Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, January 30, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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prosaic
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| Article of the Day | |
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 VintageA term used to classify wine, vintage describes the yield of wine or grapes from a vineyard or region during one season and usually identifies a high quality product. In contrast, wine made from the produce of multiple years is deemed non-vintage. Wines of superior vintages often command higher prices than those from average vintages, especially if they are likely to improve with age. Were experts who took part in a recent blind tasting able to distinguish between wines of good and bad vintages? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Anglo-Japanese Alliance Signed in London, England (1902)The First Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed to protect the respective interests of Britain and Japan in China and Korea. Directed against Russian expansionism, the alliance helped Japan by discouraging France from entering the Russo-Japanese War on the Russian side. The alliance later prompted Japan to join the Allies in World War I. Britain allowed the alliance to lapse after the war, when it no longer feared Russian encroachment in China. What were the cultural effects of the alliance? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Richard Brautigan (1935)Born in Tacoma, Washington, and raised in abject poverty, Brautigan became a counterculture hero of the 1960s and 70s with his surrealistically random novels and poems about alienation. His extremely original, loosely connected fiction includes A Confederate General from Big Sur, In Watermelon Sugar, and the 1967 bestseller Trout Fishing in America. Suffering from alcoholism and depression, Brautigan committed suicide in September of 1984. When was his body discovered? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 If Heaven had looked upon riches to be a valuable thing, it would not have given them to such a scoundrel.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Day of the Three Archbishops (2021)In 11th-century Greece, there was a popular controversy over which of the three archbishops—Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, or John Chrysostom—was the greatest saint of the Greek Orthodox Church. In 1081, Bishop John of Galatia reported that the three saints had appeared to him in a vision to say that they were equal in the eyes of God. Their equality is celebrated on this day. In schools, special exercises are held in honor of the three saints, who supported classical Greek tradition at a time when many were opposed to all non-Christian literature. More... | |