StarCraft is a real-time strategy computer game by Blizzard Entertainment. Introduced in 1998, it was the best-selling computer game in that year and won the Origins Award for Best Strategy Computer Game of 1998. It is praised for being a benchmark of real-time strategy (RTS) games, due to its depth, intensity, and game balance. Blizzard estimated in 2005 that 9 million copies of StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War had been sold since its release, and it has achieved an international cult-like status in the computer gaming world, especially in its online multiplayer form. Set in a "space opera" environment, StarCraft is broadly similar to Blizzard's popular high fantasy RTS Warcraft II, but during the development process, there were great efforts to steer the game away from being simply "Warcraft in Space," and eventually the entire game engine was rewritten to achieve the desired result. (more...)

Claudius was the fourth Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, ruling from January 24, 41 to his death in 54. Born in Lugdunum in Gaul (modern-day Lyon, France), to Drusus and Antonia Minor, he was the first Roman Emperor to be born outside Italy. Claudius was considered a rather unlikely man to become emperor. He was reportedly afflicted with some type of disability, and his family had virtually excluded him from public office until his consulship with his nephew Caligula in 37. This infirmity may have saved him from the fate of many other Roman nobles during the purges of Tiberius and Caligula's reigns. His very survival led to his being declared emperor after Caligula's assassination, at which point he was the last adult male of his family. Despite his lack of political experience, Claudius proved to be an able administrator and a great builder of public works. His reign saw an expansion of the empire, including the conquest of Britain. (more...)

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• Ahmed Qurei is to resign as Prime Minister of Palestine as Hamas takes the lead in elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council.
• OGLE-2005-BLG-390L b, an Earth-like extrasolar planet, is discovered in the constellation Sagittarius near the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.
• Deus Caritas Est (Latin: "God is love"), the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, is published.
• Google agrees to block certain search terms from its service in China.
• In the Canadian federal election Stephen Harper's Conservatives defeat Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals and will form a minority government.

• ...that Peter the Great's eldest daughter, Anna Petrovna, died in childbirth aged 20, but all the living Romanovs descend from her?
• ...that the phrase The King is dead. Long live the King! was first used following the accession of Charles VII in 1422?
• ...that the Select Vestries Bill is read House of Lords at the start of each session of Parliament before a debate on the Queen's Speech, to demonstrate that the House chooses and sets its own business independently of the Crown?
• ...that Malcolm Perry was the first doctor to attend to President Kennedy and performed a tracheotomy which inadvertently destroyed ballistics evidence key to determining who assassinated the president?

• 1327 - Teenaged Edward III was crowned King of England, but the country was ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
• 1554 - Jesuit priests José de Anchieta and Manoel da Nóbrega established a mission at São Paulo dos Campos de Piratininga, which grew to become São Paulo, Brazil.
• 1924 - The first Winter Olympic Games opened at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France.
• 1971 - General Idi Amin seized power in Uganda from Milton Obote, beginning eight years of military rule.
• 2004 - Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity (artist's concept pictured) landed on Mars and rolled into Eagle crater, a small crater on the Meridiani Planum.

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