Today is Monday, Nov. 8, the 313th day of 2004 with 53 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include British astronomer Edmond Halley in 1656; author Margaret Mitchell ("Gone With the Wind") in 1900; actresses Katharine Hepburn in 1909 and June Havoc in 1916 (age 88); heart transplant pioneer Dr. Christiaan Barnard in 1922; TV journalist Morley Safer ("60 Minutes") in 1931 (age 73); singers Patti Page in 1927 (age 77), Minnie Riperton in 1947 and Bonnie Raitt in 1949 (age 55); TV personality Mary Hart in 1951 (age 53); actress Alfre Woodard in 1953 (age 51); singer Ricki Lee Jones in 1954 (age 50); and actresses Courtney Thorne-Smith in 1967 (age 37) and Parker Posey in 1968 (age 36).
HEADER:On this date in history:
In 1793, the Louvre in Paris, now containing one of the world's richest art collections, became a public museum after two centuries as a royal palace.
In 1837, Mount Holyoke Seminary in Massachusetts became the first American college founded exclusively for women.
In 1864, as the Civil War raged, Abraham Lincoln was elected to his second term as president.
In 1889, Montana was admitted to the Union as the 41st state.
In 1895, physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays.
In 1942, more than 400,000 Allied soldiers invaded North Africa.
In 1982, a smoky fire set by a prisoner in a Biloxi, Miss., jail killed 28 people.
In 1985, a judge overturned Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's conviction for a 1966 triple murder in a Patterson, N.J., bar, freeing the former boxer after 19 years in prison.
In 1988, Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush was elected the 41st president of the United States.
In 1989, doctors said Massachusetts First Lady Kitty Dukakis, an admitted alcoholic, had been hospitalized after drinking rubbing alcohol.
In 1990, William Bennett resigned as President Bush's national drug policy adviser.
In 1991, the European Community imposed an economic embargo on Yugoslavia in an effort to halt the civil war.
In 1992, a Paso Robles, Calif., man, angry about being evicted from his home, went on a shooting spree, killing six people before turning the gun on himself.
In 1993, toymaker Hasbro unveiled a new collection of six Elvis Presley limited edition commemorative dolls.
Also in 1993, parliamentary elections were held in Jordan.
In 1994, in a stunning upset, Republican candidates swept the general election, regaining control of both chambers of Congress. It marked the first time in 40 years the Republicans controlled both the House and the Senate.
Also in 1994, doctors in Los Angeles said rocker David Crosby had been placed on a national waiting list for a new liver.
In 1995, retired Army General Colin Powell declared he would not seek the presidency.
In 1997, Evander Holyfield scored an eighth-round TKO over Michael Moorer in Las Vegas, retaining his own WBF heavyweight boxing title and adding Moorer's IBF belt.
In 2001, a top aide said President Bush had "no plans" to meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at the U.N. General Assembly in New York because in the American view Arafat has not done enough to stop the violence in Israel and the West Bank.
In 2002, the U.N. Security Council Friday unanimously approved a tough, new U.S.-British sponsored resolution authorizing the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq and "serious consequences" if Baghdad fails to cooperate.
Also in 2002, President George W. Bush assured a Muslim audience that America's war was against a network of terrorists and not against the Islamic religion or Muslim civilization.
And, in 2002, fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. said it plans to close approximately 175 of its under-performing restaurants in about 10 countries in the fourth quarter and eliminate 400 to 600 jobs in an attempt to control costs.
In 2003, a suicide bomb attack on an Arab residential compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 18 and wounded 110. HEADER:A thought for the day: author George Sand wrote, "We cannot tear out a single page of our life, but we can throw the whole book in the fire."
---
Today is Tuesday, Nov. 9, the 314th day of 2004 with 52 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include astronomer Benjamin Banneker in 1731; Russian author Ivan Turgenev in 1818; architect Stanford White in 1853; actor-comedian Ed Wynn in 1886; actor Claude Rains in 1889; actresses Marie Dressler in 1869 and Hedy Lamarr in 1913; Sargent Shriver, first director of the Peace Corps, in 1915; Spiro T. Agnew, the only U.S. vice president forced to resign because of criminal acts, in 1918; actress Dorothy Dandridge in 1923; astronomer Carl Sagan in 1934; and muscleman/actor Lou Ferrigno (TV's "Incredible Hulk") in 1952 (age 52). HEADER:On this date in history:
In 1918, German Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated as World War I drew to a close.
In 1933, President Roosevelt set up the Civil Works Administration as an emergency depression agency to provide jobs for the unemployed.
In 1938, mobs of Germans attacked Jewish businesses and homes throughout Germany in what became known as Kristallnacht, or Crystal Night.
In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled major league baseball is not within the scope of federal anti-trust laws.
In 1965, a massive power failure left more than 30 million people in the dark in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
In 1984, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington was completed by the addition of the Frederick Hart statue called "Three Servicemen."
In 1985, Gary Kasparov, 22, became the youngest world chess champion, ending the 10-year reign of Anatoly Karpov in Moscow.
In 1989, East Germany announced free passage for its citizens through border checkpoints. The announcement rendered the Berlin Wall, the most reviled symbol of the Cold War, virtually irrelevant 28 years after its construction.
Also in 1989, aging Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping resigned from his last official position as chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission.
In 1991, Hong Kong reinitiated its controversial program of forced repatriation when it deported 59 Vietnamese refugees.
In 1992, violence escalated along the Israeli-Lebanese border one day before the resumption of Middle East peace talks in Washington.
In 1994, opening arguments began in New York in rapper/actor Tupac Shakur's sexual assault trial. He would be convicted.
In 1995, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat visited Israel for the first time to offer his personal condolences to the widow of slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
In 1996, President Clinton blasted the liquor industry for resuming broadcast ads.
In 1997, Congress approved a new charter for the Food and Drug Administration that will allow the agency to streamline and speed up its procedures for approving new drugs.
In 2002, the death toll from West Nile virus on this date was at least 148 in 2,796 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Also in 2002, James Kilgore, the final fugitive member of one of the most notorious radical organizations of the Vietnam era, the Symbionese Liberation Army, awaited extradition from South African to the United States to face 27-year-old bomb-possession and murder charges.
In 2003, Iran's foreign minister said his country wanted closer relations with the European Union and was stopping uranium enrichment. HEADER:A thought for the day: Edgar Watson Howe wrote, "What people say behind your back is your standing in the community."
---
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 10, the 315th day of 2004 with 51 to follow.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, in 1483; William Hogarth, English artist and engraver, in 1697; Irish author Oliver Goldsmith in 1730; actors Claude Rains in 1889, Richard Burton in 1925 and Roy Scheider in 1935 (age 68); singer Jane Froman in1907; Billy May, bandleader/trumpet/arranger, in 1916; American Indian rights activist Russell Means in 1940 (age 64); lyricist Tim Rice in 1944 (age 60); country singer Donna Fargo in 1949 (age 55); actresses Ann Reinking in 1950 (age 54) and Mackenzie Phillips in 1959 (age 45); filmmaker Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day") in 1955 (age 49); and comedian Sinbad in 1956 (age 48). HEADER:On this date in history:
In 1775, the United States Marine Corps was formed by order of the Continental Congress.
In 1871, journalist Henry Stanley found missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone in a small African village. His comment: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"
In 1917, 41 women from 15 states were arrested outside the White House for suffragette demonstrations. American women won the right to vote three years later.
In 1951, area codes were introduced in the United States, Canada and parts of the Caribbean, allowing direct-dailing of long-distance telephpne calls. Prior to this, all such calls were operator-assisted.
In 1969, the long-running children's show "Sesame Street" premiered on PBS.
In 1975, the ore freighter Edmund Fitzgerald broke in two and sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members. It was the worst Great Lakes ship disaster of the decade.
In 1982, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev died at age 75 after 18 years in power.
In 1983, Microsoft released its Windows computer operating system.
In 1989, Bulgaria's hard-line president TodorZhivkov resigned as democratic reform continued to sweep the Eastern Bloc. Zhivkov was longest reigning active ruler in Eastern Europe and second longest in the world.
In 1991, Secretary of State James Baker visited Japan, South Korea and China. His trip to Beijing marked the first high-level official contact between the United States and China since the Tiananmen Square massacre.
In 1992, Guns N' Roses lead singer Axl Rose was sentenced to two years probation on charges stemming from a 1991 concert riot in suburban St. Louis.
In 1994, Washington announced it would no longer police the arms embargo on the Muslim-led government of Bosnia.
Also in 1994, the only privately owned manuscript of Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci was sold at auction at Christie's in New York for $$@$!30.8 million, the highest amount ever paid for a manuscript.
In 1996, a bomb at a Moscow cemetery killed 11 and injured one dozen.
In 1997, a judge in Cambridge, Mass., changed the second-degree murder conviction of British nanny Louise Woodward in the death of her eight-month-old charge to involuntary manslaughter and sentenced her to prison time already served.
In 2001, Taliban officials confirmed that the Northern Alliance had captured the Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, while President George W. Bush told the United Nations General Assembly that the time had come for countries to take swift and decisive action against global terrorism.
In 2002, the House voted to allow President Bush to take unilateral military action against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq without conditions beyond Congress being informed almost immediately.
In 2003, Lee Malvo, one of two suspects in the rash of sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington area, pleaded not guilty as his trial opened in Chesapeake, Va. The trial overlapped that of the other suspect, John Muhammad, in Virginia Beach. HEADER:A thought for the day: Irish author Oliver Goldsmith said, "A book may be amusing with numerous errors, or it may be very dull without a single absurdity."
---
Today is Thursday, Nov. 11, the 316th day of 2004 with 50 to follow.
This is Veteran's Day.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
The moon is waning. The morning stars are Jupiter and Saturn. The evening stars are Mercury, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1821; Gen. George Patton in 1885; actor Pat O'Brien in 1899; Alger Hiss, who was accused of being a communist spy in Washington in the late 1940s, in 1904; novelist Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in 1922 (age 82); comedian Jonathan Winters in 1925 (age 79); jazz musician Mose Allison in 1927 (age 77); golfer Frank "Fuzzy" Zoeller in 1951 (age 53); and actors Demi Moore in 1962 (age 42), Philip McKeon and Calista Flockhart, both in 1964 (age 40), and Leonardo DiCaprio in 1974 (age 30). HEADER:On this date in history:
In 1831, Nat Turner, who led fellow slaves on a bloody uprising in Virginia, was hanged. Turner, an educated minister, believed he was chosen by God to lead his people out of slavery. Some 60 whites were killed in the two-day rampage.
1889, Washington was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state.
In 1918, World War I ended with the signing of the Armistice.
In 1921, President Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1938, Kate Smith first performed "God Bless America" on her weekly radio show. The song had been written for her by Irving Berlin.
In 1945, composer Jerome Kern, who wrote such memorable tunes as "Ol' Man River," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "The Last Time I Saw Paris," died at the age of 60.
In 1982, the space shuttle Columbia blasted off on the first commercial space mission.
In 1987, President Reagan nominated Judge Anthony Kennedy to the U.S. Supreme Court after Judge Douglas Ginsburg withdrew his nomination and Judge Robert Bork was rejected by the Senate.
In 1989, an estimated 1 million East Germans poured into West Germany for a day of celebration, visiting and shopping. Most returned home.
In 1990, Stormie Jones, the Texas girl who underwent the world's first heart-liver transplant, died in Pittsburgh of a possible heart infection.
In 1992, the twin girls whose 53-year-old mother was believed to be the oldest woman to bear twins by in-vitro fertilization were introduced to the public in Anaheim, Calif.
Also in 1992, the Church of England broke the tradition of a male-only clergy when it voted to allow the ordination of women as priests.
In 1994, Jimi Hendrix's stage outfit, John Lennon's "army" shirt and guitars from the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and the Beach Boys were among the items sold at the first-ever pop memorabilia and guitar sale at Christie's in New York.
In 1996, a massive snowstorm hit the snow belt east of Cleveland.
In 2001, on the two-month anniversary of the terrorist attacks, President Bush and leaders from around the world stood in the shadow of the World Trade Center ruins and, in a colorful and solemn ceremony, honored the dead from more than 80 nations.
In 2002, as many as 34 people were killed by tornadoes and straight-line windstorms that swept across the South and the Ohio Valley.
And in 2002 sports, San Francisco Giants leftfielder Barry Bonds won his fifth Most Valuable Player award, surpassing his own major league record.
In 2003, an international study claimed that London was at greater risk of a terrorist attack by Islamic extremists than New York or Washington. HEADER:A thought for the day: upon formation of United Artists film corporation, Richard Rowland said, "The lunatics have taken charge of the asylum." (UA was founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith.)
Today is Friday, Nov. 12, the 317th day of 2004 with 49 to follow.
The moon is new. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include French physicist Jacques Charles in 1746; women's suffrage activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1815; Baha'u'llah (born Mirza Husayn Ali), founder-prophet of the Baha'i faith, in 1817; retired Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in 1908; singer Jo Stafford in 1918; actress Kim Hunter in 1922; Princess Grace of Monaco, the former American movie star Grace Kelly, in 1929; actress Stephanie Powers in 1943 (age 61); rock musician Neil Young in 1945 (age 59); actress Megan Mullally in 1958 (age 46); Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci in 1961 (age 43); actor David Schwimmer ("Friends") in 1966 (age 38); baseball star Sammy Sosa in 1968 (age 36); and figure skater Tonya Harding in 1970 (age 34). HEADER:On this date in history:
In 1799, the first North American meteor shower on record took place. Early American astronomer Andrew Ellicott Douglass said, "The whole heaven appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets."
In 1892, the first professional football game was played in Pittsburgh, between the Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club.
In 1941, the German army's drive to take Moscow was halted on the city's outskirts in World War II.
In 1948, a war crimes tribunal in Japan sentenced former premier Hideki Tojo and six other World War II Japanese leaders to die by hanging.
In 1980, the Voyager-1 spacecraft passed Saturn and sent back some stunning pictures.
In 1981, the shuttle Columbia became the first spacecraft ever launched twice from Earth.
In 1982, former KGB chief Yuri Andropov succeeded the late Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
Also in 1982, Polish authorities freed Solidarity founder Lech Walesa after 11 months of internment.
In 1990, Akihito was crowned the 125th emperor of Japan.
In 1991, about 50 people were killed when Indonesian troops opened fire on protesters in the province of East Timor.
In 1992, Volker Keith Meinhold became the first openly gay person on active duty in the American military when, armed with a court order, he reported to work at Moffett Naval Air Station in Mountain View, Calif., for reinstatement as a chief petty officer.
In 1993, pop star Michael Jackson, hounded by allegations that he had molested a teenage boy, canceled the rest of his worldwide "Dangerous" tour, citing an addiction to painkillers.
In 1996, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, two days before his death, joined a friend-of-court brief petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to reject assisted suicide.
In 1997, two defendants, Ramzi Ahmed and Eyad Ismoil, were convicted of involvement in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Four other men had been convicted in 1994.
In 2001, an American Airlines Airbus crashed shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport in New York. More than 260 people died in the crash.
In 2002, a new tape surfaced from suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden in which he warned U.S. allies to be ready for the consequences of supporting Washington against his al-Qaida network.
In 2003, the defense rested its case in the Virginia Beach, Va., trial of accused Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad after only three hours. The state is seeking the death penalty.
Also in 2003. actor Art Carney, who won fame and Emmy Awards as sewer worker Ed Norton on the "Honeymooners" TV show in the 1950s and an Oscar in 1974 for "Harry and Tonto," died at age 85. HEADER:A thought for the day: women's suffrage activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal."
---
Today is Saturday, Nov. 13, the 318th day of 2004 with 48 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include St. Augustine of Hippo, a theologian, in 354; King Edward III of England in 1312; Scottish physicist James Maxwell in 1831; Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1850; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1856; actor Richard Mulligan in 1932; TV producer/director Garry Marshall in 1934 (age 70); singer Neil Young in 1945 (age 59); and actors Dack Rambo in 1941 (age 63), Joe Mantegna in 1947 (age 57), Whoopi Goldberg in 1949 (age 55), Chris Noth in 1957 (age 47) and Tracy Scoggins in 1959 (age 45). HEADER:On this date in history:
In 1927, the Holland Tunnel was opened under the Hudson River, linking New York City and New Jersey.
In 1933, the first recorded "sit-down" strike in the United States was staged by workers at the Hormel Packing Company in Austin, Minn.
In 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case from Montgomery, Ala., that segregation on interstate buses was unconstitutional.
In 1967, Carl Stokes became the first black American mayor when he was elected in Cleveland.
In 1974, Yasser Arafat told the U.N. General Assembly that the goal of the Palestine Liberation Organization was to establish an independent state of Palestine.
In 1982, the Vietnam War memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
In 1985, a volcano erupted in Colombia, killing 25,000 people. It was the third-deadliest volcano disaster in history.
In 1992, a group of Peruvian military officers tried unsuccessfully to assassinate President Fujimori and overthrow the government.
In 1993, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Farooq Leghari was chosen president.
In 1997, Iraq expelled the American members of the UN team that had been sent to verify Iraq's compliance with UN directives.
In 2001, President George W. Bush and Russian leader Putin agreed to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons by about two-thirds.
In 2002, Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress that while the U.S. economic recovery had softened, policy-makers at the nation's central bank don't expect a double-dip recession. .
In 2003, a U.N. specialist said counter-terrorist legislation in the United States was having a negative impact on human rights. HEADER:A thought for the day: Gen. Douglas McArthur said, "In war there is no substitute for victory."
---
Today is Sunday, Nov. 14, the 319th day of 2004 with 47 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mars. The evening stars are Mercury, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Scorpio. They include Robert Fulton, American inventor of the steamboat, in 1765; French Impressionist painter Claude Monet, in 1840; Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru in 1889; Erwin Rommel, the World War II German commander known as the "Desert Fox" for his cunning, in 1891; Mamie Doud Eisenhower, wife of President Eisenhower, in 1896; American composer Aaron Copland in 1900; singers Morton Downey in 1901 and Johnny Desmond in 1920; actor Dick Powell in 1904; Sen. Joseph McCarthy, D-Wis., in 1908; actress Veronica Lake in 1919; former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1922 (age 81); actors Brian Keith in 1921 and McLean Stevenson in 1929; astronaut Edward White, killed in the 1967 Apollo I launch pad fire, in 1930; King Hussein of Jordan in 1935; Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, in 1948 (age 56); New Age singer/songwriter Yanni in 1954 (age 50); and actress Laura San Giacomo ("Just Shoot Me") in 1962 (age 42). HEADER:On this date in history:
In 1666, the first blood transfusion took place in London. Blood from one dog was transfused into another.
In 1832, the first horse-drawn streetcar made its appearance in New York City.
In 1889, newspaper reporter Nellie Bly set off to break the record of voyaging around the world in 80 days set by Jules Verne's character Phileas Fogg. She beat Fogg's record, making the trip in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds.
In 1926, the NBC radio network made its debut.
In 1940, German planes bombed Coventry, England, destroying or damaging 69,000 buildings.
In 1972, for the first time in its 76-year history, the Dow Jones Industrial Stock Average closed above 1,000.
In 1984, former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon went to court in New York with a $$@$!50 million libel suit against Time Magazine. He lost after a two-month trial.
In 1986, the White House acknowledged the CIA role in secretly shipping weapons to Iran.
In 1988, the PLO proclaimed an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, endorsing a renunciation of terrorism and an implicit recognition of Israel.
In 1989, the Navy ordered a 48-hour "stand-down" for a safety review following 10 unrelated accidents resulting in 10 deaths during a three-week period.
In 1990, a gunman in Dunedin, New Zealand, killed 11 neighbors, then was killed by police in the nation's worst mass slaying at that time. A 12th victim died later.
In 1991, U.S. and British officials accused two Libyan agents in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in which 270 people died.
Also in 1991, a former postal worker in Royal Oak, Mich., returned to work and killed four people before turning the gun on himself.
In 1993, in a referendum, residents of Puerto Rico voted in favor of continuing their U.S. commonwealth status.
In 1994, the 31-mile Chunnel Tunnel under the English Channel opened to passenger traffic.
In 1997, Sara Lister, an assistant secretary of the Army, resigned after apologizing for having spoken of the U.S. Marine Corps as "extremists."
In 2001, House and Senate negotiators working on ways to beef up airport security voted to have federal workers screen luggage.
In 2002, Iraq told the United Nations it accepts -- without condition or special requests -- the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the return of weapons inspectors to Baghdad.
Also in 2002, The body of Mir Aimal Kasi, a Pakistani citizen convicted of killing two CIA employees in 1993, has been handed over to his brothers and will be flown to Pakistan. Kasi, 38, was executed amid warnings by the State Department of global retaliation against Americans.
In 2003, an Alabama jury ordered Exxon Mobil to pay the state $$@$!11.8 billion in damages relating to gas royalties for offshore drilling projects. The jury also awarded compensatory damages of $$@$!63.6 million. The energy giant said it would appeal. HEADER:A thought for the day: Russian author Boris Pasternak wrote, "Life itself, the phenomenon of life, the gift of life, is so breathtakingly serious."
