Friday, November 18, 2005

Spotlight
Happy 60th birthday to Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to be come chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Taking over for Chief Ross Swimmer, who resigned to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1985, Mankiller is the first female in modern history to lead a Native American tribe. She was Ms. magazine's Woman of the Year in 1987, and inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. In 1995, health considerations caused Mankiller to decline to run for another term.

Quote
"We've had daunting problems in many critical areas, but I believe in the old Cherokee injunction to 'be of a good mind.' Today it's called positive thinking." – Wilma Mankiller

Word of the day
syllabary: a language composed of a set of written characters, with each character representing a syllable; the Cherokee language is syllabary. (© )

Today's News

• laptop: a $100 version unveiled at UN summit aims to help poor students worldwide (story)
• Texas: town renames itself "DISH" in exchange for free satellite TV from Echostar (story)
• noteworthy: Matthew McConaughey is People's sexiest man alive (story); Jennifer Aniston is GQ's woman of the year (story); Snuppy the cloned dog is Time's top invention of 2005 (story)

Today's History

• William Tell: legendary archer shot an arrow through an apple on his son's head, thus saving his own life (1307)
• Mickey Mouse: debuted in Steamboat Willie, an animated Disney film (1928)
• Jonestown: over 900 people died in a murder/suicide pact led by preacher Jim Jones in Guyana (1978)

Today's Birthdays

• Sir William Gilbert: lyricist, half of the duo Gilbert and Sullivan (1836-1911)
• Alan Shepard: the first American in space (1923-1998)
• Margaret Atwood: author of The Handmaid's Tale (66)