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December 16, 2025
Dec 16, 2025
Word
belfry
noun
Definition
  1. a bell tower; especially : one surmounting or attached to another structure
  2. a room or framework for enclosing a bell
  3. head
Example
"Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be…." -- From Henry Wadworth Longfellow's 1860 poem "Paul Revere's Ride"
Origin
Surprisingly, "belfry" does not come from "bell," and early belfries did not contain bells at all. "Belfry" comes from "berfrey," a medieval term for a wooden tower used in sieges. The structure could be rolled up to a fortification wall so that warriors hidden inside could storm the battlements. Over time, the term was applied to other types of shelters and towers, many of which had bells in them. Through association, people began spelling "berfrey" as "bellfrey," then as "belfrey" and later "belfry." On a more metaphorical note, someone who has "bats in the belfry" is crazy or eccentric. This phrase is responsible for the use of "bats" for "crazy" ("Are you completely bats?") and the occasional use of "belfry" for "head" ("He's not quite right in the belfry").
Webster's Dictionary
Fun facts
  1. Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the sun once.
  2. The beaver is the official animal of Canada.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Félix Bracquemond
May 22, 1833 - Oct 29, 1914

Félix Henri Bracquemond was a French painter and etcher. He played a key role in the revival of printmaking, encouraging artists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Camille Pissaro to use this technique.

Unusually for a prominent artist of this period, he also designed pottery for a number of French factories, in an innovative style that marks the beginning of Japonisme in France.

He was the husband of the Impressionist painter Marie Bracquemond.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Sitting Bull
1831 - Dec 15, 1890

Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance to United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.

Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw many soldiers, "as thick as grasshoppers," falling upside down into the Lakota camp, which his people took as a foreshadowing of a major victory in which many soldiers would be killed. About three weeks later, the confederated Lakota tribes with the Northern Cheyenne defeated the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876, annihilating Custer's battalion and seeming to bear out Sitting Bull's prophetic vision. Sitting Bull's leadership inspired his people to a major victory. In response, the US government sent thousands more soldiers to the area, forcing many of the Lakotas to surrender over the next year. Sitting Bull refused to surrender, and in May 1877 he led his band north to Wood Mountain, North-Western Territory.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Aug 6, 1945 - Aug 9, 1945

The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only uses of nuclear weapons in armed conflict.

In the final year of World War II, the Allies prepared for a very costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. This undertaking was preceded by a conventional and firebombing campaign which devastated 67 Japanese cities. The war in Europe had concluded when Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945, and the Allies turned their full attention to the Pacific theater. The Allies called for the unconditional surrender of the Imperial Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction". Japan ignored the ultimatum and the war continued.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture