Today in History (December 29th):
1170: Deaths: Anglican churchman/politician Thomas Becket was killed at England’s Canterbury Cathedral.
1721: Birthdays: Madame de Pompadour, mistress of French King Louis XV.
1766: Birthdays: Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh, who patented a waterproof fabric.
1800: Birthdays: Industrialist Charles Goodyear.
1808: Birthdays: Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States.
1809: Birthdays: British statesman William Gladstone.
1845: Texas was admitted into the United States as the 28th state.
1848: Gaslights were installed at the White House for the first time.
1851: The first chapter of the Young Men’s Christian Association — YMCA — opened in Boston.
1890: More than 200 Indian men, women and children were massacred by the U.S. 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D.
1903: Birthdays: Band leader Clyde Sugar Blues McCoy.
1917: Birthdays: Former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley.
1925: Birthdays: Golf course designer Pete Dye.
1932: Birthdays: Actor Inga Swenson.
1934: Birthdays: Actor Ed Flanders.
1936: Birthdays: Actor Mary Tyler Moore; Football Hall of Fame member Ray Nitschke.
1938: Birthdays: Actor Jon Voight.
1940: London suffered its most devastating air raid when Germans firebombed the city.
1942: Birthdays: Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame member Rick Danko.
1946: Birthdays: Singer Marianne Faithfull.
1947: Birthdays: Actor Ted Danson.
1950: Birthdays: Actor Jon Polito.
1951: Birthdays: Singer Yvonne Elliman.
1959: Birthdays: Comedian Paula Poundstone.
1967: Birthdays: Television journalist Ashleigh Banfield.
1972: Birthdays: Actor Jude Law.
1975: A terrorist bomb exploded at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and injuring 75.
1983: The United States announced its withdrawal from UNESCO, charging the U.N. cultural and scientific organization was biased against Western nations.
1989: Playwright Vaclav Havel was sworn in as the first non-communist president of Czechoslovakia since 1948.
1992: A Cuban airliner was hijacked to Miami as part of a mass defection. Forty-eight of the 53 people aboard sought and were granted political asylum.
2002: Kenyan voters ousted the party that had ruled the nation since 1963 in an election that ended the 24-year presidency of Daniel Arap Moi.
2003: Five bodies were recovered from the Christmas Day mudslide in California’s San Bernardino Mountains, running the total to 12.
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2004: Deaths: Actor Jerry Orbach, star of stage, film and TV, best known for his starring role on TV’s Law and Order, died of prostate cancer at the age of 69.
2005: Wind-driven grass fires in Texas and Oklahoma destroyed thousands of acres, hundreds of buildings and countless cattle. At least four people died. The Texas farming community of Cross Plains was demolished.
2006: AT&T won U.S. approval to complete an $85 billion takeover of BellSouth Corp. after it made a series of consumer-friendly concessions.
2008: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack told the Knesset that Israel was involved in all-out war with the militant group Hamas, the de facto ruler in Gaza. His remarks came as Israel pounded Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip from the air for a third day with the death toll topping 300. Somali President Abdullahi Yusef Ahmed resigned. He had been blamed for the country’s deepening political crisis.
2009: A suicide bomber killed at least 43 people and hurt more than 100 others in an attack on a Shiite procession in Karachi, Pakistan, marking the holy event Ashura. The blast touched off a riot that resulted in the burning of a reported 1,000 shops.
2010: The number of U.S. bank failures hit an 18-year high — 157 compared to 140 in 2009 — and 2011 could be another bad year, figures from federal regulators indicated.
2011: Kim Jon Un was declared Supreme Leader of North Korea at a memorial service in Pyongyang for his father and former leader Kim Jong Il. The Obama administration approved the sale of fighter jets worth $30 billion to Saudi Arabia in a deal that includes 84 new F-15 fighters and upgrades for 70 more.
Quotes
Andrew Johnson (1808-1875) 17th President of the United States:
“Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.”
“There are some who lack confidence in the integrity and capacity of the people to govern themselves. To all who entertain such fears I will most respectfully say that I entertain none . . . If man is not capable, and is not to be trusted with the government of himself, is he to be trusted with the government of others . . . Who, then, will govern? The answer must be, Man for we have no angels in the shape of men, as yet, who are willing to take charge of our political affairs.”
“Notwithstanding a mendacious press; notwithstanding a subsidized gang of hirelings who have not ceased to traduce me, I have discharged all my official duties and fulfilled my pledges. And I say here tonight that if my predecessor [Lincoln] had lived, the vials of wrath would have been poured out upon him.”
“There are no good laws but such as repeal other laws.”
“If the rabble were lopped off at one end and the aristocrat at the other, all would be well with the country.”
“I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it”
“The goal to strive for is a poor government but a rich people”
“It’s a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.”
“Tyranny and despotism can be exercised by many, more rigourously, more vigourously, and more severely, than by one.”
“We have no legal authority more than private citizens,and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us.This broad principle limits all our functionsand applies to all subjects.”
“I have performed my duty to my God, my country, and my family. I have nothing to fear in approaching death. To me it is the mere shadow of God’s protecting wing . . . Here I will rest in quiet and peace beyond the reach of calumny’s poisoned shaft, the influence of envy and jealous enemies, where treason and traitors or State backsliders and hypocrites in church can have no peace.”
redoubtable
PRONUNCIATION: (re-DOU-tuh-buhl)
MEANING: (adjective), Arousing fear or awe; evoking respect or honor.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English redoubtabel, from Old French redoutable, from redouter (to dread), from re- (again) + douter (to doubt, fear). Redoubtable ultimately derives from Indo-European root *dwo-, meaning two. A person of two minds about something is in doubt or dubious. The uncertainty of doubt can give rise to fear, even dread. Thus, a redoubtable person is to be feared, or at least respected. In contrast, a fact too apparent even to be doubted is indubitable. Others in this *dwo- family that are not obvious include “tw” words betwixt, between, twig, twilight, twist, twine, intertwine, twill, and twinkle.
USAGE: “Even the redoubtable Jose Jenkins in accounting, long the model of any and all who dared to tally an index sheet, had a few monumental blunders in his jacket.”
mazard
PRONUNCIATION: (MAZ-uhrd)
http://wordsmith.org/words/mazard.mp3
MEANING: noun: Face, head, or skull.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English mazer (a large wooden drinking bowl), from mazer (a hardwood, especially maple). It’s not clear how we got from the bowl to the head, perhaps from the shape of the bowl. Earliest documented use: 1584.
USAGE: “Shakespeare is really clear that the skull is handled roughly. You know, there’s a line about being knocked about the mazard.” – Barry Edelstein; On London’s West End, ‘Hamlet’ With Human Skull; National Public Radio: All Things Considered (New York); Jun 4, 2009.
Explore “mazard” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=mazard