Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, July 26, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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plaint
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Generic "You"The second-person pronouns are also often used to indicate an unspecified person. This is sometimes referred to as "generic you," "impersonal you," or "indefinite you." This is less formal than its counterpart, the pronoun "one," but it is sometimes preferred. Why? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 US Camel CorpsThe US Camel Corps was an experiment by the US Army to use camels as pack animals in the Southwest US. Using camels militarily had been suggested, to no avail, in 1836 during the Seminole Wars in Florida, but in 1855, Congress appropriated $30,000 for the Camel Corps project. One year later, a US ship arrived in Texas from the Middle East with about 30 camels. Despite the camels' impressive strength and ability to survive without water, the Camel Corps project was soon abandoned. Why? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Battle of Edgecote Moor (1469)The Battle of Edgecote Moor was an important turning point in the series of dynastic civil wars for the English throne known as the Wars of the Roses (1455-1485). The battle pitted the forces of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, against those of King Edward IV. Warwick had once been loyal to Edward and had even helped put him on the throne, but Edward began to resent him and suppress his influence. Angered, Warwick allied with Edward's brother, George, and rose in rebellion. Who won the battle? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Jane "Jinny" Bunford (1895)Standing well over seven and a half feet tall, Bunford was twice recognized during her lifetime as the tallest person in the world. She is also believed to have had the longest hair, at 8 ft 1 in (2.5 m) long. Though she died in 1922, she was featured in the 1971 Guinness Book of World Records after her skeleton was discovered on display at Birmingham University. Bunford's height likely resulted from her pituitary gland secreting excessive growth hormones after what childhood accident? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The greatest tyrants over women are women.William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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know every trick in the book— To be aware of or knowledgeable in every possible way to do or achieve something, especially ways that are clever, cunning, or ethically questionable. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Festivities for the Day of National Rebellion (2024)This three-day national holiday in Cuba commemorates an attack that took place on July 26, 1953, when rebel forces led by Fidel Castro struck the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. It is remembered as the beginning of the rebellion that ousted the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. The holiday is an occasion for displays of national pride and mass rallies. Crowds of 100,000 are common in Havana, where a carnival, live music, singing, dancing and flag waving mark the occasion. Santiago de Cuba also has a large carnival, and other cities host celebrations as well. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: storehousemagazine - Considered a "storehouse" for articles; the word comes from Arabic makhzan, "storehouse," and was first used in book titles presenting a "store" of information about specific topics. More... ambry - Another word for a treasury, storehouse, place to keep things. More... garner - Originally a storehouse or granary. More... thesaurus - Comes from Greek thesauros, meaning "storehouse, treasury," and its original sense was "dictionary or encyclopedia," but this was narrowed to the current meaning with the appearance of Roget's in 1852. More... | |