Month: June 2024

Pancho Villa (1878)

Villa was a legendary Mexican guerrilla leader. He fought for land reform and joined with revolutionaries against dictator Porfirio Díaz as well as his successor but was forced to flee after breaking ties with Venustiano Carranza, who had assumed power in 1914. Angered by US support for Carranza, Villa raided a New Mexico town in 1916. A US force was sent to apprehend him, but he managed to evade capture. Three years after he was finally pardoned, he was assassinated. What was his real name? Discuss

Al-Azhar University

Located in Cairo, Egypt, Al-Azhar University was founded in 972 CE as a madrasa—a place of Islamic learning. By teaching numerous subjects in the same place, it was one of the first universities in the world and the only one to survive as a modern university. Historically, students primarily studied the Qur’an and Islamic law. Today, the university is the world’s chief center of Arabic literature and Islamic learning. When did it begin teaching a wide range of secular subjects? Discuss

Riot at Ten-Cent Beer Night (1974)

In a disastrous effort to increase ticket sales, the Cleveland Indians decided to hold a “Ten-Cent Beer Night,” allowing attendees to purchase unlimited cups of beer for just 10 cents each, during a home game against the Texas Rangers. The promotion did boost attendance, however, it also created a stadium full of drunken spectators who disrupted early innings of the game with streaking and flashing. Eventually, a violent mob flooded the field and clashed with players. How did the game end? Discuss

Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867)

Mannerheim was a Finnish-born soldier and statesman. A career officer in the Russian imperial army from 1889 to 1917, he went on to command the anti-Bolshevik forces in the Finnish Civil War and expelled the Soviet forces, serving as regent of Finland until the new republic was declared. He served as commander-in-chief of Finnish forces in the Russo-Finnish War and was named president of Finland in 1944, after which he negotiated a peace agreement with the Soviets. Why did he resign in 1946? Discuss

XYY Syndrome

XYY syndrome is a chromosomal anomaly characterized by the presence of one X-chromosome and two Y-chromosomes. Some medical geneticists question whether the term “syndrome” is appropriate for this sex-linked trisomy, because afflicted males are physically normal—though they tend to be above average in height—and the vast majority of those affected do not know that they possess the extra chromosome. About 1 in 1,000 boys are born with this condition. How does the chromosomal disorder develop? Discuss

Valerie Solanas Attempts to Assassinate Andy Warhol (1968)

In the mid-1960s, American pop-art icon Andy Warhol began to devote much of his time and energy to filmmaking, producing marathon films on boredom and voyeurism that featured deliberately coarse amalgams of sexuality and banality. In 1968, he was shot and wounded by Valerie Solanas, a feminist writer who had appeared in one of his films. Warhol never fully recovered from the shooting and died from complications following surgery in 1987. What sparked Solanas’ ire towards Warhol? Discuss

Otto Loewi (1873)

Loewi was a German-born American physiologist and pharmacologist. A professor of pharmacology at Austria’s University of Graz, he was forced into exile by the Nazi purge of professors in 1938 and began teaching at New York University in 1940. He investigated the physiology and pharmacology of metabolism, the kidneys, the heart, and the nervous system. For his discovery of the chemical transmission of nerve impulses, he shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with whom? Discuss

In a Flash

As storm clouds develop, the temperature at the top of the clouds becomes much cooler than that at the bottom. For reasons that scientists still do not understand, this temperature difference results in the accumulation of negatively charged particles near the base and positively charged particles near the top of the storm cloud. This buildup of electrical charge causes a high-voltage discharge in the form of lightning. What is sheet lightning, and how does it differ from forked lightning? Discuss