Salvador Dalí was a Catalan-Spanish artist who became one of the most important painters of the twentieth century. A skilled draftsman, he is best known for his surrealist work identified by its striking, bizarre, dreamlike images. His painterly skills are often attributed to the influence of Renaissance masters. His best known work, The Persistence of Memory, was completed in 1931. In addition to painting, his artistic repertoire included film, sculpture, photography, and an Academy Award-nominated short cartoon, "Destino," on which he collaborated with Walt Disney; it was released posthumously in 2003. An artist of great imagination, Dalí had an affinity for doing unusual things to draw attention to himself. This sometimes irked those who loved his art as much as it annoyed his critics, since his eccentric manner sometimes drew more public attention than his artwork.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1002: King Ethelred II ordered the massacre of all Danes in England. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethelred_the_Unready)

1954: Great Britain defeated France at the Parc des Princes in Paris to win the first Rugby League World Cup. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_World_Cup)

1970: The Bhola tropical cyclone hit the densely populated Ganges Delta in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Bhola_cyclone)

1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Constitution Gardens in Washington, D.C. was dedicated. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Memorial)

1985: The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted, causing a volcanic mudslide that buried Armero, Colombia and killed approximately 23,000 people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevado_del_Ruiz)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. -- Louis Brandeis (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis)