Today in History (March 3rd):
1606: Birthdays: English poet Edmund Waller.
1831: Birthdays: Industrialist George Pullman, inventor of the railway sleeping car.
1845: Florida was admitted to the United States as the 27th state.
1847: Birthdays: Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell.
1875: Carmen by Georges Bizet premiered in Paris.
1879: Attorney Belva Ann Lockwood became the first woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1882: Birthdays: Charles Ponzi, convicted of fraud for a pyramid scheme that bears his name.
1895: Birthdays: U.S. Army Gen. Matthew Ridgway.
1911: Birthdays: Movie star Jean Harlow.
1920: Birthdays: Star Trek actor James Scotty Doohan.
1923: Time magazine published its first issue. Birthdays: Musician Arthel Lane Doc Watson.
1931: An act of the U.S. Congress designated “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem of the United States.
1933: Birthdays: Lee Radziwill, sister of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
1940: Birthdays: Fashion designer Perry Ellis.
1958: Birthdays: Actor Miranda Richardson.
1959: Birthdays: Radio show host Ira Glass.
1962: Birthdays: Former football star Herschel Walker, 1982 Heisman Trophy winner; Olympic gold medal heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
1970: Birthdays: Actor Julie Bowen.
1974: A Turkish jetliner crashed near Paris, killing 345 people. Birthdays: Actor David Faustino.
1982: Birthdays: Actor Jessica Biel.
1985: British coal miners ended a yearlong strike, the longest and costliest labor dispute in British history.
1986: The President’s Commission on Organized Crime, ending a 32-month investigation, called for drug testing of most working Americans, including all federal employees.
1991: Home video captured three Los Angeles police officers beating motorist Rodney King. Residents of the Soviet republics of Latvia and Estonia voted overwhelmingly for independence.
1993: Deaths: Dr. Albert Sabin, the medical pioneer who helped conquer polio, died at his home of heart failure at age 86.
1996: A bus bombing in Jerusalem killed 19 people.
1997: U.S. Vice President Al Gore admitted he made fundraising calls from the White House but said he’d been advised there was no law against it. Former CIA official Harold Nicholson pleaded guilty to spying for Russia. He was sentenced to 23 years and seven months in prison.
1999: An estimated 70 million people tuned in to watch former White House intern Monica Lewinsky’s taped TV interview with Barbara Walters.
2004: Former WorldCom Chief Executive Officer Bernard Ebbers pleaded innocent to an indictment on federal fraud and conspiracy charges. The company’s 2002 bankruptcy was the largest in U.S. history.
2005: The U.S. military death toll in Iraq reached 1,500. North Korea announced it was dropping its self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile testing, in place since 1999.
2006: Former U.S. Rep. Randy Cunningham, R-Calif., was sentenced to eight years in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors for help in landing lucrative government contracts.
2007: Cleanup operations were under way in Alabama, Georgia and Missouri, where tornadoes killed 20 people, destroyed a hospital and a school and left hundreds homeless.
2008: The U.N. Security Council adopted a third round of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium. The resolution authorized cargo inspections in and out of Iran suspected of carrying prohibited equipment and tightens monitoring of Iranian financial institutions.
2009: Gunmen attacked a bus carrying the Sri Lankan national cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan. Six Pakistani police officers were slain and seven cricketeers were wounded. Mexico officials said 1,000 more police personnel would be sent to crime-riddled Ciudad Juarez along with a military buildup to bring the number of troops to around 7,000 to join in the violent drug wars.
2010: U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., stepped down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee amid growing concerns over alleged ethics violations. Same-sex marriages became legal in Washington.
2011: The U.S. Army brought 22 additional charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning, a prime suspect in the WikiLeaks case involving alleged downloading of secret information from computers in Iraq. One of the new charges accused Manning of aiding the enemy, punishable by death.
2012: Mitt Romney picked up momentum in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination as he made a strong showing in the Washington State caucus and then took six of the 10 contests on Super Tuesday for 200 additional delegates.
Quotes
“How much better to know that we have dared to live our dreams than to live our lives in a lethargy of regret.” – Gilbert Caplin
“Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.” – Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)
“Words are the small change of thought.” – Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910)
“Errors like straws upon the surface flow:”
“Who would search for pearls must dive below.”
And if you are concerned about generico viagra on line the packaging, don’t worry because you will receive Wisconsin ginseng in standardized packing only. Good luck Ayurveda has factually taken in consideration of you could try here tadalafil buy cheap all the men between ages of 40 and 70 shall have experienced impotence condition to some degree. Most men after attaining sildenafil pills a certain age (after 40 years) are vulnerable to Erectile Dysfunction. The self-test is to be conducted for three nights in succession for confirming the outcomes. generic viagra line – John Dryden, poet and dramatist (1631-1700)
“Poets that lasting marble seek”
“Must come in Latin or in Greek.”
– Edmund Waller
Alexander Bell (1847-1922) American Inventor:
“A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.”
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”
“What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists…and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want…and are fully determined not to quit until you get it.”
“When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
gelasin
PRONUNCIATION: (JEL-uh-sin)
MEANING: (noun), A dimple in the cheek that appears when someone smiles.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek gelaein (to laugh), which also gave us the words agelast (one who never laughs) and hypergelast (one who laughs too much). Earliest documented use: 1608.
USAGE:
“Gelasin is this pretty little dimple of which Martial says:
His is the face less gracious
Who has not the gelasin joyous.”
Laurent Joubert; Treatise on Laughter; University of Alabama Press; 1980.
Translation: Gregory David De Rocher.
hellkite
PRONUNCIATION: (HEL-kyt)
MEANING: (noun), An extremely cruel person.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English hell (a place of misery) + kite (a person who preys on others).
USAGE: “While hopes were high for a supervisor a bit more easygoing than the previous one, she in fact turned out to be a complete and utter hellkite, a whip-cracker of the first degree who played favorites based on daily whims while doing little actual work herself.”
schwarmerei
PRONUNCIATION: (shver-muh-RY)
http://wordsmith.org/words/schwarmerei.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. Extravagant enthusiasm.
2. Excessive sentimentality.
ETYMOLOGY: From Schwärmerei (enthusiasm), from schwärmen (to swarm, to be wild or mad about). Earliest documented use: 1845.
USAGE: “True fulfillment flowed solely from whatever they had in common, for that was always a condition of schwarmerei.” – Jonathan Thomas; Midnight Call and Other Stories; Hippocampus Press; 2008.
laager or lager
PRONUNCIATION: (LAH-guhr)
http://wordsmith.org/words/laager.mp3
MEANING:
(noun)
1. A camp, especially one protected by a circle of wagons or armored vehicles.
2. An entrenched policy or viewpoint.
(verb tr., intr.), To enclose in a defensive encirclement.
ETYMOLOGY: From obsolete Afrikaans lager (camp), from Dutch or German Lager (camp). Ultimately from the Indo-European root legh- (to lie or lay) that is also the source of lie, lay, lair, fellow.
USAGE: “[The scientists] should repudiate the laager mentality and evasions of the East Anglia researchers. Instead of grudgingly yielding to Freedom of Information requests, they should publish their data and workings online wherever possible.” – Ian Katz; The Case for Climate Action; The Guardian (London, UK); Feb 8, 2010.
Explore “laager” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=laager
au fait
PRONUNCIATION: (o FAY)
http://wordsmith.org/words/au_fait.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Being well-informed or skillful in something.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally “to the fact”, from Latin facere (to make or do).
USAGE: “Some technology degree holders took two years in a job before they were au fait with the practical skills.” – Caitlin McKay; Award for Dedication; Manawatu Standard (New Zealand); Aug 27, 2007.