Hollywood's original Latin Lover, a term that was invented for Rudolph Valentino by Hollywood moguls. Alla Nazimova's friend Natacha Rambova (nee Winifred Hudnut) became romantically involved with Rudy and they lived together in her bungalow from 1921 (during the filming of Camille) until they eloped to Mexico on May 13, 1922 believing that his divorce from Jean Acker was official. After their re-marriage two years later she left him because he signed a contract that barred her from being involved in his pictures and wasn't allowed on set. She went to Nice to live with her parents and never entered their new mansion, Falcon Lair. He began to date sexy Pola Negri and was also linked to Vilma Banky. While he was touring to promote his last film, an editorial in the Chicago Tribune accused him of "effeminization of the American male". He defended his manhood by challenging the article's writer to a boxing match; it never took place, but another writer for the paper did enter the ring on behalf of the author who would not be named, and Valentino defeated him. He died shortly afterward while he was in New York attending the premiere of his last film. He collapsed in his hotel on August 15, 1926 and died on August 23, after an operation that led to an infection. 80,000 mourners nearly caused a riot at his New York funeral. Another funeral followed in California.

The great American escape artist and magician Houdini (immortalized by a memorable performance by Tony Curtis in the eponymous 1953 film) was born Erich Weiss on March 24, 1874 in Budapest, Hungary, though he often gave his birthplace as Appleton, Wisconsin, where he was raised. One of five brothers and one daughter born to rabbi Samuel Weiss and his wife Cecilia, the future Houdini was four years old when his parents emigrated to the U.S., where Weiss, as "Harry Houdini", became one of the major celebrities of the first age dominated by the mass media.

His boyhood was spent in poverty and, when he was 17, he conjured up a magic act with his friend Jack Hayman, in order to escape the poverty and anonymity of manual labor which would likely have been his lot in life. Young Erich had been fascinated with magic since he was a young lad, when he was in the audience of a magic show put on by a traveling magician named Dr. Lynch. Billing themselves as the "Houdini Bros." in tribute to French magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, Erich Weiss became an entertainer, though it took him some seven years to catch on.

Weiss and Hayman specialized in the Crate Escape (eventually known as Metamorphosis or The Substitution Trunk), and Houdini's brother Theodore replaced Hayman when he became uninterested in the act. Eventually, Theodore -- billed as Hardeen -- was replaced by Wilhemina Rahner (known as Bess), the woman "Harry Houdini" would eventually marry. The marriage on June 22, 1894 caused a conflict with his Jewish family as Bess was a Roman Catholic. They married in secret, then again at a synagogue and in a Catholic church to please both of their families.

While developing his act, Houdini was not above the old carny trick of posing as a spirit medium, making the rounds of the town clerk's office and nearby cemeteries in order to provide "messages from beyond". In 1896, while visiting a doctor friend in Nova Scotia, he saw his first strait jacket, which gave him the idea of developing an act in which he would escape from it.

Houdini finally hit the big-time when he was 24 years old with his Challenge Act in 1898, while he was making the rounds of vaudeville. Houdini's Challenge Act consisted of him escaping from a pair of handcuffs produced by an audience member. Eventually, this evolved into escapes from strait jackets, boxes, crates, safes, and other instruments and devices (such as his Water Torture Cell), as well as from jail cells. Houdini was also adept at escaping from being "buried alive". Hand-cuffed and strait-jacketed, he could escape while being hung upside down from a crane, or while lowered from a bridge, or even make his escape from padlocked crates lowered into a river.

Houdini also became famous as a debunker of mediums and "experts" of the paranormal, but this was done in hope he could find an actual medium that could communicate with the dead so that he could communicate with his beloved mother Cecilia after she passed away. He became quite famous in the ragtime age of the first quarter of the last century, even appearing in motion pictures produced by his own company.

Harry Houdini, the greatest magician ever produced by America, died in Detroit, Michigan during a national tour. The cause of death officially was peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. His death came nine days after having been punched in the stomach during the Canadian leg of the tour by J. Gordon Whitehead, a McGill University student who was testing Houdini's famed ability to take body blows. Always the trouper, Houdini had soldiered on despite stomach pains. (Early during the tour, he had broken an ankle but did not let it stop him or the tour.) His wife Bess, to whom Houdini left his half-million dollar estate, collected a double indemnity on his life insurance policy, as the blow was considered to have shortened the great magician's life and contributed to his premature death at the age of 52.

The date of his death was October 31, 1926 -- Halloween, one of three days (October 31-November 2) of Samhain, the Celtic New Year, when the veil between the living and the dead allegedly is at its thinnest and the living can make contact with the dead. Annually on Halloween from 1927 to 1937, Bess held a séance to try to contact her departed husband. She did not succeed, though she helped keep the memory of her husband alive in the American consciousness. Even today, magicians worldwide conduct séances on Halloween in an effort to contact the late escapologist.

Barbara La Marr was born in Yakima, Washington, on July 28, 1896, as Reatha Watson. Her childhood was mostly uneventful, mainly because Yakima--today a medium-sized city with a population of over 50, 000-wasn't exactly a beehive of activity. Her parents eventually moved to the Los Angeles area, where she began to explore the show business lifestyle in whatever form she could. Barbara loved the L.A. way of living and was forced to grow up fast. She was still Reatha at the time, but her arrest for dancing in burlesque while still a teen caused her to change her name to Barbara La Marr to avoid being associated with her past. Her passion was dancing and writing, but the powers-that-be in the movie industry thought she was meant for other things--her dazzling beauty captured the imagination of all who came across her path. Moving to New York, she was ultimately lured into the film world, her first picture being Harriet and the Piper (1920). She was still going by her married name of Barbara Deely (already working to shed her fourth husband) and was being dubbed "The Girl Who Is Too Beautiful." The next year she appeared in The Three Musketeers (1921) and Desperate Trails (1921). That same year, her role as Claudine Dupree in The Nut (1921) sent Barbara into super-stardom. Hordes of fans flocked to theaters to see this beautiful actress in movies such as Arabian Love (1922), Trifling Women (1922), Domestic Relations (1922) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) whose beauty kept them enthralled. In 1923, she kept up her frenzied filming pace with such pictures as Poor Men's Wives (1923), The Brass Bottle (1923) and Souls for Sale (1923). The public adored her, as evidenced by the volumes of fan mail she received, but Barbara was more interested in the late-night partying she was involved with. The combination of alcohol and drugs was, clearly, beginning to wear her down. She made four films in 1924 and three in 1925. Her last picture was The Girl from Montmartre (1926). On February 2, 1926, Barbara died of tuberculosis in Altadena, California. Her demise was, no doubt, brought about by her constant late-night partying. She had lived a lifetime and had made 30 films, but was only 29 when she died.

Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Mosey) was an American professional sharpshooter from Ohio. She starred for several years in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Her stage acts were filmed for one of Thomas Edison's earliest Kinetoscopes in 1894. Later in life, Oakley trained other women in marksmanship. She was an advocate for female self-defense.

Oakley was born in a rural area of Darke County, Ohio, not far from the the state's border with Indiana, in 1860. Her family's residence was located 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the settlement of Woodland (later renamed to Willowdell). Oakley's father was the farmer Jacob Mosey (1799-1866), a veteran of the War of 1812 (1812-1815). Oakley's mother was Susan Wise (1830-1908), who was 31 years younger than her husband. Both parents were Quakers from Pennsylvania, and they were both of English descent. Oakley was the 6th of 9 children born to this couple.

In the winter of 1865, Jacob Mosey was caught in a blizzard. Hypothermia turned him into an invalid. He died months later, having never recovered from the ordeal. In 1867, Oakley learned how to trap animals in order to supplement her family's income. In 1868, Oakley learned how to handle firearms and how to hunt animals with them. She sold the hunted game to restaurants and hotels.

In March 1870, Oakley was placed in the Darke County Infirmary. Nancy Edington, the superintendent's wife, trained Oakley in sewing and decorating. Months later, Oakley was hired as a servant by a local family. The family promised her a meager salary (0.50 dollars per week) and help in financing her education. They reneged on both promises.

From 1870 to 1872, Oakley was mentally and physically abused by her employers. She was treated as an unpaid slave instead of a servant. She eventually run away. In her autobiography, she nicknamed these employers as "the wolves". She never mentioned their real names. Modern biographers are uncertain whether her employers were the Studabaker family or the Boose family.

In 1872, Oakley moved in with the Edington family, who she knew from the Infirmary. In 1875, Oakley moved into her mother's house for the first time in 5 years. She used her hunting skills to become her family's main breadwinner. Her earnings allowed her to soon pay off the mortgage on her mother's farm.

In November 1875, professional sharpshooter Frank E. Butler (1847-1926), placed a 100 dollars bet (per side). He claimed that he could beat any sharpshooter in Ohio. Oakley took on the challenge, and a match was arranged between the two sharpshooters. Oakley won the match, and impressed Butler. Soon after the match, Butler started courting Oakley. They were married on June 20, 1882, after Butler received a divorce from his first wife. They remained married for 44 years.

Oakley started professionally performing as a sharpshooter in the late 1870s or early 1880s. She took the stage name "Oakley", reputedly naming herself after the neighborhood of Oakley, Cincinnati. She and Butler had settled in the neighborhood during the early years of her relationship.

In 1885, Oakley and Butler were hired as performers by "Buffalo Bill's Wild West", a circus-like attraction that toured annually. The owner was the showman Buffalo Bill (1846-1917), who was a veteran of both the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. Early in her career in the show, Oakley developed a professional rivalry with one of her co-workers, the sharpshooter Lillian Smith (1871-1930). Smith was younger than Oakley, and was trying to upstage her.

In the late 1880s, Oakley and Buffalo Bill's Wild West toured Europe. Oakley performed her act for (among others) Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819-1901, reigned 1837-1901), Marie Francois Sadi Carnot, President of France (1837-1894, term 1887-1894). Umberto I, King of Italy (1844-1900, reigned 1878-1900), and Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859-1941, reigned 1888-1918). Oakley won favorable reviews by the European press.

In 1894, Oakley starred in Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope film "The Little Sure Shot of the Wild West, an exhibition of rifle shooting at glass balls, etc". It was a filming of her act, making Oakley one of the earliest performers to be filmed. In 1898, Oakley volunteered for service in the Spanish-American War (1898). Her offer was turned down by the government of President William McKinley (1843-1901, term 1897-1901), likely because of her gender.

In 1901, Oakley was seriously injured in a train accident. She was temporarily paralyzed, and endured five spinal operations in order to regain her mobility. She resigned from Buffalo Bill's Wild West during her recovery. In 1902, Oakley acted professionally in the Western-themed stage play "The Western Girl".

In 1904, Oakley filed 55 libel lawsuits against various newspapers. Most of them were owned by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). The newspapers had published a false news story than Oakley was a cocaine addict and a habitual thief. They had confused Oakley with a burlesque performer who used "Annie Oakley" as an alias. By 1910, Oakley had won 54 of the 55 lawsuits.

In 1912, Oakley and Butler settled for a few years in Cambridge, Maryland. In 1917, they moved to North Carolina. Oakley continued performing into the 1920s. In 1922, Oakley was injured in a car accident, forced to wear a a steel brace on her right leg. She made a comeback performance in 1923, and set new shooting records in 1924.

In 1925, Oakley's health declined and she was forced to retire from performing. She died in November 1926, at the age of 66. The reported cause of death was pernicious anemia, caused by a deficiency of vitamin B12. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were buried at Brock Cemetery, located in the vicinity of Greenville, Ohio.

Oakley was survived by her husband Frank Butler, who died 18 days after Oakley's death. Butler had reportedly refused to eat anything after his wife's death. They had no children. Oakley did not leave much of an inheritance to her relatives, as she had donated most of her personal fortune to charities. Her incomplete autobiography was inherited by actor Fred Stone (1873-1959). Oakley's name remains associated with the legends of the "Wild West", and there have been several adaptations of her life in fiction.

Harold M. Shaw was born on 3 November 1877 in Brownsville, Tennessee, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Rose of Rhodesia (1918), Thoroughbreds All (1919) and The Incomparable Mistress Bellairs (1914). He was married to Edna Flugrath. He died on 30 January 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

The Lumiere Brothers began their career filming in locations relatively close to their home. After becoming comfortable with their instrument they began sending cameramen all over the world to direct films which they would produce. Alexandre Promio was one such cameraman. He witnessed Lumiere's first film show and became deeply interested in moving pictures and was hired as one of the Lumiere Brother's first cinematographers.

Promio traveled to Canada in order to film the Niagara Falls. He created the world's first moving shot when in Venice, Italy he set his camera in a gondola and traveled through the streets in order to capture the surrounding locations. Promio also made what may be world's first "phantom ride" shot when he traveled to Jerusalem and filmed footage on a train as it was leaving a station. Promio also filmed in other locations such as Geneva, New York, and London.

Promio later worked for the french Pathe Freres company, in 1907, and between 1914 and 1915 he also was a soldier as part of the first world's war. He died on 24 December, 1926.

Florence Saunders was born on 24 June 1890 in Valparaiso, Chile. She was an actress, known for The Wandering Jew (1923). She was married to John Laurie. She died on 24 January 1926 in London, England, UK.

Willard Louis was born on 19 April 1882 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Babbitt (1924), Beau Brummel (1924) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1917). He was married to Maude Louis. He died on 22 July 1926 in Glendale, California, USA.

Tom Forman was born on 22 February 1893 in Mitchell County, Texas, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Broken Wing (1923), The Fighting American (1924) and To Have and to Hold (1916). He was married to Mary Mersch. He died on 7 November 1926 in Venice, California, USA.

Jacob Adler, the legendary "Great Eagle"' ("adler" is the German word for "eagle") of the Yiddish theater, was one of the great American stage actors, ranking with Edwin Booth, John Barrymore and Marlon Brando. Adler also is famous as the patriarch of an acting dynasty that stretched over 100 years from the late 19th century to the 21st and was essential to the evolution of the American theater from melodrama to a new heights of realism and seriousness. Adler's life story not only elucidates the Golden Age of the Yiddish theater but is a testament to the survival of a culture in a world where many elements threatened to extirpate it.

Adler was born in Odessa in Imperal Russia on February 12, 1855 and was stricken with the theatrical bug as a teenager. He joined a Yiddish theatrical company, the Rosenberg Troupe, in the 1870s. The Rosenberg Troupe was one of three Yiddish theatrical companies in Russia, the other two being Goldfaden's Troupe and Sheikevitch's Troupe. During his theatrical apprenticeship with Rosenberg, Jacob Adler proved himself to be an outstanding actor and a superb dancer but a bust as a balladeer. His poor singing thus cut off the lucrative operetta field for him. He compensated by becoming a great actor.

Adler gained experience as a member of the Rosenberg Troupe, touring Imperial Russia and putting on shows in Yiddish speaking communities. His first wife, Sonia Oberlander, was a member of the troupe. Adler was mentored by the eponymous head of the Troupe.

Jacob Adler became famous in the Polish and Russian Yiddish communities by playing the title role in Karl Gutzkow's drama, "Uriel de Acosta". Acosta (1585-1640) was a marrano (a Christianized Jew of medieval Spain) who fought for enlightenment in the Jewish community of Holland, which was under Spanish suzerainty. The play was hugely popular, but the popularity of the Yiddish theater and its tackling of serious, didactic fare rather than melodramas and musicals beloved by the masses made it suspect as a subversive influence.

The "modern" Yiddish theater can be seen as evolving out of the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment) rather than from the religious Purimspiel. The unenlightened and viciously anti-semitic Russian oligarchy launched a series of pogroms in the 1880's that almost wiped out Jewish culture in Russia. Jews started emigrating from Russia en masse, with whole villages sometimes uprooting and leaving for more hospitable climes such as North America. Jewish culture was dealt a further blow when Czar Alexander III issued a ukase banning the Yiddish theater. Jacob Adler had no choice but to leave Russia; he emigrated to England at the end of November 1883.

Adler caught on as an actor with 'Dramatic Clubs'. In London, the Odessa-born Adler had a hit with the play "The Odessa Beggar." He had an even bigger hit in Schiller's "The Robber," which brought him international fame. However, after six years in England, Adler decided to emigrate to the United States of America, moving to the great melting pot that was New York City. In his memoirs (written in Yiddish), Adler recalled that "...when I came to America in 1889, I was already known by the proud name 'Nesher Hagadol' ('The Great Eagle') and was an actor famous throughout the Yiddish theatrical world."

In the Big Town, The Great Eagle starred in various Yiddish theaters on Second Avenue in the Bowery, the "Jewish Broadway." There were hundreds of thousands of Jews in the New York Metropolitan Area in the Gay Nineties, and many spoke Yiddish as their first or only language. The theater was their major entertainment form in an era in which there was no radio, let alone television. It was not unusual for an impoverished Jewish family to spend half of its week's wages wrestled from laboring in Lower East Side sweatshops at a night at the theater. Adler was successful enough to be able to open his own theater in the Bowery, the Union Theater on Broadway and Eighth Street. (He also later opened the National in the same area.)

Adler focused on producing dramatic plays as he was not successful in operettas and had a didactic bent. He wanted the theater to be socially significant rather than remain just a vehicle for vulgar entertainment like the melodramas beloved by the Jewish denizens of the Lower East Side. Adler linked up with playwright Jacob Gordin and revolutionized the Yiddish Theater, and, a generation later, American theater as a whole.

Gordin wrote "Sibina", "The Wild Man", and "The Yiddish King Lear", Adler's greatest triumph. First assaying the role in November 1891, King Lear brought Adler even greater fame and solidified his reputation a great actor. Sara Heine Adler, his second wife, said of the night he first took the stage as Lear: "He was not an actor that night, but a force."

The great success of Ader in Gordin's Lear represented the incorporation of the world classical canon into the American (and international) Yiddish theater. It also meant that "better" or more high-brow theater targeting the Yiddish-speaking Jewish audience could thrive. It had been an axiom that the 'Shund' tradition of Jewish Broadway, a focus on sensational melodrama, was the vehicle for success as it attracted the Jewish masses. The undisputed champion of the 'Shund' tradition was Boris Thomashefsky, who had mocked "The Great Eagle" as he had been more financially successful with his cheap melodramas than Adler was with his more prestigious theatrical offerings.

However, with King Lear, Adler had not only an artistic triumph but a great financial success. Jacob Adler had made the "Jewish Broadway" safe for "better theater." A similar process would happen in the 1930s and 1940s when the Group Theatre, a company that included two of his children and which had roots in the quality Yiddish theater Adler had pioneered, would revolutionize the Great White Way of Old Broadway itself with a socially conscious "better theater". Jacob's daughter Stella Adler, the Yiddish- and Group Theatre-affiliated actress who became a premier acting coach in the US, said about her father's success with The Yiddish King Lear that "The whole profession caught fire. Good theater apparently could 'make it'... Every actor wanted to play Gordin. Every actor wanted to play the classics, and the people came."

Adler achieved even greater success when, in 1903, he trod the boards on Broadway as Shylock in a production of Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." He had another supreme triumph, humanizing a character that until then had been a one-dimensional, stereotypical villain, nearly always played by a gentile in a red fright wig.

In 1910, Adler made his first and only feature film for the Selig movie studio, "Michael Strogoff" an adaptation of Jules Verne's adventure story directed by J. Searle Dawley. The movie was one of the first full-length adaptations of a Verne work. "Michael Strogoff" was a first rate production with lavish production values, which were unusual for a movie from the Selig studio, but which bears testimony to the fame and respect Adler engendered. The film was notable for its climax, which entailed the burning of a Siberian city.

Adler' wrote his memoirs in Yiddish, which were published in the Yiddish-language socialist newspaper 'Die Varheit' ('The Truth') from 1916-19. Adler fell ill in 1922, and though he recovered, his illness had aged him and sapped his powers. When he returned to front his theater before the adoring crowds, putting back on the grease-paint to play in Gordin's drama "The Stranger", he was a success, but had clearly lost the stamina necessary for the stage. He died on April 1, 1926 in New York City, aged 81.

His second wife Sara Heine Adler, herself a great actress who regaled a young Marlon Brando with tales of her late husband and his acting philosophy that had a great influence on the tyro thespian, died in 1953. They had brought into being an acting dynasty, most notable in the successes of their son, Luther, and their daughter, Stella. Stella's grandson David Oppenheim is an actor who runs the influential acting school she founded.

Jacob Adler's legacy was to effect the transformation of the Yiddish Theater into quality theater. His son Luther and daughter Stella, as members of the Group Theatre, an organization with roots firmly planted in the Yiddish theater, helped do the same to Broadway in the 1930s. He also helped influence a new generation of actors who came to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s, most notably Paul Muni, who started in the Yiddish theater, which largely died out even before the Holocaust due to assimilation, the decline of Yiddish as a living language among American Jews, and the competition posed by radio and movies as a new form of cheap entertainment.

The nearly 70-year-old Adler, in the last chapter of his memoirs, explained the significance of the Yiddish theater and its enduring legacy: "Only dipped in blood and lit with tears of a living witness can the world understand how, with our blood, with our nerves, with the tears of our sleepless nights, we built the theater that stands today as a testament to our people."

Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, nicknamed "Iron Felix", was a Bolshevik revolutionary and official, born into Polish nobility. From 1917 until his death in 1926, Dzerzhinsky led the first two Soviet state-security organizations, the Cheka and the OGPU, establishing a secret police for the post-revolutionary Soviet regime. He was one of the architects of the Red Terror and disquisition.

Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague on the 4th of December 1878 as the son of a military man working with railroads. After he visited a military Upper School he tried to avoid the army and did the preparations for the final exams and the final exams in private. He went to university to study literature and art. Rilke left Germany for a journey to Russia which had a big influenced on him. He settled down 1900 in Worpswede, a German village with artists only, most of them painters. He married one of them, Clara Westhoff, but the marriage was divorced in 1902. After journeys to Spain, North Africa, Egypt and France he finally found a man with money: After World War One he settled down in Switzerland in a castle owned by Werner Reinhart, but free to use for him. On the 29th of December 1926 he died in a sanatory in Valmont on Leucaemia. Rilke made some important contributions to the German literature. His work, including the novel "Malte Laurids Brigge" and many famous poems, are the standing examples of the literary "Jugendstil", an epoche in which the authors tried to reflect their inner views.

Lothar Mehnert was born on 21 February 1875 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for The Haunted Castle (1921), Allein im Urwald (1922) and Der galante König - August der Starke (1920). He died on 30 November 1926.

Gaudi y Cornet initially completed an apprenticeship as a blacksmith. In 1872 he began studying at the Escola Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona. While still studying, he and another Catalan architect designed the fountain system in the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona. The building project was carried out between 1877 and 1882. In 1878 Gaudi completed his training with a diploma. He then traveled to Catalonia and other regions. He came across the French architect and cultural historian Eugenie Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and his works, which greatly influenced him. The Casa Vicens project in Barcelona is also one of Gaudi's early works, which was completed between 1878 and 1880, as is the house El Capricho in Comillas, northern Spain, which employed the architect from 1883 to 1885. In this house project, Gaudi documented his masterful use of iron as a building material, for which his training as a blacksmith was a brilliant prerequisite.

In 1882, the collaboration began with Count Eusebi Güell as his client, who also became his greatest patron. Gaudi realized several buildings for him on his Les Corts estate near Barcelona, such as stables and the entrance gate. In 1883, Gaudi began work on the monumental Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, which would occupy him for the rest of his life. He worked on it for a total of 43 years. The work is still unfinished to this day. Gaudi planned a gallery for 1,500 singers, 700 children and five organs for the gigantic church. In 1885, design work began on the Palau Güell in the old town of Barcelona, his second commission for his patron Eusebi Güell. A building with a dome, glazing and stairs was built on an area of 18 by twelve meters, which had a voluminous external appearance. The work on this was completed in 1889. During this time, the Spanish architect was planning his next project, the pavilion of the shipping company Compañia Trandatlántica for the maritime exhibition in Cadiz. The following year he planned a pavilion for the world exhibition in Barcelona for the same client.

In 1887 he was busy rebuilding the burnt down bishop's palace in León. The work was never finished due to the death of the client, Juan Grau, Bishop of Astorga, in 1890. In 1894 the sacred building Convento Teresiano was completed. The result was a building that expressed the neo-Gothic style with its clear lines. Gaudi had to forego his usual design habit of ornamentation and detailing for cost reasons. His work was determined by the guiding principles of a Gothic style adapted to the Mediterranean region and traditional Catholicism in architecture. The light and climate of his country played a primary role, which he incorporated into his designs. Between 1898 and 1904, Gaudi was busy planning and realizing the Casa Calvet in Barcelona. To do this, he implemented one of his most traditional plans. The city awarded the measure an official price. It remained the only award from Barcelona, although Gaudi realized his most important works there.

In 1898, Gaudi planned apartments for Count Güell for the employees of his factory in Santa Coloma de Cervelló. Among other things, there was also a chapel where he carried out design experiments that were used elsewhere, for example in the Sagrada Familia cathedral. The plan remained a fragment, as did Park Güell, which was intended to be a garden city. The project consisted of an ensemble of gardens and architectural forms that were supposed to be in harmonious balance with one another. Gaudi was versatile. He planned apartments, townhouses, schools, churches and garden landscapes. In 1905 Gaudi started his final design. He designed the Casa Milá as a residential building. But this planned work was not completed either. In 1911 the architect fell ill.

Antoni Gaudi died on June 10, 1926 as a result of a tram accident.

Enrico Gemelli was born in 1841 in Sant'Agata Bolognese, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was an actor and writer, known for Cabiria (1914), The Heart of a Police Officer (1913) and For King and Country (1913). He died on 7 May 1926 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy.

John Smiley was born on 4 November 1861 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Battle of Shiloh (1913), The Road o' Strife (1915) and Patsy (1917). He was married to Evelyn Greeley. He died on 6 February 1926 in Queens County, New York, USA.

Holger Rasmussen was born on 11 March 1870. He was a director and actor, known for I Spionklør (1917), Det røde alfabet (1916) and A Wedding During the French Revolution (1910). He died on 17 June 1926.

Arthur Mackley was born on 3 July 1865 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for Old Gorman's Gal (1913), Two Western Paths (1913) and The Daughter of the Sheriff (1913). He was married to Julia Mackley. He died on 21 December 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Carrie Clark Ward was born on 9 January 1862 in Virginia City, Nevada, USA. She was an actress, known for Daddy-Long-Legs (1919), A Fool and His Money (1925) and Old Lady 31 (1920). She was married to Sedley Brown. She died on 6 February 1926 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Handsome classical stage and screen actor James K. Hackett born James Keteltas Hackett in Ontario, Canada in 1869. Son of the celebrated Shakespearian actor James Henry Hackett. Like his father he studied law at the College of the City of New York, his outstanding acting talent soon became evident in college theatricals and after leaving he embarked on a stage career after graduation in 1891. He made his professional stage debut in 'The Broken Seal' in Philadelphia in 1892, he became a highly well-known matinee idol through the 1890's, playing such roles as Romeo with Olga Nethersole as Juliet in 'Romeo and Juliet' and as Captain Basil Jennico in the 1900 production of 'The Pride of Jennico' with Bertha Galland in her New York stage debut. He eventually formed his own theatre Company. In 1913 Adolph Zukor asked him to star in a movie version of 'The Prisoner of Zenda' playing the duel roles Rudolf Rassendyll and King Rudolf of Ruritania a role which he played in the theatre numberous times, the film was directed by Edwin S. Porter and co-starred his wife Beatrice Beckley as Princess Flavia for the Famous Players Film Co. Later starred in only two more films, as Arthur Woodridge in Ivan Abramson's 'Ashes of Love' co-starring Effie Shannon in 1918 and his last screen appearance in A.J. Bloome's 'The Greater Sinner' starring opposite Ormi Hawley for Rivoli Film Co in 1919. Late in his stage career he attempted a number of Shakespearian revivals, which met with only modest success , and his last Broadway appearance was in 1924 as Macbeth. Married actress Mary Mannering in 1897 and in 1911 married Beatrice Beckley. Hackett died from cirrhosis of the liver in Paris, France at 57, leaving a $1 million bequest to the Actors' Home in Staten Island, New York.

Fritz Schade was born on 19 January 1880 in Dresden, Germany. He was an actor, known for Hash House Mashers (1915), Her Nature Dance (1917) and Ruined by a Dumbwaiter (1918). He died on 17 June 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Joe Moore was born on 22 November 1894 in County Meath, Ireland. He was an actor, known for The Golden Web (1926), Goat Getter (1925) and Love's Battle (1920). He was married to Grace Cunard. He died on 22 August 1926 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

As a young actor in a small traveling Kabuki group, he was discovered by Makino Shozo and made his debut as the main character in Goban Tadanobu in 1909. Later he acted in parts both as a hero and kyokyaku (a professional gambler in the Edo period, often romanticized as a chivalrous 'Robin Hood' figure) one after another, and he also performed most of the main characters in the bestsellers of the time, Tachikawa paperbacks. Ninja films were also discovered by Matsunosuke, and he was given the nickname "Medama no Matchan" due to his very large eyes. He became very popular with children who would imitate the ninja moves they had seen in his films. Matusnosuke is said to have created over 80 films a year during his prime years and made over 1,000 films in total. However, the only films that are preserved today are Chushingura (1910), Goketsu Jiraiya (1921) and Shibukawa Bangoro (1922). Matsunosuke collapsed during the filming of Kyokotsu Mikazuki in 1926, and died of heart disease on 11 September that year.

Alva Garbo was born on 20 September 1903 in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an actress, known for En lyckoriddare (1921) and Två konungar (1925). She died on 21 April 1926 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.

Billy Quirk was born on 27 March 1873 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Algie, the Miner (1912), The Man Worthwhile (1921) and The Maverick (1912). He was married to Patsy Jane Holcomb. He died on 20 April 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA.