If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. After a series of editors, including Paul W. Fairman, Larry T. Shaw, and Damon Knight, Quinn sold the magazine to Robert Guinn at Galaxy Publishing and in 1961 Frederik Pohl became editor. Under Pohl, If won the Hugo Award for best professional magazine three years running from 1966 to 1968. In 1969 Guinn sold all his magazines to Universal Publishing and Distribution (UPD). The magazine was not as successful with Ejler Jakobsson as editor and circulation plummeted. In early 1974 Jim Baen took over from Jakobsson as editor, but increasing paper costs meant that UPD could no longer afford to publish both Galaxy and If. Galaxy was regarded as the senior of the two magazines, so If was merged into Galaxy after the December 1974 issue, its 175th issue overall. Over its 22 years, If published many award-winning stories, including Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". Several well-known writers sold their first story to If; the most successful was Larry Niven, whose story "The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_%28magazine%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

96:

Following the assassination of Roman Emperor Domitian, the Roman Senate appointed Nerva , the first of the Five Good Emperors, to succeed him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerva

324:

Constantine the Great decisively defeated Licinius in the Battle of Chrysopolis, establishing Constantine's sole control over the Roman Empire, and ultimately leading to the conversion of the whole empire to Christianity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chrysopolis

1809:

The second theatre of the Royal Opera House in London opened after a fire destroyed the original theatre one year earlier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Opera_House

1931:

The Mukden Incident: A section of the Japanese-built South Manchuria Railway was destroyed, providing an excuse for the Japanese to blame the act on Chinese dissidents, and thus giving a pretext for the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukden_Incident

1948:

The Donald Bradman-led Australian cricket team completed the unprecedented feat of going through an English summer without defeat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Bradman_with_the_Australian_cricket_team_in_England_in_1948

1998:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit organization that manages the assignment of domain names and IP addresses in the Internet, was established. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

pangram (n): A sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pangram

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust. --Samuel Johnson http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Johnson