Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, August 19, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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pyrite
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Personal pronounsA personal pronoun is a pronoun (a word that functions as and acts as a substitute for a noun or nouns) that represents a grammatical person within a sentence. The personal pronoun that is used varies depending on which four grammatical elements? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Highland Potato Famine (1846-1857)In the mid 19th century, at a time when most of the crofters, or tenants, of the Scottish Highlands were dependent on potatoes as a source of food, their potato crops were blighted with a terrible fungal disease that caused the crop to fail for the next ten years. The blight was similar to the contemporaneous Irish Potato Famine, but the latter was perhaps more severe and closer to a true famine. What was the landlords' solution to the problem of starving crofters? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Little Person Eddie Gaedel Has Major League Debut (1951)At 43 inches (1.1 m) tall, Gaedel became the shortest player in the history of Major League Baseball when he made a single plate appearance for the St. Louis Browns in 1951. He arrived on the field inside a replica cake honoring the American League's 50th anniversary, amusing the crowd by popping out of it. No one suspected his true reason for being there. Browns owner Bill Veeck—a showman fond of publicity stunts—had put Gaedel on the roster. What happened when Gaedel stepped up to the plate? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Roman Vishniac (1897)A Russian-American biologist, photographer, linguist, art historian, philosopher, and professor, Vishniac is best remembered for producing a photographic record of Central and Eastern European Jewish communities in the years preceding the Holocaust. His efforts were not without risk; he was imprisoned 11 times and forced to do hard labor in two concentration camps. He escaped to the US in 1940 and returned to his scientific roots, contributing to the development of what photographic techniques? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A smile is the chosen vehicle for all ambiguities.Herman Melville (1819-1891) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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(as) mad as hops— Enraged; extremely or inconsolably angry. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Aviation Day (2021)National Aviation Day honors the birthday of the American inventor and early manufacturer of airplanes, Orville Wright (1871-1948), as well as the progress that has been made in manned flight since the Wright Brothers made their historic 120-foot flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. Parachute jumping, glider demonstrations, films, airplane rides, and displays of new and antique aircraft are popular events on this day, and open house celebrations are often held at local airports. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: listenear to the ground - It was early Native Americans who taught us to, literally, keep an ear to the ground to listen for horses' hooves as riders approached. More... scout - From the Latin ausculture, "to listen," it became Old French escoute, "a spy." More... hearken - To pay attention or listen; it can also mean "to return to a previous topic." More... listen, hear - To listen is to try to hear; to hear is simply to perceive with the ear. More... | |