Today's first birthday is someone who is probably not gonna get a big party in Scotland. William III of England (and a few other places). He was half of the team of William and Mary, but then she died, and he didn't. It was he who famously ordered the Scots to take an oath of loyalty, and then later ordered the infamous Massacre at Glencoe. A number of McDonalds died, which tended to make them less than fond of the English.
In music news, sing happy birthday to Leopold Mozart, daddy of Wolfgang. I suspect he was not as bad as he appeared in the movie "Amadeus". He was also a decent composer in his own right. Funny how that works out. But I suspect that if you do sing for him, his standards will be high.
And speaking of the fathers of famous 18th/19th century composers, lookie here: Johann van Beethoven was also born on this date! Guess who his son was? He was 20 years younger than Leopold, but only died a few years later. Interestingly (or not) Johann also outlived the younger Mozart, though not by long. I suspect, without a shred of evidence, that the two families had some sort of passing acquaintance- it's hard to believe that you could have that much musical talent in a society that accepted composers from other countries, and never cross paths in some way.
Fancy a ride up the Hudson on a new-fangled steamboat? Well birthday boy Robert Fulton would be happy to oblige! He also designed an actual working submarine for Napoleon, though it didn't work all that well, apparently. At least it never sank any British ships, which is kind of the standard for how well a submarine works.
Reverting back to music, happy birthday to Fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix. Apparently when the Mendelssohns weren't writing music, they were philosophers, though that particular talent seems to have skipped a couple generations- Fanny's grandfather and her grandson were both philosophers. That might be significant, but I'm damned if I can figure out how.
We'll stick with composers for a moment, and wish a happy birthday to Aaron Copland. He's kind of the epitome of the American composer, largely due to being an American. And a composer. So in that sense he reached the pinnacle. Good for him.
This one oughta be fun. Joseph McCarthy was born on this date also. Joe is today one of the most vilified men in US history, because he had the audacity- and lack of "decency" to claim there was a conspiracy of Communists to spy on the US government. As it developed, of course, he was pretty much right on the money. The conspiracy he railed against has been confirmed by the Soviet archives, and pretty much everyone he accused has in fact been shown to have been a spy. Not that anyone today gives a crap about that.
Good old Lt Colonel Henry Blake was born on this date. That's TV Henry, and not Movie Henry. Poor McLean Stevenson was eternally typecast after that show came out. And then he went and got his character killed, so he could never reprise the role. That's bad luck.
In 1939, Wendy Carlos was born. Oddly enough, so was Walter Carlos. The string of coincidences continue- they were born in the same place! And they both became composers! Were they twins? No indeed! My reference book is kinda sorta technically inaccurate. Walter was born on this date- Wendy was born on whatever day it was that Walter finished the process and got snipped once and for all. Not sure of the date, but it was after Walter wrote "A fifth of Beethoven", which was featured on the soundtrack for "Saturday Night Fever".
P.J. O'Rourke was born on this date in 1947. Interesting writer. I'm working my way thru a bunch of his books right now. I'm curious if he's got anything coming out soon- I bet he has a lot to say about the way the world in general, and the US in particular, are going these days. And I doubt that much of what he has to say is particularly favorable.
James Young (aka JY) of Styx fame was born on this date. Fun fact- in the early 80s or so, they were on TV for the Grammys or something (yes, back then it was actually watchable). They were doing the song "Babe", which had been introduced as being written by Dennis DeYoung for his wife. As the chorus began, JY stepped forward to his microphone, with his long blond hair and girlish clothes. My mom turned to me and said "is that his wife?" Yeah, she's not much for following popular music. Oh well. She has other good qualities.
1951 gave us both the yummy Sandahl Bergman (she was Ahnuld's squeeze in the original Conan) and Stephen Bishop, who was the guitar player in "Animal House". Don't recall him? He was playing at a party, and Bluto smashed his guitar. I saw Bishop on the tube some years ago. He still had the remnants, signed by the entire cast. Oh, he also had a couple hits after that, like "on and on" and... well, there was probably something else.
Patrick Warburton was also born today. He was Puddy on Seinfeld, and also played "the Tick" on that show. He's done other stuff, but really- once you've had a recurring role on Seinfeld, who cares what else you've done?
The (formerly) drop-dead, oh my frigging god she's hot porn actress Janine Lindemulder was born on this day. Now she's known as "the bat-crap crazy, all tattooed up and pierced, formerly married to DB Jesse James, washed up porn actress Janine Lindemulder." But no, I'm not disappointed. Or bitter.
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