March 29

Are You Sure ... (March 29)

• ... that physicist and priest Francesco Zantedeschi was among the first to recognize the marked absorption by the atmosphere of red, yellow, and green light?

• ... that mathematician Wilhelm Ackermann discovered the Ackermann function, an important example in the theory of computation?

• ... that mathematician and academic Tullio Levi-Civita contributed to absolute differential calculus (tensor calculus) and its applications to the theory of relativity?

• ... that the Ichneumon, an alien ambassador from the "Spock's Bug" parallel universe, first appeared in "Tribbles for Ichneumon", one of the "Forbidden Episodes" of Star Trek?

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Screenshot: Are You Sure (March 29, 2021)

On This Day in History and Fiction

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  1780: Adventurer Jørgen Jørgensen born. He will sail to Iceland, declaring the country independent from Denmark and pronouncing himself its ruler, intending to found a new republic following the United States of America and France.

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  1873: Mathematician and academic Tullio Levi-Civita born. Levi-Civita will gain fame for his work on absolute differential calculus (tensor calculus) and its applications to the theory of relativity, and make significant contributions in other areas.

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  1873: Physicist and priest Francesco Zantedeschi dies. Zantedeschi was among the first to recognize the marked absorption by the atmosphere of red, yellow, and green light. He also thought that he had detected, in 1838, a magnetic action on steel needles by ultraviolet light, anticipating later discoveries connecting light and magnetism.

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  1896: Mathematician Wilhelm Ackermann born. Ackermann will discover the Ackermann function, an important example in the theory of computation.

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  2003: Physician and microbiologist Carlo Urbani dies of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Urbani identifed SARS as a new and dangerously contagious viral disease, and his early warning to the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a swift and global response credited with saving numerous lives.

Daily Favorites

Dennis Hopper

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  Deacon Billy is a proposed film in which actor Dennis Hopper will play Deacon Billy, a Merchant Marine captain who trades his ship and crew for the last motorcycle on Earth.

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  Indiana Jones Versus the Oil Pirates of the Caribbean is an action-adventure film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Dennis Hopper plays a charismatic antihero who discovers the so-called "Peak Jones" effect, when the world has more Indiana Jones films that it can sustain.

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  Crochet is an 1994 American textile arts thriller film about a bus that is rigged by a terrorist (Dennis Hopper) to explode if a SWAT officer (Keanu Reeves) knits fewer than fifty stitches per minute.

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  "The way the Sixties are going, the Fifties are going the make the Forties feel like the Thirties!"