Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, October 18, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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do-gooder
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| Article of the Day | |
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 ConscriptionConscription, compulsory enrollment in a country's armed forces, existed as early as the 27th century BCE in Egypt. Since then, forms of obligatory military service have been recorded in countless cultures; Japanese samurai, Aztec warriors, and citizen militiamen in ancient Greece and Rome are just a few examples of conscripted forces. Conscription in the modern sense dates from 1793, when the French Republic raised an army of 300,000 men. What countries draft women into military service? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Texas Instruments Announces First Commercial Transistor Radio (1954)Transistors are the basis of much modern electronic technology, including the most popular communications device in history: the transistor radio. Billions of these compact, portable radios were manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s. Battery-operated, they came in handy during electrical outages, and their pocket size sparked a change in popular music listening habits, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went. When it was released in 1954, how much did the transistor radio cost? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Pierre Trudeau (1919)As prime minister of Canada from 1968–79 and 1980–84, Trudeau advocated a strong federal government and took a determined stand against the Quebec separatist movement. Despite his opposition to Quebec's independence, he supported Canadian sovereignty and secured for the country a new constitution in 1982 that precipitated its official independence from Britain. He also had French adopted as an official state language. How did Trudeau figure into an alleged plot to assassinate Fidel Castro? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is the same with man as with the tree ... The more he seeketh to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthward, downward, into the dark and deep—into the evil.Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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cry on (one's) shoulder— To bemoan one's problems to someone else. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Azerbaijan Independence Days (2022)Azerbaijan observes two independence days. The May 28, 1918, establishment of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan provides the occasion for one independence celebration. As Azerbaijan came under Soviet rule two years later, its new independence day commemorates the declaration of independence made by the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan on October 18, 1991. After the USSR ceased to exist as a geopolitical entity, Azerbaijan became an official independent state on December 26, 1991. More... | |