Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, January 5, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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calumnious
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| Article of the Day | |
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 MaglevMagnetic levitation, or maglev, is a method of supporting and propelling objects using magnets. Using the repellent force of superconductive magnets, vehicles, such as trains, may be suspended above a track or guideway. Continuously changing the polarity in alternate magnets causes a series of magnetic attractions and repulsions, which moves the vehicle along the track quickly and quietly. What is the highest recorded speed of a maglev train? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Peter Sutcliffe Charged in the "Yorkshire Ripper" Case (1981)From 1975 to 1981, the Yorkshire area of England was terrorized by a string of murders. Though hundreds of investigators worked to find the killer, they were hampered by false leads, and the case generated so much paperwork that real clues were buried. After Sutcliffe was arrested for having stolen license plates, police noticed his similarity to the killer. What item found in a victim's purse allowed investigators to narrow down the search to a group of 8,000 people—one that included Sutcliffe? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Constanze Mozart (1762)When famed Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in 1791, he left his beloved 29-year-old wife, Constanze—herself a musician—with two young children and an uncertain financial outlook. Constanze went to work. She arranged for a pension from the emperor, organized memorial concerts, and collaborated on a biography of her late husband. Today, she is recognized as much for her business sense as for her influence on her husband's music. Which of her sisters did Wolfgang originally pursue? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by providence as an evil to mankind.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Día de Negritos and Fiesta de los Blanquitos (2021)In Popayán, Colombia, the Christmas season ends with wild festivities that take place on January 5 and 6. On January 5, known as the Día de Negritos or Day of the Black Ones, boys with black shoe polish chase girls and try to smear them with their blackened hands. There are parades in the afternoon with people in costume and chirimíasi (roving groups of musicians who play traditional Columbian music). The following day, January 6, is known as the Fiesta de los Blanquitos (Festival of the White Ones). Instead of chasing the girls with shoe polish, the boys use talcum powder and flour. More... | |