Gustave Courbet's Birth Anniversary

 

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet, born on 10 June 1819, in Ornans, Doubs, France, was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19^th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists. His independence set an example that was important to later artists, such as the Impressionists and the Cubists. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th-century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social statements through his work.

Courbet's paintings of the late 1840s and early 1850s brought him his first recognition. They challenged convention by depicting unidealized peasants and workers, often on a grand scale traditionally reserved for paintings of religious or historical subjects. Courbet's subsequent paintings were mostly of a less overtly political character: landscapes, seascapes, hunting scenes, nudes and still lives. Courbet was imprisoned for six months in 1871 for his involvement with the Paris Commune and lived in exile in Switzerland from 1873 until his death four years later.

Judy Garland's Birth Anniversary

 

Judy Garland, born Frances Ethel Gumm; on 10 June 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, U.S., was an American actress and singer. Possessing a strong contralto voice, she was celebrated for her emotional depth and versatility across film, stage, and concert performance. Garland achieved international recognition for her portrayal of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). Her recording of "Over the Rainbow” became an enduring song in American popular music. Over a career spanning more than forty-five years, she recorded eleven studio albums, and several of her recordings were later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. 

At the age of two, Garland began her career by performing with her two sisters as a vaudeville act, The Gumm Sisters. In 1935, she signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer at thirteen and appeared in supporting roles in ensemble musicals such as Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937) and Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937). The success of The Wizard of Oz propelled her into leading roles in MGM musicals including Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948) and Summer Stock (1950). In the 1950s and early 1960s she expanded her range with dramatic performances in A Star Is Born (1954) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), both of which earned her Academy Award nominations and demonstrated her capacity to convey vulnerability and resilience on screen.

Beyond her film work, Garland cultivated a distinguished career in live performance and recordings. Her 1961 live album Judy at Carnegie Hall won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, capping a series of sold-out engagements at the Hollywood Bowl and concerts. That same year she became the first woman—and, at thirty-nine, the youngest recipient—of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in motion pictures. Her honours also included a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Juvenile Award for her early contributions, and a Special Tony Award for her role in reviving vaudeville. In 1997 she was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked her eighth among the greatest female screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema.

Garland's personal life was marked by both public fascination and private struggle. She married five times and had three children, including actress and singer Liza Minnelli. From her teenage years onward, she faced health challenges exacerbated by studio pressures on her appearance and performance, and she developed dependencies on prescription medications that affected her physical and mental well-being. Financial difficulties, including substantial tax debts, added to her burdens. She died in London in 1969 from an accidental barbiturate overdose at age forty-seven. Garland's resilience, artistic range and enduring recordings have ensured her lasting impact on popular culture and her reputation as a cultural icon.

Michael III, prince of Serbia assassinated in 1868

Michael III, who passed away on 10 June [29 May, Old Style], 1868, aged 44, in Košutnjak, near Belgrade) was the prince of Serbia (1839–42, 1860–68) and modern Serbia’s most enlightened ruler, who instituted the rule of law and attempted to found a Balkan federation aimed against the Ottoman Empire.

The second son of Miloš Obrenović, Michael succeeded to the Serbian throne on the death of his elder brother, Milan, on July 8, 1839, but fled into exile after a revolt in 1842. Having travelled widely, he returned on his father’s restoration to the throne (1858), served as commander in chief of the army, and became prince again on Miloš’s death in 1860. An enlightened though increasingly authoritarian ruler, Michael gradually freed Serbia from Turkish controls until all Ottoman soldiers had left the country in 1867. Nevertheless, his Balkan League, designed to unite all South Slavs against Turkey, collapsed soon after his death. In domestic affairs, Michael reformed the judicial system, revised the electoral laws, and instituted a regular conscript army (1861), for which Russia furnished supplies; he also established a state mortgage bank (1862), the Serbia Learned Society (1864), the first Serbian coinage since the Middle Ages (1868), and the national theatre. His reign was cut short by his assassination.