Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, January 4, 2022)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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pedestrian
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Thomas Paine's The Age of ReasonSocial agitator Thomas Paine was an influential political writer whose support of revolution and republican government emboldened the American colonists to declare independence from England. However, his reputation was irreparably harmed by one of his later writings, The Age of Reason. Published in the 1790s, it criticizes organized religion and espouses Paine's deist beliefs. Many people mistook it for an atheist tract and widely ostracized Paine thereafter. To whom was it dedicated? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Sputnik 1 Falls to Earth (1958)Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite to be put into orbit. It was launched by the Soviet Union in October 1957 and acted as the starting gun for the Space Race. The first Sputnik, Russian for "fellow traveler," was able to transmit radio signals for 22 days, emitting a beeping sound heard around the world. The US created NASA in October 1958, largely in response to this momentous occasion. How did US President Dwight Eisenhower react when he got word of Sputnik? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Louis Braille (1809)Having lost his sight at the age of three following an accident, Braille went on to attend the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. While there, he began developing a system of raised dots representing letters to facilitate reading and writing among the visually impaired. This evolved into Braille, a writing system for the blind, which was later extended to include notations for mathematics and music. Braille's invention was inspired by another writing system designed for what purpose? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free.Edith Wharton (1862-1937) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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false friend— A phrase, word, or letter that sounds or looks similar to one in another language or dialect but has a significantly different meaning. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.gif) Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (2023)The first native-born American to be declared a saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) was canonized in 1975. She was the founder of the first religious community for women in the US, the American Sisters of Charity, and was responsible for laying the foundations of the American Catholic school system. Special services commemorating Elizabeth Ann Seton's death on January 4, 1821, are held at the Chapel of St. Joseph's Provincial House of the Daughters of Charity in Emmitsburg, Maryland, the headquarters for her order of nuns. More... | |