The first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, was launched by the USSR in 1957 and spurred the dormant US space program into action, leading to an international competition popularly known as the “space race.” Explorer I, the first American satellite, was launched just months later, in January 1958. In the decade that followed, the US and the USSR launched approximately 50 space probes between them to explore the Moon. What project is said to have marked the end of the space race? Discuss
Month: October 2024
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822)
After fighting in the Union army in the American Civil War, Hayes served in the US House of Representatives and then as governor of Ohio. In 1876, he won the Republican nomination for president. His opponent, Samuel Tilden, won a larger popular vote, but the election was so close that a special commission had to decide the issue. It eventually ruled in Hayes’s favor. What concessions did Hayes make as part of a secret compromise reached with Southerners during the electoral dispute? Discuss
Music of the Trecento
Considered by some art historians to be the beginning of the Renaissance, the Trecento was a 14th-century period in Italy that saw renewed focus on the arts, including painting, architecture, literature, and, especially, music. Influenced by troubadours and a type of polyphonic sacred music called the conductus, composers throughout the period pioneered new forms of expression, especially in secular songs written in the Italian vernacular. Who was the period’s most famous composer? Discuss
uninitiated
"The Shot Heard 'Round the World" (1951)
Late in the 1951 baseball season, the New York Giants trailed far behind their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, in the standings. However, the Giants went on a winning streak, and the two teams finished the regular season with identical 96-58 records. In the first two games of a three-game playoff series, the teams traded wins. In the bottom of game three’s ninth inning, the Giants were trailing 4-2 with two men on base when Bobby Thomson came to bat. What happened next? Discuss
Korea National Foundation Day
This national holiday in the Republic of Korea (South Korea), also known as Gaecheon-jeol, commemorates the legendary founding of the Korean nation in 2333 BCE by Tangun. Prince Hwan-ung left heaven to rule earth from Mt. T’aebaek and bore a son called Tangun Wanggom, meaning Sandalwood King. When he grew up, he built his own city and called his new kingdom Choson. The myth is important in that it links the Korean people with a heavenly origin. The holiday is celebrated with ceremonies at the ancient rock altar of Tangun, on the summit of Mt. Mani on Kanghwa Island, about 25 miles west of Seoul. Discuss
John Ross (1790)
The son of Scottish and Cherokee parents, Ross served in the War of 1812 under Andrew Jackson against the Creeks. Elected principal chief of the eastern Cherokee in 1828, he resisted government attempts to seize Cherokee farms and lands in Georgia and unsuccessfully petitioned Jackson to defend the tribe’s rights. In 1838, he was forced to lead his people on the infamously long, hard journey to the Oklahoma Territory. In Native American lore, this journey is known as what? Discuss
Vladimir Mayakovsky
Mayakovsky, a Russian poet and playwright, was one of the foremost representatives of early 20th century Russian Futurism. A leader of the Futurist school in 1912, he went on to become the poetic voice of the Russian Revolution. His poetry is unique in its rhythm, rhyme, and imagery. Written almost entirely in metaphors, his 1915 poem The Cloud in Trousers describes the agony of unrequited love. Mayakovsky was one of the few Soviet writers allowed by the state to do what? Discuss
pestilential
Definition: (adjective) Likely to spread and cause an epidemic disease.
Synonyms: pestiferous, plaguey.
Usage: I have a notion, and more than a notion, that I shall never pass back alive through these pestilential swamps.
Discuss
Nat Turner (1800)
Turner was an American slave who believed that he had been chosen to lead the slaves out of bondage. He took a solar eclipse in 1831 as a sign and began his rebellion with a few trusted fellow slaves. They killed his master’s family and went from house to house, freeing slaves and killing the white people they found. The rebels grew to more than 70 before the state militia quashed the insurrection. Turner was tried and hanged along with 56 others. What laws were passed in response to the revolt? Discuss