Thoughts for the Day

Today in History (April 11th):

1794: Birthdays: American statesman and orator Edward Everett.

1852: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Cap Anson.

1862: Birthdays: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes.

1881: The Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, known now as Spelman College, was founded in Atlanta.

1893: Birthdays: Statesman Dean Acheson, secretary of state under President Harry Truman.

1913: Birthdays: Fashion designer Oleg Cassini.

1928: Birthdays: Ethel Kennedy, wife of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

1932: Birthdays: Actor Joel Grey.

1939: Birthdays: Actor Louise Lasser.

1941: Birthdays: Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman.

1945: The Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany was liberated by Allied troops.

1947: Jackie Robinson became the first African-American player in major league baseball, signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Birthdays: Actor Peter Riegert; Actor Meshach Taylor.

1951: U.S. President Harry Truman relieved U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur of his command in Korea.

1968: One week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., U.S. President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

1970: The Apollo 13 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the third U.S. moon-landing mission. The attempt was aborted when an oxygen tank exploded but the astronauts safely returned to Earth.

1983: Harold Washington was elected the first African-American mayor of Chicago.

1987: South Africa, extending a nine-month state of emergency, barred all protests on behalf of political detainees.

1991: Italian Prime Minister-designate Giulio Andreotti formed a coalition Cabinet to serve as Italy’s 50th postwar government.

1993: Nine inmates and one guard were killed when an 11-day riot erupted at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility near Lucasville.

1996: Israel retaliated for bomb attacks by shelling Hezbollah positions in Lebanon. A U.N. refugee camp was struck, killing more than 100 civilians. 7-year-old pilot Jessica Dubroff, her father and her flight instructor were killed when their plane crashed on takeoff from Cheyenne, Wyo.

2002: A jury in Cleveland convicted U.S. Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, of racketeering and corruption.

2006: Ariel Sharon was officially relieved of his duties as prime minister of Israel when the Cabinet declared him to be permanently incapacitated. Sharon suffered a major stroke on Jan. 4, 2006, and fell into a coma a short time later. He was succeeded by Ehud Olmert. More than 1 million U.S. immigrants and their supporters in some 150 cities across the nation rallied peacefully against a congressional clampdown and possible deportations. The leader of the Sicilian Mafia, Bernardo Provenzano, was arrested near Palermo, Italy, after eluding capture for 43 years.

2007: All charges were dropped in a high-profile sexual assault case involving three members of the Duke University men’s lacrosse team.

2008: Examination of Iran’s most recent missile launch indicated the nation is developing both long-range missile technology and a space center, Jane’s Information Group says.

2010: Sudanese voters cast ballots for presidential and Parliament candidates in the country’s first multiparty elections since 1986.

2011: The violent Ivory Coast standoff ended with the capture of defeated incumbent President Laurent Obagbo, who refused to step down despite losing the election to Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara, The power struggle cost an estimated 3,000 lives. A bomb attack in the Minsk Metro system killed 15 people and injured more than 200 others. France became the first European nation to ban the wearing of full veils in public, a move reported to be worrying Muslims, some of whom consider covering the face a religious obligation, about their rights as French citizens.

2012: Charles Manson, mastermind of a series of murders in the Los Angeles area, one of the most infamous killing sprees in U.S. history, was denied parole for a 12th time.


Quotes

“A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.” – Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)

“A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.” – Jerry Seinfeld

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.” – George Washington Carver, scientist (1864-1943)

“Everyone, in some small sacred sanctuary of the self, is nuts.” – Leo Rosten, author (1908-1997)

“No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you suffer that you really understand.” – Jules Verne, science fiction author (1828-1905)


Edward Everett (1794-1865) American educator:

“What subsists today by violence, continues tomorrow by acquiescence, and is perpetuated by tradition, till at last the hoary abuse shakes the grayhairs of antiquity at us, and gives itself out as the wisdom of ages.”

“All the distinctive features and superiority of our republican institutions are derived from the teachings of Scripture.”

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”

“I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”


The sexual crisis between the couples let them rethink to improve cheap viagra cialis their love lives. Kamagra online is the best way to locate information about this viagra tadalafil http://www.fundacionvision.org.pa/flashxml/bannerrotatorfx-centro/ is through reading a levitra on line. Gupta is one of the top sexologists in Delhi who have immense expertise http://fundacionvision.org.pa/flashxml/bannerrotatorfx-expo/BannerRotatorFX.swf commander viagra in sex treatment. Relaxation and reducing generic viagra cialis stress has been shown to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension and also the advised dosage is 1 20mg tablet taken thrice a day. shanghai

PRONUNCIATION: (SHANG-hy)
http://wordsmith.org/words/shanghai.mp3

MEANING: (verb tr.), To recruit someone forcibly or by fraud into doing something.

ETYMOLOGY: After Shanghai, a major seaport in east China. The term derives from the former practice (mid-1800s to early 1900) of luring men, by the use of drugs, liquor, or violence into serving on US ships destined for East Asia. People who recruited sailors in this manner were called crimps. The practice ended with The Seamen’s Act of 1915 that made crimping a federal crime.

USAGE: “I know that no one shanghais people into joining the police or becoming a medic, but it does us no harm to remind ourselves from time to time how off-the-scale gnarly these jobs are.” – Caitlin Moran; Buttocks on the Skirting Board?; The Times (London, UK); Jan 25, 2010.

Explore “shanghai” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=shanghai


monomania

PRONUNCIATION: (mon-uh-MAY-nee-uh; -nyuh)

MEANING: (noun)
1. Pathological obsession with a single subject or idea.
2. Excessive concentration of interest upon one particular subject or idea.

USAGE: “Jenn’s monomania regarding the popular television program was such that all other activities, including work, were shoved aside once the new season began.”


attorn

PRONUNCIATION: (uh-TUHRN)
http://wordsmith.org/words/attorn.mp3

MEANING:
(verb tr.), To turn over rent, goods, etc. to another.
(verb intr.), To agree to be a tenant of a new landlord of the same property.

ETYMOLOGY: From Old French atorner (to assign to), from a- (to) + torner (to turn). An attorney is the person one turns to to represent oneself. Earliest documented use: 1458.

USAGE: “So there was no reason to proceed with the extradition, because they’d already attorned to that jurisdiction.” – Windsor Men Won’t Be Extradited to US; CBC News (Canada); May 27, 2010.

Explore “attorn” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=attorn


denouement

PRONUNCIATION: (day-noo-MAHN) [the final syllable is nasal]
http://wordsmith.org/words/denouement.mp3

MEANING: (noun), The final resolution of the plot of a story or a complex sequence of events.

ETYMOLOGY: From French dénouement (outcome or conclusion; literally, untying), from dénouer (to unknot or undo), from de- (from) + nouer (to tie), from Latin nodus (knot). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ned- (to bind), which is also the source of node, noose, annex, connect, ouch, and nettle. Earliest documented use: 1752.

USAGE: “But in Japan’s narrative, the denouement is elusive. This disaster story keeps building, growing worse.” – Japan’s Crucible; Chicago Tribune (Illinois); Mar 15, 2011.

Explore “denouement” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=denouement


bonanza

PRONUNCIATION: (buh-NAN-zah, boh-)
http://wordsmith.org/words/bonanza.mp3

MEANING: (noun)
1. A source of sudden wealth or profits.
2. A very large amount.
3. A rich mine or pocket of ore.

ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish bonanza (calm sea, hence good luck or prosperity), from Latin bonus (good). Earliest documented use: 1844.

USAGE:

“Belfast residents hope the Titanic exhibition will spur a tourism bonanza.” – Mark Phillips; Belfast Hopes Titanic Proves Big Tourist Draw; CBS News (New York); Mar 31, 2012.

“We feel we have a major discovery here, with bonanza-type grades of silver, and even the gold values are very high as well.” – Ted Niles; Sienna Finds High Silver and Gold Grades; Financial Post (Canada); Mar 28, 2012.

Explore “bonanza” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=bonanza


This entry was posted in Quotes, Thoughts for the Day, Vocabulary and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.