By Nicole Bernard
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
José Montserrate Feliciano García (Spanish pronunciation: [xoˈse feliˈsjano]; born September 10, 1945) is a Puerto Rican musician. He recorded many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors‘ “Light My Fire” and his self-penned Christmas song “Feliz Navidad“. Music genres he explores consist of fusion of many styles, such as Latin, blues, jazz, soul and rock music, created primarily with the help of his signature acoustic guitar sound.
In the United States, Feliciano became popular in the 1960s, particularly after his 1968 album Feliciano! reached number 2 on the music charts. Since then in his career, he released over 50 albums worldwide in both English and Spanish language.
José Montserrate Feliciano Garcia was born on September 10, 1945, in Lares, Puerto Rico, the fourth child of eleven sons. He was born blind as a result of congenital glaucoma. He was first exposed to music at the age of three, playing on a cracker tin can while accompanying his uncle who played the cuatro. When Feliciano was five, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City, where he made his first public appearance at the Teatro Puerto Rico in The Bronx.
At the age of 17, to help support his family, Feliciano left high school. He started frequenting the coffee houses of Greenwich Village, “passing the hat” as his “salary” in those clubs where he was invited to play. His first professional contracted performance was at The Retort, a coffee house in Detroit, Michigan.
José Feliciano has been married twice. He and his first wife, Janna (née Hilda Pérez, 1945–2018), divorced in 1978.
In 1971, Ernie Harwell had introduced Feliciano to Susan Omillian (b. c. 1954) a young Detroit art student. Harwell and Omillian originally met during Feliciano’s controversial rendition of the national anthem in 1968.
Feliciano and Omillian dated for 11 years before marrying in 1982. The couple have two sons and one daughter and reside in Weston, Connecticut.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Who discovered penicillin and when?
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Fathom
Puzzle of the Day
The Green Mountain State.(Name the U.S. state!)
Born
- Joseph Wheeler (politician) –
- Carl Van Doren (biographer, critic, author of non-fiction) –
- Adele Astaire (dancer) –
- Robert Wise (director) –
- Arnold Palmer (professional golfer) –
- Charles Kuralt (journalist) –
- Stephen Jay Gould (evolutionary theorist author) –
- Jose Feliciano (musician) –
- Joe Perry (musician) –
- Chris Columbus (film director) –
- Colin Firth (actor) –
- Randy Johnson (baseball player) –
- Guy Ritchie (director) –
- Ryan Philippe (actor) –
Died
- Huey P. Long (politician) –
- Amy Clampitt (poet) –
- Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (musician) –
- Jane Wyman (actress) –
Events
- Jamestown colony in Virginia received a new governor, John Smith–
- Faneuil Hall was given to the town of Boston, Massachusetts–
- Nathan Hale volunteered to spy behind enemy lines–
- Blount College was chartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. It later became the University of Tennessee.–
- Elias Howe patented his lockstitch sewing machine–
- American Forestry Association organized–
- Queen Elizabeth of Austria was assassinated–
- Popeye was heard for the first time on NBC radio–
- Canada declared war on Germany (World War II)–
- Mike the chicken lost his head when his owner, farmer Lloyd Olsen, chopped it off in preparation for dinner. However, Mike didn’t die. He toured the nation for nearly 18 months before choking to death in a motel in Arizona.–
- The television show Gunsmoke made its debut–
- Air terminal building of Halifax International Airport, Nova Scotia, opened–
- African Americans entered the white public schools in Alabama, after President Kennedy federalized the state’s National Guard as a move toward integrating the public schools–
- Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden, was fatally stabbed–
- A magnitude 6.0 earthquake, centered about 260 miles southwest of Tampa, Florida, struck–
- New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady signed a four-year $72 million contract extension. This made him the highest-paid player in the NFL at the time.–
Weather
- The Great Gale hit Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina–
- Hurricane Dora made landfall, St. Augustine, Florida–
- Hurricane Irma made U.S. landfall at Cudjoe Key, Florida–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
