Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Spotlight
Pollyanna is 60! Happy birthday to Hayley Mills, the child star of Pollyanna and The Parent Trap. Born into a family of entertainers, Mills was only a year old when she made her movie debut, in the film So Well Remembered, starring her father, Oscar winner John Mills. She won a special juvenile Oscar for her role as Pollyanna (1960), but didn't even know about it until her parents told her several months later. In later years, Mills acted on TV and on the stage, making her off-Broadway debut in Noel Coward's Suite in Two Keys in 2000.

Quote
"My relationship with Pollyanna is a very personal one, because Pollyanna got me through my childhood." – Eleanor Porter

Word of the day
precursor: predecessor, one that comes before; Hayley Mills starred in Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the precursor of Saved by the Bell. (© )

Today's News

• Danube: raging river forces thousands to flee in Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria (story)
• raloxifene: osteoporosis treatment turns out to be better at reducing risk of breast cancer than the current therapy, tamoxifen (story)
• Jane Fonda: "I'd like to protest against US involvement in Iraq, but I have too much Vietnam baggage" (story)

Today's History

• Paul Revere: began his ride to warn the Massachusetts colonists that the British were coming (1775)
• San Francisco earthquake: ignited an inferno, killing hundreds and reducing the city to shambles (1906)
• Laundromat: first one opened, in Fort Worth, Texas (1934)

Today's Birthdays

• Clarence Darrow: lawyer who defended evolution in the Scopes "monkey trial" (1857-1938)
• Eric McCormack: Will on Will and Grace (43)
• Conan O'Brien: host of Late Night With Conan O'Brien (43)