Nebula Science Fiction was the first Scottish
science fiction magazine. It was published from 1952 to 1959, and was edited by Peter Hamilton, a young Scot who was able to take advantage of spare capacity at his parents' printing company, Crownpoint, to launch the magazine. Nebula's circulation was international, with only a quarter of the sales in the United Kingdom; this led to disaster when both South Africa and Australia imposed import controls on foreign periodicals at the end of the 1950s.
Excise duties imposed in the UK added to Hamilton's financial burdens, and he was rapidly forced to close the magazine down. The last issue was dated June 1959. The magazine was popular with writers, partly because Hamilton went to great lengths to encourage new writers, and partly because he paid better rates per word than much of his competition. Initially he could not compete with the American market, but he offered a bonus for the most popular story in the issue, and was eventually able to match the leading American magazines. He published the first stories of several well-known writers, including
Robert Silverberg,
Brian Aldiss, and
Bob Shaw. Nebula was also a fan favourite: author
Ken Bulmer recalls that it became "what many fans regard as the best-loved British SF magazine". (
more...)
... that Muslims and followers of Chinese religious traditions pray together at Sam Poo Kong(pictured), the oldest Chinese temple in
Semarang, Indonesia?
... that the race horse Phosphorus sprained a leg and was rejected by his jockey shortly before winning the 1837
Derby Stakes, during which he aggravated his injury and did not race again that year?
... that Indonesian film director Ifa Isfansyah is expected to marry the daughter of
another director, who is a director herself?
... that a fire in
Christiania in 1858 left about 1,000 people homeless?
... that the medieval Anglo-Norman nobleman William de Chesney took the surname of his mother's family, as did his paternal half-brother Simon, even though Simon wasn't related to that family?
1980 – With the assistance of Canadian government officials, six American diplomats who had avoided capture in the
Iran hostage crisisescaped to
Zurich, Switzerland.
2002 – An explosion at a military storage facility in
Lagos, Nigeria, killed at least 1,100 people and displaced over 20,000 others.
Grapefruit is the
citrus fruit of the grapefruit tree (Citrus
× paradisi), an 18th-century
hybrid first bred in
Barbados. The fruit is yellow-orange skinned and largely an
oblate spheroid; it grows to about 10–15 cm (4–6 in) in diameter. The flesh is segmented and
acidic, varying in color depending on the
cultivars, which include white, pink and red pulps of varying sweetness (Ruby Red variety shown here).
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