Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, March 25, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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dilly-dally
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Distributive DeterminersDistributive determiners, also known as "distributive adjectives," are used to refer to individual members within a group or within a pair. The distributive determiners are "each," "every," "either," and "neither." What are they are used to modify? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 MartiansMars is similar to Earth in a number of ways: It has a 24.6-hour day and may have once had liquid water on its surface. Though life on Mars would likely resemble bacteria if it existed at all, the idea of human-like beings living on Mars has long captivated humanity. After American astronomer Percival Lowell came to believe, in the 1890s, that Mars had intelligently built canals, many science-fiction authors began to write about Martians. What effectively ended the trend of Martians in fiction? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Sergei Krikalev, the "Last Soviet Citizen," Returns to Earth (1992)In May 1991, the Soviet Union launched the Soyuz TM-12 mission to the Mir space station. Within months, all but one of the mission's crew members had returned to Earth. Krikalev, a Soviet flight engineer, stayed behind to help staff Mir and conduct experiments. That December, the USSR dissolved. When the cosmonaut finally returned to Earth the following spring, it was as a citizen of Russia. Krikalev has spent more time in space than any other human—how many days in total? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Saint Catherine of Siena (1347)Born in Siena, Italy, as Caterina Benincasa, Catherine claimed to have mystic visions beginning in early childhood. In 1370, in response to a vision, she began sending letters to prominent figures. She later traveled to Avignon and influenced Pope Gregory XI to end the "Babylonian captivity" of the papacy and return to Rome. Although she never learned to write, she dictated hundreds of letters and some notable mystic works. Catherine is believed to have suffered from what condition? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 When friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, these [books] only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope nor deserted sorrow.Washington Irving (1783-1859) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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letters after (one's) name— A series of abbreviations indicating the various levels of higher education or military honors one has received, thereby denoting a presumed level of intelligence, wisdom, or respectability. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 San Marino Anniversary of the Arengo (2021)The Republic of San Marino, a landlocked nation surrounded by Italy, is the smallest republic in the world. The Arengo was its first form of government, under which all of the patriarchs assembled to decide on important matters. March 25 is a national holiday commemorating the Arengo of 1906, which marked the birth of a Parliament elected directly by the people. The military corps appear in full uniform in front of Palazzo Begni; a laurel wreath is placed on the monument to the Fallen, and the ceremony continues with a mass in the Basilica to thank the founder saint, Marinus. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: small quantityfingerfull - A pinch or small quantity. More... quantulum - A small quantity. More... dreg - A small remnant or a small quantity. More... dribs and drabs - First recorded in the 19th century; both of the words mean "small quantity or amount," making this an emphatic phrase. More... | |