Friday, April 26, 2013

quell \kwel\, verb:

1. to suppress; put an end to; extinguish: The troops quelled the rebellion quickly.
2. to vanquish; subdue.
3. to quiet or allay (emotions, anxieties, etc.): The child's mother quelled his fears of the thunder.

From the Old English cwellan, quell has been spelled with a "q" since the late 1200s. The Old English was a cognate for the Middle Dutch quellen meaning "to torture."

Reviral

• When this generation later tells their teenage kids about the youtube videos you watched back in the day and those children subsequently rapidly share said videos with their generation.

The year, 2030 - "hey Dad, listen to this, I learned to play Mozart today". "who cares Billy, this cat had that figured out twenty years ago. Wipe away your tears and check this out".

Billy shares with friends. Video goes viral...again. Reviral.

Trivia
What did rebellious Boston colonists do to British customs commissioner John Malcolm in 1775 when he attempted to collect the tax on tea?

• They forced him to drink large quantities of hot tea after stripping him, tar-and-feathering him, and parading him through the streets of Boston. The attack took place four weeks after the Boston Tea Party.

History

• Cape Henry: Jamestown settlers made landfall on this Virginia promontory (1607)
• Marshall Henri Pétain: the leader of France's Vichy government was arrested (1945); he died in prison in 1951
• Tanzania: African republic was formed by the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (1964)
• Chernobyl disaster: worst-ever nuclear reactor accident occurred near the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl; the resulting radioactive cloud covered much of Europe (1986)

Birthdays

• John James Audubon 1785 - Ornithologist, naturalist, painter
• Frederick Olmsted 1822 - Journalist, landscape designer
• Jessie Redmon Fauset 1882 - Poet, essayist, novelist
• Anita Loos 1893 - Screenwriter, playwright, author
• Rudolf Hess 1895 - Adolf Hitler's Deputy in the Nazi Party
• Charles Richter 1900 - Seismologist, creator of the Richter magnitude scale used to quantify earthquakes
• Teddy Edwards 1924 - Jazz musician
• Jorgen Ingmann 1925 - Musician
• Bernard Malamud 1914 - Author of novels and short stories
• Bambi Linn 1926 - Dancer
• Carol Burnett 1933 - Actress, comedian
  

  
• Duane Eddy 1938 - Musician
• Maurice Williams 1938 - Musician (Zodiacs)
• Claudine Clark 1941 - Musician
• Bobby Rydell 1942 - Singer
• Claudine Auger 1942 - Actress ("Thunderball")
• Gary Wright 1943 - Musician
• Giorgio Moroder 1944 - Record producer, songwriter, performer
• Boyd Matson 1947 - Television anchor (National Geographic Explorer, NBC's Weekend Today)
• Donna De Varona 1947 - Swimmer
• Giancarlo Esposito 1958 - Actor, director
• Roger Taylor 1960 - Musician (Duran Duran)
• Chris Mars 1961 - Artist, musician
• Joan Chen 1961 - Actress
• Michael Damian 1962 - Actor, singer, producer
• Jet Li 1963 - Actor ("War", "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor")
• Kevin James 1965 - Actor ("I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry", "The King of Queens")
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste 1967 - Actress ("Without a Trace")
• T-Boz (Tionne Tenese Watkins) 1970 - Songwriter (TLC)
• Jordan Brewster 1980 - Actress (and Mrs. Bax0jayz doppleganger)
• Marnette Patterson 1980 - Actress
• Jessica Lynch 1983