Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

paragon \PAIR-uh-gon; -guhn\, noun:
  • A model of excellence or perfection; as, "a paragon of beauty; a paragon of eloquence."
Paragon comes from Middle French, from Old Italian paragone, literally, "touchstone," from paragonare, "to test on a touchstone," from Greek parakonan, "to rub against, to sharpen," from para-, "beside" + akone, "a whetstone."

DWT 
  • Driving While Texting. Operating a motor vehicle while texting friends on your cell.
"Gina almost killed us driving over here, she was DWT. I finally grabbed the phone out of her hand before we wrecked."

History
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College: aka, the Harvard Corporation, was established; it is the oldest corporation in the continent of America (1650)
  • Hong Kong: was signed over to the British for 99 years (1898)
  • automat: the first automated vending-machine restaurant opened in Philadelphia (1902)
  • Alice Huyler Ramsey: 22-year-old housewife set out, mapless, on a road trip that made her the first woman to drive across the US — from Manhattan to San Francisco; the trip took 59 days (1909)
  • Donald Duck: debuted in The Wise Little Hen; for more than 50 years, his voice was provided by Clarence "Ducky" Nash (1934)
  • Bhumibol Adulyadej: became king of Thailand; in a largely ceremonial role, he is currently the world's longest-reigning head of state (1946)
  • Secretariat: the stallion won the Belmont Stakes and became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years (1973)
  • Millennium Bridge: pedestrian suspension bridge over the River Thames opened; found to be wobbly, it closed for repairs almost immediately (2000)
Birthdays
  • Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Felician) 1640 - Holy Roman emperor
  • Peter the Great 1672 - Peter I of Russia
  • George Stephenson 1781 - Civil engineer and mechanical engineer, built the first public railway
  • John Howard Payne 1791 - Actor, poet, playwright
  • Carl Nielsen 1865 - Composer, conductor, violinist
  • Meta Vaux Warrick 1877 - Artist
  • Cole Porter (Cole Albert Porter) 1891 - Composer, songwriter
  • Fred Waring 1900 - Musician (The Pennsylvanians), bandleader, radio-television personality
  • Louis Kutner 1908 - Human rights activist, lawyer, helped to found Amnesty International
  • Robert "Bob" Cummings (Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings) 1910 - Actor
  • Les Paul (Lester William Polsfuss) 1915 - Musician, songwriter, inventor (solid-body electric guitar)
  • Charles Loloma 1921 - Artist
  • George Axelrod 1922 - Screenwriter
  • Mona Freeman (Monica Elizabeth Freeman) 1926 - Actress
  • Marvin L. Kalb 1930 - Journalist
  • Joe Santos 1931 - Actor
  • Jimmy Spruill 1934 - Musician
  • Jackie Wilson (Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr.) 1934 - Singer, performer
  • Diana Van Der Vlis 1935 - Actress
  • Letty Cottin Pogrebin 1939 - Writer, journalist
  • Dick Vitale (Richard J. "Dick" Vitale) 1940 - Basketball sportscaster
  • Billy Hatton 1941 - Musician (The Fourmost)
  • Jon Lord 1941 - Musician (Whitesnake, Deep Purple)
  • Trevor Bolder 1950 - Musician (Spiders from Mars, Uriah Heep)
  • Dave Parker (David Gene "The Cobra" Parker) 1951 - Baseball player
  • Billy Knight (William R. "Billy" Knight) 1952 - Basketball player
  • Patricia Cornwell 1956 - Mystery author
  • Michael J. Fox 1961 - Actor ("Family Ties")
  • Aaron Sorkin 1961 - Writer, producer ("The West Wing")
  • Johnny Depp (John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II) 1963 - Actor, musician
  • Wayman Tisdale 1964 - Basketball player
  • Gloria Reuben 1965 - Singer, actress ("ER")
  • Dean Felber 1967 - Musician (Hootie & the Blowfish)
  • Dean Dinning 1967 - Musician (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
  • Tedy Bruschi 1973 - Football player
  • Matthew Bellamy 1978 - musician (MUSE)
  • Natalie Portman 1981 - Actress ("Star Wars" movie series)
  • Mae Whitman 1988 - Actress ("Arrested Development")

 



0 comments: