Category: Today’s Birthday

Born in China to missionary parents, Hersey worked as a journalist in East Asia, Italy, and the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1946, including as a war correspondent during WWII. In 1944, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel A Bell for Adano, which depicts the Allied occupation of a Sicilian town. He later combined fact and fiction in his most famous work, Hiroshima, about the experiences of atomic-blast survivors. How did Hersey inspire Dr. Seuss to write The Cat in the Hat? Discuss

Simpson, an American paleontologist, helped develop the modern biological theory of evolution, drawing on paleontology, genetics, ecology, and natural selection. His contributions to evolutionary theory include a detailed classification of mammals, which is still the standard, and the discovery of the migratory and evolutionary patterns of the prehistoric fauna of the Americas, from which he deduced that species reached adaptive peaks and suffered accidental dispersal. What word did he coin? Discuss

The eldest son of King Edward III, Edward was the prince of Wales. Joining his father as a commander in the campaigns of the Hundred Years War, he established a reputation for valor. However, his rule as the prince of Aquitaine from 1362 to 1372 was a failure, and he returned sick and broken to England and formally surrendered his principality to his father. Though the heir apparent, he never became king, dying one year before his father. Edward was the first in England to be granted what title? Discuss

Landsteiner was an Austrian-born American medical researcher who was awarded the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the four basic human blood groups—A, B, O, and AB—which enabled the first successful blood transfusion to be performed in 1907. He was also involved in the discovery of the polio virus, and he helped identify the human blood protein known as the Rh factor. In the 1930s, Landsteiner successfully cultured the organism that causes what disease? Discuss

Agricola was a Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain, where he was made consul and governor after a distinguished military and political career. He pacified most of the territory, conquering North Wales and advancing far into Scotland, and also circumnavigated the island. His biography, the De Vita et Moribus Lulii Agricolae—The Life and Character of Julius Agricola—was the first published work of his son-in-law, what Roman historian? Discuss

Adams, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American photographer and photojournalist noted for his war coverage and portraits of celebrities and politicians, began his career as a combat photographer during the Korean War. His best known photograph, a harrowing image of the moment that South Vietnamese police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Vietcong prisoner, Nguyen Van Lem, on a Saigon street in 1968, won the Pulitzer Prize. Why did he later apologize to the police chief for having taken the picture? Discuss

An English suffragist and social reformer, Fawcett rejected the violent acts of some of her contemporaries in the suffrage movement, believing that the enfranchisement of women could be achieved by peaceful means. Her efforts as president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies from 1897 to 1919 are considered to have been instrumental in earning women over 30 in the UK the right to vote in 1918. Her older sister, Elizabeth, was the first woman licensed to do what in Britain? Discuss

Philip is the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. The son of Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice, who was a great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria, he was raised in Britain and served in combat with the Royal Navy in World War II. In 1947, he became a British subject and renounced his right to the Greek and Danish thrones. He married Princess Elizabeth in 1947 and continued on active service in the navy until her accession to the throne in 1952. Who is their son? Discuss

Paul began playing country music at 14, later switched to jazz, and started his own trio in 1936. Considered one of the finest jazz guitarists, he was famous for his amazing versatility. Dissatisfied with the sound of available instruments, Paul invented a solid-body electric guitar in 1941 that was marketed by Gibson and became extremely important in the development of rock music. Several versions of his prized guitars are still manufactured. What else did he invent? Discuss

Baker was an African-American maid who was executed for murder by the State of Georgia in 1945 for killing her employer, Ernest Knight. The only woman ever executed by electrocution in Georgia, Baker was fully pardoned 60 years after her death. At her trial, she claimed that Knight had imprisoned her and threatened to shoot her if she attempted to leave, so she had taken his gun and shot him in self defense. Her trial was presided over by Judge William “Two Gun” Worrill and lasted how long? Discuss