Today I’ll do a kind of post I’ve done in the past when I had no ideas for what to post about. There are some interesting people born on this day throughout history. Enjoy!
Things that happened on December 8
Most of them were awful, and no book- related events, so here are three that appealed to me.f
1660 - a woman first appears on an English stage, as Desdemona in Othello. There was a play and film about it, Stage Beauty. In it, an actor who specialises in playing female roles is replaced by his female dresser, Maria Hughes(possibly based on the real actress who did this). She feels sorry enough for him to help him learn how to play male roles.
1992 - Galileo spacecraft flies past Earth for the second time
2010 - Japanese solar solar craft IKAROS passes Venus. It sounds like the name of the boy who flew too close to the sun in Greek mythology, but actually stands for Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun). Oh, well.
Born On This Day!
65 BCE - Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace, Roman poet.
Horace - Public Domain
1542 - Mary Queen Of Scots, who needs no introduction, but who certainly inspired a lot of writing.
1894 - James Thurber, American humorist and cartoonist. There is a prize for American humour in his name. Oh, and he wrote “The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty”, a short story which became a film with Danny Kaye.
1916 - Richard Fleischer, director of quite a few films you have probably seen at one time or another. Here is a link to his Wikipedia entry. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Fleischer
1923 - Dewey Martin. I got a crush on him as a child when I saw him as the young romantic lead in Land Of The Pharaohs, which starred Jack Hawkins as Pharaoh Khufu, of Great Pyramid fame, and Joan Collins, playing one of her early bitch roles.
1951 - Bill Bryson, author of some delightful books, including travel-themed ones, such as Notes From A Small Island, in which, after living in Britain for many years, he took a farewell trip around the country.
1976 - Dominic Monaghan, whom you have probably seen as hobbit Meriadoc Brandybuck in Lord Of The Rings!
It’s the Day of Finnish Music in Finland. I think that’s nice, don’t you? And they are, I think, proud of their national composer, Sibelius!
6 comments:
Well, maybe no book-related events, strictly speaking, but some famous authors were born today!
It is always interesting to go back and look at all the events that occurred on particular day.
The story of Maria Hughes sounds fascinating.
Hi Brian! It was a very good film, though I hadn’t realised it was inspired by a real person.
Definitely some big names in literature, Debra, yes!
Who'd have thought you'd have to teach a guy to be able to act as a guy!
Hi Anita! I suspect it sounds simpler than it is. You’d act differently on stage from how you act in real life. He would have become used to moving and speaking in certain ways.
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