After an abortive insurrection in June 1792, French revolutionaries followed it with a decisive one in August. Under pressure from the insurrection, the Assembly suspended Louis XVI and ordered elections for a National Convention to draw up a new constitution. Mass arrests of royalist sympathizers were followed by the September massacres, in which frenzied mobs entered jails throughout Paris and killed approximately 2,000 prisoners, many in grisly fashion. Who was targeted during the massacres?
Archive for the ‘History’ category
September Massacres Break Out in Paris (1792)
September 2nd, 2010Romare Bearden (1911)
September 2nd, 2010
Regarded as one of the most important African-American artists of the 20th century, Bearden first achieved recognition for his complex, semiabstract collages of photographs and painted paper on canvas in Europe following WWII. By the 1960s, he was the preeminent collagist in the US. A prolific artist, he created some 2,000 works, many of which focus on aspects of African-American culture, including music and family. A Bearden mural in a subway station in what city was once valued at $15 million?
Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875)
September 1st, 2010
After working numerous odd jobs, Burroughs tried his hand at writing, publishing his first story under the pen name Normal Bean in 1912. Two years later, he published Tarzan of the Apes, a story about an English boy raised by apes in Africa. Wildly successful, the book was the first in a series of 27 Tarzan titles. Burroughs later moved to Hollywood to supervise the filming of the first of the extremely successful Tarzan films. What city is named after his most famous character?
Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope Ends in Ontario (1980)
September 1st, 2010
In 1977, 18-year-old Terry Fox was diagnosed with a malignant bone tumor, and his right leg was amputated above the knee. Three years later, the Canadian began his Marathon of Hope, a coast-to-coast run with the goal of raising $1 for each Canadian citizen—totaling about $24 million—for cancer research. Running roughly the distance of a marathon each day, Fox covered 3,339 mi (5,373 km) before learning that the cancer had spread to his lungs. He died several months later. How much did he raise?
Caligula (12 CE)
August 31st, 2010
Caligula was a Roman emperor who began his reign upon the death of the extremely unpopular Tiberius. His reign was initially welcomed, but, shortly after assuming power, he suffered a severe illness that is widely believed to have rendered him insane. He earned a reputation for cruel autocracy, torture, and execution and was finally assassinated by a tribune of the Praetorian Guard. Caligula’s real name was Caius Caesar Germanicus. Why was he nicknamed Caligula as a child?
Iroquois Confederacy Is Formed (1142)
August 31st, 2010
The Iroquois Confederacy is a North American confederation of indigenous peoples, initially comprising the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. A sixth tribe, the Tuscarora, joined later. The league was formed for both defense purposes and to prevent intertribal conflict. Although frequently referred to as the Iroquois, the nations refer to themselves collectively as Haudenosaunee, which means “people of the longhouse.” The league’s formation is said to have coincided with what event?
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797)
August 30th, 2010
In 1816, 18-year-old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her soon-to-be husband, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, traveled to Geneva to spend the summer with poet Lord Byron. Forced indoors by unpleasant weather, the friends amused themselves by sitting around a fire and reading ghost stories. Byron suggested they each write their own supernatural tale, and the story that Mary wrote became the basis for her novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. What real-life events may have inspired her?
Fort Mims Massacre (1813)
August 30th, 2010
At the start of the Creek Civil War, settlers north of Mobile, Alabama, sought refuge at Fort Mims. Approximately 550 settlers, including 175 armed militiamen, were at the fort when it was attacked by a force of Creek Indians belonging to the Red Sticks faction under the command of Peter McQueen and William Weatherford, known as “Red Eagle.” The massacre marked the transition from civil war among the Creeks to war between Americans and Red Stick warriors. How many settlers survived the massacre?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809)
August 29th, 2010
The father of the US Supreme Court justice of the same name, Holmes was an American physician, poet, and humorist. After beginning his medical career as a general practitioner, he shifted to the academic field and became dean of the Harvard medical school. However, he is perhaps best known for the poem that won him national acclaim—”Old Ironsides,” a protest against the scrapping of the USS Constitution, which helped save the ship. What common medical term was coined by Holmes?
Battle of Mohács Begins (1526)
August 29th, 2010
In 1526, King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia led a poorly prepared army against a vastly superior Turkish force led by Sultan Suleiman I with disastrous results. About 25,000 of the king’s soldiers were killed in the battle, and the rest were taken captive and massacred. Louis himself died during the retreat after being thrown from his horse. The defeat resulted in more than 150 years of Ottoman domination in Hungary. What modern Hungarian expression of bad luck references the battle?
