FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Sr. (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American television screenwriter, producer, and creator of Star Trek: The Original Series, its sequel spin-off series Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a police officer. Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions in the Army Air Forces during World War II and worked as a commercial pilot after the war. Later, he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Los Angeles Police Department, where he also began to write scripts for television.
As a freelance writer, Roddenberry wrote scripts for Highway Patrol, Have Gun – Will Travel, and other series, before creating and producing his own television series, The Lieutenant. In 1964, Roddenberry created Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran for three seasons before being canceled. He then worked on other projects, including a string of failed television pilots. The syndication of Star Trek led to its growing popularity; this, in turn, resulted in the Star Trek feature films, on which Roddenberry continued to produce and consult. In 1987, the sequel series Star Trek: The Next Generation began airing on television in first-run syndication; Roddenberry was intimately involved in the initial development of the series but took a less active role after the first season due to ill health. He continued to consult on the series until his death in 1991.
In 1985, he became the first TV writer with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and he was later inducted into both the Science Fiction Hall of Fame and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Years after his death, Roddenberry was one of the first humans to have their ashes carried into earth orbit. The popularity of the Star Trek universe and films has inspired films, books, comic books, video games and fan films set in the Star Trek universe.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
If light travels the speed of light because it has no mass, then why do they say that light cannot escape a black hole because of the gravity?
The reason light cannot escape from a black hole is that (1) the escape velocity from a black hole is greater than the speed of light and (2) light, although regarded as having no mass, is in fact affected by gravitation as predicted by Einstein and proved in a famous solar eclipse observation c. 1920. This is because gravity shapes space itself and the light follows the curved space. In the case of a black hole, the curvature falls back upon the black hole, preventing the light from escaping. It’s not because of the density of the matter in the black hole, otherwise light could reflect off the surface of the black hole.
Advice of the Day
When eating soup, hold your spoon like a pencil and dip away from you.
Home Hint of the Day
Stack your firewood in a way that permits the air to circulate through it. If you stack your wood densely, it will dry very slowly.
Word of the Day
Shanty
A small crude shelter used as a dwelling. A rhythmical work song originally sung by sailors.
Puzzle of the Day
Where do cows go on Saturday night?
To the moo-vies!
Died
- King Henry VII of England – 1509
- Peter Apianus (astronomer) – 1552
- Mark Twain (American writer) – 1910
- Manfred von Richthofen (aviator, aka the Red Baron) – 1918
- Aldo Leopold (American environmentalist) – 1948
- Mary Doyle Keefe (model for Norman Rockwell’s 1943 painting of Rosie the Riveter) – 2015
- Prince (musician) – 2016
Born
- Charlotte Brontë (author) – 1816
- Anthony Quinn (actor) – 1915
- Elizabeth II (Queen of Great Britain) – 1926
- Charles Grodin (actor) – 1935
- Patti Lupone (actress and singer) – 1949
- Tony Danza (actor) – 1951
- Nicole Sullivan (actress) – 1970
Events
- John Adams sworn in as the first vice president of the U.S.– 1789
- Battle of San Jacinto, Texas– 1836
- David Dows, largest five-masted schooner of its time, launched– 1881
- The New York Giants and New York Yankees played an exhibition game to benefit survivors of the Titanic– 1912
- World record: 2,664-pound great white shark caught off southern coast of Australia– 1959
- 70-lb. 5-oz. bigmouth buffalofish caught, Bastrop, Louisiana– 1980
- 50-lb. 8-oz. African pompano caught, Daytona Beach, Florida– 1990
- Ashes of Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, journeyed into space– 1997
- In a procedure billed as a first in the U.S., Stephanie Yarber, an infertile Alabama woman, received a transplanted ovary from her identical twin sister, Melanie Morgan– 2004
- Thirteen year old Morgan Pozgar won the LG National Texting Championship. She typed the message, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. If you say it loud enough you’ll always sound precocious. in 15 seconds– 2007
- Chicago White Sox pitcher Phil Humber threw a perfect game– 2012
- Fireball exploded over Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, rattling homes from central California to Reno, Nevada. Experts believe it was caused by a meteoroid about the size of a minivan.– 2012
Weather
- A tornado in northern Illinois killed 52 people– 1967
- Tornadoes in Kansas– 1973
- A Dodger Stadium doubleheader was rained out for the third day in a row, after heavy rains continued to pour down on southern California. In the previous 26 years, only 12 games had been rained out at the stadium.– 1988
- Waterspout formed off Isle of Palms, South Carolina– 2010
- Half-dollar-size hail fell near Marion, South Carolina– 2012
COURTESY www.almanac.com
