Voltaire (1694)

Voltaire was the pseudonym of French philosopher and writer François-Marie Arouet. One of the towering geniuses in literary and intellectual history, Voltaire was a prolific writer who authored tragedies, poems, and works on philosophical and moral problems, including Lettres philosophiques and Candide, a satire on philosophical optimism. During his lifetime, he was twice imprisoned in the Bastille and, in 1726, was exiled to England. How did Voltaire create his pen name? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Robert Francis “Bobby” Kennedy (1925)

Following his successful management of his brother’s campaign for the presidency, Robert Kennedy served as US attorney general and was John F. Kennedy’s closest adviser, exerting considerable influence on the nation’s domestic and foreign affairs. He later won election to the US Senate and, in 1968, announced his intention to run for president. After winning the California Democratic primary in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he was assassinated. Who shot him? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Ferdinand Marie, Vicomte de Lesseps (1805)

A French diplomat and engineer, Lesseps conceived the idea of the Suez Canal while serving in Egypt. He supervised the construction and achieved world renown for the project. In 1878, he became president of the company formed to construct the Panama Canal, but lack of funds forced the project into bankruptcy amid charges of corruption. He was brought to trial for misappropriation of funds and sentenced to prison but was later cleared. What monument did Lesseps present to the US in 1884? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Louis Daguerre (1787)

Originally a scene painter for the opera, Daguerre was a French inventor who devised one of the first practical photographic processes—the daguerreotype. He, in collaboration with Nicéphore Niépce, found that a permanent image could be formed on a silver iodide-coated copper plate if it was exposed to light, then fumed with mercury vapor and fixed by a solution of common salt. His daguerreotype process was announced in 1839 at the Academy of Sciences. Who acquired the patent for the invention? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Martin Scorsese (1942)

Scorsese is an American film director whose movies often deal with violent and obsessive aspects of modern America and the themes of sin and redemption. He won critical attention for his film Mean Streets in 1973 and went on to make a number of acclaimed films, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Departed, for which he finally received the Academy Award for best director. What vocation did Scorsese pursue before attending film school? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

W. C. Handy (1873)

Largely self-taught, Handy was American songwriter and band leader who began his career as a cornet player in a minstrel show in 1896. He later organized various small bands and was among the first to publish blues sheet music, rising to prominence with his Memphis Blues. In 1918, he moved from Memphis to New York City and remained active as a writer and publisher of music, in spite of growing blindness, until shortly before his death. What are some of Handy’s most famous songs? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Erwin Rommel (1891)

After nearly three decades in the German army, Rommel, who would become a famous WWII field marshal, was promoted by Hitler to the rank of general in 1939. The next year, he brilliantly commanded a panzer division in the attack on France. He then led the Afrika Korps against the Allies in N Africa, where he became known as the “Desert Fox” for his audacious surprise attacks. Allied success led Rommel to lose respect for Hitler and join a plot to remove the führer from office. How did Rommel die? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Astrid Lindgren (1907)

Lindgren was a Swedish children’s book author and screenwriter best remembered for writing the series of books featuring the character Pippi Långstrump, or Pippi Longstocking. Pippi, an unconventional, assertive, and extraordinarily strong girl—recognized by her fiery red hair worn in braids that stick out sideways from her head—was featured in many of Lindgren’s hundreds of books, which sold roughly 145 million copies worldwide. What other memorable characters did Lindgren create? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Esaias Tegnér (1782)

Tegnér was the most popular of the Swedish romantic poets. An optimistic nationalist in his youth, he wrote the militant anti-Russian Svea and Axel, followed by Frithjof’s Saga, which is based on collections of Scandinavian sagas and is considered the masterpiece of the Swedish Gothic tradition. The son of a pastor and a bishop himself, his sermons and speeches are classics of the Swedish language. Subject to periods of madness, he composed what epic poem in an asylum? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815)

Stanton was an American reformer and a leader of the women’s suffrage movement. In 1840, she married abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton, and they attended the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where she joined Lucretia Mott in objecting to their exclusion from the assembly. A proponent of legal, political, and industrial equality for women, she later joined forces with Susan B. Anthony in the women’s suffrage movement. What one word did Stanton famously omit from her marriage vows? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary