Monday, April 16, 2018

Monday, April 16, 2018

aperçu \a-per-SY\, noun:
1. A hasty glance; a glimpse.
2. An immediate estimate or judgment; understanding; insight.
3. An outline or summary.
Aperçu literally means "perceived" in French. It entered English in the 1820s.
longversation
  • The quality of a conversation that is both long and rambling, without a fixed purpose and lacking in concision. Generally used in a negative sense.
The other day, Julia and I had such a longversation. I thought I could never leave!
Trivia
What famous composer wrote the song “I Paid My Income Tax Today”?
  • Irving Berlin. The patriotic song, written during World War II at the behest of Treasury Secretary Henry Morganthau, included the lines, “See those bombers in the sky?/Rockefeller helped to build ’em, so did I.”
History
  • Harriet Quimby: became the first female pilot to fly the English Channel (1912)
  • Vladimir Ilyich Lenin: returned to Russia, ending an exile of some 20 years (1917)
  • LSD: Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic effects of the drug (1943)
  • Texas City Disaster: at least 580 were killed in the explosion of a ship loaded with ammonium nitrate, in America's worst industrial disaster (1947)
  • cold war: term was coined by financier Bernard Baruch in a speech in South Carolina (1947)
  • Walter Cronkite: the "most trusted man in America" began his 19-year run as anchor of CBS Evening News (1962)
  • panda diplomacy: China sent the US two giant pandas as a gift after President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China (1972)
  • Virginia Tech: Cho Seung-Hui opened fire, eventually killing 32 students and himself in the US's most deadly shooting rampage (2007)
Birthdays
  • Hans Sloane 1660 - Doctor, naturalist, instrumental in founding of the British Museum
  • Sir John Franklin 1786
  • Flora Batson 1864
  • Jose de Diego 1866 - Patriot and political leader of Puerto Rico, April 16 is a legal holiday in Puerto Rico in his honor
  • Wilbur Wright 1867 - Aviator, one of the Wright Brothers
  • John Millington Synge 1871 - Poet, playwright
  • Charlie Chaplin (Sir Charles (Spencer) ‘Charlie’ Chaplin) 1889 - Actor, comedian, communist
  • Les Tremayne (Henning) 1913 - Actor ("The War of the Worlds", "The Slime People")
  • John Hodiak 1914 - Actor
  • Spike Milligan 1918
  • Merce Cunningham 1919 - Dancer, choreographer
  • Sir Peter Ustinov 1921 - Actor
  • Kingsly Amis 1922 - Novelist
  • Bennie Green 1923 - Musician, lyricist
  • Barry Nelson 1920 - Actor ("Airport", "The Shining"), first actor to portray Ian Flemming's James Bond.
  • Henri Mancini (Enrico Nicola Mancini) 1924 - Composer (themes for "The Pink Panther", "Peter Gunn")
  • Joseph Alois Ratzinger 1927 - Pope Benedict XVI
  • Peter Mark Richman 1927
  • Edie Adams 1929 - Actress
  • Ed Townshend 1929
  • Roy Hamilton 1929 - Singer
  • Herbie Mann (Soloman) 1930 - Jazz musician,
  • Ike Pappas 1933 - Singer
  • Bobby Vinton 1935 - Singer
  • Dusty Springfield (Mary Isabel Catherine Bernadette O’Brien) 1939 - Singer
  • Queen Margrethe II 1940 - Queen of Denmark
  • Jim (James Reynold) Lonborg 1942 - Baseball player
  • Dave Peverett (Lonesome Dave) 1943 - Musician (Foghat)
  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor)1947 - Basketball player
  • Gerry Rafferty 1947 - Singer, songwriter
  • Bill Spooner 1949 - Musician (The Tubes)
  • Peter Garrett 1953 - Singer (Midnight Oil)
  • Jay O. Sanders 1953 - Actor
  • Ellen Barkin 1954 - Actress ("Eddie and the Cruisers")
  • Jimmy Osmond 1963 - Singer (The Osmonds), the youngest Osmond
  • David Pirner 1964 - Musician (Soul Asylum)
  • John Cryer 1965 - Actor ("Superman 4: The Quest for Peace", "Pretty in Pink", "Two and a Half Men")
  • Martin Lawrence 1965 - Actor, comedian
  • Dan Rieser 1966 - Musician (Marcy Playground)
  • Selena Quintanilla 1971 - Singer
  • Peter Billingsley 1972 - Actor ("A Christmas Story")
  • Lukas Haas 1976 - Actor
    Gina Carano 1982 - Actress
  • Samantha Char 1995


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