Sharon Tate Murdered by Manson “Family” (1969)

Tate, an American actress, was nominated for a Golden Globe award in 1968 for her performance in Valley of the Dolls. In 1969, Charles Manson, leader of a cult called the “Family,” sent his followers to Tate’s home with orders to “totally destroy everyone in [it], as gruesome as you can.” Tate, 8 ½ months pregnant at the time, was murdered along with 5 friends. The “Family” committed several other murders before its members were caught and brought to trial in 1971. Who was Tate’s husband? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Hora at Prislop

The Hora is a dancing festival held at Mount Prislop at the TransylvaniaMoldavia border in Romania. The dancers of the hora carry big rings that symbolize the friendship of the people of the regions of Moldavia, Maramures, and Transylvania. The top artistic groups gather at Prislop Pass to present a parade in colorful folk costumes and then a program of songs and dances, ending with the lively peasant horas. Typical food dishes of the area are served and folk art is on display. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Amedeo Avogadro (1776)

In 1811, Avogadro, an Italian physicist, advanced the hypothesis that equal volumes of gases under identical conditions of pressure and temperature contain the same number of molecules. Now one of the fundamental concepts of the atomic theory of matter, his theory has become known as Avogadro’s law. Since then, physicists have determined the number of molecules in the gram-molecular weight and found that it is the same for all gases. This number, called Avogadro’s number, is how large? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Wall Street

Wall Street is a narrow street in lower Manhattan, New York City, extending east from Broadway to the East River. It is the center of one of the greatest financial districts in the world. As the first permanent home of the New York Stock Exchange, the term “Wall Street” has come to denote US financial interests. Many New York financial firms, however, are no longer headquartered on Wall Street, but elsewhere in Manhattan, Connecticut, or New Jersey. Where did Wall Street get its name? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Collapse of Warsaw Radio Mast (1991)

Upon its completion in 1974, the Warsaw radio mast in Poland became the world’s tallest structure. Standing 2,120 feet (646 m) tall, the tower was used for long-wave radio broadcasting. In 1991, the mast underwent repairs to exchange guy wires, the cables used to stabilize the tower. However, the mast bent and then snapped at approximately half its height. It was never rebuilt. What became the world’s tallest structure upon the Warsaw radio mast’s collapse? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Hobo Convention

The small, rural town of Britt, Iowa, seems an unlikely location for a convention of hobos—the unwashed but colorful riders of America’s empty boxcars—but for a week each summer its residents play host to this diminishing segment of the population. There is a parade, an arts fair, carnival rides, races, and music. But the real action centers on the hobo camp set up by festival organizers on the outskirts of town, where visitors can hear the life stories of these men who have chosen to travel the country unencumbered by family or property. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896)

Rawlings was an American author best known for her 1938 novel The Yearling, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize. Rawlings worked as a journalist until 1928, when she moved to the rural Florida backwoods and devoted herself to fiction. There, she incorporated the people and land around her into richly atmospheric works that resemble vivid factual reporting and are noted for their magical descriptions of landscape. The Yearling is about a boy who adopts what animal as a pet? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Longfellow was a popular 19th c. American poet. He wrote some of the most popular poems in American literature and his works created a new body of romantic American legends. In preparation for professorships, he traveled to Europe twice to study languages. His works were immensely popular during his lifetime and remain so, despite critics’ complaints that they are simple, sentimental, and moralizing. As a teenager, Longfellow began a lifelong friendship with what other famous American novelist? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary