1839 premiere of Hector Berlioz's ‘symphonie dramatique’ Romeo and Juliet based on Shakespeare; this was the first of three triumphant performances conducted by the composer at the Paris Conservatory before capacity audiences that comprised much of the Parisian intelligentsia and included Richard Wagner.
1868 Scott Joplin – American ragtime composer and pianist (d.1917); later called ‘The King of Ragtime’; during his brief career, wrote some 44 original pieces, a ragtime ballet, and 2 operas; his Maple Leaf Rag was ragtime's first and most influential hit.
1888 first performance of Peter Tchaikovsky's fantasy overture Hamlet in Moscow; dedicated to Edvard Grieg, whom Tchaikovsky had recently met (on the same occasion that he met Johannes Brahms); Tchaikovsky described Grieg as "an extraordinarily charming man".
1919 first performance of the third (and final) version of Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 5 in Helsinki under the composer's direction; he had conducted the first performances of two earlier versions of this symphony in 1915 and 1916; the composer was originally commissioned to write this work by the Finnish government in honor of his 50th birthday, which had been declared a national holiday
1927 Emma Lou Diemer – American composer and keyboard player (died June 2, 2024); among her works, Songs for the Earth (2005), commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society with texts by Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, Dorothy Diemer Hendry, Omar Khayyam, and Hildegard von Bingen.
1934 Alfred Schnittke – Russian Soviet composer (d.1998); developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony (1969–1972); in the 1980s, his music became more widely known abroad with Second (1980) and Third (1983) String Quartets and the ballet Peer Gynt and the Symphonies Nos. 3-5.
1940 Wendell Logan – African-American jazz and concert music composer (d. 2010) who created the jazz department at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music; preferred music by African-American composers to simply be performed alongside works by others. Quote: "No one is asking for a special day…That's kind of demeaning. But it's better than nothing"
1944 first performance of David Diamond's Rounds for string orchestra, by the Minneapolis Symphony conducted by Dimtri Mitropoulos who had commissioned the work, saying "Write me a happy work. These are distressing times; most of the difficult music I play is distressing. Make me happy."
1953 Tod Machover – American composer, conductor, cellist (72 years old); an innovator in the application of technology in music.
1960 Edgar Meyer – American double-bass virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist and composer (64 years old); styles include classical, bluegrass, ‘newgrass’ (progressive bluegrass), and jazz.