Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, January 20, 2021)Word of the Day | |||||||
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dustup
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Article of the Day | |
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Cat's-Whisker DetectorBefore the advent of vacuum tubes and transistor technology, early radio devices received signals with the help of the cat's whisker detector. An early and somewhat unstable electronic component, the detector was an integral part of the crystal radio sets that came into use in the early 1900s. Though obsolete today, the detectors are still manufactured for antique radio hobbyists. The device consists of a thin wire that lightly touches a crystal of a natural semiconducting mineral such as what? More... |
This Day in History | |
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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 | |
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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 | |
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I have made a plan for my life, as I am in my teens, and no more a child. Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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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 | |
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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... |