Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, September 3, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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MoodGrammatical mood refers to the way in which a verb is used to express certain meaning by the speaker or writer. Moods are broken down into two main categories. What are they? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Order of the Solar TempleShrouded in mystery, the Order of the Solar Temple was a secret society founded in 1984 that claimed descent from the original Knights Templar. Though little information about the group has been confirmed, its practices are believed to incorporate elements of Protestantism, new age philosophy, and Freemasonry. In 1994, mass murder-suicides at Solar Temple lodges in Switzerland and Canada left over 100 dead. What artifact did one founder claim he was given in a previous life 1,000 years earlier? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Anne Frank and Family Deported to Auschwitz (1944)Thanks to the poignant and insightful diary she left behind, Anne Frank is one of the most renowned and discussed victims of the Holocaust. Her family emigrated to Amsterdam in 1933 to escape the Nazis but was forced into hiding after the Nazis occupied the Netherlands. Betrayed to the Germans in 1944, the Franks were soon sent to Auschwitz, where they were separated by gender. Later, Anne and her sister were moved to Bergen-Belsen, where both died. Did any members of the Frank family survive? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Marguerite Higgins (1920)An American journalist, Higgins covered major world events, including the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp and the Nuremberg Trials, and was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. While reporting on the Korean War, she was expelled from Korea by US General Walton Walker—who said the military had no time to prepare accommodations for women—but when she appealed to General Douglas MacArthur, the ban was lifted. Higgins's life was cut short by a disease contracted while covering what? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Thou know'st the o'er-eager vehemence of youth,How quick in temper, and in judgment weak. Homer (900 BC-800 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have a fling (with someone)— To have a brief, noncommittal sexual relationship (with someone). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Marinus Day (2023)This is the official foundation day of the Republic of San Marino, a landlocked area of less than 30 square miles on the Adriatic side of central Italy. The oldest independent country in Europe, San Marino takes its name from St. Marinus. According to legend, he was a deacon and stonemason when one day a woman wrongly identified him as the husband who had deserted her. He barricaded himself in a cave until she gave up, and he spent the rest of his life on Monte Titano as a hermit. The present-day city of San Marino was built on the site where his original hermitage was believed to be. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: spinningheckle - First a "flax comb" for splitting and straightening the fibers for spinning; its metaphorical sense developed from its verb form, "to mangle by cutting, to cut roughly." More... distaff side, spear side - The female side of a family is the distaff side—the distaff being a stick used for holding yarn when spinning; the male side is the spear side. More... fouette - A spectacular pirouette in which the ballerina whips her raised leg around in an eggbeater motion while spinning on the other leg. More... | |