Who is today's Google star? Dramatic & beautiful opera singer, Maria Callas

When it's not an actor or musician icon of our times on Google, we hardly recognize the person. Anyone who has been googling today has noticed a large illustration like this:

An opera singer, no doubt -- but who? And why? The lady in the picture is Maria Callas, and today is her birthday. Callas passed away in 1977, but her legacy lives on. As a soprano singer she had great range -- from serious Italian operas to Wagner's music dramas. She was of Greek heritage, but born in New York City, later moving to Greece for her education. It was in Italy where she really began to establish her career.

She was given the name La Divina (the divine). In Time Magazine's 1956 cover story she was called La Prima Donna. TIME recalls one story that demonstrates her name:

Once, her enemies began to heckle as she got to the high notes of her second aria in Traviata. Callas tore off her shawl, stepped to the front of the stage, glared directly at her tormentors. With reckless ferocity, she lit into one of opera's most perilous arias. If she had made a mistake, it would have been fatal. Instead, she sang with immaculate and unearthly beauty.

Drama followed her into her personal life, as well. In 1959, she left her Italian husband to live with Aristotle Onassis. We all know where that ended up. "Jackie O." (Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) ended up with him in the late 1960s. 

Today, we remember Maria Callas would have turned 90 years old.