By Danielle Daniels
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Mischa Anne Marsden Barton (born 24 January 1986) is a British-American film, television, and stage actress. She began her career on the stage, appearing in Tony Kushner‘s Slavs! and took the lead in James Lapine‘s Twelve Dreams at New York City‘s Lincoln Center. She made her screen debut with a guest appearance on the American soap opera All My Children (1995), and voicing a character on the Nickelodeon cartoon series KaBlam! (1996–97). Her first major film role was as the protagonist of Lawn Dogs (1997), a drama co-starring Sam Rockwell. She appeared in major pictures such as the romantic comedy Notting Hill (1999) and M. Night Shyamalan‘s psychological thriller The Sixth Sense (1999). She also starred in the indie crime drama Pups (1999).
Barton later appeared in the independent drama Lost and Delirious (2001) and guest-starred as Evan Rachel Wood‘s girlfriend on ABC‘s Once and Again (2001–02). She played Marissa Cooper in the Fox television series The O.C. (2003–2006), for which she received two Teen Choice Awards. The role brought Barton into mainstream fame, and Entertainment Weekly named her the “It Girl” of 2003.
Barton has since appeared in the comedy remake St Trinian’s (2007), the Richard Attenborough–directed drama Closing the Ring (2007) and Assassination of a High School President (2008). She returned to television, starring in the short-lived Ashton Kutcher-produced CW series The Beautiful Life (2009).
In 2012, she returned to the stage, performing in the Irish production of Steel Magnolias. She also appeared alongside Martin Sheen in Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain (2014). She has garnered critical praise for her roles in independent films, with the Los Angeles Times praising her “standout” performance in Starcrossed (2014). Barton was cast in the first season of the MTV series The Hills: New Beginnings (2019–2021), a reboot of The Hills. In 2023, she was cast in an extended guest role for the rebooted Australian soap opera, Neighbours on Amazon Freevee and Network 10.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Edith Wharton (author) –
- Vicki Baum (novelist) –
- Leon Kirchner (composer) –
- Neil Diamond (singer) –
- John Belushi (actor) –
- Nastassja Kinski (actress) –
- Mary Lou Retton (gymnast) –
- Matthew Lillard (actor) –
- Mischa Barton (actress) –
Died
- Sir Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister) –
- George Cukor (film director) –
- Vincente Minnelli (film director) –
- Thurgood Marshall (first African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court) –
- Jay Monahan (legal analyst for NBC News) –
- Bob Russell (creator of the Miss America Pageant and Name That Tune) –
- Chris Penn (actor) –
Events
- Gold nuggets discovered at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, triggered the California Gold Rush –
- “Typewriter copy ribbon” patented by Jacob L. Wortman–
- Patent 1,404,539 granted for the Eskimo Pie (now Edy’s Pie)–
- Moving picture of a solar eclipse taken from dirigible over Long Island, NY–
- Percy Spencer granted patent for microwave oven–
- Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 crashed in Canada’s Northwest Territories, leaking radioactive waste–
- An otter entertained crowds all winter at the mouth of the Ompompanoosuc River in Norwich, Vermont–
- Apple Computer, Inc. introduced the Macintosh personal computer–
- The Voyager 2 spacecraft sent back photographs from the planet Uranus–
- Rover Opportunity landed on Mars–
- A blizzard that took over New England with blinding snow and blustering wind kept the Cape Cod Times from publishing a print edition for the first time–
Weather
- The temperature in Browning, Montana, plunged 100 degrees in 24 hours, from 44F to -56F, establishing a U.S. record for a 24-hour temperature drop.–
- Fifteen degrees below zero F in Nashville, Tennessee–
- 4 inches of snow fell near Lake Jocassee in South Carolina–
- North Myrtle Beach experienced a low temperature of 16 degrees F–
- Thirty-eight inches of snow on Cape Cod after a 2-day winter blizzard–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
