Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, February 4, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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inestimable
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| Article of the Day | |
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 The Venera ProgramThe Venera Program consisted of a series of unmanned Soviet planetary probes sent to Venus between 1965 and 1983. Venera 2 flew to within 15,000 miles (24,000 km) of Venus in 1966. A few days later, Venera 3 crash-landed on its surface, becoming the first spacecraft to strike another planet. Later missions analyzed Venus's atmosphere, made soft landings, and mapped and sent back the first close-up photographs of some of the planet's surface. What does Venera mean in Russian? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Karen Carpenter Dies of Anorexia-Related Heart Failure (1983)Anorexia nervosa was a little-known disorder during Carpenter's life, but her death brought it lasting media attention. Performing alongside her brother Richard as half of the Carpenters duo, she had become a successful pop singer in the 1970s. Behind the scenes, however, her obsessive dieting and extreme weight fluctuations took a toll on her health, straining her heart. She succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 32. What is her husband said to have thrown into the casket at her funeral? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (1917)Yahya Khan was the president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971. As president, he inherited a two-decade old constitutional problem of interethnic rivalry, complicated by economic grievances and the problem of transforming a virtual autocracy into a democracy. He declared martial law, but it failed to curb domestic unrest, and civil war between East and West Pakistan broke out. Pakistan's army was defeated, and Yahya Khan resigned after the establishment of what independent republic in 1971? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance…and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.Henry James (1843-1916) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Agatha Festival (2021)Sant' Agata (St. Agatha) is especially revered in Catania, Sicily, where her relics are preserved in a silver casket. On February 3, 4, and 5 each year, a silver bust of St. Agatha wearing a jewel-encrusted crown is carried in procession from the cathedral to Catania's various churches. Included in the procession are the ceri, huge wooden replicas of candlesticks that are carved with episodes from the saint's martyrdom. The streets are lined with streamers and flowers, and illuminated by strings of colored lights after dark. The festival ends with a fireworks display in the piazza. More... | |