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Harald Sack

music
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle and the Marseillaise

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle and the Marseillaise

Harald Sack
On April 25, 1792, French army officier Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle during the French Revolution composes the ‘Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin‘ for the declaration of war against Austria. Under the name ‘La Marseillaise‘ his song later becomes the national anthem of France. Everybody knows the French National Anthem I’m pretty sure that almost everybody knows the French national anthem, the so-called Marseillaise, simply because of its numerous references throughout music…
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photography
Recovering the Lost Lunar Photographs

Recovering the Lost Lunar Photographs

Harald Sack
Maybe you remember that we had an article on the very first image of the Earth taken from abroad?[1] It was an image taken in 1966 by one of the Lunar Orbiter space probes, which had the task of taking closeup pictures of the lunar surface to find a well suited landing spot for the upcoming Apollo Moon missions. Well, you might wonder, how these photographs came back to Earth. Well, the…
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mathematics
Walter Pitts and the Mathematical Model of a Neural Network

Walter Pitts and the Mathematical Model of a Neural Network

Harald Sack
On April 23, 1923, American logician Walter Pitts, Jr. was born. Pitts worked in the field of computational neuroscience. He proposed landmark theoretical formulations of neural activity and generative processes that influenced diverse fields such as cognitive sciences and psychology, philosophy, neurosciences, computer science, artificial neural networks, cybernetics and artificial intelligence. Moreover, he proposed the first mathematical model of a neural network. The unit of this model, a simple formalized neuron, is…
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literature
August Wilhelm Iffland and the Iffland Ring

August Wilhelm Iffland and the Iffland Ring

Harald Sack
On April 19, 1759, German actor and dramatic author August Wilhelm Iffland was born. He was the most important actor of his age and is best remembered for playing the main part of Franz Moor in Friedrich Schiller‘s ‘The Robbers‘.[6] And there is this ring, the Iffland-Ring, which bears Iffland‘s likeness, and is borne by the most important German-speaking actor, as decided by his predecessor. When I first heard the story of the…
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transportation
William Wilson and the First German Railway

William Wilson and the First German Railway

Harald Sack
On April 17, 1862, British mechanical engineer William Wilson passed away. He was the first engine driver of the locomotive Adler on the first German railway. There was a time, when every little boy wanted to become an engineer or engine driver. Master of the huge and powerful machine, driving the rails, faster and faster. But, this was already way before my time. I wanted to become an astronaut. What did I…
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literature
Henry James and Impressionism in Literature

Henry James and Impressionism in Literature

Harald Sack
On April 15, 1843, American-British author Henry James was born. James is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He is best known for a number of novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between emigre Americans, English people, and continental Europeans – examples of such novels include The Portrait of…
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architecture
Peter Behrens – Pioneer of Modern Industrial Design

Peter Behrens – Pioneer of Modern Industrial Design

Harald Sack
On April 14, 1868, German architect and designer Peter Behrens was born. Behrens was important to the modernist movement, and several of the movement’s leading names (including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius) worked for him in earlier stages of their careers. “Design is not about decorating functional forms – it is about creating forms that accord with the character of the object and that show new technologies…
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literature
F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby

Harald Sack
On April 10, 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s famous socially critical novel ‘The Great Gatsby‘ was published. The story takes place in 1922, during the Roaring Twenties, a time of prosperity in the United States after World War I. The book received critical acclaim and is generally considered Fitzgerald‘s best work. It is also widely regarded as a “Great American Novel” and a literary classic, although it didn’t sell very well during Fitzgerald‘s…
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literature
Charles Baudelaire and the Flowers of Evil

Charles Baudelaire and the Flowers of Evil

Harald Sack
On April 9, 1821, French poet Charles Baudelaire was born. He produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. Baudelaire is most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil), expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the 19th century. Baudelaire is considered one of the major innovators in French literature. His themes of sex, death, lesbianism, metamorphosis, depression,…
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literature
William Wordsworth and the Romantic Age of English Literature

William Wordsworth and the Romantic Age of English Literature

Harald Sack
On April 7, 1770, major English Romantic poet William Wordsworth was born. Together with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wordsworth helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads.[6] The eye — it cannot choose but see; we cannot bid the ear be still; our bodies feel, where’er they be, against or with our will. – William Wordsworth, Expostulation and Reply, st. 5 (1798). Early Years – French…
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