Hi folks! You might have noticed the site looks different! Today we launched the BETA version of the new Good News Network -- the fourth version since the site launched in 1997. This update was urgently needed, because we were hacked twice last year, which was quite disturbing... This software is much more secure. Let me know what you think. We are still tweaking, adding some things, finding the bugs... Are there problems? Are you missing anything? Let me know in the comments below. (The FORUM isn't working yet, so don't try to go there!) Or, you can always send…

• Michelangelo's David is unveiled in Florence (1504)
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway was published (1952)
• The first episode of Star Trek, the science-fiction television classic, premiered on NBC (1966)
• The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was inaugurated in Washington, DC, with the premiere of Leonard Bernstein's Mass (1971)
• The first Oprah Winfrey Show aired (1986)
• The Republic of Macedonia became independent from Yugoslavia (1991)

  And, on this day in 2005, Russians flew humanitarian aid to the United States following Hurricane Katrina, landing two EMERCOM Il-76 aircraft…

A cybercrime report released in July 2010 revealed a 50 percent drop in the number of attacks on retail stores in 2009, with 143 million stolen records, down from 360 million the year before. (CS Monitor)