Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (née Godwin) (30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English romantic/gothic novelist and the author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. She was married to the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Mary Shelley was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, in London, in 1797. She was the second daughter of famed feminist, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Her father was the equally famous anarchist philosopher, novelist, journalist, and atheist dissenter William Godwin. Her mother died of puerperal fever ten days after Mary was born.
In May 1816, Mary and her husband Percy Shelley and their son travelled to Lake Geneva in the company of Claire Clairmont. Their plan was to spend the summer near the famous and scandalous poet Lord Byron, whose recent affair with Claire had left her pregnant.
From a literary perspective, it was a productive and successful summer. Percy began work on "Hymn To Intellectual Beauty" and "Mont Blanc"; Mary, in the meantime, was inspired to write an enduring masterpiece of her own.
Forced to stay indoors one evening because of cold and rainy weather, the group of young writers and intellectuals, sexually enthralled by the ghost stories from the book Fantasmagoriana, decided to have a ghost-story writing contest. Byron and Percy Shelley abandoned the project relatively soon, with Byron publishing his fragment at the end of Mazeppa. Byron's physician Dr. John Polidori's contribution remains uncertain; he identifies The Modern Oedipus as the work in question in the introduction to the novel, but, in her preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Mary claims that he had a terrible idea about a skull-headed lady who was punished for peeping through keyholes. Mary herself had no inspiration for a story, which was a matter of great concern to her. However, Luigi Galvani's report of his 1783 investigations in animating frog legs with electricity were mentioned specifically by her as part of the reading list that summer in Switzerland. One night, perhaps attributable to Galvani's report, Mary had a waking dream; she recounted the episode in this way: “My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie…I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together—I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion…What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.” This nightmare served as the basis for the novel that she entitled Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus
In July 1822, Percy sailed away up the coast to Livorno, to meet Leigh Hunt, who had just arrived from England. Caught in a storm on his return, Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned at sea on 8 July 1822, aged 29, along with his friend Edward Williams and a young boat attendant. Percy left his last long poem, a shadowy work called The Triumph Of Life, unfinished. Mary also had another source for her story writing because of the time she spent in Switzerland. She had the idea of Frankenstein living there and there is a very famous scene in Frankenstein set on Mount Chamonix, where Frankenstein meets the creature and talks to him for the first time; the time Shelley spent in Geneva must have inspired her. Mary died, aged 53, on 1 February 1851 at Chester square in London, England.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Her birthdate is variously given; the years most frequently cited are 1907 and 1909. In her autobiography (1991), Hepburn stated her birthdate as 1907. She was one of six children (three of each gender) born to a socially prominent, well-to-do, activist family. Her mother was a well-known and passionate suffragette; her physician father was an innovative pioneer in the field of sexual hygiene. Educated by private tutors and at exclusive schools, she entered Bryn Mawr College in 1924. Upon graduating four years later she immediately embarked on a successful career in the theater. Her critical success as an Amazon queen in the satire The Warrior's Husband led to a contract with the film studio RKO. In 1932 she made her film debut in that company's A Bill of Divorcement, playing opposite John Barrymore. She received rave reviews for her performance and achieved overnight stardom.
Her screen career lasted for over 50 years and was based on a persona whose essentials included energy, grace, determination, trim athletic good looks, and obvious upper class breeding (as indicated, among other things, by a clipped manner of speaking). This persona, when intelligently utilized by producers and directors, led her to four Academy Awards as "Best Actress:" Morning Glory, 1933; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, 1967; The Lion in Winter, 1968; and On Golden Pond, 1981. Hepburn also garnered an additional eight Oscar nominations over the years: Alice Adams, 1935; The Philadelphia Story, 1940; Woman of the Year, 1942; The African Queen, 1951; Summertime, 1955; The Rainmaker, 1956; Suddenly Last Summer, 1959; and Long Day's Journey Into Night, 1962. Her role in the 1975 made-for-television film Love Among the Ruins won her an Emmy award.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Sarah Fisher
Sarah Fisher
Sarah Fisher was born October 4, 1980, in the small town of Commercial Point, Ohio, to parents David and Reba Fisher. David, already a go-kart enthusiast, began taking Fisher to the local track early in her life, where she enjoyed a first-hand look at the competition and mechanics of racing. She began competing in quarter-midget race cars, a similiar, smaller version of the go-kart, when she was only five years old, learning the basic skills and talents over a decade before she could legally drive a car.
When Fisher was eight years old, she graduated from the midget-racers to go-karts like her father raced, and from there, early success soon followed. Fisher took several wins over her six years in go-kart racing, and won the World Karting Associatio n Grand National Championship two years in a row, in 1991 and 1992, and the Points Champion in the WKA in 1993. She also won the Circleville Raceway Park Championship in 1994. It was during this time that her real love for racing developed, and she began to look elsewhere for new challanges. Growing up racing on the loosely-packed dirt tracks in Southern Ohio spurred the young Fisher, now 14, to establish her career in other dirt tracks, wanting the challanges she couldn't get from a smooth, asphalt-paved circuit.
In 1995, Fisher entered the Winged Sprint Car World of Outlaws League and for the next three years blazed another new trail of success, winning the 1995 Dirt Track Racing Round-Up Rookie of the Year Award, and a 1997 nomination for the National Spri nt Car Hall of Fame Rookie of the Year Award. Also in 1997, she received one of the highest sprint car honors, a chance to compete in the 62-race series, the All-Stars Circuit of Champions, finishing as high as second place at Eldora Speedway along the wa y. However, the lure and challenges of dirt-track racing had now faded, and Fisher knew she had to move onwards and upwards.
In 1998, Fisher raced in three different types of racing cars for asphalt circuits, the ARCA Sprint cars, the NAMARS Silver Crowns and the USAC Midgets, collecting five feature wins and two track speed records in 23 starts. In August of the followin g year, she became the youngest person to pass the requirements for the Indy Racing League Rookie test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
On October 17, 1999 she competed in her first IRL event, the youngest driver in the over-50 years of the league to do so. On the Texas Motor Speedway, Fisher qualified in the 17th position and ran a strong race throughout, before mechanical difficul ties with a timing chain forced her out on lap 66, finishing 25th overall. Still, the experience and her skills were enough for Fisher to land a driving position with team owner Derrick Walker, driving for the 2000 IRL season. It also led to her greatest moment; a shot at the most prestigious event in auto racing, the Indianapolis 500, where she qualified 19th in the field as the youngest woman, to compete in the event. An accident early in the race sidelined her and she finished 31st.
A little over a year after getting her IRL license, Fisher made history again, becoming the first woman to place in an IRL sporting event, on August 27, 2000, at the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway. After starting fourth from the pole, she finished in third place and led nine laps, the first of her career, and becoming the youngest driver to lead. At the Las Vegas Speedway, Fisher was running a strong third half-way through the race before an accident finished her in 17th position. Despite a few disap pointments, Fisher started eight of the nine races she qualified for, and placed third in the Bombardier Rookie of the Year standings at the end of the season.
The year 2001 was a new beginning for everyone, and Fisher was hungry for more success after a little less than a year on the IndyCar circuit. On April 8th, she was off and running, taking a second-place finish home from the first race of the season , in Miami-Homestead.
The following month, she qualified again for the Indianapolis 500, starting 15th from the pole, but was taken out in the seventh lap after an accident. She collected one other top-ten finish that year, at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado , but her performance in all 13 races, with a combined 1,675 laps run, netted her more than $700,000 that year, making her a millionaire in only two short seasons.
At the start of the 2002 Indy season, troubles with her sponsors, and the inability to find others left Fisher without car. But on April 21st, at Nazareth Speedway she substituted for injured driver Robbie Buhl in a Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entr y. On the starting grid, Fisher was 19th, and proved a strong contender all through the race, finishing an amazing fourth place, the best finish of the season.
The next month, at Indianapolis, she teamed with Buhl again, in a second Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry, and broke a record with the fastest qualifying speeds ever by a woman, at 229.439 miles per hour. Those speeds were good enough to secure ni nth position on the pole, an incredible achievement. In her third consecutive appearance in the Indianapolis 500, Fisher finished the race four laps down, in 23rd, giving her $163,315 in winnings. These remarkable races were enough for the owners of the D reyer & Reinhold cars; Fisher was kept on-board as Robbie Buhl's replacement to run the last eight races of the season.
Sarah Fisher was born October 4, 1980, in the small town of Commercial Point, Ohio, to parents David and Reba Fisher. David, already a go-kart enthusiast, began taking Fisher to the local track early in her life, where she enjoyed a first-hand look at the competition and mechanics of racing. She began competing in quarter-midget race cars, a similiar, smaller version of the go-kart, when she was only five years old, learning the basic skills and talents over a decade before she could legally drive a car.
When Fisher was eight years old, she graduated from the midget-racers to go-karts like her father raced, and from there, early success soon followed. Fisher took several wins over her six years in go-kart racing, and won the World Karting Associatio n Grand National Championship two years in a row, in 1991 and 1992, and the Points Champion in the WKA in 1993. She also won the Circleville Raceway Park Championship in 1994. It was during this time that her real love for racing developed, and she began to look elsewhere for new challanges. Growing up racing on the loosely-packed dirt tracks in Southern Ohio spurred the young Fisher, now 14, to establish her career in other dirt tracks, wanting the challanges she couldn't get from a smooth, asphalt-paved circuit.
In 1995, Fisher entered the Winged Sprint Car World of Outlaws League and for the next three years blazed another new trail of success, winning the 1995 Dirt Track Racing Round-Up Rookie of the Year Award, and a 1997 nomination for the National Spri nt Car Hall of Fame Rookie of the Year Award. Also in 1997, she received one of the highest sprint car honors, a chance to compete in the 62-race series, the All-Stars Circuit of Champions, finishing as high as second place at Eldora Speedway along the wa y. However, the lure and challenges of dirt-track racing had now faded, and Fisher knew she had to move onwards and upwards.
In 1998, Fisher raced in three different types of racing cars for asphalt circuits, the ARCA Sprint cars, the NAMARS Silver Crowns and the USAC Midgets, collecting five feature wins and two track speed records in 23 starts. In August of the followin g year, she became the youngest person to pass the requirements for the Indy Racing League Rookie test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
On October 17, 1999 she competed in her first IRL event, the youngest driver in the over-50 years of the league to do so. On the Texas Motor Speedway, Fisher qualified in the 17th position and ran a strong race throughout, before mechanical difficul ties with a timing chain forced her out on lap 66, finishing 25th overall. Still, the experience and her skills were enough for Fisher to land a driving position with team owner Derrick Walker, driving for the 2000 IRL season. It also led to her greatest moment; a shot at the most prestigious event in auto racing, the Indianapolis 500, where she qualified 19th in the field as the youngest woman, to compete in the event. An accident early in the race sidelined her and she finished 31st.
A little over a year after getting her IRL license, Fisher made history again, becoming the first woman to place in an IRL sporting event, on August 27, 2000, at the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway. After starting fourth from the pole, she finished in third place and led nine laps, the first of her career, and becoming the youngest driver to lead. At the Las Vegas Speedway, Fisher was running a strong third half-way through the race before an accident finished her in 17th position. Despite a few disap pointments, Fisher started eight of the nine races she qualified for, and placed third in the Bombardier Rookie of the Year standings at the end of the season.
The year 2001 was a new beginning for everyone, and Fisher was hungry for more success after a little less than a year on the IndyCar circuit. On April 8th, she was off and running, taking a second-place finish home from the first race of the season , in Miami-Homestead.
The following month, she qualified again for the Indianapolis 500, starting 15th from the pole, but was taken out in the seventh lap after an accident. She collected one other top-ten finish that year, at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Colorado , but her performance in all 13 races, with a combined 1,675 laps run, netted her more than $700,000 that year, making her a millionaire in only two short seasons.
At the start of the 2002 Indy season, troubles with her sponsors, and the inability to find others left Fisher without car. But on April 21st, at Nazareth Speedway she substituted for injured driver Robbie Buhl in a Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entr y. On the starting grid, Fisher was 19th, and proved a strong contender all through the race, finishing an amazing fourth place, the best finish of the season.
The next month, at Indianapolis, she teamed with Buhl again, in a second Dreyer & Reinbold Racing entry, and broke a record with the fastest qualifying speeds ever by a woman, at 229.439 miles per hour. Those speeds were good enough to secure ni nth position on the pole, an incredible achievement. In her third consecutive appearance in the Indianapolis 500, Fisher finished the race four laps down, in 23rd, giving her $163,315 in winnings. These remarkable races were enough for the owners of the D reyer & Reinhold cars; Fisher was kept on-board as Robbie Buhl's replacement to run the last eight races of the season.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Mike Modano
By leading his team, the Dallas Stars, to a Stanley Cup in 1999, Mike Modano's place as one of the National Hockey League's (NHL) best players was confirmed. Modano's leadership and on-ice abilities had previously been questioned, though he had been the first player drafted in the 1988 NHL entry draft.
Modano was born in Livonia, Michigan, on June 7, 1970, the only child of Mike and Karen Modano. Modano's father worked as a building contractor, while his mother was a housewife. Modano began playing hockey when he was nine, after his parents tried to give an outlet to his exuberant energy. His parents continued to support his interest in hockey by constructing a makeshift rink in their backyard.
When he was 16 years old, Modano moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada, to play junior hockey. One of his coaches was Ken Hitchcock, who would later coach him in Dallas. Modano also attended high school in Prince Albert, graduating from Carlton High. In 1988, Modano was the first pick in the NHL entry draft. Only the second American-born player so chosen, Modano was selected by the Minnesota North Stars. After the draft, Modano spent a year in the Western Hockey League (WHL) where he was named to the WHL (East) All-Star first team.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Al Gore
Albert Gore, Jr. was born and raised in Washington, D.C., where his father was a well-known and widely respected representative and later senator from Tennessee. Gore attended St. Alban's Episcopal School for Boys, where he excelled both academically and athletically. He later went to Harvard, earning a bachelor's degree in government. After graduation he enlisted in the army, serving as a reporter in Vietnam in a war he was opposed to. After completing his tour of duty, in 1974 Gore entered the law school at Vanderbilt University. Following in his father's footsteps, Gore ran for Congress, was elected, and served five terms before running for and winning a Senate seat in 1984. He served in the Senate until 1992, when then-governor and Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton selected him as his vice presidential running-mate. After winning the 1992 election Vice President Gore became the Clinton administration's chief environmental advisor. He was also largely responsible for President Clinton's selection of Carol Browner as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Bruce Babbit as Secretary of the Interior.
Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush, his opponent for the presidency, faced off in one of the closest presidential contest in American history. Each man was poised to take the White House; it all hinged on Florida's 25 electoral votes. Because of outcries about the confusing ballots, Palm Beach officials were expected to do a hand count; however, conflicting rulings over whether to do the hand count forced the issue into court. After Florida officials certified Bush's 537-vote lead over Gore, the vice president contested those results in court. By winning Florida's electoral votes, Bush would have one more than the 270 needed to win the presidency in the Electoral College. Gore held a total of 255 electoral votes. On December 13, 2000, Gore conceded the presidential election to Bush after the United States Supreme Court ruled that recounting Florida votes would be unconstitutional.
When he ran for president in 2000, the environment was not a strong feature in his campaign, though this was an area where he had sharp differences with his opponent, George W. Bush. In the last months of the campaign, Gore found himself defending his record on the environment against Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Though Gore had the backing of the Sierra Club and other major environmental groups, Nader accused Gore of "eight years of principles betrayed and promises broken." In the end Gore lost the election to Bush, who quickly reversed Clinton administration environmental policies such as new standards on drinking water safety, and refused to endorse the Kyoto climate change treaty.
Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, won Academy Awards for best documentary and best song. Gore shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their efforts to raise awareness about global warming.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Oscar de la Hoya
Oscar de la Hoya
Oscar De La Hoya became the "Golden Boy" of boxing with his surprising win of a gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games. Since then he has captured five boxing titles in five different weight classes, ranking him among boxing's elite. He has often been referred to as the best contemporary American boxer.
Oscar De La Hoya was born on February 4, 1973 in East Los Angeles, California. His parents had immigrated to the United States from Mexico. De La Hoya's family was poor when he was growing up. His father, Joel Sr., worked as a warehouse clerk for a heating and cooling company and his mother, Cecilia, was a seamstress. De La Hoya had two siblings--an older brother named Joel Jr. and a younger sister, Ceci.
Boxing was a tradition in the De La Hoya family. De La Hoya's paternal grandfather, Vincente, was an amateur featherweight in Durango, Mexico, and his father had a brief professional boxing career in the United States with a 9-3-1 lightweight record. As De La Hoya told Interview magazine, "Boxing has been in my blood since I can remember. It comes naturally to me, and I've enjoyed it ever since I started, at the age of six." As a child De La Hoya would join his father and older brother at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena. The family had assumed that Joel, as the oldest son, would continue the family's boxing tradition. De La Hoya himself admitted that he was an unlikely candidate to become a boxer. "I was a little kid who used to fight a lot in the street--and get beat up," he told Sports Illustrated.
Date Opponent W-L-D Location Result
2007-05-05 Floyd Mayweather Jr. WBC Super Welterweight Title
38-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L SD 12
2006-05-06 Ricardo Mayorga WBC Super Welterweight Title
28-5-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 6
2004-09-18 Bernard Hopkins WBA Middleweight Title
WBC Middleweight Title
IBF Middleweight Title
WBO Middleweight Title
44-2-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L KO 9
2004-06-05 Felix Sturm WBO Middleweight Title
20-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
2003-09-13 Shane Mosley WBC Super Welterweight Title
WBA Light Middleweight Title
38-2-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L UD 12
2003-05-03 Luis Ramon Campas WBC Super Welterweight Title
WBA Light Middleweight Title
80-5-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 7
2002-09-14 Fernando Vargas WBC Super Welterweight Title
WBA Light Middleweight Title
22-1-0 Las Vegas, NV, U.S. W TKO 11
2001-06-23 Javier Castillejo WBC Super Welterweight Title
51-4-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
2001-03-24 Arturo Gatti 33-4-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 5
2000-06-17 Shane Mosley WBC Welterweight Title
34-0-0 Los Angeles, California, U.S. L SD 12
2000-02-26 Derrell Coley 34-1-2 New York, New York, U.S. W KO 7
1999-09-18 Felix Trinidad WBC Welterweight Title
IBF Welterweight Title
35-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L MD 12
1999-05-22 Oba Carr WBC Welterweight Title
48-2-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 11
1999-02-13 Ike Quartey WBC Welterweight Title
34-0-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W SD 12
1998-09-18 Julio César Chávez WBC Welterweight Title
101-2-2 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W RTD 8
1998-06-13 Patrick Charpentier WBC Welterweight Title
27-4-1 El Paso, Texas, U.S. W TKO 3
1997-12-06 Wilfredo Rivera WBC Welterweight Title
27-2-1 Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. W TKO 8
1997-09-13 Hector Camacho WBC Welterweight Title
64-3-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1997-06-14 David Kamau WBC Welterweight Title
28-1-0 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. W KO 2
1997-04-12 Pernell Whitaker WBC Welterweight Title
40-1-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1997-01-18 Miguel Angel Gonzalez WBC Light Welterweight Title
41-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1996-06-07 Julio César Chávez WBC Light Welterweight Title
97-1-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 4
1996-02-09 Darryl Tyson 47-8-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W KO 2
1995-12-15 Jesse James Leija WBO Lightweight Title
30-1-2 New York, New York, U.S. W TKO 2
1995-09-09 Genaro Hernandez WBO Lightweight Title
32-0-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 6
1995-05-06 Rafael Ruelas IBF Lightweight Title
WBO Lightweight Title
43-1-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 2
1995-02-18 Juan Molina WBO Lightweight Title
36-3-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1994-12-10 John Avila WBO Lightweight Title
20-1-1 Los Angeles, California, U.S. W TKO 9
1994-11-18 Carl Griffith WBO Lightweight Title
28-3-2 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 3
1994-07-29 Jorge Paez Vacant WBO Lightweight Title
53-6-4 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W KO 2
1994-05-27 Giorgio Campanella WBO Super Featherweight Title
21-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 3
1994-03-05 Jimmi Bredahl WBO Super Featherweight Title
16-0-0 Los Angeles, California, U.S. W TKO 10
1993-10-30 Narciso Valenzuela 35-13-2 Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. W KO 1
1993-08-27 Angelo Nuñez 10-4-3 Beverly Hills, California, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-08-14 Renaldo Carter 27-4-1 Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, U.S. W TKO 6
1993-06-07 Troy Dorsey 15-7-4 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 1
1993-05-08 Frank Avelar 15-3-0 Primm, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-04-06 Mike Grable 13-1-2 Rochester, New York, U.S. W UD 8
1993-03-13 Jeff Mayweather 23-2-2 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-02-06 Curtis Strong 14-6-2 San Diego, California, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-01-03 Paris Alexander 15-6-2 Hollywood, California, U.S. W TKO 2
1992-12-12 Clifford Hicks 13-6-0 Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. W KO 1
1992-11-23 Lamar Williams 5-1-1 Inglewood, California, U.S. W KO 1
Oscar De La Hoya became the "Golden Boy" of boxing with his surprising win of a gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games. Since then he has captured five boxing titles in five different weight classes, ranking him among boxing's elite. He has often been referred to as the best contemporary American boxer.
Oscar De La Hoya was born on February 4, 1973 in East Los Angeles, California. His parents had immigrated to the United States from Mexico. De La Hoya's family was poor when he was growing up. His father, Joel Sr., worked as a warehouse clerk for a heating and cooling company and his mother, Cecilia, was a seamstress. De La Hoya had two siblings--an older brother named Joel Jr. and a younger sister, Ceci.
Boxing was a tradition in the De La Hoya family. De La Hoya's paternal grandfather, Vincente, was an amateur featherweight in Durango, Mexico, and his father had a brief professional boxing career in the United States with a 9-3-1 lightweight record. As De La Hoya told Interview magazine, "Boxing has been in my blood since I can remember. It comes naturally to me, and I've enjoyed it ever since I started, at the age of six." As a child De La Hoya would join his father and older brother at the Pico Rivera Sports Arena. The family had assumed that Joel, as the oldest son, would continue the family's boxing tradition. De La Hoya himself admitted that he was an unlikely candidate to become a boxer. "I was a little kid who used to fight a lot in the street--and get beat up," he told Sports Illustrated.
Date Opponent W-L-D Location Result
2007-05-05 Floyd Mayweather Jr. WBC Super Welterweight Title
38-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L SD 12
2006-05-06 Ricardo Mayorga WBC Super Welterweight Title
28-5-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 6
2004-09-18 Bernard Hopkins WBA Middleweight Title
WBC Middleweight Title
IBF Middleweight Title
WBO Middleweight Title
44-2-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L KO 9
2004-06-05 Felix Sturm WBO Middleweight Title
20-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
2003-09-13 Shane Mosley WBC Super Welterweight Title
WBA Light Middleweight Title
38-2-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L UD 12
2003-05-03 Luis Ramon Campas WBC Super Welterweight Title
WBA Light Middleweight Title
80-5-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 7
2002-09-14 Fernando Vargas WBC Super Welterweight Title
WBA Light Middleweight Title
22-1-0 Las Vegas, NV, U.S. W TKO 11
2001-06-23 Javier Castillejo WBC Super Welterweight Title
51-4-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
2001-03-24 Arturo Gatti 33-4-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 5
2000-06-17 Shane Mosley WBC Welterweight Title
34-0-0 Los Angeles, California, U.S. L SD 12
2000-02-26 Derrell Coley 34-1-2 New York, New York, U.S. W KO 7
1999-09-18 Felix Trinidad WBC Welterweight Title
IBF Welterweight Title
35-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. L MD 12
1999-05-22 Oba Carr WBC Welterweight Title
48-2-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 11
1999-02-13 Ike Quartey WBC Welterweight Title
34-0-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W SD 12
1998-09-18 Julio César Chávez WBC Welterweight Title
101-2-2 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W RTD 8
1998-06-13 Patrick Charpentier WBC Welterweight Title
27-4-1 El Paso, Texas, U.S. W TKO 3
1997-12-06 Wilfredo Rivera WBC Welterweight Title
27-2-1 Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. W TKO 8
1997-09-13 Hector Camacho WBC Welterweight Title
64-3-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1997-06-14 David Kamau WBC Welterweight Title
28-1-0 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. W KO 2
1997-04-12 Pernell Whitaker WBC Welterweight Title
40-1-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1997-01-18 Miguel Angel Gonzalez WBC Light Welterweight Title
41-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1996-06-07 Julio César Chávez WBC Light Welterweight Title
97-1-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 4
1996-02-09 Darryl Tyson 47-8-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W KO 2
1995-12-15 Jesse James Leija WBO Lightweight Title
30-1-2 New York, New York, U.S. W TKO 2
1995-09-09 Genaro Hernandez WBO Lightweight Title
32-0-1 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 6
1995-05-06 Rafael Ruelas IBF Lightweight Title
WBO Lightweight Title
43-1-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 2
1995-02-18 Juan Molina WBO Lightweight Title
36-3-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W UD 12
1994-12-10 John Avila WBO Lightweight Title
20-1-1 Los Angeles, California, U.S. W TKO 9
1994-11-18 Carl Griffith WBO Lightweight Title
28-3-2 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 3
1994-07-29 Jorge Paez Vacant WBO Lightweight Title
53-6-4 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W KO 2
1994-05-27 Giorgio Campanella WBO Super Featherweight Title
21-0-0 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 3
1994-03-05 Jimmi Bredahl WBO Super Featherweight Title
16-0-0 Los Angeles, California, U.S. W TKO 10
1993-10-30 Narciso Valenzuela 35-13-2 Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. W KO 1
1993-08-27 Angelo Nuñez 10-4-3 Beverly Hills, California, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-08-14 Renaldo Carter 27-4-1 Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, U.S. W TKO 6
1993-06-07 Troy Dorsey 15-7-4 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 1
1993-05-08 Frank Avelar 15-3-0 Primm, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-04-06 Mike Grable 13-1-2 Rochester, New York, U.S. W UD 8
1993-03-13 Jeff Mayweather 23-2-2 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-02-06 Curtis Strong 14-6-2 San Diego, California, U.S. W TKO 4
1993-01-03 Paris Alexander 15-6-2 Hollywood, California, U.S. W TKO 2
1992-12-12 Clifford Hicks 13-6-0 Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. W KO 1
1992-11-23 Lamar Williams 5-1-1 Inglewood, California, U.S. W KO 1
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Bob Barker
Host of television's longest-running game show, The Price is Right, Bob Barker earned a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for his efforts in 1999. He remained popular, despite a 1994 sexual harassment suit brought against him by co-worker Dian Parkinson and then dropped one year later. Well-known for his animal rights activism, Barker established the DJ&T Foundation in 1995 to encourage neutering of dogs and cats by funding local vet clinics. In 2001, at age 77, Barker signed a five-year contract to continue hosting The Price Is Right."
In 1996, Barker appeared as himself in Adam Sandler's film Happy Gilmore and earned The Price Is Right a cult following from a new generation. Silver-haired and fit at age 78, Barker appeared on the 30th anniversary show of The Price Is Right in January 2002. He seemed satisfied with where he was in life. "I have to enjoy what I'm doing," he told Ed Bark of the Dallas Morning News. "This wouldn't work if I were just out there going through the motions. I thoroughly enjoy that hour every day, and I love to see people win."
In 1996, Barker appeared as himself in Adam Sandler's film Happy Gilmore and earned The Price Is Right a cult following from a new generation. Silver-haired and fit at age 78, Barker appeared on the 30th anniversary show of The Price Is Right in January 2002. He seemed satisfied with where he was in life. "I have to enjoy what I'm doing," he told Ed Bark of the Dallas Morning News. "This wouldn't work if I were just out there going through the motions. I thoroughly enjoy that hour every day, and I love to see people win."
Friday, December 7, 2007
Hank Aaron
Hank Aaron
Professional baseball may never see another slugger as great as Hank Aaron. Aaron's career record of 755 home runs in 23 years is by far the best in the history of the game. He also holds top honors for runs batted in and total bases and has been a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1982. Aaron was a highly regarded but relatively unknown star of the Atlanta Braves (prior to 1966, the Milwaukee Braves) for nearly two decades before he became an American hero in 1973 and 1974. It was during those seasons that he chased, and finally surpassed, Babe Ruth's famed career home run record. When Aaron hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974, amidst a near-melee in the Braves' home ballpark, he achieved a "superhuman accomplishment, as mysterious and remote as Stonehenge, and certain to stand forever," to quote Tom Buckley in the New York Times Magazine. Remarkably, that milestone came not at the end, but rather in the middle of an extraordinary baseball career.
Stardom never rested easily on Aaron's shoulders. By nature a reserved individual, he chafed under the public accolade that accompanied his record-breaking performance. In fact, Aaron spent the last years of his playing career in a constant state of uneasiness. Breaking the home run record brought him legions of new fans, but it also exposed an ugly vein of racism in society. As he edged past Ruth in the record books, Aaron faced death threats and other forms of hate from some angry whites who saw his performance as a challenge to their cherished ideas of supremacy. "What does it say of America that a man fulfills the purest of American dreams, struggling up from Jim Crow poverty to dethrone the greatest of Yankee kings ... yet feels not like a hero but like someone hunted?" asked Mike Capuzzo in Sports Illustrated. "The Home Run King is a grandfather now, and by tradition he should be lionized, a legend in the autumn of his life. But Henry Aaron takes no comfort in baseball immortality, in lore and remembrance."
Aaron was born and raised in a segregated neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama. The house where he and his seven siblings grew up did not have plumbing, electricity, or glass windows. He was born in 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, and his parents struggled to keep ahead of the bills. Aaron's father worked at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company. The job was steady, but so was the verbal abuse from white co-workers. Herbert Aaron rarely complained to his children, but he did encourage them to excel in school. Young Henry was a good student, but from an early age he knew he wanted to play professional baseball.
As the Braves' starting right fielder, Aaron turned in a superb rookie year. He batted .280 and hit 13 home runs in an injury-shortened season. The following year he more than doubled his home run tally, hitting 27 with a .314 average. Aaron was also an able outfielder and a threat to steal. His speed and power quickly earned him a reputation in the National League. With his help, the Braves advanced to the 1957 World Series against the New York Yankees.
Aaron still remembers a crucial home run he hit in 1957 as one of the highlights of his career. On September 24, 1957, the Braves faced the second-place St. Louis Cardinals in a game that would clinch the National League pennant for one of the teams. The score was tied 2-2 into the 11th inning. Aaron smacked a homer to win the game and the pennant for the Braves. As he rounded the bases, his teammates gathered at home plate to carry him off the field. The Braves went on that year to beat the Yankees in the World Series. Aaron hit three home runs and a triple for 7 runs batted in as the Braves took the Series in seven games.
The Braves returned to the World Series in 1958, this time losing to the Yankees. By then Aaron was a bona fide baseball star, even if he did little to promote himself. His batting average stood at .326, and he was just beginning a hitting streak that would bring him more than 30 home runs a season almost every year until 1974. Aaron--who had once feared white pitchers--was now himself an object of terror in the National League. One hurler commented that getting a fast ball past Hank Aaron was like trying to get the sun past a rooster. Another said that trying to fool him was like slapping a rattlesnake. Yet after 1958, Aaron's talents were hidden on a Braves team that failed to make postseason play year after year.
People began counting, though, as Aaron passed the ten-year mark in his playing career. Three times--in 1957, 1963, and 1966--Aaron hit 44 home runs in a season. In 1971 he smacked 47. His lowest season total before 1974 was 24, in 1964. (The average major leaguer might consider himself blessed with 18 home runs each year.) Aaron inched toward the record with a batting stance and running style that defied logic, a carryover from his self-taught youth. At the age where most major league ball players retire, he was still maintaining his superb conditioning and his unique hand-eye coordination. He played throughout the 1960s in Milwaukee and Atlanta--the Braves moved South in 1966--and, in 1973, brought his home run totals to the verge of a new record.
Media attention began to build in 1970, when Aaron became the first player to combine 3000 career hits and 500 home runs. The countdown began for a run on Ruth's record of 714 homers. By 1973 Aaron had closed the gap considerably, and at the end of that season he had 713. The fame he had never particularly courted found him. Letters--most of them congratulatory--came from all over the world. He was offered lucrative endorsement contracts from Magnavox electronics and was honored with a candy bar called "O Henry!"
Professional baseball may never see another slugger as great as Hank Aaron. Aaron's career record of 755 home runs in 23 years is by far the best in the history of the game. He also holds top honors for runs batted in and total bases and has been a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1982. Aaron was a highly regarded but relatively unknown star of the Atlanta Braves (prior to 1966, the Milwaukee Braves) for nearly two decades before he became an American hero in 1973 and 1974. It was during those seasons that he chased, and finally surpassed, Babe Ruth's famed career home run record. When Aaron hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974, amidst a near-melee in the Braves' home ballpark, he achieved a "superhuman accomplishment, as mysterious and remote as Stonehenge, and certain to stand forever," to quote Tom Buckley in the New York Times Magazine. Remarkably, that milestone came not at the end, but rather in the middle of an extraordinary baseball career.
Stardom never rested easily on Aaron's shoulders. By nature a reserved individual, he chafed under the public accolade that accompanied his record-breaking performance. In fact, Aaron spent the last years of his playing career in a constant state of uneasiness. Breaking the home run record brought him legions of new fans, but it also exposed an ugly vein of racism in society. As he edged past Ruth in the record books, Aaron faced death threats and other forms of hate from some angry whites who saw his performance as a challenge to their cherished ideas of supremacy. "What does it say of America that a man fulfills the purest of American dreams, struggling up from Jim Crow poverty to dethrone the greatest of Yankee kings ... yet feels not like a hero but like someone hunted?" asked Mike Capuzzo in Sports Illustrated. "The Home Run King is a grandfather now, and by tradition he should be lionized, a legend in the autumn of his life. But Henry Aaron takes no comfort in baseball immortality, in lore and remembrance."
Aaron was born and raised in a segregated neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama. The house where he and his seven siblings grew up did not have plumbing, electricity, or glass windows. He was born in 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression, and his parents struggled to keep ahead of the bills. Aaron's father worked at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company. The job was steady, but so was the verbal abuse from white co-workers. Herbert Aaron rarely complained to his children, but he did encourage them to excel in school. Young Henry was a good student, but from an early age he knew he wanted to play professional baseball.
As the Braves' starting right fielder, Aaron turned in a superb rookie year. He batted .280 and hit 13 home runs in an injury-shortened season. The following year he more than doubled his home run tally, hitting 27 with a .314 average. Aaron was also an able outfielder and a threat to steal. His speed and power quickly earned him a reputation in the National League. With his help, the Braves advanced to the 1957 World Series against the New York Yankees.
Aaron still remembers a crucial home run he hit in 1957 as one of the highlights of his career. On September 24, 1957, the Braves faced the second-place St. Louis Cardinals in a game that would clinch the National League pennant for one of the teams. The score was tied 2-2 into the 11th inning. Aaron smacked a homer to win the game and the pennant for the Braves. As he rounded the bases, his teammates gathered at home plate to carry him off the field. The Braves went on that year to beat the Yankees in the World Series. Aaron hit three home runs and a triple for 7 runs batted in as the Braves took the Series in seven games.
The Braves returned to the World Series in 1958, this time losing to the Yankees. By then Aaron was a bona fide baseball star, even if he did little to promote himself. His batting average stood at .326, and he was just beginning a hitting streak that would bring him more than 30 home runs a season almost every year until 1974. Aaron--who had once feared white pitchers--was now himself an object of terror in the National League. One hurler commented that getting a fast ball past Hank Aaron was like trying to get the sun past a rooster. Another said that trying to fool him was like slapping a rattlesnake. Yet after 1958, Aaron's talents were hidden on a Braves team that failed to make postseason play year after year.
People began counting, though, as Aaron passed the ten-year mark in his playing career. Three times--in 1957, 1963, and 1966--Aaron hit 44 home runs in a season. In 1971 he smacked 47. His lowest season total before 1974 was 24, in 1964. (The average major leaguer might consider himself blessed with 18 home runs each year.) Aaron inched toward the record with a batting stance and running style that defied logic, a carryover from his self-taught youth. At the age where most major league ball players retire, he was still maintaining his superb conditioning and his unique hand-eye coordination. He played throughout the 1960s in Milwaukee and Atlanta--the Braves moved South in 1966--and, in 1973, brought his home run totals to the verge of a new record.
Media attention began to build in 1970, when Aaron became the first player to combine 3000 career hits and 500 home runs. The countdown began for a run on Ruth's record of 714 homers. By 1973 Aaron had closed the gap considerably, and at the end of that season he had 713. The fame he had never particularly courted found him. Letters--most of them congratulatory--came from all over the world. He was offered lucrative endorsement contracts from Magnavox electronics and was honored with a candy bar called "O Henry!"
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Woody Guthrie
Writer and performer of folk songs, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (1912-1967) composed "This Land Is Your Land," an unofficial national anthem.
Guthrie was born July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma. He had little formal education, for which he compensated to a degree with intensive reading. Guthrie led one of the most tragic lives of any notable American. His father was a failure in both politics and business and died on skid row. His mother killed his only sister in an insane rage before dying of Huntington's chorea, which she passed on to Guthrie. In later years Guthrie lost his own infant daughter in a fire. Virtually orphaned at the age of 14 when his family broke up, Guthrie developed an itinerant way of life that he never entirely abandoned until his final hospitalization.
Folk singer, composer, writer and homegrown radical, Woody Guthrie became the self-appointed folk spokesman for the Dust Bowl migrants and agricultural workers during the Great Depression. His pro-labor/anti-capitalist stance attracted many radical and left-leaning liberals during the 1930s and 1940s, but his lasting fame came from his influence on the folk revival of the 1960s, especially on Bob Dylan. Best known for ballads such as "This Land is Your Land," "This Train is Bound for Glory," and "Union Maid," Guthrie's music extended beyond the bounds of radical protest to become American folk classics.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, during a German air-raid over Liverpool. His father, Alf Lennon, was a seaman, who deserted his wife Julia and their infant child. Over twenty years later when Alf Lennon tried to reenter his famous son's life, Lennon did not welcome him. Unable to raise Lennon alone, Julia asked her sister and brother-in-law, Mimi and George Smith, to care for her son. Tragically, an off-duty police officer knocked down and killed Lennon's mother in 1958.
The Beatles went on to revolutionize rock music several times over. "The Beatles are a pivotal part of rock's story," wrote Tim Riley in Tell Me Why, "not just because their music can still dazzle but because their arrival as rock 'n' rollers with an endless stream of original material challenged what anyone had imagined pop could become.... They may not be responsible for everything, but nearly everything that comes after would be impossible without them." As Griel Marcus wrote in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, "What you heard was a rock and roll group that combined elements of the music that you were used to hearing only in pieces.... The Beatles combined the harmonic range and implicit equality of the Fifties vocal group, ... the flash of a rockabilly band, ... the aggressive and unique personalities of the classic rock stars, ... the homey this-could-be-you manner of later rock stars, [and] endlessly inventive songwriting.... The result was that elusive rock treasure, a new sound --and a new sound that could not be exhausted in the course of one brief flurry on the charts."
During another bed-in, in Montreal, from May 26 to June 3, Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote and recorded "Give Peace a Chance," a song that was quickly taken up by the peace movement and chanted at anti-war marches around the world. They next embarked on a stream of avant-garde productions. Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and The Wedding Album continued the series of experimental albums. The couple took time out from their activities to accommodate sessions for the final Beatles album, Abbey Road, during the summer.
The Beatles went on to revolutionize rock music several times over. "The Beatles are a pivotal part of rock's story," wrote Tim Riley in Tell Me Why, "not just because their music can still dazzle but because their arrival as rock 'n' rollers with an endless stream of original material challenged what anyone had imagined pop could become.... They may not be responsible for everything, but nearly everything that comes after would be impossible without them." As Griel Marcus wrote in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll, "What you heard was a rock and roll group that combined elements of the music that you were used to hearing only in pieces.... The Beatles combined the harmonic range and implicit equality of the Fifties vocal group, ... the flash of a rockabilly band, ... the aggressive and unique personalities of the classic rock stars, ... the homey this-could-be-you manner of later rock stars, [and] endlessly inventive songwriting.... The result was that elusive rock treasure, a new sound --and a new sound that could not be exhausted in the course of one brief flurry on the charts."
During another bed-in, in Montreal, from May 26 to June 3, Lennon and Yoko Ono wrote and recorded "Give Peace a Chance," a song that was quickly taken up by the peace movement and chanted at anti-war marches around the world. They next embarked on a stream of avant-garde productions. Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions and The Wedding Album continued the series of experimental albums. The couple took time out from their activities to accommodate sessions for the final Beatles album, Abbey Road, during the summer.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Jesse James
Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw and the most famous member of the James-Younger gang. He became a figure of folklore after his death. He was most famous as a notorious train robber.
Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay County, Missouri, near the site of present day Kearney. Qunvel King and Jesse James were best friends, until Qunvel moved away and joined a gang called "The East Side Robbers" in Saint Joseph, Missouri. His father, Robert James, was a farmer and Baptist minister from Kentucky who helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. Robert James traveled to California to prospect for gold and died there when Jesse was three years old. After his father's death, his mother Zerelda (nicknamed Zee) remarried, first to Benjamin Simms, and then to a doctor named Reuben Samuel. After their marriage in 1855, Samuel moved into the James home.
Jesse Woodson James was born in Kearney, Missouri on September 5, 1847. His father, the Rev. Robert James, was a Baptist minister who helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo.
Some people say it was the cruel treatment from Union soldiers that turned Frank and Jesse to a life of crime during the Civil War. Certainly during the war years they learned to kill while riding with William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson.
After the war, Jesse was wounded while surrendering. Within a year, Frank and Jesse are believe to have pulled off the first daylight bankrobbery in peace time. They made off with $60,000 from the Liberty, Mo. bank not far from their home, and one man was killed.
For the next 15 years, the James boys roamed throughout the U.S. robbing trains and banks of their gold, building a legend that was to live more than a century after Jesse's death.
Jesse married his own first cousin after a nine-year courtship. She was named for his own mother, Zerelda, and he called her Zee for short. They had two children, Jesse Edwards and Mary.
During the winter of 1882, Jesse tried to buy a small farm in Nebraska. But in April, he was short of cash. All of his earlier gang members were either dead or in prison, but Jesse recruited Bob and Charlie Ford to help him rob the Platte City bank. The Ford brothers posed as cousins of Jesse James, but actually were not related to Jesse at all.
The $10,000 reward on Jesse proved too appealing. While Jesse stood on a chair in the family home at 1318 Lafayette Street in St. Joseph to dust and straighten a picture, Bob and Charlie Ford drew their guns.
Bob Ford put an end to the James Legend with a single bullet to the back of the head on April 3, 1882.
Jesse Woodson James was born in Clay County, Missouri, near the site of present day Kearney. Qunvel King and Jesse James were best friends, until Qunvel moved away and joined a gang called "The East Side Robbers" in Saint Joseph, Missouri. His father, Robert James, was a farmer and Baptist minister from Kentucky who helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. Robert James traveled to California to prospect for gold and died there when Jesse was three years old. After his father's death, his mother Zerelda (nicknamed Zee) remarried, first to Benjamin Simms, and then to a doctor named Reuben Samuel. After their marriage in 1855, Samuel moved into the James home.
Jesse Woodson James was born in Kearney, Missouri on September 5, 1847. His father, the Rev. Robert James, was a Baptist minister who helped found William Jewell College in Liberty, Mo.
Some people say it was the cruel treatment from Union soldiers that turned Frank and Jesse to a life of crime during the Civil War. Certainly during the war years they learned to kill while riding with William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson.
After the war, Jesse was wounded while surrendering. Within a year, Frank and Jesse are believe to have pulled off the first daylight bankrobbery in peace time. They made off with $60,000 from the Liberty, Mo. bank not far from their home, and one man was killed.
For the next 15 years, the James boys roamed throughout the U.S. robbing trains and banks of their gold, building a legend that was to live more than a century after Jesse's death.
Jesse married his own first cousin after a nine-year courtship. She was named for his own mother, Zerelda, and he called her Zee for short. They had two children, Jesse Edwards and Mary.
During the winter of 1882, Jesse tried to buy a small farm in Nebraska. But in April, he was short of cash. All of his earlier gang members were either dead or in prison, but Jesse recruited Bob and Charlie Ford to help him rob the Platte City bank. The Ford brothers posed as cousins of Jesse James, but actually were not related to Jesse at all.
The $10,000 reward on Jesse proved too appealing. While Jesse stood on a chair in the family home at 1318 Lafayette Street in St. Joseph to dust and straighten a picture, Bob and Charlie Ford drew their guns.
Bob Ford put an end to the James Legend with a single bullet to the back of the head on April 3, 1882.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Jesse James
Jesse Gregory James (born April 19, 1969) is an American and CEO of West Coast Choppers, a manufacturer of custom-made motorcycles, and the host of Motorcycle Mania and Monster Garage on the Discovery Channel. His great-great-grandfather was a cousin of Jesse James, the legendary American outlaw.
Jesse G. James was born in Lynwood, California and grew up in Long Beach, California, attending La Sierra High School, Riverside Community College and the University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California. James has two children - a daughter, Chandler, and a son, Jesse James, Jr. - by his first wife, Karla. He also has a daughter, Sunny, by his second wife, Janine Lindemulder, an adult film star/producer, and a former Penthouse model. On July 16, 2005 James married actress Sandra Bullock; they met when Bullock arranged for her eight-year-old godson, who was a fan, to tour the set of Monster Garage.
On January 26, 2007 James was fined $271,250 for selling motorcycles that violated California air standards, officials said. The California Air Resources Board announced the settlement in a statement. James sold more than 50 motorcycles from his Long Beach shop that failed to meet California emissions standards.
James' latest venture is the "Cisco Burger" restaurant, which opened on April 28, 2006, just down the street from West Coast Choppers. The '50s-style burger stand - named after his beloved pit bull - features Kobe beef burgers, low-fat burritos, organic veggies, and biodegradable wrappings.
Other branches of the "West Coast Family" include the Chopperdogs fan club and Jesse's Girl clothing line. Pay Up Sucker Productions is a production company started in late 2006. James also publishes Garage Magazine.
Jesse G. James was born in Lynwood, California and grew up in Long Beach, California, attending La Sierra High School, Riverside Community College and the University of California, Riverside in Riverside, California. James has two children - a daughter, Chandler, and a son, Jesse James, Jr. - by his first wife, Karla. He also has a daughter, Sunny, by his second wife, Janine Lindemulder, an adult film star/producer, and a former Penthouse model. On July 16, 2005 James married actress Sandra Bullock; they met when Bullock arranged for her eight-year-old godson, who was a fan, to tour the set of Monster Garage.
On January 26, 2007 James was fined $271,250 for selling motorcycles that violated California air standards, officials said. The California Air Resources Board announced the settlement in a statement. James sold more than 50 motorcycles from his Long Beach shop that failed to meet California emissions standards.
James' latest venture is the "Cisco Burger" restaurant, which opened on April 28, 2006, just down the street from West Coast Choppers. The '50s-style burger stand - named after his beloved pit bull - features Kobe beef burgers, low-fat burritos, organic veggies, and biodegradable wrappings.
Other branches of the "West Coast Family" include the Chopperdogs fan club and Jesse's Girl clothing line. Pay Up Sucker Productions is a production company started in late 2006. James also publishes Garage Magazine.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Helen Keller
Born June 27, 1880, Tuscumbia, Alabama, author, lecturer and social activist Helen Keller promoted social reforms to improve the education and treatment of handicapped individuals. She died June 1, 1968, in Westport, Connecticut.
Keller, Helen Adams (June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968), author and lecturer, was born in Tuscumbia, Ala., the daughter of Arthur H. Keller, a gentleman farmer and former captain in the Confederate army, and Kate Adams. In her nineteenth month, she suffered a high fever (never properly diagnosed) that left her deaf and blind. Until she was seven years old, Keller had no formal instruction. She did not speak, read, or write. She devised a number of manual signs to communicate with her family and developed a large repertoire of antisocial behaviors. Her parents, on learning of Samuel Gridley Howe's success years before with another deaf-blind girl, Laura Bridgman, contacted the Perkins Institution for the Blind. In 1887, Michael Anagnos, who had succeeded Howe as director at Perkins, recommended a recent graduate, Anne Sullivan, to become Keller's tutor.
Sullivan, who arrived at the Keller home in March 1887, applied Howe's methods with her own variations. Like Howe, she communicated by spelling in her pupil's hand; unlike Howe, she used naturally occurring situations in place of invented lessons and, in the beginning, insisted on strict discipline as a prerequisite for instruction. Because Keller made astonishing progress--within a month she learned the manual alphabet and that everything had a name--Sullivan earned the sobriquet "the Miracle Worker."
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Maya Lin
Maya Lin was born in Athens, Ohio, on 5 October 1959, into an academic and artistic family. Her father, Henry Huan Lin, came from a distinguished family of anti-Communist politicians and intellectuals in Beijing, China, and was a well-known ceramist and the former dean of fine arts at Ohio University. Her mother, Julia Chang Lin, is a professor of Asian literature at Ohio University. Maya was a reclusive child and spent much of her free time in solitary pastimes, such as hiking and reading. She also experimented with many artistic media, such as silversmithing and bronze casting. She was a good student and was co-valedictorian in her high school. After graduation she applied to and was accepted by Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
At the remarkably young age of 21 Maya Lin gained widespread attention as the winner of a national competition to design a monument commemorating--in what the sponsors of the competition specified be an apolitical way--America's longest and most politically controversial war. Her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. featured a black granite wall inscribed with the names of the nearly 58,000 American servicemen and women who died in the Vietnam War. The monument has become one of the most visited sights in Washington and has earned a reputation as being a place of great emotion and healing. Other significant works by Lin include the Civil Rights Memorial (1989) in Montgomery, Alabama; the lower Manhattan home of the Museum for African Art; and The Women's Table at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
At the remarkably young age of 21 Maya Lin gained widespread attention as the winner of a national competition to design a monument commemorating--in what the sponsors of the competition specified be an apolitical way--America's longest and most politically controversial war. Her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. featured a black granite wall inscribed with the names of the nearly 58,000 American servicemen and women who died in the Vietnam War. The monument has become one of the most visited sights in Washington and has earned a reputation as being a place of great emotion and healing. Other significant works by Lin include the Civil Rights Memorial (1989) in Montgomery, Alabama; the lower Manhattan home of the Museum for African Art; and The Women's Table at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Friday, November 30, 2007
J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling (born 1966) has sold more than a quarter-billion books from her series of novels about a British boy wizard named Harry Potter. With the wildly popular series--a seventh was announced late in 2006--Rowling singlehandedly revived the market for children's literature. The books, translated into more than 600 languages, spawned a sequence of worldwide box-office movie hits, and were credited with getting an entire generation of children raised on video games, television, and the Internet interested in reading again.
Born in 1966, in Chipping Sodbury, a small town in Bristol, England located a few miles south of Dursley, hometown to her fictional protagonist Harry Potter, Joanne Rowling was the daughter of a French-Scottish mother named Anne, and a Rolls Royce engineer father named Peter Rowling, who met on a train leaving King's Cross Station in London. She also has one older sister, Diana. In 1971, the Rowlings moved to nearby Winterbourne, in Bristol, and among the children's friends were Ian and Vikki Potter. Three years later, the family moved again, to Tutshill, near the border of Wales.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft (27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and feminist. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but appear to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason.
Among the general public and specifically among feminists, Wollstonecraft's life has received much more attention than her writing because of her unconventional, and often tumultuous, personal relationships. After two ill-fated affairs with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay, Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement; they had one daughter, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft died at the age of thirty-eight due to complications from childbirth, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts.
Among the general public and specifically among feminists, Wollstonecraft's life has received much more attention than her writing because of her unconventional, and often tumultuous, personal relationships. After two ill-fated affairs with Henry Fuseli and Gilbert Imlay, Wollstonecraft married the philosopher William Godwin, one of the forefathers of the anarchist movement; they had one daughter, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft died at the age of thirty-eight due to complications from childbirth, leaving behind several unfinished manuscripts.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Luciano Pavarotti
Probably the most popular tenor since Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti (born 1935) combined accuracy of pitch and quality of sound production with a natural musicality. His favorite roles were Rodolfo in Puccini's La Bohème, Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, and Riccardo in Verdi's Un Ballo Maschera.
Luciano Pavarotti was born on the outskirts of Modena in north-central Italy on October 12, 1935. Although he spoke fondly of his childhood, the family had little money; its four members were crowded into a two-room apartment. His father was a baker who, according to Pavarotti, had a fine tenor voice but rejected the possibility of a singing career because of nervousness. His mother worked in a cigar factory. World War II forced the family out of the city in 1943. For the following year they rented a single room from a farmer in the neighboring countryside, where young Pavarotti developed an interest in farming.
He gained worldwide notoriety in September of 1963, when he filled in for an ailing Giuseppe de Stefano in La Boheme at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. This experience led to his first appearances on television and a growing popularity. By the end of the year, he had sung in Spain, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary. His performances got the attention of conductor Richard Bonynge, husband of the Australian opera singer Joan Sutherland. The exposure led Sutherland to ask Luciano Pavarotti to sing with her on a 14-week tour of Australia.
Pavarotti continued his notoriety in the role of Idamente in Mozart's Idomeneo at the prestigious Glyndebourne Festival. In February of 1965, he made his U.S. debut with Joan Sutherland in a performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. He also sang the role of Rodolfo at La Scala in Milan with his childhood friend Mirella Freni, under the direction of Herbert von Karajan.
Pavarotti continued to sing La Boheme's Rodolfo, with appearances in San Francisco in 1967 and at New York's Metropolitan Opera (the "Met") in 1968. It became his signature role in the early years of his career.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Cal Ripken, Jr.
Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr. was born August 24, 1960, in Harve de Grace, Maryland. Baseball was in his blood--his dad, Cal Sr., was a minor league player in the Baltimore Oriole farm system. During Ripken's childhood his father spent 20 years as a minor league coach and manager before finally making the big leagues as a coach for the Orioles. His dad's job helped Cal Jr. choose a career. "From the time Cal Jr. was a little tyke," his mom, Vi, told Sports Illustrated, "all he ever wanted to be was a ballplayer." Ripken says his mom was even more important than his dad in encouraging him to play sports. "Everybody talks about how much of an influence my dad must have been on me, but the truth is I really didn't see that much of him at all," Ripken told Sports Illustrated. "When I look back on [my childhood], I really have to tip my hat to my mom. She took me to all of my games, congratulated me if I did well, consoled me [made me feel better] if I didn't." Since his dad didn't get to see many of Ripken's Little League games, it was his mother who taught her son how to hit.
Cal Ripken, Jr. holds many records in professional baseball, but it is his breaking of Lou Gehrig's record of 2,131 consecutive games played that especially endears him to his admirers, who call him the "Iron Man" of baseball. The perseverance, endurance and everyday work ethic that Ripken has exhibited throughout his 17 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles has made him one of the most popular professional athletes in all of sports.
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