February 18 is the birthday of American stained glass artist LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY (1848-1933).

"I have always striven to fix beauty in wood, stone, glass or pottery, in oil or watercolor by using whatever seemed fittest for the expression of beauty, that has been my creed."

Click on the window below to take a tour of the gorgeous Tiffany windows in Kansas City's Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

February 18 is the birthday of Greek writer and philosopher NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS (1883-1957).

"I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."

"Everything in this world has a hidden meaning."

"Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he [Kazantzakis] was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years, and remains the most translated Greek author worldwide.

Kazantzakis's novels included Zorba the Greek (published in 1946 as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas), Christ Recrucified (1948), Captain Michalis (1950, translated as Freedom or Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955). He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs, and philosophical essays, such as The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises. His fame spread in the English-speaking world due to cinematic adaptations of Zorba the Greek (1964) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

He also translated a number of notable works into Modern Greek, such as the Divine Comedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Origin of Species, and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey." (Wikipedia)

February 18 is the birthday of American novelist TONI MORRISON (1931-2019).

"Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all."

"Where there is love there is life."

Morrison "was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience." (Wikipedia)

February 18 is the birthday of Czech-American film director MILOŠ FORMAN (1932-2018).

"Because if you lived, as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and then 20 years in communist totalitarianism, you would certainly realize how precious freedom is, and how easy it is to lose your freedom."

Forman started out as a leading figure in the Czech New Wave, but after immigrating to America, he directed classics like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Hair (1978) and Amadeus (1984).

"Throughout Forman's career he won 2 Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, a British Academy Film Award, a César Award, David di Donatello Award, and the Czech Lion." (Wikipedia)

February 18 is the birthday of American painter CARRIE ANN BAADE (b. 1974).

Baade "is an American painter whose work has been described by Curator of Contemporary Art Margaret Winslow as 'autobiographical parables combin(ing) fragments of Renaissance and Baroque religious paintings, resulting in surreal landscapes inhabited by exotic flora, fauna, and figures.'" (Wiklpedia)

To see examples of Baade’s art, CLICK HERE.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: On February 18, 1455, the great Italian painter and priest FRA ANGELICO died.

About Angelico (1395-1455), who was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 1982, the English art critic William Michael Rossetti wrote:

"From various accounts of Fra Angelico's life, it is possible to gain some sense of why he was deserving of canonization. He led the devout and ascetic life of a Dominican friar, and never rose above that rank; he followed the dictates of the order in caring for the poor; he was always good-humored. All of his many paintings were of divine subjects, and it seems that he never altered or retouched them, perhaps from a religious conviction that, because his paintings were divinely inspired, they should retain their original form. He was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of Christ should be with Christ. It is averred that he never handled a brush without fervent prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion. The Last Judgment and the Annunciation were two of the subjects he most frequently treated."

To see examples of Angelico’s ecstatic art, CLICK HERE.

On February 18, 1930, Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow milked in an aircraft.