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May 24, 2026
May 24, 2026
Word
hawkshaw
noun
Definition
detective
Example
Though she risked being late for an appointment, Amanda could not bring herself to set the book down until the novel's hawkshaw had solved the mystery.
Origin
If you're a fan of mystery writing, you may have a favorite fictional detective. Perhaps it's Hercule Poirot (created by Agatha Christie), Lord Peter Wimsey (created by Dorothy L. Sayers), or Mike Hammer (created by Mickey Spillane). These and other famous sleuths from the mystery genre follow in the tradition of a fictional detective from the 19th century: Hawkshaw, a theatrical gumshoe introduced in the 1863 play The Ticket of Leave Man by British dramatist Tom Taylor. "Hawkshaw" gained further popularity as a general term for a detective when the name was used for a character in a comic strip by American cartoonist Gus Mager.
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
many happy returns
Also, many happy returns of the day. Happy birthday and many more of them, as in I came by to wish you many happy returns. This expression was first recorded in a letter of 1779 where the writer meant "Happy New Year," but the present meaning has persisted since the second half of the 1800s.
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. Queen Cleopatra of Egypt was not actually Egyptian.
  2. More Siberian tigers live in zoos than in the wild.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Carl Larsson
May 28, 1853 - Jan 22, 1919

Carl Olof Larsson was a Swedish painter representative of the Arts and Crafts movement. His many paintings include oils, watercolors, and frescoes. He is principally known for his watercolors of idyllic family life. He considered his finest work to be Midvinterblot, a large painting now displayed inside the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Francis Biddle
May 9, 1886 - Oct 4, 1968

Francis Beverley Biddle was an American lawyer and judge who was Attorney General of the United States during World War II and who served as the primary American judge during the postwar Nuremberg trials. He also served as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Battle of Steenbergen

The Battle of Steenbergen, also known as the Capture of Steenbergen of 1583, took place on 17 June 1583 at Steenbergen, Duchy of Brabant, Spanish Netherlands. This was an important victory to the Spanish Army of Flanders led by Don Alexander Farnese, Prince of Parma, Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands, over the French, English, and Dutch forces led by the French Marshal Armand de Gontaut, Baron de Biron, and the English commander Sir John Norreys, during the Eighty Years' War, the Anglo-Spanish War, and in the context of the French Wars of Religion. The victory of the Spaniards ended the Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours, and Francis, Duke of Anjou, left the Netherlands in late June.

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