Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, February 28, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Using Prepositions with NounsCertain prepositions can be used in conjunction with nouns to connect, emphasize, or provide clarification for ideas expressed in sentences. In this combination, the preposition always comes directly after the noun. What are some of the most common prepositions used with nouns? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Chang and Eng BunkerThe term "Siamese twins" originated with conjoined twin brothers Chang and Eng Bunker, who were born in 1811 in Siam, which is now Thailand. After touring with P. T. Barnum's circus for many years, they settled in North Carolina and married two sisters: Chang to Adelaide Yates and Eng to Sarah Anne Yates. The two fathered a total of 22 children and died within hours of each other in 1874. Would the Bunker brothers have been able to be separated using today's surgical techniques? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First African American wins Academy Award (1940)Hattie McDaniel was an African-American singer-songwriter, comedienne, stage actress, radio performer, and television star. She appeared in over 300 films and is best known for her role as Mammy in the iconic 1939 film Gone with the Wind, a performance that earned her the first Academy Award ever presented to an African American. McDaniel's Oscar was later lost. What are some theories about what became of it? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Dinah Shore (1916)Shore was an American singer, actress, and TV personality who enjoyed widespread popularity during the Big Band era of the 1940s and 50s. She was the first singer of the era to achieve success as a solo artist, producing over 80 hit songs, including "Baby It's Cold Outside," before beginning a four-decade career in television. Shore was a hit with TV audiences as well and went on to earn nine Emmys, a Peabody Award, and a Golden Globe. How did Shore, born Frances Rose, earn the stage name Dinah? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 When you've learned to laugh at the things that should be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn't, you've got wisdom and understanding.Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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miss the cut— In golf, to fail to match or better the score necessary to remain in the final two rounds of a four-round tournament, thus resulting in elimination. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Leap Year Day (2024)The Earth actually takes longer than 365 days to complete its trip around the Sun—five hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds longer, to be precise. To accommodate this discrepancy, an extra day is added to the Gregorian calendar at the end of February every four years. The year in which this occurs is called Leap Year, probably because the English courts did not always recognize February 29, and the date was often "leaped over" in the records. There was an old tradition that women could propose marriage to men during Leap Year. The men had to pay a forfeit if they refused. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: huntingpark - Originally a legal term for land held by royal grant for the keeping of game animals for royals to hunt. More... sealer, sealing - A sealer is a seal hunter and seal hunting is called sealing. More... half-cocked - Comes from hunting; a gun at half cock is in the safety position—so it came to mean "incompletely prepared." More... tryst - Comes from Scottish as a variant of an old word, trist, "an appointed place or station in hunting," and now means a "secret meeting of lovers." More... | |