H
Alois Hába (born June 21 1893; died November 18 1973): creator of quarter-tone music and a massive influence on Erwin Schulhoff on April 1 – bio here
Pavel Haas (born June 21 1899; died October 17 1944) and Leo Haas (born April 15 1901; died August 13 1983): fellow-prisoners at Terezin on April 1 – Pavel the composer here, and the Quartet named in his honour and still playing, here; Leo the artist here. And no, as far as I can discover, they are not related.
William Jefferson Hague: square-bracketed on March 26
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS"; brother of historical novelist Naomi Mitchison: He wrote an article on abiogenesis in 1929, which introduced the "primordial soup theory" that would become the incipit for the concept of the chemical origin of life. So probably worth a listing of his own, on the date of that article; and then add it to the Jan 1/Scientific Achievements list; use this, and this for the actual article (but I can’t find an exact date); his mention is on May 2. However, I should also point out that Haldane was probably wrong in his theory, and that Louis Pasteur “proved it” (click here, but also here)
Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison (née Haldane) (born November 1 1897; died January 11 1999): demonstrating why she wasn’t a terribly good historical novelist on May 21. For her books, poetry and politics, click here
Hale-Bopp: providing an amazing sight on Sept 14, but totally eclipsed on April 6: This from the NASA website: “Comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) was discovered on July 23, 1995, independently, by both Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. Hale-Bopp was discovered at the amazing distance of 7.15 AU. One AU is equal to about 150 million km (93 million miles).” Which is exactly the same distance as the sun from the Earth.
Diane Hall (Keaton): no relation to Buster on Oct 4, but she is on the Pseudonyms page with Woody Allen
Hamlet: much more interesting to tell the tale that Burglar Bill stole: it’s here - Sept 2
Dashiell Hammett: long-time lover of Lillian Hellman, but left in amber on June 20 - bio here; and as to the Maltese Falcon, this from the Malta piece in my soon-to-be-published collection of travel essays: “I had hoped to learn more about the Hospitaller Knights for the novel I was writing - Fra Angelus' father was one, and they will be rediscovering each other at Rhodes just as soon as I have a summer holiday to write it - but no one seems to know their own history. Only that the Hospitallers fled Rhodes in 1309, moving their headquarters to Malta, and that the first Grand Master at Melita was named Philippe Villiers de l'Isle Adam. And one absolutely fascinating piece of wikifact, which I have stored in my Trivial Pursuits database in case I am ever invited to perform on University Challenge. That the Maltese Falcon, nowhere to be seen on this island except heraldically, turns out not to be a bird at all, or only formally. It was the peppercorn rent paid by the Knights for the right to remain on the island: one falcon per annum. I wonder which of the two, the falcons or the knights, became extinct first.”
Lionel Leo Hampton (born April 20 1908; died August 31 2002): played all sorts of percussion instruments, even the vibraphone, and eventually led his own band of minstrels after working with Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, Buddy Rich, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus and Quincy Jones. Inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1992, awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1996. Best known for “On The Sunny Side of the Street”, which you can hear here. Banned from performing at Carnegie Hall on Jan 16 because of the colour of his skin.
Edward Harley of Wimpole Hall, and his wife Margaret Cavendish Harley, and their son John Harley; all key to the making of the Montagu Circle on Oct 2. Harley and Wimpole as in “street”? So that’s why that area of London became the intellectual hub at that epoch! You can read its entire history, from the time of the ancient caveman to the time of the contemporary ones, here
Maatkare Hatshepsut Khnemetamun: among the Supra-Idesses on April 17; bio here and here
Valentin Haüy (1745-1822): founded the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris on Jan 4
Stephen William Hawking: speaking through a speech synthesiser on Jan 4
Jabbir Ibn Hayyan, known in the West as Abu Geber: founder of Moslem chemistry on Aug 26 (for the founding of Greek chemistry, somewhat earlier in human time, see Hippocrates of Cos, below, and on the same blog-page). Not to be confused with “al-Jabr”, usually pronounced in the West as “Algebra”, because that was the subject-matter of the book of that name, by the man who invented it, Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi
William Hazlitt (born April 10 1778; died September 18 1830): another of Joseph Johnson's circle of radical thinkers on April 27 - bio here
Bessie Amelia Emery Head (born July 6 1937; died April 17 1986): telling tales of tenderness and power on Oct 22; bio here and here
Helen of Troy: or Sparta really: No family name (she was the daughter of Zeus, the king of the gods, and Leda, a mortal woman who was the wife of the Spartan king Tyndareus, so she isn’t really a historical personage anyway, but mythological, like the Bible-characters and the Arthurian). Abducted on June 11
Mary (née Welsh) Hemingway: dis-empressed on July 2
William Ernest Henley: Invicted on June 24: bio here [my note to myself says "link him to Terry Fox (June 28), Frida Kahlo (Sept 17), Helen Keller (also June 28) et al: Henley was a close friend of Robert Louis Stevenson, who reportedly based his Long John Silver character in Treasure Island in part on Henley." Once you know his story, the poem Invictus takes on a whole new dimension of Zero Positivism, and the reason for my triple-link should become obvious]
Ilse Herlinger, but remembered by her married-name as Ilse Weber (born January 11 1903; died you-know-where on October 6 1944): authoress/composer of books and songs for children, and a fellow-prisoner at Terezin on April 1 - her bio here
Herodotus of Halicarnassus: eclipsed on April 6 - bio here
The Marquesses of Hertford: Seymours, as in Henry VIII’s wife Jane et al: housing the Wallace Collection on April 16
Eduard Herzog: a childhood friend of Gideon Klein on April 1 - various accounts worth reading, here, and here
Mordechai ben Hillel ha-Kohen (1240-1298): a student of the Maharam and author of "Sepher Mordechai" on March 30
Hippocrates of Cos: the Greek founder of modern chemistry on Aug 26 (for the founder of Moslem chemistry see Jabbir Ibn Hayyan, above, and on the same blog-page)
John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869), Baron Broughton: how come it was Ekenhead and not him who swam with Byron on May 3? bio here
Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (born June 9 1917; died October 1 2012): “collective bargaining by riot” on Dec 20 - his website here
Adam Hochschild: forewording Victor Serge on Aug 20
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannstahl (1874-1929): Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist; name-dropped by Peter Altenberg on Feb 21 - bio here
Adolf Hoffmeister (1902-1973): wrote the libretto for Hans Krása’s “Brundibár” on April 1 – how they did it here; his very interesting bio here
Dovid Hofshteyn (David Hofstein in English): The Night of the Murdered Poets took place on Aug 12 - his bio here
Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus): sitting on a tuffet on March 15
Thomas Holcroft (born December 10 1745; died March 23 1809): yet another of Joseph Johnson's circle of radical thinkers on April 27 - bio here
Robin Hood: joining King David, Herakles (several links here), Jesus
Christ and Guy Fawkes as yet one more version of the ancient corn-god/earth-god,
on Feb 22, Oct 28, Dec 20 and Dec 29
John Lee Hooker: A regular at The Cavern Club on Jan 16
Herbert Clark Hoover (born August 10 1874; died October 20 1964): 31st President of the USA, formalised the Star-Spangled National Anthem on March 3
Philip Antony Hopkins: acting the role of Philip Antony what’s-his-name on Aug 8
Craigie Horsfeld: Among the Photographers on Feb 20; his page at the Tate here
Mieczyslaw Horszowski (born June 23 1892; died May 22 1993): piano accompaniment for the 85-year-old Pablo Casals on Nov 13; bio here
Edmund Josef von Horváth (Ödön von Horváth on the cover of his novel “Ein Kind unserer Zeit”, published in November 1938, shortly after his death at the age of just 36); gave Michael Tippett the title for an opera on March 19 – bio here
Adam de Houghton (birthdate unknown; died 13 February 1389) Lord Chancellor of England when the Pope sent his heresy charges against John Wycliffe on May 4
Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe: the man who finally turned Queen Meg’s nickname into a reality, by wielding it on June 15
William Dean Howells: applause for P.L. Dunbar on Feb 9
Fred Hoyle: a big bang’s worth of allusion on Aug 5: his website here
Robert Studley Forrest Hughes (1938-2012): unshocked by the new on Feb 5
Thomas Hughes (born October 20 1822; died March 22 1896): his novel "Tom Brown's Schooldays” is on Dec 24, click here for the full text
Wilhelm von Humboldt, the Prussian ambassador at the Court of Saint James (this is a complete mess on the Sept 14 blog-page because I think they are both the same person and I have been misled by the name Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Karl Ferdinand von Humboldt in full - try here
David Home (pronounced Hume and formally changed to that spelling in 1734) (born May 7 1711; died August 25 1776): listed with some of the key figures of the European Enlightenment on Jan 18; suffered from what his physician called "the disease of the learned” here
John Hume (born January 18 1937; died August 3 2020): playing Edmund Hillary to Mo Mowlam’s Sherpa Tenzing on April 24 and the Eirish page
Tunney Morgan Hunsaker (1930-2005): beaten to pulp, and praising the man who did it, on Oct 29
Jan Hus: preaching Wycliffe on May 4: the Rector of Prague University, he was burned at the stake on the orders of the Council of Constance on July 6 1415... click here for more
Rüdiger Huzmann, Bishop of Speyer from 1075 until his death in 1090. Generous to the Jews on July 14
Albert Montefiore Hyamson (born August 27 1875; died October 5 1954): writing about the return of the Jews to England on Sept 30
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