Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, February 8, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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confection
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Declarative Sentences vs. Imperative SentencesA declarative sentence makes a statement or argument about what is, was, or will be the case. That is, it talks about that which is asserted to be true. How do declarative sentences differ from imperative sentences? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 PhonofilmPhonofilm was an early system of synchronizing sound with film. It was used in the 1920s as one of the first methods for playing sound with movies, but it never caught on, particularly in the face of competing formats such as Vitaphone and Movietone. The Phonofilm system recorded photographic sound waves directly onto film—parallel to the picture—then translated them back into sound when the film was played. Thanks to Phonofilm, who became the first US president to appear in a non-silent film? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Orangeburg Massacre (1968)In the Orangeburg massacre, local police in Orangeburg, South Carolina, fired into a crowd of about 200 people protesting segregation, killing three students and injuring 27 others. Although the incident predated the Kent State shootings and Jackson State killings and was the first incident of its kind on a US college campus, the Orangeburg Massacre received relatively little media coverage. On that day, the demonstrators were gathered to protest the segregation of what type of facility? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Kate Chopin (1851)A St. Louis, Missouri, native, Chopin moved to Louisiana when she married at the age of 20. After her husband passed away, she returned to St. Louis and began her professional writing career. Now considered a forerunner of 20th-century feminist authors, Chopin gained attention with her many short stories featuring Creole tales and New Orleans culture but virtually stopped publishing after her novel The Awakening was heavily criticized on what grounds? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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hit (something) out of the (ball)park— To do or perform something extraordinarily well; to produce or earn an exceptional achievement. An allusion to hitting a home run in baseball that lands outside the stadium. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Firecracker Festival (2024)Firecrackers are a traditional element of Tet, the Vietnamese New Year celebration, and one town really takes its firecrackers seriously. Each year 16 families are selected to compete in producing the most spectacular display for the town of Dong Ky in Vietnam's Bac Ninh Province. These are huge, elaborately decorated affairs that may require two dozen men to carry and up to $500 to create. Each firecracker is paraded through town and set up on a special tripod for firing. After all the firecrackers have been set off, a panel of judges determines the winning family. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: wonderadmire - Can mean "to wonder at, to be slightly surprised." More... marvel - Traces to Latin mirabilia, from mirari, "wonder at." More... nine days' wonder - An old term (c. 1325) for an event or phenomenon that attracts enthusiastic interest for a short while, but is then ignored or forgotten. More... Wonder Bread - Got its name from a vice president who watched a hot-air balloon race shortly before the bread needed a name—"wonder" is how he described the event and then the bread. More... | |