HTHS Scholars Bowl Study Book

Art

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 '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 '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 , and '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 's Night Watch, Franz '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 '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. 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, Jacques-Louis '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 's The Starry Night, Pablo '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 '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. 12. The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square in London houses a synoptic collection of pre-1900 paintings assembled by government purchase and donation. It is home to British masterpieces including John Constable's The Haywain and both Rain, Steam and Speed and ~The Fighting Temeraire by J.M.W. Turner. The museum also boasts several major highlights of European painting, from arguably the best known of van Gogh's Sunflowers series to exemplar Baroque works like 's Supper at Emmaus, The Judgment of Paris by , and the Rokeby Venus of Velázquez. Major works of the Italian and north European Renaissance are also represented, including 's The Arnolfini Wedding, Hans 's The Ambassadors, Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne, 's Portrait of Pope Julius II, and the later of Leonardo's two versions of Madonna of the Rocks.

You Gotta Know These Sculptors 1. (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 (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 , 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 (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 (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. (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.

Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq. 1 Mona Lisa Painting Leonardo da Vinci 1500 42 2 The Birth of Venus Painting Sandro Botticelli 1480 39 3 The Arnolfini Wedding Painting Jan van Eyck 1434 38 4 The Thinker Sculpture (René-François-)Auguste Rodin 1900 37 5 Nighthawks Painting Edward Hopper 1942 36 6 The Persistence of Memory Painting Salvador (Felipe Jacinto) Dalí (y Domenech) 1931 34 7 Guernica Painting Pablo Picasso (y Ruiz) 1937 34 8 David Sculpture Michelangelo (Buonarotti) 1504 32 9 The Third of May, 1808 Painting Francisco de Goya (y Lucientes) 1814 31 10 Last Supper Painting Leonardo da Vinci 1495-1498 31 11 Starry Night Painting Vincent (Willem) Van Gogh 1889 29 12 The Shooting Company of Captain Franz Banning Cocq Painting Rembrandt (Harmenszoon Van Rijn) 1640-1642 29 13 The Gates of Hell Sculpture (René-François-)Auguste Rodin 1880 29 14 The Kiss Sculpture (René-François-)Auguste Rodin 1886 28 15 Perseus With the Head Of Medusa Sculpture Benvenuto Cellini 1563 28 16 School of Athens Painting Raphael 1509 28 17 The Death of Marat Painting Jacques-Louis David 1793 27 18 Bird in Space Sculpture Constantin Brancusi 1919 27 19 The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa Sculpture Gian Lorenzo Bernini 1646 26 20 Las Meninas Painting Diego (Rodríguez de Silva y) Velázquez 1656 26 21 American Gothic Painting Grant Wood 1930 25 22 Venus of Urbino Painting Titian 1538 24 23 Liberty Leading the People Painting (Ferdinand Victor) Eugène Delacroix 1830 23 24 Christina's World Painting Andrew (Newell) Wyeth 1948 23 25 Liberty Enlightening the World Sculpture Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi 1886 23 26 Pietá Sculpture Michelangelo (Buonarotti) 1499 22 27 Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 Painting Marcel Duchamp 1912 21 28 Garden of Earthly Delights Painting Hieronymus Bosch 1500 21 29 Luncheon on the Grass Painting Édouard Manet 1863 21 30 Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother Painting James (Abbott) McNeill Whistler 1871 20

English

Works of Literature Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq. 1 Hamlet Drama William 1601 130 2 The Tempest Drama William Shakespeare 1611 91 3 Macbeth Drama William Shakespeare 1606 85 4 Iliad Poem 8th century BC 82 5 Pride and Prejudice Novel Jane Austen 1813 78 6 Moby-Dick Novel Herman 1851 78 7 The Great Gatsby Novel F(rancis) Scott (Key) Fitzgerald 1925 73 8 Paradise Lost Poem John 1667 72 9 Faust Poem Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 71 10 King Lear Drama William Shakespeare 1605 71 11 The Merchant of Venice Drama William Shakespeare 1596 71 12 1984 Novel George Orwell 1948 71 13 A Midsummer Night's Dream Drama William Shakespeare 1595 69 14 The Scarlet Letter Novel Nathaniel 1850 69 15 Crime and Punishment Novel Fyodor (Mikhaylovich) Dostoyevsky 1866 67 16 Romeo and Juliet Drama William Shakespeare 1594 65 17 As You Like It Drama William Shakespeare 1599 64 18 Oedipus Tyrannus Drama Sophocles 430 BC 64 19 Jane Eyre Novel Charlotte Brontë 1847 64 20 The Divine Comedy Poem Dante Alighieri 1314 63 21 The Canterbury Tales Poem Geoffrey Chaucer 1387 63 22 Othello Drama William Shakespeare 1622 62 23 Candide Novel Voltaire 1759 60 24 Little Women Novel Louisa May Alcott 1868 59 25 Vanity Fair Novel William Makepeace Thackeray 1848 59 26 Billy Budd: Foretopman Novel Herman Melville 1891 59 27 Julius Caesar Drama William Shakespeare 1599 59 28 Our Town Drama Thornton (Niven) Wilder 1938 59 29 Aeneid Poem Virgil 19 BC 59 30 To Kill a Mockingbird Novel (Nelle) Harper Lee 1960 58 31 A Streetcar Named Desire Drama (Thomas Lanier) "Tennessee" Williams 1947 58 32 War and Peace Novel (Lev Nikolayevich) "Leo" Tolstoy 1865 58 33 Les Misérables Novel Victor(-Marie) 1862 57 34 The Grapes of Wrath Novel John (Ernst) Steinbeck 1939 57 35 A Farewell to Arms Novel Ernest (Miller) 1929 57 36 A Tale of Two Cities Novel Charles (John Huffam) 1859 57 37 Odyssey Poem Homer 8th century BC 57 38 Chicago Poem Carl (August) Sandburg 1916 56 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq. 39 Heart of Darkness Novella Joseph Conrad 1902 56 40 The Call of the Wild Novel Jack London 1903 56 41 Much Ado about Nothing Drama William Shakespeare 1598 56 42 For Whom the Bell Tolls Novel Ernest (Miller) Hemingway 1940 56 43 Anna Karenina Novel (Lev Nikolayevich) "Leo" Tolstoy 1877 55 44 Uncle Tom's Cabin Novel Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 55 45 The Waste Land Poem T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot 1922 55 46 Pilgrim's Progress Novel John Bunyan 1678 54 47 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Novel 1884 54 48 The Red Badge of Courage Novel Stephen Crane 1895 53 49 Pygmalion Drama George Bernard Shaw 1912 52 50 Twelfth Night Drama William Shakespeare 1623 51 51 The Jungle Novel Upton (Beall) Sinclair 1906 51 52 Ulysses Novel James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce 1922 51 53 Lolita Novel Vladimir (Vladimirovich) 1955 51 54 Long Day's Journey Into Night Drama Eugene (Gladstone) O'Neill 1956 50 55 The Catcher in the Rye Novel J(erome) D(avid) Salinger 1951 49 56 A Doll's House Drama Henrik (Johan) 1879 48 57 The Taming of the Shrew Drama William Shakespeare 1593 48 58 Don Quixote Novel Miguel de Saavedra 1605 48 59 Great Expectations Novel Charles (John Huffam) Dickens 1861 48 60 Wuthering Heights Novel Emily Brontë 1847 48 61 Animal Farm Novel George Orwell 1945 47 62 Brave New World Novel Aldous (Leonard) Huxley 1932 47 63 Things Fall Apart Novel (Albert) Chinua(lumogu) Achebe 1958 47 64 The Three Musketeers Novel Alexandre Dumas (père) 1844 47 65 The Sun Also Rises Novel Ernest (Miller) Hemingway 1926 46 66 Oliver Twist Novel Charles (John Huffam) Dickens 1838 46 67 The Count of Monte Cristo Novel Alexandre Dumas (père) 1845 46 68 David Copperfield Novel Charles (John Huffam) Dickens 1850 46 69 One Hundred Years of Solitude Novel Gabriel García Márquez 1967 45 70 The Crucible Drama Arthur Miller 1953 45 71 A Raisin in the Sun Drama Lorraine Hansberry 1959 45 72 The Tyger Poem William Blake 1794 45 73 Beowulf Poem Anonymous 8th century 44 74 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Poem Samuel Taylor 1797 44 75 Catch-22 Novel Joseph Heller 1961 44 76 Ivanhoe Novel Sir Walter Scott 1820 44 77 All the King's Men Novel Robert Penn Warren 1946 44 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq. 78 The House of the Seven Gables Novel Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 43 79 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Novel Thomas Hardy 1891 42 80 Death of a Salesman Drama Arthur Miller 1949 42 81 The Merry Wives of Windsor Drama William Shakespeare 1600 41 82 Antigone Drama Sophocles 441 BC 41 83 Lord of the Flies Novel William (Gerald) Golding 1954 41 84 Ode on a Grecian Urn Poem John 1819 41 85 Inferno Poem Dante Alighieri c. 1310-1314 41 86 Decameron Poem Giovanni 1353 40 87 The Rape of the Lock Poem Alexander Pope 1714 40 88 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Novel Mark Twain 1876 40 89 Main Street Novel (Harry) Sinclair Lewis 1920 40 90 Sense and Sensibility Novel Jane Austen 1811 40 91 Slaughterhouse Five Novel Kurt , Jr. 1969 39 92 All Quiet on the Western Front Novel Erich Maria 1929 39 93 The Color Purple Novel Alice (Malsenior) Walker 1982 39 94 The Sound and the Fury Novel William (Cuthbert) 1929 39 95 Richard III Drama William Shakespeare 1593 39 96 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Drama Edward (Franklin) Albee 1961 39 97 Lyrical Ballads Collection William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 39 98 The Glass Menagerie Drama (Thomas Lanier) "Tennessee" Williams 1945 38 99 Absalom, Absalom! Novel William (Cuthbert) Faulkner 1936 38 100 The Turn of the Screw Novel Henry James 1898 38

You Gotta Know These Non-Fiction Works

The following table lists the 50 most-frequently referenced works of non-fiction in NAQT questions as of November 1, 2007. While you really gotta know their creators, these are also some of the works about which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on their key ideas, cultural context, and circumstances of creation.

This is an update of an earlier You Gotta Know article.

Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

1 Bible Religious divinely inspired, many authors varies 751

2 U.S. Constitution Document James Madison (chiefly) 1787 465

Mohammed (transcriber) 3 Qur'an Religious 660 178 Uthman (codifier)

4 Book of Genesis Religious Moses 950-500 BC 147

5 The Gospel According to Matthew Religious Saint Matthew 1st century 137

6 The Declaration of Independence Document Thomas Jefferson 1776 122

Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James 7 Federalist Papers Politics 1787 94 Madison

8 Book of Exodus Religious Moses (attributed) c. 900 - 500 BC 94

9 Book of Revelation Religious John of Patmos c. 95 91

10 Book of Psalms Religious David (traditionally) various 86

11 Leviathan Politics Thomas Hobbes 1651 81

12 The Republic Politics Plato 4th cent. BC 73

13 Magna Carta Document King John (signer) 1215 71

14 The Elements Math Euclid c. 300 BC 69

15 The Prince Politics Niccoló Machiavelli 1513 68

16 The Gospel According to John Religious St. John the Apostle c. 100 68

17 The Social Contract Politics Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1762 66

18 Book of Numbers Religious Moses (traditionally) 6th century BC 65 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

19 Ninety-Five Theses Religious Martin Luther 1517 64

1500 to 1000 20 Vedas Religious divinely inspired, author unknown 59 BC

21 The Wealth of Nations Economics Adam Smith 1776 58

22 Acts of the Apostles Religious Luke (traditionally) AD 70-90 57

23 J'accuse Open Letter Émile(-Édouard-Charles-Antoine) 1898 57

24 Pragmatism Philosophy William James 1907 55

25 Principia Mathematica Physics Isaac Newton 1667 54

26 Bill of Rights Document James Madison 1789 54

27 Book of Mormon Religious Joseph Smith (Jr.) (traditional translator) 1830 54

28 Book of Ecclesiastes Religious Solomon (traditionally) 3rd century BC 53

29 Torah Religious Moses (traditionally) 6th century BC 52

30 Talmud Religious divinely inspired, author unknown c. 300 to 600 51

31 Utilitarianism Philosophy John Stuart Mill 1863 51

32 Common Sense Politics Thomas Paine 1776 51

33 Coming of Age in Samoa Anthropology Margaret Mead 1928 50

34 The Communist Manifesto Politics Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 1848 49

35 Rig Veda Religious divinely inspired, author unknown c. 1500 BC 49

36 Critique of Pure Reason Philosophy Immanuel Kant 1781 47

37 Cross of Gold speech Speech William Jennings Bryan 1896 47

38 Meditations Philosophy Marcus Aurelius c. 161-180 45

39 On The Origin of Species Biology Charles Darwin 1859 45

40 Walden Philosophy Henry David Thoreau 1854 45

41 Deuteronomy Religious Moses (traditionally) 950-500 BC 44 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

42 Book of Jeremiah Religious Jeremiah c. 600 BC 44

An Essay Concerning Human 43 Philosophy John Locke 1690 44 Understanding

44 The Book of Judges Religious Samuel (traditionally) c. 550 BC 44

45 On Liberty Politics John Stuart Mill 1859 43

46 King James Bible Religious 54 scholars on 6 committees 1611 43

47 Book of Leviticus Religious Moses (traditionally) 7th century BC 41

48 Mishna Religious divinely inspired, author unknown 3rd century 40

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of 49 Sociology Max Weber 1904 40 Capitalism

50 Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Religious Jonathan Edwards 1741 39

You Gotta Know These Works of Literature

The following table lists the 100 most-frequently referenced works of literature in NAQT questions as of November 1, 2007. While you really gotta know their authors, these are also some of the works about which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on their characters, plots, settings, and circumstances of creation. The Bible was excluded from this list because its total would swamp the other work.

This is an update of an earlier You Gotta Know article.

Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

1 Hamlet Drama William Shakespeare 1601 292

2 Oedipus Rex Drama Sophocles 430 BC 196

3 Macbeth Drama William Shakespeare 1606 182

4 King Lear Drama William Shakespeare 1605 156

5 Othello Drama William Shakespeare 1622 156

6 The Tempest Drama William Shakespeare 1611 145 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

7 Moby-Dick Novel Herman Melville 1851 139

8 The Great Gatsby Novel F(rancis) Scott (Key) Fitzgerald 1925 138

9 Don Quixote Novel Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 1605 137

10 Jane Eyre Novel Charlotte Brontë 1847 128

11 Iliad Poem Homer 8th century BC 125

12 Pride and Prejudice Novel Jane Austen 1813 123

13 1984 Novel George Orwell 1948 122

14 Ulysses Novel James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce 1922 121

15 Romeo and Juliet Drama William Shakespeare 1594 121

16 The Merchant of Venice Drama William Shakespeare 1596 119

17 Paradise Lost Poem John Milton 1667 119

18 The Canterbury Tales Poem Geoffrey Chaucer 1387 117

19 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Novel Mark Twain 1884 116

20 The Scarlet Letter Novel Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 115

21 A Streetcar Named Desire Drama Tennessee Williams 1947 114

22 Our Town Drama Thornton (Niven) Wilder 1938 113

23 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Novel Mark Twain 1876 111

24 The Divine Comedy Poem Dante (Alighieri) 1314 111

25 Crime and Punishment Novel Fyodor (Mikhaylovich) Dostoyevsky 1866 109

26 The Red Badge of Courage Novel Stephen Crane 1895 108

27 Candide Novel Voltaire 1759 107

28 Billy Budd: Foretopman Novel Herman Melville 1891 106

29 Les Misérables Novel Victor(-Marie) Hugo 1862 105 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

30 Anna Karenina Novel Leo Tolstoy 1877 105

31 A Midsummer Night's Dream Drama William Shakespeare 1595 105

32 Pygmalion Drama George Bernard Shaw 1912 103

33 Julius Caesar Drama William Shakespeare 1599 103

34 War and Peace Novel Leo Tolstoy 1865 101

35 The Three Musketeers Novel Alexandre Dumas (père) 1844 100

36 A Farewell to Arms Novel Ernest (Miller) Hemingway 1929 100

37 Vanity Fair Novel William Makepeace Thackeray 1848 100

38 To Kill a Mockingbird Novel (Nelle) Harper Lee 1960 99

39 For Whom the Bell Tolls Novel Ernest (Miller) Hemingway 1940 99

40 The Grapes of Wrath Novel John (Ernst) Steinbeck 1939 98

41 Lolita Novel Vladimir Nabokov 1955 98

42 A Tale of Two Cities Novel Charles (John Huffam) Dickens 1859 98

43 Little Women Novel Louisa May Alcott 1868 97

44 As You Like It Drama William Shakespeare 1599 97

45 The Waste Land Poem T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot 1922 95

46 Aeneid Poem Virgil 19 BC 95

47 Odyssey Poem Homer 8th century BC 94

48 Heart of Darkness Novella Joseph Conrad 1902 94

49 Pilgrim's Progress Novel John Bunyan 1678 94

50 David Copperfield Novel Charles (John Huffam) Dickens 1850 94

51 One Hundred Years of Solitude Novel Gabriel García Márquez 1967 93

52 Antigone Drama Sophocles 441 BC 92 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

53 Faust Poem Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 92

54 The Count of Monte Cristo Novel Alexandre Dumas (père) 1845 91

55 A Doll's House Drama Henrik (Johan) Ibsen 1879 90

56 Robinson Crusoe Novel Daniel Defoe 1719 88

57 Animal Farm Novel George Orwell 1945 87

58 The Call of the Wild Novel Jack London 1903 87

59 Much Ado about Nothing Drama William Shakespeare 1598 87

60 The Glass Menagerie Drama Tennessee Williams 1945 86

61 The Crucible Drama Arthur Miller 1953 86

62 Brave New World Novel Aldous (Leonard) Huxley 1932 85

63 Beowulf Poem unknown 8th century 85

64 The Sun Also Rises Novel Ernest (Miller) Hemingway 1926 83

65 The Jungle Novel Upton (Beall) Sinclair 1906 83

66 Twelfth Night Drama William Shakespeare 1623 83

67 Great Expectations Novel Charles (John Huffam) Dickens 1861 82

68 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Poem Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1797 82

69 Oliver Twist Novel Charles (John Huffam) Dickens 1838 81

70 Uncle Tom's Cabin Novel Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 81

71 Rip van Winkle Short Story Washington Irving 1818 79

72 The Catcher in the Rye Novel J(erome) D(avid) Salinger 1951 77

73 Waiting for Godot Drama Samuel (Barclay) 1952 77

74 Death of a Salesman Drama Arthur Miller 1949 77

75 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Children's Lewis Carroll 1865 76 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

76 Long Day's Journey Into Night Drama Eugene (Gladstone) O'Neill 1956 75

77 All the King's Men Novel Robert Penn Warren 1946 75

78 Things Fall Apart Novel (Albert) Chinua(lumogu) Achebe 1958 75

79 Slaughterhouse Five Novel Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 1969 75

80 The Charge of the Light Brigade Poem Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1854 74

81 The Merry Wives of Windsor Drama William Shakespeare 1600 74

82 The Importance of Being Earnest Drama Oscar (Fingal O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde 1895 73

83 The Magic Mountain Novel (Paul) Thomas Mann 1924 73

84 Invisible Man Novel Ralph (Waldo) Ellison 1952 72

85 The Taming of the Shrew Drama William Shakespeare 1593 72

86 Eugene Onegin Poem Aleksandr (Sergeyevich) Pushkin 1833 72

87 Sense and Sensibility Novel Jane Austen 1811 72

88 The Brothers Karamazov Novel Fyodor (Mikhaylovich) Dostoyevsky 1880 72

89 Inferno Poem Dante (Alighieri) c. 1310-1314 71

90 The Stranger Novel Albert Camus 1946 71

91 Catch-22 Novel Joseph Heller 1961 70

92 A Raisin in the Sun Drama Lorraine Hansberry 1959 70

93 Wuthering Heights Novel Emily Brontë 1847 69

94 The Sound and the Fury Novel William (Cuthbert) Faulkner 1929 69

95 Oresteia Series Aeschylus c. 458 BC 69

96 Decameron Poem Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 69

97 The Raven Poem Edgar Allan 1845 69

98 Ivanhoe Novel Sir Walter Scott 1820 68 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

99 The House of the Seven Gables Novel Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 68

100 My Ántonia Novel Willa (Sibert) Cather 1918 68

Geography

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 Mosi-oa- 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 , 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 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 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 North American Rivers 1. The Mississippi River is the second-longest in North America behind the Missouri. Referred to by Abraham Lincoln as “the father of ,” the Mississippi begins at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, and flows 2,340 miles to a vast delta on the Gulf of Mexico, forming portions of ten state borders and the world's third-largest drainage basin. The Mississippi picks up numerous major tributaries including the Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas, and Red Rivers and flows past numerous major cities including Minneapolis, St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans. 2. The Colorado River is the most significant river of the southwestern United States. Beginning in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the Colorado River runs southwest for 1,450 miles to the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico. The Colorado formed numerous canyons along much of its length, most notably the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The Colorado also has significant dams such as Hoover Dam near Las Vegas (forming Lake Mead) and Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona (forming Lake Powell). 3. The Ohio River flows 981 miles through a significant industrial region of the central United States. Historically seen as the border between the northern and southern United States, the Ohio is formed in downtown Pittsburgh by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, flowing past Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Evansville, forming borders of five states before emptying into the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. Other major tributaries of the Ohio include the Kanawha, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wabash, and Cumberland Rivers. 4. The Columbia River is a vital waterway of the Pacific Northwest. Rising in the Rockies of British Columbia, the Columbia flows through Lake Revelstoke before entering Washington state. Grand Coulee Dam along the Columbia in Washington forms Lake Roosevelt. When it was completed in 1943, Grand Coulee was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world; it is still America's largest electric power plant. The Columbia receives the Yakima and Snake Rivers before forming much of the Washington-Oregon border, receiving the Willamette River in Portland before emptying into the Pacific where Lewis and Clark sighted the ocean. 5. The St. Lawrence River drains the Great Lakes and serves as a major waterway of eastern Canada. First explored and named by Jacques Cartier in the early 16th century, the St. Lawrence emerges from the northeastern corner of Lake Ontario in the Thousand Islands archipelago, forming the border between Ontario and New York. The St. Lawrence receives the Ottawa and Saguenay Rivers and flows through Montreal and Quebec City. At its mouth, the Gulf of St. Lawrence is one of the world's largest estuaries. 6. The Hudson River has been a historically significant American river since the early 17th century. Named for English explorer Henry Hudson, it flows 315 miles through eastern New York state. After receiving the Mohawk River, the Hudson flows past New York's capital of Albany and West Point before forming the boundary between Manhattan and New Jersey. The Hudson is also culturally significant as an inspiration for Washington Irving and the Hudson River School of American landscape painters. 7. The Missouri River is North America's longest, at 2,341 miles. The Missouri is formed in western Montana by the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin Rivers. It flows past Bismarck, North Dakota and Kansas City before emptying into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis. Lewis and Clark used the Missouri as a route for exploration of the Louisiana Purchase. The Missouri is regulated by a number of major dams, including Fort Peck in Montana and Oahe Dam in South Dakota. 8. The Mackenzie River is the longest river of Canada. Flowing 1,080 miles out of the Great Slave Lake, the river flows past Fort Providence and Fort Simpson in Canada's Northwest Territories, emptying into a vast delta on the Beaufort Sea. The Mackenzie is the largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean from North America. The river was named for Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie, who crossed Canada to the Pacific ten years before Lewis and Clark. 9. The Potomac River is one of America's most historic waterways. Rising at Fairfax Stone in West Virginia, the Potomac runs 405 miles, forming the border between Virginia and Maryland. Washington, D.C. was sited on the Potomac at its confluence with the Anacostia River. George Washington's plantation Mount Vernon was on the Potomac, while Robert E. Lee's two invasions north of the Potomac were major events of the Civil War. 10. The Rio Grande has formed the border between Texas and four Mexican states since 1848. It flows south out of Colorado through New Mexico before reaching the international boundary near El Paso. Texas's Big Bend National Park is named for the sweeping curve the Rio Grande cuts through the Sierra Madre Oriental. After leaving the mountains, the river flows past Laredo and Brownsville before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

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 argini which 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.

Math

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 low-degree 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 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 non-integer 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.

Music

You Gotta Know These Musical Works

The following table lists the 50 most-frequently referenced works of music in NAQT questions as of November 1, 2007. While you really gotta know their creators, these are also some of the works about which more substantive questions are written, so teams should be prepared for questions on their style, instrumentation, performance, lyrics, key, program, and circumstances of creation.

This is an update of an earlier You Gotta Know article.

Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

1 Carmen Opera Georges Bizet 1845 147

2 Aida Opera Giuseppe 1871 146

3 The Ring of the Nibelung Opera (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner 1876 122

4 Messiah Oratorio George Frideric 1741 102

5 Symphony No. 9, "Choral" Symphony Ludwig van 1823 100

6 Symphony No. 6, "Pastoral" Symphony Ludwig van Beethoven 1808 97

7 Symphonie fantastique Symphony (Louis-)Hector 1830 92

8 The Nutcracker Ballet Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1892 91

9 The Rite of Spring Ballet Igor (Fyodorovich) 1913 90

10 Madama Butterfly Opera Giacomo 1904 89

11 Symphony No. 3, "Eroica" Symphony Ludwig van Beethoven 1804 86

12 The Barber of Seville Opera Gioacchino (Antonio) Rossini 1816 85

13 The Magic Flute Opera Wolfgang Amadeus 1791 84

14 Appalachian Spring Ballet Aaron 1944 83

15 Rigoletto Opera Giuseppe Verdi 1851 82

16 Don Giovanni Opera Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1787 79

17 La Bohème Opera Giacomo Puccini 1896 78

18 Fidelio Opera Ludwig van Beethoven 1805 77

19 The Four Seasons Concerto Antonio 1725 73 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

20 Rhapsody in Blue Composition George Gershwin 1924 72

21 The Marriage of Figaro Opera Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1784 72

22 West Side Story Musical Leonard Bernstein 1957 68

23 Siegfried Opera (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner 1876 66

24 Moonlight Sonata Sonata Ludwig van Beethoven 1801 63

25 The Suite Gustav(us Theodore von) 1918 61

26 Symphony No. 6, "Pathétique" Symphony Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1893 60

27 Porgy and Bess Opera George Gershwin 1935 60

28 William Tell Opera Gioacchino Rossini 1804 59

29 Peter and the Wolf Composition Sergei (Sergeyevich) 1936 59

30 The Song of the Earth Symphony Gustav 1909 59

31 Swan Lake Ballet Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1877 58

32 The Flying Dutchman Opera (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner 1843 58

33 Lohengrin Opera (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner 1850 57

34 Boléro Composition (Joseph) Maurice 1928 55

35 The Phantom of the Opera Musical Andrew Lloyd Webber 1910 54

36 Tosca Opera Giacomo Puccini 1900 54

37 Turandot Opera Giacomo Puccini 1762 53

38 La Traviata Opera Giuseppe Verdi 1853 53

39 Pictures at an Exhibition Composition Modest (Petrovich) Mussorgsky 1874 53

40 A German Requiem Sacred Choral Work Johannes 1868 51

41 Symphony No. 94, "Surprise" Symphony (Franz) Joseph 1791 50

42 Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter" Symphony Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1788 50 Rank Title Genre Creator Date Freq.

43 Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" Symphony Antonín (Leopold) 1893 49

Arthur Sullivan (music) 44 The Mikado Musical 1885 48 William S. Gilbert (words)

45 My Fair Lady Musical Frederick Loewe 1956 47

46 Falstaff Opera Giuseppe Verdi 1893 47

47 Boris Godunov Opera Modest (Petrovich) Mussorgsky 1869 47

48 Cats Musical Andrew Lloyd Webber 1982 46

49 Enigma Variations Composition Edward (William) Elgar 1899 46

50 Salome Opera Richard (Georg) Strauss 1905 45

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 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.

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 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 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 pole and ordered the men to bow to it. When Tell refuses, Gessler takes his son, Jemmy, and forces Tell to shoot an apple off his son's head. Tell succeeds, but is arrested anyway. In the fourth act, he escapes from the Austrians and his son sets their house on fire as a signal for the Swiss to rise in revolt. The opera was based on a play by Friedrich von Schiller. 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-Cio-San (Madame Butterfly) with a marriage contract with a cancellation clause. He later returns to America leaving Cio-Cio-San to raise their son "Trouble" (whom she will rename "Joy" upon his return). When Pinkerton and his new American wife Kate do return, Cio-Cio-San gives them her son and stabs herself with her father's dagger. The opera is based on a play by David Belasco.

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 Award-winning 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 .

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.

Random

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.

Religion

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 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 Indo-Europeans. 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 Religious Texts 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 religion-philosophy 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.

Science

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 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 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 high-yield 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," anti-particles 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 anti-particle. 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 Moons 1. Earth’s moon: The moon, also called Luna, is the fifth largest satellite in the solar system, the largest relative to the size of the it orbits, and the second densest. The USSR’s Luna unmanned spacecraft first reached the moon in 1959, and Apollo 8 became the first manned mission to orbit the moon, in 1968. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty guarantees the rights of all nations to explore the moon for peaceful purposes. The flat dark lunar plains are called maria (singular: mare) and are mainly concentrated on the near side of the moon. The most famous one is Mare Tranquillitatis, the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 first landed on the moon in 1969. The Apollo program landed on the moon five more times. 2. Phobos: Both Phobos (“fear”) and Mars’ smaller moon Deimos (“dread”) were discovered by Asaph Hall III in 1877. At just 3700 miles above the Martian surface, Phobos orbits more closely to its planet than any other moon in the Solar System. Because it orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates, each day it appears (from the Martian surface) to set twice in the east each day. Geological features on Phobos, including the Stickney Crater, are primarily named for either astronomers (Stickney was the maiden name of Asaph Hall’s wife) or characters from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. In 1971 the US’s Mariner IX became the first spacecraft to provide close-up photos of Phobos. 3. Deimos: One seventh the mass of Phobos and further away from the Martian surface, Deimos was found by Asaph Hall at the US Naval Observatory six days before he discovered Phobos. Its largest and only named craters are Swift and Voltaire; Deimos’s surface doesn’t appear as rough as Phobos’s because regolith has filled in some of the craters. A still- controversial and unproven hypothesis holds that Deimos (and possibly Phobos as well) were perturbed out of their orbit by Jupiter and then captured by the gravity of Mars. 4. Io is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter (the moons discovered by Galileo), the fourth-largest moon in the solar system, the densest moon, and the most geologically active body in the solar system due to its more than 400 volcanoes. Io’s features are named for characters from the Io story in Greek mythology; fire, volcano, and thunder deities from other mythologies; and characters from Dante’s Inferno. Io plays a significant role in shaping Jupiter’s magnetosphere. Pioneer 10 first passed by Io in December 1973. 5. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and the only one known to have its own magnetosphere. The third of the Galilean satellites, Ganymede was also first photographed close-up by Pioneer 10 in 1973. Galileo made six flybys of Ganymede between 1996 and 2000. Based on a suggestion from Simon Marius, Ganymede (along with many of the Jovian satellites) is named for one of Jupiter’s lovers in Roman mythology; Ganymede is the only such moon named for a male figure. Many of Ganymede’s features, including the Enki Catena, are given names from Egyptian and Babylonian mythology, although its largest dark plain is Galileo Regio. Ganymede is scheduled to be orbited by the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE), currently slated for a 2022 launch. 6. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest in the solar system. Until Voyager 1 visited in 1980, it was thought to be larger than Ganymede. It is the only known satellite with a dense atmosphere—so dense that it makes observation of surface features nearly impossible except from close up—and also the only known satellite for which there is evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid. Discovered in 1655 by Christiaan Huygens, it was visited by the Cassini- Huygens mission in 2004. Titan’s albedo features, such as the highly reflective area Xanadu, are named for sacred or enchanted places from world literature and mythology. Because of its nitrogen-rich atmosphere and the presence of surface liquid, Titan is often thought to be the most likely place in the solar system for microbial life to exist outside of Earth. 7. Iapetus [“eye”-AA-pih-tuss] is Saturn’s third-largest moon after Titan and Rhea and, like them, was discovered by Giovanni Cassini in 1671. It was named based upon a suggestion from John Herschel (son of the discoverer of Uranus, William Herschel) for the Titans of Greek mythology, the brothers and sisters of Cronos (Saturn). Iapetus has a distinctive two-tone coloration; part of it is red-brown, while part is bright gray. Features on Iapetus are named for people and places from the French Song of Roland, including Charlemagne Crater and the bright northern region Roncevaux Terra. In 2004 the Cassini orbiter found an equatorial ridge running over 800 miles long and 10 miles wide that gives Iapetus some of the highest peaks in the solar system; its existence has not yet been explained. 8. Titania and Oberon: Uranus’s largest moons, Titania and Oberon, are named for characters from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Other Uranian moons are named for characters from either Shakespeare or Alexander Pope.) They were discovered on the same day in 1787 by William Herschel, who also discovered Uranus itself in 1781. In 1986 Voyager 2 became the only spacecraft to date to visit the Uranian moons. Because Uranus orbits the sun almost on its side and Titania and Oberon orbit Uranus in the same plane as its equator, the moons have extreme seasons: Titania’s poles spend over 42 years in nonstop sunlight followed by 42 years of darkness. Most of Titania’s features are named for settings or female characters from Shakespeare—its largest crater is Gertrude Crater, after Hamlet’s mother—while most of Oberon’s are named after settings or male characters from Shakespeare. However, Oberon’s largest feature is Mommur Chasma, which is named from a French epic poem. 9. Triton: The largest moon of Neptune and the only large moon with a retrograde orbit (that is, an orbit opposite to the rotation of its planet), Triton is the seventh-largest moon in the solar system and is thought to have been captured from the Kuiper Belt. For over 100 years after its 1846 discovery, Triton was thought to be Neptune’s only moon; Nereid wasn’t discovered until 1949 (there are 13 known satellites now). Triton is geologically active and has geysers that are assumed to erupt nitrogen. Because of the activity, impact craters on Triton are relatively scarce; most of the larger craters were formed by volcanic activity. Triton orbits around Neptune in almost a perfect circle. Voyager 2 visited Triton in 1989 and is the only space probe to have done so (and none are currently planned). Much of Triton’s western hemisphere consists of an unexplained series of fissures and depressions sometimes called “cantaloupe terrain.” Triton’s features are named after various water spirits, monsters, or sacred waters from mythology. 10. Charon: The largest satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, Charon wasn’t discovered until 1978. (As of 2013, Pluto has five known moons, the last two discovered in 2011 and 2012.) Unlike Pluto, which is covered with nitrogen and methane ices, Charon appears to be covered in water ice and may also have active cryo-geysers. Because the center of mass of the Pluto- Charon system lies outside of either one, Charon doesn’t truly orbit Pluto; when Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, an argument was made (but not accepted) to classify Pluto-Charon as a binary system. The IAU still considers Charon, which is roughly half the size but has only 11% the mass of Pluto, to be a satellite. The New Horizons mission is scheduled to visit Charon and Pluto in 2015. Charon was named by its discoverer, James Christy of the Flagstaff Naval Observatory; the IAU approved the name in 1985. Internationally Charon is pronounced like the Greek mythological figure with a hard [k] sound; however, Christy’s choice of name was inspired by his wife Charlene, so NASA and New Horizons personnel use a soft [sh] sound.

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 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.

Social Studies

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 800-kilogram bomb just forward of turret two on the starboard side. Within a few seconds the forward powder magazines exploded, killing 1,177 of the crew, and the ship sank to the bottom of the harbor. In 1962 the USS Arizona memorial opened and is now administered by the National Park Service. 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 nuclear-powered submarine. On December 12 of that year, the Navy Department announced that she would be the sixth ship of the fleet to bear the name Nautilus. She was launched on January 21, 1954. Eight months later, on September 30, 1954, the Nautilus became the first commissioned nuclear- powered ship in the U.S. Navy. On the morning of January 17, 1955, Nautilus' 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 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 the Analects. Confucius put much importance on ren, the inner state which allows one to behave compassionately toward others, and on a concept called li, which can help individuals attain ren. 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 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 Temperament 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- NAWF-skee], 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 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 the Aeneid. 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 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 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.

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 the Analects. Confucius put much importance on ren, the inner state which allows one to behave compassionately toward others, and on a concept called li, which can help individuals attain ren. 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 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.

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. Well-developed 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 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). You Gotta Know these Egyptian Deities 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 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. 3. 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. 4. 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. 5. 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. 6. 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. 7. 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. 8. 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. 9. 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 . 10. 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. 11. 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. 12. 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 Feminists 1. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) Wollstonecraft was a British author and philosopher who is best known for writing A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). In that text, she argued that women are inherently equal to men, but appear inferior because they do not have the same access to education. Two years before, Wollstonecraft had responded to Edmund ’s conservative Reflections on the Revolution in France with her own A Vindication of the Rights of Men. Wollstonecraft’s daughter, Mary Shelley, is famous as the author of Frankenstein. 2. Lucretia Mott (1793–1880) Mott was a Quaker who agitated for both abolitionism and women’s rights. When she attended the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, the male delegates excluded Mott and the other female delegates from the convention and made them sit in a segregated area. Mott then turned her attention to women’s rights. She was older than many of the other prominent delegates to the Seneca Falls Convention, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom she mentored. Mott briefly served as the first president of the American Equal Rights Association. She was also one of the Quakers who founded Swarthmore College. 3. Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) Sojourner Truth was born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree in Dutch-speaking New York. She gave herself the name Sojourner Truth in 1843 when she converted to Methodism and informed her friends that the spirit had called her. She was already well known as an abolitionist speaker when she attended the 1851 Ohio Women’s Rights Convention and declared that she had “as much muscle as any man” in her most famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” 4. John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) and Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1858) John Stuart Mill was a utilitarian philosopher who comes up in quiz bowl most often in conjunction with his works On Liberty (1859) and Utilitarianism (1863). He makes this list, however, because he wrote one of the most influential philosophical defenses of women’s rights in The Subjection of Women (1869). Mill claimed that his wife, Harriet Taylor, co-authored this text with him, a claim which is debated by historians. The husband and wife did write several essays together, including a tract advocating women’s suffrage titled The Enfranchisement of Women (1851), and Mill recognized his wife as a major contributor to all his greatest works. 5. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Stanton is most famous for writing the “Declaration of Sentiments” that she presented at the first women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Stanton based the text of her declaration on the Declaration of Independence; it included the line, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” Stanton was a close collaborator for many years with Susan B. Anthony; for more on the two women’s accomplishments, see Anthony’s biography below. 6. Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) Anthony was one of the most outspoken and most famous proponents of women’s suffrage in the United States. Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, she co-founded the first women’s temperance society in the 1850s after they were excluded from an all-male temperance society. Together, in 1868, the two women founded a journal called The Revolution, which was dedicated to promoting women’s rights. The following year, Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1872, Anthony gained fame when she was arrested for voting in the presidential election. She defended herself by quoting the Fourteenth Amendment, but she was convicted. 7. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) Pankhurst was the most prominent advocate for women’s voting rights in the United Kingdom. As one of the founders of the Women’s Social and Political Union, she called for direct action and frequent protests to force male politicians to grant votes to women. Her protests frequently got her arrested, and while in jail she and other suffragettes often went on hunger strikes. Initially, prison officials brutally force-fed the hunger-striking suffragettes. In 1913, Parliament passed the Cat and Mouse Act, which provided for hunger strikers to be released from jail and re-arrested after they regained their health. As a result of the advocacy of Pankhurst and others, Parliament began to grant voting rights to women in 1918. 8. Margaret Sanger (1879–1966) Sanger was an early advocate of birth control and reproductive rights who founded the American Birth Control League, which later evolved into Planned Parenthood. As a young nurse living in New York City, Sanger wrote columns about sexual education for the New York Call titled “What Every Mother Should Know” and “What Every Girl Should Know.” Sanger gave up nursing after one of her patients died of a self–induced abortion, and instead dedicated herself to educating women about contraception. In 1914, she began writing a newsletter called The Woman Rebel, in part to challenge the Comstock law, which prohibited the sending of “obscene” texts by mail, since she considered education about contraception to be an issue of free speech. 9. Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) Woolf was an author who comes up in quiz bowl most often because of her novels, especially Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). She makes this list, however, because of her essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), in which she argued that a woman must have money and space in order to write and express herself. In the essay, Woolf famously created the character of Judith Shakespeare, William Shakespeare’s imagined sister, who could not achieve the status of her brother because she did not have the same access to education. Woolf also addressed these themes in Three Guineas (1938). 10. Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) De Beauvoir was a French writer and philosopher perhaps best known for her feminist treatise The Second Sex (1949). In that work, de Beauvoir argued that “womanhood” is defined by its differences from masculinity, which is perceived as normal. The Second Sex contains the famous line, “One is not born a woman, but becomes one.” The book is divided into two parts, titled “Facts and Myths” and “Lived Experience.” One fact about de Beauvoir often mentioned in quiz bowl questions is that she was a lover of Jean-Paul Sartre. She is often considered one of the pioneers of “second-wave” feminism, which emphasizes sexuality, the workplace, and other forms of inequality over the first-wave focus on voting and property rights. 11. Betty Friedan (1921–2006) Friedan was a writer and activist best known as the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963) and as the most prominent co-founder of the National Organization for Women. In 1957, Smith conducted a survey of graduates of her alma mater, Smith College, and found that many of them were unhappy with their lives. Friedan labeled this general unhappiness “the problem with no name.” She then began writing The Feminine Mystique, in which she argued that being a housewife is unfulfilling and advocated for women to seek education and work outside the home. 12. Gloria Steinem (b. 1934) Steinem is a journalist who founded and edited Ms. magazine. For an article in Show magazine in 1963, she went undercover as a Playboy bunny. Having had an abortion herself, she became a prominent advocate of abortion rights. She worked as a writer for New York magazine when she founded Ms., a feminist magazine devoted to women’s issues. The magazine also popularized the use of the title “Ms.” to address women regardless of marital status. Steinem also wrote the book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983), and the phrase “a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle” is often attributed to her.

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 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.

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-, Harun ar-Rashid, and al-Mamun 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 al-Mahdi. They conquered Egypt in 969 under al-Muizz and built Cairo, becoming the Abbasids' rivals. At its height their regime reached into Yemen and Syria, and they had a network of missionaries spreading Isma'ili doctrines into Abbasid territory and beyond. In the eleventh century, the caliph al-Hakim, considered insane, disappeared, giving rise to the Druze religion. A later succession dispute gave rise to the sect of the Assassins. The last caliph, al-Adil, died in 1171. 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 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 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 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 1,000-meters, perennial hard luck kid Dan Jansen won Olympic gold in his last race, the 1,000 meters, and Norwegian Johann Olav Koss won three gold medals, all in world-record times. 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 Elections 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 Democratic-Republican 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 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 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 1774-5. 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 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 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 "counter-reforms." Under him, the state enacted a series of Temporary Regulations (giving it the power to crack down on terrorism), increased censorship, tightened controls on Russia's universities, created a position of "land captain" to exert state control in the countryside, and either encouraged or ignored the first anti-Jewish pogroms. 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 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 , 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 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 modern-day 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 Spanish-American War and transferred Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico to the U.S. while making Cuba (ostensibly) independent. The treaty was the beginning of American imperialism and underwent a lengthy and contentious ratification.

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 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 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. 5. 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. Sports

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. 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 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 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 "Old-Time Hockey," as stated in the 1977 film Slap Shot. As a blue liner for the Boston Bruins he was named a first team NHL All-Star for eight of nine years during the 1930s and is the only defenseman to win 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 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 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. 7. 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. 8. 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. 9. 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. 10. 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 semi-finals 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.