Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, January 6, 2022)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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termagant
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Adjective Phrases: Attributive vs. PredicativeAdjective phrases can either be attributive or predicative. Attributive adjectives occur immediately before or after the noun they modify. What are predicative adjectives? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Tube AlloysThough allies, the US and UK struggled to collaborate on the building of the atom bomb during World War II. In hopes of spurring cooperation, members of the UK's bomb program—which was inconspicuously codenamed "Tube Alloys"—sent a report on their research to US scientists. The report was largely ignored until one of the British scientists traveled to the US. Hesitation by both sides followed, and the fledgling US effort eventually became the Manhattan Project. What happened to Tube Alloys? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US President-Elect Survives Train Wreck, Loses Son (1853)Just months before he was inaugurated as the 14th US president, Franklin Pierce, his wife, and his 11-year-old son were in a terrible train wreck in which their car derailed and rolled down an embankment. Pierce and his wife survived but saw their son crushed to death. He was their third child, and the only one to have lived past early childhood. The suddenly childless parents were devastated, and Pierce entered the presidency in mourning. To what did Pierce's wife attribute the train accident? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Richard II of England (1367)Richard II was perhaps the most enigmatic of the English kings, reigning from 1377 to 1399. He inherited the throne as a boy, but his uncle John of Gaunt and other nobles dominated the government, limiting his power. Taking revenge, he banished John's son, Henry, and confiscated his vast Lancastrian estates. Not long after, while Richard was away on an expedition, Henry returned and seized power. Forced to abdicate, Richard was imprisoned and died in captivity. What likely caused his death? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Women ... have more power for good or evil than they dream of.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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look (at something) through rose-colored glasses— To assume a generally optimistic and cheerful attitude (toward something); to focus on the positive aspects (of something). Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Maroon Festival (2023)When Jamaica was a Spanish territory in the 16th century, African slaves were brought in to work the plantations. The Spanish eventually left, and the former slaves fled to the mountains. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the island's British inhabitants were often attacked by descendants of these fugitive slaves, who were called Maroons. The annual Maroon Festival on January 6 commemorates the peace treaty with the English and establishment of the town of Accompong. It is celebrated with traditional dancing and singing, feasts and ceremonies, and the blowing of the abeng. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tidebillow - The swell on the ocean produced by the wind, or on a river or estuary by the tide or wind. More... slack water, slack tide - Before any turn of the tide, there is a time of slack water or slack tide. More... happy as a clam - Originally happy-as-a-clam-at-full-tide; it may refer to the fact that when the tide is full, nobody is digging clams. More... tidy - Comes from tide, which in Old English meant "time period"; its original meaning was "timely, opportune." More... | |