On this day in 1859 Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera premiered in Napoli.

Birthday anniversaries of composer Giovanni Pacini (1796), conductor Vincenzo Bellezza (1888), contralto Gertrud Wettergren (1897), soprano Marjorie Lawrence (1909), conductor and composer René Leibowitz (1913), baritone Luis Sagi-Vela (1914), soprano and writer Margaret Truman (1924) and composer Lee Hoiby (1926).