The Columbine High School Massacre (1999)

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were seniors at Colorado’s Columbine High School when they carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in US history, killing 12 students and one teacher and injuring 21 others before taking their own lives. The incident, widely covered by the media, stirred debate about the pair’s motivation for the killings, the availability of firearms, and the role of bullying, video games, and music in acts of violence. For what crime had the two been previously arrested? Discuss

Philippe Pinel (1745)

After moving to Paris in 1778, Pinel, a French physician, was appointed director of the Bicêtre and Salpêtrière hospitals. His experiences there prompted him to advocate for the humane treatment of mentally ill persons—then called the insane—and for the empirical study of mental disease. He further contributed to the development of psychiatry by establishing the practice of thoroughly documenting psychiatric case histories for research. What initially inspired Pinel’s interest in mental illness? Discuss

Underwater Archaeology

Underwater archaeology, a branch of maritime archaeology, is the study of past human life, behaviors, and cultures using the physical remains found in bodies of water or buried beneath water-logged sediment. Researchers in this field generally examine the sites of shipwrecks, submerged airplanes, structures created by humans in water bodies, and places where people once lived that have since been flooded or covered by water. How do divers record their findings underwater? Discuss

David Ricardo (1772)

Ricardo was a British economist who made a fortune in the stock market before turning to the study of political economy, publishing his major work, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, in 1817. According to his labor theory of value, the value of almost any good is a function of the labor needed to produce it; thus, a $10 watch requires ten times more labor than a $1 pencil. According to his “iron law of wages,” what keeps wages stabilized around the subsistence level? Discuss

Ziggurats

A ziggurat is a pyramidal structure built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform with a shrine at its summit. Access to the shrine is provided by a series of ramps located on one side of the temple or by a continuous spiral ramp. These temples—the earliest examples of which date to the end of the third millennium BCE—were commonly erected by the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians. What is the significance of the multicolored brick facings found on many ziggurats? Discuss

Construction of St. Peter's Basilica Begins (1506)

With a capacity of over 60,000 people, St. Peter’s Basilica is the one of the world’s largest churches as well as one of the world’s holiest Catholic sites. Begun by Pope Julius II in 1506 and completed more than a century later, it was built to replace Old St. Peter’s, erected by Constantine over Peter’s traditional burial site. Michelangelo and Bernini were among its many architects, and a number of their masterpieces adorn its interior. Why is St. Peter’s not considered a cathedral? Discuss