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- Born into an upper-class family in Elmira, NY, the son of an army officer and an indulging socialite, Clyde Fitch would become the first major American playwright, ending European-sourced dominance of the American stage (somewhat ironic, seeing that many of his plays were set abroad). His career would barely span 20 years, but he proved extremely prolific, writing 36 original plays and 24 adaptations from other works.
Fitch graduated from Amherst College in 1886, rejecting a career in business. He spent the next four years, supported by his mother, learning the craft of writing. At 25 he enjoyed his first great success with his very first play, set in England, "Beau Brummell" (1890), which became the trademark role for actor Richard Mansfield, who would continue in the title role for the remainder of his life. For Broadway's #1 producer Charles Frohman, Fitch's "Masked Ball" (1892) paired star Maude Adams with John Drew Jr., making them the most popular acting duo of the decade. Interestingly, Fitch's "Barbara Frietchie" (1899) led later to Ruby Catherine Stevens changing her surname to Barbara (Barbara Stanwyck, her last name being lifted from British actress Joan Stanwyck). Fitch's big hit, "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" (1900), made Ethel Barrymore a major star.
Fitch's personal life involved constant socializing; a gregarious homosexual, he thoroughly enjoyed the notoriety he was achieving on both continents and the enormous wealth that came with it. His health, however, did not stand up to his raconteur lifestyle. He had long suffered from intense abdominal troubles and, against the advice of his personal physician, sought out non-surgical alternatives to his, as it turned out, appendicitis in Europe. He died in Châlons-sur-Marne, France on September 4, 1909 at age 44 from blood poisoning after emergency surgery. After several moves over a period of time, his body was finally cremated and his ashes were installed in a special Tuscan-style sarcophagus commissioned by his mother. - Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascualwas a Spanish virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor. He is one of the foremost composers of the Post-Romantic era who also had a significant influence on his contemporaries and younger composers. He is best known for his piano works based on Spanish folk music idioms. In 1883 he married Rosina Jordana. He died from his kidney disease on 18 May 1909.- A fearsome Apache Indian warrior and medicine man of mythic stature, Geronimo was born about 1829 on the upper reaches of the Gila River (near the present-day mining town of Clifton, AZ). He belonged to the Be-don-ko-he band of the southern Chiricahua Apaches. He was known as Goyathlay or Goyaklay, meaning "one who yawns." It's not clear how he came to be called Geronimo, but conventional wisdom is that it was bestowed upon him by Mexicans during his many raids into that country.
Few specifics are known of his early life, but he emerged as a leader of the Chiricahuas in 1858 in the wake of personal tragedy. According to Geronimo, he had gone in the company of other Apaches and their families to trade peacefully with settlers around the Mexican military post at Janos in northern Chihuahua. While he and other adult males were away, a troop of Mexican soldiers from the neighboring state of Sonora swooped down on the family encampment and slaughtered most of the Apaches there, including Geronimo's mother, wife and three children. As a result, Geronimo swore revenge on Mexicans. Soon after the massacre at Janos, Geronimo received a spirit's voice that told him to fight the Mexicans. In the ensuing forays Geronimo was wounded many times but always recovered, and as late as 1897 he was still boasting to those who would listen that no bullet could kill him. Indeed, foes and followers alike thought that Geronimo was endowed with supernatural powers. Eyewitnesses declared him clairvoyant; according to them, he could interpret signs, explain the unknowable and predict the future.
In line with its uncertain and fluctuating policy, the US government tried to "civilize" the Apaches by shifting them from one reservation to another in Arizona and New Mexico. Although they would "settle down" for a spell on reservation land, sooner or later one or more bands would break out and go on the warpath, and the resulting plundering, burning and killing terrorized the civilian populace from Arizona down into Mexico. Geronimo himself often led these warring factions. Several times he was captured or forced to surrender and was returned to a reservation for a period of time (although other Apaches might be on the warpath), but he eventually would break out again. In May 1885 he fled the reservation with 35 men, 8 boys and 101 women. Ten months later he again surrendered to the American military in northern Sonora (a treaty between the US and Mexico allowed security forces from each nation to cross the border in pursuit of hostile Indians) only to bolt for freedom one more time. With 5,000 American soldiers and 500 Apache scouts and police in pursuit, Geronimo--with 16 warriors, 14 women and 6 children--surrendered to the US Army for the last time on September 3, 1886, at Skeleton Canyon in southern Arizona.
Thus ended an epoch called "The Apacheria", a period of almost constant warfare involving whites, Mexicans and Apaches that lasted for nearly two centuries. Geronimo was exiled to Florida but was promised that afterwards he and his followers would be allowed to return to Arizona--a promise that was not kept. They were placed under military confinement and later scattered among various reservations, with Geronimo and some of his people being sent to Oklahoma. He later became a farmer there and adopted Christianity. He dictated his autobiography, "Geronimo: His Own Story", published in 1906. In February 1909 the 85-year-old warrior fell off of his horse and remained in a ditch until the next day. He caught pneumonia and died a few days later. He was buried in the Indian cemetery at Fort Sill, OK. - Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Francisco Tárrega was born on 21 November 1852 in Vila-real, Castellon, Spain. He was a composer, known for Star Trek (2009), Stillwater (2021) and John Tucker Must Die (2006). He was married to María José Rizo. He died on 15 December 1909 in Barcelona, Spain.- Leopold II (French: Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor, Dutch: Leopold Lodewijk Filips Maria Victor; 9 April 1835 - 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909 and, through will and effort, the absentee owner and autocratic ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.
Born in Brussels as the second but eldest surviving son of Leopold I and Louise of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for exactly 44 years until his death, the longest reign of a Belgian monarch to date. He died without surviving legitimate sons. The current Belgian king descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I. - Writer
- Soundtrack
Francis Marion Crawford was born on 2 August 1854 in Bagni di Lucca, Grand Duchy of Tuscany [now Tuscany, Italy]. Francis Marion was a writer, known for Son of India (1931), The White Sister (1923) and The White Sister (1933). Francis Marion was married to Elizabeth Christophers Berdan. Francis Marion died on 9 April 1909 in Sorrento, Campania, Italy.- Joseph Petrosino was born on 30 August 1860 in Salerno, Campania, Italy. He died on 12 March 1909 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
- Euclides da Cunha was born on 20 January 1866 in Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was a writer, known for Antônio Conselheiro e a Guerra dos Pelados (1977), Savagery (2020) and The Battle of Canudos (1997). He died on 15 August 1909 in Piedade, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- Jacob Gordin was born on 1 May 1853 in Mirgorod, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire [now Myrhorod, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine]. He was a writer, known for Kreutzer Sonata (1915), Di shtifmuter (1914) and Mirele Efros (1939). He was married to Rebecca C. Smith. He died on 11 June 1909 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA.
- One of the greatest theatrical performers of the time Benoit Constant Coquelin born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais, France in 1841. Made his professional stage debut at 19 as the comic valet in Moliere's 'Le Depit amoureux' at the Comedie-Francaise in 1860, his first great success was as Figaro in 'The Barber of Saville'. Four years after joining the comedie-Francaise, Coquelin became one of the elite societaires and during the next 22 years he starred in 44 new plays, including 'Gringoire' (1867), 'Tabarin' (1871), 'Forestier' (1871), 'L'Etrangere' (1876), Jean Dacier' (1877) 'Les Rantzau' (1884), he toured Europe and America with 'Les Precieuses ridicules', wrote several books including 'Art and the Actor'. In 1895 he joined the Renaissance Theatre in Paris where he had successes in Edmond Rostand's play 'Cyrano de Bergerac' in 1897 and in 1898 at the Lyceum Theatre in London. In 1900 he toured America with the lengendary theatre star Sarah Bernhardt appearing at the Broadway's Garden Theatre in a production of 'Cyrano de Bergerac' his most famous role, he starred in his only film which was the duel scene from 'Cyrano de Bergerac' with sound recording on phonograph cylinder directed by Clement Maurice at the Phono-Cinema- Theatre studio in 1900, the film is thought to be the first ever made with both colour and sound. On their return to France he appeared in 'L'Aiglon' at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt. He was rehearsing for the starring role in Rostand's 'Chantecler' when he died suddenly in Paris age 68 in 1909.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
J.L. Molloy was born in 1838 in Offaly, Ireland. J.L. is known for Everybody Sing (1938), Love's Old Sweet Song (1923) and The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952). J.L. died on 4 February 1909 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Ernest Reyer was born on 1 December 1823 in Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. He is known for La joie de vivre (1952). He died on 15 January 1909 in Le Lavandou, Var, France.- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Louis Eugène Pirou was a French photographer and filmmaker, known primarily for his portraits of celebrities and scenes from the Paris Commune. He was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1889. He owned numerous studios in Paris. During the Exposition of 1889, he saw a presentation of chronophotography, given by its inventor, Étienne-Jules Marey. Not long after, he decided to pursue the new art of cinematography. He bought the necessary equipment in the summer of 1896 and, together with his employee, Albert Kirchner, who would later become a noted filmmaker in his own right, he filmed scenes of assorted events in Paris and showed them at the "Cinématographe Eugène Pirou" in the basement of the Café de la Paix at the Place de l'Opéra. He and Kirchner later produced one of the first known erotic films, Coucher de la mariée (1896).- Chief Red Cloud was born in 1822 in Nebraska, USA. He died on 10 December 1909 in Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, USA.
- Prinsesse Marie was born on 13 January 1865 in Ham, Surrey, England, UK. She was married to Prins Valdemar. She died on 4 December 1909 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
- George Meredith was born on 12 February 1828 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK. He was a writer, known for Matinee Theatre (1955), Diana of the Crossways (1922) and The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1964). He was married to Marie Vulliamy and Mary Ellen Nicolls. He died on 18 May 1909 in Box Hill, Surrey, England, UK.
- Ernest Hogan was born on 17 April 1865 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA. Ernest was married to Lillian E. Todhunter. Ernest died on 20 May 1909 in New York, New York, USA.
- Composer
- Music Department
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz was born on 11 December 1876 in Wiszniewo, Poland, Russian Empire [now Vishneva, Belarus]. He was a composer, known for Stanislaw i Anna (1987) and Mieczyslaw Karlowicz: Lonely Trek (2018). He died on 8 February 1909 in Tatra Mountains, Galicia, Austria-Hungary.- Composer
- Soundtrack
Giuseppe Martucci was born on 6 January 1856 in Capua, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies [now Campania, Italy]. Giuseppe was a composer, known for Arditi civili (1940) and A Castle in Italy (2013). Giuseppe died on 1 June 1909 in Naples, Italy.- Jean Clemens was born on 26 July 1880 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. She died on 24 December 1909 in Redding, Connecticut, USA.
- Carl Lorens was born on 7 July 1851 in Erdberg, Austria. He was a writer, known for The Fairy Dolly (1936). He died on 14 December 1909 in Vienna, Austria.
- Gustaf af Geijerstam was born on 5 January 1858 in Heds, Sweden. He was a writer, known for Stiliga Augusta (1946). He was married to Ulrika Maria Clementina Biörck and Sofia Eugenie Hortence Valenkamph. He died on 6 March 1909 in Stockholm, Sweden.
- Sarah Haggar was born in 1851 in Eccleshall, Staffordshire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Life of Charles Peace (1905). She was married to William Haggar. She died on 13 August 1909 in Carmarthen, Wales, UK.
- Catulle Mendès was born on 22 May 1841 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. Catulle was a writer, known for La grande Maguet (1947). Catulle was married to Jean Mette (poet) and Judith Louise Charlotte Ernestine Gautier. Catulle died on 7 February 1909 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Franche-Comté, France.
- Hugh Seton was born in 1855 in Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Tally Ho! (1901). He died on 7 October 1909 in Dartford, Kent, England, UK.