Today in History (November 18th):
1477: The Sayings of the Philosophers was published, the earliest known book printed in England to carry a date.
1647: Birthdays: French philosopher and writer Pierre Bayle.
1786: Birthdays: German composer Carl von Weber; English composer Henry Bishop (Home Sweet Home).
1787: Birthdays: French physicist Louis Daguerre, inventor of daguerreotype photography.
1836: Birthdays: English playwright W.S. Gilbert, libretto writer for the comic operas of composer Arthur Sullivan.
1860: Birthdays: Polish composer Ignacy Paderewski.
1861: Birthdays: Journalist Dorothy Dix.
1883: The United States adopted Standard Time and set up four zones — Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific.
1899: Birthdays: Conductor Eugene Ormandy.
1901: Birthdays: Pollster George Gallup.
1908: Birthdays: Comedic actor Imogene Coca.
1909: Birthdays: Songwriter Johnny Mercer.
1923: Birthdays: Astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
1928: Mickey Mouse made his screen debut in the landmark Steamboat Willie at the Colony Theater in New York City. The Walt Disney cartoon, with Disney doing the voice of Mickey, was the first with synchronized sound.
1939: Birthdays: Actor Brenda Vaccaro.
1941: Birthdays: Actor David Hemmings.
1942: Birthdays: Actor Linda Evans.
1946: Birthdays: Writer Alan Dean Foster.
1947: Birthdays: Actor Jameson Parker.
1948: Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame member Jack Tatum.
1953: Birthdays: Actor Kevin Nealon.
1960: Birthdays: Actor Elizabeth Perkins.
1963: Push-button telephones made their debut. Touch-tone service was available as an option for an extra charge.
1968: Birthdays: Actor Owen Wilson.
1970: Birthdays: Television news commentator Megyn Kelly.
1978: More than 900 people died in a mass suicide-murder led by the Rev. Jim Jones at the People’s Temple commune in Guyana, following the slaying of U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, D-Calif. It was the largest mass suicide in modern history.
1991: The Lebanese Shiite Muslim faction, the Islamic Jihad, freed Church of England envoy Terry Waite and U.S. professor Thomas Sutherland.
1994: Palestinian police opened fire on Islamic militants outside a mosque in the Gaza Strip, sparking riots that killed at least 14 people and injured 200.
1996: Harold Nicholson, a 16-year CIA veteran, was arrested for spying.
1999: 12 people died when the Aggie Bonfire collapsed at Texas A&M University. It was a tradition at the school to construct the bonfire before A&M played Texas in football.
2003: The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the state’s prohibition against same-sex marriages was unconstitutional.
2004: Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales.
2005: Suicide bombings killed more than 50 people in Iraq, most of them in or near two Shiite mosques close to the Iranian border.
2006: A Connecticut woman who pleaded guilty to sending cookies loaded with rat poison to the U.S. Supreme Court was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
2007: Authorities in Bangladesh upped the death toll from Cyclone Sidr to at least 2,000 people. Many more were reported missing and some 600,000 were homeless from the storm that ruined much of the country’s food supply. A methane explosion in a Ukrainian coal mine killed at least 88 miners.
2008: Pirates hijacked a Saudi oil tanker anchored about 480 miles off the coast of Somalia, loaded with about 2 million barrels of oil, worth about $100 million.
2009: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced a healthcare package he said could extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans with a price tag of $849 billion over 10 years.
2010: Somalia was rated the world’s top terror state, surpassing Afghanistan, Pakistan and Colombia, in a British global study. A United Nations report said the bill for global food imports would top $1 trillion for the second time, putting the world dangerously close to a new food crisis.
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Quotes
Sir William Gilbert (1836-1911) English Playwright and Poet:
“Things are seldom what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream.”
“If you wish in this world to advance your merits you’re bound to enhance; you must stir it and stump it, and blow your own trumpet, or, trust me, you haven’t a chance.”
“Oh, don’t the days seem lank and long,
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong,
And isn’t your life extremely flat,
When you’ve nothing whatever to grumble at?”
“One cannot eat breakfast all day,
Nor is it the act of a sinner,
When breakfast is taken away,
To turn his attention to dinner;
And it’s not in the range of belief,
To look upon him as a glutton,
Who, when he is tired of beef,
Determines to tackle the mutton.”
“When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache, and repose is tabooed by anxiety,
I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety.”
serendipity
PRONUNCIATION: (ser-uhn-DIP-i-tee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/serendipity.mp3
MEANING: noun: The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by chance. Also, an instance of such a discovery.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by novelist Horace Walpole based on the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip. The Princes were supposedly making these happy discoveries they were not looking for. From Persian Sarandip (Sri Lanka), from Arabic sarandib. Earliest documented use: 1754.
USAGE: “To maximise serendipity, Yossi Vardi cleverly mixes specialised conferences with the more eclectic kind.” – In Search of Serendipity; The Economist (London, UK); Jul 22, 2010.
Explore “serendipity” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=serendipity
enjoin
PRONUNCIATION: (en-JOYN)
MEANING: (verb)
1. To force or compel someone to take an action or cease in some action, usually with a court order or “injunction” (to enjoin someone to act/from acting).
2. To forbid or prevent by legal action (to enjoin any public activity).
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin iniungere, in- causative prefix + iungere “to join.” The prefix is akin to the English “in” in, well, “in,” and “income,” “input,” etc. The stem, iung- derives from Indo-European yeug- which also gave English “yoke” and Sanskrit yogah “union” from which “yoga” was borrowed.
USAGE: “The Republican Party asked the Florida courts to enjoin the election boards of four counties from counting votes by hand.”
in toto
PRONUNCIATION: (in TO-to)
http://wordsmith.org/words/in_toto.mp3
MEANING: adverb: Totally; as a whole.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin totus (total). First recorded use: 1639.
USAGE: “Garcia opposes lifting the embargo in toto.” – Tim Padgett; Florida’s 25th District; Time (New York); Sep 27, 2010.
Explore “in toto” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=in+toto