Gone with the Wind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novel by Margaret Mitchell, tells the story of a rebellious Georgia woman named Scarlett O'Hara. It presents a detailed view of her complex relationships with family and friends and her struggle to survive in the American South before, during, and after the Civil War. Many regard the book as having a strong ideological commitment to the cause of the Confederacy. Why was Mitchell's book the subject of a 2001 court case?
- [Read more]

Launched in 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and to make up-close observations of Jupiter, capturing images that were later sent back to Earth. It passed the orbit of Neptune in 1983 and became by some definitions the first artificial object to leave our solar system. By February 1998, the probe was over 7.5 billion miles from Earth but lost its title as the most distant man-made object to what craft?
- [Read more]

Lavoisier was a French nobleman known today as the "father of modern chemistry." He stated the first version of the Law of Conservation of Mass, co-discovered and named oxygen, wrote the first detailed list of elements, and introduced the metric system. Lavoisier also worked to improve economic and social conditions in France, holding various government posts. He was beheaded during the Reign of Terror because, as a member of the farmers general, one of his duties was to do what? Discuss
- [Read more]

The Battle of Amiens was the opening phase of the Allied offensive that ultimately led to the end of WWI. By the end of the first day, Allied forces had pushed approximately seven miles into enemy territory, making one of the greatest advances of the war. The battle marked the end of trench warfare on the Western Front and the return to mobile warfare, which would prevail until the armistice was signed on November 11. How did German general Erich Ludendorff describe the first day of the battle? Discuss
- [Read more]

In 1992, US armed forces, together with the UN, undertook a joint operation to restore order in Somalia, a country wracked by civil war and severe famine. When US special operations forces attempted to arrest members of Somali warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid's militia organization, their helicopters were shot down and an urban battle ensued. Eighteen US servicemen and between 3,000 and 5,000 Somalis died in the fighting. What terrorist allegedly trained some of Aidid's men?
- [Read more]

This battle, which took place during WWII, marked the first all-aircraft naval attack in history. The results were definitive, as British planes destroyed much of the Italian fleet anchored in Taranto. The battle is seen as a turning point in military history, marking the end of the reign of "big-gun" battleships and leading to the rise of naval air power. Certain aspects of the attack were studied as part of the planning for what other notorious aerial bombardment?
- [Read more]

On Bloody Sunday, Tsar Nicholas II's Imperial guards killed between 1,000 and 4,000 unarmed, peaceful demonstrators as they marched toward the Winter Palace. Their intention was to present the tsar with a petition that included demands for equality before the law, an eight-hour workday, improved working conditions, and fair wages. Why was Father Gapon, the Russian Orthodox priest who organized the demonstration, later killed by his friend?
- [Read more]

Yeltsin served as Russia's first democratically elected president. He directed the Russian Federation's secession from the USSR and the formation of a new, decentralized confederation, the Commonwealth of Independent States, with himself as its leader. As president, Yeltsin instituted a radical reform program that consisted of the mass privatization of state-run enterprises, after which the country experienced inflation, heavy taxes, and a protracted economic depression. Who succeeded Yeltsin?
- [Read more]

Though the April Uprising of 1876, a Bulgarian revolt against the perceived Ottoman oppression, failed as a revolution, it succeeded in raising international support for the Bulgarian plight. News of atrocities committed by Ottoman troops suppressing the uprising quickly spread to the international community, and Russia soon declared war on the Ottomans. The subsequent Treaty of San Stefano created a large autonomous Bulgaria within the Ottoman Empire, but it was later revised. Why?
- [Read more]

The Constitution of the People's Republic of China, modeled after the 1936 Soviet Constitution, reflects Deng Xiaoping's determination to lay a lasting foundation for domestic stability and modernization and is unique in its encouragement of foreign participation in China's economy. It provides a legal framework for the liberalizing economic policies of the 1980s and drops the previous constitution's guarantee of the right to strike. What body has revised the current constitution four times?
- [Read more]