Author: Ian

Kefir

Kefir is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region of Eurasia and is prepared by inoculating cow, goat, or sheep’s milk with kefir grains, a combination of bacteria and yeasts in a matrix of proteins, lipids, and sugars. Traditional kefir was made in skin bags that were hung near a doorway and knocked by everyone passing through to help keep the milk and kefir grains mixed. Today, kefir is popular due to research into its health benefits. What are these benefits? Discuss

Emma Lazarus (1849)

Lazarus was an American Jewish poet. She became an impassioned spokeswoman for Judaism after the Russian pogroms of the 1880s, writing many essays and a book of poems, Songs of a Semite, which contains her best work. Her writings caught the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with whom she shared a lifetime correspondence. She also worked for the relief of new immigrants to the US, and the famous closing lines of her sonnet “The New Colossus” were engraved on what monument? Discuss

Paul Julius Freiherr von Reuter (1816)

Reuter, founder of the Reuters news agency, was a pioneer of telegraphy and news reporting. In 1849, he started a post service to bridge the gap in a telegraph line between Germany and Belgium. He soon moved to England and opened a telegraph office serving banks, brokerages, and businesses. He steadily extended his commercial news service, acquiring his first subscribing newspaper client in 1858. Undersea cables enabled him to expand the service. What animal was used to deliver messages in 1849? Discuss

Neil Armstrong Becomes the First Man to Walk on the Moon (1969)

As commander of Apollo 11, Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the Moon. With hundreds of millions watching a broadcast of his history-making moonwalk, he uttered the now famous line, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Buzz Aldrin followed, and the two astronauts proceeded to set up scientific equipment, conduct experiments, and collect samples from the lunar surface. What other spacecraft landed on the moon while Apollo 11 was still there? Discuss

Pole Weapons

The idea of creating a weapon by attaching a sharp end to a long shaft is an old one—the first spears date back to the Stone Age. Over the centuries, pole weapons have taken many different forms, from the European fauchard to the Chinese guan dao to the Japanese naginata. Masses of soldiers carrying pole weapons were recognized as effective military units early in the history of organized warfare. What infantry weapon resembled a kitchen knife? Discuss

King Abdullah I of Jordan Is Assassinated (1951)

Abdullah I was the king of Jordan from 1946 until his death. With Britain’s support, he led Arab revolts against Turkish rule in WWI and, after the Ottoman Empire’s collapse, became emir of the British mandate of Transjordan in 1921. When the mandate ended, he became king of the renamed Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In 1948, he attacked the newly established state of Israel, annexing the portions of Palestine now known as the West Bank. In 1951, he was assassinated in Jerusalem by whom? Discuss

Monarchomachs

With a name meaning “killers of monarchs,” the Monarchomachs were originally members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France who opposed absolute monarchy at the end of the 16th century. Born out of the wars between Catholics and Protestants, the Monarchomachs promoted a theory of tyrannicide—the killing or assassination of tyrants for the common good—in their advocacy of popular sovereignty. What separated their political vision from the modern conception of democracy? Discuss