Month: November 2020

Feast of St. Hubert de Liège

St. Hubert (d. 727) is the patron saint of hunters, dogs, and victims of rabies. His feast day is especially honored at the church named for him in the town of St. Hubert, Luxembourg Province, Belgium, on the first weekend in November. People who live in the Forest of Ardennes bring their dogs to the church to be blessed, and St. Hubert’s Mass marks the opening of the hunting season. In some places, special loaves of bread are brought to the mass to be blessed, after which everyone eats a piece and feeds the rest to their dogs, horses, and other domestic animals to ward off rabies. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Stephen Fuller Austin (1793)

Austin was the founder of the first legal colony of English-speaking people in Mexican Texas. Following the death of his father, who had conceived the plan, Austin led 300 families to settle on the Brazos River in 1822. As his colony prospered, US immigrants poured into Mexico. Initially opposed to Texan independence, Austin tried to organize Texas as a Mexican state. He was instead imprisoned by the government for treason, after which he supported the Texas Revolution. What were his last words? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Rinderpest

Also called “cattle plague,” rinderpest was an acute, highly contagious viral disease of cattle with a sudden onset and high mortality. For centuries, it was the most severe infectious disease of cattle. Experiments with vaccination began in the 1700s, but it was not until the 1900s that widespread eradication efforts began meeting with success. In 2011, the UN formally declared rinderpest the second disease ever to have been eradicated in the wild. What was the first? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

First Major Internet-Distributed Computer Worm Launched (1988)

In 1988, Cornell University student Robert Morris launched a program supposedly aimed at measuring the size of the Internet. He had designed the ostensibly harmless program to count the computers connected to the small but growing Web by copying itself to each unit. Due to a design flaw, however, the program spread wildly, repeatedly copying itself to some computers and rendering them useless. A large part of the Internet was affected by the so-called Morris worm. What was Morris’s punishment? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

National Peanut Festival

The National Peanut Festival is a nine-day festival in Dothan, Alabama, honoring the peanut, a multimillion-dollar crop in Alabama. A highlight is the Goober Parade, for which the streets are paved with peanuts by a giant cement mixer that moves along the line of march throwing out a ton of peanuts, while parade watchers scramble for them. It is said the parade attracts as many as 200,000 spectators. Other events include the selection of Peanut Farmer of the Year, a cooking contest of peanut dishes, crafts exhibits, fireworks, a beauty pageant, and live entertainment. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

James Knox Polk (1795)

A native southerner and friend of Andrew Jackson, Polk was elected president of the US in 1845. During his administration, the US made large territorial gains. Polk peacefully negotiated the Oregon border dispute with Britain, while the US victory in the Mexican War secured much of the West. Though an efficient and competent president, Polk was exhausted by the time he left office, and he died three months later. Despite his happy marriage, he had no children. What likely rendered him sterile? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Cataract Surgery

A cataract is an opacity of the lens of the eye, which can cause impaired vision or blindness. Because cataracts are a common result of normal aging, most people over age 60 have cataracts to some degree. In fact, cataract surgery is the most common surgical procedure in the US. One early remedy, developed thousands of years ago, involved using a needle to pierce the eye and push the lens out of the field of vision. In what regions is this dangerous, often blinding, technique still employed? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Shakespeare’s Othello Performed for the First Time (1604)

First performed at London’s Whitehall Palace, Shakespeare’s Othello—a timeless story of jealousy, betrayal, and racism—is still studied and debated today. The play is likely an adaptation of a short story by Italian writer Cinthio called “Un Capitano Moro” and may have been inspired by certain events of the day—such as the arrival of a Moorish delegation in London in 1600. In Shakespeare’s tale, the protagonist strangles his wife, but in Cinthio’s story, she is killed in what brutal way? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary