1483 Martin Luther – German monk, religious reformer and author of chorale texts and tunes (d.1546); A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (German, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott) is one of his best-known hymns, written sometime between 1527 and 1529.
1668 François Couperin – French composer, organist and harpsichordist (d.1733); known as Couperin le Grand (Couperin the Great) to distinguish him from other members of his musically talented family; early-music expert Jordi Savall calls him the "poet musician par excellence."
1873 Henri Rabaud – French conductor and composer (d.1949); a notoriously conservative member of the French musical establishment, his mantra was "modernism is the enemy."
1910 first performance of Sir Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto at Queen's Hall in London, by the Philharmonic Society of London with the composer conducting and soloist Fritz Kreisler for whom it was composed; plans by the recording company His Master's Voice to record the work with Kreisler and Elgar fell through, and the composer made a recording with the teenaged Yehudi Menuhin that has remained in the catalogues since its first release in 1932.
1928 Ennio Morricone – Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and former trumpet player (d.2020); wrote music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, as well as contemporary classical works; was known in his hometown of Rome as simply ‘Maestro.’