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August 8, 2026
Aug 8, 2026
Word
virescent
adjective
Definition
beginning to be green : greenish
Example
Buds formed on the bare trees, infusing the stark branches with a slight virescent tint.
Origin
"Virescent" first appeared in English in 1826. It derives from the present participle of "virescere," a Latin verb meaning "to become green" and a form of another verb, "virēre," meaning "to be green." "Virēre" also gave us another adjective meaning green, "verdant," only the route to that adjective takes a stop at Old French "verdoier" ("to be green"). "Virescent" has seen occasional general use, as when Thomas Hardy wrote, in his 1881 novel A Laodicean, of "[t]he summer … tipping every twig with a virescent yellow." But it is nowadays found most frequently in scientific contexts, especially those pertaining to botany.
Webster's Dictionary
Idiom
clean someone's clock
Beat, thrash, or defeat someone decisively, as in He's much bigger than you and could easily clean your clock. This term originated in the military. The use of clock is unclear but possibly alludes to hitting someone in the face (for "clockface"). [Slang; mid-1900s]
The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
Fun facts
  1. Adults laugh only about 15 to 100 times a day, while six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day.
  2. Long Island is the largest island in the Continental U.S.
Snapple's under-the-cap 'Real Facts'
Artist
Ferdinand Bol
Jun 24, 1616 - Aug 24, 1680

Ferdinand Bol was a Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman. Although his surviving work is rare, it displays Rembrandt's influence; like his master, Bol favored historical subjects, portraits, numerous self-portraits, and single figures in exotic finery.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historical figure
Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
Jun 7, 1770 - Dec 4, 1828

Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, KG, PC, FRS, was a British statesman and Prime Minister.

As Prime Minister, Liverpool called for repressive measures at domestic level to maintain order after the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. He dealt smoothly with the Prince Regent when King George III was incapacitated. He also steered the country through the period of radicalism and unrest that followed the Napoleonic Wars. He favoured commercial and manufacturing interests as well as the landed interest. He sought a compromise of the heated issue of Catholic emancipation. The revival of the economy strengthened his political position. By the 1820s he was the leader of a reform faction of "Liberal Tories" who lowered the tariff, abolished the death penalty for many offences, and reformed the criminal law. By the time of his death, however, the Tory Party was ripping itself apart.

Historian John Derry says he was:

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture
Historic event
Doolittle Raid

The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first air operation to strike the Japanese archipelago. It demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was planned, led by, and named after Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle, later General of the United States Air Force.

Sixteen B-25B Mitchell medium bombers were launched without fighter escort from the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Hornet deep in the Western Pacific Ocean, each with a crew of five men. The plan called for them to bomb military targets in Japan and to continue westward to land in China. The bombing raid killed about 50 people, including civilians, and injured 400. Fifteen aircraft reached China but all crashed, while the 16th landed at Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. Of the 80 crew members, 77 survived the mission. Eight airmen were captured by Japanese Army troops in China; three were later executed.

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Wikipedia, Google Arts & Culture