May 30, 1846: Peter Carl Fabergé was born. "A Russian jeweller of French origin, Faberge is best known for the famous Fabergé eggs, made in the style of genuine Easter eggs, but using precious metals and gemstones. Although the House of Fabergé is famed for its Imperial Easter Eggs, it made many more objects ranging from silver tableware to fine jewelry. Fabergé’s company became the largest jewellery business in Russia, with 500 employees. In addition to its Saint Petersburg head quarters, it had branches in Moscow, Odessa, Kiev and London. It produced some 150,000 to 200,000 objects from 1882 until 1917."
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May 30, 1879: Vanessa Bell, English painter and interior designer, a member of the Bloomsbury group, and the sister of Virginia Woolf, was born. "Vanessa Bell was educated at home by her parents in languages, mathematics and history, and took drawing lessons from Ebenezer Cook before she attended Sir Arthur Cope's art school in 1896, and then studied painting at the Royal Academy in 1901. After the deaths of her mother in 1895 and her father in 1904, Vanessa sold 22 Hyde Park Gate and moved to Bloomsbury with her sister Virginia, where they met and began socialising with the artists, writers and intellectuals who would come to form the Bloomsbury Group. She is considered one of the major contributors to British portrait drawing and landscape art in the 20th century."
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May 30, 1887: Alexander Archipenko, Ukraine sculptor/lithographer, is born. "Associated with the cubist movement, Archipenko departed from the neo-classical sculpture of his time and used negative space to create a new way of looking at the human figure, showing a number of views of the subject simultaneously. He is known for introducing sculptural voids, and for his inventive mixing of genres throughout his career: devising 'sculpto-paintings', and later experimenting with materials such as clear acrylic and terra cotta."
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May 30, 1909: Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was born. "An American jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, Goodman was known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman". In the mid-1930s, Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America. His January 16, 1938 concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music." Goodman's bands launched the careers of many major names in jazz, and during an era of segregation, he also led one of the first racially-integrated musical groups. Goodman continued to perform to nearly the end of his life, including exploring his interest in classical music."
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May 30, 1922: In Washington, D.C. the Lincoln Memorial is dedicated. "Built to honor the 16th President of the United States, it is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The architect was Henry Bacon, the sculptor of the main statue (Abraham Lincoln, 1920) was Daniel Chester French, and the painter of the interior murals was Jules Guerin. It is one of several monuments built to honor an American president. The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address. The memorial has been the site of many famous speeches, including Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on August 28, 1963."
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May 30, 1980 – JMW Turner’s "Juliet and Her Nurse", consigned by Flora Whitney Miller (of Whitney Museum fame) sold for $6.4 million at auction in New York City, a world-record price for a piece of art.
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