1947 Jerry John Rawlings, presidente de Ghana.
1946 Józef Oleksy, político polaco.
1945 Pere Gimferrer, escritor y académico español.
1936 Juan José Alonso Millán, comediógrafo español.
| 1934 Conception
of the “People’s Car”
^top^ Ferdinand Porsche contracts with the Automobile Manufacturers Association of Germany (RDA) to build three prototype “people’s cars” over a ten-month period. The contract is a direct result of Hitler’s personal request to Porsche, and the result, of course, was the Volkswagen. But it would take years for Porsche to accomplish his dream of bringing a small, affordable car to the market. In 1899, at the age of twenty-four, Ferdinand Porsche had become one of Europe’s most famous automotive engineers with the introduction of his Porsche-Lohner electric car. It was his first offering to the world, and it was characteristically ingenious. Ferdinand Porsche has been called the automotive world’s answer to “the Natural”; his designs have always been incomprehensibly ahead of their times. At a time when all automotive designers focused all their energies on mustering speed, Porsche’s car came with two separate brake systems, one mechanical and one electric, while still supplying competitive speed. For the next thirty-five years Porsche would strive, often under the auspices of the company then known as Daimler Motors, to produce the smallest, fastest cars in the world. So recognizable was Porsche’s genius that his quest was sadly hindered by outside interference. Consider that in 1932, while first working on the design for a “Volksauto” for Zundapp Motors in Germany, Porsche was approached by a group of Russian engineers with a remarkable offer. Having studied his work, the Russian engineers had deemed Porsche the greatest automotive engineer and as such offered to take him back to Russia to show him the state of their country’s industry. Porsche didn’t know what they wanted but, flattered by the invitation, he went along. He was received like royalty, an honored guest of the state. The Russians’ offer was inconceivable: they offered him the position of State Designer of Russia, a position in charge of all automobile, tank, and electric vehicle production. Every one of his designs would be realized by the country’s vast sources of material wealth. All he had to do was sign a contract. Porsche respectfully declined, but such was his prowess that only two years later Adolf Hitler approached Porsche with the project of designing a people’s car for the State of Germany. Because making a small, affordable car was Porsche’s dream, he jumped at the offer. The Volkswagen prototype was completed in 1936, but war in Europe erupted before production could begin. Porsche was asked to supply tank designs, which he did, creating the “Tiger,” “Ferdinand,” and “Mouse” tanks for the German army. Hitler moved Porsche from Stuttgart to the remote Austrian town of Gmund, to keep him away from Allied bombing. At the end of the war the US Army captured Porsche, interrogated him, and released him to his villa in Gmund. French officials later arrested him for his participation in the war cause and Porsche served a two-year sentence at the Renault estate in France. He was finally released in 1947, and he returned to Gmund. There he undertook, with his son Ferry, the project of building a small performance car with his own name. Meanwhile, the Volkswagen had gone into mass production. The first Porsche, the 356, was a convertible sports car version of the Volkswagen with much improved suspension. |
1930 Francisco Fernández Ordóñez, político español.
1911 Émile Grau-Sala, Catalan French painter who died on 21 June 1975. — Figuras — Paddock
| 1910 Konrad
Zuse, German computer pioneer.
^top^ He would grow up to be a mathematician and computer pioneer. He built a small electromechanical binary calculator in his parents' living room in 1941. The major difference between Zuse's machine and those developed by the Americans and British in the 1940s was that Zuse did not use vacuum tubes in his design. The German government ordered several computers from Zuse, but all were destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944. Zuse later claimed that a patent he had filed on his machines predated those of any other computer developer, making him the father of the digital computer. |
1906
Anne
Morrow Lindbergh, writer and pilot, in Englewood,
New Jersey, to a well-to-do family.. ^top^
Anne attended Smith College, where her writing won several coveted
literary awards. While her father was ambassador to Mexico,
she met the young hero, Charles Lindbergh, after his 1927 historic
transatlantic solo. They married on May 27, 1929. . He taught
her to fly and to navigate. The couple flew frequently, and
she became the first woman to receive a glider pilot's license.
She got her airplane pilot's license in 1931 and published several
books about her experiences, including North to the Orient
(1935), about the couple's flight over Canada and Alaska to
Asia, and Listen! The Wind about their 50'000-km survey
of north and south Atlantic air routes.The couple's infant son was kidnapped for ransom and murdered in 1932. The tragedy affected the entire nation. She was pregnant again when he was kidnapped. In all, the Lindberghs had six children. In 1934, she became the first woman to win the National Geographic Society Hubbard Gold Medal. Her 1944 book, Gift from the Sea, became a bestseller and was reissued in a special anniversary edition 25 years after its publication. Some of her other books are “Bring Me A Unicorn;” “Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead;” “Locked Rooms and Open Doors;” “The Flower and the Nettle.” |
1898 Erich Maria Remarque novelist (All Quiet on the Western Front)
1887 Sir Julian Huxley London, biologist/philosopher, Darwin's Bulldog.
1869 William McGregor Paxton, US artist who died in 1941.
1861 Conde Von Spee, Maximilian, marino y estratega alemán.
1858 Giacomo Puccini Italy, operatic composer (Madama Butterfly)
1856 H Rider Haggard author (King Solomon's Mine, She)
1864 Hermann Minkowski, mathematician
1860 Pieri, mathematician.
1857 Max Gaisser, German artist who died in 1922.
1845 Richard John Seddon, político y abogado británico.
1837 Paul Morphy New Orleans, greatest chess player of his time (1857-61), some say of all time
1837 Bachmann, mathematician
1805 Giuseppe Mazzani, patriote écrivain italien, farouche partisan de l'unité italienne et de la libération de l'Italie du joug autrichien. En 1848, après la fuite du pape de Rome, Mazzani fait parti du triumvirat romain. Obligé de s'enfuir en Suisse, puis en Angleterre, il ne cesse pas de lutter pour l'unité de son pays.
1757 George Vancouver, who would survey the Pacific coast from San Francisco to Vancouver Island.
1636 Jan van de Venne, Dutch artist who died after 1672.
1565 Francisco Ribalta, Spanish Baroque era painter who died on 12 January 1628. — MORE ON RIBALTA AT ART “4” JUNE — LINKS — Christ Embracing St Bernard — Virgen de Portacoeli — Sueño de la Madre de San Eloy — San Francisco Confortado por un Angel — The Nailing to the Cross — Santo Isidro Labrador — Abrazo de San Francisco al Crucificado — Encuentro del Nazareno con su Madre — Presentación de María en el Templo
| 0972 La
mosquée Al-Azhar, la plus grande du monde, est inaugurée
au Caire.
^top^ Construite en à peine plus de 2 ans, c’est un record pour une époque où les techniques de construction sont plus lentes qu’aujourd’hui. L’esplanade en face de la Mosquée (et qui la sépare du Palais du Calife Aziz) pouvait contenir facilement 10'000 hommes de troupe en marche. La mosquée proportionnelle à cet espace, contient en plus des lieux du culte, une université islamique ainsi que les bâtiments d’accueil et de logement des professeurs et de leurs élèves. Un hôpital est également couplé à cette université dont le rôle n’est donc pas purement théologique, mais aussi scientifique. Et l’on sait que dans le domaine de la médecine, les musulmans avaient plusieurs siècles d’avance sur les Européens, toujours embarrassés dans leurs recherches par l’interdiction d’autopsier et d’ouvrir les cadavres. |
