When Count Fieschi of Lavagna in Genoa, Italy, was married in 1240, he invited his guests—and everyone else in town—to share a cake that was more than 30 feet high. The citizens of Lavagna haven’t forgotten his generosity, and each year they celebrate the event on August 14. Dressed in costumes, they parade to the town square, where they pin to their clothes a piece of paper (blue for men, white for women) on which a word is written. When they find someone wearing the same word, the couple is given a piece of “Fieschi’s cake.” Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Pius VII became pope in 1800, at a time of turmoil for the Catholic Church. A decade earlier, during the early stages of the French Revolution, the National Assembly tried to subordinate the Church to the state. In 1801, Pius and Napoleon negotiated an end to the breach, but relations remained strained. In one notable incident, Napoleon took his crown from the pope’s hands during a ceremony and crowned himself. What unusual headgear did Pius VII allegedly wear during his own coronation and why? 
The life cycle of fig wasps is intimately intertwined with that of the fig trees they inhabit. It begins when a female wasp enters the fruit through a natural opening and deposits her eggs inside, pollinating the inner flowers in the process. Next, non-pollinating wasps deposit their eggs. After maturing inside the fig, male offspring’s only jobs are to mate with the females—while still within the fig—and chew a hole through which the females can escape. What happens when the males exit the fig? 
After World War II, the Soviet Union occupied East Berlin while control of West Berlin was split between the US, the UK, and France. From 1949 to 1961, more than 2 million East Germans fled to West Germany to escape Communist rule before the wall was built to stop the tide of defectors. First constructed of barbed wire and erected at night, the barrier was eventually replaced by a concrete structure studded with watchtowers manned by East German soldiers. What was the “Death Strip”? 
To honor those members of the armed forces who gave their lives to defend 
After earning his PhD at Cambridge University in 1943, British biochemist Frederick Sanger decided to continue conducting his research at his alma mater. He remained there for the entirety of his four-decade career, making discoveries about the structure of proteins, particularly insulin, as well as DNA sequencing that would earn him not one but two Nobel prizes. He is only the fourth person in history to have earned this distinction. Who are the other three two-time Nobel laureates? 
In Mexico and parts of Central America, el Día de los Muertos, or “the Day of the Dead,” is a time when families and friends gather to pray for and remember loved ones who have died. Altars made of flowers, sugar skulls, and the favorite foods of the dead are often erected for the holiday, observed on the first two days of November to coincide with the Christian All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Scholars trace the origins of this holiday to an Aztec festival dedicated to what goddess?