Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, January 18, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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sacristy
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| Article of the Day | |
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 AkbarnamaAlthough he was illiterate, Akbar, the third and greatest Mughal Emperor, was a great lover of the arts and learning. His passion for knowledge led him to attract men of genius to his court, including Abulfazl, whom he commissioned to write his official biography. The three-volume work, known as the Akbarnama, contains an account of Akbar’s reign, which lasted from 1556 to 1605; a history of Akbar’s ancestors; and an administrative report of the empire. How many years did it take to complete? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Legionnaire's Disease Mystery Declared Solved (1977)In July 1976, members of the American Legion veterans association who were gathered at a Philadelphia hotel began falling ill with a mysterious respiratory ailment that sickened 221 and killed 34. Months later, the US Centers for Disease Control announced that a new bacterium—Legionella pneumophila—had been identified as the culprit. It had spread through the hotel's air conditioning system. In 2010, it was reported that 20% of Legionella infections may come from what surprising source? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Joseph Bonanno, AKA Joe Bananas (1905)Born in Sicily, Bonanno came to the US illegally in 1924. He settled in Brooklyn and became a bootlegger and mob enforcer. In 1931, he founded the Bonanno crime family, one of five families that dominated organized crime in New York City. He ruled the family for decades, and although his empire stretched across the country and involved gambling, loan sharking, and drug trafficking, he was never convicted of a serious crime. He died in Arizona at the age of 97. What was the "Banana Split"? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 As long as learning is connected with earning, as long as certain jobs can only be reached through exams, so long must we take this examination system seriously. If another ladder to employment was contrived, much so-called education would disappear, and no one would be a penny the stupider.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Festival of St. Peter's Chair (2021)At the Vatican in Rome, St. Peter is honored as bishop of Rome and the first pope. The current pope, wearing his triple crown and vestments of gold cloth, is carried in his chair of state in a spectacular procession up the nave of St. Peter's Basilica. He is deposited behind the altar on a richly decorated throne that enshrines the plain wooden chair on which St. Peter is believed to have sat. The ceremony dates back to at least 720 and is regarded as one of the most magnificent ecclesiastical observances to be held at St. Peter's. More... | |