Claudio Monteverdi (15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, string player and maestro di cappella. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a transitional figure between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods of music history. He was a court musician in Mantua (c. 1590 – 1613), and then maestro di cappella at St Mark's Basilica in the Republic of Venice. His surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, in the tradition of earlier Renaissance polyphony – but also experimenting with the basso continuo technique, distinctive of the Baroque – as well as large-scale sacred works, including the Vespro della Beata Vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin), and three complete operas. His music enjoyed a rediscovery from the 1880s onwards, and he is now seen as a significant influence in European musical history. Seven of his operas have been lost, but his L'Orfeo (1607) is the earliest opera that is still widely performed.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1836:

English astronomer Francis Baily observed Baily's beads (example pictured), a phenomenon during a solar eclipse in which the rugged topography of the lunar limb allows sunlight to shine through. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Baily

1945:

The British Army directed fleeing Croatian soldiers to surrender to the Yugoslav Partisans, beginning the Bleiburg repatriations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleiburg_repatriations

1970:

Police opened fire during a confrontation with a group of Jackson State College students, killing two students and injuring twelve others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_State_killings

2010:

Upon her return to Sydney three days before her 17th birthday, Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Watson

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

primigravida: (obstetrics, veterinary medicine) A woman or female animal who is pregnant for the first time, or who has been pregnant once. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/primigravida

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The Scarecrow was now the ruler of the Emerald City, and although he was not a Wizard the people were proud of him. "For," they said, "there is not another city in all the world that is ruled by a stuffed man." And, so far as they knew, they were quite right.   --L. Frank Baum https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/L._Frank_Baum