Today in History (July 25th)
1750: Birthdays: Revolutionary War Gen. Henry Knox.
1832: One man was killed and three others injured in the first recorded railroad accident in U.S. history. The four were thrown from an otherwise vacant car on the Granite Railway near Quincy, Mass.
1844: Birthdays: Artist Thomas Eakins.
1870: Birthdays: Artist Maxfield Parrish.
1894: The first Sino-Japanese War began. Birthdays: Actor Walter Brennan.
1898: During the Spanish-American War, U.S. forces launched their invasion of Puerto Rico, the island that was one of Spain’s two principal possessions in the Caribbean.
1908: Birthdays: Actor Jack Gilford.
1909: French pioneer aviator Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly a heavier-than-air machine across the English Channel. It took him 36 minutes.
1917: Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, was sentenced to death in France as a German spy.
1923: Birthdays: Actor Estelle Getty.
1935: Birthdays: Actor Barbara Harris.
1943: Birthdays: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jim McCarty (the Yardbirds).
1946: Birthdays: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Jose Areas (Santana).
1948: Birthdays: Folk singer/songwriter Steve Goodman.
1952: Puerto Rico became a self-governing U.S. commonwealth.
1954: Birthdays: Football Hall of Fame member Walter Payton.
1955: Birthdays: Model/actor Iman Abdulmajid.
1956: The Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria sank off Long Island, N.Y., after colliding with the Swedish liner Stockholm. The accident’s death toll was 52.
1965: Folk legend Bob Dylan performed for the first time with electric instruments, so upsetting his fans that they booed him.
1967: Birthdays: Actor Matt LeBlanc.
1972: The Democratic vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton of Missouri, disclosed he had undergone psychiatric treatment in the 1960s. Presidential nominee George McGovern replaced him on the ticket with Sargent Shriver.
1978: Birthdays: Louise Joy Brown, the world’s first test-tube baby was born in Oldham, England.
1982: Birthdays: Actor Brad Renfro.
1986: Former Navy radioman Jerry Whitworth was convicted of selling U.S. military secrets to the Soviets through the John Walker spy ring. The government called it the most damaging espionage case since World War II.
1994: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan’s King Hussein signed a declaration that ended the 46-year state of war between their countries.
1997: Captured Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot was sentenced to life imprisonment in a trial by his former comrades in Cambodia.
2000: An Air France Concorde supersonic jet crashed on takeoff from Paris, killing all 113 people aboard. It was the first crash of a Concorde.
2007: As Iraqis celebrated their national soccer team’s victory over South Korea in the Asian Cup semifinals, panic took over when two suicide bombers attacked crowds in Baghdad, killing at least 50 people and injuring about 140.
2008: California banned the use of trans fats in all restaurants and retail bakeries in the state, beginning in 2010.
2011: The Vatican recalled its special envoy in Ireland after a blistering report on the Catholic Church’s handling of child abuse by priests there and the alleged covering up of charges. Prime Minister Enda Kenny accused the church of putting its reputation ahead of child rape victims.
2012: North Korea announced its leader, Kim Jong Un, had married Ri Sol Ju.
Quotes
“Beware, so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance.” – Jean de La Fontaine, 17th century French poet
“There is a field beyond all notions of right and wrong. Come, meet me there.” – Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273)
“Approach the game with no preset agendas and you’ll probably come away surprised at your overall efforts.” – Phil Jackson, coached 11 teams to NBA titles
“To die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if men died for ideas that were true.” – H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)
“Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.” – Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) US philosopher:
“A great man’s greatest good luck is to die at the right time.”
“A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed.”
“A man by himself is in bad company.”
“A nation without dregs and malcontents is orderly, peaceful and pleasant, but perhaps without the seed of things to come.”
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“An empty head is not really empty; it is stuffed with rubbish. Hence the difficulty of forcing anything into an empty head.”
“Animals often strike us as passionate machines.”
“Call not that man wretched, who whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.”
“Charlatanism of some degree is indispensable to effective leadership.”
“Children are the keys of paradise.”
“Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.”
“Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.”
defenestrate
PRONUNCIATION: (dee-FEN-uh-strayt)
MEANING: (transitive verb), To throw out of a window.
ETYMOLOGY: Defenestrate is derived from Latin de-, “out of” + fenestra, “window.” The noun form is defenestration.
USAGE: “‘And if you can defenestrate you must be able to fenestrate, mustn’t you?’ she finally said.’Throw yourself back in through a window?'” – Peter Guttridge, ‘No Laughing Matter: A Nick Madrid Mystery’
pica
PRONUNCIATION: (PY-kuh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/pica.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. A tendency or craving for eating substances other than normal food (such as clay, chalk, and dirt), common during childhood or pregnancy.
2. In printing, a unit of type size, equal to about 1/6 of an inch.
3. A type size for typewriters, having ten characters to the inch.
ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Latin pica (magpie, craving), from a magpie’s indiscriminate feeding. Earliest documented use: 1563.
For 2, 3: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a book or church rules. Earliest documented use: 1588.
USAGE:
“‘Raw potatoes. Mom ate them unwashed with the dirt still on the skin. She’d send them back if Dad rinsed them.’
‘That’s sick! Didn’t she take prenatal vitamins?’
‘Yes, but she still had potato pica.'”
– Anne Marie Duquette; Pregnant Protector; Harlequin; 2011.
Explore “pica” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=pica
sine die
PRONUNCIATION: (SY-nee DY-ee, SIN-ay DEE-ay)
http://wordsmith.org/words/sine_die.mp3
MEANING: adverb: Without designating a future day for action or meeting; indefinitely.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin sine (without) die (day). Earliest documented use: 1631.
USAGE: “Following the discord, the meeting was adjourned sine die.” – Meet Turns Into Bedlam; The Times of India (New Delhi); Jun 13, 2012.
Explore “sine die” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=sine+die
artificer
PRONUNCIATION: (ahr-TIF-uh-suhr)
http://wordsmith.org/words/artificer.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. An inventor.
2. A craftsperson.
3. A mechanic in the armed forces.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin artificium (craftsmanship, art), from art + facere (to make).
USAGE: “The artificer turns a little sadly to his king: ‘One day, I hope mankind will find a peaceful use for my invention,’ he says.” – Tom Lubbock; Flights of Fantasy; The Independent (London, UK); Sep 18, 2006.
Explore “artificer” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=artificer