Jacques Offenbach born this day in 1819, in Prussia no less! (Not many composers these days can claim to be born in Prussia, at least not honestly.) Besides having a pretty cool name (with internal rhyme), he was a prolific composer, meaning he wrote a lot--without an iPad, imagine!
Some of his famous operas include Orphée aux enfers (Orpheus in the Underwear), Die Rheinnixen (Nixon on the Rhine) and a grand opera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann (The Tails of Hoffman) about a cute little bunny who undergoes numerous plastic sugery procedures--but we won't give how it ends here! The composer Gioachino Rossini called Offenbach "our little Mozart of the Champs-Elysées", proving only that Rossini needed, at least, to seriously consider glasses for other than just drinking out of.
Speaking of operatic vocalists, this is also the birthday of Chester Arthur Burnett, born in 1910. He gave himself the name Howlin' Wolf and proceeded to invent Chicago Blues along with Muddy Waters. Wolf (his friends called him Mr. Wolf) is also notable for having a non-alpha character in his name, VERY post-modern. (Hassle for texting, though.) Howlin' (his other friends called him Howlin' G.) went unnoticed to the world outside of blues-lovers until some blues-lovers, like the Rolling Stones and others, noticed him, at which point he became noticeably more noticed to the outside world, in case you hadn't noticed.