On This Day: September 9

On This Day, September 9, by Britannica.

I’m Kurt Heintz. Today we’re looking at:

• a communist leader’s origin story,
• a comedian branching out,
• and an artist attached to the Moulin Rouge

Our first story. Marxist revolutionary Mao Zedong died on this day in 1976. Mao cast a huge historical shadow, so his story threads a number of other On This Day programs. But what about his own beginnings? Let’s look at how this famous communist leader became so interested in politics in the first place.

Mao left his family as a young teen, rebelling against work on the family farm and a forced arranged marriage. Enrolled in secondary school, he had just begun to be exposed to revolutionary ideas when a real revolution began before his very eyes: fighting against the Qing dynasty broke out in Wuchang and spread to Changsha, the provincial capital where he was studying, within only a few weeks. Mao quickly enlisted in a revolutionary army, where he served for six months.

Mao graduated from secondary school in 1918 and enrolled in Peking University in Beijing at what turned out to be an auspicious time. He found himself surrounded by student activists in the months leading up to the May Fourth Movement of 1919. The May Fourth Movement earned its name due to the student demonstrations on that date against the decision at the Paris Peace Conference that settled the aftereffects of World War I. At the Conference, it was decided that the former German concessions of Shandong province should go to Japan instead of returning them to China. The May Forth Movement was directed toward national independence, emancipation of the individual, and rebuilding Chinese society and culture.

This was a period of rapid political and cultural change, as Chinese radicals abandoned Western liberalism for Marxism and Leninism. In an editorial published in July 1919, Mao wrote: “The world is ours, the nation is ours, society is ours. If we do not speak, who will speak? If we do not act, who will act?” By January 1921 Mao was committed to Marxism and the philosophical basis of China’s revolution.

Years later, in 1934–35, came the famous Long March, where so many Chinese revolutionaries would be put to the test and from which Mao emerged as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communist Party. The Long March, China’s struggle with Japan in World War II (through 1945), and the Chinese Civil War of 1945–49 are all detailed in Britannica Online. It's quite a story.

Here’s a story about the Sandman—but not the one you think puts you to sleep (unless you’re one of those people who tends to doze off during a movie). American comedian Adam Sandler was born this day in 1966.

Sandler’s first TV role was as “Smitty” in four episodes of The Cosby Show in 1987. In 1990 he landed a sketch-writing job on Saturday Night Live, after comedian Dennis Miller was impressed by Sandler’s stand-up performance at a comedy club in Los Angeles and recommended him to SNL impresario Lorne Michaels. But Sandler was first established as a real star in 1995’s Billy Madison, the first of a series of movies he cowrote (Billy Madison, along with next year’s Happy Gilmore, now makes up part of the title of Sandler’s production company: Happy Madison).

Sandler’s goofy-but-lovable characters have appeared in almost innumerable movies, often alongside other comedic actors like Seth Rogan or Drew Barrymore. In 2019 he stretched his acting chops by starring in the Safdie Brothers’ crime drama Uncut Gems, which many thought might get him nominated for an Oscar; Sandler thought so too and threatened to make a movie that was “so bad on purpose” if he wasn’t nominated. We’ll see if the Sandman follows through.

Here are today's Fast Facts for September 9. I’m Emily Goldstein.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—otherwise known as North Korea—was proclaimed on this day in 1948, setting the stage for the Korean War.

William the Conqueror died on this day in 1087. He suffered a fatal injury while attempting to capture the town of Mantes and was buried at St. Stephen’s Church in Normandy, France.

Frances Folsom Cleveland, wife of U.S. President Grover Cleveland, gave birth to the couple’s daughter Esther in the White House on this day in 1893.

On this day in 1956, Elvis Presley made his first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, and 60 million viewers tuned in, making it the most-watched TV broadcast of the 1950s. Presley was only 21 years old.

Speaking of great performers—Otis Redding, one of the great soul stylists of the 1960s, was born on this day in 1941.

On this day in 1776, Congress renamed a new nation: The “United Colonies” became the “United States of America.”

Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning monarch in British history on this day in 2015, beating out Queen Victoria’s previous record of 63 years 216 days.

Speaking of royalty, a nine-month-old Mary Stuart was crowned “Queen of Scots” on this day in 1543.

On this day in 1774 the Suffolk Resolves, protesting the Intolerable Acts, were passed at a meeting in Massachusetts. Delegates from Boston and neighboring towns met to declare their refusal to obey the Intolerable Acts, to urge fellow citizens to cease paying taxes to the British, and to encourage regular militia drills.

Picture bright colors, flowing line work, and figures whose energy powers each scene—all in service of depicting late 19th-century Parisian nightlife. You are seeing the work of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He died on this day in 1901, at age 36.

Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated by the cafés, cabarets, artists, and entertainers of the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris, and his paintings of Parisian social life established his own position in wild, contemporary French society. He is perhaps most famous for his images of the Moulin Rouge, a music hall and cabaret where the can-can was first performed. He focused his attention on depicting popular entertainers such as Aristide Bruant—who ran a cabaret of his own and gave Toulouse-Lautrec some of his first commissions. He celebrated other bohemian artists such as Jane Avril, Loie Fuller, and Louise Weber (known as La Goulue, AKA “the Glutton”) and cabaret clowns such as Cha-U-Kao and Chocolat.

These unique and vivid characters colored the Parisian nightlife brightly. To capture their dynamism in posters, paintings, and pastel drawings, Toulouse-Lautrec sought and applied wholly original means, eschewing art styles popular among his contemporaries. While other artists, such as Edgar Degas, depicted movement through carefully rendered anatomical structure, Toulouse-Lautrec used freely moving swathes of color to convey rhythm and action. The result was vivid and memorable art, throbbing with life and energy. His artistic stature was solidified by his success in going beyond a representation of superficial reality to a profound insight into the psychological makeup of his subjects. Despite the rapid sketch-like nature of his works, the public could see into them and begin to sense the nature of the people in the pictures. The 1890s, often called the fin de siècle in French—the end of the century—were Toulouse-Lautrec’s most productive years.

The artist enjoyed acclaim, yet he often expressed deep unhappiness with himself. Childhood injury and illness stunted his legs and rendered them almost unusable. His later letters mentioned a growing number of ailments, including syphilis—which, of course, had no true cure in his time.

Toulouse-Lautrec was hospitalized for mental instability in 1899 following several years of heavy drinking, and, though he was released a few months later, the art that followed his time in the institution lacked the intensity of his earlier work. He struggled with alcoholism for the remainder of his life and died young, less than three months before his 37th birthday.

But today, in the 21st century, can one even imagine Paris’s night life from over a century ago without thinking of the pioneering artist whom Paris’s bohemians called one of their own?

That’s it for today’s episode of On This Day. If you’re still curious about Mao Zedong, Adam Sandler, or Toulouse-Lautrec, take a look at Britannica.com. We have the balanced and researched stories.

Thanks for listening. Our program was written by Meg Matthias and edited by yours truly. For Britannica, I’m Kurt Heintz. And I’m Emily Goldstein.

This program is copyrighted by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.