Sir Henry Morton Stanley, an explorer and journalist, was given the job of covering the Middle East and Africa for the New York Herald, an assignment which included a possible adventure: a Scottish missionary named David Livingstone had launched a search for the source of the Nile River in 1866 and no one had heard from him since. It was 1870.

On this date in 1871, near Lake Tanganyika, after an eight-month journey, the journalist found his story and his man. In his book about the encounter Sir Henry reports that he hailed the missionary with this sentence: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” but he destroyed the pages in his diary about the encounter so it is not known if this most famous greeting ever was uttered in real life. Dr. Livingstone made no mention of it in his memoirs, either.

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Arthur Rimbaud died on this date in 1891. Abel Gance died 35 years ago today. Ken Kesey died 15 years ago today. Jack Palance died 10 years ago today. Norman Mailer died on this date in 2007.

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Richard Burton was born in 1925 on this date.

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Ennio Morricone is 88 today. One of his more famous pieces of music:

 
Sir Tim Rice is 72. Ann Reinking is 67. Sinbad is 60 today. Neil Gaiman is 56.

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