Month: July 2022

Umberto I of Italy Assassinated (1900)

Son and successor of Victor Emmanuel II, Umberto I was king of Italy from 1878 until his death in 1900. Though known as “Umberto the Good,” he became increasingly authoritarian and disregarded the recommendations of parliamentary leaders. His support of General Bava Beccaris, who ordered his troops to fire cannons at demonstrators protesting high bread prices, greatly enraged many citizens, including his assassin. How many attempts on his life did Umberto escape before he was killed? Discuss

St. Olav's Day

St. Olav is the patron saint of Norway, and the anniversary of his death is still marked by religious services, fireworks, and public merry-making. Every year the battle in which he died is reenacted during the St. Olav Festival in Trondheim. In the Faroe Islands, this is known as Olavsoka, or “St. Olav’s Wake,” a national holiday. Parliament opens on the 29th, but the festivities—which include dancing, sports events, speeches, drinking, and a parade of members of Logting (parliament)—begin the night before and continue into the early hours of the 30th. Discuss

Max Nordau (1849)

Nordau was a Hungarian Zionist leader, physician, author, and social critic. He co-founded the World Zionist Organization with Theodor Herzl and was president or vice president of several Zionist congresses. As a social critic, he wrote a number of controversial books, including The Conventional Lies of Our Civilization, Degeneration, and Paradoxes. Nordau was a fully assimilated and acculturated European Jew when what controversy sparked his interest in Zionism? Discuss

Perfume

Perfume is a mixture of alcohol and fragrant essential oils. Animal substances—such as musk, ambergris, and civet—were first added as fixatives in the Middle Ages. Since the early 19th century, chemists have produced thousands of synthetic essential oils, some imitating natural products and others yielding new scents. Most perfumes today are blends of natural and synthetic scents and of fixatives that add pungency. Fine perfumes may blend more than 100 ingredients. What is a fragrance wheel? Discuss

Maximilien Robespierre Guillotined (1794)

Known as “the Incorruptible” for his emphasis on civic morality, Robespierre became one of the leading figures of the French Revolution. He was an influential member of the Committee of Public Safety, the political body that controlled France during the bloody revolutionary period known as the “Reign of Terror.” However, popular discontent with the committee’s brutal measures soon grew, and Robespierre was guillotined in the coup of 9 Thermidor. What might have been his last words? Discuss

Crop Over

This harvest festival in Barbados was originally celebrated in the 1800s by slaves at the end of the sugar-cane harvest. Today, Crop Over is a civic celebration which takes place during the last three weeks of July and usually ends on the first Monday in August. There are historical displays, craft shows, fairs, open-air concerts, calypso music and dancing, and “stick licking”—a self-defense sport similar to fencing. The first Monday of August is the finale, known as the Kadooment, which includes the judging of costumed bands at the National Stadium and a grand calypso procession. Discuss

Marcel Duchamp (1887)

Duchamp was an innovative French-American artist who influenced the Dada, Surrealist, and Pop art movements. His irreverence for conventional aesthetic standards led him to exhibit commonplace objects as works of art that he called “ready-mades,” intended as a derisive gesture against the excessive importance attached to works of art. His most famous works include the controversial Cubist-Futurist painting Nude Descending a Staircase and Fountain, which features what object? Discuss