Jamestown Day

Jamestown, Virginia, is the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, and it is also home to some other firsts‐both good and bad. It established the first representative government on the continent and built America’s first Anglican (Episcopal) church, but it also brought the first African slaves to the colonies. On Jamestown Day, a commemorative service is held at the original settlement site, with speeches, choral selections, and a procession to the Memorial Cross, which marks the town’s earliest cemetery. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Pierre Victor Auger (1899)

Auger was a French physicist who worked in the fields of nuclear and atomic physics and also advanced the study of cosmic rays. He directed the mathematical and natural sciences department at UNESCO from 1948 to 1959 and was instrumental in creating the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). In 1977, he was made a member of the French Academy of Sciences. The Auger effect as well as the world’s largest detector of what are named after him? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Pazzi Conspiracy

In the late 1400s, Pope Sixtus IV, his nephew Gerolamo Riario, Archbishop Salviati, and members of the wealthy Pazzi family hatched a plot to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. The Pazzi and Medici families were rivals, but the Pazzis were merely tools in the conspiracy, which aimed to increase Riario’s power in Florence. On April 26, 1478, while attending High Mass at the Duomo, Giuliano was stabbed to death. What happened to Lorenzo? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Ocean Swallows Villages and Five Solomon Islands–Study Blames Climate Change

As the ocean rose, they had to flee. “The sea has started to come inland, it forced us to move up to the hilltop and rebuild our village there away from the sea,” said Sirilo Sutaroti, 94, a leader of the Paurata tribe, to a group of Australian … Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Lei Áurea: Slavery Abolished in Brazil (1888)

By the 1870s, the plantation culture of northeast Brazil was already crumbling, and the growth of the movement to abolish slavery threatened it even more. The slave trade had been abolished in 1850, and a law for gradual emancipation was passed in 1871. In 1888, while Pedro II was in Europe and his daughter Isabel was governing, slavery was completely abolished—making Brazil the last Western nation to do so. The law that officially abolished slavery was called Lei Áurea, which means what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Beatrice “Bea” Arthur (1922)

Arthur was an American actress, comedian, and singer whose lengthy career began on the stage. In 1966, she won a Tony award for her role in the musical Mame. She went on to achieve fame on television as the character Maude Findlay on the 1970s sitcoms All in the Family and Maude and as Dorothy Zbornak on the 1980s sitcom The Golden Girls, winning Emmy Awards for both roles. Arthur appeared in what notoriously poorly received 1978 holiday TV special? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Proprioception: Sense of Position

Unlike the classical five senses—sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing—by which people perceive the outside world, proprioception is a distinct sensory modality that provides feedback regarding the position, location, orientation, and movement of the body and its parts. The sense of body awareness is believed to utilize information from sensory receptors found chiefly in muscles, tendons, joints, and the inner ear. How do police officers use this information to identify drunk drivers? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Nasa Releases 56 Patented Space and Rocket Technologies into the Public Domain

Nasa has released 56 of its patented technologies into the public domain, in a move which could be a great help to private space companies like SpaceX. Among the trove of newly-public inventions is a method for manufacturing carbon nanotubes, which is … Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary