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