In 1945, he achieved a major breakthrough in early computing by describing something called the "stored program technique," essentially solving the problem of having to build new hardware for every application. In 1943, von Neumann was recruited for the Manhattan Project, where he designed some of the most important elements of the first atomic bombs and even helped choose Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the first targets. Įager to escape the mounting antisemitism of 1930s Europe, von Neumann took a position at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study, where some dude named Albert Einstein was also a professor. Far from her machine-like nickname, Devi was an outgoing and warm person. She did it in 28 seconds, including the time required to write out the 26-digit solution. In 1980, her fame was immortalized when she made the Guinness World Records for the fastest multiplication of two 13-digit numbers. But one of her most memorable feats was in 1977, when she calculated the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds, beating a Univac computer (an early computer) by 12 seconds. Another favorite trick was identifying the day of the week for any date in history. Her specialty was cube roots, which she could find for numbers in the trillions in a matter of seconds. She toured all over India and the world while growing up. And before long, the crowds came just to see Devi, with her father taking on a new role as her manager. By the time she was 6, she was performing regularly as part of her father's magic show, doing card tricks and calculations. (Fischer won.) His legacy stands as America's greatest chess champion and tragic reminder of the price of genius.ĭevi fell for numbers the way that other toddlers love toys and crayons. Later in life, he would disappear for years at a time and occasionally show up at international tournaments.įischer died in exile in Iceland at 64 years old, a fugitive from American officials for playing an unsanctioned chess tournament in Yugoslavia against Spassky for $5 million in 1992. He joined the fringe Worldwide Church of God in his early 20s and was drawn to conspiracy theories about a global Jewish cabal. īy the time he faced Spassky in 1972, the 30-year-old Fischer had grown paranoid, accusing opponents of trying to poison him. As a teen, he obsessed over chess every waking hour, pouring through the archives at New York City's Marshall Chess Club to replay thousands of old games and develop new strategies. With a reported IQ of 181, Fischer was bored and restless in school, dropping out of high school at 16. Sadly, Fischer's preternatural genius at chess came at a cost to his personal life. But you can be sure that I'll be on the lookout for more.But the match that cemented Fischer as America's first - and arguably its only - bona fide chess superstar was his much-hyped trouncing of the Soviet chess master Boris Spassky in 1972 to become the reigning world chess champion. There is a Bach Prelude transcribed by Siloti and a complete recording of the f minor concerto by Chopin. She commissioned and premiered his first piano concerto in 1946 in Rio de Janeiro under the composer's direction and gave the American and Canadian premieres as well. I have been able to find several pieces by Villa-Lobos to whom Ellen Ballon was a friend and champion. The few recordings we have to listen to are insufficient to get a really good sense of her playing. That virtually no one I know has ever heard of her is a shame. That she was a pianist of great significance over a span of a 50 plus year career is of no doubt. She was invited to the White House to play for President Taft (1912), Roosevelt (1934) and Eisenhower (1954). She played with the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, London Symphony, Concertgebouw, and Suisse Romande orchestras. The list of conductors with whom Ellen Ballon played is a veritable who's who of 20th century conductors: Antal Dorati, Désiré Defauw, Walter Damrosch, Josef Stransky, Ernest Ansermet, and Sir Ernest MacMillan, inter alia. She continued her studies with Hofmann in New York, and subsequently with Wilhelm Backhaus in Vienna. She was a child when she made her New York debut in 1910, playingĬoncertos of Mendelssohn (G minor) and Beethoven (C major) with the New She was sent by the Canadian Prime Minister to study with Rafael Joseffy in New York. Artur Rubinstein is said to have declared her "the greatest pianistic genius I have ever met". ELLEN BALLON (1898-1969) Canadian pianistĮllen Ballon was a child prodigy, praised by no less a luminary than Joseph Hofmann whose student she later became.
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