David Prashker's Book Of Days: The Merely Mentioneds: C

Luis Cabral: the first head of state when Guinea-Bissau gained independence from Portugal on September 24 1973 [Africa]

Pedro Álvares Cabral de Gouveia: Portuguese navigator and explorer, 1467-1520; landed in Rio on Jan 1; accompanied by at least one Jew on Feb 1 [pre-Columban Americas]

Giulio Romolo Caccini (born October 8 1551; died December 10 1618): his “Euridice” premièred on Dec 5 – bio and links to works here (apparently the opera was really by Jacopo Peri, “with additional music by Giulio Caccini”). It is generally regarded as the earliest surviving opera – but don’t go saying that where Hildegard of Bingen can hear you. [musical maestros]

Quintus Servilius Caepio the Elder: green-lighted on Jan 3

John Milton Cage Jr: shall I skip him? No, simply do my piece in silence as an act of homage to him. Transposed as Gedb on Oct 27 [musical maestros]

Guiraut de Calanson: one of the Troubadours who came under the matronage of Maria de Ventadorn on Jan 13 [Trobairitz and The Poets]

Giovanni Domenico Campanella when he was baptised, not clear why he became Tommaso, but maybe it was because he had doubts about becoming a friar at all, and took that name for that reason when he finally oblated: imagined a rather more habitable “City of the Sun” than did Le Corbusier on Oct 6 [reverend writers]

Henry Campbell-Bannerman, though his birth certificate only gives his father's name, Campbell; it was he who hermaphrophoned it later on by hypenating his mother's surname (born September 7 1836; died April 22 1908): Liberal PM of England on Dec 5: bio here

Antonio Canova: intimate of Pierre Jean David d’Angers on Jan 5, “the leading figure of the Neoclassical style, inspired by the sculptures of Ancient Greece and Rome” according to the website of the V&A, and they should know: click here [illustrious illustrators]

Pons de Capdoill, or sometimes de Capduelh: one of the Troubadours who came under the matronage of Maria de Ventadorn on Jan 13 [Trobairitz and The Poets]

Andreas Cappellanus: patronised by Eleanor of Aquitaine on April 1

Jacobus Ellisa Capitein: an African-born Dutch scholar, he received an advanced degree from the University of Leiden for his dissertation on slavery and Christian liberty in 1742 [Africa and responses to bullying]

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: influencing Rembrandt on Feb 25

Peter Phillip Carey: out-prized Bruce Chatwin on Feb 14 [serious scribes]

Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, remembered as Nicolas Condorcet: husbanding Sophie de Grouchy on May 5; fleeing from Terror on Aug 10

Julian Carlton: set fire to Taliesin on Aug 15 [illustrious illustrators]

Lady Evelyn Leonora Almina Carnarvon (Beauchamp when she married): did she or didn’t she, with Howard Carter, on June 24? [historians]

Elliott Cook Carter Jr: amongst Nadia Boulanger’s distinguished list of students on Aug 21; his website here [musical maestros]

Francesca de Carvajal: sister of Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva and mother of Luis Rodriguez de Carvajal, "El Mozo"on Dec 8; Guiomar de Carvajal, Luis' wife and the probable ancestress of Cromwell's Jews, is also mentioned; but see Sept 30 for that

Méric Causaubon (born August 14 1599; died July 14 1671): son of Isaac Casaubon, and the other possible source for George Eliot's mythological reverend, on Feb 8 ; noted especially for his editions of Marcus Aurelius [serious scribes]

Mary Stevenson Cassatt: another of Paul Durand-Ruel’s great discoveries on Feb 5 and here [illustrious illustrators]

Dio Cassius (circa 165-circa 235), which is actually a name reversal for his nom de plume of Lucius Cassius Dio: heard the continuing eruption of Mount Vesuvius on Aug 24; here and mostly here [historians]

Etienne du Castel: husband of Christine de Pizan on Jan 13 [Trobairitz]

Blanche of Castille: building castles on the ground on April 1

Orobio de Castro: one of the Woke and Cancel Brigade who excommunicated Spinoza on Feb 21 [philosophers]

Robert Milton Cato: first head of state when St. Vincent & Grenadines gained independence from Britain on September 19 1979 [pre-Columban Americas]

Georges Paul Alphonse Emilien Caussade (born November 20 1873; died August 5 1936): teaching Lili Boulanger composition on Aug 21; bio here [musical maestros]

Guido Cavalcanti (circa 1255-August 27 1300): Dante’s “first friend”, and the founding poet of the “Dolce Stil Novo”, on June 24; bio here [The Poets]

Henry Cavendish (born October 10 1731; died February 24 1810): did the honourable by recommending James Smithson for the Royal Society on Aug 10; he was already there for discovering hydrogen, measuring Earth's density, and significant work in both electricity and chemistry [illustrious illustrators for Smithson, E,M&C2 for Cavendish]

Richard Cavendish wrote a piece about Blondin for “History Today” on June 30

Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Cavendish-Bentinck (Morrell was her married name) (born June 16 1873; died April 21 1938): taking photos on Nov 22

Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612): his osteoporosis satirised by Shakespeare as Richard III on June 24 and Nov 5; bio here [world as stage and Aenglisch page]

William Cecil: Lord Burghley (1520-1598): Robert Cecil's father; also Nov 5; bio here [Aenglisch page]

Claude Henri Jean Chabrol: riding the Nouvelle Vague on Dec 3 [the world as stage]

Arthur Neville Chamberlain: "Chamberlain the Unready" on July 22 and Nov 13; in Munich doing the appeasing on July 27

Marie de Champagne: daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine and a patroness of several Trovères on April 1

Pierre Grégoire Champseix: first husband of André Léo on June 17

Andrew Mark Chapman: imagined murdering John Lennon on Oct 9 (but actually did it on December 8); probably because he was just a jealous guy [musical maestros]

Erwin Chargaff: the source of the discovery of DNA on July 24

Gustave Charpentier: beautifully handled by Gustav Mahler on July 7 [musical maestros]

Alain Chartier: His “La belle dame sans mercy” set to music by Anne Malet de Graville on Dec 14

Florent-Claude du Chastellet-Lomont: husband of Émilie du Châtelet on June 12

Geoffrey Chaucer, though he would probably have written it as Geffray or Geffroy; Chaucer comes from the Norman-French chaussier, meaning "cobbler": Feb 23, March 8, Dec 14 and Dec 29, with a parenthesis on Nov 26 [The Poets]

Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898): not one of the well-remembereds among Paul Durand-Ruel’s discoveries, but painting anyway on Feb 5; bio here [illustrious illustrators]

The De Chiaras are named among the last friends of D.H. Lawrence on March 2, but I have as yet been unsuccessful in finding out any more about them. No, update, a mention of Anna di Chiara here, and then I found this, but can’t access it.

Lin Yih-Chih: gets a very short entry on Jan 14 [China page]

John Chilembwe: led an unsuccessful revolt against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (now Malawi) in 1915 [Africa and responses to bullying]

Mary Chudleigh: one of the Mary Astell circle on Nov 12

Martin Chuzzlewit set off for America on January 3rd 1842, though he is in the blog on June 22, and apparently told everyone he met there that his real name was Charles Dickens [serious scribes]

Alexis Claude Clairault: figuring out how to predict eclipses on April 1

Thomas James (“Tom”) Clarke, or Tomás Séamus Ó Cléirigh in Éirish (born March 11 1858; died May 3 1916): Cabinet member in the first free Éirish “provisional” government, and one of the fourteen executed by the British for being so, on April 24 and the Éireland page

Georges Eugène Benjamin Clemenceau: key to the Third Republic on Dec 9

Titus Flavius Clemens, Clement of Alexandria, and once Saint Clement, with a feast day on December 4, until his oranges and lemons proved citric, and suddenly he wasn't a saint at all, but a heretic; his namesake Clement VII the adjudicating pontiff. Titus gets a mention on Nov 17

Virginia Clemm: Edgar Allan Poe’s 13 year old cousin-bride on May 16

George Timothy Clooney: playing the part of George Timothy Clooney on Aug 8 [the world as stage]

Jean Clopinel, or possibly Chopinel, but remembered as Jean de Meun from his birthplace (though some record that version of his name with a final “g”): completed “Le Romance de la Rose” on Jan 13; see Guillaume de Lorris, below [The Poets]

Carolus Clusius, a sixteenth-century botanist from the Southern Netherlands who the French knew as Charles de l’Ecluse: gave the Pope Europe’s first potato on July 28; he was also, apparently, responsible for bringing the tulip to Europe (click here) [E,M&C2)

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (born July 5 1889; died October 11 1963): painting Max Jacob on August 19; French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright and ... websites for his art and websites for his poetry; former here, latter here. [my portrait of him is waiting to be uploaded to my Art Gallery] [The Poets and illustrious illustrators]

Gonçalo Fernandes Coelho: came from a prominent family in northern Portugal; he commanded two expeditions, of which the one on Jan 1 was the first, in 1501–02; the second, two years later, explored much more thoroughly the full coast-length of Brazil [pre-Columban Americas]

Kenneth Herman Salaman Cohen (1900-1984): Head of MI6 in Vichy and Marie-Madeleine Fourcade's point-of-contact on Jan 26

Rev. Daniel Coker of Baltimore: leading eighty-six African Americans, the first black settlers to Liberia, in 1820; but should they not be called American-Africans, rather than the other way around? [Africa and pre-Columban Americas]

William Coles & William Forshaw took the photograph of Gerald Manley Hopkins on July 28, though their shop on Alfred Street did their names the other way around – click here for their tale, and also a nice piece of Lewis Carroll marginalia [illustrious illustrators]

Jane Collier: in the Jane Austen picture on Feb 25; her full story, tortured ingeniously, here

Marcellinus Comes (born circa 480; died circa 540 CE): the latter not his surname, which is unknown, and pronounced as two syllables, “Com-ès” - it means “Count” in Latin and was a title he received after working for many years in the office of future Emperor Justinian when uncle Justin was on the throne; bio here. And on the blog on Aug 24 because he witnessed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Philibert Commerçon: naming flowers on Nov 15

James Connolly, or Séamas Ó Conghaile in Éirish (born June 5 1868; died May 12 1916): formed the first free Éirish “provisional” government on April 24 and the Éireland page

Learie Nicholas Constantine (born September 21 1901; died July 1 1971): the first person of African ancestry to become a British peer, in 1969, though why they chose a cricketer and not someone a touch more serious is not a question I am able to answer [Africa]

Gentleman Jim Corbett: defeated John L Sullivan in a boxing match on Sept 7

Walton Corbould: illustrating John Ivimey’s “Three Blind Mice” on March 15 [illustrious illustrators]

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875): rejected by the salon, taken up by Durand-Ruel, on Feb 5; bio here [illustrious illustrators]

Manuel Pinto da Costa: first head of state when Sao Tome & Principe gained independence from Portugal on July 12 1975 [Africa]

Uriel da Costa (Adam Romes was his pen-name, and actually Uriel was a sort of pseudonym as well, because his birthname was Gabriel): This is how it works: a name comes up in a piece I am researching, but a mere passing mention, so set aside to return to later on. Eventually I do, and in the process another name comes up, another passing mention, another amber light left waiting to turn green. So I wrote about Rabbi Aboab on Feb 1, which led to his mentor Rabbi Uziel... (Uziel is on Feb 1 but better here)... and that in turn called up another name which, upon investigation, took me back to Aboab from another direction: Uriel da Costa [philosophers]

Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937): all the websites want to talk about is the Olympic Games, but it is his involvement with Toynbee Hall that is on June 5: click here

François Couperin (born November 10 1668; died September 11 1733): his Concert Pieces for Cello and Piano performed on Nov 13 [musical maestros]

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet: yet another of Durand-Ruel’s discoveries on Feb 5; another of the Etretat crowd on Oct 6; bio here and here [illustrious illustrators]

William Courtenay (born circa 1342; died July 31 1396): Bishop of London at the time of his mention, Archbishop of Canterbury later on, but, probably more significantly, a great-grandson of King Edward I; summoned John Wycliffe on May 4, but got rather more than he had bargained for [Aenglisch list]

Pêro da Covilhã: reached Sofala on the Indian Ocean in 1491, but his significance lay just as much in opening Africa to Portuguese slave-traders [Africa]; bio here

Philippe Fournel de Crenne: tormenting his wife on Aug 25

Francis Harry Compton Crick: born June 8 (Rosie Franklin does at least get a mention) [E,M&C2]; also July 24

Thomas Cromwell (born circa 1485; died July 28 1540): the sad tale of Infanta Catalina de Aragón y Castilla is told on Dec 16 and the Aenglisch list; the sad tale of the man who took over his title as Earl of Essex can be found on the GER page and in my novel "The Plausible Tragedie of Roderigo Lopes": Robert Devereux his ghastliness' name

Harry Lillis (“Bing”) Crosby: maybe, on Sept 17 [musical maestros]

Paul Christopher Richard Crossley: four Tippett piano sonatas on March 19; his own website here [musical maestros]

Samuel Crowther, former slave, becomes the first African Anglican bishop in 1864, serving in what is now Nigeria [Africa]

“The Táin Bó Cuailnge”, “The Cattle Raid of Cooley”, the story of Cú Chulainn (pronounced Koo Hullen), the Hound of Ulster, and of how he stood his ground, along with his charioteer Lao, against the great host of Ailill and Maeve, on June 24; full text here; much more on Cú Chulainn here [Éireland]

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch: playing Guildernstern on Sept 2 (apparently he has also played Rosencrantz – click here) [the world as stage]