4 October

Lucas Cranach the Younger
4 October 1515 – 25 January 1586
German Renaissance artist. Paintings can be seen in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Royal Collection, London; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Chi-Mei Museum, Taiwan. » more

Francesco Solimena
4 October 1657 — 3 April 1747
Italian Baroque artist. Paintings can be seen in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna; National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Musée des Augustins, Toulouse. » more

Giovanni Piranesi
4 October 1720 – 9 November 1778
Italian architect and Neoclassical artist whose prints provide a record of numerous buildings of Rome at that time. Paintings can be seen at Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; British Museum, London. » more

Jean-François Millet
4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875
French Realist painter, specialising in rural and farming works in the French countryside. Paintings can be seen in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; National Gallery, London; Courtauld Institute of Art, London; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. » more

Mihajlo Pupin
4 October 1858 – 12 March 1935
American scientist whose technical developments enabled very long distance telephone calls. » more

Damon Runyon
4 October 1880 – 10 December 1946
American writer. ‘Guys and Dolls’ musical was based on two of his stories (by Frank Loesser). » more

Buster Keaton
4 October 1895 – 1 February 1966
American comedian, principally of the silent film era. » more

John Atanasoff
4 October 1903 – 15 June 1995
American engineer who developed what is regarded as the first fully operational electronic automatic computer, known as the Atanasoff–Berry Computer. » more

Jackie Collins
4 October 1937
English author whose novels have made the best-sellers lists. » more

Today’s National Day
4 October – Lesotho.

Today’s Quote
He who is not very strong in memory should not meddle with lying.
 … Michel de Montaigne (1533 – 1592)

Today’s No. 1 Hit
1945 – Till the End of Time by Perry Como

Today’s events
4 October 1582 – The inauguration of the current Georgian Calendar. To compensate for errors in the old Julian calendar, the next day was 15 October.
4 October 1830 – Belguim comes into being, after separation from The Netherlands.
4 October 1883 – The fabled Orient Express makes its inaugural journey.
4 October 1957 – Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.