Today in History (April 2nd):
0742: Birthdays: Charlemagne, founder of the Holy Roman Empire.
1513: Ponce de Leon became the first known European to set foot on Florida. He landed at what is now St. Augustine, Fla., to search for the Fountain of Youth.
1725: Birthdays: Italian adventurer Giacomo Casanova.
1792: The U.S. Congress passed legislation authorizing the U.S. Mint to coin money, all to be inscribed with the Latin words E Pluribus Unum, a motto meaning Out of Many, One.
1805: Birthdays: Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.
1840: Birthdays: French novelist Emile Zola.
1863: Rioting erupted in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., sparked by an angry crowd’s demand for bread at a bakery.
1877: The first White House Easter Egg Roll was conducted.
1891: Birthdays: Surrealist artist Max Ernst.
1907: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Luke Appling.
1908: Birthdays: Actor Buddy Ebsen.
1914: Birthdays: Actor Alec Guinness.
1917: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Jeannette Rankin, a representative from Montana, took her seat as the first woman elected to Congress.
1920: Birthdays: Actor Jack Webb.
1926: Birthdays: Australian auto racer Jack Brabham.
1932: Charles Lindbergh left $50,000 in a New York City cemetery in hope of regaining his kidnapped son. The infant was later found dead. Bruno Hauptmann subsequently was convicted of kidnapping and murder and was executed.
1939: Birthdays: Singer/songwriter Marvin Gaye.
1941: Birthdays: Radio personality Dr. Demento, born Barret Hansen.
1942: Birthdays: Singer/songwriter Leon Russell.
1945: Birthdays: Actor Linda Hunt.
1947: Birthdays: Literary and cultural critic Camille Paglia; Country singer Emmylou Harris.
1949: Birthdays: Actor Pamela Reed.
1961: Birthdays: Actor Christopher Meloni.
1982: Argentine troops stormed the Falkland Islands in South America, overwhelming the small British marine unit stationed there.
1987: The U.S. Senate overrode a veto by President Ronald Reagan by one vote to enact a highway bill that allowed states to raise speed limits to 65 mph in certain areas.
1991: Iraq crushed monthlong insurgencies by northern Kurds and southern Shiite Muslims.
1992: A New York jury convicted mob boss John Gotti in five killings, racketeering and other charges.
1995: An explosion in Gaza killed eight people, including a leader of the military wing of Hamas.
2000: Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke that left him comatose.
2005: Pope John Paul II, head of the Roman Catholic Church for more than a quarter century, died at his Vatican apartment. The 84-year-old pontiff suffered in his final days from urinary and bacterial infections that led to organ failure.
2006: U.S. journalist Jill Carroll returned to Boston after being held in Iraq for 82 days by kidnappers. At least 50 people were killed in Iraq in violence that included a mortar attack, military firefights and roadside bombings.
2007: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, that the Environmental Protection Agency had the authority to regulate the emission of greenhouse gases by motor vehicles. The University of Florida repeated as NCAA Division I basketball champion, becoming the first school to win both the national collegiate basketball and football titles the same academic year.
2008: The opposition leader in the Zimbabwe presidential election, Morgan Tsvangirai, declared himself the winner over incumbent Robert Mugabe, who had been in power since 1980 and refused to concede, touching off violence.
2009: World leaders meeting in London at the Group of 20 summit pledged $1.1 trillion to help stimulate economies of developing countries and deal with other aspects of the current financial crisis.
2010: The U.S. Labor Department reported the addition of 162,000 jobs in March, largest monthly increase in three years. The nationwide unemployment rate, however, held steady at 9.7 percent. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Russia agreed to help the South American nation develop a space program and a nuclear power plant.
2011: Fighting raged across Abidjan, Ivory Coast, as hundreds were reported massacred in the western town of Duekoue in a violent follow-up to a disputed presidential election.
2012: One Goh, a 38-year-old former nursing student in Oakland, Calif., opened fire on the Oikos University campus, killing seven people and wounding three others, authorities said. He was captured a short time later. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prison officials had the right to strip search anyone being admitted to jail regardless of charges faced.
Quotes
“It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them.” – Cesare Beccaria, philosopher and politician (1738-1794)
“Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use.” – Samuel Butler, writer (1835-1902)
“The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.” – John Kennedy, U.S. President
“The first week of March is National Procrastination week, though most people put it off and celebrate it the following month.” – Anonymous
No doubt, the medicine online cialis no prescription helps a person keeping things up in the bed, yet it is important taking proper care of the professionals. Guidance of appropriate dosage buy cialis in usa has been introduced for mending the complication of ED; hence, one needs to use the dosage appropriately. This an analog version of cost levitra lowest , or sildenafil citrate, which is used for handling of sexual dysfunction in men. Among the common reasons for erectile click my site viagra tablets australia dysfunction are diabetes, hormonal disorders, and neurogenic conditions. “If time and space are curved, where do all of the straight people come from?” – Anonymous
The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook. – William James, 1842-1910
“Nothing which does not transport is poetry. The lyre is a winged instrument.” – Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)
Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) Danish poet and novelist:
“Every man’s life is a fairy-tale written by God’s fingers.”
“Enjoy life. There’s plenty of time to be dead.”
“Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.”
“I cannot bear it!” said the pewter soldier. “I have shed pewter tears! It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot bear it longer! Now, I know what it is to have a visit from one’s old thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down from the drawers.”
And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety–they were with God.”
laurel
PRONUNCIATION: (LA-rehl)
MEANING: (noun)
1. Several types of plants, including a Mediterranean evergreen (Laurus nobilis), whose aromatic leaves are called “bay leaves” and used for seasoning, and shrubs such as the mountain laurel, bearing bundles of pink flowers in forests in the summer.
2. A wreath of laurel conferred as an ancient award to accomplished poets, athletic champions, and others, as well as the honor and glory symbolized by the laurel wreath.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French “laureole,” direct descendant of Latin laureola, the diminutive of laurea “laurel tree,” probably borrowed from a non-Indo-European source. In ancient Greece, the laurel was sacred to Apollo, the god of poetic creation. From Old French “laureole,” direct descendant of Latin laureola, the diminutive of laurea “laurel tree,” probably borrowed from a non-Indo-European source. In ancient Greece, the laurel was sacred to Apollo, the god of poetic creation.
USAGE: “Diana was more inclined to rest on the laurels she had achieved while a young up-and-comer rather that follow through with actual new achievements.”
sagacious
PRONUNCIATION: (suh-GAY-shuhs)
http://wordsmith.org/words/sagacious.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Having keen judgment or wisdom.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin sagire (to perceive keenly). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sag- (to seek out), which is also the source of seek, ransack, ramshackle, forsake, and hegemony. Earliest documented use: 1607.
USAGE: “Even Warren Buffett is looking less than sagacious after his holding company posted its worst year ever.” – The Long and the Short; The Economist (London, UK); Mar 12, 2009.
Explore “sagacious” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=sagacious
kickshaw
PRONUNCIATION: (KIK-shaw)
http://wordsmith.org/words/kickshaw.mp3
MEANING: noun:
1. A fancy dish; delicacy.
2. A trinket.
ETYMOLOGY: From phonetic respelling of French quelque chose (something) as kickshaws which was treated as a plural and turned into the singular kickshaw. Earliest documented use: 1598.
USAGE:
“I assume it’s a gloriously handsome affair … slices of homemade seedcake and other toothsome kickshaws.” – Jonathan Glancey; Mrs Beckett; Building Design (UK); Oct 24, 2008.
“A more sophisticated eye might cringe at the odd little kickshaws displayed about the room, but I appreciated the whimsy.” – Amanda Stevens; The Prophet; Harlequin; 2012.
Explore “kickshaw” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=kickshaw
pellucid
PRONUNCIATION: (puh-LOO-sid)
http://wordsmith.org/words/pellucid.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Admitting the maximum passage of light.
2. Clear; easy to understand.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin pellucidus, from perlucere (to shine through), from per- (through) + lucere (to shine). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leuk- (light) that is also the source of other words such as lunar, lunatic, light, lucubrate, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate, translucent, lux, and lynx.
USAGE: “Their [Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals’] style, at times pellucid, at times opaque, lies somewhere between the rapture of a love letter and the portentousness of a thriller.” – Frances Wilson; The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2008.