Pearl S. Buck (1892)

Buck was raised in China by her American missionary parents and left the country but a few times before she was 40. She drew upon her experiences there in her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Good Earth, which describes the struggles of a Chinese peasant and his slave wife. Together with Sons and A House Divided, it forms a trilogy, part of the body of work that earned Buck the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Buck also wrote five novels under what pseudonym? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the means of production, in which personal profit can be acquired through investment of capital and employment of labor. It stresses freedom of individual economic enterprise but does not presuppose a specific form of social or political organization. Government action has been and is required to curb its abuses, which have ranged from slavery to monopoly cartels and financial fraud. What is the “invisible hand”? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Custer Dies at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876)

Popularly known as “Custer’s Last Stand,” the Battle of the Little Bighorn occurred during the US government’s campaign to force the Cheyenne and Sioux onto reservations using federal troops. Upon encountering a large encampment of the tribes, General George Custer launched an early attack with a party of approximately 200 soldiers. The troops were annihilated by the vastly larger force, and Custer himself was killed during the battle along with two of his brothers. Who led the Indian alliance? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Slovenia National Day

Slovenia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991, after elections in 1990 showed that 88% of the people wished to secede from Yugoslavia. Previously, Slovenia, which is a little smaller than New Jersey, was part of the Austria-Hungarian kingdom. It joined with Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro at the end of World War I, and this federation was called Yugoslavia after 1929. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

George Orwell (1903)

Best known by his pseudonym George Orwell, Eric Arthur Blair was a British novelist and essayist famed for his scathingly satirical and frighteningly political novels: the anti-Soviet fable Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, a prophetic novel that portrays the catastrophic excesses of state control over the individual. Orwell was distrustful of all political parties and ideologies, and this sentiment is reflected in much of his work. What are some of his other novels? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Fermentation

Fermentation is the process by which a living cell obtains energy by breaking down simple sugars and other molecules without using oxygen. It occurs in different chemical sequences in different species of organisms. In alcoholic fermentation, known to humans for at least 7,000 years, the glucose molecule is degraded to two molecules of the two-carbon alcohol, ethanol, and to two molecules of carbon dioxide. What serious illness can result from eating fermented food? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

South Africa Wins the Rugby World Cup (1995)

In 1995, the recently unified nation of South Africa hosted the third Rugby World Cup. The first major event to be held in what had been dubbed “the Rainbow Nation,” it is now remembered as one of the greatest moments in the country’s sporting history. The dramatic victory of the South African team, supported by President Nelson Mandela, is seen as a major step in the reconciliation of white and black South Africans in the post-Apartheid era. What team did South Africa defeat in the final match? Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary

Inti Raymi Fiesta

The Inti Raymi Festival is an ancient Winter Solstice festival celebrated by the Incas in Peru on June 24. The original Inti Raymi involved animal sacrifices performed at the top of La Marca when the sun reached its zenith. Today the main celebration takes place in Cuzco, where there is a special procession and mock sacrifice to the sun, followed by a week-long celebration involving folkloric dances and regional arts and crafts displays. Bonfires are still lit in the Andes Mountains to celebrate the rebirth of the sun, and people burn their old clothes as a way of marking the end of the harvest cycle. Discuss

Source: The Free Dictionary