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Tel Asiado's BlogPosted by Tel Asiado This day, December 4 (1875), is the birthday of Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the most important figures in modern German literature. He was also an outstanding lyric poet. He belonged to the symbolist movement that used images to represent what one feels or thinks. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Rilke's family wanted him to be a lawyer, but he was more inspired to be a writer. Later, Rilke went to Munich and became a part of the art and literary life there. Initially, he met influential women who helped him in his writing endeavors. He wasn't handsome but poetic and romantic, and women fell for that. It was one older woman, the Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis, who became his close friend who had great influence on him and encouraged him to write big time. Rilke stayed in her castle in Trieste, on the Adriatic Sea. It was there he wrote his most famous poems The Duino Elegies, consisting of 10 long verses. Rilke is often quoted for his Letters to a Young Poet. For his brief biography, check out Rainer Maria Rilke Posted by Tel Asiado This day, November 28 (1908), is 100th birthday of Claude Lévi-Strauss. He is a social anthropologist, educator and diplomat, a leading exponent of structuralism, and influential in social sciences and related disciplines. Lévi-Strauss was born in Brussels, Belgium, but grew up in Paris. He studied philosophy and law. He taught at a college in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While in Brazil, he became interested with the Amazon rainforest, encountered indigenous people, and started his research on them. He realized he wanted to be an anthropologist. He learmed to learn everything about various indigenous groups especially about their culture. He primarily wrote about them in his books:
Lévi-Strauss's way of thinking is referred to as structuralism in which he claims that everyone has the same capacity for intellectual thought with similar mental structures, and that basically, all people want to structure an orderly world. He also said that ritual, mythology and magic, are as important as science and literature, in terms of mental structures development. He wrote many books, including Mythologiques, his epic four-volume study. He took one myth, followed it from from the southern tip of South America up through Central America, North America, and into the Arctic Circle. The books are published in English as follows:
He still publishes occasional articles. Posted by Tel Asiado This day, November 26 (1922), Charles Monroe Schulz, creator of Peanuts, is born, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was the only child of Carl Schulz (German) and Dena Halverson (Norwegian.) He was nicknamed "Sparky" which was taken by his uncle after the horse Spark Plug in another comic strip Barney Google. Schulz was an American comic artist whose cartoon Peanuts became the top and most widely syndicated comic strip of all time. It was launched October 2, 1950. He has published numerous books, and won many major awards in his lifetime, including Emmy awards for his animated specials and the Congressional Gold Medal. His worldwide recognition and success started when the United Feature Syndicate ran his first comic strip installment called "Peanuts." The rest is history. His creation is loved by people from all walks of life, ordinary and celebrities, to dignitaries and powerful leaders. There is always someone or a mutliple of his characters that anyone, young or old, can relate to - be it lovable Charlie Brown and his winsome beagle pet Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, and the rest of the gang. Charles Schulz died of colon cancer at the age of 77, on February 12, 2000. The characters he created live on, and so does his memory, to millions of his admirers. Posted by Tel Asiado This day, November 21 (1694-1778), is the birthday of Voltaire, French philosopher, historian, playwright, and poet. He was born Francois Marie Arouet, in Paris. Voltaire helped sparked the Enlightenment in France and he was known for his wit and brilliance. He spent most of the later years of his life in exile, after the publication of his Philosophical Letters (1734). He wrote most of his work in England. His ethical philosophy was founded on toleration and practical humanitarianism as opposed to any dogmatic theology. He signified this in his Essay on Morals (1756). One of Voltaire's famous quotes: "To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered." Here's a full article of Voltaire --- Voltaire and the Age of Reason. Posted by Tel Asiado This day, November 20 (1889 - 1953), Edwin Hubble is born. Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who changed the understanding of the nature of the universe. He demonstrated the existence of other galaxies aside from the Milky Way. He also discovered that the degree of redshift as obserbed in the light coming from a galaxy increased in proportion to the distance of that galaxy from the Milky Way. This is know as Hubble's Law. Alongside Hubble's law and Redshift, he was also known for the Big Bang and Hubble sequence. Here's a full article of Edwin Hubble's brief biography. Posted by Tel Asiado This day, November 14, is the birthday of Frederick Banting (1891-1941), Canadian medical scientist and physician. He shared the 1923 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work in extracting the hormone insulin from the pancreas, and making it possible to give insulin to diabetes mellitus sufferers. Sir Frederick Grant Banting was born in Alliston, Ontario, Canada on November 14, 1891 and died on February 21, 1941 in Newfoundland, Canada, at the age of 49. He was educated at the University of Toronto. Related link: Posted by Tel Asiado Happy Birthday Billy Graham! Yesterday, November 7 (1918), Billy Graham turned 90 years old. Rev. William Franklin Graham Jr., KBE, is simply known as Billy Graham to the world. Graham is an evangelist, an Evangelical Christian, and an author of several books, most of them book sellers. Billy Graham was born on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1949, he began his career in Los Angeles by holding revival meetings in tents. He crusaded against communism, however, he also opposed segregation. He was friends with Martin Luther, King, Jr. Graham has written many books which have become book sellers. His "Just as I Am," a memoir, achieved a "triple crown." In it, he reflected his life of continuous ministry around the world for more than half a century. His other books include "Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1983), listed on The New York Times best seller list for several weeks; "Angels: God's Secret Agents" (1975) sold one million copies within 3 months, and some other top best sellers like "The Jesus Generation." He was number seven on Gallup's list of highly admired people of the 20th century. Regarded as the greatest evangelist this era has ever produced, Billy Graham has preached in person around the world more than any Protestant evangelist has ever done. He has also been a spiritual adviser to many past U.S. presidents. Mr. Billy Graham, from the millions and millions of people you have spiritually touched, may you continue to have a blessed and peaceful life. You are right, we can truly find personal peace with God if only we look in the right place. And that the way to live in this uncertain and chaotic world is by faith, the kind of faith you have consistently shared through the years. Posted by Tel Asiado Today, November 4, 2008, is the 56th presidential election of the United States. The whole world is watching with excitement and eagerness - for various reasons. God bless America! In half a century, this is the first time that the sitting president is not a candidate on his party's ticket. Both McCain and Obama are sitting senators. This blog is focused on them as writers and not as presidential candidates. For those unaware that Barack Obama and John McCain are authors, yes, they are! Best-selling authors at that! In 1999, McCain was on a book tour for his memoir Faith of My Fathers, at the same on campaign path for the 2000 election. In his 2002 second memoir, Worth Fighting For, he wrote: "I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms. I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to become president." In 1995, Barack Obama wrote his first memoir, Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, before he began his political career. His second book, Audacity of Hope, (2006), has been considered by some as his "thesis ouvre" for the presidency. This book and his speech during the 2004 Democratic National Convention brought him to attention. He wrote: "I reject a politics that is based solely on racial identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, or victimhood generally. I think much of what ails the inner city involves a breakdown in cutlute that will not be cured by money alone, and that our values and spiritual matter at least as much as our GDP." Perhaps, one of them can continue writing blockbusters. Well, whoever loses the election. Just a thought. Wishing them the best.
Posted by Tel Asiado
It was yesterday, October 31, 1517, that Martin Luther posted his famous 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. He was one of the greatest thinkers of the Western world and the leader of the Protestant Refomation. A Catholic monk, Martin Luther disagreed with the Church's practices on selling of indulgences, which means forgiving the punishment for sins. He strongly believed that God offered forgiveness and graces freely without having to pay for it. He pre-empted a public debate by posting his theses as a point of reference, and by doing so, it was not his intention to create a new branch of Church. However, his action caused strong rift within the Church which eventually led to the Protestant Reformation. Related Article: Finding Luther --- Archaeologists Trail Reformer Related Blog: Posted by Tel Asiado Today, October 28 (1955), Bill Gates turns 53. William Henry Gates III is an American computer entrepreneur, philanthropist, who co-founded with Paul Allen, Microsoft Corporation, the giant computer software company. At the advent of the millennium, Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft, although he remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June, 2006, he announced his transitioning from full-time work to part-time work at Microsoft. He and wife work full-time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He remains a part-time, non-executive chairman of Microsoft Corporation. Full article ... [Bill Gates Brief Biography] Posted by Tel Asiado Today, October 26 (1898-1970), William Lloyd Warner is born, in Redlands, California. He was an influential sociologist and anthropologist known for studies on class structure. Warner started his education at the University of California-Berkeley majoring in anthropology, then continued on to Harvard University for graduate school. He used anthropology to reseach on American Society's class structure. He divided social classes by three distinct groups he called lower, middle, and upper. He further subdivided each class into a lower and an upper. For many years, Warner was a teachiing professor of anthropology and sociology in chicago and at Michigan State University for the rest of his life. He wrote publications of his important works. Source: www.Britannica.com Posted by Tel Asiado Today, October 18 (1859), is the birthday of French philosopher Henri Bergson. Henri Louis Bergson (1859-1941) was born in Paris, France, best known for theory set out in his many works, including Time and Freewill, Laughter, Creative Evolution and The Creative Mind. His father was a Jewish musician and his mother was English. Bergson was educated at the Ecole Normale Superieure. After graduation, he worked as a teacher and later as a professor in several schools. He married a cousin of the novelist Marcel Proust. Bergson claimed that man perceives the material through the use of his intellect while it is through intuition that the force of life is perceived. His most original idea is found in his first significant work Time and Free Will: an Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness, in 1889. He was a recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature. Posted by Tel Asiado Yesterday, October 14 (b.1888 - d.1923), is the birthday of Katherine Mansfield, one of New Zealand's most famous writers. She was born in Wellington, NZ. Her genre is primarily short-stories. Like Virginia Woolf, she is noted for her use of stream of consciousness, usually writing about events in the lives of ordinary women. Mansfield is best known as the author of The Garden Party (1922). She died at the young age of 34. Full article --- Katherine Mansfield Posted by Tel Asiado Today, October 13, (1925), is the birthday of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher was born in England. She abandoned an early career as a chemist to become a politician. She joined the Conservative party, and became a member of the British Parliament in 1959. She became leader of the Conservative party in 1975. In 1979 she was elected Britain's first woman prime minister in the twentieth century to win three consecutive elections. Baroness Thatcher has received numerous top honours as a result of her career, including being named a Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (LG), member of the Order of Merit (OM), and a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council (PC). Full article ... [Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady] Posted by Tel Asiado Today, October 10 (1731), is the birthday of British scientist Henry Cavendish, the man who discovered hydrogen (he called "inflammable air") as an element. He also determined the chemical composition of water, H20. Cavendish was born in Nice, France. It interesting to note that he was a shy guy, so much so that he hardly told anyone about his experiments; he didn't want to publish his works either. It took other fellow scientists to find out about it. By then, others were being credited for some findings he most likely had done. Full article --- [Henry Cavendish] Posted by Tel Asiado Today, October 7, is the birthday of Niels Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist born in Copenhagen Denmark. He was awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in physics for developing the Bohr Theory of the atom. Bohr proposed that electrons travel in orbits around the atom's nucleus, and that elements are determined by the number of electrons in the outer orbits of their atoms. His model was the first quantum model for the internal structure of the atom. Here's the full article --- [Niels Bohr, Physicist] . Posted by Tel Asiado Today, October 6 (1846-1914), is the birthday of George Westinghouse, American engineer, inventor and industrialist. He founded his own company to manufacture his invention, the air brake. Westinghouse is a New Yorker, born in Central Bridge. His most important invention was the air-brake system known as the "Westinghouse air brake" which he patented in 1869. His invention allowed the brakes on all the coaches of a train to be applied simulataneously by the engine driver, and greatly increased the speed at which the trains could travel safely. In 1886, he founded the Westinghouse Electrical company. In 1895, he harnessed successfully the power of the Niagara Falls to generate sufficient electricity for the town of Buffalo. Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 30, is the birthday of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), Irish composer, conductor and teacher. He was highly influential in British music. Born in Dublin, he studied at Cambridge and Berlin. He became a professor at the Royal College of Music, among others. As a professor of Cambridge, he taught generations of young British composers. His works include choral settings of Alfred Lord Tennyson's Revenge and Voyage of Maeldune. He also composed some oratorios and operas, as well as church music. Here's his full brief biography --- Sir Charles Villiers Stanford Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 25, is the birthday of Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945), American geneticist and biologist. He was awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize for Medicine for investigations linking to chromosomes and hereditary traits. Morgan was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated in zoology form Kentucky State College in 1886. Leter, he became Professor of Experimental Zoology at Columbia University and then at the California Institute of Technology. In his work on Drosophila, the fruit fly, he found that certain traits are linked, but that the traits are not always inherited together. Morgan wrote and published some books, including The Mendelian Heredity (which established the chromosome theory of inherhitance in confirmation of Gregor Mendel's work), Evolution and Adaptation and The Theory of the Gene. Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 22, is the birthday of Michael Faraday (1791-1867), English chemist, physicist and experimentalist. Among his many discoveries, Faraday is famous for his laws of electrolysis. He worked extensively on electricity, discovering electromagnetic induction. Michael Faraday made the first generator, built a primitive electric motor, among other things. In chemistry, he liquified chlorine and discovered benzene, among others. For more of his life and works, here's the link. Farad, the unit of capacitance, is named after him. Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 18 (1883), is the birthday of Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, Berners, 14th Baron. He was an English writer, comcoser, statesman, painter and diplomat. Lord Berners total output was small but includes an orchestral fugue and several ballets, the best known was "The Triumph of Neptune" (1926) and "A Wedding Bouquet" (1937) after a play by Gertrude Stein. A noted eccentric, he also dabbled in fiction and painting. Here's a link to Lord Berners ...[14th Baron Berners] Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 18 (1883), is the birthday of Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, Berners, 14th Baron. He was an English writer, comcoser, statesman, painter and diplomat. Lord Berners total output was small but includes an orchestral fugue and several ballets, the best known was "The Triumph of Neptune" (1926) and "A Wedding Bouquet" (1937) after a play by Gertrude Stein. A noted eccentric, he also dabbled in fiction and painting. Here's a link to Lord Berners ...[14th Baron Berners] Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 7 (1558) is the birthday of Elizabeth I, Queen of England. She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Her reign saw England's rise as a major European power. On her succession to the throne, Queen Elizabeth I re-established Protestantism by the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity in 1559. Despite her relatively tolerant administration, Roman Catholic discontent led to the Rising of the Northern Earls, the Ridolfi Plot, and to subesequent plots in favour of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Roman Cathoalic claimant to the succession. Mary was eventually executed as a threat to Elizabeth. Elizabeth I refused to marry. She directed her foreign policy towards reducing the powers of the Roman Catholicism, France and Spain, without war provocation either. Despite it, in 1587 war with Spaian still broke out and even with the defeat of the Spanish Armada the following year, war still continued throughout her reign. Elizabeth I's last years were times of financial difficulties and by the Earl of Essex's rebellion. By herself, Queen Elizabeth I had a strength of character and immeasurable shredness. She also had competent advisers, such as Lord Burghley and William Cecil. Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 7 (1558) is the birthday of Elizabeth I, Queen of England (1558-1603). She was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Her reign saw England's rise as a major European power. On her succession to the throne, Queen Elizabeth I re-established Protestantism by the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity in 1559. Despite her relatively tolerant administration, Roman Catholic discontent led to the Rising of the Northern Earls, the Ridolfi Plot, and to subesequent plots in favour of Mary, Queen of Scots, the Roman Cathoalic claimant to the succession. Mary was eventually executed as a threat to Elizabeth. Elizabeth I refused to marry. She directed her foreign policy towards reducing the powers of the Roman Catholicism, France and Spain, without war provocation either. Despite it, in 1587 war with Spaian still broke out and even with the defeat of the Spanish Armada the following year, war still continued throughout her reign. Elizabeth I's last years were times of financial difficulties and by the Earl of Essex's rebellion. By herself, Queen Elizabeth I had a strength of character and immeasurable shredness. She also had competent advisers, such as Lord Burghley and William Cecil. Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 6 (1860-1935), is the birthday of Jane Addams, American social reformer and suffragist. A pacifist, Addams never allowed public criticism to deter her sense of purpose. She was awarded the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize for her support for peace, women's suffrage and social work. In 1887, she observed the work done at Toynbee Hall, a settlement house in London's East End. Two years later, she co-founded with Ellen Gates Starr Chicago's Hull House, the first major settlement house in the United States. Hull House became the model for settlement houses throughout the United States. Addams also actively participated during the First World War, particularly in the suffrage movement and in denouncing America's participation in the war. In 1915, she organized and chaired the Women's Peace Party, and along with Emily Balch, she founded the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Five years later, she supported and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and served on its national committee for ten years. Jane Addams's commitment to world peace was finally recognized when she became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Sources: McGovern, Una, Ed. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002 Weatherford, Doris. American Women's History. New York: Prentice Hall, 1994 Posted by Tel Asiado Today, September 4 (1913), is the birthday of Kenzo Tange, Japanese architect who established a reputation in his works as a significant architect of the 20th century. He was the winner of the 1987 Pritzker Prize for architecture. Tange combined traditional Japanese styles with modernism and designed major buildings not only in Japan but other countries. He is also an influential protagonist of the Structuralism movement in architecture. Kenzo Tange was born and educated in Tokyo. His early building, for example, the Hiroshima Peace Center is traditional and influenced by Le Corbusier, but his later works, such as Shizoka Press and Broadcasting Center, provide flexibility for change. He designed the dramatic National Gymnasium for the 1964 Olympic Games and the theme pavilion for the 1970 Osaka Exposition. From 1946 until 1974, Tange has been a professor of architecture at Tokyo University. He has also published influential books on architecture. Since 1989, Kenzo Tange has been president of the Japanese Architectural Association. Posted by Tel Asiado
Today, September 3 (1856), is the birthday of American architect Louis Henry Sullivan. He is regarded the "father of modern US architecture" and identified with early skyscraper design innovation. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Sullivan studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at the influential Paris atelier of Joseph Auguste-Emile Vaudremer. He worked in chicago in the 1880s and 1890s when the city was busy witih migrants influx, railroads, and other kinds of trading. In 1886, he won the New Exposition building contract with Dankmar Adler. He was one of the first to design skyscrapers, such as the Wainwright building in St Louis in 1890 and the Carson store in chicago 1899. Sullivan's experimental, functional skeleton constructions of skyscrapers and office blocks, particularly the Gage building and Stock Exchange with Adler in Chicago earned him the title of "Father of Modernism." He greatly influenced Frank Lloyd Wright among others. He died on April 1924. Related Link: Traces the History of the Skyscraper Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: August 21 Today, August 21 (1813), is the birthday of Jean S Stas, Belgian analystical chemist known for his accurate determination of atomic weights, a most skillful chemical analyst of the nineteenth century. Stas was born in Leuven. Initially, he trained as a physician. but later changed to chemistry and worked at the Polytechnic School in Paris under Jean-Baptiste Dumas. The two of them setup the atomic weight of carbon by weighing a sample of the pure matereial, burned it in pure ooxyge, then weighed the carbon dioxide produced. He was appointed professor at Brussels's Royal Miltary School in 1840. Stas became famous after he established the atomic weights of the elements more accurately than had ever been done before, using oxygen = 16 as the standard, laying the foundation for the periodic system of elements of Dmitri Mendeleev. He died in Brussels on December 13, 1891. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: August 14 Today, August 14, is the birthday of Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851), Danish Physicist and educator. He is considered the founder of the science of electromagnetism. Hans Christian Oersted took the first steps in explaining the relationship between electricity and magnetism. He was also the first scientist to isolate pure metallic aluminum. The 'Oersted' unit of magnetic field strength is named after him. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: August 5, 2008 Today, August 5 (1850), is the birthday of Guy de Maupassant, one of the greatest French short-story writers. He also wrote novels. De Maupassant was greatly influenced by Gustave Flaubert, who used to invite him to lunch on Sundays and edit his earlier works. Flaubert introduced him to prominent writers of the time, including Émile Zola, Henry James, and Ivan Turgenev. Guy de Maupassant wrote numerous stories and few novels. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: August 4, 2008 Today, August 4 (1792), is the birthday of English poet, author and essayist Percy Bysshe Shelley. He is best-known for romantic poems and for his masterpiece Prometheus Unbound. His other popular works include "The Cloud" and "To a Skylark." Shelley died before the age of 30. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: July 26. Carl Jung is born today, July 26 (1875). He was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist, who founded the modern analytic and depth psychology. Jung was born in Kesswil, Switzerland, and died in Zürich, 1961, from a short illness. Jung noticed that the myths and fairytales from different cultures contained certain similarities he called "archetypes", and believed that these archetypes came from a collective unconscious shared by all human beings, and that if people could get in touch with these archetypes in their lives, they will be more happy and healthy. He emphasized the importance of balance and harmony and cautioned that modern people rely too heavily on science and logic; that they would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of unconscious realms. Based on his study of Christianity and other religions, Jung perceived that a person's journey of transformation is the heart of all religions. It is a journey where self meets the Divine. Unlike Sigmund Freud, Jung believed that spiritual experience was essential to an individual's state of well-being. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: July 18. Nelson Mandela turns 90 years old today, July 18, 2008. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela's clan. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a former President of South Africa. He was the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic elections. Prior his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid leader of the African National Congress. Mandela spent 27 years in prison on convictions while he lead the struggle against apartheid. He became a symbol of freedom and equality, while the apartheid government and other sympathetic nations condemned him as terrorists. Mandela was released from prison on February 11, 1990. His policy of reconciliation and negotiation helped lead the transition to democracy in South Africa. Nelson Mandela has been praised worldwide since the end of apartheid, including former opponents. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. His philosophy of non-violence, he has credited to his major source of inspiration, Mahatma Gandhi. Posted by Tel Asiado Great thinkers Datebook: July 19. French Impressionist Edgar Degas (Hilaire Germain Edgar Degas) was born in Paris on July 19, 1834. An artist famous for his painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing, he is best-known for his paintings depicting movements like ballet dancers as well as his sculptures in bronze, ballerinas and racehorses. He also painted nude females. He became completely blind in one eye. Despite this handicap, he worked passionately with his art. Edgar Degas never married in his entire life, with a quote: "There is love and there is work, and we only have one heart." He died on September 27, 1917. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: July 12 Today, July 12 (1904), is the birthday of Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, dilpomat and politician. He is considered the 20th century's most important Latin American poet. He is famous for his collection of poems "Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada" (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) published in 1924. Neruda was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Link to a brief biography of Pablo Neruda Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: July 12 George Eastman celebrates his birthday today, July 12 (1854-1932). He was an American inventor and manufacturer of roll-film photograph, what is famously known today as the Kodak camera. Eastman was born in Waterville, New York. Among his inventions, he introduced machine-coated plates (1879), paper roll film (1884), celluloid roll film & the Kodak camera (1888), and daylight-loading film (1891). For all these, he actually founded the basic materials for still and motion picture photography. In 1892, he founded the Eastan Kodak Company. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: July 8. Percy Aldridge Grainger celebrates his birthday anniversary today, July 8 (1882.) He was an Australian-born American prolific composer, virtuoso pianist, music educator and collector of folk music. Grainger founded the Grainger Museum of Australian Music in Melbourne, Australia. Percy Grainger's life has been portrayed in a 1999 film adaptation, Passion. Co-written by Rob George and John Bird, it feataured Richard Roxburgh as Grainger and Barbara Hershey as his mother. He was known for the tune "English Country Garden" and his arrangement of "Irish Tune from County Derry." For a brief biography, here's the link: Percy Aldridge Grainger . Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: July 3 Today is the birthday of John Mason Brown (1900-1969), American lecureer, author and critic. He was born on July 3, 1900 in Louiseville, Kentucky. Brown was a charter member (1935) and president of New York Drama Critics Circle for four years. John Mason Brown educated himself for a career in theater criticism by studying drama at Harvard. His career portfolio include the following: Critic drama for:
Among his many theater books:
, Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: June 19. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) is born today, June 19. A prodigy, he wrote a book on conics when he was a teenager, then together with Pierre de Fermat, laid the foundations of the theory of probability. Pascal also contributed to hydrodynamics and calculus before retiring from science in 1655 in order to devote his time to his interests in religion and philosophical writing. An example is his Pensies. Here's a link to Blaise Pascal Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: June 4. Socrates (469-399 BC), Greek philosopher, is born June 4. He believed in self-knowledge and the value of self-analysis. Together with Plato and Aristotle, they laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture. He did not write nor publish any works but his teachings were enormously influential. Written about by Plato, he spent most of his life in Athens, engaging those he met in philosophic discussions. Believing that the highest menaing of life is attained through self-knowledge, he tried to convince his fellow men of the calue of self-analysis. Socrates was loyal to his "mission statement" and aware of the "demons" inside that leads human beings astray from their better selves. Found guilty of impiety and corruption of the young, he was condemned to death. He poisoned himself. . Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: June 2, 1840. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English novelist and poet, is born today, June 2. His novels, mostly tragic and set in the region of Wessex, include the famous ones made into films like Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. In the 1970s, the BBC commissioned adaptations of stories from his collection the Wessex Tales and also did a mini-series of Hardy's Jude the Obscure, which he published in 1895. Hardy later concentrated on poetry. Link to a brief biography of Thomas Hardy. . . Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datebook: May 29 John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy or JFK (1917-1963) is born May 29. Referred simply as JFK, John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until 1963, the son of Joseph P. Kennedy and brother of Edward M. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard University in 1940. He married Jacqueline Bouvier and had two children, John, Jr. (deceased) and Caroline. He served in the Navy during World War II, and later, in 1946, elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat, and served there until he entered the Senate in 1953. In 1956, JFK made an unsuccessful bid for the vice-presidential nomination but immediately began preparations for the 1960 presidential nominations. This time he successfully got elected and defeated Richard Nixon by a small margin, becoming the second youngest president and the first Roman Catholic president. Domestic policy revolved around the federeal government's involvement in civil rights, medicine and medical insurance, and education, among others. However, the foreign affairs took most of his role as president, in particular, the Bay of Pigs of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis the following year. In November 1963, JFK made a political trip to Dallas with his wife, Jackie. While riding through the streets in a motorcade, he was shot and killed. Famous JFK quote: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."(Taken from John F. Kennedy's Inauguaral Address, January 20, 1961.) Posted by Tel Asiado Great thinkers Datebook: May 28 Ian L. Fleming (May 28, 1908 - August 12, 1964), British author, novelist and film writer who created James Bond 007, is born May 28, in London. Initially, Fleming wanted to be a diplomat, but failed the test for Foreign Office, so he decided to pursue journalism instead. He worked for the Reuters News Service in major cities including London, Moscow, and Berlin. He then served as assistant to the British director of naval intelligence during the Second World War. After the war, he bought a house in jamaica, spent his life there for a while, including bird watching and fishing. He also gambled to complete the picture. After he got bored, he began writing a novel about a secret agent... No, it's not Dr. No as many think, but actually Casino Royale, which was his first James Bond novel. This was in 1953. Fleming followed this with four more but wasn't that successful. Becoming more disappointed, he decided to write the book specifically for the movies. He added more trimmings like beautiful women galore, and all the exotic places, and more excitement more the moviegoer. The novel From Russia, with Love, in 1957, finally did it by becoming a huge international blockbuster, a best seller of all time. The rest is history for many more James Bond novels and films. Famous James Bond stars were Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan. Posted by Tel Asiado Great Thinkers Datbook: May 26, 1521 On March 26, 1521, Martin Luther was formally outlawed by the Edict of Worms. Martin Luther was the German leader of the Protestant Reformation. He left the study of law in 1505 to become an Augustinian monk and later became a professor of theology. His conversion to priesthood happened one night when he got caught in a terrible thunderstorm. He swore to God Almighty that if he survived it, he would enter the religious life. He did survive, and so he went on to study theology. He was ordained and became a professor in Wittenberg. He took seriously his faith and agonized on the problem of salvation. Eventually, he decided that salvation was not won by good works or deeds but was a gift of God's grace. As he became more involved in the Church, he began to grow disillusioned with some of its practices. In particular, he was angry about the Church's sales of indulgences, said to decrease the time a person had to spend in purgatory. His beliefs made him the object to the sale of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517 Luther posted his 95 Theses in Wittenberg. In so doing, he started a quarrel between him and the church leaders. He decided that the Bible was the true source of authority and renounced obedience to Rome. Further, he maintained his stand in debates with Johann Eck and at the Diet of Worms, in 1521. As a result, he was ex-communicated but German princes supported him, and he quickly gained following among church members as well as the common people. And so the Protestant Reformation began in Germany. Luther wrote hymns, catechisms, theological treatises, and translated the New Testament into German. Hymn singing has been very much a part of Protestant worship. |
