Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718)

Agnesi was an Italian mathematician and philosopher. A child prodigy, she mastered several languages at an early age, and her proud father often held academic gatherings at which she spoke. When she was 9, she delivered a lengthy speech in Latin on the topic of women’s right to education. At 20, she withdrew from society to focus on her studies and went on to produce her noted two-volume mathematical treatise Analytical Institutions. What appointment did she later receive from the pope? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Cupid and Psyche

The tale of Cupid, the Roman god of love, and Psyche, his mortal lover, first appeared as one of the stories in Lucius Apuleius’ second-century novel alternately known as The Golden Ass or Metamorphoses—the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety. In the folktale, the jealous goddess Venus asks her son Cupid to use his arrows to cause a beautiful mortal woman named Psyche to fall in love with the vilest creature on Earth. What happens when Cupid goes to carry out his mission? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Great Gold Robbery (1855)

On the night of May 15, 1855, a shipment of gold bars and coins was sent from London to Paris, first via the South Eastern Railway and then on a ship across the English Channel. When the shipment arrived in Boulogne, France, the containers—all of which were locked and sealed—were found to be missing a large amount of the gold, worth about 12,000 British pounds at the time. The missing weight had been replaced with lead shot. A group of men was later arrested for the theft. How were they caught? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Feast of San Isidro the Farmer (Madrid)

The Feast of St. Isidore the Farmer is celebrated in Madrid, Spain, with eight days of bullfighting at the Plaza de Toros, colorful parades, and many artistic, cultural, and sporting events. Street vendors sell pictures of the saint, small glass or pottery bells believed to ward off harm from thunder and lightning, and whistle-stemmed glass roses, which provide a noisy accompaniment to the feasting and dancing that go on. The Festival of San Isidro is celebrated in other Spanish towns as well, particularly León and Alicante. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Williamina Paton Stevens Fleming (1857)

Shortly after Fleming emigrated from Scotland to the US with her husband, their marriage failed. Forced to support herself, she worked as a housekeeper for the director of the Harvard College Observatory, who soon hired her to do clerical work at the observatory. She quickly rose through the ranks and went on to make significant contributions to the field of astronomy—classifying thousands of stars and discovering numerous variable stars and novae. What award did she win just before her death? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Timur

Tamerlane, or “Timur the Lame,” was a 14th-century Turco-Mongol conqueror who claimed descent from Genghis Khan and considered himself the restorer of the Mongol Empire. After subduing his rivals in central Asia, he turned his attention to Persia and, later, to India, Syria, and Iraq. His conquests ultimately reached from India and Russia to the Mediterranean. A cruel conqueror, Tamlerlane is said to have massacred how many millions of people? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary