Category: Today’s Birthday

When Mortensen died at the age of 115 years and 252 days, he was the oldest man who had ever lived whose age is undisputed. Mortensen was born in Denmark in 1882 and immigrated to the US in 1903. He worked in various trades until he retired in 1950. Twenty-eight years later, at the age of 96, he reportedly rode his bicycle to a retirement home in San Rafael, California, where he lived for the rest of his life. What advice for living a long life did Mortensen give on his 115th birthday? Discuss

Child was an American chef, author, and TV personality who introduced French cooking to the American public. She began studying French cuisine while her husband was stationed in France on a diplomatic assignment and attended Paris’s famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. In 1961, she cowrote the bestseller Mastering the Art of French Cooking and soon began hosting a series of educational TV programs, including what show that transformed her into an Emmy-winning public-broadcasting star? Discuss

Holliday was an American dentist, gambler, and gunfighter. After graduating from dental school in 1872, he moved to the drier climate of the West to help treat his tuberculosis. He briefly practiced dentistry in Texas, then took up gambling and began drifting. Settling in Tombstone, Arizona, he joined Wyatt Earp and his brothers in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Having earned a reputation as a gunman, he resumed drifting and died of tuberculosis at the age of 36. What were his last words? Discuss

Hitchcock was a six-time Academy Award-nominated English-American filmmaker who directed more than 50 feature films in a career spanning six decades. A master of the suspense thriller, he developed a style that is so distinctive that any filmmaker working in the suspense genre invariably risks comparison to him. He was one of the best known directors of his time, often making humorous cameo appearances in his own films. Hitchcock was also known for his use of MacGuffins, which are what? Discuss

Rinehart was a popular American author considered the inventor of the Had-I-But-Known school of mystery writing. Her immensely successful first novel, The Circular Staircase launched her career, and her books, which often blend mystery with humor and romance, have sold over 10 million copies. She was a war correspondent during WWI and wrote several books promoting women’s contributions to the war effort. What popular phrase is said to have been inspired by her 1930 novel The Door? Discuss

While seeking a bacterial cause for the nutritional disorder beriberi, Eijkman, a Dutch pathologist, noticed a resemblance between a nerve disorder in his laboratory chickens and the symptoms of beriberi. He traced the chickens’ disorder to a change in their feed—it had been switched from brown to white rice—and surmised that white rice lacked a dietary component found in brown rice. This eventually led to the discovery of vitamins and earned him a 1929 Nobel Prize, which he shared with whom? Discuss

Darrow was a heating engineer who is generally credited with developing “Monopoly,” a board game in which players compete to purchase real estate and bankrupt their opponents, though there is evidence that he merely adapted Elizabeth Magie’s realty and taxation game “The Landlord’s Game.” “Monopoly” was initially rejected by Parker Brothers, but after Darrow met with success selling the game himself, the toy firm reconsidered and bought it in 1935. What were their initial objections? Discuss

Regarded as the foremost developmental psychologist of the 20th century, Piaget developed a theory of “genetic epistemology,” a natural timetable for the development of the child’s ability to think, in which he traced four stages—the sensorimotor (ages 0–2), preoperational or symbolic (2–7), concrete operational (7–12), and formal operational (12 and up)—each marked by increased cognitive sophistication and ability to use symbols. What specific developments occur in each stage? Discuss

Morris was the first female justice of the peace in the US. A mother of three, she began her tenure as justice in 1870, after the previous justice resigned in protest of Wyoming’s passage of the women’s suffrage amendment. She attracted national attention and tried some 70 cases, becoming a legendary figure in the suffrage movement. The state of Wyoming officially commemorated her role as a leading suffragist in 1890. Why then is the extent of her contribution to the suffrage movement debated? Discuss

Bunche was a US diplomat who in 1950 became the first person of color awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he earned for mediating the 1949 Arab-Israeli truce. During WWII, he worked in the US War and State Departments. After the war, he helped establish the UN and spent the remainder of his career in a variety of UN positions, including principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission and Under-Secretary General. In what unusual way did he conduct many of the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations? Discuss