The “Voyage of the Damned” Under the command of Captain Gustav Schröder, St. Louis set sail from Hamburg to Havana, Cuba on May 13, 1939, carrying 937 passengers, most of them Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Nazi persecution in Germany. A Ship of Jewish Refugees Was Refused US Landing in…
His long, strange trip came to an end, however, on August 9, 1995, when he died of a heart attack in a residential drug-treatment facility in Forest Knolls, California. A legendary guitarist and cultural icon, Jerry Garcia was 53 years old. Who was Jerry Garcia’s wife when he died? Jerry…
Mahatma Gandhi, byname of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, (born October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India—died January 30, 1948, Delhi), Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. Who was Mahatma Gandhi and why was he important? Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi…
Pandora was the first mortal woman in Greek mythology, a sort of an Ancient Greek Eve. Following the instructions of Zeus – who wanted to punish Prometheus for stealing the fire from the gods and giving it to the humans – she was molded by Hephaestus and endowed with gifts…
The Jim Crow persona is a theater character — developed and popularized by Thomas D. Rice (1808–1860) — and a racist depiction of African-AmericansAfrican-AmericansIn the American Revolution, gaining freedom was the strongest motive for Black enslaved people who joined the Patriot or British armies. It is estimated that 20,000 African…
Marco Polo was supported as a merchant by his father’s business and then was in the service of Kublai Khan. What country sponsored Marco Polo? Marco Polo (1254-1324) was a Venetian merchant believed to have journeyed across Asia at the height of the Mongol Empire. Who made Marco Polo an…
John Rolfe (1585-1622) was an early settler of North America known for being the first person to cultivate tobacco in Virginia and for marrying Pocahontas. Rolfe arrived in Jamestown in 1610 with 150 other settlers as part of a new charter organized by the Virginia Company. John Rolfe (1585-1622) was…
Margaret Olley is one of Australia’s most significant still-life and interior painters. She drew inspiration from her home and studio and the beauty of the everyday objects she gathered around her. Many of her paintings feature arrangements of fruits and flowers, set amid the pottery, art and exotica of her…
The statistical dissection of Johnny Damon began months before he played his final game of 2005 with the Boston Red Sox. Scott Boras, Damon’s agent, loves to analyze numbers and then unfurl them to help his clients score gigantic numbers for free-agentfree-agentIn professional sports, a free agent is a player…
In 1816, Congress decided to divide the territory into two states. The western half would become the state of Mississippi. The constitutional convention was held in Washington, Mississippi, in 1817. David Holmes served as president of the convention and was elected the first governor of the new state. ↑ David…