By Nicole Bernard
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone L.d’H. OMRI (Italian: [soˈfiːa vilˈlaːni ʃʃikoˈloːne]; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren (/ləˈrɛn/ lə-REN, Italian: [ˈlɔːren]), is an Italian actress, active in her native country and the United States. With a career spanning over 70 years, she is one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant, Loren began her film career at age 16 in 1950. She appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. Her film appearances around this time include The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, and It Started in Naples. During the 1950s, she starred in films as a sexually emancipated persona and was one of the best known sex symbols of the time.
Loren’s performance as Cesira in the film Two Women (1960), directed by Vittorio De Sica, won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first performer to ever win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance. She holds the record for having earned seven David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress: Two Women; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963); Marriage Italian Style (1964, for which she was nominated for a second Oscar); Sunflower (1970); The Voyage (1974); A Special Day (1977) and The Life Ahead (2020). She has won five special Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award), a BAFTA Award, a Laurel Award, a Grammy Award, the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, she received the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievements. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her one of the greatest stars of American film history.
At the start of the 1980s, Loren chose to make rarer film appearances. Since then, she has appeared in films such as Prêt-à-porter (1994), Grumpier Old Men (1995), Nine (2009), and The Life Ahead (2020). Loren was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honour in France in July 1991, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (OMRI) in June 1996.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Friday, September 20, 2024
Ember Days happen four times a year at the start of each season. Traditionally observed by some Christian denominations, each set of Ember Days is three days, kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
Ember Days for 2023
September: 20, 22, 23
December: 20, 22, 23
Ember Days for 2024
February 21, 23, 24
May 22, 24, 25
September 18, 20, 21
December 18, 20, 21
These three days are set apart for fasting, abstinence, and prayer. The first of these four times comes in winter, after the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13; the second set comes with the First Sunday in Lent; the third set comes after Whitsunday/Pentecost Sunday; the four and last set comes after the Feast of the Holy Cross. Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:
“Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.”
Which means:
“Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, are when the quarter holidays follow.”
In Latin, Ember Days are known as the quattuor anni tempora (the “four seasons of the year”). Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for three successive months.
As with much folklore, this is grounded in some common sense since the beginning of the four seasons cue the changes in weather as well as a shift in how we keep harmony with the Earth and respect our stewardship of the Earth, our “garden of Eden.”“
Observed each year on the third Friday in September, this is a time for Americans to honor the service and sacrifice of those who have been prisoners of war (POW) or are still missing in action (MIA). It is also a time to recognize how difficult this is for their families, to honor their courage, and to offer support. The day also serves to renew the commitment to account for all those missing from past wars and conflicts, and to work toward locating the remains of fallen soldiers and returning them home for burial.
Question of the Day
What is the best way to stack firewood?
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Apogean Tide
Puzzle of the Day
If you transpose a term for low, what horses have will plainly show. Transpose these letters yet once more, what’s said in churches you’ll explore. (What word fits the first clue, and when rearranged, fits the others?)
Mean – mane – amen
Born
- David Ross Locke (journalist) –
- George Bird Grinnell (naturalist) –
- Upton Sinclair (author) –
- Maxwell Perkins (editor) –
- Red Auerbach (basketball coach) –
- Anne Meara (actress) –
- Donald Hall (poet) –
- Sophia Loren (actress) –
- Guy Damien Lafleur (hockey player) –
- Ray Gozalez (poet) –
- Gary Cole (actor) –
- Kristen Johnston (actress) –
- Spencer Locke (actress) –
- Harley (giant anteater, Caldwell Zoo, Texas) –
Died
- Jacob Grimm (folklorist) –
- Benny Baker (comedian) –
- Jule Styne (songwriter) –
- William Rosenberg (founded Dunkin Donuts chain) –
- Polly Bergen (actress) –
Events
- Navigator Ferdinand Magellan left Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, for Spice Islands–
- Slave trading abolished in Washington, D.C.–
- Elisha Otis sold his first elevator–
- Frank Schuman patented wire safety glass–
- Billie King defeated Bobby Riggs in a tennis match in Houston, Texas, billed as the Battle of the Sexes–
- Cal Ripken, Jr. took the day off for the first time in 16 years and ended baseball’s ironman streak at 2,632 games–
Weather
- The Adirondack Tornado traveled 275 miles, starting over Lake Ontario, moving through New York State, and ending as a waterspout on Lake Champlain–
- 4.88 inches of rain drenched Berne, Indiana–
- Snow and 28 degrees F in St. Johsbury, Vermont–
- Frost in Dublin, NH–
- Peoria, Illinois, had its first summer freeze on record–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
