More Facts of the Day

Star Wars
The first Star Wars movie was released in 1977. The studio was unhappy with Star Wars as a title after negative market testing. A competition was held during shooting for cast and crew to come up with a better one, but nothing stuck. The film was initially budgeted at $8 million but production problems forced the studio to contribute an additional $3 million. Within three weeks of the film's release, 20th Century Fox's stock price doubled to a record high. Its success spawned a host of other science fiction films using the same newly developed computer-based special-effects technologies that Star Wars had used so effectively. The famous opening title sequence of the Star Wars series was first used in a series called Phantom Creeps (1939). George Lucas is said to have based the character of Hans Solo (Harrison Ford) on his friend, director Francis Ford Coppola.

Stratosphere
In 1931, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer made the first manned balloon flight into the stratosphere. They were launched in a balloon, designed by Piccard, from Augsburg, Germany and in a pressurized cabin they rose almost 10 miles (51,775 feet) during the flight. During the flight, Piccard gathered valuable information regarding the intensity of cosmic rays in the stratosphere and also recorded a wide range of stratospheric temperatures.

Guillotine
The guillotine was named for Dr. Joseph Guillotin, the French physician and member of the National Assembly during the French Revolution, who proposed the method of decapitation for death sentences. He saw this method as less painful and more certain than previously used methods. The guillotine was first used in April 1792 for the execution of highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier. At first the machine was called Louisette, or Louison, but soon became known as la guillotine. In September 1981, France outlawed capital punishment and abandoned the use of the guillotine.

Indianapolis 500
The Indianapolis 500 is recognized as the world's largest one-day sporting event. First run in 1911, it is an annual Memorial Day weekend tradition. The race was not run in 1917-1918 and 1942-1945. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway was built in 1909 as a testing facility for the local automotive industry. The track was first paved with crushed rock and tar but then repaved with brick; hence the speedway is often called "the Brickyard." Resurfacing with asphalt has covered all but a 36-inch strip of bricks at the start/finish line. The 2 1/2-mile track has two 3,300-foot straightaway’s, two 660-foot straightaway’s, and four quarter-mile turns each banked to around 9 degrees.

Fireworks
Fireworks originated with the ancient Chinese, from military rockets and explosive missiles. During the Middle Ages in Europe, fireworks spread as a type of military explosive. Later, pyrotechnics came to be used in celebrations of victory and peace.