On this day in 1519, Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer; Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci died at the manor house Clos Lucé in Amboise, Touraine (in present-day Indre-et-Loire, France), at the age of 67. Born Lionardo di ser Piero da Vincion on 15 April 1452, in the Tuscan hill town of Vinci, in the lower valley of the Arno River in the territory of Florence. One of the most diversely talented people ever to have lived. Perhaps he best known for his paintings, Mona Lisa or La Giocondo, The Last Supper and his drawing Vitruvian Man. Da Vinci apparently had no close relationships with any women and never married. Reportedly in his final days Da Vinci apologized to “God and man for leaving so much undone.” If we all accomplished a fraction of what Da Vinci did the world would be an immeasurable better place.
The Final Footprint – King Francis I of France had apparently become a close friend and fact or legend reports that he held Leonardo’s head in his arms as he died. This story is beloved by the French and was portrayed in romantic paintings by Ingres, Ménageot and other French artists, as well as by Angelica Kauffman. In accordance with his will, sixty beggars followed his casket. Da Vinci is entombed in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in Château d’Amboise, France. The engraving on his crypt front reads; EN CE LIEV REPOSENT LES RESTES DE LEONARDO DE VINCI.
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#RIP #OTD in 1857 dramatist (Le Chandelier, Les caprices de Marianne), poet, novelist (La Confession d’un enfant du siècle) Alfred de Musset died of heart failure in Paris, aged 46. Cimetière du Père-Lachaise, Paris
On this day in 1864, opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer died in Paris at the age of 72. Born Jacob Liebmann Beer on 5 September 1791 in Tasdorf (now a part of Rüdersdorf), near Berlin, then the capital of Prussia. His father was the enormously wealthy financier Judah Herz Beer (1769–1825) and his mother, Amalia (Malka) Wulff (1767–1854) also came from the moneyed elite. Their other children included the astronomer Wilhelm Beer and the poet Michael Beer. Meyerbeer changed his surname upon the death of his grandfather Liebmann Meyer Wulff (1811) and adopted his first name Giacomo during his period of study in Italy. In my opinion, he is one of the most successful stage composers of the nineteenth century. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors he gave the genre of grand opera a distinct new character. Meyerbeer’s grand opera style was achieved by his merging of German orchestra style with Italian vocal tradition. These were employed in the context of sensational and melodramatic libretti created by Eugène Scribe, and were enhanced by the up-to-date theatre technology of the Paris Opéra. They set a standard which helped to maintain Paris as the opera capital of the nineteenth-century. His 1824 opera Il crociato in Egitto was the first to bring him Europe-wide reputation, but it was Robert le diable (1831) which raised his status to great celebrity. His public career from 1831 until his death, during which he remained throughout a dominating figure in the world of opera, was summarized by his contemporary Hector Berlioz, who claimed that he ‘has not only the luck to be talented, but the talent to be lucky.’ Meyerbeer was at his peak with his operas Les Huguenots (1836) and Le prophète (1849); his last opera (L’Africaine) was performed posthumously. His operas made him the most frequently performed composer at the world’s leading opera houses in the nineteenth century. Meyerbeer, as a Prussian Court Kapellmeister (Director of Music) from 1832, and from 1843 as Prussian General Music Director, was also influential in opera in Berlin and throughout Germany. He was an early supporter of Richard Wagner, enabling the first production of the latter’s opera, Rienzi. He was commissioned to write the patriotic opera Ein Feldlager in Schlesien to celebrate the reopening of the Berlin Royal Opera House in 1844, and wrote music for certain Prussian state occasions. His operas were suppressed by the Nazi regime in Germany, and were neglected by opera houses through most of the twentieth century.
The Final Footprint – Gioachino Rossini, who, not having heard the news, came to Meyerbeer’s apartment the day after his death, intending to meet him, was shocked to hear the news and fainted. He was reportedly moved to write on the spot a choral tribute (Pleure, pleure, muse sublime!). A special train bore Meyerbeer’s body from the Gare du Nord to Berlin on 6 May, where he was entombed in the family vault at the Jüdischer Friedhof Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin.
#RIP #OTD in 1999 actor (The Trap, Oliver!, Women in Love, The Devils, The Three Musketeers, The Four Musketeers, Tommy, Lion of the Desert, Castaway, Gladiator) Oliver Reed died of a heart attack in Valletta, Malta, aged 61. Bruhenny Graveyard, Buttevant, County Cork, Ireland
#RIP #OTD 2009 author (The Women’s Room), a leading figure of the feminist movement, Marilyn French died from heart failure at age 79, in Manhattan
#RIP #OTD in 2010 actress (Tom Jones, Georgy Girl, Three Sisters in London, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Shine, Gods and Monsters) Lynn Redgrave died from breast cancer at her home in Kent, Connecticut, aged 67. St Peter’s Episcopal Cemetery, Lithgow, New York
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On this day in 1883, painter 
Leenhoff in 1863. Leenhoff was a Dutch-born piano teacher of Manet’s age with whom he had been romantically involved for approximately ten years. Leenhoff initially had been employed by Manet’s father, Auguste, to teach Manet and his younger brother piano. She also may have been Auguste’s mistress. In 1852, Leenhoff gave birth, out of wedlock, to a son, Leon Koella Leenhoff. Eleven-year-old Leon Leenhoff, 
whose father may have been either of the Manets, posed often for Manet, most famously, as the subject of the Boy Carrying a Sword of 1861 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). He also appears as the boy carrying a tray in the background of The Balcony. Manet painted his wife in The Reading, among other paintings.
The Final Footprint – Manet is buried in Passy Cemetery in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Opened in 1820 in the expensive residential and commercial districts of the Right Bank near the Champs-Élysées, by 1874 the small Passy Cemetery had become the aristocratic necropolis of Paris. Sheltered by a bower of chestnut trees, the cemetery is in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. The retaining wall of the cemetery is adorned with a bas relief (by Louis Janthial) commemorating the soldiers who fell in the Great War. Other notable final footprints as Passy include; Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Hubert de Givenchy, Octave Mirbeau, and Berthe Morisot.
Dead Matador, National Gallery of Art, 1864–1865
On this day in 1983, ballet choreographer George Balanchine died, aged 79, in Manhattan from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. Born Georgiy Melitonovich Balanchivadze on January 22, 1904 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire. In my opinion, one of the most influential 20th century choreographers. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years.
On this day in 1989, director, producer and screenwriter, Sergio Leone died from a heart attack in Rome at the age of 60. Born on 3 January 1929 in Rome. Best known as the director of three legendary, iconic westerns, often referred to as Spaghetti Westerns: A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) (1964) with Clint Eastwood; For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più) (1965) with Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef; and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966) with Eastwood, Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. The film score for all three movies was composed by Ennio Morricone. Leone also directed Once Upon a Time in the West (C’era una volta il West) (1968) with Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale; and Once Upon a Time in America (C’era una volta il America) (1984) with Robert De Niro. All five of these movies are among my very favorites and I will stop what I am doing to watch them.
On this day in 1967, blues guitarist and singer-songwriter J. B. Lenoir died in Urbana, Illinois, at the age 38, of internal bleeding related to injuries he had suffered in a car crash three weeks earlier, which had not been properly treated in a hospital in Illinois. Born on March 5, 1929 in Monticello, Mississippi. He was active in the Chicago blues scene in the 1950s and 1960s.
On this day in 1980, director and producer, Alfred Hitchcock died of renal failure in his Bel Air, Los Angeles, California home at the age of 80. Born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock on 13 August 1899 in Leytonstone, London, England. One of the most influential filmmakers of all time. Hitchcock took suspense and psychological thrills to a whole new level in his films. His stories frequently feature fugitives on the run and beautiful blonde female characters. My favorite Hitchcock movies include: Suspicion (1941) with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine; Spellbound (1945) with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman; Notorious (1946) with Grant and Bergman; Dial M for Murder (1954) with Ray Milland and Grace Kelly; Rear Window (1954) with Jimmy Stewart and Kelly; To Catch a Thief (1955) with Grant and Kelly; Vertigo (1958) with Stewart and Kim Novak; North by Northwest (1959) with Grant and Eva Marie Saint; and Psycho (1960) with Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.
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On this day in 1953, English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist, actress, and muse of William Butler Yeats, Maud Gonne died in Clonskeagh, Ireland at the age of 86. Born Edith Maud Gonne on 21 December 1866 in Tongham near Farnham, Surrey, England. She was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars. In 1889, she first met Yeats, who fell in love with her. Gonne in turn, was in love with Lucien Millevoye a French journalist and right-wing politician with whom she would have two children. Many of Yeats’s poems are inspired by her, or mention her. He wrote the plays The Countess Cathleen and Cathleen Ní Houlihan for her. His poem Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven ends with a reference to her:
The Final Footprint – Gonne is interred in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, the largest nondenominational cemetery in Ireland. Her grave is marked by a simple upright stone marker. Upon their deaths, her son, his wife and their son were interred next to her. Michael Collins is also interred at Glasnevin.
On this day in 1932, poet Hart Crane likely died by suicide by jumping overboard from the steamship 
On this day in 1989, legendary comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, multiple Emmy winner, Lucille Ball died Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from an aortic aneurysm at the age of 77. Born Lucille Désirée Ball on 6 August 1911 in Jamestown, New York. Perhaps best known as the star of the sitcom I Love Lucy, co-starring her then husband Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo and Vivian Vance and William Frawley as Ethel and Fred Mertz, the Ricardo’s landlords and friends. Ball met and eloped with Cuban bandleader Arnaz in 1940. Ball and Arnaz founded Desilu Productions and Desilu Studios which was home to I Love Lucy and other hit television shows including; Star Trek, The Andy Griffith Show, Mission: Impossible, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, My Three Sons, Family Affair, The Untouchables, I Spy, Mannix, Gomer Pyle, USMC, and That Girl. On 17 July 1951, almost 40 years old, Ball gave birth to their first child, Lucie Désirée Arnaz. A year and a half later, Ball gave birth to their second child, Desiderio Alberto Arnaz IV, known as Desi Arnaz, Jr. Ball and Arnaz divorced on 4 May 1960. Her second marriage was to Gary Morton (1961-1989 her death).
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