New Worlds is a British science fiction magazine that began in 1936 as a
fanzine called Novae Terrae. It was first published professionally in
1946, edited by John Carnell. It was the leading British science fiction
publication during the period to 1960 described by historian Mike Ashley
as the magazine's "Golden Age". Early issues featured John Wyndham's
"The Living Lies", under his John Beynon alias, and "Inheritance", an
early story by Arthur C. Clarke. "Escapement" by J. G. Ballard appeared
in the December 1956 issue; this was Ballard's first professionally
published work, and he went on to become a significant figure in science
fiction in the 1960s. After 1964, when Michael Moorcock became editor,
the magazine featured experimental and avant-garde material, and it
became the focus of the modernist New Wave of science fiction. Reaction
among the science fiction community was mixed, with partisans and
opponents of the New Wave debating the merits of New Worlds in the
columns of fanzines, such as Speculation. Several of the regular
contributors during this period, including Brian Aldiss and Thomas M.
Disch, became major names in science fiction.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Worlds_(magazine)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
885:
A fleet of Viking ships sailed up the Seine to lay siege to
Paris.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(885%E2%80%9386)>
1759:
The second of two strong earthquakes struck the Levant and
destroyed all the villages in the Beqaa Valley.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_East_earthquakes_of_1759>
1917:
World War I: German troops invaded Portuguese East Africa
(fighting pictured) in an attempt to escape superior British forces to
the north and resupply from captured Portuguese materiel.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ngomano>
1947:
McCarthyism: Executives from movie studios agreed to blacklist
ten screenwriters and directors who were jailed for refusing to give
testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist>
1960:
The Mirabal sisters, who opposed the dictatorship of military
strongman Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, were beaten and
strangled to death.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabal_sisters>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
biennium:
A period of two years.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/biennium>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Maybe altruism is our most primitive attribute out of reach,
beyond our control. Or perhaps it is immediately at hand, waiting to be
released, disguised now, in our kind of civilization as affection or
friendship or attachment. I can’t see why it should be unreasonable
for all human beings to have strands of DNA coiled up in chromosomes,
coding out instincts for usefulness and helpfulness. Usefulness may turn
out to be the hardest test of fitness for survival, more important than
aggression, more effective, in the long run, than grabbiness.
--Lewis Thomas
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lewis_Thomas>