Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, November 11, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Article of the Day | |
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 AerosansUsed by the Soviet Red Army during the Winter War and World War II, the aerosan is a type of propeller-powered snowmobile that runs on skis. First developed early in the 20th century, aerosans were valued for their high mobility in deep snow and on frozen water bodies and came to be used for a number of functions, including communications, mail deliveries, medical aid, and border patrolling in northern Russia. Some of the first aerosans may have been built by what famous aircraft designer? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Kaprun Disaster Leaves 155 Dead (2000)High above the Austrian ski resort of Kaprun, a funicular railway car carrying over 160 people to a glacier caught fire after a defective heater ignited hydraulic brake fluid in the rear of the car. Only partway through a 2-mi (3.2-km) tunnel, the car came to a sudden halt. As the fire grew, the passengers were plunged into darkness and trapped behind inoperable doors. Almost all who managed to escape the burning car suffocated in the tunnel. How did the 12 survivors manage to escape to safety? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922)An influential American writer, Vonnegut used wry, black humor to highlight the horrors of 20th-century civilization. His novels, which include Breakfast of Champions and Player Piano, are frequently satirical and pessimistic, yet morally urgent. The best-selling Slaughterhouse-Five was based on Vonnegut's experience of surviving the firebombing of Dresden. Which of Vonnegut's novels was accepted by the University of Chicago as his thesis for an anthropology degree? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.James Madison (1751-1836) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Martin's Day (Portugal) (2020)On the Feast of São Martinho, people roast chestnuts, drink red Portuguese wine, and butcher a pig. There is a St. Martin's Day Fair at Golegã, in Ribatejo, that features a famous horse show at which some of the country's finest thoroughbreds are displayed. Another well-known St. Martin's Day Fair is held at Penafiel, in Trás-os-Montes. The parades and celebrations that are held in towns and villages throughout Portugal on this day are usually more secular than Christian in flavor. More... | |