Today in History (April 4th):
1581: Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the world and was knighted by Elizabeth I.
1802: Birthdays: Social reformer Dorothea Dix.
1818: The U.S. Congress approved the first flag of the United States.
1821: Birthdays: Inventor Linus Yale, developer of the cylinder lock.
1841: U.S. President William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia after serving for one month. He was the ninth U.S. president and the first to die in office. He was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler, first person to occupy the office without being elected to it.
1850: The city of Los Angeles, Calif., was incorporated.
1887: Susanna Medora Salter was elected as the first woman mayor in the United States, serving for one year as head of the municipal government of Argonia in south central Kansas.
1888: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Tris Speaker.
1895: Birthdays: Dance school founder Arthur Murray.
1896: The Yukon gold rush began with the announcement of a strike in the Northwest Territory of Canada. Birthdays: Author/playwright Robert E. Sherwood.
1906: Birthdays: Broadcast news commentator John Cameron Swayze; Actor Bea Benaderet.
1913: Birthdays: Blues musician Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield.
1928: Birthdays: Author Maya Angelou.
1932: Birthdays: Actor Anthony Perkins.
1938: Birthdays: Former baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti.
1939: Birthdays: South African musician Hugh Masekela; Golf Hall of Fame member JoAnne Carner.
1942: Birthdays: Author Kitty Kelley.
1944: Birthdays: Actor Craig T. Nelson.
1949: Representatives of 12 nations gathered in Washington to sign the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the NATO alliance.
1950: Birthdays: Actor Christine Lahti.
1960: Birthdays: Actor Hugo Weaving.
1963: Birthdays: Irish television talk show host Graham Norton.
1965: Birthdays: Actor Robert Downey Jr.
1968: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated as he stood on the balcony of a Memphis hotel. He was 39.
1975: Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
1976: Birthdays: Actor James Roday.
1979: Birthdays: Actor Heath Ledger.
1983: The space shuttle Challenger lifted off on its inaugural mission.
1991: U.S. Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., and four others were killed when their chartered airplane collided with a helicopter near Philadelphia.
1992: Sam Moore Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, died of cancer at 74. His retail store chain helped make him one of the world’s richest men.
1993: U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin ended a two-day summit in Canada, with a larger than expected U.S. aid pledge of $1.62 billion.
2000: The Nasdaq composite index plunged 574 points (more than 13 percent) but then rose 500 points in one of the wildest days ever on Wall Street.
2003: Coalition forces encircled Baghdad and secured Saddam International Airport in overnight fighting.
2005: The body of Pope John Paul II lay in state in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Cause of death for the 84-year-old pontiff was said officially to be septic shock and cardio-circulatory failure. The president of Kyrgyzstan, Askar Akayev, officially resigned after being driven out by a coup a month earlier.
2007: Radio talk show host Don Imus was fired for making what was termed a sexually and racially offensive remark about the predominantly African-American black Rutgers University women’s basketball team.
2008: Police raided a West Texas polygamist ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and removed 400 minors after reports of sexual abuse of children. Chinese paramilitary police are reported to have killed eight people after opening fire on several hundred protesting Tibetan monks and villagers at a monastery in the Sichuan province.
2009: North Korea launched a long-range test missile despite warnings from the United States, the United Nations and others. North Korean officials said they sought to determine how to put a satellite into space.
2010: Car bombers detonated three explosions in Baghdad, killing at least 32 people and wounding several dozen more.
2011: U.S. President Barack Obama launched his bid for re-election with a message to supporters, coming at a time his approval ratings had hit a low of 41 percent. A U.N. plane crashed as it was landing in Kinshasa, Congo, killing 32 of the 33 people aboard.
2012: The U.S. military approved a death penalty trial for Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other detainees charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States that resulted in 2,976 deaths.
Quotes
“What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.” – Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)
“The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.” – Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
“You only have power over people as long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power — he’s free again.” – Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (1918-2008)
“Walking is also an ambulation of mind.” – Gretel Ehrlich, novelist, poet, and essayist (b. 1946)
“To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell.” – Proverb
Maya Angelou (1928- ) American writer and performer:
“A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning’s greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.”
“Achievement brings its own anticlimax.”
“All great achievements require time.”
“All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.”
“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”
“As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.”
“At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.”
“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”
“Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.”
“Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.”
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“Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations.”
literal
PRONUNCIATION: (LI-deh-rehl)
MEANING: (adjective), Factual, exact, free of any elaboration or metaphor, at face value. It should not be substituted for “actual(ly)” or “real(ly),” which are tossed about freely when we wish to simply say, “Would you believe that…” The antonym is figurative “metaphoric, not to be taken at face value.”
ETYMOLOGY: Latin litera “letter (of the alphabet);” thus, the term is semantically parallel to the expressions “follow these instructions to the letter” and “letter of the law.” The origin of “litera” is unknown, possibly Etruscan. Avoid misusage: “The boss called me into his office and literally slapped me on the wrist.” If the slapping were literal, bruise marks about the wrist should be clearly visible. A “slap on the wrist” is a figurative expression meaning “mild reprimand.” You try one: “John flew off to New York” versus “John flew off the handle.” Which “flew off” is literal and which, figurative?
USAGE: “Be careful when you speak with Brian, as he has a literal mind and will take every word you say at face value.”
malapert
PRONUNCIATION: (MAL-uh-puhrt)
http://wordsmith.org/words/malapert.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Boldly disrespectful.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French mal- (bad, wrong) + apert (bold, insolent, clever), from Latin apertus (open). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to cover), which also gave us overt, cover, warranty, warren, garage, garret, garment, garrison, garnish, guarantee, and pert. Earliest documented use: 1400.
USAGE: “Malapert and cheeky, she gazed up at him.” – Susan Johnson; Wicked; Bantam Books; 1996.
soubrette
PRONUNCIATION: (soo-BRET)
http://wordsmith.org/words/soubrette.mp3
MEANING: noun:
1. A maidservant or lady’s maid in a play or an opera, especially one who displays coquetry and engages in intrigue.
2. A young woman regarded as flirtatious.
3. A soprano who sings supporting roles in comic opera.
ETYMOLOGY: From French soubrette (maidservant), from Provençal soubreto, feminine of soubret (coy), from soubra (to set aside), from Latin superare (to be above). Ultimately from the Indo-European root uper (over) which is also the source of over, sovereign, super, supreme, sirloin, soprano, somersault, and hyper. Earliest documented use: 1753.
USAGE:
“Paloma Herrera played the soubrette who lures the hero from his longtime girlfriend, abandoning her own fiancé in the process.” – Elizabeth Zimmer; Stars in Alignment; The Australian (Sydney); Aug 1, 2009.
“Rebecca Bottone’s light soubrette contrasts well with Watts’s more voluptuous timbre.” – Hugh Canning; Catch Her If You Can; The Sunday Times (London, UK); Nov 8, 2009.
Explore “soubrette” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=soubrette
beau geste
PRONUNCIATION: (bo ZHEST) plural beaux gestes (bo ZHEST)
http://wordsmith.org/words/beau_geste.mp3
MEANING: noun: A gracious, but often meaningless, gesture.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally fine gesture. Earliest documented use: 1920.
USAGE: “An effective encore doesn’t risk becoming an empty beau geste; it is an emotional p.s. somehow relating to the mood of the written program.” – Peter Dobrin; Applauding the Orchestra for Offering Encores; The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania); Jan 15, 2011.
Explore “beau geste” in the Visual Thesaurus.
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entrepot
PRONUNCIATION: (AHN-truh-po)
http://wordsmith.org/words/entrepot.mp3
MEANING: noun: A place, such as a warehouse, port, or trading center, to which goods are brought for distribution to other parts of the world.
ETYMOLOGY: From French entrepôt (warehouse), from entreposer (to store), from entre (among) + poser (to place). Earliest documented use: 1721.
USAGE: “Jerusalem is a city that has never made anything but history. It is not an entrepot, a manufactory, a place of finance, or a crossroads.” – Barnaby Rogerson; Holy City, Murky History; The Independent (London, UK); Jan 21, 2011.
Explore “entrepot” in the Visual Thesaurus.
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parry
PRONUNCIATION: (PAR-ee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/parry.mp3
MEANING:
verb tr.: To ward off or evade.
noun: A defensive movement or an evasive answer.
ETYMOLOGY: From French parez (ward off), imperative of parer (to ward off), from Latin parare (to set or prepare). Earliest documented use: 1655.
USAGE: “In the way Ryan Gosling parried questions with polite, self-deprecating charm, you could still see the Canadian in him.” – Brian Johnson; Red Hot Ryan; Maclean’s (Toronto, Canada); Sep 19, 2011.
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http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=parry
desideratum
PRONUNCIATION: (di-sid-uh-RAY-tuhm, -RAA-)
http://wordsmith.org/words/desideratum.mp3
MEANING: (noun), Something considered necessary or desirable.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin desideratum (something desired), from desiderare (to desire).
USAGE: “The researchers also asked what qualities the two groups [well-off vs street children] of young people would like to see in an ‘ideal’ Russian president. Twenty-nine percent of both groups said that the ideal president should be kind and tough, with the children of the street slightly more inclined than their better-off counterparts to stress kindness as a desideratum.” – Paul Goble; Wealthier Moscow Teenagers More Inclined to View U.S. as Russia’s Enemy; The Moscow Times (Russia); Jun 21, 2009.
Explore “desideratum” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=desideratum