Month: November 2022

Napoleon Bonaparte Leads the Coup of 18 Brumaire (1799)

The Coup of 18 Brumaire, widely considered the effective end of the French Revolution, made way for the despotism of Napoleon. Planned by French statesmen Emmanuel Sieyès and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, the coup allowed Napoleon to overthrow the weakened government of the Directory and replace it with the Consulate. The Consulate’s executive branch consisted of three consuls, but Napoleon—as first consul—wielded all real power and soon became emperor. What is 18 Brumaire? Discuss

Birthday of Muhammad Iqbal

In Pakistan, November 9 is a national holiday to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal, a famous Pakistani poet and philosopher. Iqbal was born in the city of Sialkot in the Punjab province of Pakistan on November 9, 1877. On this day, a number of functions are held to honor the great poet. Many educational institutions sponsor programs that showcase his life and achievements. In addition to the main function at Iqbal’s tomb, the National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi exhibits Iqbal’s personal belongings, including his costumes, books, and publications. Discuss

Hermann Weyl (1885)

A contemporary and onetime colleague of Albert Einstein, Hermann Weyl was a German mathematician whose work on the topics of space, time, matter, philosophy, and symmetry, to name a few, has earned him consideration as one of the most influential 20th-century mathematicians. His research advanced not only the field of mathematics but of theoretical physics as well. While teaching at a Zurich university, Weyl is alleged to have had an affair with the wife of what noted theoretical physicist? Discuss

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a Canadian province situated in the Maritimes. It is the nation’s smallest province in both size and population, but it has Canada’s highest population density. With its fertile, distinctive red soil and its agreeable climate, the island has become known as the Garden of the Gulf. Tourism and fishing contribute to the island’s economy, and there may be natural gas deposits beneath its eastern end. What Canadian author and PEI native set most of her novels there? Discuss

Wilhelm Röntgen Discovers X-Rays (1895)

In 1895, Röntgen, a German physicist, discovered rays that did not exhibit properties such as reflection or refraction. Because of their mysterious nature, he called them X-rays. His discovery, which gave medicine a critical view inside the body and allowed bones to be photographed, remains a valuable diagnostic tool. Röntgen’s breakthrough earned him the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901. One of the first X-ray photographs he took was of his wife’s hand. What did she say when she saw it? Discuss

Bram Stoker (1847)

Though he was best known during his lifetime as the longtime manager of actor Henry Irving, Stoker’s enduring popularity rests squarely on his 1897 Gothic horror tale, Dracula, about the eponymous vampire. Although he did not invent the vampire novel, Dracula is singularly responsible for scores of literary, theatrical, and film interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Why did Stoker’s widow demand that the 1922 film Nosferatu be destroyed? Discuss

E. E. Cummings

Cummings was an American writer and painter whose poetry was noted for its eccentricities of typography, language, and punctuation. His publishers often mirrored his atypical style by writing his name in lower case, though Cummings did not endorse this and typically used capital letters in his signature. Many of his poems exude a childlike playfulness and seek to convey a joyful awareness of sex and love. Cummings’s celebrated work, The Enormous Room, recounts his experiences where? Discuss