Michael Hordern (3 October 1911 – 2 May 1995) was an English stage and film actor best known for his Shakespearean roles, especially King Lear, whom he played on stage in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1969 and London in 1970 and on television five years later. Hordern came to prominence in the 1950s with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre where he played Caliban in The Tempest and Jaques in As You Like It. With Michael Benthall's company at the Old Vic, he played Polonius in Hamlet, and the title role in King John. In 1958 he won a best actor award at the British Academy Television Awards for his role as the barrister in John Mortimer's courtroom drama The Dock Brief. He appeared in nearly 140 cinema roles, including Cleopatra (1963) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). His television credits include Paradise Postponed, the BAFTA-award-winning Memento Mori, and the BBC adaptation of Middlemarch. He was knighted in 1983.

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

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1957:

A California Superior Court judge ruled that "Howl", a poem by Allen Ginsberg, was of "redeeming social importance" and thus not obscene. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl

1963:

Oswaldo López Arellano replaced Honduran president Ramón Villeda Morales in a violent coup, initiating two decades of military rule. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

1989:

Major Moisés Giroldi of the Panama Defense Forces failed in his attempt to overthrow dictator Manuel Noriega. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Panamanian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat_attempt

2013:

A boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa, resulting in more than 360 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Lampedusa_migrant_shipwreck

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

festschrift: A collection of articles, essays, etc., published together as a memorial or tribute to an academic or some other respected person. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/festschrift

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Happily for the busy lunatics who rule over us, we are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing.   --Gore Vidal https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal