The Fifth Element is a 1997 English-language French science fiction film directed and based on a story by Luc Besson. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich (pictured). In the 23rd century, Korben Dallas (Willis), a taxicab driver and former special forces major, joins forces with a young woman (Jovovich) who falls into his cab, and they set off to recover four mystical stones essential for the defence of Earth against an impending attack. Besson started writing the story that became The Fifth Element when he was 16 years old; he was 38 when the film opened in cinemas. Filming for the French production took place primarily in London, as suitable locations in France could not be found. It received mainly positive reviews, although it tended to polarise critics. It has been called both the best and worst summer blockbuster of all time. The Fifth Element was a financial success, earning more than $263 million at the box office on a $90 million budget. At the time of its release it was the most expensive European film ever made, and it remained the highest-grossing French film at the box-office until the release of The Intouchables in 2011.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Element

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1755:

A naval fleet led by Commodore William James of the East India Company captured the fortress Suvarnadurg from the Marathas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suvarnadurg

1885:

North-West Rebellion: Led by Wandering Spirit, young Cree warriors attacked the village of Frog Lake, North-West Territories (now in Alberta), where they killed nine settlers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog_Lake_Massacre

1911:

The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducted the country's first national census. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Census_in_Australia

1984:

Aboard Soyuz T-11, Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to be launched into space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakesh_Sharma

2012:

A gunman shot at people inside Oikos University, a Korean Christian college in Oakland, California, US, leaving seven people dead and three injured. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oikos_University_shooting

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

prosopagnosia: A form of visual agnosia characterised by difficulty with face recognition despite intact low-level visual processing. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prosopagnosia

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it; and the greater power he ascribes to faith, the more he deprives himself of that power which God has given to him when He endowed him with the gift of reason. Reason is a particle of the Creator's divinity. When we use it with a spirit of humility and justice we are certain to please the Giver of that precious gift.   --Giacomo Casanova https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Giacomo_Casanova