NAQT - You Gotta Know

Monopoly

A monopoly occurs when there is only one firm producing goods for a given market. This allows that firm to set the price higher—and thus the quantity sold lower—than would otherwise occur. An oligopoly is a similar market environment where production is dominated by a few firms, whereas a monopsony is the opposite case: a market with only a single consumer.

Septimius Severus

(145 - 211; r. 193 - 211) Triumphed in the Year of the Five Emperors and founded the Severan Dynasty. He was the first emperor to be born in Africa.

Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi

(1834 - 1904) A French sculptor primarily known as the creator of Liberty Enlightening the World, better known as the Statue of Liberty. He also executed The Lion of Belfort and a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in New York's Union Square.

Aurelian

(215 - 275; r. 270 - 275) Reconquered the territory lost during the Crisis of the Third Century by defeating Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire and retaking Gaul and Britain

Tom Watson

(Born 1949) He became the major rival to Jack Nicklaus in the second half of the Golden Bear's career. Watson's greatest achievements were at the British Open, a tournament he won five times between 1975 and 1983. He took eight major championships overall.

Carmen

(Georges Bizet, 1875) Carmen is a young gypsy who works in a cigarette factory in Seville. She is arrested by the corporal Don José for fighting, but cajoles him into letting her escape. They meet again at an inn where she tempts him into challenging his captain; that treason forces him to join a group of smugglers. In the final act, the ragtag former soldier encounters Carmen at a bullfight where her lover Escamillo is competing (the source of the "Toreador Song") and stabs her. The libretto was based on a novel by Prosper Merimée.

Battle of Cowpens

(January 17, 1781) A turning point in the American recapture of South Carolina. Daniel Morgan commanded the Continentals and Banastre Tarleton led the British. The battle was fought between the Pacolet and Broad Rivers.

Battle of Britain

(July 1940 - October 1940) The Battle of Britain saw the British Royal Air Force (RAF) defeat the German air force, known as the Luftwaffe, effectively saving Britain from a proposed German amphibious invasion codenamed Operation Sea Lion. The primary German fighter plane was the Messerschmitt Bf 109, which engaged in numerous dogfights against British pilots flying Hurricane and Spitfire aircraft. Effective use of radar helped to repel German forces, forcing the Luftwaffe into nighttime raids against civilian targets, a campaign known as the Blitz.

Battle of Bunker Hill

(June 17, 1775) This British pyrrhic victory outside Boston resulted in the capture of the Charlestown Peninsula, but showed that colonial troops could stand up to British regulars. Most of the fighting actually occurred on Breed's Hill, not Bunker Hill.

Mycenaeans

Successors to the Minoans as the preeminent Greek civilization. Much of their territory was on the Greek mainland, including the city of Mycenae itself. Their writing system is called Linear B. The Mycenaeans disappeared in the late Bronze Age collapse. Homer's Iliad is set during the Mycenaean period, and Agamemnon is said to have been the King of Mycenae.

Augusto Pinochet

The dictator of Chile from 1973 to 1990. Salvador Allende was overthrown on September 11, 1973 by Pinochet. His economic policies were informed by the Chicago Boys, Chilean economists who had studied under Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago, and mostly relied on privatizing the economy. Pinochet's brutal regime was investigated in the Rettig and Valech reports, and he died awaiting trial in 2006.

Paul Dirac

(1902 - 1984) One of the first to attempt a generalization of quantum theory to relativistic speeds, the result of which was the Dirac equation

Scholasticism

Taught at medieval Christian universities and sought to reconcile Christian thought with classical thinkers such as Aristotle. This school included Thomas Aquinas, who provided five arguments for the existence of God (called the "quinque viae") in his Summa Theologica. Other thinkers include Pierre Abelard (who wrote Sic et Non) and Peter Lombard (who wrote The Four Books of Sentences).

Inflation

The inflation rate is the pace at which prices are rising, usually expressed in the form "2.5% per year." This is equivalent to the rate at which currency loses its value. Inflation is often measured by the consumer price index, which establishes a standard basket of goods that a family might buy and observes how its total price changes over a year.

Menelaus

The king of Sparta, Menelaus is the husband of Helen, the cause celebre of the war. He tries to win Helen back by fighting Paris in single combat, but Aphrodite carried Paris off when it seemed that Menelaus would win. Despite his notionally equal say in commanding the troops with his brother Agamemnon, in practice Agamemnon often dominates.

Rama

The seventh avatar of Vishnu is hero of the Ramayana. Born as a prince to King Dasharatha and Queen Kaushalya, Rama wins the hand of his wife Sita in a competition held by Sita's father, King Janaka; only he can string Shiva's bow. When his aunt Kaikeyi schemes to deprive him of Dasharatha's throne by putting her son Bharata there, Rama and Sita are banished to a forest for 14 years. During that time, the ten-headed demon Ravana kidnaps Sita, but Rama rescues her and kills Ravana. Bharata abdicates; Rama makes Sita walk through fire to prove that Ravana had not corrupted her.

The Abduction from the Seraglio, K. 384

While often called an opera, The Abduction from the Seraglio, is, like The Magic Flute, actually a Singspiel with spoken dialogue (as opposed to sung recitatives). The action takes place at the home of the Ottoman Pasha Selim, and the music uses "Janissary" military instruments associated with "Turkish" music. Belmonte is trying to rescue his lover Konstanze from the Seraglio (harem); he is assisted by Pedrillo, his servant, while Osmin works for the Pasha. In the end, the Pasha releases Belmonte and Konstanze, much to Osmin's chagrin. Famous arias include Osmin's "O, wie will ich triumphieren" and Konstanze's incredibly difficult "Martern aller Arten." According to one story, Joseph II accused it of having "too many notes."

Urban II

(1035 - 1099; r.1088 - 1099) Ordered the First Crusade. Ambassadors from Byzantine emperor Alexius Komnenos came to the 1095 Council of Piacenza requesting help in reclaiming the Holy Land from the Seljuk Turks. Urban II responded by calling the Council of Clermont, where he urged a crusade with the phrase "Deus Vult," or "God wills it." The subsequent First Crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099.

Battle of Hastings

(1066) A little more than two weeks after Stamford Bridge, Harold Godwinson was defeated by another claimant to the throne of England at Hastings. That claimant was Duke William of Normandy, who is now known as William the Conqueror. The battle and Harold's death are depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. The battle took place two weeks after William's landing at Pevensey.

Henry II

(1133 - 1189; r. 1154 - 1189) House of Plantagenet. The son of Geoffrey of Anjou and Matilda, he married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152, and invaded England the following year, forcing Stephen of Blois to acknowledge Henry as his heir. While king he developed the common law and due process, but fought with Thomas à Becket over submission to the Pope; Henry had Becket executed in 1170 but performed penance at Canterbury. Eleanor and his four sons conspired with French king Philip II against Henry on several occasions.

Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

(1212) Las Navas de Tolosa was a major turning point in the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula. A Christian alliance of Alfonso VIII of Castile, Sancho VII of Navarre, Afonso II of Portugal, and Peter II of Aragon defeated Muhammad al-Nasir and the Almohads.

The Milkmaid by Jan Vermeer

(1658) The title is misleading, as it actually shows a house or kitchen maid, rather than a milkmaid working with cows. The painting's striking features include the tiny stream of milk being poured into a bowl and the intricate folds of the maid's blue dress. The table, which is covered with a blue cloth, is a Dutch gateleg, which has an octagonal shape when unfolded, explaining its odd angles. A foot warmer sits behind the central female figure; in Vermeer's time, the object would indicate that the woman is single.

Nicholas I

(1796 - 1855; r. 1825 - 1855) Nicholas I, who ruled Russia from the failure of the Decembrist Uprising to the middle of the Crimean War, has traditionally been portrayed as the embodiment of the Russian autocracy. His government pursued a policy of Official Nationality, defending a holy trinity of "Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Nationality," and established a repressive secret police force known as the Third Section. Contemporaries referred to him as the "Gendarme of Europe" after he helped the Habsburgs squelch the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.

The Creatures of Prometheus by Ludwig van Beethoven

(1801) Choreographer Salvatore Viganò asked Beethoven to write the music for The Creatures of Prometheus. In the ballet, two statues come to life; Prometheus then takes them to Parnassus and exposes them to "the passions of human existence." They learn music from Orpheus, tragedy and comedy from the Muses, and dance from Pan and Bacchus. The ballet's overture, like Beethoven's First Symphony, begins with dissonant chords giving way into a lilting melody. Its finale contains a theme Beethoven would use in his "Eroica" Symphony (No. 3) and his Op. 35, the Eroica Variations for piano.

William Gladstone

(1809 - 1898, PM 1868 - 1874, 1880 - 1885, 1886, 1892 - 1894) Noted Liberal Prime Minister who passed a Third Reform Act and modernized the military, but failed to achieve Irish Home Rule. Queen Victoria loathed him. During Disraeli's ministry Gladstone's campaign sensationalized the "Bulgarian horrors," suggesting that Britain needed to resolve the "Eastern Question" about the fate of the Ottoman Empire.

Period of the Three Kingdoms

(184 AD - 280) Short and turbulent, it had an enormous cultural impact thanks to the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. After a period of disunion, the lands of the former Han dynasty coalesced into three kingdoms: Cao Wei north of the Yangtze, Eastern Wu in the lower Yangtze, and Shu Han in the Sichuan region. The Battle of Red Cliffs (AD 208) was fought during this period. Under the leadership of the Sima family, Cao Wei managed to defeat the other two kingdoms. The reunification was, however, short-lived. For the next four centuries, China went through a period known as the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Franz Boas

(1858 - 1942) Often called the founder of modern anthropology, this first professor of anthropology at Columbia University trained Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Alfred Kroeber, author Zora Neale Hurston, and many others. He conducted fieldwork on the Inuits of Baffin Island and the Kwakiutl (now referred to as Kwakwaka'wakw) on Vancouver Island. His publications include 1911's The Mind of Primitive Man, which describes a gift-giving ceremony known as the "potlatch."

Nicholas II

(1868 - 1918; r. 1894 - 1917) Nicholas II, the last of the Romanovs, ruled until his overthrow in the February Revolution of 1917. He is usually seen as both a kind man who loved his family and an incapable monarch who helped bring about the end of the tsarist state; he led his country through two disastrous wars, the Russo-Japanese War (which helped spark the Revolution of 1905), and World War I (which helped cause the 1917 revolutions), He is best known for his loving marriage to Alexandra and for allowing the crazed monk Grigorii Rasputin to influence court politics while treating the hemophilia of Alexei, the heir to the throne. Nicholas abdicated in 1917 and was shot in 1918.

Maurice Ravel

(1875 - 1937) His Basque mother gave him an affinity for Spanish themes, as evident in "Rapsodie espagnole" and his most popular piece, "Bolero" (1928). Ravel produced Pavane for a Dead Princess while a student of Gabriel Fauré, but was frustrated when the French Conservatory overlooked him for the Prix de Rome four times. He completed the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912) for Sergei Diaghilev, and followed it with Mother Goose and La Valse. He also re-orchestrated Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. His health declined after a 1932 taxi accident; unsuccessful brain surgery ended his life.

Bronisław Malinowski

(1884 - 1942) The Polish-born Malinowski studied at the London School of Economics, where he would later spend most of his career. He described the "kula ring" gift exchanges found in the Trobriand Islands in Argonauts of the Western Pacific, and the use of magic in agriculture in Coral Gardens and Their Magic. He also argued, in opposition to Sigmund Freud, that the Oedipus complex was not a universal element of human culture in his book on Sex and Repression in Savage Society.

Gene Sarazen

(1902 - 1999) Born Eugene Saraceni, he came to prominence in the early 1920s, winning the PGA Championship in 1922 and 1923, as well as the U.S. Open in 1922. Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen then dominated golf until the early 1930s, when Sarazen returned to form, winning four more majors. At the 1935 Masters, he carded an albatross (three under par) from the fairway of the par-5 15th hole to force a playoff; when he won, Sarazen became the first golfer to complete the modern career Grand Slam.

Sir Stanley Matthews

(1915 - 2000, England, winger) Known as "Wizard of the Dribble," the winger debuted for England as a 19-year-old, and closed his international career in 1956 at the age of 41, when he was named the first-ever European Footballer of the Year. Though he played for unfashionable northern first division clubs like Blackpool and Stoke City, he was the most popular player of his era. In the 1953 F.A. Cup final against Bolton at Wembley, thereafter always called "The Matthews Final," Matthews led a rousing comeback from a 3-1 deficit with 30 minutes remaining, setting up three goals. He is also one of the most gentlemanly players in history, having never been sent off with a red card during his entire career. In 1961, he became the first English footballer to be knighted. In 1963, at the age of 48, he helped Stoke City back into the F.A. First Division by scoring the goal that clinched promotion. He retired, quite reluctantly, from the game in 1965 at the age of 50.

Ray Bradbury

(1920 - 2012) An American author known for his science fiction works. "There Will Come Soft Rains," which appears in his collection The Martian Chronicles and takes its title from a Sara Teasdale poem, describes an empty house that survived a nuclear catastrophe. The house is fully automated and continues to operate even though the family is dead, a fact demonstrated by their silhouettes permanently burned on the side of the house. In his story "A Sound of Thunder," Eckels steps on a butterfly while hunting a T. Rex on a time-travel safari, which changes the future timeline so that the fascist Deutscher wins an election.

Flannery O'Connor

(1925 - 1964) A Catholic American author who wrote in the "Southern Gothic" style. In her story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Bailey takes his family on a vacation; when they stop at a diner, "the grandmother" talks with the owner Red Sammy about The Misfit, an escaped murderer. After the cat Patty Sing causes the family's car to crash into a ditch, a group of men led by the Misfit murder the family, including the grandmother, who claims The Misfit is one of her own children before he shoots her three times. In "Good Country People," Hulga has her prosthetic leg taken by Manley Pointer, a nihilistic atheist Bible salesman. O'Connor also wrote "Everything That Rises Must Converge," in which Julian rides on a newly-integrated bus with his mother.

The Wizard of Oz

(1939) An MGM adaptation of L. Frank Baum's children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The cast includes Frank Morgan as the title wizard, Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West, and Judy Garland as the protagonist, Dorothy Gale, who, with her dog Toto, is whisked from Kansas to the mystical land of Oz by a tornado. The Wizard of Oz was one of the first films to use three-strip Technicolor, although the credits and the framing sequences set in Kansas were filmed in sepia-toned black-and-white. The film won two Oscars, including Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow," but lost the Best Picture award to Gone With the Wind.

Brown v Board of Education

(1954, 9 - 0) The suit was filed on behalf of Linda Brown, a third grader, who had to walk a mile to a blacks-only school when a whites-only school was much closer. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued the case for the plaintiff. The court overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and ruled that "separate but equal" facilities were not constitutional. A second case in 1955 required that desegregation proceed "with all deliberate speed" but Southern schools were notoriously slow in complying; it was not until 1970 that a majority had complied with the ruling.

Gregory I

(540 - 604; r. 590 - 604) One of the "Latin Fathers" of the church and is considered the founder of the medieval papacy. After remarking that some English boys at a slave market were "not Angles, but angels," he sent Augustine of Canterbury on a mission to Christianize southern Britain. His writings include a Commentary on Job and Pastoral Care, and he is known as the Dialogist in Eastern traditions. He is credited with introducing Gregorian chant, named in his honor, into the Catholic rite.

Alfred the Great

(849 - 899; r. 871 - 899) Saxon House. Actually just the King of Wessex in southwestern England, he expelled the rival Danes from the Mercian town of London in 886, eventually conquering most of the Danelaw territory. Alfred also kept England from the worst of the Dark Ages by encouraging his bishops to foster literacy; in addition, he translated Boethius, Augustine, and the Venerable Bede's works into Anglo-Saxon.

The Phantom of the Opera

(Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1986) At the Paris Opera in 1881, the mysterious Phantom lures the soprano Christine Daaé to his lair ("The Music of the Night"). Christine falls in love with the opera's new patron, Raoul, so the Phantom drops a chandelier and kidnaps Christine. They kiss, but he disappears, leaving behind only his white mask. Adapted from the 1909 novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux, it is the longest-running show in Broadway history.

Battle of Shiloh (or Pittsburg Landing)

(April 6 - 7, 1862) This battle was named after a church in Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee (100 miles southwest of Nashville). Confederate commander Albert Sidney Johnston led a force north from Corinth, Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant, who had just captured Fort Donelson, brought five Union divisions to face him. At first, the South's surprise attack drove Union troops back, but Grant's soldiers held the "Hornets' Nest" for hours, killing Johnston in the process. P. G. T. Beauregard took over, but by the second day Northern Generals Don Carlos Buell and Lew Wallace (who wrote Ben-Hur) brought reinforcements, causing the Confederates to retreat. More than 13,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured at Shiloh.

John McEnroe

(Born 1959) Though perhaps best known for his fiery temper and abuse of referees (with taunts like "You can't be serious!"), McEnroe was the dominant player of the early 1980s. As a 17-year old amateur qualifier, he made the semifinals of Wimbledon, and in 1979 he won the first of three straight U.S. Opens. He almost ended Borg's run of Wimbledons in a five-set thriller in 1980, but succeeded the following year. In 1984, McEnroe compiled an 82-3 record, winning Wimbledon and his fourth U.S. Open, for a total of seven majors. An outstanding doubles player as well, he won 77 titles, many with partner Peter Fleming. He also played in the Davis Cup 12 times, captaining the U.S. team in 2000.

Ronaldo

(Born 1976, Brazil, forward) Ronaldo was twice World Footballer of the Year, winning those honors in 1997 (while with FC Barcelona) and 1998 (with Inter). While he was on the Brazil squad that won World Cup '94 in the US, he was expected to star in the 1998 World Cup, where he helped Brazil to the finals, winning the Golden Ball Award as tournament MVP. That MVP performance was tarnished slightly by a poor showing (one blamed by the media on a supposed all-night session of Tomb Raider on PlayStation) that kept Brazil from its fifth title.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

(Leo Tolstroy, 1886) The story begins in a courtroom, as the death of the middle-aged magistrate Ivan Ilyich prompts other members of the legal profession to think about how the new vacancy will affect their status. The story then describes Ivan's unhappy marriage to Praskovya Fedorovna, and his move to Saint Petersburg. As he decorates his new house, Ivan has an accident while demonstrating how he wishes the curtains to be hung. The accident slowly causes Ivan to suffer increasing pain, during which he becomes dependent on the peasant servant Gerasim, and contemplates how meaningless his existence has been. At the end of his life, Ivan screams continuously for three days. Finally, Ivan sees light all around him at the same time that his son Vasya kisses his hand, and realizes that all he can do to end his family's suffering is to die. Ivan thus dies happily.

Lord Liverpool

(PM 1812 - 1827) Prime Minister at the time of victory at the Battle of Waterloo, and faced social turmoil, including the Peterloo Massacre of protesters in Manchester.

Oklahoma!

(Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1943) On the eve of Oklahoma's statehood, cowboy Curly McLain and sinister farmhand Judd compete for the love of Aunt Eller's niece, Laurey. Judd falls on his own knife after attacking Curly, and Curly and Laurey get married. A subplot concerns Ado Annie, who chooses cowboy Will Parker over the Persian peddler Ali Hakim. Featuring the songs "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" and "Oklahoma," it is often considered the first modern book musical.

Stokely Carmichael

A leader of the Pan-African movement and the Black Power movement, who popularized the use of the term "Black Power." He replaced John Lewis as chair of SNCC; under his leadership, SNCC shifted from a policy of nonviolence to a more militant approach. He served as "honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party, but later distanced himself from that movement because he didn't believe that white activists should be allowed to participate. He ended up changing his name to Kwame Ture (in honor of Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah and Guinean President Ahmed Sekou Touré) and moving to Guinea.

Our Town by Thorton Wilder

A sentimental story that takes place in the village of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire just after the turn of the 20th century, Our Town is divided into three acts: "Daily Life" (Professor Willard and Editor Webb gossip on the everyday lives of town residents); "Love and Marriage" (Emily Webb and George Gibbs fall in love and marry); and "Death" (Emily dies while giving birth, and her spirit converses about the meaning of life with other dead people in the cemetery). A Stage Manager talks to the audience and serves as a narrator throughout the drama, which is performed on a bare stage.

Lake Malawi (or Lake Nyasa)

Africa's third-largest lake by area and the southernmost of the Great Rift Valley lakes, it is wedged between the nations of Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique. Fed by the Ruhuhu River, its lone outlet is the Shire River, a tributary of the Zambezi. Lake Malawi contains hundreds of species of endemic fish, especially cichlids.

Francisco Pizarro

After receiving a commission from Emperor Charles V, Francisco Pizarro went with his partner Diego de Almagro, the priest Hernando de Luque, and a small force to Peru (1530). The invaders marched to the city Cajamarca, where they seized the emperor Atahualpa and held him for ransom. Even though the Incas brought the Spanish a ransom of precious metal, Pizarro killed Atahualpa and captured the Incan capital, Cuzco. In 1535 Pizarro founded Lima, where he was murdered six years later.

Frey

Also known as Freyr. The son of Njord, and twin brother of Freya. He is one of the Vanir, a second group of Norse gods, but lives with the Aesir as a hostage. The god of fertility, horses, sun, and rain, his possessions include the magic ship Skidbladnir. He travels in a chariot drawn by the golden boar Gullinbursti, and had to give away his magic sword to win the hand of the giantess Gerda.

Franz Ferdinand

On June 28th, 1914, Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian ultra-nationalist Gavrilo Princip, a member of a secret military society called the Black Hand. In response to the assassination, Austria-Hungary issues the July Ultimatum to Serbia, leading to the outbreak of World War I.

John F Kennedy

On November 22nd, 1963, US President John F Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, who targeted the presidential motorcade from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the vehicles rode through Dallas's Dealey Plaza. Texas Governor John Connolly was also severely injured in the shooting, which was captured on tape in the Zapruder film. Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One later that day. Oswald never faced trial for the assassination, as he himself was shot and killed by bar owner Jack Ruby while being transported by federal agents. The Kennedy assassination was investigated by the Warren Commission, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, which concluded that Oswald was the lone gunman.

Titan

The largest moon of Saturn and the second largest in the solar system. Until Voyager 1 visited in 1980, it was thought to be larger than Ganymede. It is the only known satellite with a dense atmosphere — so dense that it makes observation of surface features nearly impossible except from close up — and also the only known satellite for which there is evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid. Discovered in 1655 by Christiaan Huygens, it was visited by the Cassini-Huygens mission in 2004. Titan's albedo features, such as the highly reflective area Xanadu, are named for sacred or enchanted places from world literature and mythology. Because of its nitrogen-rich atmosphere and the presence of surface liquid, Titan is often thought to be the most likely place in the solar system for microbial life to exist outside of Earth.

Golgi Apparatus

The stack of flattened, folded membranes that forms the Golgi apparatus acts as the "post office of the cell." Here proteins from the ribosomes are stored, chemically modified, "addressed" with carbohydrate tags, and packaged in vesicles for delivery.

Andromache

The wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax, she futilely warns Hector about the war, then sees both her husband and son killed by the Greeks. After the war she is made concubine to Neoptolemus, and later marries the Trojan prophet Helenus.

Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

(1565) This painting is the most famous of the five surviving paintings from Bruegel's Months of the Year cycle. Several black birds are perched in the barren, snowy trees above the hunters in this painting, who are returning home with their dogs, having had very little success in their hunt. The town's rivers and pond have frozen over, preventing its water wheel from working, but the denizens have taken advantage of this and are ice-skating. The painting features in several films by famous directors, such as Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris and Mirror.

Peace of Westphalia

(1648) Collective name for two treaties ending the Thirty Years' War that were signed by the Holy Roman Empire, minor German states, Spain, France, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic. It confirmed the principle of "cuius regio eius religio" (that a ruler's religion determined that of his country) introduced by the Peace of Augsburg, but mandated relative tolerance of other (Christian) faiths. It adjusted the borders of German states and strengthened their princes with respect to the Emperor, and transferred most of Lorraine and some of Alsace to France.

Karl Marx

(1818 - 1883, German) Also a historian and social philosopher, Marx's principal contribution to economic thought was extending the labor theory of value to its logical conclusion, his theory of surplus value. This theory, along with his defense of economic materialism, appeared in Das Kapital (1867, 1885, 1894).

Vaslav Nijinsky

(1889 - 1950) Known as the greatest male dancer of his era, but what he really wanted to do was choreograph. His boss at the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, gave him the opportunity in 1912 with The Afternoon of a Faun, set to the music of Claude Debussy, and a year later a riot broke out at the premiere of another ballet he choreographed, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Springs (The exact chaos of the riot is unclear). In 1919 Nijinsky was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He never danced again in public, and spent much of the rest of his life in various asylums and institutions

Treaty of Paris

(1898) Ended the Spanish-American War and transferred Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico to the U.S. while making Cuba (ostensibly) independent. The treaty was the beginning of American imperialism, and underwent a lengthy and contentious ratification.

Ernest Hemingway

(1899 - 1961) An American author, many of whose stories feature the semi-autobiographical character Nick Adams. Adams appears in "Big Two-Hearted River," in which he goes on a fishing trip to the town of Seney, Michigan. In "Hills Like White Elephants," a woman named Jig talks with a man at a train station, considering an unnamed "procedure," which is implied to be an abortion. "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" begins with the description of a frozen leopard carcass; its protagonist, Harry, is a writer who dies of gangrene while on an African safari with his wife Helen. Hemingway also apocryphally wrote a six-word story consisting of the words "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Millikan Oil-Drop Experiment

(1909) Performed by Robert A Millikan and Harvey Fletcher to measure the charge of the electron. In the first step, the terminal velocity of an oil drop was measured, which means that the drag force (which can be calculated using Stokes' law) equals the force of gravity. From this, the mass can be calculated. Then, by turning on an electric field, the particle starts to move upward with a terminal velocity when the electric force balances out the forces of gravity and drag. Using this, and the mass of the drop, the total charge on the drop can be calculated. Millikan and Fletcher found that the total charge on the drops were always quantized—that is, always an integer multiple of some constant; specifically, the constant they found is about 1.59 × 10^-19 coulombs, within 1% of the currently accepted value.

Serenades and Divertimentos

These include two of Mozart's most familiar pieces, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525, and A Musical Joke, K. 522. Eine kleine Nachtmusik, originally scored for string quartet and double bass, is often translated as "a little night music" (but more accurately as "a little serenade"); it includes a lovely "Romanze" second movement as well as the more famous first movement. A Musical Joke is exactly that: a parody of bad composition, ending with chords in four different keys, and including almost every possible kind of "mistake." Mozart's other Serenades include the "Gran Partita" for 13 instruments (No. 10 in B flat major, K. 361), as well as the "Posthorn" and "Haffner" (not to be confused with the symphony).

John Cage

(1912 - 1992) An experimentalist composer whose works are known for aleatoric (chance-based) composition and other forms of indeterminacy. His best-known piece, 4′33″ (1952), is created from the ambient sounds of the concert space while the performer(s) sits silently on stage. His Music of Changes (1951), as well as numerous other works, were written utilizing the Chinese I Ching to determine musical content. Cage's other innovations include works for "prepared piano," a piano which has had various objects inserted into its strings. A 639-year-long organ performance of his "As Slow As Possible" (1987) is currently underway in Germany, having begun in 2001.

Joe DiMaggio

(1914 - 1999, center field) He left the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League and joined New York for the 1936 season, where he helped Lou Gehrig drive the Yankees to their fifth championship and the first of nine that he would win with the Bombers. "The Yankee Clipper" won three Most Valuable Player awards (1939, 1941, 1947), two batting titles (1939, 1940), and two homer titles (1937, 1948). In 1941 "Joltin' Joe" hit safely in 56 consecutive games, a record that has never been challenged (he once hit in 61 straight for the Seals in 1933). His career totals are abbreviated because of his military service (1943-1945) and because of the distance to Yankee Stadium's left-field power alley, in those days known as Death Valley. He married Marilyn Monroe in 1954, but they divorced after nine months.

Alvin Ailey

(1931 - 1989) Pioneering African-American choreographer. He originally danced in the Horton Dance Company run by his mentor Lester Horton. After Horton's unexpected death in 1953, Ailey took over as its artistic director. In 1958 he formed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. His best-known work, Revelations, was based on his upbringing in Texas and is divided into three parts, titled "Pilgrim of Sorrow," "Take Me to the Water," and "Move Members, Move." The third emphasizes gospel music, including the traditional spiritual "Sinner Man," and concludes with the number "Rocka My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham," which recreates a joyous church service.

Stanley Milgram

(1933 - 1984) Though he did the work that created the idea of "six degrees of separation" and the "lost-letter" technique, he is mainly remembered for his experiments on obedience to authority that he performed at Yale in 1961-1962. Milgram found that two thirds of his subjects were willing to administer terrible electric shocks to innocent, protesting human beings simply because a researcher told them the experimental protocol demanded it.

Dean Acheson

(1949 - 1953, Truman) The successor to Marshall, he is known primarily for developing the policy of containment — designed to prevent the spread of Communism — and the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. His autobiography Present at the Creation is a major source for Cold War historians.

Miller-Urey Experiment

(1952) An attempt to demonstrate a possible mechanism—proposed by John Haldane and Alexander Oparin—for how life could form from inorganic chemicals. Stanley Miller and Harold Urey modeled Earth's prebiotic atmosphere as a mixture of water, methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), and hydrogen. They allowed those four substances to react in an apparatus over a one-week period; the apparatus included a heater to convert the water to water vapor and an electrode to simulate lightning strikes. The resulting mixture contained more than 20 distinct amino acids that formed spontaneously; a more modern "volcanic" version of the experiment produced even more amino acids by including sulfur compounds.

The Twilight Zone

(1959 - 1964) Rod Serling created this anthology series, whose iconic opening credits featured a theme composed by Bernard Herrmann and a narration warning that the viewer was "about to enter another dimension." One of its most famous episodes, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," starred a young William Shatner as a salesman who becomes convinced that a gremlin nobody else can see is trying to crash the airplane on which he is flying.

Augustus

(63 BC - 14 AD; r. 27 BC - 14 AD) The first Roman emperor. Born Gaius Octavius, he was the grandnephew and heir of Julius Caesar. After Caesar was assassinated, Octavian formed the Second Triumvirate with Marc Antony and Marcus Lepidus to defeat Caesar's assassins. With the help of Marcus Agrippa, he sidelined Lepidus and defeated Antony at the Battle of Actium to seize the empire. Ruling as princeps, or first citizen, Augustus created the Praetorian Guard and added Egypt to the empire, but halted expansion into Germania after a crushing defeat at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

Hadrian

(76 - 138; r. 117 - 138) Trajan's younger cousin who succeeded him as emperor. At the start of his reign, he withdrew from Trajan's conquests in the east. While traveling in Greece, he joined the Eleusinian Mysteries; while visiting Egypt, his beloved companion Antinous drowned in the Nile. He also commissioned Hadrian's Wall to mark the border of Roman Britain and crushed the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea.

Sei Shonagan

(966 - 1013) Like Lady Murasaki, Sei Shonagan was a lady-in-waiting of the Empress. Since Lady Murasaki and Sei Shonagan were contemporaries and known for their wit, they were often rivals. Sei Shonagan's only work is the Pillow Book (Makura no soshi), which is considered the best source of information about life at the Japanese court during the Heian period (784-1185).

Battles of Lexington and Concord

(April 19, 1775) The first battles of the American Revolutionary War were skirmishes near Boston in the two towns of Lexington and Concord, as well as Cambridge, Lincoln and Menotomy. British regulars under Francis Smith attempted to destroy the supplies of the colonial militia, but were stopped by Minutemen. Ralph Waldo Emerson described the first shot as the "shot heard round the world."

Stephen Sondheim

(Born 1930) One of the most celebrated lyricists and composers in musical theater. Sondheim's career has included eight Tony Awards. He was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II (of Rodgers and Hammerstein), and was the lyricist for West Side Story, working alongside composer Leonard Bernstein. Musicals for which he was both lyricist and composer include Company (1970), a series of scenes about an unmarried bachelor and his married friends; Sweeney Todd (1979), about a barber's murderous quest for revenge; Into the Woods (1987), a dark mash-up of several fairy tales; and Sunday in the Park with George (1984), which portrays a fictionalized version of the painter Georges Seurat and won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Cabaret

(Fred Kadner, 1966) Cabaret is set in the seedy Kit-Kat Club in Berlin during the Weimer era. The risqué Master of Ceremonies presides over the action ("Willkommen"). The British lounge singer Sally Bowles falls in love with the American writer Cliff Bradshaw, but the two break up as the Nazis come to power. Adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1972 film starring Liza Minelli and Joel Grey, it is based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin.

Battle of Kursk

(July 1943 - August 1943) Fought in western Russia, the Battle of Kursk was the largest tank battle in history, with about 6,000 tanks engaged. Thanks to a complex spy network, the Soviet leadership was well-informed about German plans to launch Operation Citadel against the Kursk salient, and constructed massive defensive fortifications. After the German advance was stopped, a successful Soviet counterattack was launched. The German Army never again was able to mount a major attack on the Eastern Front.

First Battle of Bull Run (or First Manassas)

(July 21, 1861) Fought at a creek near Manassas, Virginia (30 miles west of Washington, D.C.), this was the first major showdown of the war. P. G. T. Beauregard led an army against Union commander Irwin McDowell and received reinforcements from Joseph Johnston's troops (whom Union General Robert Patterson failed to detain). The Confederacy routed the Union when Thomas Jackson's brigade held the left line at Henry House Hill; this effort earned him the nickname "Stonewall." Congressmen and reporters, who had expected to watch a Union victory, fled in panic back to D.C.

Battle of Midway

(June 1942) Universally considered the turning point in the Pacific Theater, the Battle of Midway saw the Japanese lose four aircraft carriers, a blow from which they never fully recovered. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned to lure the U.S. fleet into a trap, but the Americans had broken the Japanese code, allowing them to pull off a stunning victory, with dive bombers from the Enterprise sinking the carriers Kaga, Akagi, and Hiryu, while those from the hastily-repaired Yorktown sank the carrier Soryu.

Boris Godunov

(Modest Mussorgsky, 1874) The opera's prologue shows Boris Godunov, the chief adviser of Ivan the Terrible, being pressured to assume the throne after Ivan's two children die. In the first act the religious novice Grigori decides that he will impersonate that younger son, Dmitri (the [first] "false Dmitri"), whom, it turns out, Boris had killed. Grigori raises a general revolt and Boris' health falls apart as he is taunted by military defeats and dreams of the murdered tsarevich. The opera ends with Boris dying in front of the assembled boyars (noblemen).

Battle of El Alamein

(October 1942 - November 1942) The Second Battle of El Alamein marked the turning point in the African campaign. Named for an Egyptian coastal town 65 miles west of Alexandria, it saw the British Eighth Army under Bernard Montgomery defeat the German Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel, preventing the Nazis from capturing the Suez Canal and oil fields in the Middle East. Following the battle, Allied forces landed in Morocco and Algeria as part of Operation Torch, and by May 1943 all Axis forces in North Africa had surrendered.

Confirmation

A modern and non-obligatory ritual. It is primarily used in more secular movements, and represents the fact that a person has continued formal Jewish education past the bar/bat mitzvah and has now completed that formal education. Rituals vary widely, but generally there is recognition in the synagogue of the confirmation class (all at once, unlike for b'nai mitzvah), religious gifts may be given, and—as with nearly all Jewish events—food is served.

Hermann Oberth

At the age of fourteen, he imagined a recoil rocket, which could propel itself by exhausting gas from its base. He also lends his name to the Oberth effect, a phenomenon by which rockets operate more efficiently when moving at higher speeds, and formulated the idea behind multiple-stage rocketry. Oberth also mentored many German rocket engineers through the Verein für Raumschiffahrt (Spaceflight Society), whose formation was inspired partially by Oberth's writing.

The Anglo-Saxons

Conventional designation for a group of Germanic peoples (primarily Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) who migrated from northwestern Europe (the North Sea coast of Germany and mainland Denmark) to Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. The Anglo-Saxon settlers conquered or displaced the Roman and British inhabitants of the island (the semi legendary King Arthur is portrayed as a British ruler fighting against Saxon expansion). By the early 7th century, seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms across southern and eastern Britain were known collectively as the Heptarchy (a group of seven rulers). Christian missionaries arrived from Italy and Ireland to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Cultural products of the newly Christian kingdoms included illuminated manuscripts; the writings of the monastic historian the Venerable Bede, and the epic poem Beowulf. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were hard-hit by the Viking raids of the 9th century; only Wessex, the southwesternmost kingdom, survived and repelled the Scandinavian raiders. The kings of Wessex then unified the Anglo-Saxon territories as a single kingdom of England.

Flame Tests

Detect the presence of elements by dipping a wooden splint or nichrome wire in a sample of the element or its salt, then placing the sample over a Bunsen burner. The unique emission spectrum of the element present then causes the flame to briefly change color. The D lines of sodium produce one of the strongest flame test colors: a bright yellow. Because of this, sodium can contaminate samples, so flames are usually viewed through a cobalt blue glass to filter out the yellow. Other notable flame test colors include red, produced by lithium, calcium and strontium; lilac, produced by potassium; green, produced by barium; and blue, produced by copper, selenium, arsenic, and indium.

Treaty of Versailles

(1919) Officially ended World War I between the Allies and Germany. It was signed at its namesake French palace after the Paris Peace Conference. It is noted for the "Big Four" (Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau, and Vittorio Orlando) who headed the Allies' delegations, discussions of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points (particularly the League of Nations), and its controversial disarmament, war guilt, and reparations clauses. The conference was also notable for up-and-coming world figures who attended (John Maynard Keynes, Ho Chi Minh, Jan Smuts, etc.).

Margaret Thatcher

(1925 - 2013, PM 1979 - 1990) The U.K.'s first female prime minister was known as the "Iron Lady." Thatcher's divisive 1980s Conservative premiership saw the collapse of British heavy industry and its replacement by a services-based economy, especially focused on banking. Re-elected in 1983 after winning the Falklands War, she clashed with the mine workers' leader Arthur Scargill as well as her right-hand man Michael Heseltine, and after losing popularity due to a poll tax was ousted by her own party in favor of John Major (PM 1990-1997).

Clifford Geertz

(1926 - 2006) Geertz is best known for his work in symbolic anthropology, a view that he expounded in his book The Interpretation of Cultures. In that book, he introduced the term "thick description" to describe his method of analyzing behavior within its social context. One such "thick description" appears in his essay "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight," in which Geertz discusses cockfighting as a symbolic display of a certain kind of masculinity.

George Marshall

(1947 - 1949, Truman) As a general, he oversaw the largest expansion of the U.S. military in its history and wrote the central strategy for the Allies in Europe. Namesake of the Marshall Plan to help Europe recover after World War II from 1948 to 1952. After he left his post, he was president of the American Red Cross. He correctly predicted that Israel's declaration of statehood would lead to war and attempted to mediate the Chinese Civil Wa

Battle of Okinawa

(April to June 1945) Codenamed Operation Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa was the last major ground battle in the Pacific theater of World War II. Kakazu Ridge and Shuri Castle were among the positions Japanese troops defended against U.S. Marine and Army units. Okinawa was the high point of Japanese kamikaze attacks; over 1,500 suicide missions were sent against the Allied invasion fleet. The heavy casualties sustained by both sides on Okinawa and the suicidal bravery of the Japanese military encouraged American planners to use atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead of launching Operation Downfall, the projected late-1945 conventional invasion of the Japanese home islands.

Zinedine Zidane

(Born 1972, France, midfielder) Known the world over as "Zizou," the 1998 World and European Footballer of the Year as an all-around player is France's midfield. Zidane was a critical player in the World Cup '98 (he scored a pair of header goals in the final against Brazil) and Euro 2000 (a game-winning overtime penalty kick in the semi-finals against Portugal), both triumphs for the French national side. Like fellow French legend Platini, Zizou played for the Italian team Juventus, where he has helped it win two Series A titles.

Hohenzollern

(Brandenburg, 1415 - 1618, Prussia, 1525 - 1918, Germany, 1871 - 1918, Romania, 1866 - 1947) The House of Hohenzollern began as Burgraves of Nuremberg, but eventually gained such titles as Margrave of Brandenburg, Duke and later King of Prussia, Emperor of Germany, and King of Romania. Some of its notable rulers included Frederick the Great (an enlightened ruler who led Prussian troops during the Seven Years' War) and Wilhelm II (the Emperor of Germany during World War I).

The Wounded Knee Massacre

(December 29, 1890) The killing of 200 to 300 Lakota Sioux on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The massacre began when, during an observation of the Ghost Dance ritual, a deaf Lakota named Black Coyote refused to surrender his rifle to James Forsyth's 7th U.S. Cavalry. After the rifle discharged, the cavalrymen opened fire. Miniconjou chief Spotted Elk was among those killed in the massacre, for which twenty soldiers were controversially awarded the Medal of Honor; despite frequent protests, those awards have not been rescinded by Congress. The day after the Wounded Knee Massacre, surviving Lakota confronted the soldiers in the Drexel Mission Fight. The historian Dee Brown titled his 1970 history of Native Americans in the West Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Anti-Corn Law League

(Early-mid 19th century) From 1838 to 1846, the leading organization agitating for repeal of the Corn Laws was the Anti-Corn Law League. The Corn Laws were a series of laws that imposed tariffs on imported grain ("corn" was at that time a generic term for types of grain that require grinding, including wheat), which kept grain prices high to benefit English landowners. The founders of the Anti-Corn Law League, Richard Cobden and John Bright, argued that importing grain would lower food prices for workers and thus stimulate the British economy. The Corn Laws were eventually repealed in 1846 under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Robert Peel, a decision hastened by the start of the Irish Potato Famine the previous year. The repeal of the Corn Laws ushered in an era of support for free trade that continues to this day. Another legacy of opposition to the Corn Laws was the founding of the weekly publication The Economist in 1843 to promote repeal of trade restrictions.

Orange-Nassau

(Netherlands, 1544 - present) The House of Orange was founded by William the Silent, who led the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish in the Eighty Years' War, resulting in the recognition of the Netherlands' independence in 1648. In 1688, William III of Orange, at the invitation of Parliament, invaded England with his wife Mary in what is called the Glorious Revolution. The House of Orange is currently led by Willem-Alexander, the King of the Netherlands.

Willem Einthoven

(Won in 1924) Performed groundbreaking work related to electrocardiography. He invented a device called the string galvanometer to measure the electric current of the heart, which until then had been impossible without applying electrodes directly to the heart. This galvanometer would form the basis of the modern ECG (EKG) machine. His method of assigning three leads on human limbs, forming an inverted equilateral triangle centered on the heart, is still used in EKGs today, and is known as Einthoven's triangle. He also assigned the letters 'P', 'Q', 'R', 'S', and 'T' to the various deflections seen on an EKG; that notation, which describes the familiar QRS complex pattern, is also still used today.

Karl Landsteiner

(Won in 1930) Known as the "Father of Transfusions." He made important discoveries in the field of serology in the early 1900s, including the identification of the three major blood groups (A, B, and O). He determined that mixing blood from two individuals with incompatible blood types can lead to a dangerous form of blood clumping called agglutination. In 1937 (after he received the Nobel), he also identified the Rh factor (the "plus" or "minus" in one's blood type) in the blood of the rhesus monkey, a discovery which further increased the safety of blood transfusions. While studying in Vienna in 1908, Landsteiner isolated the polio virus, providing the basis for Jonas Salk's vaccine against the disease.

Thomas Hunt Morgan

(Won in 1933) Discover the basic mechanisms of genetic inheritance via his experiments on fruit flies, specifically the species Drosophila melanogaster. By conducting a series of experiments in his renowned "Fly Room" at Columbia University, Morgan and his students tracked mutations, noting how various traits were inherited across successive generations of the flies. His data supported the idea of genetic linkage by noting that the probability of two genes being inherited together correlates inversely with their physical distance on a given chromosome, leading Morgan to postulate the mechanism of crossing over. Because of his work, the unit centimorgan is now used to measure the physical distance between genes.

Montezuma II

(c. 1466 - 1520) One of the last rulers of the Aztec empire. In 1519 Montezuma allowed armed forces led by the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés to enter the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán. Several months later, the Spanish imprisoned Montezuma within his own palace. After the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado took advantage of Montezuma's captivity to massacre peaceful celebrants at a religious festival, the Aztecs selected a new ruler named Cuitláhuac, and the city erupted into conflicts that led to Montezuma's death. The Spanish then fled during an escape that is called the "Noche Triste," or "Sad Night" because many conquistadors died while crossing the causeways that connected the island city Tenochtitlán to the shores of Lake Texcoco. By 1521, the ravages of smallpox and the help of indigenous Tlaxcalan allies allowed Cortés to conquer Tenochtitlán and to capture Cuauhtémoc, the final Aztec emperor.

Euclid

(c. 300 BC, Alexandrian Greek) Principally known for the Elements, a textbook on geometry and number theory, that has been used for over 2,000 years and which grounds essentially all of what is taught in modern high school geometry classes. The Elements includes five postulates that describe what is now called Euclidean space (the usual geometric space we work in); the fifth postulate — also called the parallel postulate — can be broken to create spherical and hyperbolic geometries, which are collectively called non-Euclidean geometries. The Elements also includes a proof that there are infinitely many prime numbers.

Capacitor

A capacitor is a charge-storing disconnection in a circuit, usually made of parallel plates separated by a medium that blocks the passage of charge. The inner medium is called a dielectric. The governing equation of a capacitor is Q = C ΔV: the charge stored on the capacitor (Q, typically measured in coulombs) equals the capacitor's capacitance (C, typically measured in farads, or more likely in smaller units like microfarads) times the voltage across the capacitor (ΔV). The total capacitance of a circuit depends on whether capacitors are arranged in parallel or series, but in the opposite fashion as for resistors: If two capacitors having capacitance C1 and C2 are placed in parallel, the total capacitance across them is C = C1 + C2; if they are placed in series, then 1/C = 1/C1 +1/ C2. This is because wiring capacitors in parallel effectively expands the area of the parallel plates, so configuring capacitors in parallel increases total capacitance.

Muhammad

A prophet who founded Islam. Born in Mecca in the Year of the Elephant, he is said to have been visited by the angel Jibril (or Gabriel) in the cave of Hira, where Jibril revealed the Qur'an to him. During the Night Journey, Muhammad is said to have traveled on the horse Buraq to "the farthest mosque" and to have visited heaven. Because of plots against him in Mecca, Muhammad traveled from Mecca to Medina along with his followers and established the Islamic community there. When war broke out between his followers and the people of Mecca, he served as a military commander, winning several engagements, including the Battle of Badr. His death led to disputes among his followers as to whether Abu Bakr or Ali was his true successor.

Kilauea

A shield volcano that is the most active of the five volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii. The name "Kilauea" means "spewing" or "spreading" in the Hawaiian language. In Hawaiian mythology, the volcano is the home of the fire goddess Pele. The three primary craters of Kilauea are Halemaʻumaʻu Crater, Puʻu Crater, and Puʻu ʻOʻo Crater. In addition, part of the volcano is covered by the Kaʻu Desert, a plain of dried lava and volcanic ash. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is on the rim of Kilauea's caldera.

Oder

Along with the Neisse, the Oder forms the Germany-Poland border, as dictated at the Potsdam Conference in July and August of 1945. One of the largest rivers to enter the Baltic, it has been a major transport route for centuries. Ostrava in the Czech Republic and Breslau in Poland are on the river. Near its mouth is Stettin, which Churchill used as the northern terminus of his "Iron Curtain" (Trieste, in the South, is an Adriatic port not near a major river). At the mouth of the Oder are Usedom Island, Swinemuende, and Peenemuende, which were primary test sites for the German V-2 rocket in the 1940s.

Qur'an

Arabic for "recitation," it is the most sacred scripture of Islam. The Qur'an is subdivided into 114 chapters, called suras, which — except the first one — are arranged in descending order of length. According to Muslim belief, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) visited the prophet Muhammad in AD 610 and revealed the work to him. Various suras discuss absolute submission to Allah (God), happiness in paradise versus torture in hell, and the mercy, compassion, and justice of Allah. The third caliph, Uthman (644-656), formalized the text after many of his oral reciters were killed in battle.

Missouri River

Formed in western Montana by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. It flows past Bismarck, North Dakota and Kansas City before emptying into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Lewis and Clark used the Missouri as a route for exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. The Missouri is regulated by a number of major dams, including Fort Peck in Montana and Oahe Dam in South Dakota.

King Henry IV of France

On May 4th, 1610, Henry IV of France was stabbed to death by François Ravaillac, a Catholic fanatic who claimed to have had visions instructing him to convince Henry to convert the Huguenots (Protestants) to Catholicism. Ravaillac stabbed Henry - the first French king from the Bourbon Dynasty - on the Rue de la Ferronnerie when the king's coach stopped in traffic. One of the king's advisors, Hercule, Duke of Montbazon, was wounded in the attack but survived. Henry IV was survived by his wife Marie de' Medici, who served as regent for their son Louis XIII until he took power in 1617.

Brahmaputra

Runs 1,800 miles from its source in the Tibetan Himalayas; it starts eastward across the plateau, then turns south into the Indian state of Assam, and then enters Bangladesh, where it merges with the Ganges to form the world's largest delta. While serving as a historical route to Tibet, the river is also prone to disastrous flooding.

Anubis

Son of Osiris and Nepthys, and god of embalming to the Egyptians, he was typically pictured with the head of a jackal. He also served as the god of the desert and the watcher of the tombs. He also served to introduce the dead to the afterlife, and as their judge. To decide the fate of the dead, Anubis would weigh the heart of the dead against the feather of truth. Anubis is sometimes identified with Hermes or Mercury.

Haile Selassie

The Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. A 1936 invasion by fascist Italy forced Selassie to live in exile in England until 1941, when he was restored to the throne with the assistance of the British military. Many members of the Rastafarian movement consider Haile Selassie to be a sacred and messianic figure. Ethiopia suffered a severe famine in the early 1970s, and Selassie was overthrown in 1974. The military government that replaced him was known as the Derg.

Vista Tower (Chicago, Jeanne Gang, planned completion 2020)

The Vista Tower, located near Chicago's Navy Pier, will be the third-tallest building in Chicago (behind the Willis Tower and the Trump International Hotel and Tower) upon its completion in 2020. When finished, the Vista Tower will be the tallest structure in the world designed by a female architect; the current tallest building designed by a woman, Aqua, is just a few blocks from the Vista Tower and was also designed by Gang. The Vista Tower's design consists of three connected portions of increasing height, with the tallest topping out at a planned 1,191 feet.

Guru Nanak

The founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten gurus of Sikhism. Collections of his hymns formed the original basis for the Guru Granth Sahib, the primary scripture of Sikhism, which is regarded as the eleventh guru. Many miracle stories about Guru Nanak's life are told in his biographies, which are collectively known as Janamsakhis. According to one such story, when he died, his body disappeared and was replaced with flowers, which were divided among Hindus and Muslims. According to another such story, he slept with his feet facing the Kaaba; when Muslims tried to move them away, the Kaaba moved so that his feet were still facing it.

Ruhollah Khomeini

The founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and served as Iran's supreme leader from the country's 1979 establishment until his 1989 death. Khomeini was known by the title ayatollah, given to those who are experts in Shi'ite religious theology and jurisprudence. Khomeini emerged as Iran's leader in the wake of the revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, and which led to the Iranian hostage crisis. He commonly referred to the U.S. as the "Great Satan."

Io

The innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter (the moons discovered by Galileo), the fourth-largest moon in the solar system, the densest moon, and the most geologically active body in the solar system, with more than 400 volcanoes. Io's features are named for characters from the Io story in Greek mythology; fire, volcano, and thunder deities from other mythologies; and characters from Dante's Inferno. Io plays a significant role in shaping Jupiter's magnetosphere. Pioneer 10 first passed by Io in December 1973.

Interest Rate

The interest rate is a "price of money," inasmuch as it is the amount one must pay to use somebody else's money ("borrow") for a given period of time; the term is also used for the payment the lender (e.g., a person with a savings account) receives for loaning out his money. Because inflation lowers the value of currency, economists routinely distinguish between nominal interest rates (the actual amount earned by a lender/saver) and real interest rates (which are corrected for the inflation rate). A savings account earning 5% interest is not acquiring the ability to buy more things if prices are also going up by 5% per year.

Agamemnon

The king of Mycenae, Agamemnon shares supreme command of the Greek troops with his brother, Menelaus. An epithet of his, "king of heroes," reflects this status. As a commander, however, he often lacks good public relations skills, as shown by his feud with Achilles and by his ill-considered strategy of suggesting that all the troops go home. Upon his return home, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus.

Cassandra

This daughter of Priam and Hecuba has an affair with Apollo, who grants her the gift of prophecy. Unable to revoke the gift after they quarrel, Apollo curses her by preventing anyone from believing her predictions. Among her warnings is that the Trojan horse contains Greeks. After Troy falls she is given to Agamemnon, who tactlessly brings her home to his wife Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then kill Agamemnon and Cassandra, leaving Agamemnon's son Orestes (egged on by his sister Electra) to avenge the deaths and kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

Zambezi River

Weaving across southern Africa, the Zambezi rises in eastern Angola, passes through Zambia, flows along the borders of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, crosses through Mozambique, and enters the Indian Ocean's Mozambique Channel near Chinde. Namibia's Caprivi Strip was created to allow access to the Zambezi. The Cabora Bassa and Kariba Dams form large lakes of the same name. The most spectacular feature of the Zambezi is Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders"), which is over a mile wide and is the largest waterfall by flow rate in Africa.

Sulfur (S, 16)

Widely known in the ancient world, and referred to in the Bible as brimstone. Its nature as an element was first recognized by Antoine Lavoisier. Its most stable allotrope is an eight-membered ring that exists as a yellow solid. It is most often isolated by injecting superheated steam into the ground in the Frasch process. As an element, it is used in the vulcanization process to cross-link the polymer strands of rubber to increase strength; similarly, sulfur-sulfur bonds hold many proteins together. Industrially, though, the majority of sulfur is used to make sulfuric acid, H2SO4 (in fact, sulfuric acid is the most widely produced chemical in the chemical industry). Sulfur compounds are noted for their strong and unpleasant odors; small quantities of hydrogen sulfide, H2S, are frequently added to natural gas — which is normally odorless — to help people notice gas leaks.

John

(1167 - 1216; r. 1199 - 1216) House of Plantagenet. Though he tried to seize the crown from his brother Richard while the latter was in Germany, Richard forgave John and made him his successor. Excommunicated by the Pope for four years for refusing to accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, John was also weak as a fighter, as French King Philip II routed him at Bouvines in 1214. A year later, England's barons forced John to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede, an event that marked the beginning of the development of the British constitution.

Battle of Agincourt

(1415) The outnumbered army of King Henry V of England defeated the army of King Charles VI of France under Charles d'Albret. French commanders Jean le Maingre and Charles d'Orleans were captured. The battle occurred about one month after the English victory at the Siege of Harfleur. Five years after Agincourt, Henry was recognized as the heir to the French throne through the Treaty of Troyes.

Louis XIV

(1638 - 1715; r. 1643 - 1715) House of Bourbon. Louis XIV's reign is often cited as the best historical example of an absolute monarchy. Louis led France against most of the rest of Europe to win the throne of Spain for his grandson (the War of the Spanish Succession). He championed classical art, religious orthodoxy, and instituted a great program of building throughout France. Known as the "Sun King," his 72-year reign is among the longest in recorded history.

Peter I

(1672 - 1725; r. 1682 - 1725) Peter the Great is famous both for his push for Westernization and for his boisterous personality. His Grand Embassy to Europe enabled him to learn about Western life (and even to work in a Dutch shipyard); he later invited Western artisans to come to Russia, required the boyars (aristocrats) to shave their beards and wear Western clothing, and even founded a new capital, St. Petersburg — his "window on the West." He also led his country in the Great Northern War (in which Charles XII of Sweden was defeated at Poltava), created a Table of Ranks for the nobility, and reformed the bureaucracy and army. But Peter could also be violent and cruel: he personally participated in the torture of the streltsy, or musketeers, who rebelled against him, and had his own son executed.

Catherine II

(1729 - 1796; r. 1762 - 1796) Catherine the Great wasn't really a Russian at all: she was born Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst (a minor German principality) and was chosen as the bride of the future Peter III. She had thoroughly Russianized herself by the time Peter became tsar, and soon had him deposed; she then dispatched several claimants to the throne and crushed a peasant uprising led by Emilian Pugachev. She also corresponded with Enlightenment philosophes, granted charters of rights and obligations to the nobility and the towns, oversaw the partition of Poland, and expanded the empire. Catherine is well known for her extravagant love life: her 21 acknowledged lovers included Grigory Potemkin (who constructed the famous Potemkin village on an imperial inspection tour).

Thomas Jefferson

(1790 - 1793, Washington) Known more for his presidency and completing the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson began his feud with Alexander Hamilton while serving as Secretary of State, even though his office had no bearing on Hamilton's Treasury. He founded the Democratic-Republicans. He resigned his post after failing to secure from the British compensation for released slaves, withdrawal from garrisons in the Northwest Territory, and admission of violating the terms of the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.

Wellington's Victory; or, the Battle of Vitoria, Op. 91

(1813) Also commonly known as the "Battle Symphony." This heavily programmatic work was originally written for the panharmonicon, an automated orchestra; Beethoven later revised the work for live performers. The work utilizes several familiar melodies — including "God Save the Queen," "Rule Britannia," and "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" — and calls for special effects such as musket fire. The work is generally regarded as one of Beethoven's worst; even the composer himself acknowledged it as being a money-maker rather than serious art. Note that the piece specifically does not depict Wellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo.

Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, "Choral", Op. 125

(1822 - 1824) Beethoven's Ninth Symphony marks the first significant use of voices as part of a symphony, though they are only used in the final movement. The opening motif from the first movement reappears in altered form in a second movement scherzo, which itself is followed by a slow third movement that alternates between quadruple and triple time. The massive final movement, whose internal form closely resembles that of the entire symphony, utilizes both Friedrich Schiller's "Ode to Joy" and original texts by Beethoven himself. A typical performance takes approximately 75 minutes; the fourth movement alone takes 25.

Henry Clay

(1825 - 1829, Quincy Adams) Clay helped negotiate the "corrupt bargain" that led to John Quincy Adams winning the House vote that decided the presidency in 1824 and led to his appointment as Secretary of State. While Clay served in that post, his slave, Charlotte Dupuy, sued for her freedom in a move that foreshadowed the Dred Scott case. He lost presidential elections as a Whig candidate three times prior to his involvement in the Compromise of 1850.

The Pickwick Papers

(1837) The London gentleman Samuel Pickwick, the president of his namesake "club," sets out with fellow members Nathaniel Winkle, Tracy Tupman, and Augustus Snodgrass on a series of coach journeys to sites in provincial England. While on their travels, the Pickwickians foil the attempt of Alfred Jingle to elope with Rachael Wardle of Dingley Dell. Pickwick also befriends and employs the Cockney valet Sam Weller, who is known for grotesquely humorous sayings such as "out with it, as the father said to his child, when he swallowed a farthing."

Max Planck

(1858 - 1947) Planck allowed quantum theory to move forward in the early 20th century by correctly modeling how an object radiates heat, solving the ultraviolet catastrophe, which was a predicted unbounded increase in the amount of radiation emitted at high frequencies. Planck's Law of Radiation superseded the Rayleigh-Jeans Law. He suggested that electromagnetic energy could only be emitted in specific packages, called quanta (singular quantum, from the Latin for "how much"), positing that the energy of this photon was equal to its frequency times a fixed value h, now known as Planck's constant.

Gredor Mendel's Experiments with Pea Plants

(1860s) Pioneered the study of genetics. Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, proposed the law of segregation, which holds that each organism has two alleles for each trait, which are segregated into gametes so that each gamete inherits one copy, as well as the law of independent assortment, which says that genes for individual traits are inherited independently. He supported both of those laws with experimental evidence by growing and counting pea plants. He worked with seven characteristics including plant height, seed shape, and color. His experiments primarily consisted of hybridizing plants with certain characteristics, and observing what fraction of the next generation had certain traits. His results were remarkably close to the values that would be predicted from modern genetics—close enough, in fact, that Mendel has been accused of manipulating his data.

Charles Ives

(1874 - 1954) A modernist, experimental composer whose programmatic works often utilize polytonality (more than one active key center at a time), quote extensively from folk songs and earlier classical works, and have distinctly "American" themes. Ives, who worked in the insurance industry, was not widely-recognized as a composer until late in his life. His Piano Sonata No. 2 (1915), the "Concord" sonata, depicts four leading figures of the transcendentalist movement. His Symphony No. 3, "The Camp Meeting" (1947), was awarded the 1947 Pulitzer Prize. Other notable works include the suite Three Places in New England (1914) and "The Unanswered Question" (1906).

Carl Jung

(1875 - 1961, Swiss) Carl Jung was a close associate of Freud's who split with him over the degree to which neuroses had a sexual basis. He went on to create the analytic psychology movement and introduced the controversial notion of the collective unconscious — a socially shared area of the mind. Other concepts theorized by Jung include anima, animus, introversion, extroversion, and archetypes,

Bela Bartok

(1881 - 1945) A young girl singing a folk tune to her son in 1904 inspired Bartók to roam the Hungarian countryside with Zoltan Kodály, collecting peasant tunes. This influence permeated his music, including the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) and the ballets The Wooden Prince (1916) and The Miraculous Mandarin (1919). A virtuoso pianist and an innovative composer, Bartók refused to teach composition, contributing to financial problems, especially after he fled Nazi-allied Hungary for the U.S. in 1940. Bartók wrote many prominent instrumental pieces; best known are six string quartets, the educational piano piece Mikrokosmos, and Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta (1936).

Sergei Prokofiev

(1891 - 1953) He wrote seven symphonies, of which the First ("Classical," 1917) is the most notable. While in Chicago, he premiered the opera The Love for Three Oranges, based on Italian commedia dell'arte. Prokofiev moved to Paris in 1922, where he composed works for Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, including The Prodigal Son. In 1936 he returned to the USSR, where he completed the popular children's work Peter and the Wolf and the score for the film Alexander Nevsky. When Stalin denounced Prokofiev as "decadent," the composer was forced to write obsequious tributes to the premier. Prokofiev survived Stalin, but only by a few hours; both died on March 5, 1953.

Bill Tilden

(1893 - 1953) Between 1920 and 1925, he was almost unstoppable: He won six straight U.S. championships and took Wimbledon both times he played. Tilden was nicknamed "Big Bill" for two reasons: He stood 6-foot-2 with his trademark "cannonball" serve and he faced "Little Bill" Johnston in six out of seven U.S. finals. In all, he won ten majors (seven U.S., three Wimbledon) and turned professional in 1930 — winning a pro title at age 42 and competing in barnstorming tours until he was 50. Tilden also loved the theater; he performed in several Broadway shows (including the lead in "Dracula"), but lost a lot of money backing failed ventures.

George Balanchine

(1904 - 1983) Trained in his native Georgia (the country) and Russia and briefly worked with Sergei Diaghilev at the Ballets Russes in Paris before being invited by impresario Lincoln Kirstein to the United States, where the two co-founded the New York City Ballet (NYCB) and its associated School of American Ballet. As artistic director of NYCB, Balanchine began the tradition of annually staging The Nutcracker at Christmas. One of his four wives — all dancers — was the company's first major star, Native American prima ballerina Maria Tallchief. He collaborated with composer Igor Stravinsky and visual artist Isamu Noguchi on the thirty minute ballet Orpheus.

Octavio Paz

(1914 - 1998) A prominent poet and essayist, Paz supported leftist causes in Mexico; he fought briefly for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. He published the poetry collection Luna silvestre at age 19, and his 584-line poem The Sun Stone deals with the planet Venus, an important symbol to the Aztecs. While studying in Los Angeles, Paz observed flamboyantly-dressed Mexican-American pachucos ("zoot-suiters"), who inspired him to write about Mexico and its Native American/mestizo heritage in his pivotal essay collection The Labyrinth of Solitude (1950). Another prose work, In the Light of India (1997), reflected Paz's part-(East) Indian heritage.

Mr Ed

(1958 - 1966) This classic sitcom centered on the title talking horse — a palomino whose voice was provided by Allan Lane — and his owner, the architect Wilbur Post. Much of the show's humor derived from the fact that Mr. Ed would solely speak to Wilbur, which naturally led to hijinks. Mr. Ed should not be confused with Francis the Talking Mule, who would solely speak to his owner Peter Stirling; he appeared in a number of film comedies during the 1950s.

Henry Kissinger

(1973 - 1977, Nixon and Ford) Kissinger held the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks that resulted in SALT I with the Soviet Union and pursued the "détente" policy to de-escalate the Cold War. He was instrumental in opening relations with China in 1972. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for the negotiation of Paris Peace Accords and ceasefires that ended the Vietnam War. Kissinger used "shuttle diplomacy" to settle the Yom Kippur War among Egypt, Syria, and Israel.

Romulus Augustulus

(460 - 507; r. 475 - 476) Traditionally regarded as the "last Roman emperor." He was deposed in 476 by Odoacer, marking the end of the Western Roman Empire.

Evita

(Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice) Che (possibly Che Guevara, but it's also South American slang for just "a guy") narrates the life story of Eva "Evita" Perón, a singer and actress who marries Juan Perón. Juan becomes President of Argentina, and Eva's charity work makes her immensely popular among her people ("Don't Cry for Me Argentina") before her death from cancer. It was made into a 1996 film starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas.

Kenzaburo Oe

(Born 1935) Novelist and recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature. His first work, Shiiku (The Catch in the Shadow of the Sunrise), describes a friendship between a Japanese boy and a black American POW, and won him the Akutagawa award while he was still a student. His early works are filled with insanity, abuse, perverse sex, and violence, but his later works - including A Personal Matter (Kojinteki-na taiken) and The Silent Cry (Man'en gannen no futtoboru) - reflect the experience of being the father of a brain-damaged child. His fiction centers on the alienation following Japan's surrender, and his political writings focus on the search for cultural and ideological roots.

Francis

(Born 1936; r. 2013 - present) Served as the Archbishop of Buenos Aires before ascending to the papacy upon the resignation of Benedict XVI. He is the first Jesuit pope, the first pope from the Americas, and the first pope from outside of Europe since Gregory III in the 8th century. When asked in 2013 for his view on gay clergy members, he responded "Who am I to judge?". He also had a historic meeting with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church in Havana in 2016, and the two issued a joint declaration denouncing the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.

Reggie Jackson

(Born 1946, right field) Known as "Mr. October" because of his World Series slugging, in the sixth game of the 1977 World Series he hit three homeruns off three different pitchers on three consecutive swings of his bat. He and Babe Ruth, who did it twice, are the only players to homer three times in one World Series game. His .755 slugging average is the highest in World Series history. Soon after joining the Yankees in 1977 he created a sensation by proclaiming himself "the straw that stirs the drink." The wild atmosphere surrounding Jackson and the Yankees was captured by a teammate in a book called The Bronx Zoo. Jackson won four home run titles (1973, 1975, 1980, 1983), hit 563 home runs, and set a major-league record for strikeouts (2,597).

My Fair Lady

(Frederick Loewe, 1956) As part of a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering, the phonetics professor Henry Higgins transforms the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a proper lady. After Eliza falls for Freddy Eynsforth-Hill, Higgins realizes he is in love with Eliza. Eliza returns to Higgins' home in the final scene. It is adapted from George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, and its most famous songs are "The Rain in Spain" and "Get Me to the Church on Time."

Aida

(Giuseppe Verdi, 1871) Aida is an Ethiopian princess who is held captive in Egypt. She falls in love with the Egyptian general Radamès and convinces him to run away with her; unfortunately, he is caught by the high priest Ramphis and a jealous Egyptian princess, Amneris. Radamès is buried alive, but finds that Aida has snuck into the tomb to join him.

Annie Get Your Gun

(Irving Berlin, 1946) Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show comes to town, and performer Frank Butler challenges anyone to a shooting contest. Annie Oakley wins the contest and joins the show. She and Frank fall in love, but Frank quits out of jealousy that Annie is a better shooter than he is. The title role was originated by Ethel Merman. The show includes the songs "There's No Business Like Show Business," "Doin' What Comes Natur'lly," and "Anything You Can Do."

Battle of Salamanca

(July 22, 1812, Spain) While Napoleon struggled against Austrians, Russians, and Prussians on the plains of central and eastern Europe, a smaller but no less violent conflict was fought for control of Spain and Portugal. During this "Peninsular War" (1807-1814), the throne of Spain was claimed by Napoleon's older brother, Joseph Bonaparte. Spanish and Portuguese resistance (the first "guerrilla" warfare, from the Spanish for "little war") was supported by the landing of British troops under the command of the Duke of Wellington. Wellington's triumph over Marshal Auguste Marmont at Salamanca in July 1812 was a decisive blow against the stability of Joseph's regime.

Battle of Marengo

(June 14, 1800, northern Italy) The coup of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799) brought down France's existing government (the Directory) and made Napoleon himself "first consul," the effective leader of France. While Napoleon was absent in Egypt, a coalition of Austria, Russia, and Britain had pushed French troops back on all fronts. In 1800 Napoleon marched over the Alps to roll back Austrian gains in Italy. His troops, overextended in an attempt to relieve the Austrian siege of Genoa, were hit by an Austrian surprise attack on June 14, 1800. General Louis Desaix led a column of French reinforcements to Napoleon's aid; the additional troops drove off the Austrian army, but Desaix was shot and killed.

Battle of Yorktown

(October 19, 1781) The Siege of Yorktown essentially ended the American Revolutionary War, although the Treaty of Paris wasn't signed until two years later. George Washington, with help from the French navy under the Comte de Grasse, surrounded the forces of Cornwallis and forced the British to surrender. General Charles O'Hara presented Cornwallis's sword of surrender.

Harold Macmillan

(PM 1957 - 1963) Said "you've never had it so good" as the British economy recovered in the late 1950s. Later he purged his cabinet in a mass sacking dubbed the "Night of the Long Knives" (no relation to the 1934 executions in Nazi Germany).

The Sound of Music

(Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1959) Maria, a young woman studying to be a nun in Nazi-occupied Austria, becomes governess to the seven children of Captain von Trapp. She teaches the children to sing ("My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi"), and she and the Captain fall in love and get married. After Maria and the von Trapps give a concert for the Nazis ("Edelweiss"), they escape Austria ("Climb Ev'ry Mountain"). It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning 1965 film starring Julie Andrews.

HMS Pinafore

(WS Gilbert, 1878) Aboard the title ship, Josephine promises her father, the captain, that she will marry Sir Joseph Porter, but Josephine secretly loves the common sailor Ralph Rackstraw, and the two plan to elope. A peddler named Buttercup reveals that she accidentally switched the captain and Ralph at birth: Ralph is of noble birth and should be captain, while the captain is nothing more than a common sailor. Ralph, now captain, marries Josephine, and the former captain marries Buttercup. Like The Pirates of Penzance, songs are named after their first lines; they include "We sail the ocean blue," "I'm called Little Buttercup," and "Pretty daughter of mine."

David Ben-Gurion

A Zionist leader and principal figure in the founding of the state of Israel. He served as the first prime minister of Israel from 1948 to 1954, as a member of the political party Mapai; his second term as prime minister lasted from 1955 to 1963. Ben-Gurion was born in what is now Poland and immigrated to the Ottoman district of Jerusalem in 1906. He became chairman of the Jewish Agency in 1935, and was the main political leader of the Jewish forces in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Argos

A city-state, or Polis, and major rival of Sparta. Both were on the large peninsula known as the Peloponnese. Argos came to prominence in the 7th century BC under King Pheidon, who is sometimes credited with developing the use of citizen-soldiers known as Hoplites in rectangular phalanx formations.

Tristan and Iseult

A pair of lovers who predate the stories of King Arthur but nonetheless appear in the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles. Sir Tristan was a knight who brought Iseult the Fair back to Cornwall to marry his uncle King Mark after killing Morholt, an Irish knight extorting the king. During the return journey, the pair ingest a powerful potion and fall deeply in love with each other, but Iseult nevertheless marries Tristan's uncle. The love potion, however, forces the pair to continuously seek one another out, and King Mark eventually discovers their affair. Tristan escapes his execution and later marries a different woman known as Iseult of the White Hands. Their story inspired Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde.

Merlin

A powerful wizard who serves as Arthur's chief advisor. When Merlin was a child, King Vortigern was told that the boy's blood was necessary to keep his tower from constantly collapsing; however, Merlin identified a pool beneath the tower in which two dragons fought as the source of the instability. Some sources credit Merlin with constructing the Round Table as well as Stonehenge. Merlin's primary apprentice is the sorceress Morgan le Fay, Arthur's half-sister on his mother's side. Some sources have Merlin wind up trapped in an enchanted tomb (possibly in a cave, possibly in a tree) by a figure identified as Vivien or Nimue (the Lady of the Lake). In other tales, Merlin dies and is buried in the legendary forest Brocéliande.

Mauna Loa

A shield volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii that is the most massive above-sea volcano on Earth. It should not be confused with Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is the tallest mountain in Hawaii. Both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa are taller than Mount Everest when measuring from base-to-summit rather than from sea level. Along with Kilauea, Mauna Loa forms the Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, which was established in 1916 by Woodrow Wilson. When Mauna Loa erupted in 1942, four months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government gagged the press from reporting on the eruption.

Cnidaria (10,000 Species)

Also called Coelenterata [see-LEN-tur-AH-tuh], the cnidarians develop from a diploblastic (two-layered) embryo, and have two separate tissue layers and radial body symmetry. Many cnidarians have two life stages, the mobile, usually bell-like medusa and the sessile polyp. All cnidarians have nematocysts, or stinging cells, for capturing prey, and some can inflict painful stings on swimmers. Examples include the hydras, sea anemones, corals, jellyfishes, and Portuguese man-o-war (which is actually an aggregation of colonial cnidarians).

The Powhatan

An Algonquin-speaking people who lived in eastern Virginia when the English colony of Jamestown was founded in 1607. Led by their namesake, Chief Powhatan, the tribe maintained a tenuous relationship with colonists at Jamestown. Legendarily, John Smith was captured by the Powhatan and was only spared by the intercession of his daughter, Pocahontas. The Powhatan were decimated by disease and enslavement by the mid-1600s; by the time Thomas Jefferson profiled the tribe in his Notes on the State of Virginia, they numbered only 300.

Knossos

Archaeological site on the island of Crete that contains remains from the Neolithic to the late Bronze Age. Knossos became the center of the Minoan civilization. In 1900 British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began excavating its large palace complex, which yielded a large trove of tablets inscribed in Linear A (still undeciphered) and Linear B (shown to represent an ancient form of Greek, but written long before the development of the Greek alphabet).

Know-Nothing Party

Established in 1843 and also known as the American Party, it formed from the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant nativism of early America. Secret societies like the Order of the Star Spangled Banner had been sprouting up since the 1840s, but the Know-Nothing Party was not a unified entity until the 1854 elections, when it won 52 of the 234 seats in the House, including the position of Speaker of the House. The 1856 presidential election was the first one for both the American Party behind Millard Fillmore and the Republican Party behind John C. Frémont. Fillmore received 22% of the popular vote but only eight electoral votes from Maryland; Frémont won eleven states with 33% of the popular vote. Strong Southern support, however, allowed Democrat James Buchanan an easy win.

Trigonometric Functions

Functions that represent relations between angles and sides of triangles. They are often illustrated using points and segments related to a circle of radius 1 centered at the origin, called the unit circle. By far the most commonly discussed trigonometric functions are the sine, cosine, tangent, cosecant, secant, and cotangent functions. There are many interesting relationships between these: the graphs of sine and cosine are translations of each other; the tangent function equals the sine function divided by the cosine function; the cosecant, secant, and cotangent functions are the reciprocals of the sine, cosine, and tangent functions, respectively; and there are many other relationships called trigonometric identities.

The Magyars

Like the Huns, they were a nomadic people of central Asia. Their language is Ugric, related to Finnish and a number of west Siberian languages. Magyars occupied the Danube basin shortly before 900. They exploited the decline of the Carolingian empire to carry out raids on East Francia and Italy. The 955 Battle of Lechfeld, won by Germany's Otto the Great, halted their expansion into central Europe. At the end of the 10th century, the Magyar grand prince was baptized with the name Stephen and crowned the first king of Hungary.

Monocots vs Dicots

Most (but not all) angiosperms fall into one of two classes based on the number of cotyledons, or embryonic seed-leaves, in the plant embryo. Monocots, or Monocotyledonae, have one cotyledon, while dicots, or Dicotyledonae, have two. While there are no other hard-and-fast distinguishing characteristics between the two groups, plants in each category tend to share other characteristics: Monocots produce pollen grains that have a single furrow (monosulcate); flower parts in multiples of three; numerous, fibrous roots; parallel leaf veins; and stems with scattered vascular bundles. They also lack secondary growth, remaining herbaceous throughout their lives. Dicots, on the other hand, tend to have pollen with three furrows (tricolpate); flower parts in multiples of four or greater; taproot systems; stems with rings of vascular tissue; and branching leaf veins. Many of them exhibit secondary growth that produces wood.

Rationalism

Often contrasted with empiricism, this asserts that we gain knowledge through intuition or our rational nature rather than through experience. A version of this doctrine was espoused by the Greek philosopher Plato in his Theory of Forms, which states that abstract ideas ("forms") are more real than the material world of the senses. Later rationalists include René Descartes (who wrote Meditations on First Philosophy) and Baruch Spinoza (who wrote Ethics).

Abraham Lincoln

On April 14th, 1865, US President Abraham Lincoln was shot and killed by John Wilkes Booth during a showing of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died the next morning at Petersen House across the street. The assassination was part of a wider plot that included failed attempts to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William Seward. Prior to shooting the president, Booth shouted the Virginia state motto, sic semper tyrannis ("thus always to tyrants"). Booth fled the theater after the attack. After a two-week manhunt, he was found in a barn in northern Virginia, where he refused to surrender and was killed by Union soldier Boston Corbett. Samuel Mudd, a doctor, was controversially imprisoned for treating the broken leg that Booth suffered during his escape.

Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 4th, 1968, civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr was shot and killed on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. King had been in Memphis to show support for a strike by African-American sanitation workers. One notable response to the death of King was the speech given by Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy that night in Indianapolis, in which he quoted the words of the Greek playwright Aeschylus about "pain which cannot forget" that "falls drop by drop upon the heart."

Mohandas Gandhi

On January 30th, 1948, Indian independence advocate Mohandas Gandhi was shot three times at point-blank range by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist. The shooting occurred just as Gandhi was beginning his daily interfaith service at Birla House in New Delhi. Godse was apprehended by Herbert Reiner Jr., an American diplomat. During his trial, Godse criticized Gandhi's accepting behavior toward Muslims and blamed Gandhi for the 1947 Partition of India. Gandhi's death was reported to the nation via radio by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that evening.

Robert F Kennedy

On June 5th, 1968, Robert F Kennedy was fatally shot by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles. Kennedy was only the second sitting U.S. senator to be assassinated (the other was Huey Long in 1935). The day after winning the California presidential primary, Kennedy was leaving the Ambassador Hotel through the hotel kitchen when he was shot. Following Kennedy's death, it became policy for the Secret Service to provide protection to presidential candidates during the campaign. The Democratic nomination for 1968 eventually went to Hubert Humphrey, who lost the election to Richard Nixon.

Piano Sonatas

One of Mozart's best-known pieces is the "Rondo Alla Turca" from his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331. That sonata begins with a theme and variations that inspired Max Reger to write his Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart. Sonata No. 14 in C minor, K. 457, is often performed with the highly chromatic Fantasy, K. 475. Other notable Mozart piano sonatas include the dramatic No. 8 in A minor, K. 310; the Sonata "for beginners" No. 16 in C major, K. 545; and the "Hunt" or "Trumpet" Sonata No. 18 in D, K. 576, his last. Mozart also finished four sonatas for piano duet (also known as "piano four hands") and one in D major for two pianos.

The Vikings

Seaborne raiders from Scandinavia who used longships to attack coastal regions of western Europe between the late 8th and 11th centuries. Although they are best known for pillaging English and Irish monasteries, Vikings also settled and traded on waterways all over northern and eastern Europe, founding cities in Russia and making voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and the New World. Vikings who seized part of northern France from Charlemagne's heirs established the duchy of Normandy. During the 11th century, Normans fought as mercenaries and built castles in Sicily, southern Italy, France, and Britain. Norman Duke William earned the epithet "the Conqueror" for his victory over the Anglo-Saxons at the 1066 Battle of Hastings.

Supply and Demand

Supply and demand embody the general idea that, at any given price, producers are willing to produce a given amount of a good (the quantity supplied) and consumers are willing to buy a different amount (the quantity demanded). As the price rises, firms will be willing to supply more goods, but fewer will be demanded; conversely, as price falls, consumers will demand more goods, but fewer will be supplied. On a graph showing price and quantity on its two axes, this is represented by a downward-sloping demand curve and an upward-sloping supply curve. Where the two curves intersect, there is an equilibrium; economists predict this equilibrium quantity will be produced (and consumed) in a free market.

Battle of Adrianople

Taking place near what is now Edirne, Turkey in 378 AD, this battle signalled the beginning of the spread of Germanic peoples into the Western Roman Empire. The Romans were led by the eastern emperor Valens, while the Goths were led by Fritigern. Eager for glory, Valens decided not to wait on reinforcements from the western emperor Gratian, and instead attacked the Goths. In the battle, over two-thirds of the Roman army was killed, including Valens.

Sweeney Todd

The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: (Stephen Sondheim, 1979) Sweeney Todd, a barber, returns to London from Australia, where the evil Judge Turpin — who lusted after Sweeney's wife — unjustly imprisoned him. Sweeney's daughter, Joanna, escapes Turpin — of whom she had been a ward during her father's incarceration — and falls in love with the sailor Anthony Hope. A vengeful Sweeney begins murdering his customers, and his neighbor, Mrs. Lovett, bakes them into meat pies. Sweeney kills the Judge but, in his fury, accidentally kills a mad beggar woman who was really his long-lost wife. Mrs. Lovett's shop boy, Tobias, grows scared and kills Sweeney. The show's famously complex score includes "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," "The Worst Pies in London," "Johanna," and "God, That's Good,", but since the show is essentially sung-through, it is sometimes nontrivial to identify distinct songs within it.

Gobi Desert

The Gobi, Asia's second largest desert (after the Arabian Desert), is bounded on the north by the Altai Mountains. It is known for its role in the Silk Road trading route and the Nemegt Basin, where fossilized dinosaur eggs and human artifacts have been found.

William Clark and Meriwether Lewis

The Lewis and Clark expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery, departed from Camp Wood (near St. Louis) in 1804, sailing up the Missouri River. The group wintered at Fort Mandan in what is now North Dakota, where they met Sacajawea, the Shoshone wife of the fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau. The group's last winter was spent at Fort Clatsop, along the Columbia River in Oregon near the Pacific.

Annelida (11,500 Species)

The annelids are segmented worms and represent the first lineage of truly acoelomate animals, meaning their body cavities are lined with tissue derived from the embryonic mesoderm. Annelid classes include the marine Polychaeta, as well as the mostly terrestrial Oligochaeta (including the earthworms, Lumbricus) and the mostly aquatic Hirudinea, or leeches. Characteristics of annelids include nephridia (kidney-like structures), blood vessels, and, in some classes, hermaphroditism.

Ma'at

The daughter of Ra, she predated the universe and served over the creation of it, ensuring balance between everything. Primarily seen as the keeper of order, Ma'at was responsible for seasons, day and night, rainfall, and star movements. A symbolic offering of Ma'at, in the form of a statuette was given to the gods, as Ma'at encompassed all other offerings. Ma'at's aspect as god of justice also showed through her role in death ritual, where her ostrich feather was weighed against the hearts of the dead in the underworld. Judges wore effigies of Ma'at, and the supreme head of courts was said to be the priest of Ma'at.

Battle of Zama

The final battle of the Second Punic War. It was fought in 202 BC near Carthage in what is now Tunisia. Scipio Africanus's victory at the Battle of the Great Plains in 203 BC forced Hannibal to leave Italy and return to North Africa for the final showdown. Prior to the battle, the Numidian king Masinissa switched sides, and brought his considerable cavalry force to join the Romans. This, coupled with Scipio's strategy of opening up his lines to allow Carthaginian elephants through without harming his troops, led to a complete Roman victory.

USS Missouri

The last battleship completed by the United States; she was laid down January 6, 1941 by New York Naval Shipyard. The Missouri was launched on January 29, 1944 and received her sponsorship from Miss Margaret Truman, daughter of the then-Missouri Senator, Harry S. Truman. Commissioned on June 11, 1944, the "Mighty Mo," as she became known, sailed for the Pacific and quickly became the flagship of Admiral Halsey, which is why she was chosen as the site of the formal surrender of the Empire of Japan on the morning of September 1, 1945.

Chordata (44,000 Species)

The phylum that contains humans, Chordata is divided into three subphyla: Urochordata, the sea squirts; Cephalochordata, the lancelets, and Vertebrata, the true vertebrates, which is the most diverse subphylum. Defining traits of chordates include pharyngeal gill slits, a notochord, a post-anal tail, and a dorsal hollow nerve cord. In vertebrates, some of these structures are found only in embryonic stages. The lancelet Amphioxus (Branchiostoma) is often used as a demonstration organism in biology labs.

Hafez al-Assad

The president of Syria from 1971 to 2000. Assad, a member of the Alawite minority sect within Islam, was the commander of the Syrian Air Force when he came to power as a member of the Ba'ath Party. Along with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, Assad launched the Yom Kippur War against Israel in 1973. In 1982, Assad brutally crushed an Islamist uprising led by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Syrian city of Hama. Hafez was succeeded as president of Syria by his son, Bashar al-Assad.

Unemployment

The unemployment rate refers to the percentage of the population that is actively seeking work but cannot find a job. Unemployment can be cyclical (common in seasonal industries like fieldwork), frictional (the natural time between jobs that exists in most labor markets), or structural (when workers' skills do not match those required by open jobs).

Xylem vs Phloem

There are two types of vascular tissue in plants. Xylem transports water and soluble nutrients from the roots to the leaves. Phloem, on the other hand, carries nutrients like sucrose from their origin of synthesis or absorption to all parts of the plant. Both tissues originate in the procambium of the apical meristems of both the stems and roots. In woody plants, secondary vascular tissues arise in the vascular cambium. Xylem contains distinct elongated cells called tracheids that have lignified cell walls and help provide structural support. Vessel elements are also reinforced by lignin, but they are open at each end at perforation plates and connect to form long tubes for water transport. Xylem functions via transpirational pull and osmosis. Cell types in phloem include companion cells, fibers, and sclereids. In trees, it is usually the innermost layer of the bark.

Periodic Functions

Those whose graph repeats a pattern (specifically, the graph has translational symmetry). Technically speaking, a function of one variable f is periodic if f(x+p) = f(x) for every x in the domain of the function and some positive number p, which is called the period, because the graph repeats itself every p units. While the trigonometric functions are the periodic functions most commonly encountered by high school math students, some other functions like triangle waves are also periodic; in general, functions representing waves tend to be periodic. A Fourier [fur-ee-ay] series is a way to rewrite (almost) any periodic function in terms of only sine and cosine functions.

Zhou ["joe"] Dynasty

(1046 - 256 BC) Chariot warriors who overthrew the Shang dynasty. Although the Zhou ruled for nearly 800 years, during much of the time period real power lay in the hands of feudal lords. The sacking of the Zhou capital by barbarians in 771 BC marks the beginning of the Eastern Zhou and the Spring and Autumn Period (771 BC - 476 BC). During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Hundred Schools of Thought (including Confucianism) flourished, and Sun Tzu wrote his Art of War. The end of the Zhou era devolved into the Warring States period (476 BC - 221 BC), during which power coalesced into seven independent feudal states. The state of Qin eventually grew powerful and efficient enough that it was able to defeat the other six states and complete the unification of China.

Battle of Bannockburn

(1314) The Battle of Bannockburn was a decisive victory for Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, over King Edward II of England. The English attempted to lift the siege of Stirling Castle. The battle began with single combat between Robert the Bruce and Sir Henry de Bohun. The Earl of Moray commanded the Scottish vanguard near the Church of St. Ninian.

Zeami

(1363 - 1443) Also called Kanze Motokiyo: The second master of the Kanze theatrical school, which had been founded by his father, he is regarded as the greatest playwright of the No theater. He provided 90 of the approximately 230 plays in the modern repertoire. Among his best works are Atsumori, The Robe of Feathers, Birds of Sorrow, and Wind in the Pines. Also a drama critic, he established the aesthetic standards by which plays have been judged ever since. His Fushi kaden (The Transmission of the Flower of Acting Style) is a manual for his pupils.

Ming Dynasty

(1368 - 1644) The last native dynasty of China; its rulers came from the Zhu family. The use of the word "china" to describe fine porcelain originated from this period, as the Ming were well-known for producing high-quality porcelain. Its founding ruler, Zhu Yuanzhang (Emperor Hongwu), was a peasant leader of the Red Turbans who helped expel the Mongol Yuan rulers from China. He was succeeded by his grandson, who quickly lost power to Zhu Di (Emperor Yongle). During the reign of the Yongle emperor, the eunuch Zheng He led treasure fleets on seven voyages to display Chinese greatness. Zhu Di moved China's capital to Beijing. After his death, the Ming dynasty banned maritime commerce, which left the dynasty vulnerable to pirates. The Ming dynasty came to an end after the rebellion of Li Zicheng, which was caused by inadequate government response to inflation, famine, and floods. Simultaneously, the Manchu people — tributaries of the Ming from northeast China in what is now Manchuria — marched on the Great Wall. The Manchus suppressed Li Zicheng's revolt and took power in Beijing themselves.

Lorenzo Ghiberti

(1378 - 1455) A Florentine sculptor and goldsmith who taught both Donatello and Filippo Brunelleschi. He is best known for two pairs of bronze doors on the Florence Baptistery (associated with the Duomo, or Florentine Cathedral). He produced a single, low-relief panel to win a 1401 competition (defeating Brunelleschi) for the commission to design the 28 panels for the north doors. After that, he was given another commission to design ten panels for the east doors. This latter work, by far his most famous, was dubbed the "Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo.

Alfred Adler

(1870 - 1937, Austrian) Alfred Adler was another close associate of Freud who split with him over Freud's insistence that sexual issues were at the root of neuroses and most psychological problems. Adler argued in The Neurotic Constitution that neuroses resulted from people's inability to achieve self-realization; in failing to achieve this sense of completeness, they developed "inferiority complexes" that inhibited their relations with successful people and dominated their relations with fellow unsuccessful people, a theory given the general name "individual psychology."

Arthur Ashe

(1943 - 1993) Ashe once claimed that he would consider himself a failure if he were remembered only for tennis. The first black man to win either the U.S. Championship (1968) or Wimbledon (1975), he was also the first American tennis player to earn over $100,000 in one year (1970). The author of Hard Road to Glory, a history of black athletes, Ashe announced in 1992 that tainted blood from a 1983 heart surgery had given him the AIDS virus. Arthur Ashe Stadium, the current home of the U.S. Open, was named for him in 1997.

The Big Sleep

(Raymond Chandler, 1939) Wealthy patriarch General Sternwood hires private eye Philip Marlowe to help his daughter Carmen, who is being blackmailed by bookseller Arthur Geiger. Sternwood also worries about Regan, his daughter Vivian's missing husband. Pretending to be a gay book collector, Marlowe learns that Geiger's bookstore is a pornography front, and after staking out Geiger's home, he hears gunshots and sees two cars speeding away. Geiger is dead, and Carmen Sternwood is naked and drugged in front of a camera from which the film has been taken. The next day, Sternwood's chauffeur is found dead in a car driven off a pier. Marlowe meets with Joe Brody, who is taking over Geiger's bookstore, when Carmen busts in with a gun, demanding the photographs in Brody's possession. Marlowe forces her to leave, then learns the chauffeur killed Geiger to protect Carmen from disrepute; Brody, also spying on Geiger that night, pursued and killed the chauffeur. Geiger's homosexual lover then arrives and kills Brody, thinking Brody killed Geiger. With the case seemingly solved, Marlowe still wonders about Vivien's missing husband Regan, as well as the missing wife of Eddie Mars, a criminal who backed Geiger's business. Carmen and Vivien each try to seduce Marlowe while Marlowe investigates those disappearances. On returning to Sternwood's house, Carmen asks Marlowe to teach her to shoot; at the lesson, she tries to shoot Marlowe, but Marlowe put blanks in the gun. This proves Marlowe's theory: Carmen is a nymphomaniac who killed Regan when he spurned her advances. Vivien admits she hid the body and lied to save her father from shame, and she promises to put Carmen in an asylum.

Salome

(Richard Strauss, 1905) Jokanaan (John the Baptist) is imprisoned in the dungeons of King Herod. Herod's 15-year-old step-daughter Salome becomes obsessed with the prisoner's religious passion and is incensed when he ignores her advances. Later in the evening Herod orders Salome to dance for him (the "Dance of the Seven Veils"), but she refuses until he promises her "anything she wants." She asks for the head of Jokanaan and eventually receives it, after which a horrified Herod orders her to be killed; his soldiers crush her with their shields.

Romanov

(Russia, 1613 - 1917) Following the Time of Troubles, the sixteen-year-old Michael Romanov was appointed tsar and co-ruled with his father, Patriarch Filaret. Its rulers included Peter the Great (who westernized Russia and defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War), Catherine the Great (an "enlightened despot" who greatly expanded the borders of Russia), and Alexander II (who freed the serfs). The Romanovs ruled Russia as tsars and emperors until the Russian Revolution and Nicholas II's execution.

Sir Galahad

A Knight of the Round Table renowned for his purity and honor. Galahad is the illegitimate son of Sir Lancelot and King Pelles's daughter Lady Elaine of Corbenic. Sir Galahad is the only member of Arthur's corps who can sit in the Siege Perilous, a seat at the Round Table set aside by Merlin for the knight who would complete the quest for the Holy Grail. Galahad's quest for the Holy Grail, which he completed alongside Sir Percival and Sir Bors, ended when he encountered the Fisher King, who asked him to take the chalice to Sarras. Galahad is supposedly descended from the brother-in-law of Joseph of Arimathea, who later visits him and allows him to ascend to Heaven.

Sir Percival

A Knight of the Round Table who accompanies Sir Galahad and Sir Bors on the successful quest for the Holy Grail. Percival is one of the sons of King Pellinore. He was raised in the woods by his (unnamed) mother until he turned 15. Although Percival fails to identify the Holy Grail during an early encounter with the wounded Fisher King that involved a bleeding lance, he later heals the Fisher King's wound at the end of the quest. In some stories, Percival loves a woman named Blanchefleur, and he is named as the father of Lohengrin in many Germanic sources.

Malcolm X

A black Muslim civil rights activist who changed his name from Malcolm Little upon converting to the Nation of Islam. He later repudiated the Nation of Islam and became a mainstream Sunni Muslim, completing the hajj in 1964. He was known for rejecting nonviolent activism, arguing in his speech "The Ballot or the Bullet" that violence might be necessary if the government continued to suppress the rights of African Americans. In 1965, he was assassinated while preparing to give a speech at the Audubon Ballroom.

The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill

A portrait of drunkenness and hopeless dreams. Regular patrons of the End of the Line Café anticipate the annual arrival of Theodore "Hickey" Hickman, but in 1912 he returns to them sober. After the patrons reveal their "pipe dreams," Hickey implores them to give up those dreams and lead productive lives. The "Iceman" is supposed to represent the "death" found in reality.

Algorithm

A set of detailed instructions for solving a problem, such as "sort a list" or "divide two numbers." Algorithms can be described in human language, a programming language, or in other ways, but they are written in detail to explain how to handle all possible inputs (e.g., the list to sort or the numbers to divide) or fail if the task is impossible (e.g., if dividing two numbers and the second is 0). The word "algorithm" derives from the name of Al-Khwarizmi, a Persian scholar also credited with some of the most fundamental principles in algebra. Computer scientists analyze how many steps algorithms need (time complexity) and how much memory they need for temporary storage of intermediate results (space complexity). The worst-case situations are expressed using big O notation; for example, if an algorithm to sort a list of n items might need up to n^2 to sort the list, the algorithm's worst-case time complexity is O(n^2). (This is a simplification of the mathematics of asymptotic notation.)

Inductor

A solenoid is a coil of wire. When electric current through the wire changes, a magnetic field is generated in the core (interior) of the solenoid. When a solenoid is used in a circuit, it is called an inductor and serves to oppose changes in the current in the circuit. The strength of an inductor is its inductance, symbolized L and measured in henries (after Joseph Henry, who discovered the principles of self-inductance and mutual inductance, though Michael Faraday published his findings on electromagnetic induction first). The voltage across an inductor only depends on the change in current, so inductors are particularly used with alternating current. For standard (sinusoidal) alternating current, an inductor only changes the phase of the current through it. Inductors function the same way as resistors when arranged in series or parallel.

Resistor

A resistor is an element that impedes the flow of current, creating a voltage drop. Resistance is measured in ohms, named for Georg Ohm and symbolized by a capital omega (Ω). Resistors are governed by Ohm's law, V = IR. In other words, the voltage drop across a resistor (V) equals the current passing through the resistor (I) times the resistor's resistance (R). According to Joule's first law, the power dissipated by a resistor is P = I2R. Combining that fact with Ohm's law yields P = IV. The total resistance of a circuit depends on whether resistors are arranged in parallel (different branches connecting to the same pair of nodes) or series (same branch). If two resistors having resistance R1 and R2 are placed in series, the total resistance across them is R = R1 + R2; if they are placed in parallel, then 1/R = 1/R1 +1/ R2. A rheostat, or variable resistor, can be made by taking a material of uniform resistivity and changing how much of the material is in the circuit. A potentiometer is a rheostat with two terminals and a connection in the middle, so the middle terminal can set a precise, variable dividing point between the ends; therefore, a potentiometer can be used as a voltage divider. Rheostats and potentiometers are often operated by knobs or sliders. A Wheatstone bridge is a diamond-shaped arrangement of two resistors of known resistance, one rheostat, and a resistor of unknown resistance. With a DC voltage source between the two known resistors, and also between the rheostat and the unknown resistor, this setup can be used to find the resistance of the unknown resistor: an ammeter (device to measure current) is connected across the two other nodes and the rheostat is adjusted until no current flows. The formula for solving a Wheatstone bridge uses Kirchhoff's laws: the total current flowing into any point in a circuit equals the total current flowing out of the point, and the total voltage change around any loop of a circuit is 0 V.

Mount Erebus

A stratovolcano, it is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (but tallest active one) and the southernmost active volcano in the world. It sits on Ross Island. It took its name from the primordial personification of darkness in Greek mythology. The northeast slope of Mount Erebus is known as "Fang Ridge," and the volcano's underground magma produces unique pieces of feldspar known as "Erebus Crystals." In 1979, an Air New Zealand jet crashed into the side of Mount Erebus during a whiteout, killing over two hundred and fifty people.

1968

After Lyndon Johnson declined to run for re-election, and after Robert F. Kennedy was killed in California, the Democratic nomination went to Hubert Humphrey. Richard Nixon, gradually returning from political obscurity over the past six years, gained the Republican nomination. Alabama governor George Wallace ran as the American Independent candidate, becoming the last third-party candidate to win multiple electoral votes. Nixon edged Humphrey by half a million popular votes and a 301—191 electoral count, while Wallace won nearly ten million votes. Wallace's presence may well have tipped the election to the Republicans, who, after being out of power for 28 of the last 36 years, would hold the presidency for all but four years through 1992.

Tadeusz Kosciusko

After receiving military training in his native Poland and France, he resigned his commission due to poor advancement prospects. Offering his assistance to the Americans, he helped fortify the Delaware River in 1776, earning himself the rank of colonel. That winter, he planned the building of Fort Mercer, and the next spring headed north with General Gates, becoming commander of the northern army and building fortifications that helped win the battle of Saratoga. In 1780, he worked on building defenses for West Point, then headed south when Gates was appointed command of the Southern Department. Serving under Nathaniel Greene, he distinguished himself in the Race to the Dan River, and at Charleston, but mishandled the siege of Ninety-Six. Following the war, he was granted American citizenship but returned home to Poland. Back home he resisted partition, and attempted to liberate the nation afterward.

The Seminole

Another "civilized tribe" that lived in what is now Florida and fought multiple wars against the U.S. to resist attempts to force them to move west. In the First Seminole War, Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish-controlled Florida and pushed the Seminoles out of the state's northern region. Twenty years later, Seminole leaders like Osceola resisted removal in the Second Seminole War but were eventually driven to Oklahoma under the terms of the Treaty of Payne's Landing. In the 1850s, Billy Bowlegs led Seminoles who remained in Florida in yet another war against American expansion, but he too was defeated.

Intervals

At the most basic level, intervals — the distance between two pitches — are described with ordinal numbers (second, third, etc.), with the exceptions of unisons (two of the exact same note, which would logically have been called a "first") and octaves (which would have been called an "eighth"). The easiest way to find the basic interval between two pitches is to start on the bottom pitch, label that line or space "1," and then count lines and spaces upwards until the next pitch is reached; for example, the interval between C and F is a fourth: C is counted as "1," the lines/spaces for D and E are counted as "2" and "3," and the line/space for F is reached on "4." Unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves may be classified as perfect, augmented, or diminished; seconds, thirds, sixths, and sevenths may be classified as major, minor, augmented, or diminished.

Battle of Alesia

At this battle in 52 BC, Julius Caesar defeated the Celtic peoples of Gaul, establishing Roman rule of the lands beyond the Alps. The battle began when Caesar besieged Vercingetorix in the town of Alesia, shortly after the Roman defeat at Gergovia. The Romans built a wall to surround the city (a "circumvallation") and a second wall around that (a "contravallation") to protect themselves from the Gaulish relief army under Commius. When Commius launched a massive attack on the Romans, Caesar was able to defeat him and force the surrender of Vercingetorix. Although the Romans were outnumbered by as much as four to one, they proved victorious in what was the turning point of the Gallic Wars.

USS Constitution

Better known as "Old Ironsides," the Constitution was one of the first six ships commissioned by the U.S. Navy after the American Revolution. Launched from Boston in 1797, the Constitution first saw action as the squadron flagship in the Quasi-War with France from 1799-1801 and also fought in the Barbary War and the War of 1812. She later served many years as the nation's flagship in the Mediterranean. Retired from active duty in 1846, the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem "Old Ironsides" saved her from the scrap yard—she became the training ship of the U.S. Naval Academy until the mid-1880s. She became the symbolic flagship of the U.S. Navy in 1940 and is now a floating museum in Boston.

1800

Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson narrowly beat the incumbent Federalist John Adams 73-65, marking the ascent of that party's power. At the time, one electoral vote each was cast for president and vice president, so Democratic-Republican VP candidate Aaron Burr also had 73 votes, but Burr refused to step aside. In the House of Representatives, neither man won the necessary nine state delegations outright until the 36th ballot, when James Bayard of Delaware changed his vote to Jefferson. The debacle led to the passage of the 12th amendment in 1804. The Federalists never recovered; Alexander Hamilton's opposition to Adams led to a permanent split between the two, and Hamilton's opposition to Burr was one cause of their 1804 duel, in which Burr (then the vice president) killed Hamilton. This was the first peaceful transfer of power from one party to another.

Reform Party

Established in 1995, it was created to follow up on Ross Perot's 1992 independent campaign for President, in which he won 19% of the popular vote but no electoral votes, making him the most successful alternative candidate by vote count since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Reform Party members agreed on the need for a balanced budget and changes to the electoral process, and were generally opposed to free trade agreements and immigration. The lack of a unified platform on other issues led to constant infighting over the party's goals and an inability to capitalize on Perot's initial success. Perot ran under the Reform banner again in the 1996 election, taking 8% of the vote. The Reform Party is perhaps best known for candidate Jesse Ventura's surprise victory in the 1998 election for governor of Minnesota. In the 2000 election cycle, a conservative faction led by Pat Buchanan took over the party, leading to the departure of many Perot supporters and effectively ending the party. Ventura left the party midway through his governorship. Buchanan received several disputed votes under the Reform Party line on the infamous 2000 Florida "butterfly ballot."

Hudson River

Historically significant American river since the early 17th century. Named for the English explorer Henry Hudson, it flows 315 miles through eastern New York state. After receiving the Mohawk River, the Hudson flows past New York's capital, Albany, and West Point before forming the boundary between Manhattan and New Jersey. The Hudson is also culturally significant as an inspiration for Washington Irving and the Hudson River School of American landscape painters.

Red River of the South

Major river of the southern Great Plains. The Red River forms most of the border between Oklahoma and Texas along its 1,360-mile length. That border formed part of the border between Mexico (and later the Republic of Texas) and the United States after the 1819 Adams-Onís Treaty. The Red runs through the Louisiana cities Shreveport and Alexandria before emptying into the Mississippi south of Natchez, Mississippi.

WarCraft

Series developed by Blizzard Entertainment that helped popularize the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, in which players fight against each other by constructing buildings and armies as quickly as possible. The first game in the series pitted Humans against Orcs; later games added Night Elves and Undead. The 2004 MMORPG (massively multiplayer online RPG) World of Warcraft, set in the same universe, has had over 10 million subscribers.

Okavango River

The Okavango flows for about 1,000 miles from central Angola, through Namibia's Caprivi Strip, and into the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. There, rather than flowing into the sea, it terminates in a massive inland swamp known as the Okavango Delta, an area that — especially during the wet season — teems with wildlife in an otherwise inhospitable region.

Yasser Arafat

The chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 until shortly before his death in 2004. In the late 1950s, Arafat and other Palestinian refugees founded the political party Fatah, which in the late 1960s became the dominant faction within the PLO. Under Arafat's leadership, the PLO was based in Jordan until it was expelled in 1970 in Black September. With Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Arafat negotiated the 1993 Oslo Accords establishing the Palestinian National Authority.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

The leading architect of the International Style of skyscraper design, Mies (like Walter Gropius) worked in the office of Peter Behrens. He directed the Bauhaus from 1930 to 1933, shutting it down before the Nazis could do so. His works include the Barcelona Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition; two adjacent apartment buildings at 860 and 880 North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago; the New National Gallery in Berlin; and the Seagram Building in New York, which he co-designed with Philip Johnson. Mies asserted that "less is more" as a principle of his architectural style. His glass-covered steel structures influenced the design of office buildings in nearly every major city in the U.S.

Corinth

The location of this city—on the land route to the Peloponnese, and with a placement at the Isthmus of Corinth that allowed it to have harbors on the Saronic and Corinthian Gulfs—made it a major trade center. The tyrant Periander is credited with building the Diolkos, a four- to five-mile long paved track across the Isthmus that allowed transport of ships and heavy goods much faster than could be achieved by sailing all the way around the Peloponnese.

Idi Amin

The president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979. He was a military leader who came to power in a coup when Prime Minister Milton Obote was out of the country. While in power, Amin encouraged death squads such as the Public Safety Unit and the State Research Bureau, and he has been blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths. In 1972 Amin expelled tens of thousands of Asians from Uganda. Amin allowed Palestinian hijackers to land a captured Air France plane at Entebbe Airport in 1976; Jewish hostages on board were freed by Operation Thunderbolt, an Israeli commando operation during which Yonatan Netanyahu, the older brother of the future Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was killed. A 1979 invasion by Tanzania forced Amin from power; he fled to exile in Saudi Arabia.

The Frogs by Aristophanes

This comedy centers on the god Dionysus, who journeys to the underworld with his much smarter slave, Xanthias. Dionysus is unhappy with the low quality of contemporary theater, and plans to bring the playwright Euripides back from the dead. As the ferryman Charon rows Dionysus to the underworld (Xanthias is forced to walk), a chorus of the title creatures appears and repeatedly chants the phrase "Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax." Dionysus and Xanthias then have a series of misadventures, during which they alternately claim to be Heracles. Finally, the two find Euripides arguing with the playwright Aeschylus as to which is the better author. After the dramatists "weigh" their verses on a scale, and offer advice on how to save the city of Athens, Dionysus judges that it is Aeschylus who should be brought back to life.

Worship of Aton

This is actually a historical episode: during the reign of Amenhotep III (1390-1353 BC), worship of the god Aton (or Aten) — a representation of the disk of the sun — was resurrected. This process was carried to its extreme conclusion by his successor, Amenhotep IV, who eventually declared Aton to be the only god, thereby creating one of the earliest known monotheistic religions. The pharaoh even changed his name to Akhenaton, meaning "Aton is satisfied." The worship of Aton was centered on the capital city Tell-el-Amarna, and was largely confined to upper classes and the pharaonic court; it did not survive Amenhotep. Under his successor, Tutankhamen (King Tut), traditional religious practices were restored.

Michael

(1597 - 1645; r. 1613 - 1645) In 1613, near the end of the Time of Troubles, a zemskii sobor elected the 16-year-old Michael Romanov as the new tsar. Michael was a grandnephew of Ivan the Terrible's "good" wife Anastasia and the son of a powerful churchman named Filaret (who soon became patriarch); as tsar, he has usually been seen as a nonentity dominated by Filaret and other relatives. Nevertheless, his election marked the return of relative stability and the succession of the Romanov dynasty.

The Art of Painting by Jan Vermeer

(1660s) This painting, alternatively known as The Allegory of Painting, may be either a self-portrait or a depiction of the artist's craft; the face of the artist dressed in black, who faces away from the viewer, cannot be seen. The blue-clad model in the painting stands near a window and may be portraying Clio, the Muse of History; she holds a trumpet and cradles a large yellow book presumed to be Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. Behind the large candelabra in the painting, a map of the Low Countries hangs on the studio's back wall.

David Ricardo

(1772 - 1823, English) Ricardo is best known for Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, which introduced more-or-less modern notions of comparative advantage and its theoretical justification for unfettered international trade. He also put forth the so-called iron law of wages.

Chisholm v Georgia

(1793, 4 - 1) Following the death of Robert Farquhar, his estate's executor, Alexander Chisholm — who, like Farquhar, was a South Carolina resident — sued the state of Georgia to collect money Georgia owed Farquhar for goods it purchased during the American Revolution. Georgia claimed that sovereign immunity protected it from Chisholm's suit. However, the Supreme Court held that Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution gave citizens the right to sue a state, finding against Georgia. The Court's ruling proved so controversial that it resulted in the 1794 passage of the Eleventh Amendment, which specifically prohibited U.S. or foreign citizens from filing a lawsuit against a state (with certain exceptions).

Ex Parte Merryman

(1861) This was not actually a Supreme Court case, but a federal court case heard by Chief Justice Roger Taney while "circuit-riding" when the court was not in session. Lieutenant John Merryman of the Maryland cavalry took an active role in evicting Union soldiers from Maryland following the attack on Fort Sumter. Abraham Lincoln declared a secret suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and had a number of opposition leaders, including Merryman, arrested. Taney found the president had acted unconstitutionally (only Congress can suspend the writ), but Lincoln simply ignored his ruling.

Winston Churchill

(1874 - 1965, PM 1940 - 1945, 1951 - 1955) Best remembered as the U.K.'s wartime prime minister from the country's isolation in 1940 to victory in 1945. The son of a major Conservative politician, Randolph Churchill, the young Winston Churchill was a Liberal who served in Asquith's cabinet, becoming First Lord of the Admiralty before resigning over the failure of Gallipoli. As Stanley Baldwin's (PM 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937) Chancellor of the Exchequer he put the U.K. on the gold standard. Winning a second term as Prime Minister during the Korean War, in later life he also won the Nobel Prize for Literature and wrote A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

Munn v Illinois

(1877, 7 - 2) Ira Munn owned a set of Chicago grain elevators and charged oppressively high fees for their use. In 1871, the Illinois legislature passed a law setting maximum rates for grain storage. On appeal to the Supreme Court, lawyers for the business claimed that the Illinois statute violated Fourteenth-Amendment due process rights regarding private property. Chief Justice Waite's opinion upheld the Illinois law, and proclaimed that "when private property is devoted to a public use, it is subject to public regulation." The decision was a landmark in the history of government regulation of businesses, especially railroads.

Martha Graham

(1894 - 1991) The first dancer invited to perform at the White House. As a choreographer, she developed the "Graham technique" that creates dramatic tension through "contraction" and "release" of major muscles. Her first major success was her 1958 concert-length ballet Clytemnestra, one of four collaborations with composer Halim Ed-Dabh. She performed the title role in Clytemnestra with her namesake dance company, whose dancers included Merce Cunningham and her husband, Erick Hawkins, both of whom went on to become choreographers in their own right. Hawkins danced the male lead in Appalachian Spring, a ballet with "an American theme" that Graham commissioned from Aaron Copland.

Enrico Fermi

(1901 - 1954) Fermi is best known to the public as a main contributor to the Manhattan Project. His work with statistical physics laid the groundwork for modern electronics and solid-state technologies. He applied the Pauli exclusion principle to subatomic particles to create Fermi-Dirac statistics, which accurately predicted the low-temperature behavior of electrons. Particles that obey Fermi-Dirac statistics are called fermions in his honor. Fermi also suggested the existence of the neutrino in order to balance nuclear beta-decay chains.

Suprematism

(1913 - 1920s) Immediately prior to the Russian Revolution, a group of Russian artists formed the independent suprematist movement, so named because they believed that non-objective reality was greater than anything that could be achieved by representation; in his "The Non-Objective World: The Manifesto of Suprematism", suprematist founder Kazimir Malevich stated "By 'Suprematism' I mean the supremacy of pure feeling in creative art. To the suprematist the visual phenomena of the objective world are, in themselves, meaningless; the significant thing is feeling." Suprematist works often consist of simple geometric shapes of limited color placed at diagonals or some thoughtful arrangement on a white background. Major works by Kazimir Malevich in the suprematist style include Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying, Black Square, Black Circle, Suprematist Composition: White on White, and Suprematism. After the communists took control of Russia, suprematism died out, much like many other abstract art movements under totalitarian governments.

Diamond

A mineral composed of carbon atoms in a "diamond cubic" crystal structure. Among natural materials, diamond has one of the highest thermal conductivities and highest hardnesses; it defines hardness ten on the Mohs scale. Natural diamonds are almost always found in igneous rocks called kimberlites.

Wolfgang Pauli

(1904 - 1967) His namesake exclusion principle prohibits most types of particles from occupying the same state, and forms the basis for chemical bonds

Steffi Graf

(Born 1969) Her most devastating shot earned her the moniker "Fraulein Forehand." Graf turned pro at age 13 and steadily rose through the rankings, garnering the #1 ranking and her first major (French) in 1987. The following year, Graf made history by winning the Grand Slam and the gold medal at the Seoul Olympics, the only player ever to go 5-for-5 in one year. Seven Wimbledons, six French, five U.S., and four Australians add up to 22 major career singles crowns — the last coming at the French in 1999 after two years of major back injuries. Graf retired that fall, and is now raising her son Jaden with her husband Andre Agassi.

Benedict Arnold

Volunteering for service following the Battle of Lexington, he joined Ethan Allen in the attack on Fort Ticonderoga. Appointed by Washington to capture Quebec, he was severely wounded in the failed December 1775 assault that also saw the death of General Richard Montgomery. Arming a flotilla on Lake Champlain, he attacked the British forces at Valcour Island, earning accolades — perhaps at the cost of the support of other officers. Passed over for promotion, Washington personally persuaded him not to resign. Promoted following his defense of Danbury, he again considered resignation, but won victory at Ft. Stanwix, and commanded advance battalions at Saratoga, where he was wounded in the fight. Sent to command Philadelphia, he lived extravagantly among Loyalists, and skirted several regulations to raise money, prompting investigations. After marrying Peggy Shippen, he made overtures to the British, alerting them to a plan to invade Canada, and planning to betray his expected command of West Point. When his contact, Major John Andre was captured, he escaped. Later, as part of the British army he raided New London, Connecticut, and led several raids on Virginia.

Qing ["cheeng"] Dynasty

The invading Manchus established the last dynasty to rule imperial China. An important institution of the Qing dynasty was the banner system, which acted as a guaranteed welfare system for Manchus and gave them benefits in the imperial examination (positions were often duplicated, with one Han Chinese and one Manchu from the banners). The foundations of the Qing dynasty were established under its second ruler, the Kangxi Emperor, who put down the Revolt of the Three Feudatories. He is also famous for the Kangxi dictionary, which is known for popularizing the system of Chinese radicals. During the last century of Qing rule, China was weakened both by foreign attacks (the Opium Wars against Britain) and internal dissent (the devastating Taiping Rebellion of 1850-1864). Attempts to modernize Qing rule (the Self-Strengthening Movement and the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898) proved inconclusive. Qing Dowager Empress Cixi, who opposed the reformers, was implicated in the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign uprising of 1900 that caused eight Western nations to send military forces to Beijing. China's last emperor was Puyi, who came to the throne at the age of two in 1906. The 1911 Xinhai Revolution ended the Qing Dynasty and created the Republic of China.

Invisible Hand

The invisible hand is the metaphorical notion that producers and consumers acting in their own narrow interest (e.g., by trying to maximize income from their business) will create an overall benefit to society. This might happen by their rewarding technologies that make production more efficient, rewarding firms who can sell at lower cost, rewarding inventors who discover new processes, and so on. The phrase was introduced by Adam Smith in his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations, but the modern understanding (and broad-based application of the metaphor) is due to later thinkers.

Ganymede

The largest moon in the solar system and the only one known to have its own magnetosphere. The third of the Galilean satellites, Ganymede was also first photographed close-up by Pioneer 10 in 1973. Galileo made six flybys of Ganymede between 1996 and 2000. Based on a suggestion from Simon Marius, Ganymede (along with many of the Jovian satellites) is named for one of Jupiter's lovers in Roman mythology; Ganymede is the only such moon named for a male figure. Many of Ganymede's features, including the Enki Catena, are given names from Egyptian and Babylonian mythology, although its largest dark plain is Galileo Regio. Ganymede is scheduled to be orbited by the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE), currently slated for a 2022 launch.

Triton

The largest moon of Neptune and the only large moon with a retrograde orbit (that is, an orbit opposite to the rotation of its planet), Triton is the seventh-largest moon in the solar system and is thought to have been captured from the Kuiper Belt. For over 100 years after its 1846 discovery, Triton was thought to be Neptune's only moon; Nereid wasn't discovered until 1949. (There are thirteen known satellites now.) Triton is geologically active and has geysers that are assumed to erupt nitrogen. Because of the activity, impact craters on Triton are relatively scarce; most of the larger craters were formed by volcanic activity. Triton orbits around Neptune in almost a perfect circle. Voyager 2 visited Triton in 1989 and is the only space probe to have done so (and no more are currently planned). Much of Triton's western hemisphere consists of an unexplained series of fissures and depressions sometimes called "cantaloupe terrain." Triton's features are named after various water spirits, monsters, and sacred waters from mythology.

Charon

The largest satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, Charon wasn't discovered until 1978. (As of 2013, Pluto has five known moons, the last two discovered in 2011 and 2012.) Unlike Pluto, which is covered with nitrogen and methane ices, Charon appears to be covered in water ice and may also have active cryo-geysers. Because the center of mass of the Pluto-Charon system lies outside of either one, Charon doesn't truly orbit Pluto; when Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, an argument was made (but not accepted) to classify Pluto-Charon as a binary system. The IAU still considers Charon, which is roughly half the size but has only 11% the mass of Pluto, to be a satellite. The New Horizons mission visited Charon and Pluto in 2015. Charon was named by its discoverer, James Christy of the Flagstaff Naval Observatory; the IAU approved the name in 1985. Internationally Charon is pronounced like the Greek mythological figure, ["CARE-on"], but Christy's choice of name was inspired by his wife Charlene, so NASA and New Horizons personnel use ["SHARE-on"].

Sputnik 1

The launch of Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, by the USSR kicked off the so-called "Space Race." The Space Race was a manifestation of the Cold War where successes in launching objects and people into space was seen as a proxy for capacity to build intercontinental ballistic missiles. Sputnik 1 was originally intended to carry many scientific instruments, but those instruments were descoped, in favor of a simple radio transmitter. That transmitter broadcasted a "beep" at a specified interval, allowing scientists to map its deceleration as a result of atmospheric drag. Sputnik 1 was followed by Sputnik 2, which carried a dog named Laika (meaning "barker") into low-earth orbit, and was destroyed upon re-entry.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

The leader of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. He supported the Free Officers Movement, which was led by Muhammad Naguib and which overthrew King Farouk in 1952, but he then took power while accusing of Naguib of allying with the Muslim Brotherhood. Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, leading to a confrontation with Britain, France, and Israel. From 1958 to 1961 Nasser served as president of the United Arab Republic, a short-lived federation of Egypt and Syria. Nasser was succeeded in 1970 by his ally Anwar Sadat.

Muammar Gaddafi

The leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011, during which time he was variously styled as "Colonel," "Revolutionary Chairman," and "Brotherly Leader." Gaddafi espoused what he called "Islamic socialism" in his Green Book. He coined the word jamahiriya, which can be roughly translated as "state of the masses." Gaddafi funded various Islamist militant operations around the world, most notably the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011 during the Arab Spring.

Muammar al-Gaddafi

The leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011. Gaddafi's Free Officers Movement, modeled after the Egyptian organization of the same name, overthrew King Idris I in 1969. The Little Green Book collects ideas and sayings associated with Gaddafi's pan-Arabist ideology. The U.S. and Britain criticized his terrorist associations and blamed him for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland (the Lockerbie bombing) which killed 270 people. After a discotheque in Berlin was bombed in 1986, the U.S. attacked several sites in Libya. Gaddafi was overthrown and killed by supporters of the National Transitional Council during the Libyan Civil War in 2011.

The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), K. 620

The libretto, by Emanuel Schikaneder, who took the role of Papageno at the premier, incorporates many Masonic elements (both Schikaneder and Mozart were Masons). Tamino is saved from a serpent by three maidens of the Queen of the Night, but Papageno, a bird-catcher, claims credit. Both are shown their counterparts — Pamina and Papagena — but must face several trials at the hands of the sorcerer Sarastro, who heads a cult of Isis and Osiris and is assisted by Monostatos, a treacherous Moor. The Queen of the Night, who has two very difficult arias ("O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn" and "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen," the latter of which is often just called "the Queen of the Night's aria"), attempts to stop Tamino and Pamina from joining Sarastro, but is magically exiled with Monostatos.

Helium (He, 2)

The lightest noble gas and the second most abundant element in the Universe, after hydrogen. Discovered by Sir William Ramsey, Pierre Janssen, and Norman Lockyer, it has two stable isotopes, helium-3 and helium-4, with helium-4 by far the more common. Because of their different quantum properties (the helium-3 nucleus is a fermion, while the helium-4 nucleus is a boson), the isotopes of helium actually have significantly different physical properties. Helium-4 can exist in a zero-viscosity state known as superfluidity when its temperature drops below the lambda point. Helium has the lowest boiling point of any element; liquid helium is used for devices that need intense cooling, such as MRI machines. Most helium on Earth results from radioactive decay, since the helium nucleus is equivalent to an alpha particle.

Mississippi River

The longest or second-longest in North America, depending on how you count. (The Missouri River could be considered longer.) Referred to by Abraham Lincoln as "the father of waters," the Mississippi begins at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and flows 2,340 miles to a vast delta on the Gulf of Mexico, forming portions of ten state borders and the world's third-largest drainage basin. The Mississippi picks up numerous major tributaries including the Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, and Red Rivers, and flows past numerous major cities, including Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans.

Aluminum (Al, 13)

The most common metal in Earth's crust, and the first metal in the p block of elements. First isolated by Hans Christian Ørsted, its primary ore is bauxite, from which it is refined using large amounts of electric current, via electrolysis, through the Bayer and Hall-Héroult processes. (Because aluminum exists only in a +3 oxidation state, it takes three moles of electrons to produce one mole of aluminum; as a result, it has been estimated that 5% of all electricity in the U.S. goes to purifying aluminum.) It is found in the mineral corundum, which is found in many gems, including sapphires and rubies; the specific impurities found in a gem determine its color. It is also found in aluminosilicates, such as feldspar.

Iron (Fe, 26)

The most common metal in the Earth, and one of the major components of the Earth's core. Iron was known to the ancients; its atomic symbol comes from the Latin name ferrum. Iron is the namesake of ferromagnetism; one of its ores is magnetite, Fe3O4, which contains iron in both of its most common oxidation states, 2+ and 3+. Iron(II) sulfide, FeS2, is formally known as pyrite, but because of its appearance has long been known as fool's gold. Iron can react with oxygen in the air to form iron(III) oxide, Fe2O3, in a relatively slow but exothermic process; this process is used in "all-day" heat patches. Hydrated iron(III) oxide is better known as rust; rust only forms when iron is exposed to both oxygen and water. Its isotope 56 is one of the most strongly bound of all nuclei, with the lowest mass per nucleon. Iron is one of the heaviest elements that is normally produced by stellar nucleosynthesis. The largest use of iron is in steel.

Chords

The most common types of chords are built of successive notes that are each a third above the previous. A triad consists of three notes referred to as the root, third, and fifth—the third and fifth being that respective interval above the root. Triads are classified as either major, minor, augmented, or diminished, based on whether the successive pitches are separated by major or minor thirds. Adding another third above the fifth results in a seventh chord (since that new pitch is a seventh above the root). Although many types of seventh chords are possible, the most common are the major, major-minor (or dominant), minor, half-diminished, and fully-diminished. Larger chords, such as ninth and thirteenth chords, appear commonly in jazz.

Colorado River

The most significant river of the southwestern United States. Beginning in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the Colorado River runs southwest for 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico. The Colorado formed numerous canyons along much of its length, most notably the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The Colorado also has significant dams, including Hoover Dam near Las Vegas (forming Lake Mead) and Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona (forming Lake Powell).

Medusa

The only mortal member of the Gorgons, a trio of monstrous daughters of Phorcys and Ceto who had brass hands, fangs, and venomous snakes for hair; the other two were Stheno and Euryale. Many early sources state that Medusa was born a monster, though Ovid's Metamorphoses state that Medusa was a beautiful woman until she was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple and cursed by the goddess. Gazing directly into Medusa's eyes resulted in the onlooker being turned into stone. She was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who was sent to retrieve her head by the tyrant Polydectes, whom Perseus then killed with the head. Perseus gave the head of Medusa to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the aegis. When Medusa was beheaded, the winged horse Pegasus and the giant warrior Chrysaor emerged, her sons by Poseidon. According to Ovid, Medusa's head was also used to petrify the Titan Atlas.

Voskhod 1 and Voskhod 2

The only two missions of the Voskhod program, and were superseded quickly by the Soyuz program. The spacecraft made use of Sergei Korolev's designs. Korolev himself was preoccupied with the Moon race, again in a position of favor after the fall of Khrushchev (though Korolev died before the designs were used). Voskhod 1 was the first flight to contain multiple astronauts, and Voskhod 2 was the platform for the first EVA (extra-vehicular activity or "spacewalk"). Alexey Leonov, who conducted the spacewalk on Voskhod 2, also participated in the later Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

Juan Peron

The president of Argentina from 1946 to 1955 and 1973 to 1974. Juan Perón became widely admired after his 1945 marriage to actress Eva Duarte, who was immortalized in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Evita. The backbone of his political support were working-class people known as descamisados, meaning "shirtless ones". His policies came to be called Perónism, represented by the three flags of economic independence, political sovereignty and social justice, which represented a Third Way between capitalism and communism. Upon Juan Perón's death in 1974, he was succeeded as President by his third wife, Isabel.

Gamal Abdel Nasser

The president of Egypt from 1954 to 1970. As a young military commander, he helped form the Free Officers, who led a 1952 coup that overthrew Egypt's king, Farouk I. Nasser precipitated the Suez Crisis by nationalizing the Suez Canal in 1956. He championed a pan-Arabist sentiment that eventually led to Egypt's brief union with Syria as the United Arab Republic in 1958. Nasser oversaw Egypt's disastrous defeat by Israel in the Six-Day War (1967).

Mount Kenya

The second-tallest mountain in Africa is Mount Kenya, which shares its name with the country in which it is located. British geographer and political theorist Halford Mackinder led the first group to ascend the peak, which bypassed the Darwin Glacier and proceeded up the Diamond Glacier. Like Kilimanjaro, it was formed by a now-dormant volcano, and, like Kilimanjaro, part of its notoriety rests on a book. Facing Mount Kenya, an anthropological study of the Kikuyu people by Jomo Kenyatta, was one of the first such texts by an African ethnographer to gain fame.

Heimdall

The son of nine sisters, he is the god of light and guardians. He guards Bifrost, the rainbow bridge into Asgard. His senses are so sharp, he can see one hundred miles by night or day and hear grass growing. He will call the Aesir into battle at Ragnarok with his horn Gjall (or Gjallerhorn).

Porifera (5000 Species)

The sponges are all water-dwellers (98% marine, 2% freshwater), and are sometimes classified separately from other animals because of their asymmetric bodies and lack of distinct tissues. They are sessile (immobile) except in early dispersing stages, and collect food particles via the sweeping motions of flagellated cells called choanocytes [koh-AN-oh-"sites"].

Lysistrata by Aristophanes

The title character of this comedy is an Athenian woman who decides to end the Peloponnesian War, which was still ongoing when the play premiered in 411 BC. At the beginning of the play, Lysistrata assembles a secret "Council of Women," whose members represent many different regions of Greece. Once the women have gathered, Lysistrata reveals her proposal: all Greek women should abstain from having sex until the men agree to stop fighting. Although Lysistrata's plan draws protests from her bawdy neighbor Calonice, and from the amorous wife Myrrhine, the Spartan Lampito reluctantly supports the idea, and helps to convince the other women. As Athenian women capture the Acropolis, the female representatives from other regions return home to enlist their compatriots in the plan. The ensuing events include conflicts between a chorus of old women and a chorus of old men, and a personal plea to Myrrhine from her husband, Cinesias. Both genders suffer from sexual deprivation, but the women of Greece remain united. With the aid of a beautiful girl called Diallage, or Reconciliation, Lysistrata convinces the frenzied men to agree to an equitable peace.

Scales

The two most common types of scales are the major and minor scales, both of which are referred to as diatonic, meaning that they have seven notes between octaves and follow a repeating pattern of whole steps and half steps. While there is only one major scale, there are three common variants of the minor scale: natural, harmonic, and melodic. The individual notes within a scale are given numeric indications known as scale degrees, starting with "1" and moving up the scale note by note; the most prominent of these are the first degree, or tonic (the "home" pitch), and the fifth degree, or dominant. There is also the chromatic scale, which includes every note between two endpoints, including sharps and flats.

Empiricism

The view that all knowledge derives from sensory experience. John Locke, whose works include An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, thought that the mind starts out as a tabula rasa — (blank slate) and that we gain knowledge through experiences. Other empiricist philosophers include George Berkeley (who wrote A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge) and David Hume (who wrote An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding).

Hecuba

The wife of King Priam, and therefore the Queen of Troy, during the Trojan War. Her children included Paris - who kidnapped Helen - and Hector, the great Trojan warrior who was slain by Achilles. In Book VI of the Iliad, she leads the Trojan women in prayer to Zeus on behalf of the Trojan warriors. After the war, Hecuba was grief-stricken upon learning of the death of her youngest daughter Polyxena, and she was given to Odysseus as a slave.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Along with Robert Capa and several others, he founded the cooperative Magnum Photos, was a master of candid photography who conceived of the goal of photography as the capture of the "decisive moment." His most famous photograph, an encapsulation of his philosophy, shows a man leaping from a ladder over a puddle behind the Gare Saint-Lazare train station in Paris.

Balder

Also known as Baldur. The fairest of the Aesir, he is the god of light, joy, and beauty. He dreamed of his own death, so Frigga extracted promises from everything not to harm Balder, but she skipped mistletoe. Loki tricked Balder's blind brother Hoder into killing him with a spear of mistletoe.

LED

An LED, or light-emitting diode, is a diode that lights up when current passes through in the forward direction

Partons

An older name that was used for the "internal parts" of hadrons before the discovery and widespread acceptance of the quark model. Models based on partons are still used but, for the most part, it was determined that partons were quarks and the term is rarely used at the high school level except in historical contexts.

Lake Volta

The largest man-made lake (by area) in the world, Lake Volta was created by the construction of Ghana's Akosombo Dam across the Volta River in the 1960s. The lake covers the area where the Black Volta and White Volta rivers formerly converged. The Akosombo Dam can provide over a gigawatt of power, enough to supply nearby aluminum smelters utilizing the energy-intensive Hall-Héroult process and the needs of the rest of the country.

Battle of the Milvian Bridge

This battle in 312 AD was part of the civil war that ensued when Maxentius usurped the throne of the western half of the Roman Empire from Constantine. Prior to the battle, Constantine supposedly had a vision of God promising victory to his forces if he painted his shields with the Chi-Rho, a Christian symbol. Constantine was indeed victorious, and Maxentius drowned in the Tiber River during the battle. Eventually, Constantine was able to abolish the Tetrarchy, become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire, and end persecution of Christians.

Battle of Long Island

(August 27, 1776) The largest battle of the entire war, Long Island (or Brooklyn Heights) resulted in the British capture of New York. William Howe defeated George Washington.

Lord North

(PM 1770 - 1782) Lost the American War of Independence during his ministry

Quartz

A mineral composed of SiO4 tetrahedra linked in a framework with oxygen atoms shared between neighboring tetrahedra to give an overall chemical formula of SiO2 (silicon dioxide). Inclusions of different elements give different varieties of quartz, including amethyst (purple). Quartz is the second-most abundant mineral in Earth's crust. Quartz is often used in clocks because it exhibits piezoelectricity. Quartz defines hardness seven on the Mohs scale.

Ymir

A primordial giant who formed in the void Ginnungagap from fire and ice. He gave birth to the frost giants and created the primordial cow Audhumla. He was killed by Odin and his brothers, who used his body to construct most of the universe.

Ida B. Wells

An early investigative journalist and civil rights leader who helped found the NAACP. In the 1890s she investigated lynching, arguing that it was a form of controlling black communities rather than retribution for criminal acts. She documented the results of her research in pamphlets such as Southern Horrors and The Red Record. She accused Frances Willard, the president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of turning a blind eye to lynching.

Auguste and Louis Lumiere

Brothers who invented an improved cinematograph, which made them very early pioneers in the film industry. However, they were also important in the history of still photography, as their autochrome process was the first widely used technique that produced color photographs.

Echinodermata (6,500 Species)

Characteristics of this phylum include an endoskeleton composed of many ossicles of calcium and magnesium carbonate, a water vascular system, a ring canal around the esophagus, and locomotion by tube feet connected to the water vascular system. Unique to echinoderms is the five-fold radial symmetry obvious in sea stars (starfish), sea urchins, and sea lilies. Others, like sea cucumbers, have varying degrees of bilateral symmetry. In the echinoderm body plan, a true head is absent; the anatomical terms oral (mouth-bearing) and aboral (away from the mouth) are used to describe orientation of the body surfaces. Feeding adaptations include particle feeding through the water vascular system, inverting the stomach to engulf prey (sea stars), and a scraping device called Aristotle's lantern (sea urchins).

Akkadian Empire

First empire in the world, and consisted of Sumerians and Akkadian-speaking Semites. The empire was founded by Sargon the Great, who conquered all of Mesopotamia in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC.

Shiva's Consort

Several incarnations of the "mother goddess" take this moniker. Parvati, the most benevolent form, is the reincarnation of Sati, who threw herself into the fire. Durga is a demon-slayer who rides a lion into battle and carries a weapon in each of her many arms. Kali is a black-skinned goddess of destruction, who defeats the demon leader Raktavija by drinking all of his blood. Although Kali's dance can destroy the world, Shiva throws himself at her feet to calm her, turning her into Parvati.

Mojave Desert

The Mojave is bounded by the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges along the San Andreas and Garlock Faults. It is between the Great Basin and the Sonoran Desert, and it contains the lowest and driest point of North America, Death Valley. It is most strongly associated with the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia).

Taklamakan Desert

The Taklamakan is an extremely cold, sandy desert known for splitting the Silk Road into branches running north and south of it. It is bounded by the Kunlun, Pamir, and Tian Shan mountain ranges.

Earth's Moon

The moon, also called Luna, is the fifth-largest satellite in the solar system, the largest relative to the size of the planet it orbits, and the second densest. The USSR's Luna unmanned spacecraft first reached the moon in 1959, and Apollo 8 became the first manned mission to orbit the moon, in 1968. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty guarantees the rights of all nations to explore the moon for peaceful purposes. The flat dark lunar plains are called maria (singular: mare) and are mainly concentrated on the near side of the moon. The most famous one is Mare Tranquillitatis, the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 first landed on the moon in 1969. The Apollo program landed on the moon five more times.

Basalt

The most common igneous rock—over 90% of volcanic rocks on Earth are basalt. Basalt is mafic, meaning it is rich in magnesium and iron, and extrusive, meaning it cools and solidifies on the Earth's surface. Lava containing gas bubbles may cool into vesicular basalt. Basalt primarily composed of vesicles is known as scoria.

Negev Desert

The triangular Negev covers the southern half of Israel.

Clytemnestra

The wife of King Agamemnon and the sister of Castor, Polydeuces, and Helen. When Agamemnon's troops were stuck at Aulis en route to Troy, he sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia, which made Clytemnestra very angry. She later began an affair with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin; when Agamemnon returned to Mycenae after the Trojan War, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered him and his concubine Cassandra. In response, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon's son Orestes killed both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, continuing the curse of the House of Atreus.

Ganesha

This elephant-headed god of wisdom and learning is often shown riding a rat. Parvati "gives birth" to Ganesha by creating him from the saffron paste she scrubbed off of herself after bathing. When Parvati instructs Ganesha not to let anyone in as she took another bath, Ganesha prevents Shiva from entering, prompting Shiva to cut off Ganesha's head. To calm Parvati, Shiva tells servants to take the head of the first baby found whose mother had her back turned; the servants bring back the head of a baby elephant. Ganesha has two wives (Riddhi and Siddhi), two sons, and a daughter. People pray to this remover of obstacles and bringer of good fortune before they commence business.

1984 Summer (Los Angeles, California, United States)

Virtually every Communist nation skipped these games, leaving the door open for a "USA all the way" feeling, as the Americans took home 83 gold medals out of a total of 174. Among the highlights were American sprinter Carl Lewis' repeat of Jesse Owens' 1936 performance: winning the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump, and 4×100 meter sprint relay. In gymnastics, West Virginia native Mary Lou Retton won the all-around gold medal.

Virginia Woolf

Woolf was an author who was best known because of her novels, especially Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). She makes this list, however, because of her essay "A Room of One's Own" (1929), in which she argued that a woman must have money and space in order to write and express herself. In the essay, Woolf famously created the character of Judith Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's imagined sister, who could not achieve the status of her brother because she did not have the same access to education. Woolf also addressed these themes in Three Guineas (1938).

Henry VIII

(1491 - 1547; r. 1509 - 1547) House of Tudor. The son of Tudor founder Henry VII, he brought England into both the Renaissance and the Reformation. Henry patronized the philosopher Erasmus the painter Hans Holbein the Younger, and the writer Thomas More. Originally a supporter of the Catholic Church — the Pope had named him "Defender of the Faith" — he named himself head of the Church of England in 1533 so that he could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. Henry executed top ministers who crossed him, including Thomas Cromwell and Thomas More. He married six times, but only his third wife, Jane Seymour, bore him a son, the sickly Edward VI.

Daniel Webster

(1841 - 1843, Harrison and Tyler, 1850 - 1852, Filmore) Webster negotiated the Webster-Ashburton treaty that defined the border between Maine and New Brunswick (the Eastern border) and left his post in 1843 under pressure from Whigs, who had resigned in protest from Tyler's cabinet over the issue of the national bank. In his second term, he upheld the Compromise of 1850, which cost him popularity with his fellow New Englanders.

Plessy v Ferguson

(1896, 7 - 1) Homer Plessy (who was legally classified as an "octoroon," meaning one-eighth black) bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway. He sat in the whites-only car in violation of an 1890 Louisiana law mandating separate accommodations. He was convicted, but appealed to the Supreme Court against John Ferguson, a Louisiana judge. The court upheld the law provided that "separate but equal" facilities were provided. John Marshall Harlan issued a famous dissent claiming "Our constitution is color-blind." Plessy was overturned by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas.

Treaty of Portsmouth

(1905) Ended the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). It was signed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine after negotiations brokered by Theodore Roosevelt (for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize). Japan had dominated the war and received an indemnity, the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria, and half of Sakhalin Island, but the treaty was widely condemned in Japan because the public had expected more.

Muller v Oregon

(1908, 9 - 0) Oregon laundry owner Curt Muller was fined for violating an Oregon law that limited the working hours of female employees; he appealed, claiming the law was an unconstitutional restriction of freedom of contract. Arguing on behalf of Oregon, future Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis invoked scientific evidence to support the notion that excessive working hours were deleterious to a woman's health. Oregon's statute was upheld on the grounds that the state had a compelling interest in protecting the health of its female workers. One side effect of the decision was the judicial justification of sex discrimination in legislation.

Terry Sawchuck

(1929 - 1970) Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, "Ukey" played more games (971), won more games (447), and recorded more shutouts (103) than any other netminder in NHL history. In 1952, he recorded eight straight wins, including four shutouts, in the playoffs for Detroit. Winning five Vezina Trophies in his career for lowest team GAA (the criteria during his era), Sawchuk also won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 1950-1951. Always deeply psychologically troubled, he died in a household accident in 1970 while a member of the New York Rangers.

Pele

(Born 1940, Brazil, forward) Also known as "the Black Pearl," Pelé led the Brazilian national team to three World Cup victories in 1958, 1962, and 1970 (though he was injured for most of '62 finals) and to permanent possession of the Jules Rimet Trophy. In his professional and international career, he played in 1,363 matches and scored 1,282 goals. He made his professional debut with Brazil's Santos in 1956 and played with them until 1974. In 1975, he came out of retirement to promote the game in the United States by starring for the NASL's New York Cosmos, earning him 1976 NASL MVP honors; his retirement game in 1977 at Giants Stadium against his old club Santos drew over 75,000 people, the largest crowd to see a soccer match in the U.S. before the 1984 Olympics. He later became Brazil's Minister of Sport and, in 1999, the National Olympic Committees named Pelé the IOC's Athlete of the Century, despite having never partaken in an Olympic Games.

Robert Koch

(Won in 1905) Pioneered the field of modern bacteriology, and established his theory of four postulates that must be satisfied in order to determine that a disease is caused by a particular microbe. He used these postulates to discover the bacterial agent that causes tuberculosis, contradicting the popular opinion that the disease was inherited. Koch also determined the causative agents of cholera and anthrax and examined the concept of acquired immunity while on exhibition in German New Guinea.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Located on the edge of Central Park and colloquially known as "the Met," its main building on Fifth Avenue was designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Its collection includes El Greco's View of Toledo, Jacques-Louis David's The Death of Socrates, and John Singer Sargent's Madame X.

Rhone

One of Europe's few major rivers to flow directly into the Mediterranean (via the Gulf of Lion), the Rhone originates in the Swiss Alps and flows into Lake Geneva. It emerges from Geneva and flows south, passes through Lyon, Avignon, and Arles, and enters the sea just west of Marseille. At Arles, the river splits into "grand" and "petit" branches that encircle the island Camargue. The river's valley is famous for its red wine, and because it is navigable for 300 miles, the Rhone is the key access route of southern France.

Vishnu

One of the Trimurti (the holy trinity of Hindu gods), Vishnu is the Preserver, protecting the world. When needed, Vishnu descends to Earth as an avatar, or incarnation. Nine have appeared so far: Matsya, Kurma (tortoise), Varah (boar), Narasimha (man-lion), Vamana (dwarf), Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, and Buddha. A tenth, Kalki, will appear with a flaming sword to save humans from the darkness. Some cult followers worship Vishnu as Narayana, the primal being. Vishnu has dark blue skin, rides with the eagle Garuna, and sits on the snake Shesha. His symbols are the conch, disc, club, and lotus; his chief wives are Lakshmi and Bhu (the Earth). Kama, the god of love, may be his son.

Alfred Stieglitz

Pioneered the artistic style of photography and founded the journal Camera Work. After a fight over the importance of pictorialism with the National Arts Club, he founded the Photo-Secession movement. The husband of painter Georgia O'Keeffe, Stieglitz also founded the Little Galleries of the Photo Secession at 291 Fifth Avenue, New York City, which became known as simply "291."

Freya

The daughter of Njord and twin sister of Frey, she is also a Vanir hostage living with the Aesir. The goddess of love, passion, and human fertility, her possessions include a cloak that allows her to turn into a falcon, and the necklace Brisingamen. She travels in a chariot drawn by two cats.

Inverse Trigonometric Functions

The inverse functions of the trigonometric functions. They are sometimes just called "inverse sine," etc, and are also given with the prefix "arc": arcsine, arccosine, arctangent, arccosecant, arcsecant, and arccotangent. Because the trigonometric functions are not bijective (see below), to have inverses it is necessary to restrict the domains of the inverse trigonometric functions; for instance, arcsin(x) is only defined for x between -1 and 1, inclusive.

Priam

The king of Troy and son of Laomedon, he has 50 sons and 12 daughters with his wife Hecuba (presumably she does not bear them all), plus at least 42 more children with various concubines. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, kills him in front of his wife and daughters during the siege of Troy.

USS Maine

A second-class armored battleship launched in 1889. In 1897 it sailed for Havana to show the flag and protect American citizens. Shortly after 9:40 pm on February 15, 1898, the battleship was torn apart by a tremendous explosion. The court of inquiry that convened in March was unable to obtain evidence associating the blast with any person or persons, but public opinion - inflamed by "yellow journalism" - was such that the disaster led to the declaration of war on Spain on April 21st, 1898.

Amon

Amon began as a local god of Thebes, governing the air, fertility, and reproduction. His wife was Mut, and his son was Khon. Later, Amon became linked with the sun god Ra, and the two combined as Amon-Ra. In this form, he became worshipped beyond Egypt, and identified with Zeus and Jupiter. His appearance in art was as a man in a loincloth, with a headdress topped by feathers, but other appearances show him with the head of a ram. The temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak was the largest ever built.

Richard III

(1452 - 1485; r. 1483 - 1485) House of York. He was made Duke of Gloucester in 1461 when his brother Edward IV deposed the Lancastrian king Henry VI, as part of the Wars of the Roses. Upon Edward's death in 1483, Richard served as regent to his nephew Edward V, but likely had the boy murdered in the Tower of London that year. Two years later, Richard died at the hands of Henry Tudor's Lancastrian forces at Bosworth Field, ending the Wars of the Roses and beginning the reign of Henry VII.

Gregory XIII

(1502 - 1585; r. 1572 - 1585) Introduced the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 to correct the previous Julian Calendar

Alexander I

(1777 - 1825; r. 1801 - 1825) Alexander I took the throne in 1801 when his repressive father Paul was assassinated and immediately set out on a more liberal course, but he left his strongest supporters disappointed. He is best known for his wars with Napoleon (first as an ally and then as an enemy), and for seeking to establish a Holy Alliance in the years that followed. Alexander was an eccentric and a religious mystic. Some even say that he didn't really die in 1825: instead, they argue, he faked his own death, became a hermit, and died in a monastery in 1864.

Benjamin Disraeli

(1804 - 1881, PM 1868, 1874 - 1880) Before becoming Prime Minister, Disraeli was instrumental in the passage of the Second Reform Act as leader of the House of Commons. Britain's only Prime Minister of Jewish descent, Disraeli was also a successful novelist. He promoted a strong, imperial foreign policy including investment in the Suez Canal and the peace achieved at the Congress of Berlin.

Victoria

(1819 - 1901; r. 1837 - 1901; Empress of India 1876 - 1901) House of Hanover. The second-longest-reigning monarch in British history (after Elizabeth II), she relinquished much of the remaining royal power, both to her husband Albert and to her favored prime ministers, Lord Melbourne, Robert Peel, and Benjamin Disraeli. After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria largely went into seclusion, though she influenced the passage of the Reform Act of 1867, which doubled the number of Britons who could vote.

Alfred Marshall

(1842 - 1924, English) Marshall's magnum opus, 1890's Principles of Economics, introduced the notions of consumer surplus, quasi-rent, demand curves, and elasticity, all fundamental concepts in introductory macro- and microeconomics.

George Gershwin

(1898 - 1937) Known at first for producing popular songs and musicals with his older brother Ira, Gershwin successfully melded jazz and popular music with classical forms, most famously the Rhapsody in Blue (1924), the Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra (1925), and the folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935), based on a story by DuBose Heyward. Gershwin's first major hit was 1919's "Swanee," sung by Al Jolson, and his 1931 musical Of Thee I Sing was the first musical to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin died of a brain tumor at age 38.

Carlos Fuentes

(1928 - 2012) Though born into a well-to-do family, Fuentes often dealt with the betrayed ideals from the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the subject of both his first novel, Where the Air is Clear (1958), and his most successful book, The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962). Other notable novels include Terra nostra, set during the reign of King Philip II of Spain, and The Old Gringo, which portrays Ambrose Bierce's last days in Mexico. Fuentes also wrote absurdist plays and essay collections on Mexican and American art and literature.

Arnold Palmer

(1929 - 2016) A native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Palmer made golf popular with the masses, as his fans were known as "Arnie's Army." He won seven majors, including four Masters, and was the first golfer to earn one million dollars on the PGA Tour. Later Palmer became one of the stars of the Senior Tour, winning the Senior PGA Open in 1980 and 1981. In 2002 he played in his last competitive Masters.

Murray Gell-Mann

(1929 - 2019) Predicted the existence of quarks, which compose protons, neutrons, and other, heavier particles

Battle of Quebec

(December 31, 1775) The culmination of a failed invasion of Canada by American colonists. In a blinding snowstorm, the American general Richard Montgomery was killed in battle, Benedict Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan was captured.

Mughal

The Mughals ruled most of India from the early 16th until the mid-18th century, and claimed descent from both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. Their empire was founded by Babur and expanded under his grandson Akbar. The Taj Mahal was built under Shah Jahan, who brought the empire to the brink of bankruptcy. Aurangzeb excluded Hindus from public office, and the empire began to break up soon after his death in 1707.

The Picts

Early medieval inhabitants of northern Britain known for their raids on the Roman frontier fortification of Hadrian's Wall. Their name (from the Latin pictus, "painted") may refer to their use of colorful tattoos. Pictish art is notable for elaborate stone carvings of mysterious beasts. Starting in the 9th century, the Pictish kingdoms were absorbed by the neighboring kingdom of the Scots.

William I (the Conqueror)

(1028 - 1087; r. 1066 - 1087) House of Normandy. Duke of Normandy from 1035, he was promised succession to the throne by Edward the Confessor, but when Edward gave the throne to Harold II in 1066, William invaded England, killing Harold and defeating the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings. An able administrator, he authorized a survey of his kingdom in the 1086 Domesday Book. By that time William had replaced Anglo-Saxon nobles and clergy with Normans and other continentals.

Richard I (the Lion-Hearted)

(1157 - 1199; r. 1189 - 1199) House of Plantagenet. The third son of Henry II, he spent only five months of his reign in England. He went on the Third Crusade to Jerusalem, winning many victories in the Holy Land, but on his way back was captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria. He also fought Philip II in Normandy, and died while defending his possessions in Aquitaine.

Battle of Lake Peipus

(1242) The Russian victory at this battle ended territorial claims of the Teutonic Knights on Russian soil. The Russians were led by Alexander Nevsky and Andrey Yaroslavich, while the Livonian Order (a branch of the Teutonic Order) was led by Hermann of Dorpat. It is also known as the Battle on the Ice because it was fought on frozen Lake Peipus.

Charles V

(1338 - 1380; r. 1364 - 1380) House of Valois. Charles had an inauspicious start (before his reign even began) with having to ransom his father, John II, from England for three million crowns and most of southwestern France. Later, with military advisor Bertrand du Guesclin, he recaptured almost all of that territory. He also concluded alliances with Portugal, Spain, and Flanders, reorganized the army, and restructured the collection of taxes while leading France's recovery from the devastation of the early period of the Hundred Years' War.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

(1598 - 1680) A Roman who — with Francesco Borromini — defined the Baroque movement in sculpture. Bernini is principally known for his freestanding works, including David and The Ecstasy of St. Theresa. Bernini's David differs from that of Michelangelo in that the hero is shown "in motion," having twisted his body to sling the rock. Bernini is also known for his massive fountains in Rome, including the Triton and the Fountain of the Four Rivers.

Derek Jeter

(Born 1974, shortstop) Became the starting shortstop for the Yankees in 1996, winning the Rookie of the Year Award and helping New York capture its first championship since 1978. More postseason highlights followed, including three more titles (1998, 1999, 2000), the 2000 World Series MVP award, and a controversial homer against the Baltimore Orioles in Game One of the 1996 ALCS when a twelve-year-old fan turned his fly ball into a home run by reaching over the right-field wall to catch it. Jeter's junior-high yearbook dubbed him "most likely to play shortstop for the New York Yankees."

Valois

(France, 1328 - 1589) The first Valois king of France was Philip VI, during whose reign the Hundred Years' War began and the Black Death struck France. Notable Valois rulers included Louis XI, who acquired Burgundy; Francis I, who began the French Renaissance; and Henry III, whose assassination in the French Wars of Religion ended the Valois dynasty.

Battle of Ticonderoga

(May 10, 1775) A small but symbolic victory for the American forces led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. The Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain from the British and transported its cannons to Boston.

Charles II

(1630 - 1685; r. 1660 - 1685) House of Stuart. While Oliver Cromwell ruled the Commonwealth, Charles was crowned King of Scotland in 1651. After Cromwell died, Charles used the Declaration of Breda to restore himself to the English throne. He fought two lackluster wars against the Dutch, and needed protection from Louis XIV through the Treaty of Dover. His wife Catherine of Braganza produced no legitimate heirs, but this "Merry Monarch" has as many as 14 illegitimate children. Tolerant of Catholics, he dissolved Parliament over the issue in 1681 and refused to prevent his brother James from succeeding him.

Monzaemon Chikamatsu

(1653 - 1725) He was Japan's first professional dramatist. Originally named Sugimori Nobumori, Chikamatsu wrote more than 150 plays for both the bunraku (puppet theater) and the kabuki (popular theater). Chikamatsu's scripts fall into two categories: historical romances (mono) and domestic tragedies (wamono). One of Chikamatsu's most popular plays was The Battles of Coxinga, an historical melodrama about an attempt to re-establish the Ming dynasty in China. He is also largely responsible for developing the sewamono (contemporary drama on contemporary themes) in the joruri, a style of chanted narration adapted to bunraku.

Fabian Society

(1884 - present) One of the most influential intellectual communities in British history was the Fabian Society, an organization founded in 1884 to promote the gradual adoption of socialism. The society was named for the Roman general Fabius Maximus, who avoided fighting pitched battles against Hannibal and instead won a gradual war of attrition. The Fabian Society pressed for progressive economic measures that went far beyond the platform of the Liberal Party, including a minimum wage and universal health care. Prominent members of the Fabian Society included George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, Ramsay MacDonald, and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. In 1900, many members of the Fabian Society founded the Labour Party, a socialist rival to the two major parties, which eventually came to power in 1924 under Ramsay MacDonald. Today, the Fabian Society continues to exist as a left-wing think tank.

Niels Bohr

(1885 - 1962) Bohr reconciled Rutherford's results from the gold foil experiment with Max Planck's quantum theory to create a model of the atom (the Bohr model) in which electrons reside in specific energy levels at specific stable radii. This model was the basis for Johann Balmer's work with spectroscopy and Johannes Rydberg's energy formula, which explicitly stated the frequency of light that an electron would emit if it went from a higher energy to a lower energy. Bohr and his son fled to the U.S. in World War II under the pseudonym "Baker," and contributed to the Manhattan Project.

Jose de San Martin

An Argentine general who liberated Argentina and Chile from Spain with Bernardo O'Higgins. San Martín won the Battle of San Lorenzo in 1813. Later, his crossing of the Andes resulted in victories at the Battles of Chacabuco and Maipu in Chile. San Martín took part in the liberation of Peru before moving to Europe in 1824.

Ruth Benedict

(1887 - 1948) A colleague and friend of Margaret Mead, Benedict studied the Zuni, Dobu, and Kwakiutl cultures in Patterns of Culture, using them to illustrate the idea of a society's culture as "personality writ large." She also described Japanese culture in The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, a work written during World War II at the request of the U.S. government.

Joe McCarthy

(1887 - 1978, manager) Began managing the Yankees in 1931. They finished second, beginning a nine-year run of second or better. From 1936 to 1939 his Yankees won four World Series in a row; from 1936 to 1943, seven pennants and six World Series. His .615 winning percentage (2125-1333) is tops for a big league skipper, and he is tied with Casey Stengel for most world championship teams managed (7). Besides winning—McCarthy never had a losing season in the majors—his teams are best remembered for their offense. The 1931 Yankees scored 1,067 runs, the most of any team since 1900, while his 1936 club scored the second most, with 1,065.

Eddie Shore

(1902 - 1985) Born in Fort Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan, "The Edmonton Express" is the epitome of "Old-Time Hockey," as stated in the 1977 film Slap Shot. As a blue-liner for the Boston Bruins he was named a first-team NHL All-Star for eight of nine years during the 1930s, and is the only defenseman to win four Hart Trophies as NHL MVP. He later went on to be the owner/GM of the AHL's Springfield Indians, and the anecdotes about his stingy ways are now hockey lore.

Erik Erikson

(1902 - 1994, German-born American) Erik Erikson is best known for his theories on how social institutions reflect the universal features of psychosocial development; in particular, how different societies create different traditions and ideas to accommodate the same biological needs. He created a notable eight-stage development process and wrote several "psychohistories" explaining how people like Martin Luther and Mahatma Gandhi were able to think and act the way they did.

Cilia and Flagella

Cilia and flagella are important organelles of motility, that is, they allow the cell to move. Flagella are long, whip-like structures, while cilia are short, hair-like projections. Both contain a 9 + 2 arrangement of microtubules in cross-section (two microtubules in the middle, nine pairs in a circle around the outside) and are powered by molecular motors of kinesin and dynein molecules.

Mesons

Composite particles generally made from a quark and an antiquark. There are dozens of examples including the pion, kaon, J/Psi, Rho, and D. All mesons are bosons. The quark and antiquark must have the same color (such as red and anti-red) so that the resulting meson is colorless (or "white"). It is also possible to make mesons out of two (or more) quarks and the same number of antiquarks, but this kind of particle (a "tetraquark") is rare

Call of Duty

First-person shooter (FPS) series published by Activision. The first three games centered on World War II, while more recent editions—starting with 2007's Modern Warfare—have largely taken place in contemporary and near-future settings, and have courted controversy for such things as a level in which the player kills civilians while participating in a terrorist attack. The series is celebrated for its multiplayer modes, including cooperative Zombie modes.

George Gamow

(1904 - 1968) Gamow was one of the first to explain the implications of the Big Bang theory of cosmology. He correctly predicted the abundance of hydrogen and helium in the early universe, nicknamed Alpher-Bethe-Gamow theory (an intentional pun on the first three letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha, beta, and gamma, for which the otherwise unrelated physicist Hans Bethe was included), and also theorized that the the heat from the Big Bang would still be visible as the cosmic microwave background radiation. Although Gamow received no Nobel for this prediction, the CMB's discoverers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, as well as two later observers, John Mather and George Smoot, did receive Nobels.

Pablo Neruda

(1904 - 1973) Born Neftali Reyes, he adopted the surname of the 19th-century Czech poet Jan Neruda. Gabriela Mistral was the head of his school in the small city Temuco. In 1923 his best-known work, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, was published, which led to diplomatic appointments. As a penniless consul in Burma in the 1930s, he wrote the surrealist collection Residence on Earth. He served in the Chilean senate in the 1940s, though government opponents forced him into exile over his Communist views. Crossing the Andes on horseback inspired his epic Canto general (1950). He died of cancer days after his friend Salvador Allende was deposed.

Elihu Root

(1905 - 1909, Roosevelt) Succeeding Hay after Hay's death, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912 for attempting to bring nations together for arbitration and cooperative agreements. During his tenure, he moved the consular service under the umbrella of the civil service. His negotiations with Great Britain settled border disputes regarding Alaska and Canada, and he was a proponent of free trade policies with China that Hay established.

Expressionism

(1905 - 1930s) Originating in Germany at the start of the 20th century, Expressionism sought to present the world from a purely subjective perspective, shaping images to maximize emotional effect and evoke certain moods or ideas. As such, Expressionists favored meaning and emotional experience over physical reality. Two major sub-movements of Expressionism were The Bridge (Die Brücke) and The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter):

Helen Wills Moody

(1905 - 1998) A California native nicknamed "Little Miss Poker Face" because her expression rarely changed on the court, Wills's play contrasted with that of the other great woman of the era, the emotional Suzanne Lenglen of France, though they met only once (as Lenglen turned pro). Nonetheless, Wills dominated her competition; between 1927 and 1932 she did not even drop a set. She won 19 major singles crowns — out of 22 entered — including eight Wimbledons, six U.S., and four French championships, in 1928 becoming the first player to win three Grand Slams in one season. Wills also swept the singles and doubles gold medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics.

Dmitri Shostakovich

(1906 - 1975) His work was emblematic of both the Soviet regime and his attempts to survive under its oppression. Shostakovich's operas, such as The Nose (1928) and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, were well received at first—until Joseph Stalin severely criticized his work in Pravda in 1936. Fearful for his security, Shostakovich wrote several conciliatory pieces (Fifth, Seventh/Leningrad, and Twelfth Symphonies) in order to get out of trouble. He made enemies, however, with his Thirteenth Symphony ("Babi Yar"). Based on the Yevgeny Yevtushenko poem, Babi Yar condemned anti-Semitism in both Nazi Germany and the USSR.

Billy the Kid by Aaron Copland

(1938) Choreographed by Eugene Loring, this ballet depicts episodes in the life of the title Old West outlaw. Early in the ballet, Billy's mother is accidentally killed in a gunfight; Billy then stabs the man who killed her. Sections from the ballet include "Card Game at Night" and a "Gun Battle" that features percussion imitating the title shootout. At the end of the ballet, when Billy is resting in the desert, a posse led by Pat Garrett finds and kills him. The story of Billy's life is bookended at the beginning and end by a section called "The Open Prairie," which depicts settlers moving west. The ballet makes extensive use of cowboy songs, such as "The Old Chisholm Trail" and "Goodbye Old Paint" in its depiction of a frontier town, and features a "Jarabe," a Mexican dance in 5/8 time.

Gayane by Aram Khachaturian

(1942) Gayane tells the story of the title heroine, who lives on a cooperative farm (kolkhoz) in Khachaturian's native Armenia with her husband Giko and her father Ovanes, who heads the collective. Giko, a lazy alcoholic, repeatedly beats and abuses the hard-working Gayane. However, Gayane escapes the marriage when she reveals Giko to be an anti-Soviet spy, leading to his arrest; Gayane then marries the soldier Kazakov. The most famous excerpt from Gayane is the frenetic "Sabre Dance," originally part of a group of dances in the final act meant to represent the various Soviet republics. Other notable music from the ballet includes an adagio movement, meant to represent carpet weavers, that was used in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

Partly based on Williams' own family, the drama is narrated by Tom Wingfield, who supports his mother Amanda and his crippled sister Laura (who takes refuge from reality in her glass animals). At Amanda's insistence, Tom brings his friend Jim O'Connor to the house as a "gentleman caller" for Laura. While O'Connor is there, the horn on Laura's glass unicorn breaks, bringing her into reality, until O'Connor tells the family that he is already engaged. Laura returns to her fantasy world, while Tom abandons the family after fighting with Amanda.

Battles of Marathon

Persian King Darius I's invasion of mainland Greece ended with a decisive victory for Miltiades and the Athenians at this battle in 490 BC. The defeated Persian commanders were Datis and Artaphernes. Among the few Athenian dead of the battle were archon Callimachus and the general Stesilaos. Legend has it that the Greek messenger Pheidippides ran to Athens with news of the victory, but collapsed upon arrival. This is the inspiration for the modern race known as the "marathon."

Apollo 11

Saw the first Moon landing and moonwalk by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (astronaut Michael Collins piloted the Command Module in lunar orbit and never walked on the moon). After the Lunar Module landed in the Sea of Tranquility, Armstrong said, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Later stepping onto the lunar surface, he said, "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." According to Chris Kraft, NASA officials chose Armstrong as the first to walk on the Moon because he was more humble than Aldrin, and because he was the Commander. However, the stated reason was that Armstrong's seat was closer to the door. Apollo 11, like other Apollo missions, launched atop a Saturn V booster.

Howard Hughes

Subject of the 2004 film The Aviator, Hughes was a skilled aircraft pilot and designer who in the 1930s set speed records for flights across the United States and around the world. His most famous plane was the H-4 Hercules, or "Spruce Goose," a massive wooden plane that to this day holds the record for longest wingspan on an operational craft. Meant to carry as many as 750 troops, Hughes himself was the pilot during its lone flight, a one-minute hop in 1947. Also a movie producer, Hughes is widely remembered for the various eccentricities, such as a pathological fear of germs and a refusal to cut his hair or nails, that he exhibited late in life.

Safavid

The Safavids were founded by a Sunni Sufi (mystic) order under Shah Ismail, and ruled Iran from 1502 until 1736. They forcibly converted Iran to Shi'ism, and later converted themselves (this sounds strange, and is — it's one of history's mysteries). They, the Ottomans, and the Mughals comprise the three "Gunpowder Empires" in what scholars of Islamic history consider the late medieval period. Under Abbas I, a European expert was hired to reform the military following defeats by both their Ottoman and Uzbek rivals. Abbas later captured Baghdad and expelled the Portugese from the Persian Gulf. Esfahan was their capital during their height.

Sahara Desert

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, but its largest hot desert. The Atlas Mountains bound the western Sahara on the north, and the Sahel — a savannah-like strip — bounds it on the south. It is dominated by rocky regions (hamada), sand seas (ergs), and salt flats (shatt) and dry river valleys (wadi) that are subject to flash floods. The Berber and Tuareg peoples are native to the Sahara.

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67

(1804 - 1808) The iconic opening motif of the Fifth Symphony — a descending major third followed by a descending minor third, in a short-short-short-long rhythmic pattern — has become ubiquitous in popular culture, though the claim that it represents "fate knocking at the door" does not come from Beethoven himself. The work's third movement, a scherzo and trio in C minor, ends on a G major chord that proceeds directly into a C major final movement; that finale features one of the first orchestral uses (though not the first orchestral use) of trombones. The Fifth was premiered as part of a concert that also included the premiere of the Sixth Symphony.

Thor

A son of Odin and the giantess Jord, he is the god of thunder, weather, and crops. One of the most popular of the Norse gods, he travels in a chariot pulled by two goats, and wields the hammer Mjölnir. He is married to Sif, and his special nemesis is the Midgard Serpent.

Fidelio, Op. 72

(1805) This work is Beethoven's only opera. The libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner, with revisions by Stephan von Breuning and Georg Treitschke. Leonore wishes to rescue her husband Florestan from the prison of the evil Pizarro; to do so, she disguises herself as a boy named Fidelio so that the jailer Rocco will hire her to help him, and thus grant her access to her husband. Beethoven struggled with his opera: he first presented it as a three-act work before cutting it to the present two-act form, and wrote four separate overtures. The opera utilizes some spoken (rather than sung) dialogue, and includes "O what joy," a chorus sung by prisoners.

Limpopo River

Rising as the Crocodile (or Krokodil) River in South Africa's Witwatersrand region, it forms the Transvaal's border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, then crosses through Mozambique. Deforestation in Mozambique contributed to massive flooding of the Limpopo in 2000. Perhaps the most famous description of the Limpopo comes from Rudyard Kipling, who in "The Elephant's Child" referred to it as "the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees."

Nestor

The king of Pylos, he is too old to participate in the fighting of the Trojan War, but serves as an advisor. He tells tales of "the good old days" to the other heroes.

Cindy Sherman

Made a series of Untitled Film Stills, consisting largely of self-portraits posed in the style of a B-movie actress, which began a series of photos in which she modified popular photographic forms to respond to the stereotyping of women in the media. Her later series Fairy Tales and Disasters began including mannequins and prosthetic limbs, which she also used as the subject of her "Sex Pictures."

Treaty of Tordesillas

(1494) Ostensibly divided the New World (and, in later interpretations, the entire world) between Spain and Portugal. It resulted from a bull by (Spanish-born) Pope Alexander VI granting lands to Spain and established a line west of the Cape Verde islands between future Spanish possessions (west) and Portuguese possessions (east). The line passed through Brazil, allowing the Portuguese to establish a colony there, while Spain received the rest of the Americas. Endless wrangling and repeated revisions ensued.

Ivan IV

(1530 - 1584; r. 1533 - 1584) Ivan IV is known in the West as "Ivan the Terrible," but his Russian nickname, Groznyi, would be more accurately translated as "awe-inspiring" or "menacing" (the original meaning of the English word "terrible"). Ivan was proclaimed Grand Prince of Muscovy in 1533 and tsar in 1547. Scholars differ on whether Ivan was literate and on how auspiciously his reign began. Early in his reign, he pushed through a series of well-received reforms and called a zemskii sobor (assembly of the land), but Ivan had an amazingly cruel streak and eventually became unstable: he temporarily abdicated in 1564, killed his favorite son, created a state-within-the-state called the oprichnina to wage war on the boyars, and participated in the torture of his enemies. Ivan combined the absolutist tendencies of his predecessors with his own violent personality, helping to plunge the country into the subsequent period of civil strife known as the "Time of Troubles."

Elizabeth I

(1533 - 1603; r. 1558 - 1603) House of Tudor. Known as the "Virgin Queen" because she never married, as Henry VIII's daughter by Anne Boleyn, the Catholic Church considered her illegitimate. After the death of her Catholic sister Mary I, Elizabeth I tried to restore religious order by declaring England a Protestant state but naming herself only "Governor" of the Church. She foiled attempts at her throne by Spanish king Philip II and Mary, Queen of Scots; the latter Elizabeth reluctantly executed in 1587. Her reign saw great expansion of the English navy and the emergence of William Shakespeare, but when she died, the Crown went to Scottish king James VI, the son of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

(1560s) The fall of Icarus is not the central image in this painting; the mythological youth's legs stick out of the water, barely noticed, near a large ship and a fisherman at the bottom right. Most of the painting depicts everyday scenes in the Netherlandish countryside, such as a farmer driving a horse while plowing his field and a shepherd staring up at the sky while attending to his sheep. In the distance can be seen a city with a harbor, which the ships in the painting appear to be sailing towards. The painting is famously depicted in W. H. Auden's poem "Musée des Beaux Arts," whose title derives from the Brussels museum where the painting is held.

Charles I

(1600 - 1649; r. 1625 - 1649) House of Stuart. The last absolute English monarch, Charles ran into trouble almost immediately. His minister, the Duke of Buckingham, asked Parliament for money to fight costly foreign wars, and when Parliament balked, Charles had to sign the Petition of Right. From 1630 to 1641 he tried to rule solo, but financial troubles forced him to call the Short and Long Parliaments. His attempt to reform the Scottish Church was the last straw, as Parliament entered into the English Civil War. They defeated Charles, convicting him of treason and executing him. England became a Commonwealth with Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector.

Pierre de Fermat

(1601 - 1665, French) Remembered for his contributions to number theory including his little theorem, which states that if p is a prime number and a is any number at all, then a^(p) - a will be divisible by p. He studied Fermat primes, which are prime numbers that can be written as 2^(2^n) + 1 for some integer n, but is probably most famous for his "last theorem," which he wrote in the margin of Arithmetica by the ancient Greek mathematician Diophantus with a note that "I have discovered a marvelous proof of this theorem that this margin is too small to contain." The theorem states that there is no combination of positive integers x, y, z, and n, with n > 2, such that x^(n) + y^(n) = z^(n), and mathematicians struggled for over 300 years to find a proof until Andrew Wiles completed one in 1995. (It is generally believed that Fermat did not actually have a valid proof.) Fermat and Blaise Pascal corresponded about probability theory.

The Proposition by Judith Leyster

(1631) Leyster was a female artist whose entire body of work was once attributed to Frans Hals. The painting's two subjects are a woman sewing by candlelight and a man touching her right shoulder and offering her coins. Unlike in Vermeer's The Milkmaid, the foot warmer in this painting is part way under the woman's skirt, indicating that she is married, but potentially interested in a suitor. Despite this, the woman appears to be ignoring the man's romantic advances.

The Anatomy Lesson of Doctor Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt van Rijn

(1632) Commonly known as just The Anatomy Lesson. The painting depicts the yearly public dissection held by the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, several of whose members paid commissions in order to be included in the portrait. Tulp's successor as the city anatomist, Jan Deijman, was also depicted by Rembrandt giving an anatomy lesson. The man being dissected is a criminal, Aris Kindt, who was hanged for armed robbery. A famous anatomy treatise by Andreas Vesalius can be seen opened at the painting's bottom right corner.

Belshazzar's Feast by Rembrandt van Rijn

(1635) The painting shows a scene from the Book of Daniel in which the king of Babylon, Belshazzar, uses the loot his father Nebuchadnezzar stole from the Temple in Jerusalem in order to throw a feast. During the feast, God's hand appears and writes a prophecy on the wall predicting Belshazzar's downfall—a vision that frightens the onlookers in the painting as well, one of whom is spilling a goblet in horror. The Hebrew letters in the painting are based on a font created by the Dutch rabbi Menasseh ben Israel, but are written top to bottom instead of right to left.

The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn

(1642) The centerpiece of the collection of the Netherlands' Rijksmuseum, this painting depicts a schutterij, a type of civic guard common in Dutch Golden Age cities. The militia company is led by Frans Banning Cocq, who is depicted in black with a red sash, and his lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch, dressed in yellow. Other standout figures in the painting include a small woman in a yellow dress who carries a dead chicken, a symbol of the militia company. The painting is enormous, measuring nearly 12 feet high and 14 feet wide; it was even wider before it was cut down in the 18th century to fit in the Amsterdam Town Hall.

Basho Matsuo

(1644 - 1694) A pseudonym of Matsuo Munefusa: Generally acknowledged as the master of the haiku form, the most notable influences on his work were Zen Buddhism and his travels throughout Japan. He is noted for works like The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Oku no hosomichi), which includes descriptions of local sights in both prose and haiku. He took his pseudonym from the name of the simple hut where he retired: Basho-an, which means "Cottage of the Plantain Tree."

The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals

(1660s) This portrait, whose unknown subject is not actually laughing, acquired its common title after being moved to the Bethnal Green Museum in Britain in the 1870s; before that, it was simply known as Portrait of a Man. The painting's subject is dressed in fine black clothing appropriate to Calvinist sensibilities of the Dutch Republic, wears a giant white collar, has a prominent upturned moustache, and is 26 years old according to an inscription at the upper right hand corner.

Puritans

(16th and 17th centuries) The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who tried to push the English Reformation further by "purifying" the Church of England of any remaining Roman Catholic influences. The word "Puritan" is applied inconsistently to groups espousing a variety of different religious positions; today, it often refers to somebody who is opposed to seeking pleasure. When studying 17th-century England, it is important to note the distinction between "separatist" Puritans, who wanted to break away from the Church of England, and "non-separatist" Puritans, who wanted to reform the church while remaining members of it. The Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower were separatists; the main group of colonists who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony under John Winthrop were non-separatists. After the English Civil War, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell, Puritans enjoyed a brief period of power in England, during which time they closed theaters, limited sports, and instituted harsh penalties for breaking the Sabbath.

Leonhard Euler

(1707 - 1783, Swiss) Known for his prolific output and the fact that he continued to produce seminal results even after going blind. He invented graph theory by solving the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem, which asked whether there was a way to travel a particular arrangement of bridges so that you would cross each bridge exactly once. (He proved that it was impossible to do so.) Euler introduced the modern notation for e, an irrational number about equal to 2.718, which is now called Euler's number in his honor (but don't confuse it for Euler's constant, which is different); he also introduced modern notation for i, a square root of -1, and for trigonometric functions. He proved Euler's formula, which relates complex numbers and trigonometric functions: e^(i x) = cos x + i sin x, of which a special case is the fact that e^(i π) = -1, which Richard Feynman called "the most beautiful equation in mathematics" because it links four of math's most important constants.

Treaty of Utrecht

(1713) Series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Utrecht that (mostly) ended the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714). They were signed by France and Spain for one side and by Britain, Savoy, and the United Provinces (The Netherlands) for the other. The treaty confirmed a Bourbon prince (Philip, Duke of Anjou) on the Spanish throne, ending Habsburg control, but took steps to prevent the French and Spanish thrones from being merged. Some Spanish possessions — including Sicily, the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, and Gibraltar — were given to the victors.

Phillis Wheatley

(1753 - 1784) Born in Africa and brought to the United States as a slave in 1761; Wheatley was her slave name. She was freed in the 1770s shortly after the release of her collection Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Her poem "On Being Brought from Africa to America" says that "mercy" brought her from her "Pagan land" and taught her "benighted soul" about God and Christian redemption. She praised George Washington in her poem "To His Excellency General Washington."

Carl Friedrich Gauss

(1777 - 1855, German) Considered the "Prince of Mathematicians" for his extraordinary contributions to every major branch of mathematics. His Disquisitiones Arithmeticae systematized number theory and stated the fundamental theorem of arithmetic (every integer greater than 1 has a prime factorization that is unique notwithstanding the order of the factors). In his doctoral dissertation, he proved the fundamental theorem of algebra (every non-constant polynomial has at least one root in the complex numbers), though that proof is not considered rigorous enough for modern standards. He later proved the law of quadratic reciprocity, and the prime number theorem (that the number of primes less than n is approximately n divided by the natural logarithm of n). Gauss may be most famous for the (possibly apocryphal) story of intuiting the formula for the summation of an arithmetic sequence when his primary-school teacher gave him the task — designed to waste his time — of adding the first 100 positive integers.

Augustine de Iturbide

(1783 - 1824) A royalist general who changed his allegiances to become the first ruler of independent Mexico. Like many Creoles, or people of European descent born in the Americas, Iturbide feared that the insurgency would upset colonial hierarchies of race and class. In 1820, however, a liberal revolution in Spain caused conservative Mexican elites to reconsider the benefits of independence. Iturbide reached out to the insurgent leader Vicente Guerrero, and agreed to endorse legal racial equality in exchange for Guerrero's military support. Early in 1821 Iturbide released the Plan of Iguala, which is also known as the "Plan of the Three Guarantees" or "Plan Trigarante" because it called for Mexican independence, a wholly Catholic state, and the equality of all races. Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees soon forced Juan O'Donoju, the last viceroy of New Spain, to acknowledge Mexican independence in the Treaty of Córdoba. In 1822 Iturbide became the first emperor of Mexico, but a revolt led by Antonio López de Santa Anna forced Iturbide into exile in 1823. When Iturbide returned to Mexico in 1824, he was quickly executed.

Pius IX

(1792 - 1878; r. 1846 - 1878) The longest-reigning pope in history. He reigned during Italian unification and remained a "prisoner in the Vatican" after the capture of Rome led to the annexation of the Papal States. Afterward, he rejected a Law of Guarantees that sought to define the rights of the Church within the Kingdom of Italy. Pius defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the decree Ineffabilis Deus and established papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council. He released a controversial list of 80 heresies in his Syllabus of Errors.

Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna

(1794 - 1876) A general who served as president of Mexico eleven different times between 1833 and 1855. After gaining independence, many Latin American nations fell under the rule of caudillos, or charismatic leaders who exercised both military and political power. As one of these figures, Santa Anna cultivated an image of himself as a savior of the Mexican nation, and even held an elaborate funeral for the leg that he lost during a conflict with France known as the "Pastry War." However, Santa Anna proved unable to prevent the loss of Mexico's northern territories. Despite routing the defenders of the Alamo, Santa Anna was defeated by the forces of Sam Houston at the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto, and was forced to recognize Texan independence. A little more than a decade later, Santa Anna seized control of the government during the Mexican-American War, only to lose major battles at Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec, and be forced into exile. He returned to Mexico in 1853 and tried to establish a permanent dictatorship, but was challenged by the Liberal Plan of Ayutla, and was driven from power in 1855.

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, "Moonlight", Op. 27

(1801 - 1802) As with the "Emperor," Beethoven did not give the "Moonlight" sonata its nickname; it was coined several years after the composer's death by Ludwig Rellstab, who commented on the first movement's resemblance to moonlight on Lake Lucerne. Beethoven's score calls for the sustain pedal to be held down through the entirety of the first movement. Often overshadowed by the ubiquitous first movement is the violent third movement, a Presto agitato sonata-allegro form with an extended coda, which on a larger scale serves as a recapitulation for the entire sonata. Beethoven dedicated the sonata to Giulietta Guicciardi, his pupil.

Symphony No. 6 in F Major, "Pastoral", Op. 68

(1802 - 1808) As the title implies, Beethoven's Sixth Symphony is a programmatic depiction of rural scenes; it is the composer's only truly programmatic symphony. The symphony's five movements, rather than the traditional four, each include a short title or description of their content: "Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country" (I), "Scene at the brook" (II), "Happy gathering of country folks" (III), "Thunderstorm" (IV), and "Happy and thankful feelings after the storm" (V). In the score for the second movement, Beethoven explicitly identifies several woodwind motifs as being based on bird calls.

Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, "Eroica", Op. 55

(1803 - 1804) Beethoven's Third Symphony was composed during the first part of his middle stylistic period, often referred to as his "heroic decade." Beethoven may have been influenced in the work's composition by his personal confrontation with his growing deafness. The second movement is a solemn, C minor funeral march, while the finale is a playful set of variations on a melody Beethoven used in several other works. The composer originally intended to title the symphony "Bonaparte"; in a popular but possibly apocryphal story, Beethoven ripped the title page from the score upon hearing that Napoleon had declared himself emperor.

Marbury v Madison

(1803, 4 - 0) On his final day in office in 1801, John Adams signed commissions for 42 federal judges (the so-called "midnight judges"). His successor, Thomas Jefferson, opted to not deliver most of the commissions. One appointee, William Marbury, sued the new secretary of state, James Madison, to force the delivery of his commission. The Judiciary Act of 1789 had granted the court original jurisdiction in such cases, but the Constitution did not. The court ruled that the Judiciary Act conflicted with the Constitution and was therefore void. Therefore Marbury's request was denied for lack of jurisdiction. This case established the principle of judicial review, the power of the court to nullify unconstitutional laws.

Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, "Appassionate," Op. 57

(1804 - 1806) Again, Beethoven had no hand in the popular title of this sonata: the "Appassionata" label was applied by a publisher some years after Beethoven's death. The sonata begins ominously: a theme descends in open octaves to the lowest note of the contemporary piano before rising again in an arpeggio, immediately repeated a minor second higher. The second movement has no stable conclusion, instead directly leading to the third through the use of a diminished seventh chord. The final movement's coda, which itself introduces new thematic material, is one of the most demanding and difficult passages in all of the composer's repertoire.

Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland

(1944) Copland had several working names for Appalachian Spring while composing it, including House of Victory and Ballet for Martha. The latter name refers to its choreographer, Martha Graham, who took its ultimate title from a line in Hart Crane's poem "The Bridge." Graham's ballet depicts a group of pioneers in Pennsylvania — including a newlywed couple — building a farmhouse and encountering a Revivalist preacher and his flock. The ballet's original set was designed by Graham's frequent collaborator Isamu Noguchi. Because Appalachian Spring was first performed in the Library of Congress, Copland was forced to limit the accompanying ensemble to just thirteen musicians. The best-known section of the ballet by far is Copland's use of the traditional Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" in the penultimate section of the suite; the full ballet contains several more movements based on variations on the hymn.

The Jewel Voice Broadcast

(1945) Formally titled "The Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War," was a radio message by Emperor Hirohito announcing Japan's defeat and surrender in World War II. Army officers who opposed the speech tried to destroy the recording of it the night before it aired, an attempted coup called the Kyujo Incident. In the speech, Hirohito recognized the power of America's "new and most cruel bomb" and urged his people to "endure the unendurable" in order to save their nation. The message was written in classical Japanese, making it difficult for most Japanese citizens to understand. It was the first time the emperor directly addressed common people.

It's a Wonderful Life

(1946) A Christmas drama produced and directed by Frank Capra based on Philip Van Doren Stern's short story "The Greatest Gift." Set in the fictional town of Bedford Falls, It's a Wonderful Life stars Jimmy Stewart as building and loan operator George Bailey, who plans to commit suicide on Christmas Eve over a financial disaster caused by the villainous Henry Potter. A guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (played by Henry Travers), stops George from killing himself by showing him what his hometown would be like had he never been born: for example, George would not have been able to save his younger brother from drowning in a frozen lake, or prevent the town pharmacist from accidentally poisoning a prescription.

"I am Prepared to Die"

(1964) Speech delivered by Nelson Mandela during his prosecution for terrorism charges in the Rivonia Trial. In the three-hour speech, Mandela defended his leadership of the Spear of the Nation, the militant wing of the African National Congress working to end apartheid in South Africa. At the conclusion of the speech, Mandela restated his commitment to the "struggle of the African people" and declared "I am prepared to die." Mandela was convicted, then spent the next 27 years in prison before his release in 1990.

Miranda v Arizona

(1966, 5 - 4) In 1963, Phoenix police arrested Ernesto Miranda on suspicion of kidnapping and rape; he subsequently confessed to those crimes. During his initial interrogation by police, Miranda was never informed of his Fifth or Sixth Amendment rights. Writing for a thin majority, Chief Justice Warren stated that "prior to any questioning, a person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him, and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed," laying the groundwork for the iconic "Miranda warnings."

Loving v Virginia

(1967, 9 - 0) Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924 was an anti-miscegenation law that criminalized marriages between whites and non-whites. In 1958, Virginia residents Richard Loving (a white man) and Mildred Jeter (a woman of both African-American and Native American heritage) were married in Washington, D.C., which did not have such a statute. After returning to their Virginia home, they were arrested and convicted under the Racial Integrity Act. Striking down that Act as violating both the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, Chief Justice Warren wrote that "the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State."

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

(1970 - 1977) This sitcom centered on Mary Richards, a young woman who moves to Minneapolis, where she goes to work in the newsroom at WJM-TV. No fewer than three supporting characters eventually got their own spinoffs: Phyllis, which starred Cloris Leachman; Rhoda, which starred Valerie Harper; and Lou Grant, which — unlike both the other two spinoffs and The Mary Tyler Moore Show itself — was a drama rather than a sitcom. The show is considered groundbreaking for its portrayal of Mary as an independent single woman.

Camp David Accords

(1978) Negotiated at the presidential retreat Camp David by Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin; they were brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. They led to a peace treaty the next year that returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, guaranteed Israeli access to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, and more-or-less normalized diplomatic and economic relations between the two countries. This isolated Egypt from the other Arab countries and led to Sadat's assassination in 1981.

Bobby Hull

(Born 1939) Born in Point Anne, Ontario; "The Golden Jet" was the star of the Chicago Blackhawks of the 1960s. He won three Art Ross Trophies and led the NHL in goals seven times. In June 1972, he defected to the fledgling WHA's Winnipeg Jets for a record ten-year, $2.75 million deal, where he helped make Winnipeg one of the four WHA teams to merge with the NHL in 1978-1979. He is also the father of Brett Hull; the duo is the only father-son combination to score 500 each in NHL history.

Isabel Allende

(Born 1942) Actually born in Peru, at age three she moved to her mother's native Chile. A successful news reporter in her twenties, she and her family fled to Venezuela after General Augusto Pinochet deposed her uncle Salvador Allende, setting up a dictatorship. Her formal literary career began at age 40, when she published The House of the Spirits, a magical-realist work that chronicles several generations of the Trueba family. Other works of fiction include the short-story collection Eva Luna (1989) and Paula (1995), which detailed Allende's care for her terminally ill daughter.

Billie Jean King

(Born 1943) Her records themselves are impressive: 12 Grand Slam singles wins (including six Wimbledons) and 20 overall Wimbledon titles. King, however, is best known for advancing women's athletics. Her brother, Randy Moffitt, pitched for the San Francisco Giants; she herself reached a #4 world ranking in 1960 and turned pro eight years later. At the time, prize money for women was paltry, so she co-founded the Virginia Slims Tour, and in 1971 became the first female athlete to earn $100,000 in a year. Two years later, in front of over 30,000 at the Astrodome, she whipped Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes." King retired in 1983, but not before winning a singles tournament at age 39.

Bjorn Borg

(Born 1956) On both grass and clay in the late 1970s, resistance to Borg was futile; he won Wimbledon five straight years (1976-80) and the French Open six times, for a total of 11 majors. Borg got started at age nine, after his father won a tennis racket in a ping-pong tournament and gave it to him. He took his first French in 1974 and dominated through 1981, when John McEnroe finally knocked him off at Wimbledon. Borg then inexplicably retired at 26; he tried an unsuccessful comeback in the early 1990s. Despite his great success, Borg never won the U.S. Open (reaching the final four times). He played at the Australian Open only once, usually preferring to take the winter months off.

Wayne Gretzky

(Born 1961) Born in Brantford, Ontario, "The Great One" was named Canada's athlete of the century. Gretzky holds or shares 61 NHL records, including career goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857). The winner of ten scoring titles (Art Ross Trophies) and nine NHL MVP's (Hart Trophies), his #99 was retired league-wide. He won four Stanley Cups with Edmonton in the 1980s before a major trade sent him to Los Angeles in 1988. After a brief stint in St. Louis, he finished his career with the New York Rangers in 1999.

Tiger Woods

(Born 1975) Born to an African-American father and a Thai mother, he appeared on The Mike Douglas Show with a golf club at age two. Woods won three straight U.S. Junior Amateurs, and then became the only golfer to win three straight U.S. Amateurs (1994-1996). In 1997 Woods became the youngest ever to win the Masters — by a whopping 12 strokes. At the 2000 U.S. Open, when he won by 15 strokes, Woods began a remarkable run of four straight major championships: British Open (by eight strokes, making him the youngest ever to complete the career Grand Slam), PGA Championship, and the 2001 Masters. Woods added a third Masters in 2002, giving him seven major pro titles.

Fiddler on the Roof

(Jerry Bock, 1964) Tevye is a lowly Jewish milkman in tsarist Russia ("If I Were a Rich Man"), and his daughters are anxious to get married ("Matchmaker"). Tzeitel marries the tailor Motel ("Sunrise, Sunset," "The Bottle Dance"), Hodel gets engaged to the radical student Perchik, and Chava falls in love with a Russian named Fyedka. The families leave their village, Anatevka, after a pogrom. It is adapted from Tevye and his Daughters by Sholem Aleichem.

The Lady of the Lake

A character who goes by many other names, among them Nimue and Vivien. In many stories, the Lady of the Lake is responsible for bestowing Excalibur upon King Arthur. She also gave Merlin his powers of sorcery and raised Sir Lancelot after his father's death. The Lady of the Lake is frequently associated with the isle of Avalon and is sometimes conflated with Morgan le Fay.

Sir Gawain

A Knight of the Round Table and the son of Morgause and King Lot of Orkney, making him the nephew of King Arthur. He is the hero of the Pearl Poet's 14th-century romantic epic Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which Gawain's loyalty and resolve are tested by the title Green Knight (secretly Lord Bertilak), who survives his beheading at the hands of Gawain and returns a year later to return the favor. Gawain's brothers Gareth and Gaheris are killed during Lancelot's rescue of Queen Guinevere, sending Gawain into a frenzy.

Simon Bolivar

A Venezuelan who is known as "El Libertador" for freeing much of South America from Spanish rule. He authored the Cartagena Manifesto and Decree of War to the Death in his quest to liberate Colombia and Venezuela, during which he won the Battle of Carabobo. After gaining independence from Spain, he led the short-lived republic of Gran Colombia, which from 1819 to 1830 included modern Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama.

Samuel Barber

A classicist composer best known for his "Adagio for Strings" (1936), which he adapted from his String Quartet, and which premiered under the baton of the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini. Other major orchestral works include his Piano Concerto (1962), his ballet score Cave of the Heart (1947) based on the Greek tale of Medea, and his single-movement "First Symphony" (1936, revised 1943). His vocal works include "Dover Beach" (1931) and "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" (1947). For much of Barber's life, he maintained a romantic relationship with the opera composer Gian-Carlo Menotti. His first opera, Vanessa (1958), won the Pulitzer Prize; his second major opera, Antony and Cleopatra (1966), was a flop.

Sandstone

A clastic sedimentary rock, which means it is composed of pre-existing fragments of other rocks and minerals (usually quartz and feldspar). Common subgroups of sandstone include arkose (sandstones containing over 25% feldspar), wackes (sandstones with a large amount of clay between mineral grains), and arenites (sandstones with a small amount of clay between mineral grains). Fine-grained sandstones make good aquifers because they are porous enough to allow percolation of water but still filter out pollutants.

Battle of Salamis

Fought in 480 BC. A major turning point in the Greco-Persian Wars, as it signaled the beginning of the end of Persian attempts to conquer Greece. The battle is named after an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens. Xerxes was so confident in victory that he watched the battle from a throne on the slopes of Mount Aegaleus. The Athenian general Themistocles devised a plan to lure the large, slow Persian ships into the narrow straits, where the Greek ships were able to outmaneuver and destroy much of the Persian fleet. The Persian admiral Ariabignes was killed in hand-to-hand combat, and the Queen of Halicarnassus, Artemisia, had to sink some of her allies' ships to escape.

Susan B Anthony

Anthony was one of the most outspoken and most famous proponents of women's suffrage in the United States. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she co-founded the first women's temperance society in the 1850s after they were excluded from an all-male temperance society. Together, in 1868, the two women founded a journal called The Revolution, which was dedicated to promoting women's rights. The following year, Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1872, Anthony gained fame when she was arrested for voting in the presidential election. She defended herself by quoting the Fourteenth Amendment, but she was convicted.

1912

Three presidents — Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson — earned electoral votes. Roosevelt, displeased with his successor Taft, returned to lead the progressive Republican faction; after Taft got the Republican nomination, Roosevelt was nominated by the Progressive Party (nicknamed the " " Party). Wilson won with 435 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 88 and Taft's 8, making Taft the only incumbent to finish third in a re-election bid. Though Wilson did set forth his New Freedom program, his dominating win must be credited largely to the splitting of the Republican vote by Roosevelt and Taft.

The Vandals

One of several peoples who crossed the frozen Rhine River into Roman Gaul on New Years' Eve, 406. From Gaul they moved into Spain and across the Strait of Gibraltar to attack Roman Africa. By 439 the Vandals had occupied Carthage, gaining control of the grain trade and possession of a substantial navy. They used this to embark on a second career as Mediterranean pirates; their sack of Rome in 455 under King Gaiseric was reputedly much more destructive than the Visigothic one 45 years earlier. The ravages of the Vandals so dismayed Roman observers that "vandalism" still indicates senselessly destructive behavior. Like the Ostrogoths, the Vandals were targets of the Byzantine emperor Justinian's attempted reconquest of the western Mediterranean; Justinian's general Belisarius smashed the Vandal army at Tricamerum in December 533.

Willis Tower (Chicago, Bruce Graham and Fazlur Rahman Khan, 1973)

When it opened in Chicago, Illinois in 1973, the Willis Tower was the tallest building in the world, with a height of 1,450 feet. The building was originally (and is still commonly) known as the Sears Tower, as it was built as a new headquarters for Sears, Roebuck & Co.; it was officially renamed after the insurance company Willis Group Holdings, Ltd., in 2009. The building's design, inspired by a pack of cigarettes, consists of a three-by-three set of "tubes" of varying heights. The tower contains a 103rd-floor "Skydeck" from which as many as four U.S. states (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan) are visible on a clear day, and which also contains several glass balconies that extend out from the building, allowing visitors to look straight down to the street below.

Wright Brothers

Operated a bicycle repair shop in Dayton, Ohio before creating the first successful, powered, heavier-than-air, manned airplane. For several years, utilizing both a wind tunnel they built as well as test flights, they created and refined gliders before adding an engine to their design. Finally, on December 17, 1903, with Orville at the controls, the Flyer I made a 12-second flight at Kill Devil Hills near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. They made several more launches that day, with Wilbur staying aloft for 59 seconds on the fourth, and last, flight.

The Ostrogoths

When the Visigoths fled into the Roman empire, these were one of numerous Germanic peoples subjected to the Huns north of the Danube. They threw off Hunnic domination after the death of Attila. After the last Roman emperor of the west, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed in 476, the Ostrogoths took advantage of the chaos to occupy Italy and establish their own kingdom. Their king Theodoric, known as "the Great," ruled from 493 to 526 and tried to restore peace to Italy. The philosopher Boethius worked as an official at Theodoric's court. The Ostrogothic kingdom collapsed in the 6th century after the Byzantine generals Belisarius and Narses fought a series of destructive wars for control of the Italian peninsula.

Ottoman

The Ottomans were Turks of uncertain origin who conquered the Balkans and the Middle East and brought the central Islamic lands into the European state system. Their key military victories were the defeat of the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the capture of Constantinople in 1453, and the defeat of the Mamluks in 1517. During the 15th century their lands replaced Palestine as the major target of the Crusades. They reached their height under Suleiman the Magnificent, who besieged Vienna in 1529. The empire's remnants became Turkey after World War I.

Ariadne

The daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae, making her a princess of Crete. Minos's palace in Knossos is sometimes referred to as the "dancing ground of Ariadne." When Theseus came to Crete to kill the Minotaur, Ariadne fell in love with him and gave him a ball of twine to help him navigate the Labyrinth. Ariadne and Theseus left Crete together, but he later abandoned her on the island of Naxos where she was saved by Dionysus, whom she married. Her wedding diadem was placed in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis.

1896 Summer (Athens, Greece)

The first edition of the modern Olympics was the brainchild of Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France; winners were awarded silver medals. Some of the stranger events included one-handed weightlifting and 100-meter freestyle swimming for members of the Greek navy. Appropriately, Greek shepherd Spiridon Louis became the hero of the Games by winning the marathon.

Beaufort Wind Force Scale

The first official use of the Beaufort scale was on the voyage of the HMS Beagle in 1831, which was led by Robert FitzRoy, who had been trained by the scale's namesake, Sir Francis Beaufort, a rear admiral in the British Navy. The Beaufort scale is primarily based on wind speed, but also incorporates descriptions of wave height, sea conditions, and land conditions. It starts at 0, corresponding to "calm" winds with a speed less than 1 knot. In most parts of the world, it stops at 12, which is designated "hurricane-force winds." Scores of 2 to 6 are called "breezes," and scores of 7 to 10 are called "gales." Since 1946 the median wind speed for each step has been defined as 1.87 B^(3/2), where B is the number on the Beaufort scale.

Battle of Cannae

The largest battle of the Second Punic War, fought in 216 BC. It represented one of the worst defeats in Roman history. The Carthaginians were led by Hannibal, while the Romans were led by the consuls Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. Hannibal employed a double-envelopment tactic, surrounded the Roman army, and destroyed it. Although a total disaster for the Romans, it resulted in the revival of the Fabian Strategy, in which battles are avoided in favor of a war of attrition. This eventually wore down Hannibal's army, and the Carthaginians had to leave Italy.

Thebes

The main city of Boeotia, a region of the southern Greek mainland just west of Attica. Thebes allied with Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, but the two cities quickly became enemies following the war. Thebes established the Sacred Band, an elite force of three hundred soldiers consisting of pairs of male lovers, and broke the hegemony of Sparta at the 371 BC Battle of Leuctra. However, Thebes fell from power quickly, fighting on the losing side at the 338 BC Battle of Chaeronea against the Macedonians led by Philip II, and the city was destroyed three years later by Alexander the Great following an unsuccessful revolt.

The Lakota Sioux

The preeminent tribe of the northern Great Plains for most of the 19th century. They drove smaller tribes out of the Black Hills and had their territory recognized by the United States in two Treaties of Fort Laramie. When American prospectors invaded the Black Hills, the Sioux fought back. With their allies the Cheyenne and Arapaho, the Sioux—led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse—wiped out a U.S. cavalry force led by George Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Later, in the 1890s, a religious movement called the Ghost Dance spread among the Sioux. While trying to suppress it, U.S. forces slaughtered Sioux civilians in the Wounded Knee massacre.

Requiem

Mozart's Requiem, K. 626, was his last composition; it was anonymously commissioned by the Count von Walsegg. Mozart died before he could finish it; many musicians have completed it, including Mozart's student Franz Xaver Süssmayr, and more recently Richard Maunder and Robert Levin. The scoring is notably for low-timbered instruments, omitting oboes and flutes and substituting basset horns for clarinets. The theme of the "Kyrie" was taken from "And With His Stripes We Are Healed," a chorus from Handel's Messiah. After the dramatic "Dies Irae," the "Tuba Mirum" begins with a trombone solo. The circumstances surrounding Mozart's death remain mysterious, and the (unfounded) rumor that Antonio Salieri murdered him gave rise to the Aleksandr Pushkin play Mozart and Salieri, which in turn inspired a Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov opera and Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, which became an Academy Award-winning film.

Gregory VII

(1025 - 1085; r. 1073 - 1085) Excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy. Henry sought absolution from the pope by walking barefoot through the snow to the village of Canossa.

Marie and Pierre Curie

(1867 - 1945, 1859 - 1906) Rigorously isolated and experimented on radioactive materials, forming the basis for early nuclear and particle physics

Milton Friedman

(1912 - 2006, American) Conservative thinker famous for his advocacy of monetarism (a revision of the quantity theory of money) in works like A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (1963). He is strongly associated with the ideals of laissez-faire government policy.

Hellmuth Walter

Designed the Starthilfe (takeoff assist) rocket propulsion units for the Messerschmitt Me 163 and the vertical-takeoff Bachem Ba 349 aircrafts, used by the German Luftwaffe in World War II. He also was awarded a patent in 1925 for suggesting that a catalyzed decomposition of hydrogen peroxide could provide oxygen for combustion.

Emmeline Pankhurst

Pankhurst was the most prominent advocate for women's voting rights in the United Kingdom. As one of the founders of the Women's Social and Political Union, she called for direct action and frequent protests to force male politicians to grant votes to women. Her protests frequently got her arrested, and while in jail she and other suffragettes often went on hunger strikes. Initially, prison officials brutally force-fed the hunger-striking suffragettes. In 1913, Parliament passed the Cat and Mouse Act, which provided for hunger strikers to be released from jail and re-arrested after they regained their health. As a result of the advocacy of Pankhurst and others, Parliament began to grant voting rights to women in 1918.

Fletcher v Peck

(1810, 6 - 0) In 1795 the Georgia legislature corruptly sold land along the Yazoo River (now in Mississippi) to private citizens in exchange for bribes. The legislators were mostly defeated in the next elections and the incoming politicians voided the sales. In the meantime, John Peck sold some of the land in question to Robert Fletcher, who then sued him, claiming that he did not have a clear title. The Supreme Court held that the state legislature did not have the power to repeal the sale. This was one of the earliest cases in which the Supreme Court struck down a state law.

William H Seward

(1861 - 1869, Lincoln and Johnson) Seward wanted to resign prior to Lincoln's inauguration, but the request was denied. Prior to the purchase of Alaska ("Seward's Folly"), he helped set the conditions that ended the Atlantic slave trade in the Lyons-Seward treaty between the U.S. and U.K. He survived an assassination attempt the night Lincoln was shot. The purchase of Alaska was completed on March 30, 1867 for close to two cents an acre from Russia.

David Lloyd George

(1863 - 1945, PM 1916 - 1922) A native Welsh speaker who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Asquith. Taking control during World War I, he represented the U.K. at the Paris Peace Conference, leading to the Treaty of Versailles. After the war he split the Liberal Party by aiming to continue the coalition government together with the Conservative Bonar Law; the coalition collapsed after embarrassment over the independence of Ireland and a scandal over the sale of honors.

Robert Millikan

(1868 - 1953) Determined the charge of the electron by meticulously observing oil droplets in an electric field and noting the time it took them to fall a certain distance

John Maynard Keynes

(1883 - 1946, English) He is most famous for The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), which judged most of classical economic analysis to be a special case (hence "General Theory") and argued that the best way to deal with prolonged recessions was deficit spending.

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986) An Argentine author known for his philosophical stories. In "The Library of Babel," the narrator's universe is made of adjacent hexagonal rooms, forming a library containing all possible 410-page books consisting of 25 basic characters. Another story by Borges, "The Garden of Forking Paths," is framed as a manuscript written by Doctor Yu Tsun, a World War I spy, who is pursued by Richard Madden. He realizes that the title labyrinth is actually an unfinished novel, and eventually shoots Stephen Albert to communicate the location of a British artillery park. Those two stories appear along with "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" in Borges's collection Ficciones. Borges also wrote "The Aleph," whose title location contains all other points in space.

Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky

(1911) Petrushka has a framing story with opening and closing scenes at a Shrovetide fair. The main story is about three puppets: Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor, who are brought to life by the Magician (in some translations, the Charlatan). Petrushka falls in love with the Ballerina, who is smitten with the Moor. The love triangle ends with the Moor killing Petrushka with an axe after the "Dance of the Wet-Nurses" and the "Dance of the Peasant and Bear." The Magician claims that no harm was done, since Petrushka is only a puppet, but at the ballet's end Petrushka's ghost appears and haunts the Magician. Musically, it is most famous for its "Petrushka chord," a dissonant combination of C-major and F-sharp-major triads played by the clarinets.

Hammer v Dagenhart

(1918, 5 - 4) The Keating-Owen Act prohibited the interstate sale of goods produced by child labor, leading Roland Dagenhart to sue U.S. attorney W. C. Hammer in Charlotte since his two sons would be put out of work. The court ruled that the federal government did not have the right to regulate child labor; Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote a notable dissent focusing on the lack of proper state regulation. The case was overturned by the 1941 case U.S. v. Darby Lumber Company case upholding the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Fantasia

(1940) Walt Disney animated film consisting of eight animated story segments overlaid with classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski and performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Fantasia's soundtrack, which includes Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and The Rite of Spring, was the first to be produced in stereoscopic sound (i.e., "in stereo"). The marquee segment of Fantasia is The Sorcerer's Apprentice, in which Mickey Mouse magically summons a horde of dancing brooms in the castle of the wizard Yen Sid ("Disney" spelled backwards). A portion of Fantasia in which a black centaur buffs the hooves of a white centaur was edited out in 1969 before the film's re-release. A sequel, Fantasia 2000, was released in 1999.

Super Mario

The character Mario first appeared in the arcade game Donkey Kong, in which he was originally named "Jumpman." Created by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario has since appeared in over 200 games, including the iconic Super Mario Bros., which launched with the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. Mario, along with his brother Luigi, his nemesis Bowser, and his allies Yoshi, Princess Peach, and Toad, have also appeared in numerous spinoff series like Mario Kart, Mario Tennis, Paper Mario, and Super Smash Bros.

David Foster Wallace

(1962 - 2008) An American author. His massive 1996 novel Infinite Jest depicts a future North America in which years are named after corporate products. The novel is set mainly at the Ennet House Drug and Alcohol Recovery House and the Enfield Tennis Academy (where Hal Incandenza is a student). Hal's father, James, directs "the Entertainment," a dangerously enthralling film sought by Quebeçois terrorists known as the Wheelchair Assassins. Wallace's other novels are The Broom of the System and The Pale King, the latter of which was left unfinished at his 2008 suicide. Wallace is also known for his essay collections, including Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again.

Baker v Carr

(1962, 6 - 2) Charles W. Baker, a Tennessee citizen, sued the Tennessee secretary of state, Joe Carr, claiming that the state's electoral districts had been drawn to grossly favor one political party. The defendant argued that reapportionment issues were political, not judicial, matters, but the court disagreed and declared the issue justiciable before remanding the case to a lower court. Two years later, in Reynolds v. Sims, the court mandated the principle of "one man, one vote."

The "I Have a Dream" Speech

(1963) Delivered by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. King began his oration by calling the promise of the Declaration of Independence a "bad check" given to African Americans and urging action "until justice rolls down like waters." After singer Mahalia Jackson encouraged him to "tell them about the dream," King described his vision of former slaves and slaveholders sitting "at the table of brotherhood" and of his children being judged by "the content of their character" rather than by their race. The speech concluded by proclaiming "free at last, Great God almighty, we are free at last."

2000

The closest election in American history. Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to George W. Bush by a final count of 271—266 (one Gore elector abstained). Ralph Nader of the Green Party won an important 2.7% of the vote, while Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party placed fourth. New Mexico and Oregon were initially too close to call but went to Gore, and Florida became the center of attention. Ballot confusion in Palm Beach County, intimidation of vote recounters in Miami-Dade County, and absentee ballots throughout Florida became significant issues, as Americans had to hear about butterfly ballots, hanging chads, and Florida Secretary of State Katharine Harris for the next five weeks. Gore officially conceded the election on December 13, 2000.

Les Miserables

(Alain Boublil, 1985) A partial retelling of the Victor Hugo novel of the same name, this work follows Jean Valjean, who was convicted of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving niece. He breaks his parole and is doggedly pursued by Inspector Javert. Several years later, the lives of Valjean, his adopted daughter Cosette, her lover Marius and his unrequited admirer Éponine, and Javert become intertwined on the barricades of an 1832 student rebellion in Paris. The longest-running show on London's West End, it features the songs "I Dreamed a Dream,", "Castle on a Cloud," "Master of the House," "Do You Hear the People Sing?", "One Day More," and "On My Own."

Don Mattingly

(Born 1961, first base) The best first baseman in baseball for most of the 1980's. He holds the major league record for most grand slams in a season (6 in 1987, tied by Travis Hafner in 2006). He twice led the league in hits (1984 and 1985), won the league batting title by edging out teammate Dave Winfield on the final day of the 1984 season, and drove in the most runs in 1985 to win the MVP award. "Donnie Baseball" also won nine Gold Gloves, but World Series glory eluded "the Hitman." His Yankees never played in the Fall Classic. He managed the Dodgers from 2011 to 2015, and as of 2016 is the manager of the Marlins.

Battle of the Bulge

(December 1944 - January 1945) The Battle of the Bulge resulted from Germany's last major offensive operation on the Western Front. The German plan to sweep through the Ardennes Forest and capture the port city Antwerp, Belgium, benefited from Allied aircraft being grounded due to poor weather. During the battle, English-speaking German troops under Otto Skorzeny attempted to disguise themselves as Allied troops and infiltrate enemy lines. German forces also besieged the Belgian town Bastogne and requested its surrender, to which U.S. Army Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe replied "Nuts!"; the siege was eventually lifted by forces commanded by George Patton.

Plantagenet

(England, 1154 - 1399) The Plantagenets rose to power when Geoffrey V of Anjou married Matilda, and their rule ended when Richard II was deposed in 1399. Some of their notable rulers included Richard I, John, and Edward I. The signing of the Magna Carta, the English conquest of Wales, and the beginning of the Hundred Years' War all occurred during their reign. The houses of Lancaster and York were cadet branches (new royal houses formed by non-inheriting members) of the Plantagenets.

Battle of Iwo Jima

(February 1945 - March 1945) The Allies sought to capture Iwo Jima, a small island midway between the Mariana Islands and the Japanese home islands, to provide an airbase for the eventual invasion of Japan. Under the leadership of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the island's defenders built a complex network of underground tunnels and well-camouflaged artillery pieces that enabled them to hold out for a month against vastly superior forces. The battle is best known for Joe Rosenthal's photograph showing six American servicemen raising a flag atop Mount Suribachi.

Battle of the Coral Sea

(Mary 1942) Resulting from a Japanese plan to capture Port Moresby, New Guinea, the Battle of the Coral Sea was fought entirely by carrier-based aircraft, making it the first major naval battle in history in which the two opposing fleets never directly fired upon (or even sighted) each other. The U.S. Navy's carrier Lexington was sunk, and the Yorktown heavily damaged, while the Japanese navy lost the light carrier Shoho and saw its large carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku damaged. Ultimately, the invasion of Port Moresby was cancelled and the temporary loss of two Japanese carriers gave the U.S. an edge at the subsequent Battle of Midway.

The Marriage of Figaro

(Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1786) Figaro and Susanna are servants of Count Almaviva who plan to marry, but this plan is complicated by the older Marcellina who wants to wed Figaro, the Count — who has made unwanted advances to Susanna —, and Don Bartolo, who has a loan that Figaro has sworn he will repay before he marries. The issues are resolved with a series of complicated schemes that involve impersonating other characters, including the page Cherubino. The opera is based on a comedy by Pierre de Beaumarchais. Many of the same characters also appear in The Barber of Seville!

Alexander Fleming

(Won in 1945) Made the accidental discovery of the antibiotic penicillin after haphazardly stacking Petri dishes in the corner of his notoriously untidy laboratory. He noticed that one culture of the Staphylococcus that he was studying had developed a fungus that destroyed all the nearby colonies of bacteria. After developing the mold in a culture of its own, he discovered that it produced a "mold juice," later called penicillin, that killed a number of disease-causing bacteria. Although Fleming originally believed penicillin to be too slow-acting to have any positive therapeutic effect, it formed the basis for beta-lactam antibiotics, which are still effective in many medical cases today.

Diode

A diode permits the flow of current in only one direction. Ideally, a diode permits any amount of current in one direction but has a very high resistance to current in the opposite direction. In practice, there is a minimum voltage that must be provided before current will flow, called the bias voltage, and there is a voltage past which the resistance of the diode reduces and current flows backward, called the breakdown voltage. In a Zener diode, the breakdown voltage is well-defined with as sharp a transition as possible, so engineers can design a circuit around the breakdown voltage characteristic.

Micas

A group of silicate minerals known for their perfect basal cleavage, meaning they can easily split into thin, parallel sheets. Common varieties of mica include black biotite and transparent muscovite. Mica is often found in igneous rocks called pegmatites and also serves as the main constituent of the metamorphic rock schist. Micas generally have a Mohs hardness between three and four.

Feldspars

A group of silicate minerals that are the most abundant minerals in the Earth's crust. Feldspars are categorized based on whether they contain potassium (orthoclase) or sodium and calcium (plagioclase). The continuous branch of Bowen's reaction series covers the transition from calcium-rich to sodium-rich plagioclases. Orthoclase defines hardness six on the Mohs scale.

Delaware River

A historically significant river of the eastern United States. From its source in the Catskills, the Delaware flows 301 miles, forming the border between Delaware and New Jersey. The Delaware flows past Trenton, New Jersey and Philadelphia, where it receives the Schuylkill River before emptying into the Atlantic. George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night in 1776 to surprise the Hessians at the Battle of Trenton.

Bernardo O'Higgins

A leader of Chilean independence, was the illegitimate son of an Irish-Spanish officer and a Chilean mother. His early attempt at rebellion against the Spanish crown ended in defeat at Rancagua in 1813, after which he went into exile in Argentina. O'Higgins returned to Chile with San Martín in 1817, and served as that country's Supreme Director until 1823.

Harold Edgerton

A longtime member of the MIT faculty, he gained the nickname "Papa Flash" for developing techniques to capture fast-moving events using synchronized multiflash photography, with the help of a previously-obscure piece of lab equipment called the stroboscope.

Key

A piece of music's key is the "home" scale of the work. The key is most often indicated by the work's key signature, a collection of sharps or flats that appears at the beginning of the work and on each subsequent line of music (a list of key signatures may be found here). A pair of keys may be parallel (beginning on the same pitch, e.g., C major and C minor), or relative (having the same key signature, e.g., C major and A minor). Most works of music between the Baroque and Romantic periods end in the same key as they begin, with the exception that works that start in a minor key may end in the parallel major. A work's key is often used as a descriptor in its title (e.g. Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor).

Delphi

A sacred site on the Greek mainland, which the Greeks thought was the center of the world. A major temple to Apollo at Delphi housed the Oracle of Delphi, a priestess known as the Pythia (a title that commemorates Apollo's slaying of the snake Python at Delphi). Every four years, Delphi hosted the Panhellenic Pythian Games, which were second only to the Olympic Games in importance.

Programming Language

A way to write algorithms and other instructions in a way that can (usually after additional steps) be understood and executed by a computer. Almost all programming languages have ways of defining variables, which hold data, and functions, which are sets of instructions that achieve some task (such as performing an algorithm). Java, JavaScript (which is not the same as Java), C, C++, and Python are common programming languages. Programming languages can be categorized by their paradigm (which is a general sense of how the code tends to be structured), typing (see below), how they are run (compiled or interpreted), and in other ways.

Platyhelminthes (15,000 Species)

The flatworms are the most primitive phylum to develop from a triploblastic (three-layered) embryo. They have bilateral body symmetry, and are acoelomate (lacking a true body cavity), so that the space between the digestive tract and the body wall is filled with tissue. As the name implies, they are generally flat-bodied. They have a true head and brain, but the digestive system has only one opening, which functions as both mouth and anus. Most are hermaphroditic. This phylum includes parasites such as the tapeworms and flukes, as well as free-living (i.e., non-parasitic) organisms such as the planarians.

Stoicism

Ancient Greek school that idealized freedom from emotions. It was founded by Zeno of Citium, who taught at the "painted porch" in Athens. (The name of the movement derives from the Greek word "stoa," which means "porch.") An important Stoic idea was that of the "pneuma," or the "breath of life," which is the life force that structures matter and the soul. Important thinkers include Epictetus, a slave whose views were recorded by his student Arrian in the Discourses, and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Mustafa Kamal Ataturk

The founder of the modern Republic of Turkey and the country's first president. He rose to prominence as a commander of Ottoman forces at the Battle of Gallipoli during World War I. After the war, he dissolved the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic caliphate and created a secular nationalist state based in Ankara. Among the reforms Atatürk initiated were a Hat Law replacing the fez with Western-style hats, the adoption of family surnames, and use of the Latin alphabet for the written Turkish language.

Norns

The goddesses of destiny, represented as the three sisters Urd (or Wyrd), Verdandi (or Verthandi), and Skuld. The counterparts of the Greek Fates, they tend the Well of Fate at the roots of Yggdrasil.

Battle of Aegospotami

Fought in 480 BC on the Hellespont (Dardanelles) ending the Peloponnesian War and the Athenian Empire. After a setback at the Battle of Arginusae in 406 BC, the Spartans reinstated Lysander as the commander of their fleet. The result was a complete victory for Sparta; only a fraction of the Athenian fleet survived, including the general Conon, and the ship Paralus, which brought the news of defeat to Athens. Following the battle, the Spartans besieged Athens and forced its surrender.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

His interest in science manifested first through his science fiction writings, but he gained more notoriety for his eponymous rocket equation. The Tsiolkovsky equation, as published in 1903's Exploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Device, relates a rocket's speed with its mass, the speed of its exhaust, and the exhaust's mass (an application of Newton's laws of motion.) The equation is also connected with the idea of specific impulse, a measure of a rocket's efficiency. Tsiolkovsky also published theoretical studies on the capabilities of multi-stage, liquid-fueled engines, gyroscopes, and escape velocities.

Rijksmuseum

Located in Amsterdam, this is the national museum of the Netherlands. Currently housed in a Gothic Revival building designed by PJH Cuypers and completed in 1885, its most distinguished works include Rembradnt's Night Watch, Franz Hals's The Merry Drinker, and Jan Vermeer's The Milkmaid.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Miller chose the 1692 Salem witch trials as his setting, but the work is really an allegorical protest against the McCarthy anti-Communist "witch-hunts" of the early 1950s. In the story, Elizabeth Proctor fires the servant Abigail Williams after she finds out Abigail had an affair with her husband. In response, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft. She stands trial and is acquitted, but then another girl accuses her husband, John, and as he refuses to turn in others, he is killed, along with the old comic figure, Giles Corey. Also notable: Judge Hathorne is a direct ancestor of the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

James Cook

On his first voyage (1768-1771), Captain Cook sailed aboard the Endeavour to observe the transit of the planet Venus from Tahiti. From there he went to New Zealand (discovering that it was two islands by sailing through what is now called the Cook Strait), then to Australia's Botany Bay. On his second voyage (1772-1775), Cook sailed aboard the Resolution and became the first to cross the Antarctic Circle. On his third voyage (1776-1779), Cook failed to find the Northwest Passage and was killed when he came into conflict with the inhabitants of Hawaii.

Potomac River

One of America's most historic waterways. Rising at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia, the Potomac runs 405 miles, forming the border between Virginia and Maryland. Washington, D.C. was sited on the Potomac at its confluence with the Anacostia River. George Washington's plantation Mount Vernon was on the Potomac, while Robert E. Lee's two invasions north of the Potomac were major events of the Civil War.

Leptons

One of the classes of "fundamental particles" (meaning that they cannot be broken down into smaller particles). There are six "flavors" of leptons: the electron, the muon, the tauon, the electron neutrino (usually just called "the neutrino"), the muon neutrino, and the tauon neutrino. The three neutrinos are neutral and nearly massless (they were once thought to be entirely massless), while the other three have a charge of -1. All neutrinos are fermions, and the total number of leptons is always conserved (counting regular leptons as +1 particle and anti-leptons as -1 particle). The word "lepton" comes from the Greek for "light" (the opposite of "heavy," not illumination), even though the muon and tauon are relatively massive.

Lernaean Hydra

One of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. The Hydra was a multi-headed water serpent that breathed poisonous gas and had toxic blood, and every time one head was cut off, two more grew back in its place. The Hydra dwelled in the Spring of Amymone in the swamp or lake of Lerna near the Peloponnese, beneath which was said to be an entrance to the Underworld. The Hydra was killed by Heracles as his second labor for Eurystheus during a battle in which Heracles' nephew Iolaus provided aid by cauterizing the neck stumps after Heracles cut each head off, preventing additional heads from growing back. After killing the monster, Heracles dipped his arrows in the Hydra's blood; the poisoned arrows were later used against the Stymphalian Birds, Geryon, and the centaur Nessus.

Elbe

Rising in the Krkonose Mountains of the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic, the river flows near Prague, then enters eastern Germany and flows northwest to the North Sea. It receives the Vltava (or Moldau), the Saale, and the Havel/Spree, and the many large cities on its course include Dresden, Dessau, Magdeburg, Wittenberg, and Hamburg. Like the Oder, the Elbe has been a key transportation route for many centuries.

The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman

Set on a plantation in 1900, Hellman attempts to show that by this time any notion of antebellum Southern gentility has been destroyed by modern capitalism and industrialism. Three Hubbard siblings (Regina and her two brothers) scheme to earn vast riches at the expense of other family members, such as Regina's husband Horace and their daughter Alexandra. The title is taken from the Old Testament Song of Solomon: "the little foxes that spoil the vines."

Salvador Allende

The President of Chile from 1970 to 1973. Allende was the first Marxist head of state to be democratically elected in Latin America. His policies of collectivization and nationalization angered conservatives, and Allende was overthrown and killed in a 1973 coup supported by the CIA. Allende had survived a coup called El Tanquetazo earlier in 1973.

Abraj Al-Bait (Mecca, Dar Al-Handasah and SL Rasch, 2011)

The Saudi government funded construction of the Abraj Al-Bait complex, a set of seven massive hotels whose central tower reaches a height of 1,972 feet. The complex overlooks the Great Mosque of Mecca, which contains the Kaaba (the holiest place in Islam) and was built to offer modern accommodations to Muslims participating in the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. The Abraj Al-Bait, whose name means "Tower of the House" in Arabic, contains the world's largest clock face (over 140 feet in diameter) and as of 2019 is the world's most expensive building, with construction costs exceeding $15 billion. The complex was built by the Saudi Binladin Group, a company founded by Osama bin Laden's father.

Seljuk

The Seljuks were a family of Ghuzz Turks who invaded the Middle East in the eleventh century and came to control the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. Following their defeat of the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, they settled in Anatolia as well, where they founded the Sultanate of Rum. Following the Central Asian model of "collective sovereignty," they divided territory among the ruling family, which prevented strong political unity. Their rule saw the beginning of the Sunni revival and the spread of religious schools called madrasas in the Islamic world, giving uniformity to elite beliefs and practices. By 1200 their power was all but extinct.

Gottfried Leibniz

(1646 - 1716, German) Known for his independent invention of calculus and the ensuing priority dispute with Isaac Newton. Most modern calculus notation, including the integral sign and the use of d to indicate a differential, originated with Leibniz. He also did work with the binary number system and did fundamental work in establishing boolean algebra and symbolic logic.

Neville Chamberlain

(PM 1937 - 1940) Signer of the Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, and promised "peace for our time" with a policy of appeasement. British military failures in 1940 led to his replacement by Churchill.

The Family Quarrel of Osiris and Set

Osiris took Isis, his sister, for his wife, and ruled over the earth. Set grew jealous of his brother and killed him, afterwards cutting his body into fourteen pieces and hiding them in various places around Egypt. He then claimed kingship over the land. Isis searched the breadth of the land until she had recovered all of the pieces and, with the help of Anubis, embalmed the body. She conceived a son, Horus, by the (still dead) Osiris, then resurrected him. Horus defeated Set to regain the kingship, and all subsequent pharaohs were said to be aspects of him.

pH Scale

The pH scale, developed by S. P. L. Sørensen in 1909, is used to quantify acidity. The pH (power of hydrogen) of a solution is defined as the opposite of the (base-10) logarithm of the concentration of protons in a solution: pH = -log10[H+]. (The brackets are standard notation in chemistry for "the concentration of.") Thus, greater concentrations of protons correspond to smaller pH values. At 25°C, the neutral (neither acidic nor basic) pH is 7; solutions with a pH less than 7 are considered acidic, and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are considered basic.

Nematoda (15,000 Species)

The roundworms are unsegmented worms that live in a variety of habitats. They are pseudocoelomate; the three tissue layers are concentric, but the body cavity is not lined with tissue derived from the mesoderm (middle embryonic layer). They include both free-living and parasitic species; human parasites include hookworms and the causative agents of elephantiasis, trichinosis, and river blindness. Soil nematodes may be crop pests, while others are beneficial predators on other plant pests. The nematode species Caenorhabdis elegans is a common subject in genetics and developmental-biology labs.

Eero Saarinen

The son of architect Eliel Saarinen, Eero was born in Finland but spent most of his life in the U.S. and died in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He designed many buildings on the campuses of MIT and Yale, as well as Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. and the TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Saarinen may be best known for designing the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, though he died before it was completed. Many of his works are characterized by elegant, sweeping forms, such as the Kresge Auditorium at MIT.

Krishna

This eighth avatar of Vishnu is born when Vishnu plucks two of his own hairs — one light, one dark — and uses the dark hair to impregnate Devaki. Her husband Vasudeva saves Krishna from evil King Kansa by carrying him across the river Yamuna to safety in Gokula. Krishna can be depicted as a child, adolescent, or adult. As an infant, he plays pranks such as stealing butter. As a youthful lover, he plays the flute and dances with the gopis (cow-maidens) in the Vrindavana forest. As an adult, he is a dark-skinned warrior with a light, angelic face, charioteer to Arjuna (in the Mahabharata). In the Bhagavad-Gita it is he who reveals the importance of dharma and bhakti. His consort is the cowherd girl Radha.

Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill

This play is really a trilogy, consisting of "Homecoming," "The Hunted," and "The Haunted." Though it is set in post-Civil War New England, O'Neill used Aeschylus's tragedy The Oresteia as the basis for the plot. Lavinia Mannon desires revenge against her mother, Christine, who with the help of her lover Adam Brant has poisoned Lavinia's father Ezra; Lavinia persuades her brother Orin to kill Brant. A distressed Christine commits suicide, and, after Orin and Lavinia flee to the South Seas, Orin cannot stand the guilt and kills himself as well, leaving Lavinia in the house alone.

Ajax

This prince of Salamis is the son of Telamon. He once fights all afternoon in single combat with Hector; since neither one can decisively wound the other, they part as friends. Ajax's most glorious achievement is fighting the Trojans back from the ships almost single handedly. He commits suicide after the armor of Achilles is awarded to Odysseus rather than to himself.

Benito Juárez

(1806 - 1872) A Liberal lawyer who became the first indigenous president of Mexico, and who led the opposition to the French-backed empire of Maximilian von Habsburg. Born to a Zapotec family in the state of Oaxaca, Juárez became a key figure in the Liberal movement that deposed Santa Anna, and which initiated legal and social changes known as La Reforma ("the Reform"). An 1855 law named after Juárez sought to eliminate special privileges given to members of the church and military, and was incorporated into a new constitution ratified in 1857. Conservative backlash soon led to the War of the Reform, which lasted from 1857 to 1861, and left the victorious Liberals with little money in the national treasury. France's emperor Napoleon III then used Mexico's foreign debts as a pretext for an invasion known as the "French Intervention," which briefly imposed the Austrian archduke Maximilian as Mexico's second emperor. As the elected president of Mexico, Juárez evaded capture by French and imperial troops while rallying Republican forces. After the departure of the French, Liberal troops captured and executed Maximilian on the Hill of the Bells in the city of Querétaro. Juárez returned to Mexico City, and remained president until his death.

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, "Emperor", Op. 73

(1809 - 1810) The "Emperor" concerto, composed near the end of Beethoven's "heroic decade," is the last concerto of any type that he completed. Beethoven defies traditional concerto structure in the opening movement by placing the most significant solo material for the piano at the beginning of the movement, rather than near its end. Beethoven did not give the work its title; it was first dubbed "Emperor" by Johann Cramer, who first published the work in England. The "Emperor," which was premiered by pianist Friedrich Schneider, is the only one of Beethoven's piano concertos that the composer himself never performed publicly.

Edgar Allan Poe

(1809 - 1849) An American author known for his works in the detective fiction, science fiction, and horror genres. In "The Cask of Amontillado," the narrator, Montresor, lures Fortunato into catacombs with the promise of the title wine, but ends up chaining Fortunato to a wall and burying him alive due to unnamed "insults." Poe also wrote "The Tell-Tale Heart," in which an unnamed narrator murders an old man with a "vulture-eye" and buries him beneath his floorboards. However, while being questioned by police, the guilty narrator hears the constant beating of his victim's heart, and orders them to "tear up the planks" to reveal the body. Other short stories by Poe include "The Gold-Bug," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Fall of the House of Usher."

Adams-Onis Treaty

(1819) Settled a boundary dispute between the U.S. and Spain that arose following the Louisiana Purchase. It was negotiated by then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and most notably sold Florida to the U.S. in exchange for the payment of its citizens' claims against Spain. It also delineated the U.S.-Spain border to the Pacific Ocean leading to its alternate name, the Transcontinental Treaty.

Gibbons v Ogden

(1824, 6 - 0) Thomas Gibbons and Aaron Ogden were partners in a steamboat business that ferried people between New York and New Jersey. Ogden had purchased a license granting him a monopoly under New York law. After the partners suffered a disagreement and split up, Gibbons applied for and received a federal permit to run a similar business. Ogden sued Gibbons for violating Ogden's monopoly. In a unanimous decision, Marshall held that Congress' interstate regulatory power under the Commerce Clause had "no limitations other than are prescribed in the Constitution." Gibbons' federal permit trumped Ogden's state-granted monopoly.

David Copperfield

(1850) Dickens's favorite of his own books, and the most autobiographical. After David's father dies, his mother marries the cruel Mr. Murdstone. David is sent to a school where he is tormented by the headmaster Creakle, but finds comfort in his friendships with Tommy Traddles and James Steerforth. While working in London, David befriends the optimistic but indebted Mr. Micawber. Eventually, David escapes his grim warehouse job by walking to Dover. There, he finds his great-aunt Betsey Trotwood, who arranges for David to be educated by the lawyer Mr. Wickfield. David keeps in touch with his old nurse Clara Peggotty, whose relative "Little Em'ly" is seduced and abandoned by David's former friend Steerforth. Youthful infatuation causes David to wed the flighty Dora Spenlow, who eventually dies. After helping to extricate Mr. Wickfield from the schemes of the "humble" clerk Uriah Heep, David marries Mr. Wickfield's daughter Agnes. Throughout the story, David progresses in the literary world, ultimately becoming a successful novelist.

HH Asquith

(1852 - 1928, PM 1908 - 1916) Liberal Prime Minister who made sweeping reforms, including limiting the power of the unelected House of Lords with the Parliament Act in order to introduce the "People's Budget" of 1911, which established state pensions. Not a successful wartime leader, Asquith lost control of a coalition government during World War I and was forced to resign in favor of David Lloyd George.

Bleak House

(1853) This novel revolves around the Chancery case Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which has dragged on for many years as family members fight over an inheritance. The title home (which is actually pleasant, rather than bleak) is owned by John Jarndyce, who cares for his young relatives Richard Carstone and Ada Clare. Ada has a companion named Esther Summerson, who narrates much of the novel, and is Dickens's only female narrator. Esther suffers a severe illness after caring for a sick boy named Jo, and learns that she is the illegitimate daughter of Lady Dedlock. The lawyer Mr. Tulkinghorn discovers Lady Dedlock's secret but is murdered by the maid Hortense, a crime that is investigated by Inspector Bucket. Lady Dedlock dies after fleeing home and the Chancery suit ends, as the disputed inheritance has been totally consumed by court costs. Other memorable characters in the novel include the merchant Krook, who dies of spontaneous human combustion; Mrs. Jellyby, who busies herself with charitable causes but neglects her own family, and Horace Skimpole, whose blithe irresponsibility burdens others.

Hard Times

(1854) Thomas Gradgrind is a fact-obsessed utilitarian from Coketown, in the north of England. He superintends a school whose students include an ambitious boy named Bitzer, and Sissy Jupe, a young member of Mr. Sleary's traveling circus. Mr. Gradgrind arranges for his daughter Louisa to marry Josiah Bounderby, an unpleasant older banker who employs Mr. Grandgrind's son, Tom. The politician James Harthouse tries to seduce Louisa, who returns home to her father and causes him to see the error of his ways. Tom Gradgrind steals from Mr. Bounderby, unsuccessfully tries to frame a worker named Stephen Blackpool, and flees to America.

Sigmund Freud

(1856 - 1939, Austrian) Sigmund Freud founded the extremely influential discipline psychoanalysis, which used the free-association technique to identify fears and repressed memories. He argued that many problems were caused by mental states rather than by biochemical dysfunction — a purely materialist viewpoint then in vogue. He separated the psyche into the id (illogical passion), ego (rational thought), and superego (moral and social conscience). His best-known works are The Interpretation of Dreams and The Psychopathology of Everyday Life.

Dred Scott v Sandford

(1857, 7 - 2) Dred Scott was a slave purchased by John Emerson in the 1820s, and who at various points lived in Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, both of which prohibited slavery. In 1853, Scott sued his then-owner John Sanford for his freedom. The Supreme Court ruled that no African-American — slave or free — was a citizen of the United States, and that therefore Scott lacked standing to initiate a lawsuit in the first place. In addition, the Court found the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional, holding that Congress lacked authority to prohibit slavery in any new territory that was not originally part of the United States.

Ralph Vaughan Williams

(1872 - 1958) Best known for reviving the Tudor style and folk traditions in English music, as exemplified in his Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (1909). Vaughan Williams completed nine symphonies, the foremost his Second (London) in 1914; other principal symphonies included the First (Sea), Third (Pastoral) and Seventh (Sinfonia Antarctica). His orchestral work The Lark Ascending was based on a George Meredith poem, while Sir John in Love (1924) was a Shakespearean opera that featured the "Fantasia on Greensleeves." Hugh the Drover and The Pilgrim's Progress are other major Vaughan Williams operas.

Igor Stravinsky

(1882 - 1971) He studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and completed two grand ballets for Sergei Diaghilev: The Firebird and Petrushka. His Paris premiere of The Rite of Spring (1913), however, is what inaugurated music's Modern era. A pagan story featuring polytonal music, The Rite of Spring shocked the audience so much that riots ensued, leading a stunned Stravinsky to pursue rational, "neoclassical" music, such as his Symphony of Psalms. In 1940 he moved to Hollywood, where he composed his one full-length opera, The Rake's Progress, with libretto by W. H. Auden. Late in life, he adopted the serialist, twelve-tone style of Anton Webern, producing the abstract ballet Agon (1957).

Erwin Schrodinger

(1887 - 1961) Schrödinger contributed to the early formulations of quantum theory as a foil to Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, and Paul Dirac, criticizing their Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics with thought experiments like his famous Schrödinger's Cat argument. He formulated both the time-independent and time-dependent Schrödinger equations, which are partial differential equations that describe how quantum systems behave. Schrödinger's work was the basis for Heisenberg's matrix formalism, Feynman's path-integral formalism, and quantum mechanical perturbation theory, which considers the effects of a small disturbance to a quantum system.

Michelson-Morley Experiment

(1887) Conducted by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University. It disproved the existence of the luminiferous aether, a hypothetical medium through which light waves supposedly moved. (The aether is sometimes called simply "ether," but is not to be confused with ethers from organic chemistry.) The experiment used an interferometer, a device that splits a beam of light and aims it using mirrors to allow the beam to interfere with itself; the interferometer was mounted on a slab of marble floating in a pool of mercury so that it could turn without friction, to eliminate the possibility that the interferometer was misoriented. While Michelson and Morley expected to find a shift in the interference pattern's fringes as a result of the ether, the experiment showed that the Earth had no motion relative to the ether, suggesting that the ether did not exist. Often called the most famous failed experiment in science, the Michelson-Morley experiment is a fundamental test of special relativity.

Gabriel Mistral

(1889 - 1957) The first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Mistral was actually named Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, but took her pen name from the Italian and French poets Gabriele D'Annunzio and Frédéric Mistral respectively. At first a prominent educator, she wrote "Sonnets of Death" (1914) after the suicide of her fiancé. Those sonnets later appeared in her most famous collection, Desolation (1922). A native Chilean, she served as a diplomat both in the United States and Europe. Langston Hughes translated a portion of Mistral's poetry into English just after she died.

Casey Stengel

(1889 - 1975, manager) He managed the Yankees to ten pennants and seven championships, including a record five in a row from 1949 to 1953. The "Old Perfessor" did not use a set lineup or pitching rotation, instead using a bewildering number of platoon arrangements. Somehow this did not undermine his defense, as Stengel's Yankees lead the league in double plays six times. Remembered as a player for his two game-winning home runs, one an inside-the-parker, against the Yankees in the 1923 World Series, off the field his vaudevillian personality involved him in many famous incidents. When in 1958 he was called in front of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly to testify on why baseball should be exempt from antitrust regulation, he testified with an hour's worth of classic "Stengelese." When the baffled politicians let Stengel go and called on Mickey Mantle to answer their questions, he replied, "My views are about the same as Casey's."

Gunsmoke

(1955 - 1975) With 635 episodes that aired over 20 seasons, Gunsmoke was the longest-running prime-time series in American television history until The Simpsons overtook it. Set in Dodge City, Kansas in the late 19th century, it centered on U.S. marshal Matt Dillon. For several seasons in the early 1960s, it featured a young Burt Reynolds as the blacksmith Quint Asper.

Shirley Chisholm

A Democratic politician from New York who achieved a number of firsts. In 1968, she was the first black woman elected to Congress. In 1972, she became both the first black major-party presidential candidate and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. (Margaret Chase Smith had run for the Republican nomination in 1964.) In 1970, Chisholm gave an acclaimed speech in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Niger River

Africa's third-longest, it flows in a great clockwise arc through Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria before entering the Gulf of Guinea. The medieval Mali and Songhai Empires were centered on the Niger, whose course was mapped by the Scottish explorer Mungo Park in the 1790s. In Nigeria, it receives the Benue River, its main tributary. The massive Niger Delta, known for its fisheries, wildlife, and petroleum, is an area of increasing social unrest.

Battle of Issus

After the Battle of Granicus, this battle - fought in 333 BC - was the second major battle between Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire, and the first to feature Darius III. The battle was fought along the Pinarus River near what is now Iskenderun in Turkey's Hatay province. Before the battle, Darius was able to surprise Alexander and cut him off from the main force of Macedonians. However, the battle ended with Darius fleeing the field and the capture of his tent and family. The battle was the subject of a 1528 painting by Albrecht Altdorfer, the leader of the Danube School.

Zoroaster

An ancient Persian prophet who founded the dualistic religion Zoroastrianism around the 10th century BC. He is said to have had a revelation in which he saw a being who taught him about two primal spirits: a benevolent creator named Ahura Mazda and a malevolent spirit named Angra Mainyu or Ahriman. Zoroaster also learned about the concepts of asha and druj, roughly equivalent to "truth" and "falsehood," and thereafter chose to dedicate his life to promoting asha.

Op-Amp

An op-amp (operational amplifier) is a five-port device that changes a voltage difference across two ports, multiplied by a factor (gain), into a voltage on an output port, using power supplied to two power ports. There are various ways to wire an op-amp, often feeding an output back into an input, to accomplish interesting tasks like subtracting and multiplying voltages. An ideal op-amp is assumed to have infinite gain, so when solving a circuit, the two inputs must reach a point with no voltage difference across them. Real op-amps have finite gain, impedance across their inputs, resistance on their output, and a finite bandwidth or spread of operating frequencies when used with alternating current.

Manfred von Richthofen

Better known as the "Red Baron," Richthofen was credited with shooting down 80 enemy aircraft, making him the top overall ace of World War I. Richthofen's personal command, Jagdgeschwader 1, became known as "Richthofen's Flying Circus" due to the variety of colors used on its planes. Richthofen died on April 21, 1918, when he was shot aboard his red Fokker triplane; though the Royal Air Force credited Canadian ace Roy Brown with the kill, it is more likely that he was brought down by ground fire from Australian troops in the trenches.

USS Chesapeake

Built at what is now the Norfolk Naval Shipyard between 1798 and 1799. The Chesapeake was attacked by the British Leopard off Cape Henry in 1807 (which led to the duel between Commodores James Barron and Stephen Decatur), one of the causes of the War of 1812. She was captured off Boston in 1813 by the British frigate Shannon, on which occasion her commander, Captain James Lawrence, uttered his celebrated dying words, "Don't give up the ship," which have become a tradition in the US Navy.

Hermitage

Founded in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1764 by Catherine the Great, its buildings include the Winter Palace, which was once the residence of Russia's tsars. Its most famous pieces include Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son and Henri Matisse's Red Room.

Euphrates

Defines the western border of Mesopotamia; it also rises in the Zagros Mountains of Turkey and its shores are home to Fallujah and Babylon. It is the longer of the two rivers, with a course of 1,740 miles (compared to the Tigris' 1,180). Both the Tigris and the Euphrates have changed courses several times, leaving ruins in the desert where cities have been abandoned.

Battle of Thermopylae

Fought in 480 BC. It was the first battle of the second Persian invasion of Greece. Although the Persians under Xerxes I and his general Mardonius defeated the Spartans, King Leonidas and his Spartan troops put up a heroic defense of the pass at Thermopylae (the "hot gates"). The Greeks were betrayed by Ephialtes, who told the Persians about a path that led behind the Spartans. The battle was part of Themistocles' plan to halt the advance of the Persians. The other part of his plan was to block the Persian navy at Artemisium; a battle occurred there simultaneously.

Gauge Bosons

Fundamental bosons that carry the forces of nature. That is, forces result from particles emitting and absorbing gauge bosons. The strong nuclear force is carried by gluons, the weak nuclear force is carried by the W, Z-, and Z+ particles, the electromagnetic force is carried by the photon, and gravity is carried by the (as yet unobserved) graviton. The name comes from the role of "gauge theories" in describing the forces (which are beyond the scope of this article).

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Guernica was a Basque town bombed by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War in April 1937. Picasso had already been commissioned to paint a mural for the Spanish Pavilion at the World's Fair, and he completed his massive, black, white, and grey anti-war mural by early June 1937. Picasso's Cubist approach to portraying the figures adds to the sense of destruction and chaos. Guernica was in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York until 1981, when it was returned to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Spain.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Her father's 1940 court fight against racist housing laws provided the basis for Hansberry's play about the Younger family, who attempt to move into an all-white Chicago suburb but are confronted by discrimination. The first play by an African-American woman to be performed on Broadway, it also tore down the racial stereotyping found in other works of the time. The title comes from the Langston Hughes poem "Harlem" (often called "A Dream Deferred").

Sphinx

Identified in the Theogony as "Phix," it was a hybrid monster whose parentage varies widely from source to source. She was a lion-bodied, winged monster with the face of a human, who terrorized the city of Thebes in the generations before Oedipus. She would give a riddle — "What creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?" — and eat anyone who was unable to answer correctly. It is possible that the Sphinx was sent to Thebes from Ethiopia by either the goddess Hera or the war god Ares. Eventually, Oedipus correctly answered the riddle— "Man" — and the Sphinx threw herself off her mountainside perch to her death.

Homer Hickam

Inspired by seeing Sputnik fly overhead to study rocketry in his early teens. From his coal-company town in West Virginia, he and his rocket club, The Big Creek Missile Agency, designed modest-sized rockets and won the propulsion category of the 1960 National Science Fair. After serving in Vietnam, Hickam worked at the US Army Missile Command in Germany and Huntsville. Later, he moved to NASA, where he specialized in astronaut training. He trained crews for the Hubble Space Telescope's deployment extra-vehicular activity (EVA) and the first two servicing missions.

Mohs Scale

Invented by Friedrich Mohs in 1812, the Mohs scale is based on the abilities of minerals to scratch one another. The original scale assigned a value of 1 to talc, which can be scratched by essentially every solid known, and a value of 10 to diamond, which (among naturally occurring minerals) can only be scratched by other diamonds. The steps are of arbitrary size, with a 1-point difference corresponding to anywhere from a 1.5-fold to a 4-fold increase in hardness; diamond is about 1600 times harder than talc. Following the discovery of more ultra-hard minerals, scientists have proposed extending the scale so that diamond is 15 instead of 10.)

Snake River

Major river of the northwestern United States. Rising in Yellowstone National Park, the Snake bisects southern Idaho along its 1,078-mile route. Flowing through Pocatello and Boise, the Snake River forms much of the border between Idaho and Oregon, including the famous Hells Canyon. The Snake River was a vital route for travelers headed west on the Oregon Trail, who followed the river most of the way to its mouth on the Columbia River.

Danube

Most of the Danube is in Eastern Europe, but it begins in Germany's Black Forest (Schwarzwald) near Freiburg, crossing Bavaria before it enters Austria. In all, it passes through (or touches the borders of) 10 nations on its 1,785-mile course ending at the Black Sea. Chief tributaries include the Drava and Sava, and it passes through four national capitals: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, and Belgrade. Formerly known as the Ister, the Danube was often used to define a northern border for the Roman Empire.

Christopher Columbus

On his first voyage (1492), Christopher Columbus sailed for Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, taking the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria and landing at San Salvador in the Bahamas (where he dubbed the Arawak inhabitants "Indians") before discovering Hispaniola and founding the settlement of Navidad there. On his second voyage (1493), he returned to Hispaniola before discovering Jamaica. On his third voyage (1498), he discovered South America, and on his fourth voyage (1502), he landed in Central America.

Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill

O'Neill wrote it fifteen years earlier and presented the manuscript to his third wife with instructions that it not be produced until 25 years after his death. Actually produced three years after he died, it centers on Edmund and the rest of the Tyrone family, but is really an autobiographical account of the dysfunction of O'Neill's own family, set on one day in August 1912. The father is a miserly actor, while the mother is a morphine addict, and the brother is a drunk; they argue and cut each other down throughout the play.

1972 Summer (Munich, West Germany)

One of the most tragic Olympics ever, these Games saw the kidnapping and killing of eleven Israeli athletes by eight Palestinian terrorists, five of whom were shot dead by West German police. Jim McKay of ABC Sports remained on the air for hours, bringing American viewers up to date on the situation. Though the Olympics paused for 34 hours, the IOC ordered the games to continue, and memorable performances were turned in by American swimmer Mark Spitz, who won seven gold medals, and Russian gymnast Olga Korbut, who captivated audiences en route to winning three gold medals.

I and the Village by Marc Chagall

Painted in 1911, I and the Village is among Chagall's earliest surviving paintings. It is a dreamlike scene that includes many motifs common to Chagall, notably the lamb and peasant life. In addition to the two giant faces—a green face on the right and a lamb's head on the left—other images include a milkmaid, a reaper, an upside-down peasant woman, a church, and a series of houses, some of them upside-down. I and the Village is currently housed at MOMA.

Le Corbusier

Possibly more influential even than Wright, he wrote the 1923 book Towards a New Architecture, standard reading in architectural theory courses. One famous Corbusian quote is "A house is a machine for living in." His floor plans were influenced by Cubist principles of division of space, and the Villa Savoye (Poissy, France) is his best-known early work. He wrote of the "Radiant City" begun anew, a completely planned city with skyscrapers for residents. Applications of his approach to government buildings (such as in Brasilia or in Chandigarh, India), however, largely failed, as did many urban renewal projects produced on the same ideological foundation. Nonetheless, he influenced every other 20th-century figure on this list.

Anwar Sadat

President of Egypt from 1970 to 1981. He succeeded Nasser, a fellow member of the Free Officers, upon the latter's sudden death. Sadat launched the Yom Kippur War against Israel in 1973. Five years later, due in large part to the efforts of U.S. president Jimmy Carter, Sadat signed the Camp David Accords with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, for which Sadat and Begin were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. Sadat was assassinated in 1981 by an Islamist military officer associated with the radical group Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Assyria

Region located along the Upper Tigris River in what is now northern Iraq. Its major cities included Aššur and Nineveh. Assyria was ruled at various times by the Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian and Babylonian empires. In 911 BC, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was founded by Ashur-Dan II; it lasted until 612 BC. Some of the empire's greatest rulers were Tiglath-Pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib, and Ashurbanipal. At its height, the Neo-Assyrian Empire ruled over all of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant (the eastern shore of the Mediterranean).

Jordan River

Rises in Syria from springs near Mount Hermon. It flows south to Lake Merom, through the Sea of Galilee, and into the Dead Sea, which is 1,300 feet below sea level. The river forms the nation of Jordan's boundary with the West Bank and northern Israel. In the New Testament, the river was the site of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. In modern times, about 80% of its water is diverted for human use, a figure that has led to the shrinking of the Dead Sea and serious contention among bordering nations.

Iapetus

Saturn's third-largest moon after Titan and Rhea and, like Rhea, was discovered by Giovanni Cassini in 1671. It was named based upon a suggestion from John Herschel (son of the discoverer of Uranus, William Herschel) for the Titans of Greek mythology, the brothers and sisters of Cronos (Saturn). Iapetus has a distinctive two-tone coloration; part of it is red-brown, while part is bright gray. Features on Iapetus are named for people and places from the French Song of Roland, including Charlemagne Crater and the bright northern region Roncevaux Terra. In 2004 the Cassini orbiter found an equatorial ridge running over 800 miles long and 10 miles wide that gives Iapetus some of the highest peaks in the solar system; its existence has not yet been explained.

Gloria Steinem

Steinem is a journalist who founded and edited Ms. magazine. For an article in Show magazine in 1963, she went undercover as a Playboy bunny. Having had an abortion herself, she became a prominent advocate of abortion rights. She worked as a writer for New York magazine when she founded Ms., a feminist magazine devoted to women's issues. The magazine also popularized the use of the title "Ms." to address women regardless of marital status. Steinem also wrote the book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983), and the phrase "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" is often attributed to her.

Ayyubid

The Ayyubids were Kurds who took control of Egypt under the Zengids. In 1171 Salah ad-Din (Saladin) abolished the Fatimid caliphate, and later took Damascus as well. He retook Jerusalem from the Crusader kingdoms; however, subsequent Crusades undid some of these gains. It was in Ayyubid times that the Sunni revival came to Egypt. The sultan al-Kamil gave Jerusalem to Frederick II in a peace treaty and was visited by St. Francis of Assisi. The Ayyubids followed the practice of collective sovereignty, and were often politically divided. Shajar al-Durr, a woman, was the last to rule Egypt.

Yijing (I Ching or Book of Changes)

The basis for ancient Chinese philosophy and religion, the Yijing was created between 1500 and 1000 BC, though legend has it that the dragon-emperor Fuxi derived its eight trigrams from a turtle shell. The trigrams consist of three either broken (yin) or unbroken (yang) lines, and by reading pairs of these trigrams randomly, one could learn about humans, the universe, and the meaning of life. The Qin emperor Shi Huangdi burned most scholarly books, but the Yijing escaped because it was not seen as threatening.

Decibel Scale

The decibel scale can describe any kind of power, but is most commonly used to describe the intensity of sound waves. The decibel (abbreviated dB) is one tenth of a larger unit, the bel (abbreviated B), named after inventor Alexander Graham Bell. The intensity of a sound in decibels is given by the formula I = 10 log(P1/P0), where P1 is the intensity of the sound being measured (in watts per square meter) and P0 is a reference intensity, which is based on the least powerful sound wave that can be detected by the average human ear (namely 10^-12 W/m^2). A 10-dB increase in sound intensity corresponds to multiplying the energy of the sound wave by 10. A normal conversation has a volume of about 70 dB.

Mount Kosciuszko

The name of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the Polish commander who fought in the American Revolutionary War, was appended to the tallest mountain in Australia by European explorers in the 19th century. When it was discovered that Mount Townsend was actually taller, the names were switched so that Kosciuszko would remain the highest peak on the continent. The peak's name in Aboriginal languages, such as Jagungal or Tackingal, translates to "table-top mountain."

Brit Milah

The ritual of circumcising Jewish boys, that is, removing the foreskin of the penis. This practice derives from God's instruction to Abraham, after which Abraham circumcised himself and later circumcised his son Isaac. It is done to all boys when they reach eight days old (unless a health condition requires a delay) by a professional called a mohel. During the operation, the boy is held by a person (often a grandfather) designated the sandek, which is an honor. Medical anesthetic is not used, but often the baby is given a drop of wine. The ritual is followed by a s'udah, a celebratory meal.

Hector

The son of Priam and Hecuba, he is probably the noblest character on either side. A favorite of Apollo, this captain of the Trojan forces exchanges gifts with Ajax after neither can conquer the other in single combat. He kills Patroclus when Patroclus goes into battle wearing the armor of his friend, Achilles. Killed by Achilles to avenge the death of Patroclus, he is greatly mourned by all of Troy. Funeral games take place in his honor.

Cerberus

The three-headed (or, according to Hesiod's Theogony, fifty-headed) dog who guarded the gates to the Underworld. A child of Typhon and Echidna, Cerberus is described as a hellhound with a mane of snakes, the claws of a lion, and the tail of a deadly snake. As Heracles' twelfth and final labor, he had to bring Cerberus back from the Underworld, which he did following an intense wrestling match. Prior to the task, Heracles was instructed in the Eleusinian Mysteries, and freed Theseus from being stuck on a chair in Hades. In Virgil's Aeneid, the Cumaean Sibyl gives Cerberus three drugged honey cakes so that she and Aeneas can enter the Underworld.

Cicero

Though he is better remembered today for his role in the political life of the Roman Republic, Marcus Tullius Cicero (sometimes known as "Tully") was also a significant philosopher. He described the ideal state in such dialogues as On the Republic and On the Laws, while he discussed Epicurean and Stoic views on religion in On the Nature of the Gods. Through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Cicero was considered one of the most important of ancient philosophers. Indeed, Saint Augustine asserted that he turned to philosophy as a result of reading a now-lost work by Cicero known as the Hortensius.

Thomas Pynchon

(Born 1937) A reclusive American novelist. His 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow follows Tyrone Slothrop, a lieutenant in World War II whose sexual encounters seem to predict the locations of future V-2 rocket strikes. A number of characters in the novel are trying to find the secret of a mysterious device called the Schwärzgerat, which is to be installed in a rocket with the serial number 00000. Pynchon also wrote The Crying of Lot 49, in which Oedipa Maas suspects that she has become entangled in an ancient conflict between the Thurn und Taxis and Trystero mail delivery services. Other Pynchon novels include V., in which Herbert Stencil searches for the mysterious title entity, and Inherent Vice, about the Los Angeles private investigator Doc Sportello.

Rod Laver

(Born 1938) Australia produced many talented players (Emerson, Rosewall, Newcombe, Stolle, Hoad) but Laver was the best of all. He weighed just 145 pounds in his playing days but his massive left arm generated incredible topspin shots. The only player to win the Grand Slam twice — in 1962 as an amateur, and in 1969 as a professional — Laver took 11 major singles titles overall. Turning pro in 1963, Laver won five U.S. Pro Championships; had he been allowed to play the majors from 1963 to 1967, he likely would hold the wins record instead of Pete Sampras. Martina Navratilova and Sampras both idolized Laver, the first to earn $1 million in a career.

Lee Trevino

(Born 1939) Nicknamed "Supermex" for his Mexican-American heritage, Trevino came from a poor Dallas family and served in the Marines, but came from nowhere to win the 1968 U.S. Open. He won six majors: the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship twice each, his second PGA in 1984 at age 44. That last win was most impressive because it came after the 1975 Western Open, where Trevino was struck by lightning on the golf course.

Jack Nicklaus

(Born 1940) Nicknamed "The Golden Bear," he won the U.S. Amateur twice (1959 and 1961), and was the 1961 NCAA champion at Ohio State. He took his first major the following year at the U.S. Open, beating Arnold Palmer on Palmer's home course. Nicklaus became the youngest Masters champion at the time in 1963, and 23 years later became the oldest champion with a final round 65 in 1986. He has a record 18 major pro championships overall, including six Masters, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens, and three British Opens. Nicklaus is still somewhat active on the Senior PGA Tour, and as a golf course architect.

Twyla Tharp

(Born 1941) Made her mark in the mid-1970s with the "crossover ballets" Deuce Coupe (performed by the Joffrey Ballet to music by The Beach Boys) and Push Comes to Shove (starring Mikhail Baryshnikov), both marked by a fusion of diverse musical and dance styles. She found success on Broadway with the "jukebox musical" Movin' Out, set to the catalog of Billy Joel; she subsequently built musicals around the songs of Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra. She created the children's ballet The Princess and the Goblin and collaborated with director Milos Forman on the Hollywood films Hair, Ragtime, and Amadeus.

Margaret Smith Court

(Born 1942) The most prolific winner, male or female, she amassed 62 Grand Slam titles, 24 of them in singles (3 Wimbledon, 5 French, 5 U.S., and 11 in her native Australia). Billie Jean King called Court "The Arm" because of her long reach, aided by her height of nearly six feet. In 1970 she became the second woman (after Maureen Connolly) to win the Grand Slam, taking 21 singles championships overall that year; less impressive was her 1973 loss to 55-year old Bobby Riggs. Court did defeat King, Riggs's nemesis, 22 of 32 times. She retired in 1977 and became a lay minister.

Franz Beckenbauer

(Born 1945, West Germany, sweeper) Nicknamed "Der Kaiser," Beckenbauer invented the position of attacking sweeper, helping him to become the only man ever to win the World Cup as both team captain and as manager (1974 as a player, 1990 as manager). Beckenbauer's first World Cup saw him help West Germany to the 1966 World Cup Final, where they lost to host England 4-2 at Wembley Stadium. 1972 saw West Germany win the European Championship and Beckenbauer named European Footballer of the Year. Two years later, Beckenbauer had one of the single greatest football years in history, captaining FC Bayern München to the Bundesliga (German First Division), European Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League) championships and West Germany to the World Cup, the nation's second triumph. In 1976, he left Germany for the NASL's New York Cosmos, where he teamed with Pelé and was named 1977 NASL MVP. He served as the FC Bayern München club president from 1994 to 2009.

Ken Dryden

(Born 1947) Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he had a standout career at Cornell University before joining the Montreal Canadiens organization in 1970. In 1970-1971, he starred in the playoffs, winning Conn Smythe Trophy honors (playoff MVP), before going on to win Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year) honors the next season. Along with Tony Esposito, he served as Canada's goalie during the legendary 1972 Summit Series with the USSR. He sat out the entire 1973-1974 season in a contract dispute, and worked as a legal clerk, obtaining his law degree from McGill. He currently serves as the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Bobby Orr

(Born 1948) Born in Parry Sound, Ontario, Bobby Orr revolutionized the position of defenseman. The first blue liner to win the Art Ross Trophy (scoring title), he also won the Norris (best defenseman), Hart (league MVP), and Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) in the same season (1969-1970). That same year, he led the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup in three decades with the now famous "Goal." He recorded the highest ± rating ever for a single season, +124 in 1970-1971, and won eight straight Norris Trophies from 1968-1975. Unfortunately, his bad knees forced him into early retirement in 1979.

Vladislav Tretiak

(Born 1952) Born in Moscow, USSR, Tretiak is the first Russian player in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He came to North American prominence when he starred in the 1972 Summit Series against Canada. A ten-time World Champion, he also won three gold medals (1972, 1976, and 1984). The decision to pull Tretiak after the first period of the U.S./USSR game in the 1980 Olympics is considered to be part of the reason the U.S. went on to win the gold. He played for CSKA Moscow (Central Red Army) for 15 years and, after retiring, served as the goaltending coach for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Chris Evert

(Born 1954) Queen of the Clay Courts, she won the French Open a record seven times and rolled off a 125-match win streak on the surface. As a 15-year old, Evert upset Margaret Court, who had just won the Grand Slam. 1974 was the first of a record 13 straight years in which she won a major — several of them hard-fought against her rival, Martina Navratilova. In all, Evert took 18 Grand Slam singles titles, and was the first female player to win $1 million in her career. She was married to British tennis player John Lloyd for eight years, but they divorced in 1987, and she then wed Olympic skier Andy Mill.

Michel Platini

(Born 1955, France, midfielder) Arguably France's greatest footballer, this midfielder won three straight European Footballer of the Year Awards beginning in 1983. He led Italian side Juventus FC to success in both Series A (Italy's First Division) and UEFA (European) competitions. In 1985, he led Series A in scoring for a third straight year, a unique achievement, as well as leading Juventus to its only European Cup triumph, the tragic game at Heysel (Belgium) against Liverpool in which 39 Italian supporters were fatally crushed in the stands. He also led his French national side to triumph in the Euro 1984, setting the Euro scoring record. After his retirement in 1987, he was instrumental in organizing France's bid for the 1998 World Cup.

Martina Navratilova

(Born 1956) Born in Prague, she defected to the United States in 1975 because the Czech Tennis Federation had taken most of her earnings. A bit heavy early in her career, Navratilova won the first two of her nine Wimbledons in 1978-79 but subsequent losses led her to pursue a grueling fitness regimen. This paid off: She won 18 singles Grand Slams (58 overall), 167 total singles titles, and even more doubles crowns, many with partner Pam Shriver. A Wimbledon finalist at 37, Navratilova retired from singles in 1994, but returned to play doubles in 2000. In 2003 she tied Billie Jean King with 20 overall Wimbledons, taking the mixed doubles at age 46.

Diego Maradona

(Born 1960, Argentina, forward) The oft-controversial striker helped Argentina to the 1986 World Cup Championship with two amazing goals against England in the semi-finals, including the infamous "Hand of God" goal, in which Maradona directed the ball into the net with his hand illegally, undetected by officials on the pitch. A two-time South American Player of the Year (1978 and 1979) before joining FC Barcelona in 1982 after the World Cup in Spain, in 1984, he moved on to FC Napoli, where he would help his side claim two Series A Championships and a UEFA Cup win in 1989. He was banned for failing a drug test in 1991, and by the time he returned he was no longer his old playing self, though he did lead a stirring performance for Argentina at the 1994 World Cup in the U.S., before being banned again for failing another drug test during the tournament. Maradona finally retired in 1997 from his original team, Argentina's Boca Juniors.

Gross Domestic Product

Gross domestic product (or GDP), is a commonly used measure of the size of a country's or state's economy. GDP is computed by summing consumption, investment, government expenditures, and exports, and then subtracting imports.

Zadie Smith

(Born 1975) A British novelist. Her 2000 debut novel White Teeth depicts the Bengali Muslim Samad Iqbal and his English friend Archie Jones, who both live in London. Samad's son Magid becomes an atheist scientist who joins Marcus Chalfen's project to develop a genetically modified "FutureMouse," while Magid's twin brother Millat joins a Muslim fundamentalist group called KEVIN (Keepers of the Eternal and Victorious Islamic Nation). Both twins sleep with Archie's daughter, Irie. Smith's other novels include NW, which takes place in northwest London; Swing Time, which describes a troubled dancer named Tracey; and the academic novel On Beauty, which is loosely based on E. M. Forster's novel Howards End.

Babe Ruth

(1895 - 1948, pitcher and outfield) The rough son of a saloon keeper, he grew up on the Baltimore waterfront and in the St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys. Released after signing a baseball contract with the minor-league Baltimore Orioles, he was bought by the Boston Red Sox and played with them for six seasons, winning 89 games and three World Series, and, in 1919, setting a new single-season home-run record: 29. Already famous as a player, eater, and carouser, Boston sold him to New York for the 1920 season, where his fame became legend. Moved from the pitcher's mound to the outfield, he won nine home-run titles and four World Series from 1920 to 1934. In 1927 he hit 60 home runs and led the "Murderers' Row" Yankee lineup to a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. He hit his controversial "Called Shot" homer against the Cubs during the third game of the 1932 World Series after allegedly gesturing towards the centerfield stands. Since his retirement from baseball in 1935, many of his most famous pitching and batting records have been surpassed, but power hitting as a legitimate approach towards playing baseball continues. Before Ruth, the homer was a rare occurrence.

Aaron Copland

(1900 - 1990) At first a modernist, he was the first American student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1920s, where he finished his Organ Symphony and Music for the Theater. By the 1930s, Copland turned to simple themes, especially the American West: El Salón Mexico was followed by the ballets Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Appalachian Spring (1944), the last containing the Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts." Copland's Third Symphony contained his Fanfare for the Common Man, while Lincoln Portrait featured spoken portions of Abraham Lincoln's writings. Copland wrote several educational books, beginning with 1939's What to Listen For in Music.

Aaron Copland

(1900 - 1990) One of a litany of American composers who studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, for whom Copland wrote the solo keyboard part in his Symphony for Organ and Orchestra (1924; revised as Symphony No. 1 in 1928). "El Salón México" (1936) was the first of his highly successful "Populist" works based on folk or folk-like themes, which also included his three major ballets: Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942), and Appalachian Spring (1944). His opera The Tender Land (1954) included the chorus "The Promise of Living." Copland utilized modified serial techniques in his later works; he composed very little in his last 25 years.

Langson Hughes

(1901 - 1967) A leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance. His poems "I, Too" and "Let America Be America Again" address America's racist history and the feelings of exclusion it causes. His poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" invokes world rivers like the Euphrates and the Congo and repeats the line "My soul has grown deep like the rivers," while his poem "The Weary Blues" describes a blues performance on Lenox Avenue in Harlem. He also wrote the poem "Harlem," which asks "What happens to a dream deferred?" and which inspired the title of Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

Werner Heisenberg

(1901 - 1976) Heisenberg is most known for his matrix interpretation of quantum theory, which constructs observable quantities as operators that act on a system. His famous uncertainty principle (better translated, however, as "indeterminacy principle") states that the more accurately an object's position can be observed, the less accurately its momentum can. This is because shorter wavelengths of light (used as a sort of measuring-stick) have higher energies, and disrupt a particle's momentum more strongly. Heisenberg earned the 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the allotropic forms of hydrogen.

Bobby Jones

(1902 - 1971) An Atlanta native, and the greatest amateur golfer of all time, Jones never turned pro, but won thirteen major championships in eight years, including four U.S. Amateurs. In 1930 he won what was then considered the Grand Slam, taking both the British and U.S. Amateur and Open Championships. After that season, Jones retired from golf to practice law, but helped design a golf course in Augusta, Georgia that became the permanent site of the Masters in 1934.

Lou Gehrig

(1903 - 1941, first base) Born in Manhattan to German immigrants. A football and baseball player at Columbia University, he signed with the Yankees in 1923. He became a regular in 1925, replacing Wally Pipp at first base and beginning his streak of 2130 consecutive games played (since broken by Cal Ripken Jr. in 1995) that earned him the nickname "The Iron Horse." His batting feats include 184 RBI in 1931 (the AL record), 23 career grand slams (the ML record for many decades, since broken by Alex Rodriguez), a triple crown in 1934, and a .340 career batting average. When it was discovered that he was suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—now commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease—he delivered his famous "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth" speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. In deference to Lou, no Yankee was appointed captain until Thurman Munson in 1976.

BF Skinner

(1904 - 1990, American) B. F. Skinner was one of the leading proponents of behaviorism in works like Walden II and Beyond Freedom and Dignity. He argued that all human actions could be understood in terms of physical stimuli and learned responses, and that there was no need to study — or even believe in — internal mental states or motivations; in fact, doing so could be harmful. Guided by his ideas, he trained animals to perform complicated tasks, including teaching pigeons to play table tennis.

Agnes de Mille

(1905 - 1993) The niece of the film director Cecil B. DeMille and granddaughter of the economist Henry George. She worked extensively with American Ballet Theater, but the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo commissioned her most famous work, Rodeo. That ballet, featuring music by Aaron Copland (possibly assisted by an uncredited Leonard Bernstein), details a love rectangle between characters known as American Cowgirl, Champion Roper, Head Wrangler, and Rancher's Daughter.

The Bridge (Die Brucke)

(1905) Founded by Ernst Kirchner in Dresden, Die Brücke is so named because members of the movement saw themselves as the bridge between traditional and modern painting. Inspired by Fauvism, members of The Bridge followed similar ideals, utilizing violent juxtapositions of color; however, paintings of The Bridge were noticeably more intense, reflecting emotional agitation through scenes of city streets and sexually charged events in country settings. Besides Kirchner (Street, Dresden, Playing Naked People, Bathers at Moritzburg), other prominent members of The Bridge include Erich Heckel (Bathers in the Reeds, Weisses Haus in Dangast), Karl Schmidt-Rotluff (Woman with a Bag, The Factory), Fritz Bleyl, Emil Nolde (Blumengarten), Max Pechstein (Under the Trees), and Otto Mueller (Landscape with Yellow Nudes).

Sam Snead

(1912 - 2002) No golfer has won more PGA Tournaments than Snead's 81, and he amassed 135 victories worldwide. Nicknamed "Slammin' Sammy," he won seven major professional championships between 1942 and 1954, but he is known more for the one he never won: the U.S. Open. In 1939 Snead led the Open for 71 holes but lost on the last hole when he took an eight. In the 1960s and '70s he won a record six Senior PGA Championships.

Daphnis and Chloe by Maurice Ravel

(1912) Commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev and choreographed by Michel Fokine, Daphnis and Chloe is based on the only surviving work by the Greek author Longus. The ballet starts in a sacred grotto, where Daphnis, Chloe, and other youths arrive to give an offering to three statues of the Nymphs. When the cowherd Dorcon challenges Daphnis to a dance contest for a kiss from Chloe, Dorcon is humiliated. A group of pirates abduct Chloe and take her to their island, where she is forced to dance for their leader, Bryaxis. The god Pan saves Chloe; after reuniting her with Daphnis, Pan is reminded of his own love for the nymph Syrinx. Daphnis and Chloe then reenact Pan's courtship of Syrinx. The rest of the company joins in a bacchanalian "Danse générale" featuring a wordless chorus. Ravel reworked the music from Daphnis and Chloe into two suites often performed in the concert hall.

La Peri by Paul Dukas

(1912) La Péri, the last major work by Paul Dukas, tells the story of Iksender (Alexander the Great), who is searching Iran for the Flower of Immortality. He finally finds it at the Ends of the Earth, where it is in the hands of a sleeping Péri (a mythical fairy-like creature from Persian folklore). When Iksender tries to steal the flower, he awakens the Péri, who needs the flower to commune with Ormuzd (the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda). The Péri seduces Iksender, who realizes that he doesn't deserve the flower. He surrenders it to the spirit, who ascends to Paradise, leaving him to die alone on Earth. The opening fanfare is often performed independently of the rest of the suite.

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky

(1913) The Rite of Spring, subtitled "Pictures of Pagan Russia," was written for the Ballets Russes, and choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky. Inspired by Russian folklorist Nicholas Roerich, who designed the original sets, it is in two parts, "The Adoration of the Earth" and "The Sacrifice." It opens with a high-pitched bassoon solo based on a Lithuanian folk song, which is followed by the dissonant "Augurs of Spring" (sometimes called "Dances of the Young Girls"), which features E-major and E-flat-major chords superimposed on each other and played with seemingly random accents. The piece ends with a girl forced to dance herself to death. Changes of meter are frequent, sometimes changing measure to measure. The original instrumentation featured several unusual percussion instruments, including a gong, tambourines, antique cymbals, and the guiro. Most infamously, a riot broke out at its Paris premiere, although contemporary reports give differing accounts on the Rite's role.

Thor Heyerdahl

(1914 - 2002) In 1947, Heyerdahl and five companions sailed across the Pacific Ocean — going from Peru to the Tuamotu Islands — on a balsa-wood raft named Kon-Tiki, after the Incan sun god Kon-Tiki Viracocha. He later built two boats from papyrus (Ra, which failed in 1969, and Ra II, which succeeded in 1970) to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. These voyages demonstrated the possibility that ancient people could have migrated around the globe using only primitive rafts.

JD Salinger

(1919 - 2010) An American author best known for the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Many of Salinger's short stories featured the Glass family, including "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," in which Seymour and Muriel Glass are on vacation at a Florida resort. Seymour meets a young girl named Sybil Carpenter and talks with her about the title creatures, before returning to his hotel room and shooting himself. In "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor," the narrator Sergeant X replies to a wedding invitation with two distinct memories; in the first, he meets Esmé, an English orphan, during a church choir practice, and in the second, set during his time as a soldier in Bavaria, he receives a letter containing a wristwatch from Esmé. Both of those stories are included in Salinger's collection Nine Stories.

The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel de Falla

(1919) Sergei Diaghilev commissioned this ballet based on a novella by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón; the costumes were designed by Pablo Picasso. The title headgear is worn by the ballet's main villain, a magistrate (corregidor), who attempts to seduce the main female character, a miller's wife. The miller and his wife then trick the magistrate: the miller's wife flirtatiously offers the magistrate some grapes, but then leads him on a chase past the miller, hiding in a bush, who beats the magistrate. That night, the magistrate sends a deputy to arrest the miller on falsified charges; after the arrest, the opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony plays to signify the "knocking of fate." The magistrate goes to the miller's home, but falls into a river, causing the miller's wife to flee. The magistrate then undresses and gets into the miller's bed; the miller, having escaped from prison, decides to seduce the magistrate's wife and secretly switches clothes with him. The magistrate, dressed in the miller's clothes, is then arrested by his deputy. The miller and his wife arrive and toss the magistrate up and down in a blanket.

Pulcinella by Igor Stravinsky

(1920) Pulcinella is usually regarded as the first work of Stravinsky's neoclassical period. Choreographed by Léonide Massine, it was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev wanted to update a commedia dell'arte play attributed at the time to Giovanni Pergolesi (that attribution has recently been challenged). The one-act ballet tells the story of Pulcinella, a stock character of commedia dell'arte, and his lover Pimpinella, as well as two girls, Prudenza and Rosetta, and their suitors, Florindo and Cloviello. Pulcinella kisses Rosetta after she dances for him, enraging Pimpinella as well as the two suitors, who — jealous of Pulcinella — beat him up and appear to kill him. However, the "body" of Pulcinella is actually his friend Furbo, who impersonated Pulcinella and played dead. Pulcinella, disguised as a magician, appears, reveals himself, and marries Pimpinella, who forgives him.

Maurice Richard

(1921 - 2000) Born in Montreal, Quebec, "The Rocket" was one of the most gifted offensive players in NHL history. He was the first NHL player to score 50 goals in a single season, doing so in 1944-1945, and also the first to score 500 goals in a career. The winner of eight Stanley Cups, his suspension by league president Clarence Campbell in 1955 led to "The Richard Riot" on March 17, 1955, which was quelled only by an appeal by Richard for peace. Many sociologists credit the Richard Riot with starting the Quebec independence movement. The NHL began awarding the Rocket Richard Trophy in 1999 for the league's top regular-season goal scorer.

Kurt Vonnegut

(1922 - 2007) An American novelist best known for the 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five. The novel centers on Billy Pilgrim, who experiences his life out of order after becoming "unstuck in time." Like Vonnegut, Billy survives the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. Billy is also kidnapped by aliens called Tralfamadorians, and displayed in a zoo along with the actress Montana Wildhack. The Tralfamadorians have a fatalistic attitude towards mortality, which is mirrored in the novel's repetition of the phrase "so it goes" after any mention of death. Vonnegut's earlier novel Cat's Cradle describes a fictional religion called Bokononism, which was founded on the Caribbean island of San Lorenzo. The plot of Cat's Cradle partly focuses on ice-nine, a substance invented by Felix Hoenikker that has the power to destroy all life on Earth.

Stern-Gerlach Experiment

(1922) Conducted by Otto Stern and Walter Gerlach to demonstrate that the angular momentum of an atom is quantized. A beam of silver atoms was fired through an inhomogeneous magnetic field (one that varies through space). Instead of hitting a screen in a continuous distribution, they hit at discrete points, demonstrating the quantized nature of angular momentum. This experiment was actually performed several years before the concept of electron spin was even proposed. A variant on this experiment was used to create an energy source for the first hydrogen maser.

Davisson-Germer Experiment

(1923 - 1927) Performed by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer to confirm the de Broglie hypothesis by showing that electrons can exhibit wave-like behavior. The experimenters fired electrons at a nickel crystal, and measured the diffraction patterns using an electron counter called a Faraday box (or Faraday cup) mounted on an arc so that it could detect electrons emitted at various angles. The peak intensity was observed at 50 degrees and 54 electron volts, corresponding to the diffraction predicted for X-rays by Bragg's law. (Note that diffraction is a property of waves, not particles, and thus could only be observed if electrons can act as waves.)

Italo Calvino

(1923 - 1985) An Italian author. In his 1979 novel If on a winter's night a traveler, the even-numbered sections are presented as the first chapters of a number of different books, each of which breaks off abruptly at a climactic moment. The odd-numbered sections are addressed in the second person to "You," the reader of "Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler." You and a fellow book-lover named Ludmilla investigate oddities in the novels you are reading, in the process encountering a best-selling author named Silas Flannery, the deceitful translator Ermes Marana, and a scholar of Cimmerian literature named Professor Uzzi-Tuzii. Calvino's novel Invisible Cities is framed as a conversation between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, who describes 55 fictional cities to the Mongol ruler. Calvino is also known for his fantastical short stories, some of which are collected in the volume Cosmicomics and narrated by an ancient being named Qfwfq.

Joseph Heller

(1923 - 1999) An American novelist. He satirized Army bureaucracy in his novel Catch-22, which was based on his experiences as a bombardier on the Italian front during World War II. The novel is set in Rome and on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa, where John Yossarian is stationed with the 256th Squadron. "Catch-22" is a rule stating that airmen do not have to fly missions if they are insane, but that applying to be excused from flying missions is proof of sanity; consequently, there is no way to avoid the dangerous missions. Characters in the novel include the arch-capitalist mess officer Milo Minderbinder, who sets up a syndicate called M&M Enterprises, and Major Major Major, who is accidentally promoted to the rank of major because of his unusual name. The novel's main antagonist is Colonel Cathcart, who continually raises the number of missions that airmen must fly before they are allowed to go home. In 1994 Heller wrote a sequel to Catch-22, titled Closing Time.

The Creation of the World by Darius Milhaud

(1923) A trip to the U.S. inspired Milhaud to write The Creation of the World in 1922. Enchanted by the jazz bands Milhaud heard in Harlem, the ballet shows a heavy influence of jazz and blues, as well as traditional African rhythms; Milhaud omitted violas, substituting an alto saxophone. Choreographed by Jean Börlin and using a set designed by Cubist artist Ferdinand Leger, the ballet aims to depict the beginning of creation according to African tradition: the creator gods Mzame, Mbere, and Nkwa appear out of a seemingly empty void to create animals, plants, and then the first man and woman. The latter then perform a routine based on popular Dixieland dances and conclude the ballet in the tableau "The Man and the Woman Kiss."

James Baldwin

(1924 - 1987) Grew up in Harlem, which he portrayed in his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. That novel is about the teenage John Grimes and his fanatically religious stepfather Gabriel. In Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room, an American named David has an affair with the title Italian bartender. His novel If Beale Street Could Talk, about the love between Tish and a man named Fonny who has been falsely accused of rape, was made into a 2018 movie directed by Barry Jenkins. Baldwin also wrote several essays, including an examination of race and religion in The Fire Next Time. His essay collection Notes of a Native Son begins with "Everybody's Protest Novel," which is critical of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Native Son.

Yukio Mishima

(1925 - 1970) A pseudonym of Hiraoka Kimitake: He was a novelist whose central theme was the disparity between traditional Japanese values and the spiritual emptiness of modern life. He failed to qualify for military service during World War II, so worked in an aircraft factory instead. Mishima's first novel, Confessions of a Mask (Kamen no kokuhaku), was successful enough to allow him to write full-time. His four-volume epic The Sea of Fertility (Hojo no umi, consisting of Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, The Temple of Dawn, and The Decay of the Angel), is about self-destructive personalities and the transformation of Japan into a modern, but sterile, society. Mishima, who organized the Tate no kai - a right-wing society stressing physical fitness and the martial arts - committed ritual suicide after a public speech failed to galvanize the armed forces into overthrowing the government.

Yogi Berra

(1925 - 2015, catcher) Notorious for swinging at bad pitches, but his bat collided with them often enough to hit a catcher's record 306 homeruns that lasted for more than 30 years (since passed by Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, and Mike Piazza). His hitting, fielding, and ability to lead the Yankee pitching staff earned him three MVP awards (1951, 1954, 1955). He also starred in the World Series, collecting 71 hits while playing on 10 championship teams, both records. Hired as Yankee manager in 1964, he led the Yanks to the pennant but was fired following their Series loss to the Cardinals. His 1973 pennant with the Mets made him the only manager besides Joe McCarthy to take home the flag in both leagues. Like Casey Stengel, he was famous for his quotes, including "It ain't' over 'til it's over," "It's deja vu all over again," and "Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets."

Gordie Howe

(1926 - 2016) Born in Floral, Saskatchewan, "Mr. Hockey," was equally adept with his stick as he was with his fists. A "Gordie Howe hat trick" was later joked to consist of a goal, an assist, and a fight. A six-time Art Ross Trophy winner, he played 26 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, retiring in 1971. After a two-year retirement, he returned to the fledgling WHA, to play with his sons on the Houston Aeros. He played his last NHL season at the age of 52 in 1980 with the Hartford Whalers, finishing as the NHL's career points leader until 1989.

Elizabeth II

(1926 - present; r. 1952 - present) House of Windsor. Representative of the modern ceremonial monarchy, she and her husband "Prince" Philip Mountbatten have traveled the globe representing British interests. Marital failures by her sons Charles, Prince of Wales and Andrew have plagued her reign. She superseded Victoria as the longest-reigning British monarch.

The Miraculous Mandarin by Bela Bartok

(1926) Based on a story by Melchior Lengyel, The Miraculous Mandarin opens by depicting a large city, with rapid ascending and descending notes on the strings followed by a theme of minor seconds and a brass imitation of car horns. In the ballet, a group of robbers force a girl to dance at the window of their apartment as a "Lockspiel," or decoy, to lure in potential victims. After the criminals successfully rob an old lecher and a poor young man, the girl lures a rich Chinese man — the Mandarin — into the apartment; glissandos in the brass mark his entrance. After the Mandarin tries unsuccessfully to capture the girl, the tramps jump on him — symbolized by the repetition of the minor second intervals heard at the beginning of the ballet—and stab him three times, then hang him from a lamp. However, the Mandarin's body begins to glow strangely. The girl then convinces the robbers to free the man, whom she then embraces, allowing him to die peacefully. The material of the ballet made it controversial upon its 1926 premiere; the mayor of Cologne, where the ballet debuted, had it banned on moral grounds.

Bob Fosse

(1927 - 1987) Came to prominence in the 1953 film Kiss Me Kate. While he and dance partner Carol Haney only had small roles, the dance that Fosse choreographed for them in the number "From This Moment On" launched Fosse's career. Fosse's unique style, featuring turned-in knees, rolled shoulders, sideways movement, and "jazz hands," found its greatest expression on Broadway, where he choreographed the musicals The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Redhead, Sweet Charity, Pippin, and Chicago. Many of his works featured his wife Gwen Verdon, who won four Tonys under his choreography or direction. Fosse also directed the films Cabaret and All That Jazz, winning an Oscar for Cabaret. Many commentators have described his cameo as The Snake in a 1974 film adaptation of The Little Prince as a forerunner to the dance style of Michael Jackson.

Billy Martin

(1928 - 1989, second base and manager) The alert, combative second baseman for the Yankees from 1950 to 1957, he made a famous catch in the seventh game of the 1952 World Series when Jackie Robinson lifted a bases-loaded pop-up near the pitcher's mound. In 1953 he was named World Series MVP after batting .500 and winning the final game with a single in the bottom of the ninth. As Yankee manager, he won two pennants and one World Series (1977). Strung extremely tight—he almost came to blows with Reggie Jackson during a nationally televised game—his barroom brawls and arguments with the Yankee front office repeatedly got him fired (and re-hired). His five terms managing one club is tied for the major league record.

Lateran Treaty

(1929) Created the independent country of the Vatican City, made Catholicism the state religion of Italy (ended in 1984), and determined the proper remuneration for Church property taken by Italy. It was signed by Benito Mussolini and a representative of Pope Pius XI in the namesake papal residence, and ended the so-called "Roman Question" that arose out of the unification of Italy and the dissolution of the Papal States.

Lorraine Hansberry

(1930 - 1965) Best known for her play A Raisin in the Sun. That play is about the Younger family, who debate how to use $10,000 in life insurance money. Walter wants to invest the money in a liquor store, while his mother Mama wants to buy a house in the white neighborhood Clybourne Park. Mama's daughter Beneatha wants to spend the money on medical school and, unlike the other members of the family, explores her African heritage. Hansberry's other works include the play The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window and the autobiography To Be Young, Gifted and Black.

David Bechkam

(Born 1975, England, midfielder) Midfielder for Manchester United FC, known as much for his talent as his marriage to Victoria Adams, better known as "Posh Spice." One of the FA Premiership's finest midfielders, he was named runner-up for both the 1999 European Footballer of the Year and the 1999 World Footballer of the Year. He also helped guide Manchester United to the rare 1999 "Treble," helping the Red Devils secure the FA Cup (Open Cup competition for all English sides), Carling FA Premiership Title (regular season champion of England's top division) and UEFA Champions' League (championship for national league champions of UEFA countries). These three titles made ManU only the fourth team (and first English team) to accomplish the feat. His results with the English national side have been mixed, including his now infamous booking against rival Argentina in World Cup '98, and his obscene gesture to English fans at the opening game of Euro 2000.

The Jew of Malta

(Christopher Marlow, 1589) After his massive fortune is seized by Malta's governor, Ferneze, to pay tribute to the Turks, the Jewish merchant Barabas embarks on a complex journey of revenge. Barabas uses his daughter Abigail to spark a jealous feud that leads to a duel in which the governor's son Lodowick is killed. Abigail then hides in a convent and converts to Christianity, leading Barabas and his slave Ithamore to poison all of the convent's occupants. Barabas eventually aids the Turks in conquering Malta, for which he is appointed governor, but betrays the Turks in favor of the Maltese, who kill Barabas in a boiling cauldron as they retake the island. The Jew of Malta is thought to have influenced Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

Guys and Dolls

(Frank Loesser, 1950) Nathan Detroit runs an underground craps game but needs a location. To make enough money to use the Biltmore garage for his game, he bets the notorious gambler Sky Masterson that Sky can't convince a girl of Nathan's choice to go to Havana with him for dinner; Nathan chooses the righteous missionary Sarah Brown. Sky wins the bet but ends up having to bring a dozen sinning gamblers to a revival meeting. As Nathan attends the meeting, his long-suffering fiancée Adelaide, a nightclub dancer, is increasingly frustrated that their 14-year engagement has not led to marriage. At the meeting, Sky bets a large amount of money against the gamblers' souls, winning, and eventually convinces Sarah to marry him and Nathan to marry Adelaide. Adapted from short stories by Damon Runyon, the musical includes the songs "A Bushel and a Peck," "Luck Be a Lady," and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat."

La Boheme

(Giacomo Puccini, 1896) This opera tells the story of four extremely poor friends who live in the Latin (i.e., Students') Quarter of Paris: Marcello the artist, Rodolfo the poet, Colline the philosopher, and Schaunard the musician. Rodolfo meets the seamstress Mimì who lives next door when her single candle is blown out and needs to be relit. Marcello is still attached to Musetta, who had left him for the rich man Alcindoro. In the final act, Marcello and Rodolfo have separated from their lovers, but cannot stop thinking about them. Musetta bursts into their garret apartment and tells them that Mimi is dying of consumption (tuberculosis); when they reach her, she is already dead. La bohème was based on a novel by Henry Murger and, in turn, formed the basis of the hit 1996 musical Rent by Jonathan Larson.

Madame Butterfly

(Giacomo Puccini, 1904) The American naval lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton is stationed in Nagasaki where, with the help of the broker Goro, he weds the young girl Cio-Cio-San (Madame Butterfly) with a marriage contract with a cancellation clause. He later returns to America, leaving Cio-Cio-San to raise their son "Trouble" (whom she will rename "Joy" upon his return). When Pinkerton and his new American wife Kate do return, Cio-Cio-San gives them her son and stabs herself with her father's dagger. The opera is based on a play by David Belasco.

William Tell

(Gioacchino Rossini, 1829) William Tell is a 14th-century Swiss patriot who wishes to end Austria's domination of his country. In the first act he helps Leuthold, a fugitive, escape the Austrian governor, Gessler. In the third act, Gessler has placed his hat on a pole and ordered the men to bow to it. When Tell refuses, Gessler takes his son, Jemmy, and forces Tell to shoot an apple off his son's head. Tell succeeds, but is arrested anyway. In the fourth act, he escapes from the Austrians and his son sets their house on fire as a signal for the Swiss to rise in revolt. The opera was based on a play by Friedrich von Schiller.

Bloody Sunday

(January 22, 1905) Usually considered the first event of the Revolution of 1905 in Russia. The sequence of events leading up to the massacre began with the Putilov Incident, in which four ironworkers in St. Petersburg were fired because they were members of a labor movement. The resulting strike left St. Petersburg without electricity. On January 22, Father Georgy Gapon of the Russian Orthodox Church led protestors on a march to the Winter Palace to petition Tsar Nicholas II for better working conditions and higher wages. The Imperial Guard fired on the protestors near the Narva Gate. The Revolution of 1905 ultimately led to the establishment of the Russian Duma (parliament) and the adoption of a new constitution. The term "Bloody Sunday" is also used for several other incidents, including several events in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

All for Love

(John Dryden, 1677) Dryden wrote that he "professed to imitate the divine Shakespeare" in this play, which retells the story of the Roman leader Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. In Dryden's version of the tale, the Roman general Ventidius actively tries to separate the two lovers, and encourages Antony to believe that Cleopatra has been secretly consorting with the Roman Dolabella. Another of the central characters in Dryden's play is Antony's wife Octavia, who travels to Alexandria to convince Antony to reconcile. At the end of the play, the eunuch Alexas falsely tells Antony that Cleopatra has committed suicide. Antony falls upon his sword, and the grief-stricken Cleopatra lets herself be bitten by a poisonous snake. The dead lovers are then eulogized by Serapion, a priest of Isis.

Johann Cruyff

(1947 - 2016, Netherlands, midfielder) A stringent believer that "the game should be played beautifully," Cruyff helped usher in the system of "total football" into the world game, in which all positions should be equally willing and adept to play all portions of the game. Despite being both gawky and a chain-smoker, Cruyff helped Ajax Amsterdam to three European Cups (now known as the UEFA Champions' League) as well as being named European Footballer of the Year in 1971 and 1973. His greatest international success came in 1974 when he helped the "Orange" to their first appearance in the World Cup Final, where they lost to West Germany in Munich. "The Orange" would also make the 1978 World Cup Finals, this time without Cruyff, who retired from international play after the qualification stage. This was followed by a brief stint in the NASL, where he earned 1979 NASL MVP honors. In 1984, at the age of 37, he helped Ajax's archrival Feyenoord to its first Dutch league title in a decade before moving into coaching at former club FC Barcelona, where he led the team to four Spanish League titles and a European Cup in a nine-year stint.

The Ed Sullivan Show

(1948 - 1971) This long-running CBS variety show occupied the same time slot — Sunday night at 8 pm — for over two decades. For most of that time, it broadcast live from what is now called the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway, which is currently the home of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Among the characters it bequeathed to American popular culture were a Spanish ventriloquist known as "Señor Wences" and an Italian mouse puppet named Topo Gigio. In 1964, the Beatles appeared on the show for three straight weeks, appearances which are credited with launching the "British Invasion" in popular music.

I Love Lucy

(1951 - 1957) During its six-season run, I Love Lucy was one of America's most watched shows. It centered on Lucy Ricardo, played by comedian Lucille Ball, and her husband Ricky Ricardo, who was played by Ball's real-life husband Desi Arnaz. The show's other major characters were the Ricardos' neighbors, Fred and Ethel Mertz. In one of the show's most famous episodes, Lucy was hired to do a TV commercial for a health tonic called "Vitameatavegamin"; after drinking too much of it, Lucy becomes inebriated and is unable to pronounce the word correctly.

Hershey-Chase Experiment

(1952) Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase demonstrated that the material responsible for inheritance of traits was DNA rather than protein. The experiment was carried out by creating radiolabeled T2 bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). In one population, the phages' DNA contained phosphorus-32 in its backbone; in the other population, the phages' proteins contained sulfur-35. The phages were then allowed to infect E. coli. After using a centrifuge to remove the viral coats from the bacteria, Hershey and Chase found that the viruses labeled with sulfur did not transfer their radioactivity to the cells, while the viruses labeled with phosphorus did. This result, combined with other experiments, demonstrated that the genetic material was DNA, not protein.

The "Checkers" Speech

(1952) Television and radio address made by Richard Nixon during the 1952 presidential election. Nixon was running for vice-president on the Republican ticket with Dwight Eisenhower, but had been accused of illegally using a campaign slush fund for personal spending. In the speech, Nixon explained his finances and argued that he never benefited from political gifts, except for a cocker spaniel named Checkers that had been given to his daughters. The speech was inspired by a 1944 speech by Franklin Roosevelt defending his dog, Fala.

Tony Blair

(1953 -, PM 1997 - 2007) Won a famous landslide election victory in 1997 to end 18 years of Conservative rule as his "New Labour" movement abandoned traditional socialism and moved the Labour Party to the center. Re-elected in 2001 and 2005, his friendship and later enmity towards his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown (PM 2007-2010) ended with Brown succeeding him as Prime Minister. Blair's close relationship with George W. Bush led to the U.K. joining the invasion of Iraq in 2003; his domestic legacy was higher public spending and the devolution of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The Honeymooners

(1955 - 1956) The Honeymooners is considered the first TV spinoff, as it centered on a character — Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden — who had previously been introduced on The Jackie Gleason Show. Ralph's wife Alice was frequently the recipient of his bombastic threats, such as "Bang zoom, straight to the moon!". Like I Love Lucy, the show also centrally featured a neighbor couple — in this case, Ed and Trixie Norton. Although The Honeymooners is now considered a classic sitcom, it was not very popular at the time, and only 39 episodes aired in its original one-season run.

12 Angry Men

(1957) Explores the themes of morals, justice, and doubt as it follows the deliberations of a jury over the guilt of an 18-year-old defendant on a charge of patricide. Deliberations initially stall when Juror 8, played by Henry Fonda, is the only one to vote "not guilty"; a series of secret ballots and conversations gradually erode the jury's certainty, and they ultimately vote to acquit. The last holdout, Juror 3, played by Lee Cobb, is implied to be locked into his "guilty" vote because of his anger over his poor relationship with his own son. The film, directed by Sidney Lumet, lost the Academy Award for Best Picture to Bridge on the River Kwai.

Ben-Hur

(1959) A historical epic from MGM Studios that stars Charlton Heston as the title prince of Jerusalem who is unjustly imprisoned on the flagship of Roman general Quintus Arrius after tiles falling from his roof nearly kill the governor of Judea. Ben-Hur features a massive, nine-minute-long chariot race in which Heston's character defeats Messala, played by Stephen Boyd. The film's score, composed by Miklos Roza, is the longest ever composed for a feature film. Ben-Hur's eleven Oscars was a record that stood until Titanic (1997). More than two hundred camels were used in the film, which was adapted from Lew Wallace's novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.

The Andy Griffith Show

(1960 - 1968) One of the most popular TV series of its decade, The Andy Griffith Show starred its title actor as Andy Taylor, the sheriff in the sleepy small town of Mayberry, North Carolina. The show is almost as well known for its distinctive supporting characters, including a gas station attendant named Gomer Pyle and Andy's awkward deputy sheriff, Barney Fife. Ron Howard rose to fame as a child actor on the show, playing Andy's son Opie, before going on to an adult career as a prolific actor and director.

Gideon v Wainwright

(1963, 9 - 0) Clarence Earl Gideon was accused of breaking into a pool hall in Florida. Because his crime was not capital, the court declined to provide him with an attorney. He was convicted, sued Louie Wainwright — the director of the corrections office — and took his case to the Supreme Court. The court overruled Betts v. Brady and held that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments required appointed counsel in all trials. Gideon was retried and found innocent. The case is the subject of the book Gideon's Trumpet.

All in the Family

(1971 - 1979) Producer Norman Lear created this sitcom, which was based on the successful British series Till Death Us Do Part. It starred Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton as the central couple, Archie and Edith Bunker; Archie was notable for his prejudicial attitudes, while Edith — whom Archie would refer to as his "dingbat" — was his long-suffering wife. The show also featured Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson, who would later be given his own spinoff, The Jeffersons, in which he and his wife "moved on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky" on the East Side of Manhattan.

M*A*S*H

(1972 - 1983) Like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and All in the Family, M*A*S*H was a highly successful CBS sitcom that dealt with controversial social issues — in this case, war. Centering on the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in South Korea, it was adapted from the 1970 feature film of the same name directed by Robert Altman. Major characters included Hawkeye Pierce, a wisecracking surgeon played by Alan Alda; Sherman Potter, who was added to the show in season 4 after the previous commanding officer, Henry Blake, was killed off; and Corporal Klinger, who would dress in women's clothing in an attempt to be discharged from the army.

John Kerry

(2014 - 2016, Obama) Kerry served as a senator from Massachusetts — spending the majority of his time as the junior senator to Ted Kennedy — and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He received the Democratic Party nomination for President in 2004, but lost the general election to George W. Bush. His major foreign policy involvement was in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Han Dynasty

(206 BC - 220 AD) Considered a golden age of Chinese civilization; its influence was so great that the majority ethnic group in China is still called the Han. Its founder, Liu Bang (later Emperor Gaozu), was born a peasant. Through resourceful recruitment of talented followers and strategic violation of ceasefire agreement with his rival Xiang Yu, Liu Bang managed to reunite China and established his capital at Chang'an (modern Xi'an). Instability in the early years of the Han dynasty was caused by the depredations of the nomadic Xiongnu, a problem that was solved by its seventh emperor, Wudi. Emperor Wu, considered one of the greatest rulers of China, began a war of conquest against the Xiongnu and greatly expanded China's frontiers. He also formalized China's bureaucracy, sent envoys like Zhang Qian to Central Asia, and established Confucianism as the official state doctrine. Despite his success, his campaigns drained the treasury and his successors were unable to maintain the land he conquered. After a series of poor rulers, the Wang family — who claimed legitimacy through wives of various emperors — and their leader Wang Mang toppled the Han dynasty. Wang Mang established the Xin (meaning "new") dynasty and attempted to restore the ways of the Zhou dynasty, but he was unable to maintain power because of a catastrophic changing of the course of the Yellow River, which spawned peasant protest movements like the Red Eyebrows. Eventually, a scion of the Liu family — Liu Xiu — restored the Han dynasty, moving the capital to Luoyang and establishing the Eastern Han. Subsequent rebellions called the Yellow Turbans and the Five Pecks of Rice hastened the end of the Han dynasty.

Sleeping Beauty by Peter Tchaikovsky

(1890) Choreographed by Marius Petipa, Sleeping Beauty (also called The Sleeping Beauty) is based on the fairy tale of the same name, though other fairy tale figures — including Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella — appear. Split into four sections ("The Christening," "The Spell," "The Vision," and "The Wedding"), Sleeping Beauty relates the story of Princess Aurora, the daughter of King Florestan XXIV. He invites a group of fairies to Aurora's christening, but the evil spirit Carabosse, furious at not being invited, appears and curses Aurora to die on her 16th birthday by pricking her finger with a spindle. However, the powerful Lilac Fairy weakens the curse, so that Aurora will sleep for a hundred years instead. On her 16th birthday, the townspeople perform the "Garland Waltz" and four suitors and Aurora perform the challenging "Rose Adagio." A mysterious figure (Carabosse in disguise) appears and gives Aurora a spindle, on which Aurora pricks herself and falls asleep; the Lilac Fairy then expands the spell over the entire kingdom. A century later, Prince Desire is hunting in the forest when the Lilac Fairy approaches him and leads him to the castle. He wakes Aurora with a kiss and wins her hand in marriage.

Ryunosuke Akutagawa

(1892 - 1927) His mother died insane while he was a child, and his father was a failure who gave him up to relatives. Despite this inauspicious childhood, his 1915 short story "Rashomon" brought him into the highest literary circles and started him writing the macabre stories for which he is known. In 1927 he committed suicide by overdosing on pills, and his suicide letter "A Note to a Certain Old Friend" became a published work. "Rashomon" also was key to his international fame, as in 1951 Akira Kurosawa made a film entitled Rashomon, though the film's plot is more based on Akutagawa's other short story "In a Grove." One of Japan's two most prestigious literary prizes is named for Akutagawa; it is awarded for the best serious work of fiction by a new Japanese writer.

Walter Hagen

(1892 - 1969) Nicknamed "The Haig," he was the first great pro golfer, appearing in over 2,500 exhibitions. A five-time PGA Champion, including four straight from 1924 to 1927, Hagen won eleven majors overall, and he was known most for his showmanship and his ability to recover from poor shots with spectacular ones. Hagen captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team six of the first seven times the event was held.

Louis de Broglie

(1892 - 1987) Broglie's work quantifying the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics earned him the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics. His doctoral thesis, which proposed that all particles have a characteristic wavelength dependent on their momentum, was so groundbreaking that the reviewers passed it directly to Albert Einstein, who endorsed it. In opposition to the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics, de Broglie later worked to define a purely causal interpretation, but his work remained unfinished until David Bohm refined it in the 1950s.

Qin ["chin"] Dynasty

(221 - 206 BC) Despite its short duration, it is usually considered the origin of many of the institutions of imperial China. The founding emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi (usually shortened as Qin Shi Huang), has gained an ill-deserved reputation in traditional Chinese historiography because he destroyed many Confucian texts in his infamous book burning. Qin Shi Huang also standardized weight measurements, unified the Chinese script, and used conscripts to build the Great Wall. After his death, the suicide of the crown prince led to a period of incompetent rule and revolts that caused the collapse of the Qin dynasty.

Constantine

(272 - 335; r. 306 - 335) The son of Constantius Chlorus, one of the junior members of Diocletian's Tetrarchy. Proclaimed emperor by his father's men, Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge to seize Italy and then defeated his brother-in-law Licinius to win the east. He proposed the Edict of Milan giving tolerance to Christians and oversaw the Christian Council of Nicea. Constantine also converted the city of Byzantium into Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for the next 1,100 years.

Archimedes

(287 - 212 BC, Syracusan Greek) Best known for his "eureka" moment, in which he realized he could use density considerations to determine the purity of a gold crown; nonetheless, he was the preeminent mathematician of ancient Greece. He found the ratios between the surface areas and volumes of a sphere and a circumscribed cylinder, accurately estimated pi, and developed a calculus-like technique to find the area of a circle, his method of exhaustion.

Trajan

(53 - 117; r. 98 - 117) Led Rome to its greatest territorial extent. After succeeding Nerva, Trajan defeated Decebalus to conquer the rich Kingdom of Dacia (modern-day Romania). He employed Apollodorus of Damascus to build Trajan's Column and Trajan's Bridge across the Danube. Near the end of his reign, Trajan invaded the Parthian Empire, sacking its capital of Ctesiphon and annexing Armenia and Mesopotamia.

The Duchess of Malfi

(John Webster, 1613) This play is a product of the Jacobean period, in which the thrilling, macabre, and fantastic were prevalent on stage. The play follows the widowed Duchess, who loves Antonio Bologna, a good-hearted nobleman below her station. Her twin brother Ferdinand denounces her affection for Antonio out of incestuous envy. Her other brother, a Cardinal, hires the former galley-slave Bosola to spy on her. Bosola discovers the Duchess and Antonio have married (and had children), so the Cardinal sends them into exile. Ferdinand subsequently imprisons the Duchess, terrorizes her with asylum patients, and arranges for her to see statues resembling the dead bodies of her husband and children. Executioners sent by Ferdinand then kill the Duchess and her maid Cariola. Paranoia overtakes both brothers; the Cardinal kills his mistress Julia with a poisoned bible, and Ferdinand imagines he has become a werewolf. Bosola, disgusted by his own actions, tries to murder the Cardinal but mistakenly kills Antonio instead. In a climactic confrontation, Bosola, the Cardinal, and Ferdinand all kill each other, leaving the son of the Duchess and Antonio to inherit what remains.

The Peterloo Massacre

(August 16, 1819) Massacre in St. Peter's Field in Manchester, England during a protest led by Henry Hunt against the Corn Laws. Fourteen people were killed when British cavalry charged the crowd of tens of thousands. In the aftermath of the massacre, the government of Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson, the 2nd Earl of Liverpool, passed the Six Acts to curtail radical gatherings. The name given to the massacre alluded to Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo four years earlier. The events in Manchester inspired the founding of the newspaper The Manchester Guardian, the predecessor to The Guardian, which is still widely read today. Plotters angry over the Peterloo Massacre and the Six Acts formed the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820 in the hope of murdering Liverpool and his entire cabinet.

The Nutcracker by Peter Tchaikovsky

(1892) Now a Christmastime favorite, The Nutcracker was choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The plot, based on an E. T. A. Hoffmann story, opens at a Christmas party, where Drosselmeyer gives his goddaughter Clara a toy nutcracker, which her brother Fritz soon breaks. At night, the living room becomes a battleground between the evil Mouse King and toys and gingerbread soldiers, led by the Nutcracker. Clara throws her slipper at the Mouse King, distracting him long enough for the Nutcracker to kill him. The Nutcracker then turns into a prince and leads Clara into a magical forest where the "Waltz of the Snowflakes" marks the end of Act I. In Act II Clara and the prince arrive in the Land of Sweets, where they witness dances representing delicacies from around the world, including Arabian coffee and Spanish chocolate, as well as the "Dance of the Reed Flutes" and the Russian "Trepak." Mother Ginger has a group of clowns ("Polichinelles") emerge from her skirt to dance before the orchestra plays the "Waltz of the Flowers" and the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Cavalier dance a pas de deux. Finally, the Sugar Plum Fairy dances alone to music that marks one of the first orchestral uses of the celesta.

Second Battle of Bull Run (or Second Manassas)

(August 29 - 30, 1862) This resounding victory by Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson pushed Union forces back to Washington, D.C. President Abraham Lincoln gathered forces in northern Virginia under General John Pope, who would protect the capital until George McClellan's Army of the Potomac returned from the Peninsula Campaign. Lee maneuvered Jackson's troops behind those of Pope; Jackson detained Pope's men at Manassas while Lee sent James Longstreet to crush Pope's left flank. Pope's and McClellan's joint forces retreated to defend Washington, ceding all of Virginia to the Confederacy and marking a low point in the Union effort.

Whitey Ford

(Born 1925, pitcher) Called "The Chairman of the Board" because of the cool, corporate-like efficiency of his pitching style. His 236 wins against 106 defeats yields a .690 winning percentage, third best, and first for a pitcher with 200 or more victories. In the 1960, 1961, and 1962 World Series, he pitched 33 consecutive scoreless innings, breaking Babe Ruth's World Series record of 29 ⅔ innings of shutout ball. His other World Series records include wins (10), losses (8), innings pitched (146), hits (132), bases on balls (34), and strikeouts (94). Under Casey Stengel he was commonly rested against poor teams so that he could be used against contenders (or in relief), making his 2.75 career ERA even more impressive. He won the Cy Young award in 1961.

Don DeLillo

(Born 1936) An American author. His 1985 breakout novel White Noise is narrated by Jack Gladney, a professor of "Hitler Studies" at a Midwestern college. After a chemical spill results in an "Airborne Toxic Event," Jack's wife Babette begins taking a mysterious drug called Dylar. Three years later DeLillo published Libra, a novel about assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's participation in a fictional conspiracy against John F. Kennedy. DeLillo also wrote the 1997 novel Underworld, in which the waste management executive Nick Shay buys the baseball that was hit by New York Giants player Bobby Thomson in the 1951 "Shot Heard 'Round the World."

Mario Vargas Llosa

(Born 1936) While attending military school in Lima, Vargas Llosa wrote the play The Escape of the Inca (1952), but the harsh treatment he received there was the basis for his novel The Time of the Hero. Conversation in the Cathedral (1969) was Vargas Llosa's serious take on living under the dictatorship of Manuel Odría, while in 1977 he published the lighter, autobiographical Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, about soap operas. Other important works include The War of the End of the World and A Fish in the Water, which discusses his political career; Vargas Llosa ran for president of Peru in 1990 but was defeated by Alberto Fujimori.

Philip Glass

(Born 1937) A minimalist composer who is best known for his trilogy of "Portrait Operas," which include Einstein on the Beach (1976), Satyagraha (1979), and Akhnaten (1983). Einstein on the Beach is particularly notable for its use of solfege syllables and numbers in place of a standard libretto. Glass's style is heavily influenced by Indian musical traditions, and focuses on additive processes; this focus can be seen in his early minimal works "Strung Out" (1967) and "Music in Fifths" (1969). Glass is a prolific composer of film scores; his most prominent include his scores for The Truman Show, The Hours, and Notes on a Scandal.

Rent

(Jonathan Larson, 1996) Rent tells the story of impoverished artists ("bohemians") living in the East Village of New York City during the AIDS crisis circa 1990 (though the temporal references are inconsistent, so no specific year can be pinned down). It is narrated by the filmmaker Mark Cohen, whose ex-girlfriend Maureen just left him for a woman (Joanne), and whose recovering-heroin-addict roommate Roger meets the dying stripper (and fellow heroin addict) Mimi. Mark and Roger's former roommate, the itinerant philosopher and hacker Collins comes to town, where he is robbed, then saved by the transvestite Angel, with whom he moves in. Meanwhile, the former fourth roommate of Mark, Roger, and Collins — Benny — has married into a wealthy family and bought the building Mark and Roger now live in, from which he wants to evict them. The title refers to both the rent money that Mark and Roger cannot and will not pay Benny, and to their community being rent apart (torn) by the AIDS epidemic, poverty, and drug addiction. Rent is an adaptation of Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème (with most characters corresponding directly, e.g. Mark to Marcello). It won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is most famous for the songs "Seasons of Love" and "La Vie Bohème".

Battle of Gettysburg

(July 1 - 3, 1863) This marked both the farthest northward advance by the Confederacy and the turning point that led to its defeat. Robert E. Lee, along with James Longstreet, A. P. Hill, and Richard Ewell, led the attack into southern Pennsylvania; J. E. B. Stuart was supposed to monitor Union movement with his cavalry, but strayed so far east of Gettysburg that his force did not return (exhausted) until the second day of battle. George Meade replaced Joseph Hooker as leader of the Union army; Southern forces drove Northerners through the town of Gettysburg but could not secure key positions at Cemetery Ridge and Little and Big Round Tops. Low on supplies, on the third and final day Lee ordered an attack on the center; George Pickett led his famous "charge" through open fields, where the Union mowed down one-third of his 15,000 men. The Confederates lost 20,000 and Lee retreated to Virginia.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Born in Wisconsin, Wright worked under Louis Sullivan before founding a Chicago practice. His early homes, like the Robie House — which is adjacent to the campus of the University of Chicago — are in the "Prairie" style: horizontal orientation and low roofs. His "organic architecture" tries to harmonize with its inhabitants and site; examples include the Kaufmann House (also known as Fallingwater) in Pennsylvania; the Johnson Wax Building in Racine, Wisconsin; and Taliesin, his home and studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin. (There is also a Taliesin West, his home and studio in Arizona.) Other notable Wright works are the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the Larkin Building in Buffalo, the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, and the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which was one of few buildings to survive a 1923 earthquake (though it has since been demolished).

Titrations

Calculate the concentration of a solution by adding in small volumes of a reactant of known concentration until a chemical change, like a pH indicator changing color, occurs. Acid-base titrations are usually performed in a thin glass tube called a buret and use pH indicators like phenolphthalein and bromothymol blue. The Henderson-Hasselbalch equation can be used to calculate the pH at any point during a titration. The equivalence point is the point at which equal amounts of acid and base have been mixed and there is a sharp inflection point in the pH curve. Redox titrations use an oxidation-reduction reaction instead of an acid-base reaction. In complexometric titrations, the analyte forms a coordination complex with the titrant. Karl Fischer titrations use electrolysis to determine the amount of water in a substance.

Mobutu Sese Soko

Came to power during the "Congo Crisis," which resulted in the assassination of elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the death in a plane crash of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld. Mobutu changed the name of his country from "Congo" to "Zaire" (it reverted to "Democratic Republic of the Congo" after his fall). Despite its atrocious human rights record, Mobutu's regime was supported by the United States because Mobutu took an anti-Communist position during the Cold War. Rebels led by Laurent Kabila overthrew Mobutu in 1997.

Set

Created in opposition to the forces of Ma'at, Set (termed Typhon by Plutarch) fought the demon Apopis each day, emerging victorious, symbolic of the struggle of forces that brought harmony. In later times, this struggle led Set to be associated with the serpent itself, and Set became the personification of violence and disorder, and the cause of all disasters. Having killed his brother Osiris, Set did battle with Osiris' son Horus, being emasculated in the fight. His cult was diminished over time, due to reaction against violence. His effigies were destroyed by some, while others were changed into representations of Amon, by replacing the ears with horns.

Louis VIII

(1187 - 1226; r. 1223 - 1226) House of Capet. Though he reigned for only three years, Louis' contributions to the rise of French power were enormous. He annexed Languedoc and captured Poitou from England. Perhaps more importantly, he established the systems of appanages (land grants) which replaced the older, local nobles with barons who owed their fiefs to the crown. This allowed for the subsequent rise in French royal (and national) power.

Donatello

(1386 - 1466) A Florentine sculptor who helped define Renaissance sculpture as distinct from that of the Gothic period. He is known for St. Mark and St. George in the Orsanmichele [OR-sahn mee-KAY-lay] (a Florentine church), the bald Zuccone (which means "pumpkin-head," though it depicts the prophet Habbakuk), and the first equestrian statue to be cast since Roman times, the Gattamelata in Padua. He is also known for mastering the low-relief form schiacciato.

Pierre Beauchamp

(1631 - 1705) Taught dance to French King Louis XIV at Versailles for over two decades. An early director of the Western world's first dance institution, the Academie Royale de Danse, he collaborated extensively with Moliere's acting company and the composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. He is often credited with codifying the five basic feet positions in ballet. His system of dance notation, later revised by Raoul-Auger Feuillet and Pierre Rameae and today known as "Beauchamp-Feuillet notation," was used until the late 1700s

Francois Quesnay

(1694 - 1774, French) Quesnay was the undisputed leader of the Physiocrats, the first systematic school of economic thought. Among its tenets were the economic and moral righteousness of laissez-faire policies and the notion that land is the ultimate source of all wealth.

Adam Smith

(1723 - 1790, Scottish) Though he wrote on nearly every subject of moral and social philosophy, he is basically remembered as the author of An Inquiry into the nature and causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) and as the creator of the metaphor of the "invisible hand." This work more-or-less single-handedly founded the Classical school of economics.

Treaty of Ghent

(1814) Ended the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain. It was signed in the Belgian city Ghent but, due to the distances involved, could not prevent the Battle of New Orleans two weeks later. The treaty made no boundary changes and had minimal effect; both sides were ready for peace and considered the war a futile and fruitless endeavor.

The Cross of Gold Speech

(1896) Delivered by former Nebraska congressman William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in support of the "free silver" economic policy. Bryan lambasted "the idle holders of idle capital," who benefitted from a currency based on the gold standard. Instead, Bryan supported bimetallism as a way to make "the masses prosperous." At the end of the speech, he dismissed the gold standard as a "crown of thorns" and proclaimed "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold." The speech catapulted Bryan to prominence and helped him secure the Democratic nomination for president, though he lost the election to Republican William McKinley.

J Robert Oppenheimer

(1904 - 1967) Oversaw much of the Manhattan Project, but was later stripped of his security clearance during the McCarthy-era Red Scare, as a result of his acquaintance with communists and his enmity with Edward Teller

Griswold v Connecticut

(1965, 7 - 2) In 1879, Connecticut outlawed the use of contraception. In 1961, Estelle Griswold and Lee Buxton, who were directors of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, were charged with violating that ban after they opened a birth control clinic. Justice Douglas' majority opinion held that "specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights have penumbras," and that "emanations" of those guarantees create a Constitutional right to privacy that protects intensely personal decisions, such as the right of married couples to choose whether to use birth control. Connecticut's law was struck down.

Vespasian

(9 - 79; r. 69 - 79) Emerged from the Year of the Four Emperors in 69 AD to found the Flavian Dynasty, and later commissioned the Colosseum.

Murder on the Orient Express

(Agatha Christie, 1934) This novel features Christie's popular Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who is snowbound on the title train in the Balkans when a passenger named Samuel Ratchett is found stabbed to death. Thanks to a scrap of paper in Ratchett's compartment referencing "little Daisy Armstrong," Poirot realizes Ratchett is actually Lanfranco Cassetti, a man who was acquitted on technicality of kidnapping and murder (a crime inspired by the real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby). Poirot discovers that all the passengers - including former Russian princess Natalia Dragomiroff - are concealing their pasts and each had a motive to kill Cassetti, and Poirot correctly deduces that all of them stabbed Cassetti. However, Poirot's alternate theory, that a stranger entered the snowbound train and randomly killed Ratchett, is the one presented to local authorities.

Volpone

(Ben Jonson, 1605) Each character in this Jonson play is based on an animal archetype. The greedy Venetian noble Volpone (named for the Italian for "fox") cajoles gifts from men named Corbaccio ("raven"), Corvino ("crow"), and Voltore ("vulture") by faking a fatal illness, and separately promising his fortune to each man. At the urging of Volpone's servant Mosca ("fly"), Corbaccio agrees to disinherit his own son Bonario by writing a new will that will name Volpone as sole heir. Volpone also engages in stratagems to sleep with Corvino's wife Celia, although his attempt to rape her is foiled by Bonario. In a subplot, the English traveler Peregrine humiliates a foolish fellow countryman named Sir Politic Would-Be. After a trial, Volpone fakes his death and names Mosca his sole heir; Mosca's ensuing behavior prompts Volpone to reveal himself, resulting in the punishment of all wrongdoing.

Benedict XVI

(Born 1927; r. 2005 - 2013) Resigned the papacy in 2013, becoming the first person to do so since the 15th century.

Andrew Wiles

(Born 1953, British) Best known for proving the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture that all rational semi-stable elliptic curves are modular forms. When combined with work already done by other mathematicians, this immediately implied Fermat's last theorem (see above).

Andre Agassi

(Born 1970) His father boxed for Iran in the 1948 and 1952 Olympics; his own Olympic exploits included the 1996 tennis gold. Born in Las Vegas, he reached the world's #3 ranking at age 18 but was better known for his image than for his play. Perhaps the greatest returner and baseline player ever, Agassi won his first major on Wimbledon grass in 1992. Briefly married to Brooke Shields, he fell to #141 in the world in 1997, but after they divorced, Agassi rededicated himself to the game. In 1999 he won the French Open, becoming just the fifth man to complete the career Grand Slam. In all, Agassi has won eight major singles titles (five since 1999), and is now married to women's great Steffi Graf.

Peter Sampras

(Born 1971) "Pistol Pete" burst onto the scene in 1990, when he became the youngest man ever to win the U.S. Open. He would take five U.S. Opens and two Australian Opens, but his greatest accomplishments came on the Wimbledon grass. Starting in 1993 he won Wimbledon seven times in eight years, losing only to Richard Krajicek in the quarterfinals in 1996. The last Wimbledon win (2000) gave Sampras the all-time men's major record, passing Roy Emerson's 12. Married to actress Bridgette Wilson, Sampras silenced his critics (who thought he was washed up) by defeating Andre Agassi for the 2002 U.S. Open title — then he retired.

Doctor Faustus

(Christopher Marlow, 1593) Two scholars named Valdes and Cornelius teach Faustus how to summon a demon, which Faustus promptly does, conjuring Mephistophilis. Faustus then signs his soul over to Lucifer, in exchange for 24 years of healthy life with Mephistophilis as his dutiful servant. Faustus constantly rejects the pleas of an angel to accept the forgiveness of God, instead traveling and gaining worldly fame. At one point, he summons the "shade" of Helen of Troy, and exclaims "was this the face that launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" On the night his deal is scheduled to expire, a clock's chimes announce that Faustus is running out of time to repent. He never does, so devils appear and drag him to hell.

Battle of Fredericksburg

(December 13, 1862) At this site, about 50 miles south of Washington, Union commander Ambrose Burnside (who had replaced George McClellan) tried to take the initiative and cross the Rappahannock River in a march toward Richmond. He met Robert E. Lee's forces, which were well entrenched on Marye's Heights behind the town. Burnside's army took heavy losses assaulting the heights, and fell back across the Rappahannock. A later attempt to flank the Confederate position was foiled by heavy rain during the so-called "Mud March" of January 1863.

The Rape of Nanking

(December 13, 1937 for six weeks) Period of mass murder committed in Nanking (today generally spelled "Nanjing") by the Japanese army early in the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the time, Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China. The Japanese troops were commanded by Prince Yasuhiko Asaka and Iwane Matsui. One famous anecdote from the massacre concerns a contest between two Japanese soldiers to kill 100 Chinese civilians with a sword. Since Japan was not yet at war with the various Western nations, Chinese civilians who were able to make their way into the "Nanking Safety Zone" around the foreign embassies were safe from harm. Episcopalian missionary John Magee extensively photographed the massacre. In 1997, the American-born Chinese author Iris Chang wrote a bestselling account of the massacre titled The Rape of Nanking.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

(December 1941) Japanese plans for domination of the Pacific called for a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii; wrecking the American Pacific Fleet would allow the Japanese navy to invade southeast Asia with minimal opposition. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto planned the Japanese strike, which sent carrier-based dive bombers and torpedo bombers to Oahu on Sunday, December 7, 1941. Four American battleships, including the USS Arizona, were sunk; the American aircraft carriers were at sea away from Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack. The losses sustained at Pearl Harbor shocked the previously neutral United States into entering World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt's address to Congress described December 7 as a "date which will live in infamy."

Battle of Austerlitz

(December 2, 1805, Czech Republic) Napoleon's Grand Army then struck east at Austria and Russia, the land-bound members of the Third Coalition. Napoleon's first move was to force the surrender of 30,000 Austrians under General Mack at Ulm. The French then turned east into the heart of Austria, where they seized Vienna and awaited counterattack by the Russians. At Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, a mostly-Russian coalition army collided with the waiting French. (The Russians, led in person by Tsar Alexander I, were joined by the scattered remains of the Austrian army under Holy Roman Emperor Francis II. Austerlitz is thus known as the "Battle of the Three Emperors.") The allies, planning to advance their left, abandoned the Pratzen Heights, a dominating hill in the center of the battlefield. Napoleon seized the heights, splitting the Russian army and then defeating each half in turn. The resulting Peace of Pressburg (December 26, 1805) ended the War of the Third Coalition and brought about the downfall of the Holy Roman Empire.

Battle of Trenton

(December 26, 1776) Occurred early in the morning after George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night. The Hessians, under the command of Johann Rall, were surprised and about two-thirds of them were captured.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

(December 7, 1941) On what President Franklin Roosevelt declared would be "a date which will live in infamy," Japanese carrier-based aircraft launched — without a formal declaration of war — a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island Oahu. The attack sank four battleships, most notably the USS Arizona, but all of the U.S. Navy's carriers were at sea and were attacked. Shortly after the attack, Japan began invasions of Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, and the British colony of Singapore. On December 8, with only Montana Representative Jeannette Rankin dissenting, the U.S. Congress declared war on Japan.

Stuart

(England, 1603 - 1714, Scotland, 1371 - 1714) The first Stuart king of England was James I (James VI of Scotland), who commissioned the King James Bible and survived the Gunpowder Plot. Other notable rulers included Charles I (who was beheaded following the English Civil War) and Charles II (who was restored to power after Oliver Cromwell died). It was under the last Stuart ruler, Queen Anne, that the Acts of Union were passed and Great Britain was founded.

Battle of the Coral Sea

(May 1942) The Battle of the Coral Sea resulted from Japanese ambitions to invade Port Moresby, an Allied base in New Guinea. Frank Jack Fletcher's American fleet damaged two Japanese aircraft carriers, Shokaku and Zuikaku. The U.S. Navy's major loss was the carrier Lexington. The battle, a tactical draw, prevented the Japanese from attacking Port Moresby. It is notable for being the first naval battle fought entirely by aircraft — neither fleet was ever in visual range of the other's ships.

Lord Palmerston

(PM 1855 - 1858, 1859 - 1865) Long serving Secretary of State and the first Prime Minister of the Liberal Party that succeeded the Whigs. He kept Britain neutral during the American Civil War.

Tybalt

(Romeo and Juliet) Tybalt is a hot-headed member of the Capulet family who is the beloved cousin of Juliet. During the public brawl that begins the play, Tybalt provokes the peaceful Benvolio. At a ball given by the Capulets, Tybalt recognizes the disguised Romeo and calls for a sword, but is prevented from fighting by Lord Capulet. Tybalt then demands a duel with Romeo, who does not wish to fight one of Juliet's kinsmen. Romeo's friend Mercutio is shocked by this "vile submission," and calls Tybalt "king of cats" while challenging him to a duel. (Tybalt shares his name with a feline character from medieval fables about Reynard the Fox.) Romeo tries to intervene in the duel, which allows Tybalt to kill Mercutio. Romeo then kills Tybalt, and is banished from Verona.

Al Sharpton

A Baptist minister and community leader from New York City. He is also a perennial political candidate who has run for the U.S. Senate, mayor of New York City, and president of the U.S. Sharpton began his activism career working under Jesse Jackson as part of Operation Breadbasket. He has been at the center of many controversies. In 1987, he helped handle publicity for Tawana Brawley, who falsely accused four white men of having raped her. Sharpton was also accused of making anti-Semitic remarks during the 1991 Crown Heights riot, a racial riot in which Jews were attacked after two children were injured by the motorcade of the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Existentialism

A loosely defined movement of 19th- and 20th-century thinkers who focused on the importance of leading an "authentic" life. Many thinkers that are now thought of as "existentialists" would either not have recognized the term, as it emerged after their time, or would not have accepted it as a description of their outlook. The movement is often identified with the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, who asserted that "existentialism is a humanism." Others associated with the movement include the 19th-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (who wrote Either/Or), the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger (who wrote Being and Time), and Sartre's contemporary Albert Camus (who wrote The Myth of Sisyphus).

Mount Rainier

A stratovolcano that is the highest peak in the Cascades and in the state of Washington. It is located about 50 miles southeast of Seattle. The three principal peaks of Mount Rainier are Columbia Crest (the tallest), Point Success, and Liberty Cap; the Little Tahoma Peak is a remnant of an older, much larger Mount Rainier that has since eroded away. Mount Rainier has not erupted since the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The Nisqually Glacier, on Mount Rainier's southwestern slope, is used to track climate change. The Emmons Glacier on Mount Rainier is the largest glacier by area in the contiguous U.S., while the Carbon Glacier is the largest by volume. The entirety of Mount Rainier is in Mount Rainier National Park, the fifth national park established in the U.S.

Switch

A switch is simply a device that toggles between an open connection and a closed connection. Switches can also be used to toggle between two (or more) different closed connections.

Arachne

A talented Lydian weaver who constantly boasted that her skills were better than that of any of the gods. Arachne challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving competition, during which Arachne wove a tapestry depicting the gods' transgressions against mankind and Athena depicted four contests between mortals and the gods. The result of the competition depends on the sources: some say that Arachne won but Athena was insulted by her images and destroyed Arachne's work, and others say that Athena's weaving was superior. In all versions, though, Athena turns Arachne into a spider.

Tariff

A tariff is a tax placed on the import (common) or export (rarer) of a good. Tariffs have various — often controversial — sociopolitical goals, but economists agree that they raise consumer prices relative to equilibrium (resulting in a lower quantity demanded). Tariffs are similar to quotas, in which a government limits the amount of a good that may be imported.

Columbia River

A vital waterway of the Pacific Northwest. Rising in the Rockies of British Columbia, the Columbia flows through Lake Revelstoke before entering Washington state. Grand Coulee Dam along the Columbia in Washington forms Lake Roosevelt. When it was completed in 1943, Grand Coulee was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world; it is still America's largest electric power plant. The Columbia receives the Yakima and Snake Rivers before forming much of the Washington-Oregon border, receiving the Willamette River in Portland before emptying into the Pacific where Lewis and Clark sighted the ocean.

Form

A work's form, or overall structure, is often depicted via a series of capital letters, with each different letter representing a large section of contrasting material. Basic forms include binary form ("AB" or "AABB"), ternary form ("ABA"), and strophic form ("A" endlessly repeated, commonly found in folk songs or religious hymns with multiple verses). Other forms include rondo form, in which several statements of a single theme are each separated by contrasting material (e.g. "ABACA"). Forms not usually represented by capital letters include the various types of theme and variations, as well as sonata-allegro form (which at its most basic level includes an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation).

Patroclus

Achilles' foster brother and closest friend. Although Patroclus is a formidable hero, he is valued for his kind and gentle nature. Patroclus is killed by Hector while wearing the armor of Achilles.

Shiva

Also known as Lord Mahesh, Shiva is the Destroyer in the Trimurti. Developed from Rudra, the Vedic god of death, Shiva is often shown sitting on a tiger skin and riding the bull Nandi. He is also associated with a lingam (phallus). He has three eyes, of which the third (in the middle of his head) is all-knowing; when it opens, the world is destroyed and regenerated. Lord of all underworld beings, he wears a necklace of skulls and another made of a snake. He carries a trident as a weapon and has a blue throat, the result of drinking poison while the ocean churns. Parvati, one of his several consorts, bears him two sons: Kartikeya (the god of war) and Ganesha.

Achaemenid Empire

Also known as the first Persian Empire, it was founded by Cyrus the Great, who defeated and incorporated the Babylonian Empire, Lydian Empire and Median Empire. Based in what is now Iran, the empire had its ceremonial capital at Persepolis. Under kings Darius and Xerxes, Persia unsuccessfully invaded Greece. The First Persian Empire came to an end when Darius III was defeated by Alexander the Great.

Museum of Modern Art

Better known as "MoMA" and situated in Manhattan, it has been connected with the Rockefeller family since its founding in 1929. Its collection includes Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night, Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory, and Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie.

Andrea Palladio

Born Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, Palladio designed villas in and near Venice, including the Villa Rotonda and Villa Barbaro. He integrated Greco-Roman ideas of hierarchy, proportion, and order with contemporary Renaissance styles. His Four Books on Architecture from 1570 relates his theoretical principles. Among architects heavily influenced by Palladio were Inigo Jones and Thomas Jefferson.

Simone de Beauvoir

De Beauvoir was a French writer and philosopher perhaps best known for her feminist treatise The Second Sex (1949). In that work, de Beauvoir argued that "womanhood" is defined by its differences from masculinity, which is perceived as normal. The Second Sex contains the famous line, "One is not born a woman, but becomes one." The book is divided into two parts, titled "Facts and Myths" and "Lived Experience." She was a lover of Jean-Paul Sartre. She is often considered one of the pioneers of "second-wave" feminism, which emphasizes sexuality, the workplace, and other forms of inequality over the first-wave focus on voting and property rights.

1980 Summer (Moscow, Soviet Union)

Despite the glow from the Lake Placid Games, these Games were marred by a United States boycott ordered by President Jimmy Carter in response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This lead was followed by Canada, West Germany, Japan, Kenya, and China, while other Western nations left it up to their individual athletes, many of whom chose to partake. The result was an Eastern Bloc field day, with all 54 East German rowers earning a medal and the Soviets totaling 80 gold medals. British distance runner Sebastian Coe produced the West's best performance by winning the 1500-meter race.

Diogenes

Diogenes of Sinope was a student of Antisthenes, who founded the ancient school of philosophy known as Cynicism. (The term "cynic" comes from the Greek for "dog-like," and is thought to have originated as an insult to the school's members.) The Cynics rejected conventional social norms in search of a truly virtuous life. Diogenes himself was something of an eccentric—according to legend, he lived in a tub or a barrel on the street, and wandered Athens holding a lamp in his futile search for an honest man.

Divorce

Discouraged, but permitted. It is effected by a document called a get. By Jewish law, a husband must present a wife with a get of his own free will, and traditionally (but not by law) she must choose to accept it. The former presents an obvious problem when a wife wishes to be divorced but her husband does not. This is a considerable problem in observant Jewish communities and has led to a variety of attempted solutions of varying acceptance and effectiveness (usually in the form of some sort of prenuptial agreement, but occasionally more creative, less legal forms).

Elasticity

Elasticity is a measure of how much one economic variable changes in response to a change in a different variable, expressed in the form of "Every 1% change in the independent (second) variable leads to an x% change in the value of the first (dependent) variable." A common example is the price elasticity of demand, which measures the degree to which the quantity demanded changes when the price is altered.

Ferdinand Magellan

Emperor Charles V endorsed Magellan's proposal to sail around the Americas and across the Pacific, and the expedition left in 1519. Magellan began with five ships: the San Antonio, Trinidad, Concepción, Santiago, and Victoria. The expedition discovered and navigated the Strait of Magellan in 1520, reaching the Philippines in 1521. There, Magellan was killed in battle on the island Mactan. Only the Victoria, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano, returned to Spain in 1522.

The Huns

Entered central Europe in the late fourth century from the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas. Historians disagree on what, if any, components of the Hunnic advance should be identified with the Xiongnu, a confederation of Central Asian nomads that fought against Han China before being dispersed in the third century. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that they inflicted "tremendous slaughter" on Germanic and Roman enemies alike. Their great leader, Attila — known as the "scourge of God" — was defeated at the Catalaunian Fields (near Chalons in what is now northern France) by an alliance of Romans and Visigoths. After Attila's death in 453, a rebellion of Germanic subject peoples broke up the Hunnic empire.

Anti-Masonic Party

Established in 1828, it became America's first third party by riding the tide of anti-Masonic sentiment following the 1826 disappearance of Freemason whistleblower William Morgan. For the 1832 election, the Anti-Masons selected William Wirt in the first presidential nominating convention in United States history. Running against eventual winner Andrew Jackson, a Democrat seeking re-election, and Henry Clay, a National Republican, Wirt managed to receive 8% of the popular vote and 7 electoral votes from Vermont. Vermont and Pennsylvania both elected Anti-Masons as governors, and Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont and other states all sent Anti-Masons to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Flagship Sega franchise, starring a namesake blue hedgehog that runs at high speeds. Sonic first appeared on the Sega Genesis console in 1991, and is accompanied in later games by allies such as Tails (an orange, two-tailed fox) and Knuckles (a red echidna). The series's villain is Dr. Eggman, known as Dr. Robotnik in the early Genesis games. Though the series has maintained popularity for over two decades, more recent games have had considerably less success than the first three Genesis games.

Ohio River

Flows 981 miles through a significant industrial region of the central United States. Historically seen as the border between the northern and southern United States, the Ohio is formed in downtown Pittsburgh by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, flowing past Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Evansville, forming borders of five states before emptying into the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. Other major tributaries of the Ohio include the Kanawha, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wabash, and Cumberland Rivers.

Loire

France's longest river, the Loire begins in the Cevennes range of southern France, flows north to the center of the country, then flows due west to the Bay of Biscay. Many notable cities are on the river, including Nevers, Orleans, Blois, Tours, and Nantes. The Loire is sometimes called the "last wild river in Western Europe," and many proposed dams on the river have not been built because of opposition to the flooding of land and to interference with Atlantic salmon. The Loire Valley is particularly known for its vineyards and for its châteaux, a collection of over 300 castles dating to the 16th and 17th centuries.

Rio Grande

Has formed the border between Texas and four Mexican states since 1848. It flows south out of Colorado through New Mexico before reaching the international boundary near El Paso. Texas's Big Bend National Park is named for the sweeping curve the Rio Grande cuts through the Sierra Madre Oriental. After leaving the mountains, the river flows past Laredo and Brownsville before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Matthew Brady

He studied under Samuel Morse, who popularized the daguerreotype in America, and became a portrait photographer in New York. When the Civil War broke out, Brady saw it as a potential source of memorabilia, and took photos at Bull Run in a mobile darkroom. His work expanded to hiring out crews of photographers to cover the entire war, essentially creating the practice of photojournalism. Brady himself took portrait photos of prominent figures of both sides.

Talmud

Hebrew for "instruction," the Talmud is a codification of Jewish oral law, based on the Torah. It consists of the Mishnah (the laws themselves), and the Gemara (scholarly commentary on the Mishnah). The Gemara developed in two Judaic centers, Palestine and Babylonia, so there are two Talmuds (Palestinian and Babylonian), the latter considered more authoritative. Rabbis and lay scholars finished the Babylonian Talmud around 600.

George Eastman

His invention of a dry-plate process improved the robustness of photographs, which he then built further on by developing a gelatin emulsion that was applied to paper, then removed and varnished with collodion after exposure. This film, which was carried in rolls, was easier to transport than plates and allowed for multiple exposures without fully reloading a camera. Eastman's crowning achievement was the compact, handheld Kodak camera.

Francis Drake

In 1576, Elizabeth I of England sent Francis Drake to find the unknown southern continent. Drake's ship was the Pelican, which he renamed the Golden Hind. After sailing through the Strait of Magellan, Drake sailed up the western coast of South, Central, and North America as far as California, capturing Spanish ships and treasure along the way. After circumnavigating the globe and returning to England (1580), Drake fought against the Spanish Armada (1588).

Museo del Prado

In 1785, Spanish King Charles III commissioned a building to house a natural history museum, but his grandson Ferdinand VII completed the Prado as an art museum in 1819. Deriving its name from the Spanish for "meadow," the Prado's holdings include not only what is universally regarded as the best collection of Spanish paintings, but also a number of works from Flemish masters, such as Diego Velázquez's Las Meninas, Francisco Goya's The Third of May, 1808, and Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Wiley Post

In 1931, Post and navigator Harold Gatty completed a circumnavigation of the globe aboard the Winnie Mae, an experience that the two wrote about in Around the World in Eight Days. Two years later, Post became the first solo pilot to complete an around-the-world trip. He then began investigating the possibility of high-altitude flight and, using a pressurized suit of his own design, reached a height of 50,000 feet and may have been the first to encounter and use the jet stream. Today, Post is mainly remembered for the circumstances of his death; while flying through Alaska with world-famous humorist Will Rogers as his passenger, Post crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska, and both men died.

Charles Lindbergh

In May 1927, Lindbergh made the first non-stop, solo, trans-Atlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, a single-engine Ryan aircraft. Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island and landed at Le Bourget Field in Paris 33½ hours later. Lindbergh married Anne Morrow in 1929, and the 1932 kidnapping and murder of their son Charles Jr. was called "The Crime of the Century"; ultimately, Bruno Hauptmann was convicted and executed. Prior to the U.S.'s entry into World War II, Lindbergh urged the U.S. to remain neutral and was active with the America First Committee, though during the war he flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific.

1968 Summer (Mexico City, Mexico)

In addition to being the first Olympics to be held at high altitude, these Games saw U.S. long jumper Bob Beamon set a record of 8.90 meters that would remain untouched for 23 years. The Games ended on a controversial note: to protest the Mexican government's killing of at least 250 unarmed demonstrators on the eve of the Games, Tommie Smith and John Carlos staged a silent protest with a black-gloved, raised-fist "Black Power" salute during the award ceremony for the 200-meter race. This didn't sit well with the International Olympic Committee, who promptly ordered them home.

1980 Winter (Lake Placid, New York, United States)

In an Olympics where a single man — American speed skater Eric Heiden — would win five gold medals and not be the biggest story, something very special had to happen. In what would become known as "The Miracle on Ice," the U.S. Olympic hockey team — led by head coach Herb Brooks and captain Mike Eruzione — defeated the powerful Soviet team 4-3 on February 22, 1980. Two days later, they defeated Finland to claim America's second Olympic hockey gold medal, the first being in 1960 at Squaw Valley.

Diomedes

In his day of glory, Diomedes kills Pandarus and wounds Aeneas before taking on the gods. He stabs Aphrodite in the wrist and, with Athena as his charioteer, wounds Ares in the stomach. Along with Odysseus, he also conducts a successful night raid against King Rhesus.

1948

In the most recent election with four significant candidates, Democrat Harry Truman beat Republican Thomas Dewey, contrary to the famous headline of the Chicago Tribune, which was printed before results from the West came in. Dewey dominated the northeast, but Truman nearly swept the West to pull out the victory. Former vice president Henry Wallace earned over a million votes as the Progressive candidate, and Strom Thurmond took over a million popular votes and 39 electoral votes as the States' Rights (or Dixiecrat) candidate.

Edwin Land

Initially made his name developing filters for polarizing light. He then developed the instant, self-developing film, which worked by squeezing the negative film against a positive sheet, then using a reagent to transfer and quickly develop the image. The first commercially viable instant camera was produced and sold in 1948 by Land's Polaroid Corporation.

Apollo 1

Intended to be a test of the Command/Service Module in low-Earth orbit (LEO). However, a fire on the launchpad during a test killed the three astronauts aboard (Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White). The fire was exacerbated by the pure-oxygen, positive-pressure environment inside the capsule, and the fact that the capsule door opened inward. Both of these design elements were scrapped in subsequent missions, and the second was replaced with an outward-opening hatch nominally to facilitate spacewalks. Lessons learned from Apollo 1 were also taken into account during the design of the Space Shuttle.

Guy Carleton

Irish-born, he led grenadiers across the Plains of Abraham in the 1759 siege of Quebec under his close friend General Wolfe. He entered the war as second-in-command to Thomas Gage before taking command after Gage's 1775 recall. Carleton then directed British troops from Canada to Boston after the Battle of Concord, resulting in a revolt. Carleton repulsed efforts by Montgomery and Benedict Arnold to capture Montréal and Quebec, routing a second attempt by Arnold, by defeating an American naval buildup on Lake Champlain. Following this, he attempted to support Burgoyne's failed plan to isolate New England. Brought back to Britain to govern Armagh in Ireland in 1777, he sat out all but the end of the war, returning in 1782 as commander-in-chief after Cornwallis' surrender.

Isis

Isis, daughter of Geb and Nut, protected love, motherhood, and fate in the Egyptian mythos. Many of her roles are similar to those of the goddess Hathor, but she is often equated with the Greek Demeter. Her powers were gained through tricking the god Ra. By placing a snake in his path, which poisoned him, she forced him to give some power to her before she would cure him.

Rub' al-Khali

Its name means "Empty Quarter" in English, and it is sometimes considered the most inhospitable place on earth. It is known for the world's largest oil field, the Ghawar, and for once being part of the frankincense trade.

Jimmy Doolittle

James H. Doolittle served as a flight instructor for the U.S. Army during World War I, and after the war became a celebrated race pilot, reaching a world-record speed of 296 miles per hour in 1932. Rejoining the military after Pearl Harbor, he personally led the "Doolittle Raid," in which 16 B-25 bombers took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and bombed the Japanese home islands in April 1942. Following the raid, Doolittle commanded the Eighth Air Force that launched massive bombing raids against Germany.

Mount Kilimanjaro

Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira are the three summits of Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. It is notable for also being the tallest mountain that is not part of a mountain range, having been formed by a now-extinct volcano. A corpse of a leopard is found on top of the mountain in "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," a short story by Ernest Hemingway that uses the mountain as the backdrop for the memories, and ultimately the death, of a writer suffering from gangrene.

Sergei Korolev

Known until his death by the pseudonym "Chief Designer", headed design and construction for the Soviet long-range ballistic missile program, as well as the R-7 ICBM program. This work urged similar innovations in the U.S. Earlier in his career, Korolev designed a rocket-powered glider, though he was imprisoned and forced into slave labor during the Great Purge. In the 1950s, he personally oversaw Sputnik and Sputnik 2, and he returned to the R-7, modifying it for lunar insertion of robotic probes. His final years were spent devising soft-landing methods for manned lunar missions.

Ansel Adams

Like Muybridge, he gained significant fame for his photographs of Yosemite National Park, including Moon and Half Dome. With Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston, he founded Group f/64, named after the smallest common aperture setting of cameras at the time. He also developed a method to determine the optimum exposure for a negative, known as the Zone System, enabling him to create tremendous detail within small gradation of shade in black-and-white photography.

The Nez Perce

Lived along the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest and maintained friendly relationships with Americans through most of the 19th century. When the U.S. attempted to remove them from their lands, however, the Nez Perce fought back, embarking on a 1,200-mile retreat that ended only when they were trapped just south of the Canadian border. In a speech, the Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph then declared "I will fight no more forever." He and the Nez Perce were subsequently deported to Kansas.

National Gallery

Located in London's Trafalgar Square, it houses a synoptic collection of pre-1900 paintings assembled by government purchase and donation. It is home to British masterpieces including John Constable's The Haywain and both Rain, Steam and Speed and The Fighting Temeraire by J. M. W. Turner. The museum also boasts several major highlights of European painting, from arguably the best known of Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers series to exemplar Baroque works like Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus, The Judgment of Paris by Peter Paul Rubens, and the Rokeby Venus of Diego Velázquez. Major works of the Italian and north European Renaissance are also represented, including Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Wedding, Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors, Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne, Raphael's Portrait of Pope Julius II, and the later of Leonardo's two versions of Madonna of the Rocks.

The Art Institute of Chicago

Located on the western edge of Grant Park in Chicago, the main building of the Art Institute was built for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and features two lion statues at its entrance (which are often decorated for special occasions, e.g. with jerseys when Chicago sports teams are in the playoffs). It has an outstanding collection of French Impressionist and American works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge, Grant Wood's American Gothic, and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

Lysosomes

Lysosomes are membrane-bound organelles that contain digestive enzymes that break down proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. They are important in processing the contents of vesicles taken in from outside the cell. It is crucial to maintain the integrity of the lysosomal membranes because the enzymes they contain can digest cellular components as well.

Mach Scale

Mach numbers measure speed. Based on a suggestion by Swiss aeronautical engineer Jakob Ackeret, it was named after Ernst Mach, an Austrian physicist who studied — among other things — the Doppler effect, sensory perception, and the origin of inertia. The Mach number is defined as the ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of sound in the same medium. So an object moving at the speed of sound (which in dry air at 20°C is about 343 m/s) has a speed of Mach 1, and an object moving at twice the speed of sound has a speed of Mach 2.

Syracuse

Major Greek colony on Sicily, founded by colonists from Corinth and Tenea. Its forces crushed the Sicilian Expedition of Athens, which proved to be the decisive turning point of the Peloponnesian War. Some two hundred years later, the great scientist Archimedes died during the Roman takeover of Syracuse.

Greedy Algorithms

Make the locally optimum or "best" choice at every step. Such algorithms may or may not produce an overall best solution. Consider an algorithm for making change in which you pick the largest coin smaller than or equal to the amount of change you need to give. If you need to give 7¢ change, you first pick a nickel (5¢) and still have to make 2¢ change, so you pick a penny (1¢) and still have to make 1¢, so you add an additional penny and have broken the 7¢ into 5¢ + 1¢ + 1¢. In the U.S. coin system, this is optimal in the sense of using as few coins as possible, namely three coins. However, in a coin system that offered coins worth 1¢, 3¢, 4¢, and 5¢, the greedy algorithm would give the same solution, even though a solution with fewer coins is possible (4¢ + 3¢).

The Lombards

Moved into northern Italy (the region still known today as "Lombardy") after the peninsula had been devastated by the war between the Byzantines and the Ostrogoths. Lombard dukes and kings shared control of Italy with the remaining Byzantine garrisons. Although the Lombards were Catholics, their relationship with the papacy was often turbulent. Papal requests for assistance led to the 8th-century invasion by Frankish forces under Charlemagne, who crushed the Lombard kingdom and seized the Lombards' "iron crown." The Lombard historian Paul the Deacon retired to the abbey of Monte Cassino to write a chronicle of his now-vanquished people.

Piano Concertos

Mozart's piano concertos are numbered from 1-27, though six of them are arrangements of works by other composers. The Concerto No. 8 in C major, K. 246, is named for Countess Lützow, for whom it was written, and No. 9 in E flat major, K. 271, is nicknamed "Jeunehomme" (although recent scholarship suggests the title should actually be "Jenamy," after an acquaintance of Mozart named Victoire Jenamy). The first movement of the Jeunehomme" Concerto unusually (for the time) has the soloist start playing very early—in the second measure—and its last movement Rondo includes a slow minuet section. The Concerto No. 21 in C, K. 467, is often nicknamed "Elvira Madigan" because it was used in the 1967 Swedish film of that name. No. 26 in D, K. 537, is called the "Coronation," because it was played at the coronation of Leopold II. Mozart also wrote concertos for two pianos (No. 10 in E flat major, K. 365) and three pianos (No. 7 in F major, K. 242, nicknamed "Lodron").

Centrioles

Not found in plant cells, centrioles are paired organelles with nine sets of microtubule triplets in cross section. They are important in organizing the microtubule spindle needed to move the chromosomes during mitosis.

The Iroquois Confederacy

Originally consisted of five tribes native to upstate New York: the Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Seneca, and Onondaga. The confederacy was founded based on the teachings of a prophet called the Great Peacemaker, whose followers included chief Hiawatha, the subject of a famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The confederacy gradually expanded to control much of the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions and also incorporated the Tuscarora people, who migrated from North Carolina after defeat in a colonial war. In the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois and their British allies came to dominate various Algonquin peoples allied with the French. The Iroquois Confederacy collapsed after the American Revolution, during which leaders like Joseph Brant stood by the British.

Fermions

Particles with half-integral spin. Spin is a form of "intrinsic angular momentum," possessed by particles as if they were spinning around their axis (but they aren't). The values cited for spin are not (usually) the real magnitude of that angular momentum, but the component of the angular momentum along one axis. Quantum mechanics restricts that component to being n/2 times Planck's constant divided by 2π for some integer n. If n is even, this results in "integral" spin, if it is odd, it results in "half-integral" spin. Note that the exact value of the spin itself is a real number; it's the multiplier of h/2π that determines whether it is "integral" or not. The most significant thing about fermions is that they are subject to the Pauli Exclusion Principle: No two fermions can have the same quantum numbers (i.e., same state). The name "fermion" comes from the name of the Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi.

The Shoshone

People who also held lands on the northern plains, while their linguistic relatives the Comanche dominated the southern plains. Sacagawea, a member of the Shoshone, served as an interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery. The tribe was later devastated by such attacks as the Bear River massacre and driven from their lands by white settlers. In an attempt to secure aid, the chief Pocatello led a mass conversion of Shoshone to Mormonism in 1875.

The Cherokee

People who lived as one of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes" of the southeastern United States, along with the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminoles. In the early 1800s, the Cherokee adopted many American cultural practices, from settled agriculture and representative government to an original alphabet created by Sequoyah. Though their sovereignty was acknowledged in the case Worcester v. Georgia, the Cherokee were still driven west along the Trail of Tears after some members signed the Treaty of New Echota. Today, the Cherokee are the largest federally-recognized Native American tribe.

Louvre

Perhaps the world's most famous museum, the Musée du Louvre is located on the right bank of the Seine River in the heart of Paris. Housed in the Louvre Palace, which was a royal residence until 1682, the Louvre was permanently opened to the public as a museum by the French Revolutionary government in 1793. During renovations carried out in the 1980s, a controversial steel-and-glass pyramid designed by I. M. Pei was installed at its entrance. Works housed within the Sully, Richelieu, and Denon Wings of the Louvre include ancient Greek sculptures such as the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People.

Ra

Personification of the midday sun, he was also venerated as Atum (setting sun) and Khepri (rising sun), which were later combined with him. He traveled across the sky each day and then each night, the monster Apep would attempt to prevent his return. Other myths held that Ra spent the night in the underworld consoling the dead. The god of the pharaohs, from the fourth dynasty onward all pharaohs termed themselves "sons of Ra," and after death they joined his entourage. He was portrayed with the head of a falcon, and crowned with the sun disk.

Tao Te Ching

Philosophical text behind Daoism, a religion-philosophy founded by the semi-legendary Lao Tzu in the sixth century BC, though scholars now believe it was written about 200 years later, during the Warring States period of the late Zhou dynasty. The Tao Te Ching instructs adherents in restraint and passiveness, allowing the natural order of the universe to take precedent.

Plato

Plato's Socratic dialogues are our main source both for Socrates's philosophy and his own; Plato often put his own thoughts in Socrates' mouth. Plato's dialogues include the Republic (about justice and the ideal city-state), the Symposium (about the nature of love), and the Meno (about whether virtue can be taught). Plato believed in a world of "forms"—or ideal versions of real things that lie beyond the human senses—which he discussed in such works as the Phaedo. Plato founded a school called the Academy, from which we get the common word.

Francis Marion

Previously an Indian fighter, Marion was given command of Fort Sullivan in 1776. Commanding the 2nd South Carolina, he fought at Savannah, and escaped capture when the British retook Charleston. From there, Marion fought a successful guerilla campaign against British troops, forcing Cornwallis to appoint Colonel Banastre Tarleton to eliminate Marion. Tarleton's frustration at the task led to the remark "But as for this damned old fox, the devil himself could not catch him," creating Marion's nickname, "Swamp Fox." Promoted to brigadier general in 1781, and later given command of the North and South Carolina militias, Marion fought the British at Eutaw Springs.

Apocrypha

Protestants and Jews assign lower authority to the Apocrypha because it was written between 300 and 100 BC, but Catholics and Orthodox Christians consider the books that make up the Apocrypha to be "deuterocanonical," meaning that they are just as important and divinely-inspired as other parts of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible. "Apocryphal" in general means "something outside an accepted canon," and, in particular, in ancient Greek it meant "hidden things." Denominations differ as to which books make up the Apocrypha, but Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch are almost always included.

Book of Mormon

Published in 1830 by the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith. Mormons believe that the prophet Moroni revealed the location of the Book of Mormon to Smith, and then Smith translated it from a "reformed Egyptian" language. The Book of Mormon is inscribed on thin gold plates, and documents the history of a group of Hebrews who migrated to America around 600 BC. This group divided into two tribes: the Lamanites (ancestors of American Indians), and the highly civilized Nephites, a chosen people instructed by Jesus but killed by the Lamanites around AD 421.

Babylonia

Region of lower Mesopotamia centered on the city of Babylon. The different incarnations of Babylonian empires included the Amorite, Kassite, and Chaldean dynasties. The most notable Amorite ruler was Hammurabi, famed for his legal code, though Babylon was at its most powerful under the Chaldeans. The Chaldean ruler Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and destroyed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

Avesta

Sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism. It consists of five parts: Gathas (poems written by Zoroaster), Visparat (homages to spiritual leaders), Vendidad (legal and medical doctrine), Yashts (hymns to angels and heroes), and Khurda (lesser rituals and hymns). The Gathas may be as old as the 7th century BC, when Zoroaster is thought to have lived, but most of the Avesta was put together by the Sassanid Persian dynasty, between AD 200 and 640. Zoroastrianism centers on the eternal struggle between a good entity (Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd) and its evil counterpart (Angra Mainyu, or Ahriman); the religion is still practiced by about 120,000 Parsees in Bombay and a few thousand adherents in Iran and Iraq.

Margaret Sanger

Sanger was an early advocate of birth control and reproductive rights; she founded the American Birth Control League, which evolved into Planned Parenthood. As a young nurse living in New York City, Sanger wrote columns about sexual education for the New York Call titled "What Every Mother Should Know" and "What Every Girl Should Know." Sanger gave up nursing after one of her patients died of a self-induced abortion, and instead dedicated herself to educating women about contraception. In 1914, she began writing a newsletter called The Woman Rebel, in part to challenge the Comstock Act, which prohibited the sending of "obscene" material by mail, since she considered education about contraception to be an issue of free speech.

Parthian Empire

Second major empire to come out of Persia. The Parthian Empire was founded by Arsaces I, who rebelled against the Seleucid Empire. Parthians often fought with Rome, and at the 53 BC Battle of Carrhae, the Roman general Crassus was killed. The Parthian Empire was supplanted by the Sassanian Empire in AD 224.

Distillation

Separates a mixture of liquids based on their boiling point by heating, causing the more volatile component to vaporize and condense in a different container while the other components remain in the original vessel. In the laboratory, the vapors are usually cooled with a water-based Liebig condenser or Vigreux condenser, and the product is collected in a round-bottomed receiving flask. In industry, multiple rounds of distillation are performed in a single "column" packed with trays, each of which can be modeled as a "theoretical plate." Oil refining relies on fractional distillation, in which different products are pulled out of the mixture at various trays along the column. Azeotropes are mixtures that cannot be separated because at the specified pressure and composition, both components boil at the same temperature.

Thoth

Serving the gods as the supreme scribe, the ibis-headed Thoth was known as the "tongue of Ptah" for his knowledge of hieroglyphics, and as the "Heart of Re" for his creative powers. His knowledge of science and calculation made him the creator of the calendar, and his symbol was the moon due to his knowledge of how to calculate its path. His knowledge of magic led to his association with the Greek Hermes. Thoth was consulted by Isis when attempting to resurrect Osiris, and was again consulted when the young Horus was stung by a scorpion.

The Franks

Settled in Gaul late in the 5th century, displacing the Roman official Syagrius. Clovis, the first great ruler of their Merovingian dynasty, converted to (Catholic) Christianity in 496. The close association between the Franks and the papacy benefited both parties in an age when their mutual enemies (such as the Visigoths) were either heretics or still pagan. Merovingian Gaul was wracked by civil war among contending Frankish kings; by the beginning of the 8th century the Merovingians had lost effective power to their chief ministers, the "mayors of the palace." In 751 mayor Pepin the Short, with permission from the pope, deposed the last Merovingian and established a new Carolingian dynasty of Frankish kings. Pepin's son was Charlemagne, who subjugated much of western Europe and presided over a revival of learning known as the "Carolingian Renaissance." On Christmas Day 800 Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome. Charlemagne's grandsons quarreled over rights to his inheritance, splitting the Frankish empire into a cluster of regional domains. The westernmost ("West Francia") became the kingdom of France; the eastern one beyond the Rhine ("East Francia") retained the imperial title as the Holy Roman Empire.

Hanuman

Son of the wind god Vaayu and Queen Anjana, Hanuman has a human body with a monkey's head. As a boy he swallows the sun (mistaking it for a piece of fruit); the angry Indra whips him with a thunderbolt. In response, the wind god Vaayu refuses to breathe air into the world, prompting Indra to apologize and the other gods to bestow immortality and shapeshifting ability on Hanuman. He figures prominently in the Ramayana, where he flies to Lanka to tell Sita that Rama will rescue her from Ravana.

Endoplasmic Reticulum

The ER is a network of tube-like membranes continuous with the nuclear envelope. Part of it is"rough" because they are covered in ribosomes, while other parts are "smooth" because they aren't. In the ER, proteins undergo modifications and folding to yield the final, functional protein structures.

Pedro I

The Emperor of Brazil from 1822 to 1831. The son of King John VI of Portugal, Pedro became the first ruler of the Empire of Brazil when he declared independence from Portugal in 1822 with the Cry of Ipiranga. In 1831, he abdicated in favor of his son in order to launch an ill-fated invasion of Portugal.

Mamluk

The Mamluks were slave soldiers of foreign origin who deposed the Ayyubids in 1250. Baybars, who turned back the Mongols at the Battle of Ayn Jalut, is a popular figure in Arabic heroic literature. In 1291 they drove the last Crusaders from Palestine. Their reign is divided into a "Bahri" period from 1250-1382 and a "Circassian" period from 1382-1517. They were defeated by the Ottomans, who conquered Egypt in 1517.

Medgar Evers

The NAACP's field secretary for Mississippi, in which capacity he planned boycotts and grassroots civil rights organizations. He advocated ending segregation at the University of Mississippi; after Brown v. Board of Education ruled that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, he applied to law school there, but was rejected because he was black. In 1963, he was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the white supremacist network White Citizens' Councils.

Richter Scale

The Richter scale measures earthquake intensity. Developed by Caltech professor Charles Francis Richter, it measures the shaking intensity associated with earthquakes, as quantified by the amplitude of vibrations on a seismograph. A magnitude-5.0 earthquake will have an amplitude 10 times larger than that of a magnitude 4.0 quake. The energy associated with an earthquake is actually proportional to the 3/2 power of the magnitude: a 1-point difference on the Richter scale corresponds to a 10^(3/2) fold (about 31.6) difference in energy. Because of difficulties in measuring the magnitudes of large earthquakes, the Richter scale has been superseded by the moment magnitude scale, which uses a different formula but retains the logarithmic nature (and correlates to measurements on the Richter scale).

Saffir-Simpson Scale

The Saffir-Simpson scale is a measure of wind speed and damage from hurricanes. It was developed in 1971 by Herbert Saffir, a civil engineer, and Robert Simpson, then the director of the National Hurricane Center. It rates hurricanes on a 1-to-5 scale: a 1 corresponds to a wind speed of 74 to 95 miles per hour, which causes "some damage." A 5 causes "catastrophic damage," with wind speeds over 157 miles per hour and affected areas uninhabitable for weeks or months.

Alfredo Stroessner

The dictator of Paraguay from 1954 to 1989. Stroessner ruled Paraguay with an iron fist, and was backed by the CIA for his anti-communist purges. He came to power by overthrowing Federico Chávez in 1954 and assuming leadership of his Colorado Party.

Lakshmi (or Sri)

The last and greatest treasure born from the "churning of the ocean," Lakshmi is the goddess of prosperity and patron to moneylenders. The epitome of feminine beauty, she sits or stands on a lotus flower and appears in her own avatars alongside Vishnu: Sita to his Rama; Padma the lotus to Vamana the dwarf; Radha (or Rukmini) to Krishna. A form of the mother goddess (Shakti, or Devi), she also represents virtue and honesty.

Nitrogen (N, 7)

The most abundant element in Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen, which was first isolated as "noxious air" by Daniel Rutherford, exists primarily as a diatomic molecule containing two triple-bonded nitrogen atoms (N2). Because nitrogen gas is extremely stable, N2 is unusable for many biological and chemical purposes. To make it useful, it often undergoes fixation to convert it into usable nitrogen species such as the ammonium ion (NH4+) — as it is by bacteria in the root nodules of legume plants—or ammonia gas (NH3), as is done industrially in the Haber-Bosch process. Conversely, its stability makes it useful in preventing unwanted combustion reactions. It also has a relatively low boiling point (-196°C), which makes liquid nitrogen useful as a refrigerant.

Polyphemus

The most famous Cyclops in Greek mythology, the son of Poseidon and the sea nymph Thoosa. The most notable myth involving Polyphemus is his appearance in Book IX of Homer's Odyssey: after Odysseus and his crew land on Polyphemus' island after escaping the Lotus-Eaters, Polyphemus eats two of Odysseus' crew, imprisons the rest in his cave, and eats four more before the survivors can escape. To escape, Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk on wine and blinds the one-eyed giant with a stick; the next morning, Odysseus and his crew ride out of Polyphemus' cave, hiding underneath the Cyclops' sheep. When Polyphemus asks Odysseus' name, Odysseus responds "No one" or "No man" (translations vary), and Polyphemus prays to his father Poseidon to make Odysseus' journey home treacherous. In another myth, Polyphemus falls in love with the nymph Galatea, who in turn loves the human Acis. Polyphemus then kills Acis with a boulder out of jealousy.

Nucleus

The nucleus is the "command central" of the cell because it contains almost all of the cell's DNA, which encodes the information needed to make all the proteins that the cell uses. The DNA appears as chromatin through most of the cell cycle, but condenses to form chromosomes when the cell is undergoing mitosis. Within the nucleus there are dense bodies called nucleoli, which contain ribosomal RNA. In eukaryotes, the nucleus is surrounded by a selectively-permeable nuclear envelope.

Tagus

The principal river of the Iberian Peninsula. Rising in east-central Spain, it flows west for roughly 645 miles to the Atlantic, passing through Lisbon, Portugal on the way. The cities of Toledo and Santarém are on the Tagus, and hydroelectric dams on the river produce huge artificial lakes, including the Sea of Castile.

Brahma

The third of the Trimurti, Brahma is the Creator. By dropping an egg into the cosmic waters, he hatches a younger form of Brahma that creates other beings. Also the chief priest, he has four heads that each point in a cardinal direction, representing the Four Vedas. Brahma has a fifth head until Shiva plucked it off; as punishment for that act, Shiva is forced to wander as a beggar and carry Brahma's severed skull as a bowl. Brahma's wife is Savitri, who curses him after he lets a cow-maiden stand in for her at an important ritual. Few people worship Brahma, either because of the curse or because he lost a power struggle to Vishnu.

1936 Summer (Berlin, Germany)

These games are best remembered for Alabama native Jesse Owens' amazing work on the track against a backdrop of Nazi propaganda emphasizing Aryan superiority. The American athlete won the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump, and 4×100-meter sprint relay. Despite the growing strength of the Nazi state, the German people became enamored with Owens and named a Berlin street for him after his 1980 death. On other fronts, the Olympics were broadcast on television for the first time (as seen in the film Contact) and also saw the introduction of the relay of the Olympic torch.

Tisha b'Av (the Ninth of the month Av)

This is a day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Temples, as well as a number of other calamities in Jewish history. It is traditional to fast and to keep oneself in a solemn mood. The Book of Lamentations is read in a mournful tone, traditionally while sitting on the floor and with candles as the only lights.

Pidyon ha-ben

Traditionally, by default, firstborn sons are obligated to assist in the Temple in Jerusalem. As there is currently no Temple, this requirement is symbolic, but it is traditional to "redeem" such people from their obligations if possible. Children in priestly families (kohanim, singular kohen, descendants of Moses's brother Aaron) and Levite families (descendants of Levi) cannot be redeemed from service. Traditionally, the child's father pays a kohen five silver coins in exchange for the child's freedom, shortly after the child becomes one month old. Blessings and a meal accompany the ritual.

Twelve-Tone Technique

Twelve-tone technique was developed by Arnold Schoenberg in the early 1920s, and is one method of writing atonal music—music that has no key or tonic pitch. Twelve-tone works are based on a tone row constructed from each of the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale, each used only once. This row may be inverted and/or presented in retrograde (backwards), a combination of possibilities often represented in a twelve-tone matrix (for an example, see here; curious readers may experiment with creating their own row/matrix here). Twelve-tone technique is one form of serialism, the rigid structuring of various musical elements within a work. A work of total serialism applies the same process to dynamics, articulations, and other basic elements of music as well as pitch.

Divide-and-Conquer Algorithms

Use recursion to split problems into smaller subproblems with smaller input sets. By solving the same problem on each of these subproblems, then combining the outputs in some way, a divide-and-conquer algorithm can efficiently solve problems on big input sets. Merge sort (a sorting algorithm), binary search (an algorithm for finding an item in a sorted list), and Karatsuba's algorithm (an algorithm for multiplying integers) are examples of divide-and-conquer algorithms.

Abdulaziz ibn Abdul Rahman Al Saud

Usually known in the West as Ibn Saud (1875-1953), was the first king of Saudi Arabia. He reconquered Riyadh, his family's ancestral homeland, in 1902, and began expanding Saudi power from there; in 1925, he conquered the Hejaz, the region where Mecca is located. Ibn Saud declared the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932; during his reign, American engineers discovered oil at Dammam in 1938. Every subsequent king of Saudi Arabia has been a son of Ibn Saud, including the current (as of October 2019) king, Salman.

Alice Walker

Walker is best known as the author of the novel The Color Purple (1982), but she is also renowned for her non-fiction writing about women's issues. She joined the writing staff for Ms. magazine, for which she wrote "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston" (1975), stimulating interest in the then-forgotten Harlem Renaissance writer. Walker collected her critical essays on women's fiction in In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens (1983). Among other arguments, she memorably contrasted Virginia Woolf and Phyllis Wheatley, noting that the latter had none of the advantages Woolf considered necessary in "A Room of One's Own." Along with Maxine Hong Kingston and other female authors, Walker was arrested in March 2003 for protesting the Iraq War on the grounds that it would unfairly punish Iraqi women and children.

Socrates

We have no writings from Socrates's own hand, and know about him largely from the dialogues of his student Plato. Proclaiming his own ignorance of all things, Socrates went around Athens engaging in question-and-answer sessions to search for truths or draw out contradictions (the "Socratic method"). The Athenian state disapproved of his conduct; he was put on trial for corrupting the city's youth, and sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. Socrates' trial, imprisonment, and death are recounted in Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, respectively.

Broadway Boogie Woogie by Piet Mondrian

While Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and other Cubist paintings represent an extension of Paul Cézanne's division-of-space approach to the canvas, Mondrian's De Stijl works are a still further abstraction, such that the canvas is often divided up into rectangular "tile patterns," as in Composition with Red Blue and Yellow. The painting simultaneously echoes the bright lights of a marquee, resembles a pattern of streets as seen from above, and creates a feeling of vitality and vibrancy, not unlike the music itself. This work can also be found at the MOMA.

Frank Gehry

Winner of the 1989 Pritzker Prize, Gehry is best-known today for large-scale compositions like the EMP Museum (formerly known as the Experience Music Project) in Seattle, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and the recent, controversial Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. (Bilbao natives describe the latter as "the artichoke," because of its layers of abstract titanium structures.) Gehry often uses uncommon materials such as plywood and limestone; his designs range from Kobe's Fishdance Restaurant, shaped like a giant fish, to the soft-sculpture look of the so-called "Fred and Ginger" buildings in Prague. He also designs furniture: the Easy Edges line is made of laminated cardboard; the Gehry Collection consists of chairs named for hockey terms (e.g. Cross Check and Power Play).

Mary Wollstonecraft

Wollstonecraft was a British author and philosopher who is best known for writing A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). In that text, she argued that women are inherently equal to men, but appear inferior because they do not have the same access to education. Two years before, Wollstonecraft had responded to Edmund Burke's conservative Reflections on the Revolution in France with her own A Vindication of the Rights of Men. Wollstonecraft's daughter, Mary Shelley, is famous as the author of Frankenstein.

American Gothic by Grant Wood

Wood painted his most famous work after a visit to Eldon, Iowa, when he saw a Carpenter Gothic-style house with a distinctive Gothic window in its gable. Upon returning to his studio, he used his sister Nan and his dentist, Dr. Byron McKeeby, as the models for the two figures. The pitchfork and the clothing were more typical of 19th-century farmers than contemporary ones. American Gothic is among the most familiar regionalist paintings, and it is said to be the most parodied of all paintings. It hangs at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it was submitted for a competition by Wood upon its completion in 1930 (Wood won a bronze medal and a $300 prize).

Man Ray

Worked with Marcel Duchamp on a series of readymades before taking up photography. His earliest works were darkroom experiments in exposure called "rayographs." His later photographic work tended toward surrealism; perhaps the most prominent example is his Violon d'Ingres, a photograph of the model Kiki de Montparnasse with the f-holes from a violin superimposed on her back. With his assistant Lee Miller, Man Ray also rediscovered the technique of solarization.

Mount Fuji

Yamanaka and Kawaguchi are two lakes found along the slopes of Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan. It is only about an hour's drive from Tokyo, and has significance in the Shinto religion, being sacred to the goddess Sengen-Sama. The mountain was also depicted in the series of prints Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, drawn by Hokusai.

Laocoon

Yet another son of Priam and Hecuba, this priest of Apollo shares Cassandra's doubt about the merits of bringing the Trojan horse into the city. "Timeo danaos et dona ferentes," he says (according to Vergil), "I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts." Later, while sacrificing a bull, two serpents from the sea crush both him and his two young sons. The death of Laocoon is often blamed on Athena (into whose temple the serpent disappeared) but more likely the act of Poseidon, a fierce Greek partisan.

Angelo

(Measure for Measure) Angelo is entrusted with the rule of Vienna by Duke Vincentio, who pretends to leave the city but actually remains present, disguised as "Friar Lodowick." Angelo enforces antiquated laws against fornication, resulting in Claudio's arrest and imminent execution. Claudio's sister, the novice nun Isabella, pleads for Claudio to be pardoned; Angelo agrees, but only if Isabella will have sex with him. After debate, Duke Vincentio proposes a "bed trick": Isabella pretends that she is willing to have sex with Angelo in absolute darkness and silence, which allows Mariana, a woman who was once betrothed to Angelo, to take Isabella's place. Although the plan works, and Angelo believes that he had sex with Isabella, he goes back on his word and orders Claudio's execution. This forces the duke to arrange a "head trick," in which the head of the pirate Ragozine is presented to Angelo, and Claudio's life is saved. Once the duke "returns" to Vienna, Isabella and Mariana petition him to right their wrongs. Angelo initially denies the charges brought against him, but confesses once he learns that the duke and Friar Lodowick are the same person. Angelo's life is spared for Mariana's sake, and the duke proposes marriage to Isabella.

Levellers and Diggers

(Mid-17th century) During the English Civil War, the opponents of the monarchy included holders of a wide range of political beliefs. Those politicians and soldiers who wanted to extend suffrage and establish equality before the law were known as Levellers, a pejorative term probably referring to the fact that they wanted all people to live on a common level. Some radicals, inspired by the Book of Acts, went even further in attempting to establish egalitarianism in the English countryside by trying to farm on common land. Because they dug up this land, they became known as Diggers, but preferred to call themselves the "True Levellers." The Levellers, who were less radical than the Diggers, had considerably more influence on English politics. Several Leveller leaders were invited to debate the main leaders of the New Model Army during the 1647 Putney Debates about the formation of a new English constitution. In the end, both the Levellers and the Diggers were suppressed by Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton.

Reform League

(Mid-late 19th century) A variety of organizations, including the Reform League, sprung up in 1865 to promote universal suffrage in the United Kingdom. Universal suffrage had been one of the demands of the Chartist Movement, but Parliament had not enacted it. The Reform League staged mass meetings to influence parliamentary proceedings, including a rally in Hyde Park in 1866 that forced the resignation of Spencer Walpole as Home Secretary. The Reform League's platform was eventually enacted in 1867, during Benjamin Disraeli's prime ministry. The Second Reform Act of 1867 enfranchised urban working-class males in England and Wales (further bills enfranchised Scotland and Ireland the following year).

Nevsky Prospekt

(Nikolai Gogol, 1835) Nevsky Prospekt is a major thoroughfare in Saint Petersburg. After describing the various types of people who walk down the street at different times of day, the story focuses on two men, who each pursue a beautiful woman. The first is Piskaryov, a painter who sees a dark-haired woman, follows her to the brothel where she works, and falls obsessively in love with her, eventually turning to opium to calm himself. He returns and proposes to the woman, but she mocks his advances, after which Piskaryov cuts his own throat. The second man, Lieutenant Pirogov, follows a blond woman. She turns out to be the wife of a German tinsmith, who beats Pirogov. The lieutenant plans to avenge himself, but abandons the idea after eating pastries and going dancing.

How Much Land Does a Man Need?

(Leo Tolstoy, 1886) At the start of the story, a peasant named Pahom listens to his wife and sister-in-law debate whether it is better to live in the town or the country. Pahom thinks "if I had plenty of land, I wouldn't fear the Devil himself!" - which the Devil hears from behind the stove. Shortly thereafter, Pahom purchases land from a village woman. He becomes exceedingly jealous and protective of his property, causing him to quarrel with his neighbors and the local judges. Learning of rich land elsewhere, Pahom moves his family, but still is not satisfied. Desirous of acquiring even more land, Pahom visits the nomadic Bashkirs. Their chief, who is possibly the Devil in disguise, says that one thousand roubles will buy as much land as Pahom can walk around in a single day. However, if Pahom does not return to his starting point by sunset, both the money and the land are forfeit. In his greed, Pahom ventures too far. He sprints back while the chief laughs, just as the Devil did in one of Pahom's dreams. Pahom returns to the starting point just in time, but immediately drops dead from exhaustion. A servant buries Pahom in a grave that is six feet long, thus answering the story's title question: a man only needs six feet of land.

The Overcoat

(Nikolai Gogol, 1842) Remarking on the story's importance to Russian literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky quipped "we all come out of Gogol's overcoat." The story's protagonist is Akaky Akakievich, a poor government clerk whose only joy in life is copying documents. His coworkers often make fun of his worn-out overcoat, so he visits his tailor Petrovich, who says that the coat must be replaced. Akaky scrimps to save up the necessary 80 roubles, and finally acquires the coat after receiving an unexpectedly large bonus. As he walks home from a party that was given in part to honor the new garment, Akaky is accosted by two ruffians who steal his overcoat. Akaky tries to seek justice from the municipal superintendent and from an "important personage," but both refuse to help him. Soon afterwards, Akaky contracts a fever and dies. His ghost is said to haunt the streets of Saint Petersburg, searching for the stolen cloak. Eventually, the "important personage" is accosted by a figure whom he believes to be Akaky's ghost, and is forced to surrender his own coat. However, the story's final words hint that the supposed "ghost" was actually an ordinary robber.

Battle of Trafalgar

(October 12, 1805, off the coast of southwestern Spain) In 1804 Napoleon abolished the consulate and became France's emperor. He faced an array of enemies who made up the "Third Coalition": the humiliated Austrians sought military aid from both Russia and Britain. France and Spain allied in the hope of challenging the Royal Navy and making it possible for Napoleon's armies to launch an invasion of Britain. Trafalgar, fought in the Atlantic off the coast of Spain in the fall of 1805, was the last great naval battle of the Napoleonic era. A combined French and Spanish fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was attacked by Royal Navy ships under Lord Horatio Nelson, Britain's greatest admiral. Just before the battle, Nelson's flagship — the HMS Victory — flew the signal "England expects that every man will do his duty." Although Nelson was killed by a French sniper in the battle that followed, his ships captured half of the French fleet, including Admiral Villeneuve. French plans to invade Britain were postponed indefinitely.

Battle of Leipzig

(October 16 - 19, 1813, Germany) The following year the Russian army marched west into central Europe at the head of a "Sixth Coalition" that brought the previously defeated Austrians and Prussians back into hostilities against France. At Leipzig in central Germany, coalition forces met a hastily-assembled replacement army raised by Napoleon after the disaster in Russia. More than 600,000 men fought in this four-day struggle, popularly known as the "Battle of the Nations" for the multi-ethnic nature of the coalition army. The forces of Saxony, one of the minor German states, switched sides during the Battle of Leipzig, leaving Napoleon's army to join the allies. The premature destruction of a bridge over the River Elster hindered Napoleon's retreat from Leipzig, the first in a series of military disasters that led to the emperor's forced abdication and exile to the Mediterranean island Elba in 1814.

Battle of Saratoga

(October 17, 1777) The major turning point of the American Revolution because the American victory led France to join the war. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion into New York from Canada with hopes of meeting another British army and splitting the American colonies. The final surrender was preceded by battles at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights. Horatio Gates led the American forces.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

(October 1944) By some measures the largest naval battle in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf resulted from the Japanese Sho-Go plan to halt the American reconquest of the Philippines. The plan nearly worked when American Admiral William "Bull" Halsey was baited into moving all of his battleships and large carriers away from the landing site, but an American force of small escort carriers and destroyers held off a Japanese task force that included four battleships. Another Japanese force tried to pass through the Surigao Strait, but — in the last-ever combat between opposing battleships — the American Seventh Fleet crossed their 'T' and annihilated the force.

Battle of Leyte Gulf

(October 1944) The American landings on the island of Leyte in the fall of 1944 fulfilled Douglas MacArthur's promise to return to the Philippines. Most of the Imperial Japanese Navy's remaining strength emerged to challenge the Allied landing, setting up one of the largest naval battles in world history. American admiral William "Bull" Halsey was criticized for the poorly-coordinated response to the Japanese attack. Nevertheless, American ships, aircraft, and submarines were able to destroy more than two dozen Japanese vessels, including the giant battleship Musashi. The Japanese position was by now so desperate that Japan began the practice of suicidal kamikaze attacks on Allied naval vessels.

Filippo Brunelleschi

A friend of Donatello, Brunelleschi was a skilled sculptor and goldsmith, whose 1401 competition with Lorenzo Ghiberti for the commission of the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery is a frequent question topic (Ghiberti got the chief commission). As an architect, he is mainly known for the extraordinary octagonally-based dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (also known as the Florence Cathedral and often called the Duomo, though that is just the general Italian term for a cathedral), which dominates the Florentine skyline and is across the street from the Florence Baptistery. The task required an innovative supporting framework and occupied much of his career (as described in detail in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists). Other projects include the Spedale degli Innocenti (a hospital), the Old Sacristy at San Lorenzo, and the Pazzi Chapel in the Cloisters of Santa Croce, all from 1421 to 1430.

Hadith

A hadith is a report of the words or actions of a Muslim religious figure, most frequently the prophet Muhammad. Each consists of a matn, or text of the original oral law itself, as well as an isnad, or chain of authorities through which it has been passed by word of mouth through the generations. Collectively, the hadith point Muslims toward the Sunnah, or practice of the Prophet, which together with the Qur'an forms the basis for shari'a, usually translated as Islamic law.

Chimera

A hybrid monster who was also a child of Typhon and Echidna. She is most commonly described as a lioness with a goat's head protruding from her back and a tail that ended in a snake's head. She was a fire-breathing menace to Lycia until Bellerophon slew her on orders from King Iobates. Flying on the back of Pegasus, Bellerophon shot at the Chimera and ultimately killed the beast by affixing a block of lead to his spear and causing the Chimera to melt the block with her fiery breath, suffocating her in the process.

USS Arizona

A lead ship of the honor escort for President Wilson's trip to France in 1918, she was on Battleship Row at Pearl Harbor when Japanese aircraft appeared just before 8:00 am on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The Arizona came under attack almost immediately, and at about 8:10 was hit by an 800-kilogram bomb just forward of turret two on the starboard side. Within a few seconds the forward powder magazines exploded, killing 1,177 of the crew, and the ship sank to the bottom of the harbor. In 1962 the USS Arizona memorial opened and is now administered by the National Park Service.

Nelson Mandela

A leader of the African National Congress and the first democratically-elected president of South Africa. In the 1960s Mandela was a young radical; along with Oliver Tambo and others, he founded a militant group called Umkhonto we Sizwe (the "spear of the nation") to carry out acts of sabotage against the apartheid government. In 1964 Mandela was charged with criminal activity in the Rivonia Trial; he was imprisoned for 27 years, most of them on Robben Island, a prison colony located off the coast of Cape Town. Mandela was the leading figure in South Africa's transition away from apartheid; he and his predecessor, F. W. de Klerk, shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.

Burt Rutan

A legendary aircraft designer, Rutan gained worldwide attention in 1986 when his Voyager plane, piloted by his brother Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager (no relation to Chuck Yeager), completed a non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling. More recently, Rutan designed the Global Flyer, aboard which Steve Fossett made a solo, non-stop circumnavigation without refueling in 2005, and SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 won the $10 million Ansari X Prize by making the first privately funded space flights.

Final Fantasy

A long-running Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) series, whose 15th main installment was released in November 2016. Final Fantasy VII, released in 1997, was a massive success and (at the time) a technical marvel that helped popularize the Sony PlayStation. Some notable protagonists from the series include Cecil Harvey (IV), Cloud Strife (VII), and Tidus (X). The series is closely associated with composer Nobuo Uematsu, who created the soundtracks for the first nine games as well as part of the tenth.

Graph

A mathematical concept often used in algorithms, in which a set of vertices is connected by a set of edges. In visual representations, the vertices are shown as dots, with edges shown as lines between the two vertices they connect. A path between two vertices is a sequence of edges that starts at the first vertex and ends at the last. A cycle is a path that begins and ends at the same vertex. A graph is called weighted if every edge has a number representing the "cost" of traveling the edge; weighted graphs are used, for example, in analyzing navigation, with vertices representing cities, edges representing roads between them, and weights representing distance (or travel time). A graph is called directed if each edge has an inherent direction (an edge going from vertex A to vertex B, but not from B to A), e.g., representing a one-way road. Graphs are also called networks, and this is the origin of the term social network: if vertices represent people and edges represent who knows whom, a social network is a graph of a collection of people and the relationships between them. Graphs are used to organize data (often in trees, which are graphs in which you can reach any vertex from any other vertex, but there are no cycles), analyze navigation/travel (broadly construed, such as the flow of fluid in a complex pipe system), manage tasks and scheduling (with edges representing dependencies), and more. Dijkstra's algorithm is used to find the shortest path between two vertices of a graph (possibly a weighted graph, in which case "shortest" means least total weight). Prim's algorithm and Kruskal's algorithm are used to find a graph's minimum spanning tree, that is a tree connecting all its vertices whose edges have the smallest possible total weight.

Edward Steichen

A member of the Photo-Secession movement, Steichen was heavily featured in Camera Work and helped Stieglitz found 291. Steichen later abandoned pictorial photography and worked for Vogue and Vanity Fair, where he produced some of the first fashion photographs. He later served as the director of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, where he organized the exhibition The Family of Man.

Calydonian Boar

A monstrous beast sent by Artemis to wreak havoc in Calydon after King Oeneus neglected to honor her while sacrificing to the gods. Oeneus's son Meleager led a group of heroes — including Theseus, the twins Castor and Polydeuces (or Pollux), and Achilles's father Peleus, as well as the huntress Atalanta — on what became known as the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Atalanta drew first blood, and Meleager finished off the beast. Meleager, who had fallen in love with Atalanta, then insisted on honoring her by giving her the hide. Meleager's uncles protested, Meleager killed them, and Meleager's mother avenged the death of her brothers by burning up the log that represented Meleager's lifespan, killing him.

Conversion

A non-Jewish person who wishes to become Jewish may do so with the guidance and approval of a beit din, a Jewish court. Judaism does not seek converts; in fact, it is traditional for a rabbi to refuse a prospective convert three times, and only if they still persist should the rabbi take them as a student. A ger (convert) must study Judaism and explain their motivation to the satisfaction of the beit din, and must immerse in a mikveh (ritual bath). Men must also be circumcised, or if they were already circumcised, a drop of blood must be taken from the penis as a symbolic circumcision (hatafat dam brit). Different Jewish movements have different views on conversion, and some movements will not recognize conversions performed by rabbis from other movements. Conversion may be sought by gentiles wishing to marry a Jewish person, children raised as Jews but who are not technically Jewish (e.g., because their father is Jewish but their mother is not), or simply people who find Judaism attractive for other reasons.

Cassandra

A princess of Troy, one of the children of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. She and her twin brother Helenus were both priests of Apollo and thus blessed with the gift of prophecy; however, after Cassandra spurned the advances of Apollo, he cursed her to never have her prophecies believed. During the Trojan War, Cassandra was raped in the Temple of Athena by Ajax the Lesser, which led Athena to wreck his ship on his journey home. After the war, Cassandra was made the concubine of Agamemnon, and the two were killed by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus when they returned to Mycenae.

Object-Oriented Programming

A programming paradigm that involves the creation of objects from classes that can hold data and transform it in various ways. A class is a definition of the fundamental properties that an object has, while objects are specific examples of a class (for instance, the general idea of a dog is a class, while your pet dog would be an object.) Inheritance allows subclasses to be defined so that the properties of a parent class are present in the sub-class (for example, "schnauzer" might be a subclass of "dog"). In composition, an object contains or references another object (which might or might not be of the same class, e.g., a dog's digestive system might be another object). Object-oriented programming also often uses encapsulation to hide unnecessary details from other aspects, e.g., a dog's digestive system doesn't need to know about its circulatory system. Polymorphism is the idea that different classes may be able to do the same things in potentially different ways, e.g., animals all eat but they do so in different ways. Java and C++ are object-oriented languages.

Infrared Spectroscopy

Acquires information about the chemical groups present in a compound based on which wavelengths of infrared light the bonds in those groups absorb. When IR-active bonds absorb infrared light, they undergo a change in dipole moment and are excited to a higher-energy vibrational mode, which have names like "stretching," "wagging," and "scissoring." The output of an IR experiment (called an "IR spectrum") is a graph of absorbance on the y-axis against wavenumbers, measured in cm−1 (inverse centimeters), on the x-axis. The most distinguishable IR peak is that of a carbonyl group, which displays a very strong absorbance at 1700 cm−1, while peaks below 1500 cm−1 produce a complex pattern unique to the compound being analyzed, called the fingerprint region. Samples are typically prepared by grinding them into a potassium bromide pellet or by creating a mull with the oil Nujol.

Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Missions (SM1, SM2, SM3A, SM3B, and SM4

All utilized spacewalks from a Space Shuttle. SM1 corrected Hubble's flawed optics by installing COSTAR (a corrective optics system) while removing the High-Speed Photometer to make room. It also replaced the original Wide Field and Planetary Camera, or WFPC ["wiff-pick"], with WFPC2, a cerma that had optical correction built in. SM2 replaced the Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) and Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) with improved successors. SM3A replaced failed gyroscope systems. SM3B replaced the Faint Object Camera (FOC) with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and also repaired NICMOS, which was installed during SM2. SM4 was originally cancelled after the Columbia Disaster by then-NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, but was revived by Michael Griffin, who took over the post in 2005. SM4 installed WFC3 (made from some parts of the original WFPC) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), and conducted other repairs. No further repairs are planned, as much of HST's functionality will be replicated with the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2021.

Antigone by Sophocles

Along with Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone is one of the three surviving "Theban plays" by Sophocles that center on the family of Oedipus. The tragedy takes place in the immediate aftermath of a battle in which Oedipus's two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, killed each other while struggling to control Thebes. The current ruler of the city, Creon, has declared that Eteocles will be given an honorable funeral, but Polyneices will be treated as a rebel and left unburied. Oedipus's daughter Antigone disobeys Creon's order, and buries her brother Polyneices against the advice of her frightened sister, Ismene. Despite the intervention of Creon's son Haemon, who is betrothed to Antigone, Creon sentences Antigone to be entombed alive. Soon after she is imprisoned, Antigone hangs herself. Haemon then commits suicide out of grief, and Creon's wife Eurydice kills herself when she learns that Haemon is dead. The once-proud Creon blames himself for the loss of his wife and son, and prays for death.

Isaac Asimov

Along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov was one of genre science fiction's "Big Three" writers. During the 1930s' and 1940s' "Golden Age" of science fiction pulp magazines, Asimov worked closely with Astounding Science Fiction editor John W. Campbell Jr. to create stories such as "Nightfall," which describes a rare moment of darkness on a planet with multiple suns, and "Robbie," the first of Asimov's many works about robots with positronic brains. (The word "robot" was introduced by the Czech author Karel Čapek in the 1920 play R.U.R., which depicts the worldwide uprising of "Rossum's Universal Robots"). Before Asimov, most stories about artificial life had followed the template established by Shelley's Frankenstein, in which a scientist who tries to usurp God's power to create life is ultimately destroyed by his own creation. Asimov challenged this trope by creating the "Three Laws of Robotics," which robots in his stories are obligated to follow:

Upanishads

Also called Vedanta, or "last part of the Vedas," the Upanishads were written in Sanskrit between 900 and 500 BC. Part poetry but mainly prose, the earlier Upanishads laid the foundation for the development of several key Hindu ideas, such as connecting the individual soul (atman) with the universal soul (Brahman). Spiritual release, or moksha, could be achieved through meditation and asceticism. The name "Upanishads" means "to sit down close," as pupils did when a teacher recited them.

Minotaur

Also called the Asterion, it was a half-man, half-bull monster kept in the Labyrinth on Crete by King Minos. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a snow-white bull as a sign of support during Minos' quarrel with his brothers for the throne of Crete, but instead of sacrificing the animal to the sea god, Minos kept it for himself. Angered, Poseidon caused Minos' wife Pasiphaë to lust after the bull, so Daedalus built her a wooden cow so she could mate with the bull. The product of this encounter was the Minotaur (lit. "Bull of Minos"). After Minos' son Androgeus was killed by Athenians, Minos demanded seven Athenians male youths and seven Athenian female youths, to be selected by lots every seven or nine years (accounts vary) as retribution; these victims were fed to the Minotaur. On the third drawing of the lots, the Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to vanquish the beast; with the help of Minos' daughter Ariadne, who gave Theseus a ball of string so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth, Theseus slew the Minotaur. On the return voyage from Crete, Theseus forgot to change his sails from black back to white, and his father Aegeus jumped into the sea, believing his son had died.

Lao Tzu

Also known as Laozi. A quasi-mythical thinker of the Taoist tradition, to whom the pivotal Tao te Ching is attributed. Concepts associated with him include that of the Tao, or "the way," and wu wei, or a life of non-action in accordance with the Tao. In later centuries, Lao Tzu was accorded godlike status as one of the Three Pure Ones of Taoism, and is frequently depicted as an old man with a donkey. To Lao Tzu is attributed the quote "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Odin

Also known as Wodin or Wotan. The "All-Father," he is the leader of the Aesir, the principal group of Norse gods. He is a god of war, death, wisdom, poetry, and knowledge, and rides the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. He hung himself for nine days on the world-tree Yggsdrasil, pierced by his own spear, to gain knowledge, and traded one of his eyes for a drink from Mimir's well to gain wisdom.

The Nose

(Nikolai Gogol, 1836) On the morning of March 25, the barber Yakovlevich cuts open a loaf of bread, and discovers a nose inside it. The nose belongs to Major Kovalyov, who wakes up the same day to find a smooth patch of skin where his nose used to be. Upon encountering his missing nose, which is traveling in a carriage and wearing the uniform of a state councillor, Kovalyov chases it to a shopping center called the Gostiny Dvor. There, Kovalyov wonders how to approach the nose, since its uniform indicates that it has a higher status than him. Summoning his courage, Kovalyov tries to convince the nose to return to his face, but the nose claims not to recognize him. Kovalyov goes to a newspaper, intending to offer a reward for the nose's return, but the clerk refuses his absurd-sounding request. Kovalyov then speaks with the police, who later catch the nose attempting to flee to Riga. However, the doctor that Kovalyov consults is unable to re-attach the nose, even with an operation. Kovalyov writes a letter to Madame Alexandra Podtochina Grigorievna, accusing her of cursing him so that he will marry her daughter, but receives an uncomprehending reply. Finally, on April 7, Kovalyov wakes up with his nose reattached, and resumes his normal life.

Siddhartha Gautama

Also known as the Buddha. Founder of Buddhism. His mother Maya is said to have dreamt that a six-tusked elephant entered her right side, ten months before she gave birth to Siddhartha in Lumbini. The future Buddha grew up in a palace, but he adopted an ascetic lifestyle after he encountered a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic outside his father's court. Like Mahavira, the Buddha is said to have attained enlightenment while meditating under a tree—in this case, the Bodhi tree. He learned the Four Noble Truths, which hold that humans are kept in samsara, the endless cycle of death and rebirth, by our attachment to impermanent things, and that the cycle can be ended by attaining nirvana.

Dixiecrat Party

Also known as the States' Rights Democratic Party, it was established in 1948 by Southern Democrats to oppose President Truman's re-election bid, in response to his actions advancing civil rights. When Truman was nominated by the Democrats in 1948, members from the South stormed out of the convention, creating a further divide within the party. With South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond as its candidate, the Dixiecrats — while receiving the same amount of votes as Henry Wallace — won 39 electoral votes from four southern states. Though it was a temporary split, the issue of civil rights did not disappear.

Paris

Also the son of Priam and Hecuba, he is destined to be the ruin of his country. He fulfills this destiny by accepting a bribe when asked to judge which of three goddesses is the fairest. When he awards Aphrodite the golden apple, Aphrodite repays him by granting him the most beautiful woman in the world; unfortunately, Helen is already married to Menelaus. Known less for hand-to-hand fighting than for mastery of his bow, he kills Achilles with an arrow but dies by the poisoned arrows of Philoctetes.

Marquis de Lafayette

Approached by the U.S. Minister to France, Silas Deane, he arrived in April 1777 with Baron de Kalb. First seeing action at Brandywine, his primary early action was in supporting Washington during the winter at Valley Forge. After participating at the battles of Barren Hill, Monmouth, and Newport, he returned to France, raising support for an expeditionary force. Returning to America as a colonel, he served on the board that sentenced Major Andre to death, and then faced Andre's confederate Benedict Arnold in battle in 1781. Working in Virginia, he evaded Cornwallis' forces, until reinforcements arrived in June. Coordinating with Anthony Wayne, the two combined forces against Cornwallis in the battle of Green Spring. Pursuing Cornwallis to Yorktown, Lafayette helped the siege there until Cornwallis' surrender.

Aristotle

Aristotle was a student of Plato; in turn, Aristotle was a tutor to Alexander the Great. Many of his works come to us in the form of lectures he gave at his school, known as the Lyceum. His philosophical output includes the Nicomachean Ethics, which argues that virtues consist in a "golden mean" between two extremes; the Physics, which describes motion and change in terms of "four causes" that make a given thing what it is; and the Metaphysics, which describes the structure of reality. Aristotle's Poetics discusses the types of drama and considers an effect of tragedies known as catharsis, or the purging of bad feelings.

Rosa Parks

Arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, disobeying driver James F. Blake's order to move to the "colored section" of the bus. She collaborated with Edgar Nixon and other leaders of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to organize the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted from December 1955 (four days after her arrest) until December 1956.

Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

As is often the case with his works, Hopper uses a realistic approach (including such details as the fluorescent light of the diner, the coffee pots, and the Phillies cigar sign atop the diner) to convey a sense of a loneliness and isolation, even going so far as to depict the corner store without a door connecting to the larger world. Hopper's wife Jo served as the model for the woman at the bar. Nighthawks is housed at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Burj Khalifa (Dubai, Adrian Smith, 2009)

As of 2019, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is both the tallest building in the world and the tallest man-made structure ever built. The structure was named in honor of Sheikh Khalifa, the president of the UAE. The burj—Arabic for "tower"—is part of a complex in downtown Dubai that also includes the world's second-largest mall by area and one of the world's largest fountains. The building has three curved wings in a 'Y'-shape that act as buttresses supporting the building's massive height. That exact height, 2,722 feet, was kept a closely-guarded secret until the building opened.

Mary Shelley

As the daughter of the philosophers William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women), and the wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley was a product of both the Enlightenment and Romantic eras. Her 1818 novel Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus helped to lay the groundwork for modern science fiction by contrasting Enlightenment ideas of progress with a Romantic conception of nature as an untameable force. The idea for Frankenstein came to Shelley while she was taking part in a friendly writing competition at Lord Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. Inspired by Luigi Galvani's experiments in "animal electricity," Shelley wrote about the Swiss scientist Victor Frankenstein, who reanimates dead tissue and creates a "monster." This attempt to control nature fails, as the monster murders Frankenstein's brother William, friend Henry Clerval, and wife Elizabeth before fleeing to the Arctic. Frankenstein pursues his creation, and tells his story to the explorer Robert Walton before dying. Shelley presented an even bleaker scenario in her 1826 novel The Last Man, which describes Lionel Verney's efforts to survive a 21st-century plague that devastates human civilization.

Shannon

At 230 miles, the Shannon is Ireland's longest river. It flows from Lough Allen, and Loughs Ree and Derg are also on its course. At Limerick, the river widens into its namesake estuary and runs for 50 more miles before it enters the Atlantic. Peat bogs and marshes line the river for much of its course, and the Shannon is considered a dividing line between Ireland's more cultivated east and wild west. A chief tributary is the Suck River. The Shannon does not pass through Dublin, although the Liffey does.

The Birds by Aristophanes

At the start of this comedy, two Athenians named Pisthetaerus and Euelpides seek out Tereus, a human king who was transformed into a bird called a hoopoe (some translations refer to Tereus as "Epops," the Greek word for "hoopoe"). Peisthetaerus convinces Tereus and his fellow birds to build a city in the sky, which would allow the birds to demand sacrifices from humans, and to blockade the Olympian gods. Peisthetaerus and Euelpides eat a root that gives them wings, and aid the birds in the construction of the city Nephelokokkygia, or "Cloudcuckooland." Peisthetaerus also drives away objectionable visitors, such as a poet, an oracle-monger, and a dealer in decrees. After the messenger goddess Iris is found in the city, the residents of Cloudcuckooland demand concessions from the Olympians. On the advice of Prometheus, Peisthetaerus demands that Zeus give up his mistress Basileia, or Sovereignty, from whom "all things come." Peisthetaerus marries Basileia, and is crowned king.

The Bacchae by Euripides

At the start of this tragedy, the god Dionysus arrives in Thebes to seek vengeance against his aunt Agave, who has denied his immortality, and her son Pentheus, who as King of Thebes bans the worship of Dionysus. The god first drives the women of the city mad, causing them to act as wild Maenads. He then convinces Pentheus to disguise himself in animal skins, and spy on the maddened women. However, the demented Agave mistakes Pentheus for a mountain lion, and dismembers her own son. The climax of the play occurs when Agave presents the head of Pentheus to her horrified father, Cadmus. As Agave realizes what she has done, Dionysus chastises her for her lack of respect, and foretells how Cadmus will spend his final days.

Battle of Actium

At this battle in 31 BC, the fleet of Octavian defeated the combined forces of Cleopatra and Mark Antony near what is now Preveza in the Ambracian Gulf of Greece. Marcus Agrippa commanded Octavian's fleet, which consisted of small, nimble Liburnian ships. Antony's fleet consisted of massive Quinqueremes, which were less mobile. Following his victory in the battle, Octavian titled himself Princeps, and later Augustus. To some, Actium signals the end of the Roman Republic.

Sirens

Beautiful women who appeared harmless and sang a beautiful song to passing sailors, only to prove vicious and bloodthirsty when the sailors ventured too close. The Greeks often said that the Sirens were the daughters of the river god Achelous, while the Romans named their father as Phorcys. In the Argonautica, Chiron warns Jason that Orpheus will be instrumental on his journey, and Orpheus later saves all of Jason's crew (save Butes) by playing his lyre when they pass the Sirens to drown out their beautiful and alluring song. Odysseus also encountered the Sirens, tying himself to the mast of his ship so that he could safely hear their song while his crew plugged their ears with beeswax, on the advice of the sorceress Circe.

Robert Mugabe

Became the first president of post-colonial Zimbabwe in 1980. Zimbabwe was the successor state to Rhodesia, the white-supremacist state in south-central Africa led by Ian Smith. Mugabe, the leader of the Zimbabwe National African Union, was a key figure in the civil and military struggle for African rights in Rhodesia. Mugabe's regime came under increasing criticism for his failure to prevent hyperinflation and his suppression of political dissent. He resigned the presidency after a November 2017 coup and was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Antarctica

Because it is covered with (solid) water, it is somewhat surprising that Antarctica is considered a desert, but it is classified as such due to its lack of precipitation. Players should be familiar with its tallest mountain, Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains; its active volcano Mount Erebus; the surrounding Ross and Weddell Seas; and the Ross Ice Shelf. The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole (1911), while the Englishman Robert Scott died trying to reach it. Ernest Shackleton had to abandon his ship, the Endurance, during an attempt to cross Antarctica on foot.

Rhine

Begins in the Swiss Alps, passes through Lake Constance (in German, the Bodensee), flows west along the German-Swiss border, then turns north to form part of the German-French border. The river then flows north and joins with the Meuse and Scheldt to enter the North Sea at a delta in the Netherlands. Cities along its course include Basel, Strasbourg, Mainz, Bonn, Cologne, and Rotterdam, and tributaries include the Main, Mosel, and Ruhr. The Rhine has played a strategic role in most German conflicts since the time of the Gallic Wars, but was not established as an international waterway until the Rhine Commission of 1815. German myth tells of the Lorelei, a nymph who lured sailors on the Rhine to their deaths.

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski represent Williams's two visions of the South: declining "old romantic" vs. the harsh modern era. Blanche is a Southern belle who lost the family estate, and is forced to move into her sister Stella's New Orleans apartment. Stella's husband Stanley is rough around the edges, but sees through Blanche's artifice; he ruins Blanche's chance to marry his friend Mitch by revealing to Mitch that Blanche was a prostitute. Then, after Blanche confronts Stanley, he rapes her, driving her into insanity. The drama was developed into a movie, marking the breakthrough performance of method actor Marlon Brando.

Phobos

Both Phobos ("fear") and Mars' smaller moon Deimos ("dread") were discovered by Asaph Hall III in 1877. At just 3,700 miles above the Martian surface, Phobos orbits more closely to its planet than any other moon in the Solar System. Because it orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates, each day it appears (from the Martian surface) to set twice in the east. Geological features on Phobos, including the Stickney Crater, are primarily named for either astronomers (Stickney was the maiden name of Asaph Hall's wife) or characters from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. In 1971 the U.S.'s Mariner IX became the first spacecraft to provide close-up photos of Phobos.

Ray Bradbury

Bradbury's science fiction and fantasy stories often contain nostalgic elements related to his Midwestern childhood. The Illinois community Green Town is the setting of Bradbury's novels Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes, both of which center on boys beginning to enter adulthood. Similarly, small towns on Earth and Mars are the setting of many stories in Bradbury's 1950 collection The Martian Chronicles, which is made up of loosely connected works about the expeditions of human astronauts, the displacement of indigenous Martians as human settlers arrive, and a nuclear war that destroys most life on Earth. Bradbury also wrote about Mars in several stories that appear in his collection The Illustrated Man, whose title character has tattoos that foretell the future. Another theme that recurs in Bradbury's works is censorship and the importance of literature. This theme is expressed most strongly in Bradbury's 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, which depicts a dystopian future in which "firemen" burn books. The protagonist of Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag, a fireman whose wife Mildred is deeply depressed and addicted to television programs that she watches on large "parlor walls." Montag begins to question his profession after meeting the free-spirited Clarisse McClellan, and secretly preserves books to read, leading to a rebuke from Fire Captain Beatty. Montag is eventually pursued by a robotic attack dog called the "Mechanical Hound," but escapes to join a community of rebels who memorize classic works of literature.

Minoans

Bronze-Age civilization centered on the Greek island Crete and included nearby islands. The British archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed much of what we know about the Minoans, including their palace at Knossos and their writing system, which he called Linear A.

Helen Gurley Brown

Brown was best known as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine from 1965 until 1997. Gurley Brown first came to prominence when she argued in Sex and the Single Girl (1962) that women ought to achieve financial security and pursue sexual relationships prior to marriage. As editor of Cosmopolitan, she asserted that women could "have it all," by which she meant love, sex, and money.

Carbon (C, 6)

By definition, it is in all organic compounds. It is the fourth most abundant element in the Universe. It has three major isotopes: isotope 12, which is stable; isotope 13, which is used in NMR spectroscopy; and isotope 14, which is radioactive and is the basis of carbon dating. Carbon's ability to form four chemical bonds means that it has many different allotropes. The best-characterized natural allotropes are diamond, which consists of a tetrahedral network of carbon atoms, and graphite, which consists of planes of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons. Fullerenes such as buckyballs and carbon nanotubes, on the other hand, are generally produced synthetically; buckyballs are roughly spherical. More recently, graphene, which is a single layer of atoms shaped like graphite, has proven to have remarkable properties; for example, it is nearly transparent while being about 200 times stronger than an equivalent mass of steel.

Oxygen (O, 8)

By mass, the most common element in Earth's crust. It was discovered independently by Carl Scheele and Joseph Priestley; Priestley originally called it "dephlogisticated air." Oxygen normally exists in elemental form as a diatomic gas (O2), but it can also exist in a triatomic form, ozone (O3), which is known for its role in blocking UV rays in Earth's stratosphere. Diatomic oxygen is — despite having an even number of electrons — paramagnetic, meaning it has unpaired electrons. This points out a problem with traditional valence bond theories, which predict that oxygen should be diamagnetic; molecular orbital theory correctly explains this behavior. Because oxygen is easily capable of accepting electrons, reactions in which a species gives up electrons are known as oxidation reactions.

Populist Party

Established in 1891, and also known as the People's Party, it had its roots in the same farmer-labor partnership that created the Greenback Party (established 1874). Opposed to the elites of the banking and railroad industries, the Populist movement promised agrarian and labor reform. Its first presidential candidate, James B. Weaver, captured 22 electoral votes from six western states with 8.5% of the vote in 1892, as Democrat Grover Cleveland won his rematch against Republican Benjamin Harrison. Also in the West, multiple Populist governors, senators, and representatives held power throughout the decade. The Populists nominated the same presidential candidate as the Democrats in 1896, William Jennings Bryan, because of his stance on a silver bi-metal currency, though the Populist vice-presidential candidate — party leader Thomas E. Watson — differed from the Democratic candidate. Bryan's failure to defeat Republican William McKinley spelled the decline of the People's Party.

Socialist Party

Established in 1901, it is usually associated with Eugene V. Debs, the face of the American socialist movement at its peak. He ran for president five times from 1900 to 1920, and managed to increase his vote counts with each successive campaign. He attracted over 900,000 votes twice: in 1912 with 6% of the vote, almost making it a four-way race, and in 1920, when Debs famously ran his campaign while imprisoned. Starting in 1928, his successor, Norman Thomas, ran for president six consecutive times, though the party was not quite able to replicate Debs's success.

Green Party

Established in 1991, it never attracted as large of a share of the vote as the other third parties, but the ticket of Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke pulled 2.7% of the popular vote in the infamous 2000 presidential election, possibly influencing Republican George W. Bush's extremely narrow victory over Democrat Al Gore, the winner of the popular vote. The Green Party continues to nominate candidates for presidential elections, and cites ecological sustainability, social justice, and fair democracy among its goals.

Even/Odd Functions

Even functions satisfy the rule f(-x) = f(x) for every x in the domain of the function. The graph of an even function has reflection symmetry over the y-axis. Even functions are so named because if a polynomial's exponents (on the variable) are all even, then the polynomial is an even function. Odd functions satisfy the rule f(-x) = -f(x) for every x in the domain of the function. The graph of an odd function remains the same when it is rotated one hundred and eighty degrees around the origin. Odd functions are so named because if a polynomial's exponents are all odd, then the polynomial is an odd function.

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

First shown in 1931, The Persistence of Memory is probably the most famous surrealist painting. The landscape of the scene echoes Port Lligat, Dalí's home. The ants, flies, clocks, and the Port Lligat landscape are motifs in many other Dalí paintings, and the trompe l'oeil depiction of figures is typical of his works. It currently belongs to the MOMA; its 1951 companion piece, The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, hangs at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Sparta

For many years, it was the predominant polis of the Peloponnese. Sparta was led by two kings, one each from the Agiad and Eurypontid families. The constitution of Lycurgus established the Gerousia, a council of elected elders plus the kings, which functioned as a high court and decided which matters to forward to the popular assembly, or apella (the analogue of the ecclesia of other city-states). The two kings were also joined by five annually elected ephors, who had broad executive powers. Sparta beat its rival Athens in the Peloponnesian War in the late 5th century BC, but lost its position as the leading military power in all of Greece to Thebes in 371 BC.

Denali

Formerly and often called Mount McKinley, Denali is the highest mountain in North America. It is in south-central Alaska, in Denali National Park. The West Buttress route is considered the best path to ascend Denali. Frederick Cook, a man notorious for having faked the discovery of the North Pole, is now believed to have also faked his ascent of the mountain in 1906 as well, leaving a climbing party seven years later with the honor.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben

Formerly part of Frederick the Great's staff, the Prussian Steuben was recommended by Ben Franklin to George Washington. Accepted by the Continental Congress, Steuben joined Washington at Valley Forge, and began training the army. Appointed major general and inspector general in May 1777, he aided in the Battle of Monmouth, then spent two years writing the Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, an army training manual. Sent to Virginia in 1780 to oppose Benedict Arnold's actions, illness caused him to turn over his troops to Lafayette, but Steuben recovered in time to aid in the siege of Yorktown.

Chloroplasts

Found only in plants and certain protists, the chloroplast contains the green pigment chlorophyll and is the site of photosynthesis. Like the mitochondrion, a chloroplast is a double-membrane-bound organelle, and it has its own DNA and ribosomes in the stroma. Chloroplasts contain grana, which are stacks of single membrane structures called thylakoids on which the reactions of photosynthesis occur.

Betty Friedan

Friedan was a writer and activist best known as the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963) and as the most prominent co-founder of the National Organization for Women. In 1957, Smith conducted a survey of graduates of her alma mater, Smith College, and found that many of them were unhappy with their lives. Friedan labeled this general unhappiness "the problem with no name." She then began writing The Feminine Mystique, in which she argued that being a housewife is unfulfilling and advocated for women to seek education and work outside the home.

Louis Daguerre and Joseph Nicephore Niepce

Functionally invented photography as we know it. Niépce created the process of heliography, which he used to create View from the Window at Le Gras, the oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene. Daguerre, another pioneer, partnered with Niépce and the two developed the physautotype method, which used lavender oil. After Niépce's death, Daguerre developed an even faster process, in which an iodized silver plate was exposed to light, treated with mercury fumes, and "fixed" with a solution of sodium thiosulfate; that process, daguerreotypy, bears his name.

Differentiable Functions

Functions for which the derivative can be found (because a particular limit, called a difference quotient, exists). Like continuity, differentiability is really a property of a specific point, and a differentiable function is one that is differentiable at every point. Every differentiable function is continuous, but some continuous functions are not differentiable; mathematicians thus say that differentiability is a stronger property than continuity. In terms of graphs, a differentiable function has a "smooth" graph with no corners or cusps (and also, because continuity is required, no holes, jumps, or asymptotes). All polynomials are differentiable, as are the sine and cosine functions, and exponential and logarithmic functions. However, the absolute value function f(x) = |x| is not differentiable because it has a "corner" at x = 0 (but recall that it is still continuous).

Exponential Functions

Functions in the form of f(x) = b^x, where b (called the base) is a positive number other than one. Exponential functions are used to model unrestricted growth (such as compound interest, and animal populations with unlimited food and no predators) and decay (such as radioactive decay). The phrase "the exponential function" refers to the function f(x) = e^x, where e is a specific irrational number called Euler's Number, about equal to 2.718. Exponential functions have the interesting property that their derivatives are proportional to themselves.

Polynomials

Functions made of terms added together, in which each term is a number times a product of variables raised to nonnegative integer powers. For instance, 3x^(2)y and -πx^(7)y^(2)z^(3) are each terms, so 3x^(2)y - πx^(7)y^(2)z^(3) is a polynomial. Much of math is concerned with polynomials involving only one variable, such as -x^(3) + 2x^(2). The number at the beginning of each term is called a coefficient. Polynomials can be classified according to their number of terms: a polynomial with one term is called a monomial; a polynomial with two terms is called a binomial; a polynomial with three terms is called a trinomial. Each polynomial has a degree. For polynomials of one variable, the degree is the largest exponent of the variable. For polynomials of multiple variables, you calculate the sum of the variables' exponents on each term, then choose the largest sum. A polynomial of degree one is linear; a polynomial of degree two is quadratic; a polynomial with degree three is cubic; continuing with increasing degrees, the terms are quartic, quintic, sextic, and so on. The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra is the statement that every single-variable polynomial, other than constants, has a root in the complex numbers, which means that if f(x) is a polynomial, then the equation f(x) = 0 has at least one solution where x is some complex number. There are formulas to find those roots for linear, quadratic, cubic, and quartic polynomials, though the latter two formulas are extremely complicated. The Abel-Ruffini Theorem, also called Abel's Impossibility Theorem, is the statement that there is now way to find a formula for the solutions of all quintic or higher-degree polynomials, if the formula must be based on the traditional operations (addition/ subtraction, multiplication/division, and exponentiation/taking roots). That impossibility is the topic that began an area of study called Galois Theory, which is part of abstract algebra.

Logarithmic Functions

Functions of the form f(x) = logbx, where b is again a positive number other than 1 (and again called the base). They are the inverses of the exponential functions with the same bases. Logarithmic functions are used to model sensory perception and some phenomena in probability and statistics. The phrase "the logarithm" can refer to a logarithmic function using the base 2 (especially in computer science; this is also called the binary logarithm), e (especially in higher math), or 10 (especially in lower levels of math and physical sciences). The phrase natural logarithm refers to the logarithm base e, and the phrase common logarithm usually refers to the logarithm base 10.

Surjective Functions

Functions that achieve every possible output. For instance, if you are thinking of functions whose domain and codomain are both the set of all real numbers, then f(x) = tan(x) is surjective, because every real number is an output for some input. But f(x) = x^2 is not surjective, because (for instance) -3 is not an output for any real-number input. The term image is sometimes used for the set of all output values that a function actually achieves; a surjective function, then, is one whose image equals its codomain. A function that is both injective and surjective is called bijective, or a bijection. If a function is bijective, then it has an inverse. Furthermore, a function can only have an inverse if it is bijective.

Antoni Gaudi

Gaudí created many extraordinary buildings in Barcelona in the early 20th century. His Art Nouveau-inspired works include the Casa Mila and Casa Batllo apartments, known from their undulating façades, and several works for patron Eusebi Guell, including the Parc Guell, a park in Barcelona. He spent 40 years working on the Expiatory Church of the Holy Family (also known as La Sagrada Familia), which will be finished in 2026. He was also fond of using hyperbolic paraboloids in his work.

George Orwell

George Orwell (the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair) condemned the totalitarian government of Joseph Stalin in the fantasy Animal Farm and the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell's speculative fiction was part of a wide-ranging body of work that also included attacks on British colonialism (the essay "Shooting an Elephant" and the novel Burmese Days), first-hand accounts of war (Homage to Catalonia) and poverty (Down and Out in Paris and London, The Road to Wigan Pier), and works of cultural criticism (the essay "Politics and the English Language"). After taking part in the Spanish Civil War and growing alarmed at the authoritarian nature of Russian communism, Orwell wrote the 1945 novel Animal Farm as an allegory of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Animal Farm describes barnyard animals who revolt against their owner, and try to create a more equitable society under the leadership of the pig Snowball, who develops principles of "Animalism" such as "Four legs good, two legs bad." However, Snowball is soon ousted by his fellow pig Napoleon, who exploits the other animals, sends the horse Boxer to be slaughtered, and degrades the principles of Animalism to "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Four years later, Orwell imagined a future Britain subsumed into Oceania, a superpower under the harsh rule of "Big Brother", in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Winston Smith and his lover Julia try to rebel against Big Brother, but are tortured into compliance in the Ministry of Love. Nineteen Eighty-Four also described the distortion of the English language for political purposes ("Newspeak"), and introduced many words and phrases that are still used with reference to oppressive governments (thoughtcrime, doublethink, memory hole, "we've always been at war with Eastasia," "war is peace," "Big Brother is watching you").

Andreas Gursky

Gursky, whose work tends to feature high vantage points and scenes that produce horizontal bands of color, has taken some of the most expensive photographs ever sold. Among those are his 99 Cent II Diptychon, a shot of the shelves of a 99-cent store, and Rhein II, a photograph of the Rhine River with humans and buildings digitally edited out.

HG Wells

H. G. Wells used speculative fiction to explore the social issues of his day from a left-wing perspective. In the 1895 novella The Time Machine, Wells wrote about a "Time Traveller" who visits the year AD 802,701, and learns that humanity has diverged into two different species - the surface-dwelling Eloi, who are gentle and beautiful but intellectually limited, and the subterranean Morlocks, who resemble apes but are strong and clever enough to use the Eloi as livestock. The Time Traveller speculates that the Eloi are descended from aristocrats who were once served by the ancestors of the Morlocks. After writing about time travel, Wells helped to establish another of science fiction's key themes by depicting an alien invasion in the 1897 novel The War of the Worlds. The anonymous narrator of The War of the Worlds observes a Martian spaceship that lands in Surrey, and flees the "Tripods" and "Black Smoke" that the Martians use as weapons in the conquest of Earth. The invaders easily overcome human resistance, but eventually perish from lack of immunity to Earth microbes. Wells also wrote several novels about researchers who use science to pursue unethical goals. In the 1896 Wells novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, the shipwrecked Edward Prendick discovers that the title vivisectionist performs painful experiments to transform animals into human-like "Beast Folk." A year later Wells published The Invisible Man, which centers on a student of physics named Griffin who plans to use his invisibility to enact a "reign of terror." However, Griffin's invisibility makes it difficult for him to exist in society (he must cover himself with clothes and thick bandages if he wishes to be seen), and he is eventually killed by an angry crowd.

Hathor

Hathor (or Athor or Athyr) was the patron of women. Hathor was the daughter of Ra and the wife of Horus. She fulfilled many functions as goddess of the sky, goddess of fertility, protector of marriage, and goddess of love and beauty. In that final role she became equated with Aphrodite and Venus. Pictures of Hathor show the goddess with the head of a cow.

Loki

He's actually giant-kin, but lives with the Aesir and is Odin's blood-brother. The god of fire and trickery, his many pranks include duping Hoder into killing Balder. His children include the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent Jormungandr, Hel (the ruler of the underworld), and Sleipnir. After killing Balder he was chained to three boulders with snakes dripping poison onto him.

Margaret-Bourke White

Hired by Henry Luce to work for Fortune magazine, but became known for her work for Life, including the magazine's first cover. a picture of Fort Peck Dam. She and her future husband, the author Erskine Caldwell, produced the book You Have Seen Their Faces, a survey of sharecroppers in the South. Bourke-White was later a World War II correspondent, and her pictures of the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Erla broadcast the tragedy back to the U.S. She also interviewed and photographed Mohandas Gandhi before his assassination.

Osiris

Husband of Isis, father of Horus, and brother of Set, Osiris served as god of the underworld and protector of the dead. In addition to his role as the chief and judge of the underworld (as a result of the above-mentioned murder by Set), Osiris also served as a god of vegetation and renewal; festivals honoring his death occurred around the time of the Nile flood's retreat. Statues representing him were made of clay and grain, which would then germinate. Osiris was represented either as a green mummy, or wearing the Atef, a plumed crown.

Mass Spectrometry

Identifies an unknown unknown compound by ionizing it, fragmenting it into pieces, then passing it through electromagnetic fields to separate the pieces based on their mass-to-charge ratio (m/z). A mass spectrum plots the abundance of each fragment against the m/z—the spectrum features a base peak (the peak of highest intensity) and a series of peaks whose spacing tells you what elements are present—for instance, a peak spacing of 14 typically indicates a CH2 or methylene unit. The different isotopes of elements can also produce characteristic peak patterns—for instance, two equal-intensity peaks spaced 2 units apart and 79 units away from the next peak indicates bromine. When analyzing proteins, fragmentation is often undesirable, so "soft" ionization methods such as matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) or electrospray ionization (ESI) are used. In forensics, mass spectrometry is often "coupled" to gas chromatography in GC-MS; gas chromatography first separates the unknown mixture, then mass spec identifies the individual components of the mixture.

USS Nautilus

In 1951 Congress authorized construction of the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. On December 12 of that year, the Navy Department announced that she would be the sixth ship of the fleet to bear the name Nautilus. She was launched on January 21, 1954. Eight months later, on September 30, 1954, the Nautilus became the first commissioned nuclear-powered ship in the U.S. Navy. On the morning of January 17, 1955, Nautilus' Commander Wilkinson signaled "Underway on Nuclear Power." In 1958 she departed Pearl Harbor under top-secret orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine," the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship.

1994 Winter (Lillehammer, Norway)

Massachusetts native Nancy Kerrigan and Oregonian Tonya Harding were among America's leading hopes for gold in women's figure skating. During the Olympic Trials in Detroit, Kerrigan was viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, who would later be traced back to Harding. In the ensuing media circus, both Kerrigan and Harding were sent to Norway, but their thunder was stolen by Ukrainian skater Oksana Baiul, who edged out silver medalist Kerrigan, while Harding placed eighth. Sweden won the ice hockey gold by defeating Canada in a shootout; future Colorado Avalanche forward Peter Forsberg's game-winning effort against Canadian goalie Sean Burke was immortalized on a Swedish postage stamp. In speed skating, Bonnie Blair won her third straight gold in the 500-meters and second straight in the 1,000-meters, perennial hard-luck kid Dan Jansen won Olympic gold in his last race, the 1,000 meters, and Norwegian Johann Olav Koss won three gold medals, all in world-record times.

Lucretia Mott

Mott was a Quaker who agitated for both abolitionism and women's rights. When she attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, the male delegates excluded Mott and the other female delegates from the convention and made them sit in a segregated area. Mott then turned her attention to women's rights. She was older than many of the other prominent delegates to the Seneca Falls Convention, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom she mentored. Mott briefly served as the first president of the American Equal Rights Association. She was also one of the Quakers who founded Swarthmore College.

Last Three Symphonies

Mozart wrote Symphonies Nos. 39-41 in about three months in the summer of 1788, for unknown reasons. (It is unclear if any of them were performed in his lifetime, although No. 40 probably was.) Of the three, only No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543, has a slow introduction; unusually, it omits oboes entirely. No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, on the other hand, was revised to reduce the oboe part and add clarinets; the last movement may have inspired the third movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. No. 41 in C major, K. 551, probably got its nickname of "Jupiter" from Johann Peter Salomon. Its first movement quotes Mozart's aria "Un bacio di mano" ("A kiss on her hand"), composed for Pasquale Anfossi's opera Il curioso indiscreto; its last movement presents five themes which are all brought together in a massive fugato at the end.

Liberal Party and Conservative Party

New York state-based parties that act as ideological checks on Democrats and Republicans respectively, generally cross-endorsing their candidates when they are found acceptable, but occasionally running alternative candidates when they deem the mainstream parties' nominees too moderate or compromising. James Buckley served a Senate term from 1971 to 1977 as a Conservative from New York after defeating both a Republican and Democrat in the 1970 election.

Mercury (Hg, 80)

One of just two elements that is a liquid at standard temperature and pressure (the only other one is bromine). It has been known since antiquity, and is found in ores such as cinnabar. Older names for it, reflecting its liquid nature, include hydrargyrum (the source of its symbol) and quicksilver. Because it is a very dense liquid, it is commonly used in barometers to measure atmospheric pressure; the pressure exerted by the atmosphere equals the pressure exerted by a column containing 760 millimeters of mercury. Alloys of mercury with other metals are called amalgams, some of which have been used as dental fillings. Chronic exposure to mercury can cause psychological problems; its use in hatmaking led to the expression "mad as a hatter." More recently, concerns about mercury exposure have led to the banning of mercury in thermometers.

Analects

One of the "Four Books" used by the ancient Chinese for civil service study, it contains the sayings (aphorisms) of Confucius. The philosopher Confucius did not write or edit the words that make up the Analects; his disciples compiled them in the 5th or 4th century BC. Confucianism is more of a philosophical system than a religion, and Confucius thought of himself more as a teacher than as a spiritual leader. The Analects also contain some of the basic ideas found in Confucianism, such as ren (benevolence) and li (proper conduct).

Deimos

One-seventh the mass of Phobos and further away from the Martian surface, Deimos was found by Asaph Hall at the U.S. Naval Observatory six days before he discovered Phobos. Its largest and only named craters are Swift and Voltaire; Deimos's surface doesn't appear as rough as Phobos's because regolith has filled in some of the craters. A still-controversial and unproven hypothesis holds that Deimos (and possibly Phobos as well) were asteroids perturbed out of their orbit by Jupiter and then captured by the gravity of Mars.

Oresteia by Aeschylus

Originally a four-play cycle, only three works (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides) survive; a "satyr play" entitled Proteus has been lost. Agamemnon, the first play in the trilogy, describes the murder of Agamemnon and his concubine Cassandra by Agamemnon's adulterous wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. The Libation Bearers continues the story, describing how Agamemnon's children, Orestes and Electra, avenge their father by murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. However, the Furies relentlessly pursue Orestes for his matricide, leading to the events of The Eumenides. In this third play, Orestes appeals to Athena, who organizes a trial for him (with Apollo as a defense counsel). Ultimately, when Apollo argues that the man is more important than the woman in a marriage, Orestes is acquitted, and the Furies are renamed the Eumenides, or "The Kindly Ones." The cycle has been retold numerous times in modern literature, notably by Eugene O'Neill in Mourning Becomes Electra and by Jean-Paul Sartre in The Flies.

Bosons

Particles with integral spin. All particles are either bosons or fermions. The spin of a composite particle is determined by the total spin (i.e., the component of its intrinsic angular momentum along one axis) of its particles. For instance, an alpha particle (two protons and two neutrons) has four half-integral spin values. No matter how they are added up, the result will be an integral spin value (try it!), so an alpha particle is a (composite) boson. The Pauli Exclusion Principle does not apply to bosons (in fact, bosons prefer to be in the same quantum state). The name "boson" comes from the name of the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.

The Shawnee

People native to the Ohio Valley. Their leader Blue Jacket allied with the Miami people to crush an American incursion into the region at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791. Later, the charismatic Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his visionary brother Tenkswatawa, also known as "the Prophet," built a coalition of tribes to oppose U.S. expansion. After losing at Tippecanoe to William Henry Harrison, the Shawnee allied with the British in the War of 1812 and helped them take Detroit. However, their coalition collapsed after the death of Tecumseh at the Battle of the Thames.

Quadratics

Polynomials of degree 2. The graph of a quadratic equation will be in the shape of a parabola that opens straight up (if the coefficient on the x^2 term is positive) or straight down (if that coefficient is negative). It is possible to find the roots of a quadratic by graphing it, factoring it, completing the square on it, or using the quadratic formula (itself derived by completing the square) on it. If the quadratic is in the form ax^2 + bx + c, then the expression b2 - 4ac, which appears in the quadratic formula, is called the discriminant. If the discriminant is positive, the quadratic will have two real roots; if the discriminant is zero, the quadratic will have one real root (said to have a multiplicity of 2); and if the discriminant is negative, the quadratic will have two non-real complex roots (and if the coefficients of the quadratic are real numbers, the complex roots will be conjugates of each other).

Campbell's Soup Can by Andy Warhol

Pop Art parodies (or perhaps reflects) a world in which celebrities, brand names, and media images have replaced the sacred; Warhol's series of Campbell's Soup paintings may be the best illustration of this. Like the object itself, the paintings were often done by the mass-producible form of serigraphy (silk screening). Also like the subject, the Warhol soup can painting existed in many varieties, with different types of soup or numbers of cans; painting 32 or 100 or 200 identical cans further emphasized the aspect of mass production in the work. The same approach underlies Warhol's familiar series of prints of Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and other pop culture figures.

Ptah

Principal god of the city of Memphis, he was portrayed as a mummy, or wearing the beard of the gods on his chin. His godhood was achieved by himself, much like his creation power, done merely by act of will. A patron of craftsmen, he also was seen as a healer, in the form of a dwarf. In the death trilogy (Anubis, Osiris, Ptah), he was seen as the god of embalming. His wife was the cat-headed Sekhmet, and his son was the lotus god Nefertem.

Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometry

Quantifies the presence of compounds by shining light in the ultraviolet-to-visible range on a molecule, then measuring which wavelengths are absorbed. Parts of a molecule which absorb visible light are referred to as chromophores; since different molecules have different chromophores, the wavelength of maximum absorbance, or lambda-max, can be used to identify a compound. Beer's law is then used to quantify the concentration of the present compound. Samples are held in small square plastic or quartz tubes called cuvettes. The Woodward-Fieser rules empirically estimate the lambda-max from the types of bonds and functional groups in a molecule. UV-Vis has many uses in biology—for example: calculating the OD600 to measure bacterial growth rate, determining nucleic acid quality with the 260/280 ratio, measuring protein concentration in the Lowry and Bradford protein assays, and monitoring protein folding by measuring tryptophan or tyrosine absorbance.

1876

Republican Rutherford B. Hayes faced Democrat Samuel Tilden, best known for battling Tammany Hall and the Tweed Ring in New York. Tilden won the popular vote and seemed to win the election, but results in Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana were contested, as was one vote in Oregon; if Hayes swept these votes, he would win the electoral count 185-184. In Congress, an informal bargain was reached (often called the Compromise of 1877) in which Hayes won the election in exchange for Reconstruction being brought to an end.

Henry Hudson

Sailing for the Dutch in 1609, Hudson journeyed up the New York river now named for him as far as what is now Albany. On his final voyage (1610), Hudson sailed for England in search of the Northwest Passage aboard the Discovery. After sailing between Baffin Island and Labrador (now called the Hudson Strait), he turned south into what is now called Hudson Bay. There, most of his crew mutinied under the leadership of Robert Juet. Hudson, his son, and some loyal crew members were placed in an open boat and left to die.

Bhagavad-Gita

Sanskrit for "The Song of God," it is a poem found in Book Six of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Likely formalized in the 1st or 2nd century, the Bhagavad-Gita begins on the eve of a battle, when the prince Arjuna asks his charioteer Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu) about responsibility in dealing with the suffering that the impending battle will cause. Krishna tells Arjuna that humans possess a divine self within a material form, and that Arjuna's duty is to love God and do what is right without thinking of personal gain — some of the main tenets of Hinduism.

Angiosperms vs Gymnosperms

Seed-producing plants can be divided into gymnosperms (cycads, ginkgos, conifers, and gnetophytes) and angiosperms (phylum Anthophyta, or flowering plants). Most of these plants produce male gametophytes that grow into the female, allowing fertilization to take place in relatively dry conditions. Many of them also exhibit secondary growth of woody tissues, allowing them to grow even taller than the pterophytes. The word gymnosperm means "naked seed," referring to the fact that their gametophytes develop on the surface of leaves or on the scales of cones. In contrast, angiosperm means "receptacle seed." Their gametophytes develop enclosed within flowers. Angiosperms are further classified based on their seed structure, described below.

George Washington

Selected by the Continental Congress to serve as general-in-chief, his first actions were to blockade Boston. Key to the success in Boston was the capture of Dorchester Heights, allowing cannon fire against the British and forcing the withdrawal of Howe. After failing to defend New York, Washington retreated toward Pennsylvania, extending British supply lines and allowing a successful counterattack on Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. Following victory at Princeton, Washington retired to winter quarters at Morristown. Sending his best forces north to deal with Burgoyne's attack in spring 1777, he kept Howe engaged in the mid-Atlantic. Autumn setbacks at Brandywine and Germantown led to a demoralized winter camp at Valley Forge, countered by the work of Lafayette, Steuben, and others. After a costly draw with Sir Henry Clinton's forces at Monmouth, Washington sent Greene south to replace Gates, and worked with the French general Jean Baptiste Rochambeau to plan the Yorktown campaign. The success of this campaign led to Cornwallis' surrender on October 19, 1781.

Chromatography

Separates a complex mixture into its individual components, commonly illustrated by the separation of pen ink into many colors. Chromatography involves two components: a mobile phase, which moves, and a stationary phase, which interacts differently with different components of the mobile phase to produce a separation. For example, in thin-layer chromatography, a mixture is spotted on one end of a plate of silica gel (the stationary phase), then a solvent (the mobile phase) carries the components across the plate and separates them based on their polarity—polar substances will strongly interact with the polar silica gel and not move very far, while nonpolar substances will move very far. In gas chromatography (GC), substances are vaporized and run through a packed column, where the time it takes each component to travel through—the retention time—is determined. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is like gas chromatography, but the sample remains in the liquid phase and is pushed through using pressures of up to 400 atmospheres. Ion-exchange chromatography uses stationary phases with acidic or basic functional groups to remove charged compounds; it can be used for water softening.

Empire State Building (New York City, Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, 1931)

The Empire State Building, which has a height of 1,250 feet (1,454 feet including antenna) surpassed the nearby Chrysler Building to become the tallest building in the world upon its 1931 completion, holding that title for four decades until the construction of the original World Trade Center. Following the 9/11 attacks, the building was once again the tallest in New York. The Empire State Building, like the Chrysler Building, is a classic example of Art Deco architecture, an early-20th-century style known for its streamlined, modern appearance. The building is an iconic symbol of New York and pop culture, appearing prominently in the film King Kong. Original plans for the building included a mooring station for zeppelins at its apex, but this never came to fruition.

Madden NFL

The Madden series (which, prior to 1993, was simply known as John Madden Football due to licensing issues), has featured yearly installments since 1990 and is published by EA Sports (which also publishes the FIFA soccer series). Madden NFL traditionally features a different player on its box art each year; an apparent string of injuries to and poor seasons by players on the cover of that particular year's game has become known as the Madden Curse.

Namib Desert

The Namib, a coastal desert, is known for its bizarre Welwitschia and medicinal Hoodia plants. It is thought to be the oldest desert in the world.

Painted Desert

The Painted Desert, which is shared by Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks, is known for its colorful, banded rock formations.

Pauling Scale

The Pauling scale, devised by Linus Pauling in 1932, is one of several scales that measure electronegativity, the extent to which atoms attract electrons in chemical bonds. Higher values correspond to stronger attractions. Francium has the lowest value, about 0.7, while fluorine has the highest value, about 4.0. (Noble gases are not assigned values on the Pauling scale, since they were not known to form any bonds when Pauling devised it.) Differences in electronegativity characterize bonds: the greater the difference, the more ionic the bond.

Petronas Tower (Kuala Lumpur, Cesar Pelli, 1998)

The Petronas Towers are the world's tallest twin towers, at 1,483 feet each. Upon their completion, they surpassed the (at the time) Sears Tower to become the tallest buildings in the world; they lost that overall title to Taipei 101 in 2004. The towers are named for Petronas, Malaysia's government-owned petroleum and gas company, which is headquartered in the towers. Architect Pelli designed the cross-section of the towers to resemble the Islamic symbol of the Rub el Hizb, while their exteriors resemble an ancient minaret, a tower attached to a mosque from which a muezzin issues a call to prayer. The towers are connected by a skybridge on their 41st and 42nd floors, allowing visitors to move between them. In the coming years, the towers will be exceeded in height by two other Kuala Lumpur skyscrapers: the slightly taller Exchange 106 and the massive, 2,185-foot PNB 118.

Hugo Chavez

The President of Venezuela from 1999 to 2013. Chavez used Venezuela's large oil revenues to lead his Bolivarian Revolution and enact socialist policies. His original party was the Fifth Republic Movement. Chavez was imprisoned after a failed coup attempt in 1992. He died of cancer in 2013

Queen Guinevere

The daughter of Leodegrance and the wife of King Arthur. In one story, Guinevere is abducted by Meleagant (or Melwas), a king of Somerset, and rescued by Lancelot, beginning an illicit affair between the two. After the affair is revealed to Arthur (in some sources by Mordred, in others by Agravain), Arthur orders her to be burned at the stake; she is rescued from that fate by Lancelot in a battle that results in the deaths of Sir Gareth and Sir Gaheris and the permanent exile of Lancelot. Some sources say that Guinevere spent her final days hiding in the Tower of London or in a nearby convent.

Bar/Bat mitzvah

The designation that a Jewish person has reached adulthood. Traditionally this is at age 13 for boys/men (Bar Mitzvah) and age 12 for girls/women (Bat Mitzvah). Although a bar/bat mitzvah occurs upon the birthday regardless of whether any ceremony takes place, traditionally the occasion is marked at a service at the synagogue around that time; the honoree will wear a tallit (prayer shawl) for the first time, be called up for an honor (aliyah) for the first time, read from the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and haftarah (a portion of one of the prophets' books, linked to the week's Torah portion), and give a d'var Torah, a discourse on the meaning of the week's Torah portion. A celebratory meal or party often follows. The bar mitzvah for boys dates back to ancient times in varying forms; the bat mitzvah mainly arose in the 20th century. After becoming bar mitzvah, a man is responsible for fulfilling the 613 commandments in the Torah and may be counted toward a minyan (quorum required for certain prayers); in egalitarian movements the same applies to a woman who has become bat mitzvah.

Penelope

The ever-faithful wife of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca whose long journey home is the subject of The Odyssey. While Odysseus was away, Penelope was courted by dozens of suitors led by Antinous, but she held them off with cunning: she told them she'd wed one when she finished weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's father Laertes, but she unwove her progress each night. When Odysseus returned, she tested his identity by asking the maid to move their bed, which cannot be done since the bed—crafted by Odysseus—had one post that was a living olive tree. Her only child is a son, Telemachus.

Space X CRS-1

The first commercial mission to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). A structural failure in one of the nine Merlin engines that make up the Falcon 9 rocket first stage necessitated a longer burn with the remaining eight engines. That correction resulted in a proper orbital insertion for the primary payload (a Dragon resupply vehicle), but an unstable, decaying orbit for its secondary payload (an ORBCOMM satellite). This was taken as a proof of concept by SpaceX for the redundant, multiple-engine design. The craft successfully berthed with the ISS and successfully carried out its primary mission, re-supplying the space station and returning cargo to Earth.

Hydrogen (H, 1)

The first element on the periodic table and, by far, the most common element in the Universe. In addition to the main isotope (called protium), there are two other significant isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium (2H or D), which has one neutron, and tritium (3H or T), which has two neutrons. It naturally exists as a diatomic gas (H2), which was discovered by the British chemist Henry Cavendish. Hydrogen is highly flammable when exposed to high temperatures or electric current, a fact demonstrated by the Hindenburg disaster. It can react with nonmetals by losing an electron to form the H+ ion, or react with metals to form the hydride ion, H-.

Sir Lancelot

The foremost among the Knights of the Round Table, an expert swordsman and jouster who is the primary figure of the Vulgate Cycle. The son of King Ban of Benwick, Lancelot was raised by the Lady of the Lake, which earned him the epithet "du Lac" or "of the Lake." Another of his epithets is "Knight of the Cart," which he earned for riding in a dwarf's cart while searching for Guinevere after she was kidnapped. Aside from his adulterous affair with Queen Guinevere, Lancelot is known for fathering Sir Galahad with Elaine of Corbenic, who had tricked Lancelot into sleeping with her by disguising herself as Guinevere. After his betrayal of Arthur was revealed, Lancelot fled to France and was therefore not present during the Battle of Camlann.

Mary Baker Eddy

The founder of Christian Science. Sickly for much of her life, she sought treatment from many different healers, including a mesmerist and magnetic healer named Phineas Quimby. This experience inspired Eddy to write a book titled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, in which she equated God with the mind and argued that sickness is spiritual, not material. Eddy believed that mental techniques could be used not only for healing, but also to harm people, which she termed "malicious animal magnetism." She founded the Christian Science Monitor and laid out guidelines for her church in the Manual of the Mother Church, which established Christian Science reading rooms.

Joseph Smith

The founder of Mormonism (many of whose followers now call themselves Latter-Day Saints). He is said to have had a vision in which the angel Moroni directed him to a set of golden plates, from which he claimed to have translated the Book of Mormon, the founding scripture of Mormonism. Based on Ezekiel's vision of a New Jerusalem, he hoped to establish a latter-day Zion in America. Smith initially planned to establish his Zion in Independence, Missouri, but his followers were driven out of the area and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. When the Nauvoo Expositor criticized him for his teachings on polygamy and other matters, he had the press destroyed and was charged with inciting a riot; while awaiting trial, he was killed by a mob.

Mahavira

The founder of modern Jainism. He is regarded as the twenty-fourth tirthankara, or spiritual teacher, who revived and synthesized ancient Jain traditions. His mother, Trishala, is said to have had either fourteen or sixteen auspicious dreams before his birth. In his forties, Mahavira is said to have achieved Kevala Jnana, or infinite knowledge, while meditating under a salah tree. He subsequently taught a number of principles, including ahimsa, the prohibition of violence against living beings of any kind.

Ganges

The holiest river of Hinduism. It rises in the Himalayas and flows a comparatively short 1,560 miles to the world's largest delta, on the Bay of Bengal. Among that delta's distributaries are the Hooghly (on whose banks Kolkata — formerly Calcutta — may be found) and the Padma (which enters Bangladesh). Approximately one in every twelve human beings lives in the Ganges Basin, a population density that is rapidly polluting the river; a significant source of that pollution is cremated remains.

Frigg

Also known as Frigga. The wife of Odin, and mother of Balder, Hoder, Hermod, and Tyr. She is the goddess of the sky, marriage, and motherhood, and often works at her loom, spinning clouds.

Odysseus

This son of Laertes is known for his cleverness and glib tongue. His accomplishments include a successful night raid against King Rhesus, winning the armor of Achilles, and engineering the famous Trojan Horse. His ten-year trip home to Ithaca (where his wife, Penelope, awaits) is the subject of the Odyssey.

The Old Curiosity Shop

(1841) Thirteen-year-old Nell Trent goes to live with her grandfather, a gambling addict who owns a London shop filled with mysterious and horrible objects. His gambling causes him to lose the shop to the evil dwarfish moneylender Daniel Quilp. Nell's older brother Frederick plots to marry her off to Dick Swiveller to get a share of a supposed treasure trove, but Dick eventually marries a servant girl nicknamed "the Marchioness" instead. A major subplot concerns Quilp's efforts to frame a boy named Kit Nubbles for theft. At the end of the novel, Quilp drowns, and Nell dies shortly before her grandfather also passes away.

Daniel Chester French

(1850 - 1931) An American who created The Minute Man for Concord, Massachusetts and Standing Lincoln for the Nebraska state capitol, but who is best known for the seated statue in the Lincoln Memorial.

Byron Nelson

(1912 - 2006) He won five major championships overall, but Nelson is best known for having the single most dominant year in golf history. In 1945 he won a record 18 tournaments in 30 starts, including 11 consecutive tournaments, a feat no one has come close to matching. Nelson was so even-tempered and mechanically sound that the USGA named its mechanical club and ball-testing device, the "Iron Byron," after him.

Rashomon

(1950) An Akira Kurosawa film based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa's 1922 short story "In a Grove" (not his story "Rashomon"). The film depicts a trial in which a bandit (Tajomaru), a woodcutter (Kikori), a samurai (through a medium), and the samurai's wife recount the events that led to the samurai's death. A common thread through the four stories is the presence of an expensive dagger no longer at the crime scene. The marked differences in the characters' stories, however, led to the term "Rashomon effect" to describe the unreliability of eyewitnesses. During the woodcutter's testimony, the group is interrupted by the cries of an abandoned baby, a crisis that reveals some insights in the characters

Meselson-Stahl Experiment

(1958) Proved that DNA replication is semiconservative, meaning that when a double-helix strand of DNA is duplicated, the result is two double-helix strands, each of which has one helix from the parent molecule and one newly-synthesized helix. Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl used E. coli grown in a medium containing only nitrogen-15; they were then allowed to synthesize DNA in an environment containing only nitrogen-14 over two generations. The net result was that in the second generation, half the DNA molecules contained nitrogen-15 in one strand and nitrogen-14 in the other, while the other half of the molecules contained only nitrogen-14.

North by Northwest

(1959) A thriller from director Alfred Hitchcock starring Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive framed for the murder of U.N. diplomat Lester Townsend. In one memorable and oft-parodied scene, Thornhill is chased through a field near Chicago by a crop duster airplane. At the film's climax, Thornhill and Eve Kendall (played by Eva Marie Saint) are chased by spies led by Phillip Vandamm across the top of Mount Rushmore. North by Northwest features a MacGuffin (an object common in Hitchcock films—something desired by characters yet ultimately meaningless to the story) in the form of microfilm containing government secrets that is hidden inside a sculpture.

Lawrence v Texas

(2003, 6 - 3) In 1998, a false police report led Houston police to the apartment of John Lawrence; upon entering, deputies claimed they found Lawrence having sex with another man, Tyron Gardner. Both men were charged with homosexual conduct, still a misdemeanor in Texas. Justice Kennedy's majority opinion held that the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause protected a person's "liberty" to engage in consensual homosexual activity, and declared the Texas law unconstitutional. The decision in Lawrence overturned Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) — in which the court upheld a similar Georgia law — and has been cited as a key predecessor of both U.S. v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges.

Hillary Clinton

(2009 - 2013, Obama) Hillary Rodham Clinton is a former Senator from New York and the wife of former president William Jefferson Clinton. President Clinton appointed Hillary as the face of the failed 1993 health care bill. She also sought the Democratic nomination for President in 2008, losing to eventual President Barack Obama. During her term, she presented a "reset button" to Russia and accepted formal responsibility for failures in consulate security that led to the death of Ambassador Christopher Stephens in Benghazi.

Nero

(37 - 68; r. 54 - 68) The son of Agrippina the Younger. Nero provoked scandal by performing as an actor and musician. He ordered his mother's death in AD 58, and ordered the deaths of Seneca the Younger and several others after the Pisonian Conspiracy. Nero supposedly "fiddled" during the Great Fire of Rome and persecuted Christians after it. In AD 68, he was deposed by the Senate and committed suicide.

Peter

(1 - 68; r. 30 - 68) The first Bishop of Rome and thus the first pope. Peter was the leader of the twelve apostles; Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter and declared him the "rock [on which] I will build my church." Jesus also bestowed upon him the keys to the kingdom of Heaven and the power to "bind" and "loose" in Heaven and on Earth. He was crucified upside-down by Emperor Nero and is the namesake of St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Battle of Grunwald (Battle of Tannenberg)

(1410) The Battle of Grunwald marked a major turning point in Eastern European history as it led to the decline of the Teutonic Knights and the rise of Poland-Lithuania. Grand Master Ulrich von Jungingen led the Teutonic Knights, and King Władysław II Jagiełło led Polish forces and Grand Duke Vytautas led the Lithuanians. After their defeat, the Teutonic Knights held out in Marienburg Castle until the Peace of Thorn in 1411.

James II

(1633 - 1701; r. 1685 - 1688) House of Stuart. The 1678 Popish Plot against Charles II would have elevated the Roman Catholic James to the throne, had it been real and not fabricated by Titus Oates. James's three years, however, did feature heavy favoritism toward Catholics, so much so that Protestants invited James's son-in-law William of Orange to rule England, deposing James in the Glorious Revolution. Exiled to Louis XIV's court, he made an attempt to regain his crown in 1690 but was routed at the Battle of the Boyne.

Robert Walpole

(1676 - 1745, PM 1721 - 1742) Generally recognized as the first British Prime Minister, Walpole established personal control over a Whig-dominated Parliament on behalf of the German-speaking George I. He rose to power after many rivals were tarnished by the collapse of the South Sea Company. His long tenure continued under George II, but his attempts to avoid British military commitments worldwide led to his downfall during the War of the Austrian Succession.

William Rowan Hamilton

(1805 - 1865, Irish) Known for a four-dimensional extension of complex numbers, with six square roots of -1 (±i, ±j, and ±k), called the quaternions.

Thorstein Veblen

(1857 - 1929, American) Veblen is primarily remembered for his The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), which introduced phrases like "conspicuous consumption." He is remembered for likening the ostentation of the rich to the Darwinian proofs of virility found in the animal kingdom.

Albert Einstein

(1879 - 1955) In one year — 1905, called his annus mirabilis, or "miracle year" — Albert Einstein authored four papers that revolutionized modern physics. The first explained the photoelectric effect in terms of quantized electromagnetic radiation. The second formed the foundation for modern statistical physics by explaining the seemingly-random motion of particles in a fluid, a behavior called Brownian motion. The third reconciled Maxwellian electrodynamics with classical mechanics by positing a finite, constant speed of light, a theory now known as special relativity. The fourth paper contained his statement that the energy of a body is equal to its mass times the speed of light squared (that is, E = mc^2). Ten years later, in 1915, Einstein published his theory of general relativity, which generalized special relativity to account for gravitational fields.

John Hay

(1898 - 1905, McKinley and Roosevelt) Hay negotiated the 1898 Treaty of Paris that ended the Spanish-American War and established the "open door policy" with China. He also served as Lincoln's personal secretary while working as a clerk in the Interior Department. He negotiated the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty that established the Panama Canal Zone in 1903.

Margaret Mead

(1901 - 1978) For her best-known work, Coming of Age in Samoa, Mead interviewed young girls on the island Ta'u, which led her to conclude that adolescence in Samoan society was much less stressful than in the United States; in The Fateful Hoaxing of Margaret Mead, Derek Freeman claimed that she was lied to in those interviews. She also studied three tribes in New Guinea — the Arapesh, Mundugumor, and Tchambuli — for her book on Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies.

Kurt Godel

(1906 - 1978, Austrian) A logician best known for his two incompleteness theorems, which state that if a formal logical system is powerful enough to express ordinary arithmetic, it must contain statements that are true yet unprovable. Gödel developed paranoia late in life and eventually refused to eat because he feared his food had been poisoned; he died of starvation.

Benjamin Britten

(1913 - 1976) Reviver of the opera in the U.K., most notably with Peter Grimes (1945), the story of a fisherman who kills two of his apprentices. Britten broke through with Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937), a tribute to his composition teacher, and wrote incidental music for works by his friend W. H. Auden. With his companion, the tenor Peter Pears, Britten founded the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and wrote operas such as Billy Budd, The Turn of the Screw, and Death in Venice. Britten's non-operatic works include The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1946) and War Requiem (1961), based on the anti-war poems of Wilfred Owen, who was killed during World War I.

Gwendolyn Brooks

(1917 - 2000) Became the first African-American person to win a Pulitzer in 1950 for her poetry collection Annie Allen. Many of her works reflect her experiences in Bronzeville, a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side that became a center of African-American life during the Great Migration. Her best-known poem, "We Real Cool," is set at the Golden Shovel and consists of three-word sentences starting with "We," such as "We / Lurk late" and "We / Jazz June." Though primarily a poet, Brooks also wrote the novel Maud Martha.

Shusaka Endo

(1923 - 1996) He converted to Catholicism at the age of 11, and majored in French literature. His first works, White Man and Yellow Man, explored the differences between Japanese and Western values and national experiences. Silence tells of the martyrdom of the Catholic converts of Portuguese priests. The Samurai recounts the tale of a samurai sent to establish trade relations between his shogun and Mexico, Spain, and Rome. The latter two novels are generally considered to be Shusaku's greatest achievements.

Tiberius

(42 BC - 37 AD; r. 14 - 37) Augustus' stepson. During his father's reign, Tiberius led the conquests of Pannonia and Raetia in central Europe and became the imperial heir with the support of his mother Livia. Unhappy as emperor, he mostly resided in his island villa on Capri and left Lucius Sejanus to manage the state. However, when Sejanus attempted to seize power in AD 31, Tiberius had him arrested and executed. Tiberius was emperor when Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in AD 33.

Jesus Christ Superstar

(Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1971) In the week leading up to the crucifixion, Judas grows angry with Christ's claims of divinity, and Mary Magdalene laments her romantic feelings for Christ. Judas hangs himself, and Christ, though frustrated with God, accepts his fate. It includes the songs "I Don't Know How to Love Him," "Gethsemane," and "Trial Before Pilate."

The Mikado

(Arthur Sullivan, 1978) The Mikado (Emperor of Japan) has made flirting a capital crime in Titipu, so the people have appointed an ineffectual executioner named Ko-Ko. Ko-Ko's ward, Yum-Yum, marries the wandering musician Nanki-Poo, and the two lovers fake their execution. The Mikado visits the town and forgives the lovers of their transgression. It includes the song "Three Little Maids From School Are We."

Bourbon

(France, 1589 - 1792) The first Bourbon king was Henry IV, who was victorious in the War of the Three Henrys and issued the Edict of Nantes guaranteeing religious freedom. Notable Bourbon rulers included Louis XIV and Louis XVI (who was beheaded during the French Revolution). Following Napoleon's fall, the Bourbons briefly ruled France again until the July Revolution of 1830. Spain has also been ruled mostly by the Bourbons since 1700.

Battle of Midway

(June 1942) Midway is considered the turning point of World War II in the Pacific. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto launched attacks on both Midway Island — an atoll northwest of Hawaii — and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, but the Americans had broken the Japanese naval code and were forewarned. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's American fleet lost the aircraft carrier Yorktown, but American dive-bombers destroyed four Japanese carriers: Soryu, Akagi, Kaga, and Hiryu. The loss of four irreplaceable aircraft carriers and the death of the best-trained Japanese pilots crippled Japanese naval aviation for the duration of the war.

D-Day (Operation Overlord)

(June 6, 1944) The largest amphibious assault in history, as Supreme Allied Commander Dwight Eisenhower's forces attacked the German Atlantic Wall defenses on the beaches of Normandy, France. Due to his wife's birthday, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was absent at the start of the invasion, which saw American forces land at Utah and Omaha Beaches, British forces land at Gold and Sword Beaches, and Canadian forces land at Juno Beach. After the landings, Allied forces erected prefabricated artificial Mulberry harbors to aid in transporting goods to France.

West Side Story

(Leonard Bernstein, 1957) Riff and Bernardo lead two rival gangs: the blue-collar Jets and the Puerto Rican Sharks. Tony, a former Jet, falls in love with Bernardo's sister Maria and vows to stop the fighting, but he kills Bernardo after Bernardo kills Riff in a "rumble." Maria's suitor Chino shoots Tony, and the two gangs come together. Notable songs include "America," "Tonight," "Somewhere," "I Feel Pretty," and "Gee, Officer Krupke." Adapted from Romeo and Juliet, it was made into an Academy Award-winning 1961 film starring Natalie Wood.

William Pitt the Younger

(PM 1783 - 1801, 1804 - 1806) Strengthened the role of the Prime Minister and pursued war against revolutionary France.

Corundum

A mineral composed of aluminum oxide. Common gem forms of corundum include rubies (turned red by inclusions of chromium) and sapphires (which can take a variety of colors from inclusions of iron, titanium, or vanadium). Corundum defines hardness nine on the Mohs scale.

Gene Kranz

A trained aeronautical engineer and pilot best known for his Flight Directorship during the Mercury and Apollo projects. He presided over a departure from NASA's traditional incremental testing structure, in favor of a more aggressive, manned campaign ("all-up testing"). As part of the Apollo 13 "white team," Kranz and his associates engineered the free-return trajectory and human-factors management that brought the Apollo 13 crew back safely after a near-fatal spacecraft anomaly.

Lake Victoria

Africa's largest and the world's second-largest freshwater lake by area, Lake Victoria lies along the Equator and is shared among Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Located on a plateau between two rift valleys, its lone outlet is the Victoria Nile, a precursor of the White Nile. Named by the British explorer John Hanning Speke after Queen Victoria, the introduction of the predatory Nile perch in the 1950s has caused environmental degradation, sending many native cichlid species into extinction.

The Navajo

Also indigenous to the American southwest. After their homeland was devastated in a campaign led by Kit Carson (the namesake of Carson City, Nevada) the Navajo were driven from Arizona to New Mexico in the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo. During World War II, Navajo "code-talkers" used their native language to securely transmit messages across the Pacific theater of the war. Today, the Navajo are the second-largest federally-recognized tribe and administer the Four Corners Monument.

StarCraft

Another Blizzard RTS series, with a science fiction theme. The game features three playable races: Terrans (humans), Zerg (a single-minded collective of insect-like aliens), and Protoss (strong, humanoid aliens with psionic powers). StarCraft II, the series's latest entry, was split into three parts whose stories each focused on one of the three races. Major characters in the series include Jim Raynor, a Terran leader, and Sarah Kerrigan, a former Terran psychic corrupted by the Zerg.

Hadrons

Any particles made out of quarks (alternatively, any particle affected by the strong nuclear force). Generally, this means the baryons and the mesons. All hadrons are colorless (in the sense of the combined color of their constituent quarks). The name "hadron" comes from the Greek for "thick."

Vacuoles

Found mainly in plants and protists, vacuoles are liquid-filled cavities enclosed by a single membrane. They serve as storage bins for food and waste products. Contractile vacuoles are important for freshwater protists to rid their cells of excess water that accumulates because of salt imbalance with the environment.

Injective Functions

Functions that do not repeat any outputs. For instance, f(x) = 2x is injective, because for every possible output value, there is only one input that will result in that output. On the other hand, f(x) = sin(x) is not injective, because (for instance) the output 0 can be obtained from several different inputs (0, π, 2π, and so on). If you have the graph of a function, you can determine whether the function is injective by applying the horizontal line test: if no horizontal line would ever intersect the graph twice, the function is injective.

Battle of Kadesh

One of the earliest battles in recorded history, fought in 1274 BC near the Orontes River in what is now Syria between Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II. Although Ramses proclaimed a great victory for himself, he was lucky to achieve a stalemate after being ambushed by Hittite chariots. Kadesh was probably the largest chariot battle in history, with over 5,000 chariots engaged. The Egyptian chariots were smaller and faster than those used by the Hittites, which gave the Egyptians an advantage.

Agni

Part of a trinity with Surya (the sun) and Vaayu (the wind), Agni can be brought to life by rubbing two sticks together. Since Agni is responsible for sacrificial fires, he is the patron of priests. He has a red body, two heads, three legs, four arms, and seven tongues; he often carries a flaming javelin. In the Mahabharata, Agni's grandfather is one of seven great sages; with the help of Krishna, he devours the Khandav forest.

Kelvin Scale

Temperature scale based on the triple point of water, the point at which water's solid, liquid, and gaseous phases can coexist in equilibrium. One Kelvin is defined as 1/273.16 of the temperature of water at its triple point. A temperature of 100 K is read as "one hundred kelvins," not "one hundred degrees Kelvin." Absolute zero on the Kelvin scale equals -273.16 degrees celsius (0 K), and at a pressure of 1 atmosphere, water freezes at 273.16 K and boils at 373.16 K

Mount Mitchell

The Black Mountain subrange of the Appalachians is the location of Mount Mitchell, the tallest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi. This mountain, in North Carolina, was the subject of a debate over its altitude between its namesake and Thomas Clingman, leading Elisha Mitchell to attempt another ascent in which he fell to his death.

Arjuna

The chief hero of the Mahabharata, Arjuna is the son of Indra and one of five Pandava brothers, who fight a bitter war against their 100 cousins, Kauravas, culminating at the battle on "Kuru's Field." Before the battle, Arjuna asks his charioteer (Krishna) why he must fight. Krishna responds that Arjuna must follow a devotion to god (bhakti), and that even as he slays his brethren, it is for a just cause. Along with the rest of the Pandavas, Arjuna is married to Draupadi.

James Meredith

The first African-American person admitted to the University of Mississippi in 1962. Two people died in the riots sparked by his enrollment. In 1966, Meredith began the March Against Fear, planning to walk from Memphis to Jackson. On the second day, he was wounded by a sniper; thereafter, thousands of other civil rights activists completed the march in his name.

Gluons

The gauge bosons that carry the strong nuclear force and bind hadrons together. Gluons have no charge and no mass, but do have color (in the sense of quarks). This color cannot be observed directly because the gluons are part of the larger hadron. The name comes from their role in "gluing" quarks together.

Indra

The god of rain, thunder, and war, Indra wields the thunderbolt (vajra) and rides Airavat, the four-tusked white elephant. In early Vedic times he was king of the gods who ruled swarga; many Rig Veda hymns are devoted to him. With the aid of both the Marut storm gods and his favorite drink, soma, Indra leads the Aryan conquest of India. He also defeats the dragon Vritra, who had stolen the world's water.

Julius Nyerere

The leader of Tanganyika and then Tanzania from 1961 to 1985. (Tanzania was formed by the 1964 merger of Tanganyika with Zanzibar.) Tanganyika gained independence before Nyerere came to power due to negotiations between Nyerere and British Governor Richard Turnbull. Nyerere put forward his socialist plans in the Arusha Declaration of 1967. His policies were known by the term ujamaa, signifying family unity in Swahili. Under his leadership, literacy improved significantly, but poverty remained high, especially among rural laborers uprooted by Nyerere's centralized economic planning. His Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or Party of the Revolution, remains as the dominant power in Tanzania politics.

Mitochondria

The powerhouses of the cell. Mitochondria are double-membrane-bound organelles that are the site of respiration and oxidative phosphorylation, processes that produce energy for the cell in the form of ATP. The inner membrane of a mitochondrion forms folds called cristae, which are suspended in a fluid called the matrix. The mitochondrial matrix contains DNA and ribosomes.

Battle of Camden

(August 16, 1780) The American defeat was part of the British "southern strategy," which included the earlier capture of Charleston and Savannah. Charles Cornwallis inflicted a humiliating defeat on the forces of Horatio Gates.

John Kenneth Galbraith

(1908 - 2006, Canadian) His liberal popular writings include The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State (with their emphasis on public service and the limitations of the marketplace).

Fatimid

The Fatimids were Isma'ili Shi'ite Imams who founded their state in North Africa in 909 under the caliph al-Mahdi. They conquered Egypt in 969 under al-Muizz and built Cairo, becoming the Abbasids' rivals. At its height their regime reached into Yemen and Syria, and they had a network of missionaries spreading Isma'ili doctrines into Abbasid territory and beyond. In the eleventh century, the caliph al-Hakim — considered insane — disappeared, giving rise to the Druze religion. A later succession dispute gave rise to the sect of the Assassins. The last caliph, al-Adil, died in 1171.

Sir Christopher Wren

When fire destroyed much of London in 1666, Wren was an Oxford astronomy professor who had designed his first building just four years earlier. Charles II named him the King's Surveyor of Works in 1669, and he was involved in rebuilding more than 50 London churches in the next half-century, including Saint Paul's Cathedral. An inscription near his tomb in Saint Paul's declares "Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you."

Louis IX

(1214 - 1270; r. 1226 - 1270) House of Capet. Led the Seventh Crusade, which ended in military disaster, but after his ransoming he remained in the Holy Land to successfully negotiate for what he couldn't win. He returned to Europe with his reputation intact and negotiated a peace with England under which Henry III became his vassal. He stabilized the French currency and is generally held to have reduced corruption in the kingdom. He died leading a crusade against Tunisia. St. Louis is the only canonized king of France.

Clement VII

(1478 - 1534; r. 1523 - 1534) Pope during the 1527 Sack of Rome and refused to annul Henry VII's Marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He is not to be confused with Antipope Clement VII, whose election in 1378 started the Western Schism.

The Music Lesson by Jan Vermeer

(1660s) The painting is alternatively titled Lady at the Virginals with a Gentleman, an exact description of its subject matter. On the floor near the keyboard instrument lies a viol, a large bowed string instrument also common during the Baroque era. In the documentary Tim's Vermeer, Tim Jenison attempted to test the theory that Vermeer painted with the help of optical devices such as a camera obscura to achieve accurate perspective, a theory also advanced by contemporary British artist David Hockney and physicist Charles Falco.

Robert Peel

(1788 - 1850, PM 1721 - 1742) Set out the founding principles of the Conservative Party in the Tamworth Manifesto and led the new party to its first general election victory. The Irish Famine accelerated his decision to repeal the Corn Laws, promoting free trade by removing grain tariffs. This act was achieved with Whig support and lost him the backing of his party.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

(1804 - 1864) An American author whose stories are often set in New England. In "The Minister's Black Veil," Hawthorne wrote about Reverend Hopper, who stubbornly refuses to take off the title article of clothing. Hawthorne also wrote "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," in which the title character shows off water from the Fountain of Youth. Both of those stories are included in his collection Twice-Told Tales. In "Rappaccini's Daughter," the title character is Beatrice, the child of a scientist who grows poisonous plants, who herself becomes poisonous. After Giovanni falls in love with Beatrice, he brings her an antidote so they can be together, but, instead of curing her, the antidote kills Beatrice. That story appears alongside "The Birth-Mark" and "Young Goodman Brown" in the collection Mosses from an Old Manse.

John Stuart Mill

(1806 - 1873, English) Also a social philosopher, Mill is mainly known in economic circles today for his work extending the ideas of Ricardo in Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy (1844) (for example, the relationship between profits and wages), and also for exhaustively examining the necessity of private property in his Principles of Political Economy (1848).

Alexander II

(1818 - 1881; r. 1855 - 1881) Alexander II embarked on a program of Great Reforms soon after taking the throne near the end of the Crimean War. The most famous part of his program was the serf emancipation of 1861 — a reform which occurred almost simultaneously with the end of American slavery (and whose gradual nature disappointed liberals), But he also introduced a system of local governing bodies called zemstvos, tried to increase the rule of law in the court system, eased censorship, and reorganized the army. Alexander became more reactionary after an attempted assassination in 1866, and was successfully assassinated in 1881.

Nicholas Nickleby

(1839) After his father dies, Nicholas Nickleby is sent to work at Dotheboys Hall by his cruel uncle Ralph. With the help of the disabled Smike, Nicholas beats the foul schoolmaster Wackford Squeers, and escapes to London. Nicholas's sister Kate works with the milliner Madame Mantalini, but must confront the attentions of the foppish Mr. Mantalini and Sir Mulberry Hawk. Nicholas finds employment in Portsmouth with the theater manager Vincent Crummles, then returns to London and works for the Cheeryble brothers. Smike dies, and Ralph commits suicide after learning that Smike was his son. Nicholas marries a woman named Madeline Bray, and Kate weds the Cheerybles' nephew, Frank.

Jose Marti

(1853 - 1895) Best known as a poet and a revolutionary, Martí fought tirelessly for Cuban independence. Imprisoned at age sixteen and exiled from the island several times, he settled in New York for the last fifteen years of his life, where he wrote essays on Walt Whitman, Jesse James, and the threat of Latin American economic dependence on the United States. His Ill-Omened Friendship (1885) is considered the first Spanish modernist novel, and his poetry collections include Our America and Simple Verses, which contains the poem "Guantanamera," the inspiration for several songs. Martí was killed in a skirmish at Dos Ríos while participating in an invasion with other Cuban exiles.

Clement Attlee

(1883 - 1967, PM 1945 - 1950) Won a huge Labour landslide victory in 1945 between the end of the war in Europe and victory in Japan. He founded the modern welfare state based on the Beveridge Report, including the National Health Service under his minister Nye Bevan. Attlee's Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, took the U.K. out of Palestine and sent troops to the Korean War.

Schenck v United States

(1919, 9 - 0) The Espionage Act of 1917 prohibited — among other things — any attempt to inhibit recruitment by the U.S. Armed Forces. Charles Schenck was a Socialist who opposed conscription and distributed literature urging readers to resist the draft. Following his arrest and conviction, he appealed, claiming that his advocacy was protected speech covered by the First Amendment. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Holmes claimed the First Amendment does not protect speech that creates a "clear and present danger," and that "the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting 'fire' in a theatre."

Toni Morrison

(1931 - 2019) The first Black woman to win a Nobel Prize in Literature and won a Pulitzer for her novel Beloved. Beloved is about Sethe, a slave who escaped from Sweet Home plantation in Kentucky to 124 Bluestone Road in Cincinnati. Sethe is haunted by the ghost of Beloved, a daughter she killed to prevent her from being returned to slavery. Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye, is about Pecola Breedlove, a Black foster child who considers herself ugly and wishes she had blue eyes. Morrison's other acclaimed novels include Song of Solomon, about the life of Macon Dead III, who is nicknamed "Milkman" because he is breastfed by his mother for a long time.

Roe v Wade

(1973, 7 - 2) Norma McCorvey (under the alias Jane Roe) sued Dallas County attorney Henry Wade for the right to an abortion. When the case reached the Supreme Court, the plaintiff depended on the growing recognition of a "right to privacy," which began with the 1965 case Griswold v. Connecticut. The court struck down state anti-abortion laws as "unconstitutionally vague," held that the word "person" in the Constitution "does not include the unborn," and legalized abortion in the first trimester. McCorvey later joined the pro-life movement and claimed that she was not actually raped and that she was pressured into filing the case by her ambitious attorney Sarah Weddington.

Theodosius

(347 - 405; r. 379 - 405) The last man to rule both the eastern and western halves of the empire

Leo I

(400 - 461; r. 440 - 461) Convinced Attila the Hun to turn back a planned invasion of Italy

Gary Player

(Born 1935) The most successful non-American golfer in history, this South African has won nine majors. When Player took his only U.S. Open crown in 1965, he not only became the first non-American to win that tournament in 45 years, but he also became one of three (now five) golfers (along with Nicklaus, Woods, Hogan, and Gene Sarazen) to win all four modern Grand Slam events. Nicknames include "The Black Knight" for his dress and "Mr. Fitness" for his devotion to exercise.

Mario Lemieux

(Born 1965) Born in Montreal, Quebec, "Super Mario" scored his first NHL goal on the first shift of his first game, against Boston in 1984. He led the Pittsburgh Penguins to consecutive Stanley Cups in 1991-1992. After a bout with Hodgkin's disease, he returned to lead the NHL in scoring in 1995-1996 and 1996-1997. He then later helped bail the Penguins out of bankruptcy by becoming the lead owner of the team in 1999.

The Music Man

(Meredith Wilson, 1957) The swindler Harold Hill attempts to con the families of River City, Iowa by starting a boys' band. While there, he falls in love with the librarian Marian Paroo. The scheme is exposed, but the town forgives him. Notable songs include "Trouble" (the origin of the phrase "trouble in River City"), "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Shipoopi," "Gary, Indiana," and "Till There was You."

Battle of Jena-Auerstedt

(October 14, 1806, Germany) In 1806 Napoleon turned his forces against Prussia. At the twin October battles Jena and Auerstedt, Napoleon and Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout worked together to smash a Prussian army led by the Duke of Brunswick, who was mortally wounded by Davout's troops near Auerstadt. The collapse of the Prussian army, widely considered the continent's most experienced and professional military force, shocked European observers. Napoleon felt that he had secured revenge for Frederick the Great's victory over France at Rossbach in the Seven Years' War (1757).

Richard, Duke of Gloucester

(Richard III) The quintessential antihero, Richard describes how his hunchbacked appearance has made him "determined to prove a villain" in a monologue that begins "now is the winter of our discontent / made glorious summer by this son of York." In the aftermath of a Yorkist victory in the Wars of the Roses, Richard plots against his brothers King Edward IV and George, Duke of Clarence, and causes Edward to imprison Clarence in the Tower of London. Assassins sent by Richard later kill Clarence, who is drowned in a "malmsey-butt," or cask of wine. Richard also marries and kills Lady Anne, and orders the deaths of Edward's children (the "princes in the tower"). Although Richard becomes king, he soon faces a rebellion led by Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond. On the eve of a battle at Bosworth Field, Richard is haunted by the ghosts of those he wronged. The battle turns against Richard (who cries "a horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"), and Richmond is crowned as King Henry VII of England.

Don Giovanni

(Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1787) Don Giovanni (the Italian form of "Don Juan") attempts to seduce Donna Anna, but is discovered by her father, the Commendatore, whom he kills in a swordfight. Later in the act, his servant Leporello recounts his master's 2,000-odd conquests in the "Catalogue Aria." Further sword fights and assignations occur prior to the final scene, in which a statue of the Commendatore comes to life, knocks on the door to the room in which Don Giovanni is feasting, and then opens a chasm that takes him down to hell.

Phidias

(c. 480 - c. 430 BC) An Athenian considered the greatest of all Classical sculptors. He created the chryselephantine (gold and ivory) Statue of Zeus at Olympia (one of the Wonders of the Ancient World, now lost) and the statue of Athena in the Parthenon (now lost). He was supported by money from the Delian League (that is, the Athenian Empire) run by his friend Pericles; he was later ruined by charges of corruption generally considered to be part of a political campaign against Pericles.

Ground

A ground or earth is a point on a circuit that is connected to the ground. This is to prevent accidental discharge of electricity from an unexpected connection—a person who touches an ungrounded circuit might cause electricity to pass through their body. This lets ground act as a known reference point of voltage for analyzing circuits: any grounded point in the circuit is typically understood to have zero voltage.

Pragmatism

A movement that values ideas based on their practical application (what is sometimes known as the "cash value" of an idea). Its prominent thinkers include William James (who wrote Pragmatism) and John Dewey (who wrote Democracy and Education). The founder of pragmatism was James's friend C. S. Peirce, who expounded its ideas in such essays as "The Fixation of Belief" and "How to Make Our Ideas Clear."

Calcite

A stable mineral form of calcium carbonate. Less stable forms of calcium carbonate (called polymorphs), such as aragonite, eventually convert to calcite. Calcite is found in the shells of many marine organisms, including plankton, echinoderms, and bivalves. This makes calcite a major constituent of sedimentary rocks, especially limestone. Many optical devices utilize calcite because it exhibits birefringence (double refraction). Calcite defines hardness three on the Mohs scale.

Olympia

Another city on the Peloponnese. Like Delphi, Olympia was a major Panhellenic sacred site. The cult statue in its Temple of Zeus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The site also had athletic facilities for the Olympic Games held every four years.

Sukkot

Celebrated on the 15th of Tishrei, Sukkot commemorates the sukkot (booths) that the Israelites lived in following the Exodus from Egypt; it also celebrates the harvest. Traditionally, Jews build outdoor booths in which they live and eat for seven days. In synagogue, four symbolic species — the palm, a yellow citrus called the etrog, the myrtle, and the willow — are waved in seven directions. Each night, in the sukkah, it is traditional to invite a Biblical figure to be the guest for that night.

Julius Caesar

On March 15th, 44 BC (the Ides of March), Roman statesman Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times by the Liberatores ("Liberators"), a group of senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus. Caesar died at the base of the Roman Curia in the Theater of Pompey, just outside the Roman Senate. Caesar had recently been named dictator perpetuo - or "dictator in perpetuity" - which many senators believed would be the end of the Roman Republic. After the assassination, Caesar's adopted grandnephew Octavian (later Augustus) and his top general Marc Antony formed the Second Triumvirate with Marcus Lepidus; the trio deified Caesar and defeated Brutus and Cassius at the Battle of Philippi.

Celsius Scale

Temperature scale developed by Swedish scientist Anders Celsius in the early 1700s. It assigns a value of 0 Degrees C to the freezing point of water, and 100 Degrees C to the boiling point of water.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Bilbao opened in 1997 and is — like its sister institution in New York — less famous for its collection than its building, a Frank Gehry design that seems to be an abstract sculpture all its own. Richard Serra's The Matter of Time is permanently installed here.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

The author Virginia Woolf has little to do with the story, except that Martha sings the title to George when she is mad at him in Act I. In fact, Albee got the title from graffiti he saw on a men's room wall. In the drama, George is a professor who married Martha, the college president's daughter, but the two dislike each other. Martha invites another couple, the instructor Nick and his wife Honey, for drinks after a party for her father. All four of them get drunk, and they end up bickering over their flawed marriages: Besides George and Martha's problems, Honey is barren, and Nick married her for her money.

Mount Everest

The border between Nepal and China straddles the summit of the Himalayan peak Mount Everest, which, at a height of over 29,000 feet, is the tallest mountain in the world. The Khumbu Icefall and the cliff-like Three Steps are hazards faced by potential climbers of Everest. It was first summited by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Local Sherpas act as guides for mountaineers in the area, though they walked out of the job over dangerous working conditions in 2014 after 16 of them were killed in an avalanche.

Pandora

The first human woman in Greek mythology. Hephaestus sculpted her from clay as a punishment for humanity after Prometheus stole fire from the gods. The primary myth of Pandora relates how she released all the evils of the world by opening a jar ("Pandora's Box"), and when she closed the lid only hope remained within. Pandora married the Titan Epimetheus, and their daughter Pyrrha survived the Greek flood with her husband Deucalion.

Horus

The god of the sky and light and the son of Isis and Osiris. In earlier myth he was the brother of Set, and son of Ra. His mother impregnated herself by the dead Osiris, then hid Horus. When he was grown, he avenged his father's death, driving away Set. In the battle, he lost his eye, but regained it thanks to the god Thoth. Thus Horus came to rule over the earth. He was known to have two faces, that of the falcon, Harsiesis, and that of a child, Harpocrates.

Yangtze

The longest river in China and Asia, and the third longest in the world. It rises in the Kunlun Mountains, flows across the Tibetan Plateau, passes the cities of Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, and Shanghai, and empties into the South China Sea. Its basin is China's granary and is home to nearly a third of Chinese citizens. The river is dammed by the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, which reduced flooding but displaced 1.5 million people and buried over 1,300 known archaeological sites.

Mackenzie River

The longest river of Canada. Flowing 1,080 miles out of the Great Slave Lake, the river flows past Fort Providence and Fort Simpson in Canada's Northwest Territories, emptying into a vast delta on the Beaufort Sea. The Mackenzie is the largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean from North America. The river was named for Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie, who crossed Canada to the Pacific ten years before Lewis and Clark.

Factors of Production

There are three classical factors of production: land, labor, and capital (i.e., machinery and tools). Modern economists sometimes add a fourth, entrepreneurship.

Shanghai Tower (Shanghai, Jun Xia, 2015)

When it opened in 2015, the Shanghai Tower—with a height of 2,073 feet—was the second-tallest building in the world, a title it still holds as of 2019. The tower, which is located in Shanghai's Pudong District, is adjacent to both the Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Centre, two of the world's other tallest buildings. By far, the tower's most notable architectural feature is the fact that the building twists as it ascends—the top of the building is rotated approximately 120 degrees clockwise from the base. Its 118th floor is home to the second-highest observation deck in the world; the Ping An Financial Center in Shenzhen, China has an observation deck about one foot higher.

Philip II

(1165 - 1223; r. 1179 - 1223) House of Capet. The first of the great Capetian kings of France. Fighting and negotiating against Henry II, Richard I, and John of England, Philip won back Normandy, Brittany, Anjou, and other territories. He also took part in the famous Third Crusade (with Richard I and Frederick Barbarossa) and made use of the Albigensian crusade to pave the way for the annexation of Languedoc by his successor.

Clement V

(1260 - 1314; r. 1305 - 1314) Moved the seat of the papacy from Rome to the French city of Avignon, where it remained for sixty seven years in a period nicknamed the "Babylonian Captivity."

Henry III

(1551 - 1589; r. 1574 - 1589) House of Valois. Henry's reign was suffused with blood, at first because of the continuous Wars of Religion that pitted Catholics against Huguenots, but later because of the struggles that arose when it became clear that he was going to be the last of the Valois line. The War of the Three Henries broke out after his brother died and the then-Protestant Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV) became heir, leading the Catholic Holy League to strike out of fear for its interests. Henry III was assassinated by a crazed friar in 1589.

Henry IV

(1553 - 1610; r. 1589 - 1610) House of Bourbon. Henry, the king of Navarre, became the heir to the throne when Henry III's brother died in 1584. After fighting Catholic opposition in the War of the Three Henries, he renounced Protestantism and accepted Catholicism (supposedly saying "Paris is well worth a mass") to become king. With the help of Maximilien Sully he erased the national debt and removed much of the religious strife with the Edict of Nantes (1598).

Isaac Newton

(1643 - 1727, English) His work in pure maths includes generalizing the binomial theorem to non-integer exponents, doing the first rigorous manipulation with power series, and creating Newton's method for finding roots of differentiable functions. He is best known, however, for a lengthy feud between British and Continental mathematicians over whether he or Gottfried Leibniz invented calculus (whose differential aspect Newton called the method of fluxions). It is now generally accepted that they both did, independently.

Miguel Hidalgo

(1753 - 1811) A parish priest who became the leader of Mexico's first independence movement. After Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 1808 and ousted the Spanish king Ferdinand VII, political movements advocating Enlightenment ideas of representative government and local self-determination sprung up in many of Spain's American colonies. Hidalgo belonged to one such group, which officials in the viceroyalty of New Spain attempted to suppress. In response, Hidalgo called his congregation together and issued a call for revolt known as the "Grito de Dolores," or "Cry of Dolores" on September 16, 1810. The rebels captured the cities Guanajuato and Guadalajara, but were unable to take Mexico City. In 1811, Hidalgo was captured and executed by the colonial regime. The leadership of the independence movement then fell to another priest named José María Morelos, who was himself executed in 1815. Although Hidalgo's movement was unsuccessful, September 16 is still celebrated as Mexico's official Day of Independence.

James Frazer

(1854 - 1941) Frazer was a Scottish anthropologist who primarily studied mythology and comparative religion. His magnum opus, The Golden Bough, analyzed a wide range of myths that center on the death and rebirth of a solar deity; the original publication controversially discussed the crucifixion of Jesus as one such myth. The work's title refers to a gift given to Proserpine (Persephone) by Aeneas so that he could enter the underworld in the Aeneid.

"Ain't I a Woman" Speech

(1857) An extemporaneous speech by abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio. Truth, a former slave, proclaimed that she could "work as much and eat as much as a man" and "bear the lash as well" while repeatedly returning to the question "and ain't I a woman?" Truth also remarked that, even as a woman, "nobody ever helps me into carriages" because of her race. The speech was later published and popularized by feminist Frances Dana Barker Gage.

Constantin Brancusi

(1876 - 1957) A Romanian sculptor who was a major figure in Modernism. He is best known for The Kiss (not to be confused with the Rodin work or the Klimt painting), Sleeping Muse, and Bird in Space. U.S. customs taxed his works as "industrial products" since they refused to recognize them as art.

Alfred Radcliffe Brown

(1881 - 1955) Radcliffe-Brown is considered the founder of a school of anthropology known as structural functionalism, which focuses on identifying the groups within a society and the rules and customs that define the relationships between people. His own early fieldwork was conducted in the Andaman Islands and Western Australia, where he studied the social organization of Australian tribes. After teaching in Australia, South Africa, and at the University of Chicago, he returned to England, where he founded the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Oxford.

Zora Neale Hurston

(1891 - 1960) Set many of her works in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida. Her best-known novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is about Janie Crawford, whose sexual awakening is compared to the blossoming of a pear tree. Janie successively marries Logan Killicks, Jody Starks, and Tea Cake; when Tea Cake attacks her after being bitten by a rabid dog during a hurricane, she shoots him. Hurston was also a prominent anthropologist, collecting African-American folklore in books like Mules and Men. Her work was relatively unknown until 1975, when Alice Walker published the article "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston."

George Gershwin

(1898 - 1937) His music blended classical traditions and genres with jazz and popular idioms. His "Rhapsody in Blue" (1924) and "Concerto in F" (1925) both feature solo piano and orchestra, while "An American in Paris" (1928) and "Cuban Overture" (1932) were inspired by his trips abroad. The lyrics for his vocal works were often written by his brother Ira; two of his best-known songs, "Embraceable You" and "I Got Rhythm," appeared in his Broadway musical Girl Crazy (1930). His opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the song standards "Summertime" and "It Ain't Necessarily So," featured an entirely African-American cast.

Richard Wright

(1908 - 1960) Wrote the 1940 bestseller Native Son. The protagonist of that novel, Bigger Thomas, gets a job as a chauffeur for Mary Dalton, but he suffocates her with a pillow for fear of being discovered in bed with her. Bigger later rapes and murders his girlfriend Bessie, and is ultimately sentenced to death for the murders. Wright's memoir Black Boy describes his youth in the Jim Crow South and his move to Chicago, where he joins and then becomes disillusioned with the Communist Party. Wright also wrote Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of novellas including "Big Boy Leaves Home" and "Fire and Cloud."

Abraham Maslow

(1908 - 1970, American) Abraham Maslow is principally known for two works, Motivation and Personality and Toward a Psychology of Being, that introduced his theory of the hierarchy of needs (food, shelter, love, esteem, etc.) and its pinnacle, the need for self-actualization. Self-actualized people are those who understand their individual needs and abilities and who have families, friends, and colleagues that support them and allow them to accomplish things on which they place value. The lowest unmet need on the hierarchy tends to dominate conscious thought.

Claude Levi-Strauss

(1908 - 2009) In the 1930s, Levi-Strauss did fieldwork with the Nambikwara people of Brazil, which formed the basis for his thesis on "The Elementary Structures of Kinship." He held the chair in social anthropology at the Collèege de France from 1959 to 1982, during which time he published such books as The Savage Mind and a tetralogy about world mythology whose volumes include The Raw and the Cooked. He pioneered in applying the structuralist methods of Ferdinand de Saussure to anthropology, which led him to study cultures as sets of binary oppositions.

John Cage

(1912 - 1992) An American student of Arnold Schoenberg, Cage took avant-garde to a new level, and may be considered a Dada composer because he believed in aleatory, or "chance" music. His Imaginary Landscape No. 4 (1951) used twelve radios tuned to different stations; the composition depended on what was on the radio at that time. The following year's 4′33″ required a pianist to sit at the piano for that length of time and then close it; audience noise and silence created the music. Cage also invented the prepared piano, in which screws, wood, rubber bands, and other items are attached to piano strings in order to create a percussion sound.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

(1928 - 2014) The master of magic realism, his birthplace, Aracataca was the model for the fictional town Macondo. The town played a prominent role in many of García Marquez's works, such as Leaf Storm and his seminal novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), which details the decline of the Buendía family over seven generations. A newspaper journalist in the 1950s, García Marquez exposed a naval scandal (chronicled in The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor). Other prominent novels include In Evil Hour, Love in the Time of Cholera, and The General in His Labyrinth, a depiction of Simón Bolívar's final years.

Gone with the Wind

(1939) An adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel of the same name. The film was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming, who had just directed The Wizard of Oz. Gone With the Wind is set during the Civil War on the Georgia plantation of Tara and stars Vivien Leigh in an Oscar-winning role as Scarlett O'Hara, who marries Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) despite pining after the married Ashley Wilkes. Near the end of the film, Scarlett suffers a miscarriage after a fight with Rhett, who then leaves her; when Scarlett asks him, "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" he famously responds "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

The "Tryst with Destiny" Speech

(1947) Delivered by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the night of India's independence. Speaking minutes before independence became official at midnight, Nehru celebrated that Indians will "awake to life and freedom" and laid out his vision for a nation striving toward "peace, freedom, and democracy." Nehru also praised Mahatma Gandhi as "the Father of our Nation" and thanked him for holding "the torch of freedom" in the fight for independence.

The Secret Speech

(1956) Formally titled "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences," it was a report given by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to the Congress of the Communist Party denouncing the regime of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. Khrushchev specifically criticized Stalin for making his own rivals in the Communist Party and the Red Army into "enemies of the people," as well as for glorifying himself above the party and the country. The controversial speech contributed to the split between the Soviet Union and Communist China and to the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

Jane Goodall

(Born 1934) Goodall is a British primatologist who is best known for her work with chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Her first research was carried out with Louis Leakey at Olduvai Gorge. In her pioneering work with primates, which is detailed in such books as In the Shadow of Man, she discovered that chimpanzees have the ability to use tools, such as inserting grass into termite holes to "fish" for termites.

Alice Walker

(Born 1944) Won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for her novel The Color Purple, whose protagonist, Celie, is repeatedly raped by her father, producing the children Olivia and Adam, both of whom are immediately taken away by her father. Celie deals with her trauma by writing letters to God. Celie marries Mister, who also abuses her; she has an affair with Shug Avery, a blues singer who is also Mister's mistress. Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is about the cultural differences between Dee and Maggie, the two daughters of a Southern woman known as Mama.

John Coolidge Adams

(Born 1947) A minimalist composer whose music, like that of Charles Ives, often features an "American" program. Adams may be best known for his opera Nixon in China (1987), which dramatizes the 1972 presidential visit and meeting with Mao. His other operas include Doctor Atomic (2005), which is about the Manhattan Project. He composed "On the Transmigration of Souls" (2002) to memorialize the September 11th attacks; that work received the Pulitzer Prize. Other major works for orchestra include Harmonium (1980), Harmonielehre (1985), Shaker Loops (1978), and his Violin Concerto (1993).

Salman Rushdie

(Born 1947) A novelist born in India, who holds British and American citizenship. Rushdie's 1981 Booker Prize-winning novel Midnight's Children follows Saleem Sinai, a man with an enormous nose who is born at precisely the moment that India becomes independent, giving him telepathic powers. Other members of the novel's title group - the people born within an hour of independence - include Shiva, a child with enormous knees, and the magical Parvati-the-witch. Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses begins as the actors Gibreel Farishta and Saladin Chamcha are miraculously saved after their plane explodes over the English Channel. Upon being betrayed by Gibreel, Saladin seeks revenge by ruining Gibreel's relationship with the mountaineer Allie Cone. The Satanic Verses was condemned in a fatwa, or religious decree, issued by Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The fatwa accused Rushdie of blasphemy, and ordered Muslims to kill Rushdie, his editors, and his publishers. In 1998, Iran agreed not to actively seek Rushdie's death. Rushdie described his years of hiding in the memoir Joseph Anton; the title refers to the pseudonym that Rushdie adopted, which was inspired by the authors Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov. Rushdie's other novels include The Moor's Last Sigh, which is narrated by the swiftly aging Moraes Zogoiby; The Ground Beneath Her Feet, which was loosely inspired by the legend of Orpheus; and the young adult books Haroun and the Sea of Stories and Luka and the Fire of Life.

Mia Hamm

(Born 1972, United States, forward) The youngest American, male or female, ever to play for a U.S. National team, Hamm was a member of both the 1991 and 1999 Womens' World Cup Champions and the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal winning side. A UNC-Chapel Hill alum (BS 1994, Political Science), and two-time Hermann Trophy winner and Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year winner (1992 and 1993), her #19 was retired by the Tar Heels, where she won 4 NCAA titles. In international play, she holds the all-time international scoring record, for men and women, when she scored career goal 108 on May 16, 1999, against Brazil in Orlando. One of People's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1997, the largest building on Nike's Corporate Campus in Beaverton, Oregon, is named for her.

Jomo Kenyatta

A leader of the Kikuyu people, fought against British control of Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s. Kenyatta studied anthropology at the London School of Economics with Bronisław Malinowski; his book, Facing Mount Kenya, is an account of traditional Kikuyu society under pressure from colonialism. When Britain allowed elections to take place, Kenyatta's KANU (Kenya African National Union) party was successful; in 1964 Kenyatta became the country's first president. He used the slogan "harambee," which is Swahili for "all pull together," to encourage national unity and economic growth. Jomo's son, Uhuru Kenyatta, became Kenya's fourth president in 2013.

Krakatoa

A stratovolcanic island in the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java. Prior to its massive 1883 eruption, there were three separate volcanic peaks: Perboewatan (completely destroyed by the eruption), Rakata (extant), and Danan (almost completely destroyed). The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa killed more than 35,000 people and is believed to have produced the loudest sound ever. Krakatoa is one of the largest volcanoes in the Pacific Ring of Fire. The continued activity of Krakatoa formed a new island, Anak Krakatau (or "Child of Krakatoa") in 1927.

Kalahari Desert

The Kalahari is a large region, not all of which is arid enough to qualify as a desert. It is known for its red sand, large game reserves (meerkats, gemsbok, springbok, steenbok), and mineral deposits (notably uranium). Its San Bushmen speak a click language.

Saddam Hussein

The president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. He came to power as a member of the pan-Arabist Ba'ath Party. During the 1980s, Hussein led Iraq in the decade-long Iran-Iraq War. In the midst of that conflict, he launched the genocidal Al-Anfal Campaign against Kurdish civilians in northern Iraq. In 1990, Saddam ordered the invasion of neighboring Kuwait, which led to the First Gulf War, also known as Operation Desert Storm. Hussein was deposed following 2003 the American invasion of Iraq; he was tried and executed by the new Iraqi government in 2006.

Yellow River

At 3,400 miles, China's second-longest; it is also the most important to the northern half of the country. It rises in Qinghai province and flows into the Bohai Gulf of the Yellow Sea. The river's name comes from the extraordinary amount of loess silt that it carries, an average of 57 pounds for every cubic yard of water. Among its notable features is the Grand Canal, rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty, that links it to the Yangtze.

Lake Tanganyika

Africa's second-largest lake by area, it is also the second-deepest in the world, surpassed only by Lake Baikal. Due to its extreme depth (over 4,700 feet), Lake Tanganyika contains seven times as much water as Lake Victoria. A source of the Lualaba River, it is shared by Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Zambia. On its Tanzanian shore is the town of Ujiji, at which Henry Morton Stanley "found" Dr. David Livingstone in 1871.

Battle of the Pyramids and Battle of the Nile

(July 21 and August 1 - 3, 1798, Egypt) After his victory over Austria, Napoleon proposed crossing the Mediterranean and invading Egypt. While the stated goal of this expedition was to strike a blow against British trade with the Middle East and Asia, it also catered to Napoleon's fascination with antiquity. A team of scientists followed his military expedition, whose most lasting result was the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, unearthed by soldiers digging to construct a fort in the Nile delta. Napoleon supposedly cried "Soldiers, forty centuries look down upon you" at the 1798 Battle of the Pyramids, where his troops used modern artillery and large square formations to ward off a cavalry charge by the Egyptian Mamluks. French control of Egypt, however, was dependent on communications across the Mediterranean, which were interrupted by the Royal Navy's attack on the French fleet in Aboukir Bay in early August. British victory at the Nile forced Napoleon to abandon his army and return to France.

Functional Programming

A paradigm based on the execution of various functions to calculate values. Functions in pure functional programming are free of side effects, meaning that they do not change the program state but only compute values. Functional languages use currying to evaluate functions with multiple inputs. ML and Haskell are functional programming languages.

Abraham

A patriarch common to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which are collectively known as the Abrahamic religions. Unlike the other people in this article, Abraham is not regarded as a historical figure in secular studies. He is the subject of the Biblical narrative of the covenant of the pieces, in which God promises that his descendants would inherit the Promised Land of Canaan/Israel; this tradition is the basis for the view that the Jewish people are God's chosen people. In Islam, Abraham (Ibrahim) is considered a major link in the chain of prophets stretching from Adam to Muhammad. In Christianity, he is considered an exemplar of faith because of his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac at God's command.

Medea

A sorceress from the island of Colchis; her father was King Aeëtes, and her aunt was the witch Circe. Medea encountered the hero Jason when he and the Argonauts came to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, and she helped him yoke fire-breathing oxen and sow dragon's teeth. Medea left Colchis with Jason, and on the voyage home she killed both her brother Absyrtus and the giant bronze automaton Talos. She and Jason had several children together, but Jason ultimately left Medea for the princess Glauce; in vengeance, she killed two of her children and fled on a golden chariot.

Source

A source is any device that provides voltage or current. Direct Current (DC) sources like batteries provide constant current, while Alternating Current (AC) sources like household electric outlets provide current that changes at a regular frequency with a constant average voltage. In alternating-current circuits, capacitors and inductors can help tune a circuit's efficiency by contributing to a phenomenon called impedance, which is the complex analogue of resistance. A circuit's reactance is the imaginary part of its impedance and depends on the frequency of the circuit. When reactance is balanced, we find the frequency at which the circuit loses the least energy, or its resonant frequency.

Battle of Manzikert

(1071) The Byzantine defeat at Manzikert (Malazgirt in Turkish) by the Seljuk Turks was a severe blow to the Byzantine empire's control of Anatolia. The Seljuks were led by Alp Arslan, while Emperor Romanus IV led the Byzantines. The Byzantines split their forces in half before the battle by sending general Joseph Tarchaneiotes to Khliat, and were further weakened by the desertion of Andronicus Dukas. The Byzantine emperor was captured in the battle, but released by Alp Arslan after signing a peace treaty. Romanus IV was later deposed and blinded.

Louis XIII

(1601 - 1643; r. 1610 - 1643) House of Bourbon. Sometimes working with his chief minister Cardinal Richelieu and sometimes against, Louis XIII turned France into the pre-eminent European power during his reign. This was largely achieved via French victories in the Thirty Years' War. The Three Musketeers is set in the early years of his reign.

Battle of Tours

(732) The Franks' victory at the Battle of Tours was a major turning point in the history of Europe. After conquering Iberia, the Umayyads advanced into France as far as Poitiers. The Franks were led by Charles Martel, while the Umayyads were led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi. The battle was preceded by a pact between the Berber governor Munuza and Odo, Duke of Aquitaine, though Odo was present at Tours. The best contemporary source for the battle is the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754.

Cats

(Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1981) The Jellicle tribe of cats roams the streets of London. They introduce the audience to various members: Rum Tum Tugger, Mungojerrie, Rumpleteazer, Mr. Mistoffelees, and Old Deuteronomy. Old Deuteronomy must choose a cat to be reborn, and he chooses the lowly Grizabella after she sings "Memory." It is adapted from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot.

Battle of Stalingrad

(August 1942 - February 1943) With about two million casualties, the Battle of Stalingrad is often cited as the bloodiest battle in history. The battle arose out of Germany's summer campaign to capture vital oil supplies in the Caucasus Mountains, but Friedrich Paulus's 6th Army became bogged down in intense street fighting in the city, allowing Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov to launch Operation Uranus, which encircled Paulus's men by defeating the Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian forces guarding their flank. In the final days of the battle, Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal, a not-so-subtle suggestion that Paulus should either fight to the death or commit suicide, as no German field marshal had ever been captured; Paulus surrendered anyway.

Guadalcanal Campaign

(August 1942 to February 1943) This first Allied counteroffensive in the Pacific targeted Guadalcanal, an island in the Solomons, to secure communications between the U.S. Pacific coast and Australia. "Operation Watchtower" was the codename for the initial U.S. Marine landings, which secured an airbase at Henderson Field and held off a Japanese counterattack on Edson's Ridge. The naval battle of Savo Island took place between American ships and Japanese forces (the so-called "Tokyo Express") trying to resupply troops on Guadalcanal. By early 1943, Allied dominance of the seas and skies around Guadalcanal forced Japan to withdraw its remaining troops.

St Bartholomew's Day Massacre

(August 23, 1572) A series of murders carried out by Catholic mobs and the Swiss Guard against Huguenots, or French Protestants. It occurred a few days after the wedding of Margaret of Valois to the future King Henry IV. Catherine de' Medici, the mother of then-king Charles IX, allegedly ordered the murders two days after an assassination attempt on Huguenot leader Gaspard de Coligny. It is likely that the signal to begin the attacks was given by the ringing of matins bells at the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois in Paris. The name of the massacre comes from the day on which it occurred, the night before the feast day of Bartholomew the Apostle.

Every Man in His Humour

(Ben Jonson, 1598) Set in Jonson's contemporary London, this comedy is a "humours play," in which each character is a stock type governed by a corresponding "humour" (as theorized in Greek medicine). The plot chiefly concerns Knowell, an old gentleman who worries that his son Edward is becoming too involved with Wellbred, a fun-loving gallant Londoner. Knowell secretly follows his son to London; meanwhile, Wellbred's brother-in-law, the merchant Kitely, worries that Wellbred's behavior will give his business a bad reputation, all the while suspecting his own wife of infidelity. Various subplots involve Knowell's mischievous servant Brainworm, the braggart-captain Bobadill, and two friends of Wellbred who try to be fashionably and poetically melancholic. In the end, the kindly Justice Clement settles all of the grievances amassed over the course of the play. A follow-up, Every Man Out of His Humour, was written one year later.

Venus and Serena Williams

(Born 1980 and 1981) Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe may have preceded them as trailblazing African-American players, but the sisters have taken the game to new levels and to more people. Born in Compton, California and coached from an early age by father Richard, Venus broke through first, reaching the final of the U.S. Open in 1997. Serena won a Grand Slam before Venus did (1999 U.S. Open), but Venus hit #1 by sweeping Wimbledon and the U.S. Opens in both 2000 and 2001. For a long time Serena could not beat her older sister, but that changed in 2002, when she took four straight major finals against Venus. With her 2003 win at Wimbledon, Serena now has six majors to Venus's four. On the side, both are fashion designers, while Venus also designs interiors.

Luddites

(Early 19th century) As the Industrial Revolution accelerated in the early 19th century, many skilled textile workers were replaced by unskilled laborers who could use newly invented machines. The most vocal opponents of textile mechanization were known as Luddites, a term said to have derived from the surname of a youth named Ned Ludd, who broke two stocking frames in 1779. Between 1811 and 1813, organized groups of Luddites clashed with the British military at mills in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. In response, Parliament passed the Frame Breaking Act, which made industrial sabotage a capital crime. While the Luddites were suppressed relatively quickly, the perpetrators of the Swing Riots in Kent in 1830 employed similar tactics by demolishing threshing machines to protest the mechanization of agriculture. Today, the term "Luddite" refers more generally to anybody who is uncomfortable with technology.

Fall of Singapore

(February 1942) Japan's offensive in southeast Asia also struck at the British Empire. Japanese aircraft sank the British battleship Prince of Wales and drove obsolete British aircraft from the skies over the Malay Peninsula. Allied troops were driven back toward Singapore, Britain's major base in the Far East. Reinforcements from Britain and Australia arrived too late to repair the situation, and British general Arthur Percival was forced to surrender in February 1942. The loss of Singapore stunned the British Empire. Many Indian prisoners captured at Singapore switched sides to fight for the Japanese; British and Australian POWs labored in terrible conditions on the Siam-Burma railway depicted in the novel The Bridge over the River Kwai.

The Barber of Seville

(Gioacchino Rossini, 1816) Count Almaviva loves Rosina, the ward of Dr. Bartolo. Figaro (who brags about his wit in "Largo al factotum") promises to help him win the girl. He tries the guise of the poor student Lindoro, a drunken soldier, and then a replacement music teacher, all of which are penetrated by Dr. Bartolo. Eventually they succeed by climbing in with a ladder and bribing the notary who was to marry Rosina to Dr. Bartolo himself. This opera is also based on a work of Pierre de Beaumarchais and is a prequel to The Marriage of Figaro.

King Claudius

(Hamlet) Before the start of the play, Claudius became the ruler of Denmark by pouring poison into the ear of his sleeping brother, King Hamlet. Claudius then married Gertrude, King Hamlet's widow. In the play's first act, Prince Hamlet learns of his uncle's treachery by speaking to King Hamlet's ghost. Hamlet then arranges for a troupe of actors to perform a play titled The Murder of Gonzago, which Hamlet revises to increase the similarities to his father's death. Claudius is disturbed by the performance, and storms out during the murder scene. Later, Claudius prays for forgiveness, causing Hamlet to delay killing him out of fear that Claudius's soul would go to heaven. As Hamlet feigns madness, Claudius sends him to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who unknowingly carry a letter calling for Hamlet's execution. After Hamlet escapes and returns to Denmark, Claudius arranges for Hamlet to fight a duel with Laertes, who seeks revenge for the death of his father, Polonius, and sister, Ophelia. Laertes uses a poison-tipped sword, and Claudius prepares a poisoned drink as a back-up. When Laertes falls in combat he reveals the plot, prompting Hamlet to stab Claudius with the poisoned sword, and make Claudius drink from the poisoned cup.

Hapsburg

(Holy Romam Empire, 1440 - 1806, Austria-Hungary, 1867 - 1918, Spain 1516 - 1700) The Hapsburgs ruled much of Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the end of World War I. Their first important ruler was Rudolf I, the King of Germany and Duke of Austria in the late thirteenth century. Other notable rulers included Charles V, Maria Theresa and Franz Joseph.

Battle of Bataan

(January to May 1942) Immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers struck the Philippine island Luzon, forcing the Americans to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula, where they held out for four months. General Douglas MacArthur vowed "I shall return" before evacuating to Australia and leaving command to Jonathan Wainwright, who retreated to the island of Corregidor and surrendered on May 6. The prisoners from Bataan were sent on a "death march" 80 miles to San Fernando with minimal food, water, and medical supplies; those that fell behind were beaten. Japanese General Masaharu Homma was executed in 1946 for his role in the war crime.

Peninsular Campaign

(March - July 1862) Union commander George McClellan devised this plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia by sending 110,000 men up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers. Advised of Northern maneuvers, Southern commander Joseph Johnston detached a force to defend the peninsula. He also sent a small unit (led by Stonewall Jackson) that crushed Union reinforcements in the Shenandoah Valley. After Johnston was wounded at Seven Pines (June 1), Davis replaced him with Robert E. Lee. Lee concentrated his force north of the Chickahominy River; in the Seven Days' Battles (June 25 - July 1), the Confederates broke through Union defenses, leading to McClellan's retreat down the James toward Harrison's Landing, and the failure of the campaign.

David Cameron

(PM 2010 - 2016) Leader of a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government and favored austerity economics and the elimination of the U.K.'s fiscal deficit. He resigned after the Brexit vote in 2016.

The King and I

(Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, 1951) Anna Leonowens, a British schoolteacher, travels to Siam (now Thailand) to teach English to the King's many children and wives. Anna's western ways, the looming threat of British rule, and romance between Lun Tha and the concubine Tuptim all weigh heavily on the traditional, chauvinistic King. As the King dies, Anna kneels at his side, and the prince abolishes the practice of kowtowing. Adapted from Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Landon and inspired by Anna Leonowens' memoirs, it was made into an Academy Award-winning 1956 film starring Yul Brynner. Its songs include "I Whistle a Happy Tune," "Getting to Know You," and "Shall We Dance?".

Battle of Antietam (or Sharpsburg)

(September 17, 1862) The bloodiest single day of the Civil War: 12,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate casualties. Robert E. Lee invaded Maryland, but a Union soldier discovered Lee's battle plans wrapped around three discarded cigars. After the Battle of South Mountain (September 14), Lee's forces retired toward Antietam Creek. Meanwhile, Stonewall Jackson's forces captured Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and rushed north to rejoin Lee's main army. George McClellan had a substantial numerical superiority over Lee's Confederates, but failed to effectively coordinate his army's attacks. Antietam thus was actually a series of several distinct clashes, near the Dunker Church, along the Bloody Lane, and around Burnside's Bridge. After the battle's conclusion, Lee's battered army retreated across the Potomac into Virginia; the Union victory allowed President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Battle of Borodino

(September 7, 1812, Russia) In 1812 Napoleon assembled the largest army of his reign for the most ambitious military operation of the 19th century: a full-scale invasion of Russia. Russian Tsar Alexander I, despite losing to Napoleon in central Europe between 1805 and 1807, refused to agree to the "Continental System," the Napoleonic proposal for a Europe-wide embargo on British trade in manufactured goods. Napoleon's march on Moscow was slowed by Russian resistance at Borodino, where Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov's army was driven out of fortified redoubts after a day of destructive fighting. Although French forces were briefly able to seize control of Moscow, the subsequent retreat through the worst of the Russian winter ruined Napoleon's Grand Army.

Caliban

(The Tempest) Caliban is the son of the Algerian witch Sycorax, who once ruled the island where Caliban was born. After Sycorax died the island fell under the control of the magician Prospero, an exiled duke of Milan. Prospero taught the young Caliban language, and showed kindness to him, until Caliban tried to rape Prospero's daughter Miranda. In response, Prospero enslaved Caliban, and began treating him as a subhuman creature. (Caliban's exact nature is unknown, but he seems to be physically distinct from the other characters in the play. At various points, Caliban is called a "monster," a "demi-devil," a "strange fish," a "thing of darkness," a "moon-calf," and a "freckled whelp" who lacks a "human shape.") When the play begins, Caliban longs to overthrow Prospero but still fears Prospero's magic, which is stronger than that of Caliban's god, Setebos. Trinculo and Stephano, two drunkards who are shipwrecked and separated from the rest of their crew, give Caliban liquor; Caliban then conspires with them to kill Prospero. When the group hears music played by the spirit Ariel, Caliban delivers a speech beginning "Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises" that demonstrates sensitivity and loss. The plot to unseat Prospero quickly fails, and Caliban vows to be "wise hereafter." Unlike Ariel, Caliban is not freed at the end of the play.

James Watson and Francis Crick

(Won in 1962) Discovered the molecular structure of DNA. They published the well-known double-helix structure based on "Photo 51," an X-ray diffraction image of DNA produced by Rosalind Franklin. Because Franklin died in 1958 (the Nobel committee does not award prizes posthumously), Francis and Crick instead shared the prize with Maurice Wilkins, a colleague of Franklin who provided them with the diffraction data. The pair also determined, with the help of Chargaff's rules, that the base pairs of adenine-thymine and cytosine-guanine were structurally similar within the DNA molecule.

Fauvism

(c. 1905) Upon seeing a number of Fauvist paintings in the same room as a classical sculpture at the 1905 Salon d'Automne exhibit, critic Louis Vauxcelles described the sculpture as "Donatello chez les fauves" ("a Donatello amongst wild beasts"), thus coining the art movement's name with an insult. To maximize the expressiveness of their canvases, Fauves disregarded figure modeling and color harmonies in favor of large brushstrokes with broad flat areas of violently contrasting colors. The poorly received Fauves — accused by critic Camille Mauclair of "flinging a pot of paint in the face of the public," an accusation first leveled by John Ruskin against James Whistler — were led by Henri Matisse, whose Woman with a Hat (a portrait of his wife, who is also depicted in his The Green Stripe) was singled out for attacks before being purchased by Gertrude and Leo Stein. Other Fauves include André Derain (Charing Cross Bridge, Houses of Parliament at Night) — who co-founded the movement with Matisse — Raoul Dufy (Regatta at Cowes), Maurice de Vlaminck (The River Seine at Chatou), and Kees van Dongen (Woman with Large Hat). Fauvism died out almost entirely by 1908.

Rectifier

A rectifier is a device that converts AC or another variable signal into a positive-voltage signal. A half-wave rectifier simply zeroes out negative voltage, while a full-wave rectifier essentially acts as an absolute value function, converting negative voltage to positive voltage. A rectifier can be combined with a capacitor to approximately convert AC into DC.

Transformer

A transformer is a pair of solenoids connected to a central core, which permits the circulation of magnetic flux. Because the flux in the core is constant, an alternating current in one coil produces a changing magnetic field, inducing an alternating current in the second coil. If the coils have different numbers of turns of wire (as is typical), the current in the second coil will have a different voltage than the current in the first coil. Therefore, transformers are used to "step up" or "step down" voltage, for example in power transmission lines and in adapters for household electronics.

William Howe

A veteran of the siege of Louisbourg, and the leader of the ascent to the Plains of Abraham (Quebec, 1759), he was dispatched in 1775 as second-in-command to Gage. After directing the attack on Bunker Hill, he succeeded Gage as commander, and coordinated a strategic retreat from Boston to Halifax. In Halifax, he coordinated a joint army-navy attack with his brother, Richard, an admiral, resulting in a campaign which allowed the British to control New York City. After his attempts to secure a peace in 1777 failed, he led the attack on Philadelphia, defeating Washington at Brandywine. After this, he wintered in Philadelphia, waiting for acceptance of his resignation, due to the failed peace negotiations. On May 25, 1778, he relinquished command to Sir Henry Clinton and returned home.

The Legend of Zelda

Also created by Shigeru Miyamoto. Games in the Zelda series star the green-clad Link, who typically must rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon (who sometimes appears in his humanoid form, Ganondorf). Recurring weapons in the series include the Master Sword, boomerang, bombs, and hookshot. Much of the series's lore centers on the Triforce, a set of three golden triangles whose constituent parts represent power, wisdom, and courage.

Wernher von Braun

At one time, he was a student of Oberth in the Spaceflight Society. Von Braun is best-known for leading Nazi Germany's development and construction of the V-2 rocket (literally, "vengeance weapon"), which wreaked destruction on southern England during World War II. After World War II, he was recruited to the US as part of Operation Paperclip, and proposed to launch a space station carrying a nuclear arsenal (though he hedged the concept as "particularly dreadful"). He presided over Mercury-Redstone development as Director of NASA's newly-opened Marshall Spaceflight Center, which produced the rockets used in the Mercury spaceflights, and the Saturn V rocket used to launch the Apollo spacecraft.

Eddie Rickenbacker

Before becoming a pilot, Rickenbacker achieved fame as a race car driver; "Fast Eddie" competed in the Indianapolis 500 on four separate occasions. During World War I, he joined the U.S. Army as a driver, but was admitted to flight school with the help of Colonel Billy Mitchell, and went on to win the Medal of Honor and finish as the top American ace of the war, with 26 kills. Rickenbacker bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1927 and Eastern Airlines in 1938. While on a military mission in the Pacific in 1942, Rickenbacker's plane crashed, but he and all but one crewman survived a brutal 24-day ordeal aboard small life rafts.

IM Pei

Born in China, he emigrated to the U.S. in 1935. Though he has also designed moderate-income housing, Pei is best known for large-scale projects. His works include the Mile High Center in Denver, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, the John Hancock Building in Boston, the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Fragrant Hill Hotel in Beijing, and the recent Miho Museum of Art in Shiga, Japan. He may be best known for two fairly recent works: the glass pyramid erected outside the Louvre in 1989, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, completed in 1995.

Shavuot

Celebrated on the sixth day of Sivan (the ninth month), the 50th day of the Omer that began after Passover. The word Shavuot means "weeks," (seven weeks of the Omer), hence the name of the homologous Christian holiday Pentecost. Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, as well as the beginning of the harvest in ancient Israel. Sukkot, Passover, and Shavuot are the three pilgrimages, when Jews would all gather at the Temple each year; on Shavuot, Jews would dedicate their first harvest fruits to the Temple. The Book of Ruth is read in synagogue on Shavuot, and it is traditional to study all night on this festival.

Irrawaddy

Chief river of Myanmar (also known as Burma). It flows 1,350 miles past Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and Mandalay to the Gulf of Martaban, an arm of the Bay of Bengal. Its delta is one of the world's most important rice-growing regions, and its name is thought to come from the Sanskrit word for "elephant."

Lake Chad

Formerly Africa's fourth-largest lake, its surface area has been reduced by over 90% since the 1960s due to droughts and diversion of water from such sources as the Chari River. The lake is at the intersection of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, but most of the remaining water is in Chad and Cameroon. Lake Chad is very shallow and has no outlet, so seasonal rainfall causes large fluctuations in its area.

Po

Italy's longest river at 405 miles, it passes through Piedmont and Lombardy before entering the Adriatic 30 miles south of Venice. It flows through Turin and Cremona, and it passes near Milan, Padua, Pavia, and Mantua. The river has a long history of floods, and the man made levees called argini which protect towns and crops can exacerbate the floods. Pollution, especially from Milan, is becoming a major environmental concern.

Typhon and Echidna

Known as the Father and Mother of All Monsters due to their numerous monstrous offspring, including the two-headed dog Orthrus, the Nemean Lion, the Hydra, the Chimera, and Cerberus. Typhon was the last son of Gaea and Tartarus, while Echidna's parentage is obscured by ancient sources; most often, she is listed as a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. In the Theogony, Hesiod describes a climactic battle between Zeus and Typhon following Zeus' defeat of the Titans: Typhon rips out Zeus' sinews and is nearly victorious, but Hermes restores Zeus's sinews and Zeus finally overpowers the giant monster. Typhon was then trapped under Mount Etna, where he is believed to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Uffizi Gallery

Located in Florence, Italy, the Uffizi Gallery was originally designed by Giorgio Vasari to serve as offices for the Florentine magistrates under Cosimo de' Medici — hence the name uffizi, meaning "offices." After Cosimo I died in 1574, the new grand duke, Francis I, commissioned the conversion of its top floor into a galley. Its outstanding Renaissance holdings include The Birth of Venus and La Primavera, both by Sandro Botticelli, and Titian's Venus of Urbino.

Amelia Earhart

More than 70 years after her disappearance, Earhart remains the most famous female aviator. In 1932 she became the first woman to make a trans-Atlantic solo flight, and three years later she became the first pilot of any gender to fly solo from Hawaii to California. In June 1937, she and navigator Fred Noonan embarked on a 29,000-mile, around-the-world flight in a twin-engine Lockheed Electra. They completed most of the journey, but became lost and eventually disappeared on the leg between Lae, New Guinea, and Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean. Speculation as to their ultimate fate continues to this day.

Other Symphonies

Of Mozart's first 38 symphonies, the "Little" G minor symphony (No. 25, K. 183) is the only one in a minor key. The "Paris" Symphony (No. 31 in D major, K. 297), written for that city, begins with a fast upward D major scale that can be classified as a "Mannheim rocket," a popular opening device for symphonies. Mozart's other notable symphonies include the "Haffner" (No. 35 in D major, K. 385), which is more familiar than the serenade; the Linz Symphony (No. 36 in C major, K. 425); and the Prague Symphony (No. 38 in D major, K. 504). There is no Symphony No. 37: Mozart added an introduction to a symphony by Michael Haydn (Joseph's brother) and scholars did not notice that the rest of the work was not by Mozart until 1907.

Malcolm X

On February 21st, 1965, Muslim activist Malcolm X was shot and killed in the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan by three members of the Nation of Islam, an organization that Malcolm X left in March 1964. The assassins were Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson. Malcolm X was about to give a speech to the Organization of Afro-American Unity when he was shot 21 times with a shotgun. Many people, including Malcolm X's widow, have blamed Louis Farrakhan's harsh rhetoric for inciting the assassination.

Tate

Originally known as the National Gallery of British Art when opened in 1897, it was renamed for its benefactor, sugar tycoon Sir Henry Tate. The original Tate Gallery has been renamed Tate Britain, and there are now three additional branches: Tate Modern in London, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St. Ives in Cornwall. The Tate awards the Turner Prize, a highly publicized award for British artists, and its collection includes Whaam! by Roy Lichtenstein and many works by J. M. W. Turner.

Great Sandy Desert

Part of the Western Desert, and the ninth largest in the world.

Thames

Running from Thames Head near Cirencester to an estuary near Southend in Essex, the Thames is the principal river of England and flows through central London. The Houses of Parliament and the London Eye overlook the Thames, as does Big Ben. Flowing through Reading, Oxford, and Swindon, the Thames is prevented from flooding London by its namesake Barrier near the Isle of Dogs. Though it is the longest river entirely in England, the Thames trails the Severn (which also flows into Wales) as the longest river in the United Kingdom.

Sojourner Truth

She was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree in Dutch-speaking New York. She gave herself the name "Sojourner Truth" in 1843 when she converted to Methodism and informed her friends that the spirit had called her. She was already well known as an abolitionist speaker when she attended the 1851 Ohio Women's Rights Convention and declared that she had "as much muscle as any man" in her most famous speech, "Ain't I a Woman?"

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Stanton is most famous for writing the "Declaration of Sentiments" that she presented at the first women's rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Stanton based the text of her declaration on the Declaration of Independence; it included the line, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal." Stanton was a close collaborator for many years with Susan B. Anthony.

Nile River

Usually cited as the longest river in the world, the Nile flows about 4,132 miles in a generally south-to-north direction from its headwaters in Burundi to Egypt's Mediterranean Sea coast, where it forms a prototypical delta. Over 80% of the Nile's flow comes from the shorter Blue Nile headstream, which arises from Ethiopia's Lake Tana and meets the longer White Nile — whose headwaters include Lake Victoria — at Khartoum. At the first of the Nile's six cataracts is the Aswan High Dam, which forms Lake Nasser and greatly reduces the annual floods.

Fuses and Circuit Breakers

When excess current flows through a fuse, the fuse deforms or disconnects so that no current can flow in the circuit. This protects the equipment in the circuit from being damaged by power surges and also protects the surroundings (as excess current can cause wires to overheat, starting a fire). Fuses typically melt and thus must be completely replaced after tripping; a circuit breaker is a form of fuse that can be reset and restored after the circuit has been verified to be safe.

Kwame Nkrumah

Became the prime minister of the Gold Coast in 1952 and declared independence from Britain in 1957, renaming the country Ghana. He was the first African leader to declare independence from a colonial power. Nkrumah supported pan-Africanism, an ideology that proposed continent-wide cooperation and union of African peoples. His regime racked up large debts through military reform and the building of the Akosombo Dam to create Lake Volta. A 1966 coup ended Nkrumah's rule over Ghana.

Communist Party of the United States

Established in 1919, it is notable mainly for attempts to outlaw it, such as the 1940 Smith Act which criminalized organizations advocating the violent overthrow of the government, the Communist Control Act of 1954, and the inquiries of the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senators Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy. Though the 1951 Supreme Court case Dennis v. U.S. ruled that there is no First-Amendment right to advocate the overthrow of the government. General concerns about freedom of speech and overreach in investigations of Communists put an end to prosecutions of individuals solely for belonging to the Communist Party by the early 1960s. The CPUSA ran Gus Hall for President four times, but was never a significant force at the ballot box. In 1995, a cache of Soviet documents known as VENONA was published, revealing that the CPUSA was controlled by Moscow. Like the Socialist Party, the CPUSA has splintered into several similarly named successor organizations.

American Independent Party

Established in 1967 as a sort of spiritual successor to the Dixiecrats from two decades before. In an effort to combat the desegregation being pushed by a pro-civil rights federal government, George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama, ran for president on the ticket of the AIP, led by Bill and Eileen Shearer. Running on a platform of segregation once again proved appealing to the South, as Wallace won 46 electoral votes from five states, and 13% of the vote with nearly ten million votes. Many Wallace supporters, including the organizers of the AIP, later joined the U.S. Taxpayers Party, which was renamed the Constitution Party, and still exists as a small party to the right of the Republicans.

Continuous Functions

Functions where the limit approaching each point equals the function's value at that point. In particular, there are no holes, jumps, or asymptotes "in the middle of the graph." Continuity is really a property of a specific point; a continuous function is a function that is continuous at every point. Continuity is often explained as a function's graph being drawable in one motion without lifting the writing utensil from the paper. All polynomials are continuous, as are the sine and cosine functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, and the absolute value function. Some examples of non-continuous functions are many rational functions, as they often have holes or asymptotes; the tangent, cosecant, secant, and cotangent functions, which have asymptotes; and the floor and ceiling functions, which have jumps.

Eadweard Muybridge

Initially gained fame in the 1860s for his photographs of Yosemite Valley, published under the alias "Helios," but is now likely more famous for helping Leland Stanford—the governor of California—settle an argument regarding whether a racehorse ever has all four feet off the ground during a gallop. Muybridge eventually did this to the satisfaction of the public with a series of tripwire-triggered cameras; the series of photos thus created was later exhibited in the form of a zoopraxiscope, an early motion-picture device Muybridge also invented. Muybridge also shot and killed his wife's lover, Major Harry Larkyns. He was acquitted on the basis of justifiable homicide, and the trial was later dramatized in Philip Glass's opera The Photographer.

K2

Qogir, Ketu, and Mount Godwin-Austen are other names for K2, whose most common names come from the fact that it is the second-tallest mountain in the world. The "K" in K2 stands for Karakoram, the mountain range in Pakistan and China in which the peak is found. The House's Chimney and the Black Pyramid are features of K2, which also possesses a different second-place record, behind the Annapurna Massif: it boasts the second-highest fatality rate among attempted climbers of any mountains above 8,000 meters.

Nephthys

Termed the "lady of the castle," for her role as guardian of tombs, she sided against her own husband, Set, in his battle against Osiris, but when Set was destroyed, she collected the bits of his body and brought him back to life, much as Isis had done for Osiris. In addition to being Isis' sister, she was also said to be Osiris' mistress, leading to much complaint from Isis. Due to her close ties to all the other gods, she was rarely associated with a cult of her own.

Umayyad

The Umayyads ruled as caliphs from Damascus from 661-750. They came to power in the civil war following the death of Uthman when Mu'awiyah Ibn Abu Sufyan defeated the forces of Ali Ibn Abi Talib after the latter's assassination. Denounced in traditional Islamic historiography for their secular rule, they introduced hereditary transmission of office into Islam and favored Arabs at the expense of other Muslims. Under 'Abd al-Malik, the Umayyad Mosque was constructed in Damascus. In the 10th century, an Umayyad scion re-established the dynasty in Cordoba, Spain.

Baha'u'llah

The founder of the Baha'i faith. He was a follower of the Báb, the founder of a predecessor of Bahá'í called Bábism. At the Garden of Ridvan, Bahá'u'lláh declared himself to be the fulfillment of the Báb's prophecy about "he whom God shall make manifest." He was exiled to the outer reaches of the Ottoman Empire for fear that his teachings would cause unrest. He was later imprisoned in Acre (in what is now Israel), where he spent much of his time writing texts such as the Kitab-i-Aqdas (literally, "the book of laws"). Bahá'u'lláh's other books include The Book of Certitude and Epistle to the Son of the Wolf.

Mollusca (50,000 Species)

The molluscs are second in diversity only to the arthropods. Body plans within this phylum are diverse, but general characteristics include a soft body covered by a thin mantle, with a muscular foot and an internal visceral mass. There are two fluid-filled body cavities derived from mesodermal tissue: a small coelom and a large hemocoel that functions as an open circulatory system. Many molluscs have a shell composed of calcium carbonate and proteins, secreted by the mantle. Familiar groups within the Mollusca include the classes Gastropoda (slugs, snails), Bivalvia (clams, oysters, scallops), and Cephalopoda (nautilus, squids, octopi).

Arthropoda (Over 800,000 Species discovered)

The most diverse and successful animal phylum on earth (incorporating about 75% of all described animal species), the Arthropods are characterized by jointed legs and a chitinous exoskeleton. Like annelids, they are segmented, but unlike annelids, their segments are usually fused into larger body parts with specialized functions (such as the head, thorax, and abdomen of an insect). Arthropods are often divided into four subphyla: Uniramia (insects, centipedes, millipedes); Chelicerata (arachnids, sea spiders, horseshoe crabs); Crustacea (shrimps, lobsters, crabs, crayfish, barnacles, pillbugs), and Trilobitomorpha (the trilobites, now extinct).

Hecuba

The wife of Priam, she suffers the loss of most of her children but survives the fall of Troy. She is later turned into a dog.

Claudius

(10 BC - 54 AD; r. 41 - 54) Caligula's uncle. A noted scholar, he was the last person able to read ancient Etruscan. He oversaw the conquest of Britain and centralized power through a bureaucracy featuring talented freedmen like Tiberius Narcissus. In AD 49, Claudius married his niece Agrippina the Younger, who then poisoned both Claudius's son Britannicus and the Emperor himself.

Battle of Kosovo

(1389) This battle between Serbians and Ottomans eventually led to the subjugation of Serbia. Both Prince Lazar of Serbia and Sultan Murad I died during the battle. Bayezid I, who was present at the battle, became the Ottoman Sultan once his father died.

Pius XII

(1876 - 1958; r. 1939 - 1958) Signed the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany in 1933, served as pope during World War II, and spoke infallibly to define the dogma of the Assumption of Mary

Jean Piaget

(1896 - 1980, Swiss) Jean Piaget is generally considered the greatest figure of 20th-century developmental psychology; he was the first to perform rigorous studies of the way in which children learn and come to understand and respond to the world around them. He is most famous for his theory of four stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. His most famous works are The Language and Thought of a Child and The Origins of Intelligence in Children.

John Paul II

(1920 - 2005; r. 1978 - 2005) From Poland, making him the first non-Italian pope in over 400 years. In 1891 he was shot by Mehmet Ali Agca, a member of the Turkish terrorist group Grey Wolves; he survived and forgave Agca while visiting him in prison. John Paul II defended the sanctity of life in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae and declared evolution to be compatible with Catholic theology. He denounced Marxist "liberation theology" in Latin American and may have inspired the Solidarity movement during a 1979 visit to his home country.

Battle of Germantown

(October 4, 1777) Washington's attack on Germantown was the Continental Army's last major effort to retake Philadelphia before the winter of 1777-1778. After this defeat, Washington's troops wintered at Valley Forge.

Granite

A common igneous rock. Granite is felsic, meaning it is primarily composed of feldspar and quartz, and intrusive, meaning it crystallizes and solidifies underground. Granite can experience large-scale weathering, leading to the formation of structures like Yosemite National Park's Half Dome.

Confucius

A pivotal thinker from China's Spring and Autumn period, Confucius's views on proper conduct and filial piety influence China to this day. Many sayings attributed to Confucius were compiled by his disciples following his death in a text known as the Analects. Confucius put much importance on ren, the inner state which allows one to behave compassionately toward others, and on a concept called li, which can help individuals attain ren.

Articulation

Articulation refers to the various techniques which may be used to modify the attack or performance of a single note or a series of notes. Some of the most common articulations include staccato, meaning light or short; tenuto, meaning a note is to be held its entire value; and legato, meaning a series of notes is to be connected to one another very smoothly. Single notes may be given extra force by an accent mark.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Centers on a fight between two sons, Gooper and Brick, over the estate of their father "Big Daddy" Pollitt, who is dying of cancer. After his friend Skipper dies, ex-football star Brick turns to alcohol and will not have sex with his wife Maggie ("the cat"). Yet Maggie announces to Big Daddy that she is pregnant in an attempt to force a reconciliation with - and win the inheritance for - Brick.

Boris Godunov

(1551 - 1605; r. 1598 - 1605) Boris Godunov began his career as a boyar in Ivan the Terrible's oprichnina, and eventually became tsar himself. Boris first cemented his influence by marrying a daughter of one of Ivan's court favorites and arranging his sister Irina's marriage to Ivan's son Fyodor; then he became regent under Fyodor, and was elected tsar when Fyodor died in 1598. But Boris was rumored to have arranged the murder of Fyodor's brother Dmitrii, and the first of several "False Dmitris" launched a revolt against him. Boris died in the midst of growing unrest and is now best known as the subject of a Pushkin play and a Mussorgsky opera.

James I

(1566 - 1625; r. 1603 - 1625) House of Stuart. At age one James succeeded his mother Mary as King James VI of Scotland. As the great-great-grandson of Henry VII, he claimed the English throne upon the death of Elizabeth I. James was the intended target of Catholic fanatic Guy Fawkes' failed Gunpowder Plot in 1605. A believer in absolutism, James dissolved Parliament from 1611 to 1621, favoring ministers Robert Cecil and the Duke of Buckingham instead. His rule saw English expansion into North America, through royal charter in Virginia and Puritan protest in Massachusetts.

Missa Solemnis (in D Major), Op. 123

(1819 - 1823) Generically, a "missa solemnis" ("solemn mass") is a setting of the Catholic liturgy on a more grand scale than a "missa brevis" ("short mass"). Although it uses the traditional text, Beethoven intended the work for concert performance rather than liturgical use. Beethoven became increasingly fascinated by the fugue during his third stylistic period; his Missa solemnis includes two immense examples that conclude the Gloria and Credo movements. The composer dedicated the work to his patron, the Austrian Archduke Rudolf. The Missa solemnis should not be confused with Beethoven's earlier C major mass, op. 86 (1807).

McCulloch v Maryland

(1819, 9 - 0) After the Second Bank of the United States began calling in loans owed by the states, Maryland passed a law taxing out-of-state banks. The federal bank refused to pay, so the state sued its Baltimore cashier, James McCulloch. The court ruled that the federal government had the right to establish the bank even though it was not expressly enumerated in the Constitution and also noted that since "the power to tax was the power to destroy," Maryland could not tax the bank without destroying federal sovereignty.

Ivan Pavlov

(1849 - 1936, Russian) Ivan Pavlov was more of a physiologist than a psychologist, but questions about him are more often classified as psychology than biology by question writers. He is largely remembered for his idea of the conditioned reflex, for example, the salivation of a dog at the sound of the bell that presages dinner, even though the bell itself is inedible and has no intrinsic connection with food. He won the Nobel Prize in 1904 for Physiology or Medicine for unrelated work on digestive secretions.

Cordell Hull

(1933 - 1944, Roosevelt) Known as "Father of the United Nations," Hull was a Nobel Peace Prize recipient in 1945 for his work in founding that organization. He sent a namesake note to Japan prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor making a futile attempt to force the Japanese out of French Indochina, China, and Manchukuo, in accordance with his predecessor's Stimson Doctrine.

Sino-Japanese War

(1937 - 1945) Japan's invasion of China was the primary cause of World War II in East Asia. As early as 1931, Japanese forces occupied Manchuria and set up a puppet state called Manchukuo. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937 resulted in open war between Japan and China. Japanese forces committed notorious atrocities during the invasion of China, including the 1937 massacres known as the Rape of Nanking. The Chinese war effort was hindered by internal conflict between Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Kuomintang government and the communist insurgency led by Mao Zedong. Between 1942 and 1945 central China was largely cut off from the outside world due to Japanese conquest of coastal ports; Allied support was limited to air power deployed over the Himalayas from India, including the fighter pilots known as the "Flying Tigers."

Romeo and Juliet by Sergei Prokofiev

(1938) Prokofiev composed Romeo and Juliet for the Bolshoi Ballet. Prokofiev originally intended to substitute a happier ending for Shakespeare's tragic one — stating "dead people cannot dance" — but conductor Yuri Fayer talked him out of it (in significant part for political reasons). The "Dance of the Knights" (also called "Montagues and Capulets") is an often-excerpted portion of the ballet noted for its pulsating, driving rhythm, while the Gavotte, or "Departure of the Guests," reuses a theme from Prokofiev's First Symphony (the "Classical"). The score, which calls for such nonstandard instruments as a tenor saxophone, maracas, tambourine, and celesta, was later transformed into three orchestral suites, as well as a set of ten works for solo piano. (The score underwent further revisions — not by Prokofiev himself — in 1940; choreographer Mark Morris has performed Prokofiev's original version with the "happier" ending.)

The War Speeches

(1940) Series of addresses given by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to Parliament during the Battle of France in World War II. The first speech promised "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" in the fight against Germany and stated Britain's commitment to "victory at all costs." The second speech described Allied losses and the evacuation at Dunkirk, acknowledging the possibility of invasion but declaring "we shall fight on the beaches" and "defend our island whatever the cost will be." The final message came when the fall of France was imminent and claimed that the fight to come would go down as Britain's "finest hour."

Chartists

(19th century) Another working-class reform movement in industrial England was the Chartist movement, so named because it advocated the adoption of the People's Charter of 1838. The Charter was written by six members of Parliament and six workers. It called for democratization of the political system by instituting universal suffrage, secret ballots, the abolition of property qualifications to stand for election, salaries for members of Parliament, constituencies of equal size, and annual parliamentary elections. The Chartist movement inspired several mass rallies, peaking in size in 1848 as the rest of Europe was swept up in revolution. The Chartist movement did not directly inspire any political reforms, but Parliament gradually granted five of the six demands of the Charter (the demand for annual elections was the only one never implemented).

Tudor

(England, 1485 - 1603) The Tudors rose to power when Henry Tudor aligned with the Lancasters in the War of the Roses. He became King Henry VII following his victory at Bosworth Field. Their notable rulers included Henry VIII (who broke with the Catholic Church in England and had six wives) and Elizabeth I (whose lack of a husband and heir led to the extinction of the house).

Mount Aconcagua

The subduction of the Nazca Plate formed Mount Aconcagua, the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere. It is near the city Mendoza in Argentina, and straddles the Polish Glacier, which provides a popular route for climbers looking to summit it.

Seine

Though only the second-longest river in France (behind the Loire), the Seine is of key importance, as it flows through Paris. Starting on the Plateau de Langres near Dijon, the Seine weaves northwest for 485 miles to enter the English Channel near Le Havre. Along the way, it passes through Troyes, Fontainebleau, and Rouen. The Seine is France's chief transport waterway, along with its tributaries the Marne and Oise.

Achilles

This "swift-footed" warrior is the greatest on the Greek side. His father is Peleus, a great warrior in his own right, and his mother is Thetis, a sea nymph. The consequences of Achilles' rage at Agamemnon for confiscating his geras (prize of honor) are the subject of the Iliad. Achilles kills Hector, but is killed by a poisoned arrow in the heel, the only vulnerable place on his body.

Lady Murasaki Shikibu

(978 - 1015) Novelist, diarist, and lady-in-waiting. She was the author of the Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari), the first known novel; the diary Murasaki Shikibu nikki; and a collection of tanka poems. The daughter of the court official Fujiwara Tametoki, she sat in on the classical Chinese literature lessons that her brother received, in spite of the Heian traditions against higher education for women.

George III

(1738 - 1820; r. 1760 - 1820) House of Hanover. Though he lost the American colonies in the Revolutionary War, Britain's economic empire expanded during his reign. While George's ministers kept their lives, they fell from power frequently, including William Pitts, Lord Bute, and Lord North. Popular at home, he suffered from porphyria, causing the "madness" that ultimately led to the Regency period (1811-1820) of his son George IV.

Diocletian

(244 - 305; r. 284 - 305) Stabilized the empire after the Crisis of the Third Century. He took power by defeating Carinus at the Battle of the Margus before creating the Tetrarchy, a new system of imperial rule with two senior emperors and two junior emperors. He unsuccessfully attempted to curb inflation with his Edict on Maximum Prices and led the last and largest persecution of Christians. In 305, he became the first emperor to voluntarily step down, retiring to his palace in Split, Croatia.

Battle of Monmouth

(June 28, 1778) The last major battle of the Northern theater of the war; its outcome was inconclusive. American general Charles Lee was court-martialed for his actions at Monmouth. Molly Pitcher became famous for fighting in this battle in place of her husband.

Martin Luther King Jr.

A Baptist minister and the most prominent leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and '60s. He delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington. As leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), he joined with members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to organize the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. His leadership of the Poor People's Campaign was cut short in 1968 when James Earl Ray assassinated him at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

Confucius

A Chinese philosopher whose teachings are the basis of Confucianism, a tradition sometimes described as a philosophy and sometimes as a religion. Confucius's disciples organized his teachings into the Analects. He emphasized such ideas as li (decorum and proper behavior) and ren (benevolence or humaneness). He taught that disorder often arose from the failure to call things by their proper names, so he advocated the rectification of names. His followers developed his teachings in different directions; the most famous of them, Mencius, emphasized the innate goodness of human beings.

String Quartets

Mozart, like most composers of his day, wrote most of his quartets in sets of three or six; he also wrote two standalone concertos for a total of 23. The most famous are probably the six "Haydn" Quartets (Nos. 14-19). The collection begins with the highly chromatic Spring Quartet in G major, K. 387, and ends with the even more chromatic Dissonant Quartet in C major, K. 465, which begins with an extremely dissonant Adagio introduction. The Haydn Quartets also include the Hunt Quartet, No. 17 in B flat major, K. 458, so named for its "hunting-horn" melodies. The other famous collection of Mozart quartets is the set of three Prussian Quartets (Nos. 21-23), dedicated to Friedrich Wilhelm II, which make prominent use of the cello. Between these two sets, Mozart wrote the Hoffmeister Quartet, No. 20 in D major, K. 499, for his friend Anton Hoffmeister.

Pokemon

RPG series about animal-like "pocket monsters," and the basis for the long-running Japanese animated series about trainer Ash Ketchum. Pokémon games are typically released in pairs that differ in which Pokémon are available, such as Red/Blue, Gold/Silver, X/Y, and 2016's Sun/Moon. Notable Pokémon include Pikachu, Charizard, Lucario, Greninja, and Mewtwo. A mobile version, Pokémon Go, was released in 2016 to massive success.

Typing

Refers to how the type of data a variable holds is defined and can or can't change. Common types of variables are booleans, which can only be true or false; strings, which hold text; integers; and floats and doubles, which hold non-integer numbers. In statically typed languages, a variable is given a type the first time it is used and can't be changed; compilers check that all variables have the correct types while the program is compiling, which helps catch errors but also makes some tasks more difficult. Java, C, and C++ have static typing. Dynamically typed languages do not check types when compiling, which makes some tasks easier, but type errors (e.g., trying to multiply two strings) can occur while the program is running. Python and JavaScript are dynamically typed. Some languages support duck typing, which is sort of intermediate between static and dynamic typing. Duck typing essentially allows objects to do the same or similar things even if their classes have no formal relation. For example, airplanes and birds might both have a "fly" capability even though neither is a subclass of the other (or otherwise related)

Ribosomes

Ribosomes are the machines that coordinate protein synthesis, or translation. They consist of several RNA and protein molecules arranged into two subunits. Ribosomes read the messenger RNA copy of the DNA and assemble the appropriate amino acids into protein chains.

Thales

Thales was a pre-Socratic thinker from the Greek colony of Miletus who many consider to be the "first philosopher." Rejecting mythical explanations of the universe's nature, he believed that the first principle of all existence, the natural element from which all things emerged, was water. Thales was also a civil engineer and mathematician, and is credited with discovering that if a circle goes through all three vertices of a triangle and one side of the triangle is a diameter of the circle, then the triangle is a right triangle. He is sometimes thought of as the founder of a "Milesian school" of philosophy, whose other members include Anaximander and Anaximenes.

Abbasid

The Abbasids reigned as caliphs from Baghdad from 750-1258, and later from Cairo from 1261-1517. They rode to power on widespread disaffection with the Umayyads and the sense that a member of the Prophet's family was best qualified to lead the community. Their greatest rulers were al-Mansur, Harun ar-Rashid, and al-Mamun the Great. During the 9th century, however, power began to devolve into increasingly autonomous local dynasties, and the Abbasids fell under the control of outside forces such as the Buyids and Seljuqs. When the Mongols destroyed Baghdad in 1258, the caliph al-Musta'sim was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by horses.

Atacama Desert

The Atacama's chief claim to fame is the rain shadow of the Andes, which makes it the driest hot desert in the world. The desert was the primary bone of contention in the War of the Pacific (1879 1883; Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia) that sought to control its nitrate resources, which were necessary for the production of explosives.

Aeneas

This son of Aphrodite and Anchises often takes a beating but always gets up to rejoin the battle. Knocked unconscious by a large rock thrown by Diomedes, he is evacuated by Aphrodite and Apollo. He succeeds the late Hector as Trojan troop commander and survives the fall of Troy, ultimately settling in Italy. His son Iulus founded Alba Longa, near the site of Rome. That bloodline is the basis of Julius Caesar's claim to have descended from Venus.

Tempo

Traditionally, the tempo, or speed, of a piece is indicated through the use of Italian-language terms. Some of the most common tempo markings are largo (very slow), adagio (slow), andante ("walking speed"), allegro (fast), and presto (very fast). A work's tempo may also be indicated by a metronome marking, which indicates the number of a certain type of note per minute (e.g., quarter note = 120). Tempos are often modified with further Italian terms, such as allegro con fuoco (fast, with fire), which can make them more unique. Movements from larger works are often referred to by their tempo (e.g. "the Allegretto from Beethoven's 7th symphony"); entire works may also be named for their tempo (e.g., Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings).

Vostok 1 and Vostok 6

Vostok 1 and Vostok 6 transported the first human and the first woman into space (respectively, Yuri Gagarin and Valentina Tereshkova). Gagarin's April 12, 1961 flight is still celebrated as Yuri's Night. During Vostok 1, Gagarin completed a single orbit around Earth before re-entering and parachuting out of his capsule. Vostok 6 was largely uneventful, though Tereshkova did note minor physical pains and also could not reach the scientific experiments aboard. Both Vostok 1 and 6 used Vostok-K boosters.

Liquid-Liquid Extraction

Separates mixtures based on their relative solubilities in two immiscible solvents, such as oil and water. It is commonly performed by placing the mixture and solvents into a separatory funnel, shaking, and then using the stopcock to remove one of the two phases. The partition coefficient quantifies the desired compound's relative solubility in the two phases. The material left over after the desired material has been extracted is called the raffinate. A variant of liquid-liquid extraction that uses phenol and chloroform as the two solvents is used to isolate DNA from cells

John Burgoyne

"Gentleman Johnny," as he was known due to his cultural tastes (Burgoyne was also a playwright), he began his Revolutionary War career under Gage, returning to England after ineffectiveness in 1774-1775. Sent to reinforce Canada, he formulated a plan to isolate New England with the help of Barry St. Leger and William Howe. The plan worked as far as capturing Fort Ticonderoga, but met resistance when he sent his Hessians to attack Bennington. Exhausted, his troops met trouble at Saratoga, being repulsed at Freedman's Farm, and being forced to surrender after Bemis Heights. Paroled on condition he returned to England, Burgoyne was later appointed commander-in-chief of Ireland.

King Arthur

"The Once and Future King" was the son of Uther Pendragon and Lady Igraine. Uther disguised himself as Igraine's husband Gorlois to sleep with her. Arthur wields the legendary sword Excalibur and rules the Britons from the castle of Camelot beside his wife, Queen Guinevere. The stories of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table are recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae, works by Chrétien de Troyes, and Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, among others. The different sources disagree on various details; for instance, some sources state that Arthur received Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, while in others he pulls the sword from a stone. After the Battle of Camlann, King Arthur gives Excalibur to his marshal, Sir Bedivere, and is taken to the isle of Avalon to die.

Innocent III

(1160 - 1216; r. 1198 - 1216) Ordered the disastrous Fourth Crusade and excommunicated Venetian crusaders who changed course from Jerusalem to sack Constantinople. He also initiated the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of southern France. Innocent III convened the Fourth Lateran Council, which defined the dogma of transubstantiation and required Muslims and Jews to wear identifying clothing. In 1209, he excommunicated King John for refusing to recognize the appointment of Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Caligula

(12 - 41; r. 37 - 41) The son of Germanicus, Tiberius's popular nephew, and earned the nickname "Caligula," or little boot, from his father's soldiers. Though initially moderate, Caligula became increasingly tyrannical, supposedly trying to build a palace on Lake Nemi and to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul. In AD 41, Cassius Chaerea led a conspiracy of senators and Praetorian guards that killed Caligula and his immediate family.

Marcus Aurelius

(121 - 180; r. 161 - 180) The last of Rome's "Five Good Emperors." With Lucius Verus, Marcus inherited the throne from his uncle Antoninus Pius and secured a decisive victory over the Parthian Empire. Marcus then spent much of his reign dealing with the Antonine Plague and fighting the Marcomannic Wars. During this time he wrote the Meditations, a journal and major text of Stoic philosophy.

Yuan Dynasty

(1271 - 1368) Short-lived dynasty established by the invading Mongols, who destroyed the Jin and Song states. Its most notable ruler was Kublai Khan, whose invasions of Japan were thwarted by typhoons that the Japanese called the kamikaze, or "divine wind." Yuan rulers were hostile to many Chinese institutions, and thus received minimal support from the Chinese elites. The Red Turban rebellion of the 1350s marked the beginning of the end for the Yuan.

Alexander VI

(1431 - 1503; r. 1492 - 1503) A prominent member of the Borgia family and the father of Cesare and Lucrezia. He excommunicated the Florentine friar Savonarola in 1498. With his son Cesare, he was accused of inviting prostitutes into the Papal Palace to host the scandalous "Banquet of the Chestnuts." In international affairs, Alexander VI assigned New World territory to Spain in the bull Inter Caetera, which became the basis for the Treaty of Tordesillas.

Julius II

(1443 - 1513; r. 1503 - 1513) Nicknamed the "Warrior Pope" for his military ambition in expanding the Papal States. He joined the League of Cambrai to resist Venetian expansion in northern Italy. He also instituted the Swiss Guard and commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Michelangelo created a number of notable sculptures as part of a plan for Julius II's tomb, including the Rebellious Slave, Dying Slave, and a "Horned Moses" based on a mistranslation of the Vulgate.

Battle of Constantinople

(1453) Constantinople fell to the Ottomans on May 29, 1453 after a seven-week siege. The Byzantine defenders were led by Emperor Constantine XI and a Genoese captain named Giovanni Giustiniani, and the Ottomans were led by Sultan Mehmed II and Zaganos Pasha. Preparations for the siege included the building of Rumeli Hisari across from Anadolu Hisari on the Bosphorus. The defenders stretched a chain across the Golden Horn, but the Ottomans rolled their ships over Galata Hill on greased logs to encircle the city.

Charles VIII

(1470 - 1498; r. 1483 - 1498) House of Valois. Charles' short reign is remarkable for the enormous cost in men and money of his Italian campaign, but more so for the number of his successors that followed his catastrophic lead. Charles was motivated by a desire to govern Naples, which he had theoretically inherited. He died before he could surpass or absolve his disastrous first campaign with another.

Leo X

(1475 - 1521; r. 1513 - 1521) A son of Lorenzo de Medici whose papacy included the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. He revived the unpopular sale of indulgences to fund the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. Martin Luther responded by publishing his 95 Theses, which Leo denounced in the papal bull Exsurge Domine. At his coronation, Leo was given a white elephant named Hanno by Manuel I of Portugal; the animal was buried beneath the Vatican after its death.

Michelangelo

(1475 - 1564) A Florentine "Renaissance man" also known for architecture (the dome of St. Peter's Basilica), painting (The Last Judgment and the Sistine Chapel ceiling), poetry, and military engineering. His sculpted masterpieces include David, Pietà, Bacchus, and a number of pieces for the tomb of Pope Julius II (including Dying Slave and Moses). He preferred to work in Carrara marble.

Francis I

(1494 - 1547; r. 1515 - 1547) House of Valois. Francis's early military victories (like the Battle of Marignano), his lavish court, and his support of luminaries like Leonardo da Vinci augured a splendid reign. His rivalry with Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, however, spelled his doom. He was captured in battle in 1525 and held for a humiliating ransom. Wars continued after his release, but bankruptcy and religious strife laid France low.

Porfirio Diaz

(1830 - 1915) A Liberal general who established a long-lasting dictatorship that eventually led to the Mexican Revolution. In 1876 Díaz issued the Plan of Tuxtepec and seized power from the Liberal president Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada. Díaz then dominated Mexican politics for the next 35 years, and served as president continuously between 1884 and 1911 despite his earlier use of the slogan "Effective Suffrage and No Re-Election." While in office, Díaz skillfully manipulated federal, state, and local politics, suppressed dissent, tamed the fractious Mexican army, opened Mexico to foreign investment, and oversaw the beginnings of the country's industrial development. His supporters praised him as a brilliant statesman who had ended the upheavals of the mid-nineteenth century; his detractors stressed the inequality, corruption, and systematic brutality of the political and economic systems fostered by Díaz and his positivist advisors, who were known as Científicos. In 1908 Díaz discussed the possibility of his resignation during an interview with the American journalist James Creelman, which helped open the door to electoral mobilization, and eventually to armed rebellion. The Anti-Reelectionist forces of Francisco Madero revolted in 1910 and won their first victories in 1911, sparking uprisings elsewhere in the country. Díaz promptly resigned under terms stipulated in the Treaty of Ciudad Juárez, and spent the last years of his life in comfortable European exile.

Oliver Twist

(1838) The orphan Oliver is brought up in a workhouse, where he horrifies the beadle Mr. Bumble by asking for more food. Oliver is then apprenticed to the undertaker Mr. Sowerberry. After fighting with the bully Noah Claypole, Oliver runs away to London. On the road he meets the pickpocket Jack Dawkins, known as the "Artful Dodger," who leads him to the den of the criminal Fagin. A kindly gentleman named Mr. Brownlow temporarily rescues Oliver, but he is returned to Fagin by the cruel Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. During an attempt to rob a house, Oliver is shot. He is tended by an occupant of the house named Rose Maylie, who eventually learns that Oliver is being plotted against by his villainous half-brother, Monks. The novel ends happily, as Oliver's chief enemies die or emigrate, and he is left in the care of Mr. Brownlow and Rose, who is revealed to be his aunt.

Auguste Rodin

(1840 - 1917) A French sculptor known for stormy relationships with "the establishment" of the École des Beaux-Arts [ay-kohl day boh-zar] and his mistress, fellow artist Camille Claudel. His works include The Age of Bronze, Honoré de Balzac, The Burghers of Calais, and a massive pair of doors for the Museum of Decorative Arts (the Gates of Hell) inspired by Dante's Inferno. That latter work included his most famous piece, The Thinker.

Giselle by Adolphe Adam

(1841) Choreographed by Jean Coralli and Jules Perot, Adam wrote Giselle for Perot's lover, Carlotta Grisi, who danced the title role at its premiere. Giselle, a peasant girl, falls in love with Loys, who is secretly Duke Albrecht of Silesia in disguise. Although Albrecht is engaged to Princess Bathilde, he pursues his romance with Giselle. After playing "he loves me, he loves me not" with a daisy, Giselle is shocked when the gamekeeper Hilarion, who also loves her, presents Albrecht's sword, revealing Albrecht's noble status. Unable to handle Albrecht's deception and knowing he can never marry her, Giselle goes mad, tearing the necklace her mother has given her, and dies of a broken heart. After her death, Giselle's spirit is enlisted into the Wilis, a group of spirits led by Queen Myrtha. The Wilis corner Hilarion and force him to dance to death; but Giselle stops them from doing the same to Albrecht. Sparing Albrecht, the Wilis let Giselle's ghost return to rest in her grave.

A Christmas Carol

(1843) The cold-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley. Marley's ghost, who wears heavy chains made of cash boxes and other symbols of greed, tells Scrooge to expect the arrival of three spirits. During a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge is shown a holiday party given by his former employer Mr. Fezziwig, and is taken back to the moment when his fiancée Belle left him on account of his avarice. The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to the homes of his nephew Fred and his clerk Bob Cratchit, whose son Tiny Tim is near death. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows Scrooge the grave of an unloved man - Scrooge himself. Scrooge has a change of heart, celebrates Christmas, and becomes a benefactor to the Cratchit family, preventing Tiny Tim from dying.

Alexander III

(1845 - 1894; r. 1881 - 1894) Those who hoped that the assassination of Alexander II would lead to liberalization saw the error of their ways when the new tsar, Alexander III, launched his program of "counter-reforms." Under him, the state enacted a series of Temporary Regulations (giving it the power to crack down on terrorism), increased censorship, tightened controls on Russia's universities, created a position of "land captain" to exert state control in the countryside, and either encouraged or ignored the first anti-Jewish pogroms.

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

(1848) Ended the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and was signed in its namesake neighborhood of Mexico City. Its most significant result was the "Mexican Cession" transferring California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other states to the U.S. It also made the Rio Grande the boundary between Texas and Mexico.

Guy de Maupassant

(1850 - 1893) A French author who frequently used ironic endings in his stories, including "The Necklace." In that story, Mathilde Loisel borrows the expensive-looking title piece of jewelry from Madame Forestier, and loses it at a high-class party. In order to afford a 36,000 francs replacement, she and her husband sell everything they own. Ten years later, Madame Forestier recognizes Mathilde on the street and informs her that the necklace was a fake. In "Boule de Suif," translated into English as "Ball of Fat," the title character is a prostitute who is on a carriage leaving Prussian-occupied Rouen. The travelers are detained by the Prussians until Boule de Suif sleeps with an officer, for which she is judged for the remainder of the trip even though her fellow passengers pressured her to do so.

Ernest Rutherford

(1871 - 1937) Rutherford's gold foil experiment provided the first evidence that each atom is made up of a large, positively-charged nucleus, surrounded by a cloud of negatively-charged electrons. Rutherford won the 1908 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work. Rutherford was also an early leader in nuclear fission techniques, having discovered the decay of carbon-14 and providing the impetus for modern carbon dating. As part of this research, he discovered the proton and neutron, the latter in cooperation with James Chadwick. He is also the only native New Zealander with an element named after him (Rutherfordium, atomic number 104).

Venustiano Carranza

(1859 - 1920) The "First Chief" of the Constitutionalist Army during the Mexican Revolution, and president of Mexico from 1917 to 1920. After the death of Francisco Madero, Carranza issued the Plan of Guadalupe, and became the nucleus of opposition to Victoriano Huerta's regime. Carranza's movement was supported by the generals Pablo González, Álvaro Obregón, and Pancho Villa, who assembled armies in northern Mexico and pushed south to the capital. The southern general Emiliano Zapata also allied with Carranza to remove Huerta from power. After Huerta was forced to resign in 1914, members of Carranza's movement held a convention in the city of Aguascalientes. The convention formed a new government that was supported by Villa and Zapata, but opposed by González and Obregón. Constitutionalist and Convention forces battled until 1915, when Carranza's adherents gained the upper hand and the Convention split into separate factions, some of which continued to fight the Constitutionalists for years. Carranza went on to call for a new constitution, to be based on the Liberal Constitution of 1857. The ensuing Constitution of 1917 went far beyond the minor reforms that Carranza had envisioned, and promoted land redistribution, workers' rights, anticlericalism, and national ownership of Mexico's natural resources. Over the next several years, Carranza proved reluctant to enact the 1917 constitution's more radical provisions, or to give up control of the government. Obregón forced Carranza to flee the capital in 1920, and likely had a role in Carranza's subsequent assassination.

A Tale of Two Cities

(1859) Paris and London are the title cities of this novel, which famously begins "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times." At the start of the novel, the French doctor Alexandre Manette is released after 18 years in the Bastille, where he was imprisoned to prevent him from revealing the crimes of the Evrémonde family. Dr. Manette relocates to England with the help of his daughter Lucie and the Tellson's Bank employee Jarvis Lorry. Lucie marries Charles Darnay, a Frenchman who bears a striking resemblance to the English lawyer Sidney Carton. Darnay is also a member of the Evrémonde family. After returning to Paris during the French Revolution, Darnay is arrested as the result of a vendetta against the Evrémondes waged by the Defarges, a proletarian couple who encode information about their enemies into Madame Defarge's knitting. Carton expresses his love for Lucie by taking Darnay's place in jail, and goes to the guillotine thinking "it is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done." Lucie and Darnay escape with the help of the governess Miss Pross, who shoots Madame Defarge.

Great Expectations

(1861) The narrator Philip Pirrip, who is nicknamed "Pip," is brought up by his sister and her kind husband, the blacksmith Joe Gargery. While visiting a churchyard, Pip meets the escaped convict Abel Magwitch, and renders him aid. Later, Pip is hired to "play" with a girl named Estella at Satis House, whose owner Miss Havisham was spurned on her wedding day and has worn a wedding dress ever since. When the lawyer Mr. Jaggers reveals that a mysterious benefactor will fund Pip's education, Pip assumes that Miss Havisham is making him a "gentleman" so that he can marry Estella. Instead, Estella marries the wealthy Bentley Drummle, who mistreats her. Pip discovers that his benefactor was actually the convict Magwitch, and tries to help Magwitch flee England with the help of Pip's friends Startop and Herbert Pocket. However, the escape is foiled by Compeyson, the man who jilted Miss Havisham. Pip's great expectations are dashed, but he becomes a better person, and is finally reunited with the widowed Estella. Dickens modified the novel's conclusion at the suggestion of the author Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who objected to an ending in which Estella weds another man.

O Henry

(1862 - 1910) An American short story author known for his twist endings. He included many of his stories in his collections Cabbages and Kings and The Four Million. In his story "The Gift of the Magi," the married couple Jim and Della exchange Christmas gifts. Della sells her hair to Madame Sofronie and buys a gold pocket-watch chain, while Jim sells his watch in order to buy a set of combs, rendering each other's gifts useless. O. Henry also wrote "The Ransom of Red Chief," in which Ebenezer Dorset's son, the title character, is kidnapped by Bill and Sam, who intend to hold him for ransom. However, "Red Chief" annoys his captors so much that they pay Mr. Dorset to give him his son back.

The Gettysburg Address

(1863) Delivered by Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of a cemetery on the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Delivered following Edward Everett's two-hour dedication oration, Lincoln's remarks ran for just two minutes. The president opened by referring to the birth of the United States "four score and seven years ago," when the founders created a nation "dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Lincoln praised the dead of Gettysburg for giving "the last full measure of devotion" and said he hoped their sacrifice would lead to "a new birth of freedom." Only five manuscripts of the speech exist, with the most complete draft being the Bliss Copy now kept at the White House.

Gutzon Borglum

(1867 - 1941) An American known for crafting Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He is also known for The Mares of Diomedes and an unfinished (and later replaced) tribute to Confederate heroes on Stone Mountain in Georgia.

Swan Lake by Peter Tchaikovsky

(1867) Many modern performances of Swan Lake are based on a revised version of Tchaikovsky's score prepared after Tchaikovsky's death by Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, and Riccardo Drigo. The ballet opens at Prince Siegfried's 21st birthday party, where Siegfried's mother scolds him for not finding a wife; she plans for him to choose a spouse at a ball the following evening. After the "Dance of the Goblets," Siegfried, his tutor Wolfgang, and his friend Benno go hunting. They are about to shoot a swan when it turns into the beautiful Odette. Odette reveals she was cursed by the sorcerer von Rothbart to turn into a swan during the daytime. The curse can only be broken if one who has never loved before declares his love for her. Odette and the other victims of von Rothbart's curse live on the title lake, which was created by Odette's mother's tears. Their presence is usually signified by one of the ballet's recurring musical themes, a B-minor motif for oboe and harp. Odette and Siegfried begin to fall in love, but morning breaks and Odette returns to her swan form. At the palace, the ball begins with nationalistic dances, including Neapolitan and Hungarian dances and a mazurka. Von Rothbart arrives with his daughter Odile, disguised to look like Odette. (Odette and Odile are normally played by the same ballerina, who wears white as Odette and black as Odile.) They successfully trick Siegfried into declaring his love for Odile, dooming Odette to live as a swan forever. He hurries back to the lake, where he and Odette drown themselves, killing von Rothbart in the process. The exact ending varies from production to production, with some happier than others.

Francisco Madero

(1873 - 1913) Leader of the 1910 revolution against Porfirio Díaz, and served as president of Mexico from 1911 to 1913. As the idealistic son of a wealthy Coahuilan family, Madero was in some ways an unlikely revolutionary. However, Madero's idealism allowed him to challenge Díaz with a boldness that more powerful politicians and generals had lacked. After the Creelman interview was released, Madero wrote a book titled The Presidential Succession in 1910, which argued that it was time for Díaz to be replaced, and which revived Díaz's former slogan, "Effective Suffrage and No Re-Election." Madero then ran for president, but was arrested before the election. After escaping from prison, Madero issued the Plan of San Luis Potosí, which called for a general revolt in November 1910. Dissatisfaction with the Díaz regime coalesced around Madero, who unseated the dictator and took power after democratic elections were held in the fall of 1911. However, Madero was unable to satisfy the far-reaching demands of the diverse coalition that had brought him to power. Madero was also disliked by the American ambassador Henry Lane Wilson and by former supporters of the Díaz regime, many of whom retained their positions in the government and army. In February 1913, Wilson encouraged General Victoriano Huerta to participate in a coup against Madero. After a period of fighting within Mexico City that is known as the Decena Trágica, or Tragic Ten Days, Madero was forced to resign. Huerta became president, and Madero was murdered a few days later.

Sergei Rachmaninoff

(1873 - 1943) A highly skilled pianist and conductor, Rachmaninoff twice turned down conductorship of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He failed to reap the monetary benefits of his early pieces (notably the C-Sharp Minor Prelude of 1892), because he sold them cheaply to a publisher. Treated by hypnosis in 1901, Rachmaninoff began a productive period with his Second Piano Concerto and the symphonic poem The Isle of the Dead (1909). He moved to the U.S. in 1917, after the Bolshevik Revolution. There his output decreased, though he did complete the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in 1934.

Arnold Schoenberg

(1874 - 1951) An Austrian composer who emigrated to the U.S. in 1934. Schoenberg was the leading figure and mentor of the "Second Viennese School," which also included Alban Berg and Anton Webern, who were Schoenberg's students. In 1908, Schoenberg began composing atonal music, which has no tonic pitch or key center. He also developed the twelve-tone method of composition, one of the most influential musical styles of the 20th century and first fully realized in his Suite for Piano, Op. 25 (1923). His other musical innovations include the technique of klangfarbenmelodie ("tone-color melody"), which was used in the third movement of his Five Pieces for Orchestra (1909).

Arnold Schoenberg

(1874 - 1951) This Austrian pioneered dodecaphony, or the twelve-tone system, which treated all parts of the chromatic scale equally. Schoenberg's early influences were Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, as evident in his Transfigured Night (1900) for strings. Yet by 1912, with the Sprechstimme (halfway between singing and speaking) piece Pierrot lunaire, he broke from Romanticism and developed expressionist pieces free from key or tone. His students, especially Alban Berg and Anton Webern, further elaborated on his theories. Fleeing Nazi persecution in 1933, he moved from Berlin to Los Angeles, where he completed A Survivor from Warsaw. The first two acts of his unfinished opera, Moses und Aron, are still frequently performed.

Charles Ives

(1874 - 1954) He learned experimentation from his father George, a local Connecticut businessman and bandleader. Ives studied music at Yale but found insurance sales more lucrative; his firm of Ives and Myrick was the largest in New York during the 1910s. Privately, Ives composed great modern works, including the Second Piano (Concord) Sonata (with movements named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau); and Three Places in New England (1914). His Third Symphony won Ives a Pulitzer Prize in 1947, while his song "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" was based on a Vachel Lindsay poem. Poor health ended both his insurance and music careers by 1930.

John B Watson

(1878 - 1958, American) John Watson was the first prominent exponent of behaviorism; he codified its tenets in Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology, arguing that psychology could be completely grounded in objective measurements of events and physical human reactions. His most famous experiment involved conditioning an eleven-month-old boy to be apprehensive of all furry objects by striking a loud bell whenever a furry object was placed in his lap.

Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa

(1879 - 1919, 1878 - 1923) Early supporters of Francisco Madero, opponents of Victoriano Huerta, and leaders of the Convention forces during the Mexican Revolution. Villa chiefly operated in northern Mexico, while Zapata was based in his home state, Morelos, south of Mexico City. In 1911 Villa and Pascual Orozco led Maderista forces at the Battle of Ciudad Juárez, while Zapata issued the Plan of Ayala, which called for the breakup of large haciendas and the restoration of communal lands known as ejidos. During Madero's presidency Villa was imprisoned by Victoriano Huerta, who also conducted a brutal military campaign against the peasant supporters of Zapata. After Madero's death, Villa joined Carranza's army as the leader of the División del Norte, or Division of the North, and Zapata established himself as the central leader of the various southern guerrilla movements. At the Convention of Aguascalientes, Villa's supporters sought to promote the rights of peasants and workers; Zapatistas took a less active role at the meeting, but were willing to support the Convention government in opposition to Carranza. In the subsequent fighting, Zapatista soldiers took the capital several times but were unable to hold it after 1915, the same year that Villa suffered defeats at the battles of Celaya and Agua Prieta. Zapata retreated to Morelos and carried out local land reforms as the Constitutionalists focused on defeating Villa, who sought to obtain supplies by carrying out a 1916 raid on the American town of Columbus, New Mexico. In response to this incursion, the U.S. sent a "punitive expedition" led by General John J. Pershing to (unsuccessfully) pursue Villa across northern Mexico. The influence of Villa and Zapata declined, and both were eventually assassinated. However, the two men remain symbols of the Revolution's popular aspirations. Zapata in particular has served as an inspiration to later movements such as the Chiapas-based EZLN, or Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

Michel Fokine

(1880 - 1942) Accepted to the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, Russia, at age nine, eventually becoming a teacher there. He choreographed a four-minute ballet for Anna Pavlova called The Dying Swan, set to "The Swan" from The Carnival of the Animals (the title comes from a Tennyson poem entitled "The Dying Swan"). He mentored Vaslav Nijinsky and featured him in early works like Les Sylphides, a ballet based on the music of Frédéric Chopin. After Sergei Diaghilev hired Fokine to work for the Ballets Russes in Paris, Fokine showcased Nijinsky's talents in several ballets based on the work of famous composers, such as Scheherazade, The Firebird, Petrushka, Daphnis et Chloé, and The Spirit of the Rose. However, once Nijinsky turned to choreography Fokine quit the Ballets Russes, only returning after Nijinsky's dismissal.

Lazaro Cardenas

(1895 - 1970) A revolutionary general who served as president from 1934 to 1940, and who worked to fulfill the Constitution of 1917's promises of land reform and nationalization of key resources. After Carranza's death, Mexico was ruled by the "Sonoran dynasty" of Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, who stabilized the country and implemented limited reforms. Calles also founded a forerunner of the PRI, or Institutional Party of the Revolution, which dominated Mexican politics throughout the 20th century. After stepping down as president, Calles continued to control Mexican politics from 1928 to 1934 during a period known as the "Maximato." However, Cárdenas surprised Calles by turning against him, and forcing him into exile. As president, Cárdenas also broke up large estates into communal ejidos, promoted organized labor, and expropriated foreign-owned oil fields in 1938 to form the national oil company Pemex, or Petróleos Mexicanos. These actions made Cárdenas very popular, but once he left office the Mexican government's commitment to economic redistribution soon waned. In 1988 Lázaro's son Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas challenged PRI control of politics by running for president as the candidate of the PRD, or Party of the Democratic Revolution. Although electoral fraud prevented Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas from winning, his challenge helped to bring about political changes that eventually led Vicente Fox of the PAN, or National Action Party, to be elected president in 2000.

Yasunari Kawabata

(1899 - 1972) Recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature, he was the first Japanese author to win the Nobel. His works combine classic Japanese values with modern trends, and often center on the role of sex in people's lives. His works are often only a few pages long, a form given the name "palm-of-the-hand." He is best known for three novels: Thousand Cranes, based on the tea ceremony and inspired by The Tale of Genji; The Sound of the Mountain, about the relationship of an old man and his daughter-in-law; and Snow Country, about an aging geisha. A friend of Yukio Mishima, he was also associated with right-wing causes and openly protested the Cultural Revolution in China. He committed suicide two years after Mishima.

Miguel Asturias

(1899 - 1974) Asturias left his native Guatemala in 1923 to study in Paris. There he discovered Mayan mythology, and translated the Popol Vuh into Spanish; the theme would pervade his work, such as 1963's Mulata de tal. His most famous novel, El señor presidente (1946), was a satire against the oppressive Guatemalan dictatorship. Asturias also completed a trilogy that blasted exploitation by the American-led United Fruit Company, and the short-story collection Weekend in Guatemala (1956), based on the CIA-led overthrow of president Jacobo Arbenz's liberal government.

Vladimir Nabokov

(1899 - 1977) A Russian-American author. His 1955 novel Lolita depicts Humbert Humbert's obsession with the adolescent Ramsdale resident Dolores Haze, whom Humbert nicknames "Lolita." Humbert becomes Lolita's stepfather by marrying her mother Charlotte, who soon dies. Lolita and Humbert travel the U.S. before Humbert enrolls Lolita at the Beardsley School for Girls. There, Lolita is cast in a play written by Clare Quilty, and devises a plan of escape. In Nabokov's highly meta-fictional novel Pale Fire, a 999-line poem of the same name by John Shade is the subject of a lengthy commentary by the scholar Charles Kinbote. However, Kinbote's notes are more concerned with himself than with the poem, revealing that he thinks of himself as King Charles, the exiled monarch of the land of Zembla. Nabokov's other books include the novels Ada, or Ardor, which recounts an incestuous relationship; Invitation to a Beheading, about the condemned prisoner Cincinnatus, and The Defense, a Russian-language novel about the chess player Aleksandr Luzhin. In his memoir Speak, Memory, Nabokov wrote about his wife Vera and his scientific interest in butterflies.

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986) An Argentine short story writer who often dealt with meta-fictional themes. His story "The Library of Babel" depicts an infinite library made up of hexagonal rooms, which contain every possible 410-page book. In "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," the fictional 20th-century author Pierre Menard writes a line-by-line reproduction of Cervantes's Don Quixote, which is much more interesting than the original because of the historical context in which the new version was produced. Borges's story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" describes an imaginary realm, created by a secret society of intellectuals, that gradually intrudes into the world of the story. "The Aleph" is named after a point from which every other point in the universe can be perceived. Many of Borges's best-known stories appeared in the collections Ficciones and Labyrinths, the latter of which is named after a common motif in Borges's work. For example, in "The Garden of Forking Paths" the author Ts'ui Pên tries to create a metaphorical "labyrinth" by writing a novel in which every event is followed by every possible outcome. The story is narrated by Ts'ui Pên's descendent, Dr. Yu Tsun, who kills the Sinologist Stephen Albert to convey a coded message to German forces during World War I.

Jorge Luis Borges

(1899 - 1986) One-quarter English, Borges learned that language before he learned Spanish. Educated in Europe during World War I, he met a circle of avant-garde poets in Spain, which inspired him to found the ultraismo movement and publish the collection Fervor of Buenos Aires (1923) when he returned to Argentina. While working in a library, Borges developed his greatest short stories, collected in A Universal History of Infamy (1935), Ficciones (1944), and The Aleph (1949). By his fifties, a disorder inherited from his father had taken Borges's eyesight, but in 1962 he completed the influential story collection Labyrinths.

The Lady with a Dog

(1899, Anton Chekhov) The married banker Dmitri Gurov has been on vacation by himself in Yalta for two weeks when he hears of a "new face" attracting attention, a lady with a dog. Dmitri meets the woman, Anna Sergeyevna von Diderits. She is vacationing without her spouse, as her marriage is unhappy - just like Dmitri's. The two sleep together. After returning to Moscow, Dmitri cannot forget the memory of Anna, and realizes he has fallen in love. He pretends to be going to Saint Petersburg for business, but instead travels to Anna's hometown. There, he finds her at the debut of a play titled The Geisha. Dmitri confronts Anna at the performance, and she confesses that she too has fallen in love. Anna begins making excuses to visit Moscow every few months to see Dmitri. The two fall deeper in love, but do not know how to leave their marriages. The story ends on an unresolved note, stating "to both of them it was clear that the end was still very far off, and that their hardest and most difficult period was only just beginning."

Cubism

(1907 - 1930s) With a name also coined by Louis Vauxcelles, cubism was developed almost entirely by Pablo Picasso, whose Les Demoiselles d'Avignon introduced the movement in 1907. Influenced by the simple geometries of African masks, Picasso's Cubism sought to allow an object to be viewed from many sides at once by breaking down the figures into angles and shapes. Cubism as a whole can be subdivided into three movements: analytical cubism (1907-1912), synthetic cubism (1912-c. 1930), and curvilinear cubism (1930s). Analytical cubism was highly experimental, showing jagged edges and sharp multifaceted lines, such as in Picasso's Girl With a Mandolin. Synthetic cubism was inspired by collages and featured flattened forms of normal objects, such as in Picasso's Mandolin and Guitar. Curvilinear cubism contrasted with the flattened and firm edges of synthetic by featuring more flowing, rounded lines, such as in Georges Braque's Houses at l'Estaque. Besides the aforementioned pioneers of cubism, Picasso (whose other Cubist works include Guernica and The Poet) and Braque (Pitcher and Violin, Viaduct at l'Estaque, Still Life with Metronome), other prominent Cubists include Juan Gris (Portrait of Picasso, Guitar and Pipe), Jean Metzinger (Deux Nus, Tea Time), Robert Delaunay (Simultaneous Windows on the City, La Ville de Paris), Albert Gleizes (The Bathers, Portrait de Jacques Nayral), Fernand Leger (Still Life with a Beer Mug), and Henri Le Fauconnier (L'Abondance).

Rutherford Gold Foil Experiment

(1908 - 1913) Sometimes named after Rutherford's assistant Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, this experiment discovered the positively-charged nucleus of the atom: as a result, it disproved JJ Thomson's plum pudding model. The experimenters fired alpha particles (helium nuclei) at a sheet of gold foil. (They also used other elements, including silver.) The scattered particles were detected by a screen containing zinc sulfide, which fluoresced when the alpha particles hit it. While most of the alpha particles went straight through the foil with minimal scattering, a small fraction of alpha particles were reflected back at the source. This result was unexpected, as backscattering could only occur if the alpha particles were colliding with a particle massive enough to reverse their momentum. Rutherford said "It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of tissue paper and it came back and hit you."

Futurism

(1909 - 1914) Inspired by the scientific and technological advances of the start of the 20th century, a group of Italian artists came together to form the Futurist movement in 1909, seeking to represent the glory of machines and speed in their art; in his "The Futurist Manifesto", Filippo Marinetti declared that "a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace." The Futurists used a cubist-inspired approach to represent figures in multiple states at once, thus giving their works an animated yet shattered feel. Notable Futurists include Umberto Boccioni (Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, Development of a Bottle in Space, The City Rises, Dynamism of a Cyclist), Giacomo Balla (Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, Abstract Speed + Sound), Carlo Carra (Funeral of the Anarchist Galli), and Gino Severini (Armored Train in Action, Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin). Although Marcel Duchamp is not usually associated with Futurism, his Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (which caused an uproar at the Armory Show in 1913) displays many characteristics of Futurist painting.

Metaphysical Painting

(1910 - 1920s) Influenced by the work of late 19th-century German philosophers, metaphysical painters sought to create enigmatic scenes which beckoned viewers to interpret a meaning based on symbols, suggestions, and impressions, thus foreshadowing the Surrealist paintings of the following decades. In many metaphysical paintings, human figures are represented by shadows or lifeless dummies and are placed in mysterious settings of seemingly infinite space, giving the canvasses dreamlike, eerie, and vaguely threatening qualities. Additionally, the paintings were given intentionally enigmatic titles to contribute to their cryptic effect. Metaphysical painting was based on the works of Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico (The Disquieting Muses, The Song of Love, Melancholy and Mystery of a Street, Le Reve Transforme), Giorgio's brother Alberto Savinio, and former Futurist Carlo Carra (The Oval of Apparition). The metaphysical painting movement came to an end in the 1920s after an argument between de Chirico and Carra over who had founded the group.

The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky

(1910) Choreographed by Michel Fokine, The Firebird was the first of several collaborations between Stravinsky and Ballets Russes director Sergei Diaghilev. Prince Ivan, the ballet's protagonist, captures the mythical Firebird, who pledges a feather to Ivan in exchange for her freedom. Ivan later stumbles upon thirteen princesses performing the "Dance of the Golden Apples." Ivan follows them back to the castle of Kashchei the Immortal, who has enchanted and imprisoned them. Kashchei, whose magic is represented by a recurring descending chromatic motif, sends bewitched monsters to attack Ivan. Ivan uses the feather to summon the Firebird, who uses her magic to make the monsters perform an "Infernal Dance" before lulling them to sleep with a "Berceuse." While the monsters sleep, Ivan discovers the egg that preserves Kashchei's power inside a tree trunk and destroys it, breaking Kashchei's spell. Ivan frees the princesses, marrying one of them in the ballet's 7/4-time finale. Stravinsky created three versions of the ballet suite for a smaller orchestra, which were published in 1911, 1919, and 1945.

The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter)

(1911) So named because of the founders' love for horses and the color blue (and the namesake of an early painting by Kandinsky), The Blue Rider was formed in Munich mainly around Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Its members began to reject representational art and move towards abstraction, as they saw abstraction as a means of conceiving the natural world in terms that could surpass representation; according to Kandinsky's influential essay Concerning the Spiritual in Art, blue is the color of spirituality, and the darker the blue, the more it awakens the human desire for the eternal. In addition to Kandinsky (The Rider, Composition VI, Improvisation 28, The Cow) and Marc (Large Blue Horses, Fighting Forms, Animals in Landscape), other members of The Blue Rider include Alexej von Jawlensky (Variation), Marianne von Werefkin, August Macke (View into a Lane), and Gabriele Munter (Dorfstrasse in Blau).

Ben Hogan

(1912 - 1997) The PGA Tour's leading money winner from 1940-1942 and in 1946 and 1948, two events interrupted his playing career: service in World War II and a near-fatal 1949 head-on car accident. After each, though, Hogan rose to the top of his game; he won nine majors overall (six after the accident), including four U.S. Opens. In 1953 he accomplished a feat matched only by Tiger Woods: winning three modern major championships in one season (the Masters, U.S. Open, and British Open).

Dada

(1916 - 1925) Deriving its name from a nonsense word that literally means "hobby horse" (supposedly chosen by stabbing a knife into a dictionary), Dada was an anti-art movement in Zurich, Cologne, Berlin, Paris, and New York that rejected artistic and social norms in order to protest the establishment. Fervently opposed to the useless slaughter of World War I, Dadaists rejected conventional methods of representation and exhibition: they abandoned oil and canvas, often did work on glass, and accepted "readymades" (commonplace objects selected and exhibited as works of art) as valid art forms. Dada works often relied on location or accident, such as if a glass should shatter, the artist would hail the accident as an enhancement or an achievement brought about by chance; much like many other abstract artists, Dadaists favored artistic concept over execution. The foremost proponent of Dada was Marcel Duchamp, whose readymades include Fountain, L.H.O.O.Q., Prelude to a Broken Arm, and Bicycle Wheel, in addition to the aforementioned non-Dada painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2. Duchamp's piece The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), consists of two panes of glass with materials such as lead foil, fuse wire, and dust, and utilizes chance procedures; when the glass broke in a shipping crate and received a large crack, Duchamp left the cracks intact, incorporating the "accident" into the piece. Other key Dada artists include Jean Arp (Cloud Shepherd, Shirt Front and Fork), Man Ray (Lampshade, Le Violon d'Ingres), Raoul Hausmann (Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Time), Kp'erioum, ABCD (Self-portrait)), Hannah Hoch (Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic), Francis Picabia, and Hans Richter.

Shirley Jackson

(1916 - 1965) An American short story author and novelist known for her works in the mystery and horror genres. Her most famous short story is "The Lottery," whose publication in The New Yorker was extremely controversial, garnering her hate mail. The story begins with village children gathering stones, foreshadowing the end result of the title event. Mr. Summers tells all of the village families to draw slips of paper from a black box, and Bill Hutchinson's has a black spot. The entire Hutchinson family then has to draw, and Tessie receives the black spot, meaning she has "won" the title event. The story ends with her yelling "It isn't fair" as the townspeople stone her to death.

De Stijl

(1917 - 1920s) Also known as neoplasticism, De Stijl (Dutch for "The Style") was founded in Amsterdam in 1917 and sought to create paintings that were completely abstract, with no references to nature whatsoever. De Stijl paintings are typically set on a white background, use black lines to shape rectangular spaces, use only black and the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), contain no modulation, and use only perpendicular lines (diagonals are forbidden). While the movement's theories were outlined by Theo van Doesburg (Neo-Plasticism: Composition VII (the three graces), Composition decentralisee, Composition in Gray (Rag-Time)), the principal practitioner of De Stijl was Piet Mondrian (Broadway Boogie Woogie, Victory Boogie Woogie, Tableau I, Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, Lozenge Composition with Red, Black, Blue, and Yellow); other De Stijl painters include Vilmos Huszar and Bart van der Leck. De Stijl also manifested itself in the architectural works of Gerrit Rietvald (Schroder House, Red and Blue Chair), Robert van't Hoff (Villa Henny), and J. J. P. Oud (Gallery house at Weissenhof Estate).

Richard Feynman

(1918 - 1988) Feynman developed a mathematical formalism called the path integral formulation of quantum theory that utilized the "sum over histories," taking into account all possible paths a particle could take. This constituted the creation of quantum electrodynamics and earned him the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics. He also used the sum over histories in developing Feynman diagrams, which illustrate the interaction of subatomic particles. Aside from being a prolific physicist, Feynman was also an accomplished bongo player and sketch artist.

Leonard Bernstein

(1918 - 1990) A prolific composer and conductor who gave numerous televised "Young People's Concerts" during his eleven-year tenure as music director of the New York Philharmonic (1958-1969). His concert works include his Symphony No. 1, "Jeremiah" (1942), and a jazz clarinet concerto premiered by Benny Goodman: "Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs" (1949). Bernstein is best known for his works for the stage, which include the musical West Side Story (1957), the ballet Fancy Free (1944), and the operetta Candide (1956; revised 1989). He also composed the score for the 1954 film On the Waterfront.

Jerome Robbins

(1918 - 1998) Probably best known for his work with Leonard Bernstein. He broke through as a choreographer with an experimental ballet about three sailors on leave in New York City, Fancy Free, which he then helped rework into the hit 1944 musical On the Town. Known for being temperamental and difficult to work with, he conceived, choreographed, and directed the 1957 original production of West Side Story and won an Oscar for co-directing the 1961 film version (despite quitting early in the process due to creative differences). He also choreographed and directed the original production of Fiddler on the Roof. He acted as an uncredited "show doctor," rescuing several floundering Broadway shows, including A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Funny Girl.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

(1918) "Separate peace" signed by the Bolshevik government of the new USSR and Germany. The USSR needed to make peace to focus on defeating the "Whites" (royalists) in the Russian Civil War, and it gave up Ukraine, Belarus, and the three Baltic countries after Germany invaded, an outcome worse than a German offer which chief Soviet negotiator Leon Trotsky had rejected. The treaty was negotiated in Brest (in what is now Belarus) and was nullified by the subsequent Treaty of Versailles following Germany's defeat.

Ralph Ellison

(1919 - 1994) Best known for his novel Invisible Man, whose unnamed narrator earns a college scholarship by participating in a degrading Battle Royal; after being kicked out of college and working at the Liberty Paint company (known for its pure white paint), he joins a political group called the Brotherhood. At the climax of the novel, the narrator is nearly lynched by a Black nationalist named Ras the Destroyer during riots in Harlem. Ellison's unfinished second novel was published posthumously in a long version called Three Days Before the Shooting... and a short version called Juneteenth.

Barbara McClintock

(Won in 1983) Described the existence of transposons, also called "jumping genes," from her observations that certain DNA sequences on the maize she was studying could change position on a chromosome. While studying generations of maize at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, she hypothesized that these "controlling elements" were regulatory in nature, and that their motion around the genome could be the driving factor behind how two identical genetic sequences can exert different functions. McClintock is the only non-shared female recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Depression-era Art

(1930s) From 1929 to 1939, art in America reflected and embodied the despair associated with the Great Depression, often raising social issues and concerns of the public. American artists of the decade rejected European abstract art in favor of realism and raw human emotion in order to emphasize the true plight of the destitute. The photographer Dorothea Lange made the desperation of the Depression visible to the general public via documentary photography, such as with her works Migrant Mother, White Angel Breadline, and Ditched, Stalled and Stranded; later, Lange would document the struggle of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Painters such as Aaron Douglas and Jacob Lawrence developed the visual art aspect of the Harlem Renaissance (a period of rebirth and freedom of expression for African-Americans in the early 20th century), highlighting African-American life — such as in Douglas' Aspects of Negro Life series — and exposing social injustices committed towards Blacks — such as in Lawrence's 60-panel Migration series. Edward Hopper depicted somber and realistic scenes of city life, such as with his paintings Nighthawks, Chop Suey, Automat, and Early Sunday Morning. Similarly, Grant Wood explored country life — especially Midwestern subjects in rural Iowa — in such works as American Gothic, Daughters of Revolution, Parson Weems' Fable, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Appraisal, and The Birthplace of Herbert Hoover, West Branch, Iowa.

Mickey Mantle

(1931 - 1995, center field) He was born to play baseball — his father named him for Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane — but his left leg wasn't. In high school it was nearly amputated because of osteomyelitis, the first of his many leg problems. Known as the "Commerce Comet" because of his speed and because he grew up in Commerce, Oklahoma, he became the Yankee center fielder following DiMaggio's retirement in 1951. Mantle played on twelve pennant winners and seven World Championship clubs. He holds World Series records for home runs (18), RBI (40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123). During the regular season, his switch-hitting powered 536 homeruns and won him four homer titles (1955, 1956, 1958, 1960), three MVP awards (1956, 1957, 1962), and a triple crown (1956). In 1961 he and teammate Roger Maris both had a chance of passing Ruth's 1927 mark (60), but injuries forced him out of the race (Maris hit 61). He was elected to the Hall of Fame alongside Whitey Ford in 1974.

Citizen Kane

(1941) Directed by Orson Welles, it is considered by many (including the American Film Institute) to be the greatest film ever made. Through flashbacks, it tells the story of fictional publishing mogul Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles and loosely based on real-life newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst), who buys the New York Inquirer, unsuccessfully runs for governor of New York, and tries to make his second wife an opera star before dying at his Florida estate, Xanadu. In the present day, reporter Jerry Thompson fruitlessly attempts to discover the meaning of Kane's dying word, "Rosebud," which turns out to be the brand name of Kane's beloved childhood sled, an object burned by unsuspecting servants as the film ends.

Surrealism

(1942 - 1930s) According to André Breton's "Surrealist Manifesto," Surrealism is "pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought"; inspired by the work of psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Surrealists sought to represent an unseen world of dreams, subconscious thoughts, and unspoken communication. Similar to metaphysical painting and Dada, Surrealist works are not meant to be clearly understood — they are meant to puzzle, challenge, and fascinate by means of confusing titles, unusual arrangements of reality-based subjects, and abounding contradictions. Painters associated with the Surrealist movement include Salvador Dalí (The Persistence of Memory, Swans Reflecting Elephants, Metamorphosis of Narcissus), Joan Miró (Dog Barking at the Moon, The Tilled Field, Harlequin's Carnival), René Magritte (Time Transfixed, The Treachery of Images, The Son of Man), former Dadaist Max Ernst (Two Children Are Threatened by a Nightingale, The Elephant Celebes), Frida Kahlo (Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, The Two Fridas, The Little Deer), former metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico (whose stark color contrasts and veristic style strongly influenced surrealist painting), and Yves Tanguy. Surrealist sculptors included Alexander Calder (Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, Flamingo), Meret Oppenheim (Object), and Alberto Giacometti (Woman with Her Throat Cut, L'Homme qui marche I). The Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel created a number of films in the surrealist style, collaborating with Dalí on Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) — which Roger Ebert called the "most famous short film ever made" — and L'Age d'Or (The Golden Age).

Rodeo by Aaron Copeland

(1942) Agnes DeMille choreographed Rodeo and danced the lead role at its premiere. It tells the story of a tomboy Cowgirl in the American West (the characters are not given specific names). She falls in love with the Head Wrangler, who prefers the more feminine Rancher's Daughter. The Cowgirl winds up dancing and eventually kissing the Champion Roper, who earlier competed for the Rancher's Daughter's hand. Rodeo is split into five sections: "Buckaroo Holiday," which introduces the characters; "Corral Nocturne," in which the oboe and bassoon depict the Cowgirl's loneliness; "Ranch House Party," which was omitted from the orchestral version; "Saturday Night Waltz"; and "Hoe-down," which is based on the folk song "Bonaparte's Retreat." "Hoe-down" was famously used in the "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" ad campaign in the 1990s.

Casablanca

(1942) Stars Humphrey Bogart as American expatriate Rick Blaine living in Vichy-controlled Morocco during World War II. The film opens with Ugarte, a local criminal, attempting to sell "letters of transit" at Rick's nightclub, Rick's Café Américain. Ingrid Bergman stars opposite Bogart as Rick's former lover Ilsa Lund, whose current husband, an anti-Nazi resistance leader, needs the letters. In one memorable scene, Ilsa's husband, Victor Laszlo, leads a crowd in singing "La Marseillaise" in response to a group of Nazis singing "Die Wacht am Rhein." Famous quotes from Casablanca include "Round up the usual suspects," "Here's looking at you, kid," and "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Fancy Free by Leonard Bernstein

(1944) Fancy Free, the first ballet choreographed by American dancer Jerome Robbins, was inspired by Paul Cadmus's painting The Fleet's In!. The ballet depicts the antics of three sailors on shore leave in New York City, where they meet two beautiful women. To determine which one will leave dateless, the sailors hold a dance contest, performing a galop, waltz, and a Cuban danzón. However, the women cannot choose a winner, and the sailors quickly start fighting. The women run away, but the men reconcile and the ballet ends with them crossing paths with another attractive woman and starting to pursue her. Fancy Free's success catapulted both Bernstein and Robbins to stardom; Bernstein later adapted Fancy Free into a musical and a film under the title On the Town; the musical features the song "New York, New York."

Tang Dynasty

(618 - 907) Considered another golden age of Chinese culture: during the Tang period, important poets such as Li Bai (or Li Po) and Du Fu lived, and the printing press was invented. The Tang dynasty reunited China after the collapse of the short-lived Sui dynasty, was ruled by the Li family, and had its capital at Chang'an (modern day Xi'an). Its first ruler, like the founder of the Han Dynasty, used the title of Emperor Gaozu. Gaozu was forced by his second son, Li Shimin (later Emperor Taizong), to abdicate after Li Shimin killed two of his brothers in an ambush. Despite his bloody path to power, Taizong is considered to be one of the greatest rulers in Chinese history, subjugating much of what is now western China and parts of central Asia. After his death, power came to be concentrated in the hands of Empress Wu. Empress Wu (or Wu Zetian) was the only woman to become emperor of China, and called her rule the "Second Zhou dynasty." Wu was a notable supporter of Buddhism and promoted the imperial examination, but succession troubles resulted in the premature end of her dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the An Lushan rebellion (also called the An Shi rebellion) wrecked the foundations of the Tang dynasty. Although it was suppressed, the An Lushan rebellion concentrated power in the hands of regional military overlords. The dynasty had a tumultuous end in 907 that marked the beginning of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

Song Dynasty

(960 - 1279) Known for its devotion to cultural activities instead of warfare and for the establishment of Neo-Confucianism as state doctrine, with the imperial examination as the primary way of recruiting talent. It was also during the Song dynasty that gunpowder and the compass were discovered. The Song dynasty, even in its early years, could not rule all of China proper and was forced to relinquish parts of northern China to the "barbarian" Liao dynasty, paying tribute for peace. Although like most dynasties, it began as the ventures of a military leader, its first ruler, Taizu, realized that his rival generals could take power from him. He then induced all his major commanders to retire, setting up the dominance of the scholarly elite over the military elite throughout the Song dynasty. This policy was continued by his successors. In the north, however, the Liao dynasty was eventually replaced by the militaristic Jin dynasty, who captured the Song capital, Kaifeng along with two Emperors. The remnants of the court fled across the Yangtze and established the Southern Song with a new capital at Hangzhou, maintaining peace with the Jin through annual tribute. This state of affairs was brought to an end after the Song dynasty aided the Mongols in crushing the Jin, only to discover that they themselves were the next target. Despite the might of the Mongol war machine, the Song dynasty managed to repel major Mongol offensives for nearly 40 years, before it was finally defeated.

And Then There Were None

(Agatha Christie, 1940) This novel is an example of a "country house mystery," a genre popularized by Christie in which possible suspects are limited due to the crime's isolated locale. The novel concerns ten murderers who have escaped justice and who are invited to an island mansion. After a mysterious record accuses each guest of their crimes, they begin turning up dead one by one. Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard are the final two survivors; Vera, suspecting Philip of being the killer, shoots him dead, then returns to her room and hangs herself. The novel ends with a fisherman recovering a message in a bottle written by Justice Wargrave, one of the victims, who confesses he orchestrated all the killings in the name of "true justice." The novel was previously published under the title Ten Little Indians and an even earlier title that included a racial slur and was taken from a popular minstrel song whose lyrics - which allude to each victim's death - are framed and hung in the mansion's bedrooms.

The Queen of Spades

(Alexander Pushkin, 1834) The story begins at a late-night gambling party given by the Russian army officer Naroumov. There, Tomsky discusses his own grandmother, a countess who once lost a fortune paying the card game faro in Paris, and who subsequently sought assistance from the Comte de Saint-Germain (a real historical figure). Saint-Germain taught the countess how to win back her money by playing a sequence of three cards. After hearing this tale, an engineering officer of German descent named Herman schemes to meet the countess by courting her ward Lizaveta, who tells Herman how to secretly enter the house. Herman accosts the countess, who refuses to reveal the names of the cards. When Herman draws a pistol, the countess dies of fright. At the countess's funeral, her corpse appears to wink at Herman. That night, Herman is visited by the countess's ghost, who tells him that the cards are the three, seven, and ace. Herman goes to the gambling salon of Chekalinsky, where he wins a massive sum of money by betting on the three. The following night, Herman wins again by betting on the seven. On the third night he intends to bet everything on the ace, but the card that he actually plays is the queen of spades. When Herman looks at the card, it seems to wink at him as the countess had done. Herman goes insane and is put in an asylum, where he spends his days muttering "three seven ace! Three seven queen!"

The Bet

(Anton Chekhov, 1889) An old banker recalls a bet that he made 15 years ago at a party, in response to an argument about whether capital punishment is more or less cruel than life in prison. A lawyer suggests that life in prison is superior, because it would be better to have some existence than none at all. The rash banker bets two million roubles that the lawyer would not last five years in solitary confinement; the lawyer insists he could withstand 15 years, and the bet is on. The lawyer is often unhappy during the early years of his confinement in a lodge on the banker's estate. However, the lawyer betters himself by refusing wine and tobacco, and gradually studies languages, history, literature, philosophy, the Bible, theology, and science. Meanwhile, the banker grows steadily poorer, and realizes that paying off the bet will leave him bankrupt. On the last day of the bet, the banker resolves to kill the lawyer, and sneaks into the lodge while the lawyer is sleeping. There, the banker finds a letter in which the lawyer explains that years of study have taught him to scorn earthly knowledge and riches, and to care only about the salvation of his soul. The lawyer thus plans to leave the lodge five hours before 12 o'clock on November 14, 1885, when he would have won the bet. The banker departs without doing the lawyer harm and the lawyer carries out his plan, allowing the banker to avoid ruin. The banker then hides the lawyer's note in a safe, to avoid "unnecessary talk."

Shang Dynasty

(c. 1600 - 1046 BC) The first Chinese dynasty attested from written records. Archaeological excavations at the ruins of Yin, near the modern city of Anyang, uncovered the remains of a Chinese civilization from the Bronze Age. Shang dynasty writings are found on "oracle bones," pieces of ox bone or turtle shell that were heated to produce a pattern of cracks that supposedly foretold the future.

Ward No. 6

(Anton Chekhov, 1892) The story is set in a run-down asylum, whose five inmates include the university-educated Ivan Gromov and the imbecilic Moiseika. Moiseika is the only inmate allowed to go into town, where he begs for items that are all confiscated by Nikita, the asylum's porter. The hospital is run by the medical assistant Sergei Sergeyitch and by the doctor Andrei Yefimitch Ragin, whose supervision gradually becomes lax. Andrei discusses philosophical issues with the postmaster Mikhail Averyanich, and later begins to engage in such conversations with Ivan. Dr. Yevgeny Hobotov, whom a local council appoints to work at the hospital, grows concerned at Andrei's long conversations with an inmate. Fearing that Andrei is not well, Mikhail proposes that they take a trip to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Warsaw, but the journey goes poorly, and Andrei spends most of his money paying off Mikhail's gambling debts. Upon returning, Andrei finds out that he has been fired and replaced by Dr. Hobotov. Andrei withdraws into himself, and eventually shouts at Mikhail and Dr. Hobotov to leave him alone. Dr. Hobotov tricks Andrei into entering Ward No. 6, where mental patients are confined. When Andrei protests his incarceration, Nikita beats him. Andrei soon dies of a stroke; Mikhail and Andrei's servant Daryushka are the only people at the funeral.

Battle of Fort Sumter

(April 12, 1861) Built on an island in 1829, the fort was one of three that the United States maintained in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. In order to claim true independence from the Union, Jefferson Davis decided that the forts needed to be taken; a Confederate force under P. G. T. Beauregard ordered the small Union garrison, controlled by Major Robert Anderson, to surrender. Anderson refused, shots were fired, and the Union commander surrendered two days later with only one soldier killed. The Union made two unsuccessful attempts to recapture the fort with ironclad ships in 1863, but Confederate forces finally abandoned Sumter when they left Charleston in February 1865.

Battle of Okinawa

(April 1945 - June 1945) The largest amphibious assault of the Pacific Theater, the Battle of Okinawa featured massive casualties among both combatants and civilians. The Japanese launched over 1,500 kamikaze attacks against the U.S. fleet, and even sent the massive battleship Yamato on a suicide mission; it was sunk by aircraft before reaching Okinawa. On the American side, both war correspondent Ernie Pyle and Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., the commander-in-chief of the ground forces, were killed. Somewhat uniquely, the battle also saw large numbers of Japanese troops surrender, although many were native Okinawans forced into fighting.

Vicksburg Campaign

(April 29 - July 4, 1863) This campaign was launched by Ulysses S. Grant to take control of the Mississippi River and cut off the western Confederate states from the east. Grant ordered forces led by James McPherson, John McClernand, and William Tecumseh Sherman through the bayous west of the Mississippi to Hard Times, Louisiana. They were up against Confederate defenders under Joseph Johnston and John Pemberton. Sherman and McPherson drove Johnston from Jackson, Mississippi on May 14, and the Union scored a victory at Champion's Hill two days later, but could not drive the Southerners out of Vicksburg, so Grant laid siege to the town. Outnumbered 71,000 to 20,000 and on the brink of starvation, Pemberton finally surrendered his men; Johnston withdrew east.

The Final Problem

(Arthur Conan Doyle, 1893) The Sherlock Holmes stories made Doyle a celebrity, but Doyle, feeling cheapened by the work, decided to kill off Holmes in this story. The story begins with Watson welcoming in a bleeding Holmes, who recounts that Professor Moriarty - Holmes's alleged archnemesis, despite first appearing in this story - has just tried to kill Holmes via a staged car accident, a falling brick, and an armed thug. Holmes plans to go to Europe to defeat Moriarty without alerting him; however, despite Holmes disguising himself as an Italian priest and giving Watson circuitous instructions, Moriarty tails them by rail, though Holmes and Watson evade him. In Strasbourg, Holmes learns that Scotland Yard has busted Moriarty's organization but have failed to catch the man himself, leading Holmes to continue to Switzerland. During a hike to the Reichenbach Falls, a messenger tells Watson that a sick woman at their hotel needs a doctor; Holmes knows this is a trap laid by Moriarty but says nothing. Finding no such woman, Watson rushes back to the falls, where footprints and signs of a struggle convince him that Moriarty found Holmes and, during a fight, both fatally tumbled over the waterfall.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

(Arthur Conan Doyle, 1902) This novel was the first Holmes story to appear after "The Final Problem." Holmes is solicited by James Mortimer, whose friend Charles Baskerville recently died in terror, with nearby canine footprints consistent with a myth about a hellish hound who kills Baskerville heirs. The next heir, Henry, is almost shot by a bearded pursuer in London, leading Holmes to send Watson to Baskerville Hall to protect Henry while he investigates. At the estate on the moors, Watson learns that two neighbors, the Stapleton siblings, are behaving oddly, as are the Baskerville servants, the Barrymores, and Laura Lyons, the woman Charles was supposed to meet the night of his death. Watson learns that Mr. Barrymore is skulking around to secretly aid his brother, an escaped convict, and discovers through Laura that a shadowy figure walking the moors at night is actually Holmes, laying low. Holmes discovers that Laura was used by Jack Stapleton to lure Charles onto the moors, where Stapleton - a distant heir of the Baskervilles - killed Charles with his huge pet dog. Holmes and Watson then use Henry as bait; the ruse works, and they kill Stapleton's dog, who has been painted with phosphorus to appear spectral. Stapleton drowns in the Grimpen Mire while fleeing, and Holmes and Watson learn Stapleton's supposed "sister" is actually his wife, who refused to help her villainous husband.

Duke Frederick

(As You Like It) Before the opening of the play, Frederick overthrew his brother, Duke Senior, and seized control of the court. There, Frederick harbors his brother's daughter Rosalind as a companion to his own daughter, Celia. When Frederick banishes Rosalind out of fear that she is plotting against him, Celia volunteers to go with her beloved cousin, and suggests that they reunite with Duke Senior in the Forest of Arden. At the same time, a young nobleman named Orlando flees to the Forest of Arden to escape his brother Oliver's mistreatment. Frederick suspects that Orlando is in the company of Celia and Rosalind, and seizes Oliver's lands until Orlando can be produced. After Oliver departs to search for his brother, Duke Frederick is not heard of again until the end of the play, when Oliver and Orlando's brother Jaques reports that Frederick suddenly repented of his crimes after meeting "an old religious man." Frederick relinquishes the crown to Duke Senior, and restores the property of Duke Senior's supporters.

The Maltese Falcon

(Dashiell Hammett, 1930) This classic of the "hard-boiled" genre follows Sam Spade, a San Francisco private eye hired by "Ms. Wonderly" to tail Floyd Thursby, with whom her sister has eloped. The next day, Sam's partner Miles Archer is found dead, shot by Thursby, who is also dead. The cops suspect Spade, who is sleeping with Archer's wife. Spade learns that "Ms. Wonderly" is actually Brigid O'Shaughnessy, a woman hunting for a priceless statuette called the Maltese Falcon alongside the obese Caspar Gutman and a homosexual Middle Easterner named Joel Cairo. At a private meeting in which Gutman explains how Brigid, Thursby, and Cairo found the Falcon in Constantinople, Spade suddenly faints, having been drugged by Gutman. Spade returns to his office, where a ship captain gives him a package containing the falcon, then dies. Brigid calls, urgently requesting Spade's help, but Spade returns home only to find Brigid, Gutman, and Cairo waiting, demanding the Falcon. Spade reminds them that one of them will be pegged for the murders, and they turn on each other. Gutman decides his bodyguard, Wilmer, will be the patsy, but when they discover the Falcon is a fake, Wilmer escapes. Cairo and Gutman leave to find the real Falcon, but Spade doesn't let Brigid go, certain she cannot be trusted. She confesses she shot both Archer and Thursby but is in love with Spade; Spade, refusing to "play the sap" for her, turns her over to the cops, who report that Wilmer has just murdered Gutman. The novel's 1941 film adaptation, starring Humphrey Bogart, is considered a film noir masterpiece.

Suffragettes

(Early 20th century) In the early 20th century, many different groups began to clamor for voting rights to be extended to women. The most militant advocates for women's suffrage became known as Suffragettes. This term is especially associated with Emmeline Pankhurst and her organization, the Women's Social and Political Union. In the 1910s, many Suffragettes adopted militant tactics to draw attention to their cause, including Emily Davison's protest at the Epsom Derby in 1913 when she was trampled and killed by the King's horse, a slashing attack by Mary Richardson on Diego Velázquez's Rokeby Venus in 1914, and the 1914 bombing of the Coronation Chair inside Westminster Abbey. Many Suffragettes who were arrested went on hunger strikes, leading the government of Herbert Asquith to pass the Cat and Mouse Act, which allowed hunger strikers to be released and subsequently re-arrested. In 1918, Parliament finally extended voting rights to women over the age of 30 who met property qualifications.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

(Edgar Allan Poe, 1841) This story marks the debut of C. Auguste Dupin, the predecessor of many future literary genius detectives. The unnamed narrator begins by musing on the unique mental challenges presented by the games of chess and whist, and then recalls how Dupin was once able to practically read the narrator's mind regarding an actor named Chantilly. Both the narrator and Dupin then read newspaper accounts of the murders of two women; the daughter was strangled and stuffed up a chimney, while the mother had her throat slashed so deep by a razor (also found at the scene) that her head falls off when she is moved. Neighbors testify they heard two voices but one was unidentifiable. Bags of money at the scene lead to the arrest of local banker Le Bon; Dupin deduces that, because the money remains, Le Bon is innocent and robbery is not the motive. Offering his services to a police prefect known as "G," Dupin notes the extreme strength required of both murders, the odd language, and tufts of hair. He realizes the murderer was non-human and places a newspaper ad for a missing orangutan. A sailor confesses to the crime: he bought an orangutan in Borneo but could not control it, and when he got angry that the orangutan grabbed the razor and mimicked the sailor's daily shave, the orangutan ran off in a bestial rage and killed the two women.

The Purloined Letter

(Edgar Allan Poe, 1844) The police prefect "G" asks for Dupin's help regarding a devious official known as "Minister D." G believes the minister stole a letter that contains potential blackmail fodder regarding an unnamed but powerful man, and thus a huge reward is offered. However, the police cannot find the letter in Minister D's lodgings or on his person. One month later, "G" contacts Dupin again after the reward increases to 50,000 francs; Dupin asks for the reward immediately and amazingly produces the letter. Dupin, using a metaphor about a map game - in which players tasked with finding a name on a map can easily overlook large-print names - says Minister D hid the letter in plain sight, putting it amongst a bundle on the mantle. Once hearing of the theft, Dupin went to the apartment, located the letter, and then created a diversion so he could swap the letter with a taunting fake.

The St Valentine's Day Massacre

(February 14, 1929) The murder of seven members of Bugs Moran's North Side Gang in Chicago. The murders were carried out by gangsters under the command of Al Capone. It is widely believed that former members of a gang known as Egan's Rats, including Fred Burke, were the gunmen. The victims were lured to a warehouse in Lincoln Park with the promise of crates of stolen whiskey, which was especially valuable during Prohibition. The only survivor was a dog named Highball. Jack McGurn, one of the gunmen, avoided charges in the massacre thanks to the so-called "Blond Alibi" after taking the chief witness against him across state lines and marrying her. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre turned public opinion against Capone and led to him being named "Public Enemy No. 1."

Battle of Iwo Jima

(February to March 1945) Iwo Jima is an isolated volcanic island between the Marianas and Honshu; early in 1945 it was strategically important as a base for American air attacks on the Japanese home islands. The defenders were led by General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, who attempted to prolong the battle indefinitely by digging an elaborate system of tunnels to protect his troops. The U.S Marines who stormed the island starting in February 1945 sustained thousands of casualties. Joe Rosenthal's photograph of Marines raising the flag on Iwo's Mount Suribachi is one of the best known images of the Second World War.

Capetians

(France, 987 - 1328) The Capetians' first monarch was Hugh Capet, who was elected king following the death of Louis V. Their notable rulers included Philip II, who went on the Third Crusade; Louis IX, a canonized saint; and Philip IV, who expelled the Jews of France in 1306 and arrested the Knights Templar in 1307. The rule of the Capetians ended when Philip IV's sons failed to produce male heirs.

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project

Marked a definite end to the Space Race, and was a symbol of the de-escalation of tensions between the US and the USSR. Deke Slayton, an original Mercury 7 astronaut grounded for medical reasons until 1973, was accompanied by Tom Stafford and Vance Brand on the last launch of Apollo before the advent of the Space Shuttle. The mission demonstrated that two dissimilar spacecraft could rendezvous and dock while in space (an Apollo Command Module and Soyuz 19 docked), and also enabled the crew of Soyuz to photograph the Sun's corona through an artificial eclipse created by the Apollo spacecraft. Each spacecraft also carried out independent experiments.

Battle of Waterloo

(June 18, 1815, Belgium) Napoleon's escape from Elba began a period known as the "Hundred Days," in which the emperor briefly returned to the throne of France. The struggle between the restored emperor and the "Seventh Coalition" began when Napoleon's Army of the North marched into the Low Countries, hoping for a showdown with the British, Dutch, and Prussians before the Austrian and Russian armies gathering further east could come to their aid. The French brushed aside Allied advance guards at the two preliminary battles Quatre Bras and Ligny on June 16. Napoleon's victory over the Prussians at Ligny led him to falsely believe that he had enough time to pursue and defeat the British without further Prussian interference. On June 18 Napoleon's advance on Brussels approached the crossroads of Mont St. Jean, where the Duke of Wellington had set up a defensive position for a combined army of British Peninsular War veterans, Dutch, and pro-British Germans. On the French left, British troops defended the walled farm Hougoumont from a series of infantry assaults; in the center, Marshal Michel Ney's massed cavalry charge was broken by the square formations of the British infantry; on the right, Gebhard von Blücher's Prussian army arrived to attack the French army in the flank. Napoleon's final gamble was to commit his Imperial Guard to a renewed assault on the Allied center. The guardsmen were cut down by the fire of British light infantry, leading to the general collapse of the French army. Napoleon was exiled once more, this time to the isolated South Atlantic island St. Helena, where he died in 1821.

Petersburg Campaign

(June 1864 - April 1865) After Cold Harbor, Ulysses S. Grant moved south to lay siege to this railroad hub, 25 miles from Richmond. The trenches in which much of the fighting took place were similar to those later used in World War I. On July 30, Pennsylvania coal miners detonated four tons of powder in a tunnel underneath the Confederate line; this "Battle of the Crater" killed many defenders. Although the South held the city of Petersburg, its supplies ran thin in the winter of 1865. Grant finally destroyed the Confederate right flank at Five Forks (April 1-2), 14 miles southwest of Petersburg. This resounding defeat led to Robert E. Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House one week later, effectively ending the Civil War.

The Tiananmen Square Protests

(June 4, 1989) A series of student-led pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square during the spring of 1989. One day after the death of former Politburo member Hu Yaobang, students gathered in the public square to demonstrate for greater political freedom. The students camped out in the square for over a month, and similar movements took place throughout China. One famous symbol of the protests was the Goddess of Democracy statue erected in the square. Within the Chinese government, Zhao Ziyang was sympathetic to the students' demands, but the paramount leader Deng Xiaoping viewed the protests as a challenge to his authority. Martial law was declared on May 20, and the People's Liberation Army began clearing the square late at night on June 3. The resulting massacre is sometimes known as the June 4 Incident. In an effort to circumvent Chinese censorship, some people also refer to the massacre using terms such as "May 35th" or "VIIV" (the Roman numerals for 6 and 4). A famous photograph, known as "Tank Man," shows an anonymous protestor standing in front of a row of tanks.

Regan, Duke of Cornwall, Goneril, Duke of Albany

(King Lear) Regan and Goneril are the elderly King Lear's two evil daughters. After Lear bequeaths his kingdom to them, they conspire to undermine Lear's remaining power and defeat Cordelia, Lear's sole loyal daughter. Angered by the treatment that he has received from his heirs, Lear leaves Regan's home in the middle of a thunderstorm. Gloucester, who desires Lear's reinstatement, aids Cordelia's invading army; he is exposed, and Regan and Cornwall gouge Gloucester's eyes out. While Albany and Cornwall arrange their armies to fight Cordelia, Regan and Goneril both romantically pursue the villainous Edmund. This love triangle results in Goneril killing Regan with poison. Goneril also tries to have Albany killed, but commits suicide when the plot is exposed. Cordelia is captured and executed, and Lear dies of grief soon afterward, leaving the redeemed Albany and Edmund's half-brother Edgar to take charge of the realm.

Lollards

(Late 14th century) This group agitated for the reform of Western Christianity and was given the derogatory name "Lollards." The Lollards followed the example of John Wycliffe, a theologian whose criticism of the Church got him fired from his position at the University of Oxford in 1381. Wycliffe is best known today for being one of the first to translate the Bible into English (the first of his translations came out in 1382 and circulated widely). He and the Lollards also challenged the privileged status of the clergy, calling at various times for a lay clergy, an end to clerical celibacy, the end of confession to priests, and a ban on priests holding temporal offices. The Lollards were driven underground, especially after the suppression of a 1414 uprising by Sir John Oldcastle, but their ideas presaged many of those later adopted during the English Reformation. In the wake of Oldcastle's Rebellion, Wycliffe was posthumously declared a heretic at the 1415 Council of Constance, after which his corpse was exhumed and posthumously beheaded.

National Union of Mineworkers

(Late 20th century) Opposed the conservative economic measures imposed by the government of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. One conflict that deserves particular attention is the strike led by the National Union of Mineworkers in 1984 and 1985 under the leadership of Arthur Scargill. The entire British coal industry had been nationalized by Clement Attlee's Labour government in 1947. In 1984, the Thatcher government announced a plan to close twenty coal mining pits as a way of reducing government subsidies to the mines, which precipitated a strike. By March 1985, the Thatcher government had outlasted the strikers, effectively breaking the power of one of Britain's most powerful unions. The British coal industry was privatized in 1994. Today, most of Britain's coal is imported, and the former mining areas have some of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

Thomas Young's Double Slit Experiment

(c.1800) Predated the development of quantum mechanics by over a century, yet demonstrated that light can behave as either a wave or a particle. After passing a beam of light through two narrowly spaced slits, Young observed the characteristic light and dark fringes of interference seen when light acts as a wave. More modern versions that add detectors showing which slit the light passes through, however, show that the light passes through one slit or the other, acting as photons; moreover, the interference pattern disappears. A modern variant, called a quantum eraser, demonstrates quantum entanglement (the ability to exchange information over large distances instantaneously).

The Kreutzer Sonata

(Leo Tolstroy, 1889) Both Russia and the U.S. censored this novella, which describes the fatal results of an affair. As passengers on a train discuss marriage and love, a "nervous man" named Basile Posdnicheff breaks into the conversation, and insists that romantic love cannot endure for a lifetime. Posdnicheff recalls the dissipations of his bachelor days before explaining how he courted his wife, whom he accuses of trapping him into marriage with her physical charms. According to Posdnicheff, the idleness of the well-fed upper classes leads to an unhealthy emphasis on romance, giving women power over men. He advocates the ideal of celibacy even in marriage, astonishing the other train passengers. Posdnicheff describes quarrels with his wife, complaining that she was overly concerned with the health of their children, and that she eventually used contraception. As the marriage grows intolerable, Posdnifcheff's wife spends more time playing the piano, and is introduced by Posdnicheff to Troukhatchevsky, who studied the violin in Paris. Although Posdnicheff is initially suspicious of Troukhatchevsky, he is comforted by his wife's disavowal of interest in the musician, and by the elevated emotions he feels while listening to his wife and Troukhatchevsky play Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata. However, Posdnicheff's jealousy returns during a work trip, when he receives a letter from his wife mentioning Troukhatchevsky. He takes a long journey back to his house, where he finds Troukhatchevsky's overcoat. Posdnicheff removes his shoes to walk more quietly, takes a dagger from the wall, and surprises the pair in the dining room. Because he does not wish to run after Troukhatchevsky without shoes, Posdnicheff turns on his wife, and fatally stabs her. Although jailed while awaiting trial, Posdnicheff is ultimately acquitted because of his wife's suspected infidelity.

Lady Macbeth

(Macbeth) Though Macbeth is the play's protagonist, his pursuit of the Scottish throne is largely driven by his wife's ambition. After three witches predict that Macbeth will be king, Lady Macbeth fears that her husband is "too full 'o the milk of human kindness" to commit murder, and bids "spirits" to "unsex" her and imbue her with willpower. She insults Macbeth's masculinity, and urges him to "screw [his] courage to the sticking-place" and kill King Duncan. When Macbeth is unable to frame two grooms for the murder, Lady Macbeth does so in his place. Later, Lady Macbeth is wracked with guilt for her actions. While sleepwalking, she tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands, and cries "out, damned spot!" In the final act, the news of her death prompts Macbeth to deliver the "tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" soliloquy.

The My Lai Massacre

(March 16, 1968) A mass murder of at least 300 unarmed Vietnamese civilians in a hamlet codenamed "Pinkville" in Vietnam's Quang Nai Province by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War. The only man convicted for his role in the massacre was William Calley, who defended himself by saying he was "just following orders" given by Ernest Medina. Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr. attempted to radio for help and later rescued a four-year-old girl, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Photographs of the massacre were taken by Ronald Haeberle. Seymour Hersh won a Pulitzer Prize for uncovering the events of the My Lai Massacre through extensive interviews with Calley. Hersh later broke the story of the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison during the Iraq War.

The Boston Massacre

(March 5, 1770) Occurred when British troops stationed in Boston under Captain Thomas Preston opened fire on a crowd of civilians. Five men in the crowd were killed, including former slave Crispus Attucks. The crowd was originally upset that British private Hugh White had struck a wig maker's apprentice in the head earlier that day. Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson ordered an inquiry into the event, which led to the arrest of thirteen people. Eight soldiers were defended at their trial by John Adams, and six were acquitted of murder charges. A notable engraving of the Boston Massacre was made by Boston silversmith Paul Revere. British sources often refer to the massacre as "The Incident on King Street."

Battle of the Hampton Roads

(March 9, 1862) A channel in southeastern Virginia was the site of the first major fight between two ironclad ships. The Confederates raised an old wooden boat, the Merrimack, and fit it with ten guns and iron armor plates. Renamed the Virginia, it was captained by Franklin Buchanan. The Union countered by constructing a large oval with a rotating gun, called the Monitor and piloted by John Worden. The Virginia tore through Union wooden ships (the Cumberland, Congress, and Minnesota) but when the Monitor arrived, the two ironclads fought to a stalemate; the Union thus maintained its naval blockade of the Confederacy. The South deliberately destroyed the Virginia two months later. The Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras in December 1862.

Battle of Chancellorsville

(May 1 - 4, 1863) A victory for the South, but with great cost, as Stonewall Jackson lost his life. Lincoln called on "Fighting Joe" Hooker to command the Union army; Hooker took a force of 134,000 and provoked Robert E. Lee and Jackson's 60,000 men into battle. Jackson moved around Hooker and counterattacked the Union flank on May 2. That night, while Jackson was on reconnaissance, his own men mistook him for a Northerner and shot him; he died of pneumonia eight days later. The following morning, a cannonball blast hit the Chancellor House, knocking Hooker unconscious; Union troops, led by John Sedgwick, then retreated. Casualties for the North outnumbered those of the South, 17,000 to 13,000.

The Kent State Shootings

(May 4, 1970) Took place during a nonviolent anti-war demonstration by students at Ohio's Kent State University. The students were protesting the Nixon administration's bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Ohio governor Jim Rhodes called in the National Guard, which fired into the crowd and killed four students: Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder, and Sandra Lee Scheur. A photograph taken by John Filo of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of Jeffrey Miller won the Pulitzer Prize. Ten days later, two students at the historically black Jackson State University in Mississippi were killed under similar circumstances, but those shootings received far less press attention. The protest song "Ohio" by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was written shortly after the massacre.

Wilderness Campaign (or Overland Campaign)

(May 5 - June 12, 1864) The first clash between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, this series of conflicts started with the Battle of the Wilderness, fought in a dense forest 50 miles northwest of Richmond. At Spotsylvania Court House, George Meade assaulted Robert E. Lee's men, but Lee's troops were able to hold on near the "Bloody Angle." Advancing within ten miles of Richmond, Grant met Lee at Cold Harbor (June 3); he lost 7,000 men to Lee's 1,500. By the end of the campaign, Grant's army approached the James River and Lee's army had suffered severely from a "war of attrition."

She Stoops to Conquer

(Oliver Goldsmith, 1773) In this enduringly popular comedy, a wealthy gentleman's son named Charles Marlow is sent to visit the country home of Mr. Hardcastle, who has a beautiful daughter named Kate. On the way, Marlow and his companion George Hastings stop at an alehouse where Kate's half-brother, Tony Lumpkin, tricks them into thinking they are miles from their destination. Tony directs the travelers to Mr. Hardcastle's house, claiming it is an inn. There, Marlow and Hastings rudely treat the Hardcastles as innkeepers, which the Hardcastles patiently endure for the sake of their friendship with Marlow's wealthy father. At the same time, Kate discovers that Marlow is timid and reserved around high-born ladies, but is rakishly charming to lower-class women. Kate therefore "stoops" to impersonating a barmaid in order to woo Marlow. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hardcastle attempts to make her niece Constance Neville marry Tony. Constance, however, is secretly engaged to Hastings, and the pair try to obtain a casket of jewels that belongs to Constance, but which Mrs. Hardcastle carefully guards. In the end, Kate wins Marlow, and Tony discovers that he is older than the Hardcastles have led him to believe. Upon discovering he is an adult, Tony refuses the arranged marriage, freeing Constance to marry Hastings.

Iago

(Othello) Iago is the "ancient," or standard-bearer, of the general Othello, and is passed over for a promotion to lieutenant in favor of the less-experienced Michael Cassio. In addition, Iago believes that his wife, Emilia, may have cheated on him with Othello. Consequently, Iago vows revenge. At the start of the play, Iago and his associate Roderigo alert the Venetian senator Brabantio that Brabantio's daughter, Desdemona, has eloped with Othello. After Desdemona testifies that she married Othello willingly, the Duke of Venice places Othello in charge of defending Cyprus. On the island, Iago ingratiates himself with Othello, and deceitfully warns the general against the "green-eyed monster" of jealousy. Iago then places Desdemona's handkerchief in Cassio's room, causing Othello to believe that Desdemona and Cassio are having an affair. Once Othello has murdered Desdemona, Emilia exposes Iago's plot. Before killing himself, Othello stabs Iago, who survives to be arrested by Cassio.

The Rivals

(Richard Brinsley Sherdina, 1775) Like Sheridan's later play The School for Scandal, The Rivals offers a satirical take on manners and courtship. The play's heroine is Lydia Languish, a wealthy heiress who loves reading novels, and who wants her own life to imitate the tropes of romantic fiction. To win Lydia's heart, the wealthy Captain Jack Absolute pretends to be the impoverished "Ensign Beverley." Lydia is also desired by the "country gentleman" Bob Acres and the Irish baronet Sir Lucius O'Trigger, the latter of whom sends letters via the maid Lucy. However, O'Trigger's letters are actually read and answered by Lydia's guardian Mrs. Malaprop, who is infatuated with O'Trigger and uses the pseudonym "Delia" in her correspondence. (Mrs. Malaprop's comical speech patterns gave rise to the English word "malapropism," which refers to the accidental substitution of one word for another that sounds similar, but has a different meaning.) Jack's father Sir Anthony Absolute eventually exposes Jack's deception, infuriating Lydia. Jack then has an abortive duel with Sir Lucius, leading Mrs. Malaprop to admit that she is "Delia." At the end of the play, Lydia and Jack reconcile, as do their friends, the quarreling lovers Julia and Faulkland.

South Pacific

(Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, 1949) During the Pacific Theater of World War II, Nellie Forbush, a U.S. Navy nurse, has fallen in love with Émile, a French plantation owner. Émile helps Lieutenant Cable carry out an espionage mission against the Japanese. The mission is successful, and Émile and Nellie reunite. Featuring the songs "Some Enchanted Evening," "There is Nothing Like a Dame," and "I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair," it is adapted from James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific.

Chattanooga Campaign

(September - November 1863) It began when Union General William Rosecrans forced Confederate commander Braxton Bragg out of the city on September 9. Ten days later, at Chickamauga (in Georgia), Bragg and James Longstreet turned the tables by whipping Rosecrans, forcing him into a siege position at Chattanooga. Only George Thomas (the "Rock of Chickamauga") saved Rosecrans's army from annihilation. Well-developed railroad networks, however, allowed Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph Hooker, and William Tecumseh Sherman to bring reinforcements. On November 24 Hooker took Lookout Mountain in the southwest, in the "Battle Above the Clouds." The next day, Thomas ran right over the Southern force at Missionary Ridge, securing Tennessee for the North.

Proteus

(The Two Gentlemen of Verona) Proteus begins the play as an innocent lover, but develops into the primary antagonist after he visits his friend Valentine in Milan, and becomes infatuated with Valentine's love, Silvia. Although Proteus has sworn that he will be faithful to a woman in Verona named Julia, he breaks his promise and tries to win Silvia for himself. To this end, Proteus betrays Valentine by telling Silvia's father, the duke, that Valentine and Silvia plan to elope. After the duke exiles Valentine, Silvia rejects Proteus because of his treachery towards his friend, and his unfaithfulness to Julia. When Silvia escapes to the woods to find Valentine, Proteus follows her and rescues her from outlaws. Silvia continues to reject Proteus, who threatens to rape her ("I'll force thee yield to my desire") before Valentine intervenes. Proteus repents, and Julia - who has been disguised as Proteus's male page - reveals herself. Proteus then reunites with Julia and resumes his friendship with Valentine, whom the duke permits to marry Silvia.

The Spanish Tragedy

(Thomas Kyd, 1585) A sensational hit when it was first performed, The Spanish Tragedy pioneered and popularized the gory genre known as the revenge tragedy. The play is set in the wake of a war between Portugal and Spain, during which the Spanish soldier Don Andrea was killed by the Portuguese prince Balthazar. After Andrea's death, Balthazar was captured by two Spanish soldiers: Lorenzo, the nephew of the King of Spain; and Horatio, the capable son of the marshal Hieronimo. As the play begins, Andrea's ghost has returned to Earth along with the spirit of Revenge, to watch the events that will lead to Balthazar's death. Those events are put in motion by Andrea's former lover Bel-imperia, who falls in love with Horatio and rejects the smitten Balthazar. Lorenzo and Balthazar then conspire to kill Horatio, whose death devastates Hieronimo. Bel-imperia is imprisoned by Lorenzo to cover up the crime, but sends a letter written in her own blood to Hieronimo, exposing Lorenzo's schemes. During a climactic play-within-a-play, Hieronimo and Bel-imperia take vengeance by stabbing Lorenzo and Balthazar, and subsequently kill themselves. The Spanish Tragedy is noted for its influence on the works of Shakespeare, especially the incriminating play-within-a-play in Hamlet.

The Name of the Rose

(Umberto Eco, 1980) This mystery is set in 1327 at a Catholic conference to resolve a potential heresy. William of Baskerville and his novice, Adso of Melk, are tasked with investigating the death of the comical manuscript artist Adelmo. The abbey's librarian, Malachi, bars the two men from entering a mysterious, labyrinthine library, so they meet with Jorge of Burgos, a blind monk who hates laughter. The next day, after the monk Venantius is found dead in a vat of pig blood, William and Adso find that both victims had sought out a book from a secret room called the Finis Africae. Upon breaking into the labyrinth, they find odd writings left by Venantius; later, the monks discover that Venantius's fingers and tongue were stained black. Eventually, William and Adso realize the letters above rooms in the library spell out regions of the world, and they locate the Finis Africae behind a mirror. As the conference ramps up, a monk named Severinus tells William about an odd book in his own library, but he is murdered before he can say more and the book goes missing. On the sixth day, Malachi is killed; his tongue and fingers are also black. On the final day of the conference, William and Adso enter the Finis Africae and find Jorge of Burgos within. Severinus's secret book is a sequel to Aristotle's Poetics, whose thoughts on comedy will undermine Christianity. Jorge poisoned the pages, knowing any reader would lick his fingers to turn them. Jorge then eats the manuscript, killing himself, but not before using Adso's lantern to set the library ablaze. William and Adso escape.

The Pirates of Penzance

(WS Gilbert, 1879) Frederic, having turned 21, is released from his apprenticeship to the title pirates. Reaching shore for the first time, Frederic falls in love with Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley. Frederic realizes that he was apprenticed until his twenty-first birthday, and, having been born on February 29, he must return to his apprenticeship. Mabel vows to wait for him. The Major-General and the police pursue the pirates, who surrender. The pirates are forgiven, and Mabel and Frederic reunite. As the work is actually a light opera, most of the songs are simply titled after their first lines; the most memorable ones include "Pour, oh pour, the pirate sherry" and the patter song "I am the very model of a modern Major-General."

The Moonstone

(Wilkie Collins, 1868) Rachel Verinder's 18th birthday party is marred by the theft of the Moonstone, a sacred gem plundered from India that Rachel had just inherited. Suspicion falls on a trio of Indian jugglers, but also on Rachel herself, who behaves oddly and breaks off her engagement with Franklin Blake when Franklin leads the search. The maid Rosanna Spearman is also suspected, especially after she commits suicide by jumping into quicksand. Local inspector Sergeant Cuff cannot solve the mystery, but one year later, Franklin returns from abroad and learns that Rosanna, who was secretly in love with him, began impeding the investigation after a paint smudge made her suspect he was the thief. Franklin then meets with Rachel, who claims she saw Franklin steal the Moonstone but never told anyone to save their reputations. Eventually, Franklin learns that he was secretly fed laudanum at the party by Dr. Candy, and while in a drugged stupor took the Moonstone to protect it. The Moonstone later turns up for sale, upon which it is stolen by the trio of Indians. The Indians also kill the seller, who is revealed to be Godfrey Ablewhite, another party guest whose personal debts prompted him to keep the Moonstone when the drugged Franklin gave it to him. Other characters who narrate portions of the book include Miss Drusilla Clack, an Evangelical who constantly hands out moralizing tracts; Gabriel Betteredge, a servant obsessed with Robinson Crusoe; and Dr. Candy's opium-addicted assistant Ezra Jennings, an odd man with multi-colored hair.

The Way of the World

(William Congreve, 1700) The Way of the World's complex plot (typical of Restoration comedy) concerns Mirabell and Millimant, two lovers who wish to marry. However, Millimant will lose "half her fortune" unless her choice of husband is approved by her aunt Lady Wishfort, who wants her to marry Sir Wilfull Witwoud. Mirabell enlists the married servants Waitwell and Foible to trick Lady Wishfort into falling in love with Sir Rowland, who is actually Waitwell in disguise, so that the compromised Lady Wishfort will be forced to agree to Mirabell and Millamant's marriage. The scheme is supported by Lady Wishfort's daughter, Mrs. Fainall, but exposed by a woman named Mrs. Marwood, who loves Mirabell. A resolution is reached when the rakish Mr. Fainall tries to blackmail his mother-in-law Lady Wishfort, who asks for Mirabell's help. Mirabell then produces an old contract that invalidates the blackmail attempt, securing Lady Wishfort's blessing for his marriage to Millamant.

Ronald Ross

(Won in 1902) The first British recipient of the Nobel Prize, recognized for his work related to the transmission of malaria. While studying in India, he dissected a mosquito of the species Anopheles (which he termed "dappled-winged" due to its strange posture), and discovered the presence of the malarial parasite (from the genus Plasmodium). He then used birds to demonstrate that the parasite is stored in the salivary gland of mosquitoes and is released when a host is bitten. Ross received the Nobel prize individually in 1902, after fellow bacteriologist Robert Koch voiced his support for him over Italian scientist Giovanni Battista Grassi, who had reported similar findings on the malaria life cycle.

Ivan Pavlov

(Won in 1904) Pioneered detailed research on the process of digestion, which he published in 1897 in The Work of the Digestive System. By surgically exposing selective sections of a dog's digestive system, Pavlov was able to study in detail how material moves through the stomach and intestines; he identified the timing of various gastric and pancreatic secretions. While he won the Nobel purely for his contributions to physiology, he's more well-known for performing the first psychological studies of classical conditioning. After observing the behavior of dogs upon repeatedly bringing them food, Pavlov noticed that the dogs would begin to salivate prior to food even arriving, providing the basis for the concepts of a conditioned response and conditioned stimulus.

Paul Ehrlilch

(Won in 1908) Performed early work in the field of immunology. He discovered that, after exposing mice to a small dose of ricin and gradually increasing the dose given, the animals developed an immunity to it. In addition to his Nobel-winning work, he also postulated the concept of a "magic bullet," a compound that could be used to selectively target and eliminate agents of disease. He made his own "magic bullet" in 1909 when he discovered that the compound arsphenamine (now called Salvarsan) could be used as an effective cure for syphilis. In the early phase of his career, Ehrlich developed a close friendship with Robert Koch after presenting him with an improved technique for staining bacteria, which would become the precursor to the technique of Gram staining.

John Paul Jones

A Scotsman who had fled Britain after killing two people, he added the last name Jones to his given name, John Paul, to hide from law enforcement. At the outbreak of conflict, he was commissioned to outfit the Alfred, which he then used to help capture New Providence in the Bahamas. The next month, April 1776, he led the Alfred against the HMS Glasgow, leading him to promotion and command of the Providence. Ordered to raid until his provisions were expended, he sank and captured ships in operations along the Atlantic coast. Commissioned captain of the Ranger, he sailed to France to acquire new ships, and captured the HMS Drake. Leaving Europe in August 1779, he met the British ship Serapis in battle on September 23, 1779.

Jesse Jackson Sr.

A civil rights activist and politician who began as a protégé of Martin Luther King, Jr. He helped organize Operation Breadbasket, a department of the SCLC focused on economic issues. Jackson also worked on the Poor People's Campaign after King's assassination, but he clashed with King's appointed successor, Ralph Abernathy. He founded the civil rights organizations Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition, which later merged to form the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. He also ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. His son Jesse Jackson Jr. was a congressman from Chicago before serving prison time for financial corruption.

Death

A deceased person's body is not embalmed; rather, it is ritually washed by members of a group called the chevra kadisha (literally "holy society"), who then dress the body in a simple linen garment (tachrich), place it in a simple wooden casket (no metal, so that the body's return to dust is hastened), and stay with the deceased while reciting psalms. At the funeral, there is no viewing. Eulogies may be given, and mourners may recite psalms (especially Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want) and El Malei Rachamim ("God, full of mercy"). Cremation is forbidden, and burial should take place as soon as possible. At the burial, mourners take turns shoveling dirt into the grave, but do not pass the shovel directly to one another. A common myth states that having a tattoo prevents one from being buried in a Jewish cemetery; though Judaism discourages tattoos, that is not true. Proper treatment of the dead is considered a critical mitzvah (both commandment and good deed) because the beneficiary (the deceased person) cannot offer repayment or express gratitude.

Atalanta

A fierce warrior who drew first blood in the Calydonian Boar hunt led by Meleager, who gifted her the Boar's hide when it was finally killed. Atalanta's father left her to die on a mountaintop because he wanted a son, but she was saved by a she-bear and later became a hunter of Artemis. According to some sources, Atalanta was also the only female Argonaut. She married Hippomenes after he beat her in a footrace by slowing her down with golden apples given to him by Aphrodite; their son, Parthenopaios, was one of the Seven Against Thebes.

Theodore von Karman

A fluid dynamicist by training. As a graduate student at Göttingen, he described the so-called Kármán vortex street (a form of turbulence in flow going past a cylinder, which is responsible for driving the vibration or "singing" of power lines) and went on to provide the theoretical basis for the idea of turbulent flows. He contributed to the construction of the wind tunnel at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, which eventually became the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also formed the company Aerojet to develop short-takeoff aircraft technologies. The Kármán line is the accepted boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space, and the Kármán ogive is the shape of the cone of rockets curving into the main body, which minimizes drag during rocket burn.

Nathanael Greene

A prominent Rhode Island politician prior to the revolution, he raised a militia company but was not elected their captain due to his partial lameness. Following his work in the siege of Boston, he marched his army to Long Island, where they aided in the battles around New York. Following the loss of Fort Washington, Greene led forces into victory at the Battle of Trenton, and then again distinguished himself by protecting Washington's force at the Battle of Brandywine. Greene then led the main force at Germantown, and led the evacuation of positions along the Delaware River in fall 1777. The next year, Greene's logistical talents led Washington to appoint him quartermaster general, a position he only accepted if he were allowed to retain field troops. He then led those troops as the right wing in the Battle of Monmouth. The quartermaster general position led to conflicts with the Continental Congress, and Greene resigned in 1780. Appointed to command to replace the traitor Benedict Arnold, he was sent south following Gates' loss at Camden. Joining with Daniel Morgan, he retreated from Cornwallis' forces for two months until a crippling counterattack at Guilford Courthouse, which gave a costly victory to the British. Until the end of the war, Greene led a spirited offensive against Lord Rawdon's — and later Duncan Stuart's — forces, besieging Augusta and Ninety-Six, and establishing headquarters in Charleston following Washington's victory at Yorktown.

Utilitarianism

A school of ethics that advocates the maximization of "utility," which is often identified with pleasure or happiness. Its most influential early thinker was Jeremy Bentham, who asserted that it is the "greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong." The foremost utilitarian was Bentham's disciple, John Stuart Mill, who expounded his views in such books as Utilitarianism and On Liberty.

Limestone

A sedimentary rock primarily composed of calcium carbonate. Limestone often metamorphoses into marble. Because limestone is made from carbonate minerals, it is soluble in acid, and erosion of limestone can form karst topography. Limestone is commonly used in the production of lime and cement and as a pH buffer in soil conditioners.

Mount Etna

A stratovolcano in eastern Sicily that plays a significant role in ancient Greek myths. Zeus trapped the monster Typhon under Mount Etna, and the volcano is also the site of Hephaestus's forges. Mount Etna overlooks the Sicilian town of Catania. It most recently erupted in 2015. Earlier eruptions occurred in 1928 (destroying the village of Mascali) and in 1669, after which the volcano was thought to have gone dormant. There is a large depression on the side of Mount Etna known as Valle del Bove, or "Valley of the Ox."

Mount Saint Helens

A stratovolcano in the Cascades of Washington state. It is about 100 miles south of Seattle and about 50 miles north of Portland. It last erupted in May 1980, killing 57 people in the most devastating volcanic eruption in U.S. history. Perhaps the most famous casualty of that eruption was an innkeeper named Harry Truman (no relation to the president of the same name) who refused to evacuate from the mountain. Because of an avalanche of volcanic debris during that eruption, Mount Saint Helens lost about 1300 feet in height; lahars (mudflows of pyroclastic material) reached all the way to the Columbia River. The volcano is surrounded by Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

Mount Pinatubo

A stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains on the eastern coast of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. In the aftermath of its 1991 eruption, the global temperature briefly decreased by almost a full degree Fahrenheit due to the ejection of aerosols and sulfuric acid. That eruption was ten times more powerful than the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens; it killed at least 800 people and forced the evacuation of some 20,000 people. In its aftermath, monsoon rains created Lake Pinatubo in the resulting crater. In 2010, the indigenous Aeta people were formally granted domain over the volcano.

Mount Vesuvius

A stratovolcano on the Gulf of Naples in Campania in south-central Italy. Mount Vesuvius, which last erupted in 1944, is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. The most notable eruption of Mount Vesuvius was in AD 79 when it buried the Roman cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. The only surviving eyewitness accounts of that eruption are a pair of letters written by Pliny the Younger to Tacitus. The 1908 Summer Olympics were relocated from Rome to London after a surprise eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Mount Fuji

A stratovolcano on the island of Honshu, is Japan's tallest mountain. Mount Fuji is one of the "Three Holy Mountains" of Japan, along with Mount Haku and Mount Tate. Mount Fuji last erupted in December 1707 in the lava-less Hoei Eruption. Because of its beautiful shape, Mount Fuji is a frequent muse for artists, including the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, whose woodblock series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji includes The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Aokigahara, popularly known as the "Suicide Forest," is on the volcano's northwestern slope.

Recursion

A technique used in some algorithm. Sometimes an algorithm calls itself to solve a smaller case of the problem, until it reaches a simple base case that is already solved. For example, a recursive algorithm to calculate n factorial uses the fact that n! = n·(n−1)!, so it calls itself on n−1 and keeps going with smaller values until it reaches the base case of 1!, which is just 1. Tail recursion is the use of recursion as the last step of an algorithm. Algorithms that use tail recursion are often more optimized by compilers. Recursive algorithms can have their big O runtime calculated by the Master theorem.

Hittites

Created a large empire in the late Bronze Age centered on their capital, Hattusa, in Anatolia (the western portion of what is now Turkey). Their empire engaged in the first widespread use of iron and chariots in war. The Hittites, under King Muwatalli II, were defeated by the Egyptians under Ramesses II at the Battle of Kadesh, which involved as many as 5000 chariots. The Hittite Empire came to an end less than a century later as part of the Bronze Age collapse.

Douglas Adams

Adams wrote comic science fiction and fantasy novels that poked fun at genre tropes and the quirks of British culture. After working on Monty Python's Flying Circus, Adams created the BBC radio series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which premiered in 1978. The radio series became the basis of a series of novels (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe, and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; Mostly Harmless; and the authorized sequel And Another Thing..., which was written by Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer after Adams died). The Hitchhiker's series focuses on Arthur Dent, an ordinary Englishman who becomes one of the last humans in the universe after Earth is destroyed by the alien Vogons. Arthur and his friend Ford Prefect travel on a starship named the Heart of Gold, along with the "paranoid android" Marvin, the two-headed galactic president Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the human scientist Trillian. Arthur eventually discovers that "answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything" is 42 (although the question itself remains unknown). Characters in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series sometimes consult the title reference work, which offers the advice "Don't Panic," encourages hitchhikers to carry towels at all times, and provides the recipe for a drink called the "Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster." Besides the Hitchhiker's series, Adams also co-authored two books offering comic definitions of British place names (The Meaning of Liff and The Deeper Meaning of Liff), and wrote a pair of novels about the supernatural adventures of the private investigator Dirk Gently (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul).

Congo River

Africa's second-longest river, it flows in a counterclockwise arc some 2,900 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. The Upper Congo's principal sources are the Lualaba, which rises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Katanga province, and Zambia's Chambeshi River. Boyoma Falls (formerly Stanley Falls), a section of seven cataracts near Kisangani, marks the beginning of the Congo River proper. Forming the Malebo Pool near the world capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville, the Lower Congo flows past Angola's Cabinda exclave as it enters the ocean. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness depicts the often cruel conditions the Congo basin endured as a Belgian colony.

USS Monitor and CSS Virginia / USS Merrimack

After departing Union forces burned the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk in April 1861, yard workers salvaged the USS Merrimack and converted her into the ironclad CSS Virginia. On March 8, 1862, the CSS Virginia left the shipyard and sank two Union warships in Hampton Roads. The South's ironclad rammed and sank the USS Cumberland and set fire to and sank the USS Congress. The Monitor was sent to end its rampage and the two ironclads battled for 3½ hours before the Virginia ran aground in its attempt to ram the USS Minnesota. Visibly damaged, the Virginia retreated and the Monitor withdrew to protect the Minnesota. The Confederates destroyed the Virginia soon after to prevent her capture by Union forces. The Monitor, victorious in her first battle, sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The shipwreck is a national underwater sanctuary under the purview of the NOAA.

Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley belonged to a prominent family of British intellectuals that included the Victorian evolutionist Thomas Henry Huxley. Although Aldous Huxley depicted his own social milieu in novels such as Crome Yellow and Point Counter Point, he is best known for writing about a dystopian "World State" in the 1932 novel Brave New World. Extrapolating from Henry Ford's model of industrial production and contemporary advances in biochemistry, Huxley imagined a world in which the fictional "Bokanovsky's Process" is used to create human clones, which are then modified to possess different intellectual abilities, and sorted into social castes named after the Greek letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Inhabitants of the World State enjoy a prosperous existence, immersive entertainment known as Feelies, and the drug soma, but lack family connections and spiritual fulfillment. The shallow pleasures of the World State are contrasted with the ideals of John the Savage, a young man who grew up on a New Mexico reservation. John is initially delighted to meet the World State residents Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne, and excitedly quotes the "Brave New World" speech from Shakespeare's play The Tempest. However, John soon grows disgusted with "civilization." After the World Controller Mustapha Mond forbids John from living on an isolated island with the aspiring writer Helmholtz Watson, John unsuccessfully tries to retreat from society, and eventually hangs himself.

Apollo 13

It was supposed to land in the Fra Mauro region of the Moon. An improperly-refurbished No. 2 oxygen tank and subsequent improper repairs caused the tank to rupture during a routine "cryo-stir" before entering lunar orbit. The explosion also damaged the No. 1 oxygen tank and caused further leakage. To bring back the astronauts, the orbiter was put on a free-return trajectory around the Moon. NASA engineers also solved power-management, water-conservation, and trajectory planning problems with the help of Ken Mattingly, the primary Command Module pilot who had been grounded due to exposure to German measles. All three astronauts returned to Earth safely, and the landing site was re-assigned to the subsequent Apollo 14 mission.

Charles Cornwallis

An aristocrat and ensign in 1756, he fought in the battle of Minden, and by the end of the Seven Years' War he was a captain. Made aide-de-camp to George III, he was made colonel, and was promoted to major general before being sent to America. After a failed assault on Charleston, he served under Sir Henry Clinton in the battle of Long Island, but made his mark in fighting at Manhattan and pursued Washington across the Hudson, being outmaneuvered by Washington at Princeton (January 3, 1777). Following this defeat he directed the main attack on Brandywine Creek, and reinforced Germantown as part of the plan to capture Philadelphia. Promoted to second-in-command under Clinton after the Philadelphia campaign, he led the Battle of Monmouth before returning home to attend his sick wife. Sent south in 1780 to capture Charleston, he bested Horatio Gates at Camden (North Carolina) and Nathaniel Greene at Guilford Courthouse, the latter a pyrrhic victory that likely led to his defeat in attempts to contain Lafayette in Virginia. Following this, he occupied Yorktown in August 1781, where he was surrounded by American and French forces, and forced to surrender. Following the war, he was appointed governor-general of India, and proved to be a capable administrator.

Robert Goddard

An early explorer of the theory and practice of launching rockets. His work provided the foundation for modern rocketry: in particular, gimballed engines (engines where the exhaust nozzles can change direction allowing the rocket to be steered), fuel pumps, steering with vanes, and gyroscopic stabilization. His seminal monograph on the subject was 1919's A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. The next year, he put forward a concept for a rocket launch to the moon that was widely ridiculed in the press as being unrealistic. Goddard is the namesake of the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland.

Battle of Chalons (Battle of Catalaunian Fields)

An epic battle that took place in 451 AD, it was between the Romans and the Huns fought in what is now France. The Roman army was commanded by Flavius Aetius and included Visigoths under Theodoric I, who was killed by an Ostrogoth during the battle. The Hunnic army was led by Attila, who was rampaging through Gaul. The battle ended with a victory for the Roman-Visigothic alliance, which stopped the Huns' advance into Gaul. The next year, Attila invaded Italy; however, in 453, Attila died and his empire broke up shortly after.

Grand Theft Auto

An immensely successful Rockstar Games series that has repeatedly drawn criticism for its level of violence. Grand Theft Auto games are played in open world "sandboxes" that give the player the ability to do virtually anything they want. The series is set in satirized versions of real U.S. cities, with GTA III and GTA IV taking place in the New York knock-off Liberty City, GTA: Vice City taking place in a fictionalized Miami, and GTA: San Andreas and GTA V taking place in Los Santos, a send-up of Los Angeles.

Quarks

Another class of fundamental particle. They also come in six flavors: up, down, charm, strange, top (occasionally called "truth"), and bottom (occasionally "beauty"). The up, charm, and top quarks have a charge of +2/3, while the down, strange, and bottom have a charge of -1/3. All quarks are fermions, and they combine in pairs to form mesons and in triples to form baryons. The enormous mass of the top quark (178 GeV) made it difficult to create in particle accelerators, but its discovery in 1995 confirmed an essential element of the Standard Model of particle physics. The name "quark" comes from the line "Three quarks for Muster Mark" in Finnegans Wake that appealed to Murray Gell-Mann. The study of quarks (and of the strong nuclear force) is quantum chromodynamics.

1860

Another four-candidate election, with Republican Abraham Lincoln, (northern) Democrat Stephen Douglas, (southern) Democrat John C. Breckinridge, and Constitutional Unionist John G. Bell. The Republican Party, founded in 1854, won in its second election (its first candidate being John C. Frémont in 1856), aided by the fragmenting of the Democrats. Bell took Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, Breckinridge swept the other slave states, and Lincoln nearly swept the free states. Though winning under 40% of the total popular vote, Lincoln dominated the electoral count with 180 to a combined 123 for his opponents (Breckinridge 72, Bell 39, Douglas 12). Seven southern states seceded before Lincoln even took office, and war soon followed.

Calorimetry

Calculates the heat or enthalpy change of a chemical or physical process by using specialized vessels to measure a change in temperature. A very simple calorimeter can be made by placing a thermometer in an insulating polystyrene coffee cup and sealing it with a lid, causing the reaction inside to occur at constant pressure. Bomb calorimeters are very sturdy containers used to conduct combustion reactions at constant volume. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) is a variant which can be used to determine the binding affinities and stoichiometry of proteins and enzymatic reactions. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is another variant that measures how a compound's heat capacity changes with temperature; it is commonly used to determine properties of polymers such as their melting point or glass transition temperature.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Came to prominence thanks to his portraits of his longtime friend, the musician Patti Smith. He produced many celebrity portraits and still-life images of flowers, but is likely most famous for his homoerotic work depicting the BDSM subculture of 1970s New York. Shortly after his 1989 death from AIDS complications, his exhibition "The Perfect Moment" culminated in a 1990 obscenity trial in Cincinnati.

Passover (Pesach)

Celebrated for seven or eight days beginning on the 15th day of Nissan (the seventh month), Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt. It is also the ancient Hebrew New Year. On the first day or two days, Jews have a festival dinner called a seder, where they retell the story of the Exodus from a book called a haggadah. Jews are required to abstain from eating or owning leavened bread, and anything made with leaven, for the duration of the festival; matzah (a flat unleavened bread) is eaten instead. On Passover, the Song of Songs is recited. Passover also begins a period of seven weeks called the Omer, a period of semi-mourning that leads into Shavuot.

Purim

Celebrated on the 14th of Adar (the sixth month) and commemorating the victory of the Jews — led by Esther and her cousin Mordechai — against Haman, who tried to destroy the Jews because of his anger at Mordechai. The story, recorded in the Book of Esther (read from a scroll, or megillah), takes place in Shushan, the capital city of the kingdom of the Persian King Ahasuerus (Achashvayrosh). On Purim, it is traditional to dress up, get drunk, give to charity, eat triangular pastries called hamantaschen (meaning "Haman's ears" or "Haman's pockets" in German), and exchange gifts (mishloach manot) with friends.

Rosh HaShanah

Celebrated on the first and second days of the month of Tishrei, Rosh HaShanah marks the beginning of the Jewish civil year. (The beginning of the ecclesiastic year is Pesach.) It is believed that on Rosh HaShanah, people's souls are judged, and God "temporarily" decides their fate for the coming year. Between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are the Ten Days of Repentance, when people are given a chance to reflect and repent. On Rosh HaShanah, it is customary to wear white clothes and eat apples with honey for a sweet year, and pomegranates to represent being as fruitful as its many seeds. Other customs include the blowing of the shofar (an instrument made from a ram's horn) and a ceremony called Tashlich, in which Jews throw bread crumbs into running water to symbolize the cleansing of their sins.

Yom Kippur

Celebrated on the tenth day of Tishrei, it is the Jewish Day of Atonement; at the end of Yom Kippur, it is believed that one's fate is sealed. Jews are required to abstain from eating, drinking, washing, and sex, as well as indulgent dress such as jewelry, make-up, and leather. One traditionally wears white clothes to symbolize purity. In the afternoon, the Book of Jonah is read. A full day of prayers begins with the Kol Nidre, which releases Jews from vows or promises to God. As on Rosh HaShanah, the shofar is blown unless it is Shabbat, in which case the shofar is blown only during the final service, N'ila (meaning "closing," since the Temple gates were closed for this service).

Indus

Chief river of Pakistan and the source of the name of India. It rises in Tibet and flows 1,800 miles to a delta on the Arabian Sea southeast of Karachi. The five major tributaries of the Indus — the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej Rivers — are the source of the name of the Punjab region, which is Persian for "land of the five rivers." The Indus is the cradle of the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the world's earliest urban areas, whose main cities were Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.

Mourning

Commences immediately upon hearing of a death, when one traditionally recites a blessing that translates to "Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the Universe, the judge of truth" ("...dayan ha-emet") and one may tear their clothes. (The latter tradition is sometimes echoed with mourners wearing a ribbon at a funeral, which they ritually tear.) After burial, shiva begins—a seven-day period of mourning (colloquially in English, "sitting shiva") during which the family of the deceased person receives visitors at home, shares recollections of the deceased, prays communally, and eats traditional comfort foods (e.g., eggs, whose round shape recalls the cycle of life). Mourners minimize vanity (keeping personal grooming to a minimum, covering mirrors, not wearing fancy clothes such as those involving leather) and avoid joyous events. A period of less intense mourning, shloshim (literally, "thirty") lasts 30 days after burial, during which mourners continue avoiding joyous events, and specifically in the case of people mourning a parent, a less intense period of mourning lasts a year following the death. Mourners recite kaddish yatom (colloquially just kaddish), a prayer praising God but containing no direct reference to death, throughout the mourning period. On each (Hebrew-calendar) anniversary of a death, family members light a yahrzeit candle, which burns for 24 hours in memory of the deceased.

Comparative Advantage

Comparative advantage is the idea that every pair of potential trading partners (two firms, two neighbors, two countries, etc.) can benefit by trade if they are producing at least two goods. The counterintuitive aspect is that this result is true for every pair, no matter how unproductive one of the parties might be (in absolute terms). Broadly speaking, each party should specialize in what it does best (relative to the other party) and then trade for everything else. David Ricardo formulated this theory with a famous example involving Britain's cloth industry and Portugal's wine industry.

Baryons

Composite (i.e., non-fundamental) particles made from three quarks. The most common examples are the proton (two up quarks and one down quark) and the neutron (two down quarks and one up). All baryons are fermions. Quarks possess a characteristic called "color" (which has nothing to do with visual color) which can be either red, green, or blue (arbitrary names; again, no relation to the colors we see). A baryon must have one quark of each color so that the "total color" (analogous to mixing red, green, and blue light) is colorless (i.e., "white"). The word "baryon" comes from the Greek for "heavy." The total number of baryons is conserved (again, counting anti-baryons as -1).

Helen of Troy

Considered the most beautiful mortal woman during the Age of Heroes. Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and her siblings were Castor, Polydeuces (or Pollux), and Clytemnestra. When Helen married Menelaus, the king of Sparta, Helen's father Tyndareus forced the Greek kings to swear an oath to fight for her if she were kidnapped. When she was abducted by (or eloped with) Paris, a prince of Troy, the whole Greek world plunged into the Trojan War. For this reason, Christopher Marlowe had Doctor Faustus refer to Helen as "the face that launched a thousand ships."

Rational Functions

Consist of one polynomial divided by another polynomial. The denominator polynomial cannot be the zero polynomial, because dividing by zero is undefined. Examples therefore include 1/x, x^2/(x - 3), and (x^2 + 1)/(x^2 - 1). Every polynomial can be considered to be a rational function because 1 is a polynomial and dividing by 1 doesn't change an expression (so to consider the polynomial x^3 as a rational function, think of it as x^3/1). It is often instructive to study the asymptotes of rational functions, which are places in which their graphs approach a line (or occasionally other shape), usually getting infinitely close to but not crossing it. That analysis may require performing long division on the numerator and denominator polynomials to find their greatest common factor.

Vedas

Consist strictly of four hymn books: the Rig (prayers in verse), Sama (musical melodies), Yajur (prose prayers), and Atharva (spells and incantations). Each Veda, though, also contains a Brahmana (interpretation), and the Vedas also incorporate treatises on meditation (Aranyakas) as well as the Upanishads. Written in an archaic form of Sanskrit by early Aryan invaders, possibly between 1500 and 1200 BC, the Vedas concentrate on sacrifices to deities, such as Indra (god of thunder), Varuna (cosmic order), and Agni (fire). The major gods Vishnu and Shiva appear as minor deities in the Vedas; their elevation, as well as the concept of karma, does not develop until the Upanishads.

One World Trade Center (New York City, David Childs, 2014)

Construction began on One World Trade Center, alternatively known as 1 WTC and the Freedom Tower, in 2006, and was the main part of the project of rebuilding the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks as part of an overall plan for the site developed by architect Daniel Libeskind; it occupies the former site of the original 6 WTC. The building reaches a symbolic height of 1,776 feet, and is adjacent to a pair of memorial reflecting pools marking the foundations of the original Twin Towers. The new WTC complex includes a transportation hub designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. A new Two World Trade Center will likely not be completed until 2024.

St Lawrence River

Drains the Great Lakes and serves as a major waterway of eastern Canada. First explored and named by Jacques Cartier in the early 16th century, the St. Lawrence emerges from the northeastern corner of Lake Ontario in the Thousand Islands archipelago, forming the border between Ontario and New York. The St. Lawrence receives the Ottawa and Saguenay Rivers and flows through Montréal and Quebec City. At its mouth, the Gulf of St. Lawrence is one of the world's largest estuaries.

Chuck Yeager

During World War II, Yeager served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, earning "ace in a day" status by shooting down five German aircraft in one mission. On October 14, 1947, Yeager — piloting a Bell X-1 plane nicknamed (in tribute to his wife) Glamorous Glennis — became the first pilot to exceed the speed of sound in level flight. Profiled in Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, Yeager re-set the speed record at more than Mach 2 in 1953, and he remained active in the Air Force, even flying combat missions over Vietnam in his mid-40s.

Farm Security Administration Photographers

During the Great Depression, these photographers documented the plight of poor farmers. Dorothea Lange may have produced the single most enduring image among them, a portrait of Florence Owens Thompson staring worriedly into the middle distance as two of her children bury their faces in her neck, called Migrant Mother. Walker Evans, another FSA photographer, collaborated with writer James Agee on a study of three sharecropping families in Alabama, called Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Gordon Parks, whose photo of an FSA cleaning woman was both posed and titled in ironic homage to Grant Wood's American Gothic, was a pioneering African-American photographer who later directed the film Shaft.

Dynamics

Dynamic markings indicate the volume at which music is to be played. The two most basic dynamic markings are forte, meaning "loud," and abbreviated f; and piano, meaning "soft," and abbreviated p. These indications are often modified by the word mezzo (abbreviated m); thus, mf indicates "mezzo forte," meaning "medium loud." They may also be modified by the suffix -issimo, meaning "very," and symbolized by two of the same letter; thus, pp would indicate pianissimo, meaning "very soft." Gradual changes in volume are indicated by a crescendo, meaning gradually getting louder, or a diminuendo (also called decrescendo), meaning gradually getting softer.

Tigris

Eastern of the two rivers that define the historic region Mesopotamia (meaning "the Land Between Two Rivers"), which was home to the ancient civilizations Sumer and Akkad. It rises in Turkey, then flows southeast by Mosul, Tikrit, and Baghdad before joining the Euphrates to make the Shatt-al-Arab, which empties into the Persian Gulf.

The Matterhorn

Edward Compton and John Ruskin are among the artists inspired by the Matterhorn, which is renowned for its almost perfectly pyramidal shape. The mountain is on the border between Switzerland and Italy, near the Swiss town Zermatt. It was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper; four people died in that ascent.

Skepticism

Encourages the rejection of truths unless they are supported by sufficient evidence. Academic Skepticism, which states that no truths can be certain, was led by such men as Arcesilaus and Carneades. Another form of skepticism is known as "Pyrrhonian," after Pyrrho of Elis, who is considered the founder of skepticism. The thinker Sextus Empiricus, who lived in the second century AD, provided one of the most complete accounts of skepticism in his Outlines of Pyrrhonism.

Positivism

Encourages the use of the scientific method to discover the laws that govern society. It was founded by the 19th-century Frenchman Auguste Comte, who believed that society develops through three stages, which he termed the theocratic, metaphysical, and positive. It should not be confused with logical positivism, a 20th-century movement whose leaders included the young Ludwig Wittgenstein (who wrote Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus) and which holds that the only meaningful statements are those that are logically verifiable.

Epicurus

Epicurus's namesake school, Epicureanism, believed that pleasure was the highest (or only) good, and that the absence of pain (aponia) was the highest pleasure. They also believed that human happiness consisted of a kind of tranquillity known as ataraxia. Critics of Epicureanism accused his school of promoting hedonism and making selfishness into a good, though Epicureans did not believe themselves to be hedonists.

Free Soil Party

Established in 1848, it was created through a union of anti-slavery factions from the two major parties, the Barnburner Democrats and Conscience Whigs. Its platform, unlike that of James G. Birney's earlier Liberty Party (established 1840), did not aim to abolish slavery, but rather to cease its expansion. As a result, Free Soilers backed the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the Democratic Party on using popular sovereignty to decide slavery's status. In its first year, 1848, the party ended up with two senators and 14 Representatives in Congress. Free Soil presidential candidate Martin van Buren managed to capture 10% of the popular vote, and his influence may have secured Whig candidate Zachary Taylor's close victory over Democrat Lewis Cass.

Marriage

In Judaism, marriage is a complex ritual that varies according to the couple's and their community's relationships with Judaism. In many communities, especially Ashkenazic ones, the wedding is preceded by an aufruf: on the Shabbat (Saturday) before the wedding, the groom is called to the Torah to receive an honor and a blessing, after which the congregation sings to them and pelts them with candy, representing a sweet life. Immediately before the wedding proper, two witnesses sign a ketubah, or marriage contract, which details the groom's obligations toward the bride (home, food, clothing, sex, faithfulness). In egalitarian movements, the wording is adjusted and the bride and groom also sign. The ketubah is frequently a beautiful, illuminated document, and the couple will often display it in their home. The wedding ceremony takes place under a chuppah, a canopy supported on four poles, symbolizing the couple's home. The bride's face is veiled — recalling Genesis, in which Laban tricked Jacob into marrying Leah rather than Rachel by having the bride veiled at the ceremony, but to prevent such an occurrence, the groom removes the veil to verify that he will marry the correct person. The bride walks around the groom three or seven times. The groom presents the bride with an object of value (typically a ring), and in egalitarian weddings, vice versa. Seven blessings (Hebrew: sheva b'rachot) formalize the marriage. The groom breaks a glass (or in the egalitarian movements, the bride and groom may break a glass together) to remind the community that even at a joyous occasion there is still sorrow (particularly with respect to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem). The wedding is followed by a festive meal and party. Dancing is common, especially the hora, and it is traditional to lift the bride and groom on chairs. Traditionally, a special version of birkat ha-mazon (grace after meals) is recited.

1896

In the election itself, Republican William McKinley swept the North and Northeast to beat Democrat William Jennings Bryan, but the campaign was the interesting part. The most prominent issue, the gold standard versus free silver coinage, led to Bryan's famous "Cross of Gold" speech. Shunned by the Eastern press, Bryan — a legendary orator — traveled 18,000 miles through 27 states and was heard by some three million people. McKinley would not accept Bryan's challenge to debate, comparing it to putting up a trapeze and competing with a professional athlete. McKinley instead had a "front porch" campaign, as railroads brought voters by the thousands to hear him speak in his hometown, Canton, Ohio. Mark Hanna, McKinley's campaign manager, is often considered the first modern campaign manager. The election also represented the demise of the Populist Party and ushered in a 16-year period of Republican rule. The gold question would disappear soon after the election with gold strikes in Australia and Alaska.

1996 Summer (Atlanta, Georgia, United States)

In what have been called "The Coke Games," due to their exceptional commercialization in the city of Coke's business headquarters, the sweltering Georgia heat and organizational problems made these Games a veritable nightmare. But a bombing in Centennial Olympic Park that killed one person and injured 100 remains the Games' most memorable event. The bombing was eventually traced to Eric Rudolph. Irish swimmer Michelle Smith won three gold medals in the pool, only to be plagued by rumors of steroid use. Carl Lewis got his ninth gold by winning the long jump for the fourth consecutive Games, while American sprinter Michael Johnson became the first man to win the 200-meter and 400-meter races, the former in a world-record 19.32 seconds.

Transposition

Instruments that are in concert pitch, or "in C," have their music written at the same pitch in which they sound. Concert pitch instruments include the piano, all string instruments, the flute, and nearly every woodwind and brass instrument that plays in bass clef. Other instruments are transposing instruments, meaning that their music is written at a different pitch than they sound. With few exceptions, music for transposing instruments is written above the sounding pitch, which can be determined by moving down the interval that the instrument's key is below C. For example, the French horn is in F, a perfect fifth below C; thus, a French horn playing a written G natural would sound a C natural, the pitch a perfect fifth below G natural. Similarly, a B-flat trumpet playing a written D would sound a C, a major second below.

Lydia

Iron-Age kingdom that encompassed most of western Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) and had its capital at Sardis. Lydians are credited with inventing coins, and their last king, Croesus, was famous for being fabulously wealthy. When Croesus asked the Oracle at Delphi about his war plans, Croesus was told that if he attacked the Persians, he would destroy a great empire. This came true as Cyrus the Great defeated Croesus and sacked Sardis.

Simchat Bat (Baby naming)

Jewish children are given Hebrew names. For boys, the name is formally announced, and blessings are recited, at the brit milah ceremony. For girls, the same is done at a separate event, often (but not necessarily) during a regular synagogue service in the first few weeks of the baby's life. This tradition is primarily observed in more liberal Jewish movements and is not considered religiously required, so practices vary and are evolving. The Hebrew name is used on special occasions such as being called to the Torah and being married, and is typically in the form "Yitzchak ben Avraham" (Isaac, son of Abraham) or (in egalitarian movements) "Yitzchak ben Avraham v'Sarah" (Isaac, son of Abraham and Sarah).

1960

John F. Kennedy defeated vice president Richard Nixon 303-219 in a tight election, winning the popular vote by just two-tenths of a percent. The first Kennedy-Nixon debate (September 26, 1960) is a classic in political science; those who saw the calm, handsome Kennedy and the tired, uncomfortable-looking Nixon on television were more likely to select Kennedy as the winner than were those who listened on radio. (Theodore White's notable The Making of the President series began with the 1960 election.) Voting irregularities in Texas and Illinois (especially in Richard Daley's Chicago) led to allegations of fraud, but a recount would not have been feasible, and Nixon did not press the issue. Nixon would go on to lose the 1962 California gubernatorial race (occasioning his famous statement "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more").

John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill

John Stuart Mill was a utilitarian philosopher who often is mentioned in conjunction with his works On Liberty (1859) and Utilitarianism (1863). He makes this list, however, because he wrote one of the most influential philosophical defenses of women's rights, The Subjection of Women (1869). Mill claimed that his wife, Harriet Taylor, co-authored this text with him, a claim which is debated by historians. The husband and wife did write several essays together, including a tract advocating women's suffrage titled The Enfranchisement of Women (1851), and Mill recognized his wife as a major contributor to all his greatest works.

Mordred

King Arthur's illegitimate son by his half-sister Morgause (they were unaware of their shared parentage), possibly making him the rightful heir to Camelot. Mordred is best known as a traitorous figure who crowns himself King of the Britons while King Arthur is in Gaul fighting the mythical Emperor Lucius of Rome. Mordred is also frequently linked with Queen Guinevere: some accounts say that he reported the queen's affair with Lancelot to Arthur, some say that Mordred took Guinevere as a concubine during his usurpation of Arthur's throne, and some say that Mordred's wife was Guinevere's sister Gwenhwyfach. Arthur killed Mordred at the Battle of Camlann.

Gold (Au, 79)

Known to the ancients as a relatively inert metal. Its atomic symbol comes from its Latin name, aurum. It is resistant to attack by most acids, but it (along with platinum) will dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of concentrated nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. Among all metals, it has the highest electronegativity and electron affinity; it occasionally is found in a -1 oxidation state as Au^-. Widely used in jewelry, it also has a number of scientific uses. Ernest Rutherford's gold foil experiment demonstrated the existence of a positively charged nucleus. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) often requires that specimens be "sputtered," or thinly coated, with gold atoms to allow imaging. Suspensions of gold compounds have been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

The Apache

Lived in the American southwest and contested land claims with both Mexican and American settlers, having earlier gained a reputation for ferocity by raiding other tribes in the southwest for generations. A federal attempt to seize the Apache chief Cochise in 1861 led to a series of decades-long clashes with the U.S. government. One Apache leader, Geronimo, repeatedly broke out of reservations and fought American forces until he was eventually captured by Nelson Miles and exiled to Florida.

Bryophytes vs Pterophytes

Not all plants produce seeds. Seedless plants are divided into bryophytes (mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) and pterophytes (ferns, club mosses, quillworts, and horsetails). Both of these groups, like all other plants, reproduce by producing sperm and eggs on a structure called the gametophyte. The gametes fuse to form another structure called the sporophyte, which produces spores that disperse and grow into new gametophytes. Both groups produce flagellated sperm that require water for fertilization. Note that these uses of "bryophyte" and "pterophyte" here are informal, and should not be confused with the actual phyla Bryophyta (true mosses) and Pteridophyta (true ferns). Bryophytes are small enough that water and nutrients can diffuse to all parts of the plant without any specialized vascular tissue. They lack true leaves and roots, instead fastening themselves to the ground with rhizoids. Unlike other land plants, bryophytes have a prominent gametophyte stage that is usually dioecious, meaning that an individual plant produces only one type of gamete (either sperm or egg). The short-lived sporophyte grows from the female gametophyte. The more complex pterophytes can grow taller thanks to vascular tissues (see number 4 below) that provide structural support and transport water and other materials throughout the plant. Many of them do have true leaves and roots. Pterophytes have a prominent sporophyte stage that grows from a small, short-lived gametophyte. Pterophyte gametophytes may be dioicous or monoicous, producing both sperm and egg on the same plant.

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 by Marcel Duchamp

Nude Descending a Staircase was painted in 1912 and created a sensation when shown at the 1913 Armory Show in New York, where one critic referred to it as "an explosion in a shingle factory." Painted in various shades of brown, Nude Descending a Staircase portrays a nude person in a series of broken planes, capturing motion down several steps in a single image. The painting reflects a Cubist sense of division of space, and its portrait of motion echoes the work of the Futurists.

USS Lawrence / USS Niagara

Oliver Hazard Perry's decisive victory over the British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813 ensured American control of the Great Lakes during the War of 1812. In the battle, Perry's flagship, the USS Lawrence, was severely damaged and four-fifths of her crew killed or wounded. Commodore Perry and a small contingent rowed a half-mile through heavy gunfire to another American ship, the USS Niagara. Boarding and taking command, he brought her into battle and soundly defeated the British fleet. Perry summarized the fight in a now-famous message to General William Henry Harrison: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

Indira Gandhi

On October 31st, 1984, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards: Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. Her murder came four months after Operation Blue Star, a military raid on the sacred Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. Gandhi had been on her way to give an interview with British actor Peter Ustinov when she was killed, and the incident led to widespread anti-Sikh riots throughout India in which thousands of Sikhs were killed. Indira Gandhi's oldest son, Rajiv, succeeded her as Prime Minister of India.

Athens

On the peninsula of Attica, across the Saronic Gulf from Corinth. Athens is often called the birthplace of democracy. Its political institutions included the ecclesia, an assembly open to all male citizens, which elected officials and enacted legislation; and the boule, a group of male citizens chosen by lot who served for a year at a time. The boule oversaw day-to-day operations of the government, and set the agenda for the ecclesia. The size of the boule and the functions of both assemblies changed due to constitutional reforms enacted by Solon, Cleisthenes, Ephialtes, and Pericles. The ecclesia could banish a citizen for ten years, a practice known as ostracism. The rise to power of Athens during the Persian Wars sparked the Peloponnesian War, which Athens lost.

Margaret Atwood

One of Canada's most prominent authors of literary fiction, Atwood has written multiple works that combine speculative elements with psychological realism. In 1985 Atwood published The Handmaid's Tale, which portrays a dystopian near-future in which the United States has been replaced by the patriarchal Republic of Gilead. The Handmaid's Tale is narrated by Offred, whose role as a "handmaid" is to bear children for "the Commander" and his wife, Serena Joy. Offred flees her oppressive existence with the help of Nick, a chauffeur who claims to be a member of the underground Mayday resistance movement. In an epilogue set in the year 2195, the archivist Professor Pieixoto discusses Offred's unknown fate. Atwood later wrote a trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic world where corporations have created bioengineered diseases and people (Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam). In addition to her speculative works, Atwood has also written historical fiction (Alias Grace and The Blind Assassin, the latter of which contains a character who is a science fiction author), novels about the relationships between female friends (Cat's Eye and The Robber Bride), and a retelling of Homer's Odyssey from a female point of view (The Penelopiad).

The Visigoths

One of a number of Germanic peoples scattered by the advance of the Huns. They took refuge south of the Danube under the protection of the Roman Empire. When that "protection" was revealed to consist of abuse, fraud, and starvation, they rebelled and caused disorder in Rome's Balkan provinces. When the emperor Valens sent in the army to restore order, Goths — led by Fritigern — shattered the Roman army at Adrianople (378), where Valens was killed. For the next forty years, groups of Visigoths wandered the Roman world searching for a place to settle. In 410 Visigoths led by Alaric sacked Rome itself. By the middle of the fifth century, the Visigoths had settled in southern Gaul (the "kingdom of Toulouse") and the Iberian peninsula. Christians among the Visigoths, like those among their Ostrogothic and Vandalic neighbors, subscribed to the heretical "Arian" beliefs, which caused conflict with their Roman subjects until the Visigothic kings converted at a 589 church council. Driven out of southern Gaul by the hostile Franks, the Visigoths retained control over most of what is now Spain until their king Roderic was killed by Islamic invaders from North Africa in 711.

Hernan Cortes

Spanish conquistador who participated in the conquest of Cuba. In 1519 the Cuban governor Diego Velázquez (no relation to the painter of the same name) commissioned Cortés to sail west and explore the mainland coast. Fearing that Velázquez would change his mind, Cortés left Cuba secretly and began a mission of conquest rather than exploration. On the coast of the Yucatán, the Cortés expedition was joined by the Spanish castaway Gerónimo de Aguilar and a Nahua captive known as "La Malinche" or "Doña Marina," who served as translators. After traveling north, Cortés and his men defied the authority of Velázquez by founding the city Veracruz, an act which allowed Cortés to take legal control of the expedition. The Spanish then pressed inland, surviving an attempted massacre in the city Cholula and making allies with the Tlaxcalans, who were traditional enemies of the Aztecs. Upon reaching the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, Cortés and his men were welcomed by the Aztec emperor Montezuma II. Cortés took Montezuma prisoner, but was forced to return to the coast to deal with a punitive expedition sent by Velázquez and commanded by Panfilo de Narvaez. Although Cortés won the new arrivals over to his side, the situation in Tenochtitlan deteriorated as the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado murdered celebrants at a festival. Shortly after Cortés returned to the city, Montezuma was killed and the Spanish were forced to flee during the Noche Triste (Night of Sorrows). After escaping, Cortés marshalled Spanish and indigenous forces to fight the Aztecs, who were successively led by the emperors Cuitlahuac and Cuauhtemoc. After the Aztec defenders were seriously weakened by an outbreak of smallpox, Cortés and his followers captured Tenochtitlan in 1521 and rebuilt it as Mexico City. Much of our knowledge of the conquest of Mexico comes from a follower of Cortes named Bernal Díaz del Castillo, who wrote detailed memoirs of the expedition.

Louis Sullivan

Sullivan did not design the first skyscraper, but did become a vocal champion of skyscrapers as reflections of the modern age. Though most associated with Chicago, his best-known work is the 1891 Wainwright Building in St. Louis. His partnership with Dankmar Adler produced over 100 buildings. Later works, such as the Babson, Bennett, and Bradley Houses, reflect an organic architecture distinct from that of his one time employee Frank Lloyd Wright. Sullivan's dictum that "form should follow function" strongly influenced modern architecture; his writings helped break the profession from classical restraints.

Taipei 101 (Taipei, Chu Yuan Lee, 2004)

Taipei 101, named for its 101 floors, was the tallest building in the world when it opened in 2004, with a height of 1,674 feet; it lost the title to the Burj Khalifa in 2010. The building was originally known as the Taipei World Financial Center. The main part of the structure consists of eight stacked sections of eight floors each (Chinese numerology considers eight a lucky number); those sections resemble both floors of a pagoda as well as ancient Chinese money boxes (which themselves inspired the design of modern Chinese take-out containers). The upper floors of the building contain a tuned mass damper, a large round structure that absorbs vibrations and keeps the building from shaking during high winds and other inclement weather.

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth

The Christina of the title is Christina Olson, who lived near the Wyeths' summer home in Cushing, Maine. In the 1948 painting, Christina lays in the cornfield wearing a pink dress, facing away from the viewer, her body partly twisted and hair blowing slightly in the wind. In the far distance is a three-story farmhouse with dual chimneys and two dormers, along with two sheds to its right. A distant barn is near the top middle of the painting. One notable aspect is the subtle pattern of sunlight, which strikes the farmhouse obliquely from the right, shines in the wheel tracks in the upper right, and casts very realistic-looking shadows on Christina's dress. The Olson house was the subject of many Andrew Wyeth paintings for 30 years, and it was named to the National Register of Historic Places for its place in Christina's World.

Afterlife

The Egyptians believed that the soul had three components, the ba, ka, and akh, each of which had different roles after death. The ka remained near or within the body (which is why mummification was required). The ba went to the underworld where it merged with aspects of Osiris, but was allowed to periodically return (which is why Egyptian tombs often contained narrow doors). The akh could temporarily assume different physical forms and wander the world as a ghost of sorts. In the underworld, the ba was subjected to the Judgment of Osiris in the Hall of Double Justice, where the heart of the deceased was weighed against Ma'at, commonly represented as an ostrich feather.

Pedro II

The Emperor of Brazil from 1831 to 1889. Pedro II became emperor at age 5 when his father abdicated. During Pedro II's reign, Brazil was victorious in several conflicts with its neighbors, including the Platine War and War of the Triple Alliance.

The Shard (London, Renzo Piano, 2013)

The Shard, originally known as London Bridge Tower, is the tallest building in the U.K, with a height of 1,016 feet. It gets its name from its appearance: the glass-enclosed, pyramid-like structure tapers as it rises to a set of points at the top, giving the impression of several shards of glass leaning against one another. The Shard was designed by Pritzker-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano, who also designed Paris's Georges Pompidou Center and New York's Whitney Museum of Art. Despite being in London, the tower is primarily owned by the state of Qatar and is a broadcast headquarters for the English branch of the Qatari media network Al Jazeera.

Guggenheim

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is located in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Founded as "The Museum of Non-Objective Painting," in 1959 it moved into its current home, a Frank Lloyd Wright building that features a spiral ramp connecting the exhibition areas. Focusing on modern art, its holdings include the world's largest collection of paintings by Wassily Kandinsky.

Marco Polo

The Venetian merchant brothers Niccolò and Maffeo Polo traveled to China in 1261, serving Kublai Khan from 1266 to 1269. Kublai sent them back to Europe as envoys in 1269; when they returned to China in 1274 they brought Niccolò's son Marco along. The Polos served Kublai Khan until 1292, with Marco spending time as governor of Yangzhou. After being captured by the Genoese at the naval Battle of Curzola, Marco Polo dictated his memoir — a text known as Il Milione — to his prison cellmate, Rusticiano (or Rusticello) of Pisa.

Flower Parts

The calyx is composed of sepals, specialized green leaves that protect the flower as a bud and provide support for the fully bloomed flower. The stem supporting a flower is called the peduncle. If multiple flowers bloom from a peduncle, the stems supporting each flower are called pedicels. The torus is the swelling at the top of the pedicel or peduncle, just below the calyx. Petals are specialized leaves, often brightly colored to attract pollinating species. Collectively, they are called a corolla. The pollen-producing reproductive organ of the flower is called the stamen. The stamen consists of a thin filament topped by an anther, which actually contains the pollen. The pistil, or female reproductive organ of the flower, is composed of leaf-like carpels. The ovary-containing ovules are at the base of the pistil, while a tube called a style topped by a sticky, pollen-receptive stigma rises from the ovary. There may be one or many pistils in each flower.

1824

The candidates were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford, and Andrew Jackson, all Democratic-Republicans. After John C. Calhoun decided to seek the vice presidency and Crawford (from Georgia) had a stroke, Jackson took most of the South and won the popular vote. Jackson had 99 electoral votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37, but since none had more than 50% of the vote, the House decided the election. Adams won in the House with support from Clay, and Jacksonians cried foul when Clay was made Secretary of State (the so-called "corrupt bargain"), giving fuel to Jackson's victorious 1828 campaign. Jackson is the only candidate to lose a presidential race despite having the most electoral votes, and he is one of five (with Tilden, Cleveland, Gore, and Hillary Clinton) to lose despite winning the popular vote. The election also led to the founding of the Democratic Party.

Mekong

The chief river of Southeast Asia. It originates in eastern Tibet, forms much of the Laos-Thailand border, flows south through Cambodia, and enters the South China Sea in southern Vietnam just south of Ho Chi Minh City. The capital cities Vientiane and Phnom Penh are on the Mekong. The building of dams and clearing of rapids are a source of diplomatic conflict among China, Laos, and Cambodia.

Danae

The daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. The king consulted an oracle to ask if he would ever have a son, and the oracle replied that he wouldn't, but his daughter would, and that grandson would overthrow him. In response, he shut Danaë up in a chamber in his palace, but Zeus appeared in the form of a shower of gold and impregnated her; shortly thereafter, her son Perseus was born. Acrisius then cast Danaë and Perseus out to sea in a chest, but with the assistance of Poseidon they were rescued by the fisherman Dictys. Danaë had no interest in marrying Dictys's brother King Seriphos, who agreed not to pursue her if Perseus could kill the Gorgon Medusa.

Progressive Party

There were three notable iterations of this party in the 20th century, each with its own ideology and goals. Former President Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party (established 1912), better known as the Bull Moose Party, was created after he was unable to reclaim the Republican nomination from his former ally William Howard Taft. Roosevelt pitted his platform of New Nationalism, which promised reforms inspired by the Progressive movement, against Democrat Woodrow Wilson's more conservative New Freedom. In the most successful American third-party campaign ever, Roosevelt's 27% was still only enough to win six states; the split of the Republican voter base between him and Taft ensured a dominant victory for Wilson even though Wilson received only 42% of the vote. Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr.'s Progressive Party (established 1924) was created for him to run for president on his own brand of progressive ideals different from those of Roosevelt, his onetime rival. Running on promises resembling those of the earlier Populists, La Follette grabbed 17% of the vote in the 1924 election with thirteen electoral votes from his home state, Wisconsin. He came close to Democrat nominee John W. Davis in votes, but neither could prevent Republican Calvin Coolidge's re-election. Former Vice President Henry Wallace's Progressive Party (established 1948) formed out of Wallace's disagreements with his replacement as FDR's vice president, incumbent Harry S. Truman, who had fired Wallace from his position as Secretary of Commerce. In addition to promoting leftist reforms, Wallace also wanted cooperation with the Soviet Union, though his association with the Soviets and Communism hurt his popularity. In spite of this, he still won 2.4% of the vote with well over a million votes in a contentious election that Truman barely won over Thomas Dewey.

Fujita-Pearson and Enhanced Fujita Scales

These scales measure tornado strength. The Fujita-Pearson scale was introduced in 1971 by Ted Fujita, a meteorology professor at the University of Chicago, and Allen Pearson, director of what is now the Storm Prediction Center. The original scale went from F0 (wind speeds lower than hurricane force, which should cause little to no damage) to F5 (wind speeds of 260 miles per hour, which should cause "incredible damage"). Fujita also included an "inconceivable damage" category for tornadoes exceeding 319 miles per hour (theoretically possible, but no such tornado has ever been observed). In 2007 the Enhanced Fujita (EF) scale was introduced, narrowing the speed ranges for each category: an EF5 begins at "just" 200 miles per hour.

Medea by Euripides

This Euripides play retells the myth of Medea, a sorceress from Colchis who saved Jason and the Argonauts during their quest for the Golden Fleece. Set after the Argonauts' quest, the play depicts Medea's vengeance against Jason as he prepares to marry the Corinthian princess Glauce. Medea uses poisoned robes to kill Glauce and Glauce's father Creon (a different character than the Creon who appears in Sophocles's Theban plays). Not content with this, Medea seeks to hurt Jason further by killing the sons that she bore him. When Jason tries to confront Medea, she appears above the stage in a chariot pulled by dragons, and exchanges bitter words with her former lover before departing to seek refuge with King Aegeus of Athens. The play's ending is a classic example of a deus ex machina, a literary device in which plot problems are suddenly resolved by an unexpected contrivance.

The Clouds by Aristophanes

This comedy lampoons Athenian philosophers, especially Socrates and his Sophist followers, whose insubstantial, obfuscating arguments are inspired by the title goddesses. The protagonist, Strepsiades, fears that his horse-obsessed son, Pheidippides, is spending too much money. Consequently, Strepsiades wants Pheidippides to enroll in the Phrontisterion, or "Thinkery" of Socrates to learn specious arguments that can be used to avoid paying debts. Pheidippides refuses, so Strepsiades enrolls in the Thinkery himself. There, Strepsiades learns about new discoveries, such as a technique to measure how far a flea can jump. Eventually Pheidippides is also pressured into studying at the Thinkery, where he and Strepsiades are instructed by the beings Just and Unjust Discourse. Strepsiades believes that the education will enable Pheidippides to foil all creditors, but Pheidippides instead uses his new-found debating skills to justify beating up his father. In response, Strepsiades leads a mob to destroy the Thinkery.

Seven Against Thebes by Aeschylus

This early Greek tragedy tells the story of Oedipus's two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, who initially agreed to rule Thebes together before Eteocles seized the kingship for himself. Most of the play consists of a conversation between Eteocles, the chorus, and a spy who describes the seven captains who have arrived to besiege the seven gates of Thebes. After each man is described, Eteocles selects the warrior who will face that attacker. When the seventh attacker is revealed to be Polyneices, Eteocles sets off to confront his brother. At the conclusion of the play, it is announced that although Eteocles's forces have turned back the invaders, the brothers have slain each other. Antigone, the sister of Eteocles and Polyneices, vows to defy the laws of Thebes by giving Polyneices a proper burial.

Hanukkah

This festival lasts for eight days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev (the third month). It celebrates the victory of the small Maccabee army against the large Greek army of Antiochus, and the Maccabees' recapture and re-purification of the Temple in Jerusalem (c. 168 BC). When they did so, they found only a small amount of oil to light the menorah in the Temple, and it would take a week to make more; miraculously, the oil burned for the full week. To commemorate this, on each night, observers use a "helper candle" called the shamash to light candles in a menorah (more properly called a chanukiah, as a menorah only has six branches while a chanukiah has nine): one candle (besides the shamash) on the first night, two on the second night, and so on. Furthermore, it is traditional to eat foods fried in oil; in the United States, potato pancakes called latkes are popular; in Israel, fried jelly donuts called sufganiyot are more common. Children play a game with a spinning top called the dreidel, which contains the Hebrew letters that form the initials of a phrase that translates as "a great miracle happened there" (in Israel, they say "a great miracle happened here"). Exchanging presents is only a recent tradition developed in the U.S. to make Jewish children feel less left out as their Christian peers get Christmas presents (or, if you are cynical, the tradition was invented by toymakers to sell more toys).

Cosi fan tutte (They're All Like That), K. 588

This opera is, along with The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, one of Mozart's collaborations with Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. The soldiers Guglielmo and Ferrando, who love the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella, respectively, brag about the fidelity of their fiancées; in a coffee shop, Don Alfonso makes a bet that he can make the sisters fall in love with other men in one day. Don Alfonso disguises the two men as Albanians after bribing the sisters' maid Despina; at first they resist (see Fiordiligi's aria "Come Scoglio"), but after Dorabella and Guglielmo trade a medallion and a heart-shaped locket, Fiordiligi is seduced by Ferrando. In the end, the sisters "almost" marry the wrong husbands, and only realize they've been tricked when the two men return to the stage half in disguise, half out.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso

This painting depicts five women in a brothel. However, the images of the women are partly broken into disjointed, angular facets. The degree of broken-ness is rather mild compared to later Cubist works, but it was revolutionary in 1907. The rather phallic fruit arrangement in the foreground reflects the influence of Paul Cézanne's "flattening of the canvas." The two central figures face the viewer, while the other three have primitive masks as faces, reflecting another of Picasso's influences. It is currently housed at the MOMA.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

This play questions American values of success. Willy Loman is a failed salesman whose firm fires him after 34 years. Despite his own failures, he desperately wants his sons Biff and Happy to succeed. Told in a series of flashbacks, the story points to Biff's moment of hopelessness, when the former high school star catches his father Willy cheating on his mother, Linda. Eventually, Willy can no longer live with his perceived shortcomings, and commits suicide in an attempt to leave Biff with insurance money.

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

This tragedy tells the story of Oedipus, a man who became king of Thebes by defeating a monster called the sphinx. After a mysterious plague devastates Thebes, Oedipus sends his brother-in-law Creon to ask the Oracle at Delphi about the cause of the affliction. The Oracle attributes the plague to the fact that the murderer of Laius, the previous king of Thebes, has never been caught and punished. Oedipus then seeks information from the prophet Teiresias, who is provoked into revealing that Oedipus himself was the killer. Oedipus initially rejects this claim, but begins to have doubts after talking with his wife Jocasta, who was once married to Laius. Jocasta recalls a prophecy that Laius would be killed by his own son, but she claims that this prophecy did not come true, because Laius was murdered by highwaymen. This leads Oedipus to recall killing a man who resembled Laius, and a prophecy which had claimed that Oedipus would kill his own father, and marry his own mother. A shepherd from Mount Cithaeron reveals the awful truth: in response to the prophecy about their son, Laius and Jocasta had tried to expose the infant Oedipus in the wilderness. However, the shepherd had taken pity on the child, and sent him away to be raised in another area. Not knowing his true heritage, Oedipus eventually left home to avoid harming the people whom he believed to be his parents, but unknowingly fulfilled the prophecy by killing Laius and marrying Jocasta. Upon learning this, Jocasta commits suicide, and Oedipus blinds himself with Jocasta's brooches. Creon assumes control of Thebes as Oedipus begs to be exiled along with his daughters, Ismene and Antigone.

Walter Gropius

Though Gropius designed the Fagus Factory (Alfeld, Germany) and the Pan American Building (New York City), he is best known for founding the Bauhaus. Beginning in Weimar in 1919 and moving to a Gropius-designed facility in Dessau in 1925, the Bauhaus school emphasized functionalism, the application of modern methods and materials, and the synthesis of technology and art. Its faculty included artists Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Josef Albers. Gropius would later head Harvard's architecture department from 1938 to 1952, shifting its focus to incorporate modern design and construction techniques.

John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, and Samuel de Champlain

Three early explorers of Canada. John Cabot, a Genoese explorer, sailed for Henry VII of England. Cabot's 1497 voyage aboard the Matthew landed somewhere in eastern Canada, probably in what is today Newfoundland. Frenchman Jacques Cartier went on three expeditions (1534-1542) for Francis I. On the second one, he sailed up the St. Lawrence River and named the hill behind the village of Hochelaga "Montréal." Fellow Frenchman Samuel de Champlain went on several voyages (1603-1635), founding what is now Quebec City and becoming the first European to see Lake Huron.

Challenger (STS-51-L) and Columbia (STS-107) Accidents

Two Space Shuttle launches known mostly for their accidents and subsequent losses of life. The Challenger disaster was attributed by the Rogers Commission (the investigative body set up after the accident) to poor performance of the solid rocket booster (SRB) O-rings. The O-rings lost integrity and became brittle at low temperatures, such as those present on the morning of the launch. The failure of the O-rings caused "blow-by," where hot gasses escaped the booster joint, ultimately resulting in the destruction of Challenger. The Rogers Commission also cited both NASA and SRB contractor Morton Thiokol for a failure to redesign the SRB joint, known to be dangerous—manifestations of "go fever." According to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, the disaster on STS-107 was due to a piece of foam from the external fuel tank hitting and breaching the left wing of the Orbiter during launch. The breach damaged the heat shielding, allowing hot gas to enter the Orbiter during re-entry. Ultimately, that damage caused the vehicle to disintegrate over Texas. Both missions resulted in the complete loss of crew (seven crew were on each mission) and orbiters. Both modes of failure had been previously observed in earlier missions, but went un-fixed because those missions were successful.

Titania and Oberon

Uranus's largest moon, they are named for characters from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Other Uranian moons are named for characters from either Shakespeare or Alexander Pope.) They were discovered on the same day in 1787 by William Herschel, who also discovered Uranus itself in 1781. In 1986 Voyager 2 became the only spacecraft to date to visit the Uranian moons. Because Uranus orbits the sun almost on its side and Titania and Oberon orbit Uranus in the same plane as its equator, the moons have extreme seasons: Titania's poles spend over 42 years in nonstop sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness. Most of Titania's features are named for settings or female characters from Shakespeare — its largest crater is Gertrude Crater, after Hamlet's mother — while most of Oberon's are named after settings or male characters from Shakespeare. However, Oberon's largest feature is Mommur Chasma, which is named from a French epic poem.

Compiler

Used with many programming languages to convert human-readable code into instructions that a machine can execute. C and C++ programs are often compiled by GCC into code specific for the machine the compiler is running on. Java's compiler instead compiles into a less specific format called bytecode, which is executed by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Since compiled Java can be run on any machine with a JVM, Java is referred to as "write once, run anywhere." Some languages are not compiled before running but instead have their code turned into machine instructions as they run, such as JavaScript and Python; these languages are called interpreted.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Uses magnetic fields to determine the arrangement of nuclei in a molecule. Typical NMR methods only work on nuclei that have nonzero spin, such as 1H and 13C—the nonzero spin means that the nuclei oscillate between two spin states in a phenomenon called Larmor precession. NMR measures the frequency at which each nucleus oscillates, whose deviation from a reference nucleus (such as tetramethylsilane) depends on the local electron density and is called the chemical shift. Nuclei that have more electron density (due to proximity to electron-donating groups like alkyl groups) are said to be "shielded" and have lower chemical shifts, while those that have less electron density (due to proximity to electron-withdrawing groups like halogens) are said to be "deshielded" and have higher chemical shifts. Peaks in NMR can be "split" into several peaks due to J-coupling if they are adjacent to identical nuclei, like the three hydrogens of a methyl group. NMR is the theoretical basis for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in medicine.

Jules Verne

Verne offered a brighter vision of technological progress in his novels of adventure, many of which doubled as works of popular science. In Verne's 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, Professor Lidenbrock explains contemporary theories of geology and paleontology as he leads an expedition that travels beneath the Earth's crust from Iceland to the Italian volcano Stromboli. Verne later wrote the 1870 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, whose narrator Pierre Aronnax offers extensive commentary on marine biology while accompanying the mysterious Captain Nemo on a voyage in the submarine Nautilus. In a more realistic vein, Verne considered the possibilities presented by new forms of transportation in the 1873 novel Around the World in Eighty Days, which describes a trip taken by the Englishman Phileas Fogg and his French valet Jean Passepartout. During his travels, which are undertaken to win a bet with members of the Reform Club, Fogg falls in love with an Indian woman named Aouda, and is pursued by the Scotland Yard detective Fix, who mistakenly believes that Fogg is a bank robber. Fogg ultimately wins his bet to return to the Reform Club within 80 days of his departure, with the help of an extra day gained by traveling eastward.

Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut's fiction provides a darkly humorous response to the absurdities and violence of the twentieth century. During World War II, Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Germany, and lived through the Allied firebombing of Dresden. That experience was the basis for Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse-Five, in which the soldier Billy Pilgrim becomes "unstuck in time," and perceives his life in a non-linear fashion. Billy travels between the present, past, and future as he is captured by the German army, witnesses the destruction of Dresden, becomes a prosperous optometrist in the town of Ilium, is kidnapped by aliens and placed in a zoo along with the actress Montana Wildhack, and is eventually assassinated. Slaughterhouse-Five contains a number of elements that recur in other Vonnegut novels, including the veteran Eliot Rosewater, aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, the unsuccessful science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, and members of the wealthy Rumfoord family. Vonnegut also wrote the novel Cat's Cradle, which describes a substance called "ice-nine" that instantly turns liquid water into a solid. Ice-nine was created by the atomic scientist Felix Hoenikker, whose life is researched by the novel's narrator, John. Another thread in Cat's Cradle concerns the "bittersweet lies" of the prophet Bokonon, who lives on the Caribbean island San Lorenzo. Bokonon comments on human stupidity after an accident that occurs during the funeral of the San Lorenzan dictator Papa Monzano causes ice-nine to fall into the ocean, destroying almost all life on Earth.

1912 Summer (Stockholm, Sweden)

While the Swedes introduced electronic timers to the games, the athletic hero was United States decathlete and Native American Jim Thorpe. He won the pentathlon, placed fourth in the high jump, and seventh in the long jump. Finally, Thorpe went on to win the decathlon with a score so astounding that it would still have won him the silver medal in 1948. During the medal presentation, Swedish king Gustav V said, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete" to which Thorpe purportedly replied "Thanks, King."

Horatio Gates

Wounded in the disastrous French and Indian War attack on Fort Duquesne, it was there he first met George Washington. Recommended by Washington to be adjutant general of the army at the outbreak of revolution, he organized the army around Boston into an effective force. Promoted to major general in 1776, he was assigned to command troops in New York originally intended to invade Canada. Briefly put in charge of Philadelphia, he then directed the defense of New York against Burgoyne's invasion attempt, leading to victory at Saratoga. Following this he became involved in the Conway cabal, an attempt to replace Washington, which led to coldness between the two. Placed in command of the South over Washington's objections by Congress, he tried to raise adequate forces, but lost the battle of Camden to Cornwallis, and was replaced by Nathaniel Greene. Washington then accepted Gates back as his deputy, a position he held until the end of the war.

Zeno of Elea

Zeno of Elea was a student of Parmenides, who founded the Eleatic school in a Greek colony of the Italian peninsula. He is most famous today for "Zeno's paradoxes," the best-known of which involve an arrow in flight and a race between Achilles and a tortoise. Zeno's paradoxes purport to show that physical movement is impossible, since any attempt to travel a distance must be preceded by moving half that distance, which must be preceded by moving half of half that distance, and so on. (Zeno of Elea is not to be confused with Zeno of Citium, who founded the philosophical school of Stoicism two centuries later.)