1670 William Congreve, playwright. Wrote Semele, which Handel put to music and I saw, and thoroughly enjoyed at ENO last November.
1824 Samuel Plimsoll - invented the plimsoll line on ships
1889 Howard Spring, wrote one of my favourite novels, Fame is the Spur. There was an excellent BBC adaptaption way back in the early Eighties starring Tim Piggott-Smith
1890 Boris Pasternak - Dr Zhivago
1894 Harold MacMillan, onetime Prime Minister
1898 Bertolt Brecht. I've actually seen a play by him - The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui. My god, I'm an intellecks intellicet clever person, after all.
1910 Joyce Grenfell. The greatest female comedian, ever. Legend.
1914 Larry Adler. Popularised the mouth organ. My mouth organ sits on my computer table. Sometimes I get it out and play it. It frightens away the mice.
1926 Danny Blanchflower - the only person who ever turned down Eamonn Andrews' Red Book for This is Your Life. There was a great programme shown on ITV in the Eighties called Those Glory Glory Days about Football writer Julie Welch's obsession with Danny, and Spurs. I always remember the day after it was shown, when Alison announced that it was the story of half the members of Senior Choir. Guilty as charged - although not Danny Blanchflower, obviously.
1927 Leontyne Price soprano. I have her on a CD assisting the tenor in Il Trovatore
1939 Peter Purves. A legend.
1939 Roberta Flack. Deserving of immortality for "Killing Me Softly With His Song" one of the most amazing songs ever written. IMO.
1941 Michael Apted - just look at that CV. I wonder if they're making 49-Up, or if they have decided to abandon the project.
1946 Donovan. He sang a song called Geraldine. I do not have a copy of it.
1950 Mark Spitz, 7 Gold Medals in swimming at the 1972 Olympics
1958 Sharon Stone
1975 Clare Goose - Mel Silver, Waking the Dead, and Tina Seabrook, Casualty
My goodness, that is a very long list of famous and, on the whole, admirable, people. Yet not one really to merit a photograph.
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