Month: August 2024

The Catacombs of Paris

The Catacombs of Paris are a network of subterranean tunnels and rooms located in Roman-era limestone quarries that were converted into a mass tomb at the end of the 18th century to curb the spread of disease due to improper burials and mass graves. Today, only a small portion of the catacombs, which span more than 186 miles, is open to the public, but many enter them illegally via secret entrances found throughout Paris. Why were the catacombs closed to the public in 2009? Discuss

Guy de Maupassant (1850)

Maupassant was a 19th-century French writer considered one of the fathers of the modern short story. A protégé of Gustave Flaubert, Maupassant wrote with a simplicity, clarity, and objective calm that echoed the style of his mentor. He first gained attention with “Boule de Suif,” or “Ball of Fat,” and eventually published about 300 short stories, many of which are said to be unsurpassed in their genre. Why did Maupassant often dine at the restaurant at the base of the Eiffel Tower? Discuss

Sonoluminescence

Accidentally discovered in 1934 while scientists were experimenting with sonar, sonoluminescence is the emission of short bursts of light from the implosion of bubbles formed in a liquid medium as sound waves pass through it. Scientists have since theorized that the temperatures inside the bubbles are hot enough to melt steel. In 2001, the first known instance of an animal producing light by sonoluminescence was reported. What creature exhibited such behavior? Discuss

Greenwich Foot Tunnel Opens (1902)

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel beneath the River Thames in East London, linking Greenwich with the Isle of Dogs. Opened in 1902, the tunnel replaced an occasionally unreliable ferry service and was intended to allow workers living on the south side of the Thames to reach their workplaces in the London docks and shipyards. The tunnel is made of cast-iron rings lined with concrete and covered with some 200,000 white tiles. It is 1,215 ft (370 m) long and how deep underground? Discuss

Louis Armstrong (1901)

Armstrong was an innovative trumpeter and singer who strongly influenced the melodic development of jazz in the 1920s. He began playing in marching, riverboat, and cabaret bands as a youth in New Orleans and later joined King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in Chicago and the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York City. Between 1925 and 1929, he made his classic Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, which established the preeminence of the virtuoso jazz soloist. What style of singing did he popularize? Discuss

The Derveni Papyrus

The Derveni Papyrus, Europe’s oldest surviving manuscript, is an ancient Greek papyrus scroll dating to approximately 340 BCE. Found in Derveni, in northern Greece, in 1962, the scroll is an allegorical commentary on a poem ascribed to the mythic poet Orpheus which discusses the birth of the gods. It begins with the words “Close the doors, you uninitiated,” a famous admonition to secrecy. The text was officially published how many years after its discovery in 1962? Discuss

US Senate Ratifies the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (1972)

The Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 limited the number of defensive antiballistic missile systems allowed to the US and USSR. Effective ABM systems had been sought since the Cold War, when the nuclear arms race raised the specter of complete destruction by unstoppable ballistic missiles. In the West, the treaty was seen as a deterrent to nuclear war, since neither side would be able to fully protect against nuclear attack. Why then did the US withdraw from the treaty in 2002? Discuss