| Tuesday, November 8, 2005 |
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| Alain Delon |
SpotlightHappy 70th birthday to French film star Alain Delon. In the 50s Delon was a parachutist with the French marines in Indochina; later he worked as a waiter, a salesman and a porter, and was 22 when he made his French film debut. His first major success was in the role of Thomas Ripley in Plein Soleil (Purple Moon), a 1962 version of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley. Delon was awarded a "Légion d'honneur," the highest French decoration for his career.
Today in History
- Louvre: former Paris palace opened as a museum (1793)
- Days of Our Lives: soap opera premiered on TV (1965)
- Three Gorges Dam: the Yangtze, China's largest river, was diverted in a massive ongoing construction project (1997)
Today's Birthdays
- Edmond Halley: astronomer who discovered Halley's Comet (1656-1742)
- novelists: Bram Stoker, Dracula (1847-1912); Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind (1900-1949)
- Hermann Rorschach: Swiss psychiatrist who created the inkblot test (1884-1922)
Word of the Daynouvelle vague: a new wave cinematic art movement of the 1950s and 60s in France; Delon was part of the nouvelle vague.
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