The Vegetarian Festival is an annual nine-day affair observed on the island of Phuket off southwestern Thailand by residents of Chinese ancestry. During the nine days, observers eat only vegetarian foods. The festival begins with a parade in which devotees wear white, and continues with ceremonies at temples, performances of special feats by ascetics, and acts of self-mortification—walking on hot coals, piercing the skin, and so on. The festival celebrates the beginning of the month called “Taoist Lent,” when devout Chinese abstain from meat. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Wenceslaus III was king of Bohemia and of Hungary. Unable to assert his authority in Hungary, even with the help of his father, Wenceslaus II, he relinquished his claim to Duke Otto of Bavaria in 1305. He attempted to assert his hereditary claim to the Polish crown but was assassinated while marching to Poland. After an interregnum, John of Luxemburg, who married Wenceslaus’s sister, was elected king of Bohemia. Wenceslaus III was the last member of what dynasty? 
Coordinated with South Vietnam’s security network during the Vietnam War, the Phoenix Program was a military and intelligence program designed by the US Central Intelligence Agency to “neutralize”—via capture or assassination—the insurgency’s civilian support infrastructure, which included between 70,000 and 100,000 civilians in 1967. Although some saw it as a success, the program is widely criticized as an “assassination campaign.” How many people were “neutralized” during the program? 
In 1953, Ian Fleming published Casino Royale, the first of 12 novels featuring James Bond, the stylish, high-living secret service agent 007, who became one of the most successful heroes of 20th-century fiction. Packed with action, espionage, and sex, all 12 books—including From Russia, with Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball—became popular films. Although it was not the first Bond book, Dr. No was the first to be adapted for the big screen. Who starred as 007? 
This national holiday commemorates the establishment of the 
Logan was an American stage and film director and writer. He studied in Moscow under Constantin Stanislavsky and began to direct and act on Broadway and work on Hollywood films in the 1930s. He served as an intelligence officer in WWII, after which he directed a series of hit plays and musicals, including South Pacific, which he cowrote with Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Why, when it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1950, were only Rodgers and Hammerstein initially listed as awardees? 
Often regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th century, H.L. Mencken was a journalist, satirist, social critic, and cynic known as the “Sage of Baltimore,” for the city where he lived his entire life. Perhaps best remembered for his satirical reporting on the Scopes evolution trial, which he dubbed the “Monkey trial,” Mencken was frequently critical of myriad groups. Why did the Arkansas legislature pass a motion in 1931 to pray for Mencken’s soul?