Daily Content Archive

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This Day in History

The Great Blondin Crosses Niagara Falls on Tightrope (1859) Best known as "The Great Blondin," Jean François Gravelet was a French tightrope walker and acrobat famous for making multiple crossings of Niagara Falls on a tightrope on several occasions. Balancing 160 feet (48 m) above the water on a 1,100-foot (335-m) tightrope, Blondin dazzled crowds by using a different theatrical variation each time he crossed, performing the feat blindfolded, in a sack, pushing a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man on his back, and sitting down to do what? More...

Today's Birthday

Michael Phelps (1985) Phelps is an American swimmer who has won 16 Olympic medals, 14 of them gold. He started swimming as a child and competed in his first Olympics at 15. A year later, he became the youngest male ever to set a world swimming record, doing so in the 200-meter butterfly. In 2008, he set a record for most gold medals won at a single Olympiad—eight—while setting as many swimming records. Which swimmer voiced doubts about Phelps' ability to break the record but was happy to be proven wrong? More...

Quotation of the Day

Idiom of the Day
be on (the) air — To be broadcasting live, as on television or radio. More...

Today's Holiday

Joust of the Saracens (La Giostra del Saracino) (2023) The most famous of the Italian jousting festivals, La Giostra del Saracino originated during the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), when it was used as propaganda to support the fight to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims. Eight knights representing the four quarters of Arezzo, where the festival takes place, march to the piazza, where an effigy of a Moor or Saracen has been set up. The effigy is armed with a heavy flail, and the knights must try to hit it in the center with their lances without being touched by the flail. The winner is rewarded with a golden lance on behalf of his district. More...