Month: July 2023

YMCA

The Young Men’s Christian Organization (YMCA) was founded in London in 1844 and has as its objective the development of values and behaviors that are consistent with Christian principles; membership is not limited to Christians, however, and women and girls have been accepted as members since World War II. In North America, the YMCA is usually perceived to be primarily a community sports facility, but in practice it utilizes a broad range of other programs, such as what? Discuss

Battle of Peachtree Creek (1864)

In the spring of 1864 during the American Civil War, Union General William T. Sherman began preparing his troops for their first major attack on the defenses of Atlanta, Georgia. Just days after taking command of a Confederate army in that area, General John Bell Hood unsuccessfully attacked Sherman’s troops as they crossed the nearby Peachtree Creek. Most historians consider the attack a grave error, as the Union troops routed Hood’s army. What went wrong for Hood? Discuss

Moon Day

The first man to walk on the moon was American astronaut Neil Armstrong. On July 20, 1969, he and his fellow astronaut, Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, left the command module and landed the lunar module Eagle on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility. Armstrong’s first words as he stepped out on the lunar surface were heard by an estimated 600 million viewers: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” The Apollo 11 mission was completed eight years after President John F. Kennedy told Congress he believed that the United States could put a man on the moon before the decade ended. Discuss

Gregor Mendel (1822)

Mendel was an Austrian monk who laid the mathematical foundation for the science of genetics. While working in his monastery’s garden in 1854, he began planning the experiments that led him to identify the basic principles of heredity. By crossing different varieties of pea plants, he determined that each parent plant contributes a “factor”—now known as a gene—to its offspring for a particular trait. His findings went unrecognized until the 20th century, when they were rediscovered by whom? Discuss

The Ivy League

The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising 8 private institutions of higher education located in the Northeastern US. The term became ubiquitous with the formation of the NCAA Division I athletic conference in 1954, and it is now also commonly used to refer to those schools considered as a group. The Ivy League universities are also referred to as the Ancient Eight, and all but one of them are older than the American Revolution; which one was founded after the Civil War? Discuss

Mary I Begins Reign as Queen of England (1553)

After King Henry VIII divorced her mother, Catherine of Aragon, and married Anne Boleyn, Mary was declared illegitimate and lost her place in the line of succession. In 1553, her granddaughter, Lady Jane Grey, was deposed following a nine-day reign, and Mary—restored to the line of succession in 1544—became queen. She restored Roman Catholicism to England, but the resulting persecution of Protestants and the execution of some 300 heretics earned her the hatred of her subjects and what nickname? Discuss