On November 26, 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter made a small hole in a sealed doorway and, holding up a candle, shed light onto King Tutankhamen's tomb in Luxor, Egypt, for the first time in more than 3,000 years.
On the very day that Tut's tomb was discovered, Charles Schulz was born. For 60 years, his comic strip Peanuts has been an essential part of the daily comics page, and is now featured on SweetSearch2Day. Letters of Note has showcased several intriguing letters from Schulz, including this one in which he agrees to kill off a character, and this one in which he explains, "I have never drawn PEANUTS for children. I have always drawn the strip with adults in mind, and fortunately, everyone seems to find something there."
From SweetSearch2Day:
American Memory reports that Casablanca opened in New York City on November 26, 1942, just as Allied Forces were wrapping up "Operation Torch" to secure North Africa during World War II. Casablanca, Morocco's chief port city, was the setting of the film. The national release of the film coincided with the Casablanca Conference in January, 1943. The conference was critical to cementing the Allied war strategy. American Memory writes, "Just as the Allied invasion of Casablanca advanced box office sales of the film Casablanca, so did the movie reinforce the war effort by underscoring the value of freedom and the importance of personal sacrifice."
Material related to Casablanca:
- Our profile of Ingrid Bergman, who starred in the film as Ilsa. We note that Bergman, and the rest of the cast, acted out their scenes without knowing how it would end, making their performance emotionally more convincing.
- In a stunning example of why we believe educators themselves will create the successors to textbooks, the late Paul Bachorz, a social studies teacher at Niskayuna (NY) High School created this explanation of the import of the Casabalanca Conference, with links to a dozen relevant political cartoons published that year.
- Our Web Guide to Morocco.
The Astronomy Picture of the Day is of the Flaming Nebula.
Letters of Note features this fascinating letter from the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, to his agent, after NBC's rejection of the first pilot. Roddenberry writes, "I have no respect or tolerance for those who say things like 'If it were just a couple minutes shorter...', or 'Yes, but if it were not so cerebral....'"
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