Today in History (April 13th):
1570: Birthdays: British anti-government conspirator Guy Fawkes.
1742: George Frideric Handel’s Messiah made its world premiere.
1743: Birthdays: Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States.
1852: Birthdays: Frank Woolworth, founder of the five-and-dime stores.
1861: Fort Sumter surrendered in the American Civil War.
1866: Birthdays: Outlaw Butch Cassidy.
1899: Birthdays: Alfred Butts, inventor of the game Scrabble.
1906: Birthdays: Irish playwright Samuel Beckett.
1907: Birthdays: Harold Stassen, former Minnesota governor who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination seven times.
1909: Birthdays: Author Eudora Welty.
1919: Birthdays: Actor/singer Howard Keel; Atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
1923: Birthdays: Actor Don Adams.
1935: Birthdays: Actor Lyle Waggoner.
1939: Birthdays: Actor Paul Sorvino.
1942: Birthdays: Composer Bill Conti.
1943: The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated in Washington, on the 200th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth.
1945: Birthdays: Actor Tony Dow (Wally on Leave It To Beaver).
1946: Birthdays: Singer Al Green.
1949: Birthdays: Author and critic Christopher Hitchens.
1950: Birthdays: Actor Ron Perlman.
1951: Birthdays: Singer Peabo Bryson; Max Weinberg, band leader and Bruce Springsteen drummer.
1963: Birthdays: Chess champion Garry Kasparov.
1964: Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win an Oscar for best actor, honored for his work in Lilies of the Field.
1970: An oxygen tank exploded aboard Apollo 13 while en route to a planned moon landing. The craft returned safety to Earth after some harrowing moments. Birthdays: Actor Rick Schroder.
1972: The first major league baseball strike ended, eight days after it began.
1984: Christopher Wilder, the FBI’s most wanted man, accidentally killed himself as police moved in to arrest him in New Hampshire. Wilder was a suspect in the deaths, rapes and disappearances of 11 young women in eight states.
1987: The Population Reference Bureau reported that the world’s population had exceeded 5 billion.
1990: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gave Lithuania a two-day ultimatum, threatening to cut off some supplies to the Baltic republic if it didn’t rescind laws passed since a March 11 declaration of independence.
1992: Construction workers breeched a retaining wall in the Chicago River, sending water flooding through a tunnel system connecting buildings in the downtown area.
1997: Tiger Woods, 21, won the Masters Tournament, the youngest golfer to accomplish that feat and first African-American to win any of the four major professional golf tournaments for men.
2005: As part of a deal to avoid the death penalty, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings that killed two people and injured more than 120. Among the attacks were bombings at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and two abortion clinics. Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison.
2007: U.S. regulators sought to determine whether a chemical was intentionally added in China to wheat gluten destined for pet food. Contaminated wheat gluten was in food reported linked to numerous deaths of dogs and cats in North America and prompted the recall of more than 90 brands of pet food.
2008: About 1,300 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were fired in Basra and Kut for failing to fight Shiite militias, the Iraqi government said. Some of those fired were said to have merely switched sides during the battle.
2009: music producer Phil Spector was found guilty of second-degree murder by a Los Angeles jury in his second trial for the 2003 slaying of Lana Clarkson, an actress and club hostess.
2011: Mexican officials announced they have a 12th suspect in recent kidnapping and massacre of passengers in buses traveling in Mexico.
2012: The White House reported that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had income of $789,674 in 2011 and paid $162,074 in taxes, a rate of about 20.5 percent. They paid an additional $31,914 to the state of Illinois.
Quotes
“We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.” – Ben Sweetland
“Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.” – Joseph Conrad, novelist (1857-1924)
“Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.” – Jean Rostand, biologist and philosopher (1894-1977)
“Poetry, indeed, cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language.” – Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784)
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American president:
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“A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
“A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.”
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”
“A superintending power to maintain the Universe in its course and order.”
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.”
“Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.”
“All the world would be Christian if they were taught the pure Gospel of Christ!”
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”
“Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.”
“An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry.”
“An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.”
“At last now you can be what the old cannot recall and the young long for in dreams, yet still include them all.”
bayonet
PRONUNCIATION: (BAY-uh-nit, -net, bay-uh-NET)
http://wordsmith.org/words/bayonet.mp3
MEANING:
(noun), A blade attached to the muzzle of a gun, used in close combat.
(verb), To fight or kill with bayonet.
ETYMOLOGY: After Bayonne, a town in southwest France, where the weapon originated or was first used in early 17th century. You’d think with modern high-tech gadgetry, a 17th century weapon would now be now obsolete, but the bayonet is still taken seriously.
USAGE: “Although no tactician has taken the bayonet seriously since the Civil War, the Army sees bayonet training as a way of pumping up aggressiveness. On this morning, some of the women seemed tentative as they jabbed at dummies — but no more so than an equal ratio of men, the sergeants said.” – This Woman’s Army With a `No Big Deal’ Shrug, Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood Again Mixes Genders; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Feb 26, 1995.
Explore “bayonet” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=bayonet
testudinate
PRONUNCIATION: (te-STOOD-in-ayt)
MEANING:
(adjective)
1. Slow-moving, like a turtle.
2. Curved like the carapace (shell) of a turtle; vaulted.
(noun), A turtle.
ETYMOLOGY: From Late Latin testudinatus, from Latin testudo (tortoise). Also testudinal or testudinarian
USAGE: “Devon’s testudinate progress on his term paper had a direct correlation to his access to the Internet, television and video games.”
nodus
PRONUNCIATION: (NOH-duhs), plural nodi (NOH-dy)
http://wordsmith.org/words/nodus.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A complicated situation or problem.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin nodus (knot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ned- (to bind), which is also the source of node, noose, annex, connect, ouch, nettle, and denouement. Earliest documented use: before 1400.
USAGE: “The CPC project is a nodus of interests. A half of its stock belongs to the governments of three states: Russia, Kazakhstan, and Sultanate of Oman. The remainder is in private hands.” – Public-and-private: Easier Said Than Done; The Times of Central Asia (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan); Mar 31, 2006.
tranche
PRONUNCIATION: (transh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/tranche.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A portion, especially of money, investment, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From French tranche (slice), from trancher (to cut).
USAGE: “Some of the banks, including Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank, have already received the first tranche of capital.” – Mergers of Public Sector Banks Favoured; Business Standard (Mumbai, India); Mar 31, 2009.