Saturday, January 15, 2005

Spotlight
The Pentagon -- the world's largest office building, which houses the US Department of Defense -- was completed on this date in 1943. On September 11, 2001, exactly sixty years after construction began on the complex, part of the building was destroyed in the terrorist attacks which also brought down the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.

Quote
""Resource-constrained environment" [are] fancy Pentagon words that mean there isn't enough money to go around." -- General John W. Vessey, Jr.

Today in History

• Super Bowl I -- Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs (1967)
• Ignace Jan Paderewski -- became the first premier of the newly created republic of Poland (1919)
• Michael Collins -- Sinn Fein leader became the first prime minister of the Irish Free State (1922)

Today's Birthdays

• Moliere -- author of satiric comedies including The Misanthrope and Tartuffe (1622-1673)
• Lloyd Bridges -- actor and father of Beau and Jeff (1913-1998)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. -- peaceful activist in the civil rights movement (1929-1968)

Word of the Day
 bacchanalia -- a drunken gathering or revel; originally a Roman festival in honor of Bacchus. Used in an article about the hiring of a "fun czar" to spice up student life at Harvard. (story)   (© )