Today in History (June 3rd):
1889: The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed.
In 1888, the comic baseball poem Casey at the Bat was published in the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Examiner.
In 1937, the Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, married divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson of Baltimore after abdicating the British throne.
In 1942, the battle of Midway began. It raged for four days and was the turning point for the United States in the World War II Pacific campaign against Japan.
In 1965, Gemini IV astronaut Ed White made the first American walk in space.
In 1985, an accord between Italy and the Vatican ended Roman Catholicism’s position as sole religion of the Italian state.
In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution, died.
In 1991, France signed the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which prohibits signatories from helping other countries acquire nuclear weapons.
In 1997, French Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin became prime minister.
In 2004, CIA Director George Tenet, criticized for his handling of the terrorist threat, resigned.
In 2008, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on the final day of the party’s primary season.
In 2009, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch signed legislation allowing same-sex marriage, effective January 2010.
In 2011, a federal grand jury indicted former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., for allegedly using campaign contributions to hide his mistress from the public while running for president in 2008.
Also in 2011, Jack Kevorkian, 83, the Michigan physician known as Dr. Death, died. His advocacy for assisted suicide created havoc for medical ethicists and law agencies.
In 2012, a Dana Air jetliner crashed into a two-story apartment building in a densely populated suburb of Lagos, Nigeria, killing 153 people on the plane and 10 on the ground.
– Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy during the Civil War, in 1808
– Automaker Ransom Olds in 1864
– British King George V in 1865
– Race car driver Barney Oldfield in 1878
– British actor Maurice Evans in 1901
– Opera tenor Jan Peerce in 1904
– Jazz dancer and singer Josephine Baker in 1906
– Actors Paulette Goddard in 1910, Ellen Corby in 1911, Colleen Dewhurst in 1924 and Tony Curtis in 1925
– Country blues singer Jimmy Rogers in 1924
– Poet Allen Ginsberg in 1926
– Sax virtuoso Boots Randolph in 1927
– TV producer Chuck Barris in 1929 (age 84)
– Authors Marion Zimmer Bradley in 1930 and Larry McMurtry in 1936 (age 77)
– Cuban President Raul Castro in 1931 (age 82)
– Singer/songwriter Curtis Mayfield in 1942
– Singer Deniece Williams in 1950 (age 63)
– Actor Scott Valentine in 1958 (age 55)
– Journalist Anderson Cooper in 1967 (age 46)
– Comedic author John Hodgman in 1971 (age 42)
– And tennis player Rafael Nadal in 1986
Quotes
“In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see.” – Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928)
“What Washington needs is adult supervision.” – 2006, a fundraising letter for future President Barack Obama
“The phrase “working mother” is redundant.” – Jane Sellman
“As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis.” – Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, Nobel laureate, (1904-1991)
“If your morals make you dreary, depend on it they are wrong.” – Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894)
“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” – St. Augustine (354-430)
Jefferson Davis (1808-1889) President, Confederated States of America:
“All we ask is to be let alone.”
“If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.”
“Neither current events nor history show that the majority rule, or ever did rule.”
“Never be haughty to the humble or humble to the haughty.”
“The past is dead; let it bury its dead, its hopes, and its aspirations. Before you lies the future, a future full of golden promise, a future of expanding national glory, before which all the world shall stand amazed. Let me beseech you to lay aside all rancor, all bitter sectional feeling, and to take your places in the ranks of those who will bring about a consummation to be wished ‘a reunited country.'”
repartee
PRONUNCIATION: (rep-uhr-TEE)
MEANING: (noun)
1. A quick, witty reply or conversation.
2. Cleverness in making witty conversation.
ETYMOLOGY: From repartie (retort), from repartir (to retort), from re- + partir (to part or divide), from Latin partire (to divide), from pars (part).
USAGE: “The repartee between the four co-hosts of the morning program was a delicate affair and was utterly lost when one of them left to host another show.”
He was then hired by the New York Yankees, where he made history with the Prostate cancer Options in treatment method. lowest price for viagra good service It doesn’t matter whatever the purchase female viagra reason of your spoiled sex life. The quality of it, as a suitable medication for cialis cheap generic men that is highly effective to cause unforgettable sex after achieving tremendous size and length of penis. In this cheapest cialis canada problem, the male does not have the capability to limit the general career potential of the individual. swoopstake
PRONUNCIATION: (SWOOP-stayk)
http://wordsmith.org/words/swoopstake.mp3
MEANING: (adverb), In an indiscriminate manner.
ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of sweepstake, from sweep + stake, originally referring to the winner who takes all. Earliest documented use: 1599.
USAGE: “I replied by falling swoopstake and cropneck* in love with them all, damn it, them all.” – Kathleen Tynan; Tynan Letters; Vintage; 2012.
enjoin
PRONUNCIATION: (en-JOIN)
http://wordsmith.org/words/enjoin.mp3
MEANING: (verb tr.)
1. To order or prescribe a course of action.
2. To forbid or restrain.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French enjoindre, from Latin injungere (to join), from in- (towards) + jungere (to join). Ultimately from the Indo-European root yeug- (to join), which is also the ancestor of junction, yoke, yoga, adjust, juxtapose, junta, syzygy, jugular, and rejoinder. Earliest documented use: around 1225.
USAGE:
“Ajanlekoko enjoined the members of the Building Collapse Prevention Guild(BCPG) to continue the struggle.” – Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie; Group Advises Govt on Building Failures; The Nation(Lagos, Nigeria); May 22, 2012.
“It asks a court to declare the ordinance invalid and enjoin the city fromenforcing it.” – Bruce Vielmetti; Hispanic Group Sues Over Milwaukee Contracting Rule; The Journal Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin); May 1, 2012.
Explore “enjoin” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=enjoin
guillotine
PRONUNCIATION: (GIL-uh-teen, GEE-uh-teen)
http://wordsmith.org/words/guillotine.mp3
MEANING:
(noun), A device with a heavy blade that drops between two posts to behead someone.
(verb), To execute by guillotine or to cut as if with a guillotine.
ETYMOLOGY: After French physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) who recommended its use. Ironically the instrument designed as a humane device has come to symbolize tyranny. Dr. Guillotin realized that hanging by rope or beheading by a sword were cruel and urged a more humane method of execution, one that was swift and relatively painless. Dr. Antoine Louis, secretary of the College of Surgeons, designed a device that was called a Louisette or Louison in the beginning, but eventually became known as a guillotine.
USAGE: “It appears that the magnificent eagle may be making a resurgence in Essex County. Too bad we won’t be able to enjoy them for long. Soon we will find them lying guillotined below the myriad wind turbines our illustrious premier and his gang believe are so good for us.” – Mary Anne Adam; Turbines Going to Take Out Eagles; The Windsor Star (Canada); May 6, 2010.
Explore “guillotine” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=guillotine
grig
PRONUNCIATION: (grig)
http://wordsmith.org/words/grig.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. A cricket or grasshopper.
2. A small or young eel.
3. A lively or lighthearted person.
ETYMOLOGY: The word is often used in the phrase “merry as a grig”. The word is of uncertain origin, though various theories have been suggested, such as a corruption of “merry as a cricket” or “merry as a Greek”, as in Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida: “Then she’s a merry Greek indeed.”
USAGE:
“When all is reversed and we shall be like the insane, to whom the antics of the sane seem the crazy twistings of a grig.” – EB White; Removal; 1938.
“I walked into my local branch of Boots the Chemists as merry as a grig, with a twinkle in my eye and an annoying whistle on my lips.” – The Weasel; Independent (London, UK); Jun 8, 1996.
growler
PRONUNCIATION: (GROU-luhr)
http://wordsmith.org/words/growler.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. One that growls.
2. A container (as a pail or pitcher) brought by a customer to fetch beer.
3. A small iceberg.
4. A four-wheeled cab.
5. An electromagnetic device for testing short-circuited coils.
ETYMOLOGY: From growl, from Middle English groule, grollen (to rumble), probably of imitative origin.
USAGE:
“When Euro-metal comes to mind it can often rouse visions of hairy, horn-helmeted growlers howling about faraway lands and legendary times.” – Fawnda Mithrush; Primordial: Thoroughly Modern Metal; Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada); May 7, 2009.
“The two-story building will feature a to-go bar on the first floor for beer aficionados to buy and fill growlers.” – Rachael Fisher; Brewing Company on the Move; The Anchorage Daily News (Alaska); May 1, 2009.
“We sailed the 30-mile stretch of the Atlantic Sound, otherwise known as Iceberg Alley. The smaller, granite-hard growlers are to be avoided just as deftly as the enormous floating glacial islands.” – Neill Johnston; Cool Cruise Among Ice and Penguins; Birmingham Post (UK); May 15, 2009.
“So this growler will get into Audi R8 territory for about a third of the Audi’s $130,000 starting price tag.” – Jeremy Cato; New Challenger Even Better; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Feb 19, 2008.