This Day in History- August 31st

On This Day: Wednesday August 31, 2005
This is the 243rd day of the year, with 122 days remaining in 2005.
Fact of the Day: White House baby
In 1893, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Frances Folsom Cleveland, became the first presidential wife to give birth at the White House (girl, Esther). The first child born in the White House, though, was the granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson in 1806: Jefferson’s daughter, Patsy (Mrs. Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr.) gave birth to a son named for James Madison.
Holidays
Kyrgyzstan: Independence Day.
Malaysia: Hari Kebangsaan / Freedom Day.
Trinidad and Tobago: Independence Day.
Kazakhstan: Constitution Day.
Moldova: National Language Day.
Feast Day of St. Paulinus of Trier, St. Aidan of Lindisfarne, St. Raymond Nonnatus, and The Servite Martyrs of Prague.
Events
1521 – Cortes captured the city of Tenochtitlan, Mexico, and set it on fire.
1887 – Thomas Edison patented the Kinetoscope, the forerunner of the motion picture camera.
1888 – The body of Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, the first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found mutilated in Buck’s Row, London.
1903 – A Packard auto completed the first transcontinental road trip.
1939 – Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signed an order to attack Poland, and German forces moved to the frontier.
1961 – A concrete wall replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East Germany and West Germany — the Berlin Wall.
1962 – The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago became independent within the British Commonwealth.
1980 – The Polish trade union Solidarity was formed in Gdansk.
1990 – East Germany and West Germany signed a reunification treaty.
Births
1880 – Wilhelmina, Dutch queen (1890-1948).
1897 – Fredric March (Ernest Frederick McIntyre Bickel), American Academy Award-winning actor.
1908 – William Saroyan, American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
1918 – Alan Jay Lerner, American songwriter, lyricist.
1935 – Eldridge Cleaver, American black activist.
1945 – Itzhak Perlman, Israeli violinist.
Deaths
1969 – Rocky Marciano, American world heavyweight boxing champion.
1973 – John Ford (Sean Aloysius O’feeney), American film director.
1997 – Diana, princess of Wales, from injuries in a car accident, along with her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul.
2002 – Lionel Hampton, American jazz musician and bandleader.

Word of the Day- August 31, 2005

Word of the Day for Wednesday August 31, 2005
venial \VEE-nee-uhl\, adjective:
Capable of being forgiven; not heinous; excusable; pardonable.
Look less severely on a venial error.
–Jean Racine, Phaedra (translated by Robert Bruce Boswell)
His mistake might in other circumstances have seemed a
venial one.
–Michael Knox Beran, [1]The Last Patrician
Committing adultery was a mortal sin, while eating meat on
Fridays was a venial sin.
–Sheryl McCarthy, “O’Connor Proposal for Meatless Day Is
Thoughtless,” [2]Newsday, August 12, 1996
_________________________________________________________
Venial comes from Latin venia, “grace, indulgence, favor.” It
is not to be confused with venal, which means “capable of
being bought; salable; open to bribery,” and comes from Latin
venum, “sale.” Remember that venial, like sin, has an i in it.
Venial sins are contrasted with mortal ones.
References
1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312206593/ref%3Dnosim/lexico
2. http://www.newsday.com/
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=venial

Quote for August 30, 2005

Quote for Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Develop your willpower so that

you can make yourself do what you should do,

when you should do it,

whether you feel like it or not.

~ Brian Tracy (Your Achievement Ezine – Issue No. 153)

Today’s Bible Reading

Today’s Bible Reading:
John 8:21-47; 2 Chronicles 2:17-5:1; Malachi 1:1-2:9
Read these at: http://www.biblegateway.com/

Portuguese:
Jo㯠8:21:47; 2 Cr?os 2:17-5:1; Malaquias 1:1-2:9
Read these at: http://www.cvvnet.org/cgi-bin/biblia

Word of the day- evanescent

Word of the Day for Tuesday August 30, 2005
evanescent \ev-uh-NES-uhnt\, adjective:
Liable to vanish or pass away like vapor; fleeting.
The Pen which gives. . . permanence to the evanescent
thought of a moment.
–Horace Smith, Tin Trumpet
Every tornado is a little different, and they are all
capricious, evanescent and hard to get a fix on.
–”Oklahoma Tornado Offers Hints of How a Killer Storm Is
Born,” [1]New York Times, May 11, 1999
The accidentally famous. . . may write books, appear on
talk shows, and, in so doing, attract even greater public
attention. This type of celebrity status, of course, is
brittle and evanescent.
–Lawrence M. Friedman, [2]The Horizontal Society
_________________________________________________________
Evanescent is from Latin evanescere, “to vanish,” from e-,
“from, out of” + vanescere, “to disappear,” from vanus,
“empty.”
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/
2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0300075456/ref=nosim/lexico
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=evanescent

This day in History- August 30th

On This Day: Tuesday August 30, 2005
This is the 242nd day of the year, with 123 days remaining in 2005.
Fact of the Day: Hoyle
Edmond Hoyle was from London and he collected instructions for playing games; he may have been the first technical writer on card games. His “Short Treatise on the Game of Whist” was published in 1742 and it became the model guide to the rules of the game. Hoyle’s name became synonymous with the idea of “correct” play according to the rules and the phrase “according to Hoyle” was first recorded in 1906 (OED). The Hoyle codification of the laws and strategy of backgammon (1743) is still largely in force. He also wrote treatises on chess (1761) and other games. Familiar with the laws of probability, he appended to one of his books a life table for annuities. He died at the age of 97.
Holidays
Feast Day of Saints Felix and Audauctus, St. Fantinus, St. Pammachius, St. Margaret Ward, and St. Ruan or Rumon.
Peru: Saint Rose of Lima Day.
Turkey: Victory Day.
Events
1862 – Union forces were defeated by the Confederates at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Manassas, Virginia.
1881 – The first stereo system, for a telephonic broadcasting service, was patented in Germany by Clement Adler.
1901 – Scottish inventor Hubert Cecil Booth patented the vacuum cleaner.
1963 – The hot-line communications link between Washington, D.C. and Moscow went into operation.
1991 – Azerbaijan declared independence.
1999 – Residents of East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in a United Nations-sponsored ballot.
Births
1797 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, British novelist.
1870 – Maria Montessori, Italian educator.
1871 – Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand-born English physicist.
1898 – Shirley Booth, American actress.
Deaths
30 B.C.E. – Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, by suicide.
1483 – Louis XI, King of France.

Quote for August 29th, 2005

Quote for Monday, August 29, 2005

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

~ Charles Dickens

Today’s Bible Reading

Today’s Bible Reading:
John 8:1-20; 2 Chronicles 1:1-2:16; Zechariah 14
read these at: http://www.biblegateway.com/

Portuguese:
Jo㯠8:1-20; 2 Cr?os 1:1-2:16; Zacarias 14
Read these at: http://www.cvvnet.org/cgi-bin/biblia

112531868572113805

Slang of the day- “street pizza”

Definition:
An animal that has been run over and killed by a car; any disgusting substance that is on the ground.
Example:
1) Maura’s pet turtle escaped last week and I’m afraid it’s probably street pizza by now. 2) That poor little dog — now he’s just street pizza.
Etymology:
‘Pizza’ is a popular food that is flat and has lots of red tomato sauce, and ’street’ means road or highway. This phrase is a comical reference to unpleasant organic materials that are found on roads and sidewalks.
Synonyms:
road kill

http://www.peakenglish.com/slang/dailySlang.jsp

Slang of the day- “street pizza”

Slang of the day- “street pizza”

Definition:
An animal that has been run over and killed by a car; any disgusting substance that is on the ground.
Example:
1) Maura’s pet turtle escaped last week and I’m afraid it’s probably street pizza by now. 2) That poor little dog — now he’s just street pizza.
Etymology:
‘Pizza’ is a popular food that is flat and has lots of red tomato sauce, and ’street’ means road or highway. This phrase is a comical reference to unpleasant organic materials that are found on roads and sidewalks.
Synonyms:
road kill

http://www.peakenglish.com/slang/dailySlang.jsp