11 June 2015

scree

[skree]

noun
1. a steep mass of detritus on the side of a mountain.
2. an accumulation of weathered rock fragments at the foot of a cliff or hillside, often forming a sloping heap Also called talus (Collins English Dictionary)

Origin of scree
Old Norse

1775-1785; < Old Norse skritha landslide

n. “pile of debris at the base of a cliff,” 1781, back-formation from screes (plural) “pebbles, small stones,” from Old Norse skriða “landslide,” from skriða “to creep, crawl;” of a ship, “to sail, glide,” also “to slide” (on snow-shoes), from Proto-Germanic *skrithanan (cf. Old English scriþan “to go, glide,” Old Saxon skridan, Dutch schrijden, Old High German scritan, German schreiten “to stride”).

Dictionary.com

Today’s quote

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

– Mark Twain

On this day

11 June 1955 – during the 24 hour Le Mans race, a Mercedes 300 crashes at high speed. Debris, including the engine block, axles and bonnet, slams through the crowd killing 83 spectators. The bonnet decapitated a number of spectators who had been tightly packed into the stand. The driver was also killed.

11 June 1962 – Three prisoners escape from the federal prison on Alcatraz Island. The three men, Frank Morris, and brothers, Clarence and John Anglin were never found. Authorities believe it is most likely that the three men did not survive the swim across San Francisco Bay, although their bodies were never recovered.

11 June 2001 – Timothy McVeigh executed for his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, which killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children or babies.