Webster's Dictionary appeared today in 1828. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby were filming Road to Morocco at the time and immediately used the book as one of their gags - 'Like Webster's Dictionary, we're Morocco bound'.
The purpose of the Dictionary was to differentiate American English from English English. So instead of 'fortnight'. Webster wrote 'twoweeks' (which looked a bit odd in the 'f's); 'tap' became 'fawcett' (same thing, in reverse) and the definition of 'sonofabitch' was 'rather unpleasant Russian'.
In other news ...
Samuel Clemens died today in 1901. He used the pen name Mark Twain, a riverboating term, because many of his novels - Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn etc - are set on the Mississippi. Later writers copied the idea - Dick Francis for example called himself They're Off; C S Forester used the alias Let Go The To'Gallant and Caroline Graham had the most brilliant nom de plume of all - Another Unlikely series of Slaughters In A Part Of The Country Where Nothing Ever Really Happens And Doesn't Actually Exist, usually shortened on book spines to Siapot C W Nerhadae.
