Today in History (May 23rd):
Dilbert
1618: The Second Defenestration of Prague helped to instiage the Thirty Years’ War.
1701: Capt. William Kidd was hanged in London for piracy and murder.
1707: Birthdays: Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern systematic botany.
1734: Birthdays: Austrian physician and hypnotist Franz Mesmer.
1788: South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1810: Birthdays: Social reformer Sarah Margaret Fuller.
1824: Birthdays: U.S. Army Gen. Ambrose Burnside, who later was a U.S. senator and for whom sideburns were named.
1829: Cyrill Demian was granted a patent for his musical instrument called the accordion.
1883: Birthdays: Actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr.
1888: Birthdays: Baseball Hall of Fame member Zack Wheat.
1900: U.S. Army Sgt. William H. Carney became the first African-American to be awarded the Medal of Honor. He was cited for his efforts during the Civil War battle of Fort Wagner, S.C., in June 1863.
1910: Birthdays: Musician/actor Scatman Crothers; Clarinetist/bandleader Artie Shaw.
1920: Birthdays: Singer Helen O’Connell.
1928: Birthdays: Singer Rosemary Clooney.
1931: Birthdays: Actor Barbara Barrie.
1933: Birthdays: Actor Joan Collins.
1934: Birthdays: Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer.
1939: The U.S. Navy submarine Squalus went down off New Hampshire in 240 feet of water. Thirty-three of the 59 men aboard were saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell.
1944: Birthdays: Tennis Hall of Fame member John Newcombe.
1958: Birthdays: Writer Mitch Albom; Comedian Drew Carey.
1960: Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina and spirited him to Israel, where he was tried, convicted and hanged.
1974: Birthdays: Singer Jewel Kilcher; Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings.
1991: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal regulations prohibiting federally funded women’s clinics from discussing or advising abortion with patients.
1994: Four men convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York were each sentenced to 240 years in prison. The body of former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was laid to rest next to her first husband, President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
1997: Mohammed Khatami, a moderate who favored improved economic ties with the West, was elected president of Iran.
2002: Roman Catholic Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee acknowledged paying $450,000 in church funds in response to a claim that he had sexually assaulted a graduate student, then 33. Weakland, 75, who retired after the 1998 settlement became known, denied any sexual misconduct.
2009: Former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, 62, linked to a corruption investigation, died in an apparent suicidal leap from a cliff.
2010: U.S. regulators, saying a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico won’t stop offshore oil drilling, report issuing at least seven permits for more drilling and five environmental waivers.
2011: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that California’s overcrowded prisons violated the Eighth Amendment banning cruel and unusual punishment.
2012: U.S. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan apologized for a prostitution scandal involving 12 of his agents in Colombia but said national security hadn’t been compromised. Investigators said the agents, on a security detail in advance of a visit by U.S. President Barack Obama, had taken women to their hotel rooms.
Quotes
“I have a trunk containing continents.” – Beryl Markham, adventurer (1902-1986)
“Memories are interpreted like dreams.” – Leo Longanesi, journalist and editor (1905-1957)
“All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.”
– William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)
Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) U.S. writer:
“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.”
“It should be remarked that, as the principle of liberty is better understood, and more nobly interpreted, a broader protest is made in behalf of women. As men become aware that few have had a fair chance, they are inclined to say that no women have had a fair chance.”
“Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.”
“Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.”
“Nature provides exceptions to every rule.”
“Only the dreamer shall understand realities, though in truth his dreaming must be not out of proportion to his waking.”
“The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency.”
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“Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical.”
fulsome
PRONUNCIATION: (FUL-sum)
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Offensive to the taste or sensibilities.
2. Insincere or excessively lavish; especially, offensive from excess of praise.
ETYMOLOGY: Fulsome is from Middle English fulsom, from full + -som, “-some.”
USAGE: “Long the art critic for the school’s newspaper, Leon was a master at expressing concealed disgust under the appearance of fulsome endearment.”
Himalayan
PRONUNCIATION: (him-uh-LAY-uhn, hi-MAHL-yuhn)
http://wordsmith.org/words/Himalayan.mp3
MEANING: (adjective)
1. Enormously large.
2. Relating to the Himalayas.
ETYMOLOGY: After the Himalayas, the mountain range having Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. From Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which is the ancestor of words such as chimera, hibernaculum, hiemal, and hibernate. Earliest documented use: 1866.
USAGE: “As Otago lurches towards its worst season in living memory, it is becoming plain to see the Himalayan task these coaches are facing.” – Steve Hepburn; Ordinary Otago Side Outclassed; Otago Daily Times (New Zealand); Oct 18, 2010.
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reactionary
PRONUNCIATION: (ree-AK-shuh-ner-ee)
http://wordsmith.org/words/reactionary.mp3
MEANING:
(adjective), Opposed to change, progress, or reform; extremely conservative.
(noun), An opponent of change, progress, or reform.
ETYMOLOGY: From French réactionnaire. The word was used to describe an opponent of the French Revolution. Earliest documented use: 1799.
USAGE: “Microsoft’s critics portray its behavior as reactionary, saying the company is trying to protect old business models.” – Ashlee Vance; Chasing Pirates: Inside Microsoft’s War Room; The New York Times; Nov 6, 2010.
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iron curtain
PRONUNCIATION: (EYE-uhrn KUHR-tuhn)
http://wordsmith.org/words/iron_curtain.mp3
MEANING: noun: An impenetrable barrier to communication, marked by censorship, secrecy, and isolation.
ETYMOLOGY: Popularized in a speech by Winston Churchill in 1946 referring to the separation between the Soviet Bloc and the West. Earliest documented use:1794.
USAGE:
“‘Egyptian police ruled the country from behind an iron curtain. They controlled all aspects of life,’ says Mahmoud Qutri who retired asa police brigadier in 2001.” – Yolande Knell; Egypt’s Police; BBC News (London, UK); Mar 4, 2012.
“An iron curtain of fundamentalism risks falling over Iraq, with particularly grievous implications for girls and women.” – Nicholas Kristof; Cover Your Hair; The New York Times; Jun 24, 2003.
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jactitation
PRONUNCIATION: (jak-ti-TAY-shun)
http://wordsmith.org/words/jactitation.mp3
MEANING: (noun)
1. A false boast or claim that is intended to harm someone, especially a malicious claim by a person that he or she is married to a particular person.
2. Involuntary tossing and twitching of the body and limbs.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin jactitation (tossing, false declaration), past participle of jactitare (to throw out publicly, to boast), frequentative of jactare (to throw about), frequentative of jacere (to throw).
USAGE:
“Film actress Meera has filed a suit for jactitation of marriage against her alleged husband Attique Ur Rehman, seeking court directions to stop him from claiming her as his legal wife.” – Meera Files for Marriage Jactitation; The Pak Banker (Pakistan); Feb 10, 2010.
“Tizanidine hydrochloride has been used for the treatment of jactitation.” – How to Relieve Chronic Pain After Amputation; Pulse (UK); May 5, 2001.
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