13 December 2012

bifurcate

[bahy-fer-keyt, bahy-fur-keyt; bahy-fer-kit, bahy-fur-]

verb, bifurcated, bifurcating, adjective.
verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

1. to divide or fork into two branches.

adjective
2. divided into two branches.

Example sentence:

He speaks with bifurcated tongue.

Today’s aphorism

‘Everybody has a right to like or dislike anything or anyone. From a flower to a flavor to a book or a composition but it is very sad that in our country we actually fight over such things in an unseemly manner’.

– Ravi Shankar

On this day

13 December 1937 – Nanking, China, is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese General Matsui orders the destruction of the city, resulting in the massacre of more than 200,000 people, and rape and mutilation of around 20,000 women and girls.

13 December 1939 – Premier of the classic movie, Gone With The Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivienne Leigh.

13 December 1995 – Thousands of people riot in Brixton, England, ransacking shops and attacking police.

13 December 2003 – US forces capture Saddam Hussein at a compound near Tikrit. He was executed by hanging on 30 December 2006 after being found guilty of the 1982 murder of 148 Iraqi Shi’ites.

13 December 2006 – Belgians react angrily to the news that their country is to be bifurcated, with the Dutch speaking component of the country declaring their independence. The news was a joke propagated by Belgian public television station, R.T.B.F.

13 December 2007 – Pakistani President, Pervez Musharaff, moves responsibility for Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal from the Prime Minister to the President amid fears of it falling into the hands of Islamic extremists.