Scoops was a weekly British science fiction magazine in tabloid format that was published by Arthur Pearson (pictured) for 20 issues in 1934. Its editor was Haydn Dimmock, who also edited The Scout, a weekly magazine for boys. Scoops was launched as a boy's paper, and it was not until several issues had appeared that Dimmock discovered there was an adult audience for science fiction. Circulation was poor, and Dimmock attempted to change the magazine's focus to more mature material. He reprinted Arthur Conan Doyle's The Poison Belt, improved the cover art, and obtained fiction from the British science fiction writers John Russell Fearn and Maurice Hugi. Pearson cancelled Scoops because of poor sales. The failure of the magazine contributed to the belief that Britain could not support a science fiction magazine, and it was not until 1937, with Tales of Wonder, that another attempt was made.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoops_%28magazine%29
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1860:
Seven months after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, several prominent British scientists and philosophers participated in an evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Oxford_evolution_debate
1934:
Adolf Hitler violently purged members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), its leader Ernst Röhm, and other political rivals in the Night of the Long Knives, executing at least 85 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives
1972:
The International Time Bureau added the first leap second to the Coordinated Universal Time time scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second
2009:
Schoolgirl Bahia Bakari was the sole survivor when Yemenia Flight 626 crashed into the Indian Ocean killing 152 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenia_Flight_626
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
plat: 1. A plot of land; a lot. 2. A map showing the boundaries of real properties (delineating one or more plots of land), especially one that forms part of a legal document. 3. (obsolete) A plot, a scheme. 4. (transitive) To create a plat; to lay out property lots and streets; to map. […] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plat
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
What I'm saying here is not, I agree, poetry, as poems should be written rarely and reluctantly, under unbearable duress and only with the hope that good spirits, not evil ones, choose us for their instrument. --Czesław Miłosz https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Czes%C5%82aw_Mi%C5%82osz