Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Spotlight
Jules Verne, a pioneer of science fiction, was born on this date in 1828. Verne wrote of traveling through space and underwater in his books, From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870). In his best-seller, Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), the protagonists used many different modes of transportation to complete their journey.

Quote
"Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth." -- Jules Verne

Holiday
Mardi Gras

Today in History

• Russo-Japanese War -- began when the Japanese navy launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur (1904)
• Boy Scouts of America -- incorporated and chartered (1910)
• Walt Disney Studios -- formed (1923)

Today's Birthdays

• Martin Buber -- Jewish religious philosopher (1878-1965)
• silver screen -- Lana Turner (1920-1995), Jack Lemmon (1925-2001), James Dean (1931-1955), Nick Nolte (64), Robert Klein (63), and Mary Steenburgen (52)
• Ted Koppel -- award-winning broadcast journalist who anchors ABC's Nightline (65)
• John Grisham -- author of A Time to Kill and The Firm (50)

Word of the Day
  fin-de-siècle -- French for "end of the century;" particularly refers to the ominous feeling at the end of the nineteenth century, when many artists anticipated the change of the century with despair. Some of Jules Verne's later novels expressed the fin-de-siecle atmosphere of his day.   (© )