Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, July 17, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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meddlesome
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the Future TenseGrammatically speaking, there are no future tenses in the English language; verbs do not inflect (conjugate) a certain way to reflect future actions. For that reason, we use different sentence constructions to achieve a future point of view. How is this is most often accomplished? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Soul TrainSoul Train was an American musical show that aired more than 1,000 episodes from 1971 to 2006, becoming the longest-running, first-run, nationally-syndicated program in television history. Created by producer Don Cornelius, its first host, Soul Train featured performances by soul, rhythm-and-blues, and hip-hop artists and has been described as the American Bandstand of the African-American community. What celebrities got their start dancing on Soul Train? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Disneyland Opens in Anaheim, California (1955)Having welcomed more than 650 million visitors since its opening, Disneyland is perhaps the world's most famous themed amusement park. Walt Disney's original plans called for a modest park to be built on eight acres (3.2 hectares) near Disney Studios. A much more ambitious Disneyland opened to invited guests and the media on July 17, 1955, a year after construction had begun. The day's events did not go smoothly, prompting Disney to later refer to it as "Black Sunday." What went wrong? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Ismail I (1487)The young Ismail I went into hiding after his father's death and emerged at age 14 to proclaim himself Shah of Iran. Despite his youth, he was able to reunify Iran and establish the Safavid Empire, which remained intact until 1736. Ismail converted Iran from the Sunni to the Shi'a sect of Islam, drawing the ire of Selim I, the Sunni sultan of the Ottoman Empire, who wrote Ismail belligerent letters before invading Iran. Ismail was also a prolific poet who wrote under what pseudonym? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is curious how instinctively one protects the image of oneself from idolatry or any other handling that could make it ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed in any longer.Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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help (someone) out of a fix— To help someone avoid or escape from some troublesome, difficult, or dangerous position or situation. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 King's Birthday (Lesotho) (2025)Veneration for royalty is still customary for the Basotho, the majority group living in the Kingdom of Lesotho. Accordingly, the birthday of monarch King Letsie III is a momentous occasion. Born in 1963, King Letsie is the son of King Moshoeshoe II, who became Lesotho's first monarch after the country gained full independence from Great Britain in 1966. Many citizens honor the king on his birthday by attending his parade, at which he appears in regal attire and is usually accompanied by his wife, Queen 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: stringsbelly - In the violin family, the top surface of an instrument, across which the strings are placed. More... spaghetti - Naming pastas for everyday things is an Italian tradition, as in spaghetti, which means "strings." More... plectrum - Originally a device for tightening the strings of a harp, it is now the piece used to pluck a guitar's strings; its plural is plectrums or plectra. More... puppet, marionette - The word puppet originally meant "doll," and a puppet usually goes on the hand and arm, while a marionette (or string puppet) is a jointed figure with strings or wires. More... | |