Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, June 16, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Interrogative Pronouns and Reported QuestionsInterrogative pronouns can appear in the middle of reported questions. Reported questions are actually a form of declarative sentences using reported speech, which is what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Abraham Lincoln Delivers His "House Divided" Speech (1858)In 1858, Lincoln was nominated to challenge incumbent Illinois senator Stephen Douglas for his seat. At the state Republican convention, he accepted the nomination with a now-famous speech explaining his view that the US could not exist with both slave and free states—as "a house divided against itself cannot stand." He lost the race but won the presidency two years later. When and by whom had the same biblical reference previously been used to describe the national rift over slavery? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Joyce Carol Oates (1938)Oates is an American author of over 50 novels and numerous volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. She has won the National Book Award and the O. Henry Award and has been thrice nominated for a Pulitzer. She writes about modern American life and the connection between violence and love. Her characters are mainly ordinary, inarticulate people to whom terrible things happen. Her most famous short story, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is based on what real-life serial killer? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
nose into (something)— To investigate something; to try to find information about something, especially private, secret, or sensitive matters. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Election of the Mayor of Ock Street (2018)During the 18th century, it was customary for the people of Abingdon to roast a black ox on St. Edmund of Abingdon's Feast Day (June 19). In 1700 an argument arose during the ox roast over who would get the horns, and a man named Hemmings took possession of the horns. The crowd hailed him as the "Mayor of Ock Street." Today, only people who live on Ock Street may vote for the mayor. The winner toasts his election by drinking from a special applewood chalice, and he is carried through the streets in a flower-decorated chair by the Abingdon Morris dancers. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: socketball, socket - On a clothing snap, there is a ball and a socket. More... socket - From Middle English, first as "head of a spear, resembling a plowshare," from an Anglo-Norman French diminutive of French soc, "plowshare." More... acetabulum - The socket of the hip bone, into which the head of the femur fits. More... birn - The socket in a clarinet or other woodwind into which the mouthpiece fits. More... | |