Today in History (July 4th):
Independence Day
1776: The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming U.S. independence from Britain.
1804: Birthdays: Author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
1816: Birthdays: Distiller Hiram Walker.
1817: Construction began on the Erie Canal.
1826: In one of history’s notable coincidences, former U.S. Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted. Birthdays: Songwriter Stephen Foster (Oh! Susannah, Beautiful Dreamer).
1847: Birthdays: Circus operator James Bailey (Barnum and Bailey).
1863: Union troops defeated Confederate forces in a battle at Vicksburg, Miss.
1872: Birthdays: Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States.
1883: Birthdays: Innovative cartoonist Rube Goldberg.
1885: Birthdays: Louis B. Mayer, film mogul and co-founder of MGM.
1895: The poem America the Beautiful, by Wellesley College Professor Katherine Lee Bates, was published.
1902: Birthdays: Actor/politician George Murphy; Organized crime figure Meyer Lansky.
1911: Birthdays: Conductor Mitch Miller.
1914: Director D.W. Griffith began filming his controversial film The Birth of a Nation, which introduced important filmmaking techniques and influenced many other directors.
1918: Birthdays: Ann Landers, advice columnist; Ann Landers’ twin, advice columnist, Abigail Van Buren.
1920: Birthdays: Former hotel executive Leona Helmsley.
1924: Birthdays: Actor Eva Marie Saint.
1927: Birthdays: Playwright Neil Simon; Actor Gina Lollobrigida.
1929: Birthdays: Al Davis, Oakland Raiders owner.
1930: Birthdays: New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.
1939: Lou Gehrig gave his luckiest man on the face of the Earth speech in announcing his retirement from the New York Yankees. Gehrig had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a deliberating motor neuron disease.
1943: Birthdays: TV reporter Geraldo Rivera.
1946: Birthdays: Activist Ron Kovic.
1952: Birthdays: Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
1962: Birthdays: Tennis player Pam Shriver.
1986: More than 250 sailing ships and the United States’ biggest fireworks display honored the Statue of Liberty in its 100th birthday year.
1995: The British Parliament reconfirmed John Majors as prime minister.
1997: NASA’s Pathfinder reached Mars to become the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the planet in more than two decades.
2005: NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft completed an 85 million-mile journey by intentionally slamming into the Tempel 1 comet to learn more about comets and other aspects of the solar system.
2006: North Korea test-launched seven ballistic missiles in what it called routine military exercises, causing a firestorm of anger among its neighbors and the United States.
2007: The Russian resort city of Sochi was selected to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.
2008: Former arch-conservative U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, heralded as the last of the Old South politicians, died at age 86 after battling cancer and heart disease.
2010: U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus took command of the Afghan war, acknowledging the tough fight ahead for NATO forces while pledging we are in this to win.
2012: U.S. President Barack Obama hosted a White House Independence Day barbecue for military service members and their families.
Quotes
“The arrow has to draw back to fly ahead.” – Proverb
“No matter that we may mount on stilts, we still must walk on our own legs. And on the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.” – Michel de Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) 30th U.S. President:
“If you don’t say anything, you won’t be called upon to repeat it.”
“Advertising is the life of trade.”
“Advertising ministers to the spiritual side of trade. It is great power that has been entrusted to your keeping which charges you with the high responsibility of inspiring and ennobling the commercial world. It is all part of the greater work of the regeneration and redemption of mankind.”
“After all, the chief business of the American people is business.”
Kruse, Sharon D., and Karen Seashore Louis. “An Emerging Framework for Analyzing Organization-Based Professional Community.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, 1995. cialis canadian prices 38 pages. Commonly recognized by the name, blue pill, viagra generic india marked a new area of sexuality. While some individuals think that it hard to swallow drugs open as cheap viagra tablets, Kamagra Oral Jelly’s brand-new gel structure makes it a respectable measure less requesting. Once they are done having sex, viagra in line will also go away. “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”
“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”
“Education will not (take the place of persistance); the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
“Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.”
philomath
PRONUNCIATION: (FIL-uh-math)
MEANING: (noun), A lover of learning.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek philomaths (fond of learning), from philo- (loving) + math- root of manthanein (to learn).
USAGE: “While others called him indecisive and afraid of the real world, Chris preferred to think that the reason he’d become a ‘full-time student’ had more to do with his being a philomath than anything else.”
bellygod
PRONUNCIATION: (BEL-ee god)
http://wordsmith.org/words/bellygod.mp3
MEANING: (noun), One who takes great pleasure in eating; a glutton.
ETYMOLOGY: A bellygod is one who makes a god of his belly, i.e. a glutton. From Old English belig (bag) + god. Earliest documented use: 1540.
USAGE:
“Hudibras becomes the puritan bellygod par excellence:”
“Our knight did bear no less a pack”
“Of his own buttocks on his back.”
– Kristen Poole; Radical Religion from Shakespeare to Milton; Cambridge University Press; 2000.
“The figure of Hercules [rebuked] Comus the belly-god for his ‘drunken orgies’ and addiction to swinish pleasure.” – Ian Donaldson; Ben Jonson: A Life; Oxford University Press; 2011.
Explore “bellygod” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=bellygod
scotophobia
PRONUNCIATION:
For 1: (sko-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)
For 2: (ska-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/scotophobia.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. Fear of the dark.
2. Fear or hatred of Scottish people or culture.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Greek scoto- (darkness) + -phobia (hatred, fear). The opposite is photophobia and a synonym is nyctophobia. Earliest documented use: 1844.
For 2: From Scoto- (Scottish) + -phobia (hatred, fear). Earliest documented use: 1828.
USAGE:
“In the grip of scotophobia — those palpitations, that slurry speech,the way she shook when it grew dark.” – Matthew Emmens; Zenobia: The Curious Book of Business; Berrett-Koehler;2008.
“Alan Riach, professor of Scottish literature at the University ofGlasgow, said he detected a trace of Scotophobia in Paxman’s views.” – Jeremy Paxman Ridicules Robert Burns as King of Doggerel; The Times(London, UK); Aug 15, 2008.
plutocracy
PRONUNCIATION: (ploo-TOK-ruh-see)
http://wordsmith.org/words/plutocracy.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. Government by the wealthy.
2. A country or state governed by the wealthy people.
3. Wealthy ruling class.
ETYMOLOGY: From pluto- (wealth) + -cracy (rule). From Greek ploutokratia, from ploutos (wealth, overflowing riches). Ultimately from the Indo-European root pleu- (to flow), that is also the source of flow, float, flit, fly, flutter, pulmonary, pneumonia, pluvial, and fletcher.
USAGE: “California is much closer to a plutocracy than a grass-roots democracy. It takes lots of money to draft initiatives, get them on the ballot and run a media campaign for or against them.” – Bruce E. Cain; Five Myths About California Politics; The Washington Post; Jun 6, 2010.
Explore “plutocracy” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=plutocracy