Today is January 19th. That means that this day is Confederate Heroes Day in Texas.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Her Majesty's Government confirmed a £300-billion bailout package for the United Kingdom's banking industry. Banking shares in the U.K. plummeted as the Royal Bank of Scotland posted the biggest loss in British history.

1975: An earthquake struck Himachal Pradesh, India

1955: A presidential news conference was filmed for TV for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

1935: Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs.

1920: The United States Senate voted against joining the League of Nations.

1915: German zeppelins bombed the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the U.K. killing more than 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1875: Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent on a Telegraph Apparatus

1840: Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigated Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the U.S.

1795: The Batavian Republic was proclaimed in the Netherlands. This was the end of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

1520: Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.

Births:
1905: Stanley Hawes (British-born Australian documentary film producer/director)

1920: Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Peruvian U.N. Secretary General)

1930: "Tippi" [Nathalie Kay] Hedren (American actress) [The Birds, Marnie, Pacific Heights]

1955: Paul Rodriguez (Mexican-American actor/comedian) [a.k.a. Pablo, Tortilla Soup, Rat Race, A Million to Juan]

Deaths:
1925: Maria Sophia of Bavaria (Queen consort of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies)

1965: Arnold Luhaäär (Estonian weightlifter/Olympic medalist)

1975: Thomas Hart Benton (American painter)

2000: Bettino Craxi (Prime Minister of Italy)

2000: Hedy Lamarr [Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler] (Austrian-born actress/inventor) [Boom Town , Tortilla Flat , Samson and Delilah, My Favorite Spy] She co-invented an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.

2009: Beatrice Farve (American supercentenarian) She was verified the second oldest person in the world at 113.


Word of the Day: obscurantism \uhb-SKYOOR-uhn-tiz-uhm, ob-skyoo-RAN-tiz-uhm\
Etymology: From Latin obscurare "to make dark".
(noun)
1. Opposition to the spread of knowledge.
2. Being deliberately vague or obscure; also a style in art and literature.
Usage: "Jean Kirkpatrick possessed the rare gift of being able to write subtle and challenging studies of international politics and to formulate strikingly simple and apt phrases to cut through obscurantism and cant."


Mistfox - who has a busy day lined up

Today is January 20th. That means that this day is Basketball Day.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, became the U.S.'s first African-American president.

1990: The Soviet Red Army violently cracked down on Azeri pro-independence demonstrations in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR.

1960: Hendrik Verwoerd announced a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.

1945: Hungary agreed to an armistice with the Allies.

1920: The American Civil Liberties Union was founded.

1885: The first U.S. patent for a roller coasting structure was issued to La Marcus Thompson of Coney Island, NY.

1840: Dumont D'Urville discovered Adélie Land, Antarctica.

1840: William II became King of the Netherlands after his father William I abdicated the throne.

1320: Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek became king of Poland.

1265: In Westminster, the first English parliament conducted its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster, now also known colloquially as the "Houses of Parliament".

0250: Emperor Decius began a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian was martyred.

Births:
0225: Gordian III [Marcus Antonius Gordianus Pius] (Roman Emperor)

1435: Ashikaga Yoshimasa (Japanese shogun)

1775: André-Marie Ampère (French physicist)

1910: Joy Adamson (Austrian naturalist/writer) [Born Free]

1915: Ghulam Ishaq Khan (President of Pakistan)

1920; Federico Fellini (Italian film director) [La Dolce Vita, Satyricon, Casanova, City of Women,Amarcord]

1920: [Jackson] DeForest Kelley (American actor) [Fear in the Night, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Where Love Has Gone, Star Trek]

1930: "Buzz" Aldrin [Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr.] (American astronaut/mechanical engineer/pilot)

1950: Mahamane Ousmane (President of Niger)

Deaths:
1770: Charles Yorke (Lord Chancellor of Great Britain)

1875: Jean-François Millet (French painter)

1965: Alan Freed (American disk jockey)

1990: Barbara Stanwyck [Ruby Katherine Stevens] (American actress) [Stella Dallas; Ball of Fire; Double Indemnity; Sorry, Wrong Number; The Big Valley; The Thorn Birds]

2005: Per Borten (Prime Minister of Norway)

2009: Sheila O'Nions Walsh [Sheila Walsh, Sophie Leyton] (English author) [Kate and the Marquess, Bath Intrigue, The Runaway Bride, The Golden Songbird, A Highly Respectable Marriage]



Word of the Day: lacuna \luh-KYOO-nuh\
Etymology: From the Latin lacuna, "a cavity, a hollow," from lacus, "a hollow."
(noun)
1. A blank space; a missing part; a gap.
2. (Biology) A small opening, depression, or cavity in an anatomical structure.
Usage: "Like most other writers of his generation, he was a profoundly apolitical being, not from any lacuna in his education but as a matter of principle."


Mistfox - who has used "lacuna" before as a WotD, but couldn't remember what it meant

Today is January 21st. That means that this day is National Hug Day in the U.S., Flag Day in Quebec, and Wellington Anniversary in New Zealand.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Toyota surpassed General Motors to become the world's largest automaker.

2005: In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupted into riots.

2000: After the Ecuadorian Congress was seized by indigenous organizations, Col. Lucio Gutierrez, Carlos Solorzano and Antonio Vargas deposed President Jamil Mahuad. Gutierrez was later replaced by Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who resigned and allowed Vice-President Gustavo Noboa to succeed Mahuad.

1960: Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey, lifted off from Wallops Island, Virginia, aboard Little Joe 1B: an unmanned test of the Mercury spacecraft.

1950: A federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury.

1915: The first Kiwanis Club was founded, in Detroit.

1880: Memphis, Tennessee began construction of the first independent municipal sewage system in the U.S.

1865: For the first time in the U.S., an oil well was shot by torpedo near Titusville, Pennsylvania, by Col. E.A.L. Roberts on the Ladies Well using 8 pounds of black powder.

1720: Sweden and Prussia signed the Treaty of Stockholm.

1525: The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.

Births:
1815: Horace Wells (American dentist) He was a pioneer in the use of surgical anesthesia.

1885: Umberto Nobile (Italian aeronautical engineer/Arctic explorer)

1905: Christian Dior (French fashion designer)

1905: Karl Wallenda (German acrobat) [The Flying Wallendas]

1955: Jeff Koons (American artist)

Deaths:
1710: Johann Georg Gichtel (German mystic)

1795: Samuel Wallis (Cornish navigator) One of the first to circumnavigate the world.

1950: George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] (British writer) [ Nineteen Eighty-Four, Animal Farm, Homage to Catalonia]

1985: James Beard (American chef/author) [How to Eat Better for Less Money, Love and Kisses and a Halo of Truffles]

2009: Veatrice Rice (American nurse/security guard/television personality) [Jimmy Kimmel Live]



Word of the Day: despondency \di-SPON-duhn-see\
Etymology: From Latin despondere "to give up, lose, lose heart, resign" (especially in phrase animam despondere, lit. "give up one's soul"), from the sense of a promise to give something away, from de- "away" + spondere "to promise".
(noun)
1. The state of being despondent; depression of spirits from loss of courage or hope; dejection.
Usage: "Often minor ailment assume great importance in the mind of sufferer causing despondency and self-disgust. "


Mistfox – who needs to perk up and get her butt in gear

I'd like a hug please.

Susan:

Today is January 22nd. That means that this day is National Blonde Brownie Day.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Microsoft announced it would cut 5,000 jobs, due to a rapid decline in demand for personal computers.

1990: Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. was convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm.

1970: The Boeing 747 went on its first regularly scheduled commercial flight, from New York to London.

1905: Russian troops opened fired on marching workers in St. Petersburg, killing more than 100 in what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

1890: The United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio.

0565: John Scholasticus deposed Eutychius as Patriarch of Constantinople.

Births:
1690: Nicolas Lancret (French painter)

1820: Joseph Wolf (German artist)

1875: D. W. Griffith (American film director) [The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance]

1890: Fred M. Vinson (Chief Justice of the U.S.)

1940: John Hurt (English actor) [The Elephant Man, Nineteen Eighty-Four, An Englishman in New York, A Man for All Seasons, Midnight Express, Rob Roy, V for Vendetta]

1955: Thomas David Jones (American astronaut)

Deaths:
1900: David E. Hughes (Welsh-American musician/experimental physicist/inventor/professor) He was a co-inventor of the microphone and a telegraph system.

1930: Stephen Mather (American entrepreneur/conservationist/first director of the National Park Service)

1995: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (Matriarch of the Kennedy family)

2000: Craig Claiborne (American restaurant critic/food writer/editor) [The New York Times International Cookbook, A Feast Made for Laughter, Craig Claiborne's Kitchen Primer]

2009: Billy Werber (American baseball player)


Word of the Day: precatory \PREK-uh-tor-ee\
Etymology: From Latin precari "to pray".
(adjective)
1. Expressing a request.
2. Nonbinding: only expressing a wish or giving a suggestion.
Usage: "The laws are precatory as opposed to mandatory. They say the city ‘may’, rather than ‘shall’, enforce the housing code."


Mistfox - who could have used a hug yesterday herself

Today is January 23rd. That means that this day is Bounty Day on Pitcairn Island.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: An attack on a nursery occurred in Dendermonde, Belgium. Two infants and one adult were killed, six children, between one and three years old, were seriously injured, another four suffered minor injuries and nine escaped unscathed.

1985: O.J. Simpson became the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.

1960: The bathyscaphe USS Trieste broke a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet) in the Pacific Ocean.

1950: The Knesset passed a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

1930: Clyde Tombaugh photographed the planet Pluto, the only planet discovered in the twentieth century, after a systematic search instigated by the predictions of other astronomers.

1920: The Netherlands refused to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

1870: In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen killed 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.

1855: The first bridge over the Mississippi River opened in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.

1570: The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray threw Scotland into civil war.

1510: Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appeared incognito in the lists at Richmond, and was applauded for his jousting before he revealed his identity.

Births:
1350: Vincent Ferrer (Spanish missionary/saint)

1840: Ernst Abbe (German physicist/optometrist/entrepreneur/social reformer) He was a co-owner of Carl Zeiss AG, a German manufacturer of research microscopes and other optical systems.

1900: William Ifor Jones (Welsh conductor/organist)

1940: Johnny Russell (American country singer/songwriter/comedian) [Act Naturally]

1945: Mike Harris (Canadian politician/Premier of Ontario)

1950: Richard Dean Anderson (American actor) [General Hospital, MacGyver, Stargate SG-1, Firehouse]

Deaths:
1570: James Stewart, Earl of Moray (Regent of Scotland)

1820: Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (British prince/father of Queen Victoria/Commander-in-chief in North America.

2005: Johnny Carson (American television host) [The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ]

2009: Robert W. Scott (American politician/governor of North Carolina)


Word of the Day: perturbation \pur-ter-BEY-shuhn\
Etymology: From Middle English perturben, from Old French perturber, from Latin perturbare: per-, per- + turbare, "to throw into disorder" (from turba, "confusion", perhaps from Greek turbe) + ation, from Middle English -acioun, from Old French -ation, from Latin -atio, -ation-.
(noun)
1. The act of perturbing.
2. The state of being perturbed.
3. Mental disquiet, disturbance, or agitation.
4. A cause of mental disquiet, disturbance, or agitation.
5. Astronomy. Deviation of a celestial body from a regular orbit about its primary, caused by the presence of one or more other bodies that act upon the celestial body.
Usage: "Ruth tried to control her perturbation and meet her guest with an unruffled countenance."


Mistfox - who has to go out and get a gift for our staff "Christmas" party (yes, we always do this in Jan.)

Today is January 24th. That means that this day was the first day of the Sementivae, in honor of Ceres and Terra, in the Roman Empire.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Pope Benedict XVI rescinded the excommunications of four bishops consecrated without papal consent in 1988 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

1950 - Jackie Robinson signed the highest contract ($35,000) at that time in Dodger history.

1950: The original microwave oven patent was issued to its inventor Percy LeBaron Spencer under the title "Method of Treating Foodstuffs."

1925: The U.S. Navy took a motion picture of a solar eclipse from the dirigible Los Angeles.

1900: The Newcastle Badminton Club (the world's oldest) formed in England.

1885: Edge Hill College opened in Liverpool.

1875: Camille Saint-Saëns' "Danse Macabre," premiered.

Births:
1705: Farinelli [Carlo Maria Broschi] (Italian castrato)

1905: J. Howard Marshall (American billionaire/oil business executive/university professor/attorney/U.S. Government official)

Deaths:
1125: David IV (King of Georgia)

1595: Ferdinand II (Archduke of Austria)

1895: Lord Randolph Churchill (British politician0

1920: Amedeo Modigliani (Italian painter/sculptor)

1965: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (British Prime Minister)

2009: Kay Yow (North Carolina State Univ. women's basketball head coach) Lost her battle with breast cancer.


Word of the Day: oenology \ee-NOL-uh-jee\ Also, enology.
Etymology: From Greek oinos, "wine" + -logy, from Greek -logia, from logos, "word, speech".
(noun)
1. The study of wine and the making of wine; viticulture, viniculture.
Usage: "Even though I can't drink wine, I can still study oenology and enjoy knowing about the great wines of the world."


Mistfox - who braved the road for a commissary/PX run this morning

Today is January 25th. That means that this day was the second day of the Sementivae in the Roman Empire, is Tatiana Day in Russia, Criminon Day in the Church of Scientology, Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day, and tonight is Burns Night.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Björgvin G. Sigurðsson, Iceland's Minister of Business Affairs, resigned as a result of the country's financial crisis.

2005: A stampede at the Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi in India killed at least 258 people.

1995: Russia almost launched a nuclear attack after it mistook Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a U.S. Trident missile. This is known as the "Norwegian Rocket Incident".

1990: The Burns' Day storm hit northwestern Europe. It caused widespread damage, with hurricane-force winds over a wide area. The storm was responsible for at least 97 deaths.

1960: Bubble Wrap, the protective packaging made by Sealed Air, was invented. It was first called Air Cap and designed to be a new type of wallpaper.

1960: The National Association of Broadcasters reacted to the Payola scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys that accepted money for playing particular records.

1955: Columbia University scientists developed an atomic clock accurate to within one second in 300 years.

1945: The Battle of the Bulge (The Ardennes Offensive), during World War II, ended.

1945: Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first U.S. city to begin fluoridating the drinking water.

1915: Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

1890: Nellie Bly completed her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

1890: The United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1870; Gustavus Dows of Lowell, Mass. received his first patent for an "Improved Soda Fountain" being the vessel in which carbon dioxide was injected, both forming the soda-water beverage, and delivering the drink using the internal pressure.

1755: Moscow University was established on Tatiana Day.

Births:
0750: Leo IV the Khazar (Byzantine Emperor)

1640: William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire (English soldier/statesman)

1860: Charles Curtis (Vice President of the U.S.)

1905: Maurice Roy (French Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal/archbishop of Quebec)

1935: António Ramalho Eanes (President of Portugal)

Deaths:
1640: Robert Burton (English scholar/author/vicar) [The Anatomy of Melancholy]

1990: Ava Gardner (American actress) [The Killers, Mogambo, Bhowani Junction, On the Beach, The Night of the Iguana]

2009: Kim Manners (American television producer/director/child actor) [The X-Files, Supernatural]


Word of the Day: theogony \thee-OG-uh-nee\
Etymology: From Greek theo- "god" + -gony "origin".
(noun)
1. The origin of gods or an account of this.
Usage: "The poet sees the arrival of Christ in the world in terms of its impact on the pagan theogony."


Mistfox - who wonders why the time stamp on my entry yesterday says 8:57 (I put it up around 4, I thought)

Today is January 26th. That means that this day was the third day of the Sementivae in the Roman Empire, is Australia Day in Australia, Republic Day in India, and Liberation Day in Uganda.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: "Octomom" Nadya Suleman of Whittier, Calif., gave birth to octuplets conceived by in vitro fertilization. Suleman was already a mother of six.

2005: Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as secretary of state.

2005: Two trains derailed killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles.

1950: The Constitution of India came into force, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad was sworn in as the first President of India. This is observed as Republic Day in India.

1930: The Indian National Congress declared 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence), which occurred 20 years later.

1920: Former Ford Motor Company executive Henry Leland launched the Lincoln Motor Company, which he later sold to his former employer.

1905: The Cullinan Diamond was found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.

1875: George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan, patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth, described as an "electromagnetic dental tool".

1870: Virginia rejoined the Union.

1855: The Governor of the Washington Territory, the S’Klallam, the Chimacum and the Skokomish tribes signed the Point No Point Treaty in the Washington Territory.

1700: The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake, the most intense Canada has ever seen, took place off the west coast of the North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.

1565: The Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan, led to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.

1500: Vicente Yáñez Pinzón became the first European to set foot on Brazil.

1340: King Edward III of England was declared King of France.

Births:
1880: Douglas MacArthur (American general)

1905: Maria von Trapp (Austrian-born singer)

1925: Paul Newman (American actor/philanthropist/race car driver/race team owner) [The Color of Money, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting]

Deaths:
1885: Edward Davy (English chemist/physician/inventor) He devised the electromagnetic repeater for relaying telegraphic signals and invented an electrochemical telegraph

1990: Lewis Mumford (American historian/literary critic/architectural critic/urban planner) [The City in History, Technics and Civilization, The Myth of the Machine]

2000: Don Budge (American tennis player)

2009: James Winston Brady (American celebrity columnist) [the Page Six gossip column in the New York Post, the In Step With column in Parade Magazine]


Word of the Day: de rigueur \duh ri-GUR; Fr. duh ree-Gœr\
Etymology: From French de, "of" + rigueur, "rigor, strictness".
(adjective)
1. Strictly required, as by etiquette, usage, or fashion; socially obligatory.
Usage: "Wearing a suit to a job interview is de rigueur."


Mistfox - who is having a hard time engaging her brain this morning

Today is January 27th. That means that this day is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Florida hedge fund manager Arthur Nadel was arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and charged with fraud.

1980: Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escaped hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian caper.

1950: Science magazine announced the new antibiotic terramyacin.

1945: The Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

1880: Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

1825: The U.S. Congress approved the Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".

1785: The University of Georgia was founded, the first public university in the U.S..

1695: Mustafa II became the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his abdication in 1703.

Births:
1720: Samuel Foote *English dramatist/actor/theatre manager) [The Diversions of the Morning or, A Dish of Chocolate; The Auction of Pictures]

1805: Sophie of Bavaria (Archduchess of Austria)

1805: Maria Anna of Bavaria (Queen consort of Saxony)

1850: Samuel Gompers (American labor leader)

1850: Edward J. Smith (English captain of the RMS Titanic)

1885: Jerome Kern (American composer) ["Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A Fine Romance", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "All the Things You Are", "The Way You Look Tonight"]

1940: Petru Lucinschi (President of Moldova)

1955: John G. Roberts (Chief Justice of the U.S.)

Deaths:
1490: Ashikaga Yoshimasa (Japanese shogun)

1540: Saint Angela Merici (Italian religious leader/saint)

1595: Sir Francis Drake (English explorer)

1860: Sir Thomas Brisbane (British soldier/astronomical observer/Governor of New South Wales) The city of Brisbane, Australia, is named after him.

1910: Thomas Crapper (English plumber/inventor)

2009: John Updike (American novelist) [Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Bech, a Book; The Witches of Eastwick]

2009: Ramaswamy Venkataraman (President of India/lawyer)


Word of the Day: artiodactyl \ahr-tee-o-DAK-til\
Etymology: From Greek artio- "even in number, perfect" + -dactyl "toed, fingered".
(adjective)
1. Having an even number of toes on each foot.
Usage: "By the way, you may not be aware that the pig is only the second artiodactyl to have its genome sequenced -- the cow came first."


Mistfox - who wonders why the goldfish are all watching me this morning

Today is January 28th. That means that this day is Data Privacy Day.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Winter storms across the Midwestern U.S. killed 19 people and cut electricity to 600,000 homes and businesses from Oklahoma to West Virginia.

1985: Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) recorded the hit single "We Are the World", to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.

1980: USCGC Blackthorn collided with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa, Florida and capsized, killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.

1965: The current design of the Flag of Canada was chosen by an act of Parliament.

1960: the U.S. Navy, using 84-ft diameter parabolic antennas, sent the first wire photograph transmitted by radio waves bounced off the moon between Hawaii and Washington, D.C..

1945: During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1935: Iceland became the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion.

1915: An act of the U.S. Congress created the U.S. Coast Guard.

1855: The first locomotive ran from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway.

1820: A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovered the Antarctic.

1760: Benning Wentworth created Pownal, Vermont as one of the New Hampshire Grants.

Births:
1855: William Seward Burroughs (American inventor) He invented the first recording adding machine and was a founder of the American Arithmometer Company, which later became the Burroughs Adding Machine Company.

1865: Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg (First president of Finland)

1905: Luther George Simjian (Turkish-born American) His over 200 inventions included the TelePrompter, a self-posing portrait camera, automatic postage metering equipment, and an early form of an automated teller machine.

1950: Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah (King of Bahrain)

1955: Nicolas Sarkozy (President of France)

Deaths:
1935: Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (Russian composer)

1960: Zora Neale Hurston (American author/folklorist) [Their Eyes Were Watching God]

2009: Billy Powell (American musician) [Lynyrd Skynyrd]


Word of the Day: machination \mack-uh-NAY-shuhn; mash-\
Etymology: From Latin machinatio, "a contrivance, a cunning device, a machination," from machinari, "to contrive, to devise, especially to plot evil." It is related to machine, from Latin machina, "any artificial contrivance for performing work."
(noun)
1. The act of plotting.
2. A crafty scheme; a cunning design or plot intended to accomplish some usually evil end.
Usage: "Alongside the various representations of sincere tears, then, are a series of representations of insincerity and emotional machination."


Mistfox - who can't seem to get the time stamp on her postings set right

Today is January 29th. That means that this day is Constitution Day in Gibraltar.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: The Illinois Senate voted unanimously to remove Governor Rod Blagojevich from office and bar him from future state employment. Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn was sworn in to finish Blagojevich's term.

2005: The first direct commercial flights from the mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines carrier landed in Beijing.

1995: The San Francisco 49ers became the first team to win five Super Bowl titles when they beat the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX.

1960: An artificial kidney that operates without human monitoring was announced.

1900: The American League (officially the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs) was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.

1850: Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

1845: "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe was published in the New York Evening Mirror.

Births:
1850: Lawrence Hargrave (Australian aeronautical pioneer) He is best known for his invention of the box kite.

1860: Anton Chekhov (Russian writer/playwright/physician) [The Seagull, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard]

1880: W.C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield] (American actor) [It's a Gift, Man on the Flying Trapeze, My Little Chickadee]

1940: Katharine Ross (American actress) [The Graduate, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Stepford Wives]

1945: Tom Selleck (American actor/screenwriter/film producer) [Magnum, P.I., Quigley Down Under, Three Men and a Baby]

1960: Greg Louganis (American diver)

Deaths:
1240: Pelagio Galvani (Cardinal-Bishop of Albano)

1820: George III (King of the U.K.)

1950: Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (Emir of Kuwait)

2009: John Martyn [Iain David McGeachy] (Scottish singer/songwriter) ["Small Hours", "Big Muff"]


Word of the Day: hagiography \hag-ee-OG-ruh-fee, hay-jee-\
Etymology: From Greek hagio- "holy" + -graphy "writing".
(noun)
1. A biography of a saint.
2. An uncritical biography, treating its subject with undue reverence.
Usage: "There's a whiff of hagiography in the sometimes sympathetic portrayal of the gang."


Mistfox - who is feeling a bit cranky this morning - not the best mood for going to the dentist

Today is January 30th. That means that this day is National Croissant Day.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: A heat wave affected southeastern Australia, with both Adelaide and Melbourne experiencing temperatures above 45 °C (113 °F).

2005: Iraqis voted in their country's first free election in a half-century.

2000: Off the coast of Ivory Coast, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169 people.

1995: Workers from the National Institutes of Health announced the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.

1950L Development of the hydrogen fusion bomb (H-bomb) was ordered by U.S. President Truman.

1945: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with W.W.II refugees, sank in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,000 people.

1930: The world's second radiosonde (a unit for use in weather balloons that measures various atmospheric parameters) was launched in Pavlovsk, USSR.

1835: In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but failed and was subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen.

1820: Edward Bransfield sighted the Trinity Peninsula and claimed the discovery of Antarctica.

1790: The first boat specializing as a lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne.

Births:
1505: Thomas Tallis (English composer)

1615: Thomas Rolfe (American colonial settler/only child of Pocahontas and John Rolfe)

1930: "Gene" [Eugene Allen] Hackman (American actor) [The French Connection, The Poseidon Adventure, Superman, The Royal Tenenbaums, Behind Enemy Lines]

2005: Hashem bin Al Abdullah II (Prince of Jordan)

Deaths:
1030: William V (Duke of Aquitaine)

1730: Peter II (Tsar of Russia)

1910: Granville Woods (American inventor) As the most prolific black inventor of the late 19th and early 20th century in the U.S., he has been called the Black Edison.

1995: Gerald Durrell (British naturalist/zookeeper/author/television presenter) [My Family and Other Animals]

2009: Ingemar Johansson (Swedish heavyweight professional boxing champion of the world)


Word of the Day: auriferous \aw-RIF-er-uhs\
Etymology: From Latin aurifer, gold-bearing: aurum, "gold" + -ferous, "bearing; producing; containing".
(adjective)
1. Yielding or containing gold.
Usage: "The idea is exploded that auriferous lodes necessarily improve in value with depth."


Mistfox - who is just back from putting up "Closed" signs on the library doors (and who just realized she messed up the link to last year's OTD yesterday)

Today is January 31st. That means that this day is International Leprosy Day and Independence Day in Nauru.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: In Kenya, at least 113 people were killed and over 200 injured following an oil spillage ignition in Molo, days after a massive fire at a Nakumatt supermarket in Nairobi killed at least 25 people.

2000: An Alaska Airlines jet plunged into the ocean off Southern California on a flight from Mexico to San Francisco, killing all 88 people on board.

1995: President Bill Clinton authorized a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.

1945: U.S. Army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

1930: 3M began marketing Scotch Tape.

1915: Germany used poison gas against Russia.

1900: Datu Muhammad Salleh was assassinated in Kampung Teboh, Tambunan, ending the Mat Salleh Rebellion

1865: Confederate General Robert E. Lee became general-in-chief.

1865: The U.S. Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S., abolishing slavery, submitting it to the states for ratification.

Births:
1550: Henry I, Duke of Guise (French Catholic leader)

1835: William Charles Lunalilo [Lunalilo I] (King of Hawaii)

1865: Henri Desgrange (French bicycle racer/sports journalist) He was the founder of the Tour-de-France.

1915: Thomas Merton (American author/monk/poet, social activist) [The Seven Storey Mountain, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, Mystics and Zen Masters, No Man Is an Island]

1925: Benjamin Hooks (American civil rights leader/Baptist minister/attorney/director of the NAACP)

Deaths:
1580: Henry (Cardinal-King of Portugal)

1945: Eddie Slovik (American soldier)

1995: George Robert Stibitz ["The father of the modern digital computer"] (U.S. mathematician)

2000: Gil Kane [Eli Katz] (Latvian-born comic book writer) [Green Lantern, Spider-Man, Blackmark]

2009: Clint Ritchie (American actor) [One Life to Live]


Word of the Day: pernickety \per-NIK-i-tee\ Alternately, persnickety \per-SNIK-i-tee\
Etymology: Originally Scots; of uncertain origin, perhaps somehow from particular.
(adjective)
1. Overparticular; fussy.
2. Snobbish or having the aloof attitude of a snob.
3. Requiring painstaking care.
Usage: "When she looked at it, she was persnickety and unsatisfied and threw a temper tantrum about some minuscule aspect that wasn't to her liking."


Mistfox – tried to shovel the walk ( ice) and aches enough to prove it

Today is February 1st. That means that this day is National Freedom Day in the U.S.; Federal Territory Day for Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya, Malaysia; and Imbolc.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was elected as the first female Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the first openly gay head of state in the modern world.

2005: Canada introduced the Civil Marriage Act, making Canada the fourth country to sanction same-sex marriage.

2005: Nepal King Gyanendra exercised a coup d'état to capture the democracy, becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.

1965: The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada was renamed the Churchill River in honor of Winston Churchill.

1960: Four black students staged the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1920: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began operations.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln signed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

1820: A U.S. patent for a cement that hardened under water was issued to Canvass White, an engineer building the Erie Canal.

1790: In New York City, the Supreme Court of the U.S. attempted to convene for the first time.

Births:
1690: Francesco Maria Veracini (Italian composer)

1895: Conn Smythe (Canadian businessman/sportsman/soldier) Owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

1930: Shahabuddin Ahmed (President of Bangladesh)

1955: Ernie Camacho (American baseball player)

1965: Brandon Lee (American actor) [The Crow]

1965: Stéphanie (Princess of Monaco)

Deaths:
1850: Edward Baker Lincoln (Son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln)

1940: Philip Francis Nowlan (American science fiction writer) [Buck Rogers]

2009: Charles W. Akers (American historian) [Abigail Adams, an American Woman; Called unto Liberty: A Life of Jonathan Mayhew, 1720-1766; The Divine Politician]


Word of the Day: albedo \al-BEE-doh\
Etymology: From Late Latin albedo, "whiteness", from Latin albus, "white".
(adjective)
1. The fraction of the total light striking a surface that gets reflected from that surface.
2. The spongy white tissue on the inside of the rind of citrus fruit.
Usage: "The albedo from the snow was blinding."


Mistfox - who is so sore from shoveling yesterday and still has to do a path on the back deck

Today is February 2nd. That means that this day is Hromnice in the Czech Republic, Groundhog Day in the United States and Canada, World Wetlands Day, and Imbolc (in the northern hemisphere) and Lughnasadh (in the southern hemisphere) [my source was wrong yesterday].


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Hillary Rodham Clinton was sworn in as U.S. secretary of state.

1995: News of research linking brain structure and artistic talent was released by at a press conference in Washington.

1990: South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

1980: Reports surfaced that the FBI was targeting Congressmen in the Abscam operation.

1940: Frank Sinatra debuted with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra.

1925: Dog sleds reached Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.

1925: The Charlevoix-Kamouraska earthquake struck northeastern North America.

1920: The Tartu Peace Treaty was signed between Estonia and Russia.

1920: France occupied Memel.

1880: The first electric streetlight was installed in Wabash, Indiana.

1880: The steamship SS Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.

1870: The Cardiff Giant - supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff, N.Y. - was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.

1795: The French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs for a method of preserving food and transporting it to its armies. The winner was Nicholas Appert, a French chef who invented a way to can food.

1790: The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time.

Births:
1455: John (King of Denmark)

1650: Nell [Eleanor] Gwynne (English actress/royal mistress)

1895: George Halas ["Papa Bear", "Mr. Everything"] (American football player/coach/inventor/jurist/producer/philanthropist/businessman) He was a pioneer in professional American football and the owner of the NFL's Chicago Bears.

1905: Ayn Rand [Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum] (Russian-born American author/playwright/philosopher) [Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead]

1915: Abba Eban (Israeli diplomat)

Deaths:
1250: Eric XI (King of Sweden)

1660: Govert Flinck (Dutch painter)

1970: Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (Welsh mathematical logician/analytical philosopher/writer) [Principia Mathematica, Political Ideals, Why I Am Not a Christian, History of Western Philosophy and Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day]

2009: Susan Hibbert (British secretary) She was the last surviving British witness to the signing of the WWII German Instrument of Surrender.


Word of the Day: salacious \suh-LEY-shuhs\
Etymology: From Latin salax, salac-, "fond of leaping, lustful", from salire, "to leap".
(adjective)
1. Lustful or lecherous.
2. (of writings, pictures, etc.) Obscene; grossly indecent.
Usage: "If you were hoping for a bit of salacious gossip then you'll find it in these final chapters."


Mistfox - who knows the groundhog won't see his shadow here today

Today is February 3rd. That means that this day is the festival of Setsubun in Japan,
Heroes' Day in Mozambique, and Four Chaplains Day in the U.S.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: The United Kingdom struggled to cope with its heaviest snowfalls since 1991.

1945: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17's of the Eighth Air Force bombed Berlin.

1930: The chief justice of the U.S., former President William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons.

1925: A report of the first "missing link" fossil, found by Raymond Dart, was published in a newspaper. The Star of Johannesburg, South Africa announced the find, instead of the professional journal Nature, when the editors of the journal changed their mind.

1900: Gubernatorial candidate William Goebel was assassinated in Frankfort, Kentucky.

1870: The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.

1830: The sovereignty of Greece was confirmed in a London Protocol.

1690: The colony of Massachusetts issued the first paper money in America.

Births:
1790: Gideon Algernon Mantell (British physician/geologist/paleontologist) He discovered 4 of the 5 genera of dinosaurs known during his time.

1795: Antonio José de Sucre y Alcalá ["Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho"] (Venezuelan independence leader/President of Bolivia/President of Perú)

1830: Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1920: Henry Heimlich (American physician) He invented the abdominal thrusts known as the Heimlich maneuver,

1940: Fran [Francis Asbury] Tarkenton (American football player/TV personality/computer software executive.)

1945: Bob Griese (American football player/television commentator)

1950: Morgan Fairchild [Patsy Ann McClenny] (American actress) [Flamingo Road, Falcon Crest, North and South]

Deaths:
1935: Hugo Junkers (German engineer/inventor)

1975: William D. Coolidge )American physicist/physical chemist/inventor/director of the General Electric Research Laboratory) His improvement of tungsten filaments was essential in the development of the modern incandescent lamp bulb and the X-ray tube.

1985: Frank Oppenheimer (American physicist)

2009: Sheng-yen (Buddhist monk) Founder of Dharma Drum Mountain.


Word of the Day: mondegreen \MON-di-green\
Etymology: Coined by Sylvia Wright, U.S. writer, from the line 'laid him on the green', interpreted as Lady Mondegreen, in a Scottish ballad.
(noun)
1. A word or phrase resulting from a misinterpretation of a word or phrase that has been heard.
Usage: "Mondegreens can be found in every area of the spoken word, from the record buyer who asks for a copy of the Queen single "Bohemian Rap City" to the schoolchild who is convinced that the Pledge of Allegiance begins "I led the pigeons to the flag.""


Mistfox - who wonders if there's a term for the same thing in reading - what my family calls "creative reading" (usually when you see the first and last letters of a word and the brain fills in the rest, with sometimes hilarious results)

One of the Chaplains was from my town of York, and we have a 4 Chaplains Breakfast in their honor every year. There is also a school in his name. Alexander B. Goode. These were 4 Chaplains who gave up their life jackets during WWII to other sailors when their ship was bombed and died during that attack.

Today is February 4th. That means that this day is Independence Day in Sri Lanka, Arba'een in Shi'a Islam, World Cancer Day, and Across the Universe Day.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: An estimated 15,000 students in Dublin, Ireland, protested the threatened reintroduction of university fees.

2009: The fossils of 28 individual Titanoboa cerrejonensis (the largest snake ever discovered) were announced to have been found in the coalmines of Cerrejón in La Guajira, Colombia.

2000: German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta was jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with the sabotage of German railway lines.

2000: A coalition government that included Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party came to power in Austria, triggering European Union sanctions.

1975: The Haicheng earthquake (magnitude 7.3 on the Richter scale) occurred in Haicheng, Liaoning, China.

1945: The Yalta Conference began.

1915: Experiments began to find the cause of the disease, pellagra.

1825: The Ohio Legislature authorized the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.

1820: The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald completed the two day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and 2 ships.

1810: The British Royal Navy seized the archipelago of Guadeloupe.

0960: Zhao Kuangyin was crowned as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song Dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries.

Births:
1620: Gustaf Bonde (Swedish statesman)

1895: Nigel Bruce (English actor) [The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Treasure Island, Bwana Devil]

1925: Russell Hoban (American writer) [Amaryllis Night and Day, The Mouse and His Child, Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas]

1955: Mikuláš Dzurinda (Slovak Prime minister)

Deaths:
1590: Gioseffo Zarlino (Italian composer)

1975: Howard Hill (American archer) He is the only person to win 196 archery field tournaments in succession.

1995: Patricia Highsmith [Claire Morgan] (American author) [Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Price of Salt]

2005: Ossie Davis [Raiford Chatman Davis] (American actor/director/poet/playwright/writer/social activist) [No Way Out, The Hill, Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X]

2009: Herbert Hamrol (American centenarian) One of the last survivors of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.


Word of the Day: daltonism \DAWL-tuh-niz-em\
Etymology: After John Dalton, chemist and physicist, who gave us Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures. He studied his own color blindness as well.
(noun)
1. Color blindness, especially the inability to distinguish between red and green.
Usage: "Theodore R. Weeks refers to 'national daltonism: the extreme difficulty nationalists had... in perceiving and appreciating the viewpoints or needs of members of other nationalities."


Mistfox – who is having a hard time getting going this morning

Today is February 5th. That means that this day is Constitution Day in Mexico and the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan begins.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: USA Swimming suspended Michael Phelps from competition for three months following publication of a photograph of him inhaling from a marijuana pipe.

1945: General Douglas MacArthur returned to Manila.

1900: The U.S. and the U.K. signed a treaty for the Panama Canal

1885: King Léopold II of Belgium established the Congo as a personal possession.

1870: For the first time in the U.S., Henry R. Heyl (using his Phasmatrope) presented an animated photographic picture projection before a theatre audience.

1850: Gail Borden of Brooklyn, NY, was issued a U.S. patent for his process that baked a combination of extracts from meat with flour to produce a meat biscuit capable of long term storage. This gave a preserved meat-based product that could be carried by the military, seamen and other travelers. Because it could be reconstituted with hot water as a soup, the patent title was "Preparation of Portable Soup-Bread."

Births:
1810: Ole Bull (Norwegian violinist)

1840: Hiram Stevens Maxim (American inventor) Best known for the Maxim machine gun, although his first patent was for a hair-curling iron, followed by a device for generating illuminating gas, and a locomotive headlight.

1880: Gabriel Voisin (French aviation pioneer)

1900: Adlai Ewing Stevenson (American politician/diplomat)

1980: Peter Karadordevic (American-born Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia)

Deaths:
0995: William IV (Duke of Aquitaine)

1995: Doug McClure (American actor) [The Virginian, Gidget, At the Earth's Core, The Land That Time Forgot, Search]

2005: Gnassingbe Eyadema (President of Togo)

2009: Raaphi Persitz (Israeli chess master)


Word of the Day: oligopoly \ol-i-GOP-uh-lee\
Etymology: From Greek oligo- "few" + -poly, patterned after monopoly, from polein "to sell".
(noun)
1. A market condition where there are few sellers.
Usage: "The country's fair trade regulator suggested Sunday that the long-standing oligopoly of a few gas companies should be phased out by allowing new providers to compete in the market."


Mistfox - who, once again, stayed up too late last night reading

We went to the Sapporo Snow Festival when we lived in Japan one year and its awesome! Didn't even mind the cold! One of the best trips we've ever taken.

Today is February 6th. That means that this day is International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, Waitangi Day in New Zealand (also called New Zealand Day), and Sami National Day in Finland and Scandinavia.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved ATryn, the first drug made using genetically engineered animals.

2000: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her successful candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

1900: The international arbitration court at The Hague was created when the Netherlands' Senate ratified an 1899 peace conference decree.

1840: The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.

1820: The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1815: New Jersey granted the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.

1685: James II of England and VII of Scotland became King upon the death of his brother Charles II.

Births:
1605: Bernard of Corleone (Catholic saint)

1665: Anne of Great Britain (Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland)

1895: "Babe" [George Herman] Ruth ["the Bambino", "the Sultan of Swat"] (American baseball player)

1940: Tom Brokaw (American news anchorman)

1945: Bob Marley (Jamaican singer-songwriter/musician) [Bob Marley & The Wailers]

1950: Natalie Cole (American singer)

Deaths:
1685: Charles II (King of England)

1995: James Merrill (American poet)

2009: James Whitmore (American actor) [Battleground; The Asphalt Jungle; Guns of the Magnificent Seven; Tora! Tora! Tora!; Give 'em Hell, Harry!; The Law and Mr. Jones]


Word of the Day: gossamer \GOS-uh-mer\
Etymology: From Middle English gossomer: gos, "goose"; + somer, "summer" (probably from the abundance of gossamer during early autumn when geese are in season). The English word may originally have referred to a warm spell in autumn before being transferred to a phenomenon especially noticeable then.
(noun)
1. A fine, filmy cobweb seen on grass or bushes or floating in the air in calm weather, esp. in autumn.
2. A thread or a web of this substance.
3. An extremely delicate variety of gauze, used esp. for veils.
4. Any thin, light fabric.
5. Something extremely light, flimsy, or delicate.
6. A thin, waterproof outer garment, esp. for women.
(adjective)
7. Also, gossamery /GOS-uh-muh-ree/ Of or like gossamer; thin and light.
Usage: "With experience, she was promoted to a spot in the chain of steam-powered skein winders that twisted gossamer spun thread quickly and evenly into silk bricks."


Mistfox - who will be helping to run three Fancy Nancy parties at the library today - pray for me

Today is February 7th. That means that this day is Independence Day in Grenada.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Bushfires in Victoria left 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.

2005: Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was convicted of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at his church during the 1980s. (Shanley was sentenced to 12-15 years in prison.)

1995: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.

1990: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agreed to give up its monopoly on power.

1940: The second full length animated Walt Disney film Pinocchio premiered.

1935: The classic board game Monopoly was first marketed.

1915: The first wireless message sent from a moving train to a station was received.

1795: The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which deals with each state's sovereign immunity from being sued in federal court by someone of another state or country, was ratified.

Births:
1825: Karl August Möbius (German zoologist) He co-founded the Hamburg zoo and aquarium, and became director of the natural history museum in Berlin.

1870: Alfred Adler (Austrian doctor/psychologist)

1885: [Harry] Sinclair Lewis (American novelist/short-story writer/playwright) [Main Street, Gideon Planish, Dodsworth, Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry]

1920: An Wang (Chinese-born computer pioneer)

Deaths:
1045: Go-Suzaku (Emperor of Japan)

1560: Bartolomeo Bandinelli (Italian sculptor)

1910: Robert Wood Johnson (American manufacturer) With his two brothers, he founded the Johnson & Johnson Corporation, to make surgical dressings, and was its first President.

1980: Secondo Campini (Italian jet pioneer)

2000: Doug Henning (Canadian magician/illusionist/escape artist/politician)

2009: Molly Bee [Mollie Gene Beachboard] (American country-western singer) [Hometown Jamboree]


Word of the Day: eremite \AIR-uh-myt\
Etymology: From Latin eremita, from Greek eremia "desert", from eremos "solitary".
(noun)
1. A recluse, especially for religious reasons.
Usage: "J.D. Salinger has been called the eremite of Cornish, N.H."


Mistfox - who is glad to see some sunshine today

Today is February 8th. That means that this day is Prešeren Day in Slovenia and Nirvana Day for Buddhists.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2009: Romanian handball player Marian Cozma was killed and two others were injured in a knife attack by a gypsy gang in a nightclub in Veszprém, Hungary.

2005: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt.

1960: Queen Elizabeth II of the U.K. issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants would take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor".

1955: The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired was to be distributed among the landless peasants.

1915: D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premiered in Los Angeles.

1910: William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America.

1900: Boers at Ladysmith, South Africa defeated British troops.

1865: In the U.S., Delaware voters rejected the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and voted to continue the practice of slavery.

1865: Gregor Mendel (who first discovered the laws of genetics) read his first scientific paper to the Brünn Society for the study of Natural Sciences in Moravia.

1855: The "Devil's Footprints" mysteriously appeared in southern Devon.

1575: Universiteit Leiden (Leiden University) was founded, and given the motto "Praesidium Libertatis".

1250: The Battle of Al Mansurah was fought between crusaders led by Louis IX, King of France, and Ayyubid forces led by Emir Fakhr-ad-Din Yussuf, Faris ad-Din Aktai and Baibars al-Bunduqdari.

Births:
1405: Constantine XI Palaiologos (The last reigning Emperor of the Byzantine Empire)

1720: Sakuramachi (Emperor of Japan)

1820: William Tecumseh Sherman (American Union general)

1850: Kate Chopin (American author) [The Awakening, Bayou Folk]

1940: "Ted" [Edward James] Koppel (American journalist) [Nightline]

1955: John Grisham (American writer) [The Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, The Appeal, Bleachers, Playing for Pizza, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town]

Deaths:
1250: Robert I of Artois (French crusader)

1250: Sir William II Longespee (English crusader) His death became of significant importance to the English psyche, having died as a martyr due to the purported mistakes and arrogance of the French, at the Battle of Mansurah

1725: Peter I (Tsar of Russia)

1990: Del Shannon (American singer/songwriter) ["Runaway"]

2009: Marian Cozma (Romanian handball player)


Word of the Day: vitrify \VI-truh-fahy\
Etymology: From French vitrifier, from Medieval Latin vitrificare: Latin vitrum, "glass" + Latin -ficare, -fy "“to make,” “cause to be,” “render”, “to become”.
(transitive verb)
1. To change or make into glass or a glassy substance, especially through heat fusion.
(intransitive verb)
2. To become vitreous.
Usage: "It is capable of working through a wide variety of materials such as plastic, concrete, brick and vitrified clay. "


Mistfox - who needs to buckle down and do her accounts