Today in History (June 15th):
1215: Under pressure from rebellious barons, England’s King John signed the Magna Carta, a crucial first step toward creating Britain’s constitutional monarchy.
1330: Birthdays: Prince Edward of England, son of Edward III and known as the Black Prince.
1752: Benjamin Franklin, in a dangerous experiment, demonstrated the relationship between lightning and electricity by flying a kite during a storm in Philadelphia. An iron key suspended from the kite string attracted a lightning bolt.
1785: Two Frenchmen attempting to cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon were killed when their balloon caught fire and crashed. It was the first fatal aviation accident.
1822: Charles Babbage proposed a difference engine — an early version of a computer.
1836: Arkansas was admitted to the union as the 25th U.S. state.
1843: Birthdays: Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg.
1846: The U.S.-Canadian border was established.
1877: Henry Ossian Flipper, born a slave in Thomasville, Ga., became the first African-American cadet to graduate from West Point.
1904: The excursion steamboat General Slocum caught fire on the East River in New York, killing 1,121 people.
1910: Birthdays: Composer/orchestra leader David Rose.
1914: Birthdays: Artist Saul Steinberg.
1921: Birthdays: Pianist Erroll Garner.
1922: Birthdays: U.S. Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz.
1932: Birthdays: Former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo.
1937: Birthdays: Country singer Waylon Jennings.
1938: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Billy Williams.
1941: Birthdays: Singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson.
1944: U.S. forces invaded the Japanese-occupied Mariana Islands in World War II action. By day’s end, a beachhead had been established on the island of Saipan.
1949: Birthdays: Actor Jim Varney.
1950: Birthdays: Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal.
1954: Birthdays: Actor Jim Belushi.
1955: Birthdays: Actor Julie Hagerty.
1958: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Wade Boggs.
1963: Birthdays: Actor Helen Hunt.
1964: Birthdays: Actor Courteney Cox.
1973: Birthdays: Actor Neil Patrick Harris.
1987: Richard Norton of Philadelphia and Calin Rosetti of West Germany completed the first polar circumnavigation of Earth in a single-engine propeller aircraft, landing in Paris after a 38,000-mile flight.
1996: 206 people were injured when a bomb exploded in a mall in Manchester, England.
1999: South Korean ships sank a North Korean torpedo boat, killing all aboard. The incident followed a series of confrontations in disputed territorial waters.
2004: A U.S. Army general suspended after prisoner abuse was revealed at a Baghdad prison said she was ordered to treat prisoners like dogs. Brig Gen. Janis Karpinski said she was being made a scapegoat for the scandal.
2007: A Mississippi jury convicted a reputed Ku Klux Klansman in the abductions and killings of two black teenagers 43 years earlier.
2009: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed public support for the first time for a Palestinian state.
2011: U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., shot in the head in a Jan. 8 assassination attempt at a Tucson political meeting, was released from a Houston rehabilitation hospital.
2012: The U.S. government announced an executive order by President Barack Obama would allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to legally seek work permits and obtain documents such as driver’s licenses. Obama called it a temporary stopgap measure that lifted the shadow of deportation from these young people.
Quotes
“Questions are fiction and answers are anything from more fiction to science fiction.” – Saul Steinberg
“Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.” – Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
“Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, thirst that is unquenchable?” – Khalil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)
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Rachel Donelson Jackson (1767-1828) US first lady:
“To tell you of this city, I would not do justice to the subject. The extravagance is in dressing and running to parties.”
“I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than live in that palace at Washington.”
“Believe me, this country [Florida] has been greatly overrated. One acre of our fine Tennessee land is worth a thousand here.”
“Our youth are not failing the system; the system is failing our youth. Ironically, the very youth who are being treated the worst are the young people who are going to lead us out of this nightmare.”
elliptical
PRONUNCIATION: (i-LIP-ti-kuhl)
MEANING: (adjective) also elliptic
1. Of, relating to, or having the shape of an ellipse.
2. Containing or characterized by ellipsis (omission of a word or phrase).
3. Of or relating to extreme economy of oral or written expression. Marked by deliberate obscurity of style or expression.
ETYMOLOGY: New Latin ellipticus, from Greek elleiptikos, defective, from elleipsis, a falling short, ellipsis, from elleipein, to fall short.
USAGE: “Allen has written a somewhat elliptical piece for the upcoming conference condemning the grip of upper management on product development, and has another piece ready for the conference after that.”
lignify
PRONUNCIATION: (LIG-nuh-fy)
http://wordsmith.org/words/lignify.mp3
MEANING:
(verb tr.), To convert into wood.
(verb intr.), To become wood or woody.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin lignum (wood). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leg-(to collect), which is also the source of lexicon, legal, dialogue, lecture, logic, legend, logarithm, intelligent, diligent, sacrilege, elect, and loyal. Earliest documented use: 1828.
USAGE: “Many leguminous plants offer edible products in addition to their seeds. Many of their immature pods are edible two or three weeks before the fibres lignify to render them inedible.” – Lam Peng Sam; Make Your Landscape Edible; The New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); Dec 2, 2000.
Explore “lignify” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=lignify
El Niño or El Nino
PRONUNCIATION: (el NEEN-yo)
http://wordsmith.org/words/el_nino.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A weather phenomenon characterized by unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific.
ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish El Niño, literally “The Boy Child”, referring to Baby Jesus as El Niño phenomenon is noticed near Christmas.
NOTES: El Niño, which occurs every three to seven years, is marked by warm sea surface temperature along the coast of Ecuador and Peru in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Its effects on weather are observed around the globe. A counter part is El Niña “The Girl Child” in which unusually cold ocean temperatures are observed in the Equatorial Pacific.
USAGE: “The Phoenix area had its second coolest May in just over a decade, National Weather Service Meteorologist Craig Ellis said. The cooler temperatures were likely due to El Nino.” – Brittany Williams; Phoenix Area May See 110 by Sunday; The Arizona Republic; Jun 1, 2010.
Explore “El Nino” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=El+Nino
phlegmatic
PRONUNCIATION: (fleg-MAT-ik)
http://wordsmith.org/words/phlegmatic.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Having a sluggish temperament; apathetic.
2. Calm or composed.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin phlegmaticus, from Greek phlegmatikos, from phlegm (inflammation, the humor phlegm supposedly as a result of heat), from phlegein (to burn).
USAGE: “So why are Israelis almost hysterical about the Iranian threat, while South Koreans are phlegmatic about the North Korean threat?” – Gwynne Dyer; Koreans, Israelis and Nukes; The Korea Times (Seoul); May 26, 2009.