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music
Joseph Haydn – the Father of the Symphony

Joseph Haydn – the Father of the Symphony

Harald Sack
On March 31 (or April 1) 1732, Austrian composer Joseph Haydn was born. The composer of the Viennese Classicism was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the piano trio. His contributions to musical form have earned him the epithets “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”. “My language is understood all over the world.” – Joseph Haydn on Mozart’s objection that he speaks too few languages…
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medical science
Crawford Long and the Diethyl Ether Anesthesia

Crawford Long and the Diethyl Ether Anesthesia

Harald Sack
On March 30, 1842, American surgeon and pharmacist Crawford Williamson Long for the very first time used inhaled diethyl ether as an anesthetic for surgery. Can you imagine a surgery without anesthetic? Standing the pain while a surgeon is cutting something somewhere in your body? I think better not to. But, anesthetics already have a long tradition, longer than you might think. Anesthetics before Crawford Long Already since antiquity, a variety of…
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philosophy
Emanuel Swedenborg Visions of the Afterlife

Emanuel Swedenborg Visions of the Afterlife

Harald Sack
On March 29, 1772, Swedish scientist, philosopher, theologian, and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg passed away. He is best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell (1758). From Swedenborg’s inventive and mechanical genius came his method of finding terrestrial longitude by the Moon, new methods of constructing docks and even tentative suggestions for the submarine and the airplane. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. In 1741, at…
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explorer
Juan Bautista de Anza and the Route to San Francisco Bay

Juan Bautista de Anza and the Route to San Francisco Bay

Tabea Tietz
On March 28, 1776, Basque New-Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza was the first to reach the San Francisco Bay by land. De Anza was the first European to establish an overland route from Mexico, through the Sonoran Desert, to the Pacific coast of California. New World Spanish explorers had been seeking such a route through the desert southwest for more than two centuries. Background Juan Bautista de Anza Anza was born in 1736…
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photography
Real Fantasies – The Photography of Edward Steichen

Real Fantasies – The Photography of Edward Steichen

Harald Sack
On March 27, 1879, Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator Edward Jean Steichen was born. His were the photographs that most frequently appeared in Alfred Stieglitz‘s groundbreaking magazine Camera Work during its publication from 1903 to 1917.[1] “When I devoted myself to photography, it was my desire to see it recognized as art. Today I wouldn’t give a damn for that goal. The photographer’s job is to explain people to people and…
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astronomy
Aristarchus of Samos – Putting the Sun at the Right Place

Aristarchus of Samos – Putting the Sun at the Right Place

Tabea Tietz
About 310 BC, ancient Greek astronomer and mathematician Aristarchus of Samos was born. He presented the first known model that placed the Sun at the center of the known universe with the Earth revolving around it. As Anaxagoras before him, he also suspected that the stars were just other bodies like the Sun. His astronomical ideas were often rejected in favor of the geocentric theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy. “The earth is…
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literature
Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg aka Novalis

Georg Philipp Friedrich von Hardenberg aka Novalis

Harald Sack
On March 25, 1801, poet, author, and philosopher of early German Romanticism Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, better known under his pen name Novalis passed away. In spite of his early death at age 28, Novalis left behind a complex philosophical legacy that encompasses discussions of subjectivity and self-consciousness, issues in epistemology, moral theory, political philosophy, problems of interpretation, philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, the proto-existentialist experience of the finality…
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art
William Morris – Decorative Artist and Socialist Activist

William Morris – Decorative Artist and Socialist Activist

Harald Sack
On March 24, 1834, British textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement William Morris was born. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he played a significant role proliferating the early socialist movement in Britain. “If you want a golden rule that…
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psychology
Erich Fromm and the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory

Erich Fromm and the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory

Tabea Tietz
On March 23, 1900, German-American psychologist Erich Seligmann Fromm was born. He was associated with what became known as the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Fromm’s writings were notable as much for their social and political commentary as for their philosophical and psychological underpinnings. Although influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories [4,5,6], Fromm diverged in thinking that beyond the unconscious alone, conditions of the society and economy affect human behavior. “The application of…
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astronomy
Ulugh Beg – the Mongolian Astronomer Prince

Ulugh Beg – the Mongolian Astronomer Prince

Tabea Tietz
On March 22, 1394, Mongolian astronomer, mathematician and sultan Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh, better known as Ulugh Beg was (probably) born. Although the only important Mongol scientist, he was the greatest astronomer of his time. Pursuing this interest he built an observatory at Samarkand. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used. “Religions scatter like…
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