Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
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Article of the Day

Father Divine George Baker was a controversial African-American spiritual leader. He began preaching to poor Blacks in the rural American south, moved north, and established the Peace Mission Movement in New York City in 1919. Calling himself Father Divine and claiming to be God, he attracted a large following in New York and Philadelphia. He preached communal living and racial equality and prohibited tobacco, liquor, and cosmetics. Which infamous cult leader claimed to be the reincarnation of Father Divine? More...

This Day in History

Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" Is Published (1948) Published by the The New Yorker the same month it was written, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" instantly became one of the most controversial stories ever run by the esteemed magazine. Hundreds of outraged readers cancelled their subscriptions or wrote letters expressing their confusion and anger over the story's meaning. Now considered a classic, the chilling story matter-of-factly describes an annual lottery in a bucolic American town in which one person is selected for what? More...

Today's Birthday

Abner Doubleday (1819) Doubleday was a US Army officer who distinguished himself in the American Civil War. He fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter and saw action at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. He also served in the Mexican and Seminole Wars. He retired from the army in 1873 and wrote many articles, including two accounts of his war experiences, drawing on his 67 volumes of diaries. For years, accounts persisted that he invented the game of baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839. Did he? More...

Quotation of the Day
An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward. Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Idiom of the Day
odds and sods — An assortment of small, miscellaneous items, especially those that are not especially important or valuable. Primarily heard in UK, Australia. More...

Today's Holiday
Madagascar Independence Day (2025) This national holiday commemorates Madagascar's independence from France on this day in 1960. Republic Day is another public holiday in Madagascar, held on December 30, the day the new constitution went into effect. The country became a republic in 1975. More...