By Marie Reader
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Roberta Cleopatra Flack (born February 10, 1937) is a retired American singer who topped the Billboard charts with the No. 1 singles “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face“, “Killing Me Softly with His Song“, “Feel Like Makin’ Love“, “Where Is the Love” and “The Closer I Get to You“, the latter two duets with Donny Hathaway. Flack influenced the subgenre of contemporary R&B called quiet storm, and interpreted songs by songwriters such as Leonard Cohen and members of the Beatles.
Flack was the first artist to win the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in two consecutive years: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” won in 1973 and “Killing Me Softly with His Song” won in 1974.
On April 20, 2018, Flack was appearing onstage at the Apollo Theater at a benefit for the Jazz Foundation of America. She became ill, left the stage, and was rushed to the Harlem Hospital Center. In a statement, her manager announced that Flack had had a stroke a few years prior and still was not feeling well, but was “doing fine” and being kept overnight for medical observation.
On November 14, 2022, it was announced by a spokesperson that Flack had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease and had retired from performing, due to the disease making it “impossible to sing”.
PERSONAL LIFE
Flack is a member of the Artist Empowerment Coalition, which advocates for artists to have the right to control their creative properties. She is also a spokeswoman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; her appearance in commercials for the ASPCA featured “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”. The Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, NYC, runs an after-school music program called “The Roberta Flack School of Music” to provide free music education to underprivileged students in partnership with Flack, who founded the school.
From 1966 to 1972, she was married to Steve Novosel. Flack is the aunt of professional ice skater Rory Flack. She is also the godmother of musician Bernard Wright, who died in an accident on May 19, 2022.
According to DNA analysis, she is of Cameroonian descent.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
The new year is by far the most important festival of the Chinese lunar calendar. It is celebrated on the second new Moon after the winter solstice. The holiday is a time of renewal, with debts cleared, new clothes bought, shops and homes decorated, and families gathered for a reunion dinner. Chinese New Year is marked by fireworks, traditional lion dances, gift giving, and special foods. Learn more about Chinese New Year traditions.
Question of the Day
Harvard College (now the undergraduate school of Harvard University) was established in 1636 for men, making it the oldest college in the United States.
Virginia’s College of William and Mary was chartered in 1693 and established in 1779 what is considered the first law school in the United States, when George Wythe was appointed as a Professor of Law and Police.
Tapping Reeve’s Litchfield Law School, in Litchfield, Connecticut, is recognized as the first law school in the United States not associated with a college or university. Reeve taught law to his first student (his brother-in-law) in 1774 at his home and continued teaching students at that location for 10 years. However, the official founding date of the law school is usually considered as 1784, when a separate school building was built on his property specifically for the purpose of law education and the first students were taught within it.
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Boris Pasternak (poet) –
- Alan Hale (actor) –
- Bill Tilden, Jr. (tennis player) –
- Jimmy Durante (comedian) –
- John F. Enders (scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954) –
- Bertolt Brecht (dramatist) –
- Lon Chaney, Jr. (actor) –
- Leontyne Price (opera singer) –
- Robert Wagner, Jr. (actor) –
- Roberta Flack (singer) –
- Adrienne Clarkson (Canadian Governor General) –
- Mark Spitz (Olympic gold medal swimmer) –
- Greg Norman (golfer) –
- George Stephanopoulos (political consultant & commentator) –
- Victor Davis (Olympic swimmer) –
- Laura Dern (actress) –
- Emma Roberts (actress) –
- Makenzie Vega (actress) –
Died
- Laura Ingalls Wilder (author) –
- Billy Rose (composer & bandleader) –
- Alex Haley (author) –
- Jim Varney (actor) –
- Retired Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters (ambassador to the UN and Germany) –
- Arthur Miller (playwright) –
- Roy Scheider (actor) –
- Shirley Temple Black (actress) –
Events
- Edmond Halley became second Astronomer Royal of England–
- Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the French and Indian War –
- France ceded Canada to England at the Treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War–
- Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha–
- Act of Union merged Upper and Lower Canada–
- Showman P. T. Barnum staged the wedding of General Tom Thumb and Mercy Lavinia Warren (both little people) in New York. They had to stand on a piano to greet their guests.–
- Alanson Crane patented a fire extinguisher system–
- Ontario’s first free public library opened, in Guelph–
- German government informed the U.S. that after March 1, 1916, armed merchantmen would be treated as warships and attacked without warning (WW I)–
- New Delhi became the capital of India–
- The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduced the first singing telegram–
- The first gold record was awarded for sales of over one million copies. It was Glenn Miller’s Chattanooga Choo Choo” on RCA”–
- Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman premiered in NY–
- Soviets released U.S. U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in Berlin in exchange for convicted Soviet agent Rudolf Abel–
- The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, providing a contingency plan for presidential succession–
- Peggy Fleming won an Olympic Gold medal in figure skating–
- Arab terrorists killed 1 Israeli and wounded 11 others in an attack at the Munich, West Germany, airport–
- 28 skiers performed backflips while holding hands, Bromont Québec–
- Bonnie Blair became the first U.S. medal winner at the Winter Olympics in Albertville in the women’s 500-meter speed skating. Also the first woman in Olympic history to win consecutive Winter Olympic gold medals–
- Garry Kasparov began chess match against computer Deep Blue”“–
- Brett Hull scored his 700th NHL goal–
- Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics sank his 2,561st 3-pointer, breaking the NBA record set by Reggie Miller–
Weather
- Early morning tornado at Albany, Georgia, caused over $3 million loss–
- Thundersnow (heavy snow accompanied by thunder and lightning) in northern New Hampshire–
- A rare February tornado in southern Oklahoma killed at least 9 people–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
