Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, December 9, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
portend
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Using "Should"The modal verb "should" is used to politely express obligations or duties. It is also used to ask for or issue advice, suggestions, and recommendations; to describe an expectation; to express surprise; and to create what kind of sentences? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 The 1996 Mount Everest DisasterIn 1996, 15 people died trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest, making it the deadliest year in the mountain's history. Eight of the deaths occurred on a single day in May, when climbers were caught by a fierce storm. The disaster gained wide publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest. Journalist Jon Krakauer, who witnessed the tragedy firsthand while on assignment for a magazine article, later recounted his experience in what bestseller? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 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 | |
|---|---|
 William Whiston (1667)Whiston was an English clergyman and mathematician. He won favor through his New Theory of the Earth and in 1701 was made deputy to Sir Isaac Newton, whom he succeeded as a professor of mathematics at Cambridge. Well known as a preacher, Whiston aroused opposition by proclaiming his opinions about early Christianity, and in 1710 he was dismissed from the university for heresy. In 1736, he caused widespread panic when he predicted that what would bring the world to its end within the year? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.Homer (900 BC-800 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
all sizzle and no steak— Disappointing or anticlimactic. Having an exciting, promising, important, or aggrandizing buildup that proves to be unwarranted. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Antigua National Heroes Day (2019)Antigua and Barbuda has four citizens who have been designated as National Heroes, and December 9 is a public holiday to honor and celebrate all of them. The date is the birthday of one of the four, Sir Vere Cornwall Bird, the first prime minister of Antigua, who is considered the father of the nation. The others are King Court, who led a slave revolt in 1736; Dame Ellen Georgian Nellie Robinson, a pioneer in education; and Sir Vivian Richards, one of the world's greatest cricket players. Speeches and ceremonies honor the accomplishments of the National Heroes on this day. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: possessionhave - Coming through Proto-Germanic khaben, it was from Indo-European kap-, meaning "possession." More... jouisance - Also spelled jouissance, it is another word for "enjoyment" or "possession or use of something." More... tenement - First meant "holding as a possession." More... white elephant - The name of this animal, which has an enormous appetite, has come to mean "useless, expensive possession"—or a possession that is more trouble than it is worth. More... | |