Wednesday, January 25, 2006

 

Spotlight: Happy 25th birthday to songstress Alicia Keys. Keys was nominated for five Grammy Awards this year, including Best R&B Song ("Unbreakable") and Best R&B Album ("Unplugged"). She was also nominated for four NAACP Image Awards, to be presented on March 3. Keys recently teamed up with Bono to record a song called, "Don't Give Up (Africa)," with all proceeds going to Keep A Child Alive, which provides medicine for Africa's children. An aspiring actress, Keys first appeared on-screen in a 1985 episode of The Cosby Show, playing a friend of Rudy's. She is currently working on two movies.

Quote: "I'd like to dedicate this to just thinking outside the box and not being afraid of who you are no matter what you do." – Alicia Keys

Word of the day: a cappella: singing without accompaniment; in her signature single, "Fallin'," Keys sings an a cappella introduction. (© )

Today's News:

• Germany: population declining precipitously (story)
• Leicester: medieval cemetery found on site of planned shopping mall (story)
• Magnum, P.I.: TV series to become a movie (story)

Today's History:

• wedding march: Felix Mendelssohn's composition was played at the nuptials of Queen Victoria's daughter (1858)
• Winter Olympics: were inaugurated in Chamonix, France (1924)
• Emmys: the first awards for excellence in TV were presented (1949)

Today's Birthdays:

• authors: W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
• heads of state (former): Eduard Shevardnadze of Georgia (78), Corazon Aquino of the Philippines (73)
• Steve Prefontaine: long-distance running champ (1951-1975)