You Gotta Know These Musicals
Each musical's title is followed by its composer, its lyricist, the author of its book, and the year in which it premiered on
Broadway or the West End.
1. West Side Story (Leonard Bernstein; Stephen Sondheim; Arthur Laurents; 1957). Riff and Bernardo lead two rival
gangs: the blue-collar Jets and the Sharks from Puerto Rico. Tony, a former Jet, falls in love with the 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 Awardwinning 1961 film starring Natalie Wood.
2. The Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber; Charles Hart & Richard Stilgoe; Richard Stilgoe & Andrew
Lloyd Webber; 1986). At the Paris Opera in 1881, the mysterious Phantom lures the soprano Christine Daae 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 eponymous 1909 novel by Gaston Leroux, it is the longest-running show in Broadway history.
3. My Fair Lady (Frederick Loewe; Alan Jay Lerner; Alan Jay Lerner; 1956). As part of a bet with his friend Colonel
Pickering, phonetics professor Henry Higgins transforms 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.
4. Cats (Andrew Lloyd Webber; T.S. Eliot; T.S. Eliot). 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.
5. Evita (Andrew Lloyd Webber; Tim Rice; Tim Rice; 1978). Che Guevara narrates the life story of Eva Peron, a
singer and film actress who marries Juan Peron. Juan is elected 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.
6. The Mikado (Arthur Sullivan; W.S. Gilbert; 1885). 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."
7. The Sound of Music (Richard Rodgers; Oscar Hammerstein II; Howard Lindsey & Russel Crouse; 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.
8. Fiddler on the Roof (Jerry Bock; Sheldon Harnick; Joseph Stein; 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.
9. Oklahoma! (Richard Rodgers; Oscar Hammerstein II; 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.
10. Cabaret (Fred Kander; John Ebb; Jon Masteroff; 1966). Cabaret is set in the seedy Kit-Kat Club in Weimar Berlin,
where the risqué Master of Ceremonies presides over the action ("Wilkommen"). 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.
You Gotta Know These Deserts
NAQT has a quota for geography questions at all levels of play; these are the deserts that have been most frequently asked
about in our past packets.
1. Antarctica (5.4 million sq. mi.) 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. Norwegian Roald Amundsen was the first to reach the South Pole
(1911), while 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.
2. Sahara Desert (Northern Africa; 3.5 million sq. mi.) The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, but its largest
hot desert. Players should know the Atlas Mountains (which bound the western Sahara on the north) and the Sahel,
a savannah-like strip that 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. Its most asked-about inhabitants are the
Berbers and Tuaregs.
3. Atacama Desert (Chile; 70,000 sq. mi.) 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 defeats Peru and Bolivia) that sought to control its nitrate resources (which were necessary for
the production of explosives).
4. Kalahari Desert (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa; 360,000 sq. mi.) 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). Most famous are its San Bushmen and their click
language.
5. Mojave Desert (U.S.; 25,000 sq. mi.) The Mojave is bounded by the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain
ranges along the San Andreas and Garlock Faults. It lies 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).
6. Gobi Desert (China and Mongolia; 500,000 sq. mi.) 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.
7. Rub' al-Khali (Arabian Peninsula; 250,000 sq. mi.) Its name means "Empty Quarter" in English and this desert can
be 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.
8. Namib Desert (Namibia and Angola; 30,000 sq. mi.) 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.
9. Painted Desert (Northern Arizona) The Painted Desert, which is shared by Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest
National Parks, is known for its colorful, banded rock formations.
10. Negev Desert (Israel; 4,700 sq. mi.) The triangular Negev covers the southern half of Israel.
11. Taklamakan Desert (China; 105,000 sq. mi.) 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.
12. Great Sandy Desert (Western Australia; 140,000 sq. mi.) Part of the Western Desert, and the ninth largest in the
world.
Oddly, half of the world's ten largest deserts don't make this frequency-based list: the Arabian Desert (#3, which includes
the Rub' al-Khali), the Patagonian Desert (#5), the Great Victoria Desert (#6), the Great Basin (#7), and the Chihuahuan
(#8).
You Gotta Know These Mathematicians
These are the ten people that have come up most frequently in NAQT's questions as a result of their accomplishments in
pure mathematics.
1. The work of Isaac Newton (1643-1727, English) in pure math includes generalizing the binomial theorem to noninteger exponents, doing the first rigorous manipulation with power series, and creating "Newton's method" for the
finding roots. 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.
2. Euclid (c. 300 BC, Alexandrian Greek) is principally known for the Elements, a textbook on geometry and number
theory, that was used for over 2,000 years and which grounds essentially all of what is taught in modern high school
geometry classes. Euclid is known for his five postulates that define Euclidean (i.e., "normal") space, especially the
fifth (the "parallel postulate") which can be broken to create spherical and hyperbolic geometries. He also proved
the infinitude of prime numbers.
3. Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855, German) is 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. He also proved the fundamental theorem of algebra, the law of
quadratic reciprocity, and the prime number theorem. Gauss may be most famous for the (possibly apocryphal)
story of intuiting the formula for the summation of an arithmetic series when given the busywork task of adding the
first 100 positive integers by his primary school teacher.
4. Archimedes (287-212 BC, Syracusan Greek) is best known for his "Eureka moment" of using 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 presaged the summation of infinite series with his "method of exhaustion."
5. Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716, German) is 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 invented binary numbers and did fundamental work in establishing
boolean algebra and symbolic logic.
6. Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665, French) is remembered for his contributions to number theory including his "little
theorem" that ap - a will be divisible by p if p is prime. He also studied Fermat primes (those of the form 22n+1) and
stated his "Last Theorem" that xn + yn = zn has no solutions if x, y, and z are positive integers and n is a positive
integer greater than 2. He and Blaise Pascal founded probability theory. In addition, he discovered methods for
finding the maxima and minima of functions and the areas under polynomials that anticipated calculus and inspired
Isaac Newton.
7. Leonhard Euler (1707-1783, Swiss) is known for his prolific output and the fact that he continued to produce
seminal results even after going blind. He invented graph theory with the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem and
introduced the modern notation for e, the square root of -1 (i), and trigonometric functions. Richard Feynman called
his proof that eiπ = -1 "the most beautiful equation in mathematics" because it linked four of math's most important
constants.
8. Kurt Gödel (1906-1978, Austrian) was a logician best known for his two incompleteness theorems proving that
every formal system that was powerful enough to express ordinary arithmetic must necessarily contain statements
that were true, but which could not be proved within the system itself.
9. Andrew Wiles (1953-present, British) is best known for proving the Taniyama-Shimura conjecture that all rational
semi-stable elliptic curves are modular. This would normally be too abstruse to occur frequently in quiz bowl, but a
corollary of that result established Fermat's Last Theorem.
10. William Rowan Hamilton (1805-1865, Irish) is known for extending the notion of complex numbers to four
dimensions by inventing the quaternions, a non-commutative field with six square roots of -1: ±i, ±j, and ±k with the
property that ij = k, jk = i, and ki = j.
You Gotta Know These Sculptors
1. 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, a Pietà, Bacchus, and a number of pieces for the tomb of Pope Julius II
(including Dying Slave and Moses). He preferred to work in Carraran marble.
2. 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.
3. Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598 - 1680) A Roman who, with the rarely asked-about 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.
4. 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 Or San Michele [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 of schiacciato.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Phidias (c. 480 BC - 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.
8. 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. He's
also the center of anecdote in which U.S. customs taxed his works as "industrial products" since they refused to
recognize them as art.
9. 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.
10. Frédéric-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.
You Gotta Know These Treaties
These are the twelve treaties that have been mentioned most frequently in NAQT's questions since our very first
tournament set back in 1997. As with all of the You Gotta Know lists available on our website, they aren't necessarily the
most important treaties from a historical point of view, merely those that have proven most gettable as answers and most
useful as clues.
1. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) officially ended World War I and 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.).
2. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) was a 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.
3. The Treaty of Ghent (1814) ended the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain. It was signed in the Belgian city
of 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.
4. The Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) ended the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). It was signed in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, 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.
5. The Adams-Onís 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.
6. The Camp David Accords (1978) were negotiated at the presidential retreat of Camp David by Egypt's Anwar
Sadat and Israel 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.
7. The 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.
8. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918) was a "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 modernday Brest (in Belarus) and was nullified by the subsequent Treaty of Versailles following Germany's defeat.
9. The 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.
10. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) is the 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.
11. The 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.
12. The Treaty of Paris (1898) was, surprisingly, the only Treaty of Paris to make the list. It ended the SpanishAmerican 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.
You Gotta Know These U.S. Supreme Court Cases
Each case is followed by the name of the presiding chief justice, the vote, and the year it was decided.
1. Plessy v. Ferguson (Melville Fuller, 7-1, 1896) Homer Plessy (an octoroon) 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.
2. Marbury v. Madison (John Marshall, 4-0, 1803) 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.
3. Roe v. Wade (Warren Burger, 7-2, 1973) Norma McCorvey (under the alias Jane Roe), a rape victim, 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 of 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.
4. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (Earl Warren, 9-0, 1954) 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.
5. McCulloch v. Maryland (John Marshall, 9-0, 1819) After the Second Bank of the United States began calling in
loans owned 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.
6. Baker v. Carr (Earl Warren, 6-2, 1962) Charles W. Baker, a Tennessee citizen, sued the Tennessee secretary
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."
7. Gideon v. Wainwright (Earl Warren, 9-0, 1963) 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.
8. Hammer v. Dagenhart (Edward Douglass White, 5-4, 1918) The Keating-Own Act prohibited the interstate sale of
goods produced by child labor leading Roland Dagenhart to sue U.S. attorney 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 U.S. v. Darby Lumber Company case upholding the Fair Labor Standards Act.
9. Fletcher v. Peck (John Marshall, 6-0, 1810) 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 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.
10. Ex Parte Merryman (Roger Taney, 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.
You Gotta Know These Operas
Opera is the subject of a disproportionate share of the musical fine arts questions in quiz bowl because the genre is more
conducive to the verbal nature of the game than instrumental music. The big difference, of course, is that operas have
stories and characters that can be easily described by words. It is much easier to parse a question on an operatic plot than
to understand a description of the notes, tempo, or harmony of, for instance, Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, in
the rapid-fire atmosphere of quiz bowl.
Each operatic title is followed by the name of its composer, its librettist, and the year of its first performance.
1. Aida (Giuseppe Verdi, Antonio Ghislanzoni, 1871) Aida is an Ethiopian princess who is held captive in Egypt. She
falls in love with the Egyptian general Radames and convinces him to run away with her; unfortunately, he is caught
by the high priest Ramphis and a jealous Egyptian princess Amneris. Radames is buried alive, but finds that Aida
has snuck into the tomb to join him. The opera was commissioned by the khedive of Egypt and intended to
commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal, but it was finished late and instead premiered at the opening of the
Cairo Opera House.
2. Carmen (Georges Bizet, Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, 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
of Prosper Merimée.
3. The Marriage of Figaro (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, 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 complicated schemes that involve
impersonating other characters including the page Cherubino. The opera is based on a comedy by Pierre de
Beaumarchais. Be careful: Many of the same characters also appear in The Barber of Seville!
4. The Barber of Seville (Gioacchino Rossini, Cesare Sterbini, 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.
5. William Tell (Gioacchino Rossini, unimportant librettists, 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 poll 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.
6. Don Giovanni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, 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
swordfights 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.
7. Salome (Richard Strauss, Hugo Oscar Wilde, 1905) Jokanaan (a.k.a. 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.
8. Boris Godunov (Modest Mussorgsky (composer and librettist), 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).
9. La Bohème (Giacomo Puccini, unimportant librettists, 1896) This opera tells the story of four extremely poor friends
who live in the French (i.e., Students') Quarter of Paris: Marcello the artist, Rodolfo the poet, Colline the
philosopher, and Schaunard the musician. Rodolfo meets the seamstress Mimi 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.
10. Madama Butterfly (Giacomo Puccini, unimportant librettists, 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-CioSan (Madame Butterfly) with a marriage contract with a cancellation clause. He later returns to America leaving CioCio-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.
You Gotta Know These Classes of Particles
Physics and chemistry are often difficult subjects for quiz bowl teams if those classes are taught during the junior or senior
years since many players will not have completed them before encountering the subject matter at tournaments. One highyield area of physics to study is the nomenclature of various groups of particles.
Some conventions: The mass of particles is usually given in mega-electronvolts (MeV), where an electron-volt is the energy
acquired by an electron when it crosses a potential difference of one volt. The energies are converted to masses by
Einstein's famous equation E = mc2, where c is the speed of light. Charges are given in terms of the fundamental electric
charge (the absolute value of the charge on an electron).
Every kind of particle also has a corresponding anti-particle made of anti-matter; when it is said that there "six leptons," antiparticles are not counted (so, in some sense, there are twelve). Anti-particles have the same mass, but the opposite charge,
of the original. There are no particles with negative mass. Note that in some rare situations, a particle can be its own antiparticle.
1. Leptons are 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 were once
thought to be massless), while the other three have a charge of -1. All neutrinos are fermions and the total number
of leptons is conserved (counting regular leptons as +1 particle and anti-leptons as -1 particle). The word "lepton"
comes from the Greek for "light" (as in "not heavy"), even though the muon and tauon are fairly massive.
2. Quarks are another class of fundamental particle. They also come in six flavors: up, down, charm, strange, top
(sometimes, "truth"), and bottom (sometimes, "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 the strong nuclear force) is quantum chromodynamics.
3. Baryons are 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 (which are arbitrary names). 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).
4. Mesons are composite particles generally made from a quark and an anti-quark. There are dozens of examples
including the pion, kaon, J/Psi, Rho, and D. All mesons are bosons. The quark and anti-quark 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 anti-quarks, but this kind of particle (a "tetraquark") is
rare, both in nature and in quiz bowl.
5. Fermions are particles with half-integral spin. Spin is a form of "intrinsic angular momentum" which is possessed by
particles as if they were spinning around their axis (but, in fact, 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 2 pi 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/2pi 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 that of the Italian-American
physicist Enrico Fermi.
6. Bosons are 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 that of the Indian-American physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.
7. Hadrons are 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."
8. Gauge bosons (sometimes called "vector bosons") are 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).
9. Gluons are 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.
10. Partons are 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.
You Gotta Know These Asian Rivers
Asia is home to seven of the world's twelve longest rivers, but its waterways are also of high cultural, spiritual, and
economic importance. Here are the ten Asian rivers that every quiz bowl team should be familiar with.
1. The Yangtze (or Chang Jiang or Ch'ang Chiang) is 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
one in every three Chinese citizens. The river has been in the news for the construction of the Three Gorges Dam,
the world's largest, which will reduce flooding but displace 1.5 million people and bury more than 1,300 known
archaeological sites.
2. The Brahmaputra (or Tsangpo or Jamuna) 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.
3. The Yellow River (or Huang He or Huang Ho) is, 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, built during the Ming Dynasty, that links it
to the Yangtze.
4. The Ganges (or Ganga) is 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.
5. The Mekong is 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 of Vientiane and Phnom Penh are on the Mekong. The building of dams and clearing of
rapids are a source of diplomatic conflict between China, Laos, and Cambodia.
6. The Tigris is the eastern of the two rivers that define the historic region of Mesopotamia (meaning, "The Land
Between Two Rivers") that was home to the ancient civilizations of 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
subsequently empties into the Persian Gulf.
7. The 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.
8. The Irrawaddy (or Ayeyarwaddy) is the 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."
9. The Indus is the chief river of Pakistan as well as being the ultimate 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.
10. The 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 lies 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
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.
You Gotta Know These Old Testament Characters
1. Abraham was the first of the patriarchs, whose lives are told in the book of Genesis. He proved his military prowess
during the War of the Kings, rescuing his captured nephew Lot. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade God to
spare the evil cities of Sodom (where Lot lived) and Gomorrah. His wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac when she was
ninety years old; Sarah evicted Abraham's concubine, Hagar, and her son Ishmael (said to be ancestor of the
Arabs). Abraham also bought the Cave of Machpela (near Hebron) as a burial ground for him and his descendants
(Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebeccah, and Jacob and Leah are supposedly buried there).
2. Isaac was, as a child, almost sacrificed by his father Abraham on Mt. Moriah, when God tried to test Abraham's
faith. He married Rebeccah, and she gave birth to the twins Jacob and Esau, of whom Esau (the older one) was
entitled to a birthright. However, Jacob tricked Isaac with Rebeccah's help. This incident caused Esau and Isaac to
be mortal enemies. Denied his birthright, Esau went to live in Mt. Seir and became the father of the Edomites.
3. Jacob was Esau's twin brother, but had to flee Esau's rage after stealing Esau's blessing and birthright. Jacob
loved his uncle Laban's daughter Rachel, but Laban tricked him into marrying her sister Leah first. Leah bore him
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun; Leah's maidservant Zilpah, bore Jacob Gad and Asher;
Rachel gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin, and Rachel's maidservant Bilhah bore Dan and Naphtali. The Twelve
Tribes of Israel descend from Jacob's twelve sons, with the exception of Joseph; Ephraim and Menasseh, sons of
Joseph, each head "half-tribes." Jacob was later renamed "Israel," meaning "he who fights with God."
4. Joshua was the charismatic attendant to Moses during the Exodus from Egypt. Joshua was one of the twelve spies
sent to scout Canaan. Ten of the other spies gave negative reports of the land and were killed in the plague as
punishment; Joshua and another spy, Caleb, gave positive reports and were rewarded. Appointed Moses'
successor, Joshua led the Israelites in conquering and dividing Canaan. One of his most famous victories was
against the city of Jericho, which he destroyed by circling the city seven times while blowing on rams' horns
(shofarim).
5. Deborah was one of the Judges, leaders who governed the Hebrews in Canaan during the period between
Joshua's death and the establishment of the monarchy in Israel; she used to judge while sitting under a palm tree.
In battle, she and Barak (son of Abinoam) led the Hebrews to a stunning victory against Jabin, the Canaanite king.
She won when the chariots of Sisera, Jabin's general, got stuck in the mud of the river Kishon, and he and his
soldiers all fled or were killed. The victory ended an era of persecution of the Hebrews by Jabin.
6. Lot was the nephew of Abraham and later left him to settle around the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. When
God prepared to destroy the two cities, two messengers were sent to Lot to evacuate him from the area; as Lot and
his family were fleeing, his wife accidentally glanced back, and she was transformed into a pillar of salt. Afterwards,
fearing that they were the only people left alive on Earth, his two daughters got him drunk and became pregnant
from him, beginning the future nations of Moab and the Ammonites.
7. Noah, being a "righteous man and blameless in his generation," (Genesis 6:9) was chosen by God to continue the
human race, while the rest of mankind was destroyed by a flood because of their wickedness. Afterwards, he and
his family populated the Earth. His son Shem is considered the father of the Semitic people (e.g., Arabs and
Hebrews), Ham, the ancestor of the Africans, and Japheth, the ancestor of various other races, including IndoEuropeans.
8. Cain, Abel, and Seth were the sons of Adam and Eve. (Adam begat other sons and daughters but the Bible
mentions none by name.) Cain killed Abel out of rage because God had preferred Abel's offering from his flock,
rather than Cain's. When asked about Abel's fate, Cain answered, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain was punished
for the murder by becoming a vagabond, and he was given a special mark on his forehead to protect him from
anyone who might kill him (God promised that anyone who killed Cain would suffer punishment for seven
generations). Later, Eve gave birth to Seth.
9. Ruth was a Moabite woman who converted to Judaism. Her lineage includes David, King of Israel. She stayed with
her mother-in-law, Naomi, after Naomi's husband and two sons died of illness. Ruth later married Boaz, one of the
family's relatives, as the custom was that a family member must continue his relative's lineage if he dies by
marrying his widow. The Book of Ruth is read on the holiday of Shavuot.
10. Ezra was a Jewish scribe who led a group of Jews back to Israel from their exile in Babylonia. He was also
instrumental in working to rebuild the Temple (with permission from Cyrus) after the Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it. When Israel's neighbors tried to convince King Artaxerxes that the Jews
shouldn't be able to rebuild the Temple because of their reputation as a rebellious province, Ezra intervened and
appealed later to King Darius, who allowed them to resume construction. Additionally, Ezra helped to reestablish
Jewish religious practice in Israel after the exile.
11. Saul, David, and Solomon were the first three kings of Israel. The young David, popular after killing the giant
Goliath, succeeded Saul at the behest of the prophet Samuel and with the blessing of his close friend, Saul's own
son Jonathan. For this, Saul greatly resented David and made more than one attempt to kill him. David, like Saul,
spent much of his reign at war; because of the blood on his hands, God decreed that Solomon (not David) would
build the Temple. David captured the city of Jerusalem and made it his capital. He fell in love with his future wife
Bathsheba after he spotted her bathing; he had her husband killed so that he could marry her. He also exhausted
himself supressing a rebellion by his son Absalom, who was captured when his long hair caught on a tree branch.
Bathsheba's son Solomon, in addition to building the Temple, was credited with writing Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and
Song of Songs.
12. Daniel was a young Jew who, together with his three friends (Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah), was taken captive
by Nebuchadnezzar when he conquered the Kingdom of Judah. Daniel was given a Babylonian name, and he
gained favor with Nebuchadnezzar when he correctly interpreted one of his dreams. Nebuchadnezzar was later
replaced by King Belshazzar. During a royal feast, a mysterious hand inscribed strange words on the wall. Daniel
was summoned and interpreted the famous message, the writing on the wall (it read "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Ufarsin"),
as predicting Belshazzar's downfall. Later that night, the King was killed, and King Darius the Mede took over.
Servants of Darius convinced him to lock Daniel in the lion's den, where he magically survived with God's help.
You Gotta Know These New York Yankees
1. George Herman "Babe" Ruth (1895-1948), the rough son of a saloon keeper, 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 87 games
and 3 World Series, and, in 1919, setting a new single-season home record of 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 pitchers mound to the outfield, he won 9 homer titles and 4 World Series from 1920 to 1934. In 1927 he hit
60 homeruns and lead the Yankee lineup known as Murderers Row 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 freak occurrence.
2. Lou Gehrig (1903-1941) was 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 Ripen, 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), a triple crown in 1934, and a .340 career batting average. When it was discovered that he was
suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis--ALS is commonly referred to 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.
3. Joe DiMaggio (1914-99) 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 3 Most Valuable Player awards ('39, '41, '47), 2 batting
titles ('39, '40), and 2 homer titles ('37, '48). 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 ('43-'45) and because of the distance to Yankee Stadium's left field power alley, in
those days known as Death Valley. He wedded Marilyn Monroe in 1954, but they divorced after nine months.
4. Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) 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 12 pennant winners and seven World Championship clubs. He holds 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 4 homer titles ('55, '56, '58, '60), 3 MVP awards ('56, '57, '62), and in
1956 a triple crown. In 1961 he and teammate Roger Maris both had a chance of passing Ruth's 1927 mark of 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.
5. Yogi Berra (1925- ) was 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 thirty years. His hitting, fielding, and ability to lead the
Yankee pitching staff earned him 3 MVP awards ('51, '54, '55). He also stared in the World Series, collecting 71 hits
while playing on 10 championship teams, both records. Hired as Yankee manager in 1964, he lead 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 aint' 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."
6. Whitey Ford (1926- ) was 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, first for a pitcher with
200 or more victories. In the 1960, '61, and '62 Series, he pitched 33 consecutive scoreless innings, breaking Babe
Ruth's World Series record of 29-2/3 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
7.
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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. Cy Young award in 1961.
Casey Stengel (1889-1975) He managed the Yankees to 10 pennants and 7 championships, including a record
five in a row from '49-'53. 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 homeruns, 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."
Billy Martin (1928-1989). The alert, combative second baseman for the Yankees from 1950-1957, 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 cost him many jobs. His five terms managing one club
is tied for the major league record.
Reggie Jackson (1946- ) 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. Besides
Babe Ruth, who did it twice, he is the only player 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 homer titles ('73, '75, '80, '83), hit 563
homeruns, and set a major league record for strikeouts (2,597).
Don Mattingly (1961- ) was 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). He twice led the league in hits ('84 and '85), won the league
batting crown 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--his career fielding percentage
(.99599) is the best--but World Series glory eluded "the Hitman." His Yankees never played in the Fall Classic.
Derek Jeter (1974-) became the starting shortstop for the Yanks in 1996, winning the Rookie of the Year Award
and helping New York capture its first championship since 1978. More post-season highlights followed, including
three more titles ('98, '99, '00), the 2000 Series MVP, and a controversial homer against the Baltimore Orioles in
Game One of the 1996 ALCS when twelve year old Jeffrey Maier turned his fly ball into a homerun 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."
Joe McCarthy (1887-1978) 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 1067
runs, the most of any team since 1900, while his 1936 club scored the second most, with 1065. In 1905 McCarthy
played in one game for the eventual Yankees, the New York Highlanders.
You Gotta Know These Architects
1. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 - 1959) Wright's life and works are staples of quiz tournaments. Born in Wisconsin, he
worked under Louis Sullivan before founding a Chicago practice. His early homes, like the Robie House at 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 Museum in Racine, Wisconsin; and Taliesin West, his Arizona home and studio.
(The original Taliesin, in Wisconsin, burned down in 1914). Other notable Wright works are the Guggenheim
Museum in New York City, the Larkin Building in Buffalo, the Unity Temple in Oak Park, and the Imperial Hotel in
Tokyo, one of few buildings to survive a 1923 earthquake.
2. Walter Gropius (1883 - 1969) Though Gropius also designed the Fagus Factory (Alfeld, Germany) and the Pan
American Building (New York City), he is better known for founding the Bauhaus. Beginning in Weimer 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
1938-52, shifting its focus to incorporate modern design and construction techniques.
3. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 - 1969) The leading architect of the International Style of skyscraper design, he
(like Gropius) worked in the office of Peter Behrens. He directed the Bauhaus from 1930-33, shutting it down before
the Nazis could do so. His works include the Barcelona Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition; the Lake
Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago; the New National Gallery in Berlin; and the Seagram Building in New York,
which he co-designed with Philip Johnson. The phrase "less is more" is associated with Mies, whose glass-covered
steel structures influenced the design of office buildings in nearly every major city in the U.S.
4. I(eoh) M(ing) Pei (1917 - Present) Pei is among the most famous living architects. 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.
5. Sir Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723) 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 a monument, look
around you."
6. Le Corbusier (born Charles-Eduoard Jeanneret) (1887 - 1965) 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.
7. Louis Sullivan (1856 - 1924) 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
Wright. Sullivan's dictum that "form should follow function" strongly influenced modern architecture; his writings
helped break the profession from classical restraints.
8. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377 - 1446) 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 Santa Maria del Fiore (also known as the Florence Cathedral), which
dominates the Florentine skyline. The task required an innovative supporting framework and occupied much of his
career (as described in detail in 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.
9. Frank Gehry (1929 - Present) Winner of the 1989 Pritzker Prize, Gehry is best-known today for large-scale
compositions like 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,"
given 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). As of 2002, active projects included a new wing for the Corcoran Gallery and the SoHo Branch of the
Guggenheim.
10. Andrea Palladio (1508 - 1580) Born Andrea di Pietro della Gondola, Palladio designed villas in or 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.
11. Eero Saarinen (1910 - 1961) 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 and the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport. 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.
12. Antonio Gaudi y Cornet (1852 - 1926) Gaudi 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 facades, and several works for patron Eusebi Guell. He spent 40 years working on the Expiatory Church
of the Holy Family (also known as La Sagrada Familia); although its spindle-like towers are in place, the building
remains unfinished, and Gaudi's models for it were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War. He was also fond of using
hyperbolic paraboloids in his work.
You Gotta Know These 20th-Century Composers
1. Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971). He studied under Rimsky-Korsakov and completed two grand ballets for 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 Webern, producing the abstract ballet Agon
(1957).
2. 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 Wagner and R. 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.
3. 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 antiwar poems of Wilfred Owen, who was killed
during World War I.
4. Aaron Copland (COPE-land) (1900-1990). At first a modernist, he was the first American student of Nadia
Boulanger in Paris in the 1920s; there 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 the
President's writings. Copland wrote several educational books, beginning with 1939's What to Listen For in Music.
5. 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 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).
6. 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 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 Yevtushenko
poem, Babi Yar condemned anti-Semitism in both Nazi Germany and the USSR.
7. Béla Bartók (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-held 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).
8. 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 Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, and 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.
9. 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 Chloe (1912) for Diaghilev, which was followed by Mother Goose and La Valse,
and also re-orchestrated Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. His health declined after a 1932 taxi accident;
unsuccessful brain surgery ended his life.
10. 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 to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Gershwin died of a brain tumor at age 38.
11. 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," where he
attached screws, wood, rubber bands, and other items to piano strings in order to create a percussion sound.
12. Ralph Vaughan Williams (RAIF) (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.
13. 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 (known affectionately by Julliard
students as "Rocky II") 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.
You Gotta Know These Hindu Deities and Heroes
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Krishna This eighth avatar of Vishnu is born when Vishnu plucks two of his own hairs - one light, one dark - and
used 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 killed Ravana. Bharata abdicates; Rama makes Sita walk through
fire to prove that Ravana had not corrupted her.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. "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.
10. 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 one hundred cousins, Kauravas, culminating at the battle on "Kuru's Field." Before the battle,
Arjuna asks his charioteer (Krishman) 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
You Gotta Know These Trojan War Heroes
Greeks
1. 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 (book 1) and by his ill-considered strategy of suggesting
that all the troops go home (book 2). Upon his return home, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra,
and her lover, Aegisthus.
2. 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 seems that Menelaus will win.
Despite his notionally equal say in commanding the troops with his brother Agamemnon, in practice Agamemnon
often dominates.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 singlehandedly. He commits suicide after the armor of Achilles is awarded to
Odysseus rather than to himself.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Nestor, king of Pylos, 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.
Trojans
1. 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 that Greek 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.
2. Paris (sometimes called Alexander) 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.
3. 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.
4. Hecuba (or Hecabe) 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.
5. 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.
6. Cassandra This daughter of Priam and Hecuba has an affair with the god 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 sister Electra) to avenge the
deaths and kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
7. 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.
8. 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 founds
Alba Longa, near the site of Rome. That bloodline is the basis of Julius Caesar's claim to have descended from
Venus.
You Gotta Know These Tennis Players
Men
1. Rod Laver (1938-present). 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 '63 to '67, 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.
2. Pete Sampras (1971-present). "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 the tournament 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.
3. Bjorn Borg (1956-present). 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 never played at the Australian Open, preferring to take
the winter months off.
4. 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.
5. Andre Agassi (1970-present). 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.
6. John McEnroe (1959-present). 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.
7. 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.
Women
1. Martina Navratilova (1956-present). 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 tied Billie Jean King with 20 overall Wimbledons, taking the mixed doubles… at age 46!
2. Steffi Graf (1969-present). 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.
3. Chris Evert (1954-present). 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.
4. Billie Jean King (1943-present). 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.
5. Margaret Smith Court (1942-present). 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.
6. Venus and Serena Williams (1980-present and 1981-present). 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.
7. 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.
You Gotta Know These Latin American Authors
1. Gabriel García Marquez (1928-present, Colombia; Nobel Prize for Literature 1982). The master of magic realism,
his birthplace of Aracataca was the model for the fictional town of 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.
2. Pablo Neruda (1904-1973, Chile; Nobel 1971). Born Neftalí Reyes, he adopted the surname of the 19th century
Czech poet Jan Neruda. Gabriela Mistral (see below) was the head of his school in the small city of Temuco. 1923
saw the publication of Neruda's best-known work, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, 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 executed.
3. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986, Argentina). 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.
4. Isabel Allende (1942-present, Chile). 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 and executed 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 magic 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.
5. Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957, Chile; Nobel 1945). The first Latin American to win the Nobel Literature Prize, 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.
6. Octavio Paz (1914-1998, Mexico; Nobel 1990). 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 ("zootsuiters"), 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.
7. José Martí (1853-1895, Cuba). 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; the poem
"Guantanamera" was the inspiration for several songs. Martí was killed in a skirmish at Dos Ríos while participating
in an invasion with other Cuban exiles.
8. Mario Vargas Llosa (1936-present, Peru). 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 best-known 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.
9. Miguel Asturias (1899-1974, Guatemala; Nobel 1967). 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. He most famous novel, El señor presidente (1946), was a satire against the
oppressive Guatalemalan dictatorship. Asturias also completed a trilogy that blasted exploitation by the Americanled 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.
10. Carlos Fuentes (1928-present, Mexico). Though born into a well-to-do family, Fuentes has 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 has also penned absurdist plays and essay collections on Mexican and American art and
literature.
You Gotta Know These Civil War Battles and Campaigns
1. 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.
2. First Bull Run / 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. 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.
3. 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. Renaming 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 (Cumberland, Congress, Minnesota) but when the Monitor arrived, the two ironclads fought to a
stalemate - thus the Union maintained its blockade. The South deliberately destroyed the Virginia two months later,
while the Monitor sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras in December 1862.
4. Shiloh / Pittsburg Landing (April 6-7, 1862). This 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 led the attack, but Union troops held the "Hornets' Nest" for hours, killing Johnston in the process.
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 lost their lives.
5. 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 West.
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 failure of the
campaign.
6. Second Bull Run / Second Manassas (August 29-30, 1862). This resounding victory by Lee and Jackson pushed
Union forces back to Washington, D.C. President Lincoln had replaced McClellan with John Pope, who would
supposedly be united with the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Henry Halleck. 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. Halleck's army was supposed to land at Aquia, but instead retreated to defend Washington, ceding
all of Virginia to the Confederacy and marking a low point in the Union effort.
7. Antietam / Sharpsburg (September 17, 1862). The bloodiest day of the Civil War: 12,000 Union men lost their
lives, as did 10,000 Confederates. Lee planned a northern invasion into Maryland but a Union soldier discovered
those battle plans wrapped around three cigars. Instead, Lee marched his army toward Sharpsburg Creek.
Meanwhile, Jackson's forces captured Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and rushed to reunite with Lee. McClellan had a
large enough force to capture the entire rebel army but did not use all of his troops nor coordinate one solid attack.
Antietam thus was actually a series of five skirmishes; in one of them, dubbed "The Bloody Lane," 2000 Union
soldiers fell in a few minutes. As it was, Union forces drove the Confederates back across the Potomac.
8. Fredericksburg / Marye's Heights (December 13, 1862). At this site, about 50 miles south of Washington, Union
commander Ambrose Burnside (who had replaced McClellan) tried to take the initiative and cross the
Rappahannock River in a march toward Richmond. He met Lee's forces, which were well entrenched in the hills
behind the town. With a superior position, Lee routed the Union army; 13,000 Northern troops fell there, while only
5000 Confederates were killed. After the battle, Burnside's troops were forced to make "The Mud March" up the
Rappahannock, made foul by weather and dead and wounded bodies.
9. Vicksburg Campaign (April 29 - July 4, 1863). This campaign was launched by Grant to take control of the
Mississippi River and cut off the western Confederate states from the east. Grant ordered regiments led by James
McPherson, John McClernand, and William Tecumseh Sherman through bayous west of the Mississippi to Hard
Times. They were up against rebel forces 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.
10. Chancellorsville (May 1-4, 1863). 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
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.
11. Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863). This marked both the farthest northward advancement by the Confederacy and the
turning point that led to its defeat. Lee, along with Longstreet, A.P. Hill, and Richard Ewell, led the southern
Pennsylvania attack; 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. George Meade replaced Hooker
as leader of the Union side; Southern forces drove Northerners through the town but could not secure key positions
at Cemetery Ridge and Little and Big Round Tops. Low on supplies, on the 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.
12. 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 Longstreet turned the tables by whipping Rosecrans, forcing him into a siege position at
Chattanooga. Only George Thomas (the "Rock of Chickamauga") saved Rosecrans from annihilation. Welldeveloped railroad networks, however, allowed Grant, Hooker, and 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.
13. Wilderness Campaign (May 5 - June 12, 1864). The first clash between Grant and Lee, this series of conflicts
started with the Battle of the Wilderness (50 miles northwest of Richmond), where Southern leaders A.P. Hill and
Ewell held the line, and over 17,000 Northerners fell. At Spotsylvania Court House, Meade assaulted Lee's men,
but they repelled Meade at the "Bloody Angle." The trenches in which much of the fighting took place were similar
to those later seen in World War I. Advancing within ten miles of Richmond, Grant met Lee at Cold Harbor (June 3);
he lost 7,000 men to Lee's 1,500 and withdrew across the James River, but with the entire campaign he severely
reduced Confederate strength in a war of attrition.
14. Petersburg Campaign (June 1864 - April 1865). After Cold Harbor, Grant moved south to lay siege to this railroad
hub, 25 miles from Richmond. 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 maintained
the city, 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 Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox
Court House one week later, effectively ending the Civil War.
You Gotta Know These Jewish Holidays
1. Rosh Hashanah Celebrated on the first and second days of Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of the
Jewish year. It is believed that on this day, people's souls are judged, and God "temporarily" decides their fate.
Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are the Ten Days of Repentment, when people
are given a chance to reflect and repent. On Rosh Hashanah, it is customary to wear white clothes and eat apples,
honey, and pomegranates. Other customs include the blowing of the shofar (an instrument made from a ram's horn)
and the ceremony of Tashlich, in which Jews throw bread crumbs into running water to symbolize the cleansing of
their sins, is also performed.
2. 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.
Forbidden fashions include jewelry, makeup, and leather shoes. One traditionally wears white clothes to
symbolizing purity from sin. In the afternoon, the Book of Jonah is read. A full day of prayers begins with the Kol
Nidre, an ancient incantation that forgives Jews from vows or promises unwittingly made during the past year. As
on Rosh Hashanah, the shofar is blown.
3. 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 booths, in which they live
and eat for seven days. In synagogue, four symbolic species (the palm, the etrog [a large yellow citrus], myrtle, and
willow) are waved in seven directions. Each night, in the sukkah, it is traditional to invite a Biblical figure to be your
guest for that night.
4. 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, as well as the recapture and
purification of the Temple in Jerusalem (ca. 168 BC). It is traditional to light the eight-branched Menorah each night
and spin the dreidel. Exchanging presents is only a recent tradition developed in the U.S.
5. Purim Celebrated on the 14th of Adar (the sixth month) and commemorating the victory of the Jews, led by Esther
and 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 one-handed scroll called a megillah), takes place in Shushan, the
capital city of the kingdom of the Persian King Ahasueras. On Purim, it is traditional to dress up, get drunk, give
charity, eat triangular pastries called hamentaschen, and exchange gifts (Mishloach Manot) with friends.
6. Passover (Pesach) Celebrated for seven 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 (superceded in that role by Rosh
Hashanah). On the first two days, Jews have a festival dinner called a seder, where they retell the story of the
Exodus, from a book called a hagaddah. Jews are required to abstain from eating or owning leavened bread for the
duration of the festival; matzah (usually a square flat unleavened bread) is eaten instead. On Passover, the Song of
Songs is recited. Passover also begins a cycle of seven weeks, called the Omer, a period of semi-mourning.
7. Shavu'ot Celebrated on the sixth day of Sivan (the ninth month), the 50th day of the Omer, after Passover; the
word Shavu'ot means "weeks," hence the name Pentecost. Shavu'ot commemorates the giving of the Torah to the
Israelites at Mt. Sinai, as well as the beginning of the harvest in ancient Israel. Sukkot, Passover, and Shavu'ot are
the three pilgrimages, when Jews would all gather at the Temple each year; on Shavu'ot, Jews would dedicate their
first harvest fruits to the Temple. The Book of Ruth is read in synagogue on Shavu'ot, and it is traditional to study all
night on this festival.
8. The Ninth of Av This is a day of mourning for the destructions of both the First and Second Temples. It is
traditional to fast and to keep oneself in a solemn mood. The Book of Lamentations and the Book of Job are read,
traditionally while sitting on the floor and with candles as the only lights, as Jews are supposed to refrain from
physical comfort.
You Gotta Know These Computation Areas
This You Gotta Know article is devoted to twelve computational areas that will help the most in solving the sorts of math
questions that come up in NAQT invitational series. NAQT's collegiate sets tend to have very little computation and much of
that is in the context of a specific field (physics, economics, chemistry, etc.).
1. Pythagorean Triples. Almost certainly, the most important things to know are the basic sets of integers that satisfy
the Pythagorean Theorem (a2 + b2 = c2) and could be the side lengths of a right triangle. These are called
Pythagorean Triples and the simplest ones are 3-4-5, 5-12-13, 7-24-25, and 8-15-17. Note that any multiple of a
Pythagorean Triple is also a Pythagorean Triple so that 6-8-10, 15-20-25, and 300-400-500 are also ones by virtue
of 3-4-5 being one.
2. Matrices. Every team should be able to add, subtract, multiply, take the determinant of, transpose, and invert
matrices, particularly two-by-two ones.
3. Vectors. Every team should be able to find the length of a vector, and add, subtract, find the angle between, the dot
product of, and the cross product of two vectors.
4. Solids. Teams should be able to calculate the volume and surface area of simple geometric figures including the
sphere, cone, cylinder, pyramid, hemisphere, prism, and parallelepiped.
5. Plane Figures. Teams should be able to calculate the areas of triangles (especially equilateral triangles),
trapezoids, parallelograms, rhombi, and circles using different angles and lengths.
6. Similar Figures. The areas of similar figures are related by the square of any corresponding length and the
volumes are related by the cube of any corresponding length. For instance, if a square has a diagonal that is 30%
longer than another square, it has an area that is (1.30 x 1.30 = ) 1.69 times as great (69% greater). Similar
reasoning applies to perimeters, side lengths, diameters, and so forth.
7. Permutations. Teams should be able to compute the number of permutations and combinations of n objects taken
m at a time. They should also have memorized the first eight (or so) values of the factorial function to make this
easier.
8. Logarithms. Teams should be familiar with basic operations of logarithmic math: simplifying the logarithm of a
product, difference, or power, and converting from one base to another.
9. Complex Math. Teams should be familiar with the symbol i representing the imaginary square root of -1, basic
operations on complex numbers, graphing complex numbers, and converting complex numbers to magnitude-angle
form.
10. Divisibility Rules. Teams should be able to quickly apply the divisibility rules for small integers (2 through 11) to
large integers.
11. Polynomial Math. Teams should be able to quickly add, subtract, multiply, divide, factor, and find the roots of lowdegree polynomials.
12. Calculus. Teams should be able to find the derivative, integral, slope-at-a-point, local extrema, and critical points of
polynomial, trigonometric, and other common functions.
You Gotta Know These Quintuples
These ten topics are connected by only two things: There are five answers in each set and they all come up repeatedly in
quiz bowl.
1. "The Waste Land" The five parts of T. S. Eliot's 1922 masterpiece "The Waste Land" are "The Burial of the Dead,"
"A Game of Chess," "The Fire Sermon," "Death By Water," and "What the Thunder Said."
2. Mitosis The five stages of the biological process of mitosis (the production of new body cells from existing ones)
are interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase. Interphase is not technically a part of mitosis, but
it still sometimes finds its way in.
3. Nobel Prize Winners The five original winners of Nobel Prizes (1901) were Wilhelm Röntgen (physics, for the
discovery of X rays), Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff (chemistry, for laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure),
Emil Adolf von Behring (physiology or medicine, for his serum therapy remedy for diphtheria), Sully Prudhomme
(literature, for his idealistic poetry), and Henri Dunant and Frédéric Passy (peace, for founding the International Red
Cross and the first French peace society, respectively).
4. The Mighty Handful Five nationalist Russian composers are often referred to as "The Mighty Handful" or "The
Five." They are Modest Mussorgsky (1839 -1881), Mily Balakirev (1837-1910), Alexander Borodin (1833-1887),
Cesar Cui (1835-1918), and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).
5. D-Day The codenames for the five beaches attacked in Operation Overlord on D-Day are Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah,
and Omaha. The first three were attacked by British and Canadian forces while the latter two were assaulted by
American troops.
6. Orders of Architecture There are five classical "orders of architecture," a term that primarily refers to the design of
the columns used in the building. They are the Doric (simple, used for the Parthenon), Ionic (fancier, fluted with
scrolls on their capitals), Corinthian (baroque, fluted with acanthus-like leaves for capitals), Tuscan (plain, similar to
Doric), and Composite (mixture of Ionic and Corinthian). The latter two orders are Roman developments, the other
three originated with the Greeks.
7. Cooperstown The first five members elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus
Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson.
8. Spectral Lines Hydrogen produces an infinite series of spectral lines. The first five of those series are named after
scientists who observed them before it was known that they were actually examples of the same phenomenon.
From lowest to highest energy of the final level, they are known as the Lyman, Balmer, Paschen, Brackett, and
Pfund series. Only the Balmer series exists in the visible spectrum.
9. Platonic Solids There are only five regular polyhedra, three-dimensional shapes with congruent regular polygons
for sides. These, known as the Platonic solids, are the tetrahedron (4 triangular sides), cube (6 square sides),
octahedron (8 triangular sides), dodecahedron (12 pentagonal sides), and icosahedron (20 triangular sides).
10. Pillars of Islam Islam has five fundamental tenets of religious life, a group known as the Pillars of Islam. They are
the declaration of faith (Shahadah), prayer (Salat), giving charity to those in need (Zakat), fasting during the month
of Ramadan (Sawm), and the pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) to be performed once in each adherent's lifetime.
You Gotta Know These Olympics
1. 1896 Summer (Athens, Greece; April 6 - April 15, 1896) 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.
2. 1912 Summer (Stockholm, Sweden; May 5 - July 22, 1912) 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."
3. 1936 Summer (Berlin, Germany; August 1-16, 1936) 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 x 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.
4. 1968 Summer (Mexico City, Mexico; October 12-27, 1968) 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.
5. 1972 Summer (Munich, West Germany; August 26-September 11, 1972) One of the most tragic Olympics ever,
these Games saw the kidnapping and killing of 11 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.
6. 1980 Winter (Lake Placid, NY, United States; February 12-24, 1980) 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.
7. 1980 Summer (Moscow, Soviet Union; July 19 - August 3, 1980) 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.
8. 1984 Summer (Los Angeles, CA, United States; July 28 - August 12, 1984) One good turn deserves another, or in
this case, "The Russians aren't coming, the Russians aren't coming." 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 x 100 meter sprint relay. In
gymnastics, West Virginia native Mary Lou Retton won the all-around gold medal.
9. 1994 Winter (Lillehammer, Norway; February 12-February 27, 1994) 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 skate Oksana Baiul, who edged out silver medallist 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 1,000meters, 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.
10. 1996 Summer (Atlanta, GA, United States; July 25 - August 8, 1996) 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 still-unsolved bombing in Centennial
Olympic Park that killed one person and injured one hundred that remains the Games' most memorable event. 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.
You Gotta Know These Programming Languages
1. C++ is a popular, compiled, high-level language developed by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1985 at Bell Labs. C++ is similar
to C, but adds object-oriented features (classes), generic programming (templates), and exception handling to the
language. It is a popular language for developing business applications and, increasingly, games.
2. Java is a popular high-level language developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. The language was
originally named OAK and unsuccessfully used for set-top devices, but hit it big after being renamed in 1995 and
introduced to the World Wide Web. It is a relatively pure object-oriented language with syntax similar to C++.
Instead of being compiled to object code, it is compiled to Java bytecode, which is then interpreted or compiled on
the fly. This use of machine-independent bytecode gives it its "write once, run everywhere" property. Java is
principally used for client-side web application ("applets") and server-side web application ("servlets") that make use
of J2EE technology. The success of Java inspired Microsoft to introduce its C# language and .NET framework.
3. BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a high-level language developed by John Kemeny
and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College in the mid 1960s. It is easy to use but its relative lack of structure makes
maintaining programs difficult. There have been many versions of BASIC and some more modern ones
(TurboBasic, QuickBasic Visual Basic) have added advanced features. Stereotypical programs like 10 PRINT
"HELLO" and 10 GOTO 10 are written in BASIC.
4. C, a compiled successor to the B programming language, was developed by Dennis Ritchie in 1972. It is a highlevel and highly standardized language that remains very "close to the hardware" and allows the programmer to
perform useful, fast, and dangerous tricks. It is widely used for business applications, games, operating systems
(particularly UNIX and Linux), and device drivers.
5. Perl is an interpreted language designed principally to process text. It was written by Larry Wall and first released in
1988. It is intended to be practical and concise rather than theoretically elegant and is sometimes lampooned as
"write one, read never" because of its heavy use of symbols and idiom. It is often used for web CGI scripts and
parsing log files. "Perl" is an unofficial retronym for "Practical Extraction Report Language."
6. ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language) was created in the late 1950s and was the first procedural language intended for
solving mathematical and scientific problems. Formalized in a report titled ALGOL 58, it progressed through ALGOL
60 and ALGOL 68 before waning in popularity. ALGOL was sufficiently advanced and respected that most modern
procedural languages reflect its overall structure and design; some, like Pascal, are very closely related.
7. Pascal is a high-level, compiled language built upon ALGOL. It is named after the 17th-century mathematician
Blaise Pascal and was developed by Niklaus Wirth during 1967-71. Pascal is best known for its emphasis on
structured programming techniques and strong typing; because of this, it was extremely popular as a teaching
language in the 1980s and early 1990s, though it was never popular for business or scientific applications. The
object-oriented language Delphi was based on Pascal.
8. LISP (LISt Processing) is the ancestor of the family of functional languages that emphasize evaluating expressions
rather than executing imperative commands. It was developed in 1950-1960 by John McCarthy and is used
primarily for symbolic manipulations of complicated structures rather than numerical calculation. It and its
descendants (Scheme, CommonLisp, etc.) continue to be used in academic research, particularly artificial
intelligence.
9. Fortran (FORmula TRANslation) is the oldest high-level language. Designed by John Backus for IBM during the
late 1950s, it was once in use on virtually every computer in the world and is still used today for engineering and
scientific applications because of the quality of its compilers and numerical libraries. The most popular Fortran
versions are Fortran IV, 77, and 90. The name "Fortran" was originally entirely capitalized, but the ANSI Fortran
Committee has since declared the "initial capital" spelling official.
10. COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) was developed in 1959 by CODASYL (Conference on Data
Systems Languages) under the direction of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper and is the second-oldest high-level
language. It emphasized record-processing and database access and uses an English-like syntax, all attributes that
led to widespread use in business, particularly the financial sector. It is characterized as especially wordy (just as C
and Perl are characterized as terse). The vast majority of Year 2000 problems involved programs written in
COBOL.
You Gotta Know These American Warships
The following list of nine American warships includes eight of the most important or interesting ships in the U.S. Navy, as
well as one from the navy of the Confederate States of America. Though there are some ships that were more involved in
battle, these mark significant advancements in naval technology or turning points in U.S. history; most importantly, they are
the ships that come up most frequently in quiz bowl.
1. 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' "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.
2. USS Chesapeake The USS Chesapeake was 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, Capt. James Lawrence, uttered
his celebrated dying words, "Don't give up the ship," which have become a tradition in the U.S. Navy.
3. 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."
4. USS Monitor/CSS Virginia [aka 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, one of the nation's
first six frigates. The Monitor was sent to end its rampage and the two ironclads battled for 3 1/2 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, NC. The
shipwreck is a national underwater sanctuary under the purview of the NOAA.
5. USS Maine (ACR-1) [Second class] The first Maine, a second-class armored battleship was launched in 1889. A
part of the "Great White Fleet," in 1897 the Maine 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 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 Maine disaster led to the declaration of war on
Spain on April 21, 1898.
6. USS Arizona (BB-39) [Pennsylvania class] 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 800kilogram 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.
7. USS Missouri (BB-63) [Iowa class] The fourth USS Missouri was the last battleship completed by the United
States; she was laid down January 6, 1941 by New York Naval Shipyard. The Missouri was launched January 29,
1944 and received her sponsorship from Miss Margaret Truman, daughter of 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.
8. USS Nautilus (SSN-571) [Nautilus class] In 1951 Congress authorized construction of the world's first nuclearpowered 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' Cmdr. 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.
You Gotta Know These Religious Texts
This list of religious works from around the world specifically excludes the Old Testament and the New Testament, which
will be the subject of an upcoming You Gotta Know article.
1. 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).
2. 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. "Apocryphal" in general means "something outside an accepted canon," and, in particular, in ancient
Greek it meant "hidden things." Scholars 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.
3. Avesta (or Zend-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 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.
4. 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 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.
5. Dao de Jing (or Tao Te Ching or The Way and Its Power) Philosophical text behind Daoism, a religionphilosophy founded by the semi-legendary Laozi 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 Dao de Jing instructs
adherents in restraint and passiveness, allowing the natural order of the universe to take precedent.
6. 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 Sunna, or practice of the Prophet, which together with the Qur'an forms the basis for
shari'a , usually translated as Islamic law.
7. 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 421.
8. Qur'an (or Koran) Arabic for "recitation," it is the most sacred scripture of Islam. The Qur'an is subdivided into 114
chapters, called suras, which, with the exception of the first one, are arranged in descending order of length.
According to Muslim belief, the angel Jibril [Gabriel] visited the prophet Muhammad in 610 and revealed the work to
him. Various suras discuss absolute submission to Allah [God], happiness in Heaven 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.
9. Talmud Hebrew for "instruction," the Talmud is a codification of Jewish oral and written 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 by Orthodox Jews. Rabbis and lay scholars finished the
Babylonian Talmud around 600.
10. 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.
11. Vedas Consist strictly of four hymnbooks: 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.
12. Yijing (or 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. Qin emperor Shi
Huangdi burned most scholarly books, but the Yijing escaped because it was not seen as threatening.
You Gotta Know These British Monarchs
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 both 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.
4. (Alexandrina) Victoria (1819-1901, r. 1837-1901; Empress of India 1876-1901) House of Hanover. The longestreigning monarch in British history, 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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 (the Prince of Wales) and Andrew have plagued her reign.
10. John Lackland (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.
11. Charles II (1630-1685; r. 1660-1685) House of Stuart. While 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.
12. 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 bloodless 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.
13. 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.
14. Richard I (the Lion-Hearted) (1157-1199; r. 1189-1199) House of Plantagenet. 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 and ransomed by Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI. He also fought Philip II
in Normandy, and died while defending his possessions in Aquitaine.
15. 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.
You Gotta Know These Norse Gods and Goddesses
1. Ymir A primordial giant who formed in the void of 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.
2. Odin (or 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.
3. Frigg (or Frigga) The wife of Odin, and mother by him of Balder, Hoder, Hermod, and Tyr. She is the goddess of
the sky, marriage, and motherhood, and often works at her loom spinning clouds.
4. Frey (or 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 Mjolnir. He is married to Sif, and
his special nemesis is the Midgard Serpent.
7. 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.
8. 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 100 miles by night or day and hear grass growing. He will call the
Aesir into battle at Ragnarok with his horn Gjall (or Gjallerhorn).
9. Balder (or 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.
10. 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.
You Gotta Know These medieval Islamic dynasties
Most of NAQT's You Gotta Know articles are targeted at high school and novice collegiate players, but this one has a
narrower focus and is aimed at experienced collegiate teams. Islamic history is not a major subject in the NAQT distribution,
but it is a fascinating one; these nine dynasties cover much of what is frequently asked.
1. 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.
2. 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 alMamun the Great. During the 9th century, however, power began to devolve onto 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 as-Mustazim was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death by
horses.
3. Fatimid The Fatimids were Isma'ili Shi'ite Imams who founded their state in North Africa in 909 under the caliph alMahdi. 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.
4. Seljuq The Seljuqs 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.
5. 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. The
woman Shajar ad-Durr was the last to rule Egypt.
6. 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.
7. 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 Suleyman the Magnificient, who beseiged Vienna in 1529. The empire's remnants became
Turkey after World War I.
8. 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.
9. 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). Together with the Ottomans and Mughals, they form the three "Gunpowder Empires" in
what Islamicists 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.
You Gotta Know These Phyla
Plant, algal, and fungal "phyla" are often referred to as "divisions." Some taxonomists also extend this usage to bacteria,
while others advocate replacing the term "division" with "phylum" for all organisms.
Taxonomists do not always agree on the usage of even the most common terms. Some textbooks and other publications
will use alternate names or spellings to describe taxonomic groups, or will lump or split groups in different ways.
Under NAQT rules, unless the question states otherwise, both Latin names (Mollusca) or Anglicized names (molluscs) are
acceptable for a given taxon.
Note that spelling and pronunciation are not completely standardized in the taxonomic world, so other sources may have
slightly different versions of these phyla.
Estimates of phylal diversity vary. Because many invertebrates are inconspicuous, all estimates are probably low. Unless
stated otherwise, numbers represent an estimate of the number of species that have been named.
1. Porifera (pore-IH-fer-ah; 5,000 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-ANN-oh-sites].
2. Cnidaria (nih-DARE-ee-ya; 10,000 species) Also called Coelenterata [se-LEN-ter-AH-tah], 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).
3. Platyhelminthes (PLAT-ee-hel-MIN-theez; 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 that 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.
4. Nematoda (NEM-ah-TOE-dah; 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.
5. Annelida (AN-el-LEE-dah; 11,500 species) The annelids are segmented worms and represent the first lineage of
truly eucoelomate (having a body cavity lined with mesoderm-derived tissue) animals; 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.
6. Arthropoda (ar-THROP-oh-dah or AR-thro-POE-dah; over 800,000 species described; estimates of actual diversity
vary but go as high as 9 million species) The most diverse and successful animal phylum on earth (incorporating
about 75% of all described animal species), the Arthropoda 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).
7. Cycliophora (CY-clee-oh-FORE-ah; 1 species) The most recently named phylum; its only known member is
Symbion pandora, a tiny invertebrate first identified in 1995 when a Danish biologist found specimens on the
mouthparts of a Norwegian lobster. It is believed to be closely related to the marine phyla Entoprocta and
Ectoprocta (Bryozoa), which are not discussed here.
8. Mollusca (mol-LUS-kah; 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).
9. Echinodermata (ek-KY-no-der-MAH-tah; 6,500 species) Characteristics of this phylum include an endoskeleton
composed of many ossicles of calcium and magnesium carbonate, a water vascular system (WVS), a ring canal
around the esophagus, and locomotion by tube feet connected to the WVS. Unique to echinoderms is the five-fold
radial symmetry obvious in sea stars (seafish), 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 WVS, everting the stomach to engulf prey (sea stars), and a
scraping device called Aristotle's lantern (sea urchins).
10. Chordata (kor-DAH-tah; 44,000 species) Our home phylum is divided into three subphyla: Urochordata, the sea
squirts; Cephalochordata, the lancelets, and the true vertebrates (Vertebrata, 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.
You Gotta Avoid These Common Mistakes
This article is a little different from other "You Gotta Know" topics in that it consists of common mistakes that players make
when answering questions and answers that are often confused.
1. Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Two different people; Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 - 1797,
married name, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) is best known as an advocate of educational equality for women,
particularly in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). She is the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797
- 1851) who married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and is best known as the author of Frankenstein: or, the
Modern Prometheus.
2. "Bloody Mary" and Mary Queen of Scots Two different people; "Bloody Mary" is a (pejorative) nickname of Mary
I Tudor, the queen of England who preceded Elizabeth I, so named for her persecution of Protestants. Mary Queen
of Scots was Mary Stuart, who was the queen of Scotland during the first part of Elizabeth's reign.
3. The Merchant of Venice The title character of The Merchant of Venice is not Shylock--who is a money-lender--but
Antonio.
4. Hudson Bay The large sea of eastern Canada is Hudson Bay (no apostrophe). The company named for it is the
Hudson's Bay Company (with an apostrophe). Using the wrong form is sufficient for the answer to be counted
wrong under NAQT rules.
5. Saint Augustine Two different people; the earlier (354 - 430) served as the Bishop of Hippo and wrote Confessions
and City of God The later (? - 604/605) founded the Christian church in southern England and was the first
archbishop of Canterbury.
6. Compound last names The last names of David Lloyd George, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gabriel García Márquez,
Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe are "Lloyd George," "Lloyd Webber," "García Márquez,"
"Vaughan Williams," and "Mies van der Rohe" respectively. Starting with the 2002-2003 season players in NAQT
events will be prompted if they give part of a compound last name, but this rule doesn't (necessarily) hold true at
other quiz bowl tournaments.
7. Invisible Man Invisible Man is a 1952 novel by Ralph Ellison about an unnamed African-American protagonist in
search of personal identity. The Invisible Man is an 1897 novel by H. G. Wells about a man who has turned himself
invisible but is slowly being driven insane. Under NAQT rules, players are usually allowed to drop leading articles or
add them where they are missing (but not use incorrect ones)--but in this case (and others, for example,
Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and Helprin's Winter's Tale), it creates ambiguity and is wrong.
8. Primates The scientific name for the order of primates is Primates [pree-MAY-teez], not Primata.
9. John Adams Even though NAQT rules generally call for players to be prompted on partial names, an answer of
"John Adams" will not be prompted if the correct answer is "John Quincy Adams." An answer of "Adams" will be
prompted in either case.
10. "Concerned" philosophical works David Hume wrote An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, George
Berkeley [BARK-lee] wrote Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge, and John Locke wrote An
Essay Concerning Human Understanding. These three philosophical works are often confused.
11. The Russian Five The nationalist composers popularly known as "The Russian Five" or "The Mighty Handful" were
César Cui, Aleksandr Borodin, Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov; in particular,
they did not include Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
12. Oliver Wendell Holmes Two different men; the father, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809 - 1894) was a physician,
poet, and humorist who wrote "Old Ironsides" and The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table. The son, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Jr. (1841 - 1935) was a justice of the Supreme Court known as "The Great Dissenter."
You Gotta Avoid These Common Mistakes II
This article is similar to the previous common mistakes article in that it consists of common mistakes that players make
when answering questions and answers that are often confused.
1. Revelation The final book of the New Testament. In particular, it is singular and the plural form will be counted
wrong in NAQT competitions. The full name varies from translation to translation, but sometimes appears as "The
Revelation of St. John the Divine" or "Apocalypse of John."
2. Tom Wolfe and Thomas Wolfe Two different people; Tom Wolfe (1930 - present, in full Thomas Kennerly Wolfe
Jr.) is the modern author and journalist who wrote The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and A Man in Full.
Thomas Wolfe (1900 - 1938, in full, Thomas Clayton Wolfe) was an earlier author of works like Look Homeward,
Angel and You Can't Go Home Again. In NAQT competitions, "Thomas Wolfe" will be counted wrong for the former
and "Tom Wolfe" as wrong for the latter.
3. Greco-Roman Mythology Greek and Roman mythology have many analogous characters, many of which are
closely identified (e.g., Aphrodite and Venus). However, a question that mentions specific names, traits, or
otherwise makes clear that it is about one tradition requires that the answer from that tradition be given; analogous
figures from other traditions will not even be prompted under NAQT rules. Thus the answer to "From whose head
was Minerva born?" must be "Jupiter" and not "Zeus."
4. Enharmonic Notes While it is true that on a piano the notes C-sharp and D-flat are indistinguishable, this is not
true on other instruments or under most systems of tuning. In general music theory differentiates between notes
that are enharmonic in the specific case of the piano and NAQT questions will require that correct note (and will not
prompt on the other).
5. East Asian Names Many East Asian languages (but in particular Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean)
traditionally place the family name before the given name: Mishima Yukio's family name is "Mishima". Under NAQT
rules, all answers (regardless of the usual cultural order) may be given in either order: "Mishima Yukio," "Yukio
Mishima," "Henry James," and "James, Henry" are all acceptable, but players should make sure that they know
which part of an East Asian name is the family name as "Yukio" will be neither prompted nor accepted. Players who
are not certain may wish to give both names, though it is usually a good idea to only give the family name when
answering (since family names are usually sufficient and always will be prompted if not).
6. The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is the correct title of the short story by Mark Twain. In particular, "The Man
Who Corrupted Hadleyburg" is incorrect.
7. United Kingdom Since the Act of Union in 1707, England has not existed as a separate political unit and questions
about political entities after that time will nearly always require "United Kingdom" (or "Great Britain") and will not
prompt on "England." England, of course, continues to be a reasonable answer in modern times for geography or
sports questions.
8. Immaculate Conception The Roman Catholic belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was not affected by Original
Sin from the moment of her conception onward. In particular, despite the lack of male involvement, it does not refer
to the conception by Mary of Jesus the Christ.
9. IWW An abbreviation for the early 20th-century labor organization Industrial Workers of the World. In particular, it
does not stand for the (redundant) "International Workers of the World."
10. Daniel Shays An officer in the Revolutionary War who went on to lead a 1786-1787 rebellion in western
Massachusetts opposing its high taxes, an episode known as "Shays' Rebellion." In particular, his name is not
"Shay." A similar error is often made in giving "van der Waal" as the name of the Dutch chemist, but his name is
actually "van der Waals."
11. The Sign of Four The Arthur Conan Doyle novel about the theft of the Agra treasure by four men including
Jonathan Small. In particular, the title is not "The Sign of the Four."
12. Visual Art Titles From 1300 to 1700, relatively few religious paintings were given specific titles; most have been
assigned traditional names based on their subject manner. This means that many titles (e.g., The Descent from the
Cross, The Annunciation, The Adoration of the Magi, etc.) occur very frequently and players should not be as quick
to ring in upon immediately recognizing as a title as in other fields because there is a good chance that more than
one painter produced a work by that name. Similarly, the titles are often not canonical (e.g., El Greco's Christ
Driving the Money-Changers from the Temple may appear as Expulsion from the Temple) and players should keep
in mind that the form of the title they know may not be the one given in the question.
You Gotta Know These American Plays
1. Our Town (Thornton Wilder, 1938). 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.
2. Long Day's Journey Into Night (Eugene O'Neill, 1956). 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.
3. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee, 1962). 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.
4. A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams, 1947). 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.
5. A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry, 1959). 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").
6. The Crucible (Arthur Miller, 1953). 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 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.
7. Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller, 1949). 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.
8. Mourning Becomes Electra (Eugene O'Neill, 1931). 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.
9. The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams, 1944). 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.
10. The Iceman Cometh (Eugene O'Neill, 1939). 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.
11. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Tennessee Williams, 1955). Centers on a fight between two sons (Gooper and Brick) over
the estate of 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.
12. The Little Foxes (Lillian Hellman, 1939). 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."
You Gotta Know These Golfers
1. Tiger Woods (1975-present) 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.
2. Jack Nicklaus (1940-present) 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.
3. Arnold Palmer (1929-present) 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.
4. Ben Hogan (1912-1997) The PGA Tour's leading money winner from 1940-42 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.
5. (Robert Tyre) "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.
6. 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.
7. Byron Nelson (1912-present) 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.
8. Tom Watson (1949-present) 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, and still competes occasionally on the regular PGA Tour,
though mostly on the Senior Tour, where he won the 2001 Senior PGA Championship.
9. Lee Trevino (1939-present) 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.
10. Gary Player (1935-present) 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
You Gotta Know These Russian Tsars
1. Peter I (1672-1725; ruled 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 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.
2. Ivan IV (1530-1584; ruled 1533-1584) Ivan IV is known in the West as "Ivan the Terrible," but his Russian nickname
("Groznyi") could be more accurately translated as "awe-inspiring" or "menacing." Ivan was proclaimed Grand
Prince of Muscovy 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 (or
"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."
3. Catherine II (1729-1796; ruled 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 Grigorii Potemkin (who constructed the famous Potemkin village on an imperial
inspection tour).
4. Nicholas II (1868-1918; ruled 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.
5. Alexander II (1818-1881; ruled 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 1866 assassination and was assassinated in 1881.
6. Alexander I (1777-1825; ruled 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.
7. Nicholas I (1796-1855; ruled 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.
8. Alexander III (1845-1894; ruled 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 "counterreforms." 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.
9. Boris Godunov (ca. 1551-1605; ruled 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 Dmitriis" 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.
10. Michael (1597-1645; ruled 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.
You Gotta Know These Psychologists
1. Sigmund Freud (Austrian, 1856-1939) Sigmund Freud founded the extremely influential discipline of
psychoanalysis, which used the technique of "free association" 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, though many others come up frequently in quiz bowl.
2. Carl Jung (Austrian, 1875-1961) 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 movement of "analytic psychology" and introduced
the controversial notion of the "collective unconscious"--a socially shared area of the mind. Quiz bowlers should be
familiar with "anima," "animus," "introversion," "extroversion," and "archetypes," all terms that occur frequently in
questions on Jung.
3. Alfred Adler (Austrian, 1870-1937) 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
of "individual psychology."
4. Ivan Pavlov (Russian 1849-1936) 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.
5. John B. Watson (American, 1878-1958) 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.
6. B. F. Skinner (American, 1904-1990) 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.
7. Jean Piaget (Swiss, 1896-1980) 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.
8. Erik Erikson (German-born American, 1902-1994) 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.
9. Abraham Maslow (American, 1908-1970) 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.
10. Stanley Milgram (American, 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.
You Gotta Know These 20th-Century Paintings
Below is a list of ten paintings which are frequent quiz bowl topics. This list focuses on individual paintings rather than
bodies of work; thus, an artist like Georgia O'Keeffe is not included because no specific one of her familiar cowskull-andflower paintings is sufficiently prominent. The list is notably skewed toward the first half of the 20th century, as only one
work was painted after 1950. Perhaps the earlier paintings have simply had more time to be influential and make their way
into the artistic canon. Also, many prominent post-1950 painters, like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, do not have a
specific work with a catchy title that has gained particular attention above all others; like O'Keeffe, they are known for their
style and collective body of work rather than for any one painting.
1. 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.
2. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, by Marcel Duchamp. First painted in 1912, Nude Descending a Staircase
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
woman 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.
3. The Persistence of Memory, by Salvador Dalí. First shown in 1931, The Persistence of Memory is probably the
most famous of surrealist paintings. 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 MOMA; its 1951 companion piece, The Disintegration of the
Persistence of Memory, hangs at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.
4. 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 Cezanne'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.
5. Broadway Boogie Woogie, by Piet Mondrian. While Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and other Cubist paintings
represent an extension of Paul Cezanne'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
in Red, Yellow, and Blue. 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.
6. 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-produceable form of serigraphy
(silk screening). Also like the subject, the Warhol soup can painting existed in many varieties, with different types of
Campbell's Soup or numbers of cans; painting 32 or 100 or 200 identical cans further emphasized the aspect of
mass production aspect in the work. The same approach underlies Warhol's familiar series of prints of Marilyn
Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and other pop culture figures.
7. 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.
8. 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 which 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.
9. 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 threestory 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.
10. 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).
Among the many other notable individual paintings are The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even by Marcel
Duchamp, Red Room by Henri Matisse, Mystery and Melancholy of a Street by Giorgio de Chirico, The Twittering
Machine by Paul Klee, the incomplete Man at the Crossroads by Diego Rivera, The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, and Time
Transfixed by Rene Magritte. Two notable painting series are the Woman series of Willem de Kooning and the
White on White series by Kasimir Malevich.
You Gotta Know These Elections
Every U.S. presidential election is fair game for quiz bowl questions, but some elections are asked about very frequently,
either for the unusual nature of the election (e.g., 1876), for the extraordinary significance of the election in American history
(e.g., 1860), or for the figures involved (e.g., 1912). The following 10 that "you gotta know" are listed in chronological order.
1. 1800: Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson narrowly beat incumbent Federalist John Adams 73-65, marking
the ascent of that party's power. One electoral vote each is cast for president and vice president, so DemocraticRepublican VP candidate Aaron Burr also has 73 votes, but Burr refused to step aside. In the House of
Representatives, neither man won the necessary 9 state delegations outright until the 36th ballot, when James
Bayard of Delaware changed his vote to Jefferson. The debacle leads to 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 vice president) killed
Hamilton. Also notable is the first peaceful transfer of power from one party to another.
2. 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 four (with Tilden, Cleveland, and
Gore) to lose despite winning the popular vote. The election also led to the founding of the Democratic Party.
3. 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 Fremont 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.
4. 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 to 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.
5. 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 Eastern press, Bryan, a legendary
orator, traveled 18,000 miles through 27 states and was heard by some 3 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 of 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.
6. 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 "Bull Moose"
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.
7. 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, 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--yes, that Strom
Thurmond--took over a million votes and 39 electoral votes as the States' Rights (or "Dixiecrat") candidate.
8. 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 (from 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").
9. 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.
10. 2000: The closest election in American history, it is sure to be a long-term staple of history questions. Al Gore won
the popular vote but lost the electoral vote 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.
Other notable election events include Polk's win as a "dark horse" candidate in 1844, Cleveland's loss in 1888 despite
winning the popular vote, Wilson's narrow victory in 1916, FDR's defeats of Hoover in 1932 and Willkie in 1940, Reagan's
victory in 1980, and Clinton's win in 1992.
You Gotta Know These Planetary Moons
1. Charon (Pluto) Named for the mythical boatman of the Greek underworld. Its expected pronunciation of "KAIR-en"
is not the correct one, which is actually "SHAHR-en", in honor of Charlene Christy, wife of Jim Christy, its
discoverer. The largest moon relative to the size of its orbiting planet, Charon not only is in synchronous orbit with
Pluto, but the two show the same face toward each other at all times. The relative sizes of the two bodies has led
some to call Charon and Pluto a double planet system. Charon's surface is believed to be water ice.
2. Deimos and Phobos (Mars) Named for two sons of Ares and Aphrodite. Phobos and Deimos (Greek for "fear" and
"panic") are the two moons of Mars and both were discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall. Phobos orbits closer to the
planet and has as its most prominent feature the crater Stickney (Hall's wife's maiden name). Unlike the Earth's
moon, it rises in the west and sets in the east, about twice per Martian day. This is due to it being below the radius
for synchronous orbit. This position also means it will either impact Mars or break into a ring in around 50 million
years. Deimos is the smallest moon in the solar system. It was discovered two days before Phobos. Deimos was
likely an asteroid brought into Mars' orbit after being disturbed by Jupiter. Like Phobos, Deimos is heavily cratered,
rich in carbon, and believed to have water ice.
3. Europa (Jupiter) One of the Galilean moons, discovered in 1610 by Galileo (the others are Callisto, Ganymede,
and Io). It resembles Io, and to a degree, Earth, in its composition of silicate rocks. However, it is coated in a thin
layer of ice, which causes it to be exceedingly smooth. This ice layer may also provide a thin atmosphere as
hydrogen and oxygen are released when the planet is exposed to sunlight. There is the possibility of an active sea
of liquid water beneath the surface. The most striking feature of the surface is a series of dark streaks that may be
due to geysers or volcanic eruptions.
4. Ganymede (Jupiter) The largest satellite in the solar system, this Galilean moon is larger than Mercury, but has
only half its mass. Based on the observations of the Galileo spacecraft, it is thought to have a three-layer structure
of a molten iron core, silicate mantle, and ice exterior. Its surface is marked by older, dark, highly cratered regions,
mixed with lighter, grooved regions. These grooves indicate tectonic activity, but Ganymede does not appear to
have undergone recent tectonic shifts.
5. Io (Jupiter) Like Europa, Io (named for a lover of Zeus) is primarily formed of silicate rock. Its surface, however, is
unlike any other satellite. Rather than craters, Io is dotted with active volcanoes, calderas, and other signs of
geological activity. The eruptions are believed to consist of sulfurous compounds that comprise Io's thin
atmosphere. The tremendous activity is due to tidal warming from the gravity of Jupiter and other satellites.
Additionally, as Io orbits it is heated electrically from currents produced by Jupiter's magnetic field. This action strips
material from Io, producing a radiation field and increasing Jupiter's magnetosphere.
6. Nereid (Neptune) Discovered by Gerard Kuiper (who also discovered Miranda, Titan's atmosphere, and an asteroid
belt), Nereid (named for the daughters of Nereus and Doris) has the most eccentric orbit of any known satellite,
ranging from 1.3 million kilometers to 9.6 million. The oddity of this orbit indicates it is likely a captured asteroid.
7. Oberon (Uranus) Named for the King of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream (all of Uranus' satellites are
named for literary, rather than mythological, characters), Oberon is both the second largest of Uranus' satellites,
and the outermost of its large satellites. Like all large Uranian moons, its structure is about half water ice, half rock.
Large faults are visible across its southern hemisphere, but its surface is heavily cratered, indicating long-term
tectonic stability. Some craters have dark floors that could possibly indicate post-impact upwellings of water.
8. Titan (Saturn) The largest of Saturn's satellites, Titan might be the largest satellite in the solar system, but this
awaits more accurate measurements. Those measurements are difficult because of Titan's major characteristic: It is
the only satellite to have a substantial atmosphere. Its significant atmosphere, a mix of nitrogen (80%), methane
(20%), and argon (trace), also makes it unique among satellites.
9. Titania (Uranus) Another of Herschel's discoveries, Titania is named for Oberon's wife, the Queen of the Fairies,
and is the largest of the Uranian satellites. Its surface is an odd mix of craters and valleys. One theory regarding
this is that it began as a liquid, then cooled surface first. Once ice had formed, the interior, freezing forced surface
cracks which formed the valleys. This also accounts for the appearance of some craters, where ice appears to have
melted and filled in.
10. Triton (Neptune) By far the largest of Neptune's satellites, Triton is also unusual for its retrograde orbit, which
indicates that it was not part of the natural formation of Neptune's other moons. It also features seismic activity in
the form of ice volcanoes, a tenuous nitrogen-methane atmosphere, and a southern hemisphere "ice cap" of
nitrogen and methane. All of these may be caused by Triton's odd rotational axis, which tends to alternate polar and
equatorial regions facing the sun.
This list obviously excludes the most famous moon of all, the Earth's moon. While odd, this is in keeping with the spirit of
"You Gotta Know" lists because, for whatever reason, there are relatively fewer questions about it.
You Gotta Know These Egyptian Deities
The Egyptian creation myth begins with the emergence of Ra (or Re), the sun god, from the ocean in the form of an egg (or,
alternately, a flower.) Ra brought forth four children: Geb, Shu, Nut, and Tefnut. Shu and Nut became manifestations of air
and moisture. From Geb, the god of the earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky, were spawned four other gods: Osiris, Isis, Set
(or Seth), and Nepthys.
These nine gods became known as the ennead ("group of nine"). The center of their worship was Heliopolis, as all were tied
to Ra, the sun god. The Heliopolitan ennead was one of several in Egyptian theology, and at times this grouping was
superseded by other sets. Two notable alternatives were the ennead of the city of Memphis led by the god Ptah, and the
ennead of Thebes, with Amon at its head. Not surprisingly, the pre-eminence of these variations coincided with their
corresponding cities' political control of Egypt.
The Stories
Fortunately for quiz bowlers, there are, for most practical purposes, only three major episodes in Egyptian mythology.
Knowing the principal actors in these (as well as the various animal heads) will go a long way toward scoring points in the
category.
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The first is 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 14 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 then conceived a son, Horus, by
the (still dead) Osiris and then resurrected him. Horus defeated Set to regain the kingship and all subsequent
pharaohs were said to be aspects of him.
The second is the 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.
The third is actually an historical episode: during the reign of Amenhotep III (1390-1353 BC), worship of the god
Aton (or Aten)--a representation of the disc 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 of Tell-al-Amarna and was largely confined to upper
classes and the pharaonic court and, in any case, did not survive Amenhotep himself. Under his successor,
Tutankhamen (of King Tut fame), traditional religious practices were restored.
The Pantheon
1. 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.
2. 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
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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.
Isis Isis, daughter of Geb and Nut, protected love, motherhood, and fate in the Egyptian mythos. Many of her roles
are similar to 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.
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 with the dead Osiris, and Horus was hidden by his mother. 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.
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 disc.
Amon Amon began as a local god of Thebes, governing the air, fertility and reproduction, his wife was Mut, and his
son 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.
Thoth Serving the gods as the supreme scribe, 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 of the moon was 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.
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.
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.
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 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 symbol 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.
Hathor Hathor (or Athor or Athyr) was the patron of women. Hathor was the daughter of Ra, and 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.
Nephthys Termed the "lady of the castle," for her role as guardian of the tomb, 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. 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.
You Gotta Know These Japanese Authors
Please note that unlike most of the other "You Gotta Know" articles, this one is primarily aimed at advanced college players.
It's probably fair to say that high school (and new college players), only really "gotta know" Lady Murasaki, Basho,
Kawabata, and Mishima.
1. Murasaki Shikibu (978? - 1015?) Novelist, diarist, and courtesan. 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.
2. Sei Shonagan (966/7 - 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).
3. 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.
4. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (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 Plaintain Tree."
5. Chikamatsu Monzaemon (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.
6. Akutagawa Ryunosuke (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, when Kurosawa Akira made it into a film in 1951. 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.
7. Kawabata Yasunari (1899 - 1972) Recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Literature, he was the first Japanese
author to be so honored. 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 Mishima Yukio, he was also associated with right-wing causes and openly
protested the Cultural Revolution in China. He committed suicide two years after Mishima.
8. Mishima Yukio (1925 - 1970) (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.
9. Endo Shusaku (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.
10. Oe Kenzaburo(1935 - present) 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.
You Gotta Know These Hockey Hall of Famers
1. Wayne Gretzky (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 would finish career with New York Rangers in 1999.
2. Gordie Howe (1926- ) 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 in a game. 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.
3. Mario Lemieux (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 1991-92. After a
bout with Hodgkin's disease, he returned to lead the NHL in scoring in 1995-96 and 1996-97. He then later helped
bail the Penguins out of bankruptcy by becoming the lead owner of the team in 1999.
4. Bobby Orr (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 (1969-70). 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 1970-71 and won eight straight Norris Trophies from 1968-75. Unfortunately, his bad knees forced
him into early retirement in 1979.
5. 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 1944-45, and
also the first to score 500 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.
6. Terry Sawchuk (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 5 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 1950-51.
Always deeply psychologically troubled, he died in a household accident in 1970 while a member of the New York
Rangers.
7. Ken Dryden (1947-) Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he had a standout career at Cornell University before joining the
Montreal Canadiens organization in 1970. In 1970-71, 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 1973-74 season in a contract dispute, and worked as a legal clerk and obtaining his law degree from
McGill. He currently serves as the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
8. Vladislav Tretiak (1952-) Born in Moscow, USSR; Tretiak is first Russian player in Hockey Hall of Fame. He came
to North American prominence when he starred in 1972 Summit Series against Canada. A 10-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, since his retirement, he now serves as the
goaltending coach for the Chicago Blackhawks.
9. Bobby Hull (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 of 1972, he defected to the
fledgling WHA's Winnipeg Jets for a record 10-year, $2.75 million deal, where he would star and help make
Winnipeg one of the four WHA teams to merge with the NHL in 1978-79. He is also the father of Brett Hull and the
duo is the only father-son combination to score 500 each in NHL history.
10. Eddie Shore (1902-1985) Born in Fort Qu'Appele, Saskatchewan, "The Edmonton Express" is the epitome of "OldTime 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 4 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.
You Gotta Know These Revolutionary War Generals
1. 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, being 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.
2. 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 17745. 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.
3. Charles Cornwallis, First Marquess of 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 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 reinforcing 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 (N.C.) and Nathaniel Greene at Guilford Courthouse, the latter a pyrrhic victory
which 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.
4. 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.
5. Sir 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 then repulsed efforts by Montgomery and Benedict Arnold to capture Montreal 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.
6. 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.
7. Sir 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.
8. Tadeusz Andrezj Bonawentura Kosciusko After receiving military training in his native Poland and France, he
resigned his commission due to poor advancement prospect. 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 which 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.
9. Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette Approached by 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 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.
10. 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 recaptured 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 of "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.
11. John Paul Jones A Scotsman who had fled Britain after two deaths at his hands, he added the last name Jones to
his given name of John Paul. 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, saw him lead 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 September 23, 1779.
12. Baron 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.
13. 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.
You Gotta Know These Organelles
The word "organelle" comes from the Latin for "little organ," which fits their function as organized structures found within
cells that allow the cell to survive.
1. 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. Commonly seen
within the nucleus are dense bodies called nucleoli, which contain ribosomal RNA. In eukaryotes, the nucleus is
surrounded by a selectively-permeable nuclear envelope.
2. 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.
3. Mitochondria The "mighty mitos" are 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 [KRIS-tee], which are
suspended in a fluid called the matrix. The mitochondrial matrix contains DNA and ribosomes.
4. Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) The ER is a network of tube-like membranes continuous with the nuclear envelope
that comes in rough (with ribosomes) and smooth (without ribosomes) varieties. In the ER, proteins undergo
modifications and folding to yield the final, functional protein structures.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Cilia/Flagella Cilia and flagella are important organelles of motility, which 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 and are powered by molecular motors of kinesin and dynein molecules.
10. 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.
You Gotta Know These Footballers (Soccer Players)
1. Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) (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.
2. Franz Beckenbauer (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 now serves as the FC Bayern
München club president.
3. Mia Hamm (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 & 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.
4. 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 lead 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 FA First Division by scoring the goal that
clinched promotion. He retired, quite reluctantly, from the game in 1965 at the age of 50.
5. Diego Maradona (1960-) (Argentina-Forward) The oft-controversial strike 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 Serie 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.
6. Johann Cryuff (1947-) (The Netherlands-Midfielder) A stringent believer that "the game should be played
beautifully," Cryuff 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, Cryuff
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
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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 Cryuff, 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 arch-rival 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.
Michel Platini (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
Serie A (Italy's First Division) and UEFA (European) competitions. In 1985, he led Serie 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.
Ronaldo (Ronaldo Luiz Nazario da Lima) (1976-) (Brazil-Forward) Currently with Inter Milan of Italy's Serie A,
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. Injuries have plagued him over the past
few seasons, but, when healthy, he is still among the world's elite players.
David Beckham (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.
Zinedine Zidane (1972-) (France) 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 semifinals against Portugal), both triumphs for the French national side. Like fellow French legend Platini, Zizou plays for
Italian side Juventus, where he has helped the Turin side win two Serie A titles.
You Gotta Know These Kings of France
1. 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 the second
longest in recorded history.
2. 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.
3. 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 spelled his doom, however. 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.
4. Henry IV (1553-1610, r. 1589-1610) Founder of the 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 in order to enter Paris and 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).
5. Philip II (1165-1223, r. 1179-1223) House of Capet. Philip was 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.
6. 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 to 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.
7. Louis IX (1214-1270, r. 1226-1270) House of Capet. Louis led the Seventh Crusade that ended in military disaster,
but after his ransoming 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 that saw Henry III become 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.
8. 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.
9. Charles V (1338-1380, r. 1364-1380) House of Capet. 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.
10. 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.
NAQT's editors opted to not include kings of Franks; had we, several of them (including Charles Martel and Charlemagne)
would have made this list. Similarly, Louis Philippe, the "king of the French" placed on the throne after Charles X abdicated
in 1830, was excluded from consideration, though it's not clear at all that he would have merited a mention in the first place.
You Gotta Know These Economists
1. Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish philosopher and economist. 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.
2. Milton Friedman (1912- ) American economist. Conservative thinker famous for his advocacy of monetarism (an 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.
3. Karl Marx (1818-1883) German economist, 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).
4. John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist. 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.
5. David Ricardo (1772-1823) English economist. 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.
6. John Kenneth Galbraith (1908- ) Canadian economist. Galbraith probably wouldn't make this list if contributions to economic
theory were all that mattered; as it is, his liberal popular writings like The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State (with
their emphasis on public service and the limitations of the marketplace) ensure his coming up again and again.
7. Francois Quesnay (1694-1774) French economist. 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 was the ultimate source of all wealth.
8. Alfred Marshall (1842-1924) English economist. 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.
9. Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) American economist (of Norwegian heritage). Veblen is primarily remembered for his The
Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) that 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.
10. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) British economist and social philosopher. Mill is mainly known today (in economic circles) 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) but also for exhaustively examining the necessity of private property in his Principles
of Political Economy (1848).
Do you want another opinion? The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank has its own list of the Great Economists to which you can
compare and contrast. With respect to quiz bowl, we will add that Irving Fisher is probably underrepresented in quiz bowl with respect
to his importance. We were surprised to see Thomas Malthus on their list as his lasting contributions to economic thought are not
thought to be very great; that said, he caused an enormous contemporary stir with his pessimistic predictions of omnipresent starvation
in 1798's Essay on Population which does come up quite frequently.
You Gotta Know These Art Museums
1. Louvre [loov] 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.
2. Museo del Prado [moo-SAY-oh del PRAH-doh] 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.
3. 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.
4. Rijksmuseum ["Rike's museum"] Located in Amsterdam, this is the national museum of The Netherlands. Currently
housed in a Gothic Revival building designed by P. J. H. Cuypers and completed in 1885, its most distinguished works
include Rembrandt's Night Watch, Franz Hals's The Merry Drinker, and Jan Vermeer's The Kitchen Maid.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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, JacquesLouis David's The Death of Socrates, and John Singer Sargent's Madame X.
9. 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.
10. 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. It has an outstanding
collection of French Impressionist and American works such as Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1884,
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge, Grant Wood's American Gothic, and Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.
11. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao [bil-BAH-oh] The Guggenheim Bilbao opened in 1997 and is, like its sister instutition 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.
You Gotta Know These African Bodies of Water
Rivers:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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 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 Mosioa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders"), which is over a mile wide and is the largest waterfall by flow rate in Africa. The fact
that the Zambezi separates Zambia and Zimbabwe is a classic trivia question.
4. 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
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.
5. 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".
6. 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.
Lakes:
1. Lake Victoria The world's second-largest freshwater lake by area, Lake Victoria lies along the Equator and is shared
between 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 British explorer John Hanning Speke for Queen Victoria, the introduction of the
predatory Nile perch in the 1950s has caused environmental degradation, sending many native cichlid species into
extinction.
2. Lake Tanganyika Africa's second-largest lake by area, it is also the second-deepest in the world, surpassed only by Lake
Baikal. Due 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.
3. 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.
4. Lake Volta The largest manmade 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.
5. 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.
Other notable features include the Orange, Senegal, and Gambia Rivers, Lakes Albert and Rudolf, and the Suez Canal. Notable bodies
of water off the African coast include the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Bights of Biafra and Benin, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the
Gulf of Sidra.
You Gotta Know These World War II Battles European Theater:
1. 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 in a campaign known as "the Blitz".
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. D-Day (June 6, 1944) Also known as Operation Overlord, this was 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 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.
6. 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 of
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 of 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.
Other notable battles in Europe included the Battle of France, the Siege of Leningrad, the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Anzio, the
Battle of Monte Cassino, Operation Market Garden, and the Battle of Berlin.
Pacific Theater:
1. 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 of 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 unattacked. 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.
2. Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942) Resulting from a Japanese plan to capture Port Moresby in 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 one-way 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.
Other notable clashes and incidents in the Pacific included the Bataan Death March, the Battle of Guadalcanal during the Solomon
Islands campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
You Gotta Know These Aviators
1. Wright Brothers (Orville: 1871-1948; Wilbur: 1867-1912) The 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.
2. Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) 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 33-and-a-half hours later. Lindbergh married Anne Morrow in 1929, and the 1932 kidnapping and murder of their son
Charles Jr. was deemed "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.
3. Amelia Earhart (1897-1937?) More than 70 years after her disappearance, Earhart remains the most famous aviatrix. In 1932
she became the first woman to make a trans-Atlantic solo flight, and three years later she became the first pilot of either 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.
4. Chuck Yeager (1923-)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.
5. Howard Hughes (1905-1976) 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.
6. Wiley Post (1898-1935) 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.
7. Jimmy Doolittle (1896-1993) 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.
8. Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918) 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.
9. Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973) 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.
10. Burt Rutan (1943-) A legendary aircraft designer, Rutan gained worldwide attention in 1986 when his Voyager plane, piloted by
Dick Rutan (Burt's brother) 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.
Other notable aviators include the inventor of the helicopter Igor Sikorsky; Billy Mitchell, the "Father of the U.S. Air Force"; and Antoine de
Saint-Exupéry, who authored The Little Prince.
You Gotta Know These Ancient Philosophers
1. Socrates (c. 469 BC–399 BC) 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, and he was
put on trial for corrupting the city’s youth, which led to his death by drinking hemlock. Socrates’ trial, imprisonment, and death are
recounted in Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, respectively.
2. Plato (c. 429 BC–347 BC) 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.
3. Aristotle (c. 384 BC–322 BC) 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.
4. Confucius (or Kong Fu Zi) (6th century BC) A pivotal thinker from China’s Spring and Autumn period, Confucius’s views on proper
conduct and filial piety still influence China to this day. Many sayings attributed to Confucius were compiled by his disciples following
his death in a text known as theAnalects. 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.
5. Lao Tzu (also given as Lao Tse or Laozi) (dates unknown, 6th century BC) is 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.”
6. Diogenes (c. 410s BC–323 BC) 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.
7. Epicurus (341 BC–270 BC) 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.
8. Zeno of Elea (c. 490 BC–430 BC) 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.)
9. Thales (c. 620 BC–546 BC) 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 any triangle whose hypotenuse is the diameter of a circle must be a right triangle. He is sometimes thought of as
the founder of a “Milesian school” of philosophy, whose other members include Anaximander and Anaximenes.
10. Cicero (106 BC–43 BC) 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.
You Gotta Know These Western European Rivers
1. Rhine The 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.
2. 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.
3. Tagus (or Tajo or Tejo) The Tagus is 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.
4. 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 at 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 which encircle the island of
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.
5. Danube Most of the Danube is in Eastern Europe, but it begins in Germany’s Black Forest (or 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 4 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.
6. 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 manmade levees called arginiwhich protect towns and crops can exacerbate the floods. Pollution, especially from
Milan, is becoming a major environmental concern.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
You Gotta Know These 20th-Century Physicists
1. Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Bohr reconciled Rutherford’s results from the gold foil experiment with Planck’s quantum theory to create
a model of the atom in which electrons resided in specific energy levels at specific stable radii. This model was the basis for
Balmer’s work with spectroscopy and 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 US in World War II under the pseudonym Baker
and contributed to the Manhattan Project.
2. Louis de Broglie (1892–1987) de 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 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. His last name is pronounced approximately [duh BROY].
3. 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 discretized 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. This is 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. Ten years later, in 1915, Einstein published his theory of general relativity,
which generalized special relativity to account for gravitational fields.
4. 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
which 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) Heisenberg is most known for his matrix interpretation of quantum theory, which constructs
observable quantities as operators, which 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 (use 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.
8. 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, which was used until that point. 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.
9. Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) Rutherford’s gold foil experiment provided the first evidence that the atom was 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).
10. Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Schrödinger contributed to the early formulations of quantum theory as a foil to Heisenberg, Bohr,
and Dirac, criticizing their Copenhagen interpretation with thought experiments like his famous Schrödinger’s Cat argument. He
formulated both the time-independent and time-dependent Schrödinger equations, partial differential equations which described how
quantum systems behaved. 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.
Honorable mentions:
11. Marie (1867–1945) and Pierre (1859–1906) Curie rigorously isolated and experimented on radioactive materials, forming the basis
for early nuclear and particle physics.
12. Paul Dirac (1902–1984) was one of the first to attempt a generalization of quantum theory to relativistic speeds, the result of which
was the Dirac equation.
13. Murray Gell-Mann (born 1929) predicted the existence of quarks, which compose protons, neutrons, and other, heavier particles.
14. Robert Millikan (1868–1953; not to be confused with Robert Mullikan, a chemist) 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.
15. 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.
16. Wolfgang Pauli’s (1900–1958) namesake exclusion principle prohibits most types of particles from occupying the same state, and
forms the basis for chemical bonds.
You Gotta Know These Anthropologists
1. Franz Boas (1858–1942) Often called the founder of modern anthropology, this first professor of anthropology at Columbia
University trained Mead, 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.”
2. Margaret Mead (1901–1978) For her best-known work, Coming of Age in Samoa, Mead interviewed young girls on the island of
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 Temperment in Three Primitive Societies.
3. Ruth Benedict (1887–1948) A colleague and friend of 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.
4. Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942) The Polish-born Malinowski, whose name is pronounced [BRAH-nuss-waf mah-lih-NAWFskee], 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.
5. Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) In the 1930s, Lévi-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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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 Persephone
by Aeneas so that he could enter the underworld in theAeneid.
9. 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.
10. 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.
You Gotta Know These Battles of the Ancient World
1. One of the earliest battles in recorded history, the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC) was fought near the Orontes River in modern-day
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.
2. Persian King Darius I’s invasion of mainland Greece ended with a decisive victory for Miltiades and the Athenians at Marathon (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.”
3. Thermopylae (480 BC) 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, and a battle occurred there simultaneously.
4. The naval battle at Salamis (480 BC) was 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.
5. The Battle of Aegospotami (405 BC) on the Hellespont (Dardanelles) ended 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.
6. After the Battle of Granicus, Issus (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 present day 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.
7. The largest battle of the Second Punic War, Cannae (216 BC) 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 their adopting 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.
8. The final battle of the Second Punic War, Zama (202 BC) was fought near Carthage in modern-day 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.
9. At Alesia (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.
10. At Actium (31 BC), the fleet of Octavian defeated the combined forces of Cleopatra and Mark Antony at this battle near modern-day
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.
11. The Battle of the Milvian Bridge (AD 312) 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 the Christians.
12. Taking place near modern Edirne, Turkey, the Battle of Adrianople (AD 378) 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. The battle was chronicled by Ammianus
Marcellinus, who thought it so important that he ended his history of the Roman Empire with the battle.
13. The Battle of Chalons (or Catalaunian Fields) (AD 451) was an epic battle 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.
Other notable ancient battles included Plataea (479 BC), Leuctra (371 BC), Chaeronea (338 BC), Gaugamela (331 BC), Asculum (279 BC),
Carrhae (53 BC), Pharsalus (48 BC), Philippi (42 BC), and the Teutoburg Forest (AD 9).