Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
flattop Definition: (noun) A large warship that carries planes and has a long flat deck for take-offs and landings. Synonyms: aircraft carrier Usage: Before the invasion, the general ordered a large flattop to anchor several miles offshore to facilitate a swift aerial attack.

Article of the Day

The Winchester Mystery House The Winchester Mystery House is a famous California mansion that is reputed to be haunted. Sarah Winchester, the widow of a gun magnate, began building the Winchester Mystery House in 1884 after a medium advised her to construct a house to appease the ghosts of all those killed by Winchester rifles. Construction continued for 38 years, since Sarah Winchester believed that if she stopped working on the house, she would die. What significance does the number 13 have in the mansion? More...

This Day in History

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

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
Her pupils were at once her salvation and her despair. They gave her the means of supporting life, but they made life hardly worth supporting. P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975)

Idiom of the Day
miss the mark — To be slightly or somewhat mistaken, incorrect, or inaccurate. More...

Today's Holiday

Feast of the Visitation (2023) On this day, Christian churches in the West commemorate the Virgin Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth. After learning that she was to be the mother of Jesus, Mary went into the mountains of Judea to see her cousin, the wife of Zechariah, who had conceived a son to be known as John the Baptist. According to the Gospel of Luke, Elizabeth's baby "leaped in her womb" (1:41) at the sound of Mary's voice. It was at this moment, according to the belief of some Roman Catholics, that John the Baptist was cleansed from original sin and filled with heavenly grace. More...