Georg Solti (1912–1997) was an orchestral and operatic conductor, best known for his appearances with opera companies in Munich, Frankfurt and London, and as a long-serving music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In the 1930s, he was a répétiteur at the Hungarian State Opera and worked at the Salzburg Festival for Arturo Toscanini. His career was interrupted by the rise of the Nazis. After conducting a season of Russian ballet in London at the Royal Opera House he found refuge in Switzerland, where he remained during the Second World War. After the war, he was appointed musical director of the Bavarian State Opera in 1946, the Frankfurt Opera in 1952, and the Covent Garden Opera Company in London in 1961. In 1969 Solti was appointed music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a post he held for 22 years. He restored the orchestra's reputation after it had been in decline for most of the previous decade. Known in his early years for the intensity of his music making, Solti was widely considered to have mellowed as a conductor in later years. He recorded many works two or three times at various stages of his career, and was a prolific recording artist, making more than 250 recordings, including 45 complete opera sets. The most famous of his recordings is probably Decca's complete set of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, made between 1958 and 1965.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Solti

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1139:

Prince Afonso Henriques led Portuguese troops to victory over the Almoravid Moors at the Battle of Ourique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ourique

1609:

The crew of British sailing ship Sea Venture grounded her on the reefs of Bermuda, which is widely believed to have inspired Shakepeare's The Tempest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Venture

1814:

War of 1812: In present-day Niagara Falls, Ontario, the United States and Great Britain engaged in one of the deadliest battles ever fought on Canadian soil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lundy%27s_Lane

1909:

French aviator Louis Blériot crossed the English Channel in a heavier-than-air flying machine, flying from near Calais, France, to Dover, England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Bl%C3%A9riot

1978:

Louise Brown, the world's first baby conceived through in vitro fertilisation, was born in Oldham, England. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_fertilisation

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

eviscerate: 1. (transitive) To disembowel, to remove the viscera. 2. (transitive) To destroy or make ineffectual or meaningless. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eviscerate

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity. --Eric Hoffer https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer