Tarakash Josh! : A website for Youth!

Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke died in Colombo, Shrilanka early Wednesday. He was 90.

The British-born Clarke, best known for his novel "2001: A Space Odyssey", died of a cardio respiratory attack, said his personal assistant Rohan De Silva. A victim of polio, Clarke had been in a wheel chair for a number of years. He has authored 80 books and hundreds of articles.

Born on Dec 16, 1917, Clarke had served as a radar specialist in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the World War II, even as he was writing on science.

Some interesting facts about Arthur Clark:

1. He was born in England. He joined the British Interplanetary Society in 1930.
2. He joined the British Royal Air Force during second world war as Radar System Engineer. He got the idea of writing his novel "Gliderpath" during this tenure.
3. He put forwarded the idea of launching communication satellite in 1945. Everyone ruled out his vision, but after 25 years it became reality when Russia blasted off a satellite into orbit.
4. In 1940 he said that human will reach to the moon by year 2000. No one believed him, but the fact is human reached Moon well before that in 1969. NASA admitted that it benefited from his ideas.
5. He came to Srilanka in 1954 as a tourist, but later settled down in the country.