Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, December 9, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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buccaneer
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Viewpoint Adverbs to Specify an Aspect of SomethingWe use specific viewpoint adverbs to delimit, or specify, what part or aspect of something we are talking about. What are these adverbs often called? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Hadrian's WallStretching 73.5 mi (118.3 km), Hadrian's Wall was an ancient Roman wall built in Britain. Constructed mainly in the 2nd century CE under Emperor Hadrian, it guarded the northwestern frontier of the province from Celtic and other invaders. Fragments of the wall, 6 ft (1.8 m) high and 8 ft (2.4 m) thick, and many of its mile stations are still extant and are some of the largest and most significant remains of the Roman occupation. What other wall was built by the Romans in Britain? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 John Birch Society Founded (1958)The John Birch Society was founded in 1958 by Robert H. Welch, Jr., a retired candymaker, to combat communism and promote ultraconservative causes in the US. It was named for an American missionary and army intelligence officer killed by Chinese communists in 1945, considered by the society the first hero of the Cold War. Its membership reached more than 70,000 in the 1960s. Since then, it has promoted many objectives, including pressing for the US to withdraw from what organization? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717)The son of a German cobbler, Winckelmann overcame years of hardship to pursue his love of ancient Greek art, becoming a renowned scholar and one of the founders of scientific archaeology and art history. He spent much of his later life studying in the vast Vatican Library, and his writings reawakened the popular taste for Classical art and helped spur the Neoclassical movement. In 1768, a fellow traveler—who did not know who Winckelmann was—murdered him at a hotel, ostensibly for what reason? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.Jane Austen (1775-1817) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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be the pits— To be particularly bad, unfortunate, or awful, especially of a situation or outcome. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Tanzania Independence Day (2022)Tanzania Independence Day is a celebration of the independence—from the British in 1961—of Tanganyika, which merged with Zanzibar in 1964 to become Tanzania. The day is a national holiday celebrated with parades, youth leagues marching before the president at the stadium in Dar es Salaam, school games, cultural dances, and aerobatics by the air force. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: summitcolophon - A crowning or finishing touch, from Greek kolophon, "summit" or "finishing stroke." More... knoll - The summit or rounded top of a mountain or hill, it seems to derive from Old Teutonic knoo-lo, meaning "ball, clod, knot." More... acrobat - Derived from Greek akrobatos, "walking on tiptoe," from Greek akron, "summit," and baino, "walk." More... | |