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| On this date in: | |
| 1512 | Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were first exhibited to the public. |
| 1604 | William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello" was first performed, at Whitehall Palace in London. |
| 1765 | The Stamp Act went into effect, prompting stiff resistance from American colonists. |
| 1861 | Gen. George B. McClellan was made general-in-chief of the Union armies. |
| 1936 | Benito Mussolini described the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Rome and Berlin. |
| 1946 | Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was ordained as a priest in Poland. |
| 1950 | Two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to force their way into Blair House in Washington to assassinate President Harry S. Truman. One of the assailants was killed. |
| 1954 | The west African nation of Algeria began a rebellion against French rule. |
| 1979 | Former first lady Mamie Eisenhower died in Washington, D.C., at age 82. |
| 1991 | Clarence Thomas took his place as a justice on the Supreme Court. |
| 1995 | Bosnia peace talks opened in Dayton, Ohio. |
| 1999 | Football Hall of Famer Walter Payton died of cancer at age 45. |
| 2007 | Retired Air Force Brigadier Gen. Paul Tibbets, who piloted the B-29 bomber Enola Gay that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, died at age 92. |
Article of the day
Sistine Chapel ceiling opens to public
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, one of Italian artist Michelangelo's finest works, is exhibited to the public for the first time.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, was born in the small village of Caprese in 1475. The son of a government administrator, he grew up in Florence, a center of the early Renaissance movement, and became an artist's apprentice at age 13. Demonstrating obvious talent, he was taken under the wing of Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of the Florentine republic and a great patron of the arts. After demonstrating his mastery of sculpture in such works as the Pieta (1498) and David (1504), he was called to Rome in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel--the chief consecrated space in the Vatican.
Michelangelo's epic ceiling frescoes, which took several years to complete, are among his most memorable works. Central in a complex system of decoration featuring numerous figures are nine panels devoted to biblical world history. The most famous of these is The Creation of Adam, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are stretching toward each other. In 1512, Michelangelo completed the work.
After 15 years as an architect in Florence, Michelangelo returned to Rome in 1534, where he would work and live for the rest of his life. That year saw his painting of the The Last Judgment on the wall above the altar in the Sistine Chapel for Pope Paul III. The massive painting depicts Christ's damnation of sinners and blessing of the virtuous and is regarded as a masterpiece of early Mannerism.
Michelangelo worked until his death in 1564 at the age of 88. In addition to his major artistic works, he produced numerous other sculptures, frescoes, architectural designs, and drawings, many of which are unfinished and some of which are lost. In his lifetime, he was celebrated as Europe's greatest living artist, and today he is held up as one of the greatest artists of all time, as exalted in the visual arts as William Shakespeare is in literature or Ludwig van Beethoven is in music.
Source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=5485
Today Birthdays
| Penn Badgley turns 22 years old today. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 AP Photo/Peter Kramer Actor Penn Badgley ("Gossip Girl") turns 22 years old today.
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