The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy radio series written by Douglas Adams and first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Radio 4 in 1978. The serial follows the adventures of Englishman Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien who writes for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, an intergalactic encyclopedia and travelogue. After Earth is destroyed in the first episode, Dent and Ford find themselves aboard a stolen spaceship piloted by a motley crew including Zaphod Beeblebrox (Ford's semi-cousin and Galactic President), a depressed robot called Marvin and an Earth woman calling herself Trillian, who is the only other surviving human being. A second series was transmitted in 1980 and the first series was adapted for television. This in turn was followed by five novels, a computer game and several other adaptations. Before his death in May 2001, Adams considered writing a third radio series based on his novel Life, the Universe and Everything. Dirk Maggs eventually directed and co-produced radio series adaptations of that novel, as well as So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish and Mostly Harmless in 2004–05.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_%28radio_series%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1810:

The Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires , marking the end of the May Revolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primera_Junta

1895:

The Republic of Formosa was inaugurated in Taiwan, proclaiming independence from Qing China. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Formosa

1977:

Star Wars, a science fantasy film written and directed by George Lucas, was released, becoming one of the most successful films of all time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Episode_IV%3A_A_New_Hope

2000:

Israel withdrew its army from most of Lebanese territory, 22 years after its first invasion in 1978.} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Lebanon_conflict_%281982%E2%80%932000%29

2002:

China Airlines Flight 611 crashed in the Taiwan Strait after breaking up in mid-air, killing all 225 people on board. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Airlines_Flight_611

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

repel (v): 1. To force back; to drive away. 2. To cause repulsion or dislike http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/repel

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Be an artist superior to tricks of art. Show frankly, as a saint would do, all your experience, your methods, tools, and means. Welcome all comers to the freest use of the same. And out of this superior frankness and charity, you shall learn higher secrets of your nature, which gods will bend and aid you to communicate. --Ralph Waldo Emerson http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson