Welcome to ON THIS DAY! Each day, we'll look at a few moments from history and popular culture. We'll show you where you can rediscover classic movies and music, or read more about great moments in history. We'll point you to e-books, downloadable and streamable music and film, and e-audio; and of course, we haven't forgotten about physical books or DVDs.

	On this day in 1816, Gioachino Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville made its debut. Rossini was a rapid and prolific composer, and scholars believe that this opera was written in about three weeks. There had been at least three prior operatic versions of the same story, but Rossini's is the only one to have endured. Erich Leinsdorf conducts a cast led by Robert Merrill and Roberta Peters in a recording available for streaming or download at Freegal.
	On this day in 1925, Robert Altman was born. Altman's movies were usually filled with large ensemble casts, and he developed special microphone techniques that allowed multiple conversations to be heard simultaneously. He also encouraged his actors to improvise during rehearsals -- sometimes even during filiming -- in hopes of getting more fully developed characters and more natural sounding dialogue. Altman's 1973 film The Long Goodbye is his adaptation of the Raymond Chandler novel, starring Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe; it's available for streaming at Hoopla.
	And on this day in 1937, Nancy Wilson was born. In a recording career that lasted nearly 50 years, Wilson recorded more than 60 albums. She has occasionally ventured into contemporary soul, but is best known as a performer of pop and jazz standards. Wilson has said that she knew at age 4 she would be a singer; she was hosting a local television show in Columbus, Ohio, while still in her teens. Wilson's 1968 album Welcome to My Love is available for streaming at Hoopla.