Birthdays: (observed) Emanuel Ben Joseph or Yesuah. Called in Greek Jesus the Christ, 6-4 BC (est)
Other Birthdays: Sir Isaac Newton, Clara Barton, Humphrey Bogart, Cab Calloway, Helena Rubinstein, Rod Serling, Charles Pathe’, Jimmie Buffet, Quentin Crisp, Mike Mazurki, Conrad Hilton- Paris’ granddad, Anwar El Sadat. Larry Csonka, Burne Hogarth, Ishmail Merchant, Maurice Utrillo, Kid Ory, Barbara Mandrell, Dame Rebecca West, Clark Clifford, Annie Lennox is 70, Sissie Spacek is 75, CCH Pounder is 72, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, animator Howard Beckerman.
HAPPY HANUKKAH ! - Tonight begins the Hebrew Festival of Lights, commemorating the victory in 164BCE of the priest-general Judas Maccabeus (Maccabeus means the Hammer) against the Syrian Greeks, when the re-lit lamp in the purified Temple of Solomon burned for eight days on one day’s oil . Hanukah of Chanukah means Rededication.
1541- After the Christmas services, Michelangelo’s fresco The Last Judgment was unveiled, done for the Altar wall of the Sistine Chapel beneath his famous ceiling.
1734- Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio first performed at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig. Bach pioneered writing sacred music in German instead of Latin or Italian.
1815- At a Christmas concert in Vienna, Beethoven premiered his NameDay Overture.
1836- According to the novel Moby Dick, today is the day the Pequod set sail from Natucket.
1855- Ice hockey first played in North America at Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
1870- Siegfried Idyll, written by Richard Wagner as a birthday gift to his wife Cosima, was first performed by a small ensemble outside her door as she awoke this morning at their home in Lucerne Switzerland.
1917-"Why Marry?" by Jesse Lynch Williams opened. The first play to win a Pulitzer Prize.
1929- The Fox Atlanta Theater opened on Peachtree St. An Arabian Nights-type fantasy in part financed by the Shriners so they could use it for their meetings.
1931-The first BBC World Service broadcast. An address by King George V called "Around the Empire". Written by Rudyard Kipling.
1937-NBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the legendary Arturo Toscanini premiered with its first radio broadcast. In 1975, their studio space, Studio 8H, became the stage of Saturday Night Live.
1940- Rogers & Hart’s musical Pal Joey opened on Broadway. It made a star out of a young dancer named Gene Kelly.
1946- Comedian W.C. Fields died of alcoholism at age 67. While in his hospital bed someone saw him reading a Bible. They said:" W.C., what are you doing with that? " Fields replied:" Looking for loopholes!"
1957- Disney film Old Yeller premiered.
1962- The film of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird premiered with Gregory Peck, Brock Peters, and Robert Duval.
1963- Walt Disney’s The Sword in the Stone released. First animated feature solely directed by Wolfgang,” Woolie” Reitherman.
1977- Charlie Chaplin died quietly in his sleep at Vevey, Switzerland. He was 86.
1980- Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns finished reading Simon Schaara’s novel about the Battle of Gettysburg called The Killer Angels. He told his father he was inspired to make a documentary about the Civil War. The Civil War took six years to make and ran in 1990, but it was one of the most popular documentary films in the US and redefined the medium of documentary filmmaking.
1993-The release of the animated "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm," not only arguably the best Batman animated film, but some say one of the best Batman feature films of any kind.
1998- Fidel Castro allowed the resumption of Christmas celebrations in Cuba, outlawed since 1960.
1999- Galaxy Quest opened. Spoof of Star Trek with Tim Allen, Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver.
2020- Pixar’s film Soul premiered.
No comments:
Post a Comment