Month: September 2022

Pocahontas

The daughter of Powhatan, a Native American chief who controlled almost all of tidewater Virginia, Pocahontas helped maintain peace with the English colonists by befriending the settlers at Jamestown. According to the famous story, she saved colonial leader John Smith from execution after he had been taken prisoner by her father’s men. She later furthered efforts toward peace by marrying colonist John Rolfe. “Pocahontas” was actually a childhood nickname. What was her real name? Discuss

Last Passenger Pigeon Dies in Captivity (1914)

Billions of passenger pigeons inhabited eastern North America in the early 19th century, migrating in enormous flocks that darkened the skies for days at a time. They soon fell victim to habitat loss caused by mass deforestation, along with excessive hunting on an industrial scale. The bird’s rapid extinction was largely responsible for ending the marketing of game birds and gave major impetus to the conservation movement. Where did the last known passenger pigeon die in 1914? Discuss

Famadihana

The Malagasy people of Madagascar believe that their deceased ancestors have become intermediaries between the living and God. Because they will spend eternity in their new existence, tombs are built to be much sturdier than houses. The Famadihana is a celebration in which people exhume the remains of their ancestors, treat them to a grand feast and party, replace their burial clothes, and then reintern them. The specific date of a family’s Famidihana is determined by a spiritual leader, but, for hygenic reasons, it always takes place during the winter months, when the weather is dry. Discuss

Gloria Estefan (1957)

Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter. Born in Cuba and raised in Florida, she began performing with the Miami Sound Machine in the 1970s. The group had a string of hit songs and albums, but Estefan was clearly the star, and by the early 1990s she was being billed as a solo artist. With over 100 million albums sold worldwide, she is the most successful crossover performer in Latin music history. What nearly ended Estefan’s career just as it was beginning to take off? Discuss

Oskar Schindler

A Catholic and a member of the Nazi party, Schindler became famous for his efforts to save Jews during the Holocaust. He rescued up to 1,200 Jews by employing them in his munitions factory, which was deemed essential to the war effort—though Schindler purposely produced faulty ammunition. After the Kraków ghetto was destroyed, he created a safe sub-camp at his factory and was later able to rescue some of his workers when they were misrouted to Auschwitz. What happened to him after the war? Discuss