Monumental milestones: great events of modern times
Author
Author
Language
English
Description
Chuck Yeager loved to fly. His determination led him to be a fighter and test pilot. He flew as often as he could in any craft he could. Eventually, he became the expert on military aircraft. He knew just what each plane could do, and more importantly, what it couldnt. As important as knowing how far he could push a plane, he also knew when to pull back. His pioneering efforts in breaking the sound barrier made modern aviation and space exploration...
Author
Language
English
Description
At the time that Rosa Parks decided not to get out of her bus seat in 1955, African Americans across the United States were treated like second-class citizens. Sometimes they were not even considered citizens. They were not allowed to use white-only restaurants or hotels. They were kept out of public schools, parks, and swimming pools. And perhaps most importantly, they were not allowed to vote.Over the course of the next decade, African Americans...
3)
The dawn of aviation: the story of the Wright brothers
Author
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The disaster in the Indian Ocean started with a massive undersea earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. What followed was a surge of water called a tsunami that killed thousands of people in nearly a dozen countries. Water rose up miles inland and destroyed everything in its path. This is a story of hope, of how people woke up to destroyed cities and missing children and did not give up. This is also the story of how the world responded with the biggest...
Author
Language
English
Description
There is perhaps no greater symbol of both political oppression and the human spirit of the twentieth century than the Berlin Wall. Built during the height of the Cold War in 1961, the Wall was meant to both stop the number of citizens trying to leave East Germany for the freedoms and opportunities of the West and to prevent people spreading the ideals of democracy from coming in. In the 28 years the Wall stood, it is estimated over 1,000 people were...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The Great Depression was one of the great crises of the twentieth century. For some time, the very survival of the country appeared to be at stake. Businesses failed, banks closed, people lost their homes, and thousands lined up at soup kitchens across the country. The future appeared bleak indeed. Franklin Delano Roosevelt promised the people of the United States "a new deal, " and in 1932 he was elected president. Many of his New Deal policies shaped...
Author
Language
English
Description
The United States and the Soviet Union were two of the nations that defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. Yet their systems of government were completely different. These differences soon developed into the Cold War. Both sides became bitter enemies. But there was no actual fighting. That situation nearly changed in 1961. The Soviets secretly installed missiles with nuclear warheads in Cuba. These missiles could reach many cities in the United States....
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
When the Great War began in August 1914, many people thought it would be over by Christmas. Instead it lasted for more than four years and claimed millions of lives.The most dominant feature of the conflict was the seemingly endless miles of trenches that faced each other, often just a few hundred yards apart. The only way of attacking was through brutal frontal assaults. Often thousands of men died in a few hours. When they werent fighting, men lived...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
One of the most famous trials in U.S. history took place in a tiny town in Tennessee in 1925. Dayton was the site of what became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial.The defendant, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating a recently passed state law. This law made it illegal to teach the theory of evolution. Under most circumstances, few people would have paid any attention to the trial.Several of Daytons leading citizens saw a chance to put their town...
16)
The assassination of John F. Kennedy, 1963
Author
Author
Language
English
Description
The formation of the State of Israel in 1948 is one of the most important events in recent history. About 3,000 years ago, Israel was a powerful nation. But it soon fell from power and in the second century CE most Jews were forced out of their homeland. Many went to Europe, where they were subject to prejudice and persecution for centuries. By far the worst case was the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed. Their suffering accelerated...
18)
The fall of the Soviet Union: 1991
Author
19) The McCarthy era
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
Discusses the McCarthy era, a time when Joseph McCarthy, obsessed with routing out communists, persecuted innocent Americans destroying careers and ruining many lives.
20)
Overview of the Persian Gulf War, 1990
Author
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
For centuries, ordinary Russians lived under the absolute power of the czars, the country's hereditary rulers. For many, such a life involved few rights and grinding poverty. The Russian people increasingly wanted a greater voice in the way they were governed and a higher standard of living. These desires put pressure on the government of the czars. The civil unrest finally came to a head in 1917. The last czar, Nicholas II, was overthrown in what...
22) The Vietnam War
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Vietnam War sparkled one of the most controversial periods in American history. Although Vietnam had been fighting for its independence for thousands of years, the United States didn't enter the picture until the 1950s. Increasing tensions between North and South Vietnam officially brought the U.S. into the war in 1964. At the same time, a military draft was instituted. People struggled to understand the role of the U.S. in Vietnam. Americans...
25)
FDR and the New Deal
Author
26)
The historic fight for the 2008 Democratic nomination: the Clinton view
Author
27)
Overview of the Korean War
Author
Author
Language
English
Description
It was a beautiful late summer morning, the kind of day even busy New Yorkers took a moment to appreciate. The sky was spectacularly clear, tinted an azure blue, the air stirred by a gentle breeze. The mood of the city seemed optimistic as people hurried down the crowded streets on their way to work. Then the world as people knew it changed forever. The attack on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and New York City's World Trade Center by three fuel-laden,...
30)
The fall of apartheid in South Africa
Author
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
No one really knows when the Underground Railroad began, but we do know this network of blacks, whites, Native Americans, and others helped thousands of escapees reach free land. Find out about the secret world of conductors, agents, and stations that helped enslaved people in North America gain freedom, from the mid 1600s through the end of the Civil War.