Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, October 16, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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contentious
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Eusapia PalladinoBorn in Italy in 1854, Palladino was a Spiritualist medium who travelled the world hosting séances at which tables seemed to levitate and spirits supposedly appeared. Many notable people—including Pierre Curie and Arthur Conan Doyle—became devotees of her. Despite performing under strict conditions that she could control, Palladino was repeatedly exposed as a fraud who pulled stunts like lifting tables with her feet. This prompted some to hold down her shoes during séances. What did she do then? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Olympic Medalists Create Furor with Black Power Salute (1968)The silent protest of two black American athletes at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was an iconic and controversial statement. Sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos received their medals shoeless to draw attention to black poverty in America, and they performed the Black Power salute as their national anthem played. They were booed by the crowd and were later expelled from the staunchly apolitical games. Smith saluted with his right hand. Why was Carlos forced to salute with his left? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888)One of America's greatest playwrights, O'Neill spent his youth as a heavy-drinking, itinerant seaman, then began writing plays while recovering from tuberculosis in 1912. Within a decade, he had won his first of four Pulitzer Prizes. Extremely prolific, he wrote passionate works about tortured family relationships and spiritual conflict, including Long Day's Journey into Night and The Iceman Cometh. Both of his sons committed suicide, and he disowned his daughter for marrying whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 As a man without forethought scarcely deserves the name of a man, so forethought without reflection is but a metaphorical phrase for the instinct of a beast.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Europalia (2020)Since its founding in 1969, the European arts festival known as Europalia has presented a comprehensive survey of the diverse cultural and artistic aspects of a specific country. The first several festivals were devoted to European cultures, but in 1989 the decision was made to devote the festival to a major culture from outside Europe. Most of the festival events take place in Brussels, which include art, photography, and craft exhibitions; theater, dance, and orchestral performances; literary and scientific colloquia; and film retrospectives. More... | |