Year 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar.
Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" (now Edison, New Jersey) by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.
Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures.
Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Most of her compositions and performances were under the name Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.
Amy Beach was bern in Henniker, New Hampshire into a distinguished New England family. A child prodigy, she was able to sing forty tunes accurately by age one; by age two she could improvise a countermelody to any melody her mother sang, she taught herself to read at only four years old, and began composing simple waltzes at five years old . She began formal piano lessons with her mother at the age of six, and a year later started giving public recitals, playing works by Handel, Beethoven, Chopin, and her own pieces.
In 1875, Beach's family moved to Boston, where they were advised to enter her into a European conservatory. Her parents opted for local training, hiring Ernst Perabo and later Carl Baermann as piano teachers. At age fourteen, Amy received her only formal training in composition with Junius W. Hill, with whom she studied harmony and counterpoint for a year. Other than this year of training, Amy was self-taught; she often learned by studying classical pieces, such as Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier.
Léonie Cooreman known under the stage name Annie Cordy (born 16 June 1928) is a Belgian film actress and singer. She has appeared in 50 films since 1954. She has staged many memorable appearances at Bruno Coquatrix' famous Paris Olympia. Her version of "La Ballade de Davy Crockett" was number 1 in the charts for five weeks in France in August 1956.
She was born in Laeken, Belgium, where in 2004, King Albert II of Belgium bestowed upon her the title of Baroness in recognition for her life's achievements.[where?]
Josef Gabriel Rheinberger (17 March 1839, in Vaduz – 25 November 1901, in Munich) was a German organist and composer, born in Liechtenstein.
When only seven years old Rheinberger became organist at Vaduz Parish Church, and his first composition was performed the following year. In 1851 he entered the Munich Conservatory, where he later became professor of piano and subsequently professor of composition. When the Munich Conservatorium was dissolved he was appointed répétiteur at the Court Theatre, from which he resigned in 1867.
Rheinberger married his former pupil Franziska von Hoffnaass in 1867. He was influenced by painting and literature (especially English and German).
In 1877 Rheinberger obtained the rank of court conductor, a position that gave him responsibility for the music in the royal chapel. He was later awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. A distinguished teacher, he numbered many Americans among his pupils, including Horatio Parker, William Berwald, George Whitefield Chadwick, Bruno Klein, and Henry Holden Huss. When the present Conservatorium was founded in Munich, Rheinberger was appointed its professor of organ and composition, a post he held until his death. He was also given the title "Royal Professor".