Today in History (July 9th):
1819: Birthdays: Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine.
1850: U.S. President Zachary Taylor died suddenly of cholera. He was succeeded by Millard Fillmore.
1868: The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing African-Americans full citizenship and all people in the United States due process under the law.
1877: The first Wimbledon tennis tournament was contested at the All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club.
1887: Birthdays: Historian Samuel Eliot Morison.
1893: Chicago surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery.
1901: Birthdays: English romance novelist Barbara Cartland.
1927: Birthdays: Actor/singer Ed Ames.
1937: Birthdays: English artist David Hockney.
1938: Birthdays: Actor Brian Dennehy.
1942: Birthdays: Actor Richard Roundtree.
1943: U.S., Canadian and British forces invaded Sicily during World War II.
1945: Birthdays: Writer Dean R. Koontz.
1947: Florence Blanchard, a nurse, was appointed lieutenant colonel in the Army, becoming the first woman to hold a permanent U.S. military rank. Birthdays: Football star/actor/convict O.J. Simpson.
1950: Birthdays: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
1951: Birthdays: Actor Chris Cooper.
1952: Birthdays: Entertainer John Tesh.
1955: Bill Haley and the Comets’ Rock Around the Clock hit No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s best-seller records chart, marking what some consider the beginning of the rock ‘n’ roll era. Birthdays: Actor Jimmy Smits.
1956: Birthdays: Actor Tom Hanks.
1957: Birthdays: Actor Kelly McGillis.
1960: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev threatened the United States with rockets if U.S. forces attempted to oust the communist government of Cuba.
1964: Birthdays: Rock musician Courtney Love.
1968: The Hayward Gallery on London’s South Bank was opened.
1975: Birthdays: Rock musician Jack White.
1976: Birthdays: Actor Fred Savage.
1982: A Pan Am Boeing 727 jetliner crashed in Kenner, La., shortly after takeoff from New Orleans, killing 154 people.
1992: Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Clinton picked U.S. Sen. Al Gore, D-Tenn., as his running mate.
2002: The Major League Baseball All-Star Game ended in an 11-inning 7-7 tie when Commissioner Bud Selig halted proceedings, saying the teams had run out of pitchers.
2004: A report by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence accused the CIA and other intelligence agencies of producing false and misleading pre-war information about Iraq’s weapons program.
2006: A Sibir Airlines Airbus from Moscow taking children to a vacation area in Siberia crashed, killing more than 100 people, including many of the young travelers.
2007: U.S. President George W. Bush defied a congressional subpoena, citing executive privilege, ordering him to turn over documents relating to the firing of nine U.S. prosecutors in 2006.
2010: The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution condemning North Korea’s alleged sinking of a South Korean naval vessel. North Korea repeatedly denied involvement in the attack that claimed 46 lives.
2011: After more than half a century of struggle and violence that claimed an estimated 2 million lives, the Republic of South Sudan declared its independence from Sudan and became Africa’s 54th nation.
2012: Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered authorities to find the men who publicly executed a 22-year-old woman accused of adultery. An amateur video showed a man with a rifle shooting the woman several times while others cheered. The video, viewed on the Internet, raised outrage around the world.
Quotes
“Life is the garment we continually alter but which never seems to fit.” – David McCord
“When you don’t want to do something, any excuse will do.” – Tom Persons
“The artist brings something into the world that didn’t exist before, and he does it without destroying something else.” – John Updike, writer (1932-2009)
“In my youth I thought of writing a satire on mankind; but now in my age I think I should write an apology for them.” – Horace Walpole, novelist and essayist (1717-1797)
“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.” – Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)
Dame Barbara Cartland (1901-2000) English novelist:
“A historical romance is the only kind of book where chastity really counts.”
“A man will teach his wife what is needed to arouse his desires. And there is no reason for a woman to know any more than what her husband is prepared to teach her. If she gets married knowing far too much about what she wants and doesn’t want then she will be ready to find fault with her husband.”
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“A woman asking “Am I good? Am I satisfied?” is extremely selfish. The less women fuss about themselves, the less they talk to other women, the more they try to please their husbands, the happier the marriage is going to be.”
“A woman should say: “Have I made him happy? Is he satisfied? Does he love me more than he loved me before? Is he likely to go to bed with another woman?” If he does, then it’s the wife’s fault because she is not trying to make him happy.”
“As long as the plots keep arriving from outer space, I’ll go on with my virgins.”
“Every man has been brought up with the idea that decent women don’t pop in and out of bed; he has always been told by his mother that “nice girls don’t.” He finds, of course, when he gets older that this may be untrue – but only in a certain section of society.”
“I have always found women difficult. I don’t really understand them. To begin with, few women tell the truth.”
otiose
PRONUNCIATION: (OH-shee-ohs; OH-tee-)
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Ineffective; futile.
2. Being at leisure; lazy; indolent; idle.
3. Of no use.
ETYMOLOGY: Otiose is from Latin otiosus, “idle, at leisure,” from otium, “leisure.”
USAGE: “Higgins affected an otiose lifestyle that, by all appearances, was impossible to maintain. Yet maintain it he did, for many, many years.”
penny-ante
PRONUNCIATION: (PEN-ee AN-tee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/penny-ante.mp3
MEANING:
(adjective), Trivial.
(noun), A transaction involving very small sums.
ETYMOLOGY: In poker, penny ante is a game in which the bet is one cent (or other small amount). The term is coined from penny (the smallest denomination of currency) + ante (stake, share, cost), from the stake put up by a player in poker before receiving one’s cards, from Latin ante- (before). Earliest documented use: 1855.
USAGE: “By Bernie Madoff standards, Conrad Black’s crimes are not just on the small side. They’re penny-ante.” – Bryan Burrough; The Convictions Of Conrad Black; Vanity Fair (New York); Oct 2011.
Explore “penny-ante” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=penny-ante
billet-doux
PRONUNCIATION: (bil-ay-DOO) plural billets-doux (bil-ay-DOOZ)
http://wordsmith.org/words/billet-doux.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A love letter.
ETYMOLOGY: From French billet doux (love letter), from billet (note) + doux (sweet). Earliest documented use: 1673.
USAGE: “Pete Hamill, journalist and novelist, loves his city and this novel is hisbillet-doux.” – Margaret Cannon; New in Crime Fiction; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Dec 9, 2011.
Explore “billet-doux” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=billet+doux
stenosis
PRONUNCIATION: (sti-NO-sis) , plural stenoses
http://wordsmith.org/words/stenosis.mp3
MEANING: (noun), A narrowing of a passage, vessel, or an opening in the body.
ETYMOLOGY: From steno- (narrow, small) + -osis (condition). From Greek stenosis (a narrowing), from stenoun (to narrow), from stenos (narrow).
USAGE: “[The device] is placed onto a patient’s chest and a microphone picks up coronary sounds associated with stenosis, in which a patient’s arteries are clogged with plaque blocking blood flow to the heart.” – Wendy Lee; New Phone Apps Aim to Boost; Minneapolis Star Tribune; Jun 12, 2010.
Explore “stenosis” in the Visual Thesaurus.
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=stenosis
Sturm und Drang
PRONUNCIATION: (SHTOORM oont DRANG)
http://wordsmith.org/words/sturm_und_drang.mp3
MEANING: (noun), Turmoil; upheaval.
ETYMOLOGY: From German Sturm und Drang (translated as: storm and stress, literally: storm and urge/yearning), title of the 1776 play about the American Revolution, by dramatist Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752-1831). It was also the name of an 18th century German literary movement characterized by greater expression of emotional unrest. – The name of the Durmstrang Institute, one of the wizarding schools in the Harry Potter series, is a spoonerism of Sturm und Drang.
USAGE: “After the sturm und drang of Revolutionary Road, director Sam Mendes opted for a looser, lighter story.” – Colin Covert; Pregnant Pause With ‘Away We Go’; Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota); Jun 12, 2009.