Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, July 2, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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lustrous
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| Article of the Day | |
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 HeshenHeshen was an 18th-century Manchu official who has come to symbolize the corruption of China's Qing dynasty. A favorite of the emperor, he rose from bodyguard to grand councilor and minister of the imperial household in just two years, at which point he took to extorting and embezzling on a grand scale. His associates, whom he had given political appointments, followed his example, thus beginning a century of corruption that led to the dynasty’s downfall. Why did he enjoy the emperor’s favor? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Wal-Mart Store Opens in Rogers, Arkansas (1962)Today the world's largest corporation, the Walmart chain of superstores was founded by Sam Walton, a former US Army Captain with an economics degree. Walton owned and ran a chain of five-and-dime stores in Arkansas before he opened his first Wal-Mart store in 1962. In the 50 years since, the company, which sells brand-name goods in high volume at low prices, has flourished. It now has 8,500 stores operating in over a dozen countries. What percent of the US population visits a Walmart each week? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Hermann Hesse (1877)Hesse was German novelist and poet who wrote about the individual's search for spiritual fulfillment, often through mysticism. His major works include Siddhartha and Steppenwolf. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. At around the time of his death in 1962, his novels began to enjoy a revival of popularity due to their association with some of the themes of the 1960s counterculture movement. What fellow German writers did Hesse help to escape from the Nazis? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 What they do in heaven we are ignorant of; what they do not do we are told expressly.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 William Tell Play (2020)The legendary Swiss hero William Tell symbolized the struggle for individual and political freedom. When he defied the Austrian authorities, he was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head in order to gain his freedom. The story of his test as a marksman has passed into folklore, and German dramatist J. C. Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) wrote a play about Tell in 1804. Set in the environs of Altdorf, the legendary site of the apple-shooting incident, Schiller's play has been performed at an open-air theater in Interlaken, Switzerland, since 1912. More... | |