Category: Today’s Birthday

Shore was an American singer, actress, and TV personality who enjoyed widespread popularity during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 50s. She was the first singer of the era to achieve success as a solo artist, producing over 80 hit songs, including “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” before beginning a four-decade career in television. Shore was a hit with TV audiences as well and went on to earn nine Emmys, a Peabody Award, and a Golden Globe. How did Shore, born Frances Rose, earn the stage name Dinah? Discuss

Mostel was an American comic actor who combined a large paunch with acrobatic grace and an expressive face. He initially worked both on Broadway and in film but was blacklisted in Hollywood for his political views and worked primarily in New York City theater after 1955. He had lead roles in the musicals A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Fiddler on the Roof. In 1968, he starred in the Oscar-winning Mel Brooks film The Producers. What was Mostel’s real name? Discuss

Steinbeck was an American writer perhaps best remembered for his strong, Pulitzer Prize-winning sociological novel The Grapes of Wrath, which is widely considered one of the great American novels of the 20th century. His later novels include Cannery Row, The Pearl, and East of Eden. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. One of Steinbeck’s last works was Travels with Charley, a travelogue about a road trip across America. Who was Charley? Discuss

Hugo was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist. The son of a general, he was an accomplished poet before age 20. With his verse drama Cromwell in 1827, he emerged as an important figure in Romanticism. His best-known novels are The Hunchback of Notre Dame, an evocation of medieval life, and Les Misérables, the story of the convict Jean Valjean. Their immense popularity made him the most successful writer in the world at that time. Why was Hugo forced into exile in 1851? Discuss

Harrison was a British rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter, best known as a member of the Beatles from 1962 to 1970. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the Beatles’ main songwriters, Harrison, “the quiet Beatle,” generally wrote or sang lead on a few songs per album. His later compositions included hits such as “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something.” Harrison also penned “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which features what guest musician on lead guitar? Discuss

A preeminent figure in American art, Homer was a largely self-taught landscape painter and printmaker. He trained as a lithographer, then became a freelance illustrator. As a correspondent for Harper’s Weekly, he won international acclaim for his depictions of the Civil War battlefront. In 1876, he abandoned illustration to devote himself to painting, later settling in coastal Maine, where the local people and seascapes became the focus of his art. What are some of his most famous works? Discuss

Born in Venice as Pietro Barbo, Pope Paul II was the successor of Pope Pius II, and the nephew of Pope Eugene IV. A Renaissance pope, he patronized printing, beautified and improved Rome, and collected antiquities. Like Pius II, he was involved in struggles with the Bohemian George of Podebrad, who was the leader of the Utraquists, or the moderate Hussites, in the wars between Hussites and Catholics. Paul excommunicated George in 1466. Who succeeded Paul II as pope? Discuss

An unhappy and solitary man, Schopenhauer was a German philosopher whose works earned him the title “the philosopher of pessimism.” The bias of his own temperament and experience was crucial to the development of his celebrated philosophy—reflections on the theory of knowledge and the philosophy of nature, aesthetics, and ethics—which he presented with such clarity and skill as to gain eventual recognition as one of the great philosophers. Schopenhauer was heavily influenced by what Hindu texts? Discuss

Segovia was a Spanish guitarist whose transcriptions of early contrapuntal music, along with his concerts and recordings, were largely responsible for the 20th-century resurgence of interest in the guitar and its possibilities as a concert instrument. Almost entirely self-taught, he made his debut in Grenada in 1909 and by the 1920s was touring internationally. He continued to perform into his 90s. Which composers wrote works just for Segovia? Discuss

Cobain formed the rock trio Nirvana in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington, in 1986. The group’s second album, Nevermind, featured the iconic hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and was the first punk-oriented album to achieve popularity with a mainstream audience. However, Cobain railed against his fame in Nirvana’s next album, In Utero. Known for his self-destructive behavior and heroin use, he committed suicide in 1994. What tribute to Cobain is featured on a sign in his hometown? Discuss