On this day in 451 AD, Roman General Flavius Aetius defeated Attila the Hun at The Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, halting the Hun invasion of Roman Gaul.

Born on this day in 1807 librettist Giovanni Ruffini

Born on this day in 1832 composer Johann Joseph Abert

Born on this day in 1866 composer Gustave Doret

Born on this day in 1880 composer Ildebrando Pizzetti

Born on this day in 1917 opera director and administrator Göran Gentele

(no footage from Gentele’s TV production of Verdi’s Masked Ball with Ragnar Ulfung playing a very effete Gustav III)

Happy 90th birthday singer Gogi Grant

Happy 80th birthday actress Sophia Loren