5 August 2014
berm
[burm]
noun
1. Also, berme. Fortification . a horizontal surface between the exterior slope of a rampart and the moat.
2. Also called bench. any level strip of ground at the summit or sides, or along the base, of a slope.
3. Also called backshore, beach berm. a nearly flat back portion of a beach, formed of material deposited by the action of the waves.
4. Chiefly Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. the bank of a canal or the shoulder of a road.
5. Chiefly Alaska. a mound of snow or dirt, as formed when clearing land.
6. a bank of earth placed against an exterior wall or walls of a house or other building as protection against extremes of temperature.
Today’s aphorism
Men always want to be a woman’s first love – women like to be a man’s last romance.
– Oscar Wilde
On this day
5 August 910 – Battle of Tettenhall, in which King Edward and Earl Aethelred defeat the last of the Viking armies to raid England.
5 August 1305 – Scottish revolutionary, William Wallace, captured by English forces near Glasgow. He was transported to London for trial and execution.
5 August 1861 – the United States Army abolishes flogging and increases enlistment terms from 3 months to 2 years.
5 August 1884 – construction of the Statue of Liberty commences in New York City with the laying of the cornerstone.
5 August 1930 – birthday of Neil Armstrong, astronaut, first man on the moon. Died 25 August 2012.
5 August 1944 – The Cowra Breakout – The largest prisoner-of-war escape in World War 2, when 1104 Japanese prisoners attempted to breakout of the Australian internment camp at Cowra, New South Wales. Four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese prisoners were killed during the manhunt. The remaining prisoners were captured and returned to prison.
5 August 1957 – the ‘Andy Capp’ comic strip makes its debut.
5 August 1962 – Marilyn Monroe found dead. She was 36 years old. It is believed she deliberately over-dosed on drugs, but questions remain around whether she administered it voluntarily or someone murdered her.
5 August 1966 – Datebook magazine quotes John Lennon controversially declaring that the Beatles are more popular than Jesus. Lennon had made the comment on 4 March 1966 in England, where no-one paid attention to it. When Datebook published it in August in the United States it caused an uproar. The full quote was ‘Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me‘.