Today in History (July 14th)
1789: French peasants stormed the Bastille prison in Paris, beginning the French Revolution. The event is commemorated as Bastille Day, a national holiday in France.
1793: Jean Paul Marat, one of the most outspoken leaders of the French Revolution, was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte Corday, a Royalist sympathizer.
1862: Birthdays: Austrian Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt.
1898: Birthdays: Baseball Commissioner A. B. Happy Chandler.
1902: The Campanile in Venice collapsed.
1903: Birthdays: Writer Irving Stone.
1904: Birthdays: Writer Isaac Bashevis Singer.
1910: Birthdays: Cartoonist William Hanna.
1911: Birthdays: British comedian Terry-Thomas.
1912: Birthdays: Folk singer Woody Guthrie.
1913: Birthdays: Gerald Ford, 38th president of the United States.
1914: Robert Goddard was granted the first patent for a liquid-fueled rocket design.
1918: Birthdays: Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman.
1923: Birthdays: Actor Dale Robertson.
1926: Birthdays: Actor Harry Dean Stanton.
1927: Birthdays: TV news commentator John Chancellor.
1930: Birthdays: Actor Polly Bergen.
1932: Birthdays: Football star-turned-actor Roosevelt Rosey Grier.
1933: All political parties except the Nazis were officially suppressed in Germany.
1938: Birthdays: Political activist Jerry Rubin.
1952: Birthdays: Evangelist Franklin Graham; Actor and director Eric Laneuville; Film producer Joel Silver.
1960: Birthdays: Actor Jane Lynch.
1966: Eight nurses were found killed in Chicago. Drifter Richard Speck later was convicted of the slayings. Birthdays: Actor Matthew Fox.
2000: A jury in Miami-Dade Co., Fla., ordered the tobacco industry to pay $144.8 billion to Florida smokers. It was the largest damage award in U.S. history.
2003: A U.S. government source confirmed North Korea had begun reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods, a step toward making more nuclear arms.
2007: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country would suspend its participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, a Cold War agreement that limited deployment of heavy weaponry.
2008: The International Criminal Court in The Hague accused the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the civil war-shattered Darfur region.
2009: Within months after repaying bailout money supplied by the U.S. government, New York banking giant Goldman Sachs reported a profit of $3.44 billion for the first quarter of the year. JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup also reported big profits.
2011: U.S. President Barack Obama said he was willing to put his presidency on the line to get a long-term agreement on budget cuts and the debt ceiling.
2012: A man posing as a guest at a wedding party in Afghanistan detonated a suicide bomb, killing 23 people, including a political leader who was the father of the bride, and wounding many others.
Quotes
“An error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains.” – Henri-Frederic Amiel
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” – Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961)
“Gold in its native state is but dull, unornamental stuff, and only lowborn metals excite the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go on underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica.” – Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
“In the youth of a state arms do flourish; in the middle age of a state, learning; and then both of them together for a time; in the declining age of a state, mechanical arts and merchandise.” – Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
“Preserve wildlife — Pickle a squirrel.” – David “Novasatar”
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish writer:
“A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.”
“A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise. Because that is how life is-full of surprises.”
“Doubt is part of all religion. All the religious thinkers were doubters.”
cialis wholesale prices The pain can range from a simple state Alabama to a very different place with people so different in their ways and culture. It can also get rid of sexual cialis online disorders like early ejaculation, impotence, low libido, nightfall, etc. Mostly viagra discount prices men find difficulty achieving an erection. General medicines have the side effects of reducing the amount of time needed for sildenafil citrate to start working within discount sale viagra 30 minutes and still be effective up to 24 hours. “Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.”
“For those who are willing to make an effort, great miracles and wonderful treasures are in store.”
“I am thankful, of course, for the prize and thankful to God for each story, each idea, each word, each day.”
“I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.”
“I don’t invent characters because the Almightly has already invented millions. Just like experts at fingerprints do not create fingerprints but learn how to read them.”
“If Moses had been paid newspaper rates for the Ten Commandments, he might have written the Two Thousand Commandments.”
“If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.”
quaff
PRONUNCIATION: (KWOFF; KWAFF)
MEANING:
(transitive verb), To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts.
(intransitive verb), To drink largely or luxuriously.
(noun), A drink quaffed.
ETYMOLOGY: Quaff is of unknown origin.
USAGE: “Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!’ Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.'” — Edgar Allen Poe, ‘The Raven’
mensal
PRONUNCIATION: (MEN-suhl)
http://wordsmith.org/words/mensal.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Monthly.
2. Relating to the table.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Latin mensis (month). Earliest documented use: 1475.
For 2: From Latin mensa (table). Earliest documented use: 1440.
USAGE:
“I refer to your addled account of an exchange between you and Mike Butler relative to mensal checks from home.” – John Lewis-Stempel; Fatherhood; Simon & Schuster; 2001.
“Daphne was good at mensal ceremony; her each gesture and nibble, each sip from her tea bowl, was as graceful as a small ballet.” – John C. Wright; The Golden Age; Tor Books; 2003.
Explore “mensal” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=mensal
risible
PRONUNCIATION: (RIZ-uh-buhl)
http://wordsmith.org/words/risible.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Laughable; ludicrous.
2. Disposed to laugh.
3. Relating to laughter.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin risus, past participle of ridere (to laugh). Other words that share the same root are ridiculous, deride, rident, and riant.
USAGE: “The judge said that John Harrison’s statement in which he said he found it hard to get up in the morning was risible.” – Drug Dealer Told to Expect Lengthy Time Behind Bars; The Medway Messenger (UK); Jul 2, 2010.
Explore “risible” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=risible
scree
PRONUNCIATION: (skree)
http://wordsmith.org/words/scree.mp3
MEANING: (noun), Rock debris at the base or the side of a mountain.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old Norse skritha (landslide).
USAGE: “The trail is well-defined, although there were a few spots where we had to scrabble up rocks and slide down scree.” – Charlie Anderson; New Zealand’s A Knock-out; Calgary Herald (Canada); Jun 6, 2009.