Today in History (March 16th):
1751: Birthdays: James Madison, fourth president of the United States.
1789: Birthdays: German physicist Georg Ohm, a pioneer in the study of electricity.
1802: The U.S. Congress authorized the establishment of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
1827: Freedom’s Journal, the first black newspaper in America, was published in New York.
1850: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter” was first published.
1906: Birthdays: Comedian Henny Youngman.
1911: Birthdays: German doctor Josef Mengele, known as the Angel of Death.
1912: Birthdays: Former U.S. first lady Pat Nixon.
1916: Birthdays: Actor Mercedes McCambridge.
1920: Birthdays: Actor Leo McKern.
1926: Robert Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fuel rocket. Birthdays: Entertainer Jerry Lewis.
1927: Birthdays: Former U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y.
1940: Birthdays: Filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci.
1941: Birthdays: Game-show host Chuck Woolery.
1942: Birthdays: Musician Jerry Jeff Walker.
1949: Birthdays: Actor Erik Estrada.
1951: Birthdays: Actor Kate Nelligan.
1954: Birthdays: Singer Nancy Wilson (Heart).
1959: Birthdays: Rapper Flavor Flav.
1964: Birthdays: Singer/songwriter Patty Griffin; Film director Gore Verbinski.
1966: U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott docked their Gemini 8 space vehicle with an Agena craft, a first in orbital history.
1968: Some 300 Vietnam villagers died at the hands of U.S. troops in what came to be known as the My Lai massacre.
1978: The U.S. Senate approved the first of two Panama Canal pacts, guaranteeing neutrality of the canal after Panama assumed control at the end of 1999.
1991: Baghdad claimed its troops had crushed an uprising in southern Iraq that began in the wake of the Gulf War. Birthdays: Musician Wolfgang Van Halen.
1994: The International Atomic Energy Agency said North Korea barred its inspectors from checking one of the nation’s seven nuclear sites.
1998: The Vatican apologized for not doing more to prevent the killing of millions of Jews at the hands of the Nazis.
2002: Crown Prince Abdallah, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, told U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney that it wasn’t in the best interests of the United States or the region for the United States to attack Iraq.
2004: Hans Blix, the former U.N. chief weapons inspector in Iraq, criticized the Bush administration for having a set mind about going to war with Iraq, calling the search for weapons of mass destruction an old-fashioned witch hunt.
2006: Iraq’s recently elected 275-member Parliament convened for the first time in Baghdad but did little and adjourned after 30 minutes.
2007: Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who admitted he masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, revealed that he personally killed Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl the following year in Pakistan, the U.S. government said.
2009: Japan reported its gross domestic product fell at a 12.7 percent annual rate in the last quarter of 2008, plunging the country into what experts say was its worst financial crisis since World War II.
2010: Bangkok demonstrators broke through a police blockade to pour buckets of their own blood in front of official Thai buildings in a protest aimed at ousting the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s smallest man, 21-year-old He Pingping of China, only 29 inches tall, died of heart problems.
2011: The head of a U.S. nuclear watchdog agency said the threat posed by Japan’s quake-damaged nuclear power plants was greater than previously depicted and advised Americans to move further from the plant. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she had no interest in staying in her job beyond President Barack Obama’s first term and didn’t want his job. She said she will be moving on.
2012: Belgium observed a moment of silence and a national day of mourning for 28 people, 22 of them children, killed in a bus crash in Switzerland. The bus slammed into a tunnel wall while returning from a ski trip. Most of the victims were Belgian.
Quotes
“Every time one laughs a nail is removed from one’s coffin.” – Honduran Proverb
“The pen’s mightier than the sword.” – Mark Twain
“People are broad-minded. They’ll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater and even a newspaperman but if a man doesn’t drive, there’s something wrong with him.” – Art Buchwald
“True teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create their own.” – Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (1883-1957)
“‘Faith’ is a fine invention”
“For gentlemen who see –”
“But microscopes are prudent”
“In an emergency.”
– Emily Dickinson, poet (1830-1886)
This permits you to revel in delight amid viagra generic discount sex. Effect of this medicine remains for 4 to 6 hours although some patients report receiving longer effects. discount generic levitra cheap viagra without prescription There may be variety of causes why a man suffers from impotency. This can cause the flow of fatty acids through the pancreas and the liver to crucial body organs raising the risk buying viagra canada of heart disease, blood pressure and stroke, obesity, diabetes, depression and sexual dysfunction. James Madison (1751-1836) U.S. President:
“A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.”
“A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country.”
“As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.”
“Democracy is the most vile form of government… democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
“Do not separate text from historical background. If you do, you will have perverted and subverted the Constitution, which can only end in a distorted, bastardized form of illegitimate government.”
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”
“It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
“Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.”
“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.”
“Such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
levin
PRONUNCIATION: (LEV-in)
MEANING: (noun), Lightning; a bright light.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English levene. Ultimately from Indo-European root leuk- (light) that’s resulted in other words such as lunar, lunatic, light, lightning, lucid, illuminate, illustrate, translucent, lux, and lynx,
USAGE:
“Broad and frequent through the night”
“Flash’d the sheets of levin-light;”
– Walter Scott; The Dance of Death; 1815.
laryngopharyngeal
PRONUNCIATION: (luh-ring-goh-fuh-RIN-jee-uhl, -juhl)
http://wordsmith.org/words/laryngopharyngeal.mp3
MEANING: (adjective), Of or relating to the larynx (the part of the throat holding the vocal cords) and pharynx (the part of the throat that leads from the mouth to the esophagus).
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin larynx, from Greek larynx + Latin pharynx, from Greek pharynx (throat). Earliest documented use: 1872.
NOTES: If you have heard this term, chances are it was in the context of laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), a condition in which the contents of the stomach flow back to the throat.
USAGE: “Under the heading of laryngopharyngeal disorders we discover that oboists and horn players can be prone to nasal speech, regurgitation of liquids and snorting while playing, all a result of the high pressures they must employ to hit their notes.” – Not Quite So Perilous in the Orchestra Pit; Nelson Mail (New Zealand); Feb 25, 2009.
Explore “laryngopharyngeal” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=laryngopharyngeal
olla podrida
PRONUNCIATION: (OL-uh puh-DREE-duh, AWL-yuh, AW-yuh)
http://wordsmith.org/words/olla_podrida.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. An incongruous mixture.
2. A spicy stew of seasoned meat, vegetables, chickpeas, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From Spanish olla podrida (literally, rotten pot), from olla (pot) + feminine of podrido (rotten).
USAGE: “Alice Randall’s collection of cookbooks is formidable, an olla podrida of Junior League and soul food cookbooks and classics like The Joy of Cooking.” – Penelope Green; What Matters Most; The New York Times; Sep 16, 2009.
Explore “olla podrida” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=olla+podrida
epistolary
PRONUNCIATION: (i-PIS-tuh-ler-ee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/epistolary.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Of or relating to letters.
2. Composed of letters (as a literary work).
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin epistola (letter), from Greek epistole (something sent), from epi- (upon, over, on) + stellein (to send). Ultimately from the Indo-European root stel- (to put or stand) that is also the source of stallion, stilt, install, gestalt, stout, and pedestal.
USAGE: “Case in point: Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock’s epistolary novels told entirely through extravagantly illustrated postcards and letters tucked into envelopes contained in the book.” – Jennie Yabroff; Love on the Blocks; Newsweek (New York); Mar 2, 2009.