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Today in context,
January 27, 2021
Happy Birthday, Mozart!
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. He was unique in his ability to write in all the musical genres of his day and to excel in every one.
Seven famous child prodigies
Rumored to have had the ability to play music at age three and to write music at age five, Mozart began his career as a child prodigy. Here are a few other remarkable youngsters.
Did Mozart write “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”?
It is commonly believed that the tune was one of Mozart’s earliest compositions, written when he was a child for his older sister, Nannerl. But is it true?
10 classical music composers to know
Mozart is widely recognized as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, but who are the other great ones?
Now test your knowledge!
Sure you might know Mozart wrote Don Giovanni, but do you know who wrote Moonlight Sonata?
Peace with Honor?
On January 27, 1973, the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Viet-Nam (better known as the Paris Peace Accords) was signed by the United States, the governments of North and South Vietnam, and communist forces in South Vietnam. The cease-fire agreement brought an end to nearly two decades of U.S. involvement in Vietnam and maintained the 17th parallel as a dividing line between the North and the South until the country could be reunited by “peaceful means.” On April 30, 1975, the last Americans remaining in Saigon fled in a desperate airlift as North Vietnamese forces captured the southern capital.
Podcasts
See All Shows And Podcasts
Botanize!
Botanize!, hosted by Melissa Petruzzello, is a podcast that will introduce you to some of the world’s most remarkable plants, fungi, and algae. These overlooked organisms have fascinating evolutionary stories to tell about survival, exploitation, adaptation, and general scrappiness, and every episode will pique your curiosity. From parasitic plants to kelp forests, Botanize! aims to showcase some of Earth’s finest nonanimal life-forms and their brilliant ecologies.

Postcards from the 6th Mass Extinction
So far there have been five notable mass extinctions on Earth. A growing number of scientists argue that we’re now in the midst of a sixth. Postcards from the 6th Mass Extinction is a podcast hosted by John P. Rafferty that attempts to personalize extinction, emphasizing the survival challenges that familiar forms of life currently face, while at the same time considering the pivotal roles they play in their own ecosystems.

On This Day
Hear the stories that propelled us to the present day through insights that lend perspective to our world with a nod to our own humanity. Britannica media editor Kurt Heintz, together with Emily Goldstein and Meg Matthias, is on a mission to spotlight poignant and noteworthy events for every day of the year.
Demystifying Animals

Do Sharks Sleep?
It might depend on how one defines “sleep.”

Are Bats Rodents?
They look like mice with wings, but is the resemblance more than skin deep?
Browse by Category

Entertainment and leisure activities have been a part of all cultures in one form or another since the ancient times, whether the activity in question involved participating in a dance performance, attending a Broadway show, going to a music festival, or watching a movie.
Featured
- Japanese music
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9 Things You Didn’t Know Were Named After People
Wait, there was a real guy named “Henry Shrapnel”?
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Can Copyright Infringement Kill a Vampire?
Bram Stoker’s Dracula and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu...

Planet Earth contains some extraordinarily diverse environments, some of which are easily habitable and some not so much. In different areas of Earth, one might find sweltering deserts, dense tropical rainforests, or bone-chilling tundras. Each biome and habitat comes with its own selection of flora and fauna, and it may include physical features such as canyons, volcanoes, rivers, or caves. Human beings have built homes in many different environments, settling the area and organizing it into units such as cities, states, regions, and countries, each with its own points of interest. Shifting trends in human migration have resulted in a human geography that is profoundly different from that of centuries ago.
Featured
- Indo-Aryan languages
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Discover India
Which city lies on the Ganges river? What is the capital...
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Islands and Archipelagos
What are the islands of the Maldives made of? What...

The study of the human mind and body, how these function, and how they interact—not only with each other but also with their environment—has been of utmost importance in ensuring human well-being. Research on potential treatments and preventive medicine has expanded greatly with the development of modern medicine, and a network of disciplines, including such fields as genetics, psychology, and nutrition, aims to facilitate the betterment of our health.
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Ebola
disease
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Are There Really Right-Brained and Left-Brained People?
Is it true that logical people are left-brained and...
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Do Cats Cause Schizophrenia?
Are our feline companions driving us crazy?

It's easy enough to agree that human beings all around the world have certain basic requirements that must be fulfilled in order to ensure their individual and collective well-being. History has shown us, however, that it's not so easy to form societies or communities that fulfill these requirements for all members. The fight over human and civil rights has persisted for hundreds of years and remains alive today, both within the borders of nations and on an international scale. It has led to large-scale social movements and reforms concerning issues such as suffrage, slavery, women's rights, racial discrimination, environmentalism, gay rights, and more.
Featured
- Social service
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Why Do Airlines Overbook Seats on Flights?
American air carriers almost always sell more seats...
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Cannibalism: Cultures, Cures, Cuisine, and Calories
A short history of one of society’s biggest taboos.

With the development of language, the human imagination has found a way to create and communicate through the written word. A literary work can transport us into a fictional, fantastic new world, describe a fleeting feeling, or simply give us a picture of the past through novels, poems, tragedies, epic works, and other genres. Through literature, communication becomes an art, and it can bridge and bond people and cultures of different languages and backgrounds.
Featured
- English literature
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8 Influential Abolitionist Texts
Essays and letters that helped break fetters.
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All the World’s a Stage: 6 Places in Shakespeare, Then and Now
Tour with the Bard from Denmark to Egypt.

Humans have long pondered not only how we came to be but also why we came to be. The earliest Greek philosophers focused their attention upon the origin and nature of the physical world; later philosophers have theorized about the nature of knowledge, truth, good and evil, love, friendship, and much more. Thus, philosophy involves a methodical assessment of any and all aspects of human existence and experience. The realms of philosophy and religion have sometimes intersected in conducting inquiries such as these. As with philosophy, the study of religion underscores how humankind has long speculated about its origins. The possibility of a higher being (or beings) to which livings things owe their existence has long captived human thought. Many religions also offer their own views on the nature of good and evil, and they may prescribe guidelines and judgment on different kinds of human behavior.
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Daoism
Chinese philosophy and religion
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Philosophy 101
What is existentialism? Who was Socrates? What is idealism?...
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To All Nations: 8 Fascinating Jesuit Missionaries
They came, they taught, they converted.

The world today is divided territorially into more than 190 countries, each of which possesses a national government that claims to exercise sovereignty and seeks to compel obedience to its will by its citizens. Governments can be classified in any number of ways. For example, they might be classified by the number of rulers, thus distinguishing government by one (as in a monarchy or a tyranny) from government by the few (in an aristocracy or oligarchy) and from government by the many (as in a democracy). Governments can also be classified by mode of succession; for example, ascension to governmental leadership may follow the rules of hereditary succession, or it may be determined through elections or by force. Governments also vary in terms of the laws and rules of conduct that each political entity follows.
Featured
- Diplomacy
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Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
Which amendment is which? Match the amendment number...
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Republican or Democrat?
Think you’re a political junkie? Prove it by acing...

How can the sky be blue one day and stormy the next? Why do heavy objects tend to fall downwards when dropped? How are birds able to fly (and why can’t I do the same?)? Human beings have long been curious about the world in which we live, striving to identify connections among the phenomenons we witness and to understand how it all works. The field of science has developed over many centuries as a way of studying and understanding the world, beginning with the primitive stage of simply noting important regularities in nature and continuing through the rise of modern science. The modern-day sciences cover a vast range of fields, including biology, chemistry, meteorology, astronomy, physics, and much more.
Featured
- Physical science
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Parts of a Weather Map
How much do you know about the parts of a weather map?...
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Carnivorous Plants Quiz
There’s more to the world of carnivorous plants than...

Physical contests and recreational games have long played a part in human society. In both team and solo sports, the human body has been pushed to its limits in the name of improving athletic performance and to break record upon record. The ancient Olympic Games are an early example of the contests in which humans have engaged to showcase physical prowess. In modern times, sports and games have evolved into a lucrative and competitive industry, while other leisure activities, such as card and video games, can be competitive or can just be a way to unwind or socialize.
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Figure skating
sport
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Athletes Who Earned Most Olympic Gold Medals over career
This wordsearch challenge honors these remarkable athletes...
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Greatest Baseball Players
This wordsearch challenge introduces you to some of...

Humankind has long striven to improve its living conditions through the development of tools, instruments, and transportation and communications systems, all with the goal of making our lives easier, more productive and—why not—more fun, too! Thanks to human curiosity and technological research, many significant inventions have been made throughout history that in turn made a difference in our daily lives.
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Safety
condition
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Why Do You Have to Turn Off Electronic Devices on an Airplane?
An explanation for why passengers are barred from fully...
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How Does Wi-Fi Work?
Basically, the Internet is run by a bunch of 1s and...

These are the arts that meet the eye and evoke an emotion through an expression of skill and imagination. They include the most ancient forms, such as painting and drawing, and the arts that were born thanks to the development of technology, like sculpture, printmaking, photography, and installation art, the latter a combination of multiple creative expressions. Though beauty is in the eye of the beholder, different eras in art history have had their own principles to define beauty, from the richly ornamented taste of the Baroque to the simple, utilitarian style of the Prairie School.
Featured
- Art
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10 Angry Young Men
Know who the most prominent figures were in the British...
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Classic Closing Lines
Some classic movies have memorable last lines. See...

Does history really repeat itself, or can we learn from the mistakes of those who came before us? History provides a chronological, statistical, and cultural record of the events, people, and movements that have made an impact on humankind and the world at large throughout the ages. Investigating the causes and results of past events is critically important in gaining a full understanding and perspective of present-day issues.
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Ottoman Empire
historical empire, Eurasia and Africa
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Timeline of the Second Opium War (Arrow War)
Read more about what happened during the Second Opium...
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6 Interesting Facts About Fidel Castro
From his famous beard to his ubiquitous cigar, learn...
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