Monday, February 5, 2007

 

Spotlight: Reader's Digest is the world's best-selling monthly magazine; it is published in 21 languages, in 50 editions, and is sold in 60 countries. DeWitt and Lila Wallace published their first issue — 5,000 copies — of the undersized magazine 85 years ago today. It cost 25¢ and was sold by mail. In 1929, the magazine was first sold at newsstands. It was DeWitt Wallace's idea to condense articles — and later, books — that would be gathered in a magazine small enough to slip into a pocket or a bag. The lead article in the first issue was about the importance of continuing to learn throughout one's life, written by Alexander Graham Bell.

Quote: "I knew right away that it was a gorgeous idea." — Lila Acheson Wallace, on her husband's suggestion of Reader's Digest

Today's News:

• Jakarta, Indonesia: 20 killed, 340,000 homeless in flooding (story)
• Orlando, Florida: city turns cold shoulder to homeless (story)
• St. George's, Grenada: in gaffe, band plays Taiwan's national anthem to visiting Chinese (story)
• Real ID Act of 2005: states protest national US driver's license (story)
• Super Bowl XLI: Colts outgallop Bears, 29-17 (story)

Today's History:

• United Artists: was founded by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith (1919)
• Tybee bomb: the US lost a hydrogen bomb off the coast of Georgia (1958)
• Alan Shepard: became the first person to golf on the moon (1971)

Today's Birthdays:

• Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965): American politician and presidential candidate
• Hank Aaron (73): home run champ
• Laura Linney (43), Jeremy Sumpter (18): actors