Wednesday, April 26, 2006

 

Spotlight: Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed NY's Central Park, was born on this date in 1822. Also a journalist, Olmsted researched and reported on slavery in the US's southern states, finding it economically inefficient as well as morally abhorrent. He was a founder of The Nation and wrote several books. Among the other sites Olmsted designed are the Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls, NY; Mount Royal Park in Montreal; Jackson Park in Chicago, IL; and the grounds surrounding the Capitol building in Washington, DC.

Quote: "My favorite place is Central Park because you never know what you're going to find there. I also like that when I look out the windows of surrounding hotels, it seems like I'm looking out over a forest." – Haley Joel Osment

Word of the day: infrastructure: the basic features of an organization; landscape architects often design the civil infrastructure of an area. (© )

Holiday: Administrative Professionals' Day

Today's News:

• gasoline: President Bush tries to lower prices by suspending environmental requirements (story)
• Jane Jacobs: social activist and urban development critic dies at 89 (story)
• coffee: study shows heavy drinking is not harmful for the heart (story)

Today's History:

• Cape Henry: the Jamestown settlers made landfall on this Virginia promontory (1607)
• Tanzania: African republic was formed by the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (1964)
• Chernobyl disaster: worst-ever nuclear reactor accident occurred near the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl (1986)

Today's Birthdays:

• Bernard Malamud: author of The Fixer, The Natural (1914-1986)
• Carol Burnett: comic host of The Carol Burnett Show (73)
• Jet Li: martial arts movie star, The One (43)