Month: March 2024

Tlacaxipehualiztli (Festival of Xipe Totec)

Among the Aztec Indians of Mexico, Xipe Totec was a god of war. The observance of his festival took place in March according to the Gregorian calendar. Xipe Totec was often referred to as “Our Lord the Flayed One” (or, “the Flayer“), and images of him show the god wearing a human skin. The Festival was an occasion for Aztec warriors to mimic the god. They killed their prisoners of war and removed their skins from their bodies. They would then wear these skins for the entire 20-day month and hold mock battles, after which they would discard the now-rotting skins into caves or bury them. Discuss

Gerardus Mercator (1512)

Mercator was a Flemish geographer, mathematician, and cartographer who perfected the first map using the Mercator projection, the translation of the spherical earth to a two-dimensional flat plane. In it, parallels and meridians are rendered as straight lines spaced to produce an accurate ratio of latitude to longitude at any point. It permits mariners to steer a course over long distances without continually adjusting compass readings. What map-related term was coined by Mercator? Discuss

The "Rat-Squirrel"

When scientists discovered the Laotian rock rat, a large, rat-like creature with a thick, hairy tail, they believed that the animal was so different from known rodents that it warranted classification in a new, distinct family called Laonastidae. Shortly thereafter, another group of experts published their assertion that the animal was actually a member of the ancient fossil family Diatomyidae. Under what urban circumstances did researchers find the first Laotian rock rat specimens? Discuss

Chicago Is Incorporated as a City (1837)

In 1803, the US Army built Fort Dearborn on a tract of land along the Chicago River that had been acquired from the Native Americans after the Northwest Indian War. Over time, the settlement that grew up around the fort was incorporated as a city. A major port and the commercial, financial, industrial, and cultural center of the Midwest, Chicago is now the third-largest city in the US. Its name is derived from the Native American word shikaakwa, meaning “onion field,” a reference to what? Discuss

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (1678)

Vivaldi was an Italian composer, considered the greatest master of Italian baroque. He became a priest in 1703 and spent most of his life after 1709 in Venice, teaching and playing the violin and writing music for the Pietà, a music conservatory for orphaned girls. Although he produced vocal music, including 46 operas, Vivaldi is best known for instrumental music, including The Four Seasons and nearly 500 concertos for violin and other instruments. Why was he nicknamed the “Red Priest”? Discuss

The White Rose Society

During the early 1940s, a group of German university students and their philosophy professor founded the White Rose resistance movement, secretly drafting, printing, and distributing leaflets urging Germans, particularly the intelligentsia, to rise up against the Nazi regime. In February 1943, 2 prominent White Rose members, Sophie and Hans Scholl, were arrested. The rest of the group’s founding members were soon captured, and all 7 were sentenced to death. What were Sophie Scholl’s last words? Discuss