Diane Keaton is an American film producer, director, and actor. Keaton
began her career as a stage actor, and made her screen debut in 1970.
Keaton's first major film role was as Kay Adams in The Godfather
(1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with
director and co-star Woody Allen. Her films with Allen such as Sleeper
(1973), Love and Death (1975), and her Academy Award-winning
performance in Annie Hall established her as a comic actor. Keaton has
claimed that she is "tailor-made for comedy". Keaton ceased
collaborating with Allen in 1979, and took on new roles to avoid
becoming typecast as her Annie Hall persona. She became an
accomplished dramatic actor, starting with Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(1977) and received Academy Award nominations for Reds (1981) and
Marvin's Room (1996). Some of her popular recent films include Father
of the Bride (1991), The First Wives Club (1996), and Something's
Gotta Give (2003). Keaton's films have earned a cumulative gross of
over $1.1 billion USD in North America.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Keaton
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
711:
Umayyad troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad landed at Gibraltar, beginning
the Moorish invasion of Iberia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar)
1789:
George Washington took office as the first President of the United
States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington)
1945:
Martin Bormann and Heinz Linge found Adolf Hitler dead in the
Führerbunker.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Adolf_Hitler)
1948:
The Organization of American States was established in Bogotá,
Colombia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States)
1975:
North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon, ending the Vietnam War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War)
1991:
A powerful tropical cyclone struck Chittagong, killing at least
138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless in
Bangladesh.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Bangladesh_cyclone)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never
satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and
writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length." -- Carl
Friedrich Gauss
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Gauss)
The Mini is a small car that was produced by the British Motor
Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 to 2000. The most
popular British-made car of all time, it has since been replaced by
the New MINI which was launched in 2001. The original is considered an
icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout
influenced a generation of car-makers. In an internet poll for "Global
Car of the Century" the Mini came second after the Model T Ford. This
revolutionary and distinctive two-door car was designed for BMC by Sir
Alec Issigonis (1906–88). It was manufactured at the Longbridge and
Cowley plants in the United Kingdom, and later in Australia, Belgium,
Chile, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.
The Mini Mk I had three major updates: The Mk II, the Clubman, and the
Mk III, within which were a series of variations including an estate
car, a pickup truck, a van, and the Mini Moke - a jeep-like buggy.
The Mini Cooper and Cooper "S" were sportier versions that were
successful as rally cars - winning the Monte Carlo Rally three
times.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1770:
James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour made their first landfall
on Australia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_Bark_Endeavour)
1862:
Union forces under David Farragut captured New Orleans, securing
access into the Mississippi River during the American Civil War.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Farragut)
1882:
Ernst Werner von Siemens began operating his "Elektromote", the
world's first trolleybus.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/trolleybus)
1945:
Adolf Hitler dictated his last will and testament to his secretary in
the Führerbunker, and then married Eva Braun in a brief ceremony.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_will_and_testament_of_Adolf_Hitler)
1992:
The acquittal of policemen who had beaten Rodney King sparked civil
unrest in Los Angeles.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"Despite the best that has been done by everyone - the gallant
fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity
of Our servants of the State, and the devoted service of Our one
hundred million people - the war situation has developed not
necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the
world have all turned against her interest." -- Hirohito
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hirohito)
The Swedish allotment system was a system used in Sweden for keeping a
trained army at all times. The oldest variant of the system came into
use in around 1640, and in 1682 an updated system was introduced. Both
systems relied on estates and farms that provided housing, salary and
some military equipment for a soldier or horseman. In exchange, all
other men in households providing soldiers escaped conscription, and
households providing a horseman gained a large tax reduction. The
system provided a well-trained, fast-mobilized and relatively cheap
army that had large success on the battlefields of Europe during the
17th century, but the system also took its toll on the population. The
allotment system was not replaced until the early 1900s, when the
Swedish Armed Forces started using a conscription system.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_allotment_system
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1192:
Third Crusade: Conrad of Montferrat, the elected King of Jerusalem,
was assassinated by the Hashshashin.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_of_Montferrat)
1789:
Fletcher Christian led a mutiny aboard HMAV Bounty against Commander
William Bligh.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutiny_on_the_Bounty)
1952:
Occupied Japan: Japan was once again an independent state, when the
Treaty of San Francisco entered into force.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupied_Japan)
1996:
A spree shooter in the Port Arthur Massacre killed 35 people, and
seriously injured 37 in Tasmania, Australia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre)
2001:
Dennis Tito became the world's first fee-paying space tourist, riding
the Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft to the International Space Station.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tourism)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose;
then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is
surprised that everyone has lost." -- Karl Kraus
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Kraus)
The 1996 U.S. campaign finance scandal refers to alleged efforts by
the People's Republic of China to influence domestic United States
politics prior to and during the Bill Clinton Administration as well
as the fundraising practices of the administration itself. While
questions regarding the U.S. Democratic Party's fundraising activities
first arose in October 1996, China's alleged role in the affair first
gained public attention after Bob Woodward and Brian Duffy of the
Washington Post published a story stating that a U.S. Department of
Justice investigation into the fundraising activities had discovered
evidence that agents of China sought to direct contributions from
foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee before the 1996
presidential campaign. The journalists wrote that intelligence
information had showed the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. was
used for coordinating contributions to the DNC in violation of U.S.
law forbidding non-American citizens from giving monetary donations to
U.S. politicians and political parties. Seventeen people were
eventually convicted for fraud or for funneling Asian funds into the
U.S. elections. A number of the convictions came against long-time
Clinton-Gore friends and political appointees.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_U.S._campaign_finance_scandal
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1521:
Filipino natives led by Lapu-Lapu killed Portuguese explorer Ferdinand
Magellan in the Battle of Mactan.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mactan)
1565:
Conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and 500 armed soldiers arrived
at Cebu and established the first Spanish settlement in the
Philippines.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_L%C3%83%C2%B3pez_de_Legazpi)
1667:
John Milton, blind and impoverished, sold the copyright of Paradise
Lost for £10.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Milton)
1865:
An explosion destroyed the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River,
killing 1,700 passengers.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_%28steamboat%29)
1994:
Apartheid in South Africa: The African National Congress had a
landslide victory in the first non-racial elections in the history of
South Africa.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa_in_the_apartheid_era)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators."
-- Edward Gibbon
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon)
Attalus I ruled Pergamon, a Greek city-state in present-day Turkey,
from 241 BCE to 197 BCE. He was the second cousin and the adoptive son
of Eumenes I, whom he succeeded, and was the first of the Attalid
dynasty to assume the title of king. He won an important victory over
the Galatians, newly arrived Celtic tribes from Thrace, who had been,
for more than a generation, plundering and exacting tribute throughout
most of Asia Minor without any serious check. This victory, celebrated
by the triumphal monument at Pergamon, famous for its Dying Gaul, and
the liberation from the Gallic "terror" which it represented, earned
for Attalus the name of "Soter," and the title of "king." A courageous
and capable general and loyal ally of Rome, he played a significant
role in the first and second Macedonian Wars, waged against Philip V
of Macedon. He conducted numerous naval operations, harassing
Macedonian interests throughout the Aegean, winning honors, collecting
spoils, and gaining for Pergamon possession of the Greek islands of
Aegina during the first war, and Andros during the second, twice
narrowly escaping capture at the hands of Philip. He died in 197 BCE,
shortly before the end of the second war, at the age of 72, having
suffered an apparent stroke while addressing a Boeotian war council
some months before.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attalus_I
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1719:
Robinson Crusoe, a novel by Daniel Defoe, was first published.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe)
1792:
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed La Marseillaise, now the
national anthem of France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marseillaise)
1953:
Molecular structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose
Nucleic Acid by James Watson and Francis Crick was published in the
scientific journal Nature.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_structure_of_Nucleic_Acids)
1974:
The song Grândola Vila Morena by Zeca Afonso was broadcast on radio,
signalling the start of the Carnation Revolution, a bloodless coup
against the Estado Novo regime in Portugal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution)
1986:
Mswati III was crowned King of Swaziland, succeeding his father
Sobhuza II.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mswati_III_of_Swaziland)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true
that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know
to be untrue." -- Edward R. Murrow
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow)
S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an ill-fated
effort to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members
perished. S. A. Andrée, the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a
voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada,
which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way.
After Andrée, Strindberg, and Frænkel lifted off from Svalbard in
July 1897, the balloon lost hydrogen quickly and crashed on the pack
ice after only two days. The explorers were unhurt but faced a
grueling trek back south across the drifting icescape. Inadequately
clothed, equipped, and prepared, and shocked by the difficulty of the
terrain, they did not make it to safety. As the Arctic winter closed
in on them in October, the group ended up exhausted on the deserted
Kvitøya in Svalbard and died there, not to be found until 33 years
later. The main causes of the tragedy are commonly considered to be
S. A. Andrée's unlimited optimism, faith in the power of technology,
and disregard for the forces of nature.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._A._Andr%C3%A9e%27s_Arctic_balloon_expeditio…
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1800:
The U.S. Library of Congress was founded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress)
1916:
Easter Rising: The Irish Republican Brotherhood started a rebellion in
Ireland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Rising)
1967:
The Soyuz 1 spacecraft crashed in Siberia, killing cosmonaut Vladimir
Komarov.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_1)
1980:
Eight U.S. servicemen died in Operation Eagle Claw, a failed attempt
to rescue the hostages in the Iran hostage crisis.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Eagle_Claw)
1990:
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery
in mission STS-31.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The end of man is knowledge but there's one thing he can't know. He
can't know whether knowledge will save him or kill him. He will be
killed, all right, but he can't know whether he is killed because of
the knowledge which he has got or because of the knowledge which he
hasn't got and which if he had it would save him." -- Robert Penn
Warren
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Penn_Warren)
Turkish literature is the literature written in the Turkish language,
either in its Ottoman variety—which was heavily influenced by
Persian and Arabic and used a variant of the Arabic script—or in its
more normative variety, such as that spoken in the Republic of Turkey
today. The history of Turkish literature spans a period of nearly
1,500 years. The oldest extant records of written Turkish are the
Orhon inscriptions, found in the Orhon River valley in central
Mongolia and dating to the 8th century CE. Beginning with the Seljuks
in the 11th century CE, the Oghuz Turks began to settle in Anatolia,
and in addition to the earlier oral traditions there arose a written
literary tradition heavily influenced by Arabic and Persian
literature. For the next 900 years, until shortly before the fall of
the Ottoman Empire in 1922, the oral and written traditions would
remain largely separate from one another. With the founding of the
Republic of Turkey in 1923, the two traditions came together for the
first time.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_literature
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1014:
Irish forces led by Brian Boru clashed with the Vikings in the Battle
of Clontarf.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Clontarf)
1827:
Irish mathematician and physicist Rowan Hamilton presented his Theory
of Systems of Rays.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rowan_Hamilton)
1923:
Gdynia was inaugurated as a Polish seaport on the south coast of the
Baltic Sea.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gdynia)
1954:
Batting against Vic Raschi of the St. Louis Cardinals, Hank Aaron of
the Milwaukee Braves hit the first of his 755 home runs in Major
League Baseball.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron)
1982:
The Conch Republic facetiously declared independence from the United
States.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be
a fool." -- William Shakespeare in As You Like It
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare)
The Marshall Plan was the primary plan of the United States for
rebuilding Europe after World War II. The initiative was named for
United States Secretary of State George Marshall and was largely the
creation of State Department officials, especially William L. Clayton
and George F. Kennan. The reconstruction plan was developed at a
meeting of the participating European states in July 1947. The Soviet
Union and the states of Eastern Europe were invited, but Joseph Stalin
saw the plan as a threat and did not allow the participation of any
countries under Soviet control. The plan was in operation for four
fiscal years beginning in July 1947. During that period some $13
billion of economic and technical assistance - equivalent to around
$130 billion in 2006, when adjusted for inflation - was given to
help the recovery of the European countries which had joined in the
Organization for European Economic Cooperation. By the time the plan
had come to completion, the economy of every participant state, with
the exception of Germany, had grown well past prewar levels. Over the
next two decades Western Europe as a whole would enjoy unprecedented
growth and prosperity.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1500:
Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral and his crew became the
first Europeans to sight Brazil.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_%C3%83%EF%BF%BDlvares_Cabral)
1864:
The U.S. Congress authorized the minting of a two-cent coin, the first
U.S. coin to bear the words "In God We Trust".
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust)
1913:
The Bolshevik newspaper Pravda was first published in Saint
Petersburg, Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pravda)
1914:
Babe Ruth played his first professional baseball game as a pitcher for
the Baltimore Orioles.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babe_Ruth)
1915:
Chlorine gas was released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of
Ypres, the first large-scale use of poison gas in World War I.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/use_of_poison_gas_in_World_War_I)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express
would not have been expressed, had I not known more." -- Vladimir
Nabokov
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov)
Cheers was a long-running American situation comedy produced by
Charles-Burrows-Charles Productions in association with Paramount
Television for NBC. The show was set in the eponymous Cheers bar in
Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals met to drink and
generally have fun. The show's theme song was written and performed by
Gary Portnoy with its famous refrain, "where everybody knows your
name" that also became the show's tagline. After premiering on
September 30, 1982, it was nearly cancelled during its first season
when it ranked dead last in ratings. However, Cheers eventually became
one of the most popular television shows in the United States, earning
a top-ten rating during seven of its eleven seasons and spending the
bulk of its run on NBC's Must See Thursday lineup. Its widely watched
series finale was broadcast on May 20, 1993, and the show's 273
episodes have now entered into a long and successful syndication run.
The show earned 26 Emmy Awards, out of a total of 117 nominations. The
character Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) later starred in his own
successful spin-off, Frasier, after Cheers ended.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheers
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1713:
Emperor Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction to ensure his
daughter Maria Theresa would inherit the Habsburg monarchy.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatic_Sanction_of_1713)
1775:
The American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and
Concord.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord)
1839:
The signing of the Treaty of London formally recognised Belgian
independence from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_London%2C_1839)
1971:
The first space station, Salyut 1, was launched.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1)
1995:
Oklahoma City bombing: A car bomb was detonated in front of the Alfred
P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168
people.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April's breeze
unfurled;Here once the embattled farmers stood;And fired the shot
heard round the world. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson)
Joan of Arc is a national heroine of France and a saint of the Roman
Catholic Church. She had visions, believed to be from God, which led
to the liberation of her homeland from English dominance in the
Hundred Years' War. The then-uncrowned King Charles VII sent her to
the siege of Orléans as part of a relief mission. She gained
prominence when she overcame the disregard of veteran commanders and
ended the siege in only nine days. Several more swift victories led to
Charles VII's coronation at Rheims and settled the disputed succession
to the throne. The renewed French confidence outlasted Joan of Arc's
own brief career. She refused to leave the field when she was wounded
during an attempt to recapture Paris that fall. Hampered by court
intrigues, she led only minor companies from then on, and fell
prisoner during a skirmish near Compiègne the following spring. A
politically-motivated trial convicted her of heresy. The English
regent, John, Duke of Bedford, had her burnt at the stake in Rouen.
Pope Callixtus III reopened Joan's case; a new finding overturned the
original conviction. Her piety to the end impressed the retrial court.
Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May 1920.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1746:
The Battle of Culloden, the final battle of the Jacobite Rising, was
fought in Culloden, Scotland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden)
1853:
Indian Railways launched its first passenger train service.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways)
1917:
Vladimir Lenin returned to Petrograd from Switzerland, and joined the
Bolshevik movement in Russia.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Lenin)
1943:
Dr. Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD)
1947:
Texas City Disaster: Thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate in Texas
City's port exploded.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster)
_____________________
Wikiquote of the day:
"The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they
say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within
you." -- Yeshua (Jesus Christ)
(http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jesus)