Cecil Blount DeMille was born on this day in 1881 He was an American film director and film producer in both silent and sound films.[1]

DeMille began his career as a stage actor in 1900. He later moved on to writing and directing stage productions. He directed his first film, The Squaw Man, released in 1914 and would go on to direct dozens of silent films before crossing to sound films in 1929.

DeMille was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies. Among his best-known films are Cleopatra (1934); Samson and Delilah (1949); The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture; and The Ten Commandments (1956), which was his last and most successful film. In addition to his Academy Award win, he was also awarded an Academy Honorary Award for his film contributions, the Palme d'Or, a DGA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award, which is named in his honor.

He was married to Constance Adams DeMille in 1902 with whom he had one natural child, Cecilia, and three adopted children, Katherine, John, and Richard. DeMille died in January 1959 of a heart ailment at the age of 77.

He was a member of Prince Orange Lodge #16 in New York

On this day in 1941, Mason, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Mason, Prime Minister Winston Churchill met for the first time to discuss ways of providing aid to Russia on a gigantic scale in its war with Nazi Germany. They agreed to copse a document which was comprise to ensure life liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve the rights of man and justice. This document was called, "The Atlantic Charter" and was ratified by 26 nations. This would be a forerunner of the United Nations comprising the principle of it.