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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 poll 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.
    

1. 
   Plessy v. Ferguson (Melville Fuller, 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.
    

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.
    

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