The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress is a biographical dictionary of all present and former members of the United States Congress and its predecessor, the Continental Congress. Also included are Delegates from territories and the District of Columbia and Resident Commissioners from the Philippines and Puerto Rico. 

The online edition also includes a guide to research collections (a list of institutions where member's papers, letters, correspondence, and other items are archived) as well as an extended bibliography of published works concerning the member (a shorter bibliography is included with the member's biography). These additional resources when available can be accessed via links on the left side of the member's page on the website. 

Charles Lanman, author, journalist, and former secretary to Daniel Webster, gathered the first collection of biographies of former and sitting members of Congress for his "Dictionary of Congress", published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. in 1859. Lanman intended his "Dictionary of the United States Congress" to serve primarily as a guide for sitting Members of Congress, much as the "Congressional Directory" functions today. 

In 1864, the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the publication of an updated version of Lanman's "Dictionary of Congress" by the recently established Government Printing Office. In the late 1860s Congress offered Benjamin Perley Poore, a journalist and clerk of the Senate Committee on Printing and Records, the job of preparing a "Congressional Directory" with biographical sketches and the kind of reference information found in the "Dictionary of Congress". What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. what does Charles Lanman do for a living?
2. what did he create?
3. when was it published?
4. what year did congress approve an updated version?
5. in the 1860s who carried on the job of making the congressional dictionary?
6. who originally published Lanman's dicitionary?
7. what is the Biographical dictionary of the United States Congress?
8. are delegates from territories also included in it?
9. which ones?
10. who else is in included in the dictionary?
11. is it available online?
12. is correspondence also included?
Answer: 1. author, journalist, and former secretary to Daniel Webster
2. Dictionary of Congress
3. 1859
4. In 1864
5. Benjamin Perley Poore
6. J. B. Lippincott & Co.
7. dictionary of Congress members
8. yes
9. unknown
10. Resident Commissioners from the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
11. yes
12. no

Dhanusha, Nepal (CNN)At Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, hundreds of migrant workers line up daily at the immigration counters, clutching newly printed passports and boarding passes. Many of them, though, are clueless as to where they're headed. 

As a frequent traveler to the country, I've been approached many times by these men, asking me to help fill out their departure forms. 

Usually, when I ask what country they're traveling to, I get the same answer: "I'm not sure." 

They seem weary and lost but still hopeful that they can make their lives better. 

This time, however, I'm at the airport to follow up on the repatriation of the most unfortunate of these migrant workers -- far too many of them make the return journey in caskets. 

Almost every day, the remains of three or four workers arrive back in Nepal from the Middle East, according to Bhola Prasad Siwakoti, the secretary of the Nepalese Ministry of Labor and Manpower. Every other day, at least one dead body arrives from Qatar, he said. 

"Nepali migrant workers have the lowest per capita income in Qatar," says Suryanath Mishra, who served as ambassador to Qatar from 2007 to 2012. "They get exploited the most out of all the migrant workers." 

He cites lack of education and technical skills as the main causes. 

We are waiting for the body of Kishun Das, who left Nepal for Qatar only eight months ago. The 38-year old was his family's breadwinner and the father of five children. 

His younger brother, Bishun, is at the airport to receive the body. He also works in Qatar and is in Nepal on leave. I ask him why he's alone.  What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. How many migrant workers line up at the counters?
2. At which counters?
3. They're clutching printed passports and what?
4. How many don't know where they're going?
5. What do they ask for help with?
6. What do they seem to have hope for?
7. Do remains arrive every day?
8. Where from?
9. According to who?
10. Who has the lowest income in Qatar?
11. Who was ambassador to Qatar in 2012?
12. Whose body was being expected?
13. How old was he?
14. Did he have kids?
15. Who was his brother?
16. Where does he work?
17. Is he alone?
Answer: 1. Hundreds.
2. The immigration counters.
3. Boarding passes.
4. Many of them.
5. Filling out forms.
6. Making their lives better.
7. Almost.
8. The Middle East.
9. Bhola Prasad Siwakoti.
10. Nepali migrant workers.
11. Suryanath Mishra.
12. Kishun Das.
13. 38.
14. Yes.
15. Bishun.
16. Qatar.
17. Yes.

When, after a year of being alone on his island, Robinson Crusoe sees a footprint in the sand, the reader of Robinson Crusoe trembles. Will Crusoe find another human being to end his loneliness? Is the footprint the sign of an enemy? Since 1719, when Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe, thousands of people who enjoy English novels have thrilled to this great adventure story. But few know how the story came to be written. Robinson Crusoe was the first English novel. Its birth brought together the misadventures of a Scotch "failure" and the untapped imagination of an aging English scribbler. Near the end of the Seventeenth Century, the hot-tempered Alexander Selkirk was charged with bad conduct while in church. Rather than face this charge, he ran away to sea. Several years later, Selkirk found himself on the ship of an English privateer. The privateer was preying on Spanish shipping. But Selkirk quarreled bitterly with the Captain. So, when the ship came to the island of Juan Femandez in the South Seas, Selkirk asked to be put ashore. When he saw that there were no people on the island, he begged to be taken back on board. But the Captain refused--Selkirk had gone too far. Over four years later, Selkirk was rescued by another ship. When Selkirk got back to England, the story of his life on the island fired the imagination of Daniel Defoe. Defoe had been earning a living by his pen since he was thirty. He was amazingly hard-working. He wrote a whole newspaper three times a week. He also made part of his living from politics. He supported both political parties. He told each party that it had his sole support. Defoe's morals were weak. But he was a fine writer. He was almost sixty when, in the midst of his work in politics, he wrote Robinson Crusoe. In it, Defoe--said one critic--"forged a story, and forced it on the world for truth." The detail of Crusoe's battle for survival on a lonely island is so vivid that the reader of Robinson Crusoe accepts the product of the author's imagination for reality. Robinson Crusoe became the first of a long line of heroes and heroines that have peopled English novels since Defoe's time. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. What was the first English novel?
2. Who was it based off?
3. Who was charged for being bad in church?
4. When?
5. Did he accept his penatily?
6. What did he do?
7. Defoe has been earning income by writing since what age?
8. Which political party did he support?
9. Was he considered a man with morals?
10. What did he do three times a week?
11. What age did he write Robinson Crusoe?
12. And the year he wrote it?
Answer:
1. Robinson Crusoe
2. English scribbler
3. Alexander Selkirk
4. Near the end of the Seventeenth Century
5. No
6. bad conduct while in church
7. thirty
8. both
9. No
10. wrote a whole newspaper
11. almost sixty
12. 1719