Martian Author Dies During Venus Transit
Ray Bradbury — author of The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and other science fiction and literary classics — died Tuesday evening, June 5, 2012, in Los Angeles, at the age of 91, according to his daughter. He was born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920, the son of a utility lineman. He was the third son and he was given his middle name, Douglas, after the famous actor Douglas Fairbanks.
As a child he soaked up the ambiance of small-town life — wraparound porches, fireflies and the soft, golden light of late afternoon — that would later become a hallmark of much of his fiction, noted the Chicago Tribune upon his death.
“When I was born in 1920,” he told the New York Times Magazine in 2000, “the auto was only 20 years old. Radio didn't exist. TV didn't exist. I was born at just the right time to write about all of these things.”
The Transit of Venus lasted from the evening of June 5th (in North America) to the morning of June 6th (in Europe). Ray Bradbury's death may be the one most remembered and recalled when the question arises, "Who passed away during the Transit of Venus in 2012?"
