Today in History and Celebrity Birthdays

Celebrity Birthdays for Jan. 25: Actress Leigh Taylor-Young (``Peyton Place,'' ''Soylent Green``) is 80. Larry Good, of the Canadian country group the Good Brothers, is 73. Andy Cox, guitarist with The Beat and Fine Young Cannibals, is 69.

Celebrity Birthdays for Jan. 19: Actress Tippi Hedren is 95. Movie director Richard Lester is 93. Country singer Stu Phillips is 92. Former CTV News anchor Lloyd Robertson is 91. Actor-singer Michael Crawford is 83.

Celebrity Birthdays for Jan. 23: Nobel Prize-winning Toronto chemist John Polanyi is 96. Actor-director Lou Antonio is 91. Jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton is 82. Actor Gil Gerard is 82. Actor Richard Dean Anderson (``MacGyver'') is 75.

Today in History for Jan. 27: In AD 398, John Chrysostom, the greatest preacher of his age, was consecrated bishop of Constantinople.

Today in Music History for Feb. 1: In 1896, the opera ``La Boheme,'' by Giacomo Puccini, premiered in Turin, Italy. In 1909, gospel singer George Beverly Shea was born in Ottawa.

Today in Music History for Jan. 30: In 1917, the Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded ``Darktown Strutters' Ball.'' Some historians consider this to be the earliest commercially made jazz record.

Today in Music History for Jan. 26: In 1859, the Victoria Philharmonic Society was founded. It was the first amateur musical organization in what now is British Columbia.

Today in Music History for Jan. 29: In 1925, Lois Marshall, one of Canada's leading sopranos in the 1950s and '60s, was born in Toronto. She died of cancer on Feb. 19, 1997.

Today in Music History for Jan. 31: In 1797, composer Franz Schubert was born in Vienna. He died in 1828 at the age of 31. Schubert's reputation grew after his death, to the point where is now considered one of the greatest composers of his era.

Today in Music History for Jan. 28: In 1834, Sabine Baring-Gould, Anglican clergyman and author, was born. He published numerous books on history, biography, poetry and fiction.