Today in History (November 21st):
1643: Birthdays: French explorer of North America Rene Robert de La Salle.
1694: Birthdays: French author Francois-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire.
1729: Birthdays: Josiah Bartlett, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
1783: In Paris, Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes made the first free-flight ascent in a balloon.
1785: Birthdays: William Beaumont, pioneer U.S. Army surgeon.
1787: Birthdays: British steamship company founder Samuel Cunard.
1877: Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph.
1898: Birthdays: Belgian painter Rene Magritte.
1904: Birthdays: Jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.
1912: Birthdays: Dancer/actor Eleanor Powell.
1920: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Stan Musial.
1927: Birthdays: Actor Joseph Campanella.
1934: Birthdays: Actor Laurence Luckinbill.
1937: Birthdays: Actor Marlo Thomas.
1938: Nazi forces occupied western Czechoslovakia and declared its people German citizens.
1940: Birthdays: Musician Dr. John, born Malcolm John Mac Rebennack, Jr.
1941: Birthdays: Actor Juliet Mills.
1944: Birthdays: Basketball Hall of Fame member Earl Monroe; TV producer Marcy Carsey; Filmmaker/actor Harold Ramis.
1945: Birthdays: Actor Goldie Hawn.
1952: Birthdays: Actor Lorna Luft.
1963: Birthdays: Actor Nicollette Sheridan.
1965: Birthdays: Musician Bjork.
1966: Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame member Troy Aikman.
1972: Birthdays: Actor Rain Phoenix.
1974: The U.S. Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act over U.S. President Gerald Ford’s veto.
1985: Jonathan Jay Pollard, a civilian U.S. Navy intelligence analyst and Jewish American, was arrested on charges of illegally passing classified U.S. security information about Arab nations to Israel. U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev ended a summit in Switzerland. They promised acceleration of arms-reduction talks.
1991: U.S. President George H.W. Bush signed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, making it easier for workers to sue in job discrimination cases.
1995: China jailed dissident Wei Jing-sheng and charged him with trying to overthrow the government.
2001: A 94-year-old Connecticut woman became the nation’s fifth anthrax victim, a death that mystified authorities since she rarely left home. Later it was discovered a family living a mile away had received a letter with anthrax residue on it.
2003: U.S. House of Representatives and Senate conferees finished the final version of the approximately $400 billion, 1,000-page bill that would create prescription drug coverage for 42 million Americans on Medicare.
2004: Iraqi authorities set Jan. 30, 2005, as the date for the nation’s first election since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.
2005: General Motors Corp., the world’s biggest carmaker, announced it was cutting its payroll by 30,000 and shutting nine major plants. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon resigned as head of the Likud Party he founded to start a new organization called Kadima.
2006: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a restoration of diplomatic ties with Syria, ending 24 years of strained relations.
2007: University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists reported they had reprogrammed human skin cells to behave as embryonic stem cells. The procedure bypasses ethical controversies caused by destroying embryos or cloning for stem cell research.
2008: U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton accepted President-elect Barack Obama’s offer to be the secretary of state nominee.
2009: A gas explosion at a coal mine in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province killed at least 42 workers with another 66 trapped 1,650 feet underground. Officials said 415 miners escaped the blast. Somali kidnappers of a British yachting couple demanded $7 million for their release. Paul and Rachel Chandler were abducted while sailing off the coast of East Africa.
2010: Ireland asked its European partners for a financial rescue package of about $90 billion to bolster its sagging economy.
2011: The United States and Britain imposed new sanctions on Iran to punish it for its suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons. The actions follow the latest report from the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, which said it couldn’t guarantee Iran’s nuclear program was for peaceful purposes only. Britain cut all financial ties with Iranian banks, while the United States targeted Iran’s oil industry as well.
Quotes
“I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.” – Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915)
“The sweetest women can be turned into a shrew by a man if he excites her but does not fulfill her. To tame her and to bring her back to sweetness he must make love to her and bring forth her pleasures, and she will turn immediately as night changes to day… She will then become a good wife, a good companion, a good mother, and a good human being.” – Haroun Al Makhzoumi
“All great truths begin as blasphemies.” – George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950)
“Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.” – Confucius, 551 BC-479 BC
“You really shouldn’t say “I love you” unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.” – A child
“Most women prefer sex with the lights off because they can’t bear to see a man enjoying himself. Men like the lights on so they can get the woman’s name right”
Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778) French Philosopher and Author:
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
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“A company of tyrants is inaccessible to all seductions.”
“A witty saying proves nothing.”
“All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God.”
“All styles are good except the tiresome kind.”
“All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.”
“An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.”
“Anything too stupid to be said is sung.”
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”
“As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.”
“Behind every successful man stands a surprised mother-in-law.”
elysian
PRONUNCIATION: (i-LIZH-uhn)
http://wordsmith.org/words/elysian.mp3
MEANING: adjective: Blissful; delightful.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin Elysium, from Greek elysion pedyon (Elysian plain/fields). In Greek mythology, Elysium (or the Elysian Fields) was the final resting place for the souls of heroes and the virtuous after their death. Earliest documented use: 1579.
USAGE: “Our neighbour stuck his head over the fence one arvo* and regaled me with Elysian illusions involving the company he worked for.” – Doug Anderson; Summer Job: Toilet Assembler; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jan 10, 2012
* Australian slang for ‘afternoon’
Explore “elysian” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=elysian
rodomontade
PRONUNCIATION: (rah-deh-mehn-TEYD)
MEANING: (n), Pretentious boasting or bragging; bluster and hence any arrogant act.
ETYMOLOGY: Old French “rodomont” + -ade. The suffix is from the Latin feminine past participle, -ata, often used as a noun, e.g. strata “paved way, road,” armata “armed, furnished with weapons.” Found elsewhere in “marmalade,” “parade,” “serenade,” “tirade,” as well as “salad” from the Medieval Latin salata “salted” via French “salade,” and “ballad” (originally meaning “a dancing song”) from late Latin ballare “to dance,” whence also “ball” and “ballet.” The noun originates in Italian “rodomonte,” a commonization of the name of the blustering Saracen leader in Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso” and Bojardo’s “Orlando Innamorato.”
USAGE: “The commencement speaker’s point was less acuminate behind the absolute rodomontade of his accomplishments he brandished in the foreground.”
wampum
PRONUNCIATION: (WOM-puhm)
http://wordsmith.org/words/wampum.mp3
MEANING: noun:
1. Beads made from shells, strung in strands, belts, etc. used for ceremonial purposes, jewelry, and money.
2. Money.
ETYMOLOGY: Short for Massachusett wampompeag, from wampan (white) + api (string) +-ag, plural suffix. Massachusett, now extinct, was a member of the Algonquian language family spoken in the US and Canada. Earliest documented use: 1636.
USAGE: “As GE Chairman Jack Welch said in a talk, ‘We’ve got to get more wampum. That means we’ve got to have more dot.coms.'” – Allan Sloan; Companies Creating New Coin In Push to Enter the Internet Realm; Washington Post; Jul 20, 1999.
Explore “wampum” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=wampum
schmeer or schmear or shmear
PRONUNCIATION: (shmeer)
http://wordsmith.org/words/schmeer.mp3
MEANING:
noun:
1. The entire set (as in the whole shmeer).
2. Bribe or flattery.
3. Spread or paste.
verb tr: To butter up: to flatter or bribe.
ETYMOLOGY: From Yiddish schmirn (to smear, grease, or flatter), from Middle High German smiren. Earliest recorded use: 1958.
NOTES: Literally speaking, to schmeer is to smear, cream cheese on a bagel, for example. The term is also used in many metaphorical senses: to flatter or bribe someone. Many languages have similar terms. In English we have: “to grease someone’s palm” (to bribe) and “to butter someone up” (to flatter). There’s another metaphorical sense in English that makes use of schmeer’s cousin, smear, as in “to smear someone’s reputation”.
USAGE:
“All three of the women sharing the bill have extensive TV experience — HBO and Comedy Central specials, Letterman, Leno, the whole shmear.” – James Sullivan; We Are Women, Hear Us Roar; The San Francisco Chronicle; Oct 17, 2002.
“Creswell’s attorney, Michael Axelrad, said jurors indicated to him that this schmeer tactic did not swing their decision.” – Al Lewis; Starbucks, Pepsi Win With Ponzi Allegation; Dow Jones News Service (New York); Aug 14, 2009.
Explore “schmeer” in the Visual Thesaurus.
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