Month: May 2024

16 May 1877 Crisis (1877)

On May 16, 1877—le Seize Mai—French Republic president Marie MacMahon, a monarchist, attempted to rescue the monarchical cause by dismissing the republican prime minister and replacing him with a monarchist leader and cabinet. When the Chamber of Deputies rejected the new government, MacMahon dissolved parliament and ordered new elections, precipitating a crisis. His efforts spectacularly backfired, however, when the republicans triumphantly returned to government through what means? Discuss

Wladziu Valentino Liberace (1919)

Liberace began playing piano at the age of 4, and by 16, he had appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He soon began giving concerts in flamboyant costumes with ornate pianos, and though he occasionally performed with symphony orchestras, he built his career primarily upon popular music. Hugely successful, he hosted a television variety series, and, in later years, performed frequently in Las Vegas. During what decades was he said to be the world’s highest paid entertainer? Discuss

Trepanation

The practice of drilling a hole into the skull to expose the dura mater surrounding the brain is an ancient surgical procedure dating back to prehistoric times. It is the oldest surgical procedure for which evidence (in the form of human remains) has been discovered. Modern physicians continue to perform trepanations, though the medical rationale surrounding the surgery has since evolved. Which artist gained notoriety for performing a self-trepanation and then screening a film of the procedure? Discuss

US Supreme Court Declares Standard Oil an "Unreasonable" Monopoly (1911)

By 1880, through elimination of competitors, mergers, and railroad rebates, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled the refining of up to 95 percent of all oil produced in the US. In 1892, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the trust dissolved, but it continued to operate. Exposed in Ida Tarbell’s History of the Standard Oil Company in 1904, it was broken up in 1911 after a lengthy antitrust suit by the US government. What current oil companies have ties to the former Standard Oil? Discuss

St. Dymphna's Day

According to legend, St. Dymphna fled with her priest to Geel, Belgium to escape her pagan father’s demand for an incestuous marriage. St. Dymphna came to be known as the patron saint of the insane, and for centuries mental patients were brought to the site of her relics in Geel. Today there is a large, well-equipped sanatorium for the mentally ill in Geel. On May 15 special church services are held and a religious procession moves through the streets carrying a stone from St. Dymphna’s alleged tomb—a relic that at one time was applied to patients as part of their therapy. Discuss

L. Frank Baum (1856)

Baum was an American author of more than 70 children’s books who is best known for penning The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He moved from New York to South Dakota in 1888. When his newspaper there failed, he moved to Illinois and found work as a journalist. His first children’s book, Mother Goose in Prose (1897), was followed by Father Goose: His Book, an immediate bestseller. In 2006, Baum’s descendants apologized for editorials in which he called for the extermination of whom? Discuss

The Pazzi Conspiracy

In the late 1400s, Pope Sixtus IV, his nephew Gerolamo Riario, Archbishop Salviati, and members of the wealthy Pazzi family hatched a plot to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici. The Pazzi and Medici families were rivals, but the Pazzis were merely tools in the conspiracy, which aimed to increase Riario’s power in Florence. On April 26, 1478, while attending High Mass at the Duomo, Giuliano was stabbed to death. What happened to Lorenzo? Discuss