Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, December 7, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Article of the Day | |
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 HashshashinThe historical referents of the term "assassin," the Hashshashin were a secret society of Ismaili Shia Muslims who specialized in politically motivated killings of Crusaders and Muslim rulers. Much of the lore surrounding the feared sect, which originated in Persia and was active from 1090 to 1272, stems from Marco Polo's likely fictional account of his visit to the city of Alamut in 1273. What drug is believed to be the root of the term "Hashshashin," and what was its connection to the sect? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Mary Toft Admits That She Did Not Really Give Birth to Rabbits (1726)Toft, an English servant, had a bizarre 15 minutes of fame in 1726 when she convinced doctors that she had given birth to a litter of rabbits. At age 25, Toft suffered a miscarriage. About a month later, she appeared to go into labor and proceeded over the next few weeks to "birth" several animal parts along with nine baby bunnies. The episode was attributed to a fascination with rabbits that Toft had developed during her pregnancy—until it was revealed to be a hoax. How had she pulled it off? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Gerard Peter Kuiper (1905)The "father of modern planetary science," Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper made many discoveries about the solar system, among them the presence of a methane atmosphere around Saturn's satellite Titan and a carbon dioxide-rich one on Mars and the existence of Uranus's satellite Miranda and Neptune's satellite Nereid. He also proposed the existence of a disk-shaped region of minor planets and comets—now called the Kuiper belt—outside Neptune's orbit. What did he help identify on the Moon? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf is better than a whole loaf.Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Pearl Harbor Day (2017)Pearl Harbor Day marks the anniversary of the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941, bringing the United States into World War II and widening the European war to the Pacific. Many states proclaim a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, and each year services are held on December 7 at the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The marble memorial, built over the sunken USS Arizona and dedicated in 1962, was designed by architect Alfred Preis, a resident of Honolulu who was an Austrian citizen in 1941 and was interned as an enemy alien. More... | |