Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth novel by the English author Ian Fleming to feature his fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond. Fleming wrote the story at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica, inspired by a Sunday Times article on diamond smuggling. The book was first published on 26 March 1956. The story centres on Bond's investigation of a diamond-smuggling operation that originates in the mines of Sierra Leone and runs to Las Vegas. Along the way Bond meets and falls in love with one of the members of the smuggling gang, Tiffany Case. Fleming's background research formed the basis for his non-fiction 1957 book The Diamond Smugglers. The Bond novel received broadly positive reviews at the time of publication. It was serialised in the Daily Express newspaper, first in an abridged, multi-part form and then as a comic strip. In 1971 it was adapted into the seventh film in the Bond series, and the sixth one to star Sean Connery as Bond.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamonds_Are_Forever_%28novel%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1484:

William Caxton printed the first English translation of Aesop's Fables (page pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables

1939:

Spanish Civil War: Nationalists began their final offensive of the war, at the end of which they controlled almost the entire country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_offensive_of_the_Spanish_Civil_War

1979:

By signing the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, Egypt became the first Arab country to officially recognize Israel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_Peace_Treaty

1999:

Jack Kevorkian, an American advocate for and practitioner of physician-assisted suicide, was found guilty of murder in the death of a terminally ill patient. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kevorkian

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

felicitous: 1. Characterized by felicity. 2. Appropriate, apt, fitting. 3. Auspicious, fortunate, lucky. 4. Causing happiness or pleasure. 5. (linguistics) Of a sentence or utterance: semantically and pragmatically coherent; fitting in the context. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/felicitous

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I think that the appetite for mystery, the enthusiasm for that which we do not understand, is healthy and to be fostered. It is the same appetite which drives the best of true science, and it is an appetite which true science is best qualified to satisfy.   --Richard Dawkins https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins