Director Skips Bail and Flees to France (1978)

The films of renowned director Roman Polanski are marked by dramatic situations presented with irony and a cool lack of sentimentality. Born in Paris and educated in Poland, he moved to Hollywood in 1968 to pursue his filmmaking career. His pregnant wife was murdered by the Manson “family” shortly thereafter. In 1978, he fled to France to avoid sentencing after pleading guilty to statutory rape. A survivor of the Holocaust, he recently received an Academy Award for what World War II film? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Private Slovik Executed for Desertion (1945)

US Army private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion in 1945. His was the first such execution after the Civil War and the only one of 49 World War II desertion death sentences to be carried out. Slovik was initially separated from his unit during an artillery attack. He rejoined them but deserted after being assigned to the front lines. He later confessed in writing that he would do it again and refused offers to destroy his note and return to battle. How old was Slovik when he died? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Hitler Is Appointed Chancellor of Germany (1933)

Hitler’s rise to power began long before 1933, with his development of the Nazi party in the early 1920s and the release of his book, Mein Kampf. When the Nazis were elected the largest party in the Reichstag in 1932, German President Paul von Hindenburg offered Hitler a subordinate position in the cabinet. Hitler held out for a more powerful post and only had to wait six months to be named chancellor. How did Hitler then work to eliminate the communists as a political opponent?

Source: The Free Dictionary

Edgar Allan Poe Publishes “The Raven” (1845)

Like Poe’s other works, “The Raven” conveys the dreamlike and often macabre forces that pervaded the author’s sensibility. While his wife suffered from a protracted illness, Poe composed this poem, which became an instant sensation when it appeared in the Evening Mirror in 1845. In the poem, the speaker, who is mourning the death of his love, Lenore, is mysteriously visited by a talking raven and asks the bird a series of questions. What is the raven’s one-word response to each query?

Source: The Free Dictionary