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Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. Beginning as a cellist and conductor, Offenbach first wrote small-scale one-act pieces, limited by theatrical licensing laws. These eased by 1858 when he premiered his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). La belle Hélène (1864) and other successes followed. The risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and gentle satire in these pieces, together with Offenbach's facility for melody, made them internationally known, and he was a powerful influence on later operetta and musical theatre composers. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st century. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Giado concentration camp

... that Libyan Jews and Arabs traded and bartered with each other at the fence of the Giado concentration camp (pictured)?
... that environmental journalist Gloria Dickie wrote her thesis on how cities in Colorado changed garbage laws to prevent bear incursions?
... that Brunel University's lecture centre has been described as "imposing" and "frightening", but also as "an expressive centrepiece" and "a brutalist classic"?
... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
... that, of the three presidents of the Chamber of Dutch Culture, two were arrested and one was assassinated?
... that the inclusion of two preteen competing performers at the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 led to the introduction of an age rule for participants at future contests?
... that a gunman who shot dead three people in Sheffield, England, in 1960 was deported to Somalia, where he was killed in a shoot-out while "running amok"?
... that Iowa government social worker Catherine G. Williams started out as a tap dancer?
... that Banner in the Sky inspired a Canadian dentist to climb the Matterhorn?

In the news (For today)

Masoud Pezeshkian

The New Popular Front wins the most seats in the National Assembly in the French legislative election but does not achieve a majority.
In Iran, the reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian (pictured) is elected president in the second round of the presidential election.
The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom general election and Keir Starmer becomes prime minister.
Hurricane Beryl, the earliest-recorded Category 5 Atlantic hurricane in a calendar year, leaves at least 35 people dead in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and the United States.

In two days

July 15: Marine Day in Japan (2024)

Psy

1799 – French soldiers at Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid, uncovered the Rosetta Stone, an essential key in the decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts.
1870 – Manitoba was established as a province of Canada following the transfer of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company.
1943 – The all-female Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion was formed in the Soviet Union's First Polish Army.
2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed in northwestern Iran, killing all 168 people aboard.
2012 – South Korean rapper Psy (pictured) released his hit single "Gangnam Style".

Almira Lincoln Phelps (b. 1793; d. 1884)
Anton Chekhov (d. 1904)
Nigel Williams (b. 1944)
Christine Chubbuck (d. 1974)

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Daniel Radcliffe

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, a 2011 fantasy film directed by David Yates from a screenplay by Steve Kloves, won 37 awards from 101 nominations, with particular recognition for its acting (mainly that of Daniel Radcliffe – pictured), musical score, production design, and visual effects. It received three nominations at the 84th Academy Awards, including Best Visual Effects. At the 65th British Academy Film Awards, the film was nominated for Best Production Design, Best Sound, and Best Makeup and Hair, and won Best Special Visual Effects. It received four nominations at the 17th Critics' Choice Awards and won two awards. The National Board of Review selected The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 as one of the top-ten films of 2011. (Full list...)

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Happy Chandler (July 14, 1898 – June 15, 1991) was an American politician who served as the 44th governor of Kentucky from 1935 to 1939, a member of the U.S. Senate, and again as the 49th governor of Kentucky from 1955 to 1959. In his first term as governor, he oversaw the repeal of the sales tax, replacing the lost revenue with new excise taxes and the state's first income tax, and helped improve the state's education and transportation systems. He resigned as governor so his successor could appoint him to the Senate. A fiscal conservative and disciple of Virginia's Harry F. Byrd, Chandler opposed parts of Roosevelt's New Deal and openly disagreed with the president's decision to prioritize European operations in World War II over the Pacific War. In 1945, he resigned his Senate seat to become the commissioner of baseball, succeeding Kenesaw Mountain Landis. He approved Jackie Robinson's contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers, initiating the racial integration of Major League Baseball.

Photograph credit: Harris & Ewing; restored by Kentuckian

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