On April 21, 2016, the acclaimed American songwriter with the stage name Prince died. His real name was Roger Nelson. He is considered one of the leaders of contemporary American popular music with a global presence.
His work incorporates a wide range of musical genres, from soul, R&B and funk to pop and rock. He was known for his flamboyant stage presence, with eccentric clothing and make-up. He has sold over 100 million records, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time. He won seven Grammys, one Golden Globe and one Oscar for the film “Purple Rain” (1984). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 and is ranked 27th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “Most Influential Rock and Roll Musicians”.
Prince died of an overdose of opioid painkillers at his home in Chanhassen, Minnesota at the age of 57. He had a huge vocal range, which has ranked him third among artists worldwide after Axl Rose and Mariah Carey.
At a glance…
753 BC: Romulus and Remus found Rome, according to tradition.
1729: Catherine II, empress of Russia, also called the Great, was born.
1792: Joaquin José Da Silva, known as Cirandencias, leader of the Brazilian independence revolution, has died.
1864: Max Weber, German economist and sociologist, one of the founders of the science of sociology, was born.
1915: Anthony Quinn, American-Mexican great actor, is born.
1941: Bulgarian troops occupy Eastern Macedonia and Thrace with the approval of the German conquerors.
1946: John Maynard Keynes, an English economist who popularized the concept of government intervention in the economy, died.
1947: Iggy Pop, stage name of James Jewell Osterberg Jr., American rocker, is born.
1967: A military coup occurs in Greece, under Colonel George Papadopoulos. The coup plotters appoint the Areopagite Konstantinos Kollias as prime minister.
1990: Paul McCartney plays to 184,000 fans at Rio’s Maracana, setting a new world concert record.
1992: Francisco Roman Alarcon Suarez, better known as Isco, was born. He plays as a midfielder and had a career as a footballer for Real Madrid.
1996: The center-left “Alliance of Olives” wins the elections in Italy, dethroning Silvio Berlusconi. Romano Prodi is the new prime minister.
2000: The President of the People’s Republic of China, Jian Zemin, is making an official visit to Greece, the first visit by a Chinese President to our country, which was described as “historic”. Zemin had meetings with the President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos, the Prime Minister Kostas Simitis and the political leaders. The main topics of the talks were economic cooperation and the countries’ bilateral relations, as well as major international problems.
2003: The great American singer Nina Simone has died. She was also a lyricist and an excellent pianist. Simone’s autobiography I put a spell on you was published in 1992.
2017: The Greek actor Stathis Psaltis died.
