizing the game of snooker and played a major role in establishing it as a professional sport. Davis won the first 15 World Snooker Championships held between 1927 and 1946, and his record of winning 15 world titles remains unbeaten. He was also a talented billiards player and won the World Billiards Championship four times.
For more April 15 anniversaries, including The Watermelon War, Jackie Robinson's debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line, and the opening of the first McDonald's franchise, check out OnThatDay.
Dutch physicist, mathematician, and astronomer Christiaan Huygens was born on April 14, 1629 in The Hague, into a rich and influential Dutch family, Huygens made groundbreaking contributions in optics developing a simple 2-lens ocular system that was achromatically corrected, and therefore a huge step forward in microscope development. He also propounded the wave theory of light, which he described in 1690 in his Traite de la Lumiere
As an astronomer, Huygens is chiefly known for his studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan. As an inventor, his friend Galileo's work enabled him to construct the first pendulum clock in 1656 and he also he improved the design of telescopes.
Charlie Chaplin became the highest-paid film star in the world when he signed a contract with Mutual Film Corporation for $675,000 a year on April 6, 1916. He made 82 movies over a career that spanned 50 years.
For more April 16 anniversaries, including the founding of the Franciscan Order, Lenin's return to Russia from exile in Switzerland, and the creation of the Bloody Mary cocktail, check out OnThatDay.
Poet and mystic Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of Sikhism and a revered figure in Indian history, was born on April 15, 1469, in Talwandi, now known as Nankana Sahib, in present-day Pakistan. He is celebrated as the first of the ten Sikh gurus and is remembered for his teachings on equality, service, and devotion to God. His birthday is celebrated by Sikhs around the world as Guru Nanak Gurpurab, one of the most important festivals in the Sikh calendar.
Leonardo da Vinci, the famous Italian polymath, was born on April 15, 1452, in the town of Vinci, in the Tuscan region of Italy. He is widely considered to be one of the most brilliant and versatile minds in human history, and his achievements in fields such as painting, sculpture, architecture, engineering, and science continue to inspire people around the world today. Some of his most famous works include the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Vitruvian Man.
The portrait below attributed to Francesco Melzi, c. 1515–1518, is the only certain contemporary depiction of Leonardo.
Joe Davis, one of the greatest snooker players of all time, was born on April 15, 1901, in Whitwell, Derbyshire, England. He is credited with popularizing the game of snooker and played a major role in establishing it as a professional sport. Davis won the first 15 World Snooker Championships held between 1927 and 1946, and his record of winning 15 world titles remains unbeaten. He was also a talented billiards player and won the World Billiards Championship four times.
For more April 15 anniversaries, including The Watermelon War, Jackie Robinson's debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line, and the opening of the first McDonald's franchise, check out OnThatDay.
Dutch physicist, mathematician, and astronomer Christiaan Huygens was born on April 14, 1629 in The Hague, into a rich and influential Dutch family, Huygens made groundbreaking contributions in optics developing a simple 2-lens ocular system that was achromatically corrected, and therefore a huge step forward in microscope development. He also propounded the wave theory of light, which he described in 1690 in his Traite de la Lumiere
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| Christiaan Huygens by Caspar Netscher, |
As an astronomer, Huygens is chiefly known for his studies of the rings of Saturn and the discovery of its moon Titan. As an inventor, his friend Galileo's work enabled him to construct the first pendulum clock in 1656 and he also he improved the design of telescopes.
For more April 14 anniversaries, including the publication of John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath, the opening of the first ever commercial motion picture house, and the abduction of 276 schoolgirls by Islamists Boko Haram, check out OnThatDay.
The third of ten children, most of whom died early in life, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 at the family home, a one and a half story farmhouse in Shadwell, Albermarle County, Virginia. Jefferson's father, Colonel Peter Jefferson, was a land surveyor who was one of the surveyors who laid out the virginal North Carolina border. Young Thomas liked to hunt deer and turkeys along the Rivanna River with his father or go for long walks in the mountains.
A lawyer by training, Jefferson began his political career in the Virginian Houses of Burgesses, and went on to serve as governor of Virginia (1779-81), minister to France (1785-89), secretary of state (1789-93), and vice president (1797-1801) under John Adams. As the 3rd president of the United States (1801-09), Jefferson's greatest achievement was probably the Louisiana Purchase, by which the United States gained extensive territories ceded to France by Spain.
For more April 13 birthdays, including French queen Catherine de' Medici, The Gunpowder Plot's Guy Fawkes, the criminal Butch Cassidy, Irish writer Samuel Beckett and African politician Julius Nyerere, check out OnThatDay.
American author Tom Clancy was born on April 12, 1947, at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland to Catherine Clancy and U.S. Postal Service worker, Thomas Clancy. Originally an insurance agent, his literary career began in 1984 when he sold his first military thriller book, The Hunt for Red October. Due to the limited technology of the 1980s, the novel had to be saved on ten floppy disks.
The third of ten children, most of whom died early in life, Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 at the family home, a one and a half story farmhouse in Shadwell, Albermarle County, Virginia. Jefferson's father, Colonel Peter Jefferson, was a land surveyor who was one of the surveyors who laid out the virginal North Carolina border. Young Thomas liked to hunt deer and turkeys along the Rivanna River with his father or go for long walks in the mountains.
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| Portrait of Thomas Jefferson while in London in 1786 at 43 by Mather Brown |
A lawyer by training, Jefferson began his political career in the Virginian Houses of Burgesses, and went on to serve as governor of Virginia (1779-81), minister to France (1785-89), secretary of state (1789-93), and vice president (1797-1801) under John Adams. As the 3rd president of the United States (1801-09), Jefferson's greatest achievement was probably the Louisiana Purchase, by which the United States gained extensive territories ceded to France by Spain.
For more April 13 birthdays, including French queen Catherine de' Medici, The Gunpowder Plot's Guy Fawkes, the criminal Butch Cassidy, Irish writer Samuel Beckett and African politician Julius Nyerere, check out OnThatDay.
American author Tom Clancy was born on April 12, 1947, at Franklin Square Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland to Catherine Clancy and U.S. Postal Service worker, Thomas Clancy. Originally an insurance agent, his literary career began in 1984 when he sold his first military thriller book, The Hunt for Red October. Due to the limited technology of the 1980s, the novel had to be saved on ten floppy disks.
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| Tom Clancy 1989 By Gary Wayne Gilbert |
Clancy became one of America's best selling novelists renowned for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. His best known works, including The Hunt for Red October (1984), Patriot Games (1987), Clear and Present Danger (1989), and The Sum of All Fears (1991), have been adapted into successful screenplays.
For more April 12 anniversaries, including the commencement of the American Civil War, the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the recording of Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock", check out OnThatDay.
James Parkinson was born April 11, 1755 in Shoreditch, London. He is best known for his 1817 essay An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, in which he was the first to describe the condition "paralysis agitans." His recommended treatment was applications of mustard plaster to the back of the neck. In 1876 French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot renamed it Parkinson’s disease.
James Parkinson was born April 11, 1755 in Shoreditch, London. He is best known for his 1817 essay An Essay on the Shaking Palsy, in which he was the first to describe the condition "paralysis agitans." His recommended treatment was applications of mustard plaster to the back of the neck. In 1876 French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot renamed it Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson was also a noted paleontologist with one of the largest fossil collections in the world. He was one of the first to suggest that fossils were the remains of ancient extinct creatures.
For more April 11 anniversaries, including the founding of Ten Aviv, the most boring day of the 20th century, and the marriage of Roger Federer to Mirka Vavrinec, check out OnThatDay.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was born on April 10, 1829. He was the only son of four surviving children born to Samuel Booth and Mary Moss in Sneinton, Nottingham, England. A "careless" lad up to the age of 15, after a bad illness, Booth's spirit became awakened and he joined a Wesleyan chapel. Inspired by a hellfire preacher from USA, he was converted to Methodism. Training himself in writing and in speech, he became a Methodist lay preacher.
The fifth child of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, Archibald Bulloch "Archie" Roosevelt born on April 10, 1894. Archie Roosevelt was a distinguished U.S. Army officer and commander of U.S. forces in both World War I and II. After World War II, he became a successful businessman and the founder of a New York City bond brokerage house, as well as a spokesman for conservative political causes.
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was born on April 10, 1829. He was the only son of four surviving children born to Samuel Booth and Mary Moss in Sneinton, Nottingham, England. A "careless" lad up to the age of 15, after a bad illness, Booth's spirit became awakened and he joined a Wesleyan chapel. Inspired by a hellfire preacher from USA, he was converted to Methodism. Training himself in writing and in speech, he became a Methodist lay preacher.
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| William Booth in 1862 |
The fifth child of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, Archibald Bulloch "Archie" Roosevelt born on April 10, 1894. Archie Roosevelt was a distinguished U.S. Army officer and commander of U.S. forces in both World War I and II. After World War II, he became a successful businessman and the founder of a New York City bond brokerage house, as well as a spokesman for conservative political causes.
For more April 10 anniversaries, including the Battle of Mollwitz, the invention of the safety pin and the publication of F Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby, check out OnThatDay.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's most influential 19th century engineer, was born on April 9, 1806 in Britan Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, where his father was working on block-making machinery. He made major contributions in ship-building and bridge construction. Brunel customarily worked an 18-hour day, sleeping at the office, rising at 4am. Only five foot tall, because of his small size Brunel always wore a reinforced top hat to make himself look taller.
For more April 9 anniversaries, including the oldest known recording of an audible human voice, the birth of Pentecostalism in Los Angeles and the marriage of Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles check out OnThatDay.
Italian cavalry officer and equestrian Captain Federico Caprilli was born on April 8, 1868. He heavily influenced the world of show jumping with his ideas promoting a forward position with shorter stirrups. This style, now known as the forward seat, placed the rider in a position that did not interfere with the balance of the horse while negotiating obstacles. Riders came from countries around the world to study Caprilli's system.
For more April 8 anniversaries, including the discovery of the ancient Greek Venus de Milo statue. the introduction of the first purpose-made milk bottles and Hank Aaron hitting his record breaking 715th career home run, check out OnThatDay.
The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier was born on April 7, 1506 in the royal castle of Xavier, near Sangüesa and Pamplona, in the Spanish kingdom of Navarre. In 1541 Francis Xavier was commissioned by King John III of Portugal to preach the Christian faith in the Portuguese colonies in the East, thus marking the beginning of the Jesuit missions. He was influential in evangelization work, most notably in India and Japan.
The poet William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in what is now named Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in NW England. A volatile child, on one occasion on suffering an indignity, William went up to the attic intending to kill himself with a fencing sword. In 1778, William's father sent him as a boarder to Hawkshead Grammar School in Cumbria. It as there that William fell in love with countryside and nature and began to write poetry.
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915. At the time of her birth, her mother, Sadie Fagan was just 13. It is thought her father was Clarence Holiday, who abandoned Sadie when Billie was an infant to pursue a career as a jazz guitarist. She started singing in the early 1930s in Harlem, New York City, for tips in night clubs. Holiday took her professional pseudonym from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and her probable musician father.
For more April 7 anniversaries, including the establishment of the first permanent American settlement outside the original Thirteen Colonies. the introduction of the first friction matches and the debut of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, check out OnThatDay.
American molecular biologist and zoologist James Watson was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 6, 1928. Educated at the University of Chicago and Indiana University, Watson met British scientist Francis Crick at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in England. In mid-March 1953, Watson and Crick deduced the double helix structure of DNA. Their discovery was formally announced the next month in Nature magazine.
For more April 6 anniversaries, including the founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, the longest recorded gloved boxing match and Charlie Chaplin becoming the highest-paid film star in the world, check out OnThatDay.
Joseph Lister, the 'Father of Antiseptic Surgery' was born on April 5, 1827. He came from a prosperous Quaker home in West Ham, Essex, England. His father, Joseph Jackson Lister, was a very successful wine merchant and amateur scientist. Joseph Jackson Lister’s design of a microscope lens which did not distort colors opened the way for the microscope to be used as a serious scientific tool.
Bette Davis was born at 55 Cedar Street, Lowell, Massachusetts on April 5, 1908. She was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis, but was known from early childhood as "Betty," In 1926 Davis saw a production of The Wild Duck, with well known Broadway actress Peg Entwistle, which inspired her to seriously pursue acting. One of her classmates at John Murray Anderson's Dramatic School in New York was Lucille Ball.
Gregory Peck was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, San Diego, California, the son of Gregory Pearl Peck, a New York-born chemist and pharmacist, and his Missouri-born wife Bernice Mary "Bunny" (née Ayres). He strongly disliked his first name of Eldred, a name his mother insisted on giving him because she felt it was distinct and would distinguish him with its uniqueness. Peck dropped the Eldred after graduating from university.
For more April 5 anniversaries, including the marriage of the Native American princess Pocahontas to the settler John Rolfe, the first operation to remove a lung, and Kurt Cobain's suicide, check out OnThatDay.
English sculptor and wood carver Grinling Gibbons was born on April 4, 1648. Widely regarded as the finest-ever woodcarver working in England, most of his work was in lime wood, especially decorative Baroque garlands made up of still-life elements at about life size, made to frame mirrors and decorate the walls of churches and palaces. His exquisite cascades of leaves, flowers and fruit adorn Hampton Park Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and countless other stately homes and churches.
Mental health activist Dorothea Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in the town of Hampden, Maine and spent most of her childhood in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her alcoholic, itinerant worker father Joseph was frequently away from home, but he did foster Dorothea’s lifelong love of books and learning. The thoughtless confinement of mentally ill persons in cells with criminals disturbed her deeply, Through her vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, special hospitals for mental patients were built in more than 15 states and the movement spread to Canada and Europe.
James Blyth, inventor of the wind turbine, was born on April 4, 1839 in Marykirk, Scotland. In July 1887 he built a cloth-sailed wind turbine in the garden of his holiday home in Marykirk and used the electricity it produced to charge accumulators; the stored electricity was used to power the lights in his cottage, which thus became the first house in the world to be powered by wind-generated electricity.
For more April 4 anniversaries, including the first Russian reference to Moscow, the staging of the first modern circus and the founding of Microsoft, check out OnThatDay.
The actor Marlon Brando was born on April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr., a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, and Dorothy Julia (née Pennebaker). Marlon Brando was expelled from two different high schools—the first expulsion was for allegedly riding a motorcycle down the hallway.
For more April 3 anniversaries, including the coronation of the English king, Edward The Confessor, the beginning of the Pony Express mail service, and the first book sold on Amazon, check out OnThatDay.
The warrior chief Charlemagne, Charles 1st the Great, was born on April 2, 742 to Pepin the Short and Bertha of the Big Foot. He became King of the Franks in 768 after the death of his father and was crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800. At his death Charlemagne's kingdom extended from South Italy and Pyrenees to Bohemia.
For more April 2 anniversaries, including The Battle of Copenhagen, the marriage of Charles Dickens to Catherine "Kate" Hogarth, and the opening of the first full-time movie theater in the United States check out OnThatDay.
William Harvey, the first to describe blood circulation, was born in the Kentish coastal town of Folkestone on April 1, 1578. He was the eldest of seven brothers and two sisters. Harvey enrolled in the University of Padua in 1599, where he studied under Fabrizio d’Acquapendente, who was the first person to clearly describe the valves in the veins. Galileo was a Professor during Harvey's time there.
Otto Von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of the German Empire, was born on his family estate at Schönhausen, a village on the Elbe, North West of Berlin, on April 1, 1815. His father, Ferdinand Von Bismarck, was a landowner and a former Prussian military officer; his mother, Wilhelmine Mencken, originally belonged to a prosperous bourgeois family. A very mischievous child, as a youth Otto was an indefatigable duellist. He was known as the mad Junker.
The dwarf George Nutt was born on April 1, 1848. Nutt was touring New England with a circus when P. T. Barnum hired him to appear at the American Museum in New York City. Barnum gave Nutt the stage name Commodore Nutt, a wardrobe that included naval uniforms, and a miniature carriage in the shape of an English walnut. Nutt became one of the Museum's major attractions.
For more April 1 anniversaries, including the first UK Prime Minister, the founding of William Wrigley Jr. Company and a report saying the Leaning Tower of Pisa had fallen over OnThatDay.
Influential French mathematician and 'father of modern philosophy' René Descartes was born at the farmhouse of his great grandma on March 31, 1596. It was located in La Haye en Touraine, a small town in the Indre-et-Loire, now named after him – Descartes. His father Joachim Descartes, was a prominent councillor in the parliament of Rennes. He belonged to a family that had produced a number of learned men.
The German composer Franz Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to village mayor When he was 7 Joseph entered the choir school of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. He had no formal musical training until his late teens, when he worked with the Italian Niccolo Porpora.
For more March 31 anniversaries, including the opening of the Eiffel Tower, the marriage of Anne Hyde to the future James II of England, and the founding of the oldest independent air force in the world, check out OnThatDay.
Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a village close to Breda, in the predominantly Catholic province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands. He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Vincent was given the name of a brother stillborn exactly a year before his birth. He felt unwanted as a child feeling he was a substitute for the other Vincent who his parents had tragically lost.
IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was born on March 30, 1926. He first started selling matchboxes as a child, before selling fountain pens, cigarette lighters and nylon stockings. The then-17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail-order sales business, selling replicas of his uncle's kitchen table. The company's name is an acronym that consists of the initials of Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, the farm in south Sweden on which grew up and Agunnaryd, the nearby village.
Rock guitarist Eric Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey on March 30, 1945. He was the illegitimate son of a Canadian soldier Edward Walter Fryer, who returned to his wife in Canada before he was born and his 16-year-old mother Patricia Molly Clapton. Clapton was brought up by his maternal grandparents Rose and Jack Clapp believing that his mother was his sister.
For more March 30 anniversaries, including the first ever operation on a patient using ether anesthesia, the patenting of the all-in-one pencil eraser and United States purchase of Alaska, check out OnThatDay.
Santorio Santorii was born on March 29, 1561. The Venetian physiologist, physician, and professor was the first person to accurately measure the pulse rate and also invented the pulsilogium, a form of pendulum, based on the work by Galileo Galilei. The pulsilogium was probably the first machine of precision in medical history. Extensive experimentation with his new tool allowed Santorio to derive the circadian rhythm (24 hour cycle) of the cardiac frequency.
John Tyler, the tenth President of the United States, was born on March 29, 1790 at Greenway Plantation, Charles City County, Virginia, U.S. He was born the same day as his future running mate, William Henry Harrison. John was reared with his two brothers and five sisters, on Greenway Plantation, a 1,200-acre (5 km2) estate with a six-room manor house his father had built.
For more March 29 anniversaries, including the patenting of the modern shoelace, the creation of Coca Cola and the marriage of Tony Blair to Cherie Booth, check out OnThatDay.
Saint Teresa of Avila was born in Avila, Spain on March 28, 1515. A revered Spanish mystic, author, and Carmelite reformer during the 16th century Counter-Reformation, she played a pivotal role in the Catholic Church's renewal movement, emphasizing personal religious experience. Saint Teresa was renowned for her insightful writings on prayer and contemplation, including her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and The Interior Castle. She was a significant figure in monastic reform, establishing the Discalced Carmelites, a stricter branch focused on a contemplative life.
The first English child born in Canada came into this world at London and Bristol Company's Cuper's Cove, colony in Newfoundland on March 27, 1613. The father, Nicholas Guy (fl. 1612 – 1631), was a member of the first group of settlers to journey to Newfoundland for colonization. In the winter of 1612 - 1613 there were sixty-two people were living in the colony.
French veterinary surgeon Claude de Bourgelat was born on March 27, 1712. When a disease called rinderpest decimated herds of European cattle, colleges of veterinary medicine began to arise in Europe and, later, elsewhere. The world's first veterinary school was founded in Lyon, France in 1762 by Claude Bourgelat
The architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born as Maria Ludwig Michael Mies on March 27, 1886, the son of a stonemason, in Aachen, Germany. After The First World War, as a young architect and designer in Berlin, Mies foreshadowed modern architecture with innovative designs for tubular-steel furniture (the cantilevered Barcelona chair (1929)) and steel and glass skyscrapers which demonstrated his interest in technological innovation and beautiful form.
For more March 27 anniversaries, including the inscription of the Ancient Egyptian Rosetta Stone, Juan Ponce de León reaching the northern end of The Bahamas, and the first international rugby football match, check out On That Day.
The actor Leonard Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts, to immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. He is best known for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise, a character he portrayed in television and film for almost fifty years. Spock's famous Vulcan salute, ‘Live long and prosper', was inspired by a priestly blessing Leonard Nimroy saw as a child, when he attended a synagogue service with his father.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Britain's most influential 19th century engineer, was born on April 9, 1806 in Britan Street, Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, where his father was working on block-making machinery. He made major contributions in ship-building and bridge construction. Brunel customarily worked an 18-hour day, sleeping at the office, rising at 4am. Only five foot tall, because of his small size Brunel always wore a reinforced top hat to make himself look taller.
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| Brunel by the launching chains of the SS Great Eastern |
For more April 9 anniversaries, including the oldest known recording of an audible human voice, the birth of Pentecostalism in Los Angeles and the marriage of Prince Charles, The Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles check out OnThatDay.
Italian cavalry officer and equestrian Captain Federico Caprilli was born on April 8, 1868. He heavily influenced the world of show jumping with his ideas promoting a forward position with shorter stirrups. This style, now known as the forward seat, placed the rider in a position that did not interfere with the balance of the horse while negotiating obstacles. Riders came from countries around the world to study Caprilli's system.
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| Captain Federico Caprilli prior to 1907 |
For more April 8 anniversaries, including the discovery of the ancient Greek Venus de Milo statue. the introduction of the first purpose-made milk bottles and Hank Aaron hitting his record breaking 715th career home run, check out OnThatDay.
The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier was born on April 7, 1506 in the royal castle of Xavier, near Sangüesa and Pamplona, in the Spanish kingdom of Navarre. In 1541 Francis Xavier was commissioned by King John III of Portugal to preach the Christian faith in the Portuguese colonies in the East, thus marking the beginning of the Jesuit missions. He was influential in evangelization work, most notably in India and Japan.
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| The castle of the Xavier family By Jsanchezes, |
The poet William Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770 in what is now named Wordsworth House in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in NW England. A volatile child, on one occasion on suffering an indignity, William went up to the attic intending to kill himself with a fencing sword. In 1778, William's father sent him as a boarder to Hawkshead Grammar School in Cumbria. It as there that William fell in love with countryside and nature and began to write poetry.
Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan in Philadelphia on April 7, 1915. At the time of her birth, her mother, Sadie Fagan was just 13. It is thought her father was Clarence Holiday, who abandoned Sadie when Billie was an infant to pursue a career as a jazz guitarist. She started singing in the early 1930s in Harlem, New York City, for tips in night clubs. Holiday took her professional pseudonym from Billie Dove, an actress she admired, and her probable musician father.
For more April 7 anniversaries, including the establishment of the first permanent American settlement outside the original Thirteen Colonies. the introduction of the first friction matches and the debut of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, check out OnThatDay.
American molecular biologist and zoologist James Watson was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 6, 1928. Educated at the University of Chicago and Indiana University, Watson met British scientist Francis Crick at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in England. In mid-March 1953, Watson and Crick deduced the double helix structure of DNA. Their discovery was formally announced the next month in Nature magazine.
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| Dr. James D. Watson |
For more April 6 anniversaries, including the founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, the longest recorded gloved boxing match and Charlie Chaplin becoming the highest-paid film star in the world, check out OnThatDay.
Joseph Lister, the 'Father of Antiseptic Surgery' was born on April 5, 1827. He came from a prosperous Quaker home in West Ham, Essex, England. His father, Joseph Jackson Lister, was a very successful wine merchant and amateur scientist. Joseph Jackson Lister’s design of a microscope lens which did not distort colors opened the way for the microscope to be used as a serious scientific tool.
Gregory Peck was born Eldred Gregory Peck on April 5, 1916, in La Jolla, San Diego, California, the son of Gregory Pearl Peck, a New York-born chemist and pharmacist, and his Missouri-born wife Bernice Mary "Bunny" (née Ayres). He strongly disliked his first name of Eldred, a name his mother insisted on giving him because she felt it was distinct and would distinguish him with its uniqueness. Peck dropped the Eldred after graduating from university.
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| Peck (right) with his father c. 1930 |
For more April 5 anniversaries, including the marriage of the Native American princess Pocahontas to the settler John Rolfe, the first operation to remove a lung, and Kurt Cobain's suicide, check out OnThatDay.
English sculptor and wood carver Grinling Gibbons was born on April 4, 1648. Widely regarded as the finest-ever woodcarver working in England, most of his work was in lime wood, especially decorative Baroque garlands made up of still-life elements at about life size, made to frame mirrors and decorate the walls of churches and palaces. His exquisite cascades of leaves, flowers and fruit adorn Hampton Park Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and countless other stately homes and churches.
Mental health activist Dorothea Dix was born on April 4, 1802 in the town of Hampden, Maine and spent most of her childhood in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her alcoholic, itinerant worker father Joseph was frequently away from home, but he did foster Dorothea’s lifelong love of books and learning. The thoughtless confinement of mentally ill persons in cells with criminals disturbed her deeply, Through her vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, special hospitals for mental patients were built in more than 15 states and the movement spread to Canada and Europe.
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| Dix circa 1850-55 |
James Blyth, inventor of the wind turbine, was born on April 4, 1839 in Marykirk, Scotland. In July 1887 he built a cloth-sailed wind turbine in the garden of his holiday home in Marykirk and used the electricity it produced to charge accumulators; the stored electricity was used to power the lights in his cottage, which thus became the first house in the world to be powered by wind-generated electricity.
For more April 4 anniversaries, including the first Russian reference to Moscow, the staging of the first modern circus and the founding of Microsoft, check out OnThatDay.
The actor Marlon Brando was born on April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr., a pesticide and chemical feed manufacturer, and Dorothy Julia (née Pennebaker). Marlon Brando was expelled from two different high schools—the first expulsion was for allegedly riding a motorcycle down the hallway.
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| Marlon Brando |
One of the greatest film actors in history, Brando initially gained acclaim for the role of Stanley Kowalski in the 1951 film adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire. His other famous performances include playing dockworker Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront, the rebellious motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler in The Wild One, the head of the Corleone Mafia family Vito Corleone in The Godfather and rogue military cult leader Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.
For more April 3 anniversaries, including the coronation of the English king, Edward The Confessor, the beginning of the Pony Express mail service, and the first book sold on Amazon, check out OnThatDay.
The warrior chief Charlemagne, Charles 1st the Great, was born on April 2, 742 to Pepin the Short and Bertha of the Big Foot. He became King of the Franks in 768 after the death of his father and was crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800. At his death Charlemagne's kingdom extended from South Italy and Pyrenees to Bohemia.
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| Mask reliquary of Charlemagne, located at Cathedral Treasury in Aachen. By Beckstet |
Hans Christian Andersen was born in the town of Odense, Denmark, on April 2, 1805. He was the only child of a poor young shoemaker, and a washerwoman. As a child, his favorite toy was a little homemade toy-theatre and young Hans sat at home making clothes for his wooden puppets, and reading all the plays that he could borrow. He had a retentive memory and was known to memorize entire Shakespeare plays and recite them using his puppets as the characters.
For more April 2 anniversaries, including The Battle of Copenhagen, the marriage of Charles Dickens to Catherine "Kate" Hogarth, and the opening of the first full-time movie theater in the United States check out OnThatDay.
William Harvey, the first to describe blood circulation, was born in the Kentish coastal town of Folkestone on April 1, 1578. He was the eldest of seven brothers and two sisters. Harvey enrolled in the University of Padua in 1599, where he studied under Fabrizio d’Acquapendente, who was the first person to clearly describe the valves in the veins. Galileo was a Professor during Harvey's time there.
Otto Von Bismarck, the first Chancellor of the German Empire, was born on his family estate at Schönhausen, a village on the Elbe, North West of Berlin, on April 1, 1815. His father, Ferdinand Von Bismarck, was a landowner and a former Prussian military officer; his mother, Wilhelmine Mencken, originally belonged to a prosperous bourgeois family. A very mischievous child, as a youth Otto was an indefatigable duellist. He was known as the mad Junker.
The dwarf George Nutt was born on April 1, 1848. Nutt was touring New England with a circus when P. T. Barnum hired him to appear at the American Museum in New York City. Barnum gave Nutt the stage name Commodore Nutt, a wardrobe that included naval uniforms, and a miniature carriage in the shape of an English walnut. Nutt became one of the Museum's major attractions.
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| Commodore Nutt in uniform, ca. 1865 |
For more April 1 anniversaries, including the first UK Prime Minister, the founding of William Wrigley Jr. Company and a report saying the Leaning Tower of Pisa had fallen over OnThatDay.
Influential French mathematician and 'father of modern philosophy' René Descartes was born at the farmhouse of his great grandma on March 31, 1596. It was located in La Haye en Touraine, a small town in the Indre-et-Loire, now named after him – Descartes. His father Joachim Descartes, was a prominent councillor in the parliament of Rennes. He belonged to a family that had produced a number of learned men.
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| The house where Descartes was born in La Haye en Touraine |
The German composer Franz Joseph Haydn was born on March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria. His father was Mathias Haydn, a wheelwright who also served as "Marktrichter", an office akin to village mayor When he was 7 Joseph entered the choir school of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. He had no formal musical training until his late teens, when he worked with the Italian Niccolo Porpora.
For more March 31 anniversaries, including the opening of the Eiffel Tower, the marriage of Anne Hyde to the future James II of England, and the founding of the oldest independent air force in the world, check out OnThatDay.
Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a village close to Breda, in the predominantly Catholic province of North Brabant in the southern Netherlands. He was the oldest surviving child of Theodorus van Gogh and Anna Cornelia Carbentus. Vincent was given the name of a brother stillborn exactly a year before his birth. He felt unwanted as a child feeling he was a substitute for the other Vincent who his parents had tragically lost.
IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was born on March 30, 1926. He first started selling matchboxes as a child, before selling fountain pens, cigarette lighters and nylon stockings. The then-17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail-order sales business, selling replicas of his uncle's kitchen table. The company's name is an acronym that consists of the initials of Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, the farm in south Sweden on which grew up and Agunnaryd, the nearby village.
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| The first Ikea store in Älmhult, Sweden. Photo by Christian Koehn |
Rock guitarist Eric Clapton was born in Ripley, Surrey on March 30, 1945. He was the illegitimate son of a Canadian soldier Edward Walter Fryer, who returned to his wife in Canada before he was born and his 16-year-old mother Patricia Molly Clapton. Clapton was brought up by his maternal grandparents Rose and Jack Clapp believing that his mother was his sister.
For more March 30 anniversaries, including the first ever operation on a patient using ether anesthesia, the patenting of the all-in-one pencil eraser and United States purchase of Alaska, check out OnThatDay.
Santorio Santorii was born on March 29, 1561. The Venetian physiologist, physician, and professor was the first person to accurately measure the pulse rate and also invented the pulsilogium, a form of pendulum, based on the work by Galileo Galilei. The pulsilogium was probably the first machine of precision in medical history. Extensive experimentation with his new tool allowed Santorio to derive the circadian rhythm (24 hour cycle) of the cardiac frequency.
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| Sanctorio sitting in the balance that he made to calculate his net weight |
John Tyler, the tenth President of the United States, was born on March 29, 1790 at Greenway Plantation, Charles City County, Virginia, U.S. He was born the same day as his future running mate, William Henry Harrison. John was reared with his two brothers and five sisters, on Greenway Plantation, a 1,200-acre (5 km2) estate with a six-room manor house his father had built.
For more March 29 anniversaries, including the patenting of the modern shoelace, the creation of Coca Cola and the marriage of Tony Blair to Cherie Booth, check out OnThatDay.
Saint Teresa of Avila was born in Avila, Spain on March 28, 1515. A revered Spanish mystic, author, and Carmelite reformer during the 16th century Counter-Reformation, she played a pivotal role in the Catholic Church's renewal movement, emphasizing personal religious experience. Saint Teresa was renowned for her insightful writings on prayer and contemplation, including her autobiography, The Life of Teresa of Jesus, and The Interior Castle. She was a significant figure in monastic reform, establishing the Discalced Carmelites, a stricter branch focused on a contemplative life.
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| Saint Teresa |
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Germanotta on March 28, 1986. A highly influential American singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and entrepreneur., she is renowned for her innovative and often theatrical approach to music and performance, with global hits like "Poker Face," "Bad Romance," and "Shallow."
For more March 28 anniversaries, including the invention of the first washing machine, Felix Mendelssohn's marriage to Cécile Jeanrenaud, and the lowest score by a team in international test cricket, check out On That Day
The first English child born in Canada came into this world at London and Bristol Company's Cuper's Cove, colony in Newfoundland on March 27, 1613. The father, Nicholas Guy (fl. 1612 – 1631), was a member of the first group of settlers to journey to Newfoundland for colonization. In the winter of 1612 - 1613 there were sixty-two people were living in the colony.
French veterinary surgeon Claude de Bourgelat was born on March 27, 1712. When a disease called rinderpest decimated herds of European cattle, colleges of veterinary medicine began to arise in Europe and, later, elsewhere. The world's first veterinary school was founded in Lyon, France in 1762 by Claude Bourgelat
The architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was born as Maria Ludwig Michael Mies on March 27, 1886, the son of a stonemason, in Aachen, Germany. After The First World War, as a young architect and designer in Berlin, Mies foreshadowed modern architecture with innovative designs for tubular-steel furniture (the cantilevered Barcelona chair (1929)) and steel and glass skyscrapers which demonstrated his interest in technological innovation and beautiful form.
For more March 27 anniversaries, including the inscription of the Ancient Egyptian Rosetta Stone, Juan Ponce de León reaching the northern end of The Bahamas, and the first international rugby football match, check out On That Day.
The actor Leonard Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts, to immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. He is best known for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise, a character he portrayed in television and film for almost fifty years. Spock's famous Vulcan salute, ‘Live long and prosper', was inspired by a priestly blessing Leonard Nimroy saw as a child, when he attended a synagogue service with his father.
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| Spock, as played by Leonard Nimoy, as seen in the Star Trek pilot |
Leka II, the only child of the pretender to Albania's throne, Crown Prince Leka I, was born in South Africa on March 26, 1982. The South African government declared his maternity ward temporarily Albanian territory to ensure that Leka was born on Albanian soil.
For more March 26 anniversaries, including the first use of the word "gerrymandering," the publication of Ian Fleming's James Bond story, Diamonds are Forever, and the first royal email, check out OnThatDay.
American agronomist Norman Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914. In the 1970's, he developed a new strain of wheat that was heavily disease resistant and could grow in very arid conditions. Between 1965 and 1970, Pakistan, Mexico, and India more than doubled their food supplies. His initiatives worldwide are said to have saved a billion lives.
Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex, the eldest child of Stanley Dwight, who served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and only child of Sheila Eileen (Harris). Reginald started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out Winifred Atwell's "The Skater's Waltz" by ear. He started formal piano lessons at the age of 7.
For more March 25 anniversaries, including the crowning of Robert The Bruce, the discovery of Saturn's largest moon, Titan and the invention of the "Phonautograph", the world's first record player, check out OnThatDay.
English Separatist theologian, natural philosopher, and chemist Joseph Priestley was born on March 24, 1733, to an established English Dissenting family in Fieldhead, Birstall, Yorkshire. After his mother died when Joseph went to live with his aunt. Because Joseph was precocious—at the age of four he could flawlessly recite all 107 questions and answers of the Westminster Shorter Catechism—his Calvinist aunt sought the best education for the boy, intending him for the ministry.
The blind American hymn writer Fanny Crosby was born on March 24, 1820 in the village of Brewster, about 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. She was incredibly prolific, penning over 8,000 hymns, more than any other person. Fanny was once asked if she wished that she hadn't been born without sight. She replied the good thing about being born blind is she knew the first face she would see would be the face of Jesus.
English textile designer William Morris was born at Elm House in Walthamstow, Essex, on March 24, 1834. He was named after his father, a financier who worked as a partner in the Sanderson & Co. firm, bill brokers in the City of London. Educated at Marlborough College, William studied for holy orders at Oxford University, but renounced the Church, and changed to architecture.After his marriage in 1859, Morris began his career as a decorator.
Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874. His parents were Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz, and Cecília Weisz (née Steiner;). Erik arrived in the United States in 1878, on the SS Fresia with his family. At the age of fifteen, Ehrich discovered the autobiography of the greatest conjurer of the nineteenth century, French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Ehrich was fascinated by the book and stayed up all night reading it. He later stated that the work sparked his enthusiasm for magic.
For more March 24 anniversaries, including Johann Sebastian Bach's dedication of The Brandenburg Concertos to the Count Brandenburg, the discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, and the assassination of Oscar Romero, the Bishop of El Salvador, check out OnThatDay.
German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was born on March 23, 1912. Among his designs were the V-2 ballistic missile used by Germany during World War II. Following World War II, Von Brann was secretly moved from Germany to the United States, where he helped develop the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1, and the Apollo program manned lunar landings.
Princess Eugenie of York, the second child of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson was born on March 23 1990. She is 12th in line to the UK throne.
For more March 23 anniversaries, including the installation of the first passenger elevator, the publication of John Lennon's book, In His Own Write, and the outbreak of The Sierra Leone Civil War, check out OnThatDay.
French mime artist Marcel Marceau was born on March 22, 1923. He was most famous for his stage persona as "Bip the Clown," which he first played at the Théâtre de Poche in Paris in 1947. Marceau referred to mime as the "art of silence," and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. He was said to be single-handedly responsible for reviving the art of mime after World War II.
For more March 22 anniversaries, including the marriage of Gioachino Rossini to Spanish soprano Isabella Colbra, the first patent for a laser and Barbra Streisand's Broadway debut, check out OnThatDay.
Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach, Germany on March 21, 1685, the youngest of eight children. Johann was orphaned aged 10 and was raised by his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at the Michaeliskirche in nearby Ohrdruf. He attended the Gymnasium in Eisenach the same school that Martin Luther attended 200 years earlier.
Bach was acknowledged in Germany as the greatest organist of his time and esteemed as a specialist in the mechanics of organ building. However his contrapuntal (music that consists of two or more melodies played at the same time) style of writing sounded old fashioned to his contemporaries. Indeed his sons Carl Philip and Johann Christian Bach were more famous in their lifetime than their father.
For more March 21 anniversaries, including the Napoleonic Code coming into force, the first-ever Earth Day proclamation and the creation of Twitter, check out OnThatDay.
The Roman poetical writer Ovid was born in Sulmo (modern Sulmona), in an Apennine valley 90 miles east of Rome, to a wealthy family, on March 20, 43 BC. Ovid's full name was Publius Ovidius Naso. The cognomen Naso means "the one with the nose" (i.e. "Big nose") in Latin. Ovid habitually referred to himself by his nickname.
The Puritan poetess Anne Bradstreet was born on March 20, 1612. The first American female writer, her first volume of poetry The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was published in 1650. It was widely read in America and England.
For more March 20 anniversaries, including the founding of the Republican Party, the patenting of the modern zip and the marriage of John Lennon to Yoko Ono, check out OnThatDay.
David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813 in a Glasgow worker's tenement in the mill town of Blantyre, Strathclyde, Scotland. Livingstone's father ran his own business as a door-to-door tea salesman, so the room was constantly fragrant with the smell of tea. At the age of 21, Livingstone was inspired to take up Theology and Medical studies after hearing an appeal by British and American Churches for medical missionaries to go to China. A pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, as an explorer in Africa, he was the first European to discover the waterfall that was later named Victoria Falls.
For more March 26 anniversaries, including the first use of the word "gerrymandering," the publication of Ian Fleming's James Bond story, Diamonds are Forever, and the first royal email, check out OnThatDay.
American agronomist Norman Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914. In the 1970's, he developed a new strain of wheat that was heavily disease resistant and could grow in very arid conditions. Between 1965 and 1970, Pakistan, Mexico, and India more than doubled their food supplies. His initiatives worldwide are said to have saved a billion lives.
Elton John was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on March 25, 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex, the eldest child of Stanley Dwight, who served as a flight lieutenant in the Royal Air Force and only child of Sheila Eileen (Harris). Reginald started playing the piano at the age of 3, and within a year, his mother heard him picking out Winifred Atwell's "The Skater's Waltz" by ear. He started formal piano lessons at the age of 7.
For more March 25 anniversaries, including the crowning of Robert The Bruce, the discovery of Saturn's largest moon, Titan and the invention of the "Phonautograph", the world's first record player, check out OnThatDay.
English Separatist theologian, natural philosopher, and chemist Joseph Priestley was born on March 24, 1733, to an established English Dissenting family in Fieldhead, Birstall, Yorkshire. After his mother died when Joseph went to live with his aunt. Because Joseph was precocious—at the age of four he could flawlessly recite all 107 questions and answers of the Westminster Shorter Catechism—his Calvinist aunt sought the best education for the boy, intending him for the ministry.
The blind American hymn writer Fanny Crosby was born on March 24, 1820 in the village of Brewster, about 50 miles (80 km) north of New York City. She was incredibly prolific, penning over 8,000 hymns, more than any other person. Fanny was once asked if she wished that she hadn't been born without sight. She replied the good thing about being born blind is she knew the first face she would see would be the face of Jesus.
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| Birthplace of Fanny Crosby Wikipedia |
English textile designer William Morris was born at Elm House in Walthamstow, Essex, on March 24, 1834. He was named after his father, a financier who worked as a partner in the Sanderson & Co. firm, bill brokers in the City of London. Educated at Marlborough College, William studied for holy orders at Oxford University, but renounced the Church, and changed to architecture.After his marriage in 1859, Morris began his career as a decorator.
Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz in Budapest, Hungary on March 24, 1874. His parents were Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz, and Cecília Weisz (née Steiner;). Erik arrived in the United States in 1878, on the SS Fresia with his family. At the age of fifteen, Ehrich discovered the autobiography of the greatest conjurer of the nineteenth century, French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. Ehrich was fascinated by the book and stayed up all night reading it. He later stated that the work sparked his enthusiasm for magic.
For more March 24 anniversaries, including Johann Sebastian Bach's dedication of The Brandenburg Concertos to the Count Brandenburg, the discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, and the assassination of Oscar Romero, the Bishop of El Salvador, check out OnThatDay.
German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was born on March 23, 1912. Among his designs were the V-2 ballistic missile used by Germany during World War II. Following World War II, Von Brann was secretly moved from Germany to the United States, where he helped develop the rockets that launched the United States' first space satellite Explorer 1, and the Apollo program manned lunar landings.
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| Von Braun in 1960 |
Princess Eugenie of York, the second child of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson was born on March 23 1990. She is 12th in line to the UK throne.
For more March 23 anniversaries, including the installation of the first passenger elevator, the publication of John Lennon's book, In His Own Write, and the outbreak of The Sierra Leone Civil War, check out OnThatDay.
French mime artist Marcel Marceau was born on March 22, 1923. He was most famous for his stage persona as "Bip the Clown," which he first played at the Théâtre de Poche in Paris in 1947. Marceau referred to mime as the "art of silence," and he performed professionally worldwide for over 60 years. He was said to be single-handedly responsible for reviving the art of mime after World War II.
For more March 22 anniversaries, including the marriage of Gioachino Rossini to Spanish soprano Isabella Colbra, the first patent for a laser and Barbra Streisand's Broadway debut, check out OnThatDay.
Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Saxe-Eisenach, Germany on March 21, 1685, the youngest of eight children. Johann was orphaned aged 10 and was raised by his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at the Michaeliskirche in nearby Ohrdruf. He attended the Gymnasium in Eisenach the same school that Martin Luther attended 200 years earlier.
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| Eisenach in 1647 |
Bach was acknowledged in Germany as the greatest organist of his time and esteemed as a specialist in the mechanics of organ building. However his contrapuntal (music that consists of two or more melodies played at the same time) style of writing sounded old fashioned to his contemporaries. Indeed his sons Carl Philip and Johann Christian Bach were more famous in their lifetime than their father.
The Roman poetical writer Ovid was born in Sulmo (modern Sulmona), in an Apennine valley 90 miles east of Rome, to a wealthy family, on March 20, 43 BC. Ovid's full name was Publius Ovidius Naso. The cognomen Naso means "the one with the nose" (i.e. "Big nose") in Latin. Ovid habitually referred to himself by his nickname.
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| Bust of Ovid by anonymous sculptor. By Lucasaw Wikipedia |
The Puritan poetess Anne Bradstreet was born on March 20, 1612. The first American female writer, her first volume of poetry The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America was published in 1650. It was widely read in America and England.
David Livingstone was born on March 19, 1813 in a Glasgow worker's tenement in the mill town of Blantyre, Strathclyde, Scotland. Livingstone's father ran his own business as a door-to-door tea salesman, so the room was constantly fragrant with the smell of tea. At the age of 21, Livingstone was inspired to take up Theology and Medical studies after hearing an appeal by British and American Churches for medical missionaries to go to China. A pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, as an explorer in Africa, he was the first European to discover the waterfall that was later named Victoria Falls.
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| Posthumous portrait of David Livingstone by Frederick Havill |
Chairman Mao's fourth and final wife, failed actress Jiang Qing, was born on March 19, 1914. Mao Zedong first met the neurotic, imperious, Jiang Qing at the the Chinese Communist headquarters in Yan'an in 1937. They married in a small private ceremony following approval by the Party's Central Committee the following year. Jiang became active in politics in the mid 1960s and was the driving force behind the Cultural Revolution.
The actor Bruce Willis was born on March 19, 1955, in the town of Idar-Oberstein, West Germany. Bruce's father, David Willis, was an American soldier. His mother, Marlene, was German. He had severe stuttering problems as a child. Bruce discovered the stutter disappeared while performing in a school play through the memorization of lines. While studying acting in college it was the combination of acting and speech therapy which helped him overcome his condition.
For more March 19 anniversaries, including the first bank robbery in United States history, the first U.S. air combat mission and the opening of The Sydney Harbor Bridge check out OnThatDay.
Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States, was born on March 18, 1837.
For more March 18 anniversaries, including Caligula becoming the Roman emperor, the last woman in England to be officially burned at the stake and the founding of American Express check out OnThatDay.
Legendary Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev was born on March 17, 1938. Rudolf Nureyev was a star of the Kirov Ballet in the Soviet Union before defecting to the West while on tour in Paris in 1961. He then became the most prominent ballet dancer in the world before dying of Aids, aged 54.
For more March 17 anniversaries, including the end of the Siege of Boston, the opening of Washington DC's National Gallery of Art and the end of apartheid in South Africa, check out OnThatDay
Caroline Herschel, the first woman to be paid for her scientific work, was born on March 16, 1750. Caroline Herschel was a German astronomer who worked with her brother William Herschel throughout his career. Her most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name.
The 4th President of the United States, James Madison, was born at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia on March 16, 1751, where his mother had returned to her parents' home to give birth. His father James Madison Sr. was a tobacco planter who became the largest landowner and a leading citizen of Orange County, in the Piedmont. James Jr.'s mother, Nelly Conway Madison was the daughter of a prominent planter and tobacco merchant and his wife.
English navigator and cartographer Captain Matthew Flinders was born on March 16, 1774. He was the leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia. In 1804 Flinders recommended the new continent be named 'Australia', as an umbrella term for New Holland and New South Wales. (The name is from the Latin ‘australis’, meaning ‘of the south’.) It took 20 years before the UK government agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.
For more March 16 anniversaries, including the first Native American to make contact with the Pilgrim Fathers, the first FA Cup Final, and the marriage of Guglielmo Marconi to Beatrice O'Brien, check out OnThatDay.
Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, was born on March 15, 1767 in the Waxhaws region of North and South Carolina, to Scots-Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ireland two years earlier. He was the first U.S. President who was not born into a rich family. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army defeating the Creek Indians at the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend and becoming a national hero after and routing the British a year later at the Battle of New Orleans.
English physician and epidemiologist John Snow was born on March 15, 1813 in York, England. A pioneer of medical hygiene, Snow traced the source of a cholera outbreak to a public water pump in Broad Street, Soho, London. After the local council disabled the well pump it ended the outbreak. The adoption of Snow's recommended sanitary precautions such as boiling all drinking water eliminated cholera from entire communities in England.
For more March 15 anniversaries, including the founding of Liverpool FC, the invention of the escalator, and the first marriage of Elizabeth Taylor to Richard Burton, check out OnThatDay.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, a city in the kingdom of Württemberg in the German empire. Albert was unable to speak until the age of three when at supper one night he broke his silence to say "The soup is too hot." His parents asked why he hadn't talked before. "Because up to now everything was in order," he replied. Young Albert was known as "Beider Meier" (Honest John) because of his prodigiously accurate way of speaking.
The actor Michael Caine was born on March 14, 1933 in St Olave's Hospital, Rotherhithe, London, the son of Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, a fish market porter, and Ellen Frances Marie (née Burchell), a cook and charwoman. Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, he took his stage name from the film The Caine Mutiny (1954). While he uses "Michael Caine" professionally, he uses his given name in his personal life.
For more March 14 anniversaries, including the largest accidental oil spill in history, the trademarking of Oreo, and the marriage of Ernest Hemingway to Mary Welsh, check out OnThatDay.
The distinguished astronomer Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855 in Boston, Massachusetts. Lowell has been described by other planetary scientists as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Carl Sagan." In the late 19th century, telescopic observation of apparent Martian canals increased speculation about life on Mars. In 1895, Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization. The canals however, turned out to be optical illusions.
Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States, was born on March 18, 1837.
His father Richard Falley Cleveland was a Presbyterian minister and his mother the daughter of a bookseller. Cleveland was the winner of the popular vote for president three times—in 1884, 1888, and 1892—and was one of the two Democrats (alongside Woodrow Wilson) elected to the presidency in the era of Republican political domination dating from 1861 to 1933.
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| Grover Cleveland |
Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister (1937-40), was born in Birmingham on March 18, 1869. He was the son of Joseph Chamberlain, a Member of Parliament from 1876 to 1914, and Colonial Secretary from 1895 to 1903. At 21 Chamberlain's father sent him to manage a sisal plantation in the Bahamas to try to recoup diminished family fortunes. He didn’t become an MP until the age of 49. As Prime Minister, Chamberlain is best known for his foreign policy of appeasement towards Germany, and after that failed leading the United Kingdom through the first eight months of the World War II.
Legendary Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev was born on March 17, 1938. Rudolf Nureyev was a star of the Kirov Ballet in the Soviet Union before defecting to the West while on tour in Paris in 1961. He then became the most prominent ballet dancer in the world before dying of Aids, aged 54.
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| Nureyev in his dressing room c. 1974, By Allan Aarren |
For more March 17 anniversaries, including the end of the Siege of Boston, the opening of Washington DC's National Gallery of Art and the end of apartheid in South Africa, check out OnThatDay
Caroline Herschel, the first woman to be paid for her scientific work, was born on March 16, 1750. Caroline Herschel was a German astronomer who worked with her brother William Herschel throughout his career. Her most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet, which bears her name.
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| William and Caroline Herschel polishing a telescope mirror By http://wellcomeimages.org |
The 4th President of the United States, James Madison, was born at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia on March 16, 1751, where his mother had returned to her parents' home to give birth. His father James Madison Sr. was a tobacco planter who became the largest landowner and a leading citizen of Orange County, in the Piedmont. James Jr.'s mother, Nelly Conway Madison was the daughter of a prominent planter and tobacco merchant and his wife.
English navigator and cartographer Captain Matthew Flinders was born on March 16, 1774. He was the leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia. In 1804 Flinders recommended the new continent be named 'Australia', as an umbrella term for New Holland and New South Wales. (The name is from the Latin ‘australis’, meaning ‘of the south’.) It took 20 years before the UK government agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.
For more March 16 anniversaries, including the first Native American to make contact with the Pilgrim Fathers, the first FA Cup Final, and the marriage of Guglielmo Marconi to Beatrice O'Brien, check out OnThatDay.
Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States, was born on March 15, 1767 in the Waxhaws region of North and South Carolina, to Scots-Irish colonists Andrew and Elizabeth Hutchinson Jackson, Presbyterians who had emigrated from Ireland two years earlier. He was the first U.S. President who was not born into a rich family. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army defeating the Creek Indians at the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend and becoming a national hero after and routing the British a year later at the Battle of New Orleans.
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| Andrew Jackson Official White House Portrait |
English physician and epidemiologist John Snow was born on March 15, 1813 in York, England. A pioneer of medical hygiene, Snow traced the source of a cholera outbreak to a public water pump in Broad Street, Soho, London. After the local council disabled the well pump it ended the outbreak. The adoption of Snow's recommended sanitary precautions such as boiling all drinking water eliminated cholera from entire communities in England.
For more March 15 anniversaries, including the founding of Liverpool FC, the invention of the escalator, and the first marriage of Elizabeth Taylor to Richard Burton, check out OnThatDay.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, a city in the kingdom of Württemberg in the German empire. Albert was unable to speak until the age of three when at supper one night he broke his silence to say "The soup is too hot." His parents asked why he hadn't talked before. "Because up to now everything was in order," he replied. Young Albert was known as "Beider Meier" (Honest John) because of his prodigiously accurate way of speaking.
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| Einstein at the age of 3 in 1882 |
The actor Michael Caine was born on March 14, 1933 in St Olave's Hospital, Rotherhithe, London, the son of Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, a fish market porter, and Ellen Frances Marie (née Burchell), a cook and charwoman. Born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, he took his stage name from the film The Caine Mutiny (1954). While he uses "Michael Caine" professionally, he uses his given name in his personal life.
For more March 14 anniversaries, including the largest accidental oil spill in history, the trademarking of Oreo, and the marriage of Ernest Hemingway to Mary Welsh, check out OnThatDay.
The distinguished astronomer Percival Lowell was born on March 13, 1855 in Boston, Massachusetts. Lowell has been described by other planetary scientists as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Carl Sagan." In the late 19th century, telescopic observation of apparent Martian canals increased speculation about life on Mars. In 1895, Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization. The canals however, turned out to be optical illusions.
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| Percival Lowell during the early-20th century |
Lowell was convinced that a celestial body lay beyond Uranus and Neptune, as he believed that the two planets were displaced from their predicted positions by the gravity of an unseen Planet X. Lowell started a search program in 1906, forming the beginning of the effort that led to the discovery of Pluto 14 years after his death. The naming of Pluto was influenced by his initials
For more March 13 anniversaries, including the naming of Harvard College, the discovery of Uranus, Canberra and the forming of the KGB check out OnThatDay.
English theologian, geologist and palaeontologist William Buckland was born on March 12, 1784. Buckland claimed to have eaten his way through the animal kingdom. He opined that mole meat tastes vile and was the most distasteful he consumed along with bluebottle.
Charles Boycott was born on March 12, 1832. He was a former soldier who worked as a land agent for Lord Erne (John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne), a landowner in the Lough Mask area of County May, Ireland. The Norfolk-born soldier’s surname gave the world the word ‘boycott’ when he refused to cut tenants’ rents and they stopped serving him in their shops and pubs.
Vaslav Nijinsky, a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, was born on March 12, 1889. Nijinsky was regarded as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century. He could dance en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps. Nijinsky's last public performance was in 1917 and he spent the final three decades of his life in and out of psychiatric hospitals before dying in London.
For more March 12 anniversaries, including the first synthetic dye. the world's first black international footballer and Paul McCartney's marriage to Linda Eastman. check out OnThatDay.
Harold Wilson was born at 4 Warneford Road, Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on March 11, 1916. Harold's father James Herbert Wilson was a works chemist who had been active in the Liberal Party. Wilson became one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21. He was a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College. A member of the Labour Party, Wilson served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976.
For more March 11 anniversaries, including the last time a British monarch vetoed legislation. the patenting of the world’s first self-raising flour and the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, check out OnThatDay.
The father of microscopical anatomy, histology, physiology and embryology Marcello Malpighi was born on March 10, 1628 at Crevalcore near Bologna, Italy. The son of well-to-do parents, Malpighi was educated in his native city, entering the University of Bologna at the age of 17. He made many discoveries in his microscope including the link between arteries and veins and was one of the earliest people to observe red blood cells.
Fanny Trollope, the mother of the English novelist Anthony Trollope was born on March 10, 1779. An entrepreneur, traveler and novelist, who was in her time the famous Trollope. Fanny Trollope built and designed a bazaar in the frontier town of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1828, with the intention of selling imported luxury goods. The project failed and on her return to England, Trollope began writing. The publication of her 1832 Domestic Manners of the Americans made her famous.
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a son of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the Saudi royal family and Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas (then called Alia Ghanem). He was the 17th of 52 children in total of Muhammad Awad bin Laden. A founder of the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, Bin Laden declared a war against the United States and masterminded the September 11 attacks.
For more March 10 anniversaries, including the issue of the first US paper money, the marriage of Princess Alexandra of Denmark to the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) and the first telephone call check out OnThatDay.
American composer Samuel Barber was born on March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of pianist Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and physician Samuel Le Roy Barber. A child prodigy, at the age of 10 Samuel Barber wrote a short opera entitled The Rose. Two years later, he was holding down a part-time $100-a-month organist’s post at Westminster Church in West Chester. One of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century, Barber's Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned him a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras.
For more March 13 anniversaries, including the naming of Harvard College, the discovery of Uranus, Canberra and the forming of the KGB check out OnThatDay.
English theologian, geologist and palaeontologist William Buckland was born on March 12, 1784. Buckland claimed to have eaten his way through the animal kingdom. He opined that mole meat tastes vile and was the most distasteful he consumed along with bluebottle.
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| Painting by Richard Ansdell |
Charles Boycott was born on March 12, 1832. He was a former soldier who worked as a land agent for Lord Erne (John Crichton, 3rd Earl Erne), a landowner in the Lough Mask area of County May, Ireland. The Norfolk-born soldier’s surname gave the world the word ‘boycott’ when he refused to cut tenants’ rents and they stopped serving him in their shops and pubs.
Vaslav Nijinsky, a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, was born on March 12, 1889. Nijinsky was regarded as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century. He could dance en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps. Nijinsky's last public performance was in 1917 and he spent the final three decades of his life in and out of psychiatric hospitals before dying in London.
For more March 12 anniversaries, including the first synthetic dye. the world's first black international footballer and Paul McCartney's marriage to Linda Eastman. check out OnThatDay.
Harold Wilson was born at 4 Warneford Road, Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on March 11, 1916. Harold's father James Herbert Wilson was a works chemist who had been active in the Liberal Party. Wilson became one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21. He was a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College. A member of the Labour Party, Wilson served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976.
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| Harold Wilson 1963 |
Duke Ellington's only son, Mercer Kennedy Ellington, was born on March 11, 1919. Mercer Ellington became a jazz trumpeter and composer. He led his own bands, many of whose members went on to play with his father, or to achieve independent fame (notably Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, and Carmen McRae).
For more March 11 anniversaries, including the last time a British monarch vetoed legislation. the patenting of the world’s first self-raising flour and the premiere of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto, check out OnThatDay.
The father of microscopical anatomy, histology, physiology and embryology Marcello Malpighi was born on March 10, 1628 at Crevalcore near Bologna, Italy. The son of well-to-do parents, Malpighi was educated in his native city, entering the University of Bologna at the age of 17. He made many discoveries in his microscope including the link between arteries and veins and was one of the earliest people to observe red blood cells.
Fanny Trollope, the mother of the English novelist Anthony Trollope was born on March 10, 1779. An entrepreneur, traveler and novelist, who was in her time the famous Trollope. Fanny Trollope built and designed a bazaar in the frontier town of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1828, with the intention of selling imported luxury goods. The project failed and on her return to England, Trollope began writing. The publication of her 1832 Domestic Manners of the Americans made her famous.
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| Oil on canvas of Frances Trollope by Auguste Hervieu, circa 1832 |
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born on March 10, 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a son of Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the Saudi royal family and Mohammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas (then called Alia Ghanem). He was the 17th of 52 children in total of Muhammad Awad bin Laden. A founder of the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, Bin Laden declared a war against the United States and masterminded the September 11 attacks.
For more March 10 anniversaries, including the issue of the first US paper money, the marriage of Princess Alexandra of Denmark to the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) and the first telephone call check out OnThatDay.
American composer Samuel Barber was born on March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of pianist Marguerite McLeod (née Beatty) and physician Samuel Le Roy Barber. A child prodigy, at the age of 10 Samuel Barber wrote a short opera entitled The Rose. Two years later, he was holding down a part-time $100-a-month organist’s post at Westminster Church in West Chester. One of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century, Barber's Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned him a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras.