On this Day...

[News Crew]

On this date in 1719, Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe, was first published.  The book was reportedly based on a real life pirate, Alexander Selkirk, who asked to be marooned on a small island in the Pacific rather than sail with a captain he did not trust.  But that may have only been one of the inspirations for the novel, as this excerpt from WIKIPEDIA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) suggests:The story was likely influenced by the real life Alexander Selkirk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Selkirk), a Scottish castaway who lived four years on the Pacific island called Más a Tierra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1s_a_Tierra) (in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe_Island)), Chile (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile). However, the details of Crusoe's island were probably based on the Caribbean (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Sea) island of Tobago (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobago), since that island lies a short distance north of the Venezuelan coast near the mouth of the Orinoco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orinoco) river, and in sight of the island of Trinidad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad).Ibn Tufail (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Tufail)'s Hayy ibn Yaqdhan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayy_ibn_Yaqdhan), an earlier novel also set on a desert island (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_island).[ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe#cite_note-Filreis-5)6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe#cite_note-Filreis-5)] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe#cite_note-Filreis-5)  Read more about this classic book HERE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Crusoe) 

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