Today in History (May 8th):
1541: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovered the Mississippi River.
1828: Birthdays: Jean-Henri Dunant, Swiss founder of the Red Cross Society and a co-founder of the Young Men’s Christian Association.
1879: George Selden of Rochester, N.Y., filed for the first patent for an automobile. It was granted in 1895.
1884: Birthdays: Harry Truman, 33rd president of the United States.
1893: Birthdays: Hall of Fame baseball player Edd Roush.
1895: Birthdays: Roman Catholic bishop and broadcaster Fulton J. Sheen.
1899: Birthdays: Nobel Prize-winning Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek.
1905: Birthdays: Cornetist and bandleader Red Nichols.
1910: Birthdays: Pianist Mary Lou Williams.
1911: Birthdays: Blues guitarist Robert Johnson.
1914: Paramount Pictures was formed.
1926: Birthdays: Author, broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough; Comedian Don Rickles.
1932: Birthdays: Former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston.
1940: Birthdays: Actor/singer Rick Nelson; Author Peter Benchley; Singer Toni Tennille.
1944: Birthdays: English rock singer Gary Glitter.
1945: U.S. President Harry Truman officially declared V-E Day, the end of World War II in Europe.
1953: Birthdays: Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame member Alex Van Halen.
1954: Birthdays: Actor David Keith.
1955: Birthdays: Actor Stephen Furst.
1964: Birthdays: Actor Melissa Gilbert.
1970: Let It Be, the Beatles’ final original album, was released.
1972: U.S. President Richard Nixon ordered the mining of North Vietnam ports in an effort to force the communists to end the Vietnam War.
1975: Birthdays: Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias.
1984: The Soviet Union declared it wouldn’t take part in the Los Angeles Olympics, citing fears about security for its athletes. The decision came four years after the United States team boycotted the Games in Moscow.
1991: To pressure the government of El Salvador into agreeing to a cease-fire, Salvadoran leftist guerrillas sabotaged a power system, leaving the country with half its normal electrical supply.
1996: South Africa voted for a new constitution. Its bill of rights included the right to food, housing and education.
2002: Following up on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee the FBI had paid insufficient heed to a July memo from an agent who had warned about Arab men with possible terrorist ties taking flying lessons. Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese said he had known in 1984 about sexual-abuse charges against a former priest but had turned the matter over to aides and never followed up. The former priest, John Geoghan, was accused in 86 sexual-abuse cases.
2003: More than 100 people were reported killed when the main cargo door of a cargo jet suddenly opened at a height of 33,000 feet over the Congo and passengers were sucked out of the plane. The World Health Organization reported an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome had reached 31 countries, including the United States, with a total of 7,053 cases.
2004: The body of Nick Berg, a U.S. businessman killed by Iraqi militants, was found near Baghdad. A videotape depicting his beheading was shown on the Internet three days later.
2006: Lillian Asplund, the last known U.S. survivor of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, died of natural causes at her Shrewsbury, Mass., home. She was 99.
2007: Six Muslim men were arrested on charges of plotting a killing spree at the U.S. Army’s Fort Dix in New Jersey. Northern Ireland installed a new power-sharing government linking Catholic and Protestant parties.
2008: North Korea gave U.S. officials about 18,000 pages of documents detailing its efforts to reprocess plutonium for nuclear weapons.
2009: The government-backed Federal National Mortgage Association — Fannie Mae — said it would need an infusion of $19 billion from the U.S. Treasury.
2010: The U.S. economy added 290,000 jobs in March, the biggest gain in four years, but the unemployment rate rose from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent.
2011: A senior al-Qaida suspect being moved from his Baghdad cell for questioning grabbed a jailer’s gun and set off a 6-hour battle that left at least 14 people dead, including the inmate.
2012: Richard Lugar, a U.S. senator for 36 years, was defeated by conservative Richard Mourdock in Indiana’s Republican primary election.
Quotes
“People change and forget to tell each other.” – Lillian Hellman, playwright (1905-1984)
“Life is a bridge. Cross over it, but build no house on it.” – Indian proverb
“A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.” – G. C. Lichtenberg
“Absence does not make the heart grow fonder, but it does sure heats up the blood.” – Elizabeth Ashley
“Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.” – Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) U.S. president:
“A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.”
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“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”
“A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.”
“A President cannot always be popular.”
“A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.”
“A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.”
“Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.”
“All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.”
“All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”
“Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.”
“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”
“Any man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here.”
palaver
PRONUNCIATION: (puh-LAV-uhr; puh-LAH-vur)
MEANING:
(noun)
1. Idle talk
2. Talk intended to beguile or deceive.
3. A parley usually between persons of different backgrounds or cultures or levels of sophistication; a talk; hence, a public conference and deliberation.
(intransitive verb), To talk idly.
(transitive verb), To flatter; to cajole.
ETYMOLOGY: Palaver derives from Late Latin parabola, “a proverb, a parable,” from Greek parabole, from paraballein, “to compare,” from para-, “beside” + ballein, “to throw.”
USAGE: “As the campaign switched into full gear, Adrian quickly grew tired of the insipid palaver that passed for political discourse in the debates.”
cockshy
PRONUNCIATION: (KOK-shy)
http://wordsmith.org/words/cockshy.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. The game of throwing missiles at a target; such a throw.
2. An object of criticism or ridicule.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English cocc (rooster) + shy (to throw), of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1836.
NOTES: At one time it was a popular sport to throw sticks or stones at roosters. Unfortunately, some people still believe it’s a sport to shoot at pigeons and other animals.
USAGE:
“Digby Jones: If he wants to take a cockshy at business for electoral reasons that’s understandable. But I don’t want it doing damage to the image of business, particularly in our schools.” – Louise Armitstead and David Smith; Which Cameron Really Means Business?; The Sunday Times (London, UK); May 28, 2006.
“The rabble of Edinburgh were all out … to hurl their missiles of hate at that sure cock-shy.” – Margaret Irwin; The Bride; 1939.
anomia
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-NOH-mee-uh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/anomia.mp3
MEANING: (noun), The inability to recall names of people or objects.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin a- (without) + nom (name). Earliest documented use: 1900. Don’t confuse the word with anomie.
USAGE: “In Dad’s case of anomia, he’s been calling his nightly can of beer ‘ink’. Sometimes he calls it ‘gas’, which makes a kind of sense.” – Patricia Traxler; I’m Still Listening for My Father’s Words; Newsweek (New York); Jun 11, 2007.
discrepant
PRONUNCIATION: (di-SKREP-uhnt)
http://wordsmith.org/words/discrepant.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Marked by disagreement, incompatibility, or inconsistency.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin discrepare (to disagree), from dis- (apart) + crepare (to creak or rattle). Earliest documented use: 1524.
USAGE: “Giselle can famously feel like a ballet of discrepant halves. Each of its acts demands an entirely different style.” – Judith Mackrell; Reviews: Dance; The Guardian (London, UK); Jul 19, 2010.
Explore “discrepant” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=discrepant