Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. Beginning as a cellist and conductor, Offenbach first wrote small-scale one-act pieces, limited by theatrical licensing laws. These eased by 1858 when he premiered his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underworld). La belle Hélène (1864) and other successes followed. The risqué humour (often about sexual intrigue) and gentle satire in these pieces, together with Offenbach's facility for melody, made them internationally known, and he was a powerful influence on later operetta and musical theatre composers. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st century. The Tales of Hoffmann remains part of the standard opera repertory. ( Full article...)

Giado concentration camp

• ... that Libyan Jews and Arabs traded and bartered with each other at the fence of the Giado concentration camp (pictured)?
• ... that environmental journalist Gloria Dickie wrote her thesis on how cities in Colorado changed garbage laws to prevent bear incursions?
• ... that Brunel University's lecture centre has been described as "imposing" and "frightening", but also as "an expressive centrepiece" and "a brutalist classic"?
• ... that Benjamin Jackson was likely paid at least $300 to fight in the American Civil War as Lewis Saunders?
• ... that, of the three presidents of the Chamber of Dutch Culture, two were arrested and one was assassinated?
• ... that the inclusion of two preteen competing performers at the Eurovision Song Contest 1989 led to the introduction of an age rule for participants at future contests?
• ... that a gunman who, in 1960, shot three people dead in Sheffield, England, was deported to Somalia, where he was killed in a shoot-out while "running amok"?
• ... that Iowa government social worker Catherine G. Williams started out as a tap dancer?
• ... that Banner in the Sky inspired a Canadian dentist to climb the Matterhorn?

July 15: Marine Day in Japan (2024)

Psy

• 1799 – French soldiers at Fort Julien, near the Egyptian port city of Rashid, uncovered the Rosetta Stone, which was essential in the decipherment of ancient Egyptian scripts.
• 1870 – Following the transfer of Rupert's Land from the Hudson's Bay Company, Manitoba was established as a province of Canada.
• 1943 – The all-female Emilia Plater Independent Women's Battalion was formed in the Soviet Union's First Polish Army.
• 2009 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908 crashed in northwestern Iran, killing all 168 people aboard.
• 2012 – South Korean rapper Psy (pictured) released his hit single " Gangnam Style".