Devastating Earthquake Jolts Turkey and Syria

Civilians and rescue teams in Harem, Syria, search for survivors underneath rubble after a devastating earthquake hit the region on February 6, 2023.
Credit: © Anas Alkharboutli, dpa picture alliance/Alamy Images

On Monday, February 6th, 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkey at 4:17 AM. The epicenter of the earthquake hit Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, close to the Syrian border. More than 5,000 people died in the destruction, and the death toll continues to rise. The earthquake’s grasp extended to Syria, causing widespread damage in the northwestern region of the country. The earthquake and aftershocks were felt in Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, and Lebanon. The damage unfolds a new humanitarian crisis in a region already shaken by economic struggles, an ongoing refugee crisis, and war.

Turkey lies on crisscrossed fault lines resulting in frequent earthquakes. The United States Geological Survey reported the epicenter of the earthquake struck 20 miles (33 kilometers) from Gaziantep, Turkey. It hit 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) below the surface. Normally the initial shock of the earthquake hits hundreds of miles from the surface. The earthquake resulted in unusually strong aftershocks, including a 7.5 magnitude tremor 59 miles (95 kilometers) from the epicenter that was originally thought to be a second earthquake. Seismologists normally expect a 6.8 or lower magnitude aftershock from a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. The area has experienced more than 80 aftershocks measuring 4.0 magnitude and higher in the hours following the original quake. The earthquake was as powerful as the strongest earthquake on record in Turkey which occurred in 1939. The aftermath of the quakes has caused more damage than the country has seen in decades.

Turkey
credit: World Book map

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced thousands of buildings collapsed in 14 different cities. As search and rescue teams look for people underneath the rubble, snow, rain, and low temperatures hinder their efforts. The near-freezing temperatures shorten the amount of time rescue teams have to retrieve people from the rubble. The weather hampers efforts to stay warm in other parts of the region. Many buildings in Turkey are older with concrete frames that cannot withstand strong tremors. Nearly 15 hospitals buckled from the earthquake. A 2,000-year-old castle used by the Romans and Byzantines also faced damage in the aftermath. The damage has cut power and gas in some regions, leading officials to wonder how to keep survivors warm and safe. Disaster relief officials reported nearly 6,400 people had been rescued already. President Erdogan declared seven days of national mourning.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees due to the 12-year civil war in Syria. Many people lived in temporary or unsafe housing before the earthquake struck. These camps and makeshift shelters were decimated by the quake. While many Turkish residents lost their homes, work, and schools, the refugee crisis broadens. As the region grapples with the chaos, the refugee crisis will continue.

More than 1,250 people have died, and 1,040 were injured in government-held Syria. These numbers do not account for Idlib, where rebels control the government in northwestern Syria. Officials estimate nearly 390 people have died in Idlib with hundreds more buried under rubble. Years of air strikes and bombardments weakened the infrastructure across Syria. The earthquake demolished several hospitals and pivotal infrastructure, further stressing underfunded and busy health centers.

Dozens of countries, the European Union, and the United Nations have offered aid and support for the affected regions. Search and rescue teams, aircraft, and medical teams are heading toward the region from all across the world. The earthquake is the deadliest earthquake the world has seen since the quake that killed 1,000 people in Afghanistan in June 2022.

Tags: crisis, earthquake, humanitarian aid, natural disaster, refugee, syria, turkey

In a While, (Mummified) Crocodile!

These 2,500-year-old crocodile mummies were found at an Ancient Egyptian tomb on the Nile River.
Credit: Patri Mora Riudavets, Qubbat al-Hawā team (licensed under CC-BY 4.0)

See you later, alligator! In a while, crocodile. How long is a while? Try over two thousand years! In a recent dig in Qubbat al-Hawā, a burial site in Aswan, Egypt, archaeologists found 10 intact mummified crocodiles. We knew ancient Egyptians mummified their dead to be preserved for the afterlife, but why would they mummify crocodiles?

What does it mean to mummify? A mummy is a body that has been preserved through natural or artificial means. The most famous and elaborately prepared mummies are from Egypt. The ancient Egyptians mummified their dead because they believed the body had to be preserved for use in the afterlife. Egyptian embalmers prepared mummies by dehydrating (removing all moisture from) the body. The earliest Egyptian mummies were naturally preserved by being buried in hot, dry, desert sand. Around 4000 B.C., the Egyptians were experimenting with resin and linen wrappings to seal the body against moisture.

These 10 adult crocodiles lived nearly 2,500 years ago! They weren’t beloved pets mummified to join masters in the afterlife, they were a part of a ritual to the fertility deity Sobek. The crocodiles were found in a tomb on the west bank of the Nile River.

Sobek is portrayed with the head of a crocodile and the body of a man. Some ancient Egyptians believed he created order in the universe. He became associated with fertility. Crocodiles were very important to ancient Egyptian life. Ancient Egyptians ate crocodile meat and the fat of the crocodile was used for different medicines. Crocodiles live throughout the Nile River.

There have been other discoveries of mummified crocodiles. Most have them have been juvenile crocodiles or only pieces of remains. Egyptians mummified other animals as well. Archaezoologists, scientists who study animal remains at archeology sites, have found mummified cats, ibises, and baboons. This practice was an offering of the animal to the gods.

One of the crocodiles measured 7 feet long! The mummies had been wrapped in linen for preservation but it was eaten away by insects. There also wasn’t any resin securing the mummies, so the archeologists were able to study them in the site without having to use advanced technology like CT scans and X-rays. They think the crocodiles were mummified naturally by being buried in hot, dry sand. The researchers estimate that the crocodiles were entombed between 332 BC and 30 BC. They will radiocarbon date and study the DNA of the crocodiles to learn more. The archeologists studied the remains and concluded that there were two different species of crocodiles represented in the tomb. Some were Nile crocodiles and others were West African crocodiles. The discovery has added to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian culture, beliefs, and practices.

Tags: ancient cities, ancient egypt, crocodile, mummification, mummy, nile river, pets

The World’s Biggest Fossilized Flower

Fossil flower of Symplocos kowalewskii (Symplocaceae) from Baltic amber – to date, by far the largest floral inclusion discovered from any amber.
Credit: © Carola Radke, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

Most fossils you see are of teeth, bones, and shells, but there have been flowers for millions of years. Why don’t we see many flower fossils? A fossil is the mark or remains of an organism that lived thousands or millions of years ago. Some of the best-known fossils include leaves, shells, or skeletons that were preserved after a plant or animal died. We don’t see many complete flower fossils because the fossilization process is tough. However, if flowers are preserved in certain materials, the fossil can remain intact. Researchers just found the largest flower preserved in amber in an unorganized museum collection. They believe the flower lived 40 million years ago in the Eocene Epoch in the Paleogene Period.

What does it mean that the flower is in amber? Amber is a hard, yellowish-brown fossilized resin. It comes chiefly from the resins of pine trees that grew in northern Europe millions of years ago. These resins were gummy materials mixed with oils in the trees. When the oils became oxidized (combined with oxygen), hard resins were left. These pine trees were buried underground or underwater, and the resins slowly changed into irregularly shaped lumps of amber. Lumps of amber often contain insects trapped as the resins flowed from the trees. Some lumps have air bubbles. Amber serves as a protection for more delicate materials in the fossilization process.

The largest supply of amber lies in the Baltic Sea area. The Baltic Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean that extends into northern Europe. It separates the Scandinavian Peninsula from the northern coast of Europe. It links Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland with the North Sea and the Atlantic. The amber comes from a species of pine tree that is now extinct. Some experts consider this amber from the Baltic region the only true amber. This is the amber that preserved this special flower!

The flower in question is an extinct variation in the genus Symplocos. Scientists were able to extract a sample of pollen from the intact reproductive organs and test it. The relatives of this plant today are flowering shrubs in Asia. Today, the relatives of this flower have white or yellow blossoms and live in humid, high-altitude forests.

While the flower is only about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) across, it is about three times the size of most amber-preserved flowers and larger than half of all amber pieces from the Baltic region. There aren’t many large flowers in amber because it would take covering the entire flower to protect the delicate flower from the fossilization process.

Why does fossilization damage most flowers that lived millions of years ago? Most fossils occur in sedimentary rocks. Such fossils formed from plant or animal remains that were quickly buried in sediments—the mud or sand that collects at the bottom of rivers, lakes, swamps, and oceans. Over time, these sediments became buried under other sediments.  The upper sediments pressed down on the layers of mud and squeezed them into compact rock layers. Crushing and ruining delicate organisms like flowers.

Why is studying fossilized flowers important? Fossils also show how groups of plants and animals became more diverse after they originated. Fossil leaves and pollen grains of the first flowering plants date from the early Cretaceous Period, sometime after 138 million years ago. These fossils record only a small number of species. Fossils from later in the Cretaceous, about 90 million years ago, include a wide variety of flowering plants from many different environments.

Tags: archaeology, eocene epoch, flower, fossil, paleogene period, prehistoric, resin

Black History Month: Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells, called HeLa, are used around the world for medical experiments.
Credit: © Pictorial Press Ltd, Alamy Images

February is Black History Month, an annual observance of the achievements and culture of Black Americans. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature Black pioneers in a variety of areas.

A mother and a medical marvel with a lasting legacy, Henrietta Lacks has saved nearly 10 million lives. Lacks was an African American woman born in Roanoke, Virginia, on August 1, 1920. Lacks unknowingly became a donor of a line of cells widely used in medical research. Those cells, known as HeLa cells, became one of the most important advances in medical science. HeLa stands for Henrietta Lacks. Lacks only lived 31 years, but her cells are still alive today.

Lacks was born Loretta Pleasant. She later changed her name to Henrietta and married David Lacks in 1941. The couple moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in the 1940’s. In 1951, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She died on October 4 of that year, leaving behind her five children. Before her death, doctors removed a sample of cancer cells during a medical examination. The sample was taken without her knowledge.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University used the sample to establish the HeLa cell culture. A cell culture is a population of cells grown under controlled conditions for research. The usefulness of cell cultures is often limited because the cells die after a certain number of divisions. However, the HeLa cells divided indefinitely without dying.

HeLa cells grow faster than other cell cultures. They survive shipment by mail, enabling them to be sent to laboratories around the world. The unique qualities of HeLa cells led to many scientific discoveries and a greater understanding of biological processes. One of the first uses of HeLa cells was to test the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine for the disease polio. HeLa cells have also contributed to treatments for Parkinson’s, HIV, and AIDS, as well as vaccines for the flu, HPV, and COVID-19. Her cells have been used in nearly 75,000 studies.

The World Health Organization honored Henrietta Lacks in 2021. The city of Roanoke, Virginia, is replacing a statue of confederate general Robert E. Lee with a bronze statue of Lacks. Nearly 72 years after her death, Lacks will be memorialized in her hometown for years to come. Author Rebecca Skloot wrote about Henrietta’s life and her medical contribution in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks released in 2010. The story was adapted into a movie in 2017 starring Oprah Winfrey.

HeLa cells were also used to produce the first cellular clones. Cellular clones are a group of cells descended from a single cell. They are genetically identical, enabling scientists to study entire populations of cells with a particular genetic trait.

HeLa cells remain an essential tool in laboratories throughout the world. They have been used to develop drugs and other therapies worth billions of dollars. However, Henrietta Lacks and her family received no compensation for the use of her cells. In medical ethics, her case is often cited as a classic example of failure to obtain informed consent from a tissue donor. Informed consent means that participants fully understand and accept the known risks and possible benefits of a medical procedure. Today, researchers regularly obtain consent from patients before taking tissue samples.

In 2013, the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH), a government agency that conducts and supports a broad range of biomedical research, made a historic agreement with the surviving family of Henrietta Lacks. NIH researchers must now obtain permission from a special review panel before they can view and use detailed genetic information of HeLa cells. Members of the Lacks family are included on the review panel. NIH also requested that researchers studying HeLa cells include an acknowledgment to the Lacks family when the research is published.

Tags: african american history, black history month, black women, cells, culture, national institutes of health, world health organization

A Vaccine to Save the Bees

Beekeepers wear protective veils. Light-colored clothes help provide protection from stings. A few experienced beekeepers handle the bees and honeycombs with their bare hands.
Credit: © Shutterstock

You may have heard the phrase “Save the bees” before, but a vaccine for bees? That is something new! Honeybees in the United States have faced diseases and pests that have decimated the population. Bees are important and affect our daily lives. Bees pollinate plants and flowers, giving us food, medicine, and of course, pretty flowers. Recently, scientists at the Dalan Animal Health based in Athens, Georgia, created a vaccine to save the bees for real!

What is the vaccine for? We know about vaccines for the flu and COVID-19, this vaccine protects bees against American foulbrood. Since American foulbrood is caused by bacteria, the scientists figured out how to put the dead bacteria in the vaccine. When American foulbrood infects a hive, it causes the larva to be darker and gives the entire hive a rotten smell. American foulbrood can spread from hive to hive, wiping out colonies of 60,000 bees.

How do the scientists give the bees the vaccine? No, it isn’t a shot, and they will not have to invent little bandaids for the bees. The scientists put the dead bacteria into royal jelly, which is a sugar feed the queen bees eat. This process exposes the queen bee’s future offspring to the bacteria so the bees can make antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that help the immune system fight off bacteria and viruses.

A typical honey bee colony may include tens of thousands of workers. This photograph shows workers tending to honey stored in the cells of a honeycomb.
Credit: © StudioSmart/Shutterstock

Honeybees are important. They are vital to agriculture around the world. Without bees, the world would deal with more food scarcity. During their food-gathering flights, bees spread pollen from one flower to another, thus pollinating (fertilizing) the plants they visit. This allows the plants to reproduce. Numerous wild plants and such important food crops as fruits and vegetables depend on bees for fertilization. Honeybees pollinate nearly one-third of all food crops grown in the United States. Popular crops like almonds, apples, cherries, and pears require pollination from bees. Nearly three-quarters of all flowering plants rely on pollination from bees and other pollinators like butterflies and moths.

American foulbrood isn’t the only bee enemy. Bees are also declining in population due to climate change, disease, habitat loss, and pesticides. Beekeepers have given entire hives antibiotics to fight off diseases. However, the use of antibiotics can decrease beneficial bacteria and weaken the bees. Animals, mites, and human activities all threaten bees worldwide. There is also a disorder called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), an unusual condition that destroys hundreds of thousands of honey bee colonies each year in the United States. While the vaccine protects against American foulbrood, bees are also in danger of dying from European foulbrood. Diseases caused by fungi, such as Nosema disease, are also a threat to bees. Scientists hope the success of this vaccine will lead to others protecting the future of the bees!

Tags: bee, climate change, disease resistance, habitat loss, honeybee, pollination, save the bees, science, vaccine

National Puzzle Day: Rubik’s Cube

Rubik’s Cube
Credit: © Anastasiia Moiseieva, Shutterstock

What has six colors, six faces, and can frustrate most people? A Rubik’s Cube! Sunday, January 29th, is National Puzzle Day! Puzzles are fun activities that are good for your brain. It exercises your brain to think in different ways. There are many different types of puzzles: crossword puzzles, sudoku, riddles, and more. Rubik’s Cube is a physical and mental puzzle that requires a lot of practice!

Rubik’s Cube is a puzzle game invented by the Hungarian professor and puzzle enthusiast Ernö Rubik in 1974. The puzzle takes the form of a cube. Each face of the cube features a three-by-three grid of colored blocks. The blocks are connected to a central core in such a way that rows of blocks can be moved by twisting. Play begins by twisting the cube at random to scramble the colors. The player solves the puzzle by returning each side of the cube to a single color. Rubik’s Cube has become a pop culture icon. It has earned a place in the Strong National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York, and the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Rubik’s Cube puzzle
Credit: © ChristianChan/Shutterstock

Rubik was born July 13, 1944, in Budapest, Hungary. He trained as an architect and later taught at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest. In 1974, Rubik used an early version of his puzzle game to teach his students about three-dimensional movement. His students loved the game. Rubik began selling his invention under the name Magic Cube in Hungarian toy shops in 1977. By 1980, his invention caught the attention of the Ideal Toy and Novelty Company, which licensed it. The company renamed the puzzle Rubik’s Cube. In just under two years, they sold over 100 million cubes.

The simple cube has been modified a few times over the years. Some later versions include larger grids of colors and different shapes. The construction of the Rubik’s Cube has also been improved—making the puzzle easier to twist and more durable—to aid in speedcubing competitions. In speedcubing, Rubik’s Cube fans compete to see who can solve the puzzle the fastest. Occasionally, additional challenges are added. These challenges may include solving the puzzle one-handed or even while juggling three cubes at the same time. In 1982, the puzzle was solved in 22.9 seconds at the first-ever Rubik’s Cube World Championships in Hungary. In later competitions, the puzzle has been solved in under 4 seconds.

Tags: brain, budapest, competitions, erno rubik, games, hungary, inventions, mental games, national puzzle day, puzzle, rubik's cube

Bookish Birthdays: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was an important British novelist and critic of the early 1900′s. A leading figure in the literary movement called modernism, she was a feminist, socialist, and pacifist. Her novels include Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and The Years (1939).
Credit: AP/Wide World

Not wolf, Woolf! The famous British feminist writer Virginia Woolf! A leading figure in the literary movement called Modernism, Woolf’s most recognizable books are Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and A Room of One’s Own (1929). She worked in publishing and wrote novels and essays. Woolf also critiqued writing! She mastered the pen!

Adeline Virginia Stephen was born on Jan. 25, 1882, in London, England. In 1912, she married editor and writer Leonard Woolf. She belonged to the Bloomsbury Group, an informal group of intellectuals. With her husband, Woolf founded the Hogarth Press, which published works of noted Modern writers. Her reputation has soared with the publication of several volumes of letters and diaries and her critical essays. Woolf used a literary technique called stream of consciousness to reveal the inner lives of her characters and to criticize the social system of the day.

Woolf’s most famous novel, To the Lighthouse (1927), examines the life of an upper-middle class British family. It shows the fragility of human relationships and the collapse of social values. Some readers believe the portrait of Mr. Ramsay in this novel resembles Woolf’s father, the critic Leslie Stephen.

Woolf’s other fiction includes the novels Jacob’s Room (1922) and Mrs. Dalloway (1925), in which she studies the world of characters tragically affected by World War I. Orlando (1928) and Flush (1933) are fanciful biographies. In The Waves (1931), interior monologues reveal the personalities of the six central characters. Unlike other Modernists, whose politics were right-wing and often pro-fascist, Woolf was a feminist, socialist, and pacifist. She expressed her theories in the essays A Room of One’s Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938). Woolf’s last novels, The Years (1939) and Between the Acts (1941), are as experimental as her earlier work. She died on March 28, 1941.

Tags: a room of one's own, british literature, essays, feminism, london, modernism, mrs. dalloway, novels, virginia woolf, writers

Spotlight: Soccer Star Christian Pulisic

Chelsea player Christian Pulisic during the Premier League match at the City Ground, Nottingham, on January 1, 2023.
Credit: © Andrew Yates, Sportimage/Alamy Images

With the nickname “Captain America,” you know Christian Pulisic is a soccer star! At the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Pulisic scored the only goal against Iran, winning the game and securing the United States a spot in the knockout stage. Sadly, the team later lost to the Netherlands. Pulisic returned to England after the tournament to play for Chelsea FC in the Premier League. However, Pulisic started the new year with a new knee injury on Jan. 5th. Despite his injury, Chelsea coach Graham Potter knows Pulisic’s worth and has promised to keep Captain America playing for Chelsea.

Pulisic plays forward and right winger. He has played for the United States Men’s National Team (USMNT); in the Bundesliga, the professional soccer league in Germany; and in the Premier League in England. The Premier League is England’s highest professional soccer league. Pulisic is known for his agility, quick assists, and game-winning goals.

Pulisic was born on Sept. 18, 1998, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. His parents both played soccer at George Mason University. Pulisic’s family moved to England temporarily when he was seven. There, Pulisic played soccer with a youth team. The family then moved to Detroit, Michigan, where his father worked for the Detroit Ignition, an indoor soccer league.

The Pulisic family later returned to Hershey. At 16, Christian became eligible to play in Europe because his grandfather was Croatian. Pulisic secured dual citizenship with Croatia and a European passport. In 2015, he moved to Germany and began playing for the Borussia Dortmund team for players under 17. When Pulisic was still 16, Borussia Dortmund moved him to the under-19 league.

Pulisic began playing with the United States Men’s national team in 2016, becoming the youngest player to play in a qualifier, against Guatemala. In 2018, Pulisic became one of the youngest USMNT captains, in an international match against Italy. He won U.S. Soccer’s Male Player of the Year award in 2017, 2019, and 2021.

In 2016, coaches pulled Pulisic up to the senior team for Borussia Dortmund. Pulisic also played for Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League competition. In January 2019, Pulisic signed a contract with the prestigious Premier League club Chelsea FC. Chelsea loaned him back to Dortmund to complete the season. The transfer cost was U.S. $73 million, making Pulisic the most expensive American player and one of Dortmund’s most expensive sales in team history.

Pulisic debuted for Chelsea in August 2019. He scored three goals—a feat known as a hat trick— against Burnley in October. Pulisic became the second American to score a hat-trick in the Premier league.

Tags: captain america, christian pulisic, fifa world cup, qatar, soccer, united states

Goal-Getter Alex Ovechkin

Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin skates in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Credit: © Andy Martin Jr, Alamy Images

GOAL! In December, professional hockey player Alex Ovechkin, who plays for the Washington Capitals, became the player with the second most goals in NHL history with 802 goals. He passed Gordie Howe’s record of 801 points. Hockey star Wayne Gretzky holds the number one record with 894 goals. However, Ovechkin isn’t retiring anytime soon!

He scored two goals in a game against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday, December 23rd, 2022. His first goal of the game tied him with Howe in the first quarter. With one minute left in the third quarter, he gracefully shot the puck into the goal to beat Howe’s record. The Capitals defeated the Jets 4 to 1.

Alexander Ovechkin is a Russian-born hockey player. He is one of the stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ovechkin, a left wing for the Washington Capitals, led the NHL in scoring with 112 points (65 goals and 47 assists) in the 2007-2008 season. He has led the league in goals scored nine times (2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020).

Ovechkin won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player for the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2012-2013 seasons. He also won the Lester B. Pearson Award (now the Ted Lindsay Award) for the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 seasons. The award is given to the most outstanding player in the NHL as voted by the league’s players. In 2018, Ovechkin led Washington to its first Stanley Cup championship. He was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the 2018 playoffs.

Ovechkin was born on September 17th, 1985, in Moscow, U.S.S.R. (now Russia). He began playing hockey with Dynamo Moscow in the Russian Super League in 2001 at the age of 16 and spent four seasons with the team. Ovechkin was chosen by Washington as the first player selected in the 2004 NHL draft. However, he did not play with the Capitals until 2005, because the 2004-2005 NHL season was canceled due to a labor dispute between the players and owners. Ovechkin won the Calder Memorial Trophy in 2006 as the NHL Rookie of the Year. His 65 goals in 2007-2008 set an NHL record for left wingers.

Ovechkin helped the Russian national team win the men’s world championship in 2008. He played for Russia in the 2006 and 2010 Olympic Games.

Tags: alex ovechkin, fordie howe, goals, hockey, national hockey league, NHL, olympians, olympic games, record, russia, stanley cup, washington capitals, wayne gretzky

Bookish Birthdays: A. A. Milne

Christopher Robin plays with Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet in this illustration by the English artist Ernest H. Shepard for Now We Are Six , (1927), a poetry collection by the English author A. A. Milne. 
Credit: © Fototeca Gilardi/Marka/SuperStock

Gather your friends, we are going for a picnic in the Hundred Acre Wood to celebrate. Today is A. A. Milne’s birthday! Milne was an English author who wrote Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). While he wrote other stories and poems, his books about the legendary Pooh Bear are considered masterpieces of children’s literature. Have you ever read about Pooh and his friends and misadventures?

A. A. Milne
Credit: © Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Milne based the characters in the Pooh stories on his son, Christopher Robin, and the young boy’s stuffed animals. Milne’s stories describe the adventures of Christopher Robin and his animal friends in a forest called the Hundred Acre Wood. Some of the characters in the Pooh stories include Winnie-the-Pooh, a bear; Piglet, a small pig; and Eeyore, an old donkey. In his autobiography, It’s Too Late Now (1939), Milne told how his son’s stuffed animals led to the creation of the characters in the Pooh stories.

In addition to the Pooh stories, Milne wrote two classic collections of children’s poems, When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927). He wrote the children’s play Make-Believe (1918) and adapted Kenneth Grahame’s children’s book The Wind in the Willows into a play, Toad of Toad Hall (1929). Milne also created novels, short stories, and plays for adults. He wrote a famous detective novel, The Red House Mystery (1922), and a book of short stories called A Table Near the Band (1950). His comic plays include Mr. Pim Passes By (1919), The Truth About Blayds (1921), and The Dover Road (1922). He also wrote his Autobiography (1939).

No, his full name wasn’t A. A.! Alan Alexander Milne was born on January 18th, 1882, in London. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1903. From 1906 to 1914, he served as assistant editor of Punch, a humor magazine. Milne contributed many comic essays and poems to the magazine. He died on January 31st, 1956.

Tags: a. a. milne, authors, birthday, books, children's books, children's literature, christopher robin, english writers, poetry, winnie-the-pooh