Good evening, Kibitzers! I’m getting so I kind of like these video compilations for the day’s date. Maybe I’m just compensating for having such a boring life that I don’t have personal adventures to report a lot of the time, but I do enjoy the music.
Once upon a time, I was married to a guy whose birthday was today. Now, I don’t have to worry about that, and it’s much better this way. I don’t wish him an unhappy birthday, just a birthday far, far away from me.
Onward to today’s important events!
1083: Canonization of the first King of Hungary, as Saint Stephen, and his son as Saint Emeric. This date is a National Day in Hungary. (This is likely not the same St. Stephen that Robert Hunter had in mind when he wrote the lyrics of the Grateful Dead song, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t have the song anyway.)
1720: Birthday: Bernard de Bury, French harpsichord player and composer.
1858: Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection first appears in print in The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, alongside Alfred Russel Wallace's similar theory.
1882: Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow. (Spain seems to get all the best flashmobs!)
1890: Birthday: H. P. Lovecraft, American author of weird horror fiction; father of Cthulhu.
1905: Birthday: Jack Teagarden, American jazz trombonist and singer-songwriter.
1910: Birthday: Eero Saarinen, Finnish-American architect and furniture designer; designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, among many well-known public structures.
1923: Birthday: “Gentleman” Jim Reeves, American country music singer-songwriter.
1926: Birthday: Frank Rosolino, American jazz trombonist.
1934: Birthday: Sneaky Pete Kleinow, country-rock pedal-steel guitarist, The Flying Burrito Brothers.
1937: Birthday: Sky Saxon, American singer-songwriter and bassist, The Seeds.
1942: Birthday: Isaac Hayes, American singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer. (I picked this performance because he’s having such a good time directing the band!)
1943: Birthday: Sylvester McCoy, Scottish actor, 7th and last Doctor in the original run of Doctor Who.
1948: Birthday: Robert Plant, English singer-songwriter, lead singer of Led Zeppelin. (Jimmy’s outfit — omg.)
1952: Birthday: Doug Fieger, American singer-songwriter and guitarist, lead singer of The Knack.
1952: Birthday: John Hiatt, prolific American singer-songwriter and guitarist in a variety of styles.
1954: Birthday: Al Roker, American news anchor, meteorologist, television personality, and author. Background for this clip (more detail here): in January, schools were closed in Kentucky, among other places, in response to a stretch of extreme cold. KY Governor Matt Bevin (R) got on the radio and whined that the kids were getting soft. Roker was not having it.
1974: Birthday: Maxim Vengerov, Russian-born Israeli violinist and conductor.
1977: NASA launches the Voyager 2 spacecraft to study the outer planets and then continue out of the solar system.
Yet a third hurricane season started June 1, and Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover.
It is Day 699 since Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.
That’s 23 months.
PLEASE FOLLOW Denise Oliver Velez and the SOS Puerto Rico group for the latest news about developments in Puerto Rico and the USVI (diary here regarding the start of another hurricane season). Denise generally collects resonant tweets at the top of her comment threads, as well, and in the APR’s thread most mornings, to make it easy to retweet. If you tweet or FB, please share something about Puerto Rico and USVI regularly.
PUERTO RICO and USVI DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS
The Daily Kos community has its own project: Puerto Rico resident Bobby Neary (newpioneer) leads a small team dedicated to helping a specific rural elder who was left by the storms without power, water, a roof, or any belongings but a moldy mattress. If you like to see concrete results, this is the project for you. See newpioneer’s diaries for ways to help. See this one in particular, and this comment with photos. See also his lovely and heartbreaking poem, and his recent tribute to the island.
(🌅 = most recently recommended by Denise)
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