Category: Today’s Birthday

Tiberius was the second Roman emperor. The stepson of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, he undertook his first military command at age 22 and earned great acclaim. Forced to give up his beloved wife to marry Augustus’s daughter, he went into a self-imposed exile until he was recalled by Augustus and named his heir. As emperor, he initially ran the state efficiently and instituted reforms, but he became increasingly brutal. Who smothered Tiberius while he was recovering from an illness in 37 CE? Discuss

Frankfurter was a US Supreme Court justice and presidential adviser. He served as secretary of war under President William H. Taft, advised President Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt on many New Deal programs. In 1939, Roosevelt named him to the Supreme Court, where he served until 1962. In 1920, Frankfurter helped found the American Civil Liberties Union and argued in favor of what infamous pair of defendants? Discuss

Famously public-spirited and generous, Copland came to be unofficially regarded as the US’s national composer. Although his earliest works show European influences, the American character of the greater part of his compositions is evident in his use of jazz and American folk tunes. He is best known for his three ballets based on American folk material: Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. For what films did Copland compose music? Discuss

Born in Scotland, Stevenson traveled frequently during his life, partly in search of better climates for his tuberculosis, which would eventually cause his death at age 44. In 1885, he published A Child’s Garden of Verses, one of the most influential children’s works of the 19th century. His immensely popular novels Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were written over the course of just a few years. What is considered his unfinished masterpiece? Discuss

Kelly was an American actress who gained critical and popular praise for her performances in High Noon and The Country Girl, for which she won an Academy Award. She also starred in three Alfred Hitchcock films but cut short her promising acting career in 1956 when she married Prince Rainier III, becoming Princess Grace of Monaco and retiring from acting. In 1982, she died in an accident after suffering a stroke while driving on a mountain road. How did she and Prince Rainier meet? Discuss

Moreschi was the late 19th century’s most famous castrato—a male singer who undergoes castration before puberty and, as a result, retains a soprano or alto voice that becomes extraordinarily powerful as he develops the lung capacity and physical bulk of an adult. He was first soprano in the Sistine Chapel choir for 30 years and was the only castrato of the bel canto tradition to make solo sound recordings. What do modern music critics say about the singing featured in these recordings? Discuss

Richard Jenkins, better known by his stage name Richard Burton, was a dark, introspective actor who specialized in portraying conflicted men. His tempestuous marriage to Elizabeth Taylor led to an acting partnership that vaulted Burton to the top rank of stardom. Together they made 11 films, including Cleopatra and The Taming of the Shrew. Burton and Taylor were married twice, and their real-life marriage was popularly likened to the fictional marriage they portrayed in what film? Discuss

White was an American architect and a designer of jewelry, furniture, and interiors. In 1880, he formed an architectural firm with Charles F. McKim and William R. Mead that soon became the most famous in the country, known especially for its seaside mansions. He enjoyed a lavish lifestyle before being shot to death at Madison Square Garden—which he had designed—by Harry Thaw, the husband of the showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, with whom White had had an affair. The resulting trial became known as what? Discuss

After working as a draftsman, Bradley introduced the first lithograph press to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1860. He printed and sold a new parlor game, “The Checkered Game of Life.” It was so profitable that he formed Milton Bradley and Company in 1864 to print games and manuals. In 1878, he reorganized his business as the Milton Bradley Company, which long retained its position as a leading American manufacturer of games and toys. In 1869, his press published the first US book on what topic? Discuss

Camus was an Algerian-French novelist, essayist, and playwright. He spent the war years in Paris, and the French Resistance brought him into the circle of Jean-Paul Sartre and existentialism. In 1942, he became a leading literary figure with his enigmatic first novel, The Stranger, a study of 20th-century alienation, and the philosophical essay “The Myth of Sisyphus,” an analysis of contemporary nihilism and the concept of the absurd. What else did Camus write? Discuss