Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, September 13, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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high-pressure
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Function of Reciprocal PronounsReciprocal pronouns are used to refer to two or more people who are or were the subject of the same verb, with both or all parties mutually receiving or benefiting from that action in the same way. How do reciprocal pronouns always function in a sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Radium GirlsThe Radium Girls were a group of female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint at a New Jersey factory in 1917. The women, who had been told the paint was harmless, ingested deadly amounts of radium by licking their paintbrushes to sharpen them. Some even painted their fingernails with the glowing substance. After the risks were exposed, five of the women sued their employer in a case that led to the establishment of what right? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Oslo Accords Officially Signed (1993)The Oslo Accords, providing for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza and for limited Palestinian self-government, resulted from the first direct negotiation between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Though talks were conducted in secret in Oslo, Norway, the agreement was signed publicly in Washington, DC. It was signed in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, yet neither signed it. Who did? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Walter Reed (1851)Reed was an American army doctor, pathologist, and bacteriologist. He began studying the transmission of yellow fever in 1897. Three years later, he was sent to Havana, Cuba, as head of an army commission to investigate an outbreak of the disease among American soldiers. He proved that yellow fever was spread by infected mosquitoes, and, in 1901, efforts to combat an outbreak in Havana succeeded within 90 days. Walter Reed Army Hospital is named in his honor. What medical malady killed Reed? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 To be in the weakest camp is to be in the strongest school.Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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shifty-looking— Having or of an untrustworthy, dubious, or deceptive appearance. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Avening Pig Face Day (2020)A number of explanations have been offered for the custom of eating pig's face sandwiches on the Sunday nearest Holy Cross Day (September 14) in the Cotswold village of Avening, England. One involves Matilda of Flanders (d. 1083), the wife of William the Conqueror. She built a church there that was completed on September 14, and the Queen is said to have held a boar's head dedication feast. Today there is an evening anniversary service, after which the villagers participate in an 11th-century banquet headed by Queen Matilda and other historic characters in period costume. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tuneaccordion, concertina - Accordion derives from Italian accordare, "to tune," and both it and the concertina operate on the same basic principle; however, the accordion has a pianolike keyboard and is rectangular and bulky, while the concertina has buttons in headboards and is hexagonal and more portable. More... carol - A term which originally referred to a non-religious ring dance accompanied by singing. Eventually it came to mean a merry song with a tune that could be danced to. The Italian friars who lived with St. Francis of Assisi were the first to compose Christmas carols, c. 1410. More... lilt - Comes from a word meaning "pipe," and the noun originally meant "song, tune." More... perseveration - The recurrence of a tune or thought in the mind. More... | |