Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, October 3, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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exterminate
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Modal Auxiliary Verbs - WillAs a modal auxiliary verb, "will" is particularly versatile, having several different meanings and functions, including to form future tenses. It is also used to express an expected hypothetical outcome in what type of sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Odd SympathyThe phrase "odd sympathy" was coined by Dutch mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens to describe the tendency of two pendulums mounted on the same beam to end up swinging in exactly opposite directions. Huygens, the inventor of the pendulum clock, at first attributed the effect to air currents, but he dismissed this hypothesis himself after performing several tests. His later hypothesis—confirmed centuries later by Georgia Institute of Technology researchers—attributed it to what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Battle of Mogadishu Begins (1993)In 1992, US armed forces, together with the United Nations, undertook a joint relief operation in Somalia, a country wracked by civil war and famine. Increasing violence in the area led to "Operation Gothic Serpent," a US mission to capture Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's top advisors, but two US helicopters were shot down, and an urban battle ensued. Eighteen US servicemen and thousands of Somalis died in the fighting. What went wrong even before the helicopters were shot down? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 James Alfred Wight, AKA James Herriot (1916)After working for many years as a veterinary surgeon in rural England, Wight was persuaded by his wife to write down his collection of anecdotes. His humorous, fictionalized reminiscences were published under the pen name James Herriot in If Only They Could Talk (1970) and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet (1972), issued in the US as the single and massively successful volume All Creatures Great and Small. Why did Wight feel the need to write under a pseudonym? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 There's nothing like a debate to teach one quickness.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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chum up— To be friendly with someone. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 German Unity Day (2022)Unity Day celebrates the reunification of East and West Germany that took place on October 3, 1990. In setting the date of the official reunification, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl wanted to honor the historic events of November 1989, in which the government of East Germany resigned and thousands of citizens scaled the Berlin Wall and began to demolish it, but did not want to overshadow other important November observances. German Unity Day is observed with speeches, marches, and public events, including the government's official Unity Day celebration street festival. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: madnessire, rage, fury - Ire suggests greater intensity than anger, rage suggests loss of self-control, and fury is destructive rage verging on madness. More... mania - Based on a Greek word meaning "madness," ultimately from an Indo-European root for "mind." More... rage - Traces back to Latin rabia, an alteration of rabies, meaning "fury, madness." More... woodness - Madness or insanity, from Old English wood, "out of one's mind." More... | |