Today in History (May 2nd):
1519: Leonardo da Vinci, Italian artist, scientist and inventor, died at age 67.
1611: A new translation of the Bible in England, popularly called the King James Bible after King James I, was published.
1729: Birthdays: Catherine the Great, empress of Russia.
1837: Birthdays: Gen. Henry Robert, author of Robert’s Rules of Order.
1860: Birthdays: Pioneer Zionist Theodor Herzl.
1863: Confederate Gen. Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson was mistakenly shot by his own soldiers. He died eight days later.
1885: “Good Houekeeping” magazine published its first issue. Birthdays: Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
1887: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Eddie Collins.
1892: Birthdays: German fighter ace Manfred The Red Baron von Richthofen.
1895: Birthdays: Broadway composer Lorenz Hart.
1903: Birthdays: Child-care specialist Dr. Benjamin Spock.
1907: Birthdays: Comic Pinky Lee.
1924: Birthdays: Singer/actor Theodore Bikel.
1933: The modern legend of the Loch Ness monster surfaced after a reported sighting made the news. There had been accounts of an aquatic beast living in Scotland’s Loch Ness dating back 1,500 years.
1936: Birthdays: Singer Engelbert Humperdinck, born Arnold Dorsey.
1941: The Federal Communications Commission approved the regular scheduling of commercial television broadcasts.
1945: Birthdays: Activist/singer Bianca Jagger.
1946: Birthdays: Pop singer Leslie Gore; Actor David Suchet.
1948: Birthdays: Country singer Larry Gatlin.
1952: Birthdays: Actor Christine Baranski.
1955: Birthdays: Fashion designer Donatella Versace.
1972: 91 people were killed in a mine fire in Kellogg, Idaho. J. Edgar Hoover died after nearly five decades as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Birthdays: Former professional wrestler and actor Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
1975: Birthdays: Soccer star David Beckham.
1994: Nelson Mandela claimed victory in the South African elections in late April. He was inaugurated as the country’s first black president eight days later.
1995: The Clinton administration announced that Cuban boat people seeking asylum would be henceforth returned to Cuba.
1999: A meeting between the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic led to the release of three U.S. soldiers captured a month earlier by Serbian troops.
2002: Israeli forces pulled out of the West Bank city of Ramallah, allowing Yasser Arafat to leave his compound.
2004: Nigerian Christian militants attacked the Muslim town of Yelwa with firearms and machetes. The Nigerian Red Cross put the death toll at 630.
2005: U.S. Army Pvt. Lynndie England pleaded guilty to seven counts related to alleged mistreatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
2007: Afghan officials reported that 42 Afghan civilians had been killed in a U.S. military operation. President Hamid Karzai criticized U.S. and NATO forces for not being more careful in avoiding civilian casualties. Rupert Murdoch, chief executive officer of the News Corp., announced a $5 billion offer to take over Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.
2008: Tropical Cyclone Nargis, with winds up to 120 mph, slammed into densely populated southern Myanmar killing more than 84,000 people with close to 54,000 missing.
2010: Greece was saved from defaulting on its debts by the International Monetary Fund and the 16 European countries of the eurozone, which agreed on a $146 billion loan package for the struggling country.
2011: Osama bin Laden, the international terrorist kingpin slain in a surprise raid by an elite team of U.S. SEALs at his hideout near the Pakistani capital, was buried in the North Arabian Sea in a Muslim ceremony aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. CIA Director Leon Panetta said Pakistan wasn’t told about the raid beforehand to protect its secrecy.
2012: U.S. officials said an investigation into Medicare fraud that included about $452 million in false billings in seven cities resulted in charges against 107 people, including doctors and nurses.
Quotes
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.” – Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)
“To see a world in a grain of sand, and heaven in a wild flower; to hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour — is inspiration.” – William Blake
“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stone-cutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it would split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before together.” -Jacob A. Riis, journalist and social reformer (1849-1914)
“One who condones evils is just as guilty as the one who perpetrates it.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968)
Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) American actor:
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“I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.”
“I never thought I’d land in pictures with a face like mine.”
“I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.”
“I was born with an enormous need for affection, and a terrible need to give it.”
“If I blow my nose, it gets written all over the world.”
“If I get married, I want to be very married.”
“My look is attainable. Women can look like Audrey Hepburn by flipping out their hair, buying the large sunglasses, and the little sleeveless dresses.”
“Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.”
“Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.”
bovarism
PRONUNCIATION: (BO-vuh-riz-em)
MEANING: (noun), An exaggerated, especially glamorized, estimate of oneself; conceit.
ETYMOLOGY: From French bovaryisme, after Emma Bovary, a character in Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary.
USAGE: “While Francine maintained the bovarism in her own mind that she would one day become a runway fashion model, her friends and co-workers thought of her as nothing more than ‘that skinny girl who wears too much makeup.'”
leviathan
PRONUNCIATION: (li-VY-uh-thuhn)
http://wordsmith.org/words/leviathan.mp3
MEANING: (noun), Something large and powerful.
ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin from Hebrew liwyathan (whale). Earliest documented use: 1382.
USAGE: “A merger between the two firms, which both belong to London’s Magic Circle of top five law firms, would have created a legal leviathan with 950 partners and more than 10,000 staff.” – Liz Chong; Partners Quit; The Times (London, UK); Aug 1, 2006.
Explore “leviathan” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=leviathan
Jezebel
PRONUNCIATION: (JEZ-uh-bel)
http://wordsmith.org/words/jezebel.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A shameless, wicked, or immoral woman.
ETYMOLOGY: After Jezebel, the wife of King Ahab in the Old Testament, who was defenestrated and killed for not worshiping the right god. Earliest documented use: 1558.
USAGE: “Olive’s not just clever but, in her unshowy way, more saintly than the people who call her a Jezebel.” – Sukhdev Sandhu; Top of the Class; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Oct 22, 2010.
Explore “jezebel” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=jezebel
hector
PRONUNCIATION: (HEK-tuhr)
http://wordsmith.org/words/hector.mp3
MEANING:
(noun), A bully or a blusterer.
(verb tr., intr.), To bully or to bluster.
ETYMOLOGY: After Hector, a Trojan hero in Greek mythology. He was killed by Achilles. The name is derived from Greek hektor (holding fast). In the mid-1600s the term was applied to hoodlums on London streets. Earliest documented use: before 1387.
NOTES: Hector is a brave and dutiful character, but unfortunately his name is now sullied in the language. Paris’s abduction of Helen brought war to Troy, yet he now refuses to fight and instead spends time with Helen. In the painting Hector admonishes Paris who then trades his wreath for his helmet.
USAGE: “Older children pulled at my beard, Jewish children hectored me with eligibility questions.” – Tom Chiarella; A Man’s Guide to the Holidays; Esquire (New York); Dec 2011.
Explore “hector” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=hector