Sinister Appearance The SR-71 had been designed and built in secrecy at the “Skunk Works,” the clandestine Lockheed plant in Palmdale, Calif., headed by the legendary Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson. Test flights were carried out at Area 51, the then-unknown “black” air base north of Las Vegas. The Blackbird’s air of mystery, extraordinary performance, and sinister otherworldly appearance made it perhaps the most awe-inspiring aircraft of all time. Development of the Blackbird started around the time Francis Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia in May, 1960....

Abyssinia, an ancient African kingdom, became Ethiopia. Angora, the home of angora goats, became Ankara, the capital of Turkey. Bohemia was a European kingdom. After World War I, the Czech people of Bohemia and Moravia joined the Slovaks of Slovakia to form the country of Czechoslovakia (the country was divided in 1993 into Czech Republic and Slovakia). Burma, a country in Asia, was renamed Myanmar in 1989 by the military government....

Gloves were surrendered as a forfeit for an error or a crime.Gloves were given as party favors at weddings.Knights in armor carried gloves as talismans in their helmets during tournaments. The gloves belonged to a loved one.Gloves were used as a pledge.Gloves were thrown down as a challenge.

Take another poll Breaking from the Past The most notable change in this movie from the previous installments is the location: the grand halls of Hogwarts no longer constrain the set. Harry, Ron, and Hermione find themselves in a dangerous world on the run from death eaters and the like; the variety of astonishing landscapes in the movie causes one to realize the staleness of the wizarding school as a setting....

Aggtelek. In village of same name, northern Hungary. Large stalactitic cavern about 5 mi. long. Altamira Cave. Near Santander, Spain. Contains Stone Age animal paintings on roof and walls. Antiparos. On island of same name in the Grecian Archipelago. Some stalactites are 20 ft. long. Brilliant colors and fantastic shapes. Blue Grotto. On island of Capri, Italy. Sea cavern hollowed out in limestone by constant wave action. Now half filled with water because of sinking coast....

If Edwards can gain support in the typically red-state South, it would go a long way toward proving that he is the Democratic candidate with the best chance of defeating a Republican in the general election. Edwards was born in Seneca, South Carolina, to working-class parents. His father worked in a textile mill and his mother was a postal worker. John worked with his father at the mill and was the first in his family to attend college....

During a thunderstorm, avoid open spaces, trees, telephone booths, and ballparks. The safest place to be is in a building, preferably one with a lightning rod. The rod offers protection by intercepting lightning—an electrical charge—and transmitting its current into the ground. The other safe place is a car with the windows rolled up, as long as you don’t touch any of the metal parts. If lightning strikes, the car’s metal body will conduct the charge down to the ground—contrary to popular belief, the rubber of the wheels offers no protection....

Declines in the proportion of adults currently married have occurred for whites, blacks, and Hispanics,1 but the changes have been most pronounced for blacks. In 1996, 63% of white adults were currently married, down from 73% in 1970. Similarly, the proportion of Hispanics who were currently married declined from 72% to 58% between 1970 and 1996. Among black adults, 42% were currently married in 1996, a considerable decrease from 64% in 1970....

The easiest way to check your body fat distribution is to measure around your waistline with a tape measure and compare this with the measure around your hips or buttocks to see if your abdomen is larger. If you are in doubt, you may wish to seek advice from a health professional. Although limiting fat intake may help to prevent excess weight gain in children, fat should not be restricted to children younger than two years of age....

The smallest of the Houston octuplets, who died within several days, weighed only 10.3 ounces at birth — small enough to fit into the palm of a hand. And the surviving infants still face increased risks of death and significant lifelong health problems. Would reduction —a form of early selective abortion— have been a wiser choice? Should people with strong religious beliefs against reduction be taking part in these fertility treatments?...

The players have lost a combined $300 million in salary so far, and for the first time a player has spoken out against the union. Many of the lower-paid and younger players like Washington’s Tim Legler are publicly asking whether the leadership of the players’ union has their best interests at heart. They wonder if big-time players like Patrick Ewing and Michael Jordan are only interested in protecting their massive contracts, and the precious “Larry Bird exception”....

Related Links Conflict from 1948 through 2000 Recent History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Palestine Israel Recommended Reading List Why the Security Council? The Palestinian Authority is pursuing a Security Council vote to gain statehood as a full member of the UN rather than going to the General Assembly. One of the reasons for this is that the General Assembly can only give the Palestinian Authority non-member observer status at the UN, a lesser degree of statehood....

A Revolutionary Aircraft But the 747 has become the most famous and successful airliner of all time, a revolutionary aircraft that has reigned unchallenged for 35 years and earned Boeing an estimated $100 billion in sales. Thatâs almost certainly the largest figure for any single industrial product in history. In the mid-1960s air travel was growing exponentially, spurred by the 1958 introduction of the Boeing 707, the first successful jet airliner....

Judy Garland was 7 years old when she began singing in vaudeville shows with her two sisters. At 13 she obtained a movie contract. At 14 she starred in The Wizard of Oz. She continued to sing in musical comedy movies throughout the 1940s. When she died in 1969 at the age of 47, she had become a musical legend. More than 20,000 people attended her funeral. Elizabeth Taylor was born in England in 1932....

Auschwitz was only one of the Nazi concentration camps. They were built in the 1930s to exterminate Jews by killing them in gas chambers. Auschwitz, in Poland, is now called Oswiecim. Bangladesh, a small country next to India, is the site of a constant battle with nature and with environmental degradation made worse by humans. Over the years it has suffered from floods, tidal waves, cyclones, tornados, and famine. Belfast, in Northern Ireland, was long the scene of frequent terrorist activities in the struggle between Catholics and Protestants....

Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, has almost no atmosphere, and its dusty surface of craters resembles the Moon. The planet was named for the Roman god Mercury, a winged messenger, and it travels around the Sun faster than any other planet. Mercury is difficult to see from Earth—in fact, the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, for all his years of research and observation, never once was able to see Mercury....