Month: June 2023

St. Vitus's Day

According to legend, St. Vitus was raised as a Christian by his nurse and his foster father. All three suffered persecution and were eventually put to death for their beliefs around 303 CE, when Vitus was still a young boy. A chapel was later built in his honor at Ulm, Germany, and it was believed that anyone who danced before his shrine there on June 15, St. Vitus’s Day, would be assured of good health in the coming year. St. Vitus is the patron saint of those suffering from epilepsy and other disorders of the nervous system, as well as actors and dancers. Discuss

Erik Erikson (1902)

Erikson was a Pulitzer Prize-winning German-American psychoanalyst known for his psychosocial development theory. In his most influential work, Childhood and Society, he divided the human life cycle into eight psychosocial stages of development: trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, intimacy, generativity, and ego integrity. He also explored the convergence of personal development and social history in his psychohistorical studies. What now widely used phrase did he coin? Discuss

Route 66

Also known as the “The Main Street of America,” Route 66 was established in 1926 and ran from Chicago, Illinois, in a south-westerly direction to Los Angeles, California, for a total of 2,448 miles (3,939 km). It was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the 1930s, and it supported the economies of the communities through which it passed. More direct routes and increasingly sophisticated engineering techniques led to its being decommissioned in what year? Discuss

TWA Flight 847 Hijacked (1985)

While on its way from Athens to Rome in 1985, Trans World Airlines Flight 847 was hijacked by members of the Amal Movement terrorist group. The aircraft’s 153 passengers and crew endured a three-day intercontinental ordeal during which one passenger, a US Navy diver, was murdered. Though most of the passengers were released during this time, dozens were held hostage for more than two weeks. Flight attendant Uli Derickson is widely credited with saving the lives of many passengers by doing what? Discuss

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811)

A prolific writer whose works fill more than a dozen volumes, Stowe was an American novelist and humanitarian. Spurred to action by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, she began writing an antislavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which became an instant and controversial best-seller. Its impact on Northerners’ attitudes toward slavery was significant, swaying much of the public to support, or at least sympathize with, the abolitionist cause. What else did Stowe write? Discuss

The Great Toronto Fire

The Great Toronto Fire of 1904 began in a factory in downtown Toronto, the capital city of Ontario, Canada, and spread to more than 100 other buildings before it was extinguished. For nine hours, Toronto’s firefighters—as well as firefighters from Hamilton, Ontario, and Buffalo, New York, that had come to help—braved strong winds and sub-zero temperatures as they fought to bring the blaze under control. What was the total estimated value of the property damaged by the fire? Discuss