Category: Today’s Birthday

Walpole was an English statesman. Elected to the House of Commons in 1701, he later served as secretary of war. With the accession of George I, he rose rapidly to become first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer. With his consolidation of power, he effectively became the first British prime minister. He avoided foreign entanglement and kept England neutral until 1739, when he was forced into the War of Jenkins’ Ear against Spain. How did the conflict get its name? Discuss

Gibson, a US tennis player, was the first African-American woman to compete on the world tennis tour. Though tennis had essentially been segregated until that time, she was finally given an opportunity to play at the US Championships in 1950. Having broken the color barrier, she went on to become the first black person to win Wimbledon. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1971. In 1964, Gibson became the first African-American player in what other sports organization? Discuss

One of the few female Italian artists of the 16th century, Lavinia Fontana was the daughter of Italian mannerist painter Prospero Fontana. She was a fashionable portrait painter in Bologna and Rome who was especially noted for the vibrant color and detail of her works. Her self-portraits and a portrait of Pope Gregory XIII show a fine decorative sense in the treatment of costume. She was also a painter of religious subjects. What are some of her major works? Discuss

Kelly was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and movie director. After training at his mother’s dance school in Pittsburgh, he moved to New York in 1938 and danced in Broadway musicals. His athletic style later became a hallmark of the movie musical. His most famous performance came in Singin’ in the Rain, which he also helped choreograph and direct. His achievements earned him a special Academy Award in 1952. With what animated character did Kelly dance in Anchors Aweigh? Discuss

Deng was a Chinese revolutionary and government leader. A veteran of the Long March, he became deputy premier in 1952 and soon joined the Politburo Standing Committee. He was ousted and reinstated several times and at one point was assigned to work in a tractor factory. From the late 1970s until his death in 1997, he was China’s most powerful leader. He promoted a wide-reaching reform program that introduced free-enterprise elements into the economy. What was Deng’s famous saying about a cat? Discuss

Christopher Robin Milne was the son of author A.A. Milne. When Christopher was a young child, his father wrote poetry for him, which grew into the collections When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. Later, Christopher and his toy animals were incorporated into stories about the adventures of the now-classic characters Christopher Robin, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore in Winnie-the-Pooh. How did Christopher feel about his name being used in his father’s stories? Discuss

Regarded as one of the founders of modern chemistry, Berzelius was a Swedish professor who achieved an immensely important series of innovations and discoveries. He developed chemistry’s modern system of symbols and formulas, prepared a remarkably precise table of atomic weights, analyzed numerous chemical compounds, and discovered the elements selenium, thorium, and cerium. He also introduced basic laboratory equipment that remains in use today. What common scientific terms did Berzelius coin? Discuss

Madame du Barry was the mistress of Louis XV. She was first the mistress of Jean du Barry, who introduced her into Parisian high society. Admired for her beauty, she joined Louis XV’s court in 1769 after a nominal marriage to Jean’s brother, a nobleman, qualified her to be Louis’s official royal mistress. Though she exercised little political influence, her unpopularity contributed to the decline of the prestige of the crown in the early 1770s. What happened to her during the French Revolution? Discuss

After serving as a captain in the US army, Lewis became secretary to President Thomas Jefferson. When Congress approved a plan to find a land route to the Pacific Ocean, Jefferson selected his trusted associate, along with William Clark, to head the expedition. In 1807, Lewis was made governor of the Louisiana Territory. His sudden death—either by murder or suicide—in 1809, while on his way to Washington, DC, is still the subject of controversy. Why have requests to exhume his body been denied? Discuss

A founder of modern probability theory and number theory, Fermat was a French jurist and amateur mathematician. A contemporary of Descartes, he independently discovered the basic principles of analytic geometry. Yet he is best remembered for the assertion now known as Fermat’s Last Theorem, which he scribbled in the margin of a book along with a note stating that he could have shown it to be true but lacked the room in which to write the proof. For how many years did the theorem remain unproven? Discuss