Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, December 13, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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inveigle
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| Article of the Day | |
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_by_mohammad_adil_rais.jpg) Umar ibn al-KhattabAfter serving as an adviser to Muhammad, Umar succeeded Abu Bakr as caliph of Islam in 634 CE. During his 10-year reign, Islam became an imperial power, with conquests in Syria, Egypt, and the Persian Empire. Umar further laid the administrative base of the empire and reopened the canals of Mesopotamia and the waterway from the Nile to the Red Sea. Before he converted, Umar was hostile to Islam and had in fact plotted to kill Muhammad. Ultimately, however, it was he who was assassinated—by whom? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Battle of the River Plate (1939)In the early months of World War II, the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee had been seeking out and sinking British merchant ships, a practice known as commerce raiding. The British navy tracked down the German ship and engaged it near the River Plate, in what was the first major naval engagement of the war. Outgunned, the Germans sailed for Montevideo in the hopes of making repairs. Shortly thereafter, the captain, believing his forces to be outnumbered, made what decision? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Mary Todd Lincoln (1818)Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, was a tragic figure of the American Civil War period. As First Lady, she was criticized for her use of taxpayers' money in refurbishing the White House and was even accused of harboring Confederate sympathies. She struggled with depression after witnessing her husband's assassination and suffering the deaths of three of her children, and she was committed to an insane asylum for several months in 1875. Who had her committed? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth, and embaseth it.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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not say boo to a goose— To be particularly shy, diffident, or timid by nature. Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Susuharai (2022)In Japan, many people choose to give their houses a thorough cleaning at year's end. Worn or broken furniture and utensils and items that have been lost are replaced. New tatami mats, the thick straw mats on which people sit and sleep, are brought in, and damage to the paper sliding doors in traditional Japanese houses is repaired. In some areas, it is customary to tie pounded rice cakes (mochi-bana, "rice-cake flowers") to the branches of willow trees as an offering to the gods. Friends and co-workers may also throw "year-end forgetting parties" known as bonen-kai. More... | |