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Citizens for Eisenhower's advertisement "Ike for President"

The Draft Eisenhower movement was a widespread political movement to persuade Dwight D. Eisenhower to contest the presidency of the United States. Due to his popularity as Army chief of staff, he was widely expected to run in the 1948 election. Polls ranked him ahead of other candidates; he was approached by various politicians. James Roosevelt invited all the Democratic delegates to a caucus attempting to make a joint appeal, but Eisenhower refused to enter politics. In 1951, the draft movement re-emerged, while Eisenhower had not announced his political affiliation. Republican senator Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. managed his party's efforts to draft Eisenhower. On March 11, 1952, Eisenhower won the Republican primary in New Hampshire, and later agreed to run. Nominated by the Republicans, he won the 1952 election by a huge margin. The slogan "I like Ike" is associated with this movement (advertisement shown). The Draft Eisenhower movement has been referenced in various later draft movements. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Asma Al Thani

... that Asma Al Thani (pictured), who directs the Qatar Olympic Committee's communications, has climbed the world's eighth-highest mountain and skied to the North Pole?
... that many of the traditional Lakota ceremonies performed at the Sitting Bull Crystal Cavern Dance Pavilion were still illegal under federal law during the show's first years?
... that John Harvey Rainier had the distinction of commanding troops from six different countries in action?
... that community opposition to the routing of Interstate 40 through Memphis, Tennessee, led to a landmark United States Supreme Court ruling in Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe?
... that as a child, Nayantara Sahgal associated the words Prison and Chocolate Cake with her memory of the police taking her father to jail while the family were having tea?
... that Leonard Bernstein composed the piano suite Bridal Suite for the wedding of Adolph Green and Phyllis Newman, with the couple meant to play it three-hands?
... that the film Panta Rhei is about the rhythms of clouds and water because the director Bert Haanstra did not feel ready to deal with people?
... that in the UK, your remains can shelter baby lobsters?

In the news

Yoon Suk-yeol

Yoon Suk-yeol (pictured) is elected president of South Korea.
Australian cricketer Shane Warne dies at the age of 52.
An attack at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills at least 63 people and injures more than 190 others.
The Winter Paralympics open in Beijing, China.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is condemned by the United Nations General Assembly.

On this day

March 11

Eta Carinae and the surrounding Homunculus Nebula

222 – Disaffected with Roman emperor Elagabalus's disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos, the Praetorian Guard assassinated him and his mother, throwing his mutilated body into the Tiber.
1843 – During a period of activity known as the Great Eruption, Eta Carinae (pictured) briefly became the second-brightest star in the night sky.
1945 – World War II: Imperial Japan established the Empire of Vietnam, a short-lived puppet state, with Bảo Đại as its ruler.
1966 – President Sukarno signed the Supersemar, giving Indonesian general Suharto the authority to restore order during recent mass killings.
2012 – U.S. Army soldier Robert Bales murdered sixteen civilians and wounded six others in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

Marie of France, Countess of Champagne (d. 1198)
Anna Bochkoltz (b. 1815)
Gladys Pearl Baker (d. 1984)

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From today's featured list

Lana Turner as Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice

The filmography of American actress Lana Turner includes more than fifty films during her career, which spanned four decades. Discovered in 1937 at age 16, she signed a contract with Warner Bros. but soon transferred to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Turner's role as a femme fatale (pictured) in the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) advanced her career significantly and established her as a dramatic actress. In addition to her film roles, Turner frequently appeared on radio programs throughout the 1940s, including Suspense and The Orson Welles Almanac. In 1952, she co-starred in the drama The Bad and the Beautiful opposite Kirk Douglas, portraying an alcoholic actress. In 1957, she took a leading role portraying Constance MacKenzie in 20th Century Fox's Peyton Place, a film adaptation of the Grace Metalious novel of the same name. The film was a major box office success, and Turner earned her first and only Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance. (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The rufous-collared sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis), also known as the Andean sparrow, is a species of New World sparrow found in a wide range of habitats, often near humans, from the extreme south-east of Mexico to Tierra del Fuego and the Caribbean. This sparrow of the subspecies Z. c. costaricensis was photographed in the Mount Totumas cloud forest in Panama.

Photograph credit: Charles James Sharp

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