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Welcome!
Although this site has been created primarily for my
students, everyone is welcome. In these pages you'll find many sources of information.
The Online Resources section below has numerous
links that are of current interest. For more links to material on just about any
topic you're looking for, use the E-Links button above. Linked off of that
page are pages containing hundreds of links to sites covering a number of topics.
Visit often ... I update frequently! Hope
you enjoy the site!
Quote of the Month
"One might ask why, in a galaxy of a few hundred
billion stars, aliens are intent on coming to Earth at all. It would be as if
every vertebrate in North America somehow felt drawn to a particular house in
Peoria, Illinois. Are we really that interesting?"
~Seth
Shostak (SETI)
Numbers of the Month
Astronomers engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) are
training their instruments on a star around 94 light years from Earth after a
very strong signal was detected by a Russian telescope. An international team of
researchers is now examining the radio signal and its star, HD 164595 in the
hopes of determining its origin. Whenever a strong signal is detected, it's a
good possibility for some nearby civilization to be detected. The signal from HD
164595 is intriguing, because it comes from the vicinity of a sun-like star, and
if it's artificial, its strength is great enough that it was clearly made by a
civilization with capabilities beyond those of humankind. Such a civilization
would likely be Type II on the Kardashev scale. The Kardashev scale is based on
the energy that that a civilization might be able to funnel for its own use. A
Type II civilization would be able to harness the entirety of the energy emitted
by its star, billions of billions of watts. A senior astronomer with the SETI
Institute, said that it's hard to understand why anyone would want to target our
solar system with a strong signal since the star system is so far away they
won't have yet picked up on any TV or radar that would tell them that we're
here. If it does prove to be transient and unexplained, HD 164595 could become
another "Wow! signal," frustratingly tantalizing and mysterious in equal
measures.
~CNN.com,
08/30/2016
Then and Now
09/01/1864 - Atlanta fell to Union forces.
09/01/1939 - WWII began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
09/01/1942 - A federal judge in Sacramento upheld the wartime detention of
Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals.
09/01/1951 - The US, Australia and New Zealand signed a mutual defense pact –
ANZUS.
09/01/1961 - The Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an
aboveground nuclear explosion in central Asia.
09/01/1998 - Federal legislation made airbags mandatory.
09/02/1666 - The Great Fire of London broke out claiming thousands of homes but
only a few lives.
09/02/1789 - The US Treasury Department was established.
09/02/1864 - Sherman occupied Atlanta.
09/02/1901 - VP Theodore Roosevelt offered the advice: Speak softly and carry a
big stick.
09/02/1945 - Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam an independent republic.
09/02/1945 - Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri,
ending WWII.
09/02/1963 - Alabama Governor George Wallace prevented the integration of
Tuskegee High School by encircling the building with state troopers.
09/02/1969 - The first ATM opened for business.
09/02/1973 - JRR Tolkien, the author of the best-selling fantasy novels The
Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, died at the age of 81 in
Bournemouth, England.
09/02/1998 - A UN court
handed down the first international conviction for genocide, finding Jean-Paul
Akayesu, the former mayor of a small town in Rwanda, guilty of nine counts,
09/02/2016 - VJ Day
09/03/1777 - The American flag was flown in battle for the first time on this
day in 1777, during a Revolutionary War skirmish at Cooch's Bridge, Delaware.
09/03/1783 - The Treaty of Paris between the US and Great Britain officially
ended the Revolutionary War.
09/03/1939 - Britain and France declared war on Germany, two days after the Nazi
invasion of Poland.
09/03/1978 - The Roman Catholic Church installed Pope John Paul I as its 264th
pontiff.
09/04/476AD - The Western Roman Empire fell when Romulus Augustus, the last
emperor of the Western Roman Empire, was deposed by Odoacer, a German barbarian
who proclaimed himself king of Italy.
09/04/1781 - Spanish settlers founded Los Angeles.
09/04/1886 - The last American Indian warrior surrendered when Geronimo, the
wiliest and most dangerous Apache warrior of his time, finally surrendered in
Skeleton Canyon, Arizona.
09/04/1951 - President Harry S. Truman's opening speech before a conference in
San Francisco was broadcast across the nation, marking the first time a
television program was broadcast from coast to coast. The speech focused on
Truman's acceptance of a treaty that officially ended America's post-World War
II occupation of Japan.
09/04/1957 - Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to
prevent nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.
09/05/1774 - In response to the British Parliament's enactment of the Coercive
Acts in the American colonies, the first session of the Continental Congress
convened at Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia. Fifty-six delegates from all of
the colonies except Georgia drafted a declaration of rights and grievances and
elected Virginian Peyton Randolph as the first president of Congress. Patrick
Henry, George Washington, John Adams and John Jay were among the delegates.
09/05/1793 - The Reign of Terror began during the French Revolution as the
National Convention instituted harsh measures to repress counterrevolutionary
activities.
09/05/1836 - The Republic of Texas elected Sam Houston as president.
09/05/1877 - After his victory at Little Bighorn, US Army forces led by Colonel
Nelson Miles pursued Crazy Horse and his followers. His tribe suffered from cold
and starvation, and on May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse surrendered to General George
Crook at the Red Cloud Indian Agency in Nebraska. He was sent to Fort Robinson
NE, where he was fatally bayoneted on this date by a US soldier after resisting
confinement in a guardhouse.
09/05/1972 - Arab guerrillas attacked the Israeli delegation at the Munich
Olympic Games. They killed eleven Israelis, five guerrillas and a police
officer.
09/05/2016 - Ganesh Chaturthi – Hinduism
09/05/2016 - Anant Chaturdashi – Hinduism
09/05/2016 - Labor Day
09/06/1941 - Germany ordered Jews over the age of six in German-occupied areas
to wear yellow Stars of David.
09/06/1975 - Czechoslovak tennis star Martina Navratilova, in NY for the US
Open, requested political asylum.
09/07/1901 - The Peace of Beijing ended the Boxer Rebellion in China.
09/07/1940 - Nazi Germany began its initial blitz on London during WWII.
09/07/1977 - The Panama Canal treaties, calling for the US to eventually turn
over control of the waterway to Panama, were signed in Washington.
09/08/1664 - The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who renamed it
New York.
09/08/1900 - A hurricane that killed about 6,000 people stuck Galveston TX.
09/08/1935 - Senator Huey P. Long (The Kingfish) of Louisiana politics was shot
and morally wounded. He died two days later.
09/08/1952 - Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea was first
published.
09/08/1971 - The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts opened in
Washington DC with a performance of Leonard Bernstein's Mass.
09/08/1974 - President Ford granted an unconditional pardon to former President
Nixon.
09/09/1776 - The Second Continental Congress made the term United States
official, replacing United Colonies.
09/09/1948 - The People's Democratic Republic of Korea (North Korea) was
created.
09/09/1957 - President Eisenhower signed into law the first civil rights bill to
pass Congress since Reconstruction.
09/09/1976 - Communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung died in Beijing at the age of
82.
09/09/2002 - Iraq challenged the US to produce "one piece of evidence" that it
was producing weapons of mass destruction.
09/09/2016 - National 401(k) Day
09/09/2016 - Waqf al Arafa begins at sunset – Muslim
09/10/1608 - John Smith became president of the Jamestown colony council in
Virginia.
09/10/1846 - Elias Howe received a patent for his sewing machine.
09/10/1939 - Canada declared war on Nazi Germany.
09/10/1955 - Gunsmoke premiered on CBS.
09/10/1963 - Twenty black students entered Alabama public schools following a
standoff between federal authorities and Governor George Wallace.
09/10/1991 -
The Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the nomination of Clarence
Thomas to the US Supreme Court.
09/11/1962 - The Beatles made their first record for EMI – Love Me Do and
P.S. I Love You.
09/11/1973 - Chilean President Salvador Allende died in a violent military coup.
09/11/1997 - Scots voted to create their own Parliament after 290 years of union
with England.
09/11/2001 - Terrorists flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade towers in
NYC and the Pentagon in Washington. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
09/11/2016 - Patriot Day
09/11/2016 - Grandparents Day
09/11/2016 - Rastafarian New Year's Day
09/11/2016 - Eid al-Adha, Feast of the Sacrifice, begins at sunset – Muslim
09/12/1609 - English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the river that now bears
his name.
09/12/1944 - During WWII, US Army troops entered Germany for the first time near
Trier.
09/12/2000 - Hillary Rodham Clinton became the only First Lady to win an
election as she claimed victory in the NY Democratic Senate primary.
09/13/1943 - Chiang Kai-shek became president of China.
09/13/1948 - Elected to the US Senate, Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Maine
became the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.
09/14/1814 - On this evening, Francis Scott Key stood onboard the ship Minden
in Chesapeake Bay and composed the lines known as The Star-Spangled Banner.
09/14/1940 - Congress passed the Selective Service Act, providing for the first
peacetime draft in US history.
09/15/1821 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador
proclaimed their independence from Spain.
09/15/1935 - The Nuremberg laws deprived German Jews of their citizenship and
made the swastika the official symbol of Nazi Germany.
09/15/1963 - A bomb went off during Sunday services at the Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church in Birmingham killing four black girls.
09/15/2016 - September 15
through October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month.
09/16/1810 - Mexico began its revolt against Spanish rule.
09/16/1919 - The American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress.
09/16/1940 - Sam Rayburn of Texas became Speaker of the House.
09/16/1940 - President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training
and Service Act which set up the first peacetime military draft in US history.
09/16/2016 - Mexican Independence Day
09/16/2016 - Mayflower Day
09/17/1787 - A majority of delegates attending the constitutional convention in
Philadelphia completed and signed the Constitution of the US.
09/17/1920 - The American Professional Football Association, a precursor of the
National Football League, was formed in Canton OH.
09/17/1939 - The Soviet Union invaded Poland, more than two weeks after Nazi
Germany launched its assault.
09/17/1978 - After meeting at Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a framework for a peace treaty.
09/17/2016 - Citizenship Day and Constitution Day (Federal law now requires all
schools receiving federal funding to teach the Constitution on this day. Doesn’t
that seem a little contrary to the spirit of the Constitution?)
09/18/1850 - Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act which allowed slave owners
to reclaim slaves who had escaped to other states.
09/18/1970 - Jimmy Hendrix died in London at age 27.
09/19/1796 - President Washington's farewell address was published.
09/19/1912 - When feminist Rebecca West, 19, reviewed Marriage by HG
Wells, 45, and called him "the old maid among novelists," Wells asked to meet
her. By the next spring, they had embarked on what became a 10-year love affair.
09/19/1957 - The US conducted its first underground nuclear test in the Nevada
desert.
09/19/1986 - Federal health officials announced that the experimental drug AZT
would be made available to thousands of AIDS patients.
09/20/1519 - Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan set out from Spain on a
voyage to find a western passage to the Spice Islands in Indonesia.
09/20/2001 - President George W. Bush gave an address to a joint session of
Congress cautioning the nation that there were "struggles ahead and dangers to
face."
09/21/1792 - The French National Convention voted to abolish the monarchy.
09/21/1897 - The New York Sun ran its famous editorial that declared,
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
09/21/1949 - The People's Republic of China was established.
09/21/1970 - NFL Monday Night Football made its debut on ABC.
09/21/1981 - The Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination of Sandra Day
O'Connor to become the first female justice on the Supreme Court.
09/22/1776 - Nathan Hale was hanged as a spy by the British during the
Revolutionary War.
09/22/1862 - President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation
which declared all slaves in rebel states should be free as of January 1, 1863.
09/22/1949 - The Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb.
09/22/1980 - The Persian Gulf conflict between Iran and Iraq erupted into
full-scale war.
09/22/2016 - First Day of Autumn
09/22/2016 - Autumn Equinox – Wicca, Celtic
09/23/1806 - The Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St Louis from the
Pacific Northwest.
09/23/1846 - German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet
Neptune.
09/23/1957 - A white mob forced nine black students who had entered Little Rock
Central High School in Arkansas to withdraw.
09/23/2016 - Shubun no Hi / Autumnal Equinox Day – Shinto
09/24/1789 - Congress passed the First Judiciary Act which provided for an
Attorney General and a Supreme Court.
09/25/1789 - The first US Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and
sent them to the states for ratification. Ten of those amendments became the
Bill of Rights.
09/25/1897 - Author William Faulkner was born in New Albany MS.
09/25/1957 - With 300 US Army troops standing guard, nine black children forced
to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, because of unruly white
crowds, were escorted to class.
09/25/1979 - Evita opened on Broadway.
09/25/1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice on the US
Supreme Court.
09/25/2016 - Gold Star Mother’s Day
09/25/2016 - Roi Wangol, Mousindi – Voudon
09/26/1789 - Thomas Jefferson became America's first secretary of state.
09/26/1914 - The Federal Trade Commission was established.
09/26/1950 - UN troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the
North Koreans.
09/26/1960 - The first televised debate between presidential candidates, Richard
Nixon and John Kennedy, took place in Chicago.
09/26/1962 - The Beverly Hillbillies premiered on CBS.
09/26/1986 - William Rehnquist became the 16th chief justice of the
US.
09/27/1779 - John Adams was named to negotiate the Revolutionary War's peace
terms with Britain.
09/27/1954 - Tonight, hosted by Steve Allen, debuted on NBC.
09/27/1964 - The Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey
Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.
09/27/1996 - Afghanistan's Taliban drove the government out of Kabul and
captured the capital.
09/28/1066 - William the Conqueror invaded England to claim the English throne.
09/28/1850 - The US Navy abolished flogging as a form of punishment.
09/29/1542 - Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived at present-day
San Diego.
09/29/1789 - The US War Department established a regular army with several
hundred men.
09/29/2016 - Manman Aloumandia – Voudon
09/30/1791 - Mozart's opera The Magic Flute premiered in Vienna.
09/30/1868 - The first volume of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women was
published.
09/30/1954 - The US Navy commissioned the first atomic-powered vessel, the
submarine Nautilus.
09/30/1962 - Black student James Meredith succeeded on his fourth try in
registering for classes at the University of Mississippi.
09/30/2016 - Maitresse Délai – Voudon
Online Resource Links
What ISIS Really Wants - The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths.
It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is
a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy —
and for how to stop it |
ISIS
Claims Responsibility, Calling Paris Attacks First of the Storm |
Syria Iraq: The Islamic State Militant Group
| Isis:
The Inside Story |
Frontline: The Rise of ISIS |
Council on Foreign Relations: A Primer on ISIS Iraq
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Cracks in ISIS Are Becoming More Clear
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How ISIS’ Attacks Harm the Middle East
What it’s like to live on $2 a day in the United States (PDF)
Check out
Today's Front Pages. Each day, you can see the front pages of more than 800
newspapers from around the world in their original, unedited form.
Whether or not you noticed, the earth's population passed 7 billion a while back.
You might enjoy NPR's wonderful video,
Visualizing How a Population Grows to 7 Billion.
Check out the St. Louis Fed's presentation
The Financial Crisis: What Happened?. The original video is no longer available
but you can view the power point presentation.
Want to take a survey but not sure how many responses to collect? This
Survey Calculator gives you the number for any given population size and desired
confidence level. A reverse calculator lets you enter characteristics of an existing
survey and gives the confidence interval (±X%) to apply to the results. The Survey
System site, sponsored by a survey software company, also gives clear explanations
of statistical significance, survey design and related concepts. Also check out
20 Questions a Journalist (and You, too!) Should Ask About Poll Results.
PBS's
30 Second Candidate allows you to view more political ads than you ever knew
existed. Choose the Historical Timeline link to see how political ads have changed
over the years. Start with the infamous
Daisy Ad that Lyndon Johnson used against Barry Goldwater. Click on Watch
Johnson ads. Then click on either the QuickTime link or the Real Video link
next to Daisy.
Check out
Political Compass. The site does a good job of explaining political ideologies
(although with definitions different from those I use) and gives you a chance to
discover your own political philosophy.
Law Library of Congress: North Korea -- Collection of links to websites on North
Korean government, politics and law. Includes legal guides, country studies and
links to constitutions and branches of government (where available).
Council on Foreign Relations: North Korea -- Background, articles and opinion
pieces about North Korea government and politics. Many of the articles focus on
North Korea's nuclear program. From the Council on Foreign Relations, "an independent
membership organization and a nonpartisan think tank and publisher."
State of the Union (SOTU) -- The site uses an interactive timeline to provide
a visual representation of prominent words in presidential State of the Union addresses
by displaying significant words as "determined by comparing how frequently the word
occurs in the document to how frequently it appears throughout the entire body of
SOTU addresses." The Appendices section describes the statistical methods
used. Also includes the full text of addresses.
Small Town Papers -- This site provides access
to scanned images of recent issues of dozens of small town newspapers from throughout
the United States. Newspapers are updated periodically, 2-3 weeks after publication.
The site also includes a searchable archive (of articles, photos and advertisements),
which covers different periods for each paper, some as far back as the 1890s. Access
to the archives requires free registration.
This website serves as a centralized location to learn about the
Congressional Research Service and search for CRS
reports that have been released to the public by members of Congress. (CRS Reports
do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report.) Features a
searchable database with more than 8,000 reports, a list of recently released reports,
other collections of CRS reports and a FAQ about CRS.
Stem Cell Research -- See the official NIH resource for
Stem Cell Research. In 2005, NOVA aired an overview of
The Stem Cell Issue.
Instances of the Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798 - 2004
-- This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its
armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or
for other than normal peacetime purposes. It was compiled in part from various older
lists and is intended primarily to provide a rough survey of past US military ventures
abroad, without reference to the magnitude of the given instance noted.
Government
Product Recalls
Homeland Security Knowledgebase,
Homeland Security News and Resources
If you're worried about retirement, try some of the following sites.
IRS Tax Information for Retirement Plans
Social Security Retirement Planner
Retirement Planning Resources from Smart Money
Keeping the Shi'ites Straight -- Based on the opinion
that no story has been more confusing for the Western news media to cover in postwar
Iraq than the politics of the country's Shi'ite majority, this article provides
a basic outline of Shi'ite religious history. Discusses the Sadr family (Muhammad
Baqir as-Sadr, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, and Muqtada as-Sadr), Muhammad
Baqir al-Hakim and other figures.
This commercial site presents brief information about dozens of
Black Inventors from the United States. Some entries
include portraits and images. Also includes a searchable timeline covering 1721-1988.
Does not include bibliographic information.
Annenberg Political Fact Check -- This site describes
itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit, consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce
the level of deception and confusion in US politics. The site provides original
articles, with summaries and sources, analyzing factual accuracy in TV ads, debates,
speeches, interviews and news releases. Searchable. From the Annenberg Public Policy
Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
White House Tapes: The President Calling -- Three
of America's most compelling presidents -- Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon -- bugged
their White House offices and tapped their telephones. In this documentary project,
American Radio Works eavesdrops on presidential telephone calls to hear how each
man used one-on-one politics to shape history. Includes audio, a transcript of the
documentary and background information on each president and the tapes.
The State of State and Local Finances -- New studies afford a state-by-state
or city-by-city analysis of fiscal well being.
The Year of Living Dangerously -- While leaders in a growing number of states
appear to believe they're serving the public good by squeezing government dry, there's
little question that minimizing management carries a host of dangers that directly
affect the lives of citizens.
Government Debt by Country Map -- Shows countries' general government gross
debt as a percentage of GDP in 2012.
First Amendment Library -- Provides info on Supreme
Court First Amendment jurisprudence, including rulings, arguments, briefs,
historical material, commentary and press coverage.
Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration.
Community Service
If you need a presentation or workshop for your group,
use this
Community link
or the link at the top of the page.
The link will take you to a list of the topics I currently have available.
To schedule a date or for more information, feel free to contact me at
dramyglenn@earthlink.net
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