A Brief History On February 1, 1901, Clark Gable was born in Cadiz, Ohio, and would go on to movie greatness earning the nickname, “The King of Hollywood.” Despite winning 2 Best Actor Academy Awards and being nominated for another pair, Gable was listed as only the 6th greatest American-born male movie star by the American Film Institute in 1999. Digging Deeper The stars listed ahead of Gable are: Humphrey Bogart, with 1 Academy Award and 3 nominations. James Stewart, with 1 Academy Award and 5 nominations. Marlon Brando, with 2 Academy Awards and 8 nominations. Fred Astaire, with 1…
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A Brief History On January 24, 2023, the nominations for the Academy Awards, better known as the “Oscars,” have been released! The big day of the awards ceremony will be March 12, 2023, and will honor those films released in 2022. Digging Deeper Some of our favorite major nominees include: All Quiet on the Western Front for Best Picture, Austin Butler in the title role of Elvis for Best Actor, and Michelle Yeoh for Best Actress in the frenetic Everything Everywhere All at Once. You can see trailers for each of these films below. Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: What…
A Brief History On January 20, 1947, only 3 months before Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier” and became the first African American major league baseball player, the famous catcher and slugger from the Negro Leagues of baseball, Josh Gibson, died at the young age of 35 of a stroke brought on by a brain tumor. Digging Deeper Gibson is now recognized by Major League Baseball as having had the highest single season batting average of all time, .466 in 1943. As of 2020, MLB recognizes Negro League statistics as belonging in “major league” category. Gibson also slugged about 800…
A Brief History On January 18, 2023, Americans celebrate another National Thesaurus Day, a day to be thankful for that reference book that helps us find other ways to say the same thing. Oddly enough, there is no other word for “thesaurus!” Digging Deeper Why do we choose to celebrate National Thesaurus Day on January 18th? Because that is the day of birth for Peter Mark Roget, back in 1779, the man that gave us Roget’s Thesaurus, a staple in every student’s desk. At the age of 61, Roget retired from his career as a physician, and embarked on his…
A Brief History On January 17, 2013, renowned American cyclist Lance Armstrong admitted on Oprah’s Next Chapter, a prime time television show, that he was, as suspected and accused, a cheater that won 7 consecutive Tour de France bicycle races through the assistance of banned drugs. Digging Deeper Professional and amateur athletes have been using performance enhancing drugs for decades now, including stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines and a variety of hormones, usually characterized as “steroids.” Other banned substances include “blood doping” agents that increase the ability of blood to carry oxygen and even gene manipulation to enhance performance. …