| #8695, aired 2022-07-29 | TECH HISTORY: For about 20 years after its invention, it had few practical uses; then suddenly it revolutionized grocery checkouts & home audio the laser |
| #8694, aired 2022-07-28 | COUNTRIES OF EUROPE: It's the only independent survivor of the Spanish March, buffer states created to protect Christian Europe from the Moors Andorra |
| #8693, aired 2022-07-27 | REAL PEOPLE IN POETRY: Milton wrote of this contemporary: "When by night the glass of" him "observes imagined lands and regions in the Moon" Galileo |
| #8692, aired 2022-07-26 | LITERARY ANIMALS: This children's book character, introduced in 1926 & a friend of the title creature, gets his name from the sound he might make Eeyore |
| #8691, aired 2022-07-25 | THE ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME: Honored in 1998 as part of a rock group & in 2019 as a solo artist, this singer was the first woman to be inducted into the Hall twice Stevie Nicks |
| #8690, aired 2022-07-22 | INAUGURAL BALLS: At the 1993 Tennessee Inaugural Ball, Paul Simon performed this song, his most recent Top 40 hit "You Can Call Me Al" |
| #8689, aired 2022-07-21 | CONSTELLATIONS: The brightest star of this constellation is Deneb Algedi, or "Kid's Tail" Capricorn |
| #8688, aired 2022-07-20 | HISTORIC AMERICAN ROADS: Originally a Native American trail, the Dutch made it a main road & today it runs 33 miles from State Street to Sleepy Hollow Broadway |
| #8687, aired 2022-07-19 | OPERA: An aria from this opera says, "Put on your costume & apply make-up to your face. The people pay & they want to laugh" Pagliacci |
| #8686, aired 2022-07-18 | ART & THEATRE: Asked to design a new set for a restaging of this 1952 play, Alberto Giacometti came up with one scraggly plaster tree Waiting for Godot |
| #8685, aired 2022-07-15 | MORE THAN ONE MEANING: Its definitions include containing the metallic element No. 22, pertaining to a group of Greek gods & having great strength or size titanic |
| #8684, aired 2022-07-14 | THE 20th CENTURY: Maybe surprisingly, in 1918 this new leader was the first to recognize the independence of Finland Lenin |
| #8683, aired 2022-07-13 | STATE MOTTOS: This motto is the name of a city in that state & is a famous quote by an ancient Greek from the 3rd century B.C. Eureka |
| #8682, aired 2022-07-12 | PAIRS IN ASTRONOMY: Discovered in 1877, they were named for siblings of the Greek god of love Phobos & Deimos |
| #8681, aired 2022-07-11 | MUSICAL THEATER: It's one of the most revived shows in Broadway history & in 2001 it was designated the state opera of South Carolina Porgy and Bess |
| #8680, aired 2022-07-08 | SCIENCE & THE BIBLE: A 2021 study suggested that an asteroid that struck the Jordan Valley c. 1650 B.C. gave rise to the story of this city in Genesis 19 Sodom |
| #8679, aired 2022-07-07 | LITERARY CHARACTERS ON SCREEN: Per Guinness, this character who debuted in 1887 is the most portrayed human literary character in film & television Sherlock Holmes |
| #8678, aired 2022-07-06 | AGRICULTURE: Being brought to the U.S. by a ship docking at San Francisco in 1851 helped lead to it now being a major crop in the Midwest soybeans |
| #8677, aired 2022-07-05 | NATIONAL HISTORIC SITES: Less than 100 yards north of the J. Edgar Hoover Building is this notorious location Ford's Theater |
| #8676, aired 2022-07-04 | THE EASTERN U.S.: At its peak, this state had 6 seats in the House of Representatives; since the 1930s, it has had just 1 Vermont |
| #8675, aired 2022-07-01 | WORLD GEOGRAPHY: Mont Bellevue de l'Inini is the highest point in this European possession largely covered by the Amazon rainforest French Guiana |
| #8674, aired 2022-06-30 | U.S. CITIES: This U.S. city now has 10 times the population of the other U.S. city for which it was named in 1845 Portland, Oregon |
| #8673, aired 2022-06-29 | TELEVISION HISTORY: In the opening scene of its July 21, 1969 pilot episode, a man carves the letter D into wet cement Sesame Street |
| #8672, aired 2022-06-28 | POETS' CORNER AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY: At his 1892 burial, fit for a baron, the organist put music to his words, "I hope to see my Pilot face to face, when I have crost the bar" Alfred, Lord Tennyson |
| #8671, aired 2022-06-27 | THE WORLD OF TODAY: Partly because it was a monosyllable, this word was chosen as "a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission" meme |
| #8670, aired 2022-06-24 | OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS: Each of the 3 films for which he won an Oscar, from 1975, 1983 & 1997, also garnered a Best Lead Actress Oscar Jack Nicholson |
| #8669, aired 2022-06-23 | CLASSIC ALBUMS: This classic album by a Southern rocker gets its title from a Civil War quote by a Union admiral Damn the Torpedoes |
| #8668, aired 2022-06-22 | 19th CENTURY LITERATURE: This author first thought of a parrot before choosing another bird "equally capable of speech" Edgar Allan Poe |
| #8667, aired 2022-06-21 | GEOGRAPHY WORDS: From Greek for "chief" & "sea", this word originally referred to the Aegean, known for its many island groups archipelago |
| #8666, aired 2022-06-20 | BRITISH HISTORY: From the Greek for "alone", it was nixed by Parliament in 1649 after being deemed "unnecessary, burdensome & dangerous" the monarchy |
| #8665, aired 2022-06-17 | 19th CENTURY CONTEMPORARIES: Congratulating her on the 1869 release of her biography, Frederick Douglass wrote, "I have wrought in the day--you in the night" Harriet Tubman |
| #8664, aired 2022-06-16 | DEBUT NOVELS: Published in 1991, this novel, the first in a series, has been described as "historical fiction with a Moebius twist" Outlander |
| #8663, aired 2022-06-15 | BRANDS: Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Evan Strong & Roy Campanella broke barriers representing this brand Wheaties |
| #8662, aired 2022-06-14 | 1972: In June he said, "Don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is... a comedy of errors" Richard Nixon |
| #8661, aired 2022-06-13 | TV LEGENDS: Buster Keaton considered her the tops in her field &, in fact, was one of her early mentors Lucille Ball |
| #8660, aired 2022-06-10 | THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE: Brazil stretches 2,700 miles from the Atlantic in the east to Serra do Divisor National Park on the border with this country in the west Peru |
| #8659, aired 2022-06-09 | CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: First published in French in 1943, this book has been called the most translated non-religious work, rendered into more than 300 languages The Little Prince |
| #8658, aired 2022-06-08 | AMERICAN HISTORY: A participant in this 1773 event recalled, "Some of our numbers jumped into the hold... I never labored harder in my life" the Boston Tea Party |
| #8657, aired 2022-06-07 | WRITING OLD & NEW: This 2013 bestseller shares its title with the first section of a poem from 7 centuries before Inferno |
| #8656, aired 2022-06-06 | GREEK MYTHOLOGY: Of the Argonauts seeking the Golden Fleece, these 2 from the same family were from Sparta according to Homer Castor & Pollux |
| #8655, aired 2022-06-03 | TECHNOLOGY: Upon the first use of this in 1844, the Baltimore Sun declared that time & space had been annihilated the telegraph |
| #8654, aired 2022-06-02 | UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES: Known as the female Lawrence of Arabia, Gertrude Bell called this place "a fairy tale city, all pink & wonderful" Petra |
| #8653, aired 2022-06-01 | THE EARLY 19th CENTURY: Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve signaled "engage the enemy" around noon & surrendered at 1:45 PM during this battle the Battle of Trafalgar |
| #8652, aired 2022-05-31 | NOVEL QUOTES: Referring to the book's title, this character says, "I know it's a poem by Robert Burns" Holden Caulfield |
| #8651, aired 2022-05-30 | IN MEMORIAM 2022: On the death of this trailblazing man, friend & mentor, Oprah said, "For me, the greatest of the 'great trees' has fallen" Sidney Poitier |
| #8650, aired 2022-05-27 | SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT: In 2021 this Hall of Fame athlete launched Omaha Productions Peyton Manning |
| #8649, aired 2022-05-26 | HISTORIC GEOGRAPHY: A 1946 speech declared the terminuses of the Iron Curtain to be port cities serving these 2 seas the Baltic & Adriatic Seas |
| #8648, aired 2022-05-25 | FAMOUS SPEECHES: In a draft of FDR's speech of December 8, 1941, the words "world history" were changed to this one word infamy |
| #8647, aired 2022-05-24 | THE MIDDLE AGES: It was the surname of the 2 Scottish brothers who claimed monarchies of 2 different countries in the 13-teens Bruce |
| #8646, aired 2022-05-23 | MEDICINE: Post-this disease syndrome affects many survivors, of which the U.S. is estimated to have 300,000, the vast majority over 65 polio |
| #8645, aired 2022-05-20 | ON THE MAP: It's referred to as "the blue eye of Siberia" Lake Baikal |
| #8644, aired 2022-05-19 | THE ANCIENT WORLD: New research suggests a device now called the Archimedes screw helped maintain this one of the 7 Wonders of the World the Hanging Gardens (of Babylon) |
| #8643, aired 2022-05-18 | OSCAR-WINNING SONGS: Johnny Mercer's lyrics to this 1961 Oscar-winning song once began, "I'm Holly" "Moon River" |
| #8642, aired 2022-05-17 | LITERATURE: A contemporary review of a novel by this man said he "commands attention as a kind of literary James Dean" (Jack) Kerouac |
| #8641, aired 2022-05-16 | THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: The USA's smallest national park is a 91-acre site on the Mississippi River, home to this 630-foot landmark the St. Louis Arch (the Gateway Arch) |
| #8640, aired 2022-05-13 | STATE NAMES: This state was named for a man born in Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover in 1683 Georgia |
| #8639, aired 2022-05-12 | CONSTITUTIONS OF THE WORLD: Amendments to its 1901 constitution require approval of at least 4 states before receiving royal assent Australia |
| #8638, aired 2022-05-11 | SAY IT IN ITALIAN: It's an Italian word for "mercy", but also the name of a movie character who kills Stracci & Carlo clemenza |
| #8637, aired 2022-05-10 | LIVE MUSIC: These 2 events held 2 1/2 months & 2,500 miles apart in 1999 were the last of one major music happening & the first of another Woodstock ('99 or 1999) & Coachella |
| #8636, aired 2022-05-09 | NOVEL TITLES: A 1590 poem written for the retirement of Queen Elizabeth's champion knight shares its title with this 1929 novel by an American A Farewell to Arms |
| #8635, aired 2022-05-06 | USA: These 2 mayors gave their names to a facility built on the site of an old racetrack owned by Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler William Hartsfield & Maynard Jackson |
| #8634, aired 2022-05-05 | 20th CENTURY CINEMA: A black & white newsreel in this film begins: "In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree" Citizen Kane |
| #8633, aired 2022-05-04 | THE CIVIL WAR: A Union soldiers' song said General McClellan, who let a Confederate Army escape after this battle, "was too slow to beat 'em" Antietam |
| #8632, aired 2022-05-03 | NATIONAL ANTHEMS: "Terre de nos aïeux" follows the title in the French version of this anthem "O Canada" |
| #8631, aired 2022-05-02 | THEATER: In November 1864 John Wilkes Booth & his brothers were fittingly part of a performance of this Shakespeare play Julius Caesar |
| #8630, aired 2022-04-29 | MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS: "Tuileries" & "The Great Gate of Kiev" were 2 of the artworks that inspired this classical work completed in 1874 Pictures at an Exhibition |
| #8629, aired 2022-04-28 | BOOKS OF THE 1970s: Aptly, members of a Black family in this novel have biblical names: Pilate, Hagar & the title one, an ancestor of the protagonist Song of Solomon |
| #8628, aired 2022-04-27 | POETS: In 1939 he was buried near his last residence in France, but his body arrived in Galway en route to final burial on September 17, 1948 William Butler Yeats |
| #8627, aired 2022-04-26 | AFRICAN SURNAMES: Adetokunbo, "the crown has returned from overseas", is fitting for the Adetokunbo family who left Nigeria for this country in 1991 Greece |
| #8626, aired 2022-04-25 | NAMES IN AMERICAN HISTORY: Capable of freighting about 180 tons of cargo, in 1624 it was in disrepair & appraised at a total value of 128 pounds the Mayflower |
| #8625, aired 2022-04-22 | HISTORIC NAMES: DNA from 2 living descendants of Anne of York was used to identify the remains of this man Richard III |
| #8624, aired 2022-04-21 | FILMS OF THE 1950s: The title character of this film has the same name as the Roman goddess of the dawn Sleeping Beauty |
| #8623, aired 2022-04-20 | ON THE INTERNET: This website launched in 2015 with 3 offerings, from James Patterson, Dustin Hoffman & Serena Williams MasterClass |
| #8622, aired 2022-04-19 | COUNTRIES OF AFRICA: Old maps depicting what's now this 125,000-square-mile country labeled the area with the French word for "teeth" Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) |
| #8621, aired 2022-04-18 | WORLD LITERATURE: Befitting the title, Antoine Galland, the first Western translator of this collection, worked on it only "after dinner" Arabian Nights (the One Thousand and One Nights) |
| #8620, aired 2022-04-15 | ACADEMY AWARD WINNERS: In 2019 he won his first competitive Oscar, 36 years after a Student Academy Award for a film about a Brooklyn barbershop Spike Lee |
| #8619, aired 2022-04-14 | WOMEN IN BRITISH HISTORY: The orphaned future Queen Elizabeth I was devoted to this stepmother who died 2 days before Elizabeth's 15th birthday Catherine Parr |
| #8618, aired 2022-04-13 | HISTORY: Intimately familiar with World War I, Churchill considered this war from some 150 years before the "first world war" the Seven Years' War |
| #8617, aired 2022-04-12 | GEOGRAPHIC TERMS: The 1964 article that gave this term its current use noted the "menace that haunts the Atlantic off our southeastern coast" the Bermuda Triangle |
| #8616, aired 2022-04-11 | WORDS OF THE YEAR: Oxford's word of the year for 2021 was this 3-letter one, short for a word that goes back to the Latin for "cow" vax |
| #8615, aired 2022-04-08 | 19th CENTURY LITERATURE: The Strand Union Workhouse, whose rules prohibited second helpings of food, inspired a setting in this 1838 novel Oliver Twist |
| #8614, aired 2022-04-07 | INVENTIONS: Patented in 1955, it did not go over well in the high-end fashion world but the then-new aerospace industry found it very useful Velcro |
| #8613, aired 2022-04-06 | SMALL COUNTRIES: French, Italian & Swiss nationals make up about half of its population of 38,000 Monaco |
| #8612, aired 2022-04-05 | CLASSIC GAMES: Reuben Klamer, who passed away in 2021 at age 99, developed this game relatable to "literally everyone on Earth" The Game of Life |
| #8611, aired 2022-04-04 | CURRENT TELEVISION: Fittingly, the last name of the family at the center of this drama is from French for "king" Succession |
| #8610, aired 2022-04-01 | COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD: Some of this country's indigenous people want its name officially changed from its Dutch-based name to Aotearoa New Zealand |
| #8609, aired 2022-03-31 | HISTORIC PLACES: Following a raid at this establishment in 1969, protesters confronted police by forming a Rockette-style kickline the Stonewall Inn |
| #8608, aired 2022-03-30 | AMERICANS IN PARIS: In 2021 she became the sixth woman & the first Black woman to be inducted into the Pantheon in Paris Josephine Baker |
| #8607, aired 2022-03-29 | SHAKESPEARE'S WOMEN: It is said of her, "Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets: more needs she the divine than the physician" Lady Macbeth |
| #8606, aired 2022-03-28 | SPORTS HISTORY: Taking the mound for Cleveland in 1948, he was the first African American to pitch in a World Series Satchel Paige |
| #8605, aired 2022-03-25 | U.S. CITY NAMES: Adopted in 1845, the name of this state capital is a feminized form of a big body of water Atlanta, Georgia |
| #8604, aired 2022-03-24 | DISNEY CHARACTERS: In the source material from more than 3 centuries ago, her name was badr al-budur, "full moon of full moons" (Princess) Jasmine |
| #8603, aired 2022-03-23 | POEMS: The title of this poem comes from a 1920 book that refers to its possible "restoration to fruitfulness" The Waste Land |
| #8602, aired 2022-03-22 | HISTORIC NICKNAMES: Napoleon's troops gave him this nickname not to mock him but for showing the courage of an infantryman in battle "The Little Corporal" |
| #8601, aired 2022-03-21 | SINGERS: In 2021 at age 95, this singer achieved a Guinness World Record for the oldest person to release an album of new material Tony Bennett |
| #8600, aired 2022-03-18 | NEWSPAPER TALK: Meaning an important part of a story, this distinctive spelling helped distinguish the word from a substance used in typesetting the lede |
| #8599, aired 2022-03-17 | NONFICTION: This 1962 classic was dedicated to Albert Schweitzer, who predicted that man "will end by destroying the earth" Silent Spring |
| #8598, aired 2022-03-16 | MOVIE STARS: Matthew McConaughey said, "'Dazed & Confused', the first words I ever said on film were" these "Alright, alright, alright" |
| #8597, aired 2022-03-15 | METEOROLOGY: It was feared this word caused panic, but in 1950 the U.S. Weather Bureau ended a ban on it in forecasts, saying prediction wasn't impossible tornado |
| #8596, aired 2022-03-14 | WORLD WAR I: Suvla Bay & Cape Helles were major landing sites along this peninsula Gallipoli |
| #8595, aired 2022-03-11 | SYMBOLS: This U.S. politician asked for a multicolored pennant for a parade; demand increased after his death in 1978 Harvey Milk |
| #8594, aired 2022-03-10 | FAMOUS TRIALS: On her acquittal in 1893, a reporter cited nearby events 2 centuries earlier, saying the days of witch trials are over Lizzie Borden |
| #8593, aired 2022-03-09 | EPITAPHS: Her epitaph, from a 1925 poem by her, ends, "She knows that her dust is very pretty"; "dust" was in another she wrote for herself Dorothy Parker |
| #8592, aired 2022-03-08 | BROADWAY MUSICALS: Characters Mark, Roger & Maureen in this musical were inspired by Marcello, Rodolfo & Musetta in another work Rent |
| #8591, aired 2022-03-07 | CENTRAL AMERICA: A small river connects these 2 lakes that combined form close to 10% of their country's area Lake Nicaragua & Lake Managua |
| #8590, aired 2022-03-04 | LITERARY CHARACTERS: Dostoyevsky wrote that this title man in an earlier European novel is "beautiful only because he is ridiculous" Don Quixote |
| #8589, aired 2022-03-03 | EUROPEAN CITIES: Pizzo means protection money; the Addiopizzo movement was founded in this city in 2004 Palermo, Sicily |
| #8588, aired 2022-03-02 | ART MUSEUMS: Before its 1959 opening, 21 artists protested its design, saying it would make paintings look tilted & askew the Guggenheim |
| #8587, aired 2022-03-01 | THE SILVER SCREEN: He was the first actor to star in 3 films that won the Oscar for Best Picture: those of 1934, 1935 & 1939 Clark Gable |
| #8586, aired 2022-02-28 | MODERN WAR: Called the longest siege of a capital in modern history, the assault on this city lasted from 1992 to 1996 Sarajevo |
| #8585, aired 2022-02-25 | AWARDS: These awards have a retro version & winners include the novel "The Sword in the Stone" & "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast the Hugo Awards |
| #8584, aired 2022-02-24 | FICTIONAL FAMILIES: Introduced in the 1930s in The New Yorker, they've appeared on TV & Broadway & in live action & animated films the Addams Family |
| #8583, aired 2022-02-23 | PLAY CHARACTERS: A 1949 review noted the "wrong formulas for success" of this character & "fatal misconceptions about his place in the scheme of things" Willy Loman |
| #8582, aired 2022-02-22 | AMERICAN WOMEN: In 1914 she received a patent on a trefoil emblem, which she would transfer to an organization a few years later Juliette Gordon Low |
| #8581, aired 2022-02-21 | HISTORIC EUROPEAN FAMILIES: This family has been traced to the Mugello valley around the year 1200 & the name suggests the trade of physician the Medici |
| #8580, aired 2022-02-18 | PLAYS: First published in 1602, its title characters are Margaret & Alice The Merry Wives of Windsor |
| #8579, aired 2022-02-17 | LONG-RUNNING TV SHOW CHARACTERS: This character who has been on the air for more than 50 years is only 6 1/2 years old Big Bird |
| #8578, aired 2022-02-16 | 18th CENTURY HISTORY: The stated aim of this period was using violence to achieve political goals; its success aided in its demise in under a year the Reign of Terror |
| #8577, aired 2022-02-15 | 20th CENTURY AUTHORS: Early in his career he worked for a newspaper whose style guide said, "use short sentences" & "use vigorous English" (Ernest) Hemingway |
| #8576, aired 2022-02-14 | THE MIDWEST: At about 90,000 it's the most populous U.S. city on North America's biggest lake Duluth, Minnesota |
| #8575, aired 2022-02-11 | INTERNATIONAL PLAYWRIGHTS: A piece of writing advice from this man who died in 1904 concludes, "Otherwise don't put it there" (Anton) Chekhov |
| #8574, aired 2022-02-10 | 20th CENTURY PEOPLE: In 1946 she was aboard a train to Darjeeling when she heard what she later described as "the call within a call" Mother Teresa |
| #8573, aired 2022-02-09 | AMERICAN CITIES: Recorded on a visit to this California city, YouTube's first video featured a man saying, "They have really, really, really long trunks" San Diego |
| #8572, aired 2022-02-08 | 20th CENTURY FICTION: The author's foreword to this novel says, "When I read it now I feel myself back again on the steamer from Aswan to Wadi Halfa" Death on the Nile |
| #8571, aired 2022-02-07 | TOYS & GAMES: Its co-creator said adding an "L" to the end of the 1st word in the original title of this board game invented in 1979 "made it" Trivial Pursuit |
| #8570, aired 2022-02-04 | BEHIND THE DISNEY ATTRACTION: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror utilizes technology developed by this company founded in 1853 the Otis (Company) |
| #8569, aired 2022-02-03 | FAMOUS AMERICANS: He was buried in 1969 in one of the World War II uniform jackets named for him Dwight Eisenhower |
| #8568, aired 2022-02-02 | RECENT TV: The credits on "The Queen’s Gambit" included this man as "special consultant" (Garry) Kasparov |
| #8567, aired 2022-02-01 | HISTORIC GEOGRAPHY: This city on the Rhone River that is partly a World Heritage Site was papal property until the French Revolution Avignon |
| #8566, aired 2022-01-31 | WOMEN WHO WRITE: Mimicking her style, a 1912 rejection note read: "Only one look, only one look is enough. Hardly one copy would sell here. Hardly one" Gertrude Stein |
| #8565, aired 2022-01-28 | 1970s SINGER-SONGWRITERS: While speaking to Congress in 1985, he explained that his 1973 hit, now a state song, wasn't about drugs John Denver |
| #8564, aired 2022-01-27 | 18th CENTURY NAMES: In 1793 he left Dublin for the United States, saying, "I expect to make a fortune" off George Washington, & he did Gilbert Stuart |
| #8563, aired 2022-01-26 | COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD: The only nation in the world whose name in English ends in an H, it's also one of the 10 most populous Bangladesh |
| #8562, aired 2022-01-25 | SEA LIFE: In 2018 National Geographic reported that half of this was dead, "akin to a forest after a devastating fire" the Great Barrier Reef |
| #8561, aired 2022-01-24 | U.S. MUSEUMS: Named for a benefactor, it was established in 1893 to house artifacts from the nearby World's Columbian Exposition the Field Museum |
| #8560, aired 2022-01-21 | MOUNTAINS: First scaled in 1829, this 17,000-foot mountain has caused excitement by the supposed discovery of wood high up on it Mount Ararat |
| #8559, aired 2022-01-20 | WORDS IN AMERICAN HISTORY: The 1890 Census reported that "the unsettled area has been so broken into... that there can hardly be said to be a" this frontier |
| #8558, aired 2022-01-19 | FILMS OF THE 2000s: One of the screenwriters of this 2001 film described it as "'Clueless' meets 'The Paper Chase"' Legally Blonde |
| #8557, aired 2022-01-18 | AWARDS AROUND THE WORLD: France's national theater award, it's named for a man who died in Paris in 1673 the Molière Award |
| #8556, aired 2022-01-17 | SCIENTIFIC NAMES: The 1905 paper that gave this its name also referred to it as "Dynamosaurus imperiosus" Tyrannosaurus rex |
| #8555, aired 2022-01-14 | CEMETERIES & MEMORIALS: 60,000 are at rest in a National Memorial Cemetery opened in 1949 in the crater of an extinct volcano in this state Hawaii |
| #8554, aired 2022-01-13 | THE WORDS OF VICTOR HUGO: This object "is the ultimate expression of law, & its name is vengeance; it is not neutral, nor does it allow us to remain neutral" the guillotine |
| #8553, aired 2022-01-12 | HISTORIC AMERICANS: In 1838 he took a new last name, of a family in Walter Scott's "The Lady of the Lake"; for distinction he added a 2nd "S" to the end (Frederick) Douglass |
| #8552, aired 2022-01-11 | BROADWAY MUSICALS: Each in a show that ran more than 2 years, Ethel Merman & Sarah Jessica Parker played 2 different characters with this first name Annie |
| #8551, aired 2022-01-10 | 19th CENTURY NOTABLES: On his deathbed in France in 1890, he told his brother, "The sadness will last forever" Vincent van Gogh |
| #8550, aired 2022-01-07 | 20th CENTURY NONFICTION: "Norwegian Independence Day" & "a vast blue sea" are mentioned in Chapter 1 of a 1948 book by this man (Thor) Heyerdahl |
| #8549, aired 2022-01-06 | HISTORIC BUILDINGS: Begun in the 1070s with stone from Caen, it was meant to dominate both a skyline & the hearts & minds of a conquered populace the Tower of London |
| #8548, aired 2022-01-05 | THE 1950s: The first TV debate between presidential candidates of the same party involved him & future running mate Estes Kefauver Adlai Stevenson |
| #8547, aired 2022-01-04 | WORD ORIGINS: From the Greek for "ring", the first ones were built by the Romans, including one that could hold 250,000 circus |
| #8546, aired 2022-01-03 | SCULPTORS: Los Angeles artist George Stanley sculpted this, first handed out at a private banquet on May 16, 1929 the Oscar |
| #8545, aired 2021-12-31 | MUSIC LEGENDS: Of their July 1957 first meeting at a church fair, one of this pair recalled: "I was a fat schoolboy and… he was drunk" John Lennon & Paul McCartney |
| #8544, aired 2021-12-30 | EXPLORERS: Confirming a theory, fossils found with this explorer in 1912 included a plant from more than 250 million years ago (Robert Falcon) Scott |
| #8543, aired 2021-12-29 | THE 20th CENTURY: In the morning of April 15, 1912 officer Charles Lightoller became the last of about 700 people to board this ship the Carpathia |
| #8542, aired 2021-12-28 | EUROPEAN RIVERS: The flooding of this river in 1966 destroyed or damaged some 14,000 works of art, many of them priceless the Arno |
| #8541, aired 2021-12-27 | 20th CENTURY THEATER: In 1955 Peter Hall directed the first production of this play in English without having "the foggiest idea what some of it means" Waiting for Godot |
| #8540, aired 2021-12-24 | INTERNATIONAL LANDMARKS: In December 2020 an international agreement added nearly 3 feet to this; one surveyor lost half a toe in the effort Mount Everest |
| #8539, aired 2021-12-23 | THE EARLY UNITED STATES: The final piece in this series points out "the analogy of the proposed government to your own state constitution" The Federalist Papers |
| #8538, aired 2021-12-22 | SPORTING EVENTS: In 1752 one of the first races in this sport was run--4 miles from Buttevant Church to St. Mary's Doneraile steeplechase |
| #8537, aired 2021-12-21 | 3-NAMED WOMEN: Not primarily known as a suffragist, in 1879 she became the first female resident of Concord, Mass. to register to vote in local elections Louisa May Alcott |
| #8536, aired 2021-12-20 | FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: Introduced in 1938 & inspired by movie character Torchy Blane of the Morning Herald, she has since gone on to win a fictional Pulitzer Lois Lane |
| #8535, aired 2021-12-17 | FRENCH ARTISTS: The catalog of MoMA's first exhibition called this artist who died in 1891 a "man of science" & "inventor of a method" (Georges) Seurat |
| #8534, aired 2021-12-16 | WORLD WAR II GEOGRAPHY: Body-of-water battles included the Coral Sea, Philippine Sea & this one that allowed Japan to seize Jakarta the Java Sea |
| #8533, aired 2021-12-15 | AWARDS: The Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award honors influential people from this state, including Western author Louis L'Amour North Dakota |
| #8532, aired 2021-12-14 | 20th CENTURY PHYSICS: Puzzlingly heavy & long-lived particles discovered in the 1940s were dubbed this adjective later applied to even smaller particles strange |
| #8531, aired 2021-12-13 | KINGS & QUEENS: Due to legislative action of 1707, she was officially the last monarch of independent Scotland Queen Anne |
| #8530, aired 2021-12-10 | 19th CENTURY BRITISH AUTHORS: She called herself "the daughter of two persons of distinguished literary celebrity" in an introduction to one of her novels (Mary) Shelley |
| #8529, aired 2021-12-09 | 1950s PUBLIC WORKS: Dubbed "The Greatest Construction Show on Earth", when completed it connected Minnesota to Montreal the St. Lawrence Seaway |
| #8528, aired 2021-12-08 | 20th CENTURY PEOPLE: Gen. MacArthur said this man's death by "violence is one of those bitter anachronisms that seems to refute all logic" "Mahatma" Gandhi |
| #8527, aired 2021-12-07 | OLD GEOGRAPHIC NAMES: This term once used for western North Africa is still used today in the name of a primate from that region Barbary |
| #8526, aired 2021-12-06 | AESTHETIC MOVEMENTS: This turn-of-the-century movement was alternately known around the world as Nieuwe Kunst & Modernista Art Nouveau |
| #8525, aired 2021-12-03 | ORGANIZATIONS: In the U.S. & its territories, this nonprofit whose roots trace to 1980 fulfills a word in its name every 34 minutes the Make-A-Wish Foundation |
| #8524, aired 2021-12-02 | JOURNALISTS IN HISTORY: Bismarck Tribune correspondent Mark Kellogg died June 25, 1876 while on a field assignment covering this man (General George) Custer |
| #8523, aired 2021-12-01 | PLANNED CITIES: A recent immigrant, Lady Denman, wife of the governor-general, announced the name of this new national capital at a 1913 ceremony Canberra, Australia |
| #8522, aired 2021-11-30 | INTERNATIONAL FRIENDSHIP: The organization these International was founded in 1956; they’re Partnerstädte in Germany & villes jumelées in France Sister Cities |
| #8521, aired 2021-11-29 | 19th CENTURY LITERATURE: Its first line says, "The good people of Paris were awakened by a grand peal from all the bells in the three districts of the city" The Hunchback of Notre Dame |
| #8520, aired 2021-11-26 | FICTIONAL LANGUAGES: Lapine is the name of the language created for this 1972 book beloved by children Watership Down |
| #8519, aired 2021-11-25 | FAMOUS DO'S & DON'TS: In 1964 Berkeley alum Jack Weinberg, age 24, told a San Francisco chronicle reporter this now-famous "Don't" "Don't trust anyone over 30" |
| #8518, aired 2021-11-24 | AWARDS & HONORS: First awarded in 1731 to electricity pioneer Stephen Gray, the Copley Medal is awarded annually by this organization the Royal Society |
| #8517, aired 2021-11-23 | WORLD CAPITALS: An annual event called Winterlude includes skating on the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO world heritage site in this city Ottawa, Canada |
| #8516, aired 2021-11-22 | 20th CENTURY PRESIDENTS: He won an election in which both he & his Democratic opponent were from Ohio & both were wealthy newspaper publishers (Warren G.) Harding |
| #8515, aired 2021-11-19 | 20th CENTURY AMERICAN AUTHORS: The Old Courthouse Museum in Monroeville, Alabama has exhibits devoted to these 2 authors & childhood friends (Harper) Lee & (Truman) Capote |
| #8514, aired 2021-11-18 | HISTORY: In 1985 the mayor of Rome went to a suburb of Tunis to sign a treaty ending this after more than 2,100 years the (Third) Punic War(s) (Carthaginian Wars) |
| #8513, aired 2021-11-17 | FINAL RESTING PLACES: A cemetery on this island has the graves of Robert Fulton & 2 of the first 4 Treasury Secretaries Manhattan |
| #8512, aired 2021-11-16 | MOVIE QUOTES: This 3-word phrase was the protagonist's second line of dialogue in a 1962 movie, the first in a 25-film series "Bond, James Bond" |
| #8511, aired 2021-11-15 | MYTHS & LEGENDS: This legendary place has been identified as being in Caerleon, Wales & in Winchester, England Camelot |
| #8510, aired 2021-11-12 | CONTEMPORARY PLAYWRIGHTS: "The Murder of Gonzago" is used as a play within a 1966 play by this man who was inspired by Shakespeare (Tom) Stoppard |
| #8509, aired 2021-11-11 | PRICELESS OBJECTS: It dates back to the "French Blue", which was set in gold & suspended from a neck ribbon when Louis XIV wore it on ceremonial occasions the Hope Diamond |
| #8508, aired 2021-11-10 | WORLD POPULATION: This Asian nation is the world's most populous country that lies mostly in the Southern Hemisphere Indonesia |
| #8507, aired 2021-11-09 | 1970s SONGS: In 1976 "Bohemian Rhapsody" was replaced at No. 1 on the U.K. charts by this Europop song whose title is heard in Queen's lyrics "Mamma Mia" |
| #8506, aired 2021-11-08 | NAMES IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY: He was Virginia's 1st African-American congressman, whose grandnephew, a famous poet, used his last name as a first name (John Mercer) Langston |
| #8505, aired 2021-11-05 | TOYS: Introduced in 1964, he fell out of favor in changing times & in 1970 was marketed as a "Land Adventurer" G.I. Joe |
| #8504, aired 2021-11-04 | OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: It's the only U.N. member state outside Europe with Dutch as an official language Suriname |
| #8503, aired 2021-11-03 | PAINTINGS: In 2021 experts in Oslo concluded that it was the artist who wrote on this painting, "Could only have been painted by a madman" The Scream |
| #8502, aired 2021-11-02 | SCIENTISTS: Galileo thanked this astronomer "because you were... practically the only one, to have complete faith in my assertions" (Johannes) Kepler |
| #8501, aired 2021-11-01 | 1960s HISTORY: After around 8 PM EDT on July 21, 1969 a major part of a transport known by this 1-word name was never seen again Eagle |
| #8500, aired 2021-10-29 | SONGS & U.S. HISTORY: Victory in 1805's Battle of Derna on the coast of North Africa inspired a lyric in this song made official in 1929 the "Marines' Hymn" |
| #8499, aired 2021-10-28 | WORLD CITIES: From Sydney, Australia go 7,000 miles east & less than 1/2 degree of latitude north to this capital also near the Pacific Santiago, Chile |
| #8498, aired 2021-10-27 | LITERARY MOVIE ROLES: Among the actresses who have portrayed her are Greta Garbo twice, Vivien Leigh, Tatiana Samoilova & Keira Knightley Anna Karenina |
| #8497, aired 2021-10-26 | AUTHORS: These 2 men who both died in Boston in the mid-20th century each won 4 Pulitzers, one man for Poetry & the other for Drama (Robert) Frost & (Eugene) O'Neill |
| #8496, aired 2021-10-25 | NOTABLE WOMEN: Of the 3 pioneering women in their field to be dubbed the "Trimates", this one got her PhD from Cambridge in 1966 (Jane) Goodall |
| #8495, aired 2021-10-22 | 1970s TOP 40 HITS: Seeing a poster for a production of "Cyrano de Bergerac" in a seedy Paris hotel & ladies of the evening nearby inspired this hit "Roxanne" |
| #8494, aired 2021-10-21 | WORLD GEOGRAPHY: This country of 16,600 square miles has a possession that's more than 50 times as large Denmark |
| #8493, aired 2021-10-20 | 19th CENTURY SUPREME COURT DECISIONS: The first "self-evident" truth in the Declaration of Independence was quoted & found not to apply to this plaintiff (Dred) Scott |
| #8492, aired 2021-10-19 | CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS: He has studied Cordon Bleu cooking, but is known for his 1981 creation of a character with unconventional taste in cuisine Thomas Harris |
| #8491, aired 2021-10-18 | NAMES ON THE MAP: From 1824 to 1825 this hero toured all 24 states & an Indiana city was named for him (the Marquis de) Lafayette |
| #8490, aired 2021-10-15 | LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN: These stories got their collective title because little Josephine Kipling insisted they be told exactly the same way each time Just So Stories |
| #8489, aired 2021-10-14 | U.S. HISTORY: On Sept. 30, 1788 William Maclay & Robert Morris, both of Pennsylvania, were chosen as the first 2 these (U.S.) senators |
| #8488, aired 2021-10-13 | SPORTS LEGENDS: When Johnny Bench broke his record, this man wrote, "I always thought the record would stand until it was broken" Yogi Berra |
| #8487, aired 2021-10-12 | PUBLISHING: Last name of brothers James, John, Joseph & Fletcher, whose company published magazines with their name as well as books Harper |
| #8486, aired 2021-10-11 | COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD: Nazi Germany annexed this nation & divided it into regions of the Alps & the Danube; the Allies later divided it into 4 sectors Austria |
| #8485, aired 2021-10-08 | THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE: British zoologist George Shaw looked for stitches when he first saw this mammal in 1799, thinking he was being tricked (the) duck-bill(ed) platypus |
| #8484, aired 2021-10-07 | WINTER OLYMPIC SPORTS: The official Olympic website says this event "has its roots in survival skills" practiced in the snowy forests of Scandinavia biathlon |
| #8483, aired 2021-10-06 | HISTORIC CALENDARS: Following Messidor, this summer month in the 18th century French Revolutionary calendar had a name meaning "heat gift" Thermidor |
| #8482, aired 2021-10-05 | POPULAR PHRASES: This phrase relating nutrition & health was popularized by fruit scientist J.T. Stinson at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair an apple a day keeps the doctor away |
| #8481, aired 2021-10-04 | RENAISSANCE MEN: 10 years before a more famous work, he wrote in 1503 that the way to deal with rebels is to placate them or eliminate them (Niccolò) Machiavelli |
| #8480, aired 2021-10-01 | AMERICAN HISTORY: The April 26, 1906 edition of The Call, a newspaper in this city, reported on the heroic death of hoseman James O'Neil San Francisco |
| #8479, aired 2021-09-30 | CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: A 2000 Library of Congress exhibit called this 1900 work "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale" The Wizard of Oz |
| #8478, aired 2021-09-29 | MYTHOLOGY: The Hippocrene Spring, sacred to the Muses, was so named because this offspring of Medusa brought it into being Pegasus |
| #8477, aired 2021-09-28 | THE CONTINENTS: It's the only continent with its mainland lying in all 4 hemispheres as defined by the equator & the prime meridian Africa |
| #8476, aired 2021-09-27 | ROCK LEGENDS: A new studio album in 2020 gave him a Top 5 album in 6 consecutive decades, his first in 1975 (Bruce) Springsteen |
| #8475, aired 2021-09-24 | HISTORY OF THE 19-TEENS: Saying he ignored warnings of enemy vessels, the British admiralty sought to blame William Turner, this ship's last captain in 1915 the Lusitania |
| #8474, aired 2021-09-23 | FOOD & DRINK IN THE BIBLE: In the King James Version, these creatures are a plague in Exodus 10, but deemed okay to eat in Leviticus 11 locusts |
| #8473, aired 2021-09-22 | LANDMARKS: 96 miles in total during its 3-decade existence, the most well-known part of this was about the same length as an Olympic marathon the Berlin Wall |
| #8472, aired 2021-09-21 | CHILDREN'S BOOKS: A book by her says, "It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific'... but then I am not a rabbit" (Beatrix) Potter |
| #8471, aired 2021-09-20 | 1980s MOVIES: The Dip used to kill characters in this 1988 film consisted of acetone, benzene & turpentine, ingredients of paint thinner Who Framed Roger Rabbit |
| #8470, aired 2021-09-17 | 19th CENTURY U.S. POLITICS: Named after a U.K. political party that helped depose a king, the U.S. Whig Party was formed to oppose this man (Andrew) Jackson |
| #8469, aired 2021-09-16 | THE 21st CENTURY: In 2009 this 11-year-old started posting on BBC's Urdu language website under the screen name Gul Makai Malala (Yousafzai) |
| #8468, aired 2021-09-15 | AUTHORS: In addition to knowing many languages & making up his own, he also taught language at the universities of Leeds & Oxford J.R.R. Tolkien |
| #8467, aired 2021-09-14 | SCIENTIFIC ETYMOLOGY: 2 of the 3 men for whom armalcolite, a dark gray mineral discovered in 1969, is named (2 of) (Neil) Armstrong, (Buzz) Aldrin or (Michael) Collins |
| #8466, aired 2021-09-13 | THE 13 COLONIES: Founded by an advocate of religious freedom, it was the site of America's first Baptist church & oldest synagogue Rhode Island |
