Chess champ Bobby Fischer has died in his adopted home country of Iceland. Here are the opening lines from selected obituaries:”Bobby Fischer, the eccentric genius and high school dropout who became the only US world chess champion, has died in self-imposed isolation…” – The Financial Times
News reports say eccentric chess champ Bobby Fischer has died in Iceland at age 64.This video (5 mins.) captures the turmoil of Fischer’s 1972 win over Boris Spassky. Fischer won the championship, but never defended it and gave up his title in 1975.
Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book and Gunga Din, died on this day in 1936.The year is surprising. Kipling seems like a figure from the olde Victorian Age, not someone who was still alive when Woody Allen and Willie Nelson were lads.
The Library of Congress has dug up some new photos of President Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration.
Scholars at the University of Heidelberg say they have determined the true identity of the Mona Lisa “once and for all.”
Mitt Romney has won the Republican primary in Michigan, where his dad was once governor
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on this day in 1929. The birthday is celebrated publicly with a holiday next Monday.(As an aside: April 4th will be the 40th anniversary of his death. Had MLK lived, he’d be 79 years old today.)
Who2 science editor Paul Hehn adds his thoughts on Alessandro Volta:”Interesting guy, Mr. Volta. He must have been very good at networking… it would have taken too many words to include in his profile the stuff about Lombardy going from Austria to Napoleon to Austria again, with Volta never losing a step along the way. Everybody’s friend, apparently.
Humphrey Bogart died 51 years ago today.
We recently wrote about the “ER to the Stars,” Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Beverly Hills.As if on cue, pop star Christina Aguilera and TV semi-star Nicole Richie gave birth there, “minutes apart,” on Friday. (Richie went first.)
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta — better known as plain ol’ Alessandro Volta — is our newest profile.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:1381:]]Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday is due next year. (He was born in Kentucky on 12 February 1809.)Turns out the Library Congress is already on the job with a lively Lincoln Bicentennial celebration.The timeline is a nice touch. And the Did You Know? section includes this timeless tidbit: “Lincoln had a dog named Fido.”
Yesterday we mentioned that Sir Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong once traveled together to the North Pole.Now we find out that record-breaking pilot Steve Fossett was also on the same expedition. The Brisbane Times has more.
Americans are lucky to have Neil Armstrong as a native example of a rare specimen: the superbly modest hero. He mixed quiet determination with curiosity, nerve and good humor, and when he was done tackling the moon, Armstrong went back to Ohio and taught aeronautics.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the former beekeeper who conquered Mount Everest in 1953, has died.His home-country New Zealand Herald is a good place to start for news and tributes.
Donald Fagen, “reclusive avatar of High Pop,” turns 60 today.All About Jazz has a wonderfully detailed analysis of his new boxed set, The Nightfly Trilogy.
First she went YouTube. Now Canada’s National Post is having fun with reports that Queen Elizabeth II is “hooked” on Nintendo bowling.
Two plucky oldsters in Hell’s Kitchen ignored that good advice. The comment from New York cops: “Hell’s Kitchen has a rich history.”
Is it possible to have a “comeback” on the first day of an election? If so, Hillary Clinton and John McCain seem to have done so.
It’s Elvis Presley’s birthday — and he’d still be only 73 years old.He’s the same age as Ron Paul, Woody Allen, and Darth Vader.