John Philip Sousa was born on November 6, 1854, and his 170th birthday is being celebrated in several places in the USA. He was born in Washington DC, the son of a German mother (Elizabeth Trinkhous), who gave him a Germanophile education, and João António Sousa, who was born in 1824 in Seville, Spain, but was the son of Portuguese parents. António Sousa, who was a musician in the Navy Band (he played the trombone), took charge of his son’s musical training and enlisted him when he was 13 years old.

John Philip Sousa was an idol of the masses in his time, like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley would later be. He died in 1932, hours after giving his last concert, but there are still several John Philip Sousa bands, which play the 137 marches he composed and wear the military-style coats that their conductor wore. There is also the John Philip Sousa Foundation, which promotes “international understanding through bands”. He was a tireless worker, wrote seven books and also invented the Sousaphone, a special tuba that the player rested on his shoulder.

The “king of marches”’ hobby was clay pigeon shooting and he was one of the best marksmen of his time. Confirming that not all fathers know how to swim, none of John Philip Sousa’s descendants dedicated themselves to music.