Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, July 14, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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audacity
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Transits of VenusWhen Venus passes directly between Earth and the Sun, it appears to observers as though a small disk is moving across the face of the Sun. Before the space age, such transits helped scientists calculate the distance between Earth and the Sun. Among the rarest of predictable astronomical phenomena, transits of Venus currently occur in a pattern that repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits 8 years apart separated by gaps of 121.5 and 105.5 years. When will the next transit of Venus occur? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Storming of the Bastille (1789)The Bastille was a 14th-century fortress and a notorious state prison in Paris. In 1789, an angry mob stormed the prison, freeing the political prisoners held in the edifice that had come to symbolize the French monarchy's oppression of the people. The assault launched the French Revolution. Although the building itself was razed a year later, the Bastille became a symbol of French independence, and July 14th became a national holiday. How many prisoners were in the Bastille when it was stormed? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Owen Wister (1860)Wister was an American author who is best remembered for his contributions to western fiction. A well-to-do Harvard graduate, he suffered from ill health and summered in the American West, where he gained much inspiration for his writings. His popular 1902 novel The Virginian is regarded as the first western. It tells the tale of a cattle rancher who depends on a harsh code of ethics, and it helped establish the cowboy as an American folk hero. To whom is the book dedicated? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 We drink one another's health and spoil our own.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Avignon Festival (2020)The month-long Festival d'Avignon was founded in 1947 by Jean Vilar, a well-known French actor and director who selected bold and innovative productions. Throughout its evolution, the Avignon Festival has not strayed from the fresh experimentation that was Vilar's hallmark, thus continuing to attract new audiences after more than 50 years of existence. The festival presents a different program each year, with about 40 performances given in 20 venues including the Popes' Palace (Palais des Papes), cloisters, and churches, and approximately 120,000 people in attendance. More... | |