Month: January 2023

US President Woodrow Wilson Introduces His Fourteen Points (1918)

In 1918, Wilson presented to the US Congress his Fourteen Points as a guide for a peace settlement after World War I. He emphasized “open covenants of peace, openly arrived at,” to change the usual method of secret diplomacy practiced in Europe. Wilson’s idealistic message also laid the groundwork for the creation of the League of Nations. Opposition to the points quickly developed, however, and the subsequent treaty between Germany and the Allies sowed the seeds for what conflict? Discuss

Battle of New Orleans Day

When British soldiers attacked near the Chalmette plantation outside New Orleans on January 8, 1815, they were met by a ragtag army of militiamen, sailors, and pirates fighting from behind barricades. The defending US troops were led by General Andrew Jackson, whose stunning victory—the British suffered some 2,000 casualties, while the Americans lost only eight men—made him a national hero. This day remains a legal holiday in Louisiana, where it is also known as Jackson Day or, in honor of Jackson’s nickname, as Old Hickory’s Day. Discuss

Stephen Hawking (1942)

Despite suffering from a neurodegenerative disease that has made it impossible for him to communicate without a voice synthesizer or to move around without a wheelchair, Hawking is one of the world’s top theoretical physicists. While most experts in his field are little known outside the scientific community, Hawking has taken pains to make his work accessible to the layperson and, in so doing, has become a household name. What is the title of his bestselling book on cosmology? Discuss

Millefiori

Millefiori is a glassmaking technique in which a bundle of colored glass rods is heated, fused, drawn out thinly, and then cut to create flower patterns. Millefiori is of ancient origin and was used in Anglo-Saxon jewelry and decoration. The process was revived in 16th-century Venice, and then again in 19th-century France and Britain, where it was used for objects like paperweights. It was during this period that the technique was given its name, which combines two Italian words that mean what? Discuss

Cambodia Victory Day

This national holiday is also called Victory over Genocide Day and Nation Day. It marks the day in 1979 that Vietnamese troops entered Cambodia and began an assault that ended the bloody regime of the Khmer Rouge. It is estimated that as many as two million Cambodians were killed during the nearly four years that Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge ruled the country. Victory Day is celebrated with patriotic speeches by government officials, remembrance services for the victims, as well as cultural displays of the era. Discuss

Joseph Bonaparte (1768)

The older brother of Napoleon, Joseph Bonaparte served as French minister to Parma and Rome, and negotiated a treaty with the US in 1800. When Napoleon became emperor, Joseph bitterly protested being left out of the line of succession. In 1806, Napoleon made him king of Naples, and in 1808 he was made king of Spain instead. He reluctantly abdicated after failure in the Peninsular War. He then lived mainly in the US state of New Jersey, where he was reputed to have seen what legendary creature? Discuss