Today’s WOTD – 1 November 2012

extempore

[ik-stem-puh-ree]

adverb

1. on the spur of the moment; without premeditation or preparation; offhand: For example: Questions were asked extempore from the floor.
2. without notes: For example: to speak extempore.
3. (of musical performance) by improvisation.

Today’s aphorism

‘You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say’.

Martin Luther.

On this day

1 November 1952 – The U.S. detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1 November 1993 – The European Union formally established as a result of the Maastricht Treaty, which had been ratified by 12 nations in February 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.