130px|Harold Pinter in 2005

Harold Pinter (1930–2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning English playwright and screenwriter, with a career that spanned more than 50 years. His plays include The Birthday Party, The Homecoming and Betrayal, and his screenplays include The Servant, The French Lieutenant's Woman and Sleuth. Pinter appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film. He also undertook roles in works by other writers. He directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen. He was born and raised in Hackney, east London, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama, and worked in repertory theatre before achieving success as a writer. In his later years, he was known for his political activism and his opposition to the war in Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq. Pinter's last stage performance was as Krapp in Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape, for the Royal Court Theatre, in 2006. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1294:

Boniface VIII began his papacy, replacing St. Celestine V, who had declared it was permissible for a Pope to resign, and then promptly did so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII

1777:

An expedition led by English explorer James Cook reached Christmas Island , the largest coral atoll in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiritimati

1826:

More than one third of the cadets enrolled in the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, rioted over the smuggling of whiskey to make eggnog for a Christmas Day party. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggnog_Riot

1955:

The NORAD Tracks Santa program began when children began calling the Continental Air Defense Command Center to inquire about Santa Claus' whereabouts due to a misprinted phone number. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAD_Tracks_Santa

1974:

Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin, Australia, eventually destroying more than 70 percent of the city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

dovecote (n): 1. A small house or box, raised to a considerable height above the ground, and having compartments, in which domestic pigeons breed; a dove house. 2. In medieval Europe, a round or square structure of stone or wood, free-standing or built into a tower, in which pigeons were kept http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dovecote

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Calm soul of all things! make it mine

To feel, amid the city’s jar, That there abides a peace of thine,

Man did not make, and cannot mar. --Matthew Arnold http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold