On this day
09
March

Samuel Barber, Vita Sackville-West, Robert Mapplethorpe

Born: Samuel Barber (1910), Vita Sackville-West (1892)
Died: Robert Mapplethorpe (1989)

Born on this day

09MarBorn 1910116th birthday

Samuel Barber

The composer of the “Adagio for Strings” shared his life for over forty years with the composer Gian Carlo Menotti.

09MarBorn 1892134th birthday

Vita Sackville-West

An aristocrat who loved women, eloped with Violet Trefusis dressed as a man – and inspired Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando”.

Died on this day

09MarDied 198937th anniversary of death

Robert Mapplethorpe

His photographs of flowers, faces and gay sexuality were perfectly composed – and sparked America’s fiercest battle over art and censorship.