Student Furnished Course Supplies/Prerequisites:

Course Description: This class will surprise and inform you with little known facts of the past, including: how did Cleopatra, a plain looking woman, seduce two Roman rulers? How did the ancients use birth control? How did an ancient inventor create temple robotics? How did one liar save ancient Greece from annihilation? How did the rise of Islam stimulate American slavery? What ever happened to the Knights' Templar after the French king attempted to exterminate them? What is the myth about Christopher Columbus and 1492? What event saved the American Revolution from an untimely end? How did the opium trade help build America? Who were the real people many famous movie characters were modeled after? How did Nikola Tesla get the last laugh on Thomas Edison? What was America's most extravagant restaurant?

Course Instructor: C. Wayne Dawson has taught one day informal classes at UT Austin since the spring of 2018 to present, focusing on a variety of out-of-the-ordinary historical themes. He has taught World and American History courses for nine to ten years at Mt. San Antonio, Chaffey, and Moreno Valley colleges. Currently, he writes for the Williamson County Sun. From 2017 to the present, he has chaired the Georgetown Community Forum, a committee of Democrats and Republicans that selects controversial topics, and invites expert speakers from both sides to converse in a polite and respectful atmosphere.
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