Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, October 19, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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profligacy
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| Article of the Day | |
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 French IndochinaThe region that is today home to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam came under French control in the late 1800s as French Indochina. Though occupied by Japan during World War II, the area did not achieve full independence from France until 1954. Soon after independence, the Vietnam War erupted. After World War II, US President Franklin Roosevelt unsuccessfully attempted to arrange for China to acquire the region before France could regain control. What was Chairman Chiang Kai-shek's emphatic response? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US Government Prohibits All Exports to Cuba (1960)After Cuba gained independence from Spain in 1898, US influence over the island grew. The two countries traded heavily until Fidel Castro rose to power in a bloody coup, and Cuba expropriated many American-owned land holdings. The US then enforced a prohibition of all exports to Cuba in 1960. Two years later, the US blockaded the island in order to compel the Soviet Union to dismantle its nuclear missile base. Although the word "embargo" exists in Spanish, what is the US embargo called in Cuba? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910)For his contributions to the knowledge of the evolution of stars, Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. His work advanced the understanding of white dwarfs, supernovas, neutron stars, and black holes. He determined the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf—about 1.44 solar masses, the Chandrasekhar limit—beyond which a star will ultimately collapse and become a neutron star or black hole. Who else in his family was a Nobel laureate? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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curdle (one's) blood— To terrify someone. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of the Martyrs of North America (2022)The Feast of the North American Martyrs commemorates the death of eight priests who were killed by the Iroquois, enemies of the Huron Indians, with whom the priests had been working for 34 years. The eight who are remembered on this day are St. Rene Goupil (1608-1642), St. Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), St. John Lalonde (d. 1646), and their companions, French Jesuits who died in 1649. They were canonized together in 1930, and a shrine built for them at Auriesville, New York, holds a novena each year over nine days, including October 19. More... | |