june 16

happy bloomsday!!

Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce,  observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June,  the day his 1922 novel Ulysses takes place on a Thursday in 1904, the date of his first sexual encounter with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle,  and named after its protagonist Leopold Bloom.” (Wikipedia) 

STAN LAUREL (June 16, 1890)

June 16 is the birthday of STAN LAUREL (1890-1965).

"You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead."

"If any of you cry at my funeral, I'll never speak to you again."

Laurel "was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was one half of the comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Hardy in 107 short films, feature films, and cameo roles.

Laurel began his career in music hall, where he developed a number of his standard comic devices, including the bowler hat, the deep comic gravity, and the nonsensical understatement, and developed his skills in pantomime and music hall sketches." (Wikipedia)

woman in chicken hat

IRVING PENN (June 16, 1917)

June 16 is the birthday of American photographer IRVING PENN (1917-2009).

“A good photograph is one that communicate a fact, touches the heart, leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.”

“I myself have always stood in the awe of the camera. I recognize it for the instrument it is, part Stradivarius, part scalpel.”

Penn's "career included work at Vogue magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique. His work has been exhibited internationally and continues to inform the art of photography." (Wikipedia)

igor stravinsky

John Cage preparing a piano, 1947

Peter and Dagmar Freuchen, 1947

VILMOS ZSIGMOND (June 16, 1930)

June 16 is the birthday of Hungarian-American cinematographer VILMOS ZSIGMOND (1930-2016).

Among the many films to which Zsigmond gave his distinctive touch are "The Long Goodbye," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "The Deer Hunter" and "McCabe and Mrs. Miller."

this day in history

First roller coaster

On June 16, 1884, the first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson's "Switchback Railway," opened in New York's Coney Island amusement park.

first woman in space

On June 16, 1963, VALENTINA TERESHKOVA became the first woman in space. Launched aboard the Vostok 6, she orbited the earth 48 times, more than all the Mercury astronauts combined. There's a crater on the far side of the Moon named after her.