... 1898, the "Russian-born Canadian artist, socialist and feminist" Paraskeva Clark (left) was born in St. Petersburg to a father who was a factory worker and later a grocer and a mother who was expert in the folk art of artificial flower-making. Following the Bolshevik Revolution 90 years ago this month, she worked at an art studio and trained as a painter. Widowed and a single mother at age 25, she moved to the home of her in-laws in Paris. There she met her 2d husband, and upon marrying, she immigrated to Canada with him. "Clark holds a unique place in the history of Canadian art," as among "the most accomplished Canadian painters of the 1930s and 1940s," and among the few "who used her art to convey her passionate political convictions." She died in Toronto in 1986.
... 1892 (115 years ago today), "a mesmerized audience" watched as the 1st-ever animated cartoons danced across a screen at the Musée Grévin in Paris, to a musical score created for the event. These "luminous pantomimes," as they were called, were the branchild of Émile Reynaud, who'd been a physics professor before turning to work full-time on animation. To mark his achievement, today is set aside as the World Day of Animated Cinema.