Tuesday, December 15, 2015

appellation \ap-uh-LAY-shun\, noun:

1. The word by which a particular person or thing is called and known; name; title; designation.
2. The act of naming.

Appellation comes from Latin appellatio, from appellare, "to name."
 
pornament noun: 

• a pornographic Christmas ornament.

Somehow, Rodney's Christmas tree, decked out in garish purple lights and Mrs. Santa pornaments, failed to convey the solemnity and dignity of this holiest of days.

History

• Bill of Rights: the right to bear arms as well as freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and more became United States law when the states ratified Amendments I-X of the US Constitution (1791)

  
• Sitting Bull: Lakota Sioux military and spiritual leader who defeated Gen. Custer at Little Bighorn was killed (1890)
• Gone With the Wind: Civil War-era epic film premiered in Atlanta (1939)
• Adolf Eichmann: an Israeli court sentenced to death the former Nazi official who had zealously supported the use of gas chambers to exterminate the Jews in WWII (1961)
• flag of Canada: Canada adopted its national flag, a red maple leaf on a white background (1964)
• Romanian Revolution: popular uprising began, leading to the downfall of dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu (1989)

Birthdays

• Nero (Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus) 37 AD - Fifth and last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty
• George Romney 1734 - English portrait painter
• Gustave Eiffel 1832 - Engineer: designed Paris’ Eiffel Tower and helped design Statue of Liberty
• Ludwig (Lazarus) Zamenhof 1859 - Linguist, developed international language: Esperanto
• Jack "Nonpareil" Dempsey (John Edward Kelly) 1862 - Boxer
• J. Paul Getty 1892 - Oil magnate: Getty Oil
• Buddy (Edwin) Cole 1916 - Pianist (The Buddy Cole Trio)
• Jeff Chandler (Ira Grossel) 1918 - Actor (Merrill’s Marauders, Return to Peyton Place, Broken Arrow)
• Eddie (William Edward) Robinson - 1920 - Baseball player
• Alan Freed 1922 - Disc jockey in Cleveland
• Jerry Wallace 1928 - Singer, actor (Hec Ramsey)
• Jimmy Nelson 1928 - Ventriloquist
• Ernest Ashworth 1928 - Country singer
• Friedrich Hundertwasser 1928 - Artist, printer, painter, ecologist
• Edna O'Brien 1931 - Author (Time and Tide, Country Girls Trilogy)
• Jessie Belvin 1967 - Singer
• Clyde McPhatter 1932 - Musician (Dominoes, Drifters)
• Tim Conway 1933 - Actor, comedian (McHale’s Navy, The Tim Conway Show, The Carol Burnett Show)

  
• Cindy Birdsong 1939 - Singer (Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles, Diana Ross and The Supremes)
• Nick Buoniconti 1940 - Football Hall of Famer, football analyst (HBO: Inside the NFL)
• Dave Clark 1942 - Singer (The Dave Clark Five), TV producer, actor
• Pete Duranko 1943 - Football player
• Stan (Stanley Raymond) Bahnsen 1944 - Baseball player
• Carmine Appice 1946 - Musician (Vanilla Fudge)
• Doug (Douglas James) Rau 1948 - Baseball player
• Charlie Scott 1948 - Basketball player
• Don Johnson (Donnie Wayne Johnson) 1949 - Actor (Nash Bridges, Miami Vice)
• Alex Cox 1954 - Movie director (Repo Man, Sid and Nancy)
• Justin Ross 1954 - Actor
• Paul Simonon 1955 - Musician (Clash)
• Doug Phelps 1960 - Singer (Kentucky Headhunters)
• Reginald Hudlin 1961 - Director (The Great White Hype)
• Daryl Turner 1961 - Football player
• Helen Slater 1963 - Actress (City Slickers, Ruthless People)
• Molly Price 1965 - Actress
• Michael Shanks 1970 - Actor (Stargate SG-1, The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon)
• Stuart Townsend 1972 - Actor (Venice Project, 24 Hours)
• Kito Trawick 1977 - "Crowd-hyper" (Ghostown DJs)
• Adam Brody 1979 - Actor (The O.C.)
• George O. Gore II 1981 - Actor (My Wife and Kids)