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How many things apparently impossible have nevertheless been performed by resolute men who had no alternative but death

-- Napoleon Bonaparte

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Term

FATHOM

In measuring depth of water, six feet. From Anglo-Saxon faehom. Originally distance spanned by man's outstretched arms. (2) This well-known nautical word comes from the old English "FAETM" meaning to embrace. Parliament decided that, since an embrace involved the distance between a man's hands when placed around his sweetheart, and as that distance averaged about six feet, it should be established as a standard measure.

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This Day in History
1865: Confederate General Joseph Johnston officially surrenders his army to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina.

1865: John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.

1865: Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee to Sherman.

1937: The ancient Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain is bombed by German planes.

1952: Armistice negotiations are resumed.

1971: The U.S. command in Saigon announces that the U.S. force level in Vietnam is 281,400 men, the lowest since July 1966.

1972: President Nixon, despite the ongoing communist offensive, announces that another 20,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam in May and June, reducing authorized troop strength to 49,000.