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April 3, 2025
Apr 3, 2025
Word
nativity
noun
Definition
  1. the process or circumstances of being born; especially capitalized : the birth of Jesus
  2. a horoscope at or of the time of one's birth
  3. the place of origin
Example
On Christmas morning, church bells joyously pealed a reminder that the day marked the anniversary of the Nativity.
Origin
"Nativity" is one of many words born of the Latin verb "nasci," which means "to be born." The gestation of the word was a long one. "Nasci" developed in Latin into "nativitas," meaning "birth," which passed through Middle French as "nativité" before entering English in the 14th century. "Nativity" has many siblings and cousins in our language; other terms of the lineage of "nasci" include "cognate," "innate," "nascent," "native," and "renaissance."
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
a shrinking violet
An extremely shy person, as in She was a shrinking violet until she went away to college. This metaphoric idiom refers to the flower, but the precise allusion is unclear, since violets thrive under a variety of conditions and often are considered a garden weed. [Early 1900s]
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. The speed limit in NYC was eight mph in 1895.
  2. Sound travels up to 15 times faster through steel than air, at speeds up to 19,000 feet per second.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
William Hogarth
Nov 10, 1697 - Oct 26, 1764

William Hogarth FRSA was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects", and he is perhaps best known for his series A Harlot's Progress, A Rake's Progress and Marriage A-la-Mode. Knowledge of his work is so pervasive that satirical political illustrations in this style are often referred to as "Hogarthian".

Hogarth was born in London to a lower-middle-class family. In his youth he took up an apprenticeship with an engraver, but did not complete the apprenticeship. His father underwent periods of mixed fortune, and was at one time imprisoned in lieu of outstanding debts, an event that is thought to have informed William's paintings and prints with a hard edge.

Influenced by French and Italian painting and engraving, Hogarth's works are mostly satirical caricatures, sometimes bawdily sexual, mostly of the first rank of realistic portraiture. They became widely popular and mass-produced via prints in his lifetime, and he was by far the most significant English artist of his generation.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Arthur St. Clair
Mar 23, 1737 - Aug 31, 1818

Arthur St. Clair was a Scottish-American soldier and politician. Born in Thurso, Scotland, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in Pennsylvania, where he held local office. During the American Revolutionary War, he rose to the rank of major general in the Continental Army, but lost his command after a controversial retreat from Fort Ticonderoga.

After the war, he served as President of the Continental Congress, which during his term passed the Northwest Ordinance. He was then made governor of the Northwest Territory in 1788, and then the portion that would become Ohio in 1800. In 1791, St. Clair commanded the American forces in what was the United States's worst ever defeat by the American Indians. Politically out-of-step with the Jefferson administration, he was replaced as governor in 1802.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Banana Wars
1898 - 1934

The Banana Wars were occupations, police actions, and interventions on the part of the United States in Central America and the Caribbean between the end of the Spanish–American War in 1898 and the inception of the Good Neighbor Policy in 1934. These military interventions were most often carried out by the United States Marine Corps, which developed a manual, The Strategy and Tactics of Small Wars based on its experiences. On occasion, the Navy provided gunfire support and Army troops were also used.

With the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. Thereafter, the United States conducted military interventions in Cuba, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. The series of conflicts ended with the withdrawal of troops from Haiti in 1934 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The term was popularized in 1983 by writer Lester D. Langley. Langley wrote several books on Latin American history and American interactions including The United States and the Caribbean, 1900–1970 and The Banana Wars: An Inner History of American Empire, 1900–1934.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Quote
Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one’s awareness of one’s ignorance.
Anthony de Mello