December 21, 1940

1940Frank Zappa, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer and producer (died 1993)^[†]

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, songwriter, electric guitarist, conductor, actor, satirist, filmmaker and activist. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he additionally produced nearly all the 60-plus albums he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. His work, which predominantly features electric guitar work, is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation sound experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.

1940F. Scott Fitzgerald, American novelist and short story writer (born 1896)^[†]

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known as F. Scott Fitzgerald or simply Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term that he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. He published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. He achieved transient success and fortune in the 1920s, but did not receive critical acclaim until after his death. He is since widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.