South Pacific is a musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The work was an immediate hit on Broadway in 1949, running for 1,925 performances and winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The plot is based on several stories in James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific. Rodgers and Hammerstein believed that the musical could be successful and send a strong progressive message on racism. They wrote several of the songs with the particular talents of their stars, Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin, in mind. Most of its songs became popular, including "Some Enchanted Evening" and "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair" (performance pictured). The original Broadway production won ten Tony Awards, including Best Musical; its original cast album was the bestselling record of the 1940s. The show has enjoyed many successful revivals and tours, spawning a 1958 film and later television adaptations.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pacific_%28musical%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1724:

Johann Sebastian Bach premiered his St John Passion, a musical setting of the Passion of Jesus, at Good Friday Vespers in St. Nicholas Church, Leipzig. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_Passion

1945:

World War II: U.S. forces sank the Japanese battleship Yamato, then the largest in the world, during Operation Ten-Go in the East China Sea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ten-Go

1995:

First Chechen War: Russian paramilitary troops began a massacre of hundreds of civilians in Samashki, Chechnya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samashki_massacre

2010:

Violent protests started in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in response to perceived corruption and rising living expenses, eventually resulting in the collapse of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyz_Revolution_of_2010

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

chivvy: 1. (transitive, Britain) To coerce or hurry along, as by persistent request. 2. (transitive, Britain) To subject to harassment or verbal abuse. 3. (transitive, Britain) To sneak up on or rapidly approach. 4. (transitive, Britain) To pursue as in a hunt. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chivvy

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science … In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws and customs, — in spite of things silently gone out of mind, and things violently destroyed, the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time … Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge — it is as immortal as the heart of man.   --William Wordsworth https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wordsworth