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Δευτέρα 11 Απριλίου 2016

The blockbuster Interstellar was actually based on a real event




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In case you are  a fan of Science Fiction movies, then we are sure that by now you have seen Christopher Nolan’s  blockbuster “Interstellar.”
Some love it, some hate it, some compare it to Kubrick’s  2001: Space Odyssey, nevertheless the science fiction epic and its ambiguous plot evoke a lot of  mixed emotions ast year.
Based on the nature of the movie you would never have  guessed that the plot is actually inspired by a real historic event, right? -Well, in fact, it is.

A Dying Society: Abel Gance’s ‘End of the World’


Poster for ‘La Fin du monde’ (End of the World) (1931) (via Wikipedia)
Abel Gance’s 1931 film End of the World certainly did represent the “end” of a very important thing: the director’s career as a great cinema pioneer. The original film, lasting more than three hours, was edited down by his producer Vladimir Ivanoff — with a janitor, so Gance quipped — to 105 minutes. The acting, moreover, as a critic of the day, Philippe Soupault, wrote, “is a mixture of the pretentiously naïve and the blatantly unrealistic, of the pompous and the trivial.” Gance, playing the role of Jean Novalic, a suffering philosopher-actor idealist, helplessly in love with the film’s heroine, Genevieve de Murcie (Coloette Darfeuil), was particularly morose and melodramatic in his declamations. Darfeuil’s performance was also more in line with the gestural acting traditions of silent films.
In fact, had this movie been a silent film, it might have gotten away with its melodramatic conventions, as one of the first French talkies, released just as Jean Renoir, René Clair, and Jacques Feyder were coming into their own, it was doomed. Gance’s acclaimed career quickly took a nosedive.

Archaeologists have possibly identified Suleiman the Magnificent’s tomb in Hungary


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The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent or Kanunî (lawgiver) Sultan Süleyman exemplified the best of what the Ottoman Empire had to offer – be it in the arts, architecture, economy or the military sphere. The so-called ‘Golden Age’ of the Ottoman Turkish realm sadly spiraled towards years of gradual decline with his death at the age of 71, just two days before the Turkish pyrrhic victory at the Battle of Szigetvár in Hungary. A group of Hungarian researchers (from the University of Pecs) have now claimed that they might have identified the long-lost tomb of Sultan Suleiman. Standing as a testament to Ottoman dominance in the medieval Old World, the tomb designed as a rectangular building, is fittingly located near Szigetvár, in southern Hungary.

The Resolute Defense of Constantinople, 626 AD




The Siege of Constantinople (Wikipedia)


At dawn, the leaders of the defence gazed out west from the walls of Constantinople. The two Byzantine commanders, Bonus and Sergius, did not speak as they took in the scale of the besieging army. It was huge, eighty thousand strong at the least. Everywhere there could be seen siege engines, towers and machines for throwing shot, great mangonels and smaller catapults, covered battering rams and countless wooden ladders.
There were fires burning and a haze of smoke hanging in the air above the host. Bonus and Sergius could see many tents further off, and seemingly endless numbers of horses and men, milling around like so many busy ants far below.
This was the army of the Avars, long-standing enemies of the Byzantine Empire. They had come at last to take the great city which still called itself the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, but they were a people who fought from horseback. They were mobile, lightly armoured and swift, and they were unused to siege warfare. To storm the walls of Constantinople they would need allies in war. These they found in Byzantium’s other old enemy, the Persian Sassanid Empire.

The Italian Breda Ba.88 “Lynx” – The Worst Operational Airplane Of WWII!





The Breda Ba.88 Lince (Italian for Lynx) was a totally failed ground-attack aircraft used by the Italian Regia Aeronautica during World War II.
It was a propaganda triumph when its appearance was trumpeted by Mussolini’s Fascist regime in 1936, the Breda Ba.88 Lince (Lynx), was a sleek all-metal shoulder-wing monoplane with a twin-engine power plant. The prototype, which had a single fin and rudder tail assembly and made its maiden flight during October 1936.

Αλέκος Τζανετάκος 1937 – 2010


Αλέκος Τζανετάκος
Δημοφιλής κωμικός ηθοποιός, που έλαμψε ως «χρυσός δεύτερος» του θεάτρου και του κινηματογράφου. Στην μεγάλη οθόνη διέπρεψε σε ρόλους «επιπόλαιου νέου», «γκαφατζή» και «καρπαζοεισπράχτορα».
Ο Αλέκος Τζανετάκος γεννήθηκε το 1937 στην Αθήνα. Έμεινε ορφανός από μικρός και μεγάλωσε με την μητέρα του και τις τέσσερις αδελφές του στα Μανιάτικα του Πειραιά (Τρεις από τις τέσσερις αδελφές του, η Άννα, η Νινή και η Κάσσυ, ακολούθησαν τα χνάρια του με το καλλιτεχνικό ψευδώνυμο Τζάνετ).Τελείωσε νυχτερινό γυμνάσιο στον Πειραιά, δουλεύοντας το πρωί ως μεταλλουργός. Σπούδασε υποκριτική στη Δραματική Σχολή του «Θεάτρου Τέχνης- Κάρολος Κουν» και την Ανωτέρα Σχολή Κινηματογράφου του Λυκούργου Σταυράκου.

Τζέιμς Πάρκινσον 1755 – 1824


Τζέιμς Πάρκινσον
Άγγλος γιατρός, γεωλόγος, παλαιοντολόγος και πολιτικός ακτιβιστής. Εμείς τον γνωρίζουμε περισσότερο από τη νευρολογική ασθένεια που φέρει το όνομά του («Νόσος του Πάρκινσον»), καθώς ήταν ο πρώτος επιστήμονας που περιέγραψε τα συμπτώματά της.

Αλμανάκ Βασική Έκδοση 11 Απριλίου

μ. Χ.
1821
Οι Έλληνες σημειώνουν την πρώτη ναυτική επιτυχία τους από την έναρξη της Επανάστασης. Σπετσιώτικα πλοία αιχμαλωτίζουν τρία τουρκικά στη Μήλο.

Spitfire Forced To Land on Belly After Landing Gear Fails

 (With Video)



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This is the nail-biting moment when a pilot was forced to carry out an emergency landing of his 80% replica Spitfire – without the use of his landing gear.
The aircraft was flying at Sibson Airfield when the pilot radioed the airfield to say he couldn’t release his landing gear. Skydivers jumping at the airfield in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, were grounded as the pilot circled for more than 20 minutes to burn fuel as much fuel as possible. Emergency services arrived at the scene just as the fighter plane was carefully flown towards the ground in strong winds by the pilot.
He managed to land the replica Spitfire without his landing gear – skillfully skimming the aircraft over the grass on its belly. Relieved onlookers said the propeller fell off when it came to a safe stop, and the relieved pilot was completely unharmed.

45 things we didn’t know about the Dirty Dozen – John Wayne was first offered the part of Maj. John Reisman



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source
Lee Marvin referred to this movie as “junk” and “just a dummy moneymaker”, although he enjoyed the film. The movie has nothing to do with war, he stressed, and he was very pleased that he got to do The Big Red One (1980), which mirrored his own wartime experiences.
Production on the film ran for so long that Jim Brown was in danger of missing training camp for the up-coming 1967-68 football season. As training camp and the NFL season approached, the NFL threatened to fine and suspend Brown if he did not leave filming and report to camp immediately. Not one to take threats, Brown simply held a press conference to announce his retirement from football. At the time of his retirement, Brown was considered to be one of the best in the game and even today is considered to be one of the NFL’s all-time greats.