Moonraker is the third novel by the British author Ian Fleming to
feature the Secret Service agent James Bond. It was published by
Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1955 with a cover design conceived by Fleming.
The only Bond novel set entirely in Britain, it features Drax, an ex-
Nazi working for the Russians, who plans to build a rocket, arm it with
a nuclear warhead, and fire it at London. Moonraker, like Fleming's
previous novels, was well received by critics. It plays on fears common
in the 1950s, including rocket attacks (following the V2 strikes of the
Second World War), Soviet communism, the re-emergence of Nazism and the
"threat from within" posed by both ideologies. Fleming examines
Englishness, and the novel shows the virtues and strength of England.
Adaptations include a broadcast on South African radio in 1956 starring
Bob Holness and a 1958 Daily Express comic strip. The novel's title was
used in 1979 for the eleventh official film in the Eon Productions Bond
series and the fourth to star Roger Moore as Bond; the plot was
significantly changed from the novel to include excursions into space.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonraker_(novel)>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1081:
The Komnenian dynasty came to full power when Alexios I
Komnenos was crowned Byzantine Emperor.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexios_I_Komnenos>
1566:
A covenant of nobles in the Habsburg Netherlands presented
Governor Margaret of Parma a petition to suspend the Spanish Inquisition
in the Netherlands.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compromise_of_Nobles>
1847:
Britain's first civic public park, Birkenhead Park in
Birkenhead, Merseyside, opened.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenhead_Park>
1936:
Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak: An F5 tornado hit
Tupelo, Mississippi, killing about 436 people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_Tupelo%E2%80%93Gainesville_tornado_outbreak>
2009:
The North Korean satellite Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 was launched from
the Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground and passed over Japan, sparking
concerns by other nations that it may have been a trial run of
technology that could be used to launch intercontinental ballistic
missiles.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwangmy%C5%8Fngs%C5%8Fng-2>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
tonology:
1. (linguistics, uncountable) The study of tone in human languages.
2. (linguistics, countable) The system of rules governing tones in a
particular language.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tonology>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
I would permit no man, no matter what his colour might be, to
narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.
--Booker T. Washington
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington>