Historical Events, Birthdays And Quotations

This Day in History

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Born José Joaquim da Silva Xavier, Tiradentes gained his nickname, which means "tooth-puller," working as a healer in his youth. In the late 1780s, he joined and soon became the leader of a revolutionary movement against Portuguese rule in Brazil that was inspired by the American Revolution. In 1789, the movement was betrayed and its leaders were imprisoned. They were freed and exiled in 1792 with the exception of Tiradentes, who was executed in Rio de Janeiro. What was done with his remains? Discuss

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were seniors at Colorado's Columbine High School when they carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in US history, killing 12 students and one teacher and injuring 21 others before taking their own lives. The incident, widely covered by the media, stirred debate about the pair's motivation for the killings, the availability of firearms, and the role of bullying, video games, and music in acts of violence. For what crime had the two been previously arrested?

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the opening engagements of the American Revolution. While marching from Boston to Concord to seize colonists' military stores, a British force of 700 was met at Lexington by 77 local minutemen. After a brief exchange of shots, the outnumbered colonists fell back. The British continued on to Concord, where they were defeated by a militia of about 500. Who had been sent to warn the people of the Massachusetts countryside about the impending British attack?

In the News

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 05:00:00 GMT

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Today's Birthdays

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Weber was a German sociologist and political economist whose most famous and controversial work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, examines the relationship between Calvinist—or Puritan—morality, compulsive labor, bureaucracy, and economic success under capitalism. Weber also wrote about social phenomena such as charisma and mysticism, which he saw as antithetical to the modern world and its underlying process of rationalization. What other important works did he write? Discuss

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

After moving to Paris in 1778, Pinel, a French physician, was appointed director of the Bicêtre and Salpêtrière hospitals. His experiences there prompted him to advocate for the humane treatment of mentally ill persons—then called the insane—and for the empirical study of mental disease. He further contributed to the development of psychiatry by establishing the practice of thoroughly documenting psychiatric case histories for research. What initially inspired Pinel's interest in mental illness?

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Ricardo was a British economist who made a fortune in the stock market before turning to the study of political economy, publishing his major work, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, in 1817. According to his labor theory of value, the value of almost any good is a function of the labor needed to produce it; thus, a $10 watch requires ten times more labor than a $1 pencil. According to his "iron law of wages," what keeps wages stabilized around the subsistence level?

Article of the Day

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Avalanches are sudden falls or slides of large masses of material down the side of a mountain and are classified by their content, such as snow, ice, soil, rock, or a mixture of these materials. They can reach speeds of more than 200 mph (320 km/h), pushing destructive air masses, known as avalanche winds, ahead of the falling debris. The actual impact of avalanche material, meanwhile, can also cause major devastation. What can trigger an avalanche, and what measures might help prevent one? Discuss

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Clicks are speech sounds used in many African languages, particularly in the Khoisan family of languages. They are produced by raising the back of the tongue to make contact with the palate and simultaneously closing the lips or touching the teeth or alveolar ridge with the tip and sides of the tongue. The only non-African language known to use clicks as regular speech sounds is Damin, spoken by certain Aboriginal Australians. What click sound is used in English to express disapproval or pity?

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

The loquat is a small ornamental evergreen tree that belongs to the rose family and is related to the apple and other temperate-zone fruit trees. It bears yellowish, oval-shaped fruits that grow in clusters and taste similar to mildly tart apples or pears. Probably indigenous to China, it has been grown from antiquity in Japan and northern India and is also cultivated in Indochina, the Mediterranean region, and New World subtropics. What deadly poison is found in the fruit’s seeds?

Quotations of the Day

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Sun, 21 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

If you are foolish enough to be contented, don't show it, but grumble with the rest. Discuss

Sat, 20 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

God's creature is one. He makes man, not men. His true creature is unitary and infinite, revealing himself, indeed, in every finite form, but compromised by none.

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 05:00:00 GMT

Those who prepared for all the emergencies of life beforehand may equip themselves at the expense of joy.

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