Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, January 6, 2023)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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lionize
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Adjective Phrases: Attributive vs. PredicativeAdjective phrases can either be attributive or predicative. Attributive adjectives occur immediately before or after the noun they modify. What are predicative adjectives? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Wilhelm SteinitzSteinitz was a pioneering modern chess player. After discovering a talent for chess while a student in Vienna, he devoted himself to the game and by 1866 was recognized as the world champion, although the title did not officially exist yet. His loss of the world championship in 1894 so disturbed him that he spent much of the rest of his life in mental institutions and died a pauper in 1900. Who took the title from Steinitz, and what did he say with regard to Steinitz and his unfortunate fate? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Samuel Morse Successfully Tests the Electrical Telegraph (1838)In 1832, Morse, an American painter-turned-inventor, began working on a system for transmitting messages as electrical pulses across a wire. Five years later, he was granted a patent for his electromagnetic telegraph, and he successfully tested the device a year after that. Public use of Morse's telegraph system, as well as the code he developed to represent letters and numbers as electrical pulses, began in 1844 and lasted over 100 years. What was the first message sent on the public system? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Richard II of England (1367)Richard II was perhaps the most enigmatic of the English kings, reigning from 1377 to 1399. He inherited the throne as a boy, but his uncle John of Gaunt and other nobles dominated the government, limiting his power. Taking revenge, he banished John's son, Henry, and confiscated his vast Lancastrian estates. Not long after, while Richard was away on an expedition, Henry returned and seized power. Forced to abdicate, Richard was imprisoned and died in captivity. What likely caused his death? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Honest people don't hide their deeds.Emily Bronte (1818-1848) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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look (at something) through rose-colored glasses— To assume a generally optimistic and cheerful attitude (toward something); to focus on the positive aspects (of something). Primarily heard in US. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Maroon Festival (2023)When Jamaica was a Spanish territory in the 16th century, African slaves were brought in to work the plantations. The Spanish eventually left, and the former slaves fled to the mountains. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the island's British inhabitants were often attacked by descendants of these fugitive slaves, who were called Maroons. The annual Maroon Festival on January 6 commemorates the peace treaty with the English and establishment of the town of Accompong. It is celebrated with traditional dancing and singing, feasts and ceremonies, and the blowing of the abeng. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tidebillow - The swell on the ocean produced by the wind, or on a river or estuary by the tide or wind. More... slack water, slack tide - Before any turn of the tide, there is a time of slack water or slack tide. More... happy as a clam - Originally happy-as-a-clam-at-full-tide; it may refer to the fact that when the tide is full, nobody is digging clams. More... tidy - Comes from tide, which in Old English meant "time period"; its original meaning was "timely, opportune." More... | |