Skip to content
The Daily Triptych272 / 365

29 SEP 2026

Day 272

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana · The Life of Reason
A single leaf of vellum with Greek text in uncial script, dark ink on pale parchment, with rounded capital letters arranged in neat columns.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

Uncial 0162

Vellum · 3rd or 4th century CE · Metropolitan Museum of Art

One leaf of parchment, carrying verses from John's Gospel in Greek uncial script. The dating is uncertain by a century, and the rest of the codex is lost.

Enter lesson 5 MIN
A soft, silvery-white metal with a fresh metallic lustre on a cut surface, shown against a dark background.

II · THE DISCOVERY · HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Lithium

1817 · Johan August Arfwedson · Sweden

Johan August Arfwedson found lithium in a Swedish mineral sample. It turned out to be the lightest metal, and now powers most of the batteries we carry.

Enter lesson 6 MIN
Three peasant women bent over a harvested field, gathering stray stalks of wheat from the ground, painted in oil on a wide canvas.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

The Gleaners

Jean-François Millet · 1857 · Oil on canvas

Three peasant women gather leftover wheat after the harvest. Millet painted them in 1857 with a sympathy that unsettled the French upper classes who first saw the canvas.

Enter lesson 6 MIN
Head-and-shoulders portrait of a man in a white baseball uniform with red and blue piping, a white cap with a red letter, and a serious expression, photographed against a blurred background.

IV · THE GAME · MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Dennis Eckersley

Pitcher · 12 April 1975 · 3 October 1954, Oakland, California

He won 197 games as a starter and saved 390 as a reliever. The break between the two careers is visible in the table: fifty-four starts in 1987, then none.

Enter lesson 7 MIN

The daily email

Four lessons in your inbox, every morning at seven.

One object, one idea, one masterpiece, one game. Deep links to that day’s pages. Unsubscribe with one click, any time.