Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, January 20, 2023)Word of the Day | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
prodigal
|
Article of the Day | |
---|---|
The ThylacineThe last captive thylacine—or Tasmanian wolf—died in Tasmania's Hobart Zoo in 1936. Though the species is believed to have become extinct in the 20th century, sightings have persisted. The large carnivorous marsupial looks like a wolf or dog, but it evolved independently of those animals. About the size of a collie, the thylacine has a long tail, short ears, and a brownish coat with black stripes. Its extinction was caused largely by overhunting. Why were thylacines hunted so aggressively? More... |
This Day in History | |
---|---|
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 | |
---|---|
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 | |
---|---|
Rash indeed is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past. Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC) |
Idiom of the Day | |
---|---|
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 | |
---|---|
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... |