Celebration Day
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Charlie Chaplin *IV 16 1889 — The Life You Give
Charlie Chaplin, byname of Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, (born April 16, 1889, London, England, is the comedian, producer, writer, director, and composer who is widely regarded as the greatest comic artist of the screen and one of the most important figures in motion-picture history. Early life and career Chaplin was named after his father, a…
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Leonardo da Vinci *IV 15 1452 — The Life You Give
Leonardo da Vinci, born April 15, 1452, in Anchiano, near Vinci, Republic of Florence [Italy], is the painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose skill and intelligence, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. His Last Supper (1495–98) and Mona Lisa (c. 1503–19) are among the most widely popular…
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Samuel Beckett *IV 13 1906 — The Life You Give
Samuel Beckett, born Samuel Barclay Beckett, on April 13, 1906, in Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland, was author, critic, and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He wrote in both French and English and is perhaps best known for his plays, especially En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot). Samuel Beckett was…
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Montserrat Caballé *IV 12 1933 — La Vida Que Das / The Life You Give
Montserrat Caballé, nacida el 12 de abril de 1933 en Barcelona, España, es la soprano española de ópera, que fue admirada por su versatilidad y fraseo y por sus interpretaciones en las óperas de Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti y Richard Strauss. Comenzó sus estudios como niña en el Conservatorio Liceu de Barcelona con Eugenia Kenny…
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Florence Price *IV 9 1887 / The Life You Give
The first African-American woman whose music was played by a major symphony orchestra, Florence Price was a pioneering figure in 20th century American music. In the 21st century, her music has been performed increasingly often, especially since a large cache of her compositions was rediscovered in 2009. Price was born Florence Beatrice Smith in Little…
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Giuseppe Tartini *IV 8 1692 — The Life You Give
Giuseppe Tartini, born April 8, 1692, in Pirano, Istria, Republic of Venice [now Piran, Slovenia], is the violinist, composer, and theorist who helped establish the modern style of violin bowing and formulated principles of musical ornamentation and harmony. Tartini studied divinity and law at Padua and at the same time established a reputation as a…
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Gabriela Mistral *IV 7 1889 — La Vida Que Das
Gabriela Mistral, nacida Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga en Vicuña, Chile, el 7 de abril de 1889, es la escritora y premio Nobel de Literatura en 1945. Utilizó por primera vez su seudónimo en el poema «Del pasado» publicado en diario «El Coquimbo» en 1908. Trabaja de maestra y colabora en publicaciones…
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Billie Holiday *IV 7 1915 — The Life You Give
Billie Holiday, born Elinore Harris, on April 7, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., is the jazz singer considered to have been one of the greatest from the 1930s to the ’50s. Eleanora (her preferred spelling) Harris was the daughter of Clarence Holiday, a professional musician who for a time played guitar with the Fletcher Henderson band.…
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Ravi Shankar *IV 7 1920 — The Life You Give
Ravi Shankar, born Ravindra Shankar Chowdhury, on April 7, 1920, Benares [now Varanasi], India, is the musician, player of the sitar, composer, and founder of the National Orchestra of India, who was influential in stimulating Western appreciation of Indian music. Born into a Bengali Brahman (highest social class in Hindu tradition) family, Shankar spent most…
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Maya Angelou *IV 4 1928 — The Life You Give
Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Annie Johnson, on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., is the poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother in rural…
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Max Ernst *IV 2 1891 — The Life You Give
Max Ernst, born Maximilian Ethelbert Ernst, on April 2 1891, in Brühl, Germany, was painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A key member of first Dada and then Surrealism in Europe in the 1910s and 1920s, Max Ernst used a variety of mediums—painting, collage, printmaking, sculpture, and various unconventional drawing methods—to give visual form to…
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Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *IV 1 1755 — The Life You Give
Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, born April 1, 1755, in Belley, France, is the lawyer, politician, and author of the celebrated work on gastronomy, Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste). Brillat-Savarin followed the family profession of law. A deputy of the Third Estate at the Estates-General of 1789, he was forced to flee the country during…
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Sergei Rachmaninoff *IV 1 1873 — The Life You Give
Sergey Rachmaninoff, born March 20 [April 1, New Style], 1873, in Oneg, near Semyonovo, Russia, is the composer who was the last great figure of the tradition of Russian Romanticism and a leading piano virtuoso of his time. He is especially known for his piano concerti and the piece for piano and orchestra titled Rhapsody…
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Nagisa Ōshima *III 31 1932 — The Life You Give
Nagisa Oshima’s interest in politics began at a young age. His father, a government official (reportedly of samurai lineage) who died when Oshima was six, left behind an extensive library of Socialist and Communist texts, which the young man read through as he came to maturity. He attended Kyoto University, studying law while dabbling in…
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Joseph Haydn *III 31 1732 — The Life You Give
Joseph Haydn, born Franz Joseph Haydn, on March 31, 1732, in Rohrau, Austria, is the composer who was one of the most important figures in the development of the Classical style in music during the 18th century. He helped establish the forms and styles for the string quartet and the symphony. Early years Haydn was…
Sila Blume 