Dear Readers,
On Nov. 2, 1947, aviator Howard Hughes successfully tested the H-4 Hercules flying boat, better known as the "Spruce Goose," the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.
During World War II, transporting weapons and troops across the Atlantic Ocean was an increasingly dangerous and costly endeavor, due to German U-Boat attacks.
Shipbuilder Henry Kaiser approached famed film producer and aviator Howard Hughes with an idea for a "ship" that could fly over dangerous areas. Hughes and his team were forced to build an aircraft out of wood due to wartime restrictions on metals. They designed a massive, single-hull vessel with eight engines and a 320-foot wingspan. It was capable of carrying 750 men or two tanks. While it survived its maiden voyage, it could not survive peace time, and it never flew again.
On November 2, 1755, Marie Antoinette was born. The daughter of the Austrian emperor, she was guaranteed a life of privilege. But as the teen bride of French King Louis XVI, her free spending, decadent lifestyle angered the working class, who saw her as the embodiment of all that was wrong with the monarchy. The couple's extravagance was a contributing factor in the French Revolution, the end of the French monarchy, and their eventual execution by the state.
Highlights from SweetSearch2Day:
Interview of the Day features a 2009 interview with Sidney Poitier, by the Academy of Achievement. We created Interview of the Day to highlight the breadth of primary source interview sites on the Web. We supplement the interview with a findingDulcinea profile offering additional insight, and links to resources. One of the terrific links we offer is to Poitier's "Proust Questionnaire" with Vanity Fair, where he is introduced as "the definition of a perfect gentleman" who "has beguiled audiences for more than 50 years."
The Poem of the Day, from Poets.org, is "from People Close to You" by Crystal Williams.
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Keep a civil tongue.