Updated November 17, 2012, 1:28 pm
On Nov. 18, 1976, Spain’s parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
On Nov. 18, 1923, Alan B. Shepard, the first American astronaut to travel in space, was born. Following his death on July 21, 1998, his obituary appeared in The Times.
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On This Date
By The Associated Press
1883 The United States and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones. 1886 Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president of the United States, died in New York at age 56. 1923 Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American in space, was born in East Derry, N.H. 1928 The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York. 1936 Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco. 1966 U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays. 1969 Financier and diplomat Joseph P. Kennedy died in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 81. 1976 Spain’s parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship. 1987 The congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore “ultimate responsibility” for wrongdoing by his aides. 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill. 2002 U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year hiatus, calling on Saddam Hussein’s government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction. 2003 The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry. 2006 Actor Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes were married in Italy. (The couple divorced in 2012.) 2009 Two days before turning 92, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., became the longest-serving lawmaker in congressional history, at 56 years, 320 days. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz turns 37 years old today.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Actor-comedian Kevin Nealon (“Weeds,” “Saturday Night Live”) turns 59 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
1939 Brenda Vaccaro, Actress, turns 73 1942 Linda Evans, Actress (“Dynasty”), turns 70 1950 Graham Parker, Singer, turns 62 1956 Warren Moon, Football Hall of Famer, turns 56 1960 Elizabeth Perkins, Actress (“Weeds”), turns 52 1960 Kim Wilde, Rock singer, turns 52 1968 Gary Sheffield, Baseball player, turns 44 1968 Owen Wilson, Actor, turns 44 1969 Duncan Sheik, Rock singer, turns 43 1974 Chloe Sevigny, Actress, turns 38 Historic Birthdays
Alan B. Shepard 11/18/1923 – 7/21/1998 American astronaut.Go to obituary »
39 Carl Maria von Weber 11/18/1786 – 6/5/1826
German composer63 Louis-Jacques Daguerre 11/18/1787 – 7/10/1851
French inventor of the daguerreotype74 Sir William Gilbert 11/18/1836 – 5/29/1911
English lyricist for comic operas; collaborated with Sir Arthur Sullivan80 Ignacy Paderewski 11/18/1860 – 6/29/1941
Polish pianist and composer61 Clarence Day 11/18/1874 – 12/28/1935
American writer90 Jacques Maritain 11/18/1882 – 4/28/1973
French philosopher87 Gio Ponti 11/18/1891 – 9/15/1979
Italian architect76 Patrick Blackett 11/18/1897 – 7/13/1974
English physicist85 Eugene Ormandy 11/18/1899 – 3/12/1985
Hungarian-born American conductor82 George Gallup 11/18/1901 – 7/26/1984
American statistician and pioneering opinion researcher90 George Wald 11/18/1906 – 4/13/1997
American chemist66 Johnny Mercer 11/18/1909 – 6/25/1976
American composer
Month: November 2012
Art Under Your Feet: No Less a Place Than Under My Dining Table
An Organic Cooking Experience: The Instructor Makes It So
On This Day: November 17
Updated November 16, 2012, 1:28 pm
On Nov. 17, 1973, President Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, Fla., that “people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
On Nov. 17, 1901, Lee Strasberg, the director who pioneered the technique of “method acting”, was born. Following his death on Feb. 17, 1982, his obituary appeared in The Times.
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On This Date
By The Associated Press
1800 Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C., in the partially completed Capitol building. 1869 The Suez Canal opened in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean and the Red seas. 1934 Lyndon B. Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor, better known as “Lady Bird.” 1962 Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., was dedicated. 1968 NBC outraged football fans by cutting away from the final minutes of a game to air a TV special, “Heidi,” on schedule. 1970 The Soviet Union landed an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle on the moon. 1973 President Richard M. Nixon told an Associated Press managing editors meeting in Orlando, Fla., “I’m not a crook.” 1997 Six militants opened fire at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor, Egypt, killing 62 people, most of them foreign tourists. The attackers were killed by police. 2003 John Allen Muhammad was convicted of two counts of capital murder in the Washington-area sniper shootings. (He was later sentenced to death and executed.) 2003 Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in as governor of California. 2008 The vampire romance movie “Twilight” premiered in Los Angeles. 2010 A hand-count of votes affirmed the re-election of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the first Senate candidate in over 50 years to win a write-in campaign. 2010 The first Guantanamo detainee to face civilian trial, Ahmed Ghailani, was convicted by federal jury in New York on one charge of conspiracy related to 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Ghailani’s native Tanzania. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, turns 63 years old today.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Actor Danny DeVito turns 68 years old today.
AP Photo/Kai Uwe Knoth
1934 James Inhofe, U.S. senator, R-Okla., turns 78 1938 Gordon Lightfoot, Singer, turns 74 1942 Martin Scorsese, Director, turns 70 1943 Lauren Hutton, Actress, turns 69 1944 Jim Boeheim, College basketball coach, turns 68 1944 Lorne Michaels, TV producer (“Saturday Night Live”), turns 68 1944 Tom Seaver, Baseball Hall of Famer, turns 68 1945 Elvin Hayes, Basketball Hall of Famer, turns 67 1948 Howard Dean, Former governor of Vermont, turns 64 1951 Stephen Root, Actor (“NewsRadio,” “Office Space”), turns 61 1958 Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Actress, turns 54 1960 RuPaul, Entertainer, turns 52 1961 Patrick Toomey, U.S. senator, R-Pa., turns 51 1966 Daisy Fuentes, Actress, model, turns 46 1978 Rachel McAdams, Actress (“The Notebook,” “Mean Girls”), turns 34 1978 Reggie Wayne, Football player, turns 34 1980 Isaac Hanson, Rock musician (Hanson), turns 32 1983 Ryan Braun, Baseball player, turns 29 Historic Birthdays
Lee Strasberg 11/17/1901 – 2/17/1982 American film director. Go to obituary »
69 Angelo Bronzino 11/17/1503 – 11/23/1572
Italian painter91 Joost van den Vondel 11/17/1587 – 2/5/1679
Dutch poet64 Pierre Gaultier La Verendrye 11/17/1685 – 12/5/1749
French-Canadian soldier, fur trader and explorer68 Louis XVIII 11/17/1755 – 9/16/1824
French king (1814-24)71 Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes 11/17/1895 – 12/10/1966
Mexican novelist84 Isamu Noguchi 11/17/1904 – 12/30/1988
American sculptor61 Mischa Auer 11/17/1905 – 3/5/1967
American actor59 Rock Hudson 11/17/1925 – 10/2/1985
American actor
"I want a girl with the right allocations"
On This Day: November 16
Updated November 15, 2012, 1:28 pm
On Nov. 16, 1933, the United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations. President Roosevelt sent a telegram to Soviet leader Maxim Litvinov, expressing hope that United States-Soviet relations would “forever remain normal and friendly.”
On Nov. 16, 1873, W. C. Handy, the American composer known as the “father of the blues”, was born. Following his death on March 28, 1958, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1907 Oklahoma became the 46th state. 1933 The United States and the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations. 1959 The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music” opened on Broadway. 1961 House Speaker Sam Rayburn, D-Texas, died at age 79. 1966 Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard was acquitted in his second trial on charges of murdering his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954. 1973 Skylab 4, with three astronauts on board, was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on an 84-day mission. 1973 President Richard M. Nixon signed the Alaska Pipeline measure into law. 1982 An agreement was announced in the 57th day of a strike by National Football League players. 1988 Estonia’s parliament declared the Baltic republic sovereign. 1995 Attorney General Janet Reno disclosed that she had Parkinson’s disease. 2001 Congress passed a law mandating that airport screeners be federal employees. 2004 President George W. Bush picked National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to be secretary of state, succeeding Colin Powell. 2010 U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel was convicted on 11 of 13 charges related to financial misconduct, prompting fellow lawmakers to censure the 80-year-old New York Democrat. 2010 The engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton was announced in London. 2010 President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living service member from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to receive the nation’s top military award. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actress Martha Plimpton (“Raising Hope”) turns 42 years old today.
AP Photo/Peter Kramer
New York Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora turns 32 years old today.
AP Photo/Bill Kostroun
1935 Elizabeth Drew, Journalist, turns 77 1950 David Leisure, Actor, turns 62 1958 Marg Helgenberger, Actress (“C.S.I.”), turns 54 1964 Diana Krall, Jazz singer, turns 48 1967 Lisa Bonet, Actress (“The Cosby Show”), turns 45 1972 Missi Pyle, Actress, turns 40 1977 Maggie Gyllenhaal, Actress, turns 35 1982 Amar’e Stoudemire, Basketball player, turns 30
Historic Birthdays
W. C. Handy 11/16/1873 – 3/28/1958 American composer.Go to obituary »
64 Rodolphe Kreutzer 11/16/1766 – 1/6/1831
French violinist80 Charles Eliot Norton 11/16/1827 – 10/21/1908
American scholar87 Arthur B. Krock 11/16/1886 – 4/12/1974
American political journalist71 George Kaufman 11/16/1889 – 6/2/1961
American playwright63 Lawrence Tibbett 11/16/1896 – 7/15/1960
American singer84 Sir Oswald Mosley 11/16/1896 – 12/3/1980
English fascist leader89 Burgess Meredith 11/16/1907 – 9/9/1997
American actor
On This Day: November 14
Updated November 13, 2012, 1:28 pm
On Nov. 14, 1972, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time, ending the day at 1,003.16.
On Nov. 14, 1935, Hussein, the king of Jordan from 1953 to 1999, was born. Following his death on Feb. 7, 1999, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1851 Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick” was published. 1881 Charles J. Guiteau went on trial for assassinating President James A. Garfield. (He was convicted and hanged.) 1922 The British Broadcasting Corp. began its domestic radio service. 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Philippine Islands a free commonwealth. 1969 Apollo 12 was launched on the second manned mission to the moon. 1972 The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time. 1973 Britain’s Princess Anne married Capt. Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey. 1986 The SEC fined Ivan F. Boesky $100 million for insider stock trading. 1995 The U.S. government instituted a partial shutdown, closing national parks and museums while government offices operated with skeleton crews. 1999 The United Nations imposed sanctions on Afghanistan for refusing to hand over terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Britain’s Prince Charles turns 64 years old today.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice turns 58 years old today.
AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky
1922 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Former U.N. secretary-general, turns 90 1934 Ellis Marsalis, Jazz pianist, turns 78 1947 P.J. O’Rourke, Writer, turns 65 1947 Buckwheat Zydeco, Zydeco musician, turns 65 1954 Yanni, Pianist, turns 58 1961 Laura San Giacomo, Actress (“Just Shoot Me”), turns 51 1961 D.B. Sweeney, Actor, turns 51 1964 Reverend Run, Rapper (Run-DMC), turns 48 1964 Patrick Warburton, Actor, turns 48 1966 Curt Schilling, Baseball player, turns 46 1972 Josh Duhamel, Actor, turns 40
Historic Birthdays
11/14/1935 – 2/7/1999 King of Jordan (1953-99).Go to obituary »
77 Johann von Hildebrandt 11/14/1668 – 11/16/1745
Austrian architect49 Robert Fulton 11/14/1765 – 2/24/1815
American inventor70 Henri Dutrochet 11/14/1776 – 2/4/1847
French physiologist35 James McPherson 11/14/1828 – 7/22/1864
American general86 Claude Monet 11/14/1840 – 12/5/1926
French painter86 Yekaterina Geltzer 11/14/1876 – 12/12/1962
Russian ballerina74 Jawaharlal Nehru 11/14/1889 – 5/27/1964
Indian independence leader and prime minister (1947-64)82 Mamie Eisenhower 11/14/1896 – 11/1/1979
American first lady (1953-1961)90 Aaron Copland 11/14/1900 – 12/2/1990
American composer83 Michael Ramsey 11/14/1904 – 4/23/1988
English archbishop48 Joseph R. McCarthy 11/14/1908 – 5/2/1957
American politician; investigated Communist influence in U.S. government36 Edward White 11/14/1930 – 1/27/1967
American astronaut
Jab Tak Hai Jaan, 2012
A story about unrequited love is fascinating and worthy of awe and thrills only when you know that the separation is involuntary and perhaps even imposed upon them. But it doesn’t work when there is no compulsion upon the couple to be separated. It looks simply ridiculous, almost bordering on stupidity. Well, that’s only one large gaping hole in this movie; the others, were I to count them all, would rival the cheesecloth in my kitchen drawer.
What we have here is a poorly written story and screenplay that is a poor replica of many of Mr. Yash Chopra’s creations, only this time, all semblance of anything identifiable to the viewer has been circumspectly removed. This is a most improbable, implausible, and unrealistic story. Not that there is much realism that is expected, but hey, if you’re going to try to portray a “love that cannot die” could you perhaps show a little more passion in a kiss?
Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif cannot kiss to save their lives, and the lovely and talented Anushka Sharma is plain annoying with her “soldier-this, soldier-that” refrain throughout. There is absolutely no chemistry between the two, and Ms. Kaif’s smile and tone are as passionless as her kiss. Seriously, if you’re going to show this kind of intimacy on screen, do it right, or don’t do it at all! And what’s with your ultra-botoxed mouth, Ms. Kaif? Hasn’t someone said anything to you about it already?
Self-inflicted vows of denial are hailed as the ultimate test of true love and juxtaposed alongside the supposed modernistic young sexuality as portrayed by Ms. Sharma who openly claims she wishes to sleep with lots of men with different accents. If these are the only two extremes of love, I want none of it, and find it to be hilarious at best. By the way, the whole concept of having her embedded in an army base camp as a journalist is not a new one, but having her openly swoon over Mr. Khan who turns her down with a chaste kiss on her forehead gets high marks for more ridiculousness.
By the way, Ms. Sharma’s claim to fame to this movie has to be her skimpy bikini shot into the frigid lake in Ladakh, which wasn’t bad at all, but entirely pointless. And speaking of pointless, the initiation of Ms. Kaif into London’s club scene was just that– quite pointless, because she appeared to be fully in control of every dance move and needed no one to show her the ropes on how to have a good time.
Oh, and did I mention that the music was most forgettable? I couldn’t hum a single tune after having stepped outside the theatre. The cinematography is the only thing that is worthy of mention about this movie, although, I dare say that Londoners must not be too thrilled to have their city portrayed as a most dangerous place for having frequent traffic accidents right in the heart of the city!
I thought the only acceptable performance in the entire movie was presented by the real-life duo Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh who come off as quite genuine in the role of older maverick couple living and loving each other in the countryside.
