Category: Today’s Birthday

Barrientos was elected vice president of Bolivia in 1964, but he soon broke with the president and joined other army officers in a coup. He was installed as head of a military junta and became the sole president after winning the 1966 elections. He launched a moderate—albeit military—administration, retaining the reforms instituted by his predecessors. Three years later, he died in a helicopter crash. Why did he once jump out of an airplane with a parachute that had earlier failed to open? Discuss

A British man of letters, Chesterton was a journalist, scholar, novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He wrote essays on Christianity and works of social and literary criticism on subjects such as Charles Dickens. His fiction includes the popular allegorical novel The Man Who Was Thursday, and his most successful creation, the series of detective novels featuring the priest-sleuth Father Brown. Chesterton was also known for collaborating with what author? Discuss

Moore was an Irish poet who achieved prominence in his day not only for his poetry but also for his love of Ireland and personal charm. He is remembered today for Irish Melodies, a group of lyrics published between 1808 and 1834 and set to music by Sir John Stevenson and others. Moore was friends with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, and his biography of Byron is among his best prose works. Byron left Moore his memoirs, but Moore later destroyed them. Who persuaded him to do it? Discuss

Hickok was an American frontier marshal, legendary marksman, and gambler. In 1861, while working as a stagecoach driver, he shot and killed outlaw Dave McCanles, earning a reputation as a gunfighter. After serving as a Union spy during the Civil War, he was appointed a US marshal and tamed two Kansas towns. He was shot dead by a drunken stranger while playing poker at a saloon in the town of Deadwood. At the time, he was holding what combination of cards, now known as “dead man’s hand”? Discuss

Lange was a profoundly influential American documentary photographer. During the Great Depression, her photos of stark poverty led to her employment by a federal agency to bring the plight of the poor to public attention. Her images were so effective that the government was compelled to establish camps for migrant laborers. Lange produced several other photo essays, including one documenting the WWII internment of Japanese-Americans. Who is the subject of her best-known photo, “Migrant Mother”? Discuss

Robinson was an influential virtuoso tap dancer. An innovator, he was reputedly the first to dance on the balls of his feet instead of in the earlier flat-footed style. He began dancing professionally at the age of eight and became a popular nightclub and vaudeville performer. He first performed on Broadway in 1928 and was the first African American to star in a Ziegfield Follies. He appeared in 14 Hollywood features in the 1930s and 40s, including four that he made with which child actress? Discuss

One of the first international female sports stars, Lenglen was a French tennis player and a prolific champion. She won 31 championship titles from 1914 to 1926, including the world hard-court singles and doubles titles (1914); French women’s singles (1920–23, 1925–26); and British women’s singles crowns and doubles (1919-1923, 1925). In 1920, she won a gold medal at the Olympic Games. The first female tennis celebrity and a flamboyant trendsetter, she was given what nickname by the press? Discuss

Considered one of swing’s two great clarinetists—along with his rival, Benny Goodman—Shaw was a virtuoso at his instrument. He began playing professionally as a teen before becoming leader of one of the most popular big bands of the swing era. In 1935, he performed with a string quartet that he later expanded into a more conventional dance band. He led a US Navy band during World War II and various ensembles later on, retiring in 1954. How many times was Shaw married? Discuss

Wagner was a German composer whose astonishing works made him one of the most influential figures in the history of Western music. He revolutionized the 19th-century idea of opera, seeing it as a wholly new art form in which musical, poetic, and scenic elements should come together through such devices as the leitmotif—a recurring melodic phrase used to illustrate a character or idea. His operas include Tristan and Isolde, as well as his masterpiece, a four-opera cycle known as what? Discuss

Fry was an English prison reformer as well as an advocate of higher nursing standards and the education of working women. From 1813, she worked untiringly to improve the conditions for women in Newgate prison, advocating separation of the sexes, employment, and religious training. Her successful methods at Newgate impressed the government and were tried in other prisons. She also helped the homeless, founding soup kitchens and shelters in London. On what unit of currency is Fry pictured? Discuss