Dear Readers,
On this first school day of 2011, we promise to continue bringing you links to outstanding Web content. This is going to be an exciting year for Dulcinea Media and its readers, as we have a number of major product launches and enhancements under development.
On this day in 1892, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa to English parents. When his father died in 1896, the family returned to England; both the countryside of the West Midlands and the bleak urban landscape of Birmingham had a profound effect upon his later writing. Tolkien's mother Mabel died from diabetes when he was 12, and he and his brother Hilary were brought up in a boarding house; a local priest served as a father figure to them both.
Flash forward to 1928, and Tolkien was a professor at Oxford University and member of a literary circle with C.S. Lewis. He had published a few stories, but hadn't even started on a novel. That summer, he scribbled on a student's paper, "in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." Nine years later, he had completed his first novel, but its fate hung on the review of the ten-year old son of the only publisher to express interest. Fortunately, the son's review concluded, "it is good and should appeal to all children between the ages of 5 and 9."
On this day in 1870, construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge. Read our article to learn of the great sacrifices made by those who built it, why P.T. Barnum marched 21 elephants across it (click here for the children's book about this episode) and why 352,000 crackers were stored in the bridge's columns.
Similarly, our On This Day from yesterday provides a fascinating history of Niagara Falls, and a link to a live Webcam for those who prefer a real-time look at it.
For advanced readers, our SweetSearch2Day blog post from January 1 (the anniversary of Castro seizing power in Cuba) provides an extensive history of the U.S. and Cuba, as well as uncanny parallels between the U.S. relationships with Cuba and Iran.
Today's Interview of the Day is with Walter Cronkite, speaking in 1998 and 1999. He discusses the first time he broke from his impartial role, to urge the U.S. to get out of Vietnam; this led President Johnson to say, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost America." Of modern network news, Cronkite says, "They have a responsibility to deliver news in that time. ... They're not discharging their responsibility." In November, we wrote of Cronkite's political statements on President Carter's handling of the Iranian hostage crisis.
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