SPOTLIGHT BIG BROTHER June 25, Answer of the Day Who first said Big Brother is watching you? Writer George Orwell coined the sentence Big Brother is watching you, in his chilling work of science fiction, 1984. When the book came out in 1949, Orwells dystopic projection of a totalitarian state was far in the future. Born on this date in 1903, Orwell was dying when he wrote the book; he succumbed to tuberculosis just a few months after it was published. In 1984, Orwell wrote of a society where people spoke Newspeak, a language of words with contradictory meanings designed to deceive and manipulate people, and where the individual — his thoughts, feelings and personality — would be completely dominated by the state. His earlier novel, Animal Farm, was a satire on Soviet-style Communism. Its publication was delayed more than a year — until WWII ended — because the British didnt want to openly criticize or embarrass their Russian allies. Quote War is peace; Freedom is slavery; Ignorance is strength. — George Orwell, the slogans written on the door of the Ministry of Truth in 1984 Word of the day (© ) Todays History Battle of Little Bighorn: Lt. Col. George A. Custer and his men were killed by Indians in what became known as Custers Last Stand (1876) Douglas Hyde: became the first president of Ireland (1938) Korean War: broke out when the communist North invaded the South (1950) Yugoslavia: former republics Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence (1991) Mir space station: was struck by an unmanned Progress spacecraft (1997) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Teheran mayor was elected president of Iran (2005) Todays Birthdays George Abbott (1887-1995): writer/director who won 40 Tonys and a Pulitzer; also, filmmakers Sidney Lumet (86), Gary David Goldberg (66) and Michael Lembeck (62) Eric Carle (81): author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar; plus, writers Benito Lynch (1885-1951) and Aimé Césaire (1913-2008) Ricky Gervais (49): award-winning writer/actor/standup comedian, The Office, Extras: also, actors June Lockhart (85), Jimmie Walker (63), Michael Sabatino (55), Erica Gimpel (46), Angela Kinsey (39), Linda Cardellini (35) and Busy Philipps (31) George Michael (47): pop singer; singers Carly Simon (65), David Paich (56), Richie Rich (43), Candyman (42) and Mike Kroeger (38) share this birth date Carlos Delgado (38): Mets first-baseman; sports stars Willis Reed (68), Dikembe Mutombo (44) and Aramis Ramirez (32) were also born today Read more: answers/topic/friday-june-25-2010-from-today-s-highlights-archive#ixzz35eOxwY9B
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 11:48:00 +0000
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