Month: August 2022

Hurricane Katrina Devastates US Gulf Coast (2005)

Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Central Gulf Coast as a Category 3 storm. Its storm surge breached the levee system that protected New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, flooding the city. Lack of food and water in the aftermath fueled criticism of the US government’s recovery efforts, and many former residents established new lives elsewhere. Katrina caused an estimated $81 billion in damages. How many people died during the hurricane and subsequent flooding? Discuss

Charlie Parker (1920)

Charlie “Bird” Parker was an American saxophonist and composer. Along with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, Parker was a leader of the bop movement in jazz. His brilliant improvisations were noted for their power and beauty. Sadly, his heroin addiction was legendary as well. He had a drug-induced nervous breakdown in 1946 and saw his cabaret card—which allowed him to play in New York clubs—revoked by the police in 1951. When he died four years later, at age 34, how old did the coroner think he was? Discuss

Bermuda Triangle

Located between Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, the Bermuda Triangle is an area in the Atlantic Ocean where a number of ships and aircraft have vanished. Compass issues and violent storms are likely to blame, but some believe the region—also known as the Devil’s Triangle, to be rife with paranormal activity and alien abductions. Investigations to date have not produced scientific evidence of any unusual phenomena. What was Flight 19, and what happened to it in the Bermuda Triangle? Discuss

"I Have a Dream," Says Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)

The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was one of the largest civil-rights demonstrations ever conducted in the US. More than 200,000 people heard civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech, which is considered one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory. However, his prepared text did not mention a dream—King composed that section on the spot, likely at the urging of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. For how long did King speak? Discuss

George Hoyt Whipple (1878)

Whipple was a US pathologist, who, together with colleagues, discovered that a diet including raw liver could treat pernicious anemia, then a fatal disease. For his efforts, he shared a 1934 Nobel Prize. Whipple’s study of bile pigments led to an interest in how the body makes hemoglobin, and his experiments in artificial anemia established iron as the most potent inorganic factor in the formation of red blood cells. He was also the first person to describe what previously unknown disease? Discuss

The Prado Museum

The Museo del Prado is Spain’s national art museum. Founded in Madrid in 1818 by Ferdinand VII, it features one of the world’s finest collections of European art, much of which came from the royal holdings of the Habsburg and Bourbon monarchs in Spain. In 1872, the Prado acquired many notable works formerly owned by Spanish convents and monasteries. It owns outstanding pieces by El Greco, Diego Velázquez, and Francisco de Goya. What is considered its most famous work on display? Discuss