Senesino

Francesco Bernardi, known as Senesino, was a celebrated Italian contralto castrato, particularly remembered today for his long collaboration with the composer George Frideric Handel. He was also involved in a public scandal with the soprano Anastasia Robinson in 1724 which was circulated widely by the satirist Jonathan Swift, and inspired a number of anonymously written obscene, misogynistic, and at times sexually subversive epistles written between 1724 and 1736 which have become a topic of study among scholars of Restoration literature.

31 October 1686

Born on the same birth day (31 October): Annabella Lwin • Barbara Bel Geddes • Bruce Bawer • Charles Moore, Baron Moore of Etchingham • Chris Alajajian • Luis Fortuño • Luís I of Portugal • Marcus Rashford • Mari Okamoto • Marie Louise Andrews • Neal Stephenson • Rob Schneider • Selina Jen

Born in the same month (October 1686): Allan Ramsay (poet)