Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

Harpsichordist

A Polish-born harpsichordist who initiated the revival of the harpsichord in the 20^th century.  She was born on July 5, 1879 in Warsaw and died on August 16, 1959 in Lakeville, Connecticut.  She studied composition in Berlin in 1896, and in 1900 went to Paris where, influenced by her husband, Henry Lew, an authority on folklore, she made researches into old music and keyboard instruments.  She taught at the Schola Cantorum, first played the harpsichord in public in 1903, and in 1909 published, with her husband, Musique ancienne, a study of 17^th- and 18^th-century music.  She remained until the beginning of World War II the principal exponent of 17^th- and 18^th-century harpsichord music, particularly that of Bach and Couperin, on whose works she wrote several studies.  In 1925 she founded a school for the study of old music at Saint-Leu-La-Forêt, near Paris, and in 1941 settled in the United States.  Among the modern works she inspired were the harpsichord concerti of Manuel de Falla and Francis Poulenc.  Early in the 20^th century her theories of technique were the basis of contemporary harpsichord playing.

Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

Landsberg began as seismologist and climatologist at Frankfurt (1903-31), becoming supervisor in seismological and meteorological research at the Taunus (Ger.) Observatory (1931-34).  An early study was of the velocity of earthquake waves.  He went to the United States in 1934, joining the faculty of Pennsylvania State College before removing to the University of Chicago in 1941.  He became chief of industrial climatology with the U.S.  Weather Bureau¸ now the U.S. national Weather Service, Washington, D.D. (1946), and thereafter held various government posts before becoming director of the Environmental Data Service, Environmental Science Services Administration, Silver Springs, Md. (1965)  he particularly studied Pleistocene climate and biennial atmospheric pulses.

Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

Novelist

Letitia Elizabeth Landon also known as L.E.L.  she was born on August 14, 1802 in London and died October 15, 1838 in Gold Coast Colony, now Ghana.  She was a poet and novelist who, at a period when women were conventionally restricted in their themes, treated that of passionate love.  She is remembered for her high-spirited social life and mysterious death and for verse that reveals a lively intelligence and intensity of feeling.

Her first volume of verse came out in 1821; it and the eight collections that followed were extremed popular, and she was in great demand as a contributor to magazines and the many annuals produced in the 1820s and ‘30s as gifts for ladies.  Her four novels (published 1831-42) were also successful.

She captivated London society by her wayward charm, and her exploits were the talk of the town.  An engagement to John Forster, journalist and man of letters, ended unhappily.  In 1838 she married George Maclean, governor of Cape Coast Castle.  She died of poisoning soon after her arrival in Africa after taking prussic acid, presumably by accident.

Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

Gorvernor of Kansas (1933-37)

He was called “ALF” Landon.  Born on September 9, 1887 in West Middlesex, Pa.  Was once a governor of Kansas (1933-37) and unsuccessful Republican candidate for president of the United States in 1936.  Landon went with his parents to Independence, Kan., in 1904.  After receiving a law degree from the University of Kansas (1908), he entered the oil business.  In 1912 he attended the Bull Moose Convention and campaigned in Kansas for the Progressive Party presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt.  Thereafter his political affiliation remained with Kansas progressivism.  In World War I he served in the U.S. Army chemical warfare service.

After the war Landon returned to his oil business and Kansas politics.  He was elected governor in 1932 despite a bitter interparty struggle; his re-election in 1934 aroused widespread interest because he was the only Republican gubernatorial incumbent to win that year.  His victory led to the “Landon Boom” and to his presidential candidacy of 1936.  Although nearly 17,000,000 Americans voted the Republican ticket throughout the country, the final tally showed that Landon had won the electoral votes of only Maine and Vermont.  After the election he continued to take part in Kansas politics but did not again play in important role in national affairs.

Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

Baseball First Commissioner

Landis was born on November 20, 1866, Millville, Ohio and died November 25, 1944, in Chicago.  He was a federal judge and first commissioner of baseball who, as commissioner, was noted for his uncompromising measures against persons guilty of dishonesty or other conduct he regarded as damaging to baseball.

He was named after a mountain near Atlanta, Ga., where his father, a Federal soldier, was wounded during the Civil War.  Landis attended the University of Cincinnati and in 1891 was graduated from the Union College of Law, Chicago, where he practiced law.  In March 1905, Pres. Theodore Roosevelt appointed Landis U.S. district judge for the northern district of Illinois.  Two years later, Landis won nationwide fame by fining the Standard Oil Company more than $29,000,000 for granting unlawful freight rebates. (The decision was reversed on appeal.)  during World War I he presided at sedition trials of Socialist and labor leaders.

In 1915 the Federal Leagues’, a “third major league” operating outside the structure of organized professional baseball, brought suit against the American and National leagues.  The case came before Landis, who neither granted nor denied the injunction that was requested by withheld his decision until the Federal League had disbanded on terms satisfactory to all three leagues.  Following the “Black Sox” baseball scandal of the 1919 World Series, Landis was proposed for the office of commissioner.  Replacing the three-man National Baseball Commission, which had failed to deal adequately with the “Black Sox” problem, Landis took office in January 1920

Although disliked and even feared by some for his autocratic methods and patriarchal sternness, the commissioner held office until his death, and one of his decisions ever was reversed.  He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in December 1944.

Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

Landini’s surviving works include 141 settings of ballate (91 for two voices, 42 for three, the rest in versions for both two and three voices), 1 French virelay, 12 madrigals, and a caccia.  His madrigals conform to the 14^th-century type, consisting “of one to four stanzas … sung to the same music” and at the end “a ritornello of two lines set in a contrasting rhythm” (G. Reese, Music in the Middle Ages).  His favorite form, however, was the balata, an Italian song from modeled on the French virelay or on the native Italian lauda spiritual.  The melodies (top part predominating are vocal in character and highly ornamental.  As in other songs of the period, they are distinguished by elaborate patterning, syncopations, roulades, and an evident lack of emotional connection between the words and the music.  The songs were performed by voices, instruments, or, typically, a mixture of both.  Their stylized elegance, gay preciosity, and clear, limpid texture characterize all of Landini’s song.

One cadence formula common in 14^th-century music, particularly that of Landini, is known as the Landini cadence, in which the leading tone drops to the sixth of the scale before approaching the final tonic note.

Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

First Modern Hygenist

He was born on October 26, 1654 and died on January 20, 1720 in Rome.  He was a clinician and botanist who is considered the first modern hygienist.  His monographs of influenza, cattle plague (rinderpest), and malaria revealed his gifts as an epidemiologist.  He related prevalence of malaria in swampy districts to the presence of mosquitoes and recommended drainage of the swamps to prevent the disease.

Lancisi was physician to the popes Innocent XI, Innocent XII, and Clement XI.  His classic work De subitaneis mortibus (1707, “On Sudden Death”) was prepared at the request of Clement XI to explain an increase of sudden deaths in Rome.  These Lancisi attributed to heart disease.  This treatise with De motu cordis et aneurysmatibus (1728, “On the Motion of the Heart and on Aneurysms”) contributed to knowledge of cardiac pathology.

Landstad was later given responsibility for the preparation of a national hymnal.  He included some 50 of his own hymns and completed the editing in 1861.

Reference:  The New Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropaedia) 

His suggested law as congressman was all about the welfare of the ordinary people.  One of these was the exportation of rice and corn.  Because of this, he was called the “Champion on the Mass.”

In 1958 he won as Vice President of the Philippines and on November 14, 1961 he won as President against former President Carlos P. Garcia.

As a President he gave emphasis on the problem in lack of employment and in the increase of production to help in the needs of many Pilipino.  Simple living in all of the government and the faithfulness in the duty was included in his bylaw.

He facilitated to reform the land to help the poor farmers.  He was given a hand by the experts in the law that will change the life of the small farmers.

Macapagal was the one sent Harry Stonehill and his accompanying person to go back to America.  Stonehill is an American millionaire who established many businesses in the Philippines.  He bribed some top officials in the government so he can do what ever he wants to have his business  always be successful in the country.  This became a big scandal that reached to the knowledge of Macapagal.  He did all the steps to end this scandal.

Macapagal also became the instrument to increase the relation of the Philippines in many countries.  He was also initiated to own Sabah from Malaysia.

Many of his detractor in the politics put Macapagal down. Different terrible issues were brought by the detractors which made in his clean name and services unpleasant.  It was not surprising anymore that he got lost when he ran again for President in November 1965.  Nevertheless, he was a gentleman to accept his failure.

When Former President Carlos P. Garcia, Macapagal replace him as the President of the Second Constitutional Convention.

President Diosdado Macapagal had two wives.  The first one was Purita dela Rosa who died early.  He had two children with Purita named Maria Cielo and Arturo.  The second one was Dr. Evangeline Macaraeg who had also given him two children named Maria Gloria and Diosdado Jr.

This was Macapagal aspiration in life:  “DO THE BEST THING YOU CAN DO AND GOD WILL DO ALL THE REST.”

Macapagal died last April 1997.