Monday, March 14, 2005

Spotlight
It's the World Year of Physics, in recognition of Albert Einstein's "miraculous" year, when he turned the world of physics upside-down with his three revolutionary papers. Einstein, born on this date in 1879, proposed his theory of light, showing that light behaves as a particle as well as a wave; his theory of relativity, showing that measurements of time and space are not absolute; and his theory of Brownian motion, explaining the existence of atoms and molecules. (story)

Quote
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." -- Albert Einstein

Word of the day
E=MC²: energy = mass x (speed of light)², Albert Einstein's famous formula which describes the relation between energy and mass (© )

Today's News

• dogsledding: lures tourists to Sweden (story)
• PETA: takes on J.Lo (story)
• dolphin: makes splash with artificial fin (story)

Today's History

• cotton gin: patented by Eli Whitney (1794)
• premieres: Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado (1885) and Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man (1943)
• Jack Ruby: convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald (1964)

Today's Birthdays

• Hank Ketcham: creator of Dennis the Menace (1920-2001)
• composers: Johann Strauss the Elder (1804-1849), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), and Quincy Jones (72)
• actors: Michael Caine (72), Billy Crystal (58), Adrian Zmed (51), and Penny Johnson Jerald (44)