Monday, July 16, 2012

planet \PLAN-ut\ noun

1. earth —usually used with the
2. a celestial body held to influence the fate of human beings
3. a person or thing of great importance : luminary

"Planet" goes back to ancient Greek "planēt-" (literally, "wanderer"), which is derived from "planasthai," a Greek verb which means "to wander." The name "planet" was originally applied to any of seven visible celestial bodies which appeared to move independently of the fixed stars — the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. In the 17th century, "planet" began to be used specifically of the rocky or gaseous bodies that orbit around the sun — a definition which excluded the moon and, obviously, the sun, but included the Earth and, as they were discovered, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union developed a narrower definition of "planet," effectively demoting Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet," a celestial body that is spherical and orbits the sun but is not large enough to disturb other objects from its orbit.

Axl Rose

• A great frontman for the great rock band, Guns N' Fucking Roses. Unfortunately, he became a meglomaniac cunt who drove the rest of the band apart and replaced them with a bunch of nobodies. Having fallen far from his former greatness, he should be shot. Multiple times.

Cunt: 1) Vagina 2) A moron 3) Axl Rose post 1992
Trivia
Not today
History

• Czar Nicholas II: ruler of Russia was executed, along with his family, by the Bolsheviks, a year after having abdicated (1918)
• parking meter: was first installed, in Oklahoma City (1935)
• Trinity test: US exploded the first trial atom bomb in the New Mexico desert, less than a month before bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)
• Catcher in the Rye: J.D. Salinger's novel about adolescent antihero Holden Caulfield was published; it was controversial at the time but is now a staple of school curricula (1951)
• Apollo 11: the first manned flight to the moon took off from the Kennedy Space Center (1969)
• Saddam Hussein: became president of Iraq (1979)
• JFK, Jr.: was killed with wife Carolyn and her sister in a plane crash (1999)

Birthdays

• Sir Joshua Reynolds 1723
• Mary Baker Eddy 1821
• Ida Bell Wells 1862
• Roald Amundsen 1872
• Trygve Lie 1896
• Barbara Stanwyck 1907
• Orville Redenbacher 1907
• Ginger Rogers 1911
• Barnard Hughes 1915
• Bess Myerson 1924
• Nat Pierce 1925
• Cal Tjader 1925
• Joey Giardello 1930
• William Bell 1939
• Corin Redgrave 1939
• Tony Jackson (Searchers) 1940
• Desmond Dekker 1942
• Margaret Court 1942
• Jimmy Johnson (NFL) 1943
• Ruben Blades 1948
• Pinchas Zukerman 1948
• Stewart Copeland (Police) 1952
• Michael Flatley 1958
• Phoebe Cates 1963
• Will Ferrell 1967
• Barry Sanders 1968
• Ed Kowalczyk (Live) 1971
• Corey Scott Feldman 1971