Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, January 20, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
reproachful
| |||||||
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The Greatest Bridge-MakerThe pontifex maximus was the highest priest of Roman religion and the official head of the college of pontifices. As the chief administrator of religious affairs, he regulated the conduct of religious ceremonies, consecrated temples and other holy places, and controlled the calendar. During the time of the empire, and until Christianity became firmly established, the emperor was designated pontifex maximus. What religious leaders assumed the title after the rise of Christianity? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Iran Releases 52 American Hostages (1981)The overthrow of Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi of Iran by an Islamic revolutionary government in February 1979 led to a steady deterioration in Iranian-American relations. In September of that year, the exiled shah was allowed into the US for medical treatment, prompting Iranian students called the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line to seize the US embassy in Tehran and take 66 Americans hostage. After 444 days, the last 52 hostages were released. What was the "Canadian Caper"? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873)In 1944, Danish novelist, poet, and essayist Johannes Vilhelm Jensen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He penned more than 60 volumes, including essays, travel books, and lyrical poems, and his interest in biology and anthropology—he had studied medicine before pursuing writing—is evident throughout. His best-known work is The Long Journey, a six-novel fantasy based on Darwinian theory that traces the story of humans from primitive times to the age of whom? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Nothing is so great an instance of ill manners as flattery. If you flatter all the company, you please none: if you flatter only one or two, you affront the rest.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
case of the dropsy— A fictitious "condition" characterized by continually dropping things from one's hands. It is a play on the term "dropsy," which was formerly used to denote the condition now known as edema (or oedema). More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 St. Agnes's Eve (2023)The eve of St. Agnes's Day has long been associated with superstitions about how young girls might discover the identity of their future husbands. According to one such belief, a girl who went to bed without any supper on this night would dream of the man she was to marry. John Keats used this legend as the basis for his well-known poem, "The Eve of St. Agnes," in which a maiden dreams of her lover and wakes to find him at her bedside. St. Agnes was martyred because she had consecrated herself to Christ and refused to marry. She was later named the patron saint of young virgins. More... | |