By Michelle Dumas
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Viola Davis (/vaɪˈoʊlə/ vy-OH-lə; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and film producer. Known for her work across screen and stage, her accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting and the EGOT. Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
A graduate of Juilliard, Davis began her career in Central Falls, Rhode Island, appearing in small stage productions, before expanding to screen with minor roles in film and television during the late 1990s and early 2000s. She won two Tony Awards—Best Featured Actress in a Play and Best Actress in a Play—for the respective roles of Tonya in the 2001 Broadway production of August Wilson‘s King Hedley II and Rose Maxson in the Broadway revival of Wilson’s play Fences (2010).
The drama Doubt (2008) earned Davis her first Academy Award nomination. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing a 1960s housemaid in The Help (2011) and Ma Rainey in the biopic Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020). She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for reprising her role in the 2016 film adaptation of Fences. Her role as lawyer Annalise Keating in the ABC drama series How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020) won her the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, making her the first black actress to do so. Davis is also recognized for appearing in big budget blockbusters, playing Amanda Waller in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with Suicide Squad (2016), and leading the historical action film The Woman King (2022).
Davis and her husband are founders of the production company JuVee Productions, and she is also widely recognized for her advocacy and support for human rights and women of color. She became a L’Oréal Paris ambassador in 2019. The audiobook narration of her 2022 memoir Finding Me won her the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
The phrase “Dog Days” refers to the hottest days of summer. The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional timing of the Dog Days: the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the heliacal (at sunrise) rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. The rising of Sirius does not actually affect the weather (some of our hottest and most humid days occur after August 11), but for the ancient Egyptians, Sirius appeared just before the season of the Nile’s flooding so they used the star as a “watchdog” for that event. Since its rising also coincided with a time of extreme heat, the connection with hot, sultry weather was made for all time.
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Gifford Pinchot (conservationist) –
- Jerry Falwell (evangelist) –
- Hulk Hogan (wrestler) –
- Joe Jackson (musician) –
- Viola Davis (actress) –
- Alyson Stoner (actress) –
Died
- Edith Wharton (author) –
- Jackson Pollock (artist) –
- Herb Brooks (coached the U.S. hockey team to the Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics”) –
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver (founder of the Special Olympics) –
- Robin Williams (actor) –
Events
- Mars moon Deimos discovered–
- The first prisoners arrived at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary–
- The first baseball game televised in color was between the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers, broadcasted from Ebbets Field. The Dodgers won 8-1–
Weather
- A major hurricane brought Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, the worst inland flooding since 1607–
- The temperature in Burlington, Vermont, reached 101 degrees F–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
