June 8 Birthday
George Orwell's 1984 was published on June 8, 1949. Orwell, dying of tuberculosis, wrote it on a remote Scottish island. The novel introduced "Big Brother," "doublethink," "thoughtcrime," and "Newspeak" to the language. The adjective "Orwellian" has been so overused that it has nearly lost its meaning, but the original concept — of a state that controls not just behavior but thought — remains powerful. Orwell died six months after publication, at forty-six. He had requested that no biography be written. Several have been written. Frank Lloyd Wright, born this day in 1867, was eighty when he designed Fallingwater, one of the most beautiful houses ever built. He designed over 1,000 structures, of which 532 were built. His career spanned seventy years. He ran off with a client's wife, his home and studio were burned by a servant who killed seven people, and he was married three times. His Imperial Hotel in Tokyo survived the 1923 earthquake — the only major building to do so. People born on June 8 fall under the zodiac sign of Gemini. The birthstone is Pearl and the birth flower is Rose. Historical events on June 8 include 632: Prophet Muhammad dies in Medina, 1949: George Orwell's novel 1984 published in London, 1968: James Earl Ray arrested at London airport for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.. Famous people born on June 8 include Frank Lloyd Wright (1867), Barbara Bush (1925), Joan Rivers (1933).