today in history word of the day october 2010. october 1 st 1800 event: spain ceded louisiana to...
TRANSCRIPT
Today in HistoryWord of the Day
October 2010
October 1st
1800• Event: Spain ceded
Louisiana to France in a secret treaty.
• Importance: three years later, France sold Louisiana to the United States.
DALLY (verb)
• Waste time
October 4th
2002• Event: Richard Reid pleaded
guilty to trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes.
• Importance: He became known as the “shoe-bomber”
CORRELATION (noun)
• A relationship between two or more things
October 5th
1902• Event: American
businessman Ray A. Kroc was born; he died on Jan. 14, 1984
• Importance: Kroc build the McDonald’s Empire.
SECT (noun)
• A subdivision of a larger religious group
October 6th
2004• Event: The top U.S. arms
inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, reported his findings.
• Importance: there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein producing weapons of mass destruction after 1991.
CONTENTION (noun)
• A point asserted as part of an argument
October 7th
1949• Event: The Republic of East
Germany was formed.
• Importance: after WWII Germany was divided into two nations, one being Communist and one being a republic.
AUTONOMOUS (adj)
• Existing as an independent group, country, person, etc.
October 8th
1956• Event: Don Larsen pitched
the only perfect game in a World Series
• Important: The New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0 in Game 5.
DISMEMBER (verb)
• Separate the limbs from the body
• Divide into pieces
October 12th
1492• Event: Christopher
Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.
• Importance: Columbus believed he had found a shorter water route to Asia.
ILLUSION (noun)
• Something people believe to be true that is actually false.
October 13th
1999• Event: The Jon Benet
Ramsey grand jury was dismissed after 13 months
• Importance: prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge anyone in the 6-year-old's strangulation.
CONSENSUS (noun)
• An agreement reached by a group as a whole.
October 14th
1964• Event: Martin Luther King Jr.
was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Importance: King won for his efforts in the civil rights movement.
DIMINUTION (noun)
• The act of decreasing or reducing something
October 15th
1969• Event: Peace demonstrators
staged activities across the country, in protest of the Vietnam War.
• Importance: Most Americans no longer supported a continued American military presence in Vietnam.
BEMOAN (verb)
• Regret strongly
October 18th
1962• Event: Doctors James
Watson (USA), Francis Crick (Eng) and Maurice Wilkins (Eng) were named winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology.
• Importance: they discovered the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.
ISOTOPE (noun)
• One of two or more atoms with the same atomic number but with different numbers of neutrons
October 19th
1781• Event: British troops under
Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia
• Importance: this battle ended the American Revolution
SYNOPSIS (noun)
• a summary
October 20th
1967• Event: 7 of 18 defendants
were convicted in Mississippi 3 years after 3 young men were murdered while trying to help African Americans register to vote.
• Importance: they were convicted on violating the dead men’s civil rights.
PARADIGM (noun)
• A standard example
October 21st
1917• Event: American soldiers
saw action on the front lines in France.
• Importance: this was the first time American soldiers fought in WWI.
NOCTURNAL (adj)
• Relating to the night
October 22nd
1962• Event: President John F.
Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba after Soviet missiles bases were discovered on the island.
• Importance: this was the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
AMBIVALENCE (noun)
• Mixed feelings or emotions
October 25th
1760• Event: Britain's King George
III became King of England.
• Importance: he was king during the American Revolution.
IRREFUTABLE (adj)
• Impossible to deny or to prove wrong.
October 26th
2001• Event: President George W.
Bush signed the USA Patriot Act
• Importance: the law gave authorities ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.
EXPLETIVE (noun)
• Obscene expression, usually of surprise or anger
October 27th
1787• Event: The first of the
Federalist Papers was published in a New York newspaper.
• Importance: they were a series of essays calling for ratification of the US Constitution.
FORSWEAR (verb)
• To formally reject a formerly held belief, usually under pressure
October 28th
1886• Event: The Statue of Liberty
was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.
• Importance: it was a gift from the people of France to encourage a good relationship with the USA.
RESUME (verb)
• To begin again
October 29th
1969• Event: The first host-to-host
connection was made on the Arpanet - an experimental military computer network.
• Importance: this was the earliest form of the Internet.
ASTRAL (adj)
• Relating to the stars