Today in History (April 19th):
1721: Birthdays: Statesman Roger Sherman, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
1775: The “shot heard ’round the world” was fired, beginning the Revolutionary War. The American Revolutionary War began at the Battle of Lexington, Mass. Eight Minutemen were killed and 10 wounded in an exchange of musket fire with British Redcoats.
1836: Birthdays: Music patron Augustus Juilliard.
1861: One week after the Civil War began, the first Americans died, the result of a clash between a secessionist mob in Baltimore and Massachusetts troops bound for Washington. Four soldiers and 12 rioters were killed.
1903: Birthdays: U.S. federal agent Eliot Ness, head of the untouchables team that brought down Al Capone.
1925: Birthdays: Actor Hugh O’Brian.
1930: Birthdays: Actor Dick Sargent.
1933: Birthdays: Actor Jayne Mansfield.
1935: Birthdays: Actor Dudley Moore.
1937: Birthdays: Actor Elinor Donahue.
1943: Jewish residents of the Warsaw Ghetto revolted when the Germans tried to resume deportations to the Treblinka concentration camp. When the uprising ended on May 16, 300 Germans and 7,000 Jews had died and the ghetto lay in ruins.
1946: Birthdays: Actor Tim Curry.
1956: U.S. actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.
1962: Birthdays: Auto racer Al Unser Jr.
1965: Birthdays: Record producer Suge Knight.
1967: Birthdays: Singer Dar Williams.
1968: Birthdays: Actor Ashley Judd.
1969: Birthdays: Television personality Jesse James.
1971: The Soviet Union launched its first Salyut space station.
1978: Birthdays: Actor James Franco.
1979: Birthdays: Actor Kate Hudson.
1981: Birthdays: Actor Hayden Christensen.
1987: The first Simpsons cartoon appeared on The Tracey Ullman Show. Birthdays: Tennis player Maria Sharapova.
1989: An explosion in a gun turret aboard the battleship USS Iowa killed 47 sailors. Pro-democracy demonstrations began in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
1990: The U.S.-backed Contra rebels and the outgoing Nicaraguan government agreed to an immediate cease-fire and a formula to disarm and demobilize the Contras by June 10.
1993: A 51-day Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas, ended when fire destroyed a fortified compound after it was tear-gassed by authorities. Cult leader David Koresh and 85 followers, including 17 children, were killed. South Dakota Gov. George S. Mickelson and seven other people were killed in a plane crash in Iowa.
1994: A federal jury awarded police beating victim Rodney King $3.8 million in compensatory damages from the city of Los Angeles.
1995: 168 people were killed and more than 400 injured when a bomb exploded outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City.
1999: The German Bundestag returned to Berlin.
2000: A federal appeals court ruled in a high-profile case that 6-year-old Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez may stay in the United States until the court heard a full appeal from his relatives, who sought to retain custody of the boy. Eventually, he was returned to his father in Cuba.
2005: Conservative German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, already a major power in the Roman Catholic Church, was elected pope to succeed John Paul II. He chose the name of Benedict XVI.
2008: Iraqi security forces gained control over a Mehdi Army stronghold in Basra with help from U.S. and British air and artillery.
2010: U.S. and Iraqi officials announced that a joint operation in Tikrit had killed two leaders of the insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq. It was seen as a significant step forward in ridding the country of terrorists. The search continued for survivors of the magnitude-7.1 earthquake that staggered northwest China as rescuers battled through bitter weather and 1,200 aftershocks. The death toll eventually topped 2,000.
2011: An air traffic control error was blamed for a near miss incident at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington in which a plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, flew too close to a military cargo plane while landing.
2012: Syria, torn by a yearlong insurgency, agreed to accept a 30-person team of U.N. observers.
Quotes
“Opportunity may knock only once but temptation leans on the doorbell.” – Anonymous
“When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of 12 people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.” -Norm Crosby
“The notion of making money by popular work, and then retiring to do good work, is the most familiar of all the devil’s traps for artists.” – Logan Pearsall Smith, essayist (1865-1946)
“The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts… Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?” – John Muir, naturalist and explorer (1838-1914)
“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.” – Susan B. Anthony, reformer and suffragist (1820-1906)
“In their youth both Herder and Schiller intended to study as surgeons, but Destiny said: “No, there are deeper wounds than those of the body, — heal the deeper!” and they wrote.” – Jean Paul Richter, writer (1763-1825)
Richard Hughes (1900-1976) English Writer:
“Middle age snuffs out more talent than ever wars or sudden deaths do.”
“All that non-fiction can do is answer questions. It’s fiction’s business to ask them.”
“The trouble with success is that a man may be perfectly sound on the short story but not very good about the atomic bomb. They always ask your opinion about [those] things.”
“He settled when I jumped out, that was the plan to sit in behind and get him relaxed. But with the pace they were going, I just let him stride on and he relaxed going up there. Slowly but surely he’s learned to relax and he’s going the right way now.”
“I got a lovely rhythm from him which is the key to the horse and he really picked up at the crossing. Once I got that rail, I knew he wouldn’t get beat.”
“I will be without another very influential player in that case and that`s something I have become all too used to.”
“They may be a few weeks behind, … But I’m sure we’ll get them caught right up.”
“I was particularly happy that the court clarified that the 1997 compact really is dead and gone, although it remains in the published version of the New Mexico statutes.”
“I think it’s going to be a great adjunctive therapy. Patients generally like the robot. Many think of it as similar to a video game.”
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Old Man of the Sea
PRONUNCIATION: (old man ov the see)
http://wordsmith.org/words/Old_Man_of_the_Sea.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A tiresome burden, especially a person, difficult to free oneself from.
ETYMOLOGY: After Old Man of the Sea, the sea-god, who forced Sinbad to carry him on his shoulders and refused to dismount. In this story from The Arabian Nights, Sinbad the Sailor eventually released himself from his burden by getting the Old Man drunk. Also see albatross.
USAGE: “Deirdre has Ken the Cardie Wearer ever at her side, an Old Man of the Sea she can’t ditch. He grows daily more brain-sapping as he takes up local causes like t’cobbles in Coronation Street.” – Molly Blake: The Mail’s First Lady of TV; Evening Mail (Birmingham, UK); Dec 6, 2000.
clarion
PRONUNCIATION: (KLAR-ee-uhn)
http://wordsmith.org/words/clarion.mp3
MEANING:
(adjective), Loud and clear.
(noun), An ancient trumpet used as a signal in war.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin clarion- (trumpet), from clarus (clear). Earliest documented use: around 1384.
USAGE: “‘For survivors, Tullia Zevi was a clarion voice that warned against the dangers of neo-Nazism,’ said Elan Steinberg.” – Prominent Anti-Fascist Dies Aged 91; Belfast Telegraph (Ireland); Jan 23, 2011.
Explore “clarion” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=clarion
bluff
PRONUNCIATION: (bluhf)
http://wordsmith.org/words/bluff.mp3
MEANING:
(verb tr., intr.), 1. To mislead or deceive, especially by a false display of confidence.
(noun), 2. An instance of bluffing; also one who bluffs.
(adjective), 3. Good-naturedly direct in speech or manner.
(noun)
4. A broad, steep cliff or promontory.
5. A grove or clump of trees.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1, 2: From Dutch bluffen (to brag). Earliest documented use: 1674.
For 3-5: From obsolete Dutch blaf (flat), or Middle Low German blaff (broad, smooth). Earliest documented use: 1666.
USAGE:
“Answer with authority and they’ll believe the bluff. How many of us love that advertisement where the dad tells the kid that the Great Wall of China was built to keep the rabbits out?” – Karen Hardy; Parents Must Teach, Too; The Canberra Times (Australia); Mar 10, 2012
“Kip Hawley, the man who runs the TSA, is a bluff, amiable fellow who is capable of making a TSA joke. ‘Do you want three ounces of water?’ he asked me.” – Jeffrey Goldberg; The Things He Carried; Atlantic (New York); Nov 2008.
“Record snowfall of more than 16 feet on the bluff has chased moose to the lower elevations.” – Naomi Klouda; Moose Don’t Mix With Dogs, People; Homer Tribune (Alaska); Mar 28, 2012.
Explore “bluff” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=bluff
perendinate
PRONUNCIATION: (puh-REN-di-nayt)
http://wordsmith.org/words/perendinate.mp3
MEANING:
(verb tr.). To put off until the day after tomorrow.
(verb intr.), To stay at a college for an extended time.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin perendinare (to defer until the day after tomorrow), from perendie (on the day after tomorrow), from die (day).
NOTES: The word procrastinate is from Latin cras (tomorrow). So when you procrastinate, literally speaking, you are putting something off till tomorrow. Mark Twain once said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.” In other words, why procrastinate when you can perendinate?
USAGE: “In Peterhouse the Master and Fellows might now allow a stranger to perendinate for more than a fortnight unless they were certified of his moral character and of his ability and willingness to do the College some notable service.” – Thomas Alfred Walker; Peterhouse; Hutchinson & Co.; 1906.
Mastering the Peri’god’ic Table
In ancient Rome, Mercury (the messenger of the gods) was constantly zipping around from deity to deity. So when the Romans needed a word for the poisonous metallic element that flowed quickly at room temperature, they named it “Mercury” for their speedy courier.
In fact, when it comes to naming elements, Greek and Roman gods pretty much ran the (periodic) table.
When a new planet swam into the ken of British astronomer William Herschel in 1781, for instance, he named it “Uranus,” after the Roman god of the sky. Seven years later, when the German chemist Martin Klaproth discovered a radioactive new element, he decided it would be trendy and hip to name it after the new planet — voila! — “uranium.”
And when English clergyman William Gregor detected another new metallic element in 1791, Klaproth was again on the case. He wanted to name the newcomer for a child of Uranus, but somehow “Uranus, Jr.” just didn’t work.
So he named it for all of Uranus’ children: a race of giants known as “the Titans.” And so “titanium” was born.
Seven years later, obviously on a roll, Klaproth dubbed another new element “tellurium,” for Tellus, a.k.a. “Terra,” the Roman goddess of earth.
But was Klaproth finished? Was he content to simply sit back and listen to people clap for what he had wrought? Don’t bet on it.
In 1801, Sicilian astronomer Giuseppi Piazzi spotted what seemed to be a strange, small planet orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Because Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, had been viewed as the protector of Piazzi’s native Sicily, he named the new object, which we now know to be an asteroid, “Ceres.”
So just two years after Piazzi’s discovery, the existence of another new element was verified. You can guess what happened next. Klaproth, always eager to mimic the god-given nomenclature of astronomers, called the new element “Cerium.”
Then in 1868, with Klaproth gone but his naming methods not forgotten, British astronomer Norman Lockyer noticed that one element detected in the sun’s spectrum could not be correlated with any element found on Earth. So he named this new, solar-generated element “helium” for “helios,” the Greek god of the sun.
Chemistry students, stay tuned. In a future column, we’ll explore the godly origins of the names of four more elements: niobium, plutonium, tantalum and selenium.
Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
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