27 April 2015

habile

[hab-il]

adjective
1. skillful; dexterous; adroit.

Origin of habile
late Middle English Latin
1375-1425; late Middle English habyll < Latin habilis handy, apt; see able

Dictionary.com

Anagram

hail be
hi able

Today’s aphorism

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.

– Harry S. Truman

On this day

27 April 1904 – The Australian Labor Party wins the federal election, making Chris Watson Australia’s third prime minister. The ALP was the first such labour party in the world to win a national election.

27 April 1950 – apartheid formally commences in South Africa with the implementation of the Group Areas Act that segrated races.

27 April 1951 – birth of Paul Daniel ‘Ace’ Frehley, former lead guitarist with Kiss. Frehley’s character with the band was the ‘Spaceman’. He has since launched a solo career and formed a band called Frehley’s Comet.

27 April 1953 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs Executive Order 10450 ‘Hiring and Firing Rules for Government Employment’. The order declared homosexuality, communism and moral perversion to be national security threats and grounds for sacking a government employee or not hiring an applicant.

27 April 1994 – South Africa’s first democratic election in which citizens of all races could vote. The interim constitution is enacted. The African National Congress won the election with 62% of the vote, bringing Nelson Mandela to power. 27 April is celebrated as Freedom Day in South Africa.