Hilary's 40

Hilary at her star in Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She's 40 today.

Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. She has twice won the Academy Award for Best Actress and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2007.

Swank made her film debut in a minor role in the 1992 comedy film Buffy the Vampire Slayer before starring in her breakout lead role in the fourth installment of the The Karate Kid franchise The Next Karate Kid in 1994, alongside Pat Morita. On television, she was cast as part of the main cast in the eighth season of the drama series Beverly Hills 90210 as single mother Carly Reynolds from 1997 to 1998. Swank garnered critical acclaim

Million Dollar Baby (with Clint Eastwood)

for her portrayal of Brandon Teena in the 1999 biographical indie film Boys Don't Cry, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. She starred in Clint Eastwood's 2004 sports drama film Million Dollar Baby as struggling-waitress-turned-boxer Maggie Fitzgerald, which won her a second Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Actress as well as the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

W W I

World War I (WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War, was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II, it was called simply the World War or the Great War, and thereafter the First World War or World War I. In America, it was initially called the European War. More than 9 million combatants were killed, a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents' technological and industrial sophistication, and tactical stalemate. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved.

The Great War started 100 years ago today and we have learnt nothing since. How many countries are currently involved in wars?

Sandra's 50

Happy 50th birthday Sandra

Sandra Annette Bullock is an American actress and producer. She rose to fame in the 1990s with roles in films such as Demolition Man (1993), Speed (1994), The Net (1995), While You Were Sleeping (1995), A Time to Kill (1996), and Hope Floats (1998). In the new millennium, Bullock starred in Miss Congeniality (2000), Two Weeks Notice (2002), The Lake House (2006), and the critically acclaimed Crash (2004) and Gravity (2013).

In 2007, she was ranked as the 14th richest woman in the entertainment industry with an estimated fortune of $85 million. In 2009, Bullock starred in two of the more financially successful films of her career, The Proposal and The Blind Side. Bullock was awarded the BFCA Award, SAG Award, Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for her leading role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in The Blind Side.

She is listed in the 2012 edition of Guinness World Records as the highest-paid actress, with $56 million. In 2013, she starred in The Heat, financially the most successful comedy of the year at the domestic box office, and the science fiction thriller Gravity. As one of the highest grossing films of the year, Gravity is Bullock's most successful film critically and commercially. For her role in it, Bullock was nominated a second time for the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with the BFCA, Golden Globe and SAG awards and also received her first BAFTA nomination.

First women

Svetlana did 
the first spacewalk 
30 years ago today.

Svetlana Yevgenyevna Savitskaya is a former Soviet aviator and cosmonaut who flew aboard Soyuz T-7 in 1982, becoming the second woman in space some 19 years after Valentina Tereshkova.
She became the first woman to perform a space walk on July 25, 1984. She conducted an EVA* outside the Salyut 7 space station for 3 hours 35 minutes during which she cut and welded metals in space along with her colleague Vladimir Dzhanibekov. Of the 57 Soviet/Russian spacewalkers through 2010, she is the only female.
She was twice awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title. The asteroid 4118 Sveta is named for her.

 
*EVA: Extra-vehicular activity is any activity done by an astronaut or cosmonaut outside a spacecraft beyond the Earth's appreciable atmosphere.

Valentina, first woman in space.

Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova is a retired Soviet cosmonaut and engineer, and the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. In order to join the Cosmonaut Corps, Tereshkova was only honorarily inducted into the Soviet Air Force and thus she also became the first civilian to fly in space.
In 2013 she offered to go on a one-way trip to Mars if the opportunity arose. At the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics she was a flag-carrier of the Olympic flag.

Lego

Lego bricks

Lego is a popular line of construction toys manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colourful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts. Lego bricks can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct such objects as vehicles, buildings, and even working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects.

Lego began manufacturing interlocking toy bricks in 1949. Since then a global Lego subculture has developed, supporting movies, games, competitions, and six themed amusement parks. As of 2013, around 560 billion Lego parts had been produced.

 The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (born 7 April 1891), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called "Lego", from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well". It expanded to producing plastic toys in 1947.

Lego / Tente

Tente was a line of construction toys created in 1972 by EXIN-LINES BROS S.A., a plastics and toy company based in Barcelona, Spain which ceased operation in 1993. Subsequently, the trademark and patents were acquired by EDUCA BORRAS, and as of 2008 the toy line appears to be discontinued. Their later series were no longer compatible with the old system, although some models remained compatible. The toys consisted of multi-colored interlocking plastic bricks in multiple scales and an accompanying array of wheels, minifigures, and various accessories.