National Geographic Society Founded (1888)

The National Geographic Society is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. It was founded in 1888 by a small group of eminent explorers and scientists and, by the turn of the 21st century, boasted approximately nine million members. It has supported more than 7,000 major scientific projects and expeditions, including those of the Leakey family, Jacques Cousteau, and Jane Goodall. What popular traveling exhibits has it sponsored? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Mauni Amavasya

Complete silence is observed on the day known to Hindus as Mauni Amavasya. Because bathing during Magha, one of the most sacred Hindu months, is considered to be a purifying act, many Hindus camp out along the banks of the Ganges River throughout the month and bathe daily in the sacred river. But the bathing and fasting end with the observance of Mauni Amavasya, a day for worshipping Lord Vishnu and circumambulating the peepal (a type of ficus) tree, which is regarded as holy. For many Hindus, the celebration takes place at Prayag, where the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers flow together. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Donna Reed (1921)

Reed was an American film and television actress. In 1946, she starred in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, playing Mary Bailey—the wife of James Stewart’s character, George Bailey. She went on to win the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in From Here to Eternity and later received a Golden Globe for Best Female TV Star for her performance as Donna Stone in The Donna Reed Show. Why did Reed once sue the producers of the TV show Dallas? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Guerrilla Gardening

Guerrilla gardening is a form of activism in which groups take over abandoned plots of land that they do not own in order to grow crops or plants. The earliest recorded use of the term was in 1973, when the Green Guerilla group transformed a derelict private lot in New York’s Bowery district into a garden. That garden is still being cared for by volunteers and is now protected by the city’s parks department. What American folk hero do some consider an early practitioner of guerrilla gardening? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss Premieres (1911)

Still regularly performed, Der Rosenkavalier is one of the most acclaimed comic operas of Richard Strauss, the leading composer of romantic opera in the early 20th century. It is loosely based on the works of Molière and Louvet de Couvrai and tells the story of the shifting romantic attachments of four principal characters. Strauss, who often abandoned tonality to emphasize the humor or drama of a scene, composed Der Rosenkavalier in collaboration with what poet? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Douglas MacArthur Day

Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), five-star general and supreme commander of the Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific during World War II, was born on this day in Little Rock, Arkansas. After the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, it was MacArthur who supervised the surrender ceremony in Tokyo. He directed the demobilization of Japanese military forces and the drafting of a new constitution. His birthday is observed in his home state of Arkansas, where he is widely remembered as one of the state’s most famous sons. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Paul Leonard Newman (1925)

Newman was an American actor who captured the darker, less heroic aspects of his best-remembered roles, such as those in The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Sting. After eight nominations, he finally won an Academy Award for The Color of Money in 1986. In 1982, he launched his “Newman’s Own” line of food products, donating the profits to various charitable causes. Why was Newman once placed on Richard Nixon’s enemies list? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Day After Roswell

In his book The Day After Roswell, US Army Lt. Colonel Philip Corso claims he participated in the study of extraterrestrial technology recovered from the alleged 1947 Roswell UFO crash. According to Corso, the reverse engineering of these artifacts indirectly led to the development of accelerated particle beam devices, fiber optics, lasers, integrated circuit chips, and Kevlar. Corso also claimed knowledge of a covert government group that had been tasked with what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary