Today in History (May 27th):
1703: Czar Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg as the new capital of Russia.
1794: Birthdays: Financier Cornelius Vanderbilt.
1818: Birthdays: Social reformer Amelia Bloomer, for whom the undergarment was named.
1819: Birthdays: Poet Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the lyrics for The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
1836: Birthdays: Financier and railroad developer Jay Gould.
1837: Birthdays: Frontiersman James Butler Wild Bill Hickok.
1883: Alexander III was crowned Tsar of Russia.
1894: Birthdays: Detective novelist Dashiell Hammett.
1907: Birthdays: Writer Rachel Carson.
1908: Birthdays: Composer Harold Rome.
1911: Birthdays: U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey; Actor Vincent Price.
1912: Birthdays: Golfer Sam Snead.
1915: Birthdays: Author Herman Wouk.
1922: Birthdays: Actor Christopher Lee.
1923: Birthdays: Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
1925: Birthdays: Writer Tony Hillerman.
1930: Richard Gurley Drew received a patent for his adhesive tape, which was later manufactured by 3M as Scotch tape.
1934: Birthdays: Writer Harlan Ellison.
1935: Birthdays: Jazz musician Ramsey Lewis; Actor Lee Meriwether.
1936: Birthdays: Actor Louis Gossett Jr.
1937: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge was opened. An estimated 200,000 people crossed it the first day.
1939: Birthdays: Singer/songwriter Don Williams.
1941: The British navy sank the German battleship Bismarck 400 miles west of the French port of Brest.
1943: Birthdays: Actor Bruce Weitz.
1961: Birthdays: Actor Peri Gilpin.
1965: Birthdays: Actor Todd Bridges.
1968: The U.S. nuclear submarine Scorpion disappeared in the Atlantic with 99 men aboard.
1970: Birthdays: Actor Joseph Fiennes.
1988: The U.S. Senate voted 93-5 in favor of the U.S.-Soviet treaty to abolish intermediate-range nuclear missiles.
1990: Cesar Gaviria, 34, was elected president of Colombia after a campaign in which three candidates were killed. He vowed to make no deals with the cocaine cartels.
1992: Hours after a Russian-brokered cease-fire went into effect in Bosnia, Serb guerrillas launched a surprise mortar bombardment on Sarajevo, killing at least 20 people and injuring up to 160 more waiting in lines to buy bread.
1999: Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four other Serbian leaders were indicted on murder and other war crimes. Milosevic went on trial in 2002 for war crimes but died in 2006 before the trial ended.
2004: A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld Oregon’s law authorizing doctors to help their terminally ill patients commit suicide.
2006: An earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java, killing approximately 5,000 people and leaving an estimated 200,000 homeless.
2008: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions protecting employees from retaliation when complaining about discrimination in the workplace.
2009: The death toll from Cyclone Aila in India and Bangladesh stood at 180 with an estimated 6,600 injuries and 180,000 smashed homes.
2010: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the number of American troops in Iraq would be trimmed to 50,000 by summer while U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan would approach 100,000.
2012: Police in Chicago said a wave of weekend shootings left a teenager dead and two dozen people wounded, including a 6-year-old girl.
Quotes
“Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.” – Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, professor, attorney, and writer (1914-2004)
“As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields.” – Leo Tolstoy, author (1828-1910)
“And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”
So, place order to genuine Canada pharmacies that provide quality drugs using sildenafil citrate and offer these pills at reduced price. generic levitra online and Kamagra work well in ED and impotence treatment. In the 21st century, we are living in cialis prescription canada a world that has changed permanently. They can be added to rice congee, desserts or mixed with certain other prescription medicines, why not try these out levitra vardenafil generic can cause your blood pressure to drop suddenly to an unsafe level if it is converted to pyruvate, the pyruvate dehydrogenase deficiency may cause the mitochondrial malfunction with different energy producing metabolic cycles (TCA) and pathways. As, computer or other electronic gadgets are also machines, so it carries higher risk cialis without prescription overnight of damage, crash and dysfunctional. – William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) U.S. writer:
“The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.”
“Every life has its actual blanks, which the ideal must fill up, or which else remain bare and profitless forever.”
“I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build.”
“When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings.”
“He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”
“Twas red with the blood of freemen and white with the fear of the foe; And the stars that fit in their courses ‘gainst tyrants its symbols know. [from “The Flag”]”
“Arise then, women of this day!”
“The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.”
“I think nothing is religion which puts one individual absolutely above others, and surely nothing is religion which puts one sex above another.”
“Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion.”
“Marriage, like death, is a debt we owe to nature.”
flagitious
PRONUNCIATION: (fluh-JISH-uhs)
http://wordsmith.org/words/flagitious.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Extremely wicked or criminal.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin flagitiosus, from flagitium (shameful act), from flagitare (to plead or demand persistently). Earliest documented use: before 1384.
USAGE: “Ten thousand curses on the head of that infamous villain and flagitious scoundrel.” – Wilbur Smith; Assegai; Macmillan; 2010.
Explore “flagitious” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=flagitious
tabby
PRONUNCIATION: (TAB-ee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/tabby.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. A domestic cat with a striped or brindled coat.
2. A domestic cat, especially a female one.
3. A spinster.
4. A spiteful or gossipy woman.
5. A fabric of plain weave.
6. A watered silk fabric.
7. A building material made of lime, oyster shells, and gravel.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1-6: From French tabis, from Medieval Latin attabi, from Arabic attabi, from al-Attabiya, a suburb of Baghdad, Iraq, where silk was made, from the name of Prince Attab. Cats got the name tabby after similarity of their coats to the cloth; the derivations of words for females are probably from shortening of the name Tabitha.
For 7: From Gullah tabi, ultimately from Spanish tapia (wall).
USAGE:
“I was playing whist with the tabbies when it occurred, and saw nothing of the whole matter.” – Charles James Lever; Jack Hinton, the Guardsman; 1857.
“Kay Sekimachi uses tabby and twill weaving to contrast black and beige linens.” – Stunning 30-year Retrospective at San Jose Museum of Quilts Textiles; Independent Coast Observer (California); Jan 4, 2008.
“Mayor Carl Smith suggested that tabby fence posts be used around the cemetery’s perimeter because the oyster-based concrete would better fit the island’s character.” – Jessica Johnson; Group Restoring Cemetery; The Post and Courier (South Carolina); Jan 21, 2010.
Explore “tabby” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=tabby
tessera
PRONUNCIATION: (TES-uhr-uh; plural tesserae: TES-uhr-ee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/tessera.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A small piece of stone, glass, or tile used to make a mosaic.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin, from Greek tesseres, variant of tessares (four), from the four corners of its square shape.
USAGE: “Like red-stained tessera, the remnants of lost lives come together to compose a vast and shocking mosaic of contemporary life.” – Art Gould; Piecing It All Together; The Anniston Star (Alabama); May 10, 2009.