Pocahontas Marries English Colonist John Rolfe (1614)

Pocahontas, daughter of the powerful Native American chief Powhatan, helped maintain peace between English colonists and her own people by befriending the settlers at Jamestown, Virginia, and allegedly saving the life of colonial leader John Smith after he was captured by her father’s men. She later married colonist John Rolfe, which furthered efforts toward peace, and the two traveled to England, where she was received at court. What happened on her journey back to America? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Booker Taliaferro Washington (1856)

Born into slavery, Washington was freed following the US Civil War and went on to become one of the nation’s most prominent leaders and educators. He built Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute into a leading African-American educational institution, with programs emphasizing vocational training. His teaching, writing, and lecturing—particularly a famous address in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895—established him as America’s foremost black leader. Washington was the first African American to be invited where? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Sacrifice

Sacrifice, from the Latin word meaning “to make holy,” is the practice of offering food, or the lives of animals or people, to the gods as an act of propitiation or worship. Biblical accounts of sacrifice begin with Cain’s sacrifice of the fruit of the ground and Abel’s sacrifice of the firstlings of his flock. In the New Testament, the symbol of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb is frequently employed. What religion’s practice of animal sacrifice led to a US Supreme Court case? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

There’s a Reason Some Birds Don’t Seem to Fly South for Winter Anymore, Scientists Say

The birds and the bees are telling humans about much more than sex, a new study released Thursday says. They are a harbinger of climate change, with species swapping habitats like a game of musical chairs as regions in Europe and the United States … Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Susanna M. Salter, First Female US Mayor, Elected (1887)

After attending Kansas State Agricultural College, Salter moved with her husband to the town of Argonia, Kansas, and became the first woman to have a baby there. Following the city’s incorporation in 1885, her father was elected to be its first mayor. Two years later, while serving as an officer in the local Women’s Christian Temperance Union and caring for her family, she was placed on the ballot as a mayoral candidate and became the first female mayor elected in the US. How long was her term? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Qing Ming Festival

The Qing Ming Festival is a day for Chinese people throughout the world to honor their dead. It is a Confucian festival that dates back to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 221 CE), and it is now a Chinese national holiday. The day is observed in the countryside with visits to ancestral graves to sweep, wash, repair, and paint them. Offerings of food, wine, incense, and flowers are made, firecrackers are set off, and paper money is burned at the graveside, so that the ancestors will have funds to spend in the afterworld. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Bettina von Arnim (1785)

A German writer, von Arnim also spent time as a composer, singer, visual artist, patron of young talent, and social activist. However, she is perhaps best known for the company she kept. She formed friendships with Goethe and Beethoven, among other artists of the day, and tried to foster an artistic union between them. Many leading composers of the time, such as Franz Liszt, admired her for her spirit and her talents. On what currency was von Arnim’s likeness once featured? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Global Conveyor Belt

Thermohaline circulation refers to the deepwater circulation of the oceans and is primarily caused by differences in density between the waters of different regions. It is mainly a convection process in which cold, dense water formed in the polar regions sinks and flows slowly toward the equator. The circulation of ocean waters is vitally important in dispersing heat energy around the globe. Two factors determine the density of ocean water; one is temperature, what is the other? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary