Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, December 2, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
menagerie
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Subject PositionsThe subject in a sentence or clause is the person or thing doing, performing, or controlling the action of the verb. The subject most typically occurs at or near the beginning of a clause. What does it precede? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 IconoclasmVeneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures and biblical events was an early feature of Christian worship. Iconoclasts were opposed to the use of such religious images and destroyed them, claiming that they violated the second commandment not to make or worship “graven images.” An iconoclastic movement developed during the Byzantine Empire, and it was characterized by fierce persecution of those who made and venerated icons. What are a few modern examples of iconoclasm? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 First Self-Sustaining Nuclear Chain Reaction Is Demonstrated (1942)Constructed under an abandoned stand of bleachers at the University of Chicago, the world's first artificial nuclear reactor was little more than a pile of uranium and graphite bricks. It was built as part of the Manhattan Project under the supervision of renowned physicist Enrico Fermi. The first successful demonstration lasted 28 minutes and was a milestone in the history of physics. What code phrase did scientists use to convey the reactor's success to government officials? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Maria Callas (1923)An internationally known Greek-American opera star, Callas was celebrated less for her voice than for her electrifying stage presence and mastery of difficult roles. Her career blossomed in the 1940s. Offstage, her fiery temperament, dramatic love life, and demanding personality earned her the reputation of a consummate diva. During her media-fueled rivalry with soprano Renata Tebaldi in the 1950s, Callas was quoted as saying that comparing her to Tebaldi was like comparing what two things? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Teach us Delight in simple things,And Mirth that has no bitter springs; Forgiveness free of evil done, And Love to all men 'neath the sun! Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
the next best thing— Something that is as good a substitute as possible for that which is really desired or best suited. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 United Arab Emirates National Day (2025)This national holiday commemorates the December 2, 1971, expiration of a British treaty that inhibited self-rule for the sheikhdoms on the Persian Gulf in the eastern Arabian peninsula, and the union of seven of the sheikhdoms in the former Trucial States to become the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates' major cities celebrate National Day on December 2-3. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: wavecomber, breaker, roller - A long curving wave is a comber, a wave that curls over and dissolves into foam is a breaker, and a long wave moving steadily shoreward is a roller. More... scend - As a noun, it is the surge of a wave or the sea; as a verb, it means to pitch or surge up in a heavy sea. More... undulate - From Latin unda, "wave." More... wave - Meaning "movement of the sea," it seems to be an alteration of the earlier wawe, "wave," from Old English woeg, "motion, wave." More... | |