Newsgroups: bit.listserv.c18-l
Date:         Sun, 16 Aug 1992 14:08:36 EDT
From:         BCJ@PSUVM.BITNET
Subject:      Kalendar: August 17-23

*********************************************************************
*                                                                   *
*             THE KALENDAR - REASONS TO CELEBRATE                   *
*                                                                   *
*             Compiled for C18-L by Kevin Berland                   *
*                       BCJ@PSUVM.BITNET                            *
*                       BCJ@psuvm.psu.edu                           *
*********************************************************************

                             AUGUST 17

     BIRTHDAYS:  Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician,
developer of differential calculus & probability theory (1601);
Lennart Torstenson, Count of Ortala, Swedish soldier (1603-51);
John III Sobieski, 1674-96 King of Poland, saviour of Poland from
Ottoman empire, patron of arts & sciences (1629-96);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST  Davy Crockett, U.S.
frontiersman, politician (1786-1836);  Fredrika Bremer, Swedish
novelist, women's-rights advocate (1801-65);  Jon Arnason,
Icelandic folklorist (1819-88);  Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, English poet,
anti-imperialist (1840-1922);  Alice Meynell, English poet, essayist
(1847-1922);  Gene[ra] Grace Stratton Porter, U.S. novelist, author
of  nature books & kids' books (1868-1924);  Charles I, last
Emperor of Austria & King of Hungary (1887-1922);  Marcus
Moziah Garvey, Jamaican-born U.S. social reformer, black
nationalist, founder of the Black Star Line (1887-1940);  Edgar
Montillion "Monty" Woolley, U.S. actor, director (1888-1963);  Mae
West, U.S. actress, femme fatale ["I only like two kinds of men:
domestic and foreign"; "I've been in more laps than a napkin."],
cynic ["Brains are an asset, if you hide them"], wit ["I used to be
Snow White, but I drifted"] and philosopher ["He who hesitates is a
damned fool."] (1892-1980);  John Hay Whitney, U.S. financier,
diplomat, publisher (NY Herald Tribune), film producer (Gone
with the Wind) (1904-82);  Marcello Jose Gaetano, Portuguese
statesman, P.M., exile (1906-80);  Hazel Bishop, U.S. chemist,
cosmetics manufacturer (1906);  Maureen Fitzsimmons, better
known as Maureen O'Hara, Irish-born U.S. actress, who once said
that Elsa Lanchester "looks as though butter wouldn't melt in her
mouth, or anywhere else" (1921);  Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg,
better known as Larry Rivers, U.S. artist (1923);  Francis Gary
Powers, U.S. spy-plane pilot (1929-77);  V. S. Naipaul, Trinidadian
novelist, essayist (1932);  Robert de Niro, U.S. film actor (1943);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1648 Oliver Cromwell's
Parliamentary forces defeated the Scots at Preston;  in 1786
Frederick the Great of Prussia died, succeeded by Frederick
William II.

     MISCELLANEA:  Today Argentina observes the Anniversary of
the Death of General San Martin in 1850;  Indonesia celebrates its
Independence Day (1945).

********************************************************************
                         AUGUST 18

     BIRTHDAYS:  Federigo Borromeo, Italian cardinal, 1609 founder
of Milan's Ambrosian Library (1564-1631);  Virginia Dare, 1st
English child born in colonial America at the settlement in Roanoke
from which all of the people later vanished without a trace (1587);
Brook Taylor, English mathematician, who in 1715 published the
1st treatise on finite differences in calculus (1685-1731);
Meriwether Lewis, U.S. explorer, private secretary to Thomas
Jefferson, governor of Louisiana Territory (1774-1809);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Charles Francis Adams,
U.S. economist, politician, diplomat, son of president John Quincy
Adams (1807-86);  Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austro-Hungary
(1830-1916);  Marshall Field, U.S. businessman, philanthropist,
donated to University of Chicago, built the Fiedl Museum of
Natural History (1834-1906);  James Hervey Hyslop, U.S.
psychologist, philosopher (1854-1920);  Vijaya Lakshmi Pundit,
Indian politician, diplomat, 1st woman minister in Uttar Pradesh
government, President of U.N. General Assembly (1900);  Alain
Robbe-Grillet, French novelist, film-maker, agronomist, statistician
(1922);  Shelley Winters, U.S. actress, who once commented "I
have bursts of being a lady, but it doesn't last long" (1921);  Brian
Aldiss, English science-fiction writer, 1957-69 editor of Oxford Mail
(1925);  Rosalynn Carter, wife of former U.S. president Jimmy
Carter (1927);  Roman Polanski, film-director (1933);  Roberto
Clemente, U.S. baseball player (1934-72);  Robert Redford, U.S.
actor (1937);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1765, Holy Roman Emperor
Francis I died, & was succeeded by Josef II.

     MISCELLANEA:  It's the 3rd day of Gabon's independence
celebrations.  On this day in 1938 Benjamin Britten's First Piano
Concerto premiered in London.

*******************************************************************
                          AUGUST 19

     BIRTHDAYS:  Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana,
Spanish humanist poet (1398-1458);  James "the Admirable"
Crichton, Scottish prodigy (1560-82);  John Flamsteed, English
astronomer, founder of the Greenwich Observatory marking the
prime meridian (1646-1719);  Marie Jeanne Becu, Comtesse Du
Barry, mistress of Louis XV (1743-93);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Samuel Griswold
Goodrich, U.S. author of educational "Peter Parley" books (1793-
1863);  James Nasmyth, British engineer, inventor of the steam
hammer (1808-90);  Julius Lothar Meyer, German chemist (1830-95);
Charles Montague Doughty, English poet, traveler, author (1888)
of Travels in Arabia Deserta (1843-1926);  Henry Ives Cobb, U.S.
architect (1859-1931);  Bernard M. Baruch, U.S. financier &
political advisor (1870-1965);  Orville Wright, U.S. inventor &
aviator (1871-1948);  Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, 1st president
of the Commonwealth of the Philippines (1878-1944);  Gabrielle
Bonheur "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer;  Ogden Nash,
U.S. poet, wit ("I would live all my life with nonchalance and
insouciance, / Were it not for making a living, which is rather a
nousiance."), New Yorker staff member (1902-71);  James Gould
Cozzens, U.S. novelist (1903-78);  Willie Shoemaker, U.S. jockey
who rode 3 Kentucky Derby winners (1931);  Jill St. John, U.S.
actress (1940);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1689, Samuel Richardson was
baptized;  in 1772, a French-backed revolution re-established
Gustavus III as King of Sweden, where he abolished torture and
established religious tolerance.

     MISCELLANEA:  Today is Afghanistan's Independence Day,
commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi in 1919.  It
is the Feast of St. Sebald, patron of Nuremberg.

*******************************************************************
                            AUGUST 20

     BIRTHDAYS:  Louis Bourdaloue, French Jesuit theologian (1632-
1704);  Francis Asbury, English missionary to North American
colonies, 1st bishop of Methodist Episcopal Church in U.S. (1745-
1816);  Aleksandr Nikolayevich Radischev, Russian poet,
reformer, author (1790) of Voyage from St. Petersburg to Moscow,
criticizing the institution of serfdom and absolutism, for which he
was exiled to Siberia (1749-1802):

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Baron Jons Jakob
Berzelius, Swedish chemist, weigher of molecules, deviser of
system of chemical symbols still in use (1779-1848);  Narcise Virgile
Diaz de la Pena, French landscape painter of the Barbizon school,
also noted for nymphs, Venuses, Cupids, &c. (1808-76);  Thaddeus
S.C.Lowe, U.S. inventor, developer of the compression ice
machine (1832-1913);  Benjamin Harrison, 1889-93 23rd U.S.
president (1833-1901);  Boleslaw Prus, aka Alexander Glowacki,
Polish novelist & short-story writer (1847-1912);  Raymond
Poincare, French writer, statesman, president, P.M. (1860-1934);
Ion Bratianu, Romanian statesman, P.M. (1864-1927);  Eliel
Saarinen, Finnish architect, father of Eero, with whom he helped
develop the skyscraper (1873-1950);  Edgar A. Guest, English-born
U.S. poet, journalist (1881-1959);  Paul Tillich, German-born U.S.
philosopher, theologian, anti-Nazi (1886-1965);  Salvatore
Quasimodo, Italian poet, 1959 Nobel Laureate (1901-68);  Jack
Weldon Lee Teagarden, U.S. jazz trombonist, vocalist -- listen to
him playing the straight man to Louie Armstrong's scatting in
Hoagie Carmichael's "Old Rocking Chair's Got Me"! (1905-64);
Eero Saaeinen, Finnish-born U.S. architect, son of Eliel whose
birthday he also shared, builder in steel & glass (1910-61);  Van
Johnson, U.S. actor;  Jacqueline Susann, U.S. novelist (1921-74);
Wilton Norman "Wilt the Stilt" Chamberlain, tall African-American
basketball player (1936);  Carla Fracci, Italian prima ballerina
(1936);  Isaac Hayes, African-American U.S. soul singer, composer,
producer, actor (1942);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

     MISCELLANEA:  Today is the Feast of St. Philibert, for whom the
hazelnut is named "filbert", apparently because it ripens near this
time.  It's also the feast of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the
Cistercian Order, Doctor Mellifluus.  On this day in 1979, Diana
Nyad became the 1st person to swim the 89 miles between the
Bahamas and Florida; in 1980 Reinhold Messner of Italy completed
the 1st solo ascent of Mt. Everest.

*****************************************************************
                            AUGUST 21

     BIRTHDAYS:  Jean de Rotron, French dramatist (1609-50);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Augustin-Louis Cauchy,
French mathematician (1789-1857);  Asher Brown Durand, U.S.
painter, engraver, one of the founders of the Hudson River
School of landscape painting (1796-1886);  Jules Michelet, French
historian, archivist (1798-1874);  John Fritz, U.S. metallurgist (1823-
1913);  Karl Gegenbauer, German comparative anatomist (1826-
1903);  Aubrey Beardsley, English art-nouveau illustrator (1972-98);
Roark Bradford, U.S. humorous writer (1896-1948);  William Count
Basie, U.S. jazz pianist, composer, band leader (1904-84);  Paul
Hall, U.S. merchant seamen labor leader (1914-80);  Princess
Margaret Rose of England, the Queen's sister (1930);  Kenny
Rogers, U.S. country singer, actor (1938);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1810, Marshall Bernadotte, one
of Napoleon's Generals, was elected Crown Prince of Sweden
under the name Charles John.

     MISCELLANEA:  Hawaii became the 50th state of the U.S. on this
day in 1959.

**********************************************************************
                         AUGUST 22

     BIRTHDAYS:  Denis Papin, French physicist, invented the safety-
valve-equipped pressure cooker, suggested the 1st cylinder &
piston steam engine (1647-1712?);  Jean Francois de Galaup, Comte
de la Perouse, French naval officer, explorer, lost with his crew in
Asiatic waters (1741-88);  Pope Leo XII (1760-1829);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Henry Maudslay, British
engineer, inventor of the metal-cutting lathe, Father of the
Machine-tool Industry (1771-1831);  Samuel Pierpont Langley, U.S.
astronomer, aviator (1834-1906);  Sir John Forrest, Australian
explorer, 1st premier of W. Australia, 1st Australian to receive a
peerage (1847-1918);  Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, Scottish
composer, conductor, teacher (1847-1935);  Alfredo Oriani, Italian
writer [she once reviewed a book by Margot Asquith: "The affair
between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the
prettiest love stories in all literature" (1852-1909);  Claude Achille
Debussy, French romantic composer (1862-1918);  Walter
McLennan Citrine, 1st Baron Citrine of Wembly, English labor
leader (1887-1983);  Dorothy Rothschild Parker, U.S. poet, short-
story-writer, wit ["I don't care what is written about me so long as it
isn't true"], New Yorker contributor, member of the Algonquin
Round Table (1893-1967);  Cecil Kellaway, British actor (1894-
1973);  Henri Cartier-Bresson, French photographer (1920);  Carl
"Yaz" Yastrzemski, U.S. baseball player (1939);  Diana Nyad, U.S.
long-distance swimmer (1949);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1642 the English Civil War
began when the Cavaliers attacked the Parliament forces at York;
in 1791 blacks in San Domingo rose, attempting to secure rights
granted them by the French National Assembly;

     MISCELLANEA:  On this day in 1864, the Geneva Convention for
the Protection of the Wounded (Int'l Red Cross) was founded.

********************************************************************
                               AUGUST 23

     BIRTHDAYS:  Louis XVI, King of France (1774-93), guillotined
during the French Revolution (1754-93);  Jedediah Morse, U.S.
religious leader, geographer (1761-1826);  Baron Georges Jean-
Leopold-Nicolas-Frederic Cuvier, French anatomist, animal
classifier, Father of Comparative Anatomy, Father of Paleontology
(1769-1832);

     LATER BIRTHDAYS OF INTEREST:  Oliver Hazard Perry,
U.S. inland naval commander (1785-1819);  William Ernest Henley,
English poet (1849-1903);  Eleutherios Venizelos, Greek statesman,
P.M. (1864-1936);  Edgar Lee Masters, U.S. poet, biographer,
author of Spoon River Anthology (1869-1950);  William Primrose,
U.S. violist (1904-82);  Gene Curran Kelly, U.S. dancer,
choreographer, singer (in the rain), movie star (1912);  Kenneth J.
Arrow, U.S. economist, equilibrium theorist (1921);  Vera Helena
Hruba Ralston, better known as Vera Miles, U.S. actress (1930);
Barbara Huffman, better known as Barbara Eden, U.S. actress
(1934);

     ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:  in 1645, Denmark ceded lands in
Sweden by the Peace of Bromsebro; in 1833 the British Parliament
abolished slavery throughout the British colonies;

     MISCELLANEA:  Do Romanians still celebrate the National
Holiday commemorating the overthrow on this day in 1944 of Ion
Antonescu's pro-Axis government?  Today is the feast of St. Rosa
de Lima, the 1st South American saint, patron of Lima, Peru.
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU