The Oka Crisis (1990)

This 1990 confrontation between the Mohawk nation and the town of Oka, Quebec, was the first of several violent conflicts between the First Nations and the Canadian government. It began when developers tried to turn a plot of land into a golf course. Because that land contained a burial ground and sacred pine grove, members of the Mohawk community blockaded the area. Canadian troops were sent in, and a 78-day standoff ensued, ending with the Mohawks’ surrender. What happened to the golf course? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

St. Placidus Festival

Sankt Placidusfest is a religious procession held on July 11 at Disentis, Switzerland, in honor of St. Placidus, who was murdered near the Benedictine abbey that he and St. Sigisbert helped establish there in 614. Every year, the relics of St. Placidus and St. Sigisbert are carried in a solemn procession from the abbey to the parish church and back through the village to the abbey. Traditionally, during the ceremonies, parishioners in colorful folk costumes chant the old, and very long, “Song of St. Placidus.” Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Millie and Christine McCoy (1851)

Millie and Christine McCoy were American conjoined twins born to slaves and sold to showman J.P. Smith as infants. A rival showman kidnapped the girls, but Smith reclaimed them. He taught them to speak five languages, play music, and sing, and the twins enjoyed a successful career under the stage names “The Two-Headed Nightingale” and “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” In 1912, the girls died of tuberculosis just 17 hours apart. What was the title of the book sold at their public appearances? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge was a Cambodian Communist movement that was active as a guerrilla force from 1970 to the late 1990s and held power under the leadership of Pol Pot from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge is remembered largely for causing the deaths of up to 1.5 million people through execution, starvation, and forced labor. A tribunal consisting of both Cambodian and international judges was established in 2006 to try former Khmer Rouge leaders. Who were the “New People?” Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

The Jedwabne Pogrom (1941)

Just a month after Nazi forces overran Poland and began distributing anti-Semitic propaganda there, the non-Jewish residents of the Polish town of Jedwabne took it upon themselves to round up and massacre Jews living in the area, burning hundreds alive. The fact that the Jedwabne Pogrom was not a German death squad operation but was actually “committed directly by Poles” was only recently established by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance. What details of the atrocity are still debated? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and Gathering of Scottish Clans

This largest and best-known Scottish event in America, held since 1956 on Grandfather Mountain near Linville, North Carolina, opens with a torchlight ceremony at MacRae Meadows at dusk on Thursday. On Friday, athletic and other activities begin and in the evening there’s a Celtic Jam, followed by a ceilidh. On Saturday, competitions are held throughout the day for Highland dancing, piping, drumming, Scottish fiddling, track and field events, and other athletic events. Sunday opens with a worship service, followed by more competitions and entertainment. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Camille Pissarro (1830)

Known as the “Father of Impressionism,” Pissarro was the only Impressionist painter who participated in all eight of the group’s exhibitions. He is notable not only for his paintings of rural and urban French life but in his role as a mentor to postimpressionists Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin. He gained popularity in the 1890s with his interpretation of nature, including many landscapes drawn from his surroundings in the French countryside. Why were many of his paintings destroyed in 1871? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Knight Bachelors

A Knight Bachelor is a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organized Orders of Chivalry, making him an English knight of the lowest rank. Like other knights, Knights Bachelor are styled “Sir.” The honor is generally awarded for public service, and amongst its recipients are all the male judges of the High Court of England and Wales. Sir Paul McCartney is one of the best-known holders of the rank. What is the female counterpart of the Knight Bachelor? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary