Historical Events, Birthdays And Quotations

This Day in History

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening engagements of the American Revolution. While marching from Boston to Concord to seize colonists' military stores, a British force of 700 was met at Lexington by 77 local minutemen. After a brief exchange of shots, the outnumbered colonists fell back. The British continued on to Concord, where they were defeated by a militia of about 500. Who had been sent to warn the people of the Massachusetts countryside about the impending British attack? Discuss

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

With a capacity of over 60,000 people, St. Peter's Basilica is the one of the world's largest churches as well as one of the world's holiest Catholic sites. Begun by Pope Julius II in 1506 and completed more than a century later, it was built to replace Old St. Peter's, erected by Constantine over Peter's traditional burial site. Michelangelo and Bernini were among its many architects, and a number of their masterpieces adorn its interior. Why is St. Peter's not considered a cathedral?

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Less than a year after the first lunar landing, Apollo 13 departed for the moon. Two days into the mission, an oxygen tank exploded, severely damaging the spacecraft's electrical system, and the landing had to be aborted. Despite limited power, loss of cabin heat, a shortage of potable water, and the need to improvise a carbon dioxide removal system, the craft returned safely to Earth. The immortal line from the mission—"Houston, we have a problem"—is a misquote. What was actually said?

Word Trivia

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

pitched - Describing a "steeply downward sloping" roof built at an angle. More...

fastigiate - Means "sloping up to a point." More...

slalom - From Norwegian sla, "sloping," and lam, "track." More...

squint - Short for the obsolete asquint, which may have come from Dutch schuin, "sideways, sloping." More...

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

aperitif, appetizer - An aperitif is a drink to stimulate the appetite and an appetizer is a food that does this before a meal. More...

condiment - From Latin condimentum, from condire, "to pickle, preserve"; condiments are food substances used to heighten the natural flavor of foods, to stimulate the appetite, to aid digestion, or preserve certain foods. More...

innervate, enervate - Innervate means "to stimulate or give nervous energy," the opposite of enervate. More...

stimulate - From Latin stimulus, "pointed stick for goading animals." More...

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

lethologica - If you cannot recall the precise word for something, you have a case of lethologica, which may lead you to an obsession with trying to recall it—loganamnosis. More...

remember - From Latin rememorari, "recall to mind." More...

reduce, reduct - Reduce first meant "bring back or recall in memory" or "take back or refer (a thing) to its origin," from Latin reducere, "lead back"; reduct means "simplify." More...

tartle - From Scottish, to hesitate in recognizing a person or thing, as happens when you are introduced to someone whose name you cannot recall; so you say, "Pardon my tartle!" More...

Today's Birthdays

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Ricardo was a British economist who made a fortune in the stock market before turning to the study of political economy, publishing his major work, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, in 1817. According to his labor theory of value, the value of almost any good is a function of the labor needed to produce it; thus, a $10 watch requires ten times more labor than a $1 pencil. According to his "iron law of wages," what keeps wages stabilized around the subsistence level? Discuss

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Darrow was an American lawyer and a leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union. He worked to free anarchists charged with murder in the Haymarket Riot, and his defense of Eugene V. Debs established his reputation as a union lawyer. Later came sensational criminal cases that displayed his eminence as a defense lawyer, especially the Loeb-Leopold murder case. Perhaps his most famous case was the Scopes trial, in which he defended a high school teacher who was charged with what?

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

The son of a financier, Morgan began his career as an accountant before being named a partner in the firm that became J.P. Morgan and Company. One of the world's most powerful railroad magnates, he formed a syndicate to supply the US Treasury's depleted gold reserves and financed the mergers that formed General Electric and US Steel Corporation—the world's first billion-dollar corporation. In addition to being a noted art collector, Morgan had one of America's most important collections of what?

Article of the Day

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

A ziggurat is a pyramidal structure built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform with a shrine at its summit. Access to the shrine is provided by a series of ramps located on one side of the temple or by a continuous spiral ramp. These temples—the earliest examples of which date to the end of the third millennium BCE—were commonly erected by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. What is the significance of the multicolored brick facings found on many ziggurats? Discuss

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

In 1965, archeologists excavating ancient tombs in Hubei, China, discovered a bronze sword sheathed tightly in a wooden scabbard. The weapon had been in a wet, underground tomb for over 2,000 years, yet the blade remained untarnished and sharp. Scientists, amazed by the sword's resilience, tested it to determine its chemical composition and found it to be an alloy of six metals. What does the “text of birds and worms” inscribed on the blade tell historians about the artifact?

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Astrobiology, also called exobiology, combines aspects of astronomy, biology, and geology in an interdisciplinary study of life in space. According to astrobiologists, the search for extraterrestrial life throughout the universe is governed by 6 basic parameters that determine whether an environment can support life: temperature, pressure, salinity, acidity, water availability, and oxygen content. Which 3 planetary bodies, located within our solar system, are best equipped to sustain life?

Quotations of the Day

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Every tale must end at last. Discuss

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

Buy an annuity cheap, and make your life interesting to yourself and everybody else that watches the speculation.

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 05:00:00 GMT

If we used money to buy things with, instead of love and kindness and the desire to please one another, then we should be no better than the rest of the world.