Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, November 18, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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IntensifiersIntensifiers are adverbs or adverbials that modify adjectives and other adverbs to increase their strength, power, or intensity. What are some examples of intensifiers? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Persian Royal RoadThe Persian Royal Road was an ancient highway built by King Darius I in the 5th Century BCE to facilitate communication throughout his empire. The route, reconstructed using archeological research and historical records, passed through present day Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. The Greek historian Herodotus' praise for the speed of the Persian couriers, who were said to be able to travel the road's 1,677 miles (2,699 kilometers) in seven days, is popularly associated with what US public service? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Pope Boniface VIII Issues Unam Sanctam (1302)Historians consider the papal bull Unam sanctam—which proclaimed that there is no salvation outside of the Church—to be one of the most extreme statements of papal spiritual supremacy ever made. It stemmed from Pope Boniface VIII's ongoing feud with Philip the Fair of France over Philip's taxation of clerics without papal consent. Unam sanctam thus emphasized that Catholic princes are subject to the pope in temporal and religious matters. How did Philip respond to the bull? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Louis Daguerre (1787)Originally a scene painter for the opera, Daguerre was a French inventor who devised one of the first practical photographic processes—the daguerreotype. He, in collaboration with Nicéphore Niépce, found that a permanent image could be formed on a silver iodide-coated copper plate if it was exposed to light, then fumed with mercury vapor and fixed by a solution of common salt. His daguerreotype process was announced in 1839 at the Academy of Sciences. Who acquired the patent for the invention? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.Henry James (1843-1916) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have (someone) coming and going— To put someone in an inescapable position or situation; to leave someone with no viable options or solutions. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Morocco Independence Day (2023)Independence Day, also known as Fête de l'indépendance, is a national holiday commemorating Morocco's independence from France on November 18, 1927. Other public holidays in Morocco include: August 20, the anniversary of the king's and people's revolution, and November 6, the anniversary of the Green March in 1975. In order to claim the Western Sahara for Morocco, more than 300,000 Moroccans marched into the territory, which the Spanish still controlled; Spanish troops left the area by early 1976. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: trumpetkazoo, bazooka - Dutch bazu, "trumpet," gives us the words kazoo and bazooka, the latter originally being a form of kazoo that was a long sounding-horn. More... jubilee - Comes from Hebrew yobhel, "ram's horn," which was used as a trumpet to proclaim the jubilee, a year of emancipation and restoration (every 50 years). More... taratantara - The sound of a bugle or trumpet can be called taratantara. More... | |