Vivien Leigh was an English theatre and film actress. Although her film appearances were relatively few, she won two Academy Awards playing "Southern belles", Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire, a role she had also played in London's West End. She was a prolific stage performer, frequently in collaboration with her husband, Laurence Olivier, who directed her in several of her roles. During her thirty-year stage career, she played parts that ranged from the heroines of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw comedies to classic Shakespearean characters such as Ophelia, Cleopatra, Juliet and Lady Macbeth. Lauded for her beauty, Leigh felt that it sometimes prevented her from being taken seriously as an actress, but ill health proved to be her greatest obstacle. Affected by bipolar disorder for most of her adult life, she gained a reputation for being difficult, and her career went through periods of decline. She was further weakened by recurrent bouts of tuberculosis, which was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s. She and Olivier divorced in 1960, and Leigh worked sporadically in film and theatre until her death from tuberculosis.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1805: Napoleonic Wars: Lord Nelson led the British fleet to victory in the Battle of Trafalgar, defeating Pierre-Charles Villeneuve and his combined French and Spanish navy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar)

1824: English stonemason, bricklayer and inventor Joseph Aspdin patented Portland cement. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Aspdin)

1854: Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale)

1944: World War II: HMAS Australia was hit in the first kamikaze attack; 30 crewmen, including the commanding officer, were killed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze)

1969: Siad Barre became President after a military coup in Somalia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siad_Barre)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

He prayeth well, who loveth wellBoth man and bird and beast. He prayeth best, who loveth bestAll things both great and small;For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge)