Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, May 1, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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balustrade
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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NounsNouns are words that indicate a person, place, or thing. In a sentence, nouns can function as the subject or the object of a verb or preposition. Nouns can also follow linking verbs to rename or re-identify the subject of a sentence or clause. These are known as what? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 SunflowersThe sunflower is a plant native to the New World and common throughout the US. Its stem can grow up to 10 ft (3 m) tall, and its flower head, commonly having yellow rays, can reach 1 ft (30 cm) in diameter. The sunflower was domesticated around 1000 BCE in the Americas, where the Incas venerated it as an image of their sun god, and it reached Europe in the 16th century. It is valued today for its oil-bearing seeds that can be made into bread. The sunflower is the state flower of what US state? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 U-2 Crisis of 1960 Begins (1960)After becoming Soviet premier in 1958, Nikita Khrushchev asserted a doctrine of peaceful coexistence with capitalist nations. He toured the US in 1959 and planned a Paris summit with the US, Britain, and France in 1960, but in May of that year, an American U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Khrushchev cancelled the conference, and the American pilot, F. Gary Powers, was tried in the Soviet Union and sentenced to 10 years in prison. What happened to him? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Anna Marie Jarvis (1864)Though she never wed or had children herself, Jarvis campaigned tirelessly for the establishment of an annual holiday honoring mothers. She began her campaign after the death of her mother, a social activist who had brought mothers together in an effort to counter the divisions caused by the Civil War. By 1914, Mother's Day had been proclaimed a US national holiday. Rather than savor her success, Jarvis soon became one of the holiday's most vehement opponents. Why did she want it abolished? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms. The passions may rage furiously, like true heathens, as they are; and the desires may imagine all sorts of vain things: but judgment shall still have the last word in every argument, and the casting vote in every decision.Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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heat wave— A period of time in which the weather is unusually and persistently hot. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Lei Day (2021)This is a celebration of Hawaii's state symbol of friendship. Leis are garlands made of flower blossoms, seeds, leaves, ferns, and pods. The events of the day include state-wide lei competition, the crowning of a Lei Queen in Honolulu, and assorted exhibits and hula performances. The queen's coronation is accompanied by chanting and the blowing of conch shells. On the day after the celebration, leis from the state-wide competitions are ceremoniously placed on the graves of Hawaii's royalty at the Royal Mausoleum in Nuuanu Valley. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: notchcrenelation, crenelle - A crenelation (from Latin crena, "notch") is a series of indentations or loopholes around the top of a castle, battlement, or wall—with each indentation being a crenelle (or crenel). More... carf, kerf - A cut or notch in timber is a carf or kerf—which are also used to describe the width of such a cut. More... dent - As in "notch," it comes from the French word for tooth; its original meaning was "blow, stroke" in general. More... score - First a notch used to keep count, as on a stick. More... | |