Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, November 12, 2017)Word of the Day | |||||||
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borderland
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Article of the Day | |
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Running the GauntletThe phrase "running the gauntlet" is used figuratively today to mean enduring a series of punishments or tests. It derives from the Roman form of military execution known as fustuarium, in which a soldier found guilty of laxity was cudgeled to death by his comrades. In some later traditions, the condemned was forced to pass between two rows of armed soldiers and pardoned if he managed to exit the other side. "The gauntlet" is also a type of athletic drill used in training for what sports? More... |
This Day in History | |
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San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge Opens to Traffic (1936)The "Bay Bridge" is a toll bridge linking the California cities of Oakland and San Francisco. About 280,000 vehicles cross it each day. San Francisco residents first recognized the need for a bridge spanning the San Francisco Bay during the Gold Rush when they found themselves cut off from the newly built railroad on the far side of the bay. However, construction of the span was delayed until 1933. Originally, the bridge was to be named after Governor James Rolph. What thwarted this plan? More... |
Today's Birthday | |
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Auguste Rodin (1840)Rodin was a French sculptor noted for his renderings of the human form. He spent 37 years working on The Gates of Hell, a monumental sculptural group commissioned for a proposed Musée des Arts Décoratifs and inspired by Dante's Inferno. The project was never finished, but many of the 186 figures intended for it, including The Thinker, The Three Shades, and The Kiss, were later presented as individual works. Who was The Thinker intended to represent? More... |
Quotation of the Day | |
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And what he greatly thought, he nobly dared. Homer (900 BC-800 BC) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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God almighty!— An exclamation of surprise, shock, frustration, exasperation, anger, or annoyance. More... |
Today's Holiday | |
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Birth of Baha'u'llah (2022)The anniversary of the birth in 1817 of Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i religion , is a holy day on which work is suspended. Mirza Husayn Ali, later known as Baha'u'llah ("Glory of God"), was born in Tehran, Persia (now Iran). He was an adherent of Islam, and later a follower of the Bab, who founded the Babi faith, an independent messianic religion. Thirteen years after the Bab's execution in 1850, Husayn Ali declared himself the messenger of God, foretold by the Bab. More... |