Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, December 11, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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ataractic
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Angel FallsThe world's highest uninterrupted waterfall, Venezuela's Angel Falls drops 3,212 ft (979 m) and is 500 ft (150 m) wide at its base, where it feeds into the Churun River. It is named for American aviator James Angel, who in 1937 crash-landed his plane near the top of the falls and was forced—with his companions—to descend on foot. Their trek took 11 days. How long did the plane remain atop the mountain? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Established (1946)The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF)—now the United Nations Children's Fund—was founded in 1946 for the purpose of providing relief to children in countries devastated by World War II. After 1950, it turned to general children's welfare programs, winning the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1965. Today, it focuses on areas in which relatively small expenditures can have a significant impact. How did its famous "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF" fundraising campaign begin? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Max Born (1882)A prominent German physicist, Born taught theoretical physics at the University of Göttingen from 1921 to 1933, until Nazi policies forced him—a person of Jewish descent—to flee to England, where he continued to teach at the university level. He made contributions to various branches of physics, including solid-state physics and optics, but his most important work was that related to quantum mechanics—work that earned him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954. Born was one of 11 signatories to what? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Summer afternoon...the two most beautiful words in the English language.Henry James (1843-1916) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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not as black as (one) is painted— Not as evil, malicious, or malignant as one is described or believed to be. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Christkindlesmarkt (2022)Christkindlesmarkt is the biggest and best known of the Christmas markets of Germany. The market in Bavaria, Germany, has been held since 1697 in the city's Hauptmarkt ("main market"); more than 100 booths are set up to offer only goods directly related to Christmas, and food booths sell Nuremberg's specialties—Lebkuchen, or gingerbread, and Zwetschgenmannlein, which are little people-shaped confections. The three-week festival is inaugurated with choral singing, the pealing of church bells, and illumination of a creche. More... | |