Tom Cruise Biography
Click to see a photo gallery of Tom Cruise.
Actor. Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, on July 3rd, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, to Mary and Thomas Mapother. Cruise's mother was an amateur actress and schoolteacher, and his father was an electrical engineer. His family moved around a great deal when Cruise was a child in order to accommodate his father's career.
Cruise's parents divorced when he was 11, and the children moved with their mother to Louisville, Kentucky, and then to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, after her remarriage. Like his mother and three sisters, Cruise suffered from dyslexia, which made academic success difficult for him.
He excelled in athletics, however, and considered pursuing a career in professional wrestling until a knee injury sidelined him during high school.
At age 14, Cruise enrolled in a Franciscan seminary with thoughts of becoming a priest, but he left after a year. When he was 16, a teacher encouraged him to participate in the school's production of the musical Guys and Dolls. After Cruise won the lead of Nathan Detroit, he found himself surprisingly at home on the stage, and a career was born.
Cruise set a 10-year deadline for himself in which to build an acting career. He left school and moved to New York, struggling through audition after audition before landing an appearance in 1981's Endless Love, starring Brooke Shields.
Around this same time, he snagged a small role in the military school drama Taps (1981), co-starring Sean Penn.
martes, junio 21, 2011
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
(Diana Frances;[N 1] née Spencer;1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and Henry, are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth Realms.
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana remained the focus of near-constant media scrutiny in the United Kingdom and around the world up to and during her marriage, and after her subsequent divorce. Her sudden death in a car crash was followed by a spontaneous and prolonged show of public mourning. Contemporary responses to Diana's life and legacy have been mixed but a popular fascination with the Princess endures. The long awaited Coroner's Inquest concluded in April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the negligent driving of the following vehicles and the driver of the Mercedes in which they were travelling.
Engagement and wedding
Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, with the heir to the throne presenting the princess-to-be with a walnut-sized £30,000 ring consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire.[8] Diana accepted the proposal immediately.
The 20-year-old became the Princess of Wales when she married Prince Charles at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, which was previously used for royal nuptials, on 29 July 1981 in what was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" watched by a global television audience of 750 million.[9][10] At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles' names, saying Philip Charles Arthur George instead.[11] She also did not say she would "obey," which caused a sensation at the time.[12] The wedding started at 11:20 A.M. BST, and Diana wore a gown valued at £9000 with 25 foot train and the finest lace.[13]
Children
On 5 November 1981, Diana's first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her condition to the press.[14] In the private Lindo wing of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington on 21 June 1982, Diana gave birth to her first son and heir, William.[15] There was some controversy in the media when she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major overseas visit to Australia and New Zealand.[16] A second son, Henry was born a little over two years later on 15 September 1984.[17] Diana was a devoted mother and, like most mothers, lavished her sons with love and affection.[18] They came first and foremost in her life. It was she who chose their schools, their clothes and planned their outings. She also negotiated her public duties around their time-tables.
Charity work
Starting in the mid- to late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became very well known for her support of several charity projects. This stemmed naturally from her role as Princess of Wales—she was expected to engage in hospital visits where she comforted the sick and in so doing, assumed the patronage of various charitable organisations—and form an interest in certain illnesses and health-related matters. Diana was a supporter of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a campaign that went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.[34]
AIDS awareness
In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching a person infected with HIV at the 'chain of hope' organization. She contributed to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers.
Landmines
In January 1997, pictures of the Princess touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket were seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused the Princess of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon.'[35] In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after a conflict is over.
She is believed to have influenced the signing, though only after her death, of the Ottawa Treaty, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines.[36] Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill 1998 to the British House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, paid tribute to Diana's work on landmines:
“
All Honourable Members will be aware from their postbags of the immense contribution made by Diana, Princess of Wales to bringing home to many of our constituents the human costs of landmines. The best way in which to record our appreciation of her work, and the work of NGOs that have campaigned against landmines, is to pass the Bill, and to pave the way towards a global ban on landmines.[37]
”
—Robin Cook
The United Nations appealed to the nations which produced and stockpiled the largest numbers of landmines (United States, China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia) to sign the Ottawa Treaty forbidding their production and use, for which Diana had campaigned. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that landmines remained "a deadly attraction for children, whose innate curiosity and need for play often lure them directly into harm's way".
Memorials
Immediately after her death, many sites around the world became briefly ad hoc memorials to Diana, where the public left flowers and other tributes. The largest was outside the gates of Kensington Palace.
(Diana Frances;[N 1] née Spencer;1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales. Their sons, Princes William and Henry, are second and third in line to the thrones of the United Kingdom and fifteen other Commonwealth Realms.
A public figure from the announcement of her engagement to Prince Charles, Diana remained the focus of near-constant media scrutiny in the United Kingdom and around the world up to and during her marriage, and after her subsequent divorce. Her sudden death in a car crash was followed by a spontaneous and prolonged show of public mourning. Contemporary responses to Diana's life and legacy have been mixed but a popular fascination with the Princess endures. The long awaited Coroner's Inquest concluded in April 2008 that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the negligent driving of the following vehicles and the driver of the Mercedes in which they were travelling.
Engagement and wedding
Their engagement became official on 24 February 1981, with the heir to the throne presenting the princess-to-be with a walnut-sized £30,000 ring consisting of 14 diamonds surrounding a sapphire.[8] Diana accepted the proposal immediately.
The 20-year-old became the Princess of Wales when she married Prince Charles at St Paul's Cathedral, which offered more seating than Westminster Abbey, which was previously used for royal nuptials, on 29 July 1981 in what was widely billed as a "fairytale wedding" watched by a global television audience of 750 million.[9][10] At the altar Diana accidentally reversed the order of Charles' names, saying Philip Charles Arthur George instead.[11] She also did not say she would "obey," which caused a sensation at the time.[12] The wedding started at 11:20 A.M. BST, and Diana wore a gown valued at £9000 with 25 foot train and the finest lace.[13]
Children
On 5 November 1981, Diana's first pregnancy was officially announced, and she frankly discussed her condition to the press.[14] In the private Lindo wing of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington on 21 June 1982, Diana gave birth to her first son and heir, William.[15] There was some controversy in the media when she decided to take William, still a baby, on her first major overseas visit to Australia and New Zealand.[16] A second son, Henry was born a little over two years later on 15 September 1984.[17] Diana was a devoted mother and, like most mothers, lavished her sons with love and affection.[18] They came first and foremost in her life. It was she who chose their schools, their clothes and planned their outings. She also negotiated her public duties around their time-tables.
Charity work
Starting in the mid- to late 1980s, the Princess of Wales became very well known for her support of several charity projects. This stemmed naturally from her role as Princess of Wales—she was expected to engage in hospital visits where she comforted the sick and in so doing, assumed the patronage of various charitable organisations—and form an interest in certain illnesses and health-related matters. Diana was a supporter of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a campaign that went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.[34]
AIDS awareness
In April 1987, the Princess of Wales was one of the first high-profile celebrities to be photographed touching a person infected with HIV at the 'chain of hope' organization. She contributed to changing the public opinion of AIDS sufferers.
Landmines
In January 1997, pictures of the Princess touring an Angolan minefield in a ballistic helmet and flak jacket were seen worldwide. It was during this campaign that some accused the Princess of meddling in politics and declared her a 'loose cannon.'[35] In August 1997, just days before her death, she visited Bosnia with the Landmine Survivors Network. Her interest in landmines was focused on the injuries they create, often to children, long after a conflict is over.
She is believed to have influenced the signing, though only after her death, of the Ottawa Treaty, which created an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines.[36] Introducing the Second Reading of the Landmines Bill 1998 to the British House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, paid tribute to Diana's work on landmines:
“
All Honourable Members will be aware from their postbags of the immense contribution made by Diana, Princess of Wales to bringing home to many of our constituents the human costs of landmines. The best way in which to record our appreciation of her work, and the work of NGOs that have campaigned against landmines, is to pass the Bill, and to pave the way towards a global ban on landmines.[37]
”
—Robin Cook
The United Nations appealed to the nations which produced and stockpiled the largest numbers of landmines (United States, China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia) to sign the Ottawa Treaty forbidding their production and use, for which Diana had campaigned. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said that landmines remained "a deadly attraction for children, whose innate curiosity and need for play often lure them directly into harm's way".
Memorials
Immediately after her death, many sites around the world became briefly ad hoc memorials to Diana, where the public left flowers and other tributes. The largest was outside the gates of Kensington Palace.
domingo, junio 19, 2011
William Kamkwamba * Africa
AFRICA * PROJECTS * CHILD PRODIGYWilliam Kamkwamba *Most inspiring 2009: It has to be TED and their amazing stories, among them I have selected the story of, 14 year old William Kamkwamba, who decided to build a windmill to get electricity to his familys home in rural Malawi.
He simply went to the library, read up on the rudimentary workings on a electric generator, decided to improve on the design and then built the windmill with salvaged scrap parts, providing electricity for his family’s home. The power of human curiosity, willingness to learn, triumph of reason and dispersion of information.
This story resonates with everything that is good about humanity and our inherent power to overcome obstacles. Watch and learn !!!
Henry Junior Fr * http://www.henrijunior.fr
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