Month: July 2022

John Dillinger Killed by the FBI (1934)

During a nine-year stint in Indiana state prisons for a 1924 holdup, Dillinger learned the craft of bank robbery from his fellow inmates. After being paroled in 1933, he went on to commit five bank robberies in four months. Captured by police yet again, Dillinger escaped jail twice and was named “public enemy number one” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). His run came to an end when FBI agents shot him to death outside a Chicago theater. Who lured Dillinger to the ambush site? Discuss

Oscar de la Renta (1932)

Oscar de la Renta was a Dominican-born American fashion designer whose work has strongly influenced the fashion world since the 1960s. His designs encompass everything from bathing suits to wedding dresses, furs, perfumes, and linens, and he is known for his luxurious ready-to-wear fashions. After studies in Santo Domingo and Madrid, he began his career as staff designer for leading couturier Cristobal Balenciaga. He then moved to New York to design for Elizabeth Arden, following whose advice? Discuss

Hammurabi

The sixth king of Babylonia, Hammurabi founded an empire that was eventually destroyed by raids from Asia Minor. He is best remembered for his code of laws, which addresses issues like business and family relations, labor, private property, and personal injuries. Though generally humanitarian, Hammurabi’s Code relies on the retributive “eye for an eye” theory of punishment. A nearly complete version of the code, carved on a diorite column, was recovered in 1902. Where can you visit it today? Discuss

Tennessee Biology Teacher Found Guilty of Teaching Evolution (1925)

In 1925, Tennessee biology teacher John Scopes was tried for violating the Butler Act, a law enacted earlier that year banning the teaching of evolution. He was found guilty and fined $100, but the verdict was later reversed. The “Monkey Trial,” as it came to be known, served as a flashpoint for debate among religious scholars, scientists, and the public, but despite the outcry stemming from the case, the Butler Act was not repealed until 1967. What surprising witness did the defense question? Discuss

Hemingway Days Festival

This week-long celebration of Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), the American novelist and short-story writer, is held in Key West, Florida. The festival has been held since 1980 during the week of Hemingway’s birthday, July 21. Hemingway made his home in Key West at one time, and his novel, To Have and Have Not (1937), is set there. Events include a street fair, a Hemingway look-alike contest, a fishing tournament, an arm-wrestling competition, and a party and concert at the Hemingway Home and Museum. Discuss

Ernest Hemingway (1899)

Hemingway worked as a journalist before becoming one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. His fiction usually focuses on people living essential, dangerous lives—soldiers, fishermen, athletes, bullfighters—who meet the pain and difficulty of their existence with stoic courage. His celebrated literary style, influenced by Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein, is direct and terse, yet particularly suited to his elemental subject matter. Which of his works earned him the Pulitzer Prize? Discuss