Wednesday, February 23, 2005

 

Spotlight: The US Marines raised the flag over Mt. Suribachi, on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima sixty years ago today. Allied forces lost nearly 7,000 soldiers in the week-long battle. The island remained in the hands of the Americans until it was returned to Japan in 1968. On November 10, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower dedicated the Marine Corps War Memorial near Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia.

Quote: "Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." -- Ronald Reagan

Word of the day: photogrammetry: the science or art of obtaining reliable measurements from photographic images. There were questions about the participation of various soldiers in the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima; a forensic photogrammetrist was hired to help determine the veracity of the claim of one soldier that he was in the original picture. (© )

Today's News:

• Sideways: film sends Pinot Noir sales up (story)
• Bird Flu: could become an epidemic (story)
• Great Salt Lake: mercury pollution concerns scientists (story)

Today's History:

• Dreyfus Affair: Emile Zola sentenced to jail for writing J'accuse (1898)
• Salk vaccine: first mass inoculation of children against polio began in Pittsburgh (1954)
• Dolly: Scottish scientists announced the cloning of a sheep (1997)

Today's Birthdays:

• Samuel Pepys: English diarist and naval administrator (1633-1703)
• George Frideric Handel: composer of Messiah (1685-1759)
• Peter Fonda: star of Easy Rider and Ulee's Gold (66)