26 April 2014

placid

[plas-id]

adjective

– pleasantly calm or peaceful; unruffled; tranquil; serenely quiet or undisturbed: placid waters.

Origin:
1620–30; < Latin placidus calm, quiet, akin to placēre to please (orig., to calm); see -id

Related forms
pla·cid·i·ty [pluh-sid-i-tee], plac·id·ness, noun
plac·id·ly, adverb
un·plac·id, adjective
un·plac·id·ly, adverb
un·plac·id·ness, noun

Synonyms
See peaceful.

Anagram

clad pi
cad lip

Today’s aphorism

I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.

― Bill Gates (attributed to Gates, although there is some dispute over its origin)

On this day

26 April 121AD – death of Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor.

26 April 1865 – Union troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, the man who fired the fatal bullet on 14 April 1865 that assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

26 April 1945 – birth of Dick Johnson, Australian racing car legend. Five-time Australian Touring Car Champion, three-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, inducted into the V8 Supercar Hall of Fame in 2001.

26 April 1986 – the Chernobyl nuclear disaster when an explosion and fire at the No 4 reactor in the Chernobyl nuclear plant, Ukraine, releases radioactive gas across Northern Europe. It is estimated to have killed up to 1 million people from radioactive related cancers.

26 April 1989 – the deadliest tornado in world history strikes Central Bangladesh, killing more than 1300, injuring 12,000 and leaving up to 80,000 homeless.