Words! Words! Words!

On September 26, 1957, West Side Story, composed by Leonard Bernstein, opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. For the groundbreaking musical, Bernstein provided a propulsive and rhapsodic score that many celebrate as his greatest achievement as a composer. However, even without the triumph of West Side Story, Bernstein’s place in musical history was firmly established. In addition to his work as a composer, the “Renaissance man of music” excelled as a conductor, a concert pianist, and a teacher who brought classical music to the masses.

See if you wax rhapsodic in today’s word quiz.

On September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Development of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 billion and took nearly a decade. In 1977, the Enterprise became the first space shuttle to fly freely when it was lifted to a height of 25,000 feet by a Boeing 747 airplane and then released, gliding back to Edwards Air Force Base on its own accord. Try our word quiz and see how high you can soar and how far you can glide.

On Sep. 3, 1783, the American Revolution officially came to an end when representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris. The signing signified America’s status as a free nation, as Britain formally recognized the independence of its 13 former American colonies, and the boundaries of the new republic were agreed upon: Florida north to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic coast west to the Mississippi River.

Try your fighting and diplomatic skills with today’s word quiz. Select your answers and we'll show your score at the end. 

PLEASE NOTE:  If you are using an iPad, please click on this link to access the survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Sept-3-in-word-history.

Here at ProofreadNOW.com, one of our jobs is to make sure our customers use the right word, always. Some words are confusing, though. For instance, is it "martial law" or "marshal law" when the government takes over? Does one have a "flare" for fashion or a "flair" for fashion? Take our quick 10-word quiz and see where you land.

On June 12, 1944, Lieutenant John F. Kennedy received the U.S. Navy’s highest honor for gallantry for his heroic actions as a gunboat pilot during World War II. The future president also received a Purple Heart for wounds received during battle. On June 12, 1987, in one of his most famous Cold War speeches, President Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the repressive Communist era in a divided Germany. And on June 12, 1994, “someone” murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in California. That someone has never been convicted in a criminal court.

On this day in 1988, Stella Nickell was convicted on two counts of murder. She was the first person to be found guilty of violating the Federal Anti-Tampering Act after putting cyanide in Excedrin capsules in an effort to kill her husband.

Stella and Bruce Nickell married in 1976, shortly after seven people were killed in Chicago, Illinois, from poisoned Tylenol pills. According to Stella’s daughter from a previous marriage, Stella had begun planning Bruce’s murder almost from the honeymoon. The Chicago Tylenol incident (which was never solved) had a lasting impact on Stella, who decided that cyanide would be a good method of murder.

On this day in 1792, Congress passed the second portion of the Militia Act, requiring that every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years be enrolled in the militia.

And on this day in 1963, with the release of Dr. No, moviegoers got their first look–down the barrel of a gun–at the super-spy James Bond (codename: 007), the immortal character created by Ian Fleming in his now-famous series of novels and portrayed onscreen by the relatively unknown Scottish actor Sean Connery.

On this day in 1970, with the world anxiously watching, Apollo 13, a U.S. lunar spacecraft that suffered a severe malfunction on its journey to the moon, safely returned to Earth. The Ford Mustang, a two-seat, mid-engine sports car, was officially unveiled by Henry Ford II at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York in 1964. That same day, the new car also debuted in Ford showrooms across America and almost 22,000 Mustangs were immediately snapped up by buyers. On this day in 1790, American statesman, printer, scientist, and writer Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia at age 84.

Let’s see how you’ll go down in vocabulary history today.

On March 26, 1973, the actor Marlon Brando declined the Academy Award for Best Actor for his career-reviving performance in The Godfather. The Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather attended the ceremony in Brando’s place, stating that the actor “very regretfully” could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film. Kiichiro Toyoda, founder of the Toyota Motor Corporation, which in 2008 surpassed America’s General Motors as the world’s largest automaker, died at the age of 57 in Japan on this day 1952. The University of Oregon defeated The Ohio State University 46–33 on this day in 1939 to win the first-ever NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Final Four, as the tournament became known, has grown exponentially in size and popularity since 1939. Take our quiz and see if you’re the godfather of vocabulary, the captain of quality, and the overall champion.

According to scholars at the University of Paris, the Black Death is created on this day in 1345, from what they call “a triple conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the 40th degree of Aquarius, occurring on the 20th of March 1345.″ The Black Death, also known as the Plague, swept across Europe, the Middle East and Asia during the 14th century, leaving an estimated 25 million dead in its wake. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was published on this day in 1852. The novel sold 300,000 copies within three months and was so widely read that when President Abraham Lincoln met Stowe in 1862, he reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war.” And on this day in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln’s sons, Willie and Tad, are diagnosed with the measles, adding to the president’s many troubles.

On March 13, 1965, guitar legend Eric Clapton left the Yardbirds to chase the Blues. On this date in 1992, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck in Turkey, killing (by some estimates) 2,000 people. And on this date in 1868, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson began. Let’s see how unshakable your vocab skills are today. Will they stand up to trial? Will you strum a positive chord?