Today in History (December 16th):
1485: Birthdays: Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of England’s King Henry VIII.
1770: Birthdays: German composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
1773: Some 50 American patriots, protesting the British tax on tea, dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor in the Boston Tea Party.
1775: Birthdays: Novelist Jane Austen.
1835: A fire swept New York City, razing 600 buildings and causing $20 million damage.
1863: Birthdays: Spanish philosopher George Santayana.
1893: Anton Dvorak’s New World Symphony premiered at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
1899: Birthdays: British playwright and composer Noel Coward.
1901: Birthdays: Anthropologist Margaret Mead.
1913: British actor Charles Chaplin reported to work at Keystone Studios in Hollywood, launching a legendary film career.
1917: Birthdays: Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.
1928: Birthdays: Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.
1938: Birthdays: Actor Liv Ullmann; Sports journalist Frank Deford.
1941: Birthdays: Journalist Lesley Stahl.
1943: Birthdays: TV producer Steven Bochco.
1944: Germany launched a great counteroffensive in World War II that became known as The Battle of the Bulge.
1946: Birthdays: Musical group ABBA member Benny Andersson.
1947: Birthdays: Actor Ben Cross.
1949: Birthdays: Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame member Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top).
1953: Chuck Yeager set an airborne speed record when he flew a Bell X-1A rocket-fueled plane at more than 1,600 miles an hour.
1960: 131 people were killed when two planes collided over foggy New York harbor.
1963: Birthdays: Actor Benjamin Bratt.
1967: Birthdays: Actor Miranda Otto.
1979: Birthdays: Musician Flo Rida (born Tramar Dillard).
1991: The U.N. General Assembly repealed a resolution equating Zionism with racism. It had been a major stumbling block in achieving peace in the Middle East.
1997: More than 700 children in Japan were hospitalized after a televised cartoon triggered a condition called light epilepsy or Nintendo epilepsy, which is caused by intense flashes of light viewed up close. The highest wind speed ever measured — 236 mph — was recorded at Anderson Air Force Base in Guam as Typhoon Paka slammed into the Pacific island.
1998: U.S. and British jetfighters began a four-night campaign of bombing more than 100 Iraqi military targets. The long threatened action came after the allies concluded Iraq wouldn’t cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors.
2003: U.S. President George W. Bush signed legislation authorizing the creation of a museum honoring African-Americans.
2004: U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law legislation mandating a sweeping revamp of U.S. intelligence-gathering agencies, including the creation of a national director of intelligence.
2005: The Palestinian militant group Hamas won a sweeping victory in West Bank municipal elections. British scientists calculated 2005 was the warmest year in the Northern Hemisphere since recordkeeping began in the 1860s.
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2006: The United Nations and African, Arab and European leaders agreed in principle to a joint U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Sudan’s Darfur region. Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman died at age 94.
2007: The U.S. military decided to keep an imposing troop presence in Baghdad to prevent the Iraqi capital from devolving again into widespread violence. Dozens of Turkish jets bombed several border towns in northern Iraq, killing two civilians in the first Turkish air raid against Iraqi Kurdistan strongholds.
2008: The U.N. Security Council adopted its first resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process in five years, calling on both sides to step up efforts for a lasting peace and stating the U.S.-brokered talks were irreversible.
2011: A Russian military leader said a liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile capable of breaching a proposed NATO missile defense system was being developed. International Criminal Court officials said the killing of ousted Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi created suspicions of war crimes.
Quotes
Sir Noel Coward (1899-1973) English playwright:
“Consider the public. Never fear it nor despise it. Coax it, charm it, interest it, stimulate it, shock it now and then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry, but above all never, never, never bore the living hell out of it.”
“Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.”
“I am not a heavy drinker. I can sometimes go for hours without touching a drop.”
“I have a memory like an elephant. In fact, elephants often consult me.”
“I have always paid income tax. I object only when it reaches a stage when I am threatened with having nothing left for my old age – which is due to start next Tuesday or Wednesday.”
“I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.”
“I’ll go through life either first class or third, but never in second.”
“I’m not a heavy drinker, I can sometimes go for hours without touching a drop.”
“I’ve sometimes thought of marrying – and then I’ve thought again.”
“If you must have motivation, think of your paycheck on Friday.”
“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”
wakerife
PRONUNCIATION: (WAYK-ryf)
http://wordsmith.org/words/wakerife.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Wakeful; alert.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English wacan (to wake up) + rife (abundant, common). Earliest documented use: around 1480.
USAGE:
“If you’re still wakerife let me suggest another, possibly chastening, exercise in memory.” – S.L. McKinlay; The Shots That Count; Glasgow Herald (Scotland); Dec 14, 1965.
“As for me, I’m wakerife and morne, but hope springs eternal. I don’t know how she does it, what with those leg irons on, but spring she does.” – Ben Tripp; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda; CounterPunch (Petrolia, California); May 30, 2003.
claptrap
PRONUNCIATION: (KLAEP-traep)
MEANING: (noun), Pretentious, insincere speech designed to gain applause; a trick or phrase designed to capture praise.
ETYMOLOGY: Originally, today’s word had two references in British theater. First, it was a device that made the sound of clapping before canned applause was invented. (This is not to be confused with the slapstick, a device for making the sound of a slap for ‘slapstick’ farce.) It later came to refer to a line guaranteed to garner applause, such as “Britannia rule the waves.” Hence today’s meaning of cheap, showy sentiment expressed solely for effect.
USAGE: “Janice tried to extenuate her embezzlement with claptrap about motherhood and devotion to the family.”