Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, April 12, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
fecundity
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Defining ConjugationConjugation refers to the way we inflect (change the form of) verbs to create particular meanings. We usually change a verb in order to reflect grammatical tense, but we can conjugate verbs to reflect what else ? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The Farewell DossierThe Farewell Dossier was the name given to the collection of documents that KGB defector Colonel Vladimir Vetrov—code-named "Farewell"—gathered and gave to French intelligence officials during the Cold War. An engineer, Vetrov had been assigned to evaluate information on Western hardware and software gathered by spies. Disillusioned with the Communist system, Vetrov passed along nearly 4,000 secret documents between 1981 and 1982, including a complete list of what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Record-Setting Wind Gust Recorded on Mt. Washington (1934)The highest peak in the northeastern US, New Hampshire's Mount Washington is famous for its erratic weather, caused partly by the convergence of storm tracks from the South Atlantic, Gulf region, and Pacific Northwest. Winds exceeding hurricane force occur there an average of 110 days a year. It is also where the highest directly measured surface wind speed—not including tornadoes or hurricanes—was recorded: 231 mph (372 km/h). What broke the world's wind speed record? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550)A brilliantly gifted linguist and one of the most dashing figures of his time, Oxford was also reckless, hot-tempered, and disastrously spendthrift. He was the patron of an acting company and wrote highly praised poems and plays in his earlier years, though none of the plays are known to have survived. He is considered by some to be the true author of Shakespeare's plays, since his own literary output apparently ceased just before Shakespeare's began. Which of his writings have survived? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Either life entails courage, or it ceases to be life.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
don't let the door hit you on the way out— Leave here quickly and directly; don't linger on your way out the door. Used sarcastically to express one's desire to see someone leave. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Liberia National Redemption Day (2023)On April 12, 1980, 13 soldiers stormed Liberia's executive mansion, killing William R. Tolbert and 26 other government leaders. After the massacre, 13 cabinet members were publicly executed. The soldiers were led by Samuel Kanyon Doe, who immediately set up a military regime called the People's Redemption Council. He also declared April 12 National Redemption Day; for Doe's political opponents, National Redemption Day was a time to memorialize the many individuals who were killed in 1980. Today, many Liberians observe the anniversary by remembering the slain. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: pineapplecollective fruit - That which is formed from a mass of flowers, as the mulberry, pineapple, etc. More... Hawaiian pizza - A pizza topped with pineapple and ham or prosciutto. More... pineapple - Originally, pineapple was the word for pinecone, since the cone is the fruit of the pine and apple had the former general meaning "fruit"; pineapple is neither "pine" nor "apple," but is a very big berry and is also called "king pine" or "excellent fruit." More... multiple fruit, fruitlet - The pineapple is termed a multiple fruit because it forms from the individual ovaries of several flowers; each raised button on its surface is called a fruitlet. More... | |