Birth Anniversary: Georg Friedrich Händel — February 23, 1685

Born in Halle an der Saale on 23 February 1685, the son of a court barber-surgeon. He mastered organ under Friedrich Zachow, absorbed the opera style in Hamburg and spent four transformative years in Italy composing for Roman cardinals and Venetian patrons before settling permanently in London in 1712.

Dates verified on Christopher Hogwood, Handel: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0521837477, pp. 1-18; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry "Handel, George Frideric" (https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/12192).