Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, January 18, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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incognizant
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Water MusicIn 1712, George Frideric Handel took up permanent residence in England, leaving his employer—the elector of Hanover—behind in Germany. Two years later, the elector of Hanover became George I of England. When the king requested music for royal festivities, Handel wrote Water Music, allegedly to regain the king's favor. Water Music debuted on a barge accompanying the king down the River Thames in 1717. What did George I think of Handel's now-famous collection of songs? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Jim Thorpe's Olympic Medals Posthumously Restored (1983)Jim Thorpe, an American Olympian, excelled at every sport he played and is deemed one of the greatest athletes in modern sports history. He won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon but was stripped of his awards amid reports that he had played minor league baseball before participating in the 1912 Olympic Games. At the time, strict rules barred professional athletes from Olympic competition. What loophole enabled Thorpe's supporters to have his medals posthumously restored? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Montesquieu (1689)Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, was a French social and political philosopher whose ideas profoundly influenced European and American political thought, particularly that of America's founding fathers. He spent 15 years working on his masterpiece, De l'Esprit des lois—On the Spirit of the Laws—an immense comparative analysis of various forms of government comprising more than 600 chapters. What concept did he famously put forth in this work? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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bankers' hours— A working day that is shorter than usual or acceptable, especially one that begins late and ends early. It refers to the traditional opening times for banks, which formerly opened at 10 AM and closed at 3 PM. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (2023)In 1908, the Rev. Paul Watson proposed a week-long observance dedicated to Christian unity to be scheduled between the feasts of St. Peter's Chair (January 18) and St. Paul (January 25), the two great leaders of the first Christians. The World Council of Churches maintains these dates. Each year an inter-denominational committee selects a scriptural theme and prepares the outlines of a worship service for each day of the Week of Prayer. Individual congregations are free to use the material as is, or vary it to suit local practices and traditions. More... | |