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JULY |
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JULY 1: 1961 Birthday of DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES, born Diana Spencer, Sandringham, Norfolk, England. First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. Died in a tragic car wreck in a Paris roadway tunnel under mysterious circumstances August 31, 1997. Mourned by millions around the world as the embodiment of a royal princess. QUOTE: “Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be.” |
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JULY 7: 1940 Birthday of RINGO STARR, drummer of The Beatles, and luckiest man alive. Born Richard Starkey, in the Dingle neighborhood of Liverpool, England. QUOTE: “So this is America. They must be out of their minds.” |
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JULY 16: 1872 Birthday of ROALD AMUNDSEN, pre-eminent Norwegian polar explorer (first man to the South Pole; probably first man to fly over the North Pole). Born in Borge Østfold, Norway. QUOTE: “Adventure is just bad planning.” |
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JULY 20: 1919 Birthday of EDMUND HILLARY, New Zealand mountaineer and explorer who topped Mt. Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay May 29, 1953. Born in Auckland, NZ, Sir Edmund died in Auckland 88 1/2 years later. Hillary is probably the best known New Zealander of all time.
QUOTE:
“Nobody
climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used |
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JULY 28:
1866 Birthday of
BEATRIX POTTER,
writer, whose tales of Peter Rabbit remain extraordinarily popular
children’s stories. Born in South Kensington,
London,
England, Potter is closely associated with
England’s Lake District,
where she lived and died. |
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AUGUST |
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AUGUST 4: 1792 Birthday of PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, English Romantic poet, and pal of Byron and John Keats. His greatest work, the Romantic poem “Ozymandias”, cements his reputation among scholars but pales in popularity to the Gothic novel of his second wife, Mary Shelley: “Frankenstein” (see August 30). Born in Horsham, West Sussex, England. QUOTE: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” |
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AUGUST 14:
1777
Birthday of
HANS CHRISTIAN ØRSTED,
Danish scientist whose contributions included fundamental principals of
electromagnetism. His brother Anders became Prime Minister of
Denmark.
His close friend, storyteller Hans Christian Anderson, was undoubtedly
the most famous Dane since Hamlet. |
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AUGUST 17:
1920 Birthday of actress
MAUREEN O’HARA,
who appeared in many movies—including the Christmas classic “Miracle on
34th Street”—none better than those of director John Ford (often
co-starring John Wayne): “How Green Was My Valley”, “The Quiet Man”, and
“Rio Grande”. Born Maureen FitzSimons in Churchtown near Dublin,
Ireland,
Ms. O’Hara keeps a home at Glengarriff in
SW Ireland. |
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AUGUST 25:
1930
Birthday of
SEAN CONNERY,
actor best known for playing suave, macho leading men in action films,
especially seven of the early James Bond series. Born Thomas Sean
Connery in a working class section of
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
he has been voted “greatest living Scot”, named “sexiest man alive” and
“sexiest man of the century” (at 69 years of age). The sexy former
milkman and coffin polisher wears a tattoo proclaiming “Scotland
Forever”. Despite being knighted by the Queen, Sir Sean is a member of
the Scottish Nationalist Party which advocates Scottish independence
from Britain. Meanwhile, Connery lives as a UK tax exile with his French
wife in the Bahamas. |
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AUGUST 29:
1915 Birthday of actress
INGRID BERGMAN,
Academy Award winning actress
(“Gaslight”, “Anastasia”, “Murder on the Orient Express”) also won two
Emmys and a Tony. She appeared in numerous notable films—including
“Spellbound” and “Notorious” by Alfred Hitchcock—she is best known for
playing Ilsa Lund in 1942’s “Casablanca” (“Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time
Goes By.”). Born in
Stockholm,
Sweden,
Bergman died of complications of breast cancer at the age of 67 in
London, England. |
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AUGUST 30:
1797
Birthday of
MARY SHELLEY,
British writer and editor of
her famous husband’s Romantic poetry (see Percy Bysshe Shelley, August
4, above). That Mrs. Shelley’s writing is a better known writer today
than her husband’s work is due to one novel, “Frankenstein”. Modern
literary scholars, sensing Mary Shelley may be no one-hit wonder, are
reviewing her extensive output and upgrading her place to much more than
a footnote to her husband’s career. Born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in
the London
Borough of Camden. She died a few miles away in Belgravia at the age of
53, 29 years after the death of her beloved husband. |
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SEPTEMBER |
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SEPTEMBER 7: 1533 Birthday
of QUEEN
ELIZABETH I
of England.
The second surviving child of
King Henry VIII,
Elizabeth was the only child of his second queen,
Anne Boleyn.
Her father, who spent much energy and ruined many lives over the issue
of issue, would have been proud of his second daughter, whose reign
brought a golden age to Britain: political and economic stability,
Shakespearean culture, a first-rate navy, and a developing British Empire
with world exploration and proto-colonies in the New World. Elizabeth, the
last
Tudor queen,
realized the aims of the dynasty. |
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SEPTEMBER 13:
1916 Birthday of British writer
ROALD DAHL.
Born in a neighborhood of Cardiff, South
Wales,
to Norwegian parents, Dahl lived a remarkable life highlighted by a
dramatic career as an RAF fighter pilot in WWII, working with Ian
Fleming in British Intelligence, marrying—and divorcing—actress Patricia
Neal, and writing screenplays for Hollywood and TV, as well as short
stories and non-fiction articles that appeared in major magazines in the
UK and USA. But dashing, tall Roald Dahl is best remembered as the
creator of “dark” children’s books, especially “Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, both of which have been made
into successful major movies. Named after Norwegian explorer Roald
Amundsen
(see July 16, above), Roald Dahl died in
Oxford,
England, in 1990. |
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SEPTEMBER 17:
1928
Birthday of actor
RODDY McDOWALL.
Born in South
London,
Roddy emigrated to the United States with his family during the Blitz.
Roddy had appeared in several British films as a child. His film career
continued in Hollywood with a signature role in John Ford’s 1941 triumph
“How Green Was My Valley” (see Maureen O’Hara, August 17, above).
McDowall parlayed numerous movie roles plus repeat appearances in the
“Planet of the Apes” movie series and on TV’s “Hollywood Squares” into
steady popularity during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. |
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SEPTEMBER 25:
1969 Birthday of Welsh actress
CATHERINE ZETA-JONES.
The 22-year-old actress was introduced to America
as the English country ingénue Mariette Larkin in British TV’s romantic
comedy “The Darling Buds of May” in the 1990s. In short order
Catherine’s career skyrocketed with numerous roles on American TV and in
Hollywood films. Her stardom went global with her Oscar-winning
performance (Best Supporting Actress) as Velma Kelly in the 2002 film
version of “Chicago”. Born Catherine Zeta Jones (Zeta is her Welsh
grandmother’s name) of Irish and Welsh parentage in Swansea, South
Wales,
she married American actor Michael Douglas (a quarter century older than
she—to the day) at age 31 in 2000. |
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SEPTEMBER 30:
1921
Birthday of Scottish actress
DEBORAH KERR.
One of the pantheon of Hollywood’s star actresses of the 50s and 60s
(“From Here to Eternity”, “The King and I”, “The Sundowners”), Kerr
simultaneously worked on Broadway and on TV, as well as in the British
film industry, appearing 1967’s James Bond film, “Casino Royale”. Born
Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer in
Glasgow,
Scotland,
Miss Kerr died in Botesdale, Suffolk,
England
in 2007 at age 86.
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People make travel memorable. |
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