Enormously influential in shaping the rationalistic spirit of the 18th century, Diderot was a French encyclopedist, philosopher, novelist, dramatist, and art critic. After rejecting a career in law to pursue his own studies, he served as chief editor of the 35-volume Encyclopédie, one of the principal works of the Enlightenment, from 1745 to 1772. The controversial project was once the target of a seizure by government officials. Where were the manuscripts said to have been hidden? Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary
Based on a belief in witchcraft, spirits, and demons, a superstition is the irrational idea that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome. A common superstition in the Middle Ages was that the devil could enter a person’s body during the unguarded moment when he was sneezing. Some believe that the practice of saying “God bless you” began for this reason. What famous theologian accused the papacy of perpetuating superstition? 
Synonymous with intrigue and luxury, the legendary Orient Express was a passenger train that ran from Paris to Istanbul for more than 80 years. Europe’s first transcontinental express train, it covered over 1,700 miles (2,740 km), and its lavishly furnished cars became the symbol of glamour for Europeans. It was discontinued in 1977 and revived in 1982 to run between London and Venice as the “Venice Simplon Orient Express.” An alluring backdrop for writers, the train line appears in what novels? 
Formerly Basutoland, the Kingdom of 
Runyon was an American short story writer and journalist. He served in the Spanish-American War as a teenager and moved to New York in 1911, where he began to write humorous stories about the city’s hoodlums, racketeers, bookies, and other underworld characters. The stories are written in a picturesque, slangy journalistic idiom often referred to as “Runyonese” or “Runyonesque.” What famous musical is based on a collection of his stories about a racy section of Broadway? 
Malthus was an English economist, sociologist, and demographer. He is best known for his 1798 pamphlet An Essay on the Principle of Population, in which he theorizes that poverty is an unavoidable consequence of population growth. He explained that populations grow at a geometric rate, while the means of subsistence expands arithmetically; thus, war, famine, and disease are necessary checks on population. In later editions, what did Mathus add as a fourth check on population? 
In 1994, Simpson, a former football star, was charged with the murder of his estranged wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. His trial was a media-saturated event that highlighted racial tensions in America and resulted in his acquittal in 1995. In 1997, a civil jury levied a $33.5 million wrongful-death award against him in a suit brought by the victims’ families. Simpson’s infamous car chase in June 1994 interrupted TV coverage of what? 
Unity Day celebrates the