Happy birthday...

A secular equivalent to the Catholic calendar of saints

(secular saints selected by piero scaruffi)

Aug 1
Jerry Garcia: tribute

(Why? Best rock albums of the 1960s)
Also:
Herman Melville (Best novels)
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (History of Knowledge)
Aug 2
The Hampster Dance: tribute

(Why? Greatest songs of all time)
Also:
Isabel Allende (Best novels in Spanish)
Aug 3
Roscoe Mitchell: tribute

(Why? Best Jazz of the 1960s),
Aug 4
Louis Armstrong: tribute

(Why? Greatest trumpeters of jazz)
Witold Gombrowicz: tribute

(Why? Best novels of all time)
Klaus Schulze: tribute

(Why? Best rock albums of the 1970s)
Also:
Percy-Bysshe Shelley (Best poetry in English)
Jonas Wenstrom (Science of the 19th century)
Aug 5
John Huston: tribute

(Why? Best films of the 1950s
Also:
Neil Armstrong (History of Knowledge)
Aug 6
Andy Warhol: tribute

(Why? Art and Culture in the 20th Century)
Charlie Haden: tribute

(Why? Best Jazz of the 1960s)
Also:
Alexander Fleming (Modern Science and Technology)
Paul Claudel (Best theater),
Aug 7
Roland Kirk: tribute

(Why? Best Jazz of the 1960s)
Aug 8
Paul Dirac: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Also:
Roger Penrose (Modern Physics),
Ernest Lawrence (Modern Science and Technology),
Dustin Hoffman (Best actors),
William Bateson (Modern Science and Technology)
Aug 9
Robert Aldrich: tribute

(Why? Best films of the 1960s)
Jean Piaget: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Marvin Minsky: tribute

(Why? Artificial Intelligence)
Also:
Philip Larkin (Best poets),
Amedeo Avogadro (Science of the 19th century)
Aug 10
Jorge Amado: tribute

(Why? Best Portuguese Novels)
Also:
Jean-Francois Lyotard (History of Knowledge)
Ettore Pancini (Science of the 20th century)
Aug 11
Steve Wozniak: tribute

(Why? History of Computing)
Also:
Fernando Arrabal (Best theater)
Aug 12
Erwin Schrodinger: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Also:
Pat Metheny (Jazz guitarists)
Aug 13
Alfred Hitchcock: tribute

(Why? Best films of all time)
Also:
Frederick Sanger (Science of the 20th century)
Johannes Friedrich Miescher (Science of the 19th century)
Aug 14
Wim Wenders: tribute

(Why? Best films of the 1980s
Also:
Pierre Schaeffer (Art and Culture in the 20th Century)
Hans Oersted (Science of the 19th century)
Aug 15
Louis DeBroglie: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Also:
Oscar Peterson (Best jazz albums of the 1950s),
Ghose Aurobindo (History of Knowledge),
Walter Scott (Best poetry in English)
Arthur Tansley (Science of the 20th century)
Aug 16
Wilhelm-Max Wundt: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Also:
Kevin Ayers (Best rock albums of the 1970s),
Charles Bukowski (Best novels in English)
Aug 17
Robert De Niro: tribute

(Why? Best actors)
Also:
Pierre de Fermat (Greatest mathematicians),
Ted Hughes (Best poetry in English)
Aug 18
Roman Polanski: tribute

(Why? Best films of the 1970s)
Also:
Henri-Georges Clouzot
(Why? Best films of the 1950s)
Elsa Morante (Best novels in Italian)
Aug 19
Philo Farnsworth: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Also:
Gilbert Ryle (philosopher)
Orville Wright (Science of the 20th century)
Aug 20
Roger Sperry: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Also:
Eero Saarinen (History of Architecture),
Isaac Hayes (History of Soul Music),
Jack Teargarden (Jazz trombonists)
Aug 21
Count Basie: tribute

(Why? Greatest pianists of jazz)
Aug 22
Karlheinz Stockhausen: tribute

(Why? 20th Century Classical Music)
Claude Debussy: tribute

(Why? Best of Classical Music)
Also:
Ray Bradbury (Best novels in English),
John Lee Hooker (History of the Blues)
Aug 23
Allan Kaprov: tribute

(Why? Art and Culture in the 20th Century)
Also:
Chan-wook Park (Best films of the 2000s)
Konstantin Novoselov (Science of the 20th century)
Hamilton Smith (Science of the 20th century)
Aug 24
Jorge-Luis Borges: tribute

(Why? Greatest writers of all time)
Also:
Antonia Byatt (Best Novels of the 20th Century)
Aug 25
Leonard Bernstein: tribute

(Why? Greatest classical conductors)
Also:
Walt Kelly (Comics)
Aug 26
Guillame Apollinaire: tribute

(Why? The Best poetry of all time)
Julio Cortazar: tribute

(Why? Greatest writers of all time)
Also:
Albert Sabin (Modern Science and Technology),
Antoine Lavoiser (Science and Technology of the 18th Century),
Lee DeForest (Modern Science and Technology),
Edward Witten (Science of the 20th century)
Aug 27
Georg Hegel: tribute

(Why? History of Knowledge)
Man Ray: tribute

(Why? Art and Culture in the 20th Century)
Alice Coltrane: tribute

(Why? Best Jazz of the 1970s),
Also:
Lester Young (Greatest tenor saxophonists of jazz),
Giuseppe Peano (Greatest mathematicians),
Sonny Sharrock (Best jazz albums of the 1970s)
Carl Bosch (Science of the 20th century)
Aug 28
Johann-Wolfgang Goethe: tribute

(Why? Greatest writers of all time)
Also:
Godfrey Hounsfield (Science of the 20th century)
Janet Frame (Best novels in English)
Aug 29
Charlie Parker: tribute

(Why? Greatest jazz saxophonists)
Diamanda Galas: tribute

(Why? Greatest jazz saxophonists)
Also:
John Locke (History of Knowledge)
Aug 30
Ernest Rutherford: tribute

(Why? Modern Science and Technology)
Also:
Aug 31
Van Morrison: tribute

(Why? Greatest rock albums)
Also:
Hermann von Helmholtz (History of Knowledge),
Edward Thorndike (History of Knowledge),
Theophile Gautier (Best novels in French)

Back to the calendar


Selected by piero scaruffi