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Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 film noir containing elements of drama, horror, and black comedy. Directed and cowritten by Billy Wilder, it was named for the famous boulevard that runs through Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. William Holden plays down-on-his-luck screenwriter Joe Gillis and Gloria Swanson is Norma Desmond, a faded movie star who entraps the unsuspecting Gillis into her fantasy world in which she dreams of making a triumphant return to the screen. Director Cecil B. DeMille and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper portray themselves, and the film includes cameo appearances by leading silent film figures Buster Keaton, H. B. Warner and Anna Q. Nilsson. Praised by many critics when first released, Sunset Boulevard was nominated for eleven Academy Awards and won three. It is widely accepted as a classic, often cited as one of the most noteworthy films of American cinema. Deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress in 1989, Sunset Boulevard was included in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

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Selected anniversaries

November 3: Eid ul-Fitr begins at sunset (Islam, 2005); Independence Day in Panama (1903), Dominica (1978) and the Federated States of Micronesia (1986).

• 1793 - French playwright, journalist and outspoken feminist Olympe de Gouges was guillotined for her revolutionary ideas.
• 1838 - The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper, was founded.
• 1848 - A new constitution drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke was proclaimed, severely limiting the powers of the monarchy of the Netherlands.
• 1957 - The Sputnik 2 spacecraft was launched, carrying Laika the Russian space dog (pictured) as the first living being to orbit the Earth.
• 1971 - The UNIX Programmer's Manual was first published.

Recent days: November 2 – November 1 – October 31

In the news

• Rioting in Paris suburbs, triggered by the death of two Muslim teenagers, continues for a seventh consecutive night.
• David Blunkett resigns from the UK Cabinet for a second time following allegations of ministerial misconduct.
• The U.S. Senate enters a rare closed session to discuss the Plame affair and intelligence in the Iraq disarmament crisis.
• Justice John Gomery releases his first report on corruption in the Liberal Party of Canada and the sponsorship scandal.
• The Hubble Space Telescope discovers two possible new moons of Pluto.
• German grand coalition: CSU leader Edmund Stoiber will not serve in the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Franz Müntefering retires as SPD leader.