Not one, but two, possibly related comets will make exceptionally close flybys of Earth on March 21–22. Here’s what we know and a guide on how to see them.
Astronomers have identified 53 “super spirals” — spiral galaxies that are huge and incredibly luminous — as part of a project exploring archived observations.
Happy Spring! The vernal equinox occurs at 12:30 a.m. March 20th EDT / 9:30 p.m. March 19th PDT, and a penumbral lunar eclipse before dawn for North America on Wednesday morning.
After months of excitement in the predawn sky, the action is shifting to the evening — where Jupiter rises early and the stars of Orion anchor an array of celestial sights.
Raymond Tomlinson, the inventor of modern email and selector of the “@” symbol, has died.
Raytheon Co., his employer, on Sunday confirmed his death; the details were not immediately available.
Email existed in a limited capacity before Tomlinson in that electronic messages could be shared amid multiple people within a limited framework. But until his invention in 1971 of the first network person-to-person email, there was no way to send something to a specific person at a specific address.
The first email was sent on the ARPANET system, a computer network that was created for the U.S. government that is considered a precursor to the Internet. Tomlinson also contributed to its development.
At the time, few people had personal computers. The popularity of personal email wouldn’t take off until years later but has become an integral part of modern life.
“It wasn’t an assignment at all, he was just fooling around; he was looking for something to do with ARPANET,” Raytheon spokeswoman Joyce Kuzman said of his creation of network email.
Tomlinson once said in a company interview that he created email “mostly because it seemed like a neat idea.” The first email was sent between two machines that were side-by-side, according to that interview.
He said the test messages were “entirely forgettable and I have, therefore, forgotten them.” But when he was satisfied that the program seemed to work, he announced it via his own invention by sending a message to co-workers explaining how to use it.
Tomlinson chose the “@” symbol to connect the username with the destination address and it has now become a cultural icon.
Why that symbol? Kuzman said Tomlinson was looking at the keyboard and needed something that would not otherwise be part of the address and that seemed to be a logical solution.
“It is a symbol that probably would have gone away if not for email,” she said.
MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design added the symbol into its collection in 2010, with credits to Tomlinson.
Tomlinson held electrical engineering degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tomlinson was an inductee to the Internet Hall of Fame and recipient of numerous awards and accolades but was described as humble and modest.
“People just loved to work with him,” Kuzman said. “He was so patient and generous with his time … He was just a really nice, down-to-earth, good guy.”
Tomlinson was hired by Bolt Beranek and Newman, known as BBN, in 1967. It was later acquired by Raytheon Co., where he still worked at the time of his death, as a principal scientist.
He lived in Lincoln, Massachusetts where he raised miniature sheep. Attempts to contact his family were unsuccessful.
While more general email protocols were later developed and adopted, Tomlinson’s contributions were never forgotten.
“He was pretty philosophical about it all,” Kuzman said. “And was surprisingly not addicted to email.”
Kathryn Trosper Popper, who was believed to be the last surviving actor to appear on screen in Citizen Kane, died from pneumonia Sunday in Manhattan, according to the The New York Times. She was 100.
Popper was 25 years old and working as a personal assistant to Orson Welles when the director, co-writer, and star enlisted her to pull double duty on his 1941 film about a domineering newspaper magnate; she played the roving photographer who wonders, “What’s Rosebud?”
Recalling her multi-tasking in an interview last year, Popper said, “I would just drop my notebook and run on the set.”
Long after Kane became a classic, Popper staunchly defended Welles’ contributions to the script, which Pauline Kael had questioned in the lengthy essay Raising Kane.
“Then I’d like to know,” Popper once said, “what was all that stuff I was always typing for Mr. Welles?”
Popper was born Kathryn Naomi Trosper in Hudson, Wyoming, and attended USC and UCLA. She dropped out to support her parents during the Depression and eventually found work with Welles.
In 1943 she married Martin Popper, a lawyer who defended screenwriters Dalton Trumbo and John Howard Lawson. Her brother, Guy Trosper, also wrote screenplays, including Birdman of Alcatraz and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold.
Popper is survived by two children, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
MARGARET LAVIGNE, ADVOCATE FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Margaret Lavigne spent much of her life working on behalf of people with disabilities.
It was, they both acknowledged, an unlikely romance: Margaret Lavigne and Chris Plum had met, fallen in love and married at a long-term acute care hospital in Connecticut, where they continued to live, both of them using wheelchairs because of muscular dystrophy.
Yet the marriage flourished in the time they had together, and they let it be widely known, as the subjects of “Good Night Margaret,” an 11-minute video documentary produced in 2014 by The New York Times. In the video, Ms. Lavigne and Mr. Plum spoke candidly about living with a disability, in their cases caused by muscular dystrophy, a group of inherited diseases that result in progressive muscle weakness.
Ms. Lavigne, who spent much of her life working on behalf of people with disabilities, died on Feb. 29. She was 44.
The two met in 2011 shortly after Mr. Plum moved into the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, which treats critically ill patients, many of whom have few prospects for improvement.
Mr. Plum said he worked up the nerve to ask her out about a year later. They spent their first date in a private area of the hospital watching the movie “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and eating takeout Chinese food.
In 2013, they were married. “Everybody wants ‘the one,’” Ms. Lavigne, known as “Muffi,” said in the documentary. “I did not expect to find him here, of all places.
Good Night, Margaret
When Margaret “Muffi” Lavigne and Chris Plum, both with muscular dystrophy, met at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, Conn., their lives took an unexpected turn.
By Rick Gershon and Catherine Spangler on Publish Date June 23, 2014. Watch in Times Video »
Before her condition required more care, Ms. Lavigne lived in Rockville, Md., a suburb of Washington, for 13 years. She worked for United Cerebral Palsy as well as for the President’s Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities, according to an obituary written by her family. She also testified for a presidential commission on consumer protection and quality in the health care industry.
Ms. Lavigne later enrolled in a master’s degree program in architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to focus on design in public buildings and housing, Mr. Plum said. But she fell ill about halfway through the three-year program and withdrew, moving into the Hospital for Special Care in 2008.
“She had to make a very big transition from the big independent disability rights movement, where the idea of living in an institution is objectionable,” Mr. Plum said.
Ms. Lavigne was born on March 12, 1971, in Concord, Mass. She was 7 when she learned she had muscular dystrophy.
“My parents never considered me having a disability, and I didn’t either,” she said in the documentary. “You learn to have a little tougher skin, but that’s a lifelong journey for anyone.”
Besides her husband, she is survived by her parents, Debora and James Lavigne; a sister, Laurie Kerr; and her grandmother, Nancy M. Lauriat.
“I’ve had people ask me, ‘Do you ever wish you could walk again, or not have the disease?’” Ms. Lavigne said in the film. “But if I’ve got Chris, I’d take it.”
In a 2014 New York Times documentary, Ms. Lavigne spoke on living with a disability caused by muscular dystrophy and meeting her husband in a long-term care hos…
I have been in love with the beauty, joy, sorrow, and enchantment that is African music for many years.
From the ethereal lyrics of Eneida Marta, the power and upbeat of Angelique Kidjo, to the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti that describes his fusion of West African music with Black American music, to benga, chimuringa, gnawa, the iscathamiya made by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, griot, the mbalax Senegalese (Wolof) percussion music modernized by Youssou N’Dour, marabi, mbaqanga popularized by Johnny Clegg and the Mahatolla Queens, and the wassoulo, to name just a few—–African music, songwriting and singing is as varied as the continent itself.
Instruments played by African singers include instruments indigenous to Africa before European invasion and instruments incorporated into their singing and playing styles after the colonization of Africa. Those instruments are the kalimba or mbira (thumb piano); the balafon (marimba), and the xylophone (considered to have ancient African origins by Roger Blench); the kota (African chordophone); the tama talking drums, bougarabou and djembe in West Africa, water drums in Central and West Africa, and the different types of ngoma drums (pronounced by some “engoma”) in Central and Southern Africa; as well as the guitar and piano.
The polyphony, the call and response (seen also in the music and singing of Black Americans), the text and lyrics that convey and present messages and ideas that record and recount historical events, and the rhythmic structure that encompasses African music will come forth from the many types of music that represent Africa.
I first fell in love with African music when I heard the late great Miriam Makeba sing her lovely “Pata, Pata Song” when it was released on record in 1967. I had never heard any South African language (Zulu, Shona, KhoiKhoi [Khoisan], Matebele, etc.) but when I heard Ms. Makeba sing the Pata Song, I was hooked, line, and sinkered into the rhythmic beauty of her nation’s music. The Johannesburg born singer became the first African artist to win a Grammy award, with this song in1967 giving her that international recognition. She was truly the Goddess of African music.
The other profound effect came when I heard the master trumpet player Hugh Masekela’s “Grazing in the Grass”, released in 1968. I came to love hearing his trumpet playing with the other instruments in that song, but, most of all, the cowbell. I love hearing the cowbell in music when it can be used to such effect, and Mr. Masekela spoiled me on the bell. To this day, I cannot listen to “Grazing in the Grass” without wanting to shout out, “More cowbell, please!”
Over time, I will post on the various types of African music by highlighting known, and not so well-known, African singers from this beautiful land known affectionately as Mama Africa. When I am able, I will post the lyrics in the native dialect, as well as the English translation, if possible.
To get everyone started off, I now present my first two loves, Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, doing what they do best.
A burst pipe flooded Harvard College’s Observatory Hill, submerging thousands of historic photographic plates underwater. Recovery is now under way to save these astronomical images.
Professional and amateur astronomers working together have found a young exoplanet in the Hyades open cluster. The planet is weirdly large, given its host star.
The crescent Moon leaps into evening skies, as Jupiter joins the evening celestial show from the east. Plus, if you have a telescope, catch the double shadow on Jupiter on Monday evening.
After months of excitement in the predawn sky, the action is shifting to the evening – where Jupiter rises early and the stars of Orion anchor an array of celestial sights.
On the morning of Wednesday, March 9th, 240 members of Sky & Telescope‘s group were treated to a spectacular total solar eclipse under near-perfect sky conditions.
International Women’s Day is annually held on March 8 to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history and across nations. It is also known as the United Nations (UN) Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
International Women’s Day events are held worldwide on March 8. Various women, including political, community, and business leaders, as well as leading educators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and television personalities, are usually invited to speak at various events on the day. Such events may include seminars, conferences, luncheons, dinners or breakfasts. The messages given at these events often focus on various themes such as innovation, the portrayal of women in the media, or the importance of education and career opportunities.
Many students in schools and other educational settings participate in special lessons, debates or presentations about the importance of women in society, their influence, and issues that affect them. In some countries school children bring gifts to their female teachers and women receive small presents from friends or family members. Many workplaces make a special mention about International Women’s Day through internal newsletters or notices, or by handing out promotional material focusing on the day.
Public Life
International Women’s Day, is a public holiday in some countries such as (but not exclusive to):
Many businesses, government offices, educational institutions are closed in the above-mentioned countries on this day, where it is sometimes called Women’s Day. International Women’s Day is a national observance in many other countries. Some cities may host various wide-scale events such as street marches, which may temporarily affect parking and traffic conditions.
Background
Much progress has been made to protect and promote women’s rights in recent times. However, nowhere in the world can women claim to have all the same rights and opportunities as men, according to the UN. The majority of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor are women. On average, women receive between 30 and 40 percent less pay than men earn for the same work. Women also continue to be victims of violence, with rape and domestic violence listed as significant causes of disability and death among women worldwide.
The first International Women’s Day occurred on March 19 in 1911. The inaugural event, which included rallies and organized meetings, was a big success in countries such as Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The March 19 date was chosen because it commemorated the day that the Prussian king promised to introduce votes for women in 1848. The promise gave hope for equality but it was a promise that he failed to keep. The International Women’s Day date was moved to March 8 in 1913.
The UN drew global attention to women’s concerns in 1975 by calling for an International Women’s Year. It also convened the first conference on women in Mexico City that year. The UN General Assembly then invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace in 1977. The day aimed to help nations worldwide eliminate discrimination against women. It also focused on helping women gain full and equal participation in global development. International Men’s Day is also celebrated on November 19 each year.
Symbols
The International Women’s Day logo is in purple and white and features the symbol of Venus, which is also the symbol of being female. The faces of women of all backgrounds, ages, and nations are also seen in various promotions, such as posters, postcards and information booklets, on International Women’s Day. Various messages and slogans that promote the day are also publicized during this time of the year.
GIL HILL, FORMER DETROIT CITY COUNCIL AND ACTOR IN ‘BEVERLY HILLS COP’
Mark Hicks, The Detroit News 9:35 p.m. EST March 2, 2016
Gil Hill, a former Detroit City Council president whose role as a frustrated police inspector to Eddie Murphy’s street-smart character in “Beverly Hills Cop” films made him a movie star, has died.
The former longtime city official passed away Monday at DMC Sinai Grace Hospital in Detroit, spokeswoman Bree Glenn said.
A cause of death and other details were not released. He was 84, according to public records. Hill had been in critical condition at the hospital late last month.
“Gil had been recently hospitalized and was on the road to recovery,” family spokesman Chris Jackson said. “We are relieved that his passing was peaceful and painless.”
For decades, long before his big screen appearances, Hill was a civic leader.
“Gil Hill spent more than 40 years serving our city in the Detroit Police Department and as a member of the Detroit City Council,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said. “He never stopped believing in our city, and dedicated his life to making our city a better place for all. Our condolences go out to his family.”
In his 30 years on the Detroit Police Department, Hill held various leadership posts, including head of the homicide division.
“As a rookie deputy I developed a professional relationship with Gil,” said Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, a former Detroit police chief and county sheriff. “Our friendship grew as I continued my career in law enforcement and he was always encouraging and supportive of my development.
Hill was elected to the City Council in 1989 and became its president by securing the largest number of votes in the 1997 election.
He left a lasting impact on the city, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon said.
“We’ve lost a true supporter of the city and its people. I deeply valued Gil’s friendship, guidance, his law enforcement prowess and his affinity for the city he adopted and never left following his military experience,” Napoleon said. “He epitomized public service because there was never a barometer in his eyes as to how people should be treated. He treated everyone the same — with respect and concern. My condolences to his family, loved ones and friends — he will truly be missed.”
Among his achievements during his tenure: drafting an ordinance, the Fare Reduction and Elimination Initiative, which allowed senior citizens to ride city buses free and students to travel at a reduced rate; and creating a task force to help the auto industry deal with a personnel shortage driven by retirements.
In 2000, Hill led a partnership between the council and then-Mayor Dennis Archer to create the Commercial Strip Revitalization Project, which helped link federal funds with community groups to spur business development in neighborhoods.
“There were a lot of issues which we jointly worked on that he championed and thought were invaluable in terms of creating an opportunity for the citizens of the city of Detroit to benefit from,” Archer said. “He worked very hard, at least in my view, to demonstrate his love and affection for our citizens.”
As a councilman, Hill supported casino gambling in the city and helped broker deals for new baseball and football stadiums downtown.
Hill, who in addition to his council duties sat on the board of the city’s Policeman and Fireman Retirement System, also was known for regular visits to neighborhood churches and fielding phone calls from residents.
“He was a person who had a deep commitment to the people of the city,” former council member Sheila Cockrel said. “He had an understanding for the average Detroiter’s experience. He was fair. He was a quiet kind of leader in that he really allowed all of the voices on council to be heard.”
In 2001, shortly before narrowly losing to Kwame Kilpatrick in the mayor’s race, Hill described to The News his personal approach.
“The only thing that’s saved me through the years is the fact that I’ve been grounded,” he said.
In 2003, Hill lost to former Detroit NAACP executive JoAnn Watson in an election to fill an empty seat on the City Council.
“Gil Hill was an honest and good man who cared deeply for the city of Detroit, and spent most of his life working to improve it,” said Agustin Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. “In turn, the city of Detroit loved him.”
A Birmingham, Alabama, native, Hill attended Cardoza High School in Washington, D.C., and in 1953 moved to Detroit, where he later joined the police academy.
Though Hill enjoyed a long career in public service and had a daily radio talk show, his most prominent role may have been the cursing, finger-pointing Detroit police Inspector Douglas Todd, the boss whom Murphy’s character, Axel Foley, in the “Beverly Hills Cop” series was perpetually exasperating.
“He was clearly a very charismatic, interesting and authentic Detroit presence,” Cockrel said Monday. “I think he’ll be remembered for that.”
Despite the fame he gained through the silver-screen appearances, Hill remained humble, said Bishop Charles H. Ellis III of Greater Grace Temple in Detroit, a longtime friend. “To be able to have that role and after that filming to go back to who he was, you would’ve never known he had that prestigious role and access to Hollywood.”
He was married and had three children as well as grandchildren, according to The News’ archives.
A public viewing will be 12-8 p.m. March 10 and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. March 11 at Swanson Funeral Home, 14751 W. McNichols, Detroit. Family hour will be at 11 a.m. March 12, followed by a funeral service at noon at St. Philips Lutheran Church, 2884 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit. Interment will be at Trinity Cemetery in Detroit.
Even after leaving public office, Hill “chose to stay right here in the city of Detroit,” Ellis said. “He was somebody who was a part of the people.”
In 1994, Hill told The News he was cast in the first “Beverly Hills Cop” movie after a location scout team visited him a decade earlier at the police department homicide section. “(Director Martin) Brest just told me, ‘There’s a part in this movie that fits you perfectly,’ ” Hill said. “And I just said, `Sure, pal.’ ”
Hill had the first script reading in his own office then again at the St. Regis Hotel; he learned about gaining the part about two weeks later, The News reported.
In all three films he was in, Hill briefly appears before a special case sends Murphy’s character from his Detroit base to California. Todd, who was killed off early in the third film, often would erupt with expletives due to Foley’s rule-bending investigative methods.
“I’ll be honest with you. If I had received a break like that in my 20s or 30s, I’d have been gone. No question about it, I’d have been gone,” Hill told The News. “Acting certainly has its rewards, and not just monetary. It’s your ego, your esteem. It’s just fabulous. The only thing I’d have worried about is to be sure I had the will to learn the craft.
“Actors work hard. It’s a tremendously difficult profession. But if you become proficient and you have a little star quality about you, then you can live like a king.”
Author Pat Conroy at a benefit reading for actor Frank Muller in 2002 in New York City. Jeffrey Vock/Getty Images hide caption
Pat Conroy, the beloved author of The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline and The Prince of Tides, has died. Conroy — who announced last month that he had pancreatic cancer — died Friday night at his home among his family in Beaufort, S.C. He was 70 years old.
Pat Conroy was a master storyteller, blending the raw material of his difficult family life with the landscape of coastal South Carolina. In 1986, Conroy told me that the reason he wrote was to explain his own life to himself.
“Writing has been not therapeutic for me, but it has been essential,” he said in an interview for Morning Edition. “I have written about my mother, my father, my family … and if I get it on paper, I have named the demon.”
Conroy’s best known work is The Prince of Tides, a novel about a troubled South Carolina native recounting his story to a New York psychiatrist.
The prologue begins: “My wound is geography.”
I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders. As a boy I was happy above the channels, navigating a small boat between the sandbars with their quiet nation of oysters exposed on the brown flats at the low watermark.
Nan Talese was Pat Conroy’s editor for the past 35 years, beginning with The Prince of Tides — a span that saw Conroy’s book sales rise to a total of 20 million copies worldwide.
She recalled the first thing he said to her when they met. “He said, ‘I will tell you, if there are ten words for something, I will use all ten. Your job is to take them out.'”
Talese said Conroy touched people with his language and his honesty.
“His incredible sense of empathy with people. … I think that his books influenced a lot of people because he was so open and honest. And it really struck their hearts.”
Pat Conroy was born in 1945 in Atlanta. He was a self-described “military brat.” His family moved every year until they settled in Beaufort when he was 12.
YouTube
In his 1976 book The Great Santini, Conroy wrote about his relationship with his abusive father, a Marine aviator. In the 1979 film version of the story, the father is played by Robert Duvall. In one scene, he addresses his four young children after a move, as if they are soldiers under his command.
After high school, Pat Conroy’s father sent his oldest son to The Citadel, Charleston’s storied military academy, where Pat began to write fiction. Conroy said his natural storytelling ability was never affected by literary theory.
“I missed all the classes in the art of fiction,” Conroy said in 1986. “We didn’t have any. I’m great on military science. But I missed all the classes on ‘Is this a great technique for fiction?’ I never learned any of that stuff.”
His education as a writer came elsewhere.
“I came from a family of great storytellers,” he said. “That is something about the South I think has been preserved. The yarn, the story, and the ability to tell one well, is a beloved trait in several of my uncles and aunts. And a great story changes the world for you — changes the way you look at life.”
Pat Conroy said he looked for stories that told something about the world that he didn’t know before.
And he said he faced challenges along the way. “The one thing I’ve had is a very painful life filled with utter moments of great joy. Things happen to me for reasons I cannot figure out. And things have continued to happen to me all my life, and happen to my family all my life, and now happen to my friends. … What I hope is that I don’t die before I can tell all the stories I still haven’t told.”
Conroy was telling those stories until the end. Before he died he finished a short novel called Aquarius, set in the Vietnam era, and dedicated to his “friends who become teachers.”
Venus Williams (left) and Serena Williams are interviewed by Bud Collins before the 2009 U.S. Open. Rob Tringali/Getty Images
With his colorful style in both commentary and fashion, tennis writer and broadcaster Bud Collins livened up the tennis world for nearly 50 years. He died at his home in Brookline, Mass., at age 86.
His death was announced by his wife, Anita Ruthling Klaussen, on her Facebook page.
Collins, a longtime columnist for The Boston Globe and an analyst for CBS, NBC, ESPN and the Tennis Channel, was best known not only for his commentary during NBC’s Breakfast at Wimbledon broadcast live on weekend mornings but also for his lively pants and bow ties, sometimes yellow, sometimes purple, always vibrant.
In his remembrance of Collins, NPR’s Only A Game host Bill Littlefield wrote:
“He was almost as well-known for his sartorial splendor — more specifically for the gaudy pants that became a kind of trademark. In our conversation during the 2002 French Open, I mentioned to Bud that one of the players, Jeff Grant, had noted Bud’s trousers.
” ‘I think he had some kind of green and pink pastel with some flowers,’ Grant told me. ‘Vintage Bud.’
“I asked Bud for comment, and he responded, ‘I can categorically state that I have been paid by no one to wear anything. And no one would pay me to wear anything, and most people are surprised when I even pay for those creations.’ ”
The pants were his “trademark and a symbol of the gusto he brought to his reporting,” NPR’s Tom Goldman reports.
“Collins wrote several tennis encyclopedia, and coached tennis at Brandeis University where one of his players was future activist Abbie Hoffman,” Tom says. “But it was his years of tennis columns and commentary that defined his career.”
“In newspaper columns and as a TV commentator, Mr. Collins provided the sport with its most authoritative voice, and he also wrote a tennis encyclopedia and a history of the game, all while remaining one of the most congenial people anyone met courtside or in the press box.”
“Few people have had the historical significance, the lasting impact and the unqualified love for tennis as Bud Collins,” tennis legend Billie Jean King tweeted. “He was an outstanding journalist, an entertaining broadcaster and as our historian he never let us forget or take for granted the rich history of our sport. I will miss him and I will always cherish our memories of our journeys together.”
The New York Timeswrote that “while he focused on tennis, he mused about anything that caught his eye” and covered combat in the Vietnam War. The paper adds:
“Mr. Collins was much the showman. He often quoted his imaginary Uncle Studley’s reflections on tennis. Steffi Graf was ‘Fraulein Forehand,’ Bjorn Borg was ‘the Angelic Assassin’ and the hard-serving Venus and Serena Williams were ‘Sisters Sledgehammer.’ He considered himself the representative of the everyday player, or the hacker, as he put it.”
Collins’ role as a tennis commentator had been limited in recent years as his health failed, but last year he attended the U.S. Open in New York, where the media center was dedicated and named in his honor.
“Mrs. Reagan will be buried at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, next to her husband, Ronald Wilson Reagan, who died on June 5, 2004,” Drake wrote in a statement.
Nancy Reagan Diana Walker / Time Life Pictures via Getty Image, file
“Prior to the funeral service, there will be an opportunity for members of the public to pay their respects at the Library.”
“It is a very sad day,” former Ronald Reagan Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein told NBC News. “Every time she was in the room, he was better, and every time he was in the room she was better. She brought a sense of class and dignity and elegance that everybody admired.”
Her step-son Michael Reagan posted on Facebook: “She is once again with the man she loved. God Bless.”
“We remain grateful for Nancy Reagan’s life, thankful for her guidance, and prayerful that she and her beloved husband are together again,” President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement.
Barbara Bush, another influential former first lady, said in a statement: “Nancy Reagan was totally devoted to President Reagan, and we take comfort that they will be reunited once more. George and I send our prayers and condolences to her family.”
Reagan was also a Girl Scout and named honorary president of the Girl Scouts as first lady. The Girl Scouts of America said in a statement that Reagan would be remembered for her “courage, confidence and character.”
In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Reagan asked that contributions be made to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Foundation at www.reaganlibrary.com, Drake said.
Nancy Reagan was born in New York City and when she was six her mother, Edith, a stage actress, married Dr. Loyal Davis, a neurosurgeon. The doctor adopted Nancy and she grew up in Chicago. She later attended Smith College in Massachusetts, where she majored in theater.
Reagan was an actress when she met Ronald Reagan in the early 1950s, then an actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild, according to a White House bio.
She needed to talk to him because her name had been wrongly included on a published list of suspected communist sympathizers. They discussed it over dinner, and she later wrote that she realized on that first blind date “he was everything that I wanted.”
They wed on March 4, 1952. Daughter Patti was born in October of that year and son Ron followed in 1958. Reagan already had a daughter, Maureen, and an adopted son, Michael, from his marriage to actress Jane Wyman.
Their marriage lasted 52 years, until Ronald Reagan’s death in 2004.
While Ronald Reagan was governor of California from 1967 to 1975, Nancy Reagan worked with numerous charitable groups, and spent hours visiting veterans, the elderly, and the emotionally and physically handicapped.
“The movies were custard compared to politics,” Mrs. Reagan once said.
When her husband became president of the United States, First Lady Reagan continued her interest in these groups continued, and arguably became best known for her “Just Say No” program fighting against drug abuse among youth.
When Ronald was shot in 1981 by a would-be assassin, Nancy rushed to his side immediately, and later endured his nearly decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
In recent years she broke with fellow Republicans in backing stem cell research as a way to possibly find a cure for Alzheimer’s.
In announcing his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 1994, Reagan wrote, “I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience.”
Ten years later, as his body lay in state in the U.S. Capitol, Mrs. Reagan caressed and gently kissed the flag-draped casket.
“Nancy and Ronald Reagan were one of the great love stories of the American presidency,” said Craig Shirley, Ronald Reagan biographer and presidential historian. “During the 1980 campaign, Governor Reagan was asked if Nancy Reagan would have a cause if he won and he joked, ‘Probably me, mostly.'”
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan ride horses at their ranch Jan. 10, 1981 in Santa Barbara, Calif. Express via Getty Images
Wildlife crime involves illegally selling and buying animal body parts, as well as stealing or killing animals that are protected by government laws. Organizations like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the United Nations (UN) want to end these kinds of crimes, so they promote the day by asking people to:
Back a ranger – donate money to help rangers who protect endangered animals get equipment and training they need to stop wildlife crime.
Sign pledges urging governments to strengthen their laws to stop wildlife crime.
What’s Open or Closed?
World Wildlife Day is a global observance and not a public holiday so it’s business as usual.
About World Wildlife Day
Wildlife trade is one of the most profitable illicit trades in the world, estimated at up to $10 billion annually. Illegal wildlife trade of elephant ivory, rhino horns, and tiger products, is widespread in many countries, particularly in Asia and Africa. It is controlled by dangerous crime syndicates that traffic wildlife like drugs or weapons.
On December 20, 2013, the UN added World Wildlife Day to its calendar as an official event to be celebrated from March 3, 2014, onwards. It declared the day out of concern that wildlife crime had negative economic, environmental and social impacts worldwide.
World Wildlife Day 2016 Theme: “The future of wildlife is in our hands”
On March 9th – late on Tuesday, March 8th, in the U.S. – the Moon will completely cover the Sun. Check here for the links you’ll need to see this celestial spectacle as it happens.
Spiraling stars and light-soaking dust clouds enliven the heart of this lesser-known planetary nebula NGC 2346 in Monoceros. Will you be the first to catch it playing peekaboo again?
After months of excitement in the predawn sky, the action is shifting to the evening — where Jupiter rises early and the stars of Orion anchor an array of celestial sights.
Ann
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 
