Today's the Day

[Richard Tarleton]

Bono is made a Commander of the French Order of Arts & Letters (2013 - Bono)

The only time I've set eyes on Bono was in 1984, at Slane Castle, near Drogheda - a great Bob Dylan concert. This bloke in a hat came on to join in the encore "Blowing in the Wind" jam session - my friend Michael who was up to speed explained who he was....or rather, he said "That's Bono", and filled in on the long drive home....



Bob's band included ex-Stone Mick Taylor, the support act was Santana - Carlos was also back on stage for the last few numbers, so I didn't pay the bloke in the hat much attention.

[Padraig]

1984, at Slane Castle, near Drogheda - a great Bob Dylan concert.

Interesting Richard. I remember that concert well - not the performance, but it was the first big away gig that my eldest daughter went to with her friends( was allowed to go to). I must remind her with your comments.

[Richard Tarleton]

Interesting Richard. I remember that concert well - not the performance, but it was the first big away gig that my eldest daughter went to with her friends( was allowed to go to). I must remind her with your comments.

I'd love to know what she remembers! It almost didn't go ahead - we travelled down early on the day, but there had been serious riots in Slane the night before - the concert was on a Sunday instead of a Saturday, and they'd closed the pub the night before in anticipation of trouble, which closing the pub ensured they got....Slane looked like a battlefield in the morning. But the concert was perfect. An Irish band, then Santana (who played for about 2½ hours), UB40 (I slept through most of that ) and then Bob - who went through the songbook. Van Morrison came on, sang a couple of songs and duetted with Bob.... A couple of people were drowned in the Boyne, I don't know whether they were trying to get in for free, or drunk, never heard the full story....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 18th

The Feast Day of Teneu Sant, the Patron Saint of Glasgow, reputedly a sixth-century Brittonic Princess of the Gododdin region (as in the mediaeval Welsh poem by Aneurin) who was raped by Owain mab Urien, a Prince from the neighbouring Rhegid region, who then tried to calm Teneu's distress by saying that she hadn't really been raped, because he was dressed as a woman at the time. Astonishingly, this did not prevent Teneu from becoming pregnant, nor protect her from the wrath of her father, King Lleuddin: on hearing the news he sentenced her to death and had her thrown down a mountain. She srvived the fall, landing at the foot of the mountain, and was then set adrift in a coracle, eventually settling in Saint Serf's community in Culross, where she brought up her son, Kentigern, whom Serf nicknamed "Mungo" [beloved one], and who himself became the patron saint of Scotland, Salmon, those accused of infidelity, and victims of bullying.

And Nelson Mandela Day - commemorating the birthday today of the revolutionary philanthropist: a day to honour his legacy and values by voluntary work and/or community service.

Also on this Date: Attila the Hun attacks and destroys the Roman city of Aquileia (452); Edward I issues the Edict of Expulsion ordering all Jews in England to leave (1290 - they have until 1st November to obey; the Edict remains law until Cromwell repeals it 370 years later); the First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican sets out the definition of Papal Infallibility (1870); the Ballot Act, requiring all parliamentary and local government elections to be held by secret ballot, is given Royal Assent (1972); Eher Verlag, the official publication house of the Nazi party, publishes the first edition of Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925); SS Guards, assisted by Norwegian collaborators, murder 288 Yugoslav political prisoners in the Beisfjord Prison Camp in Norway (1942); Royal Navy troops intercept and board the SS Exodus 1947 25 miles off the Palestinian coast to prevent Jewish emigrants from disembarking - passengers & crew offer strong resistance, and three of them are killed, 10 others [and 2 RN sailors] are treated for injuries (1947 - on the same day, George VI gives Royal Assent to the Indian Independence Act); five days of rioting begins in the Hough neighbourhood of Cleveland after a Café owner refuses to allow black customers iced water ["no water for niggers"] (1966); Gordon Moore & Robert Noyce found technology company Intel (1968); Mary Jo Kopechne is killed when Senator Edward Kennedy drives the car they are both travelling in off a single-lane bridge into the tidal Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island (1969 - the senator swims to safety, and runs away, reporting the accident only 10 hours later); Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast to gain a perfect score of 10.0 at an Olympic Games (1976); the largest of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet's impacts on Jupiter occurs, with an estimated energy equivalent to 6million megatons of TNT [which is 600 times the world's entire nuclear arsenal at the time], and creating a "dark spot" measuring over 7,500 miles across (1994); the front page of The Sun is devoted to a photograph from 1933 showing the then Queen [later the Queen Mother] and her two duaghters [aged 7 and 2] giving the Nazi salute (2015); and, this time last year, Cliff Richard wins his Privacy case against the BBC and is awarded £210,000 damages - he had already been paid £400,000 in an out-of-court settlement with South Yorkshire police (an appeal from the Beeb is later thrown out, and they have to pay a further £850,000 to help meet Sir Cliff's legal costs).

Birthdays Today include: Giovanni Bononcini (1670); Gilbert White (1720); Maria Antonia Walpurgis (1724); William Makepiece Thackeray (1811); Pauline Viardot (1821); WG Grace (1848); Hendrik Lorenz (1848);Margaret ["the Unsinkable Molly"] Brown (1867); Julius Fučík (1872); Clifford Odets (1906);Nelson mandela (1918); Kurt masur (1927); R Murray Schafer & Yevgeny Yevtushenko (both 1933); Hunter S Thompson (1937); Nick Faldo (1957); Bent Sørensen (1958); Elizabeth McGovern (1961); James Norton (1985); ... and Roger Reynolds and Edward Bond are both 85 today.

Final Days for: Caravaggio (1610); Jean-Antoine Watteau (1721); Jane Austen (1817); Dorothea Dix (1887); Thomas Cook went on a passenger excursion to that country from whose bourne no travellers' cheques return (1892); Jack Hawkins (1973); Nico (1988) ... and, this time last year, Adrian Cronauer.


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Tuesday, 18th July, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Nielsen Springtime in Funen; Martucci Nocturne, Op 70 #1; Janacek "Vixen" Suite; Verdi Pace, Pace, mio Dio; Strauss Duet Concertino; Dukas Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Composers of the Week: The Tudors (In Nomine by White, Tye, and Taylles)
Bruch Symphony #1 (Leipzig Gewandhaus/Masur)
'cello & Piano recital by Andrew Shulman & Ian Brown (Debussy Sonata; Janacek Fairy Tales)
English Brass Ensemble: Praetorius Dances from Terpsichore; Bozza Sonatine; John Gray Splitting the Difference (first performance); Salzedo Capriccio.
Ulster Orchestra conducted by Jansug Kakhidze (Borodin Prince Igor Ovt; Prokofiev Pno Conc #2 [with Dmitri Alexeev]; Tchaikovsky Suite #3).

[LezLee]

Today is also the birthday of the magnificently named Lady (Trixie) Gardner of Parkes, dentist and politician

[Edgy 2]

Just catching up with this thread...
Jon Lord died 16th July 2012

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 19th

Little Edith's Treat - the children of the local school in Piddinghoe, East Sussex used to be the beneficiaries of a bequest from parishioner Elizabeth Croft, who celebrated the short life of her granddaughter Edith, who was born on this date in 1868, but who died just three months later. In her Will Mrs Croft left a sum of £100

The interest arising from said stock to be known as "Little Edith's Treat", to be expended on the 19th July in each year, in a treat to the children of the National School of the said Parish and in rewards, more especially to the girls who are skilled in plain needlework and to the boys and girls who are neat in their dress, clean in their habits, and regular in attendance at church and school.

The Treat involved their being told the story of Edith, then they were taken to the Hoe (avoiding the Pidding) for games, races, "and a splendid tea", culminating in the Vicar throwing fistfuls of coins in the air for the children to scramble for. The school closed in 1952, so the Treat became a function of the Sunday School, until that closed. The fund is now used to pay for a Christmas Party.

Also on this Date: the Great Fire of Rome begins (64 - Emperor Nero wishes someone had invented the Violin); Edward III defeats Scottish forces led by Archibald Douglas at the Battle of Halidon Hill, 2 miles North of Berwick-upon-Tweed (1333 -

Scottes out of Berwick and Aberdeen / At the Burn of Bannock ye were far too keen. / King Edward has avenged it now, / and fully too, I ween

); Henry VIII's warship the Mary Rose sinks in the Solent whilst leading an attack on a French Invasion fleet (1545); Lady Jane Grey's 9-day reign comes to an end (1553); the Spanish Armada is sighted off the Lizard, confirming English fears that an invasion is imminent (1588 - this date used to be celebrated as Armada Day in England); the Coronation of George IV - costing around £22million in today's money (1821); Sir Charles Hastings founds the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association at a meeting in the Board Room of Worcester Infirmary (1832 - 24 years later, the Association changes its name to the British Medical Association); Brunel's steamship the SS Great Britain is launched (1843 - the largest vessel at the time, and the first with an iron hull and a screw propellor); the Great New York City Fire destroys 345 bulidings, and causes the deaths of 26 civilians and 4 fire fighters (1845); France declares War on Prussia, beginning the Franco-Prussian War (1870 - it continues for the next six months); 5 years after the Battle of Little Big Horn, hunger and hopelessness force Sitting Bull and 186 of his followers to surrender to the United States Army (1881); the first Tour de France ends with victory for 32-year-old favourite Maurice Garin (1903 - Garin also wins the following year's race, until it is discovered that he has forgotten the rule that competitiors aren't allowed to cover any part of the course by train); Luton Town Hall is destroyed by unemployed and poverty-stricken ex-servicemen (1919 - today is Peace Day, and the local council has laid on extravagant celebrations, refused entry to the servicemen, and forbidden use of public facilities to those who wanted to give them their own celebration); the Exhibition of Degenerate Artworks opens in Munich (1937); Toscanini conducts the US premier of Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony (1942); more than 500 Allied aircraft bomb Rome, causing the deaths of thousands of citizens (1943); Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal is established (1976); the world's first Global Positioning System signal is transmitted from a satellite and received at a telecommunications centre in Iowa (1977); Nicaraguan Sandanista rebels overthrowthe Somoza dicatorship (1979 - on the same day, two oil tankers collide, causing the world's largest oil spill [so far]: 260,000 tons of the stuff); the Opening Ceremony of the Moscow Olympics is held (1980); radiologists in St Louis publish the first 3D reconsruction of a human head using slices of CT scanning (1983); the Mafia plant a bomb in the car of prominent anti-Mafia Judge Paolo Borsellino in Palermo, Sicily, killing the judge and five of his police escort (1992); the Provisional IRA calls a ceasefire to end a 25-year-long paramilitary campaign against British Rule in Northern Ireland (1997); and, this time last year, the Israeli Government passes the Nation State Law, which legislates that “Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people and they have an exclusive right to national self-determination in it” - and strips Arabic as an official language alongside Hebrew.

Birthdays Today include: Samuel Colt (1814); Edgar Degas (1834); Florence Foster Jenkins (1868); Max Fleischer (1883); Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893); AJ Cronin (1896); Herbert Marcuse (1898); Louis Kentner (1905); Tom Raworth (1938); Ilie Natstase (1946); Brian May (1947); Adrian Noble (1950); David Robertson (1958); Evelyn Glennie (1965); Benedict Cumberbatch (1976); Helen Skelton (1983).

Final Days for: Petrarch (1374); William Somerville (1742); Alan Lomax (2002); Frank McCourt (2009); Jon Cleary (2010); Mel Smith (2013); James Garner (2014).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Saturday, 18th July, 1969 were:

The Saturday Concert: Chamber Music by Dvorak & Brahms
Piano Recital by Alfred Brendel Live at Cheltenham Town Hall (Mozart, Beethoven, & Schubert)
Jannequin Chansons: Le caquet des femmes; Quand contremont verras retourner; Fyez vous y si voules; Ung petit coup mamye; & O doulx regard.
Jazz Record Requests with Steve Race

[cloughie]

The Feast Day of Teneu Sant, the Patron Saint of Glasgow, reputedly a sixth-century Brittonic Princess of the Gododdin region (as in the mediaeval Welsh poem by Aneurin) who was raped by Owain mab Urien, a Prince from the neighbouring Rhegid region, who then tried to calm Teneu's distress by saying that she hadn't really been raped, because he was dressed as a woman at the time. Astonishingly, this did not prevent Teneu from becoming pregnant, nor protect her from the wrath of her father, King Lleuddin: on hearing the news he sentenced her to death and had her thrown down a mountain. She srvived the fall, landing at the foot of the mountain, and was then set adrift in a coracle, eventually settling in Saint Serf's community in Culross, where she brought up her son, Kentigern, whom Serf nicknamed "Mungo" [beloved one], and who himself became the patron saint of Scotland, Salmon, those accused of infidelity, and victims of bullying.

And Nelson Mandela Day - commemorating the birthday today of the revolutionary philanthropist: a day to honour his legacy and values by voluntary work and/or community service.

Also on this Date: Attila the Hun attacks and destroys the Roman city of Aquileia (452); Edward I issues the Edict of Expulsion ordering all Jews in England to leave (1290 - they have until 1st November to obey; the Edict remains law until Cromwell repeals it 370 years later); the First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican sets out the definition of Papal Infallibility (1870); the Ballot Act, requiring all parliamentary and local government elections to be held by secret ballot, is given Royal Assent (1972); Eher Verlag, the official publication house of the Nazi party, publishes the first edition of Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925); SS Guards, assisted by Norwegian collaborators, murder 288 Yugoslav political prisoners in the Beisfjord Prison Camp in Norway (1942); Royal Navy troops intercept and board the SS Exodus 1947 25 miles off the Palestinian coast to prevent Jewish emigrants from disembarking - passengers & crew offer strong resistance, and three of them are killed, 10 others [and 2 RN sailors] are treated for injuries (1947 - on the same day, George VI gives Royal Assent to the Indian Independence Act); five days of rioting begins in the Hough neighbourhood of Cleveland after a Café owner refuses to allow black customers iced water ["no water for niggers"] (1966); Gordon Moore & Robert Noyce found technology company Intel (1968); Mary Jo Kopechne is killed when Senator Edward Kennedy drives the car they are both travelling in off a single-lane bridge into the tidal Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island (1969 - the senator swims to safety, and runs away, reporting the accident only 10 hours later); Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast to gain a perfect score of 10.0 at an Olympic Games (1976); the largest of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet's impacts on Jupiter occurs, with an estimated energy equivalent to 6million megatons of TNT [which is 600 times the world's entire nuclear arsenal at the time], and creating a "dark spot" measuring over 7,500 miles across (1994); the front page of The Sun is devoted to a photograph from 1933 showing the then Queen [later the Queen Mother] and her two duaghters [aged 7 and 2] giving the Nazi salute (2015); and, this time last year, Cliff Richard wins his Privacy case against the BBC and is awarded £210,000 damages - he had already been paid £400,000 in an out-of-court settlement with South Yorkshire police (an appeal from the Beeb is later thrown out, and they have to pay a further £850,000 to help meet Sir Cliff's legal costs).

Birthdays Today include: Giovanni Bononcini (1670); Gilbert White (1720); Maria Antonia Walpurgis (1724); William Makepiece Thackeray (1811); Pauline Viardot (1821); WG Grace (1848); Hendrik Lorenz (1848);Margaret ["the Unsinkable Molly"] Brown (1867); Julius Fučík (1872); Clifford Odets (1906);Nelson mandela (1918); Kurt masur (1927); R Murray Schafer & Yevgeny Yevtushenko (both 1933); Hunter S Thompson (1937); Nick Faldo (1957); Bent Sørensen (1958); Elizabeth McGovern (1961); James Norton (1985); ... and Roger Reynolds and Edward Bond are both 85 today.

Final Days for: Caravaggio (1610); Jean-Antoine Watteau (1721); Jane Austen (1817); Dorothea Dix (1887); Thomas Cook went on a passenger excursion to that country from whose bourne no travellers' cheques return (1892); Jack Hawkins (1973); Nico (1988) ... and, this time last year, Adrian Cronauer.


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the morning of Tuesday, 18th July, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: Nielsen Springtime in Funen; Martucci Nocturne, Op 70 #1; Janacek "Vixen" Suite; Verdi Pace, Pace, mio Dio; Strauss Duet Concertino; Dukas Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Composers of the Week: The Tudors (In Nomine by White, Tye, and Taylles)
Bruch Symphony #1 (Leipzig Gewandhaus/Masur)
'cello & Piano recital by Andrew Shulman & Ian Brown (Debussy Sonata; Janacek Fairy Tales)
English Brass Ensemble: Praetorius Dances from Terpsichore; Bozza Sonatine; John Gray Splitting the Difference (first performance); Salzedo Capriccio.
Ulster Orchestra conducted by Jansug Kakhidze (Borodin Prince Igor Ovt; Prokofiev Pno Conc #2 [with Dmitri Alexeev]; Tchaikovsky Suite #3).

...and weather permitting today we should have all been Dancing in the Street for Martha Reeves’ 78th birthday.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 20th

The Feast Day of the Saint-Prophet Elijah ... and of Saint Wilgefortis, whose veneration seems to have begun in the 14th Century - she is the Patron Saint of abused women; nothing is known of her life [if she ever, in fact, existed] but she was always depicted as a crucified woman with a beard, often in various stages of undress [almost always with only one shoe] hanging above a man playing a violin. The "woman with a beard" imagery might have originated in an artist's painting a Crucifxion, but painting Christ in a full tunic, instead of just the traditional loin cloth - the violinist and state of undress from a legend that her clothes fell from her on the cross, in order that a naked beggar violinist could clothe himself. There is a sculpture of the Saint in Henry VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey:



Also on this Date: following the Siege of Chartres, Viking Leader Gaange Rolf (Rollo) agrees to convert to Christianity, and is granted "all the land between the river Epte and the sea 'in freehold and good money'" - becoming the First Duke of Normandy (911); Roger Mortimer, heir to Richard II, is killed at the Battle of Kellistown (1398); Euston Station opens (1837 - now Londoners can get to Birmingham in under 6 hours); the Niépce brothers are awarded a patent by Napoleon for their invention of the Pyréolophore, the world's first Internal Combustion Engine (1897); the Corfu Declaration, enabling the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, is signed (1917); Webern's 6 Bagatelles for S4tet Op9, and his Trakl-lieder Op14 are both premiered in the same concert at the Donaueschingen Festival [the former played by the Amar 4tet, the latter conducted by the composer] - later in the afternoon, Schönberg's Serenade Op 24 receives its first public performance, conducted by the Composer (1924); the government of the Free State of Prussia is taken over by the Reichstag, precipitating the end of the Weimar Republic, and later giving Hitler a precedent for his own acts binding Germany to his own governance (1932); police gunmen in Minneapolis open fire on striking truck drivers, killing 2 of them, and injuring 67 others (1934 - on the same day, their colleagues in Oregon confine themselves to firing tear gas and beating the crap out of 2,000 striking Longshoremen); Time magazine, vol 40, #3 goes on sale, with a picture of Shostakovich in fireman's helmet on the cover (1942); Operation Valkyrie fails to blow up Hitler (1944); 2 weeks after winning her 3rd Wimbledon Singles title, 19-year-old Maureen Connolly is thrown from her horse, and crushes her right fibula, ending her tennis career (1954 - on the same day, Otto John, Chief of the West German Security Police [an appointment forced on Chancellor Konrad Adenauer by British Officials] defects to the East - he "defects" back 18 months later); Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the world's first elected female Head of Government when she wins the Sri Lankan General Election and becomes Prime Minister (1960 - on the same day, the world's first Polaris Missile is launched from submarine USS George Washington); Shostakovich finishes his 13th Symphony (1962); the first Special Olympics, for athletes with physical and mental disabilities, is held (1968 - around 1,000 international competitors take part); Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin take giant leaps for mankind (1969); Turkish troops invade Cyprus following the military coup d'etat in Greece (1974); Viking 1 becomes the first space probe to land successfully on Mars (1976); documents released under the Freedom of Information Act confirms suspicions that the CIA had performed illegal Mind Control experiments between 1953-73 (1977); the Provisional IRA detonates bombs in Hyde Park & Regent's Park in London, killing 8 British soldiers and 7 horses, and injuring 47 civilians (1982); Aung San Suu Kyi is placed under House Arrest by the ruling Burmese military junta (1989); Vaclav Havel resigns as president of Czechoslavakia, saying that he would not Preside over his country's dissolution (1992 - the following year he is re-elected as President of the Czech Republic); Canada legalizes same-sex marriage (2005); the United States and Cuba resume full Diplomatic Relations (2015).

Birthdays Today include: Alexander the Great (356 BCE); Petrarch (1304 - he3 died the day before his 70th birthday); Richard Owen (1804); Gregor Mendel (1822); Olga Hahn-Neurath (1882); John Reith (1889); László Moholy-Nagy (1895); Leonidas Berry (1902); Vilem Tausky (1910); Sally Ann Howes (1930); Nam June Paik (1932); Cormac McCarthy (1933); Diana Rigg & Natalie Wood (both 1938); Judy Chicago (1939); Wendy Richard (1943); Gerd Bennig & Carlos Santana (both 1947); Sandra Oh (1971); Nicola benedetti (1987); ... it is the centenary of the birth of Edmund Hillary ... and Michael Gielen would have been 92 today.

Final Days for: Johann Christoph Pepusch (1752); Bernhard Riemann (1866); Guglielmo Marconi & Olga Hahn-Neurath (both 1937 - the latter on her 55th birthday); Paul Valéry (1945); Calouste Gulbenkian (1955); Bruce Lee (1973); Lucian Fread (2011); Dieter Moebius (2015).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Sunday, 20th July, 1969 were:

What's New? ("a programme of recent records")
Bach Cantatas: BWVs 186 & 136
Orchestras of the World: Amsterdam Concertgebouw/Haitink (with Arthur Grimiaux - no work[s] specified)
Artist's Choice ("Henryk Szeryng introduces records of his own choice")
Allegri S4tet: Haydn & Beethoven.

[LezLee]

Roger Hunt, subject of many a teenage girl's fantasy and owner of the best legs in football, is 81 today.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

July 21st

On this Date: the destruction of the Temple of Artemis by arsonist Herostratus (356 BCE - the traditional date, given to coincide with the birth of Alexander the Great; the goddess Artemis too busy attending to his birth to save her own temple); French King Louis IX defeats the forces of English King Henry III at the Battle of Taillebourg (1242); Henry IV defeats rebel troops led by Henry "Hotspur" Percy [who is slain] at the Battle of Shrewsbury (1403); French troops and mercenaries invade the Isle of Wight (1545 - they are repulsed by the inhabitants [as anyone who's ever visited the island will understand] and the French never again attempt to take the island); the English fleet, led by Charles Howard and Francis Drake launch their first engagement with the Spanish Armada near the Eddystone Rocks (1588); the Egyptian Army is wiped out by Napoleon's troops at the Battle of Cairo (1798); Leopold I becomes the first King of the Belgians, bringing the Belgian War of Independence [against Holland, begun the previous August] to an official end (1831 - the day continues to be celebrated as a National Holiday in Belgium); the First Battle of Bull Run in Virginia is the first major battle of the American Civil War (1861 - the one-day battle ends in ignominious defeat for the Union forces); the first showdown [fought over a disputed watch lost in a card game] ends with Wild Bill Hickok shooting Davis Tutt dead [and getting his watch back] in Springfield, Missouri (1865); the Pennsylvania State Militia attack workers in Pittsburgh on strike in solidarity with Railroad workers (1877); Louis Rigolly becomes the first man to drive a car at over 100mph [103.561mph to be precise] in Ostend (1904); Alexander Kerensky becomes Minister-Chairman of the Russian Provisional Government (1917); John Scopes is found Guilty of teaching about Darwinian Evolution at his trial in Tennessee, and is fined $100 [about £1160 today] (1925 - on appeal, the sentence is overturned on a technicality - on the same day, Malcolm Campbell sets a new world land speed record of 150.33 mph on Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire); Hindemith's ballet Noblissima Visione with choreography by Leonid Massine is premiered at the Theatre Royal, Drury lane, conducted by the composer (1938); Claus von Stauffenberg and four other members of the failed plot to assassinate Hitler are tortured and shot by firing squad (1944); after gathering 47lb of Moon Rock, making the first telephone call from the surface of the Moon, planting a US flag, and leaving commemorative plaques to astronauts and cosmonauts who had died in the Space Race, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin launch the Eagle successfully from the Moon [blowing the flag to the ground] docks with the Apollo 11 orbiting vehicle Columbia (1969 - at least two of those tasks could have resulted in the deaths of the two moon landers); in a period of around 72 minutes, the Provisional IRA detonates 22 bombs in Belfast and the UK, killing 9 people and injuring 130 others (1972); Israeli Spies murder a waiter whom they have mistaken for a Palestinian Militant leader, shooting him 13 times as he comes out of a cinema in Lillehamer in Norway with his pregnant wife (1973); the British Ambassador to the Republic of Ireland is murdered by the Provisional IRA in Dublin (1976 - on the same day, more than 2,000 members of the American Legion begin a 3-day convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia - by the end of the week, 182 of them have fallen sick, and 29 have died in the first identified outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease); Jay Silverheels becomes the first Native American actor to be commemorated on the Hollywood Walk of fame (1979); Vostok Station in Antarctica records the lowest temperature of an inhabited region of the world [so far] (1983 - it's minus 89.2 degrees C [still warmer than Christmas Dinner with the in-laws]); Roger Waters and 26 guest performers [including Ute Lemper, James Galway, Joni Mitchell, Albert Finney ... ] perform Pink Floyd's The Wall on the site of the Berlin Wall that had been demolished 8 months previously (1990); Tony Blair is elected leader of the Labour party (1994); Islamist militants attempt a series of five Hydrogen Peroxide bomb attacks in London (2005 - four of the devices fail to detonate, and the fifth bomber abandons his device without trying to detonate it); Bosnian War Criminal Radovan Karadžić is arrested in Belgrade, posing as a doctor of Alternative Medicine [the sort that makes you alternative to healthy] (2008); Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to Earth after its 3-week mission, ending the Space Shuttle Program (2011); after a journey lasting just over 5 years, Turkish-American Erden Eruc completes the 1st human-powered circumnavigation of the world (2012 - using bicycles & rowing boats, but mainly just his legs, this remains the fastest time for such an expedition); British cyclist Chris Froome wins the 100th Tour de France (2013); the Chinese authorities ban Justin Bieber from performing in public because of his "bad behaviour" on and off-stage (2017 - the ban only applies in China, alas, which is Political Correctness gone mad).

Birthdays Today include: Jean Picard (1620); Matthew Prior (1664); Paul Reuter (1816); C Aubrey Smith (1863); Jacques Feyder (1885); Jean Rivier (1896); Sara Carter (1898); Hart Crane & Ernest Hemingway (1899); Marshall McLuhan (1911); Isaac Stern & Constant Nieuwenhuys (both 1920); Mollie Sugden (1922); Queenie Watts (1923); Norman Jewison, Karel Riesz, & Bill Pertwee (all 1926); Helen Merrill (1930); Sonny Clark, Plas Johnson, & Leon Schidlowsky (all 1931); Wendy Cope (1945); Yusuf Islam & Garry Trudeau (both 1948); Robin Williams (1951); Ezequiel Viñao (1960); Sarah Waters (1966); Charlotte Gainsbourg (1971); ... and Jonathan Miller is 85 today.

Final Days for: Robert Burns (1796); Fiammetta Wilson (1920); Louis Vauxcelles (1943); Basil Rathbone (1967); Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gerasimov (1970); Lee Miller (1977); Alan Shepard (1997); Iain Hamilton (2000); Jerry Goldsmith (2004); Long John Baldry (2005); Angharad Rees (2012); John Heard (2017).


And the Radio 3 Schedules for the Morning of Saturday, 21st July, 1979 were:

Aubade: Berlioz "Queen mab" Scherzo; RVW In Windsor Forest; Warlock Beethoven's Binge, & The Old Codger; Piston "Incredible Flutist" Suite
Release: Balakirev Tamar; Schumann Faschingsschwank aus Wien; Mahler #4.
Yossi Zivoni: Bach Sonata in C, BWV 1005
Bandstand: Grimethorpe Colliery Band/Elgar Howarth (Gruber Demilitarized Zones; Howarth Ascendit in coeli; Benjamin Altitude; Butterworth Royal Border Bridge).
Yehudi Menuhin & Leon Goosens: Bach Concerto in d BWV 1060; Schumann Romance in A, Op94 #2; Elgar Vln Conc (LSO/Composer)

[LMcD]

While I don't want to cast a pall of gloom over proceedings, I thought the following worthy of mention amidst all the celebrations of the moon landing:
On July 20th 1969, Cathy Wayne, a 19-year old Aussie singer, was shot and killed while performing on a stage at a Marine compound near Da Nang. A 2-tour Lieutenant was sentenced to 20 years, reduced to 2, but it is believed that the real killer was never found

[gurnemanz]

Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name was Marion Moon.

[Alain Maréchal]

On this Date: Leopold I becomes the first King of Belgium, bringing the Belgian War of Independence [against Holland, begun the previous August] to an official end (1831);

A pedant writes:
Belgium has no King. Leopold and his successors are Kings of the Belgians. The difference is subtle, but ontological.
The war may have ended officially, but not actually. Willem attempted reconquest, unsuccessfully. (hurrah!).

sorry to intrude, I'm feeling patriotic (at least I think is what my current state is called).

Le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté !

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A pedant writes: Belgium has no King. Leopold and his successors are Kings of the Belgians. The difference is subtle, but ontological.

AN Other pedant thanks for the correction.