Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
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Article of the Day

Hildegard von Bingen A 12th-century German abbess and visionary mystic, von Bingen reportedly began experiencing visions in childhood and eventually recorded three collections of revelations. After founding a convent, she became known as the "Sibyl of the Rhine," and her advice was sought by Europe’s most powerful. Her other works include a morality play, a book of saints' lives, scientific treatises, and lyrical poems set to melodies she composed. Long regarded a saint, she has never been canonized for what reason? More...

This Day in History

Mount Saint Helens Erupts (1980) Beginning in mid-March 1980, a series of earth tremors and steam explosions at Washington's Mount Saint Helens suggested that the volcano—dormant since 1857—was on the verge of erupting. Then, on May 18, the entire north side of the mountain exploded in a cloud of ash, rock, and fiery gases that collapsed a good part of it and carried debris for many miles. About 60 people were killed, and millions of tons of ash blanketed much of the American northwest. How far did the ash eventually spread? More...

Today's Birthday

Walter Adolph Gropius (1883) Gropius was the immensely influential director of the Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Germany. In 1937, he immigrated to America and became head of Harvard's architecture department. He was an early exponent of the International style and believed that all design—whether of a chair, a building, or a city—should focus on the particular needs and problems involved, without regard to old styles. His 1923 re-design of what everyday object is now considered an icon of 20th-century design? More...

Quotation of the Day
How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew! Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Idiom of the Day
on the upswing — Showing or experiencing a noticeable or conspicuous increase, improvement, or expansion. More...

Today's Holiday

Toshogu Haru-No-Taisai (2025) This festival provides the most spectacular display of ancient samurai costumes and weaponry in Japan. The Toshogu Shrine, in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, was built in 1617 to house the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), the first of the Tokugawa shoguns. On the first day of the festival, dignitaries and members of the Tokugawa family make offerings to the deities of the shrine, and warriors on horseback shoot at targets with bows and arrows. The next morning, more than 1,000 people take part in the procession from Toshogu to Futarasan Shrine, including hundreds of samurai warriors. More...