Cultural events; literature and art
Writers
and poets – see appendix 5 below
21/4/2016, The artist Prince,
full name Prince
Rogers Nelson, born 7/6/1958, died.
1/2/2016, Murray Louis, American
dancer and choreographer died (born 1926).
10/1/2016, David Bowie, born in 1947 as David Jones
in Brixton, London,
died of cancer two days after his 69th birthday.
25/1/2015, The Greek operatic singer Demis Roussos,
born 14/6/1946, died. He sold 60 million albums, and was also known for his
excess weight, 23 stone at its peak. Because of his weight be began to wear
kaftans for his stage performances, reverting to trousers when he began a
weight loss programme in 1980.
2/5/2012, In
New York, a pastel version of Edward Munch’s The Scream sold for US$ 120 million at auction, a record sum for a
work of art.
17/1/2007, Protests in the UK
and India
after, on the Big Brother Reality
Show, Jade Goody
was allegedly racist to Shilpa Shetty.
12/9/2003, Johnny Cash, US musician,
died (born 1932).
15/5/1998, Frank Sinatra died.
21/10/1997, Elton John’s ‘Candle in the Wind’, a tribute to Diana Princess of Wales, sold 31.8 million copies, the best seller ever.
5/4/1994, US rock star Kurt Cobain, frontman of Nirvana, shot himself aged 27.
8/4/1993, Marian
Anderson, US musician, died.
12/8/1992, US composer John
Cage died, aged 79.
4/7/1992, Joe Newman, US Jazz
trumpeter, died (born 1922).
28/4/1992, The French
composer Olivier
Messiaen died aged 83. Also this day the English painter Francis Bacon
died in Madrid, aged 82.
15/2/1992, US composer William Schuman died, aged 81.
24/3/1991, Madonna was awarded an Oscar in Los Angeles.
14/10/1990, Leonard Bernstein, US composer, died aged 72.
29/9/1989, Georges Ulmer, French composer died (born
1919)
20/9/1989, Musical ‘Miss
Saigon’ premiered in London.
23/1/1989. Death of Spanish surrealist painter
Salvador
Dali. He was aged 78, and had lived as a recluse since his wife,
Gala, died in 1982. Art collectors were troubled by revelations that Dali
had signed blank canvasses for others to
paint.
6/1/1989, James Durbin, US pop singer, was born.
23/9/1988, Arwel Hughes, Welsh composer, died aged 79.
26/5/1988, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats opened in
Moscow with a British and American cast.
17/4/1988, Louise Nevelson, sculptor born in Kiev, Russia, in
23/9/1900, died in New York.
18/3/1988, Percy Thrower, horticulturalist, died.
17/3/1988, Grimes, Canadian musician, was born.
5/2/1988, 3.8
million plastic noses were sold for the first ever Comic Relief Red Nose Day.
£15 million was raised.
11/12/1987, At Christies auction house, London, Charlie
Chaplin’s cane and bowler sold for £82,500, and his boots for
£38,500.
2/4/1987, Buddy Rich, US jazz musician, died aged 69
(born 1917).
22/2/1987, Andy Warhol, American pop artist famous for his pictures of soup cans, died. He was born on 6/8/1926 to
Czechoslovak immigrants in Pittsburgh.
14/2/1987, Bola Sete, guitarist, died aged 63.
16/12/1986, Serge Lifar, French ballet dancer, died aged 81.
31/8/1986. UK sculptor
Henry Moore,
born 1898, died aged 88.
20/2/1986, Francisco Paolo Mignone, composer,
died aged 88.
23/1/1986, Joseph Beuys, German performance artist, died
aged 64.
13/4/1985, Oscar Nemon, Croatian sculptor, died aged 79.
28/3/1985, Marc Chagall, French painter (born 7/7/1887 to poor Jewish parents
in Vitebsk, Russia), died in St Paul de Vence. He had moved to Berlin in 1922,
and then to Paris in 1932. In 1941 he fled to the US to escape the advancing Nazis,
returning to France
after World War Two ended.
16/4/1984, Count Basie, US jazz pianist,
died aged 79.
25/11/1983, Anton Dolin, English
ballet dancer, died aged 79.
24/7/1983, Georges Auric, French composer,
died aged 84.
30/4/1983, George Balanchine, Russian
dance director, died aged 79.
8/3/1983, Sir William Walton, English composer, died on the island of Ischia.
20/12/1982, Artur Rubenstein, Polish-American
pianist, died aged 95.
6/2/1982, Ben Nicholson, English painter, died aged 87.
11/5/1981, Bob Marley, reggae musician, died of cancer
aged 36.
23/1/1981, Samuel Barber, US composer, died aged 70.
4/1/1981, The Broadway show Frankenstein opened and closed
on this night, losing US$ 2 million.
8/12/1980. John Lennon, born 9/10/1940 in Liverpool
during an air raid, was shot dead in New York by Mark David Chapman. See 26/5/1969.
17/2/1980, Graham Sutherland, English artist, died aged 76.
18/1/1980, Cecil Beaton, English designer and
photographer, died aged 76.
30/12/1979, Richard Rodgers, US composer, died aged 77
30/11/1979, Zeppo Marx, the agent of the Marx brothers,
died in London.
15/8/1979, Peter Shukoff, US comedian and musician, was
born.
6/5/1979, Bernard Leach, British studio pottery artist,
died aged 92.
1/3/1978, Charlie Chaplin’s coffin was stolen from a
cemetery in Switzerland.
25/12/1977, Charlie
Chaplin
died in Switzerland,
aged 88.
13/9/1977, Leopold Stokowski, organist and conductor,
died in Nether Wallop, Hampshire.
20/8/1977. Julius, or Groucho Marx, US comedian of the
famous Marx Brothers, died in Los
Angeles.
4/12/1976. Death of the composer
Benjamin
Britten, aged 63.
23/11/1976, Andre Malreux, French novelist. died aged 75.
18/11/1976, Man Ray, US artist, died aged 86.
11/11/1976, Alexander Calder, US sculptor, died aged 78.
22/10/1976, Edward Burra, English painter, died aged 71.
11/5/1976, Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect, died aged 78.
23/2/1976, The painter
L S (Lawrence Stephen) Lowry, noted
for his matchstick people, died in Glossop, Derbyshire.
9/8/1975. Death of the Russian composer
Dmitri
Shostakovitch.
26/5/1975, The stuntman Evel Knievel suffered severe spinal injuries
whilst attempting to jump 13 buses in his car.
20/5/1975, Barbara Hepworth, English artist, died aged
72.
27/3/1975, Arthur Bliss, English composer, died aged 83.
4/3/1975, Queen Elizabeth II knighted the actor Charlie Chaplin.
19/2/1975, Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola died in Florence aged 71.
19/1/1975, Thomas Hart Benton, US painter, died in Kansas
City, Missouri..
24/12/1974. The Beatles’ legal partnership was
formally dissolved.
24/5/1974, Duke Ellington, jazz musician,
died of lung cancer aged 75.
6/4/1974, Abba won the Eurovision Song
Contest with the song Waterloo.
22/10/1973, Pablo Casals, Spanish
composer, died aged 96.
4/9/1973. The Rolling
Stones played in London for the first time in 2 ½ years, and then attended
a party at Buckingham Palace which Mick Jagger described as ‘very dull’.
1/9/1973, Ram Kapoor, Indian actor, was born in New
Delhi.
6/7/1973, Otto Klemperer, Jewish-German composer, died aged 88.
8/4/1973. The Spanish painter Pablo Picasso died of a heart
attack, aged 91. He was famous for his Cubist style.
29/11/1972, Carl W. Stalling, US composer, died aged 81.
10/10/1972, Sir
John Betjeman, born 28/8/1906, was appointed Poet Laureate.
8/8/1972, The musical Jesus
Christ Superstar premiered at the Palace Theatre, London.
6/7/1971, Louis Armstrong, US jazz
musician, died aged 69.
6/4/1971. Igor Stravinsky, Russian-born composer, died in New York
City aged 88.
24/3/1971, Arne Jacobsen, Danish
architect, died aged 69.
4/10/1970, Janis Joplin, rock musician,
died this day.
18/9/1970, Rock musician Jimi Hendrix
died of a drugs overdose.
8/5/1970. The Beatles’ final album, Let It Be, was released.
9/4/1970, The Beatles pop group disbanded.
6/12/1969. A free concert given by the Rolling Stones, at
Altamont, California, ended in tragedy when Hell’s Angels stabbed a man to death.
25/11/1969, John Lennon returned his MBE to Buckingham
Palace, in protest at British involvement in the Biafra civil war in Nigeria.
31/8/1969, Bob Dylan starred in a pop festival on the Isle of Wight,
drawing in 150,000 fans.
17/8/1969, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect, died.
5/7/1969, Sir Walter Gropius, architect,
founder of the Bauhaus school of design, died.
12/6/1969, Alexander
Deyneka: Ukrainian artist (born 1899), died.
24/5/1969. The Black
and White Minstrel Show at London’s Victoria Palace closed after 4,354
performances over seven years. It was the longest running musical show in
Britain.
16/4/1969. Desmond Dekker became the first Jamaican artist to top the UK charts with The Israelites.
15/4/1969, The Woodstock music festival began in Bethel, New York.
2/4/1969, Jim Morrison, of pop group ‘The Doors’ was
arrested in the USA.
20/3/1969. The Beatle John Lennon married Yoko Ono in
Gibraltar.
12/3/1969, Beatle Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman at Marylebone
Registry Office, London.
7/2/1969, Marvin
Gaye’s I Heard It Through The
Grapevine was released.
30/1/1969. The Beatles performed together for the last time.
2/10/1968, Marcel Duchamp, French-US painter and
sculptor, died 81.
30/8/1968, The single Hey
Jude was released by The Beatles.
25/6/1968. Comedian Tony
Hancock killed himself in a hotel bathroom in Sydney, Australia.
24/5/1968, The Rolling
Stones hit, Jumpin’ Jack Flash was
released.
23/2/1968, Tom Jones released
his song Delilah.
29/12/1967, Paul
Whiteman, US composer, died aged 77.
5/12/1967. The Beatles opened their Apple store on
Baker Street.
10/11/1967, The Moody Blue’s single, Nights in White Satin was released.
1/11/1967, Rolling Stone Magazine started
publication, the first Rock’n’roll periodical in the USA.
27/8/1967, Brian Epstein, who managed The
Beatles rise to rock stardom, died in a swimming pool accident.
29/5/1967, Geronimo Baqueiro Foster, composer, died aged
69.
5/4/1967, Mischa Elman, Russian-US violinist, died in
New York (born 20/1/1891 in Talnoye, Russia).
11/3/1967, Geraldine Farrar, US opera singer, died in
Ridgefield, Connecticut (born in Melrose, Massachusetts, 28/2/1882).
17/2/1967, The Beatles’ hit, Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever single was released.
1/6/1966. Folk music fans at the
Albert Hall booed Bob Dylan for performing
with an electric guitar.
28/2/1966, The Cavern Club, where The Beatles first played,
went into liquidation.
9/2/1966, Sophie Tucker, last of the ‘red hot mamas’,
died.
1/2/1966, The silent film comedian Buster Keaton died.
26/10/1965. The Beatles went to
Buckingham Palace to be presented with their MBE’s.
27/8/1965. The Swiss architect
Le Corbusier
died.
12/6/1965. The Beatles were made MBEs in the Queen’s
birthday honours. A number of other holders of the medal returned theirs in disgust.
23/5/1965, David Smith, US
sculptor, died aged 59.
2/3/1965, The Sound of
Music went on release in the USA. It was an instant hit.
10/8/1964. An emergency casualty station had to be set up in
Brighton to deal with a constant stream of hysterical girls overcome during a
performance of the Rolling Stones.
16/7/1964, The Rolling Stones had their first UK No.1 hit with It’s
All Over Now.
3/6/1964, The Rolling Stones began their first US
tour.
17/5/1964, Bob Dylan made his
first major London appearance, at the Royal Albert Hall.
23/4/1964, Gianandrea
Noseda, Italian pianist, was born.
17/4/1964, The Rolling Stones released their first
LP.
15/3/1964, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton married in Montreal.
1/2/1964. EMI’s managing director
announced that The Beatles were making over £500,000 a month.
11/10/1963, Jean Cocteau, French artist
(born 1889) died.
23/8/1963, The Beatles single She
Loves You was released.
3/8/1963. The Beatles played in The Cavern, Liverpool, for the last time.
26/12/1962. The Beatles, an obscure group from
Liverpool, just made no.17 in the charts with their single Love Me Do.
7/12/1962, Kirsten Flagstad, Norwegian opera singer, died
aged 67.
5/8/1962. Marilyn Monroe, US film actress,
died in Los Angeles aged 36,
of a barbiturates overdose.
21/7/1962. The Rolling Stones made
their first appearance at the Marquee Club in London.
9/5/1962, The Beatles signed a recording contract
with EMI’s Parlophone label.
21/1/1962 The Beatles and Cliff Richard were making the charts.
1/1/1962. The Beatles had their first
audition with a record company in London. Their manager, Brian Epstein, was told, guitar
groups are out, this group won’t make it, go back to Liverpool.
13/12/1961, Grandma Moses, US painter, died aged 101.
9/11/1961, Jill Dando, British journalist
and BBC television presenter, was born in Weston-super-Mare (murdered 1999).
2/11/1961, James Thurber, author, died in
New York.
11/10/1961, Chico Marx, the piano-playing
member of the Marx Brothers comedy
team, died.
14/7/1961, Boy George was born.
9/9/1960, Jussi Bjorling, Swedish tenor,
died aged 49.
23/8/1960, Oscar Hammerstein, US theatrical
producer, died aged 65.
14/8/1960, Sarah Brightman, English singer, was born in Berkhamstead,
Hertfordshire.
30/5/1960, Boris Pasternak, Russian author of Dr Zhivago,
Nobel Prize winner in 1958 (which he declined), died near Moscow.
12/4/1960, The musician
Ray Charles
won Best Male Vocalist Grammy award.
1959, The Barbie Doll was introduced at the annual Toy Fair in New York.
19/8/1959, Sir Jacob Epstein, sculptor, died in London,
England (born 10/11/1880 in New York City).
28/5/1959, The Mermaid
Theatre opened in the City of London.
3/2/1959, Buddy
Holly, US musician, was killed in an air crash in Iowa.
21/1/1959, Cecil B de Mille, Hollywood film producer,
died.
26/8/1958, Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer, died
aged 85.
16/8/1958, Madonna, US singer, was born.
8/8/1958. Columbia Records signed up a 17-year-old singer
called Cliff Richard.
7/6/1958, Prince, American singer,
was born.
20/12/1957. At the height of his career, Elvis Presley received
his call-up papers.
2/11/1957, Elvis Presley set a record with 8 simultaneous UK top 30 entries.
24/10/1957, Christian
Dior, French fashion designer and creator of ‘New Look’,
died.
20/9/1957 Jean Sibelius,composer,
died.
13/9/1957. The Mousetrap became Britain’s longest running play, reaching its
1,998th performance.
7/8/1957, Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy fame, died of a
stroke, aged 65. Laurel was then aged 67.
19/3/1957, Elvis Presley paid the US$ 1,000 deposit on a
mansion called Graceland, being sold by Mrs Ruth Brown-Moore.
16/3/1957, Constantin
Brancusi, sculptor, died in Paris.
13/1/1957, Elvis Presley recorded All Shook Up in a Hollywood studio.
15/4/1956, Emil
Nolde, German-Danish painter, died aged 88.
6/4/1956, Paramount Pictures signed Elvis for a
three-film, five-year contract worth $450,000.
10/2/1956, Elvis Presley walked into a
recording studio and made his first record, Heartbreak
Hotel.
27/11/1955, Arthur Honegger, Swiss composer, died aged 63.
29/10/1955, Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1,
originally completed in 1948, was premiered by the Leningrad Philharmonic
Orchestra.
4/5/1955, Georges Enescu, Romanian composer and
violinist, died in Paris, France (born 19/8/1881 in Liveni, Romania.
3/11/1954, Henri Matisse, painter, died in Nice aged 84.
5/10/1954, Bob Geldof, rock musician and charity
fundraiser, was born in Dublin.
25/8/1954, Elvis Costello, English
musician, was born.
19/5/1954, Charles Ives, US composer died
(born 1874).
15/2/1954, Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, was born.
9/11/1953. The Welsh poet Dylan Marlais Thomas, born in
Swansea on 27/10/1914, died in New York City aged 39 after falling into an alcoholic coma. He
had drunk 18 stiff whiskies. His major work, Under Milk Wood, was broadcast on radio in 1954.
15/10/1953 Youth culture was yet to arrive, as was the word
‘teenager’. Top of the pop charts were Mantovani,
Doris Day, and Dean Martin.
17/7/1953, Maude Adams, US actress (born 11/11/1872)
died.
28/3/1953, James Francis Thorpe, athlete, died.
23/3/1953, Raoul Dufy, French painter (born 3/6/1877 in
Le Havre, France) died in Forcalquiers, France.
5/3/1953. Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer,
died.
27/8/1952, Harvey Corbett, US architect,
died in New York city.,
21/1/1952, Billy Ocean, musician,
was born.
28/7/1951, Walt
Disney’s cartoon Alice in
Wonderland was released.
6/3/1951, Ivor
Novello, Welsh composer, died aged 58.
31/1/1951, Phil
Collins, rock musician, was born.
10/1/1951, Sinclair
Lewis, US novelist, died aged 65.
2/11/1950. George Bernard Shaw, born 26/7/1856 in Dublin,
died aged 94, in Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, UK. A failed novelist, he was 36 when his first
play, Widower’s Houses, was
performed.
16/10/1950, The Lion,
The Witch and The Wardrobe, CS Lewis, was first published.
26/2/1950, Sir Harry Lauder, Scottish comedian and
singer, died aged 79.
23/9/1949, Bruce Springsteen, US musician, was born.
8/9/1949, Richard Strauss, composer, died.
3/1/1949, Robert Aitken, US sculptor (born
8/5/1878) died.
31/12/1948, Donna Summer, US singer, was
born.
22/3/1948, Andrew Lloyd Webber, British
composer, was born.
24/8/1947, The Edinburgh
International Festival of Music and Drama was launched. It was an antidote to the prevailing austerity.
25/3/1947. Elton John, British musician, was born in Pinner, London, as Reginald
Kenneth Dwight.
8/1/1947. David Bowie, British musician and rock star,
was born in London as David Jones.
9/8/1946, The Arts Council of
Great Britain was incorporated.
14/6/1946. Demis Roussos, Greek operatic singer, was born; see 25/1/2015.
26/9/1945. Bela Bartok, composer, died.
21/5/1945, Herbert Adams, US sculptor (born
28/1/1858) died.
10/1/1945, Rod Stewart, British rock
singer, was born in London.
25/12/1944, Kenny Everett, radio and TV comedian, was
born.
13/9/1944. William Heath Robinson, the English artist famous for his drawings of excessively
complicated machinery cobbled together, died.
1/2/1944. In New York, the Dutch artist
Piet
Mondrian died, aged 71.
28/1/1944, John Tavener, English composer,
was born (died 2013)
23/1/1944. Death of Norwegian artist
Edvard Munch.
1/1/1944, Sir Edwin Lutyens, English architect, designer of The Cenotaph in London
and planner of New Delhi, died in London.
28/4/1943, Sergei Rachmaninov, Russian composer, died in Beverley Hills, California.
25/2/1943, George Harrison, of the pop
group ‘The Beatles’ was born in Liverpool.
24/11/1942, Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian, was born.
22/9/1942, Ralph Adams Cram, US architect, died
18/6/1942, Paul McCartney of The
Beatles pop group was born in Liverpool.
22/1/1942, Walter Sickert, English painter, died aged 81.
5/11/1941, Art Garfunkel, of Simon and Garfunkel, was
born in New York.
18/6/1941, Delia Smith was born.
21/1/1941, Placido
Domingo, Spanish operatic tenor, was born in Madrid.
17/11/1940, Eric
Gill, English sculptor, died aged 58.
9/10/1940. John Lennon, songwriter and musician in The Beatles pop group, was born in
Liverpool. He was the son of a ship’s
steward.
7/7/1940, Ringo Starr, drummer in the
Beatles pop group, was born Liverpool as Richard Starkey.
29/6/1940, Paul Klee, artist,
died in Switzerland.
8/6/1940, Nancy Sinatra, daughter of singer Frank Sinatra,
was born.
13/7/1939. Frank Sinatra made his
first record, ‘From the Bottom of my Heart’ with the Harry James band.
21/4/1939, Edna Savage, UK singer, was born
(died 31/12/2000).
10/4/1939, Glen Miller recorded
Little Brown Jug.
2/4/1939, Marvin Gaye, soul singer, was born.
19/2/1939, Batman was first drawn by Bob Kane
for a ‘Detective Comic’ to be issued in May 1939.
17/3/1938. Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev
born in Irkutsk, Siberia.
16/2/1938, John Corigliano, US composer,
was born.
11/7/1937, The US composer George Gershwin died, aged 38.
31/1/1937, Philip Glass,
US composer, was born.
8/1/1937, Shirley Bassey, British singer
and entertainer, was born in Cardiff, Wales.
16/9/1935, Carl Andre, US
artist, was born.
13/6/1935, Christo Javachev and his partner Jean Claude,
artists, were born.
20/5/1935, Mickey Rose, US actor, was born (died 2013).
24/11/1934, Alfred Schnittke, German composer,
was born (died 1998).
28/9/1934, Brigitte Bardot, actress, female
role model, was born in Paris.
10/6/1934, British composer Frederick Delius died in France.
25/5/1934. The composer
Gustav Holst,
who wrote The Planets, died aged 59.
He was buried in Chichester Cathedral.
24/4/1934, Laurens Hammond filed a patent for an
"electrical musical instrument" known today as the Hammond organ.
23/2/1934. Sir Edward Elgar, English composer,
(born 2/6/1857), died of pneumonia in Worcester. On 10/11/1910 he conducted the
first performance of his violin concerto, played by Fritz Kreisler, at the Queen’s
Hall, London Applause was described as worthy of the Battle of Trafalgar.
18/2/1934, Yoko Ono, the widow of Jon Lennon, was born.
23/7/1933. Richard Rogers, architect
who designed the Pompidou Centre in
Paris and the Lloyds Building in London, was
born.
6/3/1932, John Philip Sousa, composer,
died.
3/10/1931. Death of the Danish composer Carl Nielsen.
29/9/1931, William Orpen, Irish
painter, died aged 52.
8/11/1929, The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened.
2/11/1929, The first News Theatre Cinema opened in New York,
the Embassy.
12/10/1929, Magnus Magnusson, British writer and TV presenter, was
born in Reykjavik, Iceland.
3/2/1929, Val Doonican, singer,
was born.
11/12/1928, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian author, was born.
26/8/1928, Actress Barbara Stanwyck and vaudeville
comedian Frank Fay were married in St. Louis.
12/8/1928, Leos Janacek, Czech composer,
died aged 74.
6/8/1928, Andy Warhol, US artist, was
born.
13/8/1927, Hermann
Albert, German musicologist, died in Stuttgart (born
25/3/1871, Stuttgart).
6/12/1926. The impressionist painter
Claude Monet
died as a recluse in Coventry, aged 86.
31/10/1926. The USA magician and escapologist Harry
Houdini died, aged 52. He
was born as Ehrich Weisz in Hungary and adopted his later name from the
conjuror Robert Houdin whose autobiography he read as a young boy. .Determined to
match Houdin’s achievements and to haul his family out of poverty, Houdini ran
away to New York to begin a life in magic and entertainment which would enthral
thousands. He escaped from handcuffs in an underwater nailed packing crate, and
later exposed many psychic frauds. Whilst giving a lecture on spiritualism in
Montreal, Houdini was asked if he could withstand a blow to the abdomen. Before
he had a chance to prepare himself, Houdini was struck three times by a
student. Despite this he managed to perform again, but died of peritonitis in a
Detroit hospital a few days later.
10/6/1926, Spanish architect
Gaudi y
Cornet died. His most famous building is the Sagrada Familia
cathedral in Barcelona.
21/12/1925. Battleship Potemkin, a film by Sergei Eisenstein, opened in the USSR.
14/11/1925, The first Surrealist
art exhibition opened in Paris.
17/7/1925, Lovis Corinth, German painter, died.
14/4/1925, John Singer Seargant, US painter, died aged 69.
21/1/1925, Benny Hill, English comedian, was born in
Southampton.
29/11/1924, The composer Puccini died in Brussels.
11/6/1924, Théodore Dubois, French composer,
died aged 86.
14/4/1924, Louis Sullivan, US architect, died in Chicago.
4/3/1924, Happy Birthday to You, a song written by
two US teachers, the sisters Patty and Mildred Hill, first appeared in print in
a book by Robert H Coleman.
9/12/1923, Meggie Albanesi, British actress, died aged
24.
28/5/1923, Gyorgy Ligeti, Hungarian composer, was born (died
2006).
26/11/1922. Birth of the American
cartoonist Charles
Schultz. At an arts instruction school in St Paul, Minnesota, Schultz
asked fellow student Charlie Brown if he could use his name . He
also used Brown’s
moon-face looks to create the friendly loser-kid in the comic strip Peanuts, which featured in some 2,600
newspapers in 75 countries, translated into 21 languages. Schultz died in Santa Rosa,
California, in 2000.
24/2/1922, Richard Hamilton, English
painter, was born (died 2011).
16/12/1921, French composer
and organist Camille
Saint-Saens died aged 86.
9/9/1921, Charlie Chaplin arrived at Waterloo
Station, London,
on the boat train from Southampton, to a rapturous welcome. He was staying at
the Ritz Hotel, socially a million miles from his childhood days in Lambeth.
2/8/1921. Death of the Italian tenor
Enrico
Caruso, whose funeral in Naples was attended by 50,000 people.
10/10/1920, Thelonious Monk, US jazz
musician, was born (died 1982)
27/3/1920, Death of Samuel Colman,
US landscape painter (born 4/3/1832).
17/12/1919. Pierre Auguste Renoir died. He was born on
26/2/1841.
18/5/1919, Margot Fonteyne, English ballerina, was born
(died 1991).
16/5/1919. Waldzin Valentino Liberace was born in
Wisconsin. His father wanted him to be an undertaker.
3/12/1919, Pierre Auguste Renoir, French Impressionist painter, died near Cannes, aged 78.
25/4/1918, Ella Fitzgerald, US jazz singer, was born
(died 1996).
25/3/1918, Claude Debussy, French composer,
died of cancer in London aged 55.
18/11/1917, Pedro Infante, Mexican actor
and singer, was born.
17/11/1917, Death of the sculptor
Auguste
Rodin, aged 77.
21/10/1917, Dizzie Gillespie, US jazz musician, was born
(died 1993).
27/9/1917, The painter
Edgar Degas
died, aged 83 (born 19/7/1834, in Paris).
20/3/1917. Dame Vera Lynn was born.
1/3/1917, Robert Lowell, US poet, was born
in Boston, Massachusetts.
25/6/1916, Thomas C Eakins, US
artist, died (born 25/7/1844).
22/4/1916, Yehudi Menuhin, US
violinist, was born.
24/10/1915, Tito
Gobbi, Italian baritone singer, was born (died 1984)
5/6/1915, French sculptor and
draughtsman Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was killed in action in
World War One, aged 23.
28/11/1914, Vincent Fago, American comic book artist, was
born.
24/11/1914, Lynne Chadwick, English sculptor, was born.
12/12/1913. Leonardo Da
Vinci’s Mona Lisa which
had been stolen from the Louvre three years earlier was found in a bedroom of a
small hotel in Florence. An Italian, Vicenzo Peruggia, was arrested.
22/11/1913, Benjamin Britten, English composer,
was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
16/5/1913, Woody Herman, US jazz musician, was barn (died
1987).
5/9/1912, Composer
John Cage
was born
27/8/1912. Tarzan of the
Apes, by Edgar
Rice Burroughs, first went into print as a magazine serial.
14/7/1912. Woody Guthrie, US folk singer, was born in Oklahoma.
1/7/1912, The first Royal Command Performance took place at
the Palace Theatre, London, watched by King George V and Queen Mary.
22/8/1911, The Mona Lisa was stolen from The Louvre,
Paris.
18/5/1911. The composer
Gustav Mahler
died of heart disease in Austria, aged 51.
26/10/1911, Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer, was born.
29/9/1910, US artist Winslow Homer died at his studio in Maine.
23/6/1910, Jean Anouilh, French dramatist, was born (died
1987).
31/3/1910, Andreas Achenbach, German landscape painter (born
29/9/1815) died.
21/6/1908, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer,
died at Lyubensk.
7/1/1908, Sir Frederick Gibberd, town planner who designed Harlow New Town, was born (died
1984). He also designed
Didcot power station (1968), the Intercontinental Hotel at Hyde Park Corner,
London (1975), Liverpool’s Catholic cathedral (1967), and the Regent’s Park Mosque
(1977).
4/9/1907. Edward Greig, Norwegian composer, died in Bergen.
22/1/1907, In London, a strike by music hall artists
disrupted theatre performances.
22/10/1906, The painter
Paul Cezanne
died in Aix en Provence, France (born 19/1/1839).
7/8/1906, Gerhard Frommel, composer,
was born.
6/8/1906, Vic Dickenson, US trombonist, was born (died
1984).
8/7/1906, Philip Johnson, architect,
was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
23/5/1906, The Norwegian poet Henry Ibsen died.
6/4/1906, The Poet
Laureate, John Betjeman,
was born in London.
9/3/1906, David Smith, sculptor, was born
(died 1965).
13/10/1905, Sir Henry Irving, the first
British actor to receive a knighthood, gave his final performance in Bradford,
Yorkshire, before collapsing and dying in the arms of his dresser at the Midland
Hotel.
29/4/1905, Rudolf Schwartz, Viennese
conductor who survived the Nazi concentration camps to become conductor of the
BBC Symphony orchestra, was born.
15/2/1905, Harold Arlen, musician, was born in New York.
2/2/1905, The Russian writer Maxim Gorky
was released from prison.
21/1/1905, Christian Dior, French designer, was born in Granville.
1/11/1904, George Bernard Shaw’s play John
Bull’s Other Island had its premier.
27/7/1904, Anton Dolin, English ballet
dancer, was born in Sussex.
5/7/1904, The composer
Edward Elgar
was knighted.
26/5/1904, George Formby, Lancashire comedian who played
the ukulele and was famous for his song Cleaning Windows, was born.
11/5/1904. Spanish painter
Salvador
Dali was born in Figueras, Upper Catalonia.
1/5/1904. The Czech composer
Antonin
Dvorak died.
9/1/1904, George Balanchine, ballet choreographer, was
born (died 1983).
17/7/1903, James Whistler, painter, died aged 70.
8/5/1903. Death of the French Impressionist painter Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin, on the
Marquesas Islands, Polynesia, aged 54. He was born in Paris in 1848 and spent a
short time with Vincent
Van Gogh. He died of syphilis. Gauguin had given up a successful career on
the Paris stock exchange at 35 to pursue painting, at which he was self-taught.
21/5/1902, Marcel Lajos Breuer, architect, was born (died
1981)
11/4/1902, Fred Gaisberg, of the Gramophone Company, made
the first recordings of Caruso.
29/3/1902, Sir William Walton, English composer, was born in Oldham, Lancashire, to
musical parents.
5/12/1901. Walt Disney was born.
9/9/1901. The bespectacled short painter
Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec died in Malrome from a paralytic stroke, aged 36.
31/7/1901, Jean Dubuffet, French artist, was born in Le
Havre, France.
24/6/1901, The first Picasso exhibition opened in Paris.
23/5/1901, Edward Rubbra, composer, was born (died 1986)
12/3/1901, Whitechapel Art
Gallery, London, opened.
20/2/1901, Louis Isadore Kahn, architect, was born (died
1974).
27/1/1901. The Italian composer
Giuseppe
Verdi died in Milan aged 87. His works included La Traviata
and Il Travatore.
22/6/1900, In London, the Wallace
Collection was opened to the Public.
20/1/1900, John Ruskin, writer
and art critic, died near Coniston, Lake District, aged 80.
29/9/1899, Billy Butlin, holiday camp owner, was born in South Africa.
13/8/1899. Birth of film director Alfred
Hitchcock. He was born in
Leytonstone, London, the son of a greengrocer.
3/6/1899. Johann Strauss
the Younger, Austrian composer,
violinist, and conductor, who wrote The Blue Danube waltz,
died in Vienna.
2/6/1899, Lotte Reiniger, film
animator, was born.
16/3/1899, The London erotic illustrator
Aubrey
Beardsley died aged 26.
30/7/1898, Henry Moore, British
sculptor, was born in Castleford, Yorkshire, the son of a coal miner.
9/1/1898, Gracie Fields,
singer and music hall star, was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, as Gracie
Stansfield.
3/4/1897, Johannes Brahms,
German composer, died at his home
in Vienna, aged 64.
12/1/1896, Tommy Handley, British
comedian, was born in Liverpool.
6/10/1895 Sir
Henry Wood’s promenade concerts began at
Queen’s Hall, London.
14/2/1895, Oscar Wilde’s final play, The Importance of
Being Earnest, opened in London.
8/12/1894, James Thurber, author, was
born in Columbus, Ohio.
9/2/1894, Adolphe Saxe, the Belgian musical instrument
maker who invented the Saxophone,
died in Paris.
6/11/1893. The composer
Peter Illich
Tchaikovsky, born.7/5/1840, died of cholera,
after drinking infected water.
18/1/1892, Oliver Hardy, comedian
in the Laurel
and Hardy duo, was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
23/4/1891, Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer,
was born in Sontsovka in the Ukraine.
13/2/1891, Grant Wood, US painter, was born in Iowa.
11/1/1891, Baron Georges-Eugene Haussman, architect who designed the broad straight
boulevards of Paris, died in poverty.
2/10/1890, Julius Groucho Marx was born (died 1977).
29/7/1890. Vincent Van
Gogh, born 30/3/1853,
died after prolonged insanity. He went to the spot where he had painted Cornfield
with flight of birds and shot himself in the chest, on 27/7/1890, dying 2
days later.
16/4/1889. Birth of the comedian Sir
Charles Chaplin in Kennington, London (died 1977). He was the son of
two music hall entertainers.
15/4/1889, Thomas Hart
Benton, US painter, was born in Neosho, Missouri.
23/12/1888. The artist Vincent Van Gogh cut off his left ear lobe.
23/11/1888, Harpo
Marx, one of the Marx Brothers comedy team, was born
in New York City.
11/5/1888, Irving Berlin, US songwriter, was born as Israel
Baline in Tyumen, Russia.
1887, L L Zamenhof devised
‘Esperanto’.
18/11/1887, Frank Dobson, English sculptor, was born.
15/11/1887, Georgia O’Keefe, artist, was born in Wisconsin.
1/11/1887, The artist L S (Laurence Stephen) Lowry was born in
Rusholme, Manchester.
28/2/1887, Alexander Borodin, Russian composer, died in
St Petersburg.
31/7/1886. Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer, died aged 74, in Bayreuth, Bavaria.
27/3/1886, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architect, was born
in Aachen, Germany.
16/6/1885, Wilhelm Camphausen, German painter (born 1818)
died.
12/5/1884, Bohemian composer
Bedrich
Smetana died in an asylum for the insane.
15/7/1883, Tom Thumb, the American circus midget who
finally attained a height of 40 inches, died.
30/4/1883, Edouard Manet, artist, died.
18/2/1883, The funeral of the composer
Wagner
was held at Bayreuth.
23/1/1883, The French artist Gustave Dore
(born 6/1/1832 in Strasbourg|) died in Paris.
9/4/1882, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English painter and poet, died.
25/10/1881, Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter
who created Cubism, was born in Malaga, Andalusia.
28/3/1881, Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer, died of chronic alcoholism aged 42.
25/3/1881, Bela Bartok, Hungarian composer,
was born.
10/11/1880, The British sculptor
James
Epstein was born (of Russian-Polish descent) in New York City.
9/11/1880, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, British architect, was born.
5/10/1880, Jacques Offenbach, composer,
died in Paris.
18/12/1879, Paul Klee, artist,
was born.
29/4/1879. Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor, born.
8/5/1878, Robert Aitken, US sculptor (died 3/1/1949) was
born.
31/12/1877, The painter Gustave Coubert died, aged 59.
27/7/1877, Ernst von Dohnanyi, Hungarian pianist (died
New York, 9/2/1960) was born in Pozsony, Hungary.
17/8/1876. Wagner’s opera Gotterdammerung
premiered at Bayreuth.
19/2/1876, Constantin Brancusi, sculptor, was born in
Romania.
3/6/1875. Georges Bizet,
French composer of the opera Carmen,
died in Bougival near Paris.
7/3/1875, Maurice Ravel, French composer,
was born in Ciboure in the Basque Country.
21/9/1874, Gustav Holst, English composer,
who wrote The Planets, was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, as Gustavus
Theodore von Holst, of Swedish origin.
6/4/1874, Harry Houdini, American magician and
escapologist, was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, as Ehrich Weiss. He was the son of
a rabbi from Budapest.
1/10/1873, Sir Edwin Landseer, painter,
died in London.
1/4/1873. Sergei Rachmaninov, last of the great Russian
romantic composers, was born in Oneg,
Nijni Novgorod. He later settled in the USA.
25/2/1873, Enrico Caruso,
Italian operatic tenor, was born in Naples.
8/1/1873, Harvey Corbett, US architect,
was born in San Francisco,
11/11/1872, Maude Adams, US actress, was born (died
17/7/1953).
31/5/1872, The illustrator and
cartoonist Heath Robinson
was born. He was famous for his drawings of absurdly complicated machinery
performing simple tasks.
22/5/1872. In Germany, the foundation stone of the Bayreuth Theatre was laid. It was built
specially for the performance of Wagner’s works.
25/3/1871, The American sculptor,
Gutzon
Borglum, was born near Bear Lake, Idaho.
8/8/1870, Maximillian Ainmiller, German glass painter
(born 14/2/1807) died.
29/3/1869, Sir Edward Lutyens, British architect, was born in London.
8/3/1869. The French composer
Berlioz
died in Paris.
25/5/1868, Rene Weil (Romain Coolus), French dramatist, was born in Rennes.
18/4/1867, John Smirke, who designed
the façade of the British Museum, died.
31/1/1867. The four great bronze lions at the base of Nelson’s Column were completed by painter Sir Edward Landseer and positioned in Trafalgar Square.
14/1/1867, The painter Jean Auguste Ingres died aged 86 in Paris.
13/11/1866, Rossini, Italian composer,
died in Passy, France, aged 76.
8/12/1865, Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer,
was born in Hameenlinna, the son of a surgeon.
1/10/1865, Paul Dukas, French composer, was
born in Paris, France (died17/5/1935 in Paris).
2/8/1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)
was published.
6/7/1865, Emile Jacques Dalcroze, inventor
of eurhythmics dancing, was born.
8/6/1865, Sir Joseph Paxton, ornamental gardener and architect who designed
the Crystal Palace for the 1851 Great Exhibition, died.
11/6/1864, Richard Strauss, composer, was born in Munich, Germany
18/5/1864, Milton Aborn, US operatic
singer, was born (died 12/11/1933).
2/4/1864, Louis Michel Eilshemius, US
painter, was born in New Jersey (died 29/12/1941 in New York City.
13/1/1864, Stephen Foster, musician,
died in New York (born 4/7/1926)
12/12/1863, Edward Munch, Norwegian artist
who painted The Scream, was born.
7/12/1863, Pietro Mascagni, Italian composer,
was born.
13/8/1863, The painter
Eugene
Delacroix died in Paris.
31/7/1863, Richard Aldrich, US music critic, was born
(died 1937).
12/7/1863, Charles Cottet, French painter,
was born at Puy.
22/8/1862. Composer Claude Debussy
was born in St Germain en Laye, France.
29/1/1862, Frederick Delius, English composer,
born in Bradford, Yorkshire.
18/12/1860, Edward MacDowell, US composer,
was born in New York City.
7/7/1860, Gustav Mahler, composer,
was born in Kalischt, Bohemia.
20/10/1860, Walter Cope, US architect,
was born in Pennsylvania.
7/9/1860, Grandma Moses, US painter, was born in
Greenwich, New York State.
23/6/1860. On St John’s Eve, Mussorgsky completed St
John’s Night on a Bare Mountain. After his death Rimsky Korsakov edited it and
removed St John’s from the title.
15/12/1859, Ludwig Zimenof, Polish linguist who created the
artificial language Esperanto, was
born in Bialystock.
24/11/1859. Charles Darwin,
born 12/2/1809, published The Origin of the Species.
12/11/1859, French
acrobat Jules
Leotard performed the first circus trapeze act at the Cirque
Napoleon, Paris, wearing the famous costume named after him.
4/10/1859, Death of German publisher Karl Baedeker, whose travel guides became famous.
19/5/1859, Dame Nellie Melba, Australian singer,
was born.
22/12/1858, The composer Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy.
28/1/1858, Herbert Adams, US sculptor (died 21/5/.1945)
was born.
16/9/1857, The tune Jingle Bells by James Pierpoint was copyrighted
under its original title One Horse Open
Sleigh. In 1965 it became the first song to be broadcast from space.
2/6/1857, Sir Edward Elgar, British composer,
was born in Broadheath, near Worcester, the son of a music seller and organist.
27/10/1856, Kenyon Cox, US painter,
was born in Ohio.
3/9/1856, Louis Sullivan, US architect,
was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
29/7/1856, Robert Schumann, German composer,
died in an asylum near Bonn.
3/5/1856, Adolphe Adam, French composer
(born 24/7/1803) died.
6/11/1854, John Philip Sousa, composer,
inventor of the sousaphone (a sort of large tuba), was born.
30/3/1853. The artist Vincemt Van Gogh was born in the Dutch village
of Groot-Zundert, the son of a Lutheran pastor.
1/11/1852, Dame Emma Albani, Canadian singer (died 3/4/1930) was
born.
30/9/1852, Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish composer, was born.
14/9/1852, Lord
Pugin, co-designer of the Houses of Parliament with Sir Charles Barry, died at Ramsgate.
19/12/1851. The painter
Joseph
Turner died in his house in Chelsea, London, under the assumed name of Booth.
11/3/1851, Verdi’s opera Rigoletto was
first performed, in Venice.
1/2/1851, Mary Shelley, author
of Frankenstein, died.
19/11/1850, Alfred Lord Tennyson
was appointed Poet Laureate, a post he
held until his death in 1892.
23/4/1850, Sir William Wordsworth,
Poet Laureate from 1843, died of
pleurisy at Rydal Mount, Grasmere, aged 80.
17/10/1849. Frederic Chopin,
born 1/3/1810 near Warsaw, Poland, died aged 39 of tuberculosis in Paris.
25/9/1849, Johann Strauss the Elder died, aged 45, of
scarlet fever.
23/6/1848. Adolfe Sax, born on 6/11/1814 in Dinant, Belgium,
was awarded a patent for the saxophone.
7/6/1848, Paul Gauguin, French painter,
was born in Paris. He was the son of a
journalist.
4/11/1847. The composer
Felix
Mendelssohn died in Leipzig of a stroke, aged 38.
16/9/1847, Shakespeare’s
birthplace in Stratford on Avon was purchased by the specially-formed Shakespeare
Birthplace Trust. This was one of the first buildings acquired purely for
preservation.
17/3/1846, Kate Greenaway,
British
artist, was born.
19/10/1845. Wagner’s
opera ‘Tannhauser’ was first performed at Dresden. Wagner’s music
inspired either wonder or loathing, and he was also highly anti-Semitic.
30/5/1846, Peter Carl Faberge, Russian jeweller whose fabulous Easter
Eggs were popular with the tsars, was born.
25/7/1844, Thomas C Eakins, US artist, was born (died
25/6/1916).
16/7/1844, Charles
Dickens’ sixth book, The Life
and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, was published in entirety.
3/5/1844, Richard D’Oyly
Carte, who produced the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, was born.
18/3/1844, Rimsky Korsakoov, Russian composer,
was born in Novgorod.
15/6/1843. Edward Grieg, Norwegian composer,
was born in Bergen. He was of Scottish
descent.
22/10/1842, Anne Louise Cary, US singer, was born.
8/9/1841, Anton Dvorak, Czech composer,
was born near Prague.
25/2/1841, Pierre Auguste Renoir,
French impressionist painter,
was born in Limoges, the son of a tailor.
14/11/1840,
Claude Monet,
French Impressionist painter,
was born in Paris.
12/11/1840, Auguste Rodin, French sculptor,
was born in Paris.
7/5/1840, Peter Illyich Tchaikovsky,
Russian composer, was born in
Votkinsk, the son of a government mines inspector.
21/3/1839, Modest Moussorgsky, Russian composer, was born in Karevo (now called
Pskov).
19/1/1839, Paul Cezanne, French artist,
was born in Aix en Provence, France.
4/1/1838, Charles Sherwood Stratton was born. He later
became famous as Tom Thumb, a midget
exhibited by Phineas
Barnum.
31/3/1837 The painter
John
Constable. Died, aged 60.
20/1/1837, Sir Robert Soane, architect,
died in London. He designed the Bank of England building on Threadneedle
Street.
26/6/1836, Rouget de Lisle, composer
of La Marseillaise in 1792, died.
24/2/1836, US artist Winslow Homer was born in Boston,
Massachusetts.
26/6/1835, Baron Antoine Gros, French painter, drowned himself in the River Seine at
Meudon, aged 64.
13/5/1835, John Nash, architect
of Regents Park and Brighton Pavilion, died on the Isle of Wight. He had been
commissioned by King
George IV to redevelop parts of London, such as Trafalgar Square and Regent
Street.
12/11/1834. Alexander Borodin, Russian composer, was born in St Petersburg.
1/9/1834, Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian musician, was born (died
17/1/1886).
19/7/1834, Edward Degas, painter,
was born in Paris.
28/8/1833, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, English painter, was born.
7/5/1833, Johannes Brahms, German composer,
was born in Hamburg, the son of a poor orchestral musician.
6/1/1833, Gustav Dore, French artist,
was born.
23/1/1832. Edouard Manet,
French painter, was born in Paris.
6/1/1832, Gustave Dore, French artist,
was born.
10/11/1830, Jacob Epstein, British sculptor,
was born.
1829, The accordion was invented by Damian, in Vienna.
19/11/1828. Franz Schubert,
born 31/1/1797, died of typhus, aged 31.
16/4/1828, Francisco de Goya, Spanish painter and etcher, died in France
aged 82.
20/3/1828, The Norwegian poet Henry Ibsen
was born in Skien, Norway.
8/2/1828. Jules Verne, French writer
and early author of science fiction, was born in Nantes, Brittany.
26/3/1827. Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven died in Bonn,
aged 57. His last words were reputedly “I shall hear in Heaven”. His funeral
was on 29/3/1827, in Vienna; thousands attended it.
22/4/1827, Thomas Rowlandson, English watercolour painter (born 1756) died in
London.
25/10/1825, Johann Strauss junior, composer,
was born in Vienna, Austria.
2/3/1824, Bedrich Smetana, Czech composer,
was born in Litomysl, Bohemia.
7/5/1823, Despite his deafness, Beethoven conducted the first
performance of his Ninth Symphony.
1821, The designer,
Louis
Vuitton, was born in Jura, eastern France, to a farming family. At
age 13 he walked to Paris and became apprentice to a master trunk maker.
15/5/1821, John Callcott, English musician (born
20/11/1766) died.
20/6/1819, Jacques Offenbach, composer, was born in
Cologne, Germany.
11/4/1819, Sir Charles Halle, German musician
who founded the Halle Orchestra in
Manchester, was born.
21/6/1818, Sir Richard Wallace, art collector and
philanthropist, was born.
29/9/1815, Andreas Achenbach, German landscape painter,
was born (died 31/3/1910).
4/3/1815, Frances Abington, English actress (born 1737) died
6/11/1814, Adolphe Sax, Belgian musician
and instrument-maker who invented the Saxophone and Saxhorn, was born.
1/6/1814, Francois Ponsard, French dramatist, was born (died
7/7/1867).
10/10/1813. The Italian composer
Guiseppe
Verdi was born in Le Roncole, near Busseto, the son of an innkeeper.
22/5/1813. Richard Wagner, German operatic composer, was born in Leipzig.
7/2/1812, The author Charles Dickens was born in Landport,
Portsmouth, the son of a clerk in the navy pay office.
22/10/1811. Franz Liszt,
Hungarian composer and pianist, was
born in the village of Raiding near Odenburg.
18/7/1811, William
Thackeray, poet,
was born in Calcutta, India; his father was an official of the East
India Company.
13/7/1811, Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect
who designed the Albert Memorial and
St Pancras Station, was born.
8/6/1810, Robert Schumann, German composer,
was born.
5/7/1810, American showman Phineas T Barnum was born in
Bethel, Connecticut.
1/3/1810, Frederic Chopin,
Polish composer and pianist, was
born in Zelazowa Wola, near Warsaw, the son of a Frenchman.
31/5/1809. Franz Joseph Haydn,
Austrian composer, died in Vienna.
28/3/1809, George Richmond, British artist,
was born.
3/2/1809, Felix Mendelssohn,
German composer, was born in
Hamburg, son of a banker.
22/12/1808, Beethoven’s 5th and 6th
symphonies received their premiere in Vienna.
22/10/1806, Thomas Sheraton, furniture designer and cabinet maker, died.
20/11/1805, Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio, premiered at the Theater an der
Wein, in Vienna.
14/3/1804, Johann Strauss
the Elder, Austrian composer,
was born in Vienna, son of an innkeeper.
11/12/1803, Hector Berlioz, French composer,
was born in La Cote St Andre, near Grenoble, son of a doctor.
24/7/1803, Adolphe Adam, French composer,
was born (died 3/5/1856).
3/3/1802. Beethoven’s opera “Moonlight
Sonata” is published.
7/3/1802. Sculptor and animal painter Sir Edward Landseer was born in London, the
son of an engraver. He designed the bronze lions at the base of Nelson’s Column
in Trafalgar Square.
3/11/1801, Karl Baedeker, guide book
publisher, was born.
31/8/1801. Sir Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace, was born at
Milton Bryant near Woburn, Bedfordshire.
26/4/1798, The painter
Eugene
Delacroix was born near Paris.
31/1/1797, Franz Schubert,
Austrian
composer, was born near Vienna. He was
the son of a schoolteacher.
23/5/1795, Birth of the architect Sir Charles Barry, who designed the Houses of
Parliament in London
3/1/1795, Josiah Wedgwood, English potter
and creator of blue jasper ware, died
in Staffordshire.
19/7/1793, Thomas Doughty, US painter (died
22/7/1856 in New York city) was born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
29/2/1792, Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer, was born in Pesano, on the Adriatic
coast. He was the son of an itinerant horn player.
23/2/1792, Joshua Reynolds, English portrait
painter, died in London.
5/12/1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, died of typhus in Vienna and was
buried in the common ground of St Mark’s churchyard.
2/8/1788. The painter
Thomas
Gainsborough, born 14/5/1727, died.
10/7/1788. Mozart
completed his Jupiter Symphony. Born on 27/1/1756, Mozart
died on 5/12/1791 from typhus and was buried in a pauper’s grave with several
other paupers.
10/8/1787. Mozart completed his famous Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
3/4/1783, Washington Irving, author
of Rip Van Winkle, was born.
6/2/1783. English landscape gardener
Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown died.
Kew Gardens and Blenheim Palace are examples of his work.
27/10/1782. Birth of the Italian composer
and violinist Niccolo
Paganini, in Genoa.
18/12/1779, Joseph Grimaldi, English clown
who invented the white face make up for clowns, was born.
20/1/1779, David Garrick, English actor and theatre
manager, died. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
3/8/1778. La Scala
opera house in Milan opened, the
work of Guiseppe
Piermarini.
5/3/1778, Thomas Arne, English composer, died in
London.
22/1/1778, Lord Byron, English romantic poet, was born
in London.
11/6/1776. John Constable,
landscape
painter, was born in East Bergholt, Suffolk, the son of a landowner
and miller.
16/12/1775. Jane Austen, author, was born at
Steventon in Hampshire, the seventh child of eight born to a rector.
23/4/1775, The painter
Joseph
Mallory William Turner was born at Covent Garden, London. He was the
son of a barber.
16/12/1770, Beethoven, German composer,
was born in Bonn, the son of an undistinguished tenor.
7/4/1770. William Wordsworth,
poet,
was born, at Cockermouth,
Cumberland. He was the son of an attorney.
10/12/1768. The Royal Academy of
Arts, London, was founded. Joshua Reynolds
was the first President.
20/4/1768. The painter
Canaletto died in Venice. Born there
in 1697, Canaletto
painted many scenes of Venice before moving to England in 1746 to paint the
country houses there.
20/11/1766, John Callcott, English musician (died
15/5/1821) was born.
27/10/1764 The painter
and engraver William
Hogarth died in
London, aged 67. He was buried in
Chiswick churchyard. He also pushed for
legislation to protect the intellectual property of artists, the so-called
‘Hogarth Act’ of 1753.
21/4/1760, Britain’s
first art exhibition opened. The Annual Exhibition of United Artists was
held at the premises of the Society of Arts on The Strand, London.
14/4/1759. George Frederick Handel,
German composer, died, aged 74, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey. He was born in Halle, Saxony, on 23/2/1685. He settled in
England and became court composer to George II.
15/10/1758, Johann Heinrich von Dannecker, German
sculptor, was born (died 1841)
23/7/1757. The composer
Scarlatti
died, aged 71.
27/1/1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Austrian composer, was born in
Salzburg, the son of a musician.
10/9/1753. Birth of the architect Sir John Soane. He was born at
Goring, near Reading, the son of a mason, and in 1788 he became architect and
surveyor to the Bank of England. The new exterior he created for the Bank was
regarded as his most famous work. In 1806 he became Professor of Architecture
at the Royal Academy; he was knighted in 1831. His home at 13 Lincoln’s Inn
Fields, which he designed, was the setting for his art and antiques collection.
He lived there alone after his wife died in 1815; it is now the John Soane
Museum. He also designed the Dulwich College Picture Gallery in south London.
28/7/1750. The composer
Johann
Sebastian Bach died,
almost blind, of apoplexy. He was born on 21/3/1685 in Eisenach, Germany. He
fathered 20 children, and also composed 300 cantatas, two oratorios, the St
John and St Matthew Passions, and Mass in B Minor.
30/3/1746, Francisco de
Goya, Spanish painter, was born in Fuendetodos, near
Saragosa, son of a master gilder.
13/4/1742, The performance of Handel’s Messiah in Dublin marked the climax of his popularity.
28/7/1741, Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer,
notably of The Four Seasons, died in Vienna.
17/1/1738, The German architect,
Matthaus
Poppelman, died aged 74.
18/12/1737, Antonio Stradivari, famous
Italian violin maker, died in
Cremona, Lombardy.
7/12/1732. The Covent Garden
Theatre, London, opened
31/3/1732, Franz Joseph Haydn,
Austrian composer, was born in Rohrau,
son of a wheelwright.
26/4/1731, Daniel Defoe, English author
who wrote Robinson Crusoe, died.
27/1/1731, Bartolommeo Cristofori, Italian harpsichord maker, who designed the first
piano in 1710, died in Florence.
12/7/1730, Josiah Wedgewood, potter,
was born at Burslem, Staffordshire.
14/5/1727. Artist Thomas
Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk. He was the son of a cloth
merchant.
26/3/1726. Sir John Vanbrugh, English playwright and architect of Blenheim Palace,
Castle Howard, and many other stately homes, died of quinsy.
16/7/1723, Joshua Reynolds, English portrait
painter, was born at Plympton Earls, Devon.
25/2/1723. Sir Christopher
Wren, architect,
born 20/10/1632 in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, died aged 91, in London. His works included St Paul’s Cathedral (see 22/6/1675) and Chelsea Hospital. He was buried in the crypt of St Pauls Cathedral.
2/3/1717. First ballet
performed in England, The Loves of Mars and Venus , at The
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
19/2/1717, David Garrick, English actor
and theatre manager, was born in Hereford, son of an army captain.
8/3/1714, C P E Bach, composer,
born.
12/3/1710, Thomas Arne, composer
of Rule Britannia, was born in
London, the son of an upholsterer.
10/11/1697, The painter
William Hogarth was born at Smithfield, London, the son of
a teacher.
18/10/1697. Birth of the painter Canaletto. He was born in Venice, as Giovanni
Antonio Canal, and was trained by his father who was a scene
painter. As a youth Canaletto went to Rome to study under the
classical painter Pannini. He returned to Venice to become the
most famous painter of Venetian views of the 18th century. His
patron was Joseph
Smith who served as English consul in Venice; as a result Canaletto’s
work became popular with English travellers and he cane to England in 1746,
staying there for most of the next 10 years. He painted his four views of
Warwick castle, the two largest of which are (2001) in the Birmingham Museum
and Art Gallery.
16/4/1696, Giovanni Batista Tiepolo, Venetian painter, was born.
21/11/1695, Henry Purcell, English composer,
died in London from tuberculosis.
21/3/1685, Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, was born in Eisenach, Thuringia.
23/2/1685, George Frederick Handel,
German composer, was born in Halle,
the son of a barber-surgeon.
15/12/1683, Izaak Walton, author of The Compleat Angler, died at Winchester aged 90.
28/11/1680, The Italian sculptor Giovanni Bernini died.
4/3/1678. Birth of the Venetian composer
and violinist Antonio
Lucio Vivaldi.
15/12/1675. Jan Vermeer died.
15/3/1673, The painter Salvator Rosa died in Rome, aged 57.
4/10/1669. The Dutch painter
Rembrandt died in solitude and poverty, aged 63, in Amsterdam, having
survived both his wife and his mistress. He gradually went bankrupt after his
wealthy wife died in 1642, although in his 30s he earned large sums of money
from painting portraits of the elite in Amsterdam. He left a legacy of 600
paintings, 1500 drawings and 350 etchings.
9/4/1667, The world’s
first art exhibition opened at the Palais Royale in Paris, organised by the
Academie de Peinture et de Sculpture. It closed on 23/4/1667.
1/1/1660, Samuel Pepys
began his Diary. This was
discontinued on 31/5/1669.
2/5/1655, Bartolommeo Cristofori, Italian who invented the first piano, was born in
Padua.
21/6/1652. The architect,
Inigo Jones, died. He had designed
the Queen’s House at Greenwich and the Banqueting Hall at Whitehall. He also
laid out Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Covent Garden.
16/4/1646, Birth of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, French court architect to King Louis XIV who designed the Hall
of Mirrors and the Orangery at Versailles.
9/12/1641, Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish
court painter to Charles I
from 1632, died in his studio in Blackfriars, London, aged 42, and was buried
in Old St Pauls.
30/5/1640, Peter Paul Reubens, Flemish
Baroque painter, died in Antwerp.
1634, Villagers at Oberammagau vowed to put on an
annual Passion Play of they were
spared the Black Death.
23/2/1633, Samuel Pepys,
diarist, born in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, London. He was the son of a
tailor.
31/10/1632, Jan Vermeer, Dutch painter,
was born in Delft, the son of an art dealer.
20/10/1632, Christopher Wren,
English
astronomer and architect, designer of St
Paul’s Cathedral, was born in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, the son of a dean.
12/3/1628, John Bull, composer
and organist, died.
8/4/1614. The Greek-born Spanish painter Domenikos Theotokopoulos, or El Greco died in Toledo.
18/7/1610, The Italian painter
Caravaggio
died, A man with a violent temper, he had killed a man in 1606 and had to flee
Rome for Naples, He heard that he was to be pardoned by the Pope and died on
his way back to Rome.
15/7/1606. Rembrandt,
or Harmenszoon
Van Rijn, the Dutch painter,
was born at Leyden. He was the son of a
prosperous miller.
6/6/1599, Diego Velasquez, Spanish painter,
was born in Seville.
22/3/1599, Sir Anthony van
Dyck, Flemish artist and court
painter to Charles I of England, was born in Antwerp, son of a cloth
manufacturer.
31/5/1594, Tintoretto, his real name being Jacopo
Robusti, one of the great Italian painters,
died in Venice, aged 76.
2/2/1594, The composer Palestrina died in Rome (born ca. 1525).
3/9/1592, Robert Greene, dramatist,
died.
21/10/1581, Il Domenichino, Italian painter (died
15/4/1641 in Naples) was born in Bologna, Italy.
28/6/1577, Peter Van Rubens, Flemish painter,
was born in Siegen, Westphalia, the son of a lawyer.
27/8/1576. Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) died, of bubonic plague, in
Venice. His age was uncertain, but was believed to be over 90.
15/7/1573, The architect
Inigo Jones
was born in London. He was the son of a clothmaker.
23/11/1572, The painter
Bronzino
died in Florence, aged 69.
6/4/1528. Albrecht Durer,
German artist and engraver, died in
Nuremberg, aged 57.
6/4/1520. The painter
Raphael
died on his 37th birthday. He
was born in Urbino, Italy, on 6/4/1483.
30/11/1518, Andrea Palladio, Italian architect,
was born.
29/9/1518, Tintoretto, Venetian painter,
was born as Jabobi
Robusti, the son of a dyer.
1513, Macchiavelli wrote ‘The Prince’.
1/11/1512. Michaelangelo
unveiled his painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
25/10/1510, Giorgione, painter,
died.
17/5/1510. Death of the Florentine painter
Sandro
Botticelli, aged 65, whose work included The Birth of Venus.
13/9/1506, Andrea Mantegna, Italian painter,
died in Mantua.
8/9/1504. Michelangelo,
29, unveiled his
statue of David in Florence. The 13 foot high marble statue had taken him three
years to carve.
28/3/1483, Raphael, Italian painter,
was born in Urbino as Raffaello Sanzio or Santi.
6/3/1475, Michelangelo, Italian painter
and sculptor, was born in Capresse, Tiuscany, as Michelagniolo di
Lodovico Buonarroti.
21/5/1471. Albrecht Durer, German artist
and engraver, was born in Nuremberg. He was the son of a goldsmith.
8/10/1469, Fra Filippo Lippi, painter,
died.
13/12/1466, Donatello, sculptor,
died.
26/4/1452. Leonardo Da Vinci,
Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician,
engineer, scientist, and inventor, was born into The Renaissance.
16/4/1446, Filippo Brunelleschi, the Florentine architect and sculptor who designed the city’s
cathedral, died.
9/6/1441, Dutch painter Jan van Eyck,
equerry to Philip
the Good, Duke of Burgundy, died.
14/2/1404, Leone Alberti, Italian artist, was born (died 1472).
8/1/1337. The painter
Giotto
died, aged 70.
50 AD, Earliest version of the
oboe in use, in Rome.
Appendix 5 – Writers and poets
3/8/2008, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, writer, died, aged 90.
18/3/2008, Sir Arthur C Clarke, science
fiction writer, died aged 90.
6/4/2005, US novelist Saul Bellow
died, aged 89.
24/5/2000. The funeral of novelist Dame Barbara Cartland.
30/6/1997, The first book in the award-winning Harry Potter series by J K Rowling was published.
25/11/1993, The English
author and composer Anthony Burgess died, aged 76.
21/1/1993, Abe Kobo,
Japanese
writer, died (born 7/3/1924).
18/1/1993, Eleanor Hibbert,
English writer, died (born 1/9/1906).
11/4/1992, Eve Merriam,
US poet, died (born 19/7/1916).
6/4/1992, Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer, born 2/1/1920, died.
29/2/1992, Ruth Pitter,
English poet (born 7/11/1897) died.
11/12/1991, Artur Lundkvist,
Swedish
writer (born 3/3/1906) died.
23/11/1990, Roald Dahl,
British writer, died (born 13/9/1916)
26/9/1990, Alberto Moravia,
Italian fiction writer, died (born 28/11/1907).
15/9/1989, US writer Robert Penn
Warren, born 24/4/1905 in Guthrie, Kentucky, died in Stratton,
Vermont.
19/4/1989, Daphne du
Maurier, writer,
died.
23/9/1987, The book, Spycatcher,
memoirs of former British intelligence officer Peter Wright, was to be published
in Australia despite opposition by Britain’s MI5.
20/9/1987, Michael Stewart, US playwright, died aged 63.
11/4/1987, Primo Levi, Italian Jewish writer, died aged 67.
19/12/1984. Ted Hughes was appointed Poet Laureate in succession to Sir John
Betjeman.
15/3/1983, Rebecca West, British author,
died aged 90.
24/2/1983, Tennessee Williams, US
playwright (born 26/3/1911) died in New York City.
19/5/1984, Sir John
Betjeman, Poet Laureate
since 1972, died aged 78.
12/9/1981, Eugenio Montale,
Italian
poet, died aged 84.
10/3/1981, Death
of Sir
Maurice Oldfield, the British intelligence chief thought to be the
model for ‘M’ in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.
14/5/1979, Jean Rhys,
novelist, died aged 88.
14/4/1978, F R Leavis,
British literary critic, died aged 82.
11/4/1977, Jacques Prevert,
French
poet, died aged 77.
12/1/1976, Dame Agatha
Christie, English crime story writer
and creator of the Belgian detective character Hercule Poirot, died. She
was born in Torquay on 15/9/1890.
14/2/1975, PG Wodehouse,
author, died.
14/12/1974, Walter Lippmann,
US political writer, died aged 85.
29/7/1974, Erich Kastner,
German author, died aged 75.
28/9/1973, W H Auden,
English-American
poet, died aged 66.
2/9/1973, J R R Tolkien, author of The
Lord of the Rings, died at Bournemouth.
22/2/1973, Elizabeth Bowen,
Irish novelist, died aged 73.
28/9/1970, John Dos Passos,
US writer,
died in Baltimore, Maryland..
7/7/1970, Sir Allen Lane, publisher and
founder of Penguin paperback books
in 1936, died.
7/6/1970, E M Forster,
novelist, died.
11/3/1969. The
author John
Wyndham died.
20/12/1968. John Steinbeck,
American author who wrote The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men, Nobel Prize Winner in 1962, died in New York City.
28/11/1968. Enid Blyton, creator of Noddy
and Big Ears, died. She was born on
11/8/1897 in East Dulwich. In the mid 1930s she began writing her stories,
which featured Noddy, the Famous Five, and the Secret Seven.
1/6/1968, Helen Keller, US author, died
aged 87.
7/10/1967, Norman Angell, English
author and politician, died aged 92.
31/8/1967, Ilya Ehrenburg, Soviet
author, died aged 75.
9/8/1967, Joe Orton, English author and
playwright, died aged 34.
22/7/1967, The US poet
Carl
Sandburg died in North Carolina.
23/12/1966, Heimito von Doderer, Austrian
novelist (born 5/11/1896 in Vienna) died in Vienna.
16/12/1965, Somerset Maugham, author, died
this day.
31/7/1965, J K Rowling,
British author of the Harry Potter
series, was born.
4/1/1965. The
poet and playwright T S Eliot died. He was born on 26/9/1888 in
Saint Loius, Missouri. After studying at Harvard University he went to Paris in
1910 to teach French
literature and philosophy at the Sorbonne. Later, after the start of World War
One, he went to Merton College, Oxford, to read Greek Philosophy. In 1915 he
married Vivien
Haigh-Wood and in 1919 became a British citizen. His first volume of
poetry, Prufrock and other Observations,
was published in 1917 followed by Poems
in 1919. In 1922 The Waste Land,
regarded as his greatest poem, reflected the discontent that followed the
trauma of the Great War. In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
9/12/1964, English
poet Dame Edith Sitwell died, aged
77.
12/8/1964, Ian Fleming,
British author and creator of James
Bond, died aged 56.
7/9/1962, Isak Dinesen,
Danish writer, died (born 17/4/1885).
7/6/1962, William
Faulkner, US writer
(born 25/9/1897 in New Albany, Mississippi) died in Oxford, Mississippi.
2/6/1962, Vita
Sackville-West, British novelist,
died.
27/9/1961, Hilda Doolittle,
US poet (born 10/9/1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), died in Zurich,
Switzerland.
2/7/1961, The author Ernest Hemingway, born 21/7/1899 in Oak Park,
Illinois, committed suicide.
25/10/1957, Lord Edward
Dunsany, writer, died in Dublin, Ireland (born 24/7/1878 in London,
England)
29/1/1956, H L Mencken,
US writer, died aged 75.
12/8/1955, Thomas Mann,
German novelist, died aged 80.
2/8/1955, The US poet Wallace Stevens died in Hartford, Connecticut.
9/11/1953. The Welsh poet
Dylan
Marlais Thomas, born in Swansea on 27/10/1914, died in New York City
aged 39
26/9/1952, George Santayana, Spanish
writer, died aged 88.
2/6/1951, John Erskine, US author,
died in New York (born in New York City,
5/10/1879).
19/2/1951, French writer Andre Gide died.
19/3/1950, Edgar Rice
Burroughs, author
of the Tarzan books, died aged 75.
13/2/1950, Rafael Sabatini,
Italian novelist, died aged 74.
11/2/1950, Author Kurt Vonnegut was published for the first
time, as his story "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" appeared in
Collier's magazine.
21/1/1950. George Orwell died (born 1903).
This was the pen name of British author Eric Arthur
Blair. His best known works include Animal Farm and 1984.
6/6/1949, George Orwell’s
book Nineteen
Eighty Four was published.
Suffering from tuberculosis, Orwell completed the book between periods of
hospitalisation in a remote house in The Hebrides.
6/5/1949, Maurice
Maeterlinck, Belgian playwright, died aged 86.
24/4/1947, Willa Cather,
US writer, died aged 73.
6/2/1947, Hans Fallada,
German novelist, died in Berlin (born 21/7/1893 in Greifswald, Germany).
31/8/1946, Harley
Granville-Barker, English playwright, died aged 69.
13/8/1946. Author H G Wells;
born on 21/9/1866, died in London, aged 76.
27/7/1946, The US writer Gertrude Stein (born 3/2/1874 in Allegheny,
Pennsylvania), died in Paris, France.
8/6/1946, Gerhart
Hauptmann, German novelist,
died aged 83.
28/12/1945, Theodore
Dreiser, US author (born 27/8/1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana), died in
Hollywood, California.
20/7/1945, Paul Valery,
French poet, died aged 74.
31/7/1944. The
pilot and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of ‘The Little Prince’, was reported
missing.
16/5/1944, George Ade,
US author (born 9/2/1866) died.
12/5/1944, Arthur Quiller
Couch,
Cornish writer, died aged 80.
28/3/1944, Stephen Leacock,
Canadian
writer, died aged 74.
22/12/1943. The
author Beatrix
Potter died aged 77.
7/8/1941, Rabindranath
Tagore, Indian author
and intellectual, died aged 80.
8/3/1941, Sherwood
Anderson, US novelist,
died aged 65.
21/12/1940. F Scott
Fitzgerald, US author,
died.
11/2/1940, Death
of John
Buchan, author
of The Thirty Nine Steps, also
Governor-General of Canada, died and was cremated in Montreal. His ashes were
returned to England
and buried in Elsfield, Oxfordshire.
12/4/1939, Alan Ayckbourn,
English playwright, was born.
28/1/1939, W B (William
Butler) Yeats, Irish poet, playwright,
and Nobel Prize winner in 1923, died in the south of France.
1/6/1938, Khawar Rizvi,
poet, was born in the Punjab, British
India.
19/4/1938, Henry Newbolt,
English poet, died aged 75.
3/7/1937, Tom Stoppard,
Czech-born
British playwright, was born.
10/12/1936, Luigi
Pirandello, Italian author,
died aged 69.
23/8/1936, Juliette Adam,
French writer (born 4/120/1836) died.
14/6/1936, G K Chesterton,
British poet and novelist, died.
18/1/1936, Rudyard Kipling, English novelist
who won the Nobel Prize in 1907,
died.
30/7/1935. Penguin paperbacks went on sale in Britain. The first such book on
sale was a biography of Shelley.
17/6/1935, G W Russell, Irish writer, died
aged 68.
23/5/1935, Laase Stromstedt, Swedish author, was born (died 2009).
9/5/1934, Alan Bennett, British playwright, was born.
4/12/1933, Stefan George, German poet, died aged 65.
21/1/1933, George Augustus Moore, Irish writer, died aged 80.
1/1/1933, Joe Orton, English author, was born (died 1967)
6/7/1932, Kenneth Grahame, author who wrote Wind in the Willows, died (born 8/3/1859).
18/3/1932, John Updike, US author, was born
(died 2009)
10/2/1932, Edgar Wallace, English writer,
died aged 57.
21/1/1932, Lytton Strachey, founder member
of the Bloomsbury Group, an
influential writers and intellectual
group, died.
31/8/1931, Hall Caine, British novelist,
died aged 78.
27/3/1931, Arnold Bennett, English writer, died aged 64.
16/8/1930, Ted Hughes, English poet, was born (died 1998)
7/7/1930, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, British author
created the crime detective character Sherlock
Holmes, died, aged 71.
13/10/1929, Walasse Ting,
Chinese-American poet, was born in Shanghai. He died in 2010.
15/7/1929, Hugo von
Hoffmannsthal, Austrian author,
died aged 55.
10/4/1928, English
writer Stanley John Weyman died, aged
72.
12/3/1928, US playwright Edward Albee was born (died
2016).
11/1/1928. Thomas Hardy, English poet and novelist, author of Tess of the
D’Ubervilles, died in Dorset aged 87.
14/10/1926. In
Britain, A
A. Milne published Winnie the
Pooh, a children’s book.
3/9/1926, Alison Lurie,
US writer, was born.
3/10/1925, Gore Vidal,
US writer, was born (died
2012).
15/5/1926, Peter Shaffer,
English playwright, was born (died
1926).
14/5/1925, Henry Rider
Haggard, English writer,
died aged 69.
3/6/1924, German novelist Franz Kafka died in a sanatorium at Kierling,
near Vienna, after a seven year battle with tuberculosis.
9/1/1923. Katherine
Mansfield, New Zealand author,
died aged 34.
15/11/1922, Marcel Proust,
French writer, died aged 51.
22/10/1922, Lyman Abbott,
US author, died (born
18/12/1835)
11/6/1921, Michael Meyer,
English writer, was born.
2/1/1920. Isaac Asimov
was born.
30/4/1919, Oscar Adams,
US author, died (born 1855).
27/1/1919, Endre Ady,
Hungarian
poet (born 21/11/1877) died.
11/12/1918, Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, was born in Rostov.
2/11/1918, Frederick
Leboyer, author, was born.
27/3/1918, Henry Brooks
Adams, historian,
novelist and philosopher, died (born 16/2/1838).
8/3/1918, Charles Adams, US poet
(born 21/4/1842) died.
16/12/1917, Arthur C Clarke,
British
science-fiction writer, was born.
22/11/1916, Jack London,
author and campaigner for social
justice (born 12/1/1876 in San Francisco) died destitute of a drugs overdose.
14/11/1916, H H Munro
(Saki) died, aged 45.
13/9/1916, Roald Dahl, author
of children’s books, was born in Llandaff, Glamorganshire.
20/5/1916, Owen Chadwick,
British writer, was born
10/7/1915, Saul Bellow,
US author, was born in Lachine,
Quebec.
23/4/1915, Rupert Brooke,
British poet, died at Lemnos.
11/11/1914, Howard Fast,
US author, was born in New York City.
27/10/1914, Dylan Marlais
Thomas, Welsh poet,
was born in Swansea, the son of a schoolmaster.
7/11/1913. Birth of
the French novelist and playwright Albert Camus.
He was born in Algeria and studied philosophy. He worked as an actor, teacher,
and journalist; and was active in the French Resistance in World War II. But he
found fame as an existentialist writer; for example his nihilist novel The Outsider, 1942, contained the line
“Mother died today. Or perhaps it was yesterday. I don’t know”. He was awarded
the Nobel prize for literature I 1957, and died in 1960.
11/8/1913, Angus Wilson,
English novelist, was born (died 1991).
29/3/1913, R. S. Thomas,
Welsh poet, was born in Cardiff (died 2000).
14/5/1912, August
Strindberg, playwright,
died in Stockholm, Sweden..
20/4/1912, Bram Stoker,
Dublin-born creator of Dracula in 1897, died aged 65 in London.
26/3/1912, Tennessee
Williams, US playwright, was born (died 1983).
29/5/1911, W S Gilbert,
English poet and dramatist, died aged 75.
26/3/1911, Tennessee
Williams, US playwright
(born 26/3/1911) died in New York City.
7/11/1910, Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace and Anna
Karenina, died.
5/6/1910, Death of American short-story writer O. Henry (real name William Sydney
Porter).
28/5/1908, Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was born
in London.
25/1/1908, Louise de la
Ramee, English novelist
(pen name Ramee) died aged 67.
10/12/1907. Rudyard Kipling
was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature,
the first time it had been awarded to an English writer.
28/11/1907, Alberto Moravia,
Italian novelist, was born (died 1990).
15/11/1907, Moncure Conway,
author, died in Paris (born 17/3/1832
in Virginia, USA).
12/9/1907, Louis Macneice,
Irish poet, was born (died 1963).
13/5/1907, Daphne du
Maurier, English novelist, was born in London.
21/2/1907, W H Auden,
English poet, was born.
16/2/1907, Giosue Carducci,
Italian poet (born 27/7/1836) died.
28/8/1906, John Betjeman,
poet, was born (died 1984).
20/6/1906, Catherine Cookson, British writer, was born.
13/4/1906, Samuel Beckett, Irish playwright, was born.
9/2/1906, Paul Laurence Dunbar, poet and
novelist (born 27/6/1872 in Dayton, Ohio) died of tuberculosis. Son of a former
slave, his poetry did much to describe the everyday lives of Black Americans.
21/6/1905, Jean Paul-Sartre, French dramatist and novelist, was born in Paris.
24/3/1905. Jules
Verne, French science fiction
writer, died in Amiens aged 77.
2/10/1904, Graham Greene, novelist, was
born (died 1991).
2/7/1904, The Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov, born 17/1/1860 in
Taganrog, died in Germany whilst being treated for tuberculosis.
2/3/1904, Theodor Seuss Geisel, author of children’s books, was born in
Springfield, Massachusetts.
1/11/1903, Theodor Mommsen, writer, died
aged 87.
15/7/1903, Walter Dumeaux Edmonds, US
novelist, was born in Booneville, New York.
25/6/1903. Birth of
the author George Orwell, in Motihari, Bengal,
India. He was born as Eric Arthur
Blair.
1902, Beatrix Potter’s first book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was published.
25/10/1902, Frank Norris,
US novelist, died.
21/9/1902, Sir Allen Lane,
English publisher who founded Penguin books and brought about the paperback
revolution, was born.
20/9/1902, Stevie Smith,
poet and novelist, was born (died 1971)
2/9/1902, Edward
Egglestone, US author (born 10/12/1837 in Vevay, Indiana) died in
Lake George, New York.
9/7/1901, Barbara Cartland, British writer of romantic novels,
was born.
24/3/1901, Charlotte M
Yonge, novelist, died, aged 78.
3/2/1901, Rosamund
Lehmann, novelist, was born (died 1900).
30/11/1900. The Irish writer Oscar Wilde (born Dublin
1854) died in poverty in Paris under the pseudonym Sebastian Medmoth. Wilde’s stage and literary career ended in 1895 when the Marquess of Queensbury, angered by Wilde’s friendship with his son, accused Wilde of sodomy. Wilde sued for libel but lost the case and was
at once prosecuted for homosexuality. He served two years in gaol 1895-97
before fleeing to France and poverty.
29/6/1900, Antoine de
Saint Exupery, author of The
Little Prince, was born.
17/1/1899, Nevil Shute,
English novelist, was born in Ealing, London.
14/1/1898. Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, died
in Guildford, Surrey.
11/8/1897, Enid Blyton, author of children’s books, was born in
Dulwich.
26/5/1897, Bram Stoker’s
Dracula was first published.
24/9/1896, F Scott
Fitzgerald, US author,
was born.
14/1/1896, John Dos Passos,
US writer, was born in Chicago,
Illinois.
3/12/1894. Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Treasure Island, died.
26/7/1894, Aldous Huxley,
novelist, was born.
24/3/1894, Verney Cameron,
English explorer of Africa and author (born 1/7/1844) died.
6/10/1892. Alfred Lord Tennyson, poet
laureate from 1850, died at Aldworth, Surrey. He was born on
6/8/1809.
31/8/1892, George Curtis,
US writer (born 24/2/1824) died
at Staten Island.
3/1/1892. Author J.R.R.Tolkein,
creator of The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit, was born in Bloemfontein,
Orange Free State, South Africa. He died in Bournemouth in 1973.
20/7/1891, Pedro Alarcon,
Spanish
writer (born 10/3/1833) died.
15/9/1890, Agatha Christie,
crime writer, was born in Torquay,
Devon, as Agatha
Mary Clarissa. She died on
12/1/1976.
2/8/1890, Louise
Ackermann, French poet (born 30/11/1813) died.
29/3/1890, Armand
Pontmartin, French writer (born 16/7/1811) died.
10/2/1890, Boris
Pasternak, Russian writer,
author of Dr Zhivago, was born in Moscow.
23/11/1889, Quintin
Crauford, British author, died in Paris.
26/9/1888. The poet T S Eliot was born
– see 4/1/1965.
6/3/1888, Louisa Alcott, US author,
died (born 29/11/1832)
30/1/1888, Edward Lear,
English
author and artist, who wrote the Book
of Nonsense, died in San Remo, Italy.
15/5/1886, Emily Dickinson,
US poet, died in Amherst,
Massachusetts.
11/9/1885, DH Lawrence,
author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, was born.
22/5/1885, Victor Hugo,
French
poet and novelist, author of Les
Miserables, died in Paris aged 83.
16/1/1885, Edmond About,
French novelist (born 14/2/1826) died.
3/7/1883, Franz Kafka,
Czech
poet and playwright, was born.
1/6/1882, John Drinkwater,
poet and dramatist,
was born.
27/4/1882, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, US poet and essayist, died aged 78 in Concord..
24/3/1882, H W Longfellow,
real name Henry
Wadsworth, American poet,
died in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
18/1/1882, A A Milne
English writer of children’s books
and creator of Winnie the Pooh, was
born in St John’s Wood, London.
3/1/1882, William
Ainsworth, English novelist (born 4/2/1805) died.
5/2/1881, Thomas Carlyle,
Scottish essayist, died at 5 Cheyne
Row, Chelsea, London.
28/1/1881. Fyodor
Dostoyevsky died (born in Moscow, 30/10/1821, son of a surgeon) . His
funeral cortege on 31/1/1881 was followed by 30,000 people. He wrote, amongst others, The Idiot, Crime and
Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov.
13/7/1880, Antal Csengery,
Hungarian historical writer
(born 2/6/1822) died in Budapest.
31/10/1879, Jacob Abbott,
author of children’s books, died (born
14/11/1803).
2/10/1879, US poet Wallace Stevens was born in Reading,
Pennsylvania.
5/10/1879, John Erskine,
US author, was born in New York City (died 2/6/1951 in New York).
1/1/1879, E M Forster,
English
novelist, was born.
6/1/1878, The US poet Carl Sandburg was born ij Galesburg, Illinois.
21/11/1877, Endre
Ady, Hungarian
poet (died 27/1/1919) was born.
17/4/1876, Ian Hay,
British author, was born.
5/3/1876, Marie
Agoult, French
author, died (born 31/12/1805)/
1/9/1875. Edgar Rice Burroughs,
creator of Tarzan, was born in Chicago. He never visited Africa where his stories
were set.
4/8/1875. Hans Christian
Andersen, the Danish writer
famous for his fairy stories, died aged 70.
29/5/1874. G K Chesterton,
English writer, born.
16/1/1874, Robert William Service,
Canadian
poet, was born.
31/7/1871, Phoebe Cary,
US poet, (born 4/9/1824) died.
20/1/1871, Peirre Ponson
du Terrail, French romantic writer (born 8/7/1829) died.
20/7/1870, Lucien Anatole
Prevost-Paradol, French writer, born 8/8/1829, died of a
self-inflicted gunshot wound.
9/6/1870, Charles Dickens, author,
born 7/2/1812 at Landport, Portsmouth, died at Godshill, near Rochester, Kent,
of a brain haemorrhage the previous evening.
8/12/1868, Norman Douglas,
British writer (died in Capri, Italy, 9/2/1952) was born in Deeside, Scotland.
2/12/1867. The
English author Charles Dickens drew large crowds in New York
to his readings of his novels there.
4/8/1867, John Galsworthy,
English novelist, was born.
27/5/1867, Enoch Arnold
Bennett, British novelist, was born.
21/9/1866, The author H
G Wells was born at Bromley, Kent.
He was the son of a professional cricketer.
28/7/1866, Beatrix Potter, author and illustrator of
children’s books, and creator of Peter Rabbit, was born in South
Kensington, London.
30/12/1865, Rudyard Kipling, story and verse writer, was born in Bombay.
13/6/1865, The Irish writer
William
Butler Yeats was born.
9/6/1864, Charles
Dickens was involved in a train crash at Staplehurst in Kent. He had
to return to the wreckage to salvage the manuscript for a part of the story Our Mutual Friend.
19/5/1864, Nathaniel Hawthorne, US novelist
(born 4/7/1804 in Salem, Massachusetts), died at Plymouth, New Hampshire.
24/12/1863 William Thackeray, poet,
died in London.
29/8/1862, Maurice Maeterlink, Belgian poet and playwright, was born.
6/5/1862, Henry Thoreau, writer, died of
tuberculosis.
22/12/1860, Marian Evans, who wrote under
the pen name George Eliot, died (born 22/11/1819).
17/1/1860, Anton Chekhov, Russian author, was born at Taganrog,
son of a shopkeeper.
16/12/1859, Wilhelm Grimm,
co-author with his brother Jacob of fairy tales, died in Berlin.
22/5/1859. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author, creator of Sherlock Holmes, was born
to Irish parents in Edinburgh.
2/5/1859, Jerome K Jerome,
author, was born at Walsall.
30/4/1859, Sergei Aksakov,
Russian writer (born 20/9/1791) died.
20/4/1859, Charles
Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two
Cities was published.
25/11/1858, Alfred Capus,
French author, was born.
25/4/1856, Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson, or Lewis Carroll, met the young Alice Liddell,
who was the inspiration for his Alice books.
1/11/1855, Guido Adler,
Austrian author (books on music) was born (died February 1941).
7/8/1854, Charles
Dickens’ tenth book, Hard
Times, was published in entirety.
12/9/1853, Charles
Dickens’ ninth book, Bleak
House, was published in entirety.
31/3/1855, Charlotte Bronte,
oldest of the three literary sisters,
died during pregnancy.
21/2/1852, Nikolia Gogol,
Russian
story writer and novelist, died in
Moscow.
14/11/1850, Charles
Dickens’ eighth book, David
Copperfield, was published in entirety.
13/11/1850, The writer Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh,
at 8 Howard Place. His father and
grandfather were lighthouse builders.
18/8/1850, Honore de
Balzac, French writer, died in Paris.
24/5/1850, Jane Porter,
English
novelist (born 1776) died.
7/10/1849, Edgar Allen Poe,
US fiction writer, died aged
40, in Baltimore, Maryland.
28/5/1849, Anne Bronte,
English novelist, died in
Scarborough, Yorkshire, aged 29.
22/1/1849, August
Strindberg, playwright,
was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
19/12/1848. Emily Bronte, English novelist who wrote Wuthering Heights, born 30/7/1818, died from
tuberculosis.
24/5/1848, Annette von Droste-Hulshoff, German poet
(born Hulshoff, Germany, 10/1/1797) died in Meersburg, Germany.
8/11/1847. Bram Stoker,
author of Dracula, was born in Dublin.
12/4/1848, Charles
Dickens’ seventh book, Dombey
and Son, was published in entirety.
16/10/1847, Jane Eyre was first published.
12/9/1846,
Marriage of Robert
Browning and Elizabeth Moulton Barrett.
25/11/1845, Jose Maria Eca
del Quieroz, Portuguese writer was born (died in Paris, 16/8/1900).
3/5/1845, Thomas Hood, poet, died.
23/10/1844, Robert Bridges, poet laureate, was born.
13/12/1843. Some 6,000
copies of Charles Dicken’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ were sold on the first day
of publication.
6/4/1843. William Wordsworth was appointed poet laureate, the day before his 73rd
birthday.
21/4/1842, Charles Adams,
US poet (died 8/3/1918) was born.
15/12/1841, Charles
Dickens’ fourth and fifth books, The
Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge,
were published in entirety.
3/11/1841, Isabella Alden,
US author,
was born (died 1930).
20/3/1841, Edgar Allen Poe
published a new literary genre, the detective
story. The Murders in the Rue Morgue
challenged readers to deduce who the villain was before the final page.
2/6/1840, Thomas Hardy, novelist, was born in Higher Bockhampton,
Dorset, the son of a stonemason.
13/5/1840, Alphonse Daudet, French novelist, born.
23/10/1839, Charles
Dickens’ third book, The Life
and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, was published in entirety.
12/6/1839, Wordsworth
received an honorary doctorate from
Oxford University.
9/11/1838, Charles
Dickens’ second book, The
Adventures of Oliver Twist, was published in entirety.
16/2/1838, Henry Brooks
Adams, historian,
novelist and philosopher, was born in Boston, Massachusetts (died
27/3/1918).
17/11/1837, Charles
Dickens’ first book, The
Pickwick Papers, was published in entirety.
10/2/1837, Alexander
Pushkin, Russian writer,
was killed in a duel.
4/12/1836, Edward Arber,
English writer, was born.
14/8/1836, Sir Walter
Besant, English novelist,
was born.
30/11/1835, Mark Twain
was born.
29/11/1832, Louisa Alcott,
US author (died 6/3/1888) was born.
17/5/1832, Moncure Daniel
Conway, US author, was born (died 15/11/1907)
22/3/1832. Johann van
Goethe, German poet and writer,
author of Faust, died aged 82.
27/1/1832, Lewis Carroll, English mathematician and
children’s book author, notably Alice in Wonderland
and Through the Looking Glass, was born at the vicarage at Daresbury,
near Warrington. His name was originally Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, first son of
a family of 12 children.
15/12/1831, Hannah Adams,
US writer (born 1755) died.
10/12/1830, Emily Dickinson,
US poet, was born in Amherst,
Massachusetts.
2/1/1830, Henry Kingsley,
English novelist, was born.
28/8/1828, Count Leo
Tolstoy, Russian writer,
was born of aristocratic descent in Tula Province.
12/8/1827, William Blake,
British poet, died.
5/2/1824, Charles Dickens,
then aged 12, was sent out to work labelling shoe polish bottles.
8/7/1822. Percy Bysshe
Shelley died. He drowned in a storm whilst sailing off the coast of Italy..
30/10/1821, Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist,
was born.
23/2/1821, John Keats,
English poet, died of tuberculosis in
Rome, aged only 25.
30/3/1820, Anna Sewell,
author of Black Beauty, was born in
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
17/1/1820, The novelist Anne Bronte (known as Acton Bell)
was born, the youngest of three sisters, at Thornton, Yorkshire.
22/11/1819, The novelist George Elliot was born as Marian Evans, near Nuneaton.
1/8/1819, Herman Melville,
author of Moby Dick, was born.
8/2/1819 John Ruskin,
English writer and art critic, was
born in Dulwich, London, the son of a wine dealer.
30/7/1818. Novelist Emily Bronte
was born at Thornton, Yorkshire. On of the three famous sisters, she wrote Wuthering
Heights under the name of Ellis Bell in 1846.
27/12/1817, Henry Thoreau,
writer, was born in Concord, Massachusetts.
18/7/1817. Jane Austen, novelist, died.
25/4/1816, Byron, poet, sailed
from Dover to self-imposed exile in Italy.
21/4/1816, Charlotte Bronte, eldest of
the three literary sisters, was born
in Thornton, daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman.
24/4/1815, Anthony
Trollope, British writer,
was born.
14/11/1813, Antonio de
Capmany y Montpalau, Spanish author (born 24/11/1742) died.
12/5/1812, The
eccentric poet and artist Edward Lear
was born at Highgate, London.
16/7/1811, Armand
Pontmartin, French writer, was born (died 29/3/1890).
14/6/1811, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, author
of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was born.
25/3/1811, The poet Shelley was sent down from Oxford for
publishing The Necessity of Atheism.
31/3/1809, Nikolai Gogol, Russian author,
was born in Sorochinsty, Poltava.
19/1/1809, Edgar Allen Poe, American writer
of macabre stories, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, of theatrical parents.
6/8/1809, Alfred Lord
Tennyson, poet,
was born.
12/10/1805, The
Theatre Royal, Bath, was founded.
2/4/1805, Hans Christian Anderson, Danish fairy tale writer, was born in Odense, son of
a shoemaker.
4/2/1805, William Ainsworth, English
novelist (died 3/1/1882) was born.
25/5/1803, Ralph Waldo Emerson, US poet and
essayist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
26/2/1802, Victor Hugo, French poet and novelist, was born in Besancon, the
son of a professional soldier.
6/6/1799, Alexander
Pushkin Russian writer,
was born
20/5/1799. Honore de
Balzac born.
30/8/1797, Mary Shelley,
English
novelist, best known as the author of Frankenstein,
was born in London.
11/8/1797, A secret
Home Office report suspected Coleridge and the Wordsworths of being enemy
agents, because of their wandering around the countryside with campstools and
making detailed sketches of the landscape.
21/7/1796. Robert Burns, Scottish poet, died aged 37 in Dumfries, and was
buried there. He was born on 25/1/1759,
the eldest son of a poor peasant farmer, about 2 miles from Ayr, at Alloway.
31/10/1795, John Keats, English romantic poet, was born in London, the son of an
innkeeper.
19/5/1795, James Boswell, Scottish diarist
and biographer of Dr Johnson,
died in London, aged 54.
29/9/1792, The
Theatre Royal, Dumfries, was founded.
4/8/1792, Percy Bysshe
Shelley, poet, was born at Warnham.
5/4/1792, Hew Ainslie,
Scottish poet (died 1878) was born.
20/9/1791, Sergei Aksakov,
Russian
writer (died 30.4.1859) was born.
11/7/1790, William
Wordsworth and his friend Robert Jones set off on a walking tour of
France and Switzerland.
19/1/1790, Daniel Atterbom,
Swedish poet, was born (died 21/7/1855).
1/10/1788, William Brodie
was hanged in Edinburgh. His career inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
22/1/1788, George Gordon,
or Lord
Byron, poet,
was born in London.
29/1/1787, Thomas Paine, English writer,
was born.
24/2/1786, Wilhelm Grimm, German collector
of fairy tales along with his
brother Jacob,
was born in Hanau.
4/1/1785, Jacob Grimm,
older of the two German brothers famous for fairy
tales, was born in Hanau.
19/10/1784, Leigh Hunt,
British poet and essayist, was born.
10/6/1782, The
Grand Theatre, Lancaster, was founded.
17/8/1780, George Croly,
British author, was born in Dublin.
10/2/1775, Charles Lamb, English writer, was born in The Temple, London, son of
a clerk.
21/10/1772, The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner, was born at Ottery St Mary in Devon. He was the son of a vicar.
15/8/1771, The novelist Sir Walter Scott was born in Edinburgh.
30/5/1764, The
Theatre Royal, Bristol, was founded.
9/3/1763, William Cobbett,
English political journalist, was born in Farnham, Surrey, the son of a farmer.
10/11/1759, Friedrich
Schiller, German poet and dramatist,
was born.
25/1/1759, Robert Burns,
Scottish poet, was born at Alloway,
near Ayr, Ayrshire, son of a poor farmer.
28/11/1757, The poet, artist, and visionary William Blake
was born in London.
28/8/1749, Johann Goethe,
German poet and novelist, author of
Faust, was born in Frankfurt Am main, son of a lawyer.
19/10/1745, The satirist Jonathan
Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, died aged 77.
28/10/1740. James Boswell, Scottish diarist
and biographer of Samuel Johnson,
was born.
29/12/1720, The
Haymarket Theatre, London, was founded.
25/4/1719. Daniel Defoe’s
novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’ was published
in London.
26/12/1716. Thomas Gray,
the poet best known for his
Elegy written in a Country Churchyard, was born in London, the son of a money
broker.
18/9/1709. Samuel Johnson, poet
and lexicographer, was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, son of a bookseller.
2/2/1709, The
Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk, inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, was rescued after being
marooned for four months on an island off Chile.
27/2/1706, John Evelyn,
whose diary covered the last 65 years of his life, died aged 86 at Wotton, near
Dorking, Surrey.
4/6/1703, Samuel Pepys
was buried at St Olaves church in Hart Street, London.
26/5/1703. Samuel Pepys
died at Clapham, London, aged 70. He became an MP in 1679. His diaries ran
from 1660 to 1669, when he stopped due to failing eyesight.
1/5/1700, John Dryden, Poet Laureate for over 20 years, died in
London.
31/8/1688. John Bunyan religious writer, author
of The Pilgrim’s Progress, died at the house of a friend in Holborn,
London. See 12/11/1660.
3/6/1683, Sadlers
Wells Theatre, London, was founded.
8/11/1674. The poet John
Milton died at the age of 65. His best known work was Paradise
Lost. He was born in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, and studied at
Christ College, Cambridge, from 1652-53, writing poetry in English, Latin, and
Italian. He served as secretary for Cromwell’s government and pamphleteered for
civil and religious liberty. After the monarchy was restored, Milton
was arrested as a supporter of the Commonwealth but soon released. Paradise
Lost and Paradise Regained were published in 1667 and 1671, after he
went blind in 1652.
1/5/1672, Birth
of Joseph
Addison, English writer
and Whig who co-founded The Spectator
in 1711
31/5/1669. Samuel Pepys, naval administrator and
politician, made the last entry in his
diary which began on 1/1/1660.
13/4/1668. John Dryden was appointed the first Poet Laureate. He kept this office until 1689.
6/8/1637. The
first poet laureate, Ben Johnson,
died in poverty.
9/8/1631, John Dryden,
poet, was born at Aldwinde in
Northampton.
31/3/1631, John Donne,
English poet, born in London in 1572, died in London.
6/8/1623. Anne Hathaway, wife of Shakespeare,
died. They married on 27/11/1582, when Shakespeare was aged 18.
31/10/1620, John Evelyn,
English diarist and author,
was born in Wotton, near Dorking, Surrey.
6/3/1619, Cyrano de
Bergerac, French novelist,
was born in Paris.
23/4/1616. The playwright William
Shakespeare, born on 23/4/1564, died.
20/5/1609, The sonnets of William Shakespeare were first
published.
9/12/1608, John Milton,
English poet, was born in Cheapside,
London,
the son of a scrivener.
17/1/1600, The
Spanish dramatist, Pedro Calderon
de la Barca, was born.
21/2/1595. Robert
Southwell, English poet
and Jesuit martyr, was hanged,
drawn, and quartered at Tyburn.
29/4/1594, Thomas Cooper,
English author, died in Winchester.
9/8/1593, The author Izaak Walton was born at Stafford.
18/4/1593, Shakespeare’s first published work, the poem
Venus and Adonis, was entered into the Stationer’s Register.
18/4/1587, John Foxe, preacher and author,
died.
27/11/1582, William Shakespeare, playwright,
married Anne
Hathaway at the age of 18.
12/2/1567, Thomas Campion, English poet,
was born (died 1620).
2/7/1566, Nostradamus
died – did he foresee this?
23/4/1564, William Shakespeare, playwright, was born in
Stratford on Avon. He was the third of eight children. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove
maker and alderman, and his mother, Mary Arden, was a daughter of the gentry.
6/2/1564, Christopher
Marlowe, English poet,
was born in Canterbury, son of a shoe maker.
1/3/1555, Nostradamus
published his famous book of predictions.
14/12/1503. The French astrologer Nostradamus was born, as Michel de Nostradame. He wrote his book of prophecies in 1555.
5/11/1494, Hans Sachs,
poet and dramatist, was born.
8/9/1474, Ludovic Ariosto,
poet, was born.
25/10/1400. Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet and storyteller, who wrote the unfinished
Canterbury Tales, (born ca. 1340) died at his home in Westminister.
17/4/1397, Geoffrey Chaucer told The Canterbury Tales for the first time.
21/12/1375, Giovanni
Boccaccio, writer,
died.
14/9/1321. The poet Dante Alighieri
died aged 56 at Ravenna, in the 20th year of exile from his native
Florence.