Month: January 2022

The Walk to Canossa: Pope Lifts Holy Roman Emperor's Excommunication (1077)

The papacy and German nobility were enjoying widespread power when Henry IV became German king and then holy Roman emperor. As Henry tried to reclaim control, he clashed with Pope Gregory and was excommunicated. The nobility sided with Gregory and refused to recognize Henry’s kingship unless he sought absolution. To do so, Henry crossed the Alps in the dead of winter and allegedly stood three days barefoot in the snow at the castle at Canossa before being absolved. How did the nobles respond? Discuss

Jackson Pollock (1912)

After working on the Federal Art Project—a US program for the unemployed during the Great Depression—Pollock began developing the abstract, expressive style that made him a symbol of artistic revolt. Influenced by surrealism, Pollock energetically dripped paint in complicated linear patterns onto enormous canvases placed on the floor. Unlike most artists, Pollock was a celebrity during his lifetime, which was cut short by a car crash. Jackson was his middle name. What was his first name? Discuss

Oddfellows

Oddfellows are some of the earliest friendly societies—mutual aid organizations formed to protect members against debts incurred through illness, death, or old age using what are now the basic principles of insurance. Though they date back to at least the 18th century in England, their early history is obscure. Some trace the Oddfellows’ origins back to the Israelites’ exile from Babylon in the 6th century BCE, but they more likely evolved from medieval guilds. What makes these fellows “odd”? Discuss

refuge

asylum – Comes from Greek asulon, “refuge,” from asulos, “inviolable.” More…

bast – A word for an asylum, refuge, or sanctuary. More…

harbor – First meant “shelter” and “lodging,” and that is how the word first entered English place-names, as a “place of shelter; refuge” for a crowd of people. A port is a haven for vessels and it is equipped for loading and unloading ships, while a harbor is a haven for vessels but does not necessarily have onshore facilities. More…

redoubt – Has no connection to “doubt,” but comes from French redoute and Latin reductus, “hidden place, refuge, stronghold.” More…

Auschwitz Is Liberated (1945)

During the implementation of Nazi Germany’s Final Solution, between 1.1 million and 1.5 million people, more than 90% of them Jews, were tortured, starved, and murdered at Auschwitz in southern Poland. The Third Reich’s largest death camp network, it consisted of three main camps and dozens of satellite camps. Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, a day that is now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. How had the Nazis tried to cover up their crimes there? Discuss

Jerome Kern (1885)

Kern was one of the major US creators of the musical. With lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II, he wrote his most important work in 1927—Show Boat—in which he integrated lyrical text with the dramatic demands of plot and character to create the first American musical play. He became one of the most influential songwriters in American musical theater and is credited with more than 1,000 songs, including the standards “Ol’ Man River” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” How did he cheat death in 1915? Discuss