Today in History (January 23rd):
1737: Birthdays: American patriot John Hancock.
1783: Birthdays: French author Stendhal, a pseudonym for Marie-Henri Beyle.
1789: Georgetown College became the first Catholic college founded in the United States in Georgetown, Md., which later would be part of the District of Columbia.
1832: Birthdays: French Impressionist painter Edouard Manet.
1845: The U.S. Congress decided that all national elections would take place on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
1849: Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a medical degree.
1898: Birthdays: Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein; Actor Randolph Scott.
1907: Birthdays: Actor Dan Duryea.
1919: Birthdays: Comedian Ernie Kovacs.
1922: At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes.
1933: Birthdays: Actor/singer Chita Rivera.
1943: Birthdays: Actor Gil Gerard.
1944: Birthdays: Actor Rutger Hauer.
1948: U.S. Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower said he couldn’t accept a presidential nomination from either party. Four years later, he ran as a Republican and was elected 34th president of the United States.
1950: Birthdays: Actor Richard Dean Anderson.
1951: Birthdays: Airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who landed his disabled plan in the Hudson River.
1953: Birthdays: Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa.
1957: Birthdays: Princess Caroline of Monaco.
1963: Birthdays: Actor Gail O’Grady.
1968: The USS Pueblo was seized in the Sea of Japan by North Korea, which claimed the ship was on a spy mission. The crew was held for 11 months before being released.
1971: The temperature at Prospect Creek, Alaska, dropped to 80 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature recorded in the United States.
1973: U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that U.S. troops would cease fighting in Vietnam at midnight Jan. 27.
1974: Birthdays: Actor Tiffani Thiessen.
1980: U.S. President Jimmy Carter reinstated the Selective Service System.
1986: The first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1988: Sandinista missiles downed a cargo plane that was dropping U.S.-financed supplies to Contra rebels in southeastern Nicaragua. Four crewmen were killed.
1991: U.S. Army Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said heavy bombing had destroyed Iraq’s two operating nuclear reactors and damaged chemical facilities. U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady asked Congress for $80 billion toward the bailout of the nation’s savings and loan industry.
1997: Madeline Albright was sworn into office as the first woman U.S. secretary of state.
2004: Bob Keeshan, the easy-going, bushy-mustached actor who created the classic children’s television show Captain Kangaroo, died at the age of 76.
2005: Johnny Carson, host of TV’s Tonight Show for 30 years and a powerful presence in American entertainment, died of emphysema at age 79. Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in as Ukraine’s president, ending a tumultuous election and promising a period of radical, liberal reforms.
2006: Ford Motor Co., reflecting the downsizing of the U.S. auto industry, said it would close 14 factories and eliminate 30,000 jobs over six years. Canadian voters chose Stephen Harper’s Conservation Party over outgoing Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Labor Party in a close parliamentary election.
2008: Tens of thousands of Palestinians rushed into Egypt to buy food and supplies after members of Hamas destroyed parts of a wall separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Thailand returned to civilian rule after a military council that had ruled the country for 16 months disbanded.
2009: U.S. President Barack Obama ordered an end to the global gag rule that barred U.S. aid to groups overseas that provide abortions or abortion referrals.
2010: China accused U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of hurting diplomatic relations by criticizing the Chinese for Internet censorship.
2011: Thousands of protesters in Yemen, a key U.S. ally in the war against terror, demonstrated in Sanaa, demanding the country’s autocratic president step down. Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva won election to a second five-year term.
2012: The European Union agreed to ban oil imports from Iran, increasing pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. Under the sanctions, the 27 members agreed not to sign new oil contracts with Iran and to sever existing contracts by July 1.
Quotes
“If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” – Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)
What is aspect effect? Most sensitivity cheap no prescription cialis reaction contains difficulty breathing; ending of the throat; inflammation of the mouth, mouth, or face; or hives. To lead a healthy and fit life one should always indulge in cialis from india online sexual intercourse. You might blame yourself, thinking you are no longer desirable. getting prescription for viagra There are over 14,000 canterburymewscooperative.com levitra without prescription photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them). “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” – Mark Twain
“Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much the human heart can hold.” – Zelda Fitzgerald, novelist (1900-1948)
“A civilized society is one that exhibits the five qualities of truth, beauty, adventure, art and peace.” – Whitehead
Derek Walcott (1930- ) West Indian dramatist and poet:
“Any serious attempt to try to do something worthwhile is ritualistic.”
“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”
“The English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.”
“If you know what you are going to write when you’re writing a poem, it’s going to be average.”
“To change your language you must change your life.”
mendacious
men-DAY-shuhs)
(adjective)
1. Given to deception or falsehood; lying; untruthful; as, a mendacious person.
2. False; untrue; as, a mendacious statement.
Mendacious is from Latin mendax, mendac-, “lying.”
“While Jason’s writings, speeches, and decisions supplied crucial evidence they also contained mendacious elements, gaps, and camouflage.”
shrapnel
PRONUNCIATION: (SHRAP-nel)
http://wordsmith.org/words/shrapnel.mp3
MEANING: (noun), Fragments of an exploded bomb, shell, mine, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: After Henry Shrapnel (1761-1842), English army officer. He invented an artillery shell containing metal balls, which exploded in the air near the target. Earliest documented use: 1806.
USAGE: “It’s true that Hagel harbors a healthy skepticism about deploying American troops. That’s because he also harbors shrapnel in his chest from Vietnam and appreciates the human costs when Pentagon officials move pins on maps.” – Nicholas D. Kristof; In Defense of Hagel for Defense; The New York Times; Jan 9, 2013.
Explore “shrapnel” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=shrapnel
Xanthippe or Xantippe
PRONUNCIATION: (zan-THIP-ee, -TIP-)
http://wordsmith.org/words/xanthippe.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A nagging, ill-tempered woman.
ETYMOLOGY: After Xanthippe, wife of Socrates (c. 5 BCE) who has been portrayed as a nagging, quarrelsome woman. The name Xanthippe is from xanthos (yellow) + hippos (horse). Also see xanthodontous. Earliest documented use: 1691.
NOTES: Socrates is said to have advised, “By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.” It’s not known what Socrates thought would happen if the roles were reversed. Also, there’s the question of which came first: philosophizing or being ill-tempered. Would being married to a philosopher turn a woman into a shrew?
USAGE: Mistress Foster is a grasping shrew, a Xanthippe, who bosses her husband about.” – Jean Howard; Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy; University of Pennsylvania Press; 2009.
paladin
PRONUNCIATION: (PAL-uh-din)
http://wordsmith.org/words/paladin.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. A strong supporter of a cause.
2. A heroic champion.
ETYMOLOGY: From French paladin, from Italian paladino, from palatinus ([officer] of thepalace). After Palatine, the name of the centermost of the seven hills on whichancient Rome was built. Roman emperors had their palaces on this hill. Otherwords such as palace and palatinederive from the same source. The 12 peers in Charlemagne’s court were alsocalled paladins. Earliest documented use: 1592.
USAGE:
“Evo Morales has been a paladin for Mother Earth, recently pushing forinternational adoption of a Bolivian law granting nature rights.” – Bolivia’s Amazon Highway a Bumpy Road for Morales, Brazil; Bloomberg(New York); Oct 19, 2011.
“There are those who want Mario Balotelli to be a trailblazer, a paladinof integration. Some kind of cross between Dr Martin Luther King Jr andJackie Robinson.” – The Paradigm of Italian Immigration; The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland);Aug 22, 2010.
Explore “paladin” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=paladin