Today in History (March 21st):
1413: Henry V was crowned king of England.
1617: Pocahontas died in England at about age 22. Three years earlier, she converted to Christianity, took the name Rebecca and married Englishman John Rolfe.
1685: Birthdays: Composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
1790: Thomas Jefferson of Virginia became the first U.S. secretary of state.
1806: Birthdays: Mexican revolutionary and president Benito Juarez.
1839: Birthdays: Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.
1857: 100,000 people were killed in an earthquake in Tokyo.
1867: Birthdays: Theatrical impresario Florenz Ziegfeld.
1918: U.S. and German soldiers fought the World War I battle of the Somme.
1925: Birthdays: English theatrical director Peter Brook.
1928: Charles Lindbergh was presented a Medal of Honor for his first trans-Atlantic flight.
1930: Birthdays: Actor James Coco.
1934: Birthdays: Actor Al Freeman Jr.
1945: 7,000 Allied planes dropped more than 12,000 tons of explosives on Germany during a single World War II daytime bombing raid.
1946: Birthdays: Actor Timothy Dalton.
1949: Birthdays: Musician Eddie Money.
1952: Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed organized the first rock ‘n’ roll concert — the Moondog Coronation Ball.
1958: Birthdays: Actor Gary Oldman.
1960: Police opened fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators in the black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, killing 69 people and wounding 180.
1962: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged that Russia would cooperate with the United States in peaceful exploration of space. The joint American-Soviet Soyuz space mission was conducted in July 1975. Birthdays: Actor Matthew Broderick; Actor Rosie O’Donnell.
1963: The federal prison on San Francisco Bay’s Alcatraz Island was closed.
1965: More than 3,000 civil rights demonstrators, led by Martin Luther King Jr., began a four-day march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery, Ala., to demand federal protection of voting rights.
1984: The U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk collided with a nuclear-powered Soviet submarine in the Sea of Japan.
1993: Nicaraguan rebels ended a 13-day seizure of the Nicaraguan Embassy, freeing the last 11 hostages under a deal that gave them asylum in the Dominican Republic.
1999: Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones landed near Cairo after becoming the first to circle the globe by balloon.
2002: Pope John Paul II, referring to the sexual abuse scandal that had shaken the Roman Catholic clergy, said in a letter that a dark shadow of suspicion had fallen over all priests because of the behavior of those who had succumbed to the most grievous forms of evil.
2003: Some 1,300 missiles struck Baghdad after dark in part of a shock-and-awe offensive as journalists imbedded with the troops reported from the battleground. Meanwhile, U.S. troops seized major oil fields near Basra. The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $2.2 trillion budget embracing President George W. Bush’s tax-cutting plan.
2005: A 17-year-old youth at the northern Minnesota Indian Reservation of Red Lake killed nine people, wounded 12 others and killed himself.
2006: About 100 armed Iraqi insurgents stormed a jail north of Baghdad, killing 18 policemen and freeing 10 prisoners. Ten of the attackers were killed.
2010: Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, despite intense U.S. pressure, refused to budge from plans to build new housing units in East Jerusalem. The first eruption of a volcano in southern Iceland since the 1820s forced the evacuation of 450 people but there were no reports of injuries or major property damage.
2011: U.S. President Barack Obama, citing the War Powers Resolution, notified Congress of his decision to deploy U.S. forces as part of a military operation against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Surgeons at a Boston hospital said they had performed the first full face transplant in the United States on a Texas man burned in a 2008 electrical accident.
2012: The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a Syrian peace plan drawn up by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan aimed at ending the country’s civil war and beginning steps toward democracy. Syrian President Bashar Assad accepted the plan but violence continued.
Quotes
“It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it’s not, it’s a visa, and it runs out fast.” – Julie Burchill, writer and journalist (b. 1959)
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” – Thomas Jefferson
“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author. ” – G. K. Chesterton
“The strongest natures, when they are influenced, submit the most unreservedly; it is perhaps a sign of their strength.” – Virginia Woolf, writer (1882-1941)
“One cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.” – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)
Johann S. Bach (1685-1750) German composer and organist:
“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”
“It’s easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.”
“Bring me A bowl of coffee before I turn into a goat.”
“I have always kept one end in view, namely, with all good will to conduct a well-regulated church music to the honor of God.”
“Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul.”
“Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.”
“My masters are strange folk with very little care for music in them.”
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“There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.”
“My present post amounts to about 700 thaler, and when there are rather more funerals than usual, the fees rise in proportion; but when a healthy wind blows, they fall accordingly.”
oniomania
PRONUNCIATION: (O-nee-uh-MAY-nee-uh, -MAYN-yuh)
MEANING: (noun), Compulsive shopping; excessive, uncontrollable desire to buy things.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin, from Greek xnios (for sale), from onos (price) + -mania.
USAGE: “Candace was periodically struck by fits of oniomania, something which tended to put a severe strain on both her closet space and her bank account.”
impregnable
PRONUNCIATION: (im-PREG-nuh-buhl)
http://wordsmith.org/words/impregnable.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Incapable of being taken by force; strong enough to withstand attack.
2. Capable of being impregnated.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Old French imprenable, from in- (not) + prenable (vulnerable to capture), from prendre (to take, seize). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize, take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, pregnant, osprey, prison, and get. Earliest documented use: 1430.
For 2: From Latin impraegnaere (to fertilize, impregnate). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gen- (to give birth), which also gave birth to words such as generate, engine, indigenous, and germ.
USAGE:
“Mr Netanyahu, who seemed electorally impregnable, may suddenly look vulnerable.” – Nerves are Jangling Again; The Economist (London, UK); Nov 17, 2012.
“She lived in daily dread of pregnancy. She was sure she broke all records as the world’s most easily impregnable female.” – Vera Buch Weisbord; A Radical Life; Indiana University Press; 1977.
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bailiwick
PRONUNCIATION: (BAY-luh-wik)
http://wordsmith.org/words/bailiwick.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A person’s area of expertise or interest.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English bailliwik, from bailie (bailiff), from bail (custody), from Latin baiulare (to serve as porter) + Middle English wick (dairy farm or village), from Old English wic (house or village), from Latin vicus (neighborhood). Ultimately from the Indo-European root weik- (clan), which is also the forebear of vicinity, village, villa, and villain (originally, a villain was a farm servant, one who lived in a villa or a country house), ecumenical, and ecesis. Earliest documented use: 1460.
USAGE: “Ms. Sarah Palin took the extraordinary step Tuesday of filing an ethics complaint against herself, making the matter fall within the bailiwick of the personnel board. Her lawyer Mr. Van Flein then asked the Legislature to drop its inquiry.” – Peter S. Goodman and Michael Moss; Alaska Lawmakers to Seek Subpoenas in Palin Inquiry; The New York Times; Sep 6, 2008.
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cant
PRONUNCIATION: (kant)
http://wordsmith.org/words/cant.mp3
MEANING:
(noun)
1. Hypocritically pious talk.
2. The private language of an underworld group.
3. Whining speech, especially of beggars.
4. A slope or tilt.
5. A motion that tilts something.
6. An outer corner.
7. A log slabbed on one or more sides.
(verb tr.), To set at an oblique angle; tilt.
(adj.), Oblique.
ETYMOLOGY: For 1-3: From Latin cantus (song). Earliest documented use: variously 1640-1706. For the rest: From Latin cantus (corner). Earliest documented use: 1542.
USAGE:
“It is such a huge relief that even Dr. Emmah Isong recognised the fact that his cant and humbug are not known to the Nigerian constitution and we will not be delayed any further by it.” – Muyiwa Apara; Jonathan, Democracy, and 2011; Sunday Tribune (Nigeria); May 16, 2010.
“Once again she’s the village girl who can’t comprehend the cant of the black-clad men who surround that platform.” – Benedict Nightingale; This is a Joan That Stirs the Soul; The Times (London, UK); Jul 12, 2007.
“Mitchell not only must follow the contours of the letter or design but also must adjust for the depth of the cut and the cant of the groove.” – Art Carey; Doylestown Woman Brings Passion to Artful Engraving; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Aug 6, 2009.
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cloud-cuckoo-land or cloud cuckoo land
PRONUNCIATION: (KLOUD-koo-koo-land)
http://wordsmith.org/words/cloud-cuckoo-land.mp3
MEANING: (noun), An idealized, unrealistic state; a place out of touch with reality.
ETYMOLOGY: Loan translation of Greek Nephelokokkugia, from nephele (cloud) + kokkux (cuckoo). The word was coined in The Birds, a comedy by Athenian playwright Aristophanes (c. 450-388 BCE). Nephelokokkugia was the name of a city in the sky, built by the birds in collaboration with some Athenians.
USAGE: “‘Retirement at 58 is cloud cuckoo land for most private sector workers, many of whom find their pension savings shot to pieces,’ said Lord Oakeshott.” – Holly Watt; The Million Pound Pension Pots of the Mandarins; The Daily Telegraph (London, UK); Jan 1, 2010.
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