Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
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This Day in History

Charles de Gaulle Resigns as President of France (1969) A celebrated general and statesman, de Gaulle was elected first president of France's Fifth Republic—a system of government with broad executive powers—in 1959. He helped write the constitution and pushed for direct popular election of the president. The mass civil unrest of May 1968 by students and workers almost toppled his government, and in 1969 de Gaulle was defeated in a referendum on constitutional amendments and resigned. He died just a year later. Whom did he bar from his funeral? More...

Today's Birthday

Nelle Harper Lee (1926) The daughter of an Alabama lawyer, Lee studied law before publishing her first novel in 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird, the story of a white lawyer who defends a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl, immediately found national acclaim. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was adapted for film the next year, but Lee largely stayed out of the spotlight. What did she once write in response to a school board's decision to ban her novel? More...

Quotation of the Day

Idiom of the Day
not any hard feelings — No ill will; no resentment or anger. More...

Today's Holiday

Low Sunday (2019) The Sunday following the "high" feast of Easter, this is also known as Quasimodo Sunday, Close Sunday, or Low Easterday. "Low" probably refers to the lack of high ritual used on Easter, and not to the low attendance usual on this day. The name Quasimodo Sunday comes from the Introit of the mass which is said on this day. In Latin it begins with the phrase Quasi modo geniti infantes—"As newborn babes...." The famous character Quasimodo in Victor Hugo's novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is said to have been found abandoned on this day, which marks the close of Easter week. More...