Today's the Day

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 26th

Feliĉa Esperanto-Tago al ĉiuj niaj legantoj! Commemorating the publication on this day in 1882 of Unua Libro the first book written in Esperanto, written by the language's creator, Polish ophthalmologist Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof. (The Esperanto for "ophthalmologist"? "Oftamologo" - which is a lot easier to spell!)

Also on This Date: the Battle of Edgecote Moor, in which Richard Neville, disaffected with the rise of Edward IV's in-laws, defeats the King's forces, an event which paved the way for the end of the King's first period of reign the next year (1469); the Act of Abjuration is signed in The Hague, declaring that all magistrates in the Provinces making up the Union of Utrecht were freed from their vows to Philip II of Spain (1581 - they offer loyalty to Elizabeth I instead, but she's not interested); Rembrandt van Rijn declares himself Bankrupt (1656); the Reading Mercury reports on a cricket match between "11 maids of Bramley and 11 maids from Hambledon, all dressed in white" (1745 - the first recorded Women's Cricket match; "The girls bowled, batted, ran and catches as well as most men could do in that game."); Benjamin Franklin is appointed the first Postmaster General of the United States (1775); Wagner's bühnenweihfestspiel, Parsifal is premiered [with a bit of help from Engelbert Humperdinck] at the Festspielhaus, Bayreuth, conducted by Hermann Levi (1882); Dadabhai Naoroji is elected the MP for Finsbury Central in the 1892 General Election - the first Asian Member of Parliament in Britain (1892 - David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, of mixed Indian & British ancestry, had been elected MP for Sudbury in 1841, but had been deposed 9 months later for corrupt electioneering practices [he'd've gone on to become Prime Minister these days]); the beginning of the week-long Siege of Malakand, in which the Afghan troops of Sator Faqir attack the garrison of the occupying British Army (1897); US Attorney General, Charles Joseph Bonaparte [great-nephew of 'imself] creates the Office of the Chief Examiner (1908 - later renamed [perhaps to stop it sounding like a provincial newspaper] the Federal Bureau of Investigation); Emmy Noether's paper Invariant Variation Problems ["certainly one of the most important mathematical theorems ever proved in guiding the development of modern physics"] is published in Göttingen, and read to a meeting of the Royal Society of Sciences by F Klein (1918 - Noether cannot read her own paper, as she is not a member of the Society - she's a woman, you see); Hitler & Mussolini agree to intervene on Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War (1936); the result of the 1945 General Election is declared - a Labour landslide ousts Churchill from office (Churchill is in Potsdam at the time, adding his signature to the Potsdam Declaration which declares that if Japan does not surrender, it will face "prompt and utter destruction" - this is also the date in which USS Indianapolis arrives at the Marianas Islands, carring the components and plutonium for the first Nuclear Weapon); President Truman signs the National Security Act (1947 - creating the Central Intelligence Agency, amongst other things. A year later to the day, Truman signs an Executive Order desegregating the US military); Cuban revolutionary organization, Movement 26th July [M-26-7] begins operations when Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the military barrack in Santiago di Cuba (1953 - taken as the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, the Movement wrests power from Fascist dictator Fulgencio Batista five-and-a-half years later); Egyptian President Nasser, unable to get funding for his Aswan Dam project, Nationalizes the Suez Canal (1956); Apollo 15 is launched (1971 - the first mission to carry the lunar Roving Vehicle); Peter Shaffer's play Equus is premiered at the National Theatre in London, with Alec McCowen & Peter Firth (1973); President Bush I signs the Americans With Disability Act, outlawing discrimination on grounds of disability (1990); Solar Impulse completes a circumnavigation of the Earth - the first such journey made by a solar-powered aircraft (2016 - also the first such by an aircraft with a name that makes it sound like a bottle of perfume. On the same day, Hillary Clinton becomes the first woman to be nominated for President of the United States); Trump tweets that transgender people will no longer be allowed to serve "in any capacity in the US military" (2017).

Birthdays Today include: Christian Egenolff (1502); John Field (1782); George Catlin (1796); Justin Holland (1819); Ferdinand Tönnies (1855); George Bernard Shaw (1856); Serge Koussevitsky (1874); Carl Jung (1875); André Maurois (1885); George Grosz (1893); Aldous Huxley (1894); Gracie Allen (1895); Paul Gallico (1897); Blake Edwards & Jason Robards (both 1922); Bernice Rubens (1923); Ana María Matute (1925); Stanley Kubrick & Tadeusz Baird (both 1928); Alexis Weissenberg (1929); Richard Marlow (1939); Roger Smalley & Mick Jagger (both 1943); Helen Mirran (1945); Ada Gentile (1947); Susan George (1950); Angela Hewitt (1958); Stefano Gervasoni (1962); Sandra Bullock (1964) Olivia Williams (1968); Kate Beckinsale (1973); ... and James Lovelock celebrates his 100th birthday today; Anthony Gilbert is 85, and Kevin Volans, and Roger Taylor 70 today.

Final Days for: Mary Frith (1659); John Wilmot (1680); James Murray (1915); Eva Peron (1952); Fazlur Rahman Malik (1988); Mary Wells (1992); Karl Benjamin (2012); Paul Angerer (2017) ... and it is exactly 10 years since the death of Merce Cunningham.

And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Thursday, 26th July, 1979 were:

Overture: Saint-Saens Havanaise; Pergolesi [attrib] Magnificat; Grieg 2 Elegiac Melodies; Chabrier Suite Pastorale; Sibelius Suite Mignonne; Durufle 4 Motets; Butterworth Rhapsody "A Shropshire Lad"; Bach Harpsichord Concerto in d, BWV 1052).
This Week's Composer: Mozart in 1786 (Clar 3o in Eb, K498; S4tet in D; K499).
Solo Violin: Yfrah Neaman plays Reger Sonata in d, Op 42 #1; Michael Blake Watkins The Wings of Night.
American Songs by Copland, Hovhaness, Rhodes, Mulfinger, & Perera (performed by Phyllis Bryn-Julson & Donald S Sutherland).
In Short ("pianist Nikita Magaloff reminisces")
BBCSSO conducted by Simon Rattle (Beethoven Symph #4 & Prokofiev Symph #3).

Followed by a Live broadcast of a Violin & Piano recital direct from St George 's, Brandon Hill , Bristol. given by Takashi Shimizu (violin) & Gordon Back (piano) ["Tickets: 85p at the door"]

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Test Match Special (1957) predated afternoon classical music (1965) on the Third Programme frequencies. Afternoons were blank apart from cricket at one time. It appears that popular classical music ( Mozart, Beethoven etc. not light classical ) was often broadcast on the Home Service before 1965. This was a surprise to me. I presume that while TMS survived on R3 it was still a case of music being broadcast when there was no cricket rather than the reverse. I'm not sure whether or when TMS was only on AM rather than FM. It seems that the "Golden Age of Radio Three/ Third Programme" as a station for Classical Music and serious Jazz started in the 70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Match_Special

"Robert Hudson was responsible for the launch of TMS, writing to his Outside Broadcasts boss Charles Max-Muller in 1956, proposing broadcasting full ball-by-ball coverage of Tests rather than only covering fixed periods, and suggesting using the Third Programme (as BBC Radio 3 was then known) frequency, since at that time the Third Programme only broadcast in the evening."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Third_Programme

"The network was broadly cultural, a Leavisite experiment dedicated to the discerning or "high-brow" listener from an educated, minority audience. Its founders' aims were seen as promoting "something fundamental to our civilisation" and as contributing to "the refinement of society".[2] Its musical output provided a wide range of serious classical music and live concerts, as well as contemporary composers and jazz, popular classical music such as Beethoven, Mozart and Tchaikovsky primarily remained on the Home Service until 1964. Voice formed a much higher proportion of its output than the later Radio 3, with specially commissioned plays, poetry readings, talks and documentaries."

- yes, I remember the Cricket ruining the Summer schedules when I first became addicted to R3 in the '70s. It wasn't until much later that the Cricket was broadcast on LW only and proper stuff on VHF.

I suppose it shows that there are some things (/ is one thing) better these days.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 27th

The Feast Day of the Seven Sleepers of Ephasus, observed by Christian and Islamic traditions alike, this is based on an ancient Greek story of a group of colleagues who hid in a cave in order to escape from their enemies - they settled for the night, and woke up 300 years later. The myth passed into folklore and customs, with references in Welsh, Danish, and Hungarian to late sleepers being referred to as "seven sleeper"s. In Finland, the day has become National Sleepyheads' Day, in which the last riser could be rudely awoken with jugs of cold water, or by being dunked into a lake or the sea (whichever was the closer, I presume) - it being believed that whoever slept in on this date would remain sluggish and unproductive for the rest of the year.
In Naantali, in South-West Finland, a National Celebrity [a different one - not the same poor sod every year] is thrown into the sea at 7:00am every year to mark the event - and festivities continue throughout the rest of the day. (Drowning out the feeble cries for help issuing from the harbour.)

Also on This Date: the Battle of the Seven Sleepers, in which Northumbrian Earl Siward defeats King MacBeth of Alba (1054 - also known as the Battle of Dunsinane, but not until 200 years after the event: the "Seven Sleepers" reference is recorded in the contemporaneous Anglo-Saxon Chronicle; MacBeth survives the Battle, and is killed 3 years later at the Battle of Lumphanan); a Royal Charter Establishes the Banlk of England (1694); the Continetal Congress establishes an "Army Hospital", with facilities for 20,000 servicemen (1775 - the beginnings of the US Army Medical Corps); the French Revolutionary National Convention denounces Robbespierre as a tyrant, leading to his arrest that night, along with 21 of his supporters, and the end of the Reign of Terror (1794); the beginning of the Three Glorious Days in Paris, leading to the overthrow of Bourbon king Charles X (1830); the week-long Siege of Arrah begins in the Indian Rebellion (1857); Vincent van Gogh shoots himself in the chest (1890 - the bullet ricochets off a rib, and misses his internal organs; he is able to walk back to his lodgings, he is seen by doctors, who leave him smoking on his pipe after telling him that they will send for a surgeon); Wilhelm II gives a speech to German soldiers about to depart for China, in which he tells them to emulate the army of Attila the Hun (1900 - the Allies would use "the Hun" as a term of contempt in the following years); the week-long Chicago Race Riot breaks out after a black youth is killed by a white man throwing rocks at black swimmer (1919 - the white police don't help: they leave the white murderer and try to arrest one of the dead boy's friends); the Convention of the Treatment of Prisoners of War is signed in Geneva (1929); A Wild Hare, the first cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd [complete with "What's up, doc?" and werefewences to "wabbits"] is released (1940); the de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner, makes its first flight (1949); the Korean War comes to an end after over 3 years with the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement (1953); the Austrian Stae Treaty, restoring national sovereignty from the Allied Occupying Powers, comes into effect (1955); President Johnson signs a Bill to require cigarette manufacturers to print health warnings on packets (1965 - Johnson had given up smoking after a heart attack 10 years earlier, but he ius reported to have started again after he had heard that Nixon had been elected); the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee vote 27/11 to Impeach Richard Nixon (1974); the Supreme Soviet of the Belarusian Soviet Republic declares independence from the Soviet Union (1990); a neo Nazi terrorist detonates a pipe bomb at the Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, during the Summer Olympics (1996 - there are 2 fatalities, and 111 injuries: it would have been much worse, had it not been for the quick responses of security guard, Richard Jewell, who manages to clear most people away from the device before it explodes); the Queen [with help from 007] opens the 2012 London Olympics; Presidential candidate Donald Trump uses a Press Conference to call for assistance in his fight against Hillary Clinton: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-Mails that are missing" (2016); the leader of the Boy Scouts of America apologizes for the inclusion of a political rant by the President at the annual National Jamboree (2017).

Birthdays Today include: Francesco Corteccia (1502); Johann Bernoulli (1667); Charlotte Corday (1768); Mauro Giuliani (1781); George Onslow (1784); Alexandre Dumas fils (1824 - 3 days after his father's 22nd birthday); Enrique Granados (1867); Hilaire Belloc (1870); Ernst von Dohnányi (1877); Benjamin Miessner (1890); Vernon Elliott & Igor Markevitch (both 1912); Matio Del Monaco (1915); Leonard Rose (1918); Adolfo Celi (1922); Jean Baudrillard (1929); Johannes Fritsch (1941); Bobbie Gentry (1944); Kimmo Hakola (1958);

Final Days for: Mikhail Lermontov (1841); John Dalton (1844); Myrddin Fardd (1921); Ferruccio Busoni (1924); Gertrude Stein (1946); Richard Aldington (1962); Willem van Oterloo (1978); William Wyler (1981); James mason (1984); Miklós Rózsa (1995); Bob Hope (2003); Horst Stein (2008); Einojuhani Rautavaara (2016); Gilles Tremblay & Sam Shepard (both 2017); ... and it is exactly 10 years since the death of George Russell.


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Thursday, 27th July, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: RVW Lark Ascending; Haydn, Fantasia in C H XVI 14; Bartok Romanian Folk Dances; Roman Sinfonia in A; Berlioz Ishmaelite Trio (from The Childhood of Christ); Beethoven "Spring" Sonata; Poulenc Les Biches.
Composer of the Week: Borodin (Songs & Piano pieces; In the Steppes of Central Asia; S4tet #2.
Debussy/Caplet: Le Boîte à Joujoux
Coull S4tet: Mozart 4tet in d, K421.
Jorge Bolet: works by Grieg and Rachmaninoff.
BBCWSO conducted by Owain Arwel Hughes (Berlioz Le Corsaire Ovt; Debussy Nocturnes [with BBC Welsh Chorus women]; Saint-Saens "Organ Symphony" [with Jane Watts]).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 28th

World Hepatitis Day - initiated by the WHO to raise global awareness of the disease, and to encourage prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Also on This Date: Thomas Cromwell is beheaded as a traitor (1540 - without Trial, on the orders of Henry VIII, who celebrates by getting married to 16-year-old Catherine Howard on the same day: she shares Cromwell's fate 19months later); Maximillian Robbespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, and 20 of their Jacobin allies are guillotined (1794); the first version of Berlioz' Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale is premiered in Paris (1840 various venues along the route from Saint-Germaine-l'Auxerrois to Place de la Bastille); 18-year-old Lavinia Ream becomes the first woman to receive a US commission for a sculpture (1866 - she remains the youngest person to receive such a commission: her statue of Abraham Lincoln is still displayed in the Rotunda of the US Capitol building in Washington DC); Austria-Hungary declares War on Serbia, marking the beginning of World War 1 (1914); 10,000 African-American citizens mount a silent march along 5th Avenue in New York, to protest against violence against and lynchings of black people in the USA (1917); 43,000 unemployed ex-servicemen and their families mount a protets in Washington DC - President Hoover orders the Secretary of War to "disperse" them, and troops open fire, killing two veterans, and injuring more than 100 others (1932 - Hoover is defeated in a landslide in the Presidential Election in November); the first flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Heavy Bomber (1935); the first fragments of the Sutton Hoo Helmet are discovered during the Excavation of the Anglo-Saxon burial site in Woodbridhe, Suffolk (1939 - further fragments are uncovered over the next few days); the RAF's heaviest bombing of Hamburg in Operation Gomorrah (1943 - 787 bombers drop incendiary devices that causes a firestorm that kills more than 42,000 civilian deaths); a USAAF bomber crashes into the Empire State Building, killing four people (1945 - there is little structural damage to the building, which reopens within a week of the accident); Elia Kazan's film On the Waterfront, with a score by Leonard Bernstein, and starring Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Karl madden, Lee J Cobb, & Eve Marie Saint is released (1954); President Johnson announces that he is going to increase the number of US troops in Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 (1965); the Opening Ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games is held in Los Angeles (1984); a near-complete 9,000-year-old skeleton is discovered in the city of Kennewick, in Washington State (1996); the Provisional Irish Republican Army, on ceasefire for 8 years, announces an end to its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland, ordering its members to discard all weapons (2005).

[AND it's the traditional/popular date for Thomas Harriot's introduction of the Potato to England (1586), and of Louis Lassen's putting a burger into a bun and calling it a Hamburger (1900) - and, if anyone wishes to ameliorate the results of overindulging in both foodstuffs, some sources give this date in 1914 as that on which the Foxtrot was first danced.]

Birthdays Today include: Judith Leyster (1609); Robert Hooke (1635); Ignaz Bösendorfer (1796); Ludwig Feuerbach (1804); Gerard manley Hopkins (1844); Beatrix Potter (1866); Lucy Burns (1879); Marcel Duchamp (1887); Rued Langgaard (1893); Rudy Vallée (1901); Albert Namatjira & Karl Popper (both 1902); Malcolm Lowry (1909); Dick Sprang (1915); John Ashbery (1927); Jackie Kennedy-Onassis (1929); Alan Brownjohn (1931); Garfield Sobers (1936); Riccardo Muti (1941); Richard Wright (1943); Jim Davis (1945).

Apparently, Bach is commemorated on this day along with Handel and Schutz in the Lutherian Church, and Handel and Purcell in the Episcopal Church. Vivaldi has to be content with having a spud named after him.

Final Days for: Cyrano de Bergerac (1655); Abraham Crowley (1667); Vivaldi (1741); Bach (1750); Bernhard Crusell (1838); Marie Dressler (1934); Otto Hahn (1968); Frank Loesser (1969); Helen Traubel (1972); Rose Rand (1980); Rosalie Crutchley (1997); Valerie Goulding (2002); Francis Crick (2004).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Monday, 28th July, 1969 were:

Bach & Handel ("gramophone records")
Morning Concert: BBCSSO/Christopher Seaman (no works mentioned)
This Week's Composer: Monteverdi (Mass a 4; Gloria a 7 (from the Selva morale e spirituale).
Schubert: Sonata in a, D845; 12 Landler, D790 (played by André Tchaikowsky).
Organ Recital by David Lumsden from New College Oxford
Kodaly Hary Janos Suite.

then 7+ hours of cricket.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 29th

International Tiger Day, inaugurated in 2010 at the St Petersburg Tiger Summit "to promote a global system for protecting the natural habitats of tigers and to raise public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues".

And the Feast Day of St Lupus of Troyes, the 5th Century Bishop of Troyes in the Chapagne Region of France, who spent 6 months in England between 429-30 at the request of English bishops who needed his help stamping out the growing popularity of the Pelagian Heresy. It was also claimed that he spared Troyes from being sacked by Attila the Hun by going out to meet Attila, impressing him with his courage and devoutness.

Also on This Date: after 99 days as joint Emperors of Rome, squabbling pair Pupienus & Balbinus are arrested by their Praetorian Guards, stripped naked and paraded through the streets, tortured, and assassinated (238 - their successor is 13-year-old Gordion III, the youngest-ever Emperor, who largely keeps out of political matters, and survives in the role for five-and-a-half years); the Second Crusade ends with the ignominious defeat & retreat of the Christian Invaders at the Siege of Damascus (1148); the Battle of Gravelines marks the effective defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English fleet (1588); the Town Hall of the City of Amsterdam, then the largest such building in the world, is opened (1655 - 250 years later, it is renamed the Royal Palace of Amsterdam); the opening ceremony of the Arc de Triomphe is held (1836); the Italian King, Umberto I is assassinated by Anarchist Gaetano Bresci (1900 - Bresci becomes the first person in history not to be executed for regicide, as Italy had abolished the death penalty 2 years earlier [nonetheless his body is discovered in his cell nine months later in circumstances that have been described as "mysterious"]); at a special congress of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, members vote to replace leader Anton Drexler with Adolf Hitler, who is also granted absolute powers (1921 - the vote is 533 - 1); the BBC Light Programme begins broadcasting (1945); the first Olympic Games for 12 years are opened in London by George VI (1948); the 3-day US offensive against a strategic railway bridge in the Korean War comes to an end (1950 - around 300 civilians, most of them non-combatants [women & children]); George Allen & Unwin publishes Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring (1954 - against the wishes of the author, who would have preferred the entire Lord of the Rings to be published in a single volume); the Beatles' film Help! is released (1965 - starring Eleanor Bron, Leo McKern, Victor Spinetti ... and the Beatles as "Extras"); the text of Pope Paul VI's encyclical Of Human Life is published, condemning artificial birth control and so rejecting the recommendations of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control (1968); after a Constitutional Referendum, Greek voters decide 4-1 to abolish the monarchy (1973); Iran adopts a new, Islamic Flag (1980); Prince Charles Philip Arthur George Arthur John Paul Ringo Dopey and Lady Diana Spencer are married in St Pauls Cathedral, watched by over 700million worldwide television viewers, whatever that means (1981); Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterand sign the agreement to create the Channel Tunnel (1987); Mike Brown announces the discovery at the Mount Palomar Observatory of dwarf planet Eris (2005 - slightly more massive, although smaller, than Pluto, it the 9th most massive object directly orbitting the Sun, there are still 7 moons orbiting other planets that are more massive); after weeks of advertising, Windows 10 is released (2015).

Birthdays Today include: Johann Thiele (1646); George Bradshaw (1801); Alexis de Tocqueville (1805); Sophie Menter (1846); Don Marquis (1878); Mussolini (1883); Sigmund Romberg (1887); Clara Bow (1905); Thelma Todd (1906); Peter Schreier (1935); David Warner (1941); Susan Blackmore (1951); ... and today is Mikis Theodorakis' 94th birthday.

Final Days for: John Caius (1573); William Wilberforce (1833); Robert Schumann (1856); Van Gogh (1890 - from an infection caused by the bullet he was waiting for a surgeon to come and remove); John Barbirolli (1970); "Mama" Cass Elliot (1974 - nothing to do with a ham sandwich); Herbert Marcuse (1979); Luis Buñuel, David Niven, & Raymond Massey (all 1983); William Mathias (1992); Dorothy Hodgkin (1994); Jerome Robbins (1998).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Sunday, 29th July, 1979 were:

Mozart Piano Concertos: Kozeluh Symphony in F; Mozart Concerto #18 in Bb, K456.
Your Concert Choice: Berlioz Les Francs-juges Ovt; Respighi Vln Sonata in a; Arensky Suite for 2 Pianos Op15; Scriabin, Fantasy in B Op28; Finzi Dies Natalis (Joan Cross & Boyd Neel Orch)
Prom Talk: features on Tippett, Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, & "Specialist Conductors".
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez: Bartok Dance Suite; Ravel both Piano Concertos [with Philippe Entremont]; Stravinsky Pulcinella Suite (with Strong Points, an interval talk by Roy Strong on Nostalgia).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 30th

International Friendship Day, promoted by the United Nations, and celebrated in many countries throughout the world - but not in the UK. (Well, I mean - we haven't been introduced!)

And the Feast Day of Saint Tatwine, the early 8th Century Anglo-Saxon abbott who became the 10th Archbishop of Canterbury, described by Bede as "famed for his prudence, devotion and learning". He wrote a Latin Grammar book for use by advanced students, and was, like many other Anglo-Saxons, a devotee of acrostic riddles, 40 of which were written down and survive today

Also on This Date: the Foundation of Baghdad ["God-given"] (762); Czech followers of Jan Hus, angered by the throwing of a stone at their religious leader from inside the prague city hall, attack the building and hurl seven officials to their deaths from the windows (1419 - this first Defenestration of Prague puts an end to the fragile talks between the Hussites and the Catholic officials and mark the beginning of the 15-year-long Hussite Wars); the City of Baltimore ["town with the big house"] is founded (1729 - by 1752, there are just 27 buildings, including a church, and 2 taverns); after 169 days travelling 20,000 miles, Montagu Roberts & two mechanics reach Paris to win the first Round-the World Automobile Race (1908 - in Genevieve-style, he nearly fails at the last minute, when a French policeman refuses to let him continue as he has a damaged front headlamp - the day is saved by a passing cyclist who lends him the lamp from his bicycle); French pharmacist Eugene Schueller founds cosmetic company L'Oreal (1909); the first ever FIFA World Cup final is won by Uruguay, who beat Argentina 4-2 (1930 - exactly 36 years later, England beat West Germany with exactly the same score); the first 10 Penguin paperback book titles are published, costing 6d each (1935); Apollo 15 lunar module Falcon lands on the Sea of Showers on the Moon with the first Lunar Rover (1971); with the utmost reluctance, President Richard Nixon hands over the White House Tapes to Government Investigators (1974); Union Leader Jimmy Hoffa tells friends he was going to meet Mafia chiefs who had previously supported him, but who had become his enemies and had threatened his grandchildren - he is never seen again (1975); the Israeli Parliament passes the Jerusalem Law (1980); peaceful Hunger Protests organized by the Solidarity Union are held in Poland (1981 - the largest in the city of Lodz attracts 50,000 women & children who march as close to the City Hall as the Police will allow); Conservative MP for Eastbourne, Ian Gow is murdered in a car bomb attack by the Provisional IRA at his home (1990); a Mariachi band plays La Rey as the very last ever Volkswagen Beetle [#21,529,464] rolls off the assembly line in Puebla, Mexico (1993); the very last of the 2,263 original editions of Top of the Pops is broadcast (2006); ... and, this time last year, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt tells his Chinese hosts that his wife is also Japanese.

Birthdays Today include: Maria Anna "Nanerl" Mozart (1751); Emily Bronte (1818); Georg Wilhelm von Siemans (1855); Henry Ford (1863); Henry Moore (1895); Gerald Moore (1896); Stan Stennett (1925); Buddy Guy (1936); Peter Bogdanovich (1939); Clive Sinclair (1940); Paul Anka (1941); Frances de la Tour (1944); Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947); Christopher Warren-Green (1955); Kate Bush (1958); Christopher Nolan (1970); Hilary Swank (1974).

Final Days for: William Penn (1718); Thomas Gray (1771); Otto von Bismarck (1898); Benjamin Dale (1943); Jón Leifs (1968); Georg Szell (1970); Joe Shuster (1992); Ingmar Bergman (2007); Maeve Binchy (2012).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Sunday, 30th July, 1989 were:

Handel's Op4: "5th of 6 programmes" Concerto #5 in F; Telemann "Paris" 4tet in e.
Images: "last of 6 programmes of Piano Music by Debussy" - Berceuse heroique; En Blanc et Noir; Etudes (Bk2); D'un cahier d'esquisses.
Your Concert Choice: Smetana From Bohemia's Woods and Fields; Elgar 'cello Concerto (arr Tertis for Viola); Delius In a Summer Garden; Chopin 'cello Sonata; Dvorak Te Deum.
Prom Talk: Michael Hall & Edward Downes preview the week ahead's concerts; Kristian Zimerman on Lutoslawski's Pno Conc; Yuri Bashmet on "the best Viola Concerto ever written" (probably Schnittke's, as he was playing it that week, and it would be odd for him to discuss the Walton in that context!)
Sibelius: BBCWSO/Ronald Zollman (The Tempest Suite #2; Lemminkainen in Tuonela)
Paul Tortelier with Geoffrey Pratley [piano] & Maud Tortelier ['cello] (Couperin Concerto in G; Bach Suite in d BWV 1008; Handel Trio Sonata in g HWV 393; Rachmaninoff Sonata in g, Op 19).

[LMcD]

Falla

in Spanish one drops the de when addressing as surname only.


.

Joseph Cooper rather pompously pointed this out to one of the panellists on 'Face The Music' - probably Bernard Levin or Robin Ray.

[Bryn]

Joseph Cooper rather pompously pointed this out to one of the panellists on 'Face The Music' - probably Bernard Levin or Robin Ray.

Good for old Joe, where either of those is concerned.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 31st

The Feast Day of St Neot, the 9th Century Cornish Saint, who, despite standing only 4 foot tall on tiptoe, began his adult life as a soldier before becoming a monk, and founding a community of like-minded Brothers near Bodmin Moor - which became renowned for their care of the poor. He is said to have held the Counsel of Alfred the Great, and it is in an account of the life of Neot that first records the story of the burnt cakes. Neot is the patron Saint of fish.

Also on This Date: Mark Antony gains a temporary victory over Octavius on the first day of the Battle of Alexandria (30BCE); Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover the Island of Iëre ("land of the hummingbird") which he names "The Island of The Trinity", or "Trinidad" for short (1498); Daniel Defoe is sentenced to be pilloried for his "seditious" satirical pamphlet The Shortest Way with Dissenters (1703 - the story arose that the people showed their contempt for the sentence by throwing flower petals at him and drinking his health); Robert Burns' Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect is first published in Kilmarnock by printer John Wilson - it costs 3/- [about £13 in today's values] (1786); the Gaelic League is founded in Dublin by Douglas Hyde to promote the Irish language and Irish culture (1893); the Battle of Passchendaele [the "3rd Battle of Ypres"] begins (1917 - it continues for over 3 months); the Nazi Party wins 230 seats in the German Federal Election (1932 - 75 seats short of an overall majority, but more than twice the number they had gained in the previous elections, and making them by far the largest single party in parliament); the 3-week-long Battle of Smolensk comes to an end with the Wehrmacht surrounding and defeating three Soviet armies (1941 - the effort required to do this, however, severely weakens the German troops); in the last 17 minutes before it crash-lands on the Moon's surface, Space Probe Ranger 7 sends over 4,000 detailed photographs (1964); the Beatles close down their Apple Boutique and give away the stock (1968); the last ration of rum is served to Royal Navy sailors (1970); the Lunar Rover becomes the first vehicle to travel over the surface of the Moon, driven by 2 of the crew of Apollo 15 (1971); 3 members of the popular Irish group The Miami Showband are among five people shot dead by Loyalist Terrorists, including 4 members of the British Army (1975); Fidel Castro undergoes surgery and delegates his Presidential duties to his brother Raul (2006); Operation Banner, the British Army presence in Northern Ireland since 1969, is ended (2007);

Birthdays Today include: Richard Dixon Oldham (1858); Mary Vaux Walcott (1860); Jacques Villon (1875); Fred Quimby (1886); Jean Dubuffet (1901); Peter Nicholls (1927); Richard Griffiths (1947); Suzanne Giraud (1958); JK Rowling (1965); ... Lynne Reid Banks is 90 today, Steuart Bedford 80, Geraldine Chaplin & Jonathan Dimbleby both 75, Andrew Marr 60, and today is the Centenary of the birth of both Primo Levi and Norman Del Mar.

Final Days for: Ignatius of Loyola (1556); Denis Diderot (1784); Franz Liszt (1886); Hedd Wynn & Francis ledwidge (1917 - both poets killed on the first day of Passchendaele); Jim Reeves (1964); Bud Powell (1966); Paul Le Flem (1984, aged 103 - I wonder if he ever got to see his great-granddaughter, Eva Green, who was born in 1980?); Gore Vidal (2012); Jeanne Moreau (2017).

And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Thursday, 31st July, 1969 were:

Overture: "gramophone records"
Morning Concert: "gramophone records"
This Week's Composer: Monetverdi (Confitebor tibi Domino I; Cantate Domino; Salve Regina II; O bone Jesu; Iste confessor; Confitebor tibi Domine II)
Artist's Choice: "Henryk Szeryng introduces records of his own choice"
Stravinsky: Duo Concertante (Hyman Bress & Wilfrid Parry)
Music Making (with April Cantelo, Charles Spinks, Frederick Riddle, & Eric Harrison)
Midday Concert: BBCWSO/John Carewe

[vinteuil]

The Feast Day of St Neot, the 9th Century Cornish Saint...

... I applaud your perseverance in rooting out obscure Celtic saints.

It wd be nice if you had also noted the (possibly more significant) St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Whose name was not spelled Layola, neither...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola

.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... I applaud your perseverance in rooting out obscure Celtic saints.

It wd be nice if you had also noted the (possibly more significant) St Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Whose name was not spelled Layola, neither...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_of_Loyola

First of those mentioned in the Final Days section, vinty

[vinteuil]

First of those mentioned in the Final Days section, vinty

... wrongly spelled and not given his due, this being his Feast Day.

harrumph.


.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

My apologies to the Saint, and to his fellow citizens of Loyola. Duly corrected.

[LezLee]

Surprised you missed the birthdays on the 29th:

Natalie Wheen who was 72. One of the best presenters ever and a sad day when she left R3 for their dreaded 'rival'.
Mikis Theodorakis (94) - so much more than his film music. I went to a local record fair a few years ago and found LPs of 2 of his symphonies and the marvellous 'In a State of Siege'. A revelation.

[LeMartinPecheur]

The Feast Day of St Neot, the 9th Century Cornish Saint, who, despite standing only 4 foot tall on tiptoe, began his adult life as a soldier before becoming a monk, and founding a community of like-minded Brothers near Bodmin Moor - which became renowned for their care of the poor. He is said to have held the Counsel of Alfred the Great, and it is in an account of the life of Neot that first records the story of the burnt cakes. Neot is the patron Saint of fish.

It should be noted that St Neot, Cornwall has an unresolved issue with St Neots, Cambridgeshire! Circa 980AD the latter, or more precisely monks from Eynesbury, Cambs, stole the Cornish saint's bones from the church at St Neot to improve their own abbey's status and income, renaming it after the him. Hence the St Neots place-name, probably the only one outside Cornwall using the moniker of a Cornish saint. The monks then carelessly lost these irreplaceable relics at the Suppression of the Monasteries