March 7 is the birthday of POPE CLEMENT XIII née Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico (1693-1769).

Pope Clement is best-known for ordering that all of the nude classical sculptures in the Vatican have their private parts covered with mass-produced fig leaves.

Pope Clement XIII

March 7 is the birthday of French inventor NICÉPHORE NIÉPCE (1765-1833).

Niépce is considered the inventor of photography.

"In 1826 or 1827, he used a primitive camera to produce the oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene. Among Niépce's other inventions was the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, which he conceived, created, and developed with his older brother Claude." (Wikipedia)

March 7 is the birthday of the founder and publisher of the Kansas City Star, WILLIAM ROCKHILL NELSON (1841-1915).

He was also a real estate developer who donated his estate for the establishment of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

"Nelson lorded over the Kansas City political landscape. In one legendary encounter, Kansas City Mayor Joseph J. Davenport was thrown down a stairwell at the Star building by editors (including William Allen White) when he was believed to have physically threatened Nelson. Nelson said afterwards:

'The Star never loses!'" (Wikipedia)

March 7 is the birthday of Dutch artist PIET MONDRIAN (1872-1944).

"Art is not made for anybody and is, at the same time, for everybody."

"Curves are so emotional."

"The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel."

"Art is the path to being spiritual."

Mondrian "was one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art, as he changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements." (Wikipedia)

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

March 7 is the birthday of Russian painter and stage designer BORIS KUSTODIEV (1878-1927).

In 1916, he became paraplegic. 'Now my whole world is my room,' he wrote. His ability to remain joyful and lively despite his paralysis amazed others. His colourful paintings and joyful genre pieces do not reveal his physical suffering, and on the contrary give the impression of a carefree and cheerful life ... n the first years after the Russian Revolution of 1917 the artist worked with great inspiration in various fields. Contemporary themes became the basis for his work, being embodied in drawings for calendars and book covers, and in illustrations and sketches of street decorations, as well as some portraits (Portrait of Countess Grabowska) ... His covers for the journals The Red Cornfield and Red Panorama attracted attention because of their vividness and the sharpness of their subject matter. Kustodiev also worked in lithography, illustrating works by Nekrasov. His illustrations for Leskov's stories The Darner and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District were landmarks in the history of Russian book designing, so well did they correspond to the literary images."

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

March 7 is the birthday of French composer and pianist MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937).

"The only love affair I have ever had was with music."

"I did my work slowly, drop by drop. I tore it out of me by pieces."

"I begin by considering an effect."

Ravel "attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' piano music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known." (Wikipedia)

On March 7, 1917, "The Dixieland Jazz Band One Step" performed by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band was released by Victor Records. It's considered the first jazz record.

On March 7, 1923, Robert Frost's poem STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING was published in New Republic magazine. According to Frost, the poem contained everything he knew about how to write.