12 September 2008 Write about someone (real or fictional) who has/had an obsession

12 September 2008

Write about someone (real or fictional) who has/had an

obsession

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12 September 2008

4x Gold Medalist

1st Sponsered African American

“The Ambassador of Sports”

Jesse Owens1913- 31 March 1980





Jesse Owens• James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913 – March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete.

He participated in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, where he achieved international fame by winning four gold medals: one each in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, the long jump, and as part of the 4x100 meter relay team.

• In 1936 Owens arrived in Berlin to compete for the United States in the Summer Olympics. Adolf Hitler was using the games to show the world a resurgent Nazi Germany. He and other government officials had high hopes German athletes would dominate the games with victories (the German athletes did indeed achieve a top of the table medal haul). Meanwhile, Nazi propaganda promoted concepts of "Aryan racial superiority" and depicted ethnic Africans as inferior.

• Owens surprised many by winning four gold medals: On August 3, 1936 he won the 100m sprint, defeating Ralph Metcalfe; on August 4, the long jump (later crediting friendly and helpful advice from German competitor Luz Long[5]); on August 5, the 200m sprint; and, after he was added to the 4 x 100 m relay team, his fourth on August 9 (a performance not equaled until Carl Lewis won gold medals in the same events at the 1984 Summer Olympics).

• Just before the competitions Owens was visited in the Olympic village by Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas, who had brought a suitcase full of spikes. He persuaded Owens to use them and so was the first sponsorship for an African-American athlete made.

• On the first day, Hitler shook hands only with the German victors and then left the stadium. Olympic committee officials then insisted Hitler greet each and every medalist or none at all. Hitler opted for the latter and skipped all further medal presentations.] On reports that Hitler had deliberately avoided acknowledging his victories, and had refused to shake his hand, Owens recounted:“When I passed the Chancellor he arose, waved his hand at me, and I waved back at him. I think the writers showed bad taste in criticizing the man of the hour in Germany. “

• He also stated: "Hitler didn't snub me—it was FDR who snubbed me. The president didn't even send me a telegram." Jesse Owens was never invited to the White House nor bestowed any honors by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) or Harry S. Truman during their terms. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower acknowledged Owens' accomplishments, naming him an "Ambassador of Sports."





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White House rivals bury hatchet at Ground Zero

• NEW YORK (AFP) — White House rivals John McCain and Barack Obama made a dramatic show of unity with a visit to Ground Zero on the emotional seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

• Suspending their increasingly bitter presidential contest, McCain and Obama shook hands, then dropped roses in the memorial pool at the still unreconstructed site of the former World Trade Center in Manhattan.

• The two candidates met with firemen, police and others involved in the terrifying aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in which Al-Qaeda-hijacked airliners hit and demolished the Twin Towers.

• The truce extended later to a televised civic forum where McCain praised Obama's "outstanding" early career as a community activist in Chicago -- reversing belittling comments made previously by his running mate Sarah Palin.

• The somber day opened with a simple, but moving annual ceremony in which the names of almost 3,000 victims from the 9/11 attacks are read out at Ground Zero.



• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the crashing of hijacked airliners into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania marked the day the United States "broke."

• Choking on tears, victims' relatives read out names while a string quartet, classical guitar and flute played mournfully in the background.

• At nightfall two shafts of blue light shot upward from Ground Zero, recalling the lost skyscrapers.

• The patriotic upwelling brought rare unity just as splits deepen in the country ahead of the November 4 election.

• Yet politics were never far below the surface and analysts did not expect the campaign lull to last long.

• Democrat Obama said in a statement that 9/11 was when "Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims."

• He added: "Let us renew that spirit of service and that sense of common purpose."

• But Obama then pointedly referred to Republican President George W. Bush's failure to make good on a promise soon after 9/11 to apprehend Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

• "Let us remember that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 are still at large, and must be brought to justice," said Obama, who McCain has attacked as having insufficient foreign policy and national security experience.

• Obama also took the opportunity to garner the support of popular former president Bill Clinton at his Harlem offices.



• There is speculation that the Al-Qaeda terrorists had been hoping to fly into the Capitol, seat of the US Congress in Washington.

• The tribute clearly was meant to underline the Republican candidate's own history of service as a Vietnam war pilot and prisoner of war, one of his strongest selling points with voters.

• "I have witnessed great courage and sacrifice for America's sake," McCain said, "but none greater than the sacrifice of those good people who grasped the gravity of the moment, understood the threat, and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives."

• He declared himself "in awe" of the mid-skies uprising.

• At Ground Zero, survivors, who wore white ribbons pinned to their chests, often broke off to add brief tributes as they read the names of dead relatives.

• One fought to control himself as he condemned the "cowardly men" who killed his loved one.

• A woman managed a smile as she called to her deceased husband Chuck, saying: "Until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of his hands."

• There were also emotional scenes at the Pentagon, where thousands joined Bush and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to dedicate the first September 11 memorial.

• A Marine Corps bugler played taps from the roof where firefighters had unfurled a US flag while the building burned after the attack.

• Bureaucratic wrangling has continuously delayed plans to build a replacement for the World Trade Center, a failure that symbolizes popular frustration with the inability to catch bin Laden and extricate troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

• The first steel beams for a planned Freedom Tower at the site went in only this week.

•"I predict that Senator Obama will win and win handily," Clinton said, indicating he had finally overcome bitterness at Obama's defeat of his wife Hillary for the Democratic nomination.•McCain, meanwhile, visited the crash site of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania and praised passengers who assaulted their hijackers, crashing the aircraft before it could hit any target.



1 million in Texas ordered to leave ahead of Ike

Huge hurricane could make landfall Friday night along state's coast

• HOUSTON - Cars and trucks streamed inland and chemical companies buttoned up their plants Thursday as a gigantic Hurricane Ike took aim at the heart of the U.S. refining industry and threatened to send a wall of water crashing toward Houston and Galveston.

• Nearly 1 million people along the Texas coast were ordered to evacuate ahead of the storm, which was expected to strike late Friday or early Saturday. But in a calculated risk aimed at avoiding total gridlock, authorities told most people in Houston — the nation's fourth-largest city — to just hunker down.

• The storm is so big, it could inflict a punishing blow even in those areas that do not get a direct hit. Forecasters warned that because of Ike's size and the state's shallow coastal waters, it could produce a surge, or wall of water, 20 feet high, and waves of perhaps 50 feet. It could also dump 10 inches or more of rain.



• “It’s a big storm. I cannot overemphasize the danger that is facing us,” Gov. Rick Perry said at a news conference. "It's going to do some substantial damage. It's going to knock out power. It's going to cause massive flooding."

• Ike is huge, taking up nearly 40 percent of the Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center said tropical storm-force winds of at least 39 mph extended across more than 510 miles, and hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph stretched for 220 miles. A typical storm has tropical storm-force winds stretching only 300 miles.

• Because of its great size, storm surge and gigantic waves are the biggest risk, said Hugh Willoughby, former director of the federal government's hurricane research division. The larger the storm, the longer it hits and the higher waves can build.

• Traffic was building on roadways leading away from low-lying areas in Galveston County, and officials urged residents to finish storm preparations quickly. Some gas stations were running out of fuel as residents scurried to leave.

• Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas on Thursday ordered a mandatory evacuation for the entire island on which the city sits. An earlier order had covered just the west side of the island, which is unprotected by a seawall.

• “This is a very hard call for me to make but our intent is to save lives,” she said. “We believe it is best for people to leave.



City Forgets Location Of Time Capsule• ELKHART, Ind. -- Call it the time capsule that time

forgot.• A city committee voted recently to open a time

capsule buried in 1958, when the city was celebrating its centennial. The plan was to display the items, then add modern ones and rebury it until 2058.

• Trouble is, no one seems to know exactly where the capsule is.

• Several committee members thought the capsule was buried in a park -- but the capsule there was buried in the 1970s to commemorate the U.S. bicentennial celebration.

• Committee member Paul Thomas doubts the 1958 capsule exists since it wasn't mentioned in detailed committee meeting minutes from that year or an extensive centennial brochure.

• Mary Jo Weyrick, the city council's administrative assistant, tracked down one resident who remembers the celebration 50 years ago and said the capsule may be buried on the corner of Main and High streets.

• If it's there, it may not be dug up any time soon because that stretch of sidewalk was recently replaced as part of a streetscaping project.

• Meanwhile, the city is still planning to create a 2008 time capsule. Weyrick said she will note the new capsule's location in city council records, the public library and anywhere else people might look for that information in the future.

• "If there's intelligent life on this planet in 2058, they won't have to go through this same exercise," she said.



Daily SparkDaily Spark

If you were to put something in a time capsule for KPMS what would you want to put in there and why?

If you were to put something in a time capsule for KPMS what would you want to put in there and why?

Give an example of a primary source?

Give an example of a primary source?

Diaries or artifacts, Letter





Today

Jamestown Powhatan Confederacy War in Virginia

Background

• In 1605 a company of English merchants asked the crown to found a new settlement in North America. They name the Settlement Virginia.

• King James granted the request and promised the London Company “ all the lands…rivers…and goods” on Virginia’s coast.



Company Colonies

• They wanted to start a settlement without depending on the wealth of just one person. Instead, investors formed a joint-stock company, which allowed a group to share the cost and risk of founding a colony.

• Colonies formed in this way were called company colonies.



A Promise

• To attract investors and settlers, the London Company printed advertisements praising Virginia.

• The promise of such wealth attracted adventurers and people who suffered economic hardship in England.



“The land yields..[an] abundance of fish, infinite store [endless supply] of deer, and hare, with many fruits and roots..there are hills and mountains making a sensible offer of hidden treasure, never yet searched.”

Jamestown• On April 26, 1607, the first of

three ships sent by the London Co. arrived off the Virginia coast. The fleet brought 105 male colonists to found a settlement.

• The ships sailed into the Chesapeake Bay and up the James River, about 40 miles upstream, the colonists founded their first settlement, named Jamestown after their king.



Starting a Colony

• The men who came to build Jamestown were poorly prepared to start a settlement.

• Most wanted were adventurers wanting to make their fortune and then returning to England.

• Only one man had a vision of building a future in the new world, Capt. John Smith.



The Colonists

• Smith complained that “ten good workmen would have done more work in a day than ten of these colonists in a week.”

• Very few colonists had farming experience or useful skills such as carpentry.

• Jamestown was also a poor location for a settlement.



The Settlement• The colony was surrounded

by marshes full of disease-carrying mosquitoes.

• The river water was also too salty to drink safely. These conditions proved deadly.

• By winter, 2/3 of the original colonists had died.

• Those that survived were hungry and sick.



John Smith

• The situation improved when John Smith took over the colony and forced everyone to work and build better housing.



Powhatan Confederacy

• The colonists also received help form the Powhatan Confederacy.

• Wahunsonacock led an alliance of Algonquian Indians.

• They taught the colonists to grow corn.

• The relationship between the Powhatan and the colonists was not entirely peaceful, the colonists took food from the Powhatans by force.



1609

• In 1609, 400 new settlers arrived and John Smith had to leave for England.

• Without strong leadership the colony began to starve, by 1610 only 60 people were left alive.

• Jamestown was a failure to the London Company.



John Rolfe

• Colonist John Rolfe helped solve the problem in 1612.

• Tobacco grew well in Virginia and smoking tobacco was big in England.

• Jamestown began to grow tobacco and sell it in England. Jamestown began to make many colonists rich.





Tobacco

• With the success of Tobacco, individual colonists began to purchase land.

• Land ownership attracted new settlers and helped the colony survive.



War in Virginia

• John Rolfe married Pocahontas, Wahunsonacock’s daughter, in 1614.

• The marriage helped relations between the colony and the Powhatans.



A Colony is Born

• The colonist’s tobacco farms were so successful that many wanted to move into Indian lands.

• As the colony grew, the Indians and colonists started to fight.



Death of Rolfe

• In 1622, colonists the Powhatan leader. They responded by killing many settlers.

• Among the dead was John Rolfe.

• Fighting between the two lasted for the next 20 years.



The War

• The war in Virginia showed the London Co. showed that they could not help its colonist.

• The lack of supplies and military support persuaded the king to make Jamestown a royal colony and protected by the king.



Documents

12 September 2008 Write about someone (real or fictional) who has/had an obsession