Ian O'Brien (born 3 March 1947) is a former breaststroke swimmer for Australia who won the 200 metre breaststroke at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in world record time. In 1962 at the age of 15 he competed in his first national championships, winning the 220 yard breaststroke. At the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth, Western Australia, he won both the 110 and 220 yd breaststroke and the 4 × 110 yd medley relay. He won both breaststroke events at the 1963 Australian Championships, repeating the feat for the next three years. After winning his gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, he added a bronze in the medley relay. O'Brien successfully defended both his breaststroke titles at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica. He won five Commonwealth Games gold medals and claimed a total of nine individual and six relay titles at the Australian Championships. He retired from the sport at the age of 21, worked for 10 years as a television stagehand, and later launched a company that produced television documentaries. In 1986 he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. (Full article...)
... that actor Ryan Phillippe played Billy Douglas in his first professional acting role on the American soap opera One Life to Live, one of the first gay teenage characters in television?
... that economist Susan Dynarski, who advocates for simplifying the US Federal Student Aid application process, was the first member of her family to attend college?
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The Leekfrith torcs
Scientists announce the discovery of microfossils within rocks dated between 3.77 and 4.28 billion years old from Northern Quebec, Canada, making them the oldest fossils of life on Earth.
The discovery of the Leekfrith torcs(pictured), believed to be the oldest Iron Age gold jewellery found in Britain, is announced.
The works of Maya Angelou encompass autobiography, plays, poetry, and teleplays. She also had an active directing, acting, and speaking career. She is best known for her books, including her series of seven autobiographies, starting with the critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). Angelou's autobiographies are distinct in style and narration, and "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US. They take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Angelou wrote collections of essays, including Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) and Even the Stars Look Lonesome(1997), which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts". Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, such as in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay Georgia, Georgia (1972) was the first original script by a black woman to be produced. (Full list...)
A gloriette is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to its surroundings. The structural execution and shape can vary greatly, often in the form of a pavilion or tempietto, more or less open on the sides. Shown here is the gloriette of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.
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