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Ted Turner's Cable News Network, headquartered in Atlanta, began 24-hour live news broadcasts this day in 1980 and gained worldwide attention in 1991 for its around-the-clock coverage of the Persian Gulf War.

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1968: Blind and deaf American author Helen Keller died in Westport, Connecticut.

1945: In a speech, Indonesian nationalist leader Sukarno articulated the Pancasila—the Five Principles—that became the founding philosophy of the independent Indonesian state.

1926: American motion-picture star Marilyn Monroe was born in Los Angeles.

1794: The first great naval engagement of the French revolutionary wars, the Battle of the First of June, was fought between England and France in the Atlantic Ocean.

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman, whose emotional depth and versatility made him one of the most respected performers of his generation and the winner of an Academy Award for his role in Million Dollar Baby (2004), was born this day in 1937.

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Edward, Duke of Windsor, who has made numerous appearances in recent films and television productions, was a bold fashion innovator who challenged the rigid parameters of proper male dress with eased style-lines, unorthodox fabric and pattern combinations, and a fluid, yet body-conscious silhouette. His political potential may have been slight, but his style was substantial. In the media blast surrounding the Royal Wedding, old newsreels of the suave royalas the sporty Prince of Wales and the romance-intoxicated sovereign who gave up his throne to marry his American divorceprompted us to wonder, why don't today's men dress more like the dashing Duke?

As the kids at the National Spelling Bee get ready to battle it out for spelling supremacy this week in Washington, D.C., and amaze us (and embarrass us?) with their skills, we polled some of Britannica's editors for their favorite words.

On March 19, 2011, President Barack Obama authorized military strikes on Libya to take out Libyan air defenses and protect rebels from attack. He told congressional leaders that the involvement would last "days, not weeks," and he claimed the authority of the UN Security Council for his assault. But the UN can't authorize American military intervention. As candidateand senator, and former professor of constitutional law -- Obama understood in 2007, Congress must authorize the use of military force.

Freshwater crayfish are unable to survive in polluted waters and are generally the first species to disappear when the water does get polluted.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is the largest arts festival in the world. But with an almost round-the-clock programme of events at your fingertips, huge accommodation price hikes plus the issue of keeping yourself fed and watered, can the Edinburgh Festival still be a worthy experience on a shoestring?

Released in 1989, Heathers is a tightly written black comedy that looks unblinkingly at that bane of schoolchildren everywhere—namely, bullies and bullying. It’s also a nicely dark cap to a decade that saw plenty of school comedies of sunnier disposition, including several by John Hughes.

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a holiday to honor those who have died in the nation's wars.

John Hughes's film Ferris Bueller's Day Off turns 25 this year, and it remains a definitive study of the dread malady known as senioritis.

On Saturday, the human rights group Amnesty International, which celebrates the 50th anniversary since its founding in London. What impact has Amnesty had in the last 50 years? To assess that question, we turned to Britannica senior editor Brian Duignan,

Is the Republican presidential field a freak show, a bunch of clowns, formidable, or at least not that bad? As the 2012 Republican primary field takes shape, handicapping the race and who might or might not get in is the best parlor game around the Web, as is lamenting that the field needs better candidates.

Journalist David Mendell has been writing about urban issues and politics for the Chicago Tribune since 1998. From October 2003 to November 2004, Mendell covered Barack Obama's U.S. Senate campaign for the Tribune. Having gained intimate access to Obama and his top aides, the journalist spent nearly three years thereafter researching and writing his biography of the senator, Obama: From Promise to Power. Mendell, who's also authored Britannica's biography of Obama, has kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the new U.S. president.

Advice for President Obama: There is no such thing as bargain-basement regime change. The failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion made Kennedy appear weak, inexperienced, indecisive, and the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khruschev, tried to capitalize on the youthful American presidents failings. Four months after the invasion Khruschev began building the Wall to divide Communist East Berlin from West Berlin. Less than a year later Khruschev and Castro planned to install nuclear missiles on the island of Cuba---only ninety miles from the United States---a decision that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.