Elizabeth Harrison

There are many advantages and responsibilities that come with being the reigning monarch of England, but one surprising perk is getting two birthdays each year. This year Saturday, June 11 marks the Queen’s official birthday, and will be celebrated around the Commonwealth. ...read more

Known to most of the rest of the world as football, or “fútbol,” the beautiful game is almost exclusively referred to as soccer in the United States, but many Americans may be surprised to learn that our outlier moniker actually originated across the pond. Games played by ...read more

Across the Board In contemporary usage this phrase indicates the inclusion of everyone or everything in a given scenario—such as across the board price cuts or across the board layoffs. At the track, an across the board bet is a wager on the same horse to win, to place and to ...read more

Today the phrase “throw down the gauntlet” means to challenge or confront someone, but in its earliest use it wasn’t meant as a metaphor, but was a physical action intended to issue a formal challenge to a duel. The word itself comes from the French word “gantelet,” and referred ...read more

Many people may know that places like New York and New London are named after areas of England, but what about New Zealand? Just where is the original Zealand? For the answer we have to look to an early era of European exploration, and the original name for New York—New ...read more

1. The Declaration of Independence wasn’t signed on July 4, 1776. On July 1, 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, and on the following day 12 of the 13 colonies voted in favor of Richard Henry Lee’s motion for independence. The delegates then spent the next ...read more