Category: Today’s Birthday

American screen legend and two-time Academy Award-winning actress Bette Davis made her Hollywood debut in 1931 and, after several flops, won acclaim for her role in 1934’s Of Human Bondage. Her electrifying performances and intense characterizations of strong women made her a prime box-office attraction between 1935 and 1946, but her popularity declined thereafter. Undeterred, she launched a comeback and continued acting until shortly before her death. Why did she disinherit her daughter? Discuss

As a teenager in Mississippi, Waters played traditional country blues, but after settling in Chicago in the 1940s, he switched to a more urban style with amplified instruments. He soon became known for his driving slide guitar technique and darkly expressive vocal style. From the 1950s on, Waters recorded, toured, and played various music festivals. His electric blues influenced myriad musicians, including Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. What world-famous band took its name from one of his songs? Discuss

One of the most powerful—and controversial—figures in the history of US journalism, Luce founded Time magazine in 1923 with former Yale classmate Briton Hadden. It was the first news-weekly in the US and is now the largest. Luce went on to launch a number of other highly successful magazines, including Fortune, Life, and Sports Illustrated. What was the estimated value of his share of Time stock at the time of his death? Discuss

Chaney was an American silent-film actor. Born to parents who were both deaf and mute, he learned to express himself through pantomime at an early age. He moved to Hollywood in 1912 and became one of the biggest stars of the time, appearing in more than 150 silent films. Known as “the man of a thousand faces,” he masterfully used makeup to play tortured, grotesque characters in horror films such as The Phantom of the Opera. How did fake snow made of corn flakes contribute to his death? Discuss

The son of two ex-slaves, Johnson was the world’s first African-American heavyweight champion. At the height of his career, Johnson was excoriated by the press for having twice married white women, and he offended white supremacists by defeating former champion James J. Jeffries, the “Great White Hope.” In 1912, Johnson was convicted under the Mann Act for transporting his wife-to-be across state lines. Sentenced to a year in prison, he fled the country. What happened when he returned? Discuss

Considered to be one of the greatest guitar players of all time, Clapton took up the instrument as a teen and went on to play in a succession of critically acclaimed blues and rock bands, such as the Yardbirds, the Bluesbreakers, and Cream. He is the recipient of 17 Grammy awards and is a three-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the early 70s, he spent several years in seclusion battling a heroin addiction. What famous rock guitarist helped launch Clapton’s comeback? Discuss

Abandoned by his parents as a baby and raised by a British aunt whose last name he took, Bartholomew was a successful child actor in Hollywood during the 1930s. He appeared in such films as Little Lord Fauntleroy, Captains Courageous, and David Copperfield, which propelled him to fame at the age of 10. After he became successful, his biological parents launched a protracted and expensive court battle to regain custody of the child star that lasted for how long? Discuss

Before photojournalism rendered illustrations of the news obsolete, Currier printed more than 7,000 lithographs—prints made using a stone block etched with grease to reproduce drawings—that greatly increased the public demand for graphic images. With his partner James Ives, he established outlets across the country, selling high-quality prints of disasters, landscapes, satirical subjects, and domestic scenes. Ives was neither a lithographer nor an artist, so why did Currier make him his partner? Discuss

Schnorr was a German religious and historical painter and draftsman. As a child, he studied under his father, who was an engraver and painter. In 1817, he went to Rome, where he became associated with the Nazarene movement of painters, who rejected most painting after the Middle Ages and focused primarily on religious subjects for their art. Schnorr is best known for the hundreds of illustrations he created for a pictorial Bible. He also designed the windows of what famous London cathedral? Discuss

O’Conner was an American writer, considered a master of the short story form and the Southern Gothic style. In stories that reflect her strong Catholic faith, her often grotesque characters are placed in extreme situations that impel them toward redemption. O’Conner spent most of her life on her mother’s farm in Georgia, where she died of lupus at the age of 39. When she was just six years old, she became a minor celebrity for teaching a chicken to do what? Discuss