Author: Ian

Aaron Copland (1900)

Famously public-spirited and generous, Copland came to be unofficially regarded as the US’s national composer. Although his earliest works show European influences, the American character of the greater part of his compositions is evident in his use of jazz and American folk tunes. He is best known for his three ballets based on American folk material: Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. For what films did Copland compose music? Discuss

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850)

Born in Scotland, Stevenson traveled frequently during his life, partly in search of better climates for his tuberculosis, which would eventually cause his death at age 44. In 1885, he published A Child’s Garden of Verses, one of the most influential children’s works of the 19th century. His immensely popular novels Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were written over the course of just a few years. What is considered his unfinished masterpiece? Discuss

Two Libyans Indicted for Pan Am 103 Attack (1991)

In 1991, after a three-year investigation, US and UK authorities announced indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people. During a trial held a decade later in the Netherlands, one of the defendants was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Whose presence on board the airplane has given rise to a number of conspiracy theories about the motivations behind the bombing? Discuss

Avicenna

A polymath born in Persia around 980 CE, Avicenna was, among other things, an astronomer, chemist, mathematician, poet, and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time. The Canon of Medicine, one of his most famous works, remained a standard medical text at many Islamic and European universities until the 18th century. Called the “doctor of doctors,” Avicenna is regarded as the father of modern medicine. How old was Avicenna when he began studying medicine? Discuss

Grace Kelly (1929)

Kelly was an American actress who gained critical and popular praise for her performances in High Noon and The Country Girl, for which she won an Academy Award. She also starred in three Alfred Hitchcock films but cut short her promising acting career in 1956 when she married Prince Rainier III, becoming Princess Grace of Monaco and retiring from acting. In 1982, she died in an accident after suffering a stroke while driving on a mountain road. How did she and Prince Rainier meet? Discuss

Ramzi Yousef Found Guilty of Masterminding 1993 World Trade Center Bombing (1997)

In 1993, terrorists detonated a car-bomb in an underground garage of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing six, injuring more than a thousand, and causing more than $300 million in damage. In all, ten militant Islamist conspirators were convicted of involvement in the bombing, including Yousef, who also bombed an important Shia shrine in Iran in 1994 and later planned a large-scale terrorist scheme that included killing the pope. What alleged 9-11 mastermind is Yousef’s uncle? Discuss

The Vienna Dioscurides

The Vienna Dioscurides is an early 6th-century copy of De Materia Medica, a manuscript first created by the ancient Greek physician and pharmacologist Dioscurides. A precursor to all modern pharmacopeias, it remained in practical use until about 1600. The Vienna Dioscurides contains more than 400 pictures of animals and plants and is the earliest known manuscript to use a solid gold background. It is also the oldest surviving illustrated treatise on what type of animal? Discuss