March 20 is the birthday of the ancient Roman poet OVID (43 B.C.-17/18 A.D.). Probably his most famous work is THE METAMORPHOSES, his delightful epic retelling of Roman myths.

"First thing every morning before you arise say out loud, 'I believe,' three times."

"There is a god within us."

Ovid "was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus banished him to Tomis, a Dacian province on the Black Sea, where he remained a decade until his death." (Wikipedia)

March 20 is the birthday of American painter and Kansas City politician GEORGE CALEB BINGHAM (1811-1879).

"Known in his lifetime as 'the Missouri Artist,' Bingham was elected as a delegate to the Missouri legislature before the American Civil War where he fought the extension of slavery westward. During that war, although born in Virginia, Bingham was dedicated to the Union cause and became captain of a volunteer company which helped keep the state from joining the Confederacy, and then served four years as Missouri's Treasurer. During his final years, Bingham held several offices in Kansas City, while also serving as Missouri's Adjutant General. His paintings of American frontier life along the Missouri River exemplify the Luminist style." (Wikpedia)

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

March 20 is the birthday of Norwegian playwright and poet HENRIK IBSEN (1828-1906).

"To live is to war with trolls."

"Your home is regarded as a model home, your life as a model life. But all this splendor, and you along with it... it's just as though it were built upon a shifting quagmire. A moment may come, a word can be spoken, and both you and all this splendor will collapse."

Known as "the father of realism," Ibsen wrote some of the greatest and most influential plays of the 19th century, including "Peer Gynt," "The Master Builder," "An Enemy of the People," "A Doll's House" and "Hedda Gabler."

March 20 is the birthday of Russian painter ILLARION PRYANISHNIKOV (1840-1894).

Pryanishnikov "was a Russian painter, one of the founders of the Peredvizhniki artistic cooperative, which broke away with the rigors of their time and became one of the most important Russian art schools of the late 19th century." (Wikipedia)

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

March 20 is the birthday of German-American psychologist FREDRIK WERTHAM (1895-1981).

Wertham "was a German-American psychiatrist and author. Wertham had an early reputation as a progressive psychiatrist who treated poor black patients at his Lafargue Clinic when mental health services for blacks were uncommon due to racialist psychiatry. Wertham also authored a definitive textbook on the brain, and his institutional stressor findings were cited when courts overturned multiple segregation statutes, most notably in Brown v. Board of Education.

Despite this, Wertham remains best known for his concerns about the effects of violent imagery in mass media and the effects of comic books on the development of children. His best-known book is Seduction of the Innocent (1954), which asserted that comic books caused youth to become delinquents. Besides Seduction of the Innocent, Wertham also wrote articles and testified before government inquiries into comic books, most notably as part of a U.S. Congressional inquiry into the comic book industry. Wertham's work, in addition to the 1954 comic book hearings led to creation of the Comics Code, although later scholars cast doubt on his observations." (Wikipedia)

March 20 is the birthday of American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher B.F. SKINNER (1904-1990).

"The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do."

"In his book Walden Two, Skinner answers the problem that exists in many utopian novels – 'What is the Good Life?' The book's answer is a life of friendship, health, art, a healthy balance between work and leisure, a minimum of unpleasantness, and a feeling that one has made worthwhile contributions to a society in which resources are ensured, in part, by minimizing consumption." (Wikipedia)

March 20 is the birthday of the great Russian pianist SVIATOSLAV RICHTER (1915-1997).

"Great pianists usually have one or two facets that dominate their performances in ways that beget adjectives: Horowitzian thunder, Gouldian staccato, Serkin-like nervous energy, Hofmannesque inner-voices, Cortotish rubato. Yet what makes Sviatoslav Richter's playing "Richterian" is not so easy to pin down. The recordings display a multitude of Richters at work. He can be delicate or brusque, withdrawn or optimistic, scrupulous or cavalier, an architect or a miniaturist, a poet or a pedant. One consistent attribute is the pianist's distinctive tone. The beauty and clarity of his sound shimmers with prismatic transparency at all dynamic levels. Chords are always translucent and well balanced. Few pianists can summon the concentration and control that enable Richter, with his hypnotic legato, not only to sustain the unusually slow pace of the Sarabande of Bach's Third English Suite, or the First Movement of the Schubert G Major Sonata, D.894, but also to draw the listener into his sound world."

Jed Distler, CD Review (1995)

March 20 is the birthday of American singer, songwriter and guitarist SISTER ROSETTA THARPE (1915-1973).

"Can't no man play like me"

Tharpe "gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and electric guitar. She was the first great recording star of gospel music, and was among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm and blues and rock and roll audiences, later being referred to as 'the original soul sister' and 'the Godmother of rock and roll.' She influenced early rock-and-roll musicians, including Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and also later musicians, such as Eric Clapton and Tina Turner." (Wikipedia)

March 20 is the birthday of English and American English and American jazz pianist, composer MARIAN MCPARTLAND (1918-2013).

McPartland "was the host of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio from 1978 to 2011. After her marriage to trumpeter Jimmy McPartland in February 1945, she resided in the United States when not travelling throughout the world to perform. In 1969, she founded Halcyon Records, a recording company that issued albums for 10 years. In 2000, she was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. In 2004, she was given a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement. In 2007, she was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. Although known mostly for jazz, she composed other types of music as well, performing her own symphonic work A Portrait of Rachel Carson with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra in 2007. In 2010, she was named a member of the Order of the British Empire." (Wikipedia)