Thursday, October 20, 2005

 

Spotlight: Sir Christopher Wren, one of England's greatest architects of the baroque style, was born on this date in 1632. A professor of astronomy and a lauded mathematician at Oxford College in England, Wren was a founder of the Royal Society (1660). A year later King Charles II appointed him assistant to the royal architect and after the Great Fire of London in 1666, Wren designed many of the new buildings, including St. Paul's Cathedral and dozens of other churches. Wren was knighted in 1675.

Quote: "Architecture aims at Eternity." – Christopher Wren

Word of the day: megalith: a large stone used to build a structure or monument, either alone or with other large stones; St. Paul's Cathedral is said to have been built on the site of an ancient megalith. (© )

Today's News:

• Bono: rock star discusses poverty as he lunches with Bush (story)
• Shakespeare: scholars have another theory on who wrote his plays (story)
• Starbucks: adds God to its selection of coffee cup quotations (story)

Today's History:

• Act of Supremacy: made Henry VIII head of the Church of England (1534)
• Louisiana Purchase: ratified by US Senate (1803)
• Saturday Night Massacre: special prosecutor Archibald Cox and others lost their jobs during Watergate (1973)

Today's Birthdays:

• Mickey Mantle: New York Yankee slugger (1931-1995)
• actors: Errol Flynn: (1909-1959), Jerry Orbach (1935-2004), Viggo Mortensen (47)
• Snoop Dogg: rapper (33)