Paul Klee was a Swiss-born artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory, published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's A Treatise on Painting for the Renaissance. He and his colleague, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture in Germany. His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.

Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV. His mother was Gülnuş Sultan, originally named Evmenia Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hacıoğlu Pazarcık, in Dobruja. He succeeded to the throne in 1703 on the abdication of his brother Mustafa II. Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha and the Sultan's daughter, Fatma Sultan directed the government from 1718 to 1730, a period referred to as the Tulip Era.

The first days of Ahmed III's reign passed with efforts to appease the janissaries who were completely disciplined. However, he was not effective against the janissaries who made him sultan. Çorlulu Ali Pasha, who Ahmed brought to the Grand Vizier, tried to help him in administrative matters, made new arrangements for the treasury and Sultan. He supported Ahmed in his fight with his rivals.

The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter. Carter was the second incumbent president to be denied a second term since Herbert Hoover in 1932. Due to the rise of conservatism following Reagan's victory, some historians consider the election to be a realigning election that marked the start of the Reagan Era.

Carter's unpopularity and poor relations with Democratic leaders encouraged an intra-party challenge by Senator Ted Kennedy, a younger brother of former President John F. Kennedy. Carter defeated Kennedy in the majority of the Democratic primaries, but Kennedy remained in the race until Carter was officially nominated at the 1980 Democratic National Convention. The Republican primaries were contested between Reagan, who had previously served as the Governor of California, former Congressman George H. W. Bush of Texas, Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois, and several other candidates.