18/02/10

According to the Surya Siddhanta, the Epoch of Kali Yuga (Age of Vice) began in 3102 BC.  King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumed the title King of Italy in 1861.  Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884.  For the first time in recorded history, snow fell in the Sahara Desert in 1979.

Born today:  Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), Wallace Stegner (1909-1993), Jack Palance (1919-2006), George Kennedy (1925), Len Deighton (1929), Gahan Wilson (1930), Toni Morrison (1931) Milos Forman (1932), Bobby Robson, Yoko Ono, Mary Ure and my new girl-crush, Nimmi, were all born in 1933, Audre Lord (1934), Jean Auel (1936), Graeme Garden (1943), Sinéad Cusack (1948), John Hughes (1950-2009), Robbie Bachman (1953), John Travolta (1954), Greta Scacchi (1960), Roberto Baggio (1967) and Gary Neville (1975).

It is Independence Day in the Gambia.