Today's the Day

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March 17th

St Patrick's Day; where Irishmen and women, their relatives and friends commemorate the Saint who brought Christianity to Ireland with appropriate quiet contemplation and reverence. Patrick's story - even though hugely embellished in the intervening centuries - is a remarkable one; born in Roman Britain (possibly present-day Cumbria, possibly Northern Wales, possibly South-Western Scotland -- who knows, even possibly Liverpool) to a family of clerics, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates at the age of 16, and was a slave in Ireland for the next six years, working as a shepherd, before escaping and managing to return to his homeland, where he had a vision in which he was begged to return to Ireland to spread the gospel. The story of the snakes is a much later fabrication (fortunately - it would be ironic if the patron saint of Ireland were actually responsible for an act that didn't exactly enhance his green credentials) as is the story of the shamrock, even if this has become emblematic of the saint in specific, and of Ireland in general. Irish-Americans have held celebrations on this day since the Crown & Thistle tavern in New York City held its first of its annual parties on this date in 1756 (the first Parade was held six years later); but the feast day was kept very low key in England until recently - indeed, there are a number of records (including from Pepys) of varying degrees of hostility towards any display of Irishness on this day in England. But the date used to be acknowledged in England for a completely different reason: it was traditionally regarded as the date on which Noah loaded the Ark and the rains began. How's the weather been for you, today?

Also on this date: the Battle of Munda, in which Julius Caesar finally defeated the forces of his rivals, and was able to establish himself as Dictator of Rome (45BCE - his assassination therefore occurred exactly a year after his greatest personal triumph); six-year-old Prince Edward [later to become known as the Black Prince] is made Duke of Cornwall by his father - the first conferring of the title "Duke" in English History and the Charter granting him the title also confers it on all eldest sons of the reigning monarch in perpetuity, empowering them to have overpriced biscuits manufactured in their name (1337); the siege of Boston ends when British troops who have been garrisoned in the city for the past eleven months see that Washington is pointing a lot of heavy artillery in their direction, and decide it's time to leave - the date is celebrated as Evacuation Day in the Boston to this day (1776); Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell is premiered in Weimar, directed by Goethe (1804); Chopin's 2nd Piano Concerto is premiered in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist (1830); Bristol baker Henry Jones takes out a patent for Self-Raising Flour (1845); the Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed with Victor Emmanuel its King (1861); 20 African-American citizens are shot dead in Carroll County courtroom, Mississippi by over fifty of their white neighbours who were incensed that black people had dared to charge James Liddell (or any white man) with attempted murder (1886); the first gassings of groups of Polish Jewish prisoners begins at Belzec Extermination Camp in Poland - (1942; over the next three years, of around half-a-million prisoners, only seven - literally seven - survive to the end of the War); radioactive element Californium is successfully synthesized (1950); Vanguard 1, the first solar-powered satellite [and the oldest artificial satellite still in orbit] is launched (1958); the Dalai Lama flees from Tibet (1959); US military experiments with using nerve gas results in the Dugway Sheep Incident in Utah, in which 6000 sheep in neighbouring ranches are killed (1968 - thirty years later, the military admit that the deaths were caused by research into chemical weapons); Golda Meir is elected Israel's fourth Prime Minister; the first [and, so far, only]woman to hold the office (1969); the Queen opens the new London Bridge (1973); a referendum in South Africa votes [69:31%] to end Apartheid (1992); Leader of the House of Commons, Robin Cook resigns from the Cabinet in protest against the Iraq War - his resignation speech results in applause from all sides of the House, and from the public gallery, and receives the House's first-ever standing ovation when he finishes (2003); a gun battle between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in the Kosovan town of Mitrovica results in at least 14 deaths and many hundreds of injuries (2004).

Birthdays include: Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (1665); Patrick Bronte (1777); Josef Rheinberger (1839); Kate Greenaway (1846); Lawrence Oates (1880); Alfred Newman (1901); Ray Ellington (1915); Stephen Dodgson (1924); Betty Allen (1927); Penelope Lively (1933); Rudolph Nureyev (1938); Robin Knox-Johnston (1939); Max Stafford-Clark and Edward Harper (both 1941); Michael Finnissy (1946); Luca Francesconi (1956); ... and today is the Centenary of the birth of Nat King Cole.
Final Days for: Marcus Aurelius (180); Philip Massinger (1640); François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac (1680); Austen Chamberlain (1937); Luchino Visconti (1976); Helen Hayes (1993); Rene Clement (1996); Gary Bertini (2005); Michael Gough (2011); and Joseph Kerman (2014).

And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Saturday, 17th March, 1979 were:

Aubade:Grainger Molly on the shore; Stanford La belle dame sans merci; Field Grande pastorale; Sullivan Allegretto ("Irish Symphony"); Irish folk songs (arr Beethoven): The pulse of an Irishman, Elfin Fairies, Put round the bright wine; Harty Symphonic Poem: "With the wild geese"
Record Review: with Mahler's Resurrection, reviewed by David Murray, the BaL
Release: including Schumann Fantasiestucke , Op 73; Ravel Violin Sonata & Tzigane
Robert Tear & Timothy Walker: Nicholas Maw Six Interiors; Dowland Flow, my tears, Come again, sweet love, Come, heavy sleep; Pllkington Diaphenia like the daffdowndilly, Rest, sweet nymphs; Rosseter When Laura smiles; Morley It was a lover and his lass
Robin Ray: presenting a selection of popular classics recorded over the previous 75 years.

[vinteuil]

... Patrick Bronte (1777)

... was at birth actually Patrick Brunty, the first of ten children born to Hugh Brunty, a farm labourer, and Alice McClory, in Drumballyroney (near Rathfriland), County Down; the name ultimately deriving from the Irish clan Ó Pronntaigh.

Wiki tells us :

"At some point ... Patrick Brontë (born Brunty), decided on the alternative spelling with the diaeresis over the terminal e to indicate that the name has two syllables. It is not known for certain what motivated him to do so, and multiple theories exist to account for the change. He may have wished to hide his humble origins. As a man of letters, he would have been familiar with classical Greek and may have chosen the name after the Greek βροντή ("thunder"). One view, put forward by the biographer C. K. Shorter in 1896, is that he adapted his name to associate himself with Admiral Horatio Nelson, who was also Duke of Brontë. Evidence for this may be found in his desire to associate himself with the Duke of Wellington in his form of dress."

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Visitors to the Haworth Pasonage Museum at any time this year can see the exhibition dedicated to Patrick's lifelong interest in medical developments (including his annotated medical textbooks with which he attempted to alleviate the sufferings of his parishioners who could not afford to send for the doctor). This interest wasn't much help for his own children, of course, and the Museum advertises the exhibition by drawing somewhat unseemly attention to one of the exhibits:

https://www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on/821/patrick-bronte-in-sickness-and-in-health/1090

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March 18th

Transit Drivers' Appreciation Day - the tenth anniversary of this annual show of gratitude and appreciation to all Public Transport drivers.
And the Feast Day of St/King Edward the Martyr, murdered on this date in 978 at the age of about 15, it is believed, by his step-mother, who wanted her son, Aethelred ("the Unready") to be King. Edward's elevation to sainthood seems to be based on ... erm ... his youth, and the fact that when his body was moved to a more appropriate burial ground for a King years after his murder, it hadn't decayed much. (Otherwise, he's just another victim of Mediaeval power struggles.)

Also on this Date: the Roman Senate proclaims Caligula Emperor (37CE); Frederick II declares himself King of Jerusalem during the Third Crusade (1229- partly to compensate for the fact that the Pope had twice excommunicated him twice [in 1227 and 1228]); the six Tolpuddle Martyrs are sentenced to penal transportation for swearing a secret oath of allegience to a Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers (1834); hundreds are left dead as police open fire on a demonstration in Berlin (1848); the British Government repeals the four-and-a-half month old Stamp Act, requiring colonial printed material to be published on official "stamped" paper - which had proven immensely unpopular in the American colonies and was a deciding factor in the move towards independence (1766); Burns' Tam O'Shanter is published in the Ednburgh Herald (1791); violent conflict between the Paris Military and the Communard Revolutionary National Guard - the army withdraws from Paris (1871); studying photographic plates taken the previous year, Bostonian astronomer William Henry Pickering discovers Phoebe, the Ninth Moon of Saturn (1899); Schönberg's Verklarte Nacht is premiered in Vienna by the Rose Quartet with Franz Jelinek and Franz Schmidt (1902); Mahatma Gandhi begins a six-year prison sentence for sedition (1922 - he serves thirteen months, and is released for an appendectomy); the Tri-Stae Tornedo, the most deadly in US history, results in nearly 700 deaths and over 2000 injuries across Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana: 15000 homes are destroyed at a cost of over a billion pounds in today's money (1925); Kozintsev and Trauerberg's film The New Bablyon goes on release in Leningrad with a score by Shostakovich (1929 - the score is more complicated than cinema orchestras were used to, and as a result of censorship, many find it too difficult to perform); a gas explosion at the New London School in Texas kills 300 people, most of them children (1937); Mexico nationalises all privately-owned oil companies (1938); Hitler and Mussolini agree to form an alliance against Brotain and France (1940); Mount Vesuvius erupts, killing 26 people (1944); the Yenice–Gönen earthquake kills over 1000 people in Turkey (1953); Algeria gains independence from France after an eight year long war(1962); Alexei Leonov becomes the first human to "walk" in space (1965); the Torey Canyon supertanker is shipwrecked off the coast of Cornwall, leaking its cargo of 120000 tons of crude oil (1967); a landslide in the Peruvian village of Yanawayin kills over 200 miners (1971); the first democratic elections are held in East Germany (1990); the UK Government recognises British Sign Language as a language in its own right (2003); Crimea, formerly part of Ukraine, is annexed by Russia (2014); and exactly a year ago, Vladimir Putin wins a fourth term as President of Russia.

Birthdays today include: Cornelis Ketel (1548); Christian Goldbach (1690); Grover Cleveland (1837); Stephane Mallarmé (1842); Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff (1842); Rudolf Diesel (1858); Eugene Jansson (1862); Neville Chamberlaine (1869); Gian Francesco malipiero (1882); Wilfred Owen (1893); Robert Donat (1905); John Zachary Young (1907); Alessandro Alessandroni (1925); John Updike (1932); FW de Klerk (1936); James Conlon (1950); Luc Besson (1959); Courtney Pine (1964);

Final Days for: Robert Walpole (1745); Laurence Sterne (1768); John Chapman ["Johnny Appleseed"](1845); Erich Fromm (1980); John Phillips (2001); Anthony Minghella (2008); Natasha Richardson (2009); Barry Hines (2016); and Chuck Berry (2017).

And the Radio 3 morning schedules for Saturday, 18th March, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Berlioz Rob Roy Ovt; Chopin Nocturne in G minor, Op 15 #3; Chausson Air de danse, Danse rustique (from "The Tempest", Op 18); Handel Concerto grosso in Bb, Op 3 #1; Granados Valses Poeticos; Mozart Serenata Nottuma
This Week on 3: Susan Sharpe highlights the week ahead.
Parikian-Milne-Fleming Trio: Mozart Trio in G (K 564); Schumann Trio in D minor, Op 63
Saturday Review Introduced by Richard Osbome. Chopin's Etudes, Op 10 and Op 25 BaLed by Bryce Morrison. Alan Blyth reviews Harnoncourt's Magic Flute and opera and lieder recitals. Record Release - Loewe Frauenliebe, Op 60 Brigitte Fassbaender & Cord Garben; Bellini Rimorso in lei? ... Qui m'accolse oppresso, errante from "Beatrice di Tenda", Act 2 - Leo Nucci/ECO/Gianfranco Massini; Tchaikovsky Letter Scene from "Eugene Onegin", Act 1) Lucia Popp/MRSO/Stefan Soltesz; A conversation with Peter Donohoe and his new recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 1 with BmSO/BARSHA1; Brahms Symphony #3 in F ClevelandO/Dohnanyi

[vinteuil]

... the Feast Day of St/King Edward the Martyr, murdered on this date in 978 at the age of about 15, it is believed, by his step-mother, who wanted her son, Aethelred ("the Unready") to be King. Edward's elevation to sainthood seems to be based on ... erm ... his youth, and the fact that when his body was moved to a more appropriate burial ground for a King years after his murder, it hadn't decayed much. (Otherwise, he's just another victim of Mediaeval power struggles.)nyi

... curiously the Orthodox Church holds him in particular reverence. Wiki tells us :

"During the sixteenth century and English Reformation, King Henry VIII led the dissolution of the monasteries and many holy places were demolished. Edward's remains were hidden so as to avoid desecration. In 1931, the relics were recovered by Wilson-Claridge during an archaeological excavation; their identity was confirmed by Dr. T. E. A. Stowell, an osteologist. In 1970, examinations performed on the relics suggested that the young man had died in the same manner as Edward. Wilson-Claridge wanted the relics to go to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. His brother, however, wanted them to be returned to Shaftesbury Abbey. For decades, the relics were kept in a cutlery box in a bank vault at the Midland Bank in Woking, Surrey because of the unresolved dispute about which of two churches should have them.

In time, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia was victorious and placed the relics in a church in Brookwood Cemetery in Woking, with the enshrinement ceremony occurring in September 1984. The St Edward Brotherhood of monks was organized there as well. The church is now named St Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church, and it is under the jurisdiction of a traditionalist Greek Orthodox community. However, while the bones are of approximately the right date, they are of a man in his late twenties or early thirties rather than a youth in his mid teens. In the Orthodox Church, St Edward is ranked as a Passion-bearer, a type of saint who accepts death out of love for Christ. Edward was widely venerated before the canonization process was formalized, and he is also regarded as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. His feast day is celebrated on 18 March, the day of his murder. The Orthodox Church commemorates him a second time each year on 3 September and commemorates the translation of his relics into Orthodox possession on 13 February."

"... For decades, the relics were kept in a cutlery box in a bank vault at the Midland Bank in Woking, Surrey ... "


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"...For decades, the relics were kept in a cutlery box in a bank vault at the Midland Bank in Woking, Surrey ...

Next to the remains of Guy Fawkes?

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March 19th

St Joseph's Day - celebrating the carpenter husband of Mary, and either appropriately or completely missing the point (depending on how you look at it) Fathers' Day in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Honduras, and Bolivia. Somewhat overlooked in England, though there is apparently a saying that "on St Joseph's Day/Throw the warming-pan away" (or "put your hot water bottles away", but that scans even less well!) My favourite "Joseph" story is that told by Gervais Phinn, the former inspector of Primary Schools in North Yorkshire, who describes seeing a Nativity Play in which the dialogue went -
Joseph: You can't turn us away: my wife is going to have a baby!
Innkeeper: That's nowt to do with me!
Joseph: No, and it's nowt to do with me, either!

Also on this date: the House of Lords is abolished by Cromwell's government who declare it "useless and dangerous to the people of England" (1649); Haydn's Creation is premiered in Vienna (1799); Schiller's play The Bride of Messina i premiered in Weimar (1803); Gounod's Faust is premiered [with spoken dialogue, rather than the later recitatives] in Paris (1859 - exaclty five years to the day later, his opera Mireille is premiered in the same theatre); the USS Georgiana - which was the largest and most powerful ship in the Confederate fleet [built in Scotland]is destroyed on its maiden voyage from Scotland to the US by Union Navy ships (1863 - its wreckage is discovered exactly 102 years later to the day by 17-year-old diver, E. Lee Spence); the very first official Test match between national cricket teams from England and Australia ends with Australia winning by 45 runs (1877 - the match commemorating the centenary of this occasion concludes with exactly the same result); the orchestral version of Balakirev's Tamara is premiered in St petersburg with the composer conducting (1883); the Lumiere Brothers record their first footage using their new cinematographic process (1895); Dvorak's 'cello Concerto is given its first public performance in London, the composer conducts, but his chosen soloist, Hans Wiman [who had assisted the composer whilst he was writing the piece, and who had performed in the first private run-through of the work] is replaced by Leo Stern because of a clash of engagement dates (1896); the first International Women's Day is celbrated in Europe and the US (1911); the US Congress establishes the US Time Zones (1918); Surrealist magazine Littérature, editied by Andre Bréton is first published (1919); political opponents of President Wilson in the US Senate rejct the Treaty of Versailles [and membership of the League of Nations] for a second time - they later create their own peace treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary (1920); children playing at Strunjen (in current-day Slovenia) are shot at from a train by Italian fascists; two are killed, and five others seriously injured (1921); Sydnet Harbour Bridge is opened (1932); Tippett's A Child of Our Time is premiered in London (1944); Hitler issues the "Nero Decree", a "scortched earth" policy to destroy German infrastructure to prevent it being utilised by the advancing allied armies [Albert Speer, the minister charged with carrying out the decree, ignores it](1945); Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny is first published (1951); the London Planetarium is opened (1958); Bob Dylan's eponymously-titled first album is released by CBS (1962); the 1200-foot-high mast of Emley Moor transmission station in Yorkshire collapses in gale-force winds under the weight of collected ice (1969); the US House of Representatives begins broadcasting on Cable television (1979); Argentinian scrap-metal merchants, including members of the Argentinian Marines, raise the Argentinian flag on South Georgia Island, initiating the Falklands War (1982); two undercover British Army corporals, Derek Wood and David Howes, driving into an IRA funeral are set upon by the mourners and shot by the IRA (1988); the first recorded "Largest Omelette" is made, using 160,000 eggs in Yolkohame, Japan (1994 -this record has since been twice battered); the Swift Observatory Satellite detects a gamma-ray burst from the furthest object so far detected on Earth - the light (visible for 30 seconds to the naked eye) has taken 7.5 billion years ago - just over half the age of the Universe (2008); and, exactly a year ago, Sudan, the very last male Northern White Rhinoceros dies; only two females of the species now survive.

Birthdays today include: Tobias Smollett (1721); David Livingstone (1813); Richard Burton (1821); William Allingham (1824); Minna Canth (1844); Wyatt Earp (1848); Max Reger (1873); Earl Warren (1891); Albert Speer and Adolf Eichmann (1905 & 1906); Elizabeth Maconchy (1907); Tommy Cooper (1921); Hans Kung and Patrick McGoohan (both 1928); Philip Roth (1933); Ursula Andress (1936); and Glenn Close (1947).

Final Days for: Nicolaus Bruhns (1697); Arthur Balfour (1930); Edgar Rice Burroughs (1950); Walter Braunfels (1954); Lauritz Melchior (1973); Christopher Headington (1996); Willem de Kooning (1997); and both Arthur C Clarke and Paul Scofield (2008).

And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Saturdat, 19th March, 1969 were:

The Saturday Concert (gramophone records)
Moscow Chamber Orchestra condcted by Rudolf Barshai
Record Review: incl the "Trout 5tet", BaLed by John Warrack; & recent records of instrumental Music reviewed by Paul Dawson-Bowling
Jazz Record Requests introduced by Steve Race

[Richard Tarleton]

Joseph: You can't turn us away: my wife is going to have a baby!
Innkeeper: That's nowt to do with me!
Joseph: No, and it's nowt to do with me, either!

the first recorded "Largest Omelette" is made, using 160,000 eggs in Yolkohama, Japan (1994 -this record has since been twice battered);

It's the way you tell 'em (to reference one of your birthdays).....

Correction - that was of course Frank Carson, not Tommy Cooper

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March 20th

Spring Equinox - and with a supermoon this year; and the first coinciding of a Full Moon with the Spring Equinox since 2000 (so; today's is the first one of this Century and millennium!) and it won't happen again until 2030. And it's also World Story-Telling Day, International Day of Happiness, and World Sparrow Day - so make yourselves and everyone around you happy by telling them the story of Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince, and you've got the day sorted!
It's also the Feast Day of St Cuthbert, the 7th Century Northumbrian Monk, prior of Lindisfarne (and, before that, Melrose Abbey in present-day Roxburghshire - where he was probably born) and would-be hermit of Inner Farne. One of the most important of the Celtic Saints, his remains were moved three hundred years later in 995 when Lindisfarne was a target for Danish invaders; the intention was that they should be re-buried in Chester-le-Street, but the cart containing the saint got stuck in Durham: this was taken as a sign from Cuthbert that he should be buried at that precise spot, so a Cathedral was bulit around him - and so began the "modern" fortunes of the city of Durham. Cuthbert is the subject of an eighth Century hagiography by Bede (written when Cuthbert was still buried in Lindisfarne).

Also on this date: a "triple conjunction" of Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter is regarded by astrologers as being the cause of the Black Death plague epidemic (1345); the Dutch East Asia Company is founded (1602); Sir Walter Raliegh is released after a 13-year imprisonment in the Tower of London on suspicion of being involved in a plot to remove James I from the English Throne - he is needed to lead an expedition to find El Dorado in Guyana (1613 - five years later, he is executed as part of diplomatic manoeuvres with Spain); Alessandro Volta writes to Joseph Banks [president of the Royal Society] descrinbing his invention of the Electric Pile battery (1800); Napoleon returns from exile on Elba to resume his rule of France (1815); unpopular king Ludwig I of Bavaria abdicates in favour of his son after the 1848 popular uprisings; Harriet Beecher Stowe's 40-part newspaper serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin is first published as a novel, selling 3.000 copies on this first day alone (1852); the Republican Party of the United States is founded (1854); d'Indy's "Symphony on a French Mountain Song" is premiered in Paris (1887); Children of the Forests, the first Romani operetta, is premiered in Moscow - it has a popular and unbroken run of 18 years (1888); the 18-month long Second Matabele War in Zimbabwe [then Rhodesia] begins with rebels shooting dead a police officer (1896); South African pilots, Pierre van Ryneveld & Christopher Brand, complete the first flight from London to Cape Town - they'd set off 45 days earlier (1920); Harlan Sanders opens his first Court and Cafe restaurant, in North Corbin, Kentucky, selling fried chicken (1930); General Douglas macArthur makes his "I shall return" comment after his retreat from the Philippines (1942); rival TV companies CBS and NBC broadcast the first televised Orchestral concerts, conducted by Ormandy [conducting a concert of Weber and Rachmaninoff] and Toscanini [conducting an all-Wagner programme] respectively (1948); Alexander Tcheripnnin's Symphony #2 is premiered in Chicago (1952); Tunisia gains independence from France (1956); the European Space Research Organization is established (1964); the first car bombings by the IRA kill 7 people and injure 140 others on Donegall Street in Belfast (1972); Patty Hearst is convicted of armed bank robbery - she is given the maximum sentence of 35 years in prison (1976 - she is released in 1979, and pardoned in 2001); azidothymidine (AZT) is approved for use against AIDS by the US Food & Drug Administration (1987); members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release Sarin gas on three lines of the Tokyo subway, killing 12 people immediately, injuring 50 others [some of whom later die of their injuries] and causing temporarily vision problems for 1000 others (1995); the Brazilian-owned Petrobras 36 semi-submersible oil platform sinks five days after explosions had irreperably damaged it; it takes an estimated 1500 tonnes of crude oil with it (2001); US, UK, Polish, and Australian troops begin a land invasion of Iraq (2003); there is a coincidence of a Solar Eclipse and a Supermoon [although the latter isn't visible from Earth] (2015); and Barack Obama becomes the first US president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928 to pay a state visit to Cuba (2016).

Birthdays today include: Ovid (43BCE); Anne Bradstreet (1612); Karl August Nicander (1799); Henrik Ibsen (1828); Lauritz Melchior (1890 - he died the day before his 83rd birthday); Michael Redgrave (1908); Sviatoslav Richter (1915); Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918); Carl Reiner (1922); John Joubert (1927); John Cameron (1944); William Hurt (1950); Spike Lee and Theresa Russel (both 1957); Holly Hunter (1958); David Thewlis (1963); William Dalrymple (1965); ... and Freema Agyeman is 40, today, Yvette Cooper is 50, David Malouf (1934) 85 - all youngsters compared with Vera Lynn, who is 102 today.

Final Days for: Henry Bollingbroke [Bbm's ancestor, Henry IV] (1413); Adrienne Lecouvreur (1730); Jan Ladislav Dussek (1812); Hans Christian Lumbye (1874); Brendan Behan (1964); Alan Ridout (1996); VS Pritchett (1997); Patrick Heron (1999); Johnny Pearson (2011); and James Herbert (2013).

And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Tuesday, 20th March, 1979 were:

Overture: Strauss Serenade Op7; Cherubini S4tet #6; Hummel Octet-Partitia in Eb
Morning Concert: Prokofiev Autumn; Chopin Scherzos 1 & 3; Wieniawski Violin Concerto #2; Lyadov Polonaise Op 49.
This Week's Composer: RVW (On Wenlock Edge; 6 Studies in English Folk Song.)
Young Musicians Recital: McCabe 3 Pieces Op 26; Schmitt Andantino in c, Op 30 #1; Debussy Petite Piece; Brahms Sonata in E flat, Op 120 #2; Lutoslawski Dance Preludes; Weber Grand duo concertant, Op 48.
Monteverdi: two madrigals and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda
BBCWSO conducted by Arthur Davison: Mendelssohn Hebrides Ovt; Khatchaturian Vln Concerto (with Raymond Cohen); Schubert 5th Symphony

[DracoM]

Fantastic research, ferney!
Many thx.

Happy Birthday to Yvette Cooper - one of the quietist but most influential politicians behind the scenes.......

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

March 21st

World Poetry Day - a UNESCO initiative to get people reading and writing more poetry. It's also World Puppetry Day, International Colour Day, World Down Syndrome Day, Education Freedom Day, Truants' Day, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Prejudice, and International Day of the Forests. (Something for everyone there, I should imagine.)

And it used to be the Feast Day of St Benedict, founder of the Bendictine Order of Monks, who died on this date in 547 . In 1970, the feats was moved to 11th July; rather unhelpfully, as St Benedict's Day was formerly used to mark various Spring planting guides (as with many other Springtime saints' days) - one of those folk rhymes recorded in 1670 advises: "Saint Benedick/Sow thy pease or keep them in thy rick" - and it was also believed that "When the wind is on 21st March, it will prevail for the Summer" (which doesn't even attempt to rhyme or scan!)

Also on this date: Emperor Heraclius of Byzantium returns the One True Cross to Jerusalem after he had received it from the Persian King Khavad II (629); Eleanor of Aquitaine's marriage to King Lois VII of France is annulled, (1152 - leaving her free to marry the Duke of Normandy, who became Henry II of England; she became mother of Richard I and King John); Henry of Monmouth becomes Henry V (1413); Archbishop Thomas Cranmer is burnt at the stake for treason and heresy - immediately before he is killed, he denounces Catholicism, withdraws his earlier recantations and ensures that the right hand that signed those recantations is the first part of his body to enter the flames (1556); "Pocahontas" is buried in Gravesend, Kent (1617); the Code Napoleon is adopted as French Civil Law (1804); Beethoven's String Quartet in Bb, Op130 [with the Grosse Fuge as finale] is premiered in Vienna by the Schuppanzigh Quartet (1826); Mendelssohn conducts the first performance of Schubert's 8th Symphony D944 (the "Great" C major) in Leipzig (1839); the beginning of the Bahá'í Calendar (1844 - today is Naw-Ruz [New Year] 176BE); the Scottish National Gallery opens in Edinburgh (1859); Otto von Bismarck begins his 19-year[minus a day] tenure as Chancellor of the newly-formed German Empire (1871); Strauss' Sinfonia Domestica is premiered in New York by the Welzer Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer after more than 15 rehearsals (1904); the Great River Miami floods, causing the greatest devastation in Ohioian history when it destroys 20000 homes and kills over 360 inhabitants of Drayton (1913); part of Hungary declares itself the Hungarian Soviet Republic - it lasts for four-and-a-jhalf months (1919); Lenin replaces War Communism in Russia with the New Economic Policy of "state-controlled free market" as a temporary solution to economic meltdown following the civil war after the October Revolution of 1917 (1922); Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges is premiered in Monte Carlo, conducted by Victor de Sabata (1925); the Shah requests foreign dignitaries to refer to his country's name as "Iraq" rather than "Persia" (1935); Police in Ponce, Puerto Rico open fire on a civil demonstration on the orders of the US appointed Governor, Balnton C Winship - 21 people are killed [including 2 policemen, shot by their colleagues] and over 200 are injured, most of them shot in the back (1937); Hitchcock's film of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca is released (1940); British troops liberate Mandalay from Japanese occupation - and, on the same day, the RAF attacking Gestapo Headquarters in Copenhagen accidentally hit a school, killing 125 civilians, including 86 children and 18 of their teachers (1945); the first large-scale Rock & Roll concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball is staged in the Cleveland Arena, hosted by Alan Freed (1952); the Sharpevill Massacre in South Africa, when police open fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing 69 people and injuring 180 others [including 29 schoolchildren] - most of them shot in the back (1960); Alcatraz prison is shut down; and Yogi, a 2-year-old black bear is ejected at 35,00 feet from a US Air Force bomber flying at 870mph; he survives the seven-minute parachute descent, but is then killed so that doctors can examine the corpse for signs of "stress" [!!!] (1962); President Carter announces that American athletes will boycott the Moscow Olympics to protest against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan - and JR is shot in Dallas (1980); Time magazine is called back after the only cover typo in its history (1983); to commemorate the 25th Annivesary of the Sharpeville Massacre, South African police open fire on mourners attending a funeral in Langa township - 35 people are killed, and 27 wounded (1985); Namibia gains independence from South Africa (1990); the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change comes into force (1994); and 13-year-old Millie Dowler is reported missing by her parents - she has been abducted and killed by Levi Bellfield; her body is discovered six months later (2002).

Birthdays today include: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685); Jean Paul (1763); Joseph Fourier (1768); Modest Musorgsky (1839); Florenz Ziegfeld (1867); Paul Kletzki (1900); Nikos Skalkottas (1904); Paul Tortelier (1914); Eric Rohmer (1920); Arthur Grumiaux and Antony Hopkins (both 1921); Peter Brook (1925); Ruth Anderson (1928); Joseph Silverstein (1932); Michael Heseltine (1933); Brian Clough (1935); Mike Westbrook (1936); Ann Clwyd (1937); Vivian Stanshall (1943); Timothy Dalton (1946); Elena Firsova (1950); Gary Oldman (1958); and Ayrton Senna (1960).

Final Days for: Robert Southey (1843); Franz Schreker (1934); Alexander Glazunov (1936); Willem Mengelberg (1951); Michael Redgrave (1985 - the day after his 77th birthday); Leo Fender (1991); Wolfgang Wagner (2010); Chinua Achebe (2013); Colin Dexter and Martin McGuinness (both 2017) ... and, twenty years ago today, Ernie Wise (1999).


And the Radio 3 schedules for the morning of Tuesday, 21st March, 1989 were:

Morning Concert : Telemann Concerto in a minor; Beethoven "Ein Madchen Oder Weibchen" Vars; Dvorak Slavonic Dances 2 & 6; Schumann Symphony #1; Ibert Divertissement; Matheo Flecha (the elder) La bomba.
Composer of the Week: Bartok (the last Decade) - including Contrasts and the 2nd Violin Concerto (complete).
Corelli & Scarlatti: 3 Trio Sonatas by the former and 2 keyboard Sonatas by the latter.
Debussy: Khamma
Earl Wild playing 5 studies by Liszt and Ravel's Alborada del gracioso
BBCSSO conducted by Takuo Yuasa: Ravel Valses Nobles et Sentimentales; Bartok Dance Suite; Beethoven #7

[edashtav]

Nikos Skalkottas b.1904. A major 20th century composer. A time there was when the Third Programme / Radio 3 gave him a fair deal. Nowadays, his works are under-represented and we have a need for 21st century interpretations.

Am I alone?

[Richard Tarleton]

Otto von Bismarck begins his 19-year [minus a day] tenure as Chancellor of the newly-formed German Empire (1871)

He had, of course, been Prussia's Prime Minister since 1862...had already made war on Denmark over Schleswig-Holstein (1864), on Austria and other German states (1866, Austro-Prussian War, Battle of Koniggratz), on France (1870, Battle of Sedan)....annexed some German states...unified the rest, whether they liked it or not.... 1914 was the fourth time that Prussia, later Germany, attacked its neighbours in 50 years (1939 the fifth in 75 years). At the risk of oversimplification, a bit of a pattern there.

Prussia must concentrate and maintain its power for the favorable moment which has already slipped by several times. Prussia's boundaries according to the Vienna treaties [1815] are not favorable to a healthy state life. The great questions of the time will not be resolved by speeches and majority decisions – that was the great mistake of 1848 and 1849 – but by iron and blood.

The twentieth century owes much to Bismarck

[LMcD]

Fantastic research, ferney!
Many thx.

Happy Birthday to Yvette Cooper - one of the quietist but most influential politicians behind the scenes.......

[johncorrigan]

World Down Syndrome Day,

Thank you, ferney. To raise awareness of World Down Syndrome Day it is suggested that you wear a pair of odd socks - I think it is because a sock has somewhat the same shape as a chromosome, and people with Down's have an extra chromosome. A nice day to remember a couple of old Down's pals, sadly departed too early, who brightened my life with their love, laughs and enthusiasm.