Richard Feynman was one of the most influential American physicists of the 20th century, expanding greatly the theory of quantum electrodynamics. As well as being an inspiring lecturer and amateur musician, he helped in the development of the atomic bomb and was later a member of the panel which investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. For his work on quantum electrodynamics, Feynman was one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1965, along with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga.

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Today's selected anniversaries: 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned as Emperor of the French at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Bonaparte)

1915 Albert Einstein published the general theory of relativity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein)

1942 Led by Enrico Fermi, a Manhattan Project team at the University of Chicago initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project)

1961 Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fidel_Castro)

Wikiquote of the day:

"Ooh, with a little luck-- December will be magic again." ~ Kate Bush (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Bush)