Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, December 9, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Article of the Day | |
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 The 1996 Mount Everest DisasterIn 1996, 15 people died trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest, making it the deadliest year in the mountain's history. Eight of the deaths occurred on a single day in May, when climbers were caught by a fierce storm. The disaster gained wide publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest. Journalist Jon Krakauer, who witnessed the tragedy firsthand while on assignment for a magazine article, later recounted his experience in what bestseller? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Eradication of Smallpox Is Certified (1979)One of the deadliest diseases in history by sheer loss of life, smallpox was the target of a concerted, worldwide eradication campaign in the 20th century, and it became the first disease to have been successfully wiped out. Efforts focused on vaccination and quickly responding to and curtailing outbreaks. The last person to die from smallpox caught it at a laboratory, where samples of the now-vanquished disease remain. Who is the last person known to have contracted it in the wild? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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.jpg) Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717)The son of a German cobbler, Winckelmann overcame years of hardship to pursue his love of ancient Greek art, becoming a renowned scholar and one of the founders of scientific archaeology and art history. He spent much of his later life studying in the vast Vatican Library, and his writings reawakened the popular taste for Classical art and helped spur the Neoclassical movement. In 1768, a fellow traveler—who did not know who Winckelmann was—murdered him at a hotel, ostensibly for what reason? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.Homer (900 BC-800 BC) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Tanzania Independence Day (2020)Tanzania Independence Day is a celebration of independence from the British in 1961 of Tanganyika, which merged with Zanzibar in 1964 to become Tanzania. The day is a national holiday celebrated with parades, youth leagues marching before the president at the stadium in Dar es Salaam, school games, cultural dances, and aerobatics by the air force. More... | |