John C. Calhoun (March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was a senator from
South Carolina, a Cabinet member, and the seventh Vice President of the
United States, from 1825 to 1832, under presidents John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson. Calhoun began his political career in the House of
Representatives as a prominent leader of the war hawk faction supporting
the War of 1812. Early in his career, he was a modernizer and a
proponent of a strong national government and protective tariffs. By the
late 1820s, his views reversed and he became a leading proponent of
states' rights, limited government, and opposition to high tariffs. His
support for South Carolina's right to nullify federal tariff legislation
put him into conflict with unionists such as Jackson, and in 1832 he
resigned as vice president and entered the Senate. As Secretary of State
under John Tyler from 1844 to 1845, he supported the annexation of Texas
as a means to promote slavery, and helped settle the Oregon boundary
dispute with Britain.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Calhoun>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1892:
Lord Stanley of Preston pledged to donate an award for Canada's
top-ranked amateur ice hockey club, now known as the Stanley Cup, the
oldest professional sports trophy in North America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Cup>
1906:
Romanian inventor Traian Vuia became the first person to fly a
heavier-than-air monoplane with an unassisted takeoff.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traian_Vuia>
1969:
Vietnam War: The United States began secretly bombing the
Sihanouk Trail in Cambodia, used by communist forces to infiltrate South
Vietnam.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sihanouk_Trail>
1996:
The deadliest fire in Philippine history burned a nightclub in
Quezon City, leaving 162 dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_Disco_fire>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
jar:
1. (transitive) To preserve (food) in a jar. […]
2. (transitive) To knock, shake, or strike sharply, especially causing a
quivering or vibrating movement.
3. (transitive) To harm or injure by such action.
4. (transitive, figuratively) To shock or surprise.
5. (transitive, figuratively) To act in disagreement or opposition, to
clash, to be at odds with; to interfere; to dispute, to quarrel.
6. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause something to) give forth a
rudely tremulous or quivering sound; to (cause something to) sound
discordantly or harshly.
7. (intransitive) To quiver or vibrate due to being shaken or struck.
8. (intransitive, figuratively) Of the appearance, form, style, etc., of
people and things: to look strangely different; to stand out awkwardly
from its surroundings; to be incongruent.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jar>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Ethics occupies a central place in philosophy because it is
concerned with sin, with the origin of good and evil and with moral
valuations. And since these problems have a universal significance, the
sphere of ethics is wider than is generally supposed. It deals with
meaning and value and its province is the world in which the distinction
between good and evil is drawn, evaluations are made and meaning is
sought.
--Nikolai Berdyaev
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nikolai_Berdyaev>