Avatar Posted by lanerough 131 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Kennedy served as US President from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was a decorated veteran of WWII and energized the US with his idealism, youth, and vigor. Once in office, Kennedy drafted an ambitious domestic program; however, his administration soon became enmeshed in a series of foreign crises. These included the Space Race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, and the Vietnam War. What technological medium is credited with helping Kennedy win the presidency?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury
Avatar Posted by lanerough 132 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Thorpe was one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports. He won Olympic gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon, starred in college and professional football, and played basketball and Major League baseball. He lost his Olympic titles, however, when it was discovered that he had played minor league baseball prior to competing, thus violating the amateur status rules. His medals were later restored to him. Legend has it that Thorpe began his athletic career in what casual way?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury
Avatar Posted by lanerough 133 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Carson was an American writer and marine biologist. Her Silent Spring, a provocative study of the dangers of certain insecticides, is generally acknowledged as the impetus for the modern environmental movement. In other well-known books on sea life, such as Under the Sea Wind, she combines keen scientific observation with rich poetic description. What did Carson's marital status lead former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson to conclude about her political leanings?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury
Avatar Posted by lanerough 134 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Rising to prominence with the birth of modern jazz in the mid-1940s, when he was a sideman in Charlie Parker's bebop quintet, Davis became a dominant force in jazz trumpet. He was influential in the development of cool jazz, led many small groups through the 1950s and 60s, and produced a successful blend of jazz and rock music in the 1970s and 80s. His trumpet and flügelhorn styles were warmly lyrical and marked by a brilliant use of mutes. How old was Davis when he began to study music?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury
Avatar Posted by lanerough 135 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Emerson, known as the "Sage of Concord," was a poet and essayist who established himself as a leading spokesman for transcendentalism. He dominated the American lecture circuit of the 1830s with his winter lecture tours, which included the notable essays "The Over-Soul" and "Self-Reliance." Plato, the sacred books of the East, Swedenborg, and Kant all contributed to the development of his ideas. Who built a cabin next to a pond on land owned by Emerson?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury
Avatar Posted by lanerough 136 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Marat was a French Revolutionary leader, physician, and journalist. When the Revolution began, he founded the journal L'Ami du people (1789) in which he vented his hatred and suspicion of those in power. Elected to the National Convention in 1792, he led the attack against the Girondists. He was assassinated by royalist sympathizer Charlotte Corday as he soaked in a bath to relieve the discomfort of what debilitating skin condition?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury
Avatar Posted by lanerough 137 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Mesmer was an Austrian physician and an early experimenter in hypnosis, also known as “mesmerism.” He claimed to reduce people to a trance state through the conscious exertion of his powerful “animal magnetism.” Expelled from Vienna in 1777, he moved to Paris, only to again be denounced as a charlatan. During treatment sessions, Mesmer maintained regimented physical contact with his patients, performing “passes” that often induced convulsions in his patients. What did these convulsions indicate?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury
Avatar Posted by lanerough 138 days ago (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)
Category: Today's Birthday
Matteotti was an Italian Socialist leader, member of parliament, and outstanding opponent of the Fascist regime during its early days. His death at the hands of Fascist hirelings precipitated a parliamentary crisis that Mussolini overcame by disavowing the murder and tightening police control. Mussolini's dictatorship may be said to have begun with the crushing of the opposition through Matteotti's assassination. Recent scholarship suggests what about Mussolini's involvement in the affair?
read more »
Discuss   Add this link to...  Tell a friend   Bury




Powered By Pligg | Legal: License and Source