Avatar Posted by lanerough 156 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Machiavelli was a Florentine author and statesman. He entered political service in 1498 and became acquainted with power politics through his important diplomatic missions. His best-known work, The Prince (1532), describes the means by which a prince may gain and maintain power. The adjective "Machiavellian" has since come to serve as a synonym for amoral cunning and for justification by power, but Machiavelli placed a number of restrictions on evil actions; what were they?
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Avatar Posted by lanerough 157 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Herzl was the founder of modern Zionism. A journalist, he was sent to Paris to report on the Dreyfus Affair and was appalled by the vicious anti-Semitism he observed. He decided that Jewish assimilation in Europe was impossible and that the only solution to the Jewish problem was the establishment of a Jewish national state. He expressed his ideas in his famous pamphlet, Der Judenstaat, and organized the first Zionist World Congress, serving as its first president. Where is he buried?
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Avatar Posted by lanerough 158 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Woo is a Chinese film director known for the balletic violence characteristic of his movies, which belong to a genre originating in Hong Kong called "heroic bloodshed." He first gained international recognition with his 1989 Hong Kong thriller The Killer. Woo moved to the US in the early 1990s and directed a number of films, including the blockbuster action film Face/Off (1997). He was among the first Asian directors to achieve mainstream success in the US. What is "Gun Fu"?
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Avatar Posted by lanerough 159 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Joachim von Ribbentrop was the foreign minister of Nazi Germany from 1938 until 1945, during which time he helped negotiate the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939. Having played a role in persuading the leaders of satellite countries of the Third Reich to deport Jews to Nazi extermination camps during WWII, Ribbentrop was found guilty of war crimes by the military tribunal at Nuremberg. He was hanged in 1946. What were his last words?
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Avatar Posted by lanerough 160 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Duke Ellington was an American jazz musician and composer. Among his best-known short works are "Mood Indigo," "Solitude," and "Sophisticated Lady." He also wrote jazz works of complex orchestration for concert presentation and composed religious music, including three sacred concerts. Ellington toured Europe extensively, appeared in numerous jazz festivals and several films, and made hundreds of recordings. In 1969, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. What was his real name?
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Avatar Posted by lanerough 161 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Lamborghini was a wealthy Italian tractor manufacturer and an enthusiastic sports car owner. Noticing a problem with the clutch system of his Ferrari 250 GT, he approached Enzo Ferrari to complain. Ferrari's insulting response, that a tractor manufacturer is not qualified to criticize Ferraris, infuriated Lamborghini. He decided to retaliate by creating his own superior sports car, effectively beating Ferrari at his own game. Why did Lamborghini choose the image of a bull for his company's logo?
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Avatar Posted by lanerough 162 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Coretta Scott King was the widow of slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., and a noted community leader in her own right. She was vocal in her opposition to apartheid, capital punishment, and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, and she advocated for women's rights, lesbian and gay rights, and AIDS/HIV prevention. In 1968, Mrs. King established The King Center, a memorial dedicated to promoting the legacy and ideals of her late husband. Why was she under FBI surveillance from 1968 to 1972?
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Avatar Posted by lanerough 163 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Richter was an American seismologist most famous for creating the Richter magnitude scale, which quantifies the size of earthquakes by assigning each quake a single number based on the measurement of seismic waves. The scale is logarithmic, so the amplitude of the waves increases by powers of 10 in relation to the Richter magnitude numbers. Numbers for the Richter scale range from 0 to 9, though no real upper limit exists. Who collaborated with Richter in developing the measurement system?
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