Born in 1897 – Marian Anderson, American singer.

Photographed by Richard Avedon in 1955.

Born in 1956 – Michel Houellebecq, French author.

“It is interesting to note that the ‘sexual revolution’ was sometimes portrayed as a communal utopia, whereas in fact it was simply another stage in the historical rise of individualism. As the lovely word ‘household’ suggests, the couple and the family would be the last bastion of primitive communism in liberal society. The sexual revolution was to destroy these intermediary communities, the last to separate the individual from the market. The destruction continues to this day.”

Born in 1836 – Winslow Homer, American painter and illustrator.

Above: Undertow, 1886

Previously: Homer

Born in 1889 – Victor Fleming, American director, cinematographer, and producer.

Above: Judy Garland and Clara Blandick in Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz.

Born in 1950 – Julius Erving, American basketball player.

Born in 1933 – Nina Simone, American singer-songwriter and pianist.

Listen to My Baby Just Cares For Me

Previously: Simone here and here.

Also born, Jack Ramsay.

In 1909, The Futurist Manifesto was published in the French journal Le Figaro.

An excerpt: “We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath … a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.”

Above: Italian poet, and author of the Manifesto, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

Born in 1930 – John Frankenheimer, American director and producer.

Above: Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra in Frankenheimer’s 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate.

Born in 1950 – John Hughes, American director, producer, and screenwriter.

Above: Steve Martin and John Candy in the 1987 Hughes film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Also: Nikos Kazantzakis