Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, April 6, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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anchorite
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining AdverbsAn adverb refers to any element in a sentence used to modify a verb, adjective, another adverb, or even an entire clause. Adverbs can be single words. They can also be phrases (called "adverbial phrases") or entire clauses, which are called what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Consolation of PhilosophyBorn to a patrician family, Boethius was a Roman scholar, philosopher, and statesman who became consul in 510 CE and subsequently chief minister to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. Condemned to death for treason, he wrote his greatest work, De Consolatione Philosophiae—The Consolation of Philosophy—while in prison awaiting execution. The work, which was extremely popular and influential throughout the Middle Ages and later, is written as a conversation between Boethius and whom? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US Planes Embark on First Successful Aerial Circumnavigation Attempt (1924)Just two decades after the first successful powered flight, pilots from the US Army Air Service completed the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. The trip took 175 days, and not all of it was smooth sailing—or flying, as it were. Weeks after the group of four airplanes set out from Seattle, Washington, one crashed in Alaska. Luckily, the crew survived, as did that of another of the planes, which later went down over the Atlantic. How many of the original planes completed the journey? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Bison Dele (1969)Dele was a professional basketball player who disappeared at sea in 2002 and is believed to have been killed by his brother. Three years earlier, at age 30 and arguably at the peak of his career, Dele opted out of a $36 million contract and retired from the National Basketball Association. In 2002, he set sail on the South Pacific Ocean with his girlfriend, the boat's captain, and his brother—the only one ever seen or heard from again. How did his brother draw further suspicion after his return? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal—every other affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open—this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude.Washington Irving (1783-1859) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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like (one's) life depends on it— With maximum, possibly desperate, effort or energy (i.e., as if one is at risk of losing one's life if one fails). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Founding of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (2024)April 6, 1830, is the day on which Joseph Smith formally established the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church) in Fayette, New York. Three years later, the anniversary of the Church's founding was celebrated for the first time. In 1837, a general conference was held to conduct church business and to observe the anniversary. Eventually, the idea of holding an annual conference became an established custom, and it was always scheduled to encompass the April 6 founding date. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: weavenettles - Got their name because people used to weave them into nets. More... pretext - From Latin praetexere, "to disguise," from prae, "in front," and texere, "weave"—as something serving to conceal plans. More... texture - Once referred to a woven fabric, from Latin texere, "to weave." More... wasp - The insect traces back to an Indo-European root meaning "weave." More... | |