Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, August 28, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Periods with AbbreviationsWhile the period is most commonly used to mark the end of a sentence, it is also used to mark abbreviations. In addition to standard abbreviations (words that are shortened by omitting one or more letters), there are also three sub-categories that can use periods. What are they? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Tuskegee ExperimentsOne of the most shameful acts in the history of American medicine, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study allowed 400 African-American men with syphilis—mostly poor, uneducated tenant farmers—to go untreated for almost 40 years. Begun in 1932 and sponsored by the US government, the study deliberately withheld treatments—and later the cure—from participants in order to chart the course of untreated syphilis. The study was not shut down until press reports emerged in 1972. What happened in the aftermath? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Issue of Scientific American Magazine Is Published (1845)In 1845, Rufus Porter—an eccentric inventor, painter, and editor—published the first issue of Scientific American, a weekly newspaper about new inventions. By 1853, its circulation had reached 30,000 and it was reporting on various sciences, such as astronomy and medicine. In 1921, it became a monthly. Its solidly-researched, well-written articles, accompanied by illustrations and explanations, have made it a highly regarded publication. How much did the first subscriptions cost? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 William Robertson Davies (1913)Davies was one of Canada's most distinguished writers. Educated at Oxford, he produced more than 30 works of fiction throughout his long literary career, as well as plays, essays, and criticism. Among the themes explored in his densely plotted novels are life's moral dimensions and the isolation of the spirit. He is best known for his three novel trilogies dealing with life and culture in fictional Ontario villages. What innovative technology, considered indispensible today, did he proudly shun? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is as natural to die, as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful, as the other.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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rid out— (chiefly Midwestern United States) To clean, empty, or clear out (something or some space). Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo (2025)St. Augustine is best known for his spiritual autobiography, the Confessions, which detail the excesses of his youth, his career as a teacher of rhetoric, his years as a believer in Manicheism and Platonism, and his belated conversion to Christianity. It is primarily for his writings that he is known as the patron saint of theologians and scholars, and one of the "Four Latin Fathers" of the Christian Church. When a company of Spanish soldiers landed on the coast of Florida on St. Augustine's Day in 1565, they named the U.S.'s oldest European community after him. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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