Biography of the Day -- Luciano Pavarotti
Born on this day in Modena, Italy, in 1935, Luciano Pavarotti, an operatic lyric tenor noted for his mastery of the highest notes of a tenor's range, is considered one of the finest bel canto singers of recent times.
This Day in History --
2001: The centennial Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations, and to the United Nations.
1898: A landmark in labor union history, a coal-mine riot took place in Virden, Illinois, when strikebreakers were brought in.
1896: Eugenio Montale, Italian poet, prose writer, editor, and translator who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1975, was born in Genoa.
1866: Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Party prime minister of the United Kingdom - in the Labour governments of 1924 and 1929-31 and in the national coalition government of 1931–35 - was born.
1810: The first Oktoberfest was celebrated in Munich, Germany, in the form of a horse race held in honor of the marriage of the crown prince of Bavaria (who later became King Louis I) to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
1492: The New World was "discovered" this day in 1492 when land (most likely San Salvador) was sighted in the Caribbean from the Pinta, one of the three ships that participated in Christopher Columbus's historic first voyage.
Quote of the Day --
"America is so vast that almost everything said about it is likely to be true, and the opposite is probably equally true."
James T. Farrell, introduction to H.L. Mencken's Prejudices: A Selection
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