Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, January 14, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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insouciant
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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ConjunctionsConjunctions are used to express relationships between things in a sentence, link different clauses together, and to combine sentences. There are four main types of conjunctions—what are they? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Ancient City of SusaLocated about 15 miles (23 km) southwest of modern Dizful, Iran, ancient Susa was the capital of Elam and of the Persian Empire. Destroyed in the 7th century BCE, Susa was revived under the Achaemenid rulers of Persia. Excavations at Susa have uncovered the stele of Naram-sin and the code of Hammurabi, which were among many objects carried off by the Elamites from Babylonia. An unusual tomb found in the area marked by a white stone cone is believed to belong to what Biblical figure? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Huygens Probe Lands on Titan (2005)It took the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft more than six years to reach Saturn. During the trip, the Huygens probe remained dormant, preserving its battery life for a landing on Saturn's largest moon. The only moon in the solar system known to have clouds and a dense atmosphere, Titan resembles Earth in many ways. It was not known whether the probe would land on solid ground or in an ocean. After Huygens touched down, Titan's surface was described as being similar to what food? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Kimitake Hiraoka, AKA Yukio Mishima (1925)Born into a samurai family, Mishima served briefly in the finance ministry before going on to become one of the most important Japanese novelists of the 20th century. His novels are known for their exquisite attention to detail and character and often involve paradoxes—such as when a troubled monk destroys the temple he loves in The Temple of the Golden Pavilion. Following a failed coup attempt in 1970, he tried to commit seppuku, ritual suicide by self-disembowelment. How did he die? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 But men must know, that in this theater of man's life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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jump at the chance (to do something)— To accept or seize with alacrity an opportunity (to do something). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Ratification Day (2021)Though most people associate the end of the American Revolution with the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, the war was not officially ended until the Treaty of Paris was ratified on January 14, 1784. The Old Senate Chamber in the Maryland State House at Annapolis has been preserved exactly as it was when the ratification took place. On Ratification Day, the ceremony that takes place inside varies from year to year, but it often revolves around a particular aspect of the original event. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: slopingpitched - Describing a "steeply downward sloping" roof built at an angle. More... fastigiate - Means "sloping up to a point." More... slalom - From Norwegian sla, "sloping," and lam, "track." More... squint - Short for the obsolete asquint, which may have come from Dutch schuin, "sideways, sloping." More... | |