Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, November 18, 2022)Word of the Day | |||||||
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cat's-paw
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Article of the Day | |
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The Taj MahalThe Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and the finest example of the late style of Indian Islamic architecture. Mughal emperor Shah Jahan ordered it built as a mausoleum for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The building's white marble exterior is inlaid with semiprecious stones arranged in Arabic inscriptions, floral designs, and arabesques, and its gardens reflect the Islamic Paradise. When was the monument's construction begun? More... |
This Day in History | |
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Pope Boniface VIII Issues Unam Sanctam (1302)Historians consider the papal bull Unam sanctam—which proclaimed that there is no salvation outside of the Church—to be one of the most extreme statements of papal spiritual supremacy ever made. It stemmed from Pope Boniface VIII's ongoing feud with Philip the Fair of France over Philip's taxation of clerics without papal consent. Unam sanctam thus emphasized that Catholic princes are subject to the pope in temporal and religious matters. How did Philip respond to the bull? More... |
Today's Birthday | |
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Jacques Maritain (1882)Maritain was a French philosopher. His thought is based on Aristotelianism and Thomism—the philosophical and theological system developed by St. Thomas Aquinas—but incorporates concepts from other classical and modern philosophers and draws upon anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Raised Protestant, Maritain became Roman Catholic in his 20s and later served as French ambassador to the Vatican and forged a friendship with Pope Paul VI. With whom did Maritain once make a suicide pact and why? More... |
Quotation of the Day | |
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The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois. Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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get (one's) (own) way— To get or have what one wants; to have things done according to one's personal preference or desires. More... |
Today's Holiday | |
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Haiti Battle of Vertières' Day (2022)This official public holiday memorializes the last battle for Haitian independence on November 18, 1803, in which Haitian rebels defeated the French colonialists. The victory at Vertières, near the present-day port city of Cap-Haïtien, signified the end of a long freedom struggle that stretched out over two major phases. Less than two months after the battle, Haiti became the first black independent republic. More... |