Battle of Mohács Begins (1526)

In 1526, King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia led a poorly prepared army against a vastly superior Turkish force led by Sultan Suleiman I with disastrous results. About 25,000 of the king’s soldiers were killed in the battle, and the rest were taken captive and massacred. Louis himself died during the retreat after being thrown from his horse. The defeat resulted in more than 150 years of Ottoman domination in Hungary. What modern Hungarian expression of bad luck references the battle? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Mobile-Phone Throwing World Championship

The Mobile-Phone Throwing World Championship takes place in August in Savonlinna, Finland. The light-hearted event offers several categories for men, women, and teams: original, which is based on distance; freestyle, based on distance, style, aesthetics, and creativity; and juniors, which is limited to children 12 years old and under. First-place winners get a new mobile phone. Since the inaugural competition in 2000, several European countries—including Norway, Switzerland, and Germany—have introduced their own national championships. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809)

The father of the US Supreme Court justice of the same name, Holmes was an American physician, poet, and humorist. After beginning his medical career as a general practitioner, he shifted to the academic field and became dean of the Harvard medical school. However, he is perhaps best known for the poem that won him national acclaim—”Old Ironsides,” a protest against the scrapping of the USS Constitution, which helped save the ship. What common medical term was coined by Holmes? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Doughnuts or Donuts?

Regardless of how you spell this sweet, deep-fried treat—doughnut or donut—its origins remain a mystery. Some claim that Dutch settlers brought it to North America. Others maintain that a Danish sea captain impaled a fried cake on a wheel spoke to free his hands during a storm and, thus, invented the doughnut’s hole. The two most common types are ring-shaped doughnuts and filled doughnuts, flattened spheres injected with a sweet filling. In what countries can you get a meat-filled doughnut? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Peace Palace Opens in The Hague (1913)

Often called “the seat of international law,” the Peace Palace houses the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law, and the International Court of Justice, which is the primary judicial body of the United Nations. The palace was conceived in the early 20th century and was funded by American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. To show their support for the project, many nations sent gifts for use or display in the palace, including what items? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Feast of St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Augustine is best known for his spiritual autobiography, the Confessions, which details the excesses of his youth, his career as a teacher of rhetoric, his years as a believer in Manicheism and Platonism, and his belated conversion to Christianity. It is primarily for his writings that he is known as the patron saint of theologians and scholars, and one of the “Four Latin Fathers” of the Christian Church. When Spanish soldiers landed on the coast of Florida on St. Augustine’s Day in 1565, they named the U.S.’s oldest European community after him. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774)

Seton was the first native-born US citizen canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Six years after she founded the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, her husband died, leaving her with five young children. She later opened a free Catholic elementary school and is considered the mother of the US parochial school system. In 1813, she founded the Sisters of Charity, the first US religious order, and served as its superior until her death. Seton is the patron saint of what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The iPod

The Apple iPod, currently the world’s best-selling line of digital audio players, was unveiled in 2001 for the Mac, and in 2002 for Windows. iPods store and play songs in a variety of digital formats, including MP3, Apple Lossless, and AAC. The combination of sound quality, sleek design, and slick user interface, coupled with a bold marketing campaign, has made the iPod a hit. By the end of 2006, over 67 million iPods had been sold. What medical problem may be associated with prolonged iPod use? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary