| Monday, October 6, 2008 |
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| Moulin Rouge |
SpotlightParis's most famous cabaret, the Moulin Rouge, opened its doors on this date in 1889. Named for one of the windmills in the Montmartre section of the city, near where the nightclub is located, the Moulin Rouge was the home of the French cancan. Artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created numerous paintings of the cabaret and of the revelers who frequented the place. It was also the subject of a number of films, the most recent one being a musical starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, called Moulin Rouge!, winner of an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture in 2001.
Question of the DayWhen was the cancan developed?
The cancan is a dance that is thought to have originated in Algeria in the 1800s and became popular in Paris in the 1830s. The dance became a staple of the chorus line at the famous nightclub, the Moulin Rouge, with women in full dresses, tossing their skirts...
Word of the dayad infinitum
adv. & adj.
To infinity; having no end.
Latin, a dead language, lives on in English. This week we'll take a look at some phrases that came to us straight from Latin.
Today's History
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Al Jolson Wearing Blackface in 'The Jazz Singer' |
- The Jazz Singer: first full-length talkie debuted with songs and 291 spoken words (1927)
- The Curse of the Billy Goat: began when Billy Sianis and his goat were ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series; Sianis predicted that the Cubs would never again win a World Series, and, so far, they haven't even been in one since then (1945)
- Yom Kippur War: Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year (1973)
Today's Birthdays
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| Thor Heyerdahl |
- Wenceslas III (1289-1306): king of Hungary
- James McGill (1744-1813): Canadian businessman whose bequest founded McGill University in Montreal
- Jenny Lind (1820-1887): the "Swedish Nightingale"
- Le Corbusier (1887-1965): city planner and painter who was also one of the most influential architects of the 20th century
- Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002): ethnographer and adventurer who went on the Kon Tiki expedition
