News Display: Holger Cahill and Iceland, Monday, 11/23

The Everett Cafe features thematic news displays on a wide range of educational topics, in addition to daily postings of headlines from around the world. Stay tuned into current events and reflect on how the media influences teaching and learning.

• Holger Cahill and Iceland, Monday, 11/23


Enhancing the film screening of From Turf Cottage to the Cover of TIME, the Dramatic Life of Holger Cahill will be a newspaper display featuring stories about Holger Cahill, the former director of the Museum of Modern Art and Director of the Works Progress Administration-Federal Art Project. Join us as we tribute Cahill and showcase current newspapers from Iceland to the tune of Icelandic folk music performed later in the evening by Wadsworth Strings.


• The Origin of Species Is Published, Tuesday, 11/24


Published by John Murray of London on November 24, 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species celebrates its 150th anniversary. A seminal work of scientific literature, Darwin’s book upheld the theory of natural selection and presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose through a pattern of evolution and common descent – in more popular terms, that man evolved from ape.

In recognition of Darwin’s landmark publication, stories will be posted from major newspapers illustrating the controversy to this day and its implications for education, including the far reaching consequences of Scopes "Monkey Trial," a turning point in the controversy over creation versus evolution and what can legally be taught in schools.


• Election Day, Tuesday, 11/3


Occurring on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, Election Day is the day for the election of pubic officials in the United States. On Tuesday, November 3, 2009 there is an "off year election," or election held in an odd-numbered year, meaning that the only elections in the Congress are special elections, with a few gubernatorial and mayoral races and state legislative actions, local offices, and citizen initiatives.

The uniform date was set by Congress in 1845, with Presidential elections to be held in even years divisible by four. Tuesday was settled on because it did not pose schedule conflicts with Biblical Sabbath or market day.

This year Election Day in New York City will call upon voters to cast their ballots for candidates running for the offices of Mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and multiple city council districts. On November 3, the Gottesman Libraries will post stories about the current election, as well as the history of Election Day.

For information about local elections please see the Board of Elections in New York City.


• The Berlin Wall Falls, Monday, 11/9


November 11, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, a 28 mile barrier prompted by the Soviet Union and built in 1961 by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) to block out Western Germany. The Wall, which comprised guard towers lining large concrete walls encircling a wide area, symbolized the Iron Curtain, an ideological and physical boundary that divided Europe into separate areas with different economic and military alliances. Thousands of people tried to escape and many died.

The Berlin Wall came down after weeks of civil unrest; East Germany finally announced that citizens could visit West Germany. The fall of the barrier paved the way for the reunification of Germany, the end of the Cold War, and the spread of democracy through many European countries.

In remembrance headlines will be exhibited about the Berlin Wall and its momentous collapse. For live coverage of the Fall be sure to check out the BBC and ABC news reports.


• The Gettysburg Address, Thursday, 11/19


"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met here on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we can not dedicate - we can not consecrate - we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here.

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
(Abraham Lincoln Online)

Delivered by President Abraham Lincoln at the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863, the Gettysburg Address is one of greatest and most famous speeches in American history. Lincoln referred to the events of the Civil War and redefined the purpose of the Union in fighting it.

The Gottesman Libraries will feature newspaper stories that document the history and significance of the Gettysburg Address.

For drafts of the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s invitation to Gettysburg, photograph of Lincoln, and more information please visit the Library of Congress exhibition.