Articles about History

We would have Valentine?s Day parties in elementary school.  The day before we?d make cardboard mailboxes, decorate them with construction paper and glue and hang them over the edge of our desks.  Then we?d all go home and make valentines for everyone in our class, bring them in the next day and deliver them to everyone?s mailbox.  Our teacher would bring in snacks and soda, a few of our mothers might bake cookies or something, and we?d spend the last part of the day eating and exchanging valentines.  For kindergarten, first and second grade, this all sat very well with me. In third grade it struck me how disingenuous the entire enterprise was.  I was expected to give valentines to everyone in my class, whether I liked them or not.  But I was told the holiday was about expressing love for those people I truly cared about.  If I handed out valentines to everyone I knew, then the people I cared about got the same message as the people I didn?t give a shit about and the people I actively

Today?s the 4th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, but I covered that a few days ago.  Here?s some other, less-depressing stuff that happened on February 1: The Chinese seized Taiwan in 1662. The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in 1790. France declared war on the U.K. in 1793. Texas seceded from the U.S. in 1861, becoming an independent state, joining the Confederacy a month later.  Texas was sadly readmitted to the Union nine years later, on March 30, 1870. Thomas Edison completed construction on the world?s first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey in 1893. Associated Press photographer Eddie Adamssnapped this happy little pic in Saigon in 1968: Roman Polanski jumped bail and hightailed it to France to avoid being arrested on child sex charges in 1978. Justin Timberlake ?exposed? Janet Jackson?s breast during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004, giving thousands of hypersensitive American Christians yet another meaningless cultural event

Supersonic airline research in Europe began in 1956 and resulted in the British and French Governments signing an international treaty for the joint design, development and manufacture of a supersonic airliner six years later. The first prototype was rolled out at Toulouse in 1967 and since then, there have been a number of notable dates in the history of Concorde.Concorde measures 204ft in length - stretching between six and ten inches in-flight due to heating of the airframe. She is painted in a specially developed white paint to accommodate these changes and to dissipate the heat generated by supersonic flight. The wingspan is 83ft 8ins - much less than conventional subsonic aircraft as Concorde flies in totally a different way using "Vortex Lift" to achieve her exceptional performance. The height is 37ft 1ins. The characteristic droop nose is lowered to improve pilots' visibility for take-off and landing.Concorde's four engines - specially designed Rolls-Royce/ Snecma Olympus

Prince William and long time girlfriend Kate Middleton, who many thought would one day be Queen, have split due to William's demanding schedule in the Army. William passed out from Sandhurst as an Army officer last December and started his training to be a armoured troop commander in Camp Bovington Dorset on March 16, leaving the couple seeing each other no more than once a week. A "close friend

Lesson 25: Literature - Art - HistoryBài 25: V?n h?c - Ngh? thu?t - L?ch s? I. Conversations II. Grammar III. Practice IV. Reading Comprehension V. Exercises I. H?I THO?I (conversations) 1. ? QU?Y SÁCH V?N H?C (At the Department of Literature books) K Chào ch?! Good afternoon! L ?, chào anh Kikuchi! Oh, good afternoon, Mr. Kikuchi! Anh s?p v? Nh?t B?n ph?i không? Are you going back to Japan? K Vâng, tu?n sau. Yes, I am. Next week. L Tr??c khi v? n??c, anh có mu?n mua gì không? Do you want to buy anything before going back to your country? K Có. Tôi mu?n mua m?t s? sách v?n h?c. Yes, I do. I want to buy some books. Theo ch?, tôi nên mua nh?ng sách gì? Im your opinion, what books should I buy?

DownloadThis is the VOA Special English Economics Report.A question from Vietnam. Listener Nguyen Minh Tan wants to know more about the World Trade Organization and its history.Pascal Lamy is WTO director-generalThe World Trade Organization came into existence in nineteen ninety-five. It operates a system of trade rules. It serves as a place for nations to settle disputes and negotiate agreements to reduce trade barriers. The newest of its one hundred fifty members, Vietnam, joined in January.But the roots of the W.T.O. date back to World War Two and the years that followed.In nineteen forty-four, a meeting took place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire: the International Monetary Conference. There, negotiators agreed to create the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. But they could not agree on an organization to deal with international trade.Three years later, in nineteen forty-seven, twenty-three nations approved the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT. It was mea

DownloadVOICE ONE:This is Mary Tillotson.VOICE TWO:And this is Steve Ember with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.(MUSIC)Gerald Ford is sworn-in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. At center is Ford's wife, Betty.Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-eighth president of the United States, Gerald Ford.VOICE ONE:Gerald Ford was sworn-in as president on August ninth, nineteen seventy-four. The day before, President Richard Nixon had announced that he would resign.If he had not resigned, he probably would have been removed from office. A Congressional investigation had found evidence that Nixon violated the Constitutional rights of the American people during the Watergate case.The new president spoke about Watergate, and what it meant to America, on the day he was sworn-in.FORD: "Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rul

DownloadVOICE ONE:This is Rich Kleinfeldt.VOICE TWO:And this is Richard Rael with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.(MUSIC)Today, we tell about the presidential election of nineteen seventy-six.VOICE ONE:Gerald Ford is sworn-in by Chief Justice Warren Burger. At center is Ford's wife, Betty.When Vice President Gerald Ford became president in nineteen seventy-four, he took office during a crisis. For the first time in American history, a president -- Richard Nixon -- had resigned.He resigned as a result of the case known as Watergate. It involved the cover-up of illegal activities. Officials in Richard Nixon's administration had lied about Watergate. They also had misled the public about the war in Vietnam.VOICE TWO:After Vietnam and Watergate, many Americans no longer believed their public officials. At this difficult time, Gerald Ford dealt with the public calmly. In one speech, for example, he said, "The state of the Unio

DownloadVOICE ONE:This is Rich Kleinfeldt.VOICE TWO:And this is Stan Busby with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.(MUSIC)Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-ninth president of the United States, Jimmy Carter.VOICE ONE:Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in the inaugural paradeIt is January twentieth, nineteen seventy-seven. Inauguration Day. America's newly elected president, Jimmy Carter, is on his way to the White House after his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol building.But the new president is not riding in a car. He is walking. His wife, Rosalynn, and his daughter, Amy, walk with him. Crowds along Pennsylvania Avenue cheer. Bands play.On this cold day in Washington, Americans look to the future. Watergate -- the crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon -- is several years in the past. The Vietnam War is history, too.VOICE TWO:Republican Gerald Ford served the remaining years of Nixon's t

Download Listen in Real AudioVOICE ONE:This is Rich Kleinfeldt.VOICE TWO:And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.(MUSIC)Ronald ReaganToday, we tell about the campaign for president in nineteen eighty and the election of President Ronald Reagan.(MUSIC)VOICE ONE:The president of the United States in nineteen eighty was Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. The months before Election Day were difficult for him. Many Americans blamed Carter for high inflation, high unemployment, and the low value of the United States dollar. Many blamed him for not gaining the release of American hostages in Iran.About a year earlier, Muslim extremists had taken the Americans prisoner after seizing the United States embassy in Tehran. President Carter asked all Americans to support his administration during the crisis.As months went by, however, he made no progress in bringing the hostages home. The Iranians rejected negotiations for

DownloadHOST:Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.(MUSIC)I'm Doug Johnson. This week on our show:We answer a question about the movie "Titanic" ...We also have music by three British singers who are popular in the United States ...And we look at the growing interest in community gardens.Community GardensHOST:There are thousands of community gardens in the United States. Some are planted in parks. Others are on top of buildings -- anyplace where space is available. As we hear from Barbara Klein, people share these gardens to grow food, flowers and friendships.BARBARA KLEIN:A community garden in Sacramento, CaliforniaCommunity gardens appeal to people who not only love to make things grow, but alsoenjoy learning from other gardeners. Shared gardens also give people the outdoor space they might not have where they live, especially if they live in cities.The National Park Service operates a community garden in Washington, D.C., near busy museums and government buildings. Acro

Do you know why the communist regime and the many dictatorship regimes had got their ways?  Do you know why the peoples that still live in such a regime are suffering?  These evil regimes had got their ways because they depended on the ignorances of the peoples, and the more peoples that were less educated the better for them to carry out their suppressive plans.  The peoples that are currently live in these evil regimes do not have freedom of speech, freedom of press, and many other liberties like us in the United States.  Without being able to speak up their minds and what they want, instead they cowardly accepted the living conditions that their government the evil regime thinks what is best for them.  Imagine a government officer comes up to you and say you cannot live here anymore, your property will belong to the government now, the government don't have to pay you jack to get the ownership for your property.  How do you feel if such a demand is dir

Once gathered only for subsistence and cultural purposes, wild huckleberries are now also harvested commercially. Drawing on archival research as well as harvester and producer interview and survey data, an inventory of North American wild huckleberry plant genera is presented, and the wild huckleberry harvesting patterns of early Native Americans and nonindigenous settlers are described. The social, technological, and environmental changes that gave rise to the commercial industry in the Pacific Northwest by the 1920s and the industry's demise after World War II are explained. The resurgence of the commercial wild huckleberry industry in the mid-1980s and national forest management issues related to the industry are presented as are possible strategies that land managers could develop to ensure wild huckleberry, wildlife, and cultural sustainability.

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