Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, June 28, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the CommaThe comma ( , ) is one of the most commonly used punctuation marks in English. Generally speaking, commas are used to connect two or more elements in a sentence, but the way in which they do this varies widely, depending on what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Kitab al-Hiyal: The Book of Ingenious DevicesThe Book of Ingenious Devices was a large, illustrated work on mechanical devices, including automata, published in the 9th century by three brothers. The work was completed at the Bayt al-Hikma—House of Wisdom—in Baghdad under the Abbasid Caliphate. Translated into English in 1979, the book describes approximately 100 devices and how to use them. Although some of the devices were inspired by earlier Greek inventions, many were newly conceived, including what unusual contraptions? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Romania Cedes Bessarabia to the USSR (1940)After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the region of Bessarabia declared its independence and voted to unite with Romania. The Soviet Union never recognized Romania's right to the province and, in 1940, demanded that it cede Bessarabia. When Romania complied, the USSR set up the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic and incorporated the northern region into the Ukrainian SSR. Bessarabia remained divided after Ukraine and Moldavia declared independence in 1991. Where did the region get its name? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Melvin Kaminsky, AKA Mel Brooks (1926)Brooks is an American film director, writer, actor, and producer best known for his wild parodies that mix satire with slapstick. He started out as a television comedy writer but soon turned to film. He won an Oscar for his first feature film, The Producers (1968), a comic masterpiece of bad taste, and followed it with such films as the Western-inspired Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, a parody of the horror genre. Who speaks the only word in his Silent Movie? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Nature has left this tincture in the blood,That all men would be tyrants if they could. Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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salty dog— A sailor, especially a man, who is older and/or has had a lot of experience on the seas. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion (2025)The Stonewall Inn was a gay bar in New York City's Greenwich Village that was raided by the police on June 28, 1969. As the outraged crowd threw stones and bottles, more police arrived and subdued what had turned into a riot. Today, the event is regarded as a turning point in the history of the gay rights movement. It is commemorated in New York, Philadelphia, and other U.S. cities with parades, memorial services for those who have died of AIDS, and other activities to draw attention to the ways in which homosexuals have been discriminated against. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: securityhostage - First referred to the state of someone handed over as a pledge or security (for the fulfillment of an undertaking). More... policy - Meaning "insurance document," it is from a French word meaning "certificate, contract," from an earlier Latin word meaning "a receipt or security for money paid." More... impignorate, pignorate - To impignorate or pignorate means to put up as security or to pawn. More... wage, wager - Wage once meant "pledge, security" and wager was defined as "solemn pledge" or "undertaking," from French wagier, "to pledge." More... | |