Navigate by Names: S-Z

S


Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra: April 23 with Shakespeare; Alberto Manguel’s account of him on June 27; his portrait on Nov 25; he is mentioned on Jan 18, March 29 and July 10, and performed à la Brel on Nov 22; alongside Lope de Vega on Nov 25 [serious scribes]

 

Daniel Ortega Saavedra: born Nov 11 [political ideologues]

 

Albert Bruce Sabin: the man who found an oral vaccine for polio, born Aug 26

 

Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti: electric-chaired on Aug 23

 

Oliver Wolf Sacks: the man who mistook his profession for a science; died Aug 30 [philosophers]

 

Victoria Mary (Vita) Sackville-West (born March 9 1892; died June 2 1962): Orlando's gardener on March 28

 

Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat:dared to visit Israel on Nov 19; regretted it on Oct 6; [Africa page]

 

Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade: born June 2: appears from a window on July 14; died Dec 2; (mentioned somewhat obscurely on Dec 16) [serious scribes] Hugo de Sade, who was presumably an ancestor, married Laura de Neves on Jan 16


Carl Edward Sagan: two entries sourced in his splendid "Cosmos”, one on Aug 18, the other on Aug 23 [E,M&C2]


Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns: born Oct 9 [musical maestros]

 

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov: translated by Anatoly Shcharansky on Jan 20; born May 21; atom bombs versus peace prizes on Oct 9; referenced on July 10 [E,M&C2 and responses to bullying]

 

Jerome David (J.D) Salinger: born Jan 1, banned Dec 6 [serious scribes]

 

Jonas Edward Salk: vaccinated against polio on Oct 28; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 - and see Albert Sabin on the same E,M&C2 page

 

Lou Andreas-Salomé: renaming René Rilke on Dec 4; not to be confused with Richard Strauss' "Salome", who can be found on July 7 [philosophers]


Mrs Thrale, née Salusbury, but more colourfully known by her second married name, as Hester Lynch Piozzi; writing a bitchy-snobby letter on Oct 5


Margaret (Higgins) Sanger (aka Margaret Sanger Slee): brought birth control to the USA, clearly unsuccessfully to judge by its birth rate, on Sept 14 [political ideologues]

 

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás (George Santayana): born Dec 16 [philosophers]

 

Santorio Santori (Sanctorius): born March 29, died Feb 22. This page gets mentioned on Sept 13, and the March 29 page gets mentioned on March 30, but Feb 22 is the one that matters; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

José de Sousa Saramago: rethinking Pessoa on Feb 8 [serious scribes]

 

Tibors de Sarenom, sometimes written as Tiburge de Sarenom: one of the Trobairitz on Jan 13 [The Poets]

 

Félix Rubén García Sarmiento (Rubén Dario): compared with Cervantes on Jan 18 [The Poets]

 

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre: born on June 21; referenced re Spinoza on Feb 21; “Les Mouches” on May 30; mentioned on Jan 9 and 26; gave up both essence and existence on April 15 [philosophers and the world as stage]

 

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon: born Sept 8; his “Alcuin” poem on May 19; mentioned on Feb 28 [The Poets]

 

Érik Alfred Leslie Satie (Virginie Lebeau was his pen-name for his writings): born May 17 [musical maestros]

 

Alfred Louis Sauvy: living in the Third World on April 18


Richard Savage: biographied by Samuel Johnson on Jan 16; he also had a child with Eliza Haywood, though that isn't mentioned on her listing on Feb 25 [The Poets]

 

Louise de Savoie, Duchesse d' Angoulême, Duchesse d' Anjou: writing her astronomical journal with her daughter Marguerte de Navarre on April 11 [serious scribes and the Mediaeval page of Woman-Blindness]

 

Antoine Joseph (“Adolphe”) Sax: born to blow his own trumpet on Nov 6 [musical maestros]

 

Giuseppe Doménico Scarlatti: born Oct 26 [musical maestros]

 

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller: born Nov 10; admiring Madame de Staël on April 22 [the world as stage]

 

Alma Schindler: married Gustav Mahler and sung by Tom Lehrer on March 29; hosting a dinner party on Feb 11

 

Aron Hector (“Ettore”) Schmitz (Italo Svevo): pseudonymed on Feb 8; born on Dec 19 (wife Livia and her "plura belle" hair are on the same page); mentioned on Feb 2 and March 15 [serious scribes]

 

Leonard Alfred Schneider (Lenny Bruce): died on Aug 3; first arrest on Oct 4; also mentioned on Aug 4 [the world as stage]

 

Christian Friedrich Schönbein, or Schoenbein: obtained the patent for cellulose nitrate explosive on Dec 5, but he is also the man who named “ozone” and was the first to describe guncotton (nitrocellulose); listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1  [E,M&C2]

 

Arthur Schopenhauer: born Feb 22; Menckened on Sept 13 (and mentioned as such on Sept 12); simply mentioned on April 22 [philosophers]

 

Franz Peter Schubert: born Jan 31 [musical maestros]

 

Erwin Schulhoff - Ervín Šulhov in his native Czech (8 June 1894- 18 August 1942): performed on April 1; mentioned on July 27 [musical maestros]

 

Charles Monroe Schulz: "Peanuts" first published on Oct 2; born Nov 26 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Robert Schumann: born June 8; played by Gideon Klein on April 1 and by Pablo Casals on Nov 13; created the EFB♭ Sonata on Oct 27 (pianist Clara Schumann) [musical maestros]

 

Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer: born on Jan 14 (and a cartoon for a birthday present) [reverend writers]

 

Robert Falcon Scott ("of the Antarctic"): born July 16; with Shackleton on Jan 5; beaten by Amundsen on Jan 15 and Dec 14; Oates and the camp at Mount Buckley on March 17

 

Walter Scott: born Aug 15; referenced on June 24; breeding bulls for beef-eaters on Sept 8; mentioned on the Charlotte Turner Smith page, Oct 28, and on Maria Edgeworth's page, May 22 [historians]

 

Winfried Georg (“Max”) Sebald: the destruction of Yuan Ming Yuan on Jan 11; attempted the dramatic monologue on April 6; mentioned with Magris on April 10; Danielle Casanova on May 9 [serious scribes]

 

Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu: quoted and quoted on Jan 18; the innocent source of the world’s most anti-Semitic book on Aug 26; with Madame de Staël on April 22; referenced on June 19 [philosophers]

 

Peter (Pete) Seeger 1919-2014: born May 3 [musical maestros and responses to bullying]

 

Simone Segouin, nom de guerre Nicole Minet: une des Femmes de la Resistance on Jan 26

 

Alexander Selkirk (though there is some suggestion that it may have been Selcraig originally): rescued by Woodes Rogers on Feb 1

 

Léopold Sédar Senghor: poet and politician (click here): March 24, 1959 is commemorated as Southern African Liberation Day (click here), presumably because it was the day on which the "Party of the African Federation (PFA)" was established in West Africa (then ruled by the French), by Monsieur Senghor [Africa and political ideologues]; and I am presuming this is the same Léopold Senghor who became the first head of state when Mali gained independence from France on June 20 1960

 

Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna (“Che”): killed on Oct 9; mentioned on June 15 [political ideologues and pre-Columban Americas]

 

Miguel Servet (aka Miguel Serveto, Michel Servet, Michael Servetus, Miguel de Villanueva, and Michel de Villeneuve): condemned to death for blasphemy on Oct 26 [reverend writers]

 

Robert William Service: "Sam McGee" and "Dan McGrew" referenced on April 18; with Jack London in the Yukon on Aug 16; mentioned on Feb 9 and Feb 28 [The Poets];

 

Georges Pierre Seurat: born Dec 2 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Ernest Henry Shackleton: died on Jan 5; beaten by Amundsen on Dec 14

 

Anthony Joshua Shaffer, screenplay writer, and Peter Levin Shaffer, playwright, born within seconds of each other, and completely identical, May 15. Anthony’s “Wicker Man” is mentioned on Nov 5 [the world as stage]

 

Rabindra (“Ravi”) Shankar Chowdhury: born April 7 [musical maestros]

 

Gulielmus Shakspere (William Shakespeare): despised for coming from the wrong class on Jan 5; R&J on Jan 30; Deutschified  by Voß on Feb 8; bite-sized by Charles and Mary Lamb on Feb 10 and Dec 3; recovered by David Garrick on Feb 19; Roderigo Lopes on Feb 28 and June 29 (the night The Globe burned down); Richard Tarlton and Will Kempe and Robert Armin and much much more on March 15; “The Tempest” on March 29; studied by Hélène Berr on April 10; Madame de Staël on April 22; with Cervantes on April 23 and Ben Jonson on June 11; doing Midsummer Night on June 23; his patron the Earl of Leicester on July 19; getting Macbeth completely wrong on Aug 15 and June 24, and Richard III mis-shapen on Aug 22 and Nov 5 (but see also the frog who went a-courtin’ on March 15); R&G from Hamlet on Sept 2; Elizabeth Montagu on Oct 2; Emperor Claudius as Hamlet on Oct 13, and Hamlet alone on Nov 20; compared with Racine on Dec 22; merely mentioned on Jan 3, Jan 8, Jan 9, April 13 and 30, May 11, 16 and 17, June 24, July 6, Aug 20 and Sept 23; his dad gets a mention on Nov 26 [the world as stage]

 

Helen Patricia Sharman: the first woman to visit the Mir space station, on May 18; and mentioned alongside Tim Peake on June 18

 

George Bernard Shaw: at home in Fitzroy Square on May 18; “St Joan” and “Man and Superman” on May 30; born July 26; performed in “Hamlet” on Sept 2; not doing much on Sept 10; actively doing Fabian Society summer school with Rebecca West on Dec 21; merely mentioned on May 16 [the world as stage]

 

Anatoly Borisovich Shcharansky (Natan Sharansky when he got his exit visa): born Jan 20 [responses to bullying]

 

Percy Bysshe Shelley: hymned Adonais on Feb 23; drowned July 8, but see Aug 13 as well; studied by Hélène Berr on April 10; also mentioned on Jan 1, Feb 1, Feb 21, March 11, April 27 and Aug 10 [The Poets]

 

Richard Brinsley Sheridan: born Oct 30 [the world as stage]

 

Boris Abramovich Shimeliovich:medical director of the Botkin Hospital in Moscow, born December 2 1892; died on the Night of the Murdered Poets, Aug 12 1952; more here, and for the full account go to my WordPress blog

 

El-Azar ben Shimon: Lazarus in the gospels, where the father's name is not given, but it was at his house that El-Azar and his sisters Mary and Martha were living, and where the party was hosted that Jesus attended; Christian scholars question his paternity, but probably they just don't like the fact that Shimon had leprosy (which he didn't, that was a different Shimon; this one was more likely Shimon the Pharisee (click here)! Sept 21 and Dec 17

 

Christopher Latham Sholes: needs Tippex on June 23 [E,M&C2]

 

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich: set Yevtushenko on July 18; born Sept 25; initially on Oct 27; mentioned on Sept 5 [musical maestros]

 

Joseph Yuzefovich Shpinak (Shpinak was his family name but he didn’t use it for his writings): (1890–1952): one of the unlucky thirteen on the Night of the Murdered Poets, Aug 12 – more on him here and here, or for the full account go to my WordPress blog [serious scribes]

 

Johan Julius Christian (Jean) Sibelius: born Dec 8; mentioned on June 9 [musical maestros]

 

Philip Sidney: born Nov 30 [The Poets]

 

Gerard ("Jerry") Silverman: start of WW2 on July 22 [musical maestros]

 

Paul Frederic Simon (with or without Art Garfunkel, whose date is Oct 13): in Central Park on Sept 19; at Bunjies on Oct 3; mentioned on Oct 22 [musical maestros]

 

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni: born March 6; offered to build a tomb for Dante on June 24; “can’t do fresco” on Aug 21 and Nov 1; referenced by Victor Hugo on Oct 18; mentioned May 18 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Elizabeth Simpson, remembered by her married name as Elizabeth Inchbald; acting, though not in Jane Austen's production, on Oct 15

 

Clive Marles Sinclair: born July 30 [E,M&C2]

 

Upton Beall Sinclair: born Sept 20; banned Dec 6 [serious scribes]

 

Isaac Merritt Singer, the sewing machine man; or was he? see Elias Howe on Oct 3: born Oct 27 [E,M&C2] (Not to be confused with Isaac Bashevis Singer, who you will find under Z!)

 

Alfred Sisley 1839-1899: Yet another of the Durand-Ruel finds on Feb 5; born Oct 30 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Maria (Marie) Salomea Skłodowska-Curie: isolated radium with husband Pierre on April 20; both mentioned on March 1 and listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Elizabeth (“Bessie”) Smith: born April 15 [musical maestros]

 

Adam Smith: investigating the wealth of nations on March 29; translated by Sophie de Grouchy on May 5

 

John Allyn Smith Jr (John Allyn McAlpin Berryman): died on Jan 7 [The Poets]

 

Joseph Smith: founded the Mormons on April 6 [reverend writers]

 

Florence Margaret (“Stevie”) Smith: peeled onions on Sept 20; mentioned on Nov 17 [The Poets]

 

Spartacus: epitomising the only valid response to bullying and coercion on Sept 29 (the full story here); mentioned with Nat Turner and Gandhi on Oct 2

 

Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley: PM, Earl of Derby, and owner of Chatham House on Dec 4

 

Manoel Dias Soeiro (Menasseh ben Israel): the return of the Jews to England under Oliver Cromwell on Sept 30 [reverend writers]

 

Aleksandr Isayevitch Solzhenitsyn: Nobel Prize on Oct 23; witnessed the Gulag on Dec 28; mentioned on Sept 5 [serious scribes]

 

Hernando de Soto: born May 21 [pre-Columban Americas; there is also an obscure reference to an African on his ship on the Africa page]

 

Akinwande Oluwole (Wole) Babatunde Soyinka: born July 13; Africa page has "1986: Wole Soyinka of Nigeria becomes the first African to win a Nobel Prize in Literature" [serious scribes]

 

Boris Vasilievich Spassky: castled in his chair on Sept 1

 

Percy LeBaron. Spencer: patented the microwave oven on Dec 7; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Benedict de Spinoza (Bento or Baruch Spinoza): analysed by Montesquieu on Jan 18, and by Pierre Bayle on Nov 18; died Feb 21; used as an exemplar on June 3 and Sept 13; excommunicated on July 27 1656, though my account of it is actually on Feb 1; David Nieto on Sept 30; mentioned on Oct 10 and 20 [born November 24 1632 but I don’t have that on that date] [philosophers]

 

The (Decidedly Ir-Reverend) William Archibald Spooner: born July 22

 

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein (Madame de Stael): born April 22; also with Sophie de Grouchy on May 5 and Manon Roland on Nov 8 [political ideologues]

 

Aristotle Stagiritis: kindled on Feb 28; rainbowed with Seneca on March 29; in disagreement with Plato on April 5, June 25 and Sept 13, and with Pyrrho on May 11; wrong about gravity on Sept 18; mentioned Jan 3, July 23, Aug 26, and somewhat obscurely on Oct 8; died on Oct 2 [E,M&C2]

 

Henry Morton Stanley: met what he presumed was Dr Livingstone, at Lake Tanganyika, on Sept 29 and Nov 10; at Lake Albert in the Congo on Dec 5

 

Freya Madeline Stark: born Jan 31 [serious scribes]

 

Gertrude Stein: green traffic-lighted on her birthday, Feb 3 [serious scribes]

 

John Ernst Steinbeck: born Feb 27; his 1962 Nobel Prize is on Oct 25; plus mentions on Jan 1, March 26, Oct 3 and 23; and a localised banning on Dec 6 [serious scribes]

 

George Robert Stephenson: born on June 9; travelled on his own steam train on Sept 27 [E,M&C2]

 

Lina Solomonovna Stern (or Shtern): the only one of the “Yiddish Writers Plot” to survive on Aug 12; quite an extraordinary woman she was too [E,M&C2 and Poetikos main page]; for the full account go to my WordPress blog

 

György Stern (Georg Solti): taught by Erno Dohnányi on July 27; born Oct 21 [musical maestros]

 

Itzhak (Isaac) Stern: born July 21 [musical maestros]

 

Laurence Sterne: born Nov 24; mentioned on Nov 28 [serious scribes]

 

Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson (Mrs Gaskell): born Sept 29; chez Anna Brownell Jameson on May 17 [serious scribes and Woman-Blindness]

 

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson: born Nov 13 [serious scribes]

 

William Joseph Still:  Building electric cars on Dec 5; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Daniel Chapman Stillson: patented the 1st adjustable pipe wrench on Dec 5 (what do you mean, I must be joking? In the world of plumbers this ranks as the number one scientific invention in human history, ever; and you trying living without plumbing!); listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Karlheinz Stockhausen: born Aug 22 [musical maestros]

 

Harriet Beecher Stowe: not banned, just written against, on Dec 6 [serious scribes and reposnes to bullying]

 

Antonio Stradivari: died Dec 18 [musical maestros]

 

Tomás Straüssler (Tom Stoppard): born July 3, “Rosencrantz and Guildernstern” on Sept 2; mentioned on Dec 3 [the world as stage]

 

Israel Strassberg (Lee Strasberg): picked up Stanislavski’s method on Jan 17; used it on Aug 8; born Nov 17; mentioned May 22 [the world as stage]

 

Edward L Stratemeyer: introduced Nancy Drew to the Hardy Boys on Oct 4 [lighter writers]

 

Oscar Solomon Straus: and other members of the family, including parents Lazarus and Sara and sister Hermine, descendants Nathan Junior, Jesse, Roger, Peter... start on Dec 23 for the overview; Oscar’s plaque for Roger Williams is on Oct 13, and his promotion to Roosevelt’s Cabinet on Oct 23; Ida and Isidor went down with the Titanic on April 14; Dec 27 for Nathan Straus Sr’s surprising connections with Louis Pasteur and the town of Netanya in Israel; June 12 for Nathan Straus Jr and his even more surprising connection with Anne Frank

 

Richard Georg Strauss: born June 11; “Salome" turned down on July 7; accused of collaborating on July 27; mentioned in much the same regard on Dec 23 [musical maestros]

 

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky: born on June 17; mentioned on April 1 [musical maestros]

 

Jack Strawe: absolutely revolting on June 15 (not to be confused with modern Jack Straw, who gets mentioned on June 15, polled on April 29, involved with honouring Frank Foley on May 7, and has his spelling, rather than the other’s, on the castle in Hampstead)

 

Johan August Strindberg: born Jan 22 [the world as stage]

 

Eric Oswald (Hans Carl Maria Von) Stroheim (the bits in brackets were added when he moved to America): born Sept 22 [the world as stage]

 

Almon Brown Strowger: patented automatic telephone switching on Dec 5; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Martina Šubertová (changed to Navratilova in honour of her step-dad/coach): sought asylum in the US on Sept 6

 

Anne Sullivan: her achievement on April 5 and June 28; and this without the benefit of Braille, who is on Jan 4 [the librarians of Babel]

 

Patrick Süskind: born March 26 [serious scribes]

 

Joseph Wilson Swan: in partnership with Edison on July 24; born Oct 31 [E,M&C2]

 

Emanuel Swedberg (changed to Swedenborg when he met God in 1741): born Jan 29  [reverend writers]

 

Jonathan Swift: Gulliver alluded to on Jan 16, April 11, July 3, Sept 2 and Sept 20; himself mentioned on Oct 25; died Oct 19; among the reverend writers on Nov 28; born Nov 30

 

Captain Swing: sorry, no such person, on Dec 20

 

Hannah Szenes: executed on Nov 7 [The Poets and responses to bullying]

 

Henrietta Szold: died on Feb 13 [political ideologues]

 

 

T


Leon Talmy (though he sometimes published as Leyzer Talminovitski): another of the thirteen in the “Yiddish Writers Plot” on Aug 12 – for the full account of which go to my WordPress blog [serious scribes]

 

Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo: born Oct 27 [Africa]

 

Abel Janszoon Tasman: reached Aotearoa on Dec 13

 

Doris May Tayler (Lessing): born Oct 22 [serious scribes and a mention on the Africa page]

 

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: born May 7; (quoted on the MM page under Tushmalov on June 2); overturing on Oct 19 [musical maestros]

 

Maria Telkes (Mária de Telkes originally, but she dropped the “de”, and the accent on the “á” of Mária, when she moved to America, and set up the first solar heating system, on Dec 24; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Wilhelm or Guillaume Tell, depending on whether you are using Schweize-Deutsch or Franco-Suisse (William Tell in English): died Nov 18

 

Alfred (Lord) Tennyson: “Charge of the Light Brigade” on April 18, Oct 4 and Oct 25; born Aug 6 [The Poets]

 

Emilia Teumin: born 1905; arrested and tortured in 1949; murdered on Stalin’s orders on Aug 12 1952: the Jerusalem Post version of the story here, and a very interesting website that also tells the story here; or for the full account go to my WordPress blog

 

William Makepeace Thackeray: in Tolstoy’s diary on Jan 21; multiple pseudonyms on Feb 8; born on July 18 [serious scribes]

 

Anne-Josèphe Terwagne, also known as Théroigne de Méricourt: leading the women into revolution on Aug 10; crowned for doing so on Oct 5; beaten up by her fellow revolutionaries on May 15

 

Rabindranath Thakur, but anglicised to Tagore; Bhanusimha  - "Sun Lion" - was his pseudonym: born May 6 [The Poets]

 

François-Anatole Thibault (Anatole France): quoted on July 12 [The Poets]

 

Dylan Marlais Thomas: born Oct 27; mentioned June 24 [The Poets]

 

Joseph John Thompson: electrons activated on Dec 18; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Henry David Thoreau: born July 12 [philosophers]

 

Emmett Louis (“Bobo”) Till: lynched on Aug 28

 

Michael Kemp Tippett: born on Jan 2; "A Child Of Our Time" on March 19 [musical maestros]

 

Alexis Charles Henri Clérel de Tocqueville: epitomised idealism on July 29 [political ideologues]

 

John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R) Tolkien: born Jan 3; mentioned on June 22 [serious scribes]; possibly creating a Golem on March 11

 

Lev (or possibly Lyof, but definitely not Leo) Nikolayevich Tolstoy: Jan 21 has a quote from his diary; born Sept 9; July 1 mentions him [serious scribes]

 

Clyde William Tombaugh: “discovered” Planet Pluto on Feb 18; listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa: the Durand-Ruel list just grows and grows on Feb 5; born Nov 24 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Edward John Trelawny: died Aug 13; mentioned on Jan 22 and Feb 1 [serious scribes]

 

Flora Tristan: fighting for workers rights and womens rights on April 7

 

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (that’s Trudeau senior): born Oct 18

 

François Roland Truffaut: died Oct 21; Nouvelle Vague on Dec 3; Film Noir on Dec 5 [the world as stage]

 

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev: born Nov 9; mentioned on Feb 28 [serious scribes]

 

Charlotte Turner Smith: why isn't she on the A level syllabus? see Oct 28

 

Nathanial (“Nat”) Turner: played Spartacus on Aug 21 and 23;  his story told on his birthdate, Oct 2; executed on Nov 11; mentioned on May 16 and Aug 28 [responses to bullying]

 

Desmond Mpilo Tutu: born Oct 7; mentioned Aug 28 [Africa page has "1984: Anglican Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu of South Africa is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden"]

 

Walter (Wat) Tylere: leading the anti-feudal liberation army on June 15 [responses to bullying]

 

U


Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin): born April 22; shared a coffee bar in Zurich with James Joyce on Bloomsday (June 16); shared a political dream with Trotsky, and especially Victor Serge, on Aug 20; survived an assassination attempt on Aug 30; given to Castro as a prize on Nov 13 [political ideologues and responses to bullying]

 

Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo: born Sept 29 [reverend writers]

 

Leon Marcus Uris: born Aug 3, “Mila 18” on April 19 [historians]


V

 

Various Valentines where you would expect to find them, on Feb 14: two named Valentinus; Rudolph Valentino can be found under A, in this Index, and on May 6 on the blog

 

George de Valero when he was born; Edward de Valera by 1901; he only became Éamon de Valera when Éireland achieved its liberation: The Easter Rising on April 24; Roger Casement on Sept 1; born Oct 14 [Éirish page]

 

Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry: born Oct 30 [The Poets]

 

Cornelius (“the Commodore”) Vanderbilt: born Nov 27

 

Giorgio di Antonio Vasari: born July 30; referenced on Feb 5 and Aug 4 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Ilya Vatenberg and his wife Chaika Vatenburg-Ostrovskaya: two more victims of the so-called “Yiddish writers plot” on Aug 12 [serious scribes] - for the full account go to my WordPress blog

 

Ralph Vaughan-Williams: born Oct 12 [musical maestros]

 

Lope Félix de Vega y Carpio: born Nov 25 [reverend writers]

 

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez: born June 6; mentioned on April 16 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Maria de Ventadorn: one of the Trobairitz on Jan 13

 

Giuseppi Fortunino Francesco Verdi: his “Requiem” played by Gideon Klein at Terezin on April 1; born Oct 10 [musical maestros]

 

Paul-Marie Verlaine: the reason for the first half of Pablo Neruda’s pseudonym on Feb 8; tried to kill Rimbaud on July 10 [The Poets]

 

Johannes (Jan) Vermeer: born Oct 31 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Elizabeth Vezey (sometimes spelled Vesey): hostessing the Blue Stockings on July 23

 

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal: born Oct 3 [serious scribes]

 

Marie Louise Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun: her portrait in words on April 16; her portrait of Marie Antoinette on Oct 16; also with Sophie de Grouchy on May 5 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci: born April 15; died May 2; “Mona Lisa” stolen on Aug 21; drawings on Nov 21 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Rodrigo (Ruy) Díaz de Vivar (“El Cid”, which should be al-Sid, from the Arabic): captured Valencia on July 10 [responses to bullying]

 

Kurt Vonnegut: not so much banned as rejected as an alternative to a banned book, on Dec 6 [serious scribes]



W


Derek Alton Walcott: born Jan 23 [The Poets]

 

Lech Wałęsa: Solidarność on Aug 31; Nobel Prize on Oct 5


Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg: born Aug 4; mentioned on July 10; goes with Frank Foley among the extraordinary responses to bullying

 

Robert Walpole (born August 26 1676; died March 18 1745): his son’s involvement with the Richmond Common saga is on May 16; his own in the Downing Street saga on Dec 4

 

Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh: born Oct 28 [serious scribes]

 

Robert Clifton Weaver: became the first black cabinet member in the US on June 28 [responses to bullying]

 

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber: born Nov 19; teaching Wagner on May 22 [musical maestros]

 

Noah Webster: defined on April 21 [librarians of Babel]

 

Nathan (von Wallenstein?) Weinstein (Nathanael West): born Oct 17 [serious scribes]

 

Simone Adolphine Weil (born February 3 1909 in Paris; died August 24 1943 in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Ashford): philosopher and freedom fighter on Jan 26 and Aug 24

 

Chaim Azriel Weizmann: announced on Feb 16; inaugurated on Feb 19; born Nov 27 [responses to bullying]

 

George Orson Welles: born May 6; fought the war of the worlds by radio on Oct 30 [the world as stage]

 

Herbert George (H.G) Wells: at DHL’s bedside on March 2; in Rebecca West's bed on Dec 21; born Sept 21 [serious scribes]

 

Horace Wells: used N2O as an anaesthetic on Dec 11: used, but didn’t invent it: see Humphry Davy on the MM page; nevertheless it is listed among the scientific achievements on Jan 1 [E,M&C2]

 

John Wesley: English clergyman and founder of Methodism: born June 17, 1703; at the entrance to Bone Hill Fields on Nov 28 [reverend writers]

 

Andries van Wezel (Andreas Vesalius): fully anatomical on June 1 [illustrious illustrators]

 

James Abbott McNeill Whistler: born July 10; used as a urinal on April 11; in Cheyne Walk on Sept 29 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Gilbert White: born July 18 [E,M&C2]

 

John Anderson White: struck by lightning on Dec 2

 

Patrick Victor Martindale White: Feb 8 for Voß and Leichhardt; born May 28; Nov 17 for Hurtle Duffield; mentioned on July 28 [serious scribes]

 

Billie Honor Whitelaw: born June 6, but highlighted on Aug 8 [the world as stage]

 

Walter (Walt) Whitman: interesting man was Peter Doyle - see March 15; as to Whitman himself: died March 26, “Leaves of Grass” published on July 4, but banned on Jan 8; also Dec 6 for the publication of his other bans (the means of unmarrying a writer from his readers); and a mention on July 1 [The Poets]

 

Edward Whymper: thought the horn mattered on July 13

 

Eliezer (Elie) Wiesel: on Luria on Aug 5; born Sept 30; mentioned on Aug 3 and Dec 28 [serious scribes]

 

Leon Wieseltier: saying Kaddish for Rabbi Oshry on Oct 28 [serious scribes]

 

Simon Wiesenthal: born Dec 31 [responses to bullying]

 

William Wilberforce: fictitiously on Jan 8; genuinely on his birthdate, Aug 24; with Hannah More on July 23 [responses to bullying]

 

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde: born Oct 16; arrested April 5 [serious scribes]

 

Thornton Niven Wilder: chez Gertrude Stein on Feb 3; understanding Joyce on Feb 16 (linked to his birthday on April 17) [the world as stage]

 

Allen Lane Williams: born Sept 21 [serious scribes]

 

Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams (Jean Rhys): born Aug 24 [serious scribes]

 

Helen Maria Williams: born June 17; mentioned on Oct 28 [The Poets]

 

Hiram King (“Hank”) Williams: born Sept 17 [musical maestros]

 

Roger Williams: banned on Oct 13; plaqued by Oscar Straus on Dec 23 [reverend writers]

 

Thomas Lanier (“Tennessee”) Williams: born March 26; “Streetcar” premièred on Dec 3; expurgated on Dec 6; mentioned on Jan 1 and July 18 [the world as stage]

 

William Carlos Williams: born Sept 17 [The Poets]

 

Brian Douglas Wilson: born June 20 [musical maestros]

 

John Anthony (with an “h”!) Burgess Wilson: Feb 8 [serious scribes]

 

Samuel (“Uncle Sam”) Wilson: born Sept 13

 

Thomas Clayton Wolfe: born Oct 3; mentioned Jan 1 (not to be confused with Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr, whose ”Bonfire of the Vanities” can be found on Jan 8, “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” on Sept 17, and a dig at Mailer and Bellow on July 11) [both Wolves are listed among the serious scribes]

 

Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin): born April 27; this is mum, in case you are confused [Blue-Stockings and philosophers]

 

Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, without the bracket, is the daughter, better known by her married name as Mary Shelley: died on Feb 1, but that page also tells the Geneva-Frankenstein story with PB and Byron and “Pollydolly” (John Polidori); “Kosher Frankenstein” on March 11; PB drowned on July 8; Mary was born on Aug 30 1797. Mentioned on Jan 22 [serious scribes]

 

Donald James Woods: telling the world about Steve Biko on Sept 12

 

Henry Woodward: patently another of Edison’s appropriations on July 24 [E,M&C2]

 

Adeline Virginia Stephen (Virginia Woolf): born Jan 25

(husband Leonard’s birthday is on Nov 25; Bloomsbury is on May 18); see also July 28; compared with Christine de Pizan on Jan 13, and in company with with Vita Sackville-West on her death-date, March 28 1941[serious scribes]

 

William Wordsworth: birthday on April 7; sonneting Helen Williams on June 17; “Tintern Abbey” on July 13; much indebted to Charlotte Turner Smith on Oct 28; passed into immortality on April 23; mentioned on April 27; [The Poets]

        sister Dorothy is also quoted on the Charlotte Turner Smith page, Oct 28

 

Christopher Michael Wren: born Oct 20 [illustrious illustrators]; designed the Naval College in Greenwich on Sept 7

 

Frank Lincoln Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright): born June 8; Taliesen burned down on Aug 15; his Guggenheim helter-skelter can be found on Oct 21; mentioned on Feb 28 [illustrious illustrators]

 

Orville Wright: born Aug 19 (older brother Wilbur flew with him on Dec 17)

 

John Wycliffe: declared a heretic on May 4 [reverend writers]

 

 

Y


William Butler Yeats: Easter Rebellion on April 24; born June 13; quoted Sept 1; photographed by Ottoline Morrell on Nov 22; mentioned on May 17 and June 24 [The Poets]

 

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (“Rashi” is an acronym which is why I have included his title): recorded words of Beruriah on Jan 12; destruction of Würms on Feb 19; mentioned with Maimon on March 30 and Oct 10 [reverend writers]

 

Neil Percival Young: singing to Montezuma and against Cortez on March 4 and June 30, and with the arrow still very much intact on June 20; debuted with CS&N on July 25; born Nov 12; on his own here; with Buffalo Springfield here; with CS&N here  [musical maestros]; mentioned on Oct 22

 

Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour (Yourcenar, her pen-name, is an anagram [albeit with a C missing]): born on June 8, but see especially Jan 24 [historians]


Z


Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman (Elijah ben Solomon in English), aka “the Vilna Ga'on”: died on Oct 10 [reverend writers]

 

Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof (Ludoviko Lazaro in Esperanto): born Dec 15; his language can be found on July 26 and Aug 14 [the librarians of Babel]

 

Mao Ze-Dong (Mao Tse-Tung): “The Three Worlds” on April 18; part of the GER debate on Sept 1; died Sept 9; founded the People’s Republic on Oct 19; born Dec 26 [political ideologues and responses to bullying]

 

Margaretha Geertruida Zelle (MacLeod), aka Mata Hari: executed as a spy on Oct 15

 

Zeruv-Babel, or Zerubabel, or Zerubavel: bringing the Jews home to Israel on March 10

 

Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan): "coblas doblas" on Jan 13; Davey Moore on Feb 6;  “John Birch” on May 19; born on May 24; dreamed he saw St Augustine on May 26; quoted on June 9; painting à la Hopper on July 22; with MLK on Aug 28; at Bunjies on Oct 3; sang for Rubin Carter on Nov 8; under an alias on Nov 23; produced by John Hammond Jr on Dec 15; mentioned on Feb 18, April 18, June 20, July 10 and Oct 22 [musical maestros, illustrious illustrators and responses to bullying]

 

Émile Edouard Charles Antoine Zola: forced to flee on Feb 26; born April 2; accusatory on July 12 and Oct 18; Dreyfus again on July 14; assassinated on Sept 28; commissioned Rodin’s sculpture of Balzac on Nov 12 [serious scribes and responses to bullying]

 

Pinchas Zukerman: born July 16 [musical maestros]

 

Benjamin Levovich Zuskin: the last of the thirteen to be executed in the so-called “Yiddish writers plot” on Aug 12 [serious scribes]; for the full account go to my WordPress blog

 

Huldrych Zwingli (some prefer Ulrich): born Jan 1; killed on Oct 11; mentioned on May 4 and Dec 16 [reverend writers]

 

Izaak Zynger (Isaac Bashevis Singer, the novelist): born July 14; mentioned Oct 27 [serious scribes]

 


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