Robert Heinlein was one of the most influential and controversial authors in the science fiction genre. He became the first science fiction writer to break into major general magazines in the late 1940s with true, undisguised science fiction, and the first bestselling novel-length science fiction in the 1960s. For many years he, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the Big Three of science fiction. The major themes of Heinlein's work were social: radical individualism, libertarianism, religion, the relationship between physical and emotional love, and speculation about unorthodox family relationships. His iconoclastic beliefs have led to wildly divergent perceptions of him. The novel Stranger in a Strange Land put him in the unexpected role of Pied Piper of the sexual revolution and 1960s counterculture, but he has also been cast as a fascist, based on the contemporaneous Starship Troopers.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Heinlein

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1927: – Five-year old Michael I became King of Romania upon the death of his father Ferdinand I. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_I_of_Romania)

1940: – Billboard magazine published its first "Music Popularity Chart." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_magazine)

1944: – Adolf Hitler survived the July 20 Plot, an assassination attempt led by Claus von Stauffenberg. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_20_Plot)

1960: – Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected Prime Minister of Ceylon, thus becoming the world's first elected female head of government. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirimavo_Bandaranaike)

1969: – The Apollo 11 lunar module landed; Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11)

1976: – Viking 1 landed on Mars, marking the first visit from Earth. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_1)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." -- Neil Armstrong on first stepping onto the surface of the moon, 20th July 1969. (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Armstrong)