Interesting tidbits: 922 – After much hardship, Abbasid envoy Ahmad ibn Fadlan arrived in the lands of Volga Bulgars. The book Eaters of the Dead - later republished as The 13th Warrior to correspond with the film adaption of the novel - is a 1976 novel by Michael Crichton. The story is about a ibn Fadlans travels and adventures with a group of Vikings to their settlement, probably in modern Sweden. 1777 - First ice cream advertisement (Philip Lenzi-NY Gazette). 1926 – The airship Norge, built by Umberto Nobile, becomes the first vessel to fly over the North Pole. (See Lincoln Ellsworth below.) Todays birthday crew: 1880 – Lincoln Ellsworth. In 1926, American explorer Lincoln Ellsworth accompanied Roald Amundsen on his second effort to fly over the North Pole in the airship Norge, designed and piloted by the Italian engineer Umberto Nobile, in a flight from Svalbard to Alaska. On May 12, the Geographic North Pole was sighted. This was the first undisputed sighting of the area. Ellsworth also made four expeditions to Antarctica between 1933 and 1939, on one of whidh he discovered the Ellsworth Mountains. 1886 – Ernst A. Lehmann, German zeppelin captain. Although Max Pruss was the commanding officer of the last flight of the Hindenburg, Captain Lehmann was the most senior officer on board, with the most experience commanding airships. He was fatally burned when the ship caught fire at Lakehurst on 6 May 1937; he died the following day. At his death, he believed that the Hindenburg was sabotaged. 1946 – L. Neil Smith, American science fiction author. His works include the trilogy of Lando Calrissian novels: Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu (1983), Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon (1983), Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka (1983), and the Omnibus edition The Lando Calrissian Adventures. He also wrote the novels Pallas, The Forge of the Elders, and The Probability Broach. 1950 – Bruce Boxleitner, American actor and science fiction and suspense writer. He is known for his role in Babylon 5 as John Sheridan. He is also known for his dual role as the characters Alan Bradley and Tron in the 1982 Walt Disney Pictures film Tron, a role which he reprised in the 2010 sequel, Tron: Legacy and the animated series Tron: Uprising. Boxleitner has written two science fiction novels with a Western setting: Frontier Earth (1999) and Searcher (2001), although William H. Keith, Jr. claims to have ghostwritten both novels. 1959 – Ving Rhames, American actor known for his work in Dawn of the Dead and the 2012 SyFy movie Zombie Apocalypse. 1968 – Catherine Tate, English comedian, actress, and writer played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of Doctor Who and later reprised her role, becoming the Doctors companion for the fourth series in 2008. 1983 - Domhnall Gleeson, Known for playing Bill Weasley in the films Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2, released in 2010/2011. He is the son of actor Brendan Gleeson, who plays Alastor Moody in the series. Happy birthday guys!
Posted on: Mon, 12 May 2014 10:14:35 +0000
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