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Jack Ryan (designer)
John W. Ryan (November 12, 1926 – August 13, 1991) was an American designer. Ryan worked at toy company Mattel for 20 years, becoming the company's vice president of research and development, and subsequently working as a consultant. He was responsible for the Barbie doll, Hot Wheels, and Chatty Cathy. He was the sixth husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. Career Ryan graduated from Yale University, after which he worked at aerospace company Raytheon as an engineer, working on the AIM-7 Sparrow and MIM-23 Hawk missiles. Mattel hired him for his "space-aged savvy" and knowledge of materials. In 1956, Mattel co-owner Ruth Handler returned from a European vacation with a German-designed Bild Lilli doll. She and Ryan worked on producing a similar fashion doll for the American market (the two later disputed which of them was chiefly responsible for the doll's design). Ryan went on to lead Mattel's research and development department, with a research and development budget in 1962 of ...
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Bel-Air, Los Angeles
Bel Air (or Bel-Air) is a residential neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Founded in 1923, it is the home of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden and the American Jewish University. History The community was founded in 1923 by Alphonzo Bell. Bell owned farm property in Santa Fe Springs, California, where oil was discovered. He bought a large ranch with a home on what is now Bel Air Road. He subdivided and developed the property with large residential lots, with work on the master plan led by the landscape architect Mark Daniels. He also built the Bel-Air Bay Club in Pacific Palisades and the Bel-Air Country Club. His wife chose Italian names for the streets. She also founded the Bel-Air Garden Club in 1931. Together with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills, Bel Air forms the Platinum Triangle of Los Angeles neighborhoods. Fires On November 6, 1961, a fire ignited and devastated the community of Bel Air, destro ...
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Salon (website)
''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including reviews and articles about books, films, and music; articles about "modern life", including friendships, human sexual behavior, and relationships; and reviews and articles about technology, with a particular focus on the free and open-source software (FOSS) movement. According to the senior contributing writer for the ''American Journalism Review'', Paul Farhi, ''Salon'' offers "provocative (if predictably liberal) political commentary and lots of sex." In 2008, ''Salon'' launched the interactive initiative ''Open Salon'', a social content site/blog network for its readers. Originally a curated site with some of its content being featured on ''Salon'', it fell into editorial neglect and was closed in March 2015. Responding to the question ...
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1991 Deaths
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, 1991 Russian presidential election, elected as Russia's first President of Russia, president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet Union, Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, erupts in the Philippines, making it the List of large historical volcanic eruptions, second-largest Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruption of the 20th century; MTS Oceanos sinks off the coast of South Africa, but the crew notoriously abandons the vessel before the passengers are rescued; Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Flag of the Soviet Union, Soviet flag is lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the flag of the Russian Federation; The United States and soon-to-be dissolved Soviet Union sign the START I Treaty; A tropical cyclone 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, strikes Bangladesh, killing nearly 140,000 people; Lauda Air Flight ...
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1926 Births
Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos (general), Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Kingdom of Hejaz, Hejaz. ** Bảo Đại, Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Vietnam. * January 12 – Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program ''Sam 'n' Henry'', in which the two white performers portray two black characters from Harlem looking to strike it rich in the big city (it is a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, ''Amos 'n' Andy''). * January 16 – A BBC comic radio play broadcast by Ronald Knox, about a workers' revolution, causes a panic in London. * January 21 – The Belgian Parliament accepts the Locarno Treaties. * January 26 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system at his London laboratory for members of the Royal Institution and a report ...
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Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ...
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Suicide By Gun
A suicide method is any means by which a person chooses to end their life. Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a nonfatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, and brain damage. Worldwide, three suicide methods predominate with the pattern varying in different countries. These are hanging, poisoning by pesticides, and firearms. Some suicides are impulse decisions that may be preventable by removing the means. Making common suicide methods less accessible leads to an overall reduction in the number of suicides. Some ways to do this include restricting access to pesticides, firearms, and known-used drugs. Other important measures are the introduction of policies that address the misuse of alcohol and the treatment of mental disorders. Gun-control measures in a number of countries have seen a reduction in suicides and other gun-related deaths. Purpose of study The study of suicide methods aims to i ...
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North American X-15
The North American X-15 is a hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft. It was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as part of the X-plane series of experimental aircraft. The X-15 set speed and altitude records in the 1960s, reaching the edge of outer space and returning with valuable data used in aircraft and spacecraft design. The X-15's highest speed, , was achieved on 3October 1967, when William J. Knight flew at Mach6.7 at an altitude of , or 19.34miles. This set the official world record for the highest speed ever recorded by a crewed, powered aircraft, which remains unbroken. During the X-15 program, 12pilots flew a combined 199flights. Of these, 8pilots flew a combined 13flights which met the Air Force spaceflight criterion by exceeding the altitude of , thus qualifying these pilots as being astronauts; of those 13flights, two (flown by the same civilian pilot) met the FAI definition () of outer space. The 5Air Fo ...
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Velocipede
A velocipede () is a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle. The term was probably first coined by Karl von Drais in French as ''vélocipède'' for the French translation of his advertising leaflet for his version of the ''Laufmaschine'', also now called a 'dandy horse', which he had developed in 1817. It is ultimately derived from the Latin ''velox'', ''veloc-'' 'swift' + ''pes'', ''ped-'' 'foot'.''Oxford Dictionary of English'', 'velocipede' The term 'velocipede' is today mainly used as a collective term for the different forerunners of the monowheel, the unicycle, the bicycle, the dicycle, the tricycle and the quadracycle developed between 1817 and 1880. It refers especially to the forerunner of the modern bicycle that was propelled, like a modern tricycle, by cranks, i.e. pedals, attached to the front axle before the invention of geared chains and belt and shaft drives powering the rear. History Amo ...
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The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues covering two-week spans. Although its reviews and events listings often focus on the Culture of New York City, cultural life of New York City, ''The New Yorker'' has a wide audience outside New York and is read internationally. It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric American culture, its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of Short story, short stories and literary reviews, its rigorous Fact-checking, fact checking and copy editing, its journalism on politics and social issues, and its single-panel cartoons sprinkled throughout each issue. Overview and history ''The New Yorker'' was founded by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a ''The New York Times, N ...
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Fashion Doll
Fashion dolls are dolls primarily designed to be dressed to reflect fashion trends. They are manufactured both as toys for children to play with and as collectibles for adults. The dolls are usually modeled after teen girls or adult women, though child, male, and even some non-human variants exist. Contemporary fashion dolls are typically made of vinyl or another plastic. Barbie was released by the American toy-company Mattel in 1959, and was followed by many similar vinyl fashion dolls intended as children's toys. The size of the Barbie, 11.5 inches (290 mm) set the standard often used by other manufacturers. But fashion dolls have been made in many different sizes varying from 10.5 inches (270 mm) to 36 inches (900 mm). Costumers and seamstresses use fashion dolls as a canvas for their work. Customizers repaint faces, reroot hair, or do other alterations to the dolls themselves. Many of these works are one-of-a-kind. These artists are usually not ...
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Bild Lilli Doll
The Bild Lilli doll was a German fashion doll launched on August 12, 1955, and produced until 1964. Its design was based on the comic-strip character Lilli, created by Reinhard Beuthien for the German tabloid newspaper ''Bild''. The doll was made of polystyrene, came in two sizes, and had an available wardrobe of 1950s fashion. The Lilli doll was copied, and altered to some degree, for Mattel upon the direction of that company's co-founder, Ruth Handler. Mattel acquired the rights to Bild Lilli in 1964, and production of the German doll ceased, in favor of Mattel's new vinyl doll, which they called Barbie. History Lilli was a German cartoon character created by Reinhard Beuthien for the German tabloid ''Bild''. In 1953, the newspaper decided to market a Lilli doll and contacted Max Weissbrodt of the toy company O&M Hausser in Neustadt bei Coburg. Weissbrodt designed a prototype doll based on Beuthien's cartoons, which was sold from 1955 to 1964; that year Mattel acquired the righ ...
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Ruth Handler
Ruth Marianna Handler ( Mosko; November 4, 1916 – April 27, 2002) was an American businesswoman and inventor. Best known for inventing the Barbie doll in 1959, she served as the first president of toy manufacturer Mattel, Inc., which she co-founded with her husband in January 1945 until 1974 when the Handlers were forced to resign from Mattel, and in 1978 Ruth Handler was convicted of false reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Early life Handler was born Ruth Marianna Mosko in Denver, Colorado, to Polish-Jewish immigrants Ida Mosko (née Rubenstein) and Jacob Mosko. She married her high school boyfriend, Elliot Handler, and moved to Los Angeles in 1938. Her husband decided to make their furniture out of two newfound types of plastics, Lucite and Plexiglas. Ruth Handler suggested that he start doing this commercially and they began a furniture business. Ruth Handler worked as the sales force for the new business, landing contracts with Douglas Aircraft Company ...
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