Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, May 31, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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sufferable
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| Article of the Day | |
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 The Brazen BullThe brazen bull is a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece by Perillos, a brass-founder, for Phalaris, the cruel tyrant of Agrigentum, Sicily, who ruled from about 570 to 554 BCE. Perillos cast a hollow brass bull that had a door on its side, allowing the condemned to be placed inside it. A fire lit beneath the bull would roast the victim alive. The device was designed so that the victim’s screams would sound like the bellowing of a bull. Who, ironically, was its first victim? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Copyright Act of 1790 Signed into US Law (1790)After the US Constitution was ratified in 1788, one of the first issues that the fledgling government faced was the lack of a copyright law. Without it, Congress would be swamped with individual petitions for protection from piracy. Modeled on Britain's Statute of Anne, the Copyright Act of 1790 was soon signed into law by President Washington. Instituted to encourage learning by securing US authors the sole rights to their work for 14-year periods, it drew what complaint from Charles Dickens? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443)Beaufort was an English noblewoman, wife of Edmund Tudor, and the mother of Henry VII, founder of the Tudor Dynasty. She gave birth to Henry at 13, shortly after being widowed, and developed a close bond with her only child. Renowned for her philanthropy, she endowed professorships of divinity at Oxford and Cambridge and with the help of her confessor, John Fisher, founded Christ's College and St. John's College, Cambridge. She later acted as regent for Henry VIII. How many times did she marry? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 We ascribe beauty to that which is simple; which has no superfluous parts; which exactly answers its end; which stands related to all things; which is the mean of many extremes.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Festa do Divino (Festival of the Divine Holy Spirit) (2020)Portuguese colonists brought their Pentecost celebration, the Festa do Divino, to Brazil in the 17th century. This religious festival is still celebrated today in many Brazilian cities. In Alcântara, Maranhão State, and Paraty, Rio de Janeiro State, the townspeople dress up in colonial costumes of figures from Brazilian history. The climax is a visit from the "Emperor," who arrives with his servants for a procession and mass at the church square. He symbolically frees prisoners from the town jail, and strolling musicians known as Folias do Divino serenade the townspeople. More... | |