Today in History (April 16th):
1862: The U.S. Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia.
1867: Birthdays: Aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright.
1889: Birthdays: Movie legend Charlie Chaplin.
1912: Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly a plane across the English Channel.
1921: Birthdays: British actor Peter Ustinov.
1922: Birthdays: Writer Kingsley Amis.
1924: Birthdays: Composer/conductor Henry Mancini.
1927: Birthdays: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI; Actor Edie Adams.
1928: Birthdays: Football Hall of fame member Dick Night Train Lane.
1930: Birthdays: Jazz flutist Herbie Mann.
1935: Birthdays: Singer Bobby Vinton.
1939: Birthdays: Singer Dusty Springfield.
1947: In Texas City’s port on Galveston Bay, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp ignited ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials in the ship’s hold, causing a massive blast that destroyed much of the city and claimed nearly 600 lives. Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Fame member Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
1954: Birthdays: Actor Ellen Barkin.
1963: The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail while imprisoned in Alabama for protesting segregation.
1965: Birthdays: Actor Jon Cryer; Actor Martin Lawrence.
1971: Birthdays: Actor Peter Billingsley; Tejeno singer Selena (Quintanilla).
1972: Apollo 16 blasted off on an 11-day moon mission with three U.S. astronauts aboard.
1973: Birthdays: Singer Akon.
1975: The government of Cambodia asked communist insurgents for a cease-fire and offered to turn power over to them.
1990: Dr. Jack Kevorkian helped in his first assisted suicide.
1991: The first Jewish settlement under the Israeli government opened in the occupied territories, defying a U.S. request to stop settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
1992: The U.S. House of Representatives ethics committee released the names of more than 300 check-bouncers, ending an inquiry into the House bank scandal that rocked the U.S. Congress and raised havoc in election campaigns. The FDA ruled silicone breast implants may be returned to market but only with severe restrictions limiting them to women who have urgent need.
1999: Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL after 21 years.
2002: The premier and members of his Dutch government resigned after a report faulted them, along with the United Nations, for a 1995 massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Bosnia.
2005: Sudan said initial oil drilling operations in the troubled Darfur region indicated there is abundant oil in the area.
2006: Iranian officials said they had 40,000 suicide bombers ready to attack U.S. and British targets in the Middle East if Iran’s nuclear facilities are attacked.
2007: A Virginia Tech senior, on a sudden campus shooting rampage, killed 27 students and five faculty members before killing himself.
2008: The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, ruled that Kentucky’s method of execution by lethal injection didn’t violate the constitutional bar against cruel and unusual punishment.
2009: U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans for a high-speed rail system connecting U.S. cities, with $8 billion in stimulus funds set aside for the effort.
2010: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Goldman Sachs of fraud, alleging in a lawsuit the banking giant sold securities that were stacked against the buyer.
2011: A vicious rash of tornadoes and violent storms skipped through 14 states, leaving more than 40 people dead and many others homeless. In what was called one of the worst tornado outbreaks ever recorded, weather officials reported 241 twisters over a three-day period, mostly in the South. North Carolina had 22 deaths. The Cuban government staged a festive military parade in Havana to mark the 50th anniversary of the repulsion of the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion.
2012: Anders Breivik, accused of killing 77 people in Norway, gave a right-wing salute and refused to stand at the start of his trial in Oslo. He pleaded innocent and said he had acted in self-defense.
Quotes
“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on ‘I am not too sure.'” – H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)
“You can complain because roses have thorns or you can rejoice because thorns have roses.” – Ziggy, cartoon character
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” – Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
“Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.” – Thornton Wilder, 1897-1975
“The more difficulties one has to encounter, within and without, the more significant and the higher in inspiration his life will be.” – Horace Bushnell, 1802-1876
“He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.” – John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889-1977) English film actor, director, producer, writer, and composer:
“A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.”
“Actors search for rejection. If they don’t get it they reject themselves.”
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“All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl.”
“All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman.”
“Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.”
“I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.”
“I don’t believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.”
“I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.”
unctuous
PRONUNCIATION: (UNGK-choo-us)
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy.
2. Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.
3. Insincerely or excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; marked by a false or smug earnestness or agreeableness.
ETYMOLOGY: Unctuous is from Medieval Latin unctuosus, from Latin unctus, “anointed, besmeared, greasy,” past participle of unguere, “to anoint, to besmear.”
USAGE: “Peter approached Linna wearing a smile so unctuous it seemed about to slide right off his face.”
nosy parker or nosey parker
PRONUNCIATION: (NOH-zee PAHRK-uhr)
http://wordsmith.org/words/nosy_parker.mp3
MEANING: (noun), An overly inquisitive person.
ETYMOLOGY: From nosy + the name Parker. It’s not clear who this person was. Earliest documented use: 1890. Also see, quidnunc.
USAGE: “Rural societies are relatively transparent: the nosy parker can sniff out all the gossip after mass or in the pub.” – Fintan o’Toole; Gossip is Dead. Long Live Gossip; The Irish Times (Dublin); Dec 3, 2011.
Explore “nosy parker” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=nosy-parker
countenance
PRONUNCIATION: (KOUN-tuh-nans)
http://wordsmith.org/words/countenance.mp3
MEANING:
(verb tr.), To tolerate or support.
(noun)
1. Appearance, especially the facial expression.
2. The face.
3. Composure.
4. Approval or support.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French contenance (bearing), from Latin continere (to contain), from con- (with) + tenere (to hold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ten- (to stretch), which also gave us tense, tenet, tendon, tent, tenor, tender, pretend, extend, tenure, tetanus, hypotenuse, pertinacious, anddetente. Earliest documented use: around 1290.
USAGE:
“President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the United States ‘will not countenance’ Iran developing a nuclear weapon.” – Obama Seeks to Calm ‘Drumbeat of War’ Over Iran; The Buenos Aires Herald (Argentina); Mar 6, 2012.
“Thomas has long possessed a fierce countenance known to intimidate.” – Matt Calkins; NBA Veteran Journeyman Kurt Thomas; Columbian (Vancouver,Washington); Dec 13, 2011.
Explore “countenance” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=countenance
pas de deux
PRONUNCIATION: (pah duh DU)
http://wordsmith.org/words/pas_de_deux.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. A dance for two people.
2. A close relationship between two people or things involved in an activity.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally step of two.
USAGE:
“This novel The Song Is You is a pas de deux between a young singer-songwriter and the much older man who actively, obsessively inspires her.” – Kate Christensen; Always on My Mind; The New York Times; Apr 10, 2009.
“One of the many paradoxes of this place we call home is the pas de deux of life and death.” – G. D. Maxwell; Screaming Into the Void; Pique Newsmagzaine (Whistler, Canada); Apr 8, 2009.