Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, October 13, 2021)Word of the Day | |||||||
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tawdry
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Article of the Day | |
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The Wakhan CorridorIn the late 19th century, Western adventurers who had explored beyond India's frontiers brought back thrilling tales, exaggerating Russian activity in Central Asia and sparking British interest in the area. The rivalry that developed between Russia and Britain—known as the Great Game—resulted in the creation of the Wakhan Corridor, a buffer zone between the two empires. The rugged, highly remote stretch now links northeastern Afghanistan with China. How many people live in the Wakhan Corridor? More... |
This Day in History | |
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PLoS Publishes Open Access Scientific Journal (2003)The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a nonprofit open-access scientific publishing project aimed at creating a library of scientific journals and other scientific literature under an open content license. Therefore, PLoS journals are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License. PLoS began as a petition urging scientists to stop submitting papers to journals that did not make the full text of their papers available within six months. What Nobel Prize winner helped found PLoS? More... |
Today's Birthday | |
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Margaret Thatcher (1925)The first female prime minister of Great Britain, Thatcher served longer than any other British prime minister in the 20th century. She is noted for policies that dismantled many aspects of Britain's postwar welfare state and privatized many state-run industries. Her introduction of a controversial "poll tax" met with widespread public disapproval and contributed, along with internal party disputes over European integration, to her 1990 resignation. Why was she called the "Iron Lady"? More... |
Quotation of the Day | |
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History is made by men, but they do not make it in their heads. The ideas that are born in their consciousness play an insignificant part in the march of events. History is dominated and determined by the tool and the production—by the force of economic conditions. Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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country bumpkin— Someone from a rural area who is therefore not versed in city life or its social norms. More... |
Today's Holiday | |
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International Cervantes Festival (2022)Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), best known for Don Quixote (1605), is honored in a three-week festival held in Guanajuato, Mexico, featuring orchestral music, opera, theater, dance, film and folklore. Although most festival events are held in the Teatro Juarez and the Teatro Principal, amateur Mexican actors often give street performances of Cervantes's famous one-act plays in the Plaza de San Roque. Various musical performances are a popular attraction, as are art exhibits, children's theater, and folkloric dance ensembles. More... |