Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, July 19, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
dissenter
| |||||||
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 MonarchomachsWith a name meaning "killers of monarchs," the Monarchomachs were originally members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France who opposed absolute monarchy at the end of the 16th century. Born out of the wars between Catholics and Protestants, the Monarchomachs promoted a theory of tyrannicide—the killing or assassination of tyrants for the common good—in their advocacy of popular sovereignty. What separated their political vision from the modern conception of democracy? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 WWI: Battle of Fromelles Begins (1916)The Battle of Fromelles was fought in France during World War I between Germany and a combined force of British and Australian troops. More than 1,500 British and 5,500 Australian soldiers were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. The battle resulted in a decisive victory for Germany, which suffered 1,500 casualties. The Australian War Memorial describes the battle as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history." The Allies had planned to launch the attack sooner, but were delayed by what? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Rosalyn Yalow (1921)Yalow was a medical physicist who developed the technique of radioimmunoassay (RIA)—a simple way to measure tiny concentrations of substances such as hormones, enzymes, or drugs in blood or other bodily fluids. She originally applied RIA to study blood insulin levels in diabetes mellitus, but the method soon found hundreds of other applications. For these discoveries, she shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in medicine, becoming only the second woman to win the award in this field. Who was the first? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 You, who are blessed with shade as well as light, you, who are gifted with two eyes, endowed with a knowledge of perspective, and charmed with the enjoyment of various colors, you, who can actually see…the Three Dimensions—how shall I make clear to you the extreme difficulty which we in Flatland experience in recognizing one another's configuration?Edwin Abbott (1838-1926) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Swan Upping (2017)The tradition of marking newborn swans goes back six centuries, when most of the swans on England's public waters were owned by the Queen. Every year since 1363, the Queen's swan master and the swan wardens of the two livery companies row up the Thames, starting at Blackfriars and continuing upstream to Abingdon, and "up" all the swan families into the boats, where they are marked with identification numbers. There are very specific rules governing how ownership is decided, and the six boats, each flying a large silk flag, form a procession that has changed little over the centuries. More... | |