Today's the Day

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

40 years today since I saw Herbert von Karajan and the BPO perform Bruckner 8 in the Royal Festival Hall, London. You don't forget days like that!

I remember the Telegraph review of that concert the next day - referring to the "superannuated" conductor!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 20th

The Mock Election of the Mayor of Ock Street happens every year on this date in the Oxfordshire town of Abingdon. A parody of the more pompous official Mayoral ceremonies, the tradition began in one of the "rougher" areas of the town, supposedly in 1700, though the earliest records date from 1860. The Mayor has no other duties than those (no doubt strenuous) of Squire of the local Morris Dancing team (some evidence for the existence of which can be found dating back to 1560). The ceremony is one of the few surviving Mock Elections that those who had no vote used to hold to poke fun of their richer "neighbours" - and can we really imagine the witnessing of a spoof Election of an incompetent clown for the amusement of the disenfranchised being a popular entertainment today?

Also on this Date: Pirate slave traders from modern-day Morocco attack the Irish coastal village of Baltimore in County Cork, abducting as many as 237 citizens to take to work on galleys and other types of slave labour in the Ottoman Empire (1631 - only three of them ever return home, and Baltimore is evacuated by the remaining villagers and deserted "for generations"); 164 British Prisoners are put into captivity in the dungeon of Fort William in Calcutta on the orders of the Nawab of Bengal - the dungeon measures 14ft X 18ft, and by the time they are released three days later from this Black Hole of Calcutta, 143 have died from suffocation and heat exhaustion (1756); the US Congress approves and adopts the Great Seal as its National Emblem (1782 - it has taken 6 years and three different committees to decide on a design); the representatives of the majority of the population of France, finding themselves locked out of the Committee, reassemble at a nearby indoor Tennis Court and take an Oath, vowing to defy any attempt by the king to dismiss them (1789); William IV dies and his 18-year-old niece Victoria becomes Queen (1837); Lizzie Borden becomes "the happiest woman in the world" when the jury in the trial for the murder of her parents find her Not Guilty (1893 - her middle name is Andrew; they probably felt that the parents had got what was coming to them); the Kiel Canal is opened (1895 - on this same day, Caroline Willard Brown becomes the first woman awarded a PhD in Science [Helen Magill White had been awarded one in Boston for Greek studies in 1877] ); Boxer nationalists lay siege to the International Legation centre in Peking, attacking foreigners and Chinese Christians alike (1900); four prisoners of the Auschwitz Extermination Camp, led by Kazimierz Piechowski, steal uniforms and a staff car belonging to Nazi officers, and escape the camp, saluted by the guards (1942 - Nazi reprisals, when they discover the deceit, is, of course brutal); a test launch of a V-2 rocket bomb becomes the first artificial object to reach outer space (1944); Hindemith's revision of his opera Cardillac is premiered at the Zurich Opera House (1952); Mali gains independence from France (1960); the Red Telephone, the "hotline" between the US and USSSR leaders, is established (1963); Penderecki's opera The Devils of Loudon is premiered at the Hamburg State Opera, with Tatiana Troyanos and Hans Sotin in the cast, and conducted by Henryk Czyz (1969 - on the same day, Georges Pompidou becomes President of France); President Nixon records his discussion with his advisers about the recent break-in at the Watergate Building - when the recording is published, over 18 minutes of material have been removed (1972); Roman Polanski's film Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway is released (1974); Steven Spielberg's film Jaws is released (1975); TV journalist Bill Stewart is murdered by the National Guard of the Nicaraguan government as he reports on the advance of the opposition Sandinista rebels- the event is caught on film and broadcast around the world (1979); Eureka - an asteroid following the orbit of Mars - is discovered (1990);

Birthdays Today include: Joseph Martin Kraus (1756); Jacob Hübner (1761); Wolfe Tone (1763); Georges Dufrénoy (1870); Kurt Schwitters (1887); Elisabeth Hauptmann (1897); Jean Moulin (1899); Lillian Hellman (1905); Errol Flynn (1909); Anthony Buckeridge (1912); Terrence Young (1915); Peter Gay (1923); Chet Atkins (1924); Eric Dolphy & Martin Landau (both 1928); Edith Windsor (1929); Olympia Dukakis & Arne Nordheim (both 1931); Claire Tomalin (1933); Wendy Craig (1934); Stafford Dean (1937); Stephen Frears (1941); Brian Wilson (1942); André Watts (1946); Lionel Richie (1949); Paul Muldoon (1951); John Goodman & Vikram Seth (both 1952); Nicole Kidman (1967); ... and it is the bicentenary of the birth of Jacques [or "Jakob" as his parents named him] Offenbach.

Final Days for: Hucbald (930); Carl Friedrich Abel (1787); Josef Breuer (1925); Allan Pettersson (1980); Miriam Schapiro (2015).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Friday, 20th June, 1969 were:

Overture: "gramophone records"
Morning Concert: "gramophone records"
This Week's Composer: Beethoven (An die Ferneyhoughgeliebte; 'cello Sonata in A, op 69)
British Concertos: with Ralph Holmes playing unspecified work[s] with the NPO conducted by Stanley Pope
Music Making: "gramophone records"

[Richard Tarleton]

Chet Atkins (1924)

finger-pickin' good

[johncorrigan]

Brian Wilson (1942)

Happy Birthday, Brian - I read that he's been struggling since having back surgery recently - get well! Great voice he had back then!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y-0nWVdBH4

[cloughie]

Happy Birthday, Brian - I read that he's been struggling since having back surgery recently - get well! Great voice he had back then!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y-0nWVdBH4

Yes, then, but I fear he has relied very heavily on supporting vocalists in recent years, including Al Jardine’s son Matt. But his legacy lives on and many Beach Boys albums are on my shelves.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 21st

Any Forumistas living in Church Street in Kidderminster might wish to claim their dole of a farthing loaf and a tuppenny cake, as this is their right today under the terms of the Brecknell Bequest, named after Mr Brecknell who left provision for this in his Will in 1778. Anyone living in the street is eligible for the handout, as is anyone born in the street, but living elsewhere ("local tradition" has it that it was once claimed from someone who had moved to the United States). Not sure where you'd be able to claim it - try the local Greggs?

It's also International Yoga Day, World Humanist Day, and (as the Solstice falls on this date this year) International Surfing Day - which might be useful for Forumistas in, say, Solihull.

And World Music Day - a "connected set of free public events" in over 700 cities throughout the world.

Also on this Date: the 27 crosses in the cobblestones of Old Town Square in Prague mark the beheading for insurrection of 27 Bohemian protestant noblemen after the defeat of their forces by the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor (1621); the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia is founded (1749); the French Royal Family attempt to escape from Paris to head a counter-revolution by supporters in Montmedy - they are arrested at Varennes (1791); the Battle of Vitoria (1813 - the frenzy looting by British soldiers after their victory leading to Wellington's describing them as "the scum of the Earth", something not featured in Beethoven's Battle Symphony); Rear Admiral Charles Davis Lucas becomes the recipient of the very first Victoria Cross medal for bravery in combat (1854); Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is premiered at the Bavarian National Theatre in Munich conducted by Hans von Bulow (1868); Richard Strauss conducts the premieres of both his Burlesque for Piano & Orchestra [with Eugen d'Albert the soloist] and his Tod und Verklärung at a concert at the Eisenach Festival (1890); China formally declares War on Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Japan following the successes of the Boxer rebel (1900); the US Supreme Court rules that literacy tests [designed to exclude blacks from voting in elections]are unconstitutional (1915); the Mounties always get their man, and on this date in 1919, they got two as they open fire on unarmed, unemployed and protesting veterans (on this same day, German Admiral Ludwig von Reuter orders his men to scuttle the 74 battleships of the German fleet interred in Scarpa Flow in the Orkneys to prevent them passing into allied hands - the 9 men who died as a consequence of his command are the last casualties of the 1st World War); Rommel's troops captured Tobruk from the British (1942); three Civil Rights activists, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, are murdered in Mississippi by the Ku Klux Klan for encouraging black voters to register (1964 - 41 years to the day after the crime, one of the murderers is convicted of Manslaughter at the age of 80; he dies in prison aged 92); Menachim Begin becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Israel (1977); John Hinckley is found Not Guilty by reason of Insanity for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan (1982 - he is released 34 years later); the US Supreme Court rules that burning the US flag as an act of political protest [provided it's your own flag and on your own property] is protected by the First Amendment (1989); the International Astronomical Union announce the names of the newly-discovered moons of Pluto - Nyx [Greek goddess of darkness, and mother of Charon the ferryman of Hades] and Hydra (20006); Greenland announces Independence from Danish rule (2009); 87 refugees are killed when a boat trafficking them to Australia capsizes in the Indian Ocean - a further 109 people are rescued by Australian and Indonesian Coastguards (2012).

Birthdays Today include: Leonhard Rauwolf (1535); JCF Bach (1732); Siméon Denis Poisson (1781); Charles Edward Horn (1786); Arnold Gessel (1880); Natalia Goncharova (1881); Hermann Scherchen (1891); Alois Hába (1893); Pavel Haas (1899); Gunnar Ek (1900) Jean-Paul Sartre (1905); Judy Holliday & Jane Russell (1921); Wally Fawkes (1924); Lalo Schifrin, Bernard Ingham, & OC Smith (ll 1932); Francoise Sagan (1935); Don Black (1938); Ray Davies & Tony Scott (both 1944); Ian McEwan (1948); Alan Hudson (1951); Judith Bingham (1952); David Morrissey (1964); Edward Snowden (1983);

Final Days for: Niccolo Machiavelli (1527); John Skelton (1529); Inigo Jones (1652); Anders Jonas Ångström (1874); Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff (1908); Maureen Connolly (1969); Bert Kaempfert (1980); Gunnar Ek (1981 - on his 81st birthday); Alan Hovaness (2000); John Lee Hooker (2001); Leon Uris (2003); Gunther Schuller (2015).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Thursday, 21st June, 1979 were:

Overture: 2 Madrigals from Monteverdi's Book 9; Vivaldi Lute Sonata in C (RV 82); Purcell When the Night Her Purple Veil; A sequence of ricercares and dances from Musique de Joye; Mendelssohn Overture for Wind Instruments, Op 24; Handel Lascia ch'io pianga (from "Rinaldo"); Hotteterre Premier Livre pour la flute traversiere; Haydn Symph #95.
This Week's Composer: Milhaud (Pno Conc #1; 4 Dances from Saudade de Brazil; L'homme et son desir; Saudades de Brazil, Suite 1
Cardiff University Recital given by 'cellist Gayle Smith & pianist Margaret Kitchin (Busoni Suite Op 23; Kodaly Sonata for solo 'cello Op 8; Chopin 'cello Sonata.
English Choral Music: Parry My soul there is a country, Never weather-beaten sail, There is an old belief; Nicholas Maw Five Epigrams; Britten Five Flower Songs
The Great C Major: Schubert (BPO/Böhm)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 22nd

St Alban's Day - one the first Christians to be martyred in Britain, probably in the 3rd Century, and mentioned (of course) in Bede. Alban hadn't been a Christian for very long - converting only days before, when he was so impressed by the Priest he was sheltering from Roman Soldiers that when they attempted to search his house he claimed that he was himself the Christian they were looking for. The Roman Judge to whom he was taken for questioning tried to "dissuade" him from the faith with the usual physical unpleasantries, but (showing a sadomasochistic bloody-mindedness characteristic of many a subsequent Englishman) these only made him more resolute, and he was eventually beheaded in the city that now bears his name. His execution attracted a huge crowd - Alban really should be the English National Saint - so much so that the execution party couldn't get past them on the bridge over the River Ver, so Alban prayed and the river immediately dried up so they could cross on dry land - which made the executioner himself convert to Christianity, so some time was spent admiring the scenery (it was a lovely Summer's day). The converted executioner was beheaded first by a Supply Executioner, then Alban - but immediately the sword had done its work, the eyes of the 2nd executioner popped out of his head (literally) and fell to the ground by Alban's head.

This all beats Dragons as far as I'm concerned!

Also on this Date: Indonesian Commander Fatahillah repels Portuguese invaders for the port town of Sunda Kepela, which, in honour of the event, is renamed "the city of victory": Jakarta (1527); Galileo is found "vehemently suspect of heresy" by the Inquisition and ordered to "abjure, curse, and detest" his opinions, publication of any of his works is forbidden, and he is placed under house arrest for the rest of his life (1633); Charles II commissions the building of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (1675); Canadian citizen, Laura Secord walks 20 miles to warn the British Army of an iminent attack by the American attack (1813); the three Cherokee signatories to the Treaty Of New Echota (the forced relocation of over 11,000 Cherokee people, of whom at least 4,000 die) are executed after a Cherokee Trial (1839); Webern conducts the premiere of his Five Orchestral Pieces, Op10 as part of the 5th ISCM Festival in Zurich(1926, 13 years after the work had been written; on the same day, in the same Festival Walton's Portsmouth Point Ovt is premiered, conducted by Volkmar Andreae); delegates of the French Government sign an Armistice with the Nazis, who symbolically make them sign in the same railway carriage in exactly the same place in the Compiègne Forest that the Germans had had to sign the Armistice to end the 1st World War (1940); the Nazis invade Soviet Russia, breaking the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact and beginning Operation Barbarossa (1941); the US Congress formally adopts the Pledge of Allegience (1942); President Roosevelt signs the Servicemen's Readjustment Act [the "GI Bill"] into law, guaranteeing a range of benefits for returning soldiers (1944); after nearly 3 months, and 160,000 military and 150,00 civilian casualties, the Battle of Okinawa comes to an end with victory for the allied forces (1945); the first 802 Afro-Caribbean UK citizens arrive at Tilbury Docks aboard HMT Empire Windrush (1948 - nobody suggests that it might be come in useful 60 years later if they ask for some proof of eligibility to stay here); Hartmann's "official" Symphony #1 [Versuch eines Requiems - "an attempt at a requiem"] is premiered in Vienna by the VSO conducted by Nino Sanzogno, with Hilde Rössel-Majdan soloist (1957); Tony Sheridan and the Beat Boys record two songs for the Polydor label in Hamburg, Germany (1961 - the first excursion into a recording studio by The Beatles); James W Christy observes the first discovered moon of Pluto, Charon (1978); God joins in a football match, confusing the rule about touching the ball and the number of players allowed on each side, helping Argentina to win a World Cup match against England (1986); Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled (1990); the Syrian Army shoots down a Turkish reconaissance jet, killing both pilots (2012);

Birthdays Today include: Francesco Manfredini (1684); George Vancouver (1757); Etienne Mehul (1763); Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767); H Rider Haggard (1856); William McDougall (1871); Erich Maria Remarque (1898); Richard Gurley Drew (1899); Oskar Fischinger (1900); Walter Leigh (1902); Billy Wilder (1906); Anne Ziegler (1910); Prunella Scales (1932); Kris Kristofferson (1936); Esther Rantzen (1940); Cyndi Lauper (1953); Erin Brockovich (1960); Jimmy Somerville (1961); ... and Bruce Kent is 90 and Meryl Streep 70 today ... and Jo Cox would have been 45

Final Days for: Katherine Philips (1664); Joann Theile (1724); Walter de la Mare (1956); David O Selznick (1965); Judy Garland (1969); Darius Milhaud (1974); Joseph Losey (1984); Fred Astaire (1987); Al Hansen (1995); George Carlin (2008); Cyril Ornadel (2011); James Horner (2015); Harry Rabinowitz (2016).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Thursday, 22nd June, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: JC Bach Symphony in C, Op3 #2; Schumann 2 lieder; Rossini William Tell Ovt; Granados Danzas Espaniolas (Set 4); Khatchaturian Spartacus (excerpts).
Composer of the Week: Cherubini (Requiem in d minor; Souvenir pour son cher Baillot)
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra conducted by Karl Munchinger: Bach Sinfonia (Christmas Oratorio); Pergolesi Flute Concerto in G.
Violin Sonatas: Brahms Sonata in A Op 100; Beethoven Sonata in G Op 30 #3
Delius & RVW: Cynara; 5 Mystical Songs
Clarinet & Piano: Bax Sonata in D; Steptoe 2 Impromptus; Hoddinott Sonata Op 50
BBCPO conducted by Edward Downes: Mendelssohn Fair Mesuline Ovt; Prokofiev Pno Conc #4 (with Gary Graffman); Schmidt Variations on a Hussar Song

[Joseph K]

Apparently it's World Music Day today.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Apparently it's World Music Day today.

- 21st: duly added.

[cloughie]

- 21st: duly added.

Is that ‘World music Day’ or ‘World Music’ Day?

[Joseph K]

Is that ‘World music Day’ or ‘World Music’ Day?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%AAte_de_la_Musique

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 23rd

St John's Eve - just as the nights are getting warmer, time to light bonfires to leap over, either to keep Witches and demons away from the house, or to ensure that you're away from the house, waiting in Out Patients when they visit. The more horticulturally enthusiastic amongst us might prefer to gather St John's Wort to hang over the doorways to deter witches and evil spirits, although, ironically, the use of such herbs used to be taken as a sign that the inhabitant was herself a witch. One might prefer to take one's chances with the Evil Spirits than with one's neighbours, incensed by superstition, alcohol, and burnt nether regions ("though get her to make that liniment that's so good for soothing burns before we tie her to the ducking stool. Eh? No - that wasn't rhyming slang for Boris Johnson!")

And it's the Feast Day of St Aethelthryth, the 7th Century English Saint who died on this date in 679, and whose second husband was Ecgfrith, King of Northumbria (who was only 14 when they were married). Not long after the marriage, she decided to become a Nun, and, to escape being abducted by her husband, sought refuge on the Isle of Ely, where the tides kept Ecgfrith's troops away. Abandoning symbols of wordlt splendour, she adopted humble fabric for her clothes and base metals for her tableware - her Normanised name was "St Audrey", and her fondness for humble ware led to our modern word "tawdry".

International Widows' Day, and United Nations Public Service Day, too.

Also on this Date: the Battle of Bannockburn begins (1314); Henry Hudson and eight crew members loyal to him are set adrift in what is now known as Hudson's Bay after the rest of his crew mutiny - they are never heard from again (1611); the 3,000-strong armed forces of the East India Company under the command of Robert Clive, defeat the 50,000combined Bengali and French army at the Battle of Plassey (1757); Washington Irving's The Sketch Book of of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, containing the stories Rip van Winkle, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, is published by John Wiley & Sons (1819 - Wiley trades under the name "CS van Winkle"; the company is best known today for their " ... for Dummies" series); the International Olympics Committee is founded by Pierre de Coubertin & Demetrios Vikelas (1894); Hitler takes a tour of newly-surrendered Paris (1940); mistaking Wales for France [we've all done it] Luftwaffe pilot Armin Faber lands his brand-new Focke-Wulf 190 fighter plane at the RAF base in Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, enabling the British to examine the new design thoroughly (1942 - Faber's run of bad luck that day doesn't end there: as he is taken for questioning, his guard is so nervous that he keeps a pistol aimed at him throughout the journey; when the vehicle goes over a pothole, the weapon goes off, narrowly missing the German pilot, who by now probably wishes he'd taken his mother's advice and joined the navy); Thomas Mann becomes an American Citizen (1944); despite a veto by Perident Truman, the Labor Management Relations Act, restricting Union rights, is pushed through by the US Congress (1947); Enovid becomes the first oral contraceptive pill to be officially approved (1960); the Antarctic Treaty System comes into force, to establish the continent as an international site of scientific investigation, and banning any miliary activity (1961); the first of 26 attacks by 13-year-old serial arsonist Peter Dinsdale results in the death of a 6-year-old boy in Hull (1973 - altogether, 26 people lose their lives over the next 6 years because of Dinsdale); SEGA publishes the first Sonic the Hedgehog game (1991); Bob Dylan is awarded an honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of St Andrews (2004); 76 Buddhist monks are hospitalized after being attacked by a large swarm of bees kept in hives at the their temple in Chiang Mai, Thailand (2012 - 19 are seriously injured, 6 of them in comas); Nik Wallenda becomes the first man to successfully cross the Grand Canyon on a tightrope (2013); the United Kingdom holds a Referendum on membership of the European Union (2016 - I can't remember ever hearing any more about this: I wonder what happened).

Birthdays Today include: Caesarion (last Pharoah of Egypt, 47BCE); Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1711); Josephine Bonaparte (1763); Carl Reinecke (1824); Albert Giraud (1860); Huda Sha'arawi (1879); Anna Akhmatova (1889); Alfred Kinsey (1894); Jean Anouilh (1910); Alan Turing (1912); George Russell (1923); Miriam Karlin (1925); Bob Fosse (1927); Henri Pousseur (1929); Adam Faith (1940); James Levine (1943); Frances McDormand (1957); Joss Whedon (1964); KT Tunstill (1975).

Final Days for: Vespasian (79); Reinhold Glière (1956); Maureen O'Sullivan (1998); Aaron Spelling (2006); Peter Falk (2011).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Monday, 23rd June, 1969 were:

Bach & Haydn (including the Italian Concerto played by George Malcolm)
Morning Concert: BBCConcertOrch/Marcus Dodds
This Week's Composer: Schubert (Overture in the Italian Style; Rondo for Violin & Strings; Symphony #3).
BBC Beethoven Competition "for British and Commonwealth Duos and Trios, recorded during the second stage of the competition at Dartington Hall, Devon. Ninth in a weekly series."
Antony Hopkins Talking About Music
Making Music "English Music for Violin & Piano, and for solo Piano"

[Richard Tarleton]

Bob Dylan is awarded an honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of St Andrews (2004)

And jolly pleased he was....



- we've seen this before, but worth a repeat

[johncorrigan]

[B]Miriam Karlin (1925)

Can't hear her name and not shout 'EVERYBODY OUT!'

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

June 24th

The Feast Day of St John the Baptist - and Midsummer Day, on which date the events in Act 3 of Die Mesitersinger von Nurnberg take place (Sach's apprentice David - the real hero of the Opera - gives him the gift of the sausage he'd brought for his own lunch because he'd forgotten that this was Sach's Name Day). But not those of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (which occur on May Day Eve). The transference of older Midsummer celebrations to mark St John's birth date originates in the work of Saint Eligius, patron Saint of metalworkers, goldsmiths. vets, the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, and horses and blacksmiths, who spent much of his life converting the people of Flanders to Christianity.

Also on this Date: Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Army under Gaius Flaminius at the Battle of Lake Trasimene (217 BCE); the Battle of Moira begins in what is modern day County Down (637 - lasting around a week, it had the reputation of being the longest battle on the island of Ireland); the Battle of Bannockburn ends with a decisive victory for Robert de Brus' Scottish army (1314); the English fleet, led by Edward III, devastates that of the French at the Battle of Sluys (1340); John Cabot lands in Newfoundland, the first european to set foot in Northern Canada in 500 years (1497); the Coronation of Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon (1509); just over six months after her marriage to Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves is commanded to leave his Court (1540); the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world is founded in London (1717); the Great Siege of Gibraltar, in which Spanish & French troops attempt to capture the island from Britain, begins (1779 - it will last for more than another three-and-a-half years); Napoleon's Great Army enters Russian territory, beginning the Invasion of Russia (1812); French President Carnot is stabbed to death by an anarchist in revenge for the beheading of two other anarchists (1984); Mary Pickford becomes the first film actress to sign a million-dollar contract (1916); the Siamese People's Party overthrows the centuries-old Absolute Monarchy , and King Prajadhipok and his successors become Consitutional Monarchs (1932 - exactly 7 years later to the day, Siam is renamed Thailand); Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau is premiered at the Semperoper Dresden, conducted by Karl Böhm (1935); RVW's 5th Symphony is premiered at the Proms by the LPO conducted by the Composer (1943 - on the same date, and at around the same time, white American Military Police attempt to arrest a number of black GIs enjoying a pint in Ye Olde Hob pub in the village of Bamber Bridge, just south of Preston, Lancashire - the black servicemen, and their colleagues put up resistance which leads to a several-hours-long riot which leaves one black soldier dead); the first widely-reported UFO sighting is made by pilot Kenneth Arnold, who sees nine shiny objects flying at speeds he estimates to be 1,200mph near Seattle (1947); the Soviet occupiers begin the 11-month Blocade of Berlin (1948); the South African Group Areas Act receives Royal Assent, confining racial groups to specific residential and business areas, necessitating the removal of black citizens from white-only areas, and requiring them to carry pass books at all times (1950); Pope John VI publishes the Sacerdotalis Coelibatus, affirming the Catholic Church's position of the celibacy of priests (1967); Mike Nicholls' film of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 is released (1970); the Humber Bridge opens (1981); Jiang Zemin replaces Zhao Ziyang as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (1989); the longest tennis match in history [so far] begins in a first-round match at Wimbledon between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut (2010 - it lasts 11 hours and 5 minutes [or "an eighth of a cricket match"] and is spread over three days; on the same day, Julia Gillard replaces Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia, the first woman to hold the office); Lonesome George, ceases to be the last surviving Pinta Island Tortoise (2012 - he is over 100 years old); Silvio Berlusconi is found guilty of malfeasance and of having sex with a 17-year-old; he is sentenced to 7 years' imprisonment and forbidden to hold public office ever again (2013 - both convictions overturned on appeal a year later); David Cameron hums a little tune after he announces his resignation as Prime Minister (2016).

Birthdays Today include: Ambrose Bierce (1842); Herbert Kitchener (1850); Fritz Löhner-Beda & Jean Metzinger (both 1883); Roy Disney (1893); Jack Dempsey (1895); Harry Partch (1901); Phil Harris (1903); Pierre Fournier (1906); Juan Manuel Fangio (1911); Brian Johnston & Mary Wesley (both 1912); Fred Hoyle (1915); Claude Chabrol (1930); Terry Riley (1935); Anita Desai (1937); Mick Fleetwood and Arthur Brown (both 1942); Jeff Beck (1944); Clarissa Dickson Wright (1947); Iain Glen (1961); Yasmin Paige (1991); ... and Carolyn S Shoemaker, astronomer [and comet hunter extraordinaire] will be 90 today,

Final Days for: Abu 'Isa al-Warraq (994); Lucrezia Borgia (1519); Joachim Raff (1882); Stuart Davis (1964); Tony Hancock (1967); Frank King (1969); Jackie Gleason (1987); Vera Atkins & David Tomlinson (both 2000); Eli Wallach (2015 - the same day that the first woman Gunnery Officer in the US Navy, Susan Ahn Cuddy, also died - 6 months after her 100th birthday).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Sunday, 24th June, 1979 were:

Mozart Piano Concertos: Gluck, Symphony #2; Dittersdorf Partita #2; Mozart Concerto #13.
Your Concert Choice: Purcell "Golden" Sonata; Handel Organ Conc Op7 #4; Mozart Buhe sarrft, mein holdes Leben (from Zaide); Opera Intermezzi by Leoncavello, Mascagni, & Granados; RVW Songs of Travel; Ireland Mai Dun.
Music Weekly introduced by Michael Oliver (with articles on The Rake's Progress, and Why Is Modern Music So Difficult to Listen To?)
Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Georg Szell: Schubert "Unfinished"; Mahler Das Lied von der Erde (with Richard Lewis & Janet Baker). [I can remember listening to both Music Weekly and this concert.]