Mario Vargas Llosa (born 1936) is a Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation. Some critics consider him to have had a larger international impact and world-wide audience than any other writer of the Latin American Boom. Vargas Llosa rose to fame in the 1960s with novels such as The Time of the Hero, The Green House, and the monumental Conversation in the Cathedral. He continues to write prolifically across an array of literary genres, including literary criticism and journalism. His novels include comedies, murder mysteries, historical novels, and political thrillers. Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's perception of Peruvian society and his own experiences as a native Peruvian. Increasingly, however, he has expanded his range, and tackled themes that arise from other parts of the world. Like many Latin American authors, Vargas Llosa has been politically active throughout his career; over the course of his life, he has gradually moved from the political left towards the right. He ran for the Peruvian presidency in 1990 with the center-right Frente Democrático coalition, advocating neoliberal reforms. He has subsequently supported moderate conservative candidates.

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_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1632:

King Gustavus Adolphus the Great of Sweden is killed in the Battle of Lützen during the Thirty Years' War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_L%C3%BCtzen_(1632)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_L%C3%BCtzen_%281632%29 )

1860:

Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican Party candidate to win the U.S. presidential election. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860)

1935:

Before the Institute of Radio Engineers in New York, American electrical engineer and inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong presented his study on using frequency modulation for radio broadcasting. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_modulation)

1962:

The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 1761, condemning South Africa's apartheid policies. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Africa_in_the_apartheid_era)

1999:

Although opinion polls had clearly suggested that the majority of the electorate favoured republicanism, the Australian republic referendum was defeated, keeping the British monarch as the country's head of state. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_republic_referendum,_1999)

_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

sentience (n) The state or quality of being sentient; possessing consciousness, perception, and thought. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sentience)

______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Love and music and happiness and family, that's what it's all about. I believe in these things. It would be awful not to, wouldn't it? --Julie Andrews (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Julie_Andrews)