Month: May 2023

Dust Bowl: Dust Storm Hits Great Plains (1934)

In the 1930s, severe drought conditions in the Great Plains region of the US and decades of farming without crop rotation led to a series of devastating dust storms. The storms, called “dusters” or “black blizzards,” caused widespread ecological and agricultural damage. In May 1934, one of the worst storms to hit the Dust Bowl blew massive amounts of Great Plains topsoil all the way to the East Coast and dumped the equivalent of how many pounds of debris on Chicago, Illinois? Discuss

Frederick Russell Burnham (1861)

Burnham was an American adventurer whose outdoorsmanship helped inspire the founding of the international scout movement. He was born on an Indian reservation to a missionary family and became a horseback messenger for Western Union Telegraph Company at age 13 and soon after a scout and tracker. After two decades of ranging in the Southwest and Mexico, he moved to Africa to become the British army’s chief of scouts during the Boer War. His tracking skills earned him what nickname in Africa? Discuss

Cumin

Cumin is a low annual herb of the parsley family. Its fruits resemble the related caraway and are similarly used in cooking. Drought tolerant and requiring long hot summers for healthy growth, cumin was originally cultivated in Iran and the Mediterranean region. It is mentioned in the Bible and was known to the ancient Greeks, who kept cumin at the dining table and used it much like black pepper is frequently used today. What spice is often mistaken for cumin? Discuss

The Panic of 1837 (1837)

In 1836, US President Andrew Jackson issued the Specie Circular, an executive order requiring purchases of government land to be made only with gold and silver currency, or specie. A shortage of specie soon made loans harder to acquire, and the US economy suffered. When the speculative bubble burst in 1837, every bank in New York City stopped payment in specie. The Panic was followed by a nationwide depression involving record bank failures and unemployment levels. Who was blamed for the Panic? Discuss

Sid Vicious (1957)

Born John Simon Ritchie, Sid Vicious was an English punk rock musician who played bass for the Sex Pistols. After the band broke up in 1978, he embarked on a solo career, with his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, acting as his manager. The two—heroin addicts—quickly spun out of control. On October 12, 1978, he awoke to find Spungen dead from a stab wound on the bathroom floor of their hotel room. Though he claimed to have no memory of the event, Vicious was arrested for her murder. Did he kill her? Discuss

Borough Market

Borough Market is a wholesale and retail food market in South London. It is a successor to a 13th century market that adjoined the end of London Bridge. People come to trade at the current market from all different parts of the UK, and it has become a fashionable place to buy food. Large portions of the market are to be demolished under what project? Discuss