Today in History (March 19th):
721 B.C.: The Roman historian Ptolemy said Babylonian astronomers noted history’s first recorded eclipse: an eclipse of the moon.
1590: Birthdays: Plymouth Colony Gov. William Bradford.
1734: Birthdays: Signer of the Declaration of Independence Thomas McKean.
1813: Birthdays: Scottish explorer of Africa David Livingstone.
1821: Birthdays: British explorer Richard Burton.
1848: Birthdays: U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp.
1860: Birthdays: Politician, lawyer William Jennings Bryan.
1883: Birthdays: U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Stilwell.
1891: Birthdays: Chief U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren.
1894: Birthdays: Comedian Moms Mabley.
1904: Birthdays: Watergate Judge John Sirica.
1915: Pluto was photographed for the first time, but not recognized as a planet.
1916: The first U.S. air combat mission in history saw eight Curtiss Jenny planes of the First Aero Squadron take off from Columbus, N.M., to aid troops that had invaded Mexico in pursuit of the bandit Pancho Villa.
1918: The U.S. Congress passed the Standard Time Act, which authorized the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish standard time zones in the United States.
1920: The Treaty of Versailles, establishing the League of Nations, was rejected by the U.S. Senate.
1928: Birthdays: Actor Patrick McGoohan.
1931: Tn an effort to ease the hard times of the Great Depression, the Nevada Legislature voted to legalize gambling.
1933: Birthdays: Author Philip Roth.
1936: Birthdays: Actor Ursula Andress.
1942: With World War II under way, all men in the United States between the ages of 45 and 64, about 13 million, were ordered to register with draft boards.
1947: Birthdays: Actor Glenn Close.
1955: Birthdays: Actor Bruce Willis.
1952: Birthdays: Film producer Harvey Weinstein.
1953: Legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille won the only Academy Award of his career when The Greatest Show on Earth, a big-budget extravaganza about circus life, was acclaimed the Best Picture of the year.
1987: South Carolina televangelist Jim Bakker resigned as head of the PTL Club, saying he was blackmailed after a sexual encounter with former church secretary Jessica Hahn.
1991: Khaleda Zia became the first woman prime minister of Bangladesh.
2002: The Israeli army complete its pullout of the West Bank by leaving Bethlehem one day after Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon met with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney. The following day a suicide bomber killed seven Israelis on a bus.
2003: The U.S.-led military offensive invaded Iraq with a nighttime assault on Baghdad. The U.S. Senate rejected a proposal supported by the Bush administration to allow drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge.
2005: Pakistan successfully tested a nuclear-capable missile with a range of 1,250 miles.
2006: The disputed presidential election in Belarus sparked street protests while international observers alleged fraud. Incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, who claimed 82.6 percent of the vote, was accused of rigging the election.
2007: A detainee at Guantanamo Bay allegedly admitted helping plan the bombings of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, and the USS Cole in Yemen.
2008: U.S. President George W. Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by calling it a fight the United States can and must win. He said removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision.
2009: Mexican President Felipe Calderon says the military will help fight drug cartels until police are retrained to do the job. More than 6,000 people died in drug-related violence in 2008.
2010: In a rash of so-called homegrown terror threats, one U.S. resident admitted in a Chicago court to involvement in the deadly 2008 Dubai attack, another pleaded innocent in Philadelphia to terrorist fundraising and recruiting charges while five young Virginia Muslims were accused of terrorism in Pakistan.
2011: Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, under heavy pressure to step down, told the West to drop the no-fly zone it declared this week to aid rebels demanding his ouster or face consequences. The zone, stretching from Benghazi to Tripoli, aimed at halting Gadhafi airstrikes against protesters. Warren Christopher, secretary of state in the Clinton administration decorated for his role in securing the release of 52 U.S. hostages in Iran in 1981, died in Los Angeles of cancer at the age of 85.
2012: The U.S. Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation into the fatal, high profile shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old high school student in Sanford, Fla., by a Hispanic neighborhood guard. A man claiming to be an avenging Al-Qaida member killed a rabbi, his two sons and another child at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, police said. Mohammed Merah, believed to have earlier killed three unarmed paratroopers, was slain after a 30-hour standoff with police.
Quotes
“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.” – Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)
“Always take a good look at what you’re about to eat. It’s not so important to know what it is, but it’s critical to know what it was.” – Anonymous
“When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.” – Anonymous
“If what you are getting online is for free, you are not the customer, you are the product.” – Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet law (b. 1969)
The shift Sure, old habits die hard, but this vitally important all-encompassing principle must be focussed on so that we can gauge and produce the necessary turnaround: -From divided to united -Sedated to educated -Victim to victor -Overly competitive to wholesale prices viagra more willingly cooperative -Dysfunctional to functional -Secrecy to openness … etc. online viagra australia It can help you promote better respiratory and circulatory functions. It contains dynamic fixing sildenafil citrate.These are cheap viagra http://www.unica-web.com/ENGLISH/2017/2017-congress-calendar.html made to a brilliant standard to guarantee security and viability. Other ingredients of Night Fire capsule pfizer viagra 50mg include Withania Somnifera, Tribulus Terrestris, Rock Asphaltum and many more. “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” – Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)
William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) American political leader:
“Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
“Do not compute the totality of your poultry population until all the manifestations of incubation have been entirely completed.”
“I hope the two wings of the Democratic Party may flap together.”
“If that vital spark that we find in a grain of wheat can pass unchanged through countless deaths and resurrections, will the spirit of man be unable to pass from this body to another?”
“No one can earn a million dollars honestly.”
“This is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. I come to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty – the cause of humanity.”
boogie
PRONUNCIATION: (BU-gee)
MEANING: (verb, Humorous slang) To dance in a fast and unrestrained fashion; to move quickly, hurry; to leave or get moving.
ETYMOLOGY: From “boogie-woogie” a reduplication of “boogie,” certainly from Black English, possibly from Black West African English bogi “to dance” akin to Hausa buga “to hit, beat (drums, etc.)” “Boogie-Woogie” entered the American idiom from a 1928 recording “Pinetop’s Boogie-Woogie” by Clarence “Pinetop” Smith. It was originally a piano style that developed in the U.S. after rag-time based on recurrent chord progression C-F-C-F-C-G-F-C played with a strong recurrent bass rhythm. These chords were the immediate predecessor of the blues and made a come-back in early rock and roll. The dancing that accompanied boogie was fast and unbridled, hence the meaning of today’s word.
USAGE: “Devon determined that he’d better boogie if he was to finish his papers, study for his mid-terms, and manage to work his customary sixty-hour week at the coffee shop.”
second-guess
PRONUNCIATION: (SEK-uhnd GES)
http://wordsmith.org/words/second-guess.mp3
MEANING: (verb tr.)
1. To criticize an event with the benefit of hindsight.
2. To guess or predict.
ETYMOLOGY: Probably a back-formation from second-guesser (in baseball, one who criticizes a play after the fact). Earliest documented use: 1941.
USAGE:
“Some managers become cross when they’re second-guessed, but Bruce Bochy wasn’t afraid to question himself after the team’s loss.” – Clutch, Giants’ Offense Stalls; San Jose Mercury News (California); Apr 7, 2007.
“Trying to second-guess the Arsenal team that will play against Liverpool is no simple task.” – Sam Wallace; Arsenal Teenagers Face Baptism of Fire; Belfast Telegraph (Ireland); Aug 18, 2011.
Explore “second-guess” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=second-guess
enceinte
PRONUNCIATION: (en-SANT, ahn*-SANT) *this syllable is nasal
http://wordsmith.org/words/enceinte.mp3
MEANING:
(adjective), Pregnant.
(noun), Fortification around a fort, castle, or town; area so enclosed.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From French enceinte (pregnant), from Latin in- (not) + cincta (girded). Earliest documented use: 1708.
For 2: From enceinte (surrounding wall, compound), from Latin in- (in, into, within) + cincta (girded). Earliest documented use: 1602.
NOTES: Does having an enceinte make a place impregnable? Despite similar sounds, the word impregnable has nothing to do with impregnate. The former is from Latin prendre (to seize, take) while the latter is from gignere (to bring into being).
USAGE:
“Now comes word from Star that Britney Spears knew she was enceinte in January, but waited to tell Federline, because she was worried he wouldn’t be happy.” – Kristin Dizon; Is Britney’s Belly Bubble a Baby?; Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Mar 13, 2006.
“What are the circumstances under which towns or their rulers choose to undertake the labor of surrounding cities with enceintes?” – James D. Tracy; City Walls; Cambridge University Press; 2000.
Explore “enceinte” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=enceinte
overslaugh
PRONUNCIATION: (O-vuhr-slaw)
http://wordsmith.org/words/overslaugh.mp3
MEANING: (verb tr.)
1. To pass over someone in favor of another, as in a promotion.
2. To bar or to hinder.
ETYMOLOGY: From Dutch overslaan (to pass over, omit), from over + slaan (to strike).
USAGE: “The disgusted James Grimes told William Fessenden, ‘The men of brains are still overslaughed and ignored.'” – T. Harry Williams; Lincoln and the Radicals; University of Wisconsin Press; 1960.