Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/January

1 January 1818 – Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is published anonymously in London
7 January 1927 – The Scottish Arts and Crafts architect Fred Rowntree (pictured) dies in London at the age of 66
13 January 1782 – Friedrich Schiller's play The Robbers, an important work in the German Sturm and Drang movement, premieres in Mannheim and is an overnight sensation
22 January 1956 – Camera Three, a Sunday morning television program devoted to the arts is launched by CBS
24 January 1925 – Maria Tallchief, the first Native American to become a prima ballerina, is born in Fairfax, Oklahoma

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/February

5 February 1972 – The American Modernist poet Marianne Moore dies in New York City at the age of 84
6 February 1918 – The Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement, dies in Vienna
19 February 1704 – Ichikawa Danjūrō I (pictured), an early and influential kabuki actor, is stabbed and killed onstage by fellow actor Ikushima Hanroku
24 February 1607 – Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, the earliest opera that is still performed today, premieres in Mantua
27 February 1877 – Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake premieres to poor reviews

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/March

11 March 1970 – American novelist Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the Perry Mason detective stories, dies in Temecula, California
12 March 1945 – The Vienna State Opera is set on fire by wartime bombardment.
20 March 1828 – Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, often called the "father of modern drama", is born in Skien, Norway
24 March 1905 – Frank Van der Stucken conducts the United States premiere of Mahler's Symphony No. 5
30 March 1746 – Spanish painter Francisco Goya, known for his painting The Naked Maja (pictured), is born in Fuendetodos, Aragon

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/April

9 April 2000 – Jackie Evancho is born. At the age of 10, she becomes the youngest singer in history with a platinum album, O Holy Night.
10 April 1900 – Scottish soprano Mary Garden makes her professional debut singing the title role in Gustave Charpentier's Louise at the Opéra-Comique in Paris
11 April 1869 – Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, designer of the Nobel Peace Prize medal, is born near Halse og Harkmark
12 April 1937 – Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, an early 20th-century Turkish playwright and poet who was one of the leading lights of the Turkish Romantic period dies in Istanbul
23 April 1616 – William Shakespeare (pictured), often considered the greatest English playwright, dies in Stratford-upon-Avon at the age of 52
29 April 1968 – Hair, which defined the genre of the "rock musical", has its Broadway premiere at the Biltmore Theatre

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/May

5 May 1726 – Handel's opera Alessandro premieres at the King's Theatre in London with Italian castrato singer Senesino in the title role
12 May 1926 – Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, which he composed at the age of 19 while a student at Leningrad Conservatory, receives its first performance
22 May 1844 – Impressionst painter and printmaker Mary Cassatt (self-portrait pictured) is born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania
26 May 1897 – Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, which later became the subject of numerous theatrical, film and television interpretations, is published by Constable & Co.
29 May 1913 – Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris and causes a riot in the audience between supporters and opponents of the work

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/June

9 June 1904 – The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Richter, plays its first concert
18 June 1964 – Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, whose still lifes and landscapes were noted for their tonal subtlety, dies in Bologna at the age of 73
20 June 1703 – The Love Suicides at Sonezaki by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, often considered the greatest Japanese dramatist, receives its first performance
24 June 1924 – Efua Sutherland, a foundational figure in modern Ghanaian drama, is born in the Cape Coast region of Ghana
29 June 1861 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning (pictured), one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era, dies in Florence at the age of 55

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/July

6 July 1845 – Soprano Ángela Peralta, a leading figure in the operatic life of 19th century Mexico, is born in Mexico City
11 July 1561 – Spanish lyric poet Luis de Góngora, the author of La Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea, is born in Córdoba
14 July 1910 – The influential French ballet master and choreographer Marius Petipa dies in the Crimean resort of Gurzuf at the age of 92
25 July 1723 – Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht mit deinem Knecht (Lord, do not pass judgment on Your servant), a sacred cantata composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, is performed for the first time
27 July 1946 – Gertrude Stein (pictured), American writer, poet and art collector dies in Neuilly-sur-Seine at the age of 72

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/August

10 August 1793 – The Musée du Louvre (pictured), one of the world's largest museums, opens with an exhibition of 537 paintings
16 August 1945 – American ballerina Suzanne Farrell for whom George Balanchine created many new ballets is born in Cincinnati, Ohio
18 August 1933 – Polish director and screen-writer Roman Polanski, whose Academy Award winning films include Knife in the Water, Rosemary's Baby, and The Pianist, is born in Paris
19 August 1953 – Gholam-Hossein Saedi, one of the first modern playwrights of Iran, is arrested during the 1953 Iranian coup d'état
30 August 1953 – Gaetano Merola, the Italian conductor and founder of the San Francisco Opera, dies in San Francisco while conducting a performance of Madame Butterfly

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/September

6 September 1907 – Sully Prudhomme, French poet, essayist, and winner of the first Nobel Prize in Literature, died in Châtenay-Malabry
14 September 1927 – Isadora Duncan (pictured), a pioneer of the creation of modern dance, died in an automobile accident in France
19 September 1936 – Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande, who brought about renaissance in classical Indian music died at the age of 76
21 September 1876 – The abstract and cubist painter and sculptor Julio González was born in Barcelona
30 September 1791 – Mozart's opera The Magic Flute receives its world premiere at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/October

4 October 1974 – American poet Anne Sexton dies by suicide at her home in Weston, Massachusetts
10 October 1881 – London's Savoy Theatre, built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte to showcase the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, opens with a production of Patience
11 October 1910 – Italian composer and musicologist Francesco Balilla Pratella completes his Manifesto of Futurist Musicians, one of the earliest signs of Futurism's influence in fields outside the visual arts
17 October 1896 – The first performance of Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull is booed by the audience, after which Chekhov decides to give up writing plays
25 October 1881 – Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso (pictured), one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, is born in Málaga
4 October 1927 - Gutzon Borglum began working on Mt. Rushmore

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/November

2 November 1906 – Italian theatre, opera and film director Luchino Visconti, whose films include The Leopard and Death in Venice, was born in Milan
15 November 1887 – Influential American artist Georgia O'Keeffe (pictured) is born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin
20 November 1910 – Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, dies of pneumonia at the Astapovo train station
21 November 1945 – Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella premieres at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow with Galina Ulanova in the title role
27 November 1880 – Rome's main opera house, the Teatro Costanzi, is officially inaugurated with a performance of Rossini's Semiramide

Portal:The arts/Selected anniversaries/December

1 December 1923 – Belgian poet and novelist Virginie Loveling dies in Nevele at the age of 87
12 December 1998 – The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia is officially opened in Kuala Lumpur
22 December 1808 – Beethoven (pictured) conducts the world premiere of his Fifth Symphony at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna
24 December 1871 – Verdi's opera Aida receives its world premiere at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo with Teresa Stolz in the title role
27 December 1915 – Arts administrator and painter Sir Norman Reid, Director of the Tate Gallery from 1964 to 1979, is born in London