San Ysidro McDonald’s Massacre (1984)

The deadliest shooting spree in US history at the time, the San Ysidro McDonald’s Massacre took place at a McDonald’s restaurant in San Diego, California, and resulted in 21 deaths and 19 injuries. It was carried out by James Oliver Huberty, who had moved to the area just six months earlier and recently lost his job. The 77-minute massacre ended when Huberty was fatally shot by a sniper. Later that year, McDonald’s razed the building where the killings had occurred. What was built in its place? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Mollyockett Day

Mollyockett was a Pequawket Indian who lived among the early settlers of western Maine. Born between 1730 and 1740, she lived in the area now known as Bethel after 1770. She was known as an “Indian doctress” who treated the white settlers of New England as well. The local festival known as Mollyockett Day in Bethel, Maine, started out in the 1950s as a fundraising event. The name was changed in honor of the Indian woman whose generosity and self-reliance have become legendary. The festival includes a parade, foot races, rubber ducky race, and Maine lobsters. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

George “Machine Gun” Kelly (1895)

Kelly was an American gangster who became notorious for committing a series of robberies and killings during the prohibition era. After a stint in prison in 1928, Kelly married Kathryn Thorne, who reportedly purchased her husband’s first machine gun and coined his famous nickname. In 1933, he kidnapped millionaire Charles F. Urschel but was eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1954. What less violent nickname did Kelly reportedly earn during his time at Alcatraz? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Brownstone

Brownstone is a red to brown variety of sandstone, whose unusual color is caused in some instances by the presence of red iron oxide which acts as a cement, binding the sand grains together. During the Triassic period, vast thicknesses of brownstone were deposited in the Connecticut River Valley of the northeast, and they were used to build the many brownstone houses and buildings in the area between Baltimore and Boston. Is sandstone a durable building material? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

rubella

Definition: (noun) A mild contagious eruptive disease caused by a virus and capable of producing congenital defects in infants born to mothers infected during the first three months of pregnancy.
Synonyms: German measles, epidemic roseola, three-day measles.
Usage: The parents were relieved when the doctor said that their son's rubella would improve in a matter of days.
Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

RMS Carpathia Torpedoed by German Submarine (1918)

The RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship that first became famous for rescuing more than 700 survivors of the Titanic disaster in 1912. Six years later, during WWI, the Carpathia was travelling in a convoy when it was torpedoed off the east coast of Ireland by the German submarine U-55. Many of the passengers and crew members were rescued by the HMS Snowdrop the following day. When was the steamship’s wreckage discovered? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Lindenfest

A 600-year-old linden tree in Geisenheim, Germany, is the center of this annual festival celebrating the new wine. As the oldest town in the Rhineland region, Geisenheim is renowned for its vineyards, and during the Linden Tree Festival people come from all over the world to taste the wine, visit the vineyards, and make pilgrimages to Marienthal, a Franciscan shrine in a nearby wooded valley. The ancient linden tree is decorated with lights for the three-day festival, and folk dancing and feasting take place beneath its branches. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889)

After serving as a trial lawyer for many years, Gardner began writing detective stories for magazines in the early 1920s. He became a prolific novelist whose narratives were characterized by fast action and clever legal devices—which he based on his own courtroom tactics. His most famous character was the unconventional lawyer Perry Mason, who appeared in more than 80 novels and inspired a television series. Gardner published his stories under at least seven pseudonyms. What were some of them? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva was a noblewoman and a benefactor of several monasteries. According to legend, her husband agreed to remit the heavy taxation on the people of Coventry if she would ride naked through the town on a white horse. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all the townspeople go indoors and shut their windows, she rode through, clothed only in her long hair. According to the legend, all but one of the townspeople obeyed her ordinance; who disobeyed? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary