Question: How exactly did the term "public enemy No. 1" get started? And who was the first "public enemy No. 1"?
Answer: "Public enemy No. 1" first appeared in the 1930s. The notorious gangster John Dillinger is often cited as the "FBI's first public enemy No. 1." In fact, the FBI never maintained a formal list of "public enemies." (Since 1951 the FBI has maintained a list of "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" - the names of the "toughest guys" the FBI would like to capture; but they are not named in any particular order.) The Chicago Crime Commission, however, did have a list, publicizing through the media its first lineup of "public enemies" in April 1930. Containing 28 names, the list was headed by Al Capone, and by 1931, at least, he had been dubbed "public enemy No. 1."A 1931 movie starring James Cagney titled "Public Enemy" helped bring that term to the fore. But "public enemy" was not exactly new. It first appeared in English in the 1692 translation of a Latin treatise written by John Milton. For more than 200 years, however, it held only the first sense given in Merriam-Webster's 1934 dictionary - "a government or nation with which a state of war exists."
Though "public enemy" wasn't an official FBI term, by 1934 the FBI (then known simply as the Bureau of Investigation) had jumped on the bandwagon and was using it - both internally and for public relations. John Dillinger escaped from prison that year, crossing state lines and violating federal law, racking up a record of robbery and murder. The FBI wanted him - badly; he was the ultimate "public enemy No. 1."
It made no difference that there was no real list; everyone got the idea. Others joined Dillinger on the list of "Federal Public Enemies," including Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. After Dillinger was killed, an elite few inherited the unofficial title "public enemy No. 1 - most notably George "Baby Face" Nelson and Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd.
By 1934 all the criminals on Chicago's original public enemy list had been eliminated, one way or another, but in the meantime many more names had been added by the Crime Commission. (Today, this same commission has designated street gangs as its "public enemy No. 1.") By the mid-'30s, the worst of the crime wave was over, and New York had replaced Chicago as the crime capital of the United States. Though the need for "public enemies," in the gangster sense, had died out, by then the term had become a catchphrase, applicable to just about anything under the sun. Thus, housewives in 1941 were reading that "overcooking is public enemy No. 1 in the vegetable kingdom."
The term is still popular today. In the past couple of decades it's been used of wolves and Canada geese, LSD and beef, drunk drivers, litigious lawyers, inflation and political action committees, as well as any number of public figures, both political and otherwise.
Answer: Could you please tell me if there is a correct way to pronounce the word "aunt"?
Answer: "Aunt" has a number of acceptable pronunciations; there is no single "correct" way to say it. The most common way to pronounce "aunt" in American English is to say it just as one would pronounce the word "ant." Another very common pronunciation gives "aunt" the same vowel found in the first syllable of "father," so that it comes close to rhyming with "haunt." The second of these pronunciations is found especially in New England, but is by no means limited in use to that area. Both pronunciations are standard and correct, and both are used by educated speakers. Some people use both pronunciations, but most stick to one or the other.