1657 Michel-Richard Delalande – French composer and organist (d.1726); employed by King Louis XIV; one of the most important composers of ‘grands motets’; also wrote orchestral suites known as Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy and ballets; certain works foreshadowed the cantatas of JS Bach and the Water Music and oratorios of Handel.
1892 David Guion – American composer (d.1981); best known for his arrangements of cowboy tunes, African American spirituals, and original compositions often inspired by the soundscape of west Texas.
1938 first performance of Ernest Bloch's Violin Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra led by Dimitri Mitropoulos and soloist Joseph Szigeti to whom the work is dedicated.
2000 premiere of John Adams’s oratorio El Niño at Le Châtelet in Paris with by soloists Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Willard White, and the Theatre of Voices and the Deutsches Symphonie conducted by Kent Nagano; the American premiere occurred in San Francisco on January 11, 2001.