Margaret Mitchell (1900)

After working as a journalist, Mitchell spent 10 years writing her only novel: Gone with the Wind, a romantic, panoramic portrait of the American Civil War and Reconstruction periods from the white Southern point of view. The book, which earned Mitchell the Pulitzer Prize, is one of the most popular novels in the history of American publishing, and its film adaptation was also extraordinarily successful. Whose stories gave Mitchell insight into the Civil War-era South? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Poison Dart Frog

These frogs belong to the family Dendrobatidae, a group of small, diurnal, often brightly colored frogs native to Central and South America. These frogs secrete poisonous alkaloids through their skin, which ranges in color from bright orange to black and blue. Most poison frogs are not toxic to humans or animals, but a few secrete a potent neurotoxin that can kill within minutes. Why is it that poison frogs captured from the wild and fed a typical captive diet lose their toxicity? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

London Gazette, Oldest Surviving Journal, First Published (1665)

The London Gazette is one of the British government’s official journals of record in which statutory notices are required to be published. Originally called the Oxford Gazette, it was first published in 1665, making it the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United Kingdom. The first publication of the Gazette coincided with King Charles II’s movement of his court to Oxford, which he did to escape what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Terlingua Chili Cookoff

The Terlingua Chili Cookoff is a contest of chili chefs held in Terlingua, Texas, an abandoned mining town near the Big Bend desert area in the southwestern part of the state. More than 200 cooks from as many as 30 states and occasionally from foreign countries show up to prepare the official state dish, and thousands of spectators drive or fly in. Humorists Wick Fowler and H. Allen Smith staged the first cookoff in 1967, deciding to locate it in the hot desert because it was a contest for a hot dish. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Marie Curie (1867)

Marie Curie was a Polish-born French physical chemist. She married fellow physicist Pierre Curie in 1895, and together they discovered the elements radium and polonium—which Marie named after her native Poland. They also distinguished alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. For their work on radioactivity—a term she coined—the Curies shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with Henri Becquerel. This made Marie the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. In 1911, she became the first person to win what? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Jonesboro School Massacre

On March 24, 1998, Mitchell Johnson, age 13, and Andrew Golden, age 11, opened fire on students and teachers at their Arkansas middle school. Johnson hid in a wooded area and waited while Golden set off the school’s fire alarm. Then, as the building was being evacuated, the two boys shot and killed four students and a teacher; another 10 people were wounded in the shooting. Both boys were apprehended, tried, and convicted. When were they released from custody? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

First Flight of the Hawker Hurricane (1935)

First tested in 1935, the Hawker Hurricane was a British single-seat fighter aircraft powered by a newly designed Rolls-Royce engine. Together with the Spitfire, the Hurricane enabled the Royal Air Force (RAF) to win the Battle of Britain of 1940, accounting for the majority of the RAF’s air victories during this period. About 14,000 Hurricanes were built by the end of 1944, and the aircraft served in all the major theatres of World War II. What was the Hurricane’s maximum speed? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Gustavus Adolphus Day

Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) was the king of Sweden (1611-32) who laid the foundations of the modern Swedish state and turned the country into a major European power. He was killed during the Thirty Years’ War while leading a cavalry charge at the Battle of Lützen on November 6, 1632. The anniversary of his death is observed throughout Sweden with patriotic demonstrations—particularly in Skansen, Stockholm’s outdoor museum. Enormous bonfires are built on Reindeer Mountain and processions of students carry lighted torches through the museum grounds. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary