Word of the Day for Saturday, April 19, 2008

portent \POR-tent\, noun:

1. A sign of a coming event or calamity; an omen.
2. Prophetic or menacing significance.
3. Something amazing; a marvel.

Urban Word of the Day: Grippin grain
http://grippin-grain.urbanup.com/736431

• wood grain steering wheel

I'm grippin the grain as i roll through

Trivia
What chemical element is represented by the symbol "W"?

• Tungsten, which is also known as wolfram.

Today's Holiday

• Passover begins at sundown (Judaism)

Today in History

• shot heard round the world: the American Revolution began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord (1775)
• Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: the Jews began an armed resistance against the Nazis (1943)
• Oklahoma City Bombing: truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 (1995)

Today's Birthdays

• José Echegaray y Eizaguirre (1832-1916): Spanish politician, mathematician, economist and dramatist; he shared the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature with Frédéric Mistral
• Eliot Ness (1903-1957): head of the Untouchables who brought down Al Capone
• Ashley Judd (40): actress, Double Jeopardy, De-Lovely; other actors born on this date include Hugh O'Brian (83), Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967), Dudley Moore (1935-2002), Elinor Donahue (71), Tim Curry (62), James Franco (30), Kate Hudson (29) and Hayden Christensen (27)
  

  

• Maria Sharapova (21): tennis champ and one of the world's highest-paid female athletes, butterface.