Today's birthday

[tam]

Подборка знаменитостей,которые родились в январе.

Наконец-то Вы возобновили свои подборки!!! Ждала с нетерпением! А декабрь?

[Aleksana]

Наконец-то Вы возобновили свои подборки!!! Ждала с нетерпением! А декабрь?

А декабрь уже закончился. Теперь только февраль.

[tam]

А декабрь уже закончился. Теперь только февраль.

Ну что ж, напомним в ноябре!

[elkaJUNE]

On 18 January 1882 Alan Alexander Milne was born. Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._A._Milne

Winnie the Pooh Day was created to celebrate the birthday of the creator. Realistically, Winnie the Pooh (and all his friends) were created from stuffed animals that Milne's son, Christopher Robin Milne, had as a child. Christopher Robin is also a character in the stories himself[1]. Celebrate A.A Milne's birthday and Winnie the Pooh Day on January 18th!

Activities for kids:

In this activity, children will learn some facts about bear behavior and have some fun imitating bears.

http://familycrafts.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.eduplace.com/rdg/gen%5Fact/bears/mother.html

 

Some tips how to Celebrate Winnie the Pooh Day

http://www.wikihow.com/Celebrate-Winnie-the-Pooh-Day

 

information about Pooh Country and the real Pooh Places (sometimes called ‘The Enchanted Places’) - Poohsticks Bridge, Galleon’s Lap, Where the North Pole Was, Roo’s Sandy Pit, The Heffalump Trap and The Enchanted Places Memorial Plaque.

http://www.pooh-country.co.uk/index.php

 

[Алексей Конобеев]

120 years ago, on February 10, 1831, a very interesting woman was born. It is largely due to her that today we can enjoy some of the most beautiful music pices composed by Peter Tchaikovsky, whom she financially supported for 13 years. She also provided support to Claude debussy and Nikolai Rubinstein. It is also due to her that we have some of the largest Russian railways.

She is now remembered as Nadezhda von Meck, nee Frolovskaya.

Nadezhda was born to a family which owned a lot of land. Her father taught her to love music, and her mother helped her to become a clever and very energetic businesswoman.

When she was 18, she got married to Karl Otto Georg von Meck, a 28-year-old engineer. They had 18 children, and 11 of them survived. Her husband was a government official who dod not make much money. Nadezhda was not satisfied with the traditional role of a housewife and a mother, so she urged her husband to start business. It was the time when railroads were gaining popularity in Russia, so she tried to make him invest into railways.

Finally, Karl gave in to her persistent advice and resigned from his office. Although at first they had only 20 kopeck per day to raise children with, Karl's talent as an angineer promoted his success and very soon long railroads appered in Russia. Lines for which he was responsible included Kursk to Kiev and the highly profitable Moscow to Ryazan line, and very soon he became a multi-millionnaire.

Unfortunately, Karl suddenly died in 1873. He left all his money and property to his wife, so she had to take care of the children and also manage the railways. She sold one railway line and governed the other one.

When her husband died, Nadezhda resigned from all social life. She hardly ever went out and even refused to see many of her relatives. She also liked to know and regulate every single detail of her children's lives. She was not a person easy to deal with, and, as she once wrote, "I am very unsympathetic in my personal relations because I do not possess any femininity whatever; second, I do not know how to be tender, and this characteristic has passed on to my entire family. All of us are afraid to be affected or sentimental, and therefore the general nature of our family relationships is comradely, or masculine, so to speak."

Nadezhda von Meck had very strong views and believed neither in God nor in marriage. But she loved music very much. She was a good pianist herself, and she hired Claude Debussy to teach music to her daughters. And she began helping young musicians as soon as her husband began making money. She also played music together with the musicians.

She also became a great friend and supporter of Peter Tchailovsky. She gave him an allowance of 6000 roubles per year, and this money was enough for him to give up his regular work at Moscow Conservatory and to fully dedicate himself to composing. For 13 years this support continued, Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda von Meck wrote manyt letters to each other and year by year this correspondence became more open and frank. Strangely enough, the composer and the business lady never met in person. This was the condition made by Nadezhda von Meck herself.

However, as time went by, the fortune of Nadezhda von Meck was becoming smaller. Some of the money was lost due to managerial mistakes made by her children, some money went to pay for her late husband's debts. In 1890 she stopped the financial allowance that she had been giving to Tchaikovsky for the previous 13 years. By this time she was suffering from tuberculosis, and her family was insisting that she stopped being a mecenate. The fact that one of her sons was married to Tchaikovsky's niece did not help at all as the niece was a strong-willed woman who preferred to order her husband around rather than take other people's wishes into account.

Nadezhda von Meck died in January 1894, just two months after Tchaikovsky's death. After her mother-in-law's passing, Anna von Meck, Tchaikovsky's niece, was asked how the late patroness had endured Tchaikovsky's death. Anna replied, "She did not endure it."

[Aleksana]

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Nobel Prize-winning Russian and Soviet poet , novelist and translator of Goethe and Shakespeare. In Russia, Pasternak is most celebrated as a poet. My Sister Life, written in 1917, is one of the most influential collections of poetry published in the Russian language in the 20th century. In the West he is best known for his epic novel Doctor Zhivago, a tragedy whose events span the last period of the Russian Empireand the early days of the Soviet Union. It was first translated and published in Italy in 1957. He helped give birth to the dissident movement with the publication of Doctor Zhivago.

 

 

Born February 10, 1890

Moscow, Russian Empire

 

Died 30 May 1960 (aged 70)

Peredelkino, USSR

 

Occupation poet, writer

Ethnicity Russian

Notable work(s) My Sister Life, The Second Birth,Doctor Zhivago

 

Notable award(s) Nobel Prize in Literature

1958

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Pasternak

[Алексей Конобеев]

Today Queen Elizabeth II turns 85. She was born at 2.40am on 21 April 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London. Her full name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor. You can read more about her life and watch documentary videos at http://www.royal.gov.uk/HMTheQueen/Earlylife/Earlylife.aspx

Next year she'll be celebrating 60 years on the throne, and now she is the third longest-reigning monarch in the history of Egland, preceeded by Queen Victoria and King George III. In just 20 days she'll become the second longest-reigning monarch and, hopefully, make the next record in 5 years.

Prince Charles is now Britain's longest-serving heir to throne.

The Queen celebrates two birthdays, her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on a Saturday in June. The Queen usually spends her actual birthday privately, but the occasion is marked publicly by gun salutes in central London at midday: a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park, a 21 gun salute in Windsor Great Park and a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London. If you want to write to the Queen (and one ALWAYS gets a reply), you can contact her at:

 

Her Majesty The Queen

Buckingham Palace

London SW1A 1AA

[natpetrovna]

Today Queen Elizabeth II turns 85.

Happy Birthday, dear Elizabeth!!!!

[Алексей Конобеев]

Today Queen Elizabeth II turns 85.

And here're two news reports from the Maundy Service at Westminstare Abbey, which the Queen attended on her birthday this year:

 

[Алексей Конобеев]

Most of you must have read the book "The Gadfly" at one time or another. If you have not read the book, you may have seen the film or at least heard the beautidul "The Gadfly Suite" by D. Shostakovich. And today is Ethel Lilian Voynich's birthday. We mostly know her as an American novelist, and we tend to forget not only that she was Irish, but also that she was a musician. Her father was the famous mathematician George Boole. Her mother was feminist philosopher Mary Everest, niece of George Everest and an author for the early-20th-century periodical Crank. In 1893 she married Wilfrid Michael Voynich, revolutionary, antiquarian and bibliophile, who discovered the famous and very mysterious Voynich manuscript.

Ethel was born in County Cork, Ireland, on May 11, 1864, 147 years ago. Although she wrote 5 books, her bestselling work is "The Gadfly" which she published at the age of 33, in 1897, sold 2,500,000 copies in the Soviet Union in her lifetime. You can download her book from this site: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3431

 

Ethel lived to be 96 years old. Here you can watch a very short documentary which shows her in 1959. <h2>(ETHEL LILIAN VOYNICH IS 95 YEARS OLD)</h2><iframe src="http://www.britishpathe.com/embed.php?archive=64350" name="pathe_flash_embed" width="352" height="264" scrolling="no" frameborder="1"><p>Your browser does not support iframes.</p></iframe>

 

And here is an extract from the Gadfly suite by Dmitry Shostakovich:

[Алексей Конобеев]

The Duke of Edinburgh turns 90 today. You can read about his life and send a birthday message here: http://www.royal.gov.uk/ThecurrentRoyalFamily/TheDukeofEdinburgh/90thLandingpage.aspx

[Laddy]

The Duke of Edinburgh turns 90 today. You can read about his life and send a birthday message here: http://www.royal.gov...andingpage.aspx

 

прошла по ссылке и нашла очень интересную для себя информацию. А вы знаете. какая фамилия у детей Елизаветы Второй? http://www.royal.gov.uk/ThecurrentRoyalFamily/TheRoyalFamilyname/Overview.aspx

[Алексей Конобеев]

135 years ago, in 1876, was born the brilliant artist and illustrator Ivan Bilibin. It would be a safe bet to say that every Russian knows his pictures, even if do not always realise that it was his work.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050828173714/http://www.scumdog.demon.co.uk/bilibin/Pages/bilpic5.html

This is what encyclopaedia says about Ivan Bilibine:

He was a 20th-century illustrator and stage designer who took part in the Mir iskusstva and contributed to the Ballets Russes. Throughout his career, he was inspired by Slavic folklore.

 

Ivan Bilibin was born in a suburb of St. Petersburg. He studied in 1898 at Anton Ažbe Art School in Munich, then under Ilya Repin in St. Peterburg. In 1902-1904 Bilibin travelled in the Russian North, where he became fascinated with old wooden architecture and Russian folklore. He published his findings in the monograph Folk Arts of the Russian North in 1904. Another influence on his art was traditional Japanese prints.

 

Bilibin gained renown in 1899, when he released his illustrations of Russian fairy tales. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, he drew revolutionary cartoons. He was the designer for the 1909 première production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel. The October Revolution, however, proved alien to him. After brief stints in Cairo and Alexandria, he settled in Paris in 1925. There he took to decorating private mansions and Orthodox churches. He still longed for his homeland and, after decorating the Soviet Embassy in 1936, he returned to Soviet Russia. He delivered lectures in the Soviet Academy of Arts until 1941. Bilibin died during the Siege of Leningrad.

 

Please take your time and have a look at his works which we all love since our childhood: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/illustrators/bilibin.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20051202140611/http://www.scumdog.demon.co.uk/bilibin/

[Алексей Конобеев]

Yesterday, on November 30th, was Mark Twaine's 170th birthday. Here are a few quotations from his writings and speeches:

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I,ve done it hundreds of times.

 

Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason

 

Speaking about Richard Wagner's music: "...it's not as bad as it sounds."

 

"Fleas can be taught nearly anything a Congressman can."

 

I never let schooling inerfere with my education

 

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

 

Lecture: the way in which the lecturer's notes become the student's notes without it passing through either of their minds

"The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can't."

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint

 

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence - and then success is sure.

 

The Truth is mighty and shall prevail. There ain't nothing wrong with that, except that it ain't so.

 

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop

 

Someone who doesn't read the newspapers is uninformed. Whereas

someone who reads the newspapers is misinformed.

 

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.

 

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

 

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person

 

Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow

 

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

 

Never knew before what eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.

 

I tell you I have been in the editorial business going on fourteen years, and it is the first time I ever heard of a man's having to know anything in order to edit a newspaper. You turnip!

 

It usually takes about two weeks to write a good impromptu speech.

 

I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land

 

Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you opportunity to commit more

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

 

Once a man has a reputation as an early riser, he can sleep until noon

 

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

 

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme

 

Common sense is the most equitably distributed commodity in the world. Everyone thinks he has enough.

[Алексей Конобеев]

Today the great Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya turns 88 years old. She is famous as one of the wrold's greatest and most charming ballerinas not only due to her impeccable dancing technique and style, but also because of her remarkable strength of character. When she was 10 years old, her parents were arrested. Her father was executed as an enemy of the people, and her mother sent to a labour camp in Kazakhstan, so little Maya had to be adopted by her aunt, a well-known ballerina, until the release of Maya's mother in 1941.

During World War II Maya continued taking ballet classes. When she left besieged Moscow to find refuge in Yekaterinburg, there were no ballet teachers there for her. She decided to return to Moscow, but, being a daughter of an enemy of the people, she needed special permisson to enter the capital. Such a permission was not given, so she sneaked in Moscow under cover. In 1943 she was accepted into the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet and by the end of the year she danced the lead part in The Nutcracker. This was the beginning of a long and brilliant star story, which involved ballets composed and staged specially for her, close surveillance of the KGB, her friendship with Pierre Cardin and Maurice Bejart. “Words cannot compare to the majesty and raw beauty of Plisetskaya’s performance”, people would say and write about Maya. On her 80th birthday, the Financial Times summed up current opinion about Maya in the following words: "She was, and still is, a star, ballet's monstre sacre, the final statement about theatrical glamour, a flaring, flaming beacon in a world of dimly twinkling talents, a beauty in the world of prettiness." The following year, Emperor Akihito of Japan presented to her the Praemium Imperiale, informally considered a Nobel Prize for Art.

Read more about Maya Plisetskaya here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Plisetskaya

Watch a documentary about Maya Plisetskaya, made to celebrate her 80th birthday:

 

Also, take a look at http://www.shchedrin.de/plisetskaya_index_e.htm

[Алексей Конобеев]

Today the world marks the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare. There are few authors who have had such a profound influence on world literatures and theatre, and yet there is not so much information known about Shakespeare. Everyone must have heard the numerous arguments about who really wrote Shakesperian plays and sonnets. Still, his plays are always on in theatres round the world, and his sonnets, overlooked for a hundred years (like the masterpieces of some other great writers and composers) are now considered to be among the best works of English literature.

 

William Shakespeare has no living descendants, although the descendants of his sister can claim relationship to the great bard.

Listen to an excerpt from "Much Ado About Nothing", recited by the great Emma Thompson:

 

Here are some web resources dedicated to William Shakespeare:

 

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/ - the complete works of William Shakespeare

http://www.biography.com/people/william-shakespeare-9480323#awesm=~oCeRdtWHlGGxTI - Shakespeare's biography

http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/home.html - Shakespeare's birthplace trust

http://www.shakespeareliveshere.co.uk/ - Shakespeare's anniversary website