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Time Travelers Camporee

A Compilation of Resources

Scouts, Ventures, Leaders & Parents….

This is a rather large file (over 80 pages). We have included a “Table of Contents” page

to let you know the page numbers of each topic for quick reference. The purpose of this

resources to aid the patrols, crews (& adults) in their selection of “Patrol Time Period” Themes.

There are numerous amounts of valuable information that can be used to pinpoint a period of

time or a specific theme /subject matter (or individual).Of course, ideas are endless, but we just

hope that your unit can benefit from the resources below……

This file also goes along with the “Time Traveler” theme as it gives you all a look into a wide

variety of subjects, people throughout history. The Scouts & Ventures could possibly use some

of this information while working on some of their Think Tank entries.

There are more events/topics that are not covered than covered in this file. However, due to

time constraints & well, we had to get busy on the actual Camporee planning itself, we weren’t

able to cover every event during time.

Who knows ? You might just learn a thing or two !

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TIME TRAVELERS CAMPOREE

PATROL & VENTURE CREW

TIME PERIOD SELECTION “RESOURCES”

Page Contents

4 Chronological Timeline of A Short History of Earth

5-17 World Timeline (1492- Present)

18 Pre-Historic Times

18 Fall of the Roman Empire/ Fall of Rome

18 Middle Ages (5th-15th Century)

19 The Renaissance (14-17th Century)

19 Industrial Revolution (1760-1820/1840)

19 The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783)

19 Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (1825-1840)

20 American Civil War (1861-1865)

20 The Great Depression (1929-1939)

20 History of Scouting Timeline

20-23 World Scouting (Feb. 1857-present)

23-24 Scouting in the U.S (1907-present)

25 History of Transport

25 Land

25 Water

25 Rail

26 Aviation

27 Spaceflight

27-28 Timeline of Space Exploration

29-30 Railways in the Industrial Revolution

30-34 Television Through the Decades

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34-48 History of Film

48-56 Music

56-59 Vaudeville

59-64 10 Greatest Scientist Who Changed the World

64-68 Top 20 Inventions of All Time

68-69 Top 20 Chefs

69-76 10 Heroic Stands From Military History

77-82 Olympics Timeline From ancient Greece to Summer, 1948

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I. Chronological Timeline of A Short History of Earth

Earth….Third Rock from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth& Mars) & it’s the largest of the terrestrial planets. Below is a quick chronological timeline of earth (ref: National Geographic “The Next Earth”).

4.6 Billion Years ago Solar system forms from a giant swirling cloud of dust & gas.

4.5 Billion Years ago Planets form. Earth struck by giant impact to form moon.

3.8 Billion Years ago Atmosphere in place; heavy cosmic bombardment ends.

Massive impacts by asteroids & comets batter the early solar system.

3.6 Billion Years ago One-celled organisms arise.

1 Billion Years ago Multicelled organisms arise.

470 Million Years ago Land plants arise; fish are earth’s most advanced life form.

250 Million Years ago Dinosaurs and first egg-laying mammals appear.

A giant asteroid impact & massive lava floods in Siberia combine to cause a devastating mass extinction.

200 Million Years ago Primitive, true mammals spread.

108 Million Years ago An asteroid impact forms the striking 53-mile-wide Tycho crater on the moon’s southern hemisphere.

66 Million Years ago A 6-mile-wide asteroid or comet smashes into the Yucatan Peninsula, triggering another extinction.

15 Million Years ago An asteroid a mile wide creates the 15-mile-wide Riles crater in southern Germany.

50,000 Years ago A 164-foot-wide iron-nickel asteroid slams into northern Arizona in a 29-megaton blast, excavating Meteor Crater.

1908 A164-foot asteroid explodes over the Tunguska region of Russia, with 5 megatons of energy, flattening 800 square miles of Siberian forest.

2013 A 66-foot-wide asteroid detonates over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, injuring more than 1,000 residents.

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II. World Timeline (1492- Present)

1492 Columbus discovers America

1688 Revolution in England / Bill of Rights

1749 Lightening Rod invented

1773 Boston Tea Party

1775 American Revolution

1776 Declaration of Independence

1781 British surrender at Yorktown

1782 Flatboat Invented

1789 First U.S. President Elected….George Washington

1793 Cotton Gin Invented

1801 Suspension Bridge

1803 Louisiana Purchase Treaty

1805 Barbary Wars

Vapor-Compression Refrigeration Invented

1812 War of 1812 begins

1833 Lock-stitch Sewing Machine Invented

1837 Battle of Alamo

1838 Trail of Tears (Cherokee Removal)

1845 Baseball Invented

1843 Rotary Printing Press Invented

1846 Mexican-American War

1848 Gold Discovered in America

1850 Dishwasher Invented

1853 Burglar Alarm & Potato Chips Invented

1859 Electric Stove Invented

1860 Pony Express begins

1863 Battle of Gettysburg

Breakfast Cereal & Double Barrel Cannon Invented

1866 Civil Rights Act of 1866

Chuck wagon Invented

1867 Steam-powered Motorcycle Invented

1869 American Football

1872 First Diner Opened

1875 Civil Rights Act of 1875

Electric Dental Drill Invented

6 1877 Phonograpph Invented

1879 Register Invented

1884 Machine Gun Invented

1885 Photographic Film & Popcorn Invented

1887 Gramophone Records & Softball Invented

1890 Wounded Knee Masacre

1895 Volleyball Invented

1896 Gold Discovered in the Yukon’s Klondike

1898 Spanish-American War

1901 Assembly Line Invented

1902 Air Conditioning Invented

1903 Ford Motor Company Formed

First World Series

Airplane & Offset Printing Press Invented

1904 Automatic Transmission & Banana Split Invented

1907 Scouting starts in England

1908 Ford Model T Marketed

FBI Established

1910 Scouting Begins in U.S.

Silver Bay NY, Americans 1st Scout Camp

1912 Titanic Sinks

Electric Traffic Light Invented

1916 Light Switch & Supermarket Invented

1917 U.S. Enters WW I

1919 First Wood Badge Course (Gilwell Field, England)

1920 First Radio Broadcast

1922 Water Skiiing & Convertibles were invented

1926 Liquid-fueled Rocket & Juke Boxes Invented

1927 Charles Lindberg makes first Trans-Atlantic flight

1929 Valentine’s Day Masacre

Great Depression Begins

1931 Electric Guitar Invented

1932 Amelia Earhart Flies across Atlantic Ocean`

1934 Dust Bowl begins

John Dillinger killed

Indian Reorganization Act

1935 First BSA National Jamboree, Washington D.C. (Cancelled due to Polio Epidemic).

7 1936 Stock Car Racing & Bass Guitars Invented

1937 First National Jamboree, Washington, D.C.

1939 Germany invades Poland, WW II Begins

1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor

US Enters WW II

1942 Bazooka Invented

1945 U.S. Takes Okinawa

U.S. Joins United Nations

Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki

WW II Ends

1946 Space Observatory Invented

1947 Supersonic Aircraft Invented

1948 Video Games Invented

1950 Korean War Begins

1952 Air Bags & Barcodes Invented

1954 Model Rocketry Invented

1956 Kart Racing &Industrial Robots Invented

1957 Russians Launch Sputnik

Lasers Invented

1958 NASA Formed

1960 Peace Corps started

Vietnam War Officially Begins

OPEC Formed

Artificial Turf & Child Seats Invented

Global Navigation Satallite Systems Invented

1963 President John Kennedy Assassinated

March on Washington; Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream” speech

Computer Mouse’s Invented

1964 Moog Synthesizers & Buffalo Wings Invented

1965 Chemical Lasers & Compact Disc Invented

1967 Internal Frame Backpacks & Handheld Calculators

1968 Raquetball & Virtual Reality Invented

Civil Rights Acts of 1968

1969 Vietnam

Neil Armstrong Walks on the moon.

Lunar Module & Laser Printers Invented

Wide-body Aircraft & Tasers Invented

8 1971 Uno (card game), Personal Computers, Email & Floppy Discs are Invented.

1972 Watergate Burglary

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with USSR

Video Game Consoles & Global Positioning Systems Invented

1973 Vietnam War ends with U.S. pulling out

Watergate Scandal breaks

Skylab First Space Station Launched

Mobile Phones, Voicemail & Personal Watercraft are Invented

1975 Ethernet & Digital Cameras Invented

1977 Human Powered Aircraft Invented

1979 Iran Hostage Crisis begins

World Jamboree to be held in Iran (cancelled-hostage crisis).

1981 Control-Alt-Delete, the Space Shuttle, Paintball, Graphic User Interface were Invented

1983 The Internet was Invented

1986 Space Shuttle Challenger accident

1988 The Computers’ Firewall was Invented

1990 Hubble Space Telescope placed into orbit

1991 World Wide Web Launched to public

1991 Gulf War

1994 DNA Computing, & Quantum Cascade Laser are Invented

1999 Ibot is Invented

2000 Terrorists Attack on World Trade Center & Pentagon

2007 100TH Anniversary of Scouting ( 2007 World Jamboree, England)

2008 Bionic Contact Lens is Invented

2010 100th Anniversary of BSA

2011

A series of massive earthquakes hit north-east Japan, unleashing a 10-metre tsunami.

US forces kill the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, in a raid on a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, quits and the army pledges to oversee a transition to democracy.

Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi is killed by rebels in the wake of a Nato air strike.

Prince William marries Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey.

The English riots hit their peak in London and spread to Birmingham, Bristol and Liverpool.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dies, aged 56.

The death is announced of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, one of the most condemned leaders of recent history

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Mass Shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Obama won a second term at U.S. President.

Super Storm Sandy: Hits the Caribbean & the Eastern U.S. seaboard.

Obamacare: President Obama Health care bill passes with complex ramifications for insurers, employers, health-care providers

and state governments.

Libya: a Sept. 11 assault in Benghazi, killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other Americans.

Penn State: In January, longtime football coach Joe Paterno died, his legacy tarnished by the sex-abuse scandal involving his

former assistant, Jerry Sandusky who was later convicted.

U .S. Economy: The economy was on a welcome upswing. The unemployment rate dipped to a four-year-low of 7.7 percent,

stock markets rose, builders broke ground on more homes, and November was the best sales month in nearly five years for U.S.

automakers.

Gay Marriage: Pres. Obama, said in May he supported the right of gay couples to wed. On Election Day, Maine, Maryland and

Washington became the first states to legalize gay marriage via popular vote. And on Dec. 7 the Supreme Court agreed to hear

two cases that could further expand same-sex marriage rights.

Syria: What began in 2011 as an outbreak of peaceful protests escalated into full-scale civil war pitting the beleaguered regime

of Bashar Assad against a disparate but increasingly potent rebel opposition. The overall death toll climbed past 40,000, as the

rebels made inroads toward Assad's bastion of Damascus. The U.S. and many other nations were supporting the opposition,

albeit wary of outcomes that might help Islamic extremists gain power in the region.

Resignation of David Petraeus as CIA director.

2013

The Moore, Okla. Tornado (May 20).

The IRS Overreaches (May) The IRS was targeting nonprofits with words like “Tea Party” in their name for increased scrutiny, Within days, the IRS’ acting commissioner resigned and Republicans were calling for Obama’s impeachment. and it soon became clear that the IRS also targeted liberal groups seeking nonprofit status. Instead, the revelations served as a reminder of the bureaucracy’s potential to overstep its bounds and spurred an internal review that found ongoing malpractice within the agency.

Detroit Files for Bankruptcy: After years of population losses and mounting debt, Detroit filed for bankruptcy on July 18, becoming the largest city in U.S. history to hit the reset button. The move was an acknowledgement that the Motor City, once the richest in America, was incapable of digging itself out from an $18 billion hole. The Federal Government Shuts Down: Unable to reach agreement on federal spending levels, a dysfunctional Congress stumbled into the first government shutdown since the mid-1990s, grinding much of the federal bureaucracy to a halt for more than two weeks in October. The showdown was forced by a cadre of conservative Republicans, who sought to tie government funding to a bill to gut the Affordable Care Act. The 16-day impasse, which ended with a short-term deal that averted a debt default, torpedoed Republican approval ratings, slowed economic growth and ultimately cost some $24 billion, according to the credit agency Standard and Poor’s.

The Supreme Court Finds for Gay Marriage: On June 26, the Supreme Court made official what may be the fastest shift on a civil rights issue in the nation’s history. In a landmark 5-4 decision, the high court struck down the federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman, clearing the way for gay marriage throughout the U.S.

Obamacare’s Bungled Rollout: The passage of the Affordable Care Act may have been President Barack Obama’s greatest triumph, and its roll-out his greatest failure. The Oct. 1 launch of the federal website for purchasing private

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insurance coverage through a government-operated exchange was an unmitigated disaster. A combination of technical glitches, high demand and faulty coding rendered healthcare.gov barely usable for its first month of operation. By the end of October, less than 2% of the 7 million Americans government officials hope to enroll in Obamacare by the end of 2014 had signed up.

The Boston Marathon Bombing

The Snowden Leaks.

2014

Ebola Epidemic Becomes Global Health Crisis: The deadliest outbreak of Ebola, a deadly hemorrhagic fever, started in West

Africa in the spring of 2014 and began to spread rapidly in late summer. Most of the epidemic was contained in three countries --

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia -- though there have been cases in confirmed in at least five other countries, including two

diagnosed in the United States. The latest World Health Organization figures report that more than 6,000 people have died from

the outbreak out of more than 17,100 total cases. The contagious disease created a global epidemic that has not yet been

contained.

Disasters on Malaysian Airlines: (near the village of Grabovo, Ukraine, July 17, 2014.).

The prospect of a 747 plane filled with passengers disappearing from the sky seemed like a fictitious plotline from a television

show until March 8 when a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur destined for Beijing vanished. No crash site, debris or

sign of any of the 239 missing people on board have ever been found and the search continues to this day.

It was considered the deadliest plane crash in aviation history until just four months later when a different, unrelated Malaysian

Airlines Flight 17, was shot down near the Ukrainian border. Though no one has ever been found formally responsible, American

intelligence sources blame pro-Russian separatist forces using a surface-to-air missile for the deaths of all 298 souls on board.

Fighting in Ukraine and Crimea:(Simferopol, Ukraine, Saturday, March 1, 2014.). Border confrontations between Russia and

Ukraine felt at times like flashbacks to the Cold War. After protests against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych led to him

fleeing the country, Russian-backed fighters moved into the seaside city of Crimea in the ensuing power vacuum. Russian

President Vladmir Putin maintained that the dispute was a matter of Russian nationalists in Ukraine wanting to rejoin their

homeland, but the international community -- and the U.S. -- saw it as a dangerous land grab and imposed economic sanctions as

a result.

Deadly Israel-Hamas Conflict: Heightened tensions following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens led to an exchange

of rocket fire, resulting in a formal Israeli offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip called Operation Protective Edge. The rocket

fire lasted seven weeks, with Israeli Defense Forces targeting Hamas rocket launchers that the group placed throughout the

densely-populated Strip.

Rise of a Brutal New Terror Group: A terror group that most Americans had never heard of known as the Islamic State of Iraq

and Syria (ISIS), took brutality to a new level with graphic beheadings and the brutal takeover of entire towns in Syria and Iraq.

ISIS traces its roots back to an Iraq-based faction of al Qaeda but, in a telling sign, ended up separating from the group as al

Qaeda began distancing themselves for fear that ISIS was too extreme.

The group’s ultimate goal is to create an Islamic state and was able to gain power in areas of Syria devastated by the country’s

civil war. In addition to plundering villages and forcing mass executions, ISIS gained notoriety in the West after beheading

American and English journalists and aide workers who had been captured in the region and then posting videos of the murders

online.

World Shows It's Competitive Side in Sochi and Rio: Athletes and sports fans came together in two worldwide sporting events

and different regions showed their varied skills at both the Winter Olympics in Sochi this February and the World Cup

in Brazil in July. The Olympic hosts ended up winning both the most medals and the highest number of golds in the Sochi

Games, but the Brazilians didn’t fare as well when it came to the World Cup. Brazil was knocked out in the semifinals to

Germany, who took home their fourth World Cup title after beating Argentina in the final.

Comedy Loses Legends Robin Williams and Joan Rivers: This was a tough year for comedy as the unexpected deaths of both

Robin Williams and Joan Rivers left fans in tears. Robin Williams, 63 (August 11) Less than three weeks later, 81-year-old Joan

Rivers passed away.

Robot Makes a First-Ever Comet Landing: It wasn't a human who made the giant step for mankind this year but a spacecraft that

achieved the previously impossible task of landing on a moving comet with the help of the European Space Agency.

The Philae, a robotic lander, was launched from the Rosetta spacecraft after a 10-year journey and successfully latched onto the

hurling rock, later named Agilkia. Though Philae ran out of battery more quickly than expected since it inadvertently landed in a

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shady spot on the comet that prevented some recharging via solar panels, it was still able to transmit data back to scientists on the

ground that was previously out of reach.

Cuba: President Obama made a landmark announcement in mid-December declaring that the U.S. would begin restoring

diplomatic relations with Cuba by re-opening an embassy in Havana and softening the travel restrictions on the long-banned

country. The move came after the two governments were able to strike a deal releasing American Alan Gross who had been held by Cuban authorities for five years.

2015

Charlie Hebdo Attack in Paris

Terror struck in Paris one week into the New Year when a group of men with extensive ties to terrorist organizations targeted the offices of a famed satirical newspaper. Two men shot their way into the offices of Charlie Hebdo while a third waited near the getaway car. The shooters forced their way into the publication's offices, killing a maintenance man and police bodyguard assigned to protect the editor after he received death threats. Once arriving at the office, they proceeded to kill nine others, mostly editorial staff gathered for their weekly meeting, injuring an additional 11. A faction of al Qaeda claimed responsibility.

The attacks continued in France for two more days, taking the lives of six others, including two police officers and four people

held hostage at a kosher grocery store in Paris. The three perpetrators also died.

Germanwings Plane CrashAFP

A major aviation mystery in 2015 differed from the series of crashes the previous year in that the plane’s recording device led

investigators to a suspect shortly after the deadly crash: the co-pilot. The recording from inside the cockpit of Germanwings

Flight 9525 during the March 24 flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf indicated that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the lead pilot

out of the cockpit during a break and proceeded to direct the plane toward the mountains of the French Alps, killing all 150

passengers and crew on board. "The intention was to destroy the plane," Brice Robin, the public prosecutor of Marseille, said

during the investigation.

.Amtrak Train Crash

A train derailment in Philadelphia killed eight and injured more than 200 Amtrak passengers in May after the Northeast Regional

train sped around a curve and went off the track. The train’s engineer. who survived, could not explain what caused the deadly

crash. The National Transportation Safety Board led the investigation into the accident and determined that the train

accelerated before the crash and had been traveling in excess of 100 mph, which was more than twice the speed limit for that area

of the track.

On-Air Shooting in Virginia

The gunman in another tragic shooting claimed it was the racism of the Charleston church shooting that prompted him to create a

scene of carnage in the late summer. Vester Lee Flanagan, a disgruntled former news anchor, shot two of his former

colleagues while they were on the air on location for a Roanoke, Virginia, TV station. The Aug. 26 shooting left reporter Alison

Parker and cameraman Adam Ward dead. Flanagan later posted a video on social media of the shooting that he appeared to have

filmed during the attack using a portable camera. He also sent a manifesto and called ABC News after the shooting. He shot

himself to death during a car chase with police later that day.

Major Murder Trials

Four of the biggest trials of the year all resulted in guilty verdicts and one of those murderers now faces a death sentence. The

first verdict came in February when Eddie Ray Routh was found guilty of killing “American Sniper” Chris Kyle and his friend

Chad Littlefield. Though Kyle was well-known before the trial because of his bestselling book, the case gained even more

national attention when his biopic came out just over a month before the trial started. Routh received a sentence of life without

parole. He has filed a notice of appeal.

Former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez was found guilty in April and sentenced to life in prison without parole after

killing Odin Lloyd, who was dating Hernandez' fiancee’s sister. The case turned into a family drama as both Hernandez’s fiancee, who was granted immunity for her testimony, and her sister took turns on the witness stand. His appeal is underway.

In another case, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother of a pair of siblings, was found guilty in April of all 30 charges that he

faced in connection to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and his ensuing flight from police, which included the killing of an

MIT police officer. One month later, he was sentenced to death after the conclusion of the penalty phase of his trial. The first of

many expected appeals is underway.

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James Holmes, the shooter who opened fire inside a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado in 2012, was found guilty in July

of killing 12 people in the rampage and injuring 70 others. While it took jurors only 12 hours to find him guilty, they were unable

to reach a unanimous decision when it came to the penalty phase so he was spared the death penalty and sentenced in August to

one life sentence for each life he took, plus 3,138 years for the attempted murders, without the possibility of parole. He has not

appealed.

European Refugee Crisis

Tens of thousands of people fleeing war-torn Syria and other areas in the Middle East and Africa spent much of this

summer making the laborious, and dangerous, trek through Europe toward countries including Germany and Sweden in hopes of

finding asylum. The influx of refugee families prompted international disputes and policy shifts as countries such as Hungary

started to close some of their borders and put up fences with razor wire to prevent people from entering. President Obama’s plan

to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States met with stiff resistance from some House Republicans who have called

for stricter certifications that none of the immigrants poses a security risk.

Same-Sex Marriage Debate

The Supreme Court made a landmark decision in June, voting to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide. The 5-4 decision

was praised by many, including President Obama, who called it a “victory for America.” But not everyone was pleased with the

decision. A county clerk in Kentucky became a touchstone for the national debate after she claimed it was against her religious

beliefs to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Kim Davis was jailed for nearly a week for defying a judge's order to issue

any marriage licenses in Rowan County.

Pope Francis Visits the US

One of the biggest moments of national excitement came when Pope Francis made his inaugural visit to the United States,

sweeping the country up in a serious case of Pope-mania. His visit started in Washington, D.C., after a trip to Cuba, and he went

on to visit New York and Philadelphia before returning to the Vatican. Some of the highlights of the trip included a historic

address to Congress, frequent rides in his Fiat and a particularly memorable moment shared with a baby girl dressed up like a

pope.

Another Terror Attack in ParisLionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images A series of coordinated terror attacks struck fear through the heart of the French capital on Friday Nov. 13. A combination of

shooters and men wearing explosive vests targeted a football stadium, restaurants and a concert venue that evening, leaving 130

people dead.French officials determined that the attackers had ties to ISIS, which has claimed responsibility. The alleged

ringleader of the attacks was killed five days later when authorities raided his apartment in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. An international manhunt is still underway at this time for at least one other suspect.

Mass shootings (Roseburg, Lafayette, Chattanooga, Planned Parenthood, San Bernardino)

From a college campus in Roseburg, Oregon, where 10 people were killed, or a military recruiting office in Chattanooga,

Tennessee, where five people died, to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that left three dead, shootings

were an all-too-familiar occurrence in this calendar year. The deadliest came on Dec. 2 in San Bernardino, California, where it’s

alleged that a married couple opened fire at the Inland Regional Center during a Department of Public Health conference and holiday luncheon.

2016

Colombia Strikes a Peace Deal:

Colombian President Juan Santos took this advice to heart. He first won election back in 2010 while promising to

continue Colombia’s 50-year-old fight against the Marxist guerilla group, the FARC. Once in office he changed his mind. Years

of peace talks finally culminated with the announcement on August 25, 2016: The two sides had agreed on six negotiating points,

and a national referendum would be held to approve the deal. Santos’s predecessor, Álvaro Uribe, led critics who assailed the deal for its leniency towards the FARC. Polls predicted that the “yes” vote would carry easily.

Colombians voted down the deal. Santos, who was awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the agreement, proceeded

to hammer out a new deal. Unveiled on November 24, 2016, it toughened some of the provisions on FARC members. But the

biggest change was dropping the requirement for a national referendum. With no need for the public to vote, the Colombian

Congress approved the deal a week later. Colombians now hope the deal works; the conflict with the FARC has killed nearly a

quarter million people.

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Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and South Korean President Park Geun-hye: Rousseff thought that 2016 would be a year of political triumph as Brazil prepared to host the Olympics for the first time. Instead,

an underperforming economy and a massive scandal at Petrobras, the state oil company she once headed, helped drive

her approval rating down to 13 percent. Rousseff was not implicated in the Petrobras scandal itself. Instead, her opponents

charged her with cooking the books in 2014 to hide Brazil’s growing fiscal deficits and ensure her reelection. In August, the

Brazilian Congress sent her packing.

In South Korea, Park came under fire in October when news broke that a long-time friend had used their friendship to influence

government decisions and extort money from Korean companies. Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans hit the streets to

demand Park’s impeachment. In December, the South Korean National Assembly acted on the people’s wishes. She is now

suspended from the presidency while South Korea’s Constitutional Court reviews the National Assembly’s decision.

The jury is still out on whether and how fast Brazil and South Korea will respond to their political upheavals. The stakes are high.

Brazil and South Korea are the ninth and eleventh-largest economies in the world, respectively, and South Korea sits across a

major geopolitical fault line.

Rodrigo Duterte Becomes President of the Philippines

Foreign policy seldom shapes elections, but elections certainly shape foreign policy. Rodrigo Duterte won the Philippines

presidency in May with 39 percent of the vote, and quickly changed how Manila does business. A man of bluster and

bravado with a strong anti-American streak, he distanced the Philippines from Washington, a country that

Filipinos overwhelmingly like and that has a treaty of alliance with the Philippines. In Tagalog, Duterte called President Barack

Obama a “son of a whore,” announced he would seek a “separation” from the United States, and said that U.S. troops must leave

the Philippines within two years.

The main beneficiary of anti-Americanism has been China, a country that many Filipinos dislike. After an international tribunal

rejected China’s sweeping claims to the South China Sea in a much-anticipated legal case initiated by the Philippines, Duterte

said the ruling would “take the back seat” as he sought Beijing’s favor. Duterte has yet to take any irrevocable steps, so perhaps

he is playing the two powers off against each other. While the vigilante campaign he has encouraged against drug addicts and

traffickers hasn’t hurt his popularity at home, it could be a major thorn in U.S.-Philippines relations. The campaign, which has

killed at least 4,000 people, has been condemned internationally. (Duterte claims that he once killed criminals “personally” when

he was mayor of Davao.) Should Duterte realign Manila’s foreign policy, it will remake East Asia’s geopolitical

landscape.Duterte’s

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Flops

It can be a quick ride from the penthouse to the outhouse. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) began in 2016 with considerable

fanfare. The deal, which took seven years to negotiate, was the largest regional trade deal in history and a cornerstone of the

Obama administration’s rebalance to Asia. But the deal came under fierce attack from both Democratic and Republican

presidential candidates. The Obama administration held out hope that Congress might pass the TPP in a lame-duck session of

Congress.

But Donald Trump’s election torpedoed what had likely been wishful thinking all along. The 11 countries that joined with the

United States to sign the TPP are now left scrambling to figure out what to do next. Many foreign policy experts say the big

winners in the wake of TPP’s demise are not American workers but China, which now gets a shot at writing the rules that will

govern trade in the most dynamic region in the global economy. The even bigger danger is that trade liberalization, which the

United States spearheaded and which helped drive growth around the globe, may now be in retreat, with unforeseen

consequences for countries around the world.

North Korea Conducts Missile and Nuclear Tests

What do you do when you kick the can down the road and then run out of road? That’s a question the United States could soon be

facing. For more than two decades, Washington has pressed Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program. But North Korea

continues to forge ahead. In January, it conducted its fourth nuclear test since 2006, and followed that up with a series of ballistic

missile tests. Then on September 9, it conducted its fifth nuclear test, producing an explosive yield of 10 kilotons, the highest

recorded so far.

Contrary to Pyongyang’s claims, North Korea probably hasn’t mastered the technology needed to build a hydrogen bomb. It is

also likely several years away from being able to mate a nuclear bomb with a missile capable of reaching the United States with a

high probability. However, North Korea can already strike Japan and South Korea. In July, Washington and Seoul agreed to

deploy the THAAD advanced missile defense system in South Korea. Washington also worked with Beijing on a tougher UN

Security Council resolution that capped exports of North Korean coal, the country’s main source of hard currency. But so far

Pyongyang hasn’t changed its tune. As a result, President Obama has reportedly told President-elect Trump that North Korea

should be the top priority for his administration.

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Britain Votes to Leave the European Union

Treat poll results with a grain of salt. That’s one of the lessons of Britain’s June referendum on leaving the EU.

Polls (and the betting markets) all showed a narrow victory for “Remain.” Instead, Britons voted 52 to 48 percent for “Leave.”

The vote highlighted Britain’s fundamental divisions: Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to Remain, as did younger, more

educated, and more urban voters, while England, Wales, and older, less educated, and rural voters opted for Leave. The vote

ended the political career of Prime Minister David Cameron, who called for the referendum in the first place. Theresa May, a

member of the Remain camp, emerged from the resulting scrum within the Conservative Party to become Britain’s new prime

minister. She immediately made clear that “Brexit means Brexit.”

But that is easier said than done. The British government is split over what terms it should ask for in its divorce from the EU. If

a November court ruling stands, the British parliament will have to vote to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and thereby

formally start the process of leaving the EU. May says she wants to do that by March, but the Dutch, French, and German

governments all stand for election in 2017. They likely won’t decide on what they will be willing to offer Britain until after their

voters have spoken. So expect several more chapters in the “Brexit” saga, with the potential for a few surprising plot twists—

and Scotland’s possible departure from the United Kingdom.

Russia Interferes in the U.S. Presidential Election

The U.S. intelligence community agrees that Russian operatives hacked email systems belonging to the Democratic National

Committee (DNC) and John Podesta, the chair of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. They then passed along what they stole

to WikiLeaks to release. The hacking was carried out by groups nicknamed “Cozy Bear” and “Fancy Bear,” both of which appear

to work for the GRU, Russia’s intelligence agency. The FBI notified a low-level DNC contract employee working on tech

support about hacking activity in September 2015. The contractor did little with the information, and the FBI made little effort to

get the attention of any more-senior officials at the DNC. WikiLeaks first began releasing the thousands of pilfered emails in July

2016. They revealed embarrassing communications among Clinton aides, potentially hurting her with voters. In October, U.S.

officials publicly blamed the Russian government. The initial charge was that Russia was trying to create turmoil in the election

and thereby damage American democracy.

However, news leaked recently that the CIA had concluded with “high confidence” that Russia had acted to help elect Trump and

that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally authorized the operation. The FBI subsequently concurred with that conclusion.

Trump dismissed claims that Russia acted to help him as “ridiculous,” and asked why the hacking wasn’t “brought up before

[the] election.” (It was.) Obama ordered an investigation and vowed “to take action” against Russia. Congressional leaders

are calling for an investigation but disagree on who should conduct it. Stay tuned. This story is likely to be with us for a while.

Donald Trump Wins the U.S. Presidency

Donald Trump got the last laugh. From the moment he announced his long-shot presidential bid on June 16, 2015, political

experts dismissed his chances. But on November 8, Americans elected him the 45th president of the United States. He now

belongs to a select group: he is one of just five presidents to win the office while losing the popular vote. He is also the first

president with no prior experience either in government or the U.S. military.

Candidate Trump vowed to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, threatened to tear up major U.S. trade agreements, questioned the utility of America’s alliances, and generally denounced U.S. foreign policy as it has been practiced by both parties over the past three decades. Friends and foes alike now wonder what this “America First” foreign policy will look like in practice. Great-power politics could see the biggest changes; Trump promises a tougher line with China and a softer line with Russia. His efforts on the latter score could set off infighting within Republican

ranks, especially in the wake of the CIA’s conclusion that the Kremlin worked to help him win the presidency.

In all, the odds are good that President Trump’s foreign policy decisions will dominate the news in 2017, and

possibly redefine America’s relations with the world.

Other Stories of Note in 2016

In January, Iran severed diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia after the Saudis executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. In February, Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill met in Cuba, the first time the heads of the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches sat down together in nearly 1,000 years. South Africa, Gambia, and Burundi, announced that they intend to withdraw from the International Criminal Court. Terrorists launched major attacks in Nice, Belgium, Pakistan, and Orlando. South Sudan’s civil war intensified. The release of the Panama Papers in April exposed how some wealthy people hide their money offshore. The Zika virus emerged as a major global health threat. In October, Iraqi forces, aided by Kurdish troops and guided by U.S. Special Forces, launched an offensive to reclaim Mosul. Matteo Renzi, who burst onto the political scene back in 2014 as Italy’s youngest prime minister, resigned in December after voters decisively rejected his plan to revamp Italy’s political system. The same weekend Italian voters went to the polls, Austrian voters chose Green Party candidate Alexander van der Bellen rather than Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer as their next president, thereby saving Austria from the stigma of becoming the first European country since World War II to make a far-right candidate head of state. 2016 will likely go down in the books as the hottest year on record—at least until next year.

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Robert Mugabe’s Ouster. Can someone be both a hero and a villain?

The career of Robert Mugabe suggests the answer is yes. Like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Mugabe endured years in

prison to lead the movement that ended white minority rule in his country, then known as Rhodesia, but known today

as Zimbabwe. That victory for human decency is to his credit. But unlike Mandela, Mugabe never grasped that democracy

means letting go of power. He ran Zimbabwe for thirty-seven years and planned to rule for longer, even if that

meant running the economy into the ground and becoming increasingly ruthless. His presidency ended only when tanks

rolled into Harare in November to force him from power. The trigger was his decision to shove aside his vice

president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, in favor his wife, Grace. The seventy-five year-old Mnangagwa had been Mugabe’s

associate for more than half a century. Rather than go quietly, the man known as “ the Crocodile” because of his

ruthlessness struck back. Mugabe quickly lost the support of his party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic

Front (ZANU-PF), and after some hesitation, finally resigned. Zimbabweans rejoiced at the news of his ouster, and

Mnangagwa promised to hold new elections next year. Based on his early decisions, however, the new boss looks a lot like

the old boss.

Britain Triggers Article 50.

The June 2016 “Brexit” vote was merely advisory. Actually initiating divorce proceedings from the European Union (EU)

required Britain to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. The move “from which there can be no turning back” finally came

on March 29. Britain now has until March 29, 2019 to negotiate the terms of its departure. Prime Minister Theresa May tried

to shore up Britain’s weak negotiating leverage this spring by calling a snap election. The decision backfired; her

Conservative Party lost its parliamentary majority and she ended up leading a hung parliament. In early December, Britain

and the EU reached an agreement on several critical preliminary issues, including how much Britain has to pay to settle its

debts to the EU (somewhere between €40 billion and €60 billion). Assuming that deal holds, the two sides can now focus on

the rules that will govern their future economic relationship. Those negotiations will likely be difficult; EU members have yet

to agree among themselves on what terms to offer and the British Parliament has asserted its right to vote on the final

agreement. Unless a deal is signed, sealed, and delivered by March 29, 2019, or a unanimous EU agrees to an extension,

Britain faces a “hard Brexit.” That would maximize how much disruption its divorce from the EU causes.

The Rohingya Crisis.

The Rohingya may be the most persecuted minority group in the world. They have lived in Myanmar for centuries. Most of

them are Muslims, though some are Hindus, in a country in which nearly nine out of ten people are Buddhists. The Rohingya

have long been discriminated against, often violently so, and the Myanmar government refuses to acknowledge them as

citizens. The latest and ugliest surge of violence began in August when Rohingya began fleeing into

neighboring Bangladesh telling stories of mass killings, systematic rape, and torture. At last count, more than 400,000 have fled

Myanmar and thousands more have been displaced internally. The Myanmar military denies committing atrocities, insisting

that it is combating attacks on police posts and army bases by Rohingya insurgents. But it’s clear, as the U.S. government has

charged, that the Myanmar government is engaged in ethnic cleansing. Aung San Suu Kyi, a recipient of the Nobel Peace

Prizeand Myanmar’s most prominent official, has done little publicly to end the violence. That’s probably because the

military still runs the country despite the political opening of the past few years.

The Fall of Mosul

ISIS shocked the world in June 2014 when its forces captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Within a month, ISIS

had declared a new caliphate. Although President Obama once dismissed ISIS as “the JV,” it proved to be a stubborn foe.

Finally, in October 2016, Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers, backed by Britain, France, and the United States, as well as by Iran,

launched an offensive to liberate Mosul. In June 2017, after a three-year-long occupation, the city was finally liberated. The

cost was high. Perhaps as many as 40,000 civilians died in the fighting and another million displaced. The city itself

was devastated and will take years to rebuild.

Unfortunately, the liberation of Mosul did not resolve the divisions that bedevil Iraq. In September, Iraqi Kurds voted for

independence, which triggered clashes between the Iraqi army and Iraqi Kurds. The Iraqi government, with the help of Iran,

seized control of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk from the Kurds. By the same token, the loss of Mosul didn’t mean the demise

of ISIS. The group has a cyclical history, waxing and waning in strength over time. As its territorial control diminishes, it’s

likely to revert back to its insurgent roots. All in all, Iraq’s future remains troubled.

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Mohammad bin Salman Remakes Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) is a young man in a hurry. Back in June, his father, Saudi Arabia’s King

Salman, made the thirty-two year-old his heir, after deposing the previous crown prince, the king’s nephew and MBS’s

cousin, Mohammed bin Nayef. MBS immediately got to work. His vehicle for remaking the country is Vision 2030, a two-year-

old initiative that seeks to modernize Saudi Arabia’s economy and society. The idea is to prepare the country for a post-oil

future and to loosen its conservative social strictures. The former goal has Saudi Arabia proposing to take its state-owned oil

company, Saudi Aramco, public, while the latter has it allowing women to drive. MBS moved quickly to consolidate power. In

November, he had eleven of his cousins arrested on corruption charges. (Their jail cell was a Ritz-Carlton.) President

Trump applauded the move. But MBS isn’t only looking inward. He is moving aggressively to counter Iranian influence in the

region. He championed Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen in 2015, which created a humanitarian disaster for Yemenis and

a quagmire for the Saudis. He also pushed for this summer’s Saudi-led embargo of neighboring Qatar. Some experts think that

MBS is Saudi Arabia’s best chance for a moderate and prosperous future. Others worry that he is reckless.

Global Growth Picks Up.

Ten years after the Great Recession started, global economic growth is accelerating and stock markets around the world

are hitting record highs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in October that “The outlook is strengthening, with a

notable pickup in investment, trade, and industrial production, together with rising confidence.” The IMF added the caveat th at

“recovery is not yet complete.” However, even cautious optimism has been in short supply for nearly a decade. The

IMF predicts that global economic growth will average 3.6 percent in 2017. That’s a half percentage point higher than in 2016.

The Eurozone has been a particular bright spot—growth there is at a ten-year high and unemployment is at a nine-year low.

The U.S. economy grew 3.3 percent in the third quarter of 2017, a three-year high, and unemployment is the lowest it’s been

since 2000.

China looks to be beating its target of 6.5 percent growth in 2017, though it continues to face risks. Even Russia, which has

struggled for several years because of low oil prices and sanctions over Ukraine, is seeing modest growth. The big question is

whether good economic news will give a political lift to globalization by tamping down rising protectionist and nationalist

impulses around the world.

The Globe Continues to Warm.

The news is not good. The earth is getting warmer, whether people believe it or not. In September, the U.S. National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that 2017 was shaping up as the second warmest year on record. What is

the warmest year? 2016. The other eight warmest years on record have all occurred since 1998. Do the devastating

hurricanesthat struck the Caribbean this summer, causing upward of $290 billion in damage and displacing hundreds of

thousands, prove that human activity is changing the climate? No. After all, catastrophic storms aren’t new, and storms may

create more havoc today because societies are denser and more dependent on modern amenities. Still, the dramatic melting of

the Arctic and Antarctic and of glaciers around the world is something that climate scientists have been predicting for decades.

And it’s basic physics that warmer oceans temperatures mean bigger storms. But the mounting evidence that the climate is

changing hasn’t moved governments to make substantial reductions in the emission of heat -trapping gases, even if only as an

insurance policy against the fact that climate scientists might be right. President Trump announced in June that the United

States would leave the Paris Climate Agreement, and words have been more common than deeds in other foreign capitals. The

trend is not our friend.

North Korea Defies the World.

Successive U.S. presidents have insisted that they would prevent North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons. They backed

that up by offering carrots, imposing sanctions, and threatening military action. North Korea hasn’t listened. In early

September, North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test. Three months later it tested a ballistic missile that looks capable

of hitting any U.S. city. President Trump says he will stop North Korea in its tracks, vowing that North Korea “will be met with

fire and fury like the world has never seen,” tweeting that “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded ,” and

calling North Korean leader Kim Jung-un “Little Rocket Man.” Trump has also pushed China to solve the problem. While

Beijing is taking a tougher line on North Korea, it can’t—or won’t—compel Pyongyang to back down. Only military force

looks likely to do that. But the cost of military action would likely be steep—possibly even “catastrophic.” On the other hand,

allowing North Korea to remain a nuclear power poses big risks as well. Washington, Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo have tough

choices ahead in 2018.

Xi Jinping’s “Extraordinary Elevation.” Not even Adele with her five Grammy awards had as good a year as Xi Jinping.

Although China blatantly exploits international trade rules, Xi won applause for his January speech at Davoschampioning

globalization and likening protectionism to “locking oneself in a dark room.” In April, President Donald Trump feted him at a

two-day summit meeting at Mar-a-Lago and quite noticeably avoided his typical China-bashing rhetoric. In June, Xi won more

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global .accolades for doubling down on his commitment to the Paris climate agreement. But his biggest success came in

October at the nineteenth Chinese Communist Party Congress. It was a coronation. Xi was named to his second five-year

term as party general secretary. He was also named a “core leader,” a title denied to his immediate predecessor, Hu Jintao. The

congress also wrote "Xi Jinping Thought" into the party's constitution, an honor previously bestowed only on Mao

Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Best of all for Xi, the congress ended without naming anyone as his successor. When Trump

called Xi “king of China” during his November “state visit-plus,” he wasn’t far off the mark. Xi is China’s most powerful

leader since Mao, and he’s likely to be around for a while. If you’re wondering how he might approach foreign policy in the

years ahead, consider this: in his 205-minute speech to the party congress he used the terms “great power” and “strong power”

twenty-six times. So don’t expect him to sit on the sidelines while others try to set the agenda or the rules.

Donald Trump Champions America

First. Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to do things differently and to do different things in foreign policy. He has been

good to his word since getting to the White House. He has canceled U.S. participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership,

withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, refused to certify that Iran is in compliance with its nuclear

obligations, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, ramped up the use of drones, and relegated democracy and human

rights to the sidelines of U.S. foreign policy. To be sure, Trump hasn’t enacted all of his campaign promises. He beefed up

rather than withdrew U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and he hasn’t declared China a currency manipulator or kicked NAFTA to

the curb. But his tough campaign trade talk may soon be U.S. policy. Trump is poised to take punitive actions against Chinese

trade practices, his demands for a revamped NAFTA look to be unacceptable to Canada and Mexico, and he’s waging a low-

level war against the World Trade Organization. Trump’s dismissal of traditional foreign policy practices even has some fellow

Republicans questioning whether America First means embracing a “doctrine of retreat.” Many of America’s closest

allies are worried. They fear the era of U.S. global leadership is ending.

Other stories of note in 2017.

In January, António Guterres became the ninth secretary general of the United Nations. In February, Israel announced plans for

its first new settlement in the West Bank in more than twenty years. The United States began deploying the Terminal High

Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea in March. Violent protests wracked Venezuela in April, a critical point

in the country’s constitutional crisis. In May, Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen to become France’s youngest

president. In June, Montenegro became the twenty-ninth member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The G20

met in Hamburg in July and failed to agree on climate action. In August, Britain’s Prince Philip announced he was

retiring from making official appearances. Russia and Belarus carried out the Zapad 2017 military exercises in September.

Catalonia’s October independence referendum triggered a political crisis in Spain. In November, thousands attended a far-right

nationalist rally in Warsaw. The Australian parliament voted in December to legalize same-sex marriage, making Australia

the twenty fifth country to do so.

2018

Winter Games: February 9, South Korea: Start of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang against the backdrop of tensions with North

Korea over its nuclear missile programme. The Games close on February 25.

The end of the Castro era: February 24, Cuba: Raul Castro steps aside as president, ending nearly six decades of Castro leadership on

the island.

Voting in Iraq: May 15, Iraq: Legislative and provincial elections, the first since the defeat of the Islamic State in the country.

Royal wedding: May 19, Britain: Prince Harry marries US actress Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle.

Football finals: July 15, Russia: The final of football's 2018 World Cup, which opens on June 14 in Moscow.

Test for Trump: November 6, United States: Midterm elections, the first serious electoral test for President Donald Trump.

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III. Pre-Historic Times

Humans have walked the Earth for 190,000 years, a mere blip in Earth's 4.5-billion-year history. A lot has

happened in that time. Earth formed and oxygen levels rose in the foundational years of the Precambrian. The

productive Paleozoic era gave rise to hard-shelled organisms, vertebrates, amphibians, and reptiles. Dinosaurs

ruled the Earth in the mighty Mesozoic. And 64 million years after dinosaurs went extinct, modern humans

emerged in the Cenozoic era. The planet has seen an incredible series of changes—discover them for yourself.

IV. Fall of the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called Fall of the Roman Empire or Fall of Rome) was the

process of decline in the Western Roman Empire in which it failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was

divided into several successor polities. The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise

effective control; modern historians mention factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the

health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the Emperor, the

religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from

"barbarians" outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. The reasons for the collapse are

major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state

failure.

Relevant dates include 117 CE, when the Empire was at its greatest territorial extent, and the accession

of Diocletian in 284. Irreversible major territorial loss, however, began in 376 with a large-scale

irruption of Goths and others. In 395, after winning two destructive civil wars, Theodosius I died, leaving a

collapsing field army and the Empire, still plagued by Goths, divided between his two incapable sons. By 476

when Odoacer deposed the Emperor Romulus,

the Western Roman Emperor wielded negligible military, political, or financial power and had no effective

control over the scattered Western domains that could still be described as Roman. Invading "barbarians" had

established their own power in most of the area of the Western Empire. While its legitimacy lasted for centuries

longer and its cultural influence remains today, the Western Empire never had the strength to rise again.

The Fall is not the only unifying concept for these events; the period described as Late Antiquity emphasizes the

cultural continuities throughout and beyond the political collapse.

V. Middle Ages or Medieval Period

In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or Medieval Period lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began

with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.

The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity,

the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High,

and Late Middle Ages.

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VI. The Renaissance

The Renaissance (UK /rᵻˈneɪsəns/, US /rɛnəˈsɑːns/) was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th

century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural

movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of

the Early Modern Age.

VII. Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to

sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines,

new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing

use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory system. Textiles were the

dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested;

the textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.[1]

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain and most of the important technological innovations were

British. Whereas absolutism stayed the normal form of power execution through most parts of Europe,

institutions ensured property rights and political safety to the people in the UK after the Glorious Revolution of

1688. Aided by these legal and cultural foundations, an entrepreneurial spirit and consumer revolution helped

drive industrialisation in the UK, which would be emulated in countries around the world.A change in marrying

patterns to getting married later made people able to accumulate more human capital during their youth, thereby

encouraging economic development.

The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was

influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained

growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial Revolution was that the standard of

living for the general population began to increase consistently for the first time in history, although others have

said that it did not begin to meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries. At approximately the

same time the Industrial Revolution was occurring, Britain was undergoing an agricultural revolution, which

also helped to improve living standards and provided surplus labor available for industry.

VIII The American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was a

global war that began as a conflict between Great Britain and its thirteen American colonies, which declared

independence as the United States of America.

IX. Rocky Mountain Rendezvous

Rocky Mountain Rendezvous (in trapper jargon) was an annual gathering (1825–1840) at various locations

held by a fur trading company at which trappers and mountain men sold their furs and hides and replenished

their supplies. The large fur companies put together teamster driven mule trains which packed in whiskey and

supplies into a pre-announced location each spring-summer and set up a trading fair—the rendezvous—and at

the season's end, packed furs out, normally the British Companies to Fort Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest,

and to one of the northern Missouri River ports such as St. Joseph, Missouri, if an American overland fur

trading company.

Rendezvous were known to be lively, joyous places, where all were allowed- free trappers, Indians, native

trapper wives and children, travelers and later on, even tourists who would venture from even as far as Europe

to observe the festivities. James Beckwourth describes: "Mirth, songs, dancing, shouting, trading, running,

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jumping, singing, racing, target-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of extravagances that white men or

Indians could invent.

Rendezvous are still celebrated as gatherings of like-minded individuals or clubs in many walks of life. The fur

trading rendezvous are celebrated by traditional black-powder rifle clubs all over the US and Canada. These

gatherings range from small gatherings sponsored by local clubs to large gatherings like the Pacific Primitive

Rendezvous and others. These gatherings include much of the same activities of the originals, centering on the

shooting of muzzle-loaded rifles, trade guns and shotguns, the throwing of knives and tomahawks and primitive

archery, as well as cooking, dancing, singing, the telling of tall tales and of past rendezvous. Personas taken on

by participants include trappers, traders, housewives, Native Americans, frontiersmen, free-trappers and many

others, including soldiers.

X. The American Civil War

The American Civil War was fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. After a long

standing controversy over slavery and state's rights, war broke out in April, 1861, when Confederates

attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina, shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected. The nationalists of

the Union proclaimed loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States of

America advocating states’ rights to perpetual slavery and its expansion in the Americas.

Among the 34 U.S. states in February 1861, seven Southern slave states individually declared

their secession from the U.S. to form the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy grew to include

eleven states; it claimed two more border states (Kentucky and Missouri), the Indian Territory, and the southern

portions of the western territories of Arizona and New Mexico, which was organized and incorporated into the

Confederacy as Confederate Arizona. The Confederacy was never diplomatically recognized by the United

States government, nor was it recognized by any foreign country (although some countries such as Britain and

France recognized it as a belligerent power). The states that remained loyal, including the border states where

slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North.

XI. The Great Depression

The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939, and was the worst economic downturn in the history of

the industrialized world. It began after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a

panic and wiped out millions of investors.

XII. History of Scouting

World Scouting Timeline

Scouting has a long and exciting history, and there are many sites dedicated to telling the story. Here is a list of some of the more important dates in the history of Scouting. Some of the events are links to the Wikipedia and Scoutwiki websites.

February 1857

Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, later Baden-Powell, was born.

1899

B-P becomes a national hero during the Siege of Mafeking.

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1900

Two boys write to tell B-P that they have formed the 'Baden-Powell Scouting Society'.

August 1907

Experimental camp on Brownsea Island

January 1908

Part One of Scouting for Boys published.

August 1908

First official Scout Camp run by Baden-Powell at Humshaugh.

May 1909

The 'British Boy Scouts' are formed.

August 1909

Camp on TS Mercury leads to the formation of Sea Scouts.

1910

'The Boy Scout Association' is formed.

January 1910

Girl Guides begin.

September 1910

First annual census - 100,298 Scouts and 7,688 Scouters.

August 1918

Senior Scouts renamed as Rover Scouts.

July 1920

First World Scout Jamboree held at Olympia, London.

July 1923

The woggle is introduced for holding the neckerchief

November 1935

A new design for the Thanks Badge is designed, replacing the swastika design.

January 1941

Baden-Powell dies at Paxtu, Nyeri, Kenya.

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August 1946

An organization for British Scouts in Germany is formed.

February 1959

The Boy Scout Association joins the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.

September 1967

The "Advance Party Report" is published, changing the nature of Scouting in Britain.

July 1970

The Scout Action Group publish "The Black Report", asking for traditional Scouting to be allowed to continue.

September 1970

The Baden-Powell Scout's Association breaks from the The Boy - Scout Association, with Lady Baden-Powell's support and

her gifting the use of the Baden-Powell name.

1973

Beavers were first formed in Canada

June 1977

Olave, Lady Baden-Powell dies, aged 88.

1979

World Jamboree in Iran Cancelled-79 U.S. Citizens held hostage in Iran.

Dalajam in Sweden held instead.

1982

Beavers start in the B-PSA

2002

First WFIS Jamboree held in Denmark - over 850 Scouts attend from all over the world

July 2007

B-PSA Centenary Camp held to mark the anniversary of the Brownsea Camp.

Second WFIS Jamboree held in Medellín, Colombia - over 3000 Scouts attend from all over the world.

August 2008

Jamboree 2008 marks the centenary of the first Scout Camp.

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August 2010

B-PSA UK join 1300 Scouts from all over the world in Germany at EUROCAMP 2010

August 2014

B-PSA UK join 2000 Scouts from all over the world in Italy at EUROCAMP 2014

Timeline: a brief history of the Boy Scouts of America

A statue of a Boy Scout stands in front of the National Scouting Museum, Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, in Irving, Texas.

1907 – Scouting movement founded in England by British General Robert Baden-Powell.

1910 – Boy Scouts of America incorporated by W. D. Boyce.

2011-First Issue of ‘Boy’s Life Published.

1912-Sea Scouting Becomes Official Program of BSA.

1912 – Arthur R. Eldred of Troop 1 in Oceanside, N.Y., becomes the first Eagle Scout.

1913 – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints adopts Scouting as the activity arm of its Mutual

Improvement Association for young men, becoming the first religious group to sponsor Scouting as part

of its ministry.

1915-Order of The Arrow Founded at Treasure Island..

1916 – Boy Scouts of America receives a Congressional charter until Title 36 of the United States Code.

1916-Wolf Cubs Started

1918 – Rotary International becomes the first service club to sponsor Boy Scout troops.

1920 – The BSA sends Scouts to the first World Scout Jamboree in England.

1926 – The fist Silver Buffalo awards are presented for distinguished service to youth. Baden-Powell and Boyce

are among the first recipients.

1930 – BSA begins registering the first Cub Scout packs for boys 8-11.

24 1933-Mortimer L.Schiff Scout Reservation is Founded.

1934 – The Order of the Arrow becomes an official BSA program.

1935– President Franklin D. Roosevelt cancels plans for the first National Scout Jamboree in Washington, D.C.,

because of a polio epidemic. The Jamboree is finally held in 1937.

1938-Tsali Lodge #134 Chartered by National Office.

1939-National Service Badge Introduced.

1940 – Irving Berlin establishes the God Bless America Foundation, donating all royalties from his most

famous song to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

1941-Air Scouts Officially Recognized.

1950 – The Philmont Training Center is established to train adult Scout leaders.

1948 (-1958) Wood Badge offered by National Council., It’s increased demand necessitated allowing local

councils to deliver the training. 1950-Scouts forbidden to hitchhike unless it is an emergency.

1953 – The first Pinewood Derby is held by Cub Scouts in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

1959 – Exploring is established as a BSA program for older boys.

1966 – Walt Disney’s “Follow Me, Boys!” takes Scouting to the big screen.

1969 – Eagle Scout Neil Armstrong radios greetings from outer space to Scouts attending a National Jamboree

on his way to become the first man to walk on the moon.

1981-Oscar De La Renta redesigns the Boy Scout Uniform.

First National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia.

1984 – BSA adopts Varsity Scouting for boys 14-16.

1998 – BSA Founds Venturing (Co-ed program for males & females).

2000-In “Boy Scouts of America v. Dale”, the Supreme Court of the U.S. rules that BSA & other private

organizations have the right to set membership standards, including exclusions of gay Scouts & Scouters.

2002 – The National Scouting Museum opens in Irving, Texas.

Feb. 8, 2010-BSA Celebrates it’s 100th Anniversary.

July, 2010-Last National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Va.

2012 – An 11-person committee reaches “unanimous consensus” that continuing to exclude homosexuals from Scouting was in the

best interest of Scouting.

Feb. 6, 2013 – The BSA National Executive Board delays its decision on whether or not to rescind the policy banning gay Scouts and

Scouters until May.

May, 2013- National Council, BSA Votes to lift ban of allowing openly gay youth in the BSA starting Jan, 2014.

July, 2013-BSA National Jamboree at the Summit, W.Va.

2015-BSA National Executive Board ratified a resolution removing the national restriction on openly gay adult

leaders & employees.

2016-Lions, Cub Scouts-(5yr. old -Kindergarten) Pilot Starts.

October, 2017-The BSA Board of Directors unanimously voted on inviting girls into all the Scouting programs

2018-Girls allowed in Cub Scout Packs.

2018-The BSA’s volunteer-led National Executive Board voted earlier this week to make Lions a permanent part of Cub Scouts.

Feb. 2019-Girls allowed to form into Scout Troops.

July, 2019-World Scout Jamboree at the Summit, W.Va (first time since 1967, U.S.A. hosted World Jamboree-Idaho).

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XIII. History of Transport

The history of transport is largely one of technological innovation. Advances in technology have allowed people to travel farther, explore more territory, and expand their influence over larger and larger areas. Even in ancient times, new tools such as foot coverings, skis, and snowshoes lengthened the distances that could be travelled. As new inventions and discoveries were applied to transport problems, travel time decreased while the ability to move more and larger loads increased. Innovation continues as transport researchers are working to find new ways to reduce costs and increase transport efficiency.

Land transport

The first earth tracks were created by humans carrying goods and often followed trails. Tracks would be naturally created at points of high traffic density. As animals were domesticated, horses, oxen and donkeys became an element in track-creation. With the growth of trade, tracks were often flattened or widened to accommodate animal traffic. Later, the travois, a frame used to drag loads, was developed. Animal-drawn wheeled vehicles were probably developed in the Ancient Near East in the 4th or 5th millennium BC and spread to Europe and India in the 4th millennium BC and China in about 1200 BC. The Romans had a significant need for good roads to extend and maintain their empire and developed Roman roads.

In the Industrial Revolution, John Loudon McAdam (1756–1836) designed the first modern highways, using inexpensive paving material of soil and stone aggregate (macadam), and he embanked roads a few feet higher than the surrounding terrain to cause water to drain away from the surface. With the development of motor transport there was an increased need for hard-topped roads to reduce washaways, bogging and dust on both urban and rural roads, originally using cobblestones and wooden paving in major western cities and in the early 20th century tar-bound macadam (tarmac) and concrete paving were extended into the countryside.

The modern history of road transport also involves the development of new vehicles such as new models of horse-drawn vehicles, bicycles, motor cars, motor trucks and electric vehicles.

Water transport

In the stone ages primitive boats developed to permit navigation of rivers and for fishing in rivers and off the

coast. It has been argued that boats suitable for a significant sea crossing were necessary for people to reach

Australia an estimated 40,000-45,000 years ago. With the development of civilization, vessels evolved for

expansion and generally grew in size for trade and war. In the Mediterranean, galleys were developed about

3000 BC. Polynesian double-hulled sailing vessels[1] with advanced rigging were used between 1,300 BC and

900 BC by the Polynesian progeny of the Lapita culture to expand 6,000 km across open ocean from the

Bismarck Archipelago east to Micronesia and, eventually Hawaii. Galleys were eventually rendered obsolete by

ocean-going sailing ships, such as the Arabic caravel in the 13th century, the Chinese treasure ship in the early

15th century, and the Mediterranean man-of-war in the late 15th century. In the Industrial Revolution, the

first steamboats and later diesel-powered ships were developed. Eventually submarines were developed mainly

for military purposes for people's general benefit.

Rail transport

The history of rail transportation dates back nearly 500 years, and includes systems with man or horse power

and rails of wood (or occasionally stone). This was usually for moving coal from the mine down to a river, from

where it could continue by boat, with a flanged wheel running on a rail. The use of cast iron plates as rails

began in the 1760s, and was followed by systems (plateways) where the flange was part of the rail. However,

with the introduction of rolled wrought iron rails, these became obsolete.

Modern rail transport systems first appeared in England in the 1820s. These systems, which made use of

the steam locomotive, were the first practical form of mechanized land transport, and they remained the primary

form of mechanized land transport for the next 100 years.

The history of rail transport also includes the history of rapid transit and arguably monorail history.

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Aviation

Started with the invention of Santos Dummont, Brazilian born scientist, who created the 14BIS and the very

first motor powered airplanes in the world . Humanity's desire to fly likely dates to the first time man observed

birds, an observation illustrated in the legendary stories of Daedalus and Icarus in Greek mythology, and

the Vimanas in Indian mythology. Much of the focus of early research was on imitating birds, but through trial

and error, balloons, airships, gliders and eventually powered aircraft and other types of flying machines were

invented.

Kites were the first form of man-made flying objects,[and early records suggest that kites were around before

200 BC in China. Leonardo da Vinci's dream of flight found expression in several designs, but he did not

attempt to demonstrate flight by literally constructing them.

During the 17th and 18th century, when scientists began analyzing the Earth's atmosphere, gases such

as hydrogen were discovered which in turn led to the invention of hydrogen balloons. Various theories

in mechanics by physicists during the same period of time—notably fluid dynamics and Newton's laws of

motion—led to the foundation of modern aerodynamics. Tethered balloons filled with hot air were used in the

first half of the 19th century and saw considerable action in several mid-century wars, most notably

the American Civil War, where balloons provided observation during the Siege of Petersburg.

Pilots of 611 West Lancashire Squadron lend a hand pushing an early Spitfire Mark IXb, Biggin Hill, late 1942.

Apart from some scattered reference in ancient and medieval records, resting on slender evidence and in need of

interpretation, the earliest clearly verifiable human flight took place in Paris in 1783, when Jean-François Pilâtre

de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes went 5 miles (8.0 km) in a hot air balloon invented by

the Montgolfier brothers. The Wright brothers made the first sustained, controlled and powered heavier-than-air

flight on December 17, 1903, in their revolutionary aircraft, the Wright Flyer.

World War II saw a drastic increase in the pace of aircraft development and production. All countries involved

in the war stepped up development and production of aircraft and flight-based weapon delivery systems, such as

the first long-range bomber.

After the war ended, commercial aviation grew rapidly, using mostly ex-military aircraft to transport people and

cargo. This growth was accelerated by the glut of heavy and super-heavy bomber airframes like

the Lancaster that could be converted into commercial aircraft. The first commercial jet airliner to fly was

the British De Havilland Comet. This marked the beginning of the Jet Age, a period of relatively cheap and fast

international travel.

In the beginning of the 21st century, subsonic military aviation focused on eliminating the pilot in favor of

remotely operated or completely autonomous vehicles. Several unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs have been

developed. In April 2001 the unmanned aircraft Global Hawk flew from Edwards AFB in the US to Australia

non-stop and unrefuelled. This is the longest point-to-point flight ever undertaken by an unmanned aircraft, and

took 23 hours and 23 minutes. In October 2003 the first totally autonomous flight across the Atlantic by a

computer-controlled model aircraft occurred. Major disruptions to air travel in the 21st Century included the

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closing of U.S. airspace following the September 11 attacks, and the closing of northern European airspace after

the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull.

Spaceflight

The realistic dream of spaceflight dated back to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, however Tsiolkovsky wrote in

Russian, and this was not widely influential outside Russia. Spaceflight became an engineering possibility with

the work of Robert H. Goddard's publication in 1919 of his paper 'A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes';

where his application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid-propellant rockets gave sufficient power that

interplanetary travel became possible. This paper was highly influential on Hermann Oberth and Wernher von

Braun, later key players in spaceflight.

The first human spaceflight was achieved with the Soviet space program's Vostok 1 mission in 1961. The lead

architects behind the mission were Sergei Korolev and Kerim Kerimov, with Yuri Gagarin being the

first astronaut. Kerimov later went on to launch the first space docks (Kosmos and Kosmos in 1967 and the

first space stations (Salyut and Mir series) from 1971 to 1991. The first spaceflight to the Moon was achieved

with NASA's Apollo 11 mission in 1969, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first astronauts on the

Moon.

XIV. Timeline of Space Exploration

1609 Galileo Galilei perfects the telescope; his study of the moon reveals that its surface is not smooth, as

previously believed.

1659 Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens determines that the “arms” around Saturn are actually a ring.

1781 Musician & amateur astronomer Sir William Herschel discovers Uranus from his homebuilt observatory

in Bath, England. Uranus is the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope.

1930 American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh locates a distant world migrating across the night sky: Pluto.

1957 The Soviet Union successfully launches the Sputnik 1 Satellite into Earth orbit, initiating the Cold War

space race between the Soviets and the USA.

1961 Yuri Gagarin , a 27-year old Soviet Cosmonaut, becomes the first man in space. He orbits Earth for 108

minutes in a craft named Vostok 1 before reentering the atmosphere and ejecting to a parachute landing.

1962 American astronaut John Glenn equals Gagarin’s feat with 3 orbits of Earth in his Mercury spacecraft

Friendship 7.

1965 Mariner 4 flies by Mars and photographs its surface. The images reveal a dry, desolate planet and

effectively end decades of speculation that intelligent life exists on Mars.

1966 The Soviet Luna 9 makes a successful soft landing on the moon, the first human-made object to land on

another celestial body. The U.S. soon follows with the Surveyor 1 robot landing.

1969 American astronauts Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin are the first humans to explore another celestial

body (our moon) Appolo 11 returns lunar samples & is followed by 5 additional piloted landings.

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1973 NASA launches Mariner 10, the first mission to Mercury. It will make 3 flybys of the sun’s closest

planet, measuring it’s mast & magnetic field.

1975 NASA launches Viking 1 & Viking 2 to map & land on Mars, analyzing surface conditions & testing for

possible life. None is detected.

1979 Voyager 2 flies by Jupiter & spots a volcano erupting on lo, one of the moons Galileo discovered.

1989 NASA launches the Magellan probe to Venus.Its radar maps most of the planet’s surface, charting

volcanoes & “continents.”

NASA dispatches the Galileo spacecraft to Jupiter. Galileo sends a probe hurdling into Jupiter’s cloud

tops & discovers a sub-surface liquid ocean on Europa.

1997 The Mars Pathfinder lands on the red planet to explore it with a small rover.

NASA launches the Cassini-Huygens probe towards Saturn, where it will study the planet’s atmosphere

& survey its many moons.

2004 Opportunity, one of NASA’s Mars rovers, analyzes rock samples indicating that parts of Mars may have

once been under water.

2005 The Cassini’s oribiter images Saturn’s moon Titan & finds seas not filled with water but with liquid

ethane & methane. The Huygen’s probe parachutes to a landing on Titan’s frigid surface.

2007 NASA launches the Dawn spacecraft to orbit Vesta & Ceres, 2 of the largest asteroids in the asteroid

belt. & study their composition & history.

2009 NASA launches the Kepler telescope into orbit, searching for earth-size worlds around other stars.

2012 NASA Curiosity rover lands on Mars, discovering evidence of ancient running streams & a vanished

lake bed at the base of Mount Sharp.

2014 The European Rosetta probe reaches comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, maps it’s weird & jagged

terrain & drops the Philae lander to analyze the surface.

2015 NASA’s New Horizons probe encounters dwarf planet Pluto & it’s moon Charon, revealing a

surprisingly active body with frozen nitrogen plains & water-ice mountains.

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XV. The Railways in the Industrial Revolution

27th September 1825: The opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway. Rischgitz / Getty Images

If the steam engine is the icon of the industrial revolution, it’s most famous incarnation is the steam driven

locomotive. The union of steam and iron rails produced the railways, a new form of transport which boomed in

the later nineteenth century, affecting industry and social life. More on transport (roads and canals.)

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RAILWAYS

In 1767 Richard Reynolds created a set of rails for moving coal at Coalbrookdale; these were initially wood but

became iron rails.

In 1801 the first Act of Parliament was passed for the creation of a ‘railway’, although at this point it was a

horse pulled carts on rails. Small, scattered railway development continued, but at the same time, the steam

engine was evolving. In 1801 Trevithic invented a steam driven locomotive which ran on roads, and 1813

William Hedly built Puffing Billy for use in mines, followed a year later by George Stephenson’s engine.

In 1821 Stephenson built the Stockton to Darlington railway using iron rails and steam power with the aim of

breaking the local monopoly of the canal owners. The initial plan had been for horses to provide the energy, but

Stephenson pushed for steam. The importance of this has been exaggerated, as it still remained as “fast” as a

canal (i.e. slow). The first time a railway used a true steam locomotive running on rails was the Liverpool to

Manchester railway in 1830. This is probably the true landmark in rail, and mirrored the route of the

groundbreaking Bridgewater Canal.

Indeed, the owner of the canal had opposed the railway to protect his investment. The Liverpool to Manchester

railway provided the management blueprint for later development, creating a permanent staff and recognizing

the potential of passenger travel. Indeed, until the 1850s railways made more from passengers than freight.

In the 1830s canal companies, challenged by new railways, cut prices and largely kept their business. As

railways were rarely connected they were generally used for local freight and passengers. However,

industrialists soon realized that railways could make a clear profit, and in 1835 – 37, and 1844 – 48 there was

such a boom in the creation of railways that ‘railway mania’ was said to have swept the country. In this later

period, there were 10,000 acts creating railways. Of course, this mania encouraged the creation of lines which

were unviable and in competition with each other. The government largely adopted a laissez-faire attitude but

did intervene to try and stop accidents and dangerous competition. They also passed a law in 1844 ordering

third class travel to be on at least one train a day, and the Gauge Act of 1846 to make sure the trains ran on the

same sort of rails.

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RAILWAYS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Railways had a major impact on farming, as perishable goods such as dairy products could now be moved long

distances before they were inedible. The standard of living rose as a result. New companies formed to both run

railways and take advantage of the possibilities, and a major new employer was created.

At the height of the railway boom, massive amounts of Britain’s industrial output were funneled into the

construction, boosting industry, and when the British boom subsided these materials were exported to build

railways abroad.

SOCIAL IMPACT OF RAILWAYS

In order for trains to be timetabled, a standardized time was introduced across Britain, making it a more uniform place. Suburbs began to form as white collar workers moved out from the inner cities, and some working class districts were demolished for new rail buildings. Opportunities for travel broadened as the working class could now travel further and more freely, although some conservatives worried this would cause a revolt. Communications were vastly sped up, and regionalization began to break down.

IMPORTANCE OF THE RAILWAYS

The effect of railways in the Industrial Revolution is often exaggerated.

They did not cause industrialization and had no impact on the changing locations of industries as they only developed after 1830 and were initially slow to catch on. What they did do was allow the revolution to continue, provide further stimulus, and help to transform the mobility and diets of the population.

XVI. Television Through the Decades (and the Ways It Changed Our World…)

Arguably, the greatest and most influential invention of the 20th century, perhaps with the exception of the

Internet, the television began with humble beginnings and was met with skepticism. However, since its

inception, almost 75 years ago, the United States has been captivated. Now, according to USA Today and

Nielson Media Research, the average American home has 2.71 televisions and 2.55 people. There are more

TVs in the average home than there are people.

At the turn of the century, the TV as we know it today was only a dream in the eyes of inventors. Many

believed they could take the basic concepts applied to the transmission of sound and apply them to the

transmission of pictures. It would be unfair to say the invention of the television is attributed to one person.

Philo T. Farnsworth, Vladimir Zworykin, Charles Jenkins and John Baird all attributed greatly to the invention

of the modern television each supplying their own piece of the puzzle. Zworykin especially, when he used a

small piece of technology called cathode ray tube (CRT) in the receiver. Although seen as primitive compared

to modern television advancements like Plasma and LCD, the CRT is still used in TV sets today.

Since its inception in the early 1930’s and commercial availability in the late 1930’s the evolution of the

television is interesting. Although it seems like a world away, it has only been in recent years that the

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technology has changed drastically. Here is a time line to demonstrate the look, feel and uses of the TV over the

decades.

1930s

After its formal introduction at the 1939 World’s Fair, the first real commercial televisions became widely

available. However, many networks like NBC and CBS had already been broadcasting for several years. Radio

networks were quickly adjusting their studios to accommodate the new medium.

Sets were large pieces of equipment with about 12 inch screens. They cost about $400-$500 and the average

household income was about $1300 a year. Programming was sparse. There was no “must see TV,” networks

broadcasted specials like the 1932 presidential election, boxing matches and news reports. One of the most

recognized images from this early era includes the 1936 Olympics from Berlin in which Hitler announced the

opening of the ceremonies.

1940s

Much of the hype surrounding televisions in the 1940’s was swept under the rug with the onset of WWII.

Although in the earlier portion of the decade, the United States wasn’t involved with the war, production of

televisions stopped so the U.S. could put their efforts toward developing radar technology.

Even though the production of televisions stopped, the innovation persisted and color was introduced at the

early part of the decade. This is also when the television commercial was invented.

During the war, the television was used as a small propaganda machine. Encouraging people to buy bonds and

support the effort.

The post-war economy was strong and the late 40’s saw a boom in television production. Two types of models

surface the tabletop and console.

People like Milton Berle, Ed Sullivan and Howdy Doody become some of TV’s first stars.

1950s

Often the 1950’s have been seen as the hay day of the economical boom in the United States and the Golden

Age of television.

More people are buying consumer electronics, by the end of 1951 and there are more than 8,000,000 TVs in the

United States.

I Love Lucy, The Honeymooners, Father Knows Best and the Lone Ranger are some of the most watched

programs. The TV Guide is the #1 magazine in the country.

Color becomes the wave of the future and the Remote Control is invented. Although most people had neither.

The “tube” becomes an advertiser’s dream come true. Products are marketed directly to the consumer by

sponsorships. The “soap opera” is thus named for the cleaning products that sponsored the daytime dramas

targeted directly at women.

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The family dinner is revolutionized with the introduction of the TV dinner. Family meals will never be the

same.

By the end of the decade, a 21-inch black and white set was about $200 and the average 21-inch color set was

almost $500.

1960s

Often the 60’s are seen as the end of an era. An age of innocence seen in the 1950s died and would never be

seen again in the United States. After the assignation of President Kennedy, families gathered around to watch

the news depicting a changing social climate and growing hostility toward an oppressive government.

Americans begin to get more news from the television than the newspaper.

The United States became obsessed with space travel. Everything sold had a space age edge, especially

televisions. Everyone gathered to watch shuttle launches and moon landings. Televisions became more portable

and affordable.

It is estimated 75 million people watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The Vietnam War is the first conflict to be televised.

Doctors legally advertised cigarettes.

By the end of the decade there were approximately 78 million television sets in homes across the United States;

200 million around the world.

1970s

Sesame Street debuts to children across the country. The show is still on the air after almost 40 years. Nighttime

broadcasts broke the traditional molds. Couples were now sleeping in the same beds, actresses could show their

belly buttons and “All in the Family” and “MASH” are two of the most popular evening programs. Although it

wasn’t the first home video game, Pong became the most popular. The average salary is 7,500 a year and the

average price for a TV was between $400 and $700 dollars. The first direct to broadcast satellite television was

launched in 1972.1978 was the last year large Black and White consoles were manufactured.

1980s

The 80’s saw little innovation with the television specifically; however, there became a growing number of

television accessories like the VCR and home game consoles like Nintendo.

Although cable had been around since the 50’s, cable television saw a significant boom during the

80’s. Sitcoms were more popular than ever. The 80’s spawned programs like “Rosanne,” and “Married with

Children” (which is the longest running sitcom in television history.)The VCR took the United States by storm.

Although introduced in the late 70’s, the VCR didn’t become a staple in the American home until the mid

1980s. Now, people could watch movies in the comfort of their own home and record and watch their favorite

programs on their own timetable.

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1990s

The 90’s saw big changes in technology all together. One can arguably say the 1990s was an age of

technological change, thanks largely to the Internet. The personal computer became affordable enough for

average people to own, the Internet was available through dial-up ISPs like Prodigy and AOL, and information

was seemingly at our fingertips.

Television programming became more risqué, pushing the FCC’s buttons and spawned some of the most loved

shows of all time including “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” “Twin Peaks” and “The Simpsons.”

Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show in 1993 after more than 30 years on the air.

Cable television programming saw a large boom at the end of the decade with shows like “The Soprano’s.”

Broadcast on HBO, these series were exempt from standard FCC regulations and frequently depicted scenes.

Audiences and critics loved it.

Various TV technologies like Plasma and LCD are in experimental stages. Standard CRT televisions still lead

the market. However, televisions now include additional features like picture in picture, sleep timers and

parental controls.

2000s

DVD players take over the home theater experience. Much like the VCR, DVD players were introduced a

decade earlier, but took some time to gain momentum. At the beginning of the decade, DVD players were in

approximately seven percent of homes; in less than 10 years, more than 80 percent of homes had a DVD player.

Thin is in. Advances in LCD and Plasma technology enable television manufacturers to produce a better

picture, larger screen sizes and save space.

The “home theater” experience was in the forefront of manufacture’s minds providing bigger and better quality

to the consumer.

TiVo revolutionized the way we watch television. TiVo had the ability to pause live broadcasts and record

several programs at once, even while the television was on another channel. TiVo can schedule recordings

based on time, channel, title or celebrity. No longer were people tethered to their couches living by the

network’s times. They were free to watch what they wanted when they wanted.

Reality shows take over the airwaves and TV becomes interactive. With the introduction of “American Idol”

home viewing audiences became part of the competition. Encouraging the public to “vote” for their favorite

performer, the programs enabled audiences to take an active part in the show’s outcome. Now, a 30-second ad

during “American Idol” costs about $750,000.

In 2001. Television made history with a “Real-Time” adrenilne-based show called “24” with Kiefer Sutherland

as the main character and centered around CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit).The show lasted “unofficially 9

seasons and developed an awesome fan-base. One of the BEST TV shows to air to date.

Television goes all digital. In 2009, all analog televisions will go black. Networks will only be producing a

digital signal.

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Less than 10 years after the DVD player’s introduction, the second wave of video players were introduced

touting better quality and longer run times. HD DVD and Blu-ray enter a battle for high definition supremacy,

which is reminiscent of the VCR and Betamax war 30 years prior.

TV goes online. With the introduction of high speed Internet, video streaming and digital recording enter the

scene. Many are posting their favorite programs and commercials online without the permission of the

broadcasters. This has led to many networks making their programs available online.

Seventy-five years ago, the television was introduced with skepticism and awe. No one truly believed it would

change the way we view the world. Now, people are more attached to their televisions than ever including

programming on computers and cell phones; and manufactures, broadcasters and producers are continually

finding new ways to bring big entertainment to the small screen.

XVII. History of film

The history of film began in the 1890s, when motion picture cameras were invented and film production

companies started to be established. Because of the limits of technology, films of the 1890s were under a minute

long and until 1927 motion pictures were produced without sound. The first decade of motion picture saw film

moving from a novelty to an established large-scale entertainment industry. The films became several minutes

long consisting of several shots. The first rotating camera for taking panning shots was built in 1898. The first

film studios were built in 1897. Special effects were introduced and film continuity, involving action moving

from one sequence into another, began to be used. In the 1900s, continuity of action across successive shots was

achieved and the first close-up shot was introduced (that some claim D. W. Griffith invented). Most films of

this period were what came to be called "chase films". The first use of animation in movies was in 1899. The

first feature length multi-reel film was a 1906 Australian production. The first successful permanent theatre

showing only films was "The Nickelodeon" in Pittsburgh in 1905. By 1910, actors began to receive screen

credit for their roles, and the way to the creation of film stars was opened. Regular newsreels were exhibited

from 1910 and soon became a popular way for finding out the news. Overall, from about 1910, American films

had the largest share of the market in Australia and in all European countries except France.

New film techniques were introduced in this period including the use of artificial lighting, fire effects and low-

key lighting (i.e. lighting in which most of the frame is dark) for enhanced atmosphere during sinister scenes.

As films grew longer, specialist writers were employed to simplify more complex stories derived from novels or

plays into a form that could be contained on one reel and be easier to be understood by the audience – an

audience that was new to this form of storytelling. Genres began to be used as categories; the main division was

into comedy and drama, but these categories were further subdivided. During the First World War there was a

complex transition for the film industry. The exhibition of films changed from short one-reel programs to

feature films. Exhibition venues became larger and began charging higher prices. By 1914, continuity cinema

was the established mode of commercial cinema. One of the advanced continuity techniques involved an

accurate and smooth transition from one shot to another.

D. W. Griffith had the highest standing among American directors in the industry, because of the dramatic

excitement he conveyed to the audience through his films. The American film industry, or "Hollywood", as it

was becoming known after its new geographical center in Hollywood, a neighborhood in Los Angeles,

California, gained the position it has held, more or less, ever since: film factory for the world and exporting its

product to most countries. By the 1920s, the United States reached what is still its era of greatest-ever output,

producing an average of 800 feature films annually, or 82% of the global total (Eyman, 1997). During late

1927, Warner's released The Jazz Singer, with the first synchronized dialogue (and singing) in a feature film. By

the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several competing sound systems (soon to be

standardized). Sound saved the Hollywood studio system in the face of the Great Depression (Parkinson, 1995).

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The desire for wartime propaganda created a renaissance in the film industry in Britain, with realistic war

dramas. The onset of American involvement in World War II also brought a proliferation of films as

both patriotism and propaganda. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Hollywood in the

early 1950s. During the immediate post-war years the cinematic industry was also threatened by television, and

the increasing popularity of the medium meant that some film theatres would bankrupt and close. Following the

end of World War II in the 1940s, the following decade, the 1950s, marked a 'Golden Age' for non-

English world cinema.

Roundhay Garden Scene is an 1888 short silent film recorded by French inventor Louis Le Prince. It is believed

to be the oldest surviving film in existence, as noted by the Guinness Book of Records. The film Sortie de

l'usine Lumière de Lyon (1895) by French Louis Lumière is considered the "first true motion picture.”

Early period

In the 1890s, films were seen mostly via temporary storefront spaces and traveling exhibitors or as acts in

vaudeville programs. A film could be under a minute long and would usually present a single scene, authentic

or staged, of everyday life, a public event, a sporting event or slapstick. There was little to no cinematic

technique, the film was usually black and white and it was without sound.

The novelty of realistically moving photographs was enough for a motion picture industry to blossom before the

end of the century, in countries around the world. "The Cinema" was to offer a cheaper, simpler way of

providing entertainment to the masses. Filmmakers could record actors' performances, which then could be

shown to audiences around the world. Travelogues would bring the sights of far-flung places, with movement,

directly to spectators' hometowns. Movies would become the most popular visual art form of the late Victorian

age.

The Berlin Wintergarten theater hosted an early movie presentation in front of an audience, shown by

the Skladanowsky brothers in 1895. The Melbourne Athenaeum started to screen movies in 1896. Movie

theaters became popular entertainment venues and social hubs in the early 20th century, much like cabarets and

other theaters.

A scene from A Trip to the Moon (1902) by Georges Méliès.

Until 1927, motion pictures were produced without sound. This era is referred to as the silent era of film. To

enhance the viewers' experience, silent films were commonly accompanied by live musicians in an orchestra, a

theatre organ, and sometimes sound effects and even commentary spoken by the showman or projectionist. In

most countries, intertitles came to be used to provide dialogue and narration for the film, thus dispensing with

narrators, but in Japanese cinema human narration remained popular throughout the silent era. The technical

problems were resolved by 1923.

Illustrated songs were a notable exception to this trend that began in 1894 in vaudeville houses and persisted as

late as the late 1930s in film theaters. Live performance or sound recordings were paired with hand-colored

glass slides projected through stereopticons and similar devices. In this way, song narrative was illustrated

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through a series of slides whose changes were simultaneous with the narrative development. The main purpose

of illustrated songs was to encourage sheet music sales, and they were highly successful with sales reaching into

the millions for a single song. Later, with the birth of film, illustrated songs were used as filler material

preceding films and during reel changes.

The 1914 The Photo-Drama of Creation was a non-commercial attempt to combine the motion picture with a

combination of slides and synchronize the resulting moving picture with audio. The film included hand-painted

slides as well as other previously used techniques. Simultaneously playing the audio while the film was being

played with a projector was required. Produced by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of

Pennsylvania (Jehovah's Witnesses), this eight–hour bible drama was being shown in 80 cities every day and

almost eight million people in the United States and Canada saw the presentation.

Birth of movies

The first eleven years of motion pictures show the cinema moving from a novelty to an established large-scale

entertainment industry. The films represent a movement from films consisting of one shot, completely made by

one person with a few assistants, towards films several minutes long consisting of several shots, which were

made by large companies in something like industrial conditions.

The year 1900 marks the emergence of the first motion pictures that can be considered as "films" – at this point,

film-makers begin to introduce basic editing techniques and film narrative.[

Invention and advancement of the camera

Early movie cameras were fastened to the head of their tripod with only simple levelling devices provided.

These cameras were thus effectively fixed during the course of the shot, and hence the first camera movements

were the result of mounting a camera on a moving vehicle. The Lumière brothers shot a scene from the back of

a train in 1896.

The first rotating camera for taking panning shots was built by Robert W. Paul in 1897, on the occasion

of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. He used his camera to shoot the procession in one shot. His device had

the camera mounted on a vertical axis that could be rotated by a worm gear driven by turning a crank handle,

and Paul put it on general sale the next year. Shots taken using such a "panning" head were also referred to as

'panoramas' in the film catalogues of the first decade of the cinema.

The use of different camera speeds also appeared around 1900 in the films of Robert W. Paul and Hepworth.

Paul shot scenes from On a Runaway Motor Car through Piccadilly Circus (1899) with the camera turning very

slowly. When the film was projected at the usual 16 frames per second, the scenery appeared to be passing at

great speed. Hepworth used the opposite effect in The Indian Chief and the Seidlitz Powder (1901). The Chief's

movements are sped up by cranking the camera much faster than 16 frames per second. This gives what we

would call a "slow motion" effect.

Animation

The first use of animation in movies was in 1899, with the production of the short film Matches: An Appeal by

British film pioneer Arthur Melbourne-Cooper- a thirty-second long stop-motion animated piece intended to

encourage the audience to send matches to British troops fighting the Boer War. The film contains an appeal to

send money to Bryant and May who would then send matches to the troops fighting in South Africa. It was

shown in December 1899 at The Empire Theatre in London. This film is the earliest known example of stop-

motion animation. Little puppets, constructed of matchsticks, are writing the appeal on a black wall. Their

movements are filmed frame by frame, movement by movement.

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A single frame from the Humorous Phases of Funny Faces animation, showing the use of cut-out technique

The relative sophistication of this piece was not followed up for some time, with subsequent works in animation

being limited to short, two or three frame effects, such as appeared in Edwin Stanton Porter's 1902 short Fun in

a Bakery Shop, where a lump of dough was made to smile over the course of a three-frame sequence. In 1906,

Albert Edward Smith and James Stuart Blackton at Vitagraph took the next step, and in their Humorous Phases

of Funny Faces,what appear to be cartoon drawings of people move from one pose to another. This is done for

most of the length of this film by moving jointed cut-outs of the figures frame by frame between the exposures,

just as Porter moved his letters. However, there is a very short section of the film where things are made to

appear to move by altering the drawings themselves from frame to frame, which is how standard animated

cartoons have since been made up to today.

The technique of single frame animation was further developed in 1907 by Edwin S. Porter in The Teddy

Bears and by J. Stuart Blackton with Work Made Easy. In the first of these the toy bears were made to move,

apparently on their own, and in the latter film building tools were made to perform construction tasks without

human intervention, by using frame-by-frame animation. The technique got to Europe almost immediately, and

Segundo de Chomon and others at Pathé took it further, adding clay animation, in which sculptures were

deformed from one thing into another thing frame by frame in Sculpture moderne (1908), and then Pathé made

the next step to the animation of silhouette shapes. Also in France, Émile Cohl fully developed drawn animation

in a series of films starting with Fantasmagorie (1908), in which humans and objects drawn as outline figures

went though a series of remarkable interactions and transformations. In the United States the response was from

the famous strip cartoon artist Winsor McCay, who drew much more realistic animated figures going through

smoother, more naturalistic motion in a series of films starting with the film Little Nemo, made for Vitagraph in

1911. In the next few years various others took part in this development of animated cartoons in the United

States and elsewhere.

Feature film

Poster for a Biograph Studios release from 1

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Films at the time were no longer than one reel, although some multi-reel films had been made on the life of

Christ in the first few years of cinema. The first feature length multi-reel film in the world was the 1906

Australian production called The Story of the Kelly Gang.

Maturation

Film business

The first successful permanent theatre showing only films was "The Nickelodeon", which was opened in

Pittsburgh in 1905. By then there were enough films several minutes long available to fill a programme running

for at least half an hour, and which could be changed weekly when the local audience became bored with it.

Other exhibitors in the United States quickly followed suit, and within a couple of years there were thousands of

these nickelodeons in operation. The American experience led to a worldwide boom in the production and

exhibition of films from 1906 onwards.

By 1907 purpose-built cinemas for motion pictures were being opened across the United States, Britain and

France. The films were often shown with the accompaniment of music provided by a pianist, though there could

be more musicians. There were also a very few larger cinemas in some of the biggest cities. Initially, the

majority of films in the programmes were Pathé films, but this changed fairly quickly as the American

companies cranked up production. The programme was made up of just a few films, and the show lasted around

30 minutes. The reel of film, of maximum length 1,000 feet (300 m), which usually contained one individual

film, became the standard unit of film production and exhibition in this period. The programme was changed

twice or more a week, but went up to five changes of programme a week after a couple of years.

In general, cinemas were set up in the established entertainment districts of the cities. In 1907, Pathé began

renting their films to cinemas through film exchanges rather than selling the films outright.

By about 1910, actors began to receive screen credit for their roles, and the way to the creation of film stars

was opened. Films were increasingly longer, and began to feature proper plots and development.

The first motion picture made in Technicolor and the first feature-length color movie produced in the United

States, The Gulf Between, was also filmed on location in Jacksonville in 1917.

Jacksonville was especially important to the African American film industry. One notable individual in this

regard is the European American producer Richard Norman, who created a string of films starring black actors

in the vein of Oscar Micheaux and the Lincoln Motion Picture Company.

Regular newsreels were exhibited from 1910 and soon became a popular way for finding out the news –

the British Antarctic Expedition to the South Pole was filmed for the newsreels as were

the suffragette demonstrations that were happening at the same time. F. Percy Smith was an early nature

documentary pioneer working for Charles Urban and he pioneered the use of time lapse and micro

cinematography in his 1910 documentary on the growth of flowers.

New film producing countries

Overall, from about 1910, American films had the largest share of the market in all European countries except

France, and even in France, the American films had just pushed the local production out of first place on the eve

of World War I. So even if the war had not happened, American films may have become dominant worldwide.

Although the war made things much worse for European producers, the technical qualities of American films

made them increasingly attractive to audiences everywhere

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Film technique

A.E. Smith filming The Bargain Fiend in the Vitagraph Studios in 1907. Arc floodlights hang overhead.

New film techniques that were introduced in this period include the use of artificial lighting, fire effects

and Low-key lighting (i.e. lighting in which most of the frame is dark) for enhanced atmosphere during sinister

scenes.

Continuity of action from shot to shot was also refined, such as in Pathé's le Cheval emballé (The Runaway

Horse) (1907) where cross-cutting between parallel actions is used. D. W. Griffith also began using cross-

cutting in the film The Fatal Hour, made in July 1908. Another development was the use of the Point of View

shot, first used in 1910 in Vitagraph's Back to Nature. Insert shots were also used for artistic purposes; the

Italian film La mala planta (The Evil Plant), directed by Mario Caserini had an insert shot of a snake slithering

over the "Evil Plant".

As films grew longer, specialist writers were employed to simplify more complex stories derived from novels or

plays into a form that could be contained on one reel. Genres began to be used as categories; the main division

was into comedy and drama, but these categories were further subdivided.

Intertitles containing lines of dialogue began to be used consistently from 1908 onwards, such as in

Vitagraph's An Auto Heroine; or, The Race for the Vitagraph Cup and How It Was Won. The dialogue was

eventually inserted into the middle of the scene and became commonplace by 1912. The introduction of

dialogue titles transformed the nature of film narrative. When dialogue titles came to be always cut into a scene

just after a character starts speaking, and then left with a cut to the character just before they finish speaking,

then one had something that was effectively the equivalent of a present-day sound film.

During World War I

Industry

The years of the First World War were a complex transitional period for the film industry. The exhibition of

films changed from short one-reel programmes to feature films. Exhibition venues became larger and began

charging higher prices.

In the United States, these changes brought destruction to many film companies, the Vitagraph company being

an exception. Film production began to shift to Los Angeles during World War I. The Universal Film

Manufacturing Company was formed in 1912 as an umbrella company. New entrants included the Jesse

Lasky Feature Play Company, and Famous Players, both formed in 1913, and later amalgamated into Famous

Players-Lasky. The biggest success of these years was David Wark Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Griffith followed this up with the even bigger Intolerance (1916), but, due to the high quality of film produced

in the US, the market for their films was high.

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In France, film production shut down due to the general military mobilization of the country at the start of the

war. Although film production began again in 1915, it was on a reduced scale, and the biggest companies

gradually retired from production. Italian film production held up better, although so called "diva films",

starring anguished female leads were a commercial failure. In Denmark, the Nordisk company increased its

production so much in 1915 and 1916 that it could not sell all its films, which led to a very sharp decline in

Danish production, and the end of Denmark's importance on the world film scene.

New techniques

Complex vignette shot in die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess).

At this time, studios were blacked out to allow shooting to be unaffected by changing sunlight. This was

replaced with floodlights and spotlights. The widespread adoption of irising-in and out to begin and end scenes

caught on in this period. This is the revelation of a film shot in a circular mask, which gradually gets larger till it

expands beyond the frame. Other shaped slits were used, including vertical and diagonal apertures.

A new idea taken over from still photography was "soft focus". This began in 1915, with some shots being

intentionally thrown out of focus for expressive effect, as in Mary Pickford's Fanchon the Cricket.

It was during this period that camera effects intended to convey the subjective feelings of characters in a film

really began to be established. These could now be done as Point of View (POV) shots, as in Sidney Drew's The

Story of the Glove (1915), where a wobbly hand-held shot of a door and its keyhole represents the POV of a

drunken man. The use of anamorphic (in the general sense of distorted shape) images first appears in these

years with Abel Gance's la Folie du Docteur Tube (The Madness of Dr. Tube). In this film the effect of a drug

administered to a group of people was suggested by shooting the scenes reflected in a distorting mirror of the

fair-ground type.

Symbolic effects taken over from conventional literary and artistic tradition continued to make some

appearances in films during these years. In D. W. Griffith's The Avenging Conscience (1914), the title "The

birth of the evil thought" precedes a series of three shots of the protagonist looking at a spider, and ants eating

an insect. Symbolist art and literature from the turn of the century also had a more general effect on a small

number of films made in Italy and Russia.

The supine acceptance of death resulting from passion and forbidden longings was a major feature of this art,

and states of delirium dwelt on at length were important as well.

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Insert shot in Old Wives for New (Cecil B. DeMille, 1918)

The use of insert shots, i.e. close-ups of objects other than faces, had already been established by the Brighton

school, but were infrequently used before 1914. It is really only with Griffith's The Avenging Conscience that a

new phase in the use of the Insert Shot starts. As well as the symbolic inserts already mentioned, The Avenging

Conscience also made extensive use of large numbers of Big Close Up shots of clutching hands and tapping feet

as a means of emphasizing those parts of the body as indicators of psychological tension.

Atmospheric inserts were developed in Europe in the late 1910s. This kind of shot is one in a scene which

neither contains any of the characters in the story, nor is a Point of View shot seen by one of them. An early

example is in Maurice Tourneur's The Pride of the Clan (1917), in which there is a series of shots of waves

beating on a rocky shore to demonstrate the harsh lives of the fishing folk. Maurice Elvey's Nelson – England's

Immortal Naval Hero (1919) has a symbolic sequence dissolving from a picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II to a

peacock, and then to a battleship.

By 1914, continuity cinema was the established mode of commercial cinema. One of the advanced continuity

techniques involved an accurate and smooth transition from one shot to another. Cutting to different angles

within a scene also became well-established as a technique for dissecting a scene into shots in American films.

If the direction of the shot changes by more than ninety degrees, it is called a reverse-angle cutting. The leading

figure in the full development of reverse-angle cutting was Ralph Ince in his films, such as The Right

Girl and His Phantom Sweetheart

The use of flash-back structures continued to develop in this period, with the usual way of entering and leaving

a flash-back being through a dissolve. The Vitagraph company's The Man That Might Have Been (William

Humphrey, 1914), is even more complex, with a series of reveries and flash-backs that contrast the protagonist's

real passage through life with what might have been, if his son had not died.

Hollywood triumphant

At the start of the First World War, French and Italian cinema had been the most globally popular. The war

came as a devastating interruption to European film industries. The American industry, or "Hollywood", as it

was becoming known after its new geographical center in California, gained the position it has held, more or

less, ever since: film factory for the world and exporting its product to most countries on earth.

By the 1920s, the United States reached what is still its era of greatest-ever output, producing an average of

800 feature films annually,or 82% of the global total (Eyman, 1997). The comedies of Charlie

Chaplin and Buster Keaton, the swashbuckling adventures of Douglas Fairbanks and the romances of Clara

Bow, to cite just a few examples, made these performers' faces well-known on every continent. The Western

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visual norm that would become classical continuity editing was developed and exported – although its adoption

was slower in some non-Western countries without strong realist traditions in art and drama, such as Japan.

This development was contemporary with the growth of the studio system and its greatest publicity method,

the star system, which characterized American film for decades to come and provided models for other film

industries. The studios' efficient, top-down control over all stages of their product enabled a new and ever-

growing level of lavish production and technical sophistication. At the same time, the system's commercial

regimentation and focus on glamorous escapism discouraged daring and ambition beyond a certain degree, a

prime example being the brief but still legendary directing career of the iconoclastic Erich von Stroheim in the

late teens and the '20s.

During late 1927, Warners released The Jazz Singer, which was mostly silent but contained what is generally

regarded as the first synchronized dialogue (and singing) in a feature film; but this process was actually

accomplished first by Charles Taze Russell in 1914 with the lengthy film The Photo-Drama of Creation. This

drama consisted of picture slides and moving pictures synchronized with phonograph records of talks and

music. The early sound-on-disc processes such as Vitaphone were soon superseded by sound-on-film methods

like Fox Movietone, DeForest Phonofilm, and RCA Photophone. The trend convinced the largely reluctant

industrialists that "talking pictures", or "talkies", were the future. A lot of attempts were made before the

success of The Jazz Singer, that can be seen in the List of film sound systems.

The change was remarkably swift. By the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several

competing sound systems (soon to be standardized). Total changeover was slightly slower in the rest of the

world, principally for economic reasons. Cultural reasons were also a factor in countries like China and Japan,

where silents co-existed successfully with sound well into the 1930s, indeed producing what would be some of

the most revered classics in those countries, like Wu Yonggang's The Goddess (China, 1934) and Yasujirō

Ozu's I Was Born, But... (Japan, 1932). But even in Japan, a figure such as the benshi, the live narrator who was

a major part of Japanese silent cinema, found his acting career was ending.

Sound further tightened the grip of major studios in numerous countries: the vast expense of the transition

overwhelmed smaller competitors, while the novelty of sound lured vastly larger audiences for those producers

that remained. In the case of the U.S., some historians credit sound with saving the Hollywood studio system in

the face of the Great Depression (Parkinson, 1995).

Thus began what is now often called "The Golden Age of Hollywood", which refers roughly to the period

beginning with the introduction of sound until the late 1940s. The American cinema reached its peak of

efficiently manufactured glamour and global appeal during this period. The top actors of the era are now

thought of as the classic film stars, such as Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo,

and the greatest box office draw of the 1930s, child performer Shirley Temple

Creative impact of sound

Creatively, however, the rapid transition was a difficult one, and in some ways, film briefly reverted to the

conditions of its earliest days. The late '20s were full of static, stagey talkies as artists in front of and behind the

camera struggled with the stringent limitations of the early sound equipment and their own uncertainty as to

how to utilize the new medium. Many stage performers, directors and writers were introduced to cinema as

producers sought personnel experienced in dialogue-based storytelling. Many major silent filmmakers and

actors were unable to adjust and found their careers severely curtailed or even ended.

This awkward period was fairly short-lived. 1929 was a watershed year: William Wellman with Chinatown

Nights and The Man I Love, Rouben amoulian with Applause, Alfred Hitchcock with Blackmail (Britain's first

sound feature), were among the directors to bring greater fluidity to talkies and experiment with the expressive

use of sound (Eyman, 1997). In this, they both benefited from, and pushed further, technical advances in

43

microphones and cameras, and capabilities for editing and post-synchronizing sound (rather than recording all

sound directly at the time of filming).

Sound films emphasized black history and benefited different genres more so than silents did. Most obviously,

the musical film was born; the first classic-style Hollywood musical was The Broadway Melody (1929) and the

form would find its first major creator in choreographer/director Busby Berkeley (42nd Street, 1933, Dames,

1934). In France, avant-garde director René Clair made surreal use of song and dance in comedies like Under

the Roofs of Paris (1930) and Le Million (1931). Universal Pictures begin releasing gothic horror films

like Dracula and Frankenstein (both 1931). In 1933, RKO released Merian C. Cooper's classic "giant monster"

film King Kong. The trend thrived best in India, where the influence of the country's traditional song-and-dance

drama made the musical the basic form of most sound films (Cook, 1990); virtually unnoticed by the Western

world for decades, this Indian popular cinema would nevertheless become the world's most prolific. (See

also Bollywood.)

At this time, American gangster films like Little Caesar and Wellman's The Public Enemy (both 1931) became

popular. Dialogue now took precedence over "slapstick" in Hollywood comedies: the fast-paced, witty banter

of The Front Page (1931) or It Happened One Night (1934), or the often subversively anarchic nonsense talk of

the Marx Brothers (Duck Soup, 1933). Walt Disney, who had previously been in the short cartoon business,

stepped into feature films with the first English-speaking animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs;

released by RKO Pictures in 1937. 1939, a major year for American cinema, brought such films as The Wizard

of Oz and Gone with The Wind.

World War II and its aftermath

The desire for wartime propaganda created a renaissance in the film industry in Britain, with realistic war

dramas like 49th Parallel (1941), Went the Day Well? (1942), The Way Ahead (1944) and Noël

Coward and David Lean's celebrated naval film In Which We Serve in 1942, which won a special Academy

Award. These existed alongside more flamboyant films like Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Life

and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946), as well

as Laurence Olivier's 1944 film Henry V, based on the Shakespearean history Henry V. The success of Snow

White and the Seven Dwarfs allowed Disney to make more animated features

like Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942).

The onset of US involvement in World War II also brought a proliferation of films as

both patriotism and propaganda. American propaganda films included Desperate Journey, Mrs.

Miniver, Forever and a Day and Objective Burma. Notable American films from the war years include the anti-

Nazi Watch on the Rhine (1943), scripted by Dashiell Hammett; Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Hitchcock's

direction of a script by Thornton Wilder; the George M. Cohan biopic, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942),

starring James Cagney, and the immensely popular Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart. Bogart would star in

36 films between 1934 and 1942 including John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941), one of the first films now

considered a classic film noir. In 1941, RKO Pictures released Citizen Kane made by Orson Welles. It is often

considered the greatest film of all time. It would set the stage for the modern motion picture, as it revolutionized

film story telling.

The strictures of wartime also brought an interest in more fantastical subjects. These included

Britain's Gainsborough melodramas (including The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady), and films like Here

Comes Mr. Jordan, Heaven Can Wait, I Married a Witch and Blithe Spirit. Val Lewton also produced a series

of atmospheric and influential small-budget horror films, some of the more famous examples being Cat

People, Isle of the Dead and The Body Snatcher. The decade probably also saw the so-called "women's

pictures", such as Now, Voyager, Random Harvest and Mildred Pierce at the peak of their popularity.

1946 saw RKO Radio releasing It's a Wonderful Life directed by Frank Capra. Soldiers returning from the war

would provide the inspiration for films like The Best Years of Our Lives, and many of those in the film industry

44

had served in some capacity during the war. Samuel Fuller's experiences in World War II would influence his

largely autobiographical films of later decades such as The Big Red One. The Actor's Studio was founded in

October 1947 by Elia Kazan, Robert Lewis, and Cheryl Crawford, and the same year Oskar

Fischinger filmed Motion Painting No. 1.

In the late 1940s, in Britain, Ealing Studios embarked on their series of celebrated comedies, including Whisky

Galore!, Passport to Pimlico, Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Man in the White Suit, and Carol

Reed directed his influential thrillers Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol and The Third Man. David Lean was also

rapidly becoming a force in world cinema with Brief Encounter and his Dickens adaptations Great

Expectations and Oliver Twist.

1950s

A production scene from the 1950 Hollywood film Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston.

The House Un-American Activities Committee investigated Hollywood in the early 1950s. Protested by

the Hollywood Ten before the committee, the hearings resulted in the blacklisting of many actors, writers and

directors, including Chayefsky, Charlie Chaplin, and Dalton Trumbo, and many of these fled to Europe,

especially the United Kingdom.

The Cold War era zeitgeist translated into a type of near-paranoia manifested in themes such as invading armies

of evil aliens, (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The War of the Worlds); and communist fifth columnists, (The

Manchurian Candidate).

During the immediate post-war years the cinematic industry was also threatened by television, and the

increasing popularity of the medium meant that some film theatres would bankrupt and close. The demise of the

"studio system" spurred the self-commentary of films like Sunset Boulevard (1950) and The Bad and the

Beautiful (1952).

In 1950, the Lettrists avante-gardists caused riots at the Cannes Film Festival, when Isidore Isou's Treatise on

Slime and Eternity was screened.

Distressed by the increasing number of closed theatres, studios and companies would find new and innovative

ways to bring audiences back. These included attempts to widen their appeal with new screen

formats. Cinemascope, which would remain a 20th Century Fox distinction until 1967, was announced with

1953's The Robe. VistaVision, Cinerama, and Todd-AO boasted a "bigger is better" approach to marketing films

to a dwindling US audience. This resulted in the revival of epic films to take advantage of the new big screen

formats. Some of the most successful examples of these Biblical and historical spectaculars include The Ten

Commandments (1956), The Vikings (1958), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960) and El Cid (1961). Also during

this period a number of other significant films were produced in Todd-AO, developed by Mike Todd shortly

before his death, including Oklahoma! (1955), Around the World in 80 Days (1956), South Pacific (1958)

and Cleopatra (1963) plus many more.

Gimmicks also proliferated to lure in audiences. The fad for 3-D film would last for only two years, 1952–1954,

and helped sell House of Wax and Creature from the Black Lagoon.

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In the U.S., a post-WW2 tendency toward questioning the establishment and societal norms and the

early activism of the Civil Rights Movement was reflected in Hollywood films such as Blackboard

Jungle (1955), On the Waterfront (1954), Paddy Chayefsky's Marty and Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men (1957).

Disney continued making animated films, notably; Cinderella (1950), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the

Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He began, however, getting more involved in live action films,

producing classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), and Old Yeller (1957). Television began

competing seriously with films projected in theatres, but surprisingly it promoted more film going rather than

curtailing it.

Limelight is probably a unique film in at least one interesting respect. Its two leads, Charlie Chaplin and Claire

Bloom, were in the industry in no less than three different centuries. In the 19th Century, Chaplin made his

theatrical debut at the age of eight.

1960s

During the 1960s, the studio system in Hollywood declined, because many films were now being made on

location in other countries, or using studio facilities abroad, such as Pinewood in the UK and Cinecittà in Rome.

"Hollywood" films were still largely aimed at family audiences, and it was often the more old-fashioned films

that produced the studios' biggest successes. Productions like Mary Poppins (1964), My Fair Lady (1964)

and The Sound of Music (1965) were among the biggest money-makers of the decade. The growth in

independent producers and production companies, and the increase in the power of individual actors also

contributed to the decline of traditional Hollywood studio production.

Further, the nuclear paranoia of the age, and the threat of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange (like the 1962 close-

call with the USSR during the Cuban missile crisis) prompted a reaction within the film community as well.

Films like Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and Fail Safe with Henry Fonda were produced in a Hollywood

that was once known for its overt patriotism and wartime propaganda.

In documentary film the sixties saw the blossoming of Direct Cinema, an observational style of film making as

well as the advent of more overtly partisan films like In the Year of the Pig about the Vietnam War by Emile de

Antonio. By the late 1960s however, Hollywood filmmakers were beginning to create more innovative and

groundbreaking films that reflected the social revolution taken over much of the western world such as Bonnie

and Clyde (1967), The Graduate (1967), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Rosemary's Baby (1968), Midnight

Cowboy (1969), Easy Rider (1969) and The Wild Bunch (1969). Bonnie and Clyde is often considered the

beginning of the so-called New Hollywood.

Meanwhile, in India, the Academy Award winning Bengali director Satyajit Ray wrote a script for The Alien in

1967, based on a Bengali science fiction story he himself had written in 1962. The film was intended to be his

debut in Hollywood but the production was eventually cancelled. Nevertheless, the script went on to influence

later films such as Steven Spielberg's E.T. (1982) and Rakesh Roshan's Koi... Mil Gaya (2003).

1970s

The New Hollywood was the period following the decline of the studio system during the 1950s and 1960s and

the end of the production code, (which was replaced in 1968 by the MPAA film rating system).

Post-classical cinema is the changing methods of storytelling of the New Hollywood producers. The new

methods of drama and characterization played upon audience expectations acquired during the classical/Golden

Age period: story chronology may be scrambled, storylines may feature unsettling "twist endings", main

characters may behave in a morally ambiguous fashion, and the lines between

the antagonist and protagonist may be blurred. The beginnings of post-classical storytelling may be seen in

1940s and 1950s film noir films, in films such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and in Hitchcock's Psycho.

1971 marked the release of controversial films like Straw Dogs, A Clockwork Orange, The French

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Connection and Dirty Harry. This sparked heated controversy over the perceived escalation of violence in

cinema.

During the 1970s, a new group of American filmmakers emerged, such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford

Coppola, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Terrence Malick, and Robert Altman. This coincided with the increasing

popularity of the auteur theory in film literature and the media, which posited that a film director's films express

their personal vision and creative insights. The development of the auteur style of filmmaking helped to give

these directors far greater control over their projects than would have been possible in earlier eras. This led to

some great critical and commercial successes, like Coppola's The Godfather films, William Friedkin's The

Exorcist, Altman's Nashville, Allen's Annie Hall and Manhattan, Malick's Badlands and Days of Heaven, and

Polish immigrant Roman Polanski's Chinatown. It also, however, resulted in some failures, including Peter

Bogdanovich's At Long Last Love and Michael Cimino's hugely expensive Western epic Heaven's Gate, which

helped to bring about the demise of its backer, United Artists.

The phenomenal success in the 1970s of Spielberg's Jaws originated the concept of the modern "blockbuster".

However, the enormous success of George Lucas' 1977 film Star Wars led to much more than just the

popularization of blockbuster film-making. The films revolutionary use of special effects, sound editing and

music had led it to become widely regarded as one of the single most important films in the medium's history,

as well as the most influential film of the 1970s. Hollywood studios increasingly focused on producing a

smaller number of very large budget films with massive marketing and promotional campaigns. This trend had

already been foreshadowed by the commercial success of disaster films such as The Poseidon

Adventure and The Towering Inferno.

In world cinema, the 1970s saw a dramatic increase in the popularity of martial arts films, largely due to its

reinvention by Bruce Lee, who departed from the artistic style of traditional Chinese martial arts films and

added a much greater sense of realism to them with his Jeet Kune Do style.

This began with The Big Boss (1971), which was a major success across Asia. However, he didn't gain fame in

the Western world until shortly after his death in 1973, when Enter the Dragon was released. The film went on

to become the most successful martial arts film in cinematic history, popularized the martial arts film genre

across the world, and cemented Bruce Lee's status as a cultural icon.

The end of the decade saw the first major international marketing of Australian cinema, as Peter Weir's

films Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave and Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith gained

critical acclaim. In 1979, Australian filmmaker George Miller also garnered international attention for his

violent, low-budget action film Mad Max.

1980s

During the 1980s, audiences began increasingly watching films on their home VCRs. In the early part of that

decade, the film studios tried legal action to ban home ownership of VCRs as a violation of copyright, which

proved unsuccessful. Eventually, the sale and rental of films on home video became a significant "second

venue" for exhibition of films, and an additional source of revenue for the film industries.

The Lucas–Spielberg combine would dominate "Hollywood" cinema for much of the 1980s, and lead to much

imitation. Two follow-ups to Star Wars, three to Jaws, and three Indiana Jones films helped to make sequels of

successful films more of an expectation than ever before. Lucas also launched THX Ltd, a division

of Lucasfilm in 1982, while Spielberg enjoyed one of the decade's greatest successes in E.T. the Extra-

Terrestrial the same year. 1982 also saw the release of Disney's Tron which was one of the first films from a

major studio to use computer graphics extensively. American independent cinema struggled more during the

decade, although Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), and The King of Comedy (1983)

helped to establish him as one of the most critically acclaimed American film makers of the era. Also during

1983 Scarface was released, which was very profitable and resulted in even greater fame for its leading actor Al

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Pacino. Probably the most successful film commercially was vended during 1989: Tim Burton's version of Bob

Kane's creation, Batman, exceeded box-office records. Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the demented Joker earned

him a total of $60,000,000 after figuring in his percentage of the gross.

British cinema was given a boost during the early 1980s by the arrival of David Puttnam's company Goldcrest

Films. The films Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Killing Fields and A Room with a View appealed to a

"middlebrow" audience which was increasingly being ignored by the major Hollywood studios. While the films

of the 1970s had helped to define modern blockbuster motion pictures, the way "Hollywood" released its films

would now change. Films, for the most part, would premiere in a wider number of theatres, although, to this

day, some films still premiere using the route of the limited/roadshow release system. Against some

expectations, the rise of the multiplex cinema did not allow less mainstream films to be shown, but simply

allowed the major blockbusters to be given an even greater number of screenings. However, films that had been

overlooked in cinemas were increasingly being given a second chance on home video.

Hong Kong action cinema, which was in a state of decline due to endless Bruceploitation films after the death

of Bruce Lee, also experienced a revival in the 1980s, largely due to the reinvention of the action film genre

by Jackie Chan. He had previously combined the comedy film and martial arts film genres successfully in the

1978 films Snake in the Eagle's Shadow. The next step he took was in combining this comedy martial arts genre

with a new emphasis on elaborate and highly dangerous stunts, reminiscent of the silent film era.

1990s

The early 1990s saw the development of a commercially successful independent cinema in the United States.

Although cinema was increasingly dominated by special-effects films such as Terminator 2: Judgment

Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Titanic (1997), the latter of which became the highest-grossing film of all

time at the time up until "Avatar", also directed by James Cameron, independent films like Quentin

Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) had significant commercial success both at the cinema and on home video.

Major American studios began to create their own "independent" production companies to finance and produce

non-mainstream fare. One of the most successful independents of the 1990s, Miramax Films, was bought by

Disney the year before the release of Tarantino's runaway hit Pulp Fiction in 1994. The same year marked the

beginning of film and video distribution online. Animated films aimed at family audiences also regained their

popularity, with Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994). During 1995,

the first feature length computer-animated feature, Toy Story, was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and

released by Disney. After the success of Toy Story, computer animation would grow to become the dominant

technique for feature length animation, which would allow competing film companies such as DreamWorks

Animation and 20th Century Fox to effectively compete with Disney with successful films of their own. During

the late 1990s, another cinematic transition began, from physical film stock to digital cinema technology.

Meanwhile, DVDs became the new standard for consumer video, replacing VHS tapes.

Recent years

The documentary film also rose as a commercial genre for perhaps the first time, with the success of films such

as March of the Penguins and Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy was released on DVD in both the theatrical version and in a special extended

version intended only for home cinema audiences.

In 2001, the Harry Potter film series began, and by its end in 2011, it had become the highest-grossing film

franchise of all time until the Marvel Cinematic Universe passed it in 2015.

More films were also being released simultaneously to IMAX cinema, the first was in 2002's Disney

animation Treasure Planet; and the first live action was in 2003's The Matrix Revolutions and a re-release

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of The Matrix Reloaded. Later in the decade, The Dark Knight was the first major feature film to have been at

least partially shot in IMAX technology.

Recently there has been a revival in 3D film popularity the first being James Cameron's Ghosts of the

Abyss which was released as the first full-length 3-D IMAX feature filmed with the Reality Camera System.

This camera system used the latest HD video cameras, not film, and was built for Cameron by Emmy

nominated Director of Photography Vince Pace, to his specifications. The same camera system was used to

film Spy Kids 3D: Game Over (2003), Aliens of the Deep IMAX (2005), and The Adventures of Sharkboy and

Lavagirl in 3-D (2005).

After James Cameron's 3D film Avatar became the highest-grossing film of all time, 3D films have gained

increasing popularity with many other films being released in 3D, with the best critical and financial successes

being in the field of feature film animation such as Universal Pictures/Illumination Entertainment's Despicable

Me, DreamWorks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon and Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar's Toy Story

3. Avatar is also note-worthy for pioneering highly sophisticated use of motion capture technology and

influencing several other films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

As of 2010, the largest film industries by number of feature films produced are those of India, the United States,

China, Nigeria and Japan. Beginning in 2008 with Iron Man and The Dark Knight, superhero films have greatly

increased in popularity and financial success, with films based on Marvel and DC comics regularly being

released every year up to the present.

XVIII. Music

Music is found in every known culture, past and present, varying widely between times and places. Since all

people of the world, including the most isolated tribal groups, have a form of music, it may be concluded that

music is likely to have been present in the ancestral population prior to the dispersal of humans around the

world. Consequently, music may have been in existence for at least 55,000 years and the first music may have

been invented in Africa and then evolved to become a fundamental constituent of human life.

A culture's music is influenced by all other aspects of that culture, including social and economic organization

and experience, climate, and access to technology. The emotions and ideas that music expresses, the situations

in which music is played and listened to, and the attitudes toward music players and composers all vary between

regions and periods. "Music history" is the distinct subfield of musicology and history which studies music

(particularly Western art music) from a chronological perspective.

Eras of music

Music eras

Prehistoric

Ancient before 500 AD

Early c. 500–1760

Common practice c. 1600–1900

Modern

Contemporary

c. 1900–present

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Prehistoric music

Prehistoric music, once more commonly called primitive music, is the name given to all music produced

in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in very late geological history. Prehistoric music is

followed by ancient music in most of Europe (1500 BC) and later music in subsequent European-influenced

areas, but still exists in isolated areas.

Prehistoric music thus technically includes all of the world's music that has existed before the advent of any

currently extant historical sources concerning that music, for example, traditional Native American music of

preliterate tribes and Australian Aboriginal music. However, it is more common to refer to the "prehistoric"

music of non-European continents – especially that which still survives – as folk, indigenous or traditional

music. The origin of music is unknown as it occurred prior to recorded history. Some suggest that the origin of

music likely stems from naturally occurring sounds and rhythms. Human music may echo

these phenomena using patterns, repetition and tonality. Even today, some cultures have certain instances of

their music intending to imitate natural sounds. In some instances, this feature is related to shamanistic beliefs

or practice. It may also serve entertainment (game) or practical (luring animals in hunt)functions.

It is probable that the first musical instrument was the human voice itself, which can make a vast array of

sounds, from singing, humming and whistling through to clicking, coughing and yawning. In 2008

archaeologists discovered a bone flute in the Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, Germany The five-holed flute has a V-

shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone. The oldest known wooden pipes were discovered

near Greystones, Ireland, in 2004. A wood-lined pit contained a group of six flutes made from yew wood,

between 30 and 50 cm long, tapered at one end, but without any finger holes. They may once have been

strapped together

Ancient music

Sassanid women playing Chang (instrument) in Taq-e Bostan, Iran (c. 379 AD)

The prehistoric age is considered to have ended with the development of writing, and with it, by definition,

prehistoric music. "Ancient music" is the name given to the music that followed. The "oldest known song" was

written in cuneiform, dating to 3400 years ago from Ugarit. It was deciphered by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, and

was demonstrated to be composed in harmonies of thirds, like ancient gymel,and also was written using

a Pythagorean tuning of the diatonic scale. The oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition,

including musical notation, from anywhere in the world, is the Seikilos epitaph.

Double pipes, such as those used by the ancient Greeks, and ancient bagpipes, as well as a review of ancient

drawings on vases and walls, etc., and ancient writings (such as in Aristotle, Problems, Book XIX.12) which

described musical techniques of the time, indicate polyphony. One pipe in the aulos pairs (double flutes) likely

served as a drone or "keynote," while the other played melodic passages. Instruments, such as the seven holed

flute and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus valley

civilization archaeological sites.

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Indian classical music (marga) can be found from the scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas. Samaveda,

one of the four vedas, describes music at length.

Ravanahatha (ravanhatta, rawanhattha, ravanastron or ravana hasta veena) is a bowed fiddle popular in Western

India. It is believed to have originated among the Hela civilization of Sri Lanka in the time of King Ravana.

This string instrument has been recognised as one of the oldest string instruments in world history.

The history of musical development in Iran (Persian music) dates back to the prehistoric era. The great

legendary king, Jamshid, is credited with the invention of music. Music in Iran can be traced back to the days of

the Elamite Empire (2500-644 BC). Fragmentary documents from various periods of the country's history

establish that the ancient Persians possessed an elaborate musical culture. The Sassanid period (AD 226-651), in

particular, has left us ample evidence pointing to the existence of a lively musical life in Persia. The names of

some important musicians such as Barbod, Nakissa and Ramtin, and titles of some of their works have survived.

The Early music era may also include contemporary but traditional or folk music, including Asian music,

Persian music, music of India, Jewish music, Greek music, Roman music, the music of Mesopotamia, the music

of Egypt, and Muslim music.

Greece

Greek written history extends far back into Ancient Greece, and was a major part of ancient Greek theatre. In

ancient Greece, mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual reasons.

Instruments included the double-reed aulos and the plucked string instrument, the lyre, especially the special

kind called a kithara. Music was an important part of education in ancient Greece, and boys were taught music

starting at age six.

Biblical period

"David with his harp" Paris Psalter, c. 960, Constantinople

According to Easton's Bible Dictionary, Jubal was named by the Bible as the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21).

The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of

this. After the Deluge, the first mention of music is in the account of Laban's interview with Jacob (Gen. 31:27). After

their triumphal passage of the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang their song of deliverance (Ex. 15). But the

period of Samuel, David, and Solomon was the golden age of Hebrew music, as it was of Hebrew poetry. Music was now

for the first time systematically cultivated. It was an essential part of training in the schools of the prophets (1 Sam. 10:5).

There now arose also a class of professional singers (2 Sam. 19:35; Eccl. 2:8). Solomon's Temple, however, was the great

school of music. In the conducting of its services large bands of trained singers and players on instruments were

constantly employed (2 Sam. 6:5; 1 Chr. 15:16; 23;5; 25:1-6).

51 In private life also music seems to have held an important place among the Hebrews (Eccl. 2:8; Amos 6:4-6; Isa. 5:11, 12;

24:8, 9; Ps. 137; Jer. 48:33; Luke 15:25).

Music and theatre scholars studying the history and anthropology of Semitic and early Judeo-Christian culture, have also

discovered common links between theatrical and musical activity in the classical cultures of the Hebrews with those of the

later cultures of the Greeks and Romans. The common area of performance is found in a "social phenomenon

called litany," a form of prayer consisting of a series of invocations or supplications. The Journal of Religion and

Theatre notes that among the earliest forms of litany, "Hebrew litany was accompanied by a rich musical tradition:

"While Genesis 4.21 identifies Jubal as the “father of all such as handle the harp and pipe,” the Pentateuch is nearly silent

about the practice and instruction of music in the early life of Israel. Then, in I Samuel 10 and the texts which follow, a

curious thing happens. “One finds in the biblical text,” writes Alfred Sendrey, “a sudden and unexplained upsurge of

large choirs and orchestras, consisting of thoroughly organized and trained musical groups, which would be virtually

inconceivable without lengthy, methodical preparation.” This has led some scholars to believe that the

prophet Samuel was the patriarch of a school which taught not only prophets and holy men, but also sacred-rite musicians.

This public music school, perhaps the earliest in recorded history, was not restricted to a priestly class--which is how the

shepherd boy David appears on the scene as a minstrel to King Saul."

Early music

Early music is music of the European classical tradition from after the fall of the Roman Empire, in 476 AD,

until the end of the Baroque era in the middle of the 18th century. Music within this enormous span of time was

extremely diverse, encompassing multiple cultural traditions within a wide geographic area; many of the

cultural groups out of which medieval Europe developed already had musical traditions, about which little is

known. What unified these cultures in the Middle Ages was the Roman Catholic Church, and its music served

as the focal point for musical development for the first thousand years of this period.

Western art music

Periods and eras of Western classical music

Early

Medieval c. 500–1400

Renaissance c. 1400–1600

Common practice

Baroque c. 1600–1750

Classical c. 1730–1820

Romantic c. 1780–1910

Impressionist c. 1875–1925

Modern and contemporary

Modern c. 1890–1975

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High modern

20th century (1900–2000)

Contemporary

Postmodern

c. 1975–present

21st century (2000–present)

Medieval music

While musical life was undoubtedly rich in the early Medieval era, as attested by artistic depictions of

instruments, writings about music, and other records, the only repertory of music which has survived from

before 800 to the present day is the plainsong liturgical music of the Roman Catholic Church, the largest part of

which is called Gregorian chant. Pope Gregory I, who gave his name to the musical repertory and may himself

have been a composer, is usually claimed to be the originator of the musical portion of the liturgy in its present

form, though the sources giving details on his contribution date from more than a hundred years after his death.

Many scholars believe that his reputation has been exaggerated by legend. Most of the chant repertory was

composed anonymously in the centuries between the time of Gregory and Charlemagne.

During the 9th century several important developments took place. First, there was a major effort by the Church

to unify the many chant traditions, and suppress many of them in favor of the Gregorian liturgy. Second, the

earliest polyphonic music was sung, a form of parallel singing known as organum. Third, and of greatest

significance for music history, notation was reinvented after a lapse of about five hundred years, though it

would be several more centuries before a system of pitch and rhythm notation evolved having the precision and

flexibility that modern musicians take for granted.

Several schools of polyphony flourished in the period after 1100: the St. Martial school of organum, the music

of which was often characterized by a swiftly moving part over a single sustained line; the Notre Dame

school of polyphony, which included the composers Léonin and Pérotin, and which produced the first music for

more than two parts around 1200; the musical melting-pot of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, a pilgrimage

destination and site where musicians from many traditions came together in the late Middle Ages, the music of

whom survives in the Codex Calixtinus; and the English school, the music of which survives in the Worcester

Fragments and the Old Hall Manuscript. Alongside these schools of sacred music a vibrant tradition of secular

song developed, as exemplified in the music of the troubadours, trouvères and Minnesänger. Much of the later

secular music of the early Renaissance evolved from the forms, ideas, and the musical aesthetic of the

troubadours, courtly poets and itinerant musicians, whose culture was largely exterminated during

the Albigensian Crusade in the early 13th century.

Forms of sacred music which developed during the late 13th century included the motet, conductus, discant,

and clausulae. One unusual development was the Geisslerlieder, the music of wandering bands

of flagellants during two periods: the middle of the 13th century (until they were suppressed by the Church);

and the period during and immediately following the Black Death, around 1350, when their activities were

vividly recorded and well-documented with notated music. Their music mixed folk song styles with penitential

or apocalyptic texts. The 14th century in European music history is dominated by the style of the ars nova,

which by convention is grouped with the medieval era in music, even though it had much in common with early

Renaissance ideals and aesthetics.

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Much of the surviving music of the time is secular, and tends to use the formes fixes: the ballade, the virelai,

the lai, the rondeau, which correspond to poetic forms of the same names. Most pieces in these forms are for

one to three voices, likely with instrumental accompaniment: famous composers include Guillaume de

Machaut and Francesco Landini.

Renaissance music

The beginning of the Renaissance in music is not as clearly marked as the beginning of the Renaissance in the

other arts, and unlike in the other arts, it did not begin in Italy, but in northern Europe, specifically in the area

currently comprising central and northern France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The style of

the Burgundian composers, as the first generation of the Franco-Flemish school is known, was at first a reaction

against the excessive complexity and mannered style of the late 14th century ars subtilior, and contained clear,

singable melody and balanced polyphony in all voices. The most famous composers of the Burgundian school

in the mid-15th century are Guillaume Dufay, Gilles Binchois, and Antoine Busnois.

By the middle of the 15th century, composers and singers from the Low Countries and adjacent areas began to

spread across Europe, especially into Italy, where they were employed by the papal chapel and the aristocratic

patrons of the arts (such as the Medici, the Este, and the Sforza families). They carried their style with them:

smooth polyphony which could be adapted for sacred or secular use as appropriate. Principal forms of sacred

musical composition at the time were the mass, the motet, and the laude; secular forms included the chanson,

the frottola, and later the madrigal.

The invention of printing had an immense influence on the dissemination of musical styles, and along with the

movement of the Franco-Flemish musicians, contributed to the establishment of the first truly international style

in European music since the unification of Gregorian chant under Charlemagne. Composers of the middle

generation of the Franco-Flemish school included Johannes Ockeghem, who wrote music in a contrapuntally

complex style, with varied texture and an elaborate use of canonical devices; Jacob Obrecht, one of the most

famous composers of masses in the last decades of the 15th century; and Josquin des Prez, probably the most

famous composer in Europe before Palestrina, and who during the 16th century was renowned as one of the

greatest artists in any form. Music in the generation after Josquin explored increasing complexity

of counterpoint; possibly the most extreme expression is in the music of Nicolas Gombert, whose contrapuntal

complexities influenced early instrumental music, such as the canzona and the ricercar, ultimately culminating

in Baroque fugal forms.

By the middle of the 16th century, the international style began to break down, and several highly diverse

stylistic trends became evident: a trend towards simplicity in sacred music, as directed by the Counter-

Reformation Council of Trent, exemplified in the music of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina; a trend towards

complexity and chromaticism in the madrigal, which reached its extreme expression in the avant-garde style of

the Ferrara School of Luzzaschi and the late century madrigalist Carlo Gesualdo; and the grandiose, sonorous

music of the Venetian school, which used the architecture of the Basilica San Marco di Venezia to

create antiphonal contrasts. The music of the Venetian school included the development of orchestration,

ornamented instrumental parts, and continuo bass parts, all of which occurred within a span of several decades

around 1600. Famous composers in Venice included the Gabrielis, Andrea and Giovanni, as well as Claudio

Monteverdi, one of the most significant innovators at the end of the era.

Most parts of Europe had active and well-differentiated musical traditions by late in the century. In England,

composers such as Thomas Tallis and William Byrd wrote sacred music in a style similar to that written on the

continent, while an active group of home-grown madrigalists adapted the Italian form for English tastes: famous

composers included Thomas Morley, John Wilbye and Thomas Weelkes. Spain developed instrumental and

vocal styles of its own, with Tomás Luis de Victoria writing refined music similar to that of Palestrina, and

numerous other composers writing for the new guitar. Germany cultivated polyphonic forms built on the

Protestant chorales, which replaced the Roman Catholic Gregorian Chant as a basis for sacred music, and

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imported the style of the Venetian school (the appearance of which defined the start of the Baroque era there).

In addition, German composers wrote enormous amounts of organ music, establishing the basis for the later

Baroque organ style which culminated in the work of J.S. Bach. France developed a unique style of musical

diction known as musique mesurée, used in secular chansons, with composers such as Guillaume

Costeley and Claude Le Jeune prominent in the movement.

One of the most revolutionary movements in the era took place in Florence in the 1570s and 1580s, with the

work of the Florentine Camerata, who ironically had a reactionary intent: dissatisfied with what they saw as

contemporary musical depravities, their goal was to restore the music of the ancient Greeks. Chief among them

were Vincenzo Galilei, the father of the astronomer, and Giulio Caccini. The fruits of their labors was a

declamatory melodic singing style known as monody, and a corresponding staged dramatic form: a form known

today as opera. The first operas, written around 1600, also define the end of the Renaissance and the beginning

of the Baroque eras.

Music prior to 1600 was modal rather than tonal. Several theoretical developments late in the 16th century, such

as the writings on scales on modes by Gioseffo Zarlino and Franchinus Gaffurius, led directly to the

development of common practice tonality. The major and minor scales began to predominate over the

old church modes, a feature which was at first most obvious at cadential points in compositions, but gradually

became pervasive. Music after 1600, beginning with the tonal music of the Baroque era, is often referred to as

belonging to the common practice period.

Baroque music

J. S. Bach

Instrumental music became dominant in the Baroque, and most major music forms were

defined. Counterpoint was one of the major forces in both the instrumental and the vocal music of the period.

Although a strong religious musical tradition continued, secular music came to the fore with the development of

the sonata, the concerto, and the concerto grosso.

Much Baroque music was designed for improvisation, with a figured bass provided by the composer for the

performer to flesh out and ornament. The keyboard, particularly the harpsichord, was a dominant instrument,

and the beginnings of well temperament opened up the possibilities of playing in all keys and of modulation.

The harpsichord

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Much Baroque music featured a basso continuo consisting of a keyboard, either harpsichord or organ

(sometimes a lute instead), and a bass instrument, such as a viola da gamba or bassoon. The three outstanding

composers of the period were Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and Antonio Vivaldi, but a host

of other composers, some with huge output, were active in the period.

Classical music era

The music of the Classical period is characterized by homophonic texture, or an

obvious melody with accompaniment. These new melodies tended to be almost voice-like and singable,

allowing composers to actually replace singers as the focus of the music. Instrumental music therefore quickly

replaced opera and other sung forms (such as oratorio) as the favorite of the musical audience and the epitome

of great composition. However, opera did not disappear: during the classical period, several composers began

producing operas for the general public in their native languages (previous operas were generally in Italian).

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's compositions characterized music of the classical era.

Along with the gradual displacement of the voice in favor of stronger, clearer melodies, counterpoint also

typically became a decorative flourish, often used near the end of a work or for a single movement. In its stead,

simple patterns, such as arpeggios and, in piano music, Alberti bass (an accompaniment with a repeated pattern

typically in the left hand), were used to liven the movement of the piece without creating a confusing additional

voice. The now-popular instrumental music was dominated by several well-defined forms: the sonata,

the symphony, and the concerto, though none of these were specifically defined or taught at the time as they are

now in music theory. All three derive from sonata form, which is both the overlying form of an entire work and

the structure of a single movement. Sonata form matured during the Classical era to become the primary form

of instrumental compositions throughout the 19th century.

The early Classical period was ushered in by the Mannheim School, which included such composers as Johann

Stamitz, Franz Xaver Richter, Carl Stamitz, and Christian Cannabich. It exerted a profound influence on Joseph

Haydn and, through him, on all subsequent European music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the central figure

of the Classical period, and his phenomenal and varied output in all genres defines our perception of the

period. Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were transitional composers, leading into the Romantic

period, with their expansion of existing genres, forms, and even functions of music.

Romantic music

In the Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional, expanding to encompass literature, art,

and philosophy. Famous early Romantic composers include Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bellini,

and Berlioz. The late 19th century saw a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestra, and in the role of

concerts as part of urban society.

Famous composers from the second half of the century include Johann Strauss

II, Brahms, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, and Wagner. Between 1890 and 1910, a third wave of composers

including Dvořák, Mahler, Richard Strauss, Puccini, and Sibelius built on the work of middle Romantic

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composers to create even more complex – and often much longer – musical works. A prominent mark of late

19th century music is its nationalistic fervor, as exemplified by such figures as Dvořák, Sibelius, and Grieg.

Other prominent late-century figures include Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Rachmaninoff and Franck.

20th and 21st-century music

The 20th Century saw a revolution in music listening as the radio gained popularity worldwide and new media

and technologies were developed to record, capture, reproduce and distribute music. Music performances

became increasingly visual with the broadcast and recording of music videos and concerts. Music of all kinds

also became increasingly portable. Headphones allowed people sitting next to each other to listen to entirely

different performances or share the same performance.

20th Century music brought a new freedom and wide experimentation with new musical styles and forms that

challenged the accepted rules of music of earlier periods. The invention of usical amplification and electronic

instruments, especially the synthesizer, in the mid-20th century revolutionized popular music and accelerated

the development of new forms of music.

Classical music outside Europe

Classical music is a broad, imprecise category, including music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of art,

ecclesiastical and concert music. A music is classical if it includes some of the following features: a learned

tradition, support from the church or government, or greater cultural capital. Classical music is also described as

complex, lasting, transcendent, and abstract. In many cultures a classical tradition coexisted with traditional or

popular music, occasionally for thousands of years, and with different levels of mutual borrowing with the

parallel tradition.

Sub-Saharan African music is by a strong rhythmic interest that exhibits common characteristics in all regions

of this vast territory, so that Arthur Morris Jones (1889–1980) has described the many local approaches as

constituting one main system. C. K. also affirms the profound homogeneity of approach. West African rhythmic

techniques carried over the Atlantic were fundamental ingredients in various musical styles of the

Americas: samba, forró, maracatu and coco in Brazil, Afro-Cuban music and Afro-American musical genres

such as blues, jazz, rhythm & blues, funk, soul, reggae, hip hop and rock and roll were thereby of immense

importance in 20th-century popular music.

XIX. Vaudeville

.

A promotional poster for the Sandow Trocadero Vaudevilles (1894), showing dancers, clowns, trapeze artists and costumed dogs

Vaudeville (/ˈvɔːdvɪl, -dəvɪl/; French: [vodvil]) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially

popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. A typical vaudeville

performance is made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill.

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Types of acts have included popular and classical musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained

animals, magicians, strongmen, female and male impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-

act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies. A vaudeville performer is

often referred to as a "vaudevillian".

Vaudeville developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime

museums,. Called "the heart of American show business", vaudeville was one of the most popular types of

entertainment in North America for several decades.

Beginnings

From newspaper promotional for vaudeville character actor Charles Grapewin, circa 1900

With its first subtle appearances within the early 1860s, vaudeville was not initially a common form of

entertainment. The form gradually evolved from the concert saloon and variety hall into its mature form

throughout the 1870s and 1880s. This more gentle form was known as "Polite Vaudeville".

In the years before the American Civil War, entertainment existed on a different scale. Certainly, variety theatre

existed before 1860 in Europe and elsewhere. In the US, as early as the first decades of the 19th century,

theatregoers could enjoy a performance consisting of Shakespeare plays, acrobatics, singing, dancing, and

comedy. As the years progressed, people seeking diversified amusement found an increasing number of ways to

be entertained. Vaudeville was characterized by traveling companies touring through cities and towns.

A handful of circuses regularly toured the country; dime museums appealed to the curious; amusement parks,

riverboats, and town halls often featured "cleaner" presentations of variety entertainment. A significant

influence also came from Dutch minstrels and comedians. Medicine shows traveled the countryside offering

programs of comedy, music, jugglers, and other novelties along with displays of tonics, salves, and miracle

elixirs, while "Wild West" shows provided romantic vistas of the disappearing frontier, complete with trick

riding, music and drama. Vaudeville incorporated these various itinerant amusements into a stable,

institutionalized form centered in America's growing urban hubs.

In the early 1880s, impresario Tony Pastor, a circus ringmaster turned theatre manager, capitalized on middle

class sensibilities and spending power when he began to feature "polite" variety programs in several of his New

York City theatres. The usual date given for the "birth" of vaudeville is October 24, 1881 at New York's

Fourteenth Street Theater, when Pastor famously staged the first bill of self-proclaimed "clean" vaudeville in

New York City.Hoping to draw a potential audience from female and family-based shopping traffic uptown,

Pastor barred the sale of liquor in his theatres, eliminated bawdy material from his shows, and offered gifts of

coal and hams to attendees. Pastor's experiment proved successful, and other managers soon followed suit.

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This 1913 how-to booklet for would-be vaudevillians was recently republished.

Decline

The continued growth of the lower-priced cinema in the early 1910s dealt the heaviest blow to vaudeville. This

was similar to the advent of free broadcast television's diminishing the cultural and economic strength of the

cinema. Cinema was first regularly commercially presented in the US in vaudeville halls. The first public

showing of movies projected on a screen took place at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in 1896. Lured by greater

salaries and less arduous working conditions, many performers and personalities, such as Al Jolson, W. C.

Fields, Mae West, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, Jimmy Durante, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Edgar

Bergen, Fanny Brice, Burns and Allen, and Eddie Cantor, used the prominence gained in live variety

performance to vault into the new medium of cinema. In doing so, such performers often exhausted in a few

moments of screen time the novelty of an act that might have kept them on tour for several years. Other

performers who entered in vaudeville's later years, including Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Kate

Smith, Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Judy Garland, Rose Marie, Sammy Davis, Jr., Red Skelton,

and The Three Stooges, used vaudeville only as a launching pad for later careers. They left live performance

before achieving the national celebrity of earlier vaudeville stars, and found fame in new venues.

The line between live and filmed performances was blurred by the number of vaudeville entrepreneurs who

made more or less successful forays into the movie business. For example, Alexander Pantages quickly realized

the importance of motion pictures as a form of entertainment. He incorporated them in his shows as early as

1902. Later, he entered into partnership with the Famous Players-Lasky, a major Hollywood production

company and an affiliate of Paramount Pictures.

By the late 1920s, most vaudeville shows included a healthy selection of cinema. Earlier in the century, many

vaudevillians, cognizant of the threat represented by cinema, held out hope that the silent nature of the

"flickering shadow sweethearts" would preclude their usurpation of the paramount place in the public's

affection. With the introduction of talking pictures in 1926, the burgeoning film studios removed what had

remained the chief difference in favor of live theatrical performance: spoken dialogue. Historian John

Kenrick wrote:

Top vaudeville stars filmed their acts for one-time pay-offs, inadvertently helping to speed the death of

vaudeville. After all, when "small time" theatres could offer "big time" performers on screen at a nickel a seat,

who could ask audiences to pay higher amounts for less impressive live talent? The newly-formed RKO

studios took over the famed Orpheum vaudeville circuit and swiftly turned it into a chain of full-time movie

theaters. The half-century tradition of vaudeville was effectively wiped out within less than four years.

Inevitably, managers further trimmed costs by eliminating the last of the live performances. Vaudeville also

suffered due to the rise of broadcast radio following the greater availability of inexpensive receiver sets later in

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the decade. Even the hardiest in the vaudeville industry realized the form was in decline; the perceptive

understood the condition to be terminal. The standardized film distribution and talking pictures of the 1930s

confirmed the end of vaudeville. By 1930, the vast majority of formerly live theatres had been wired for sound,

and none of the major studios were producing silent pictures. For a time, the most luxurious theatres continued

to offer live entertainment, but most theatres were forced by the Great Depression to economize.

Some in the industry blamed cinema's drain of talent from the vaudeville circuits for the medium's demise.

Others argued that vaudeville had allowed its performances to become too familiar to its famously loyal, now

seemingly fickle audiences.

Though talk of its resurrection was heard during the 1930s and later, the demise of the supporting apparatus of

the circuits and the higher cost of live performance made any large-scale renewal of vaudeville unrealistic.

Some of the most prominent vaudevillians successfully made the transition to cinema, though others were not as

successful. Some performers such as Bert Lahr fashioned careers out of combining live performance with radio

and film roles. Many others later appeared in the Catskill resorts that constituted the "Borscht Belt".

Vaudeville was instrumental in the success of the newer media of film, radio, and television. Comedies of the

new era adopted many of the dramatic and musical tropes of classic vaudeville acts. The rich repertoire of the

vaudeville tradition was mined for prominent prime-time radio variety shows such as The Rudy Vallée Show.

The structure of a single host introducing a series of acts became a popular television style and can be seen

consistently in the development of television, from The Milton Berle Show in 1948 to Late Night With David

Letterman in the 1980s.The multi-act format had renewed success in shows such as Your Show of

Shows with Sid Caesar and The Ed Sullivan Show. Today, performers such as Bill Irwin, a MacArthur

Fellow and Tony Award-winning actor, are frequently lauded as "New Vaudevillians".

References to vaudeville and the use of its distinctive argot continue throughout Western popular culture.

Words such as "flop" and "gag" were terms created from the vaudeville era and have entered the American

idiom. Though not credited often, vaudevillian techniques can commonly be witnessed on television and in

movies.

XX. Top 10 Greatest Scientists Who Changed The World

Right from the beginning of human settlement, a lot of people came up with ideas, philosophies, beliefs,

experiments, research, redesigning of thoughts, and surveys to bring myths to reality. People contributed for

science to study different aspects of nature to prosper mankind. These genius minds put a keen interest on every

phenomenon right from when they were kids. The zeal, passion, dedication, hard work and the effort they put in

their work helped them discover something new about the world we live in.

The world today dwells in the abode of scientific advancement in different sectors of medical science,

engineering and technology because of these scientists. The present picture of the world that we see would not

have transformed without the contribution of these great personalities. Great philosophers and masterminds that

existed in the ancient Greek era to the present day scientists, we’ve seen inexplicable abilities that helped us

define our existence and human life.

Their names are engraved in the sands of time for their work in the welfare of mankind with different inventions

that has made our modern lives easy. The following list commemorates 10 of the greatest scientists we’ve ever

seen who changed the world.

-Marko Jovanović M.D. Medical Representative at Acibadem Healthcare Group

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10. Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Student of Plato and a tutor to Alexander the Great, Aristotle was a genius Greek philosopher and scientist of

the ancient age. Born on 384 BC Aristotle was a biologist, a zoologist, ethicist, a political scientist and the

master of rhetoric and logic. He also gave theories in physics and meta physics.

Aristotle gained knowledge in different fields with his expansive mind and prodigious writings. However, only

a fraction of his writings are preserved at present. Aristotle made collections to the plant and animal specimens

and classified them according to their characteristics which made an standard for future work. He further gave

theories on the philosophy of science.

Aristotle also elaborated and estimated the size of earth which Plato assumed to be globe. Aristotle explained

the chain of life through his study in flora and fauna where it turned from simple to more complex.

9. Archimedes (287-212 BC)

Regarded as the greatest mathematician ever, Archimedes developed profound and influential knowledge on

mathematical physics and engineering that are widely used in machines as well as in constructions. Born on 287

BC, Archimedes is one of the finest scientist who broke through in both theories and practice.

He introduced infinitesimals and laid the foundation for calculus. He gave descriptions on the first finite

geometric progression, computed areas and volumes of sphere and parabolic segments.

He also discovered the laws of lever, density, fluid equilibrium, buoyancy in different fields statics and

hydrostatics. He is regarded as the prophet to the formal science that was started in Ancient Greece.

“Give me a place to stand and I can move the whole world”, he said and we can still fill the impact of his

generosity even today. All other scientists after him stand on his shoulders. Even though most of his work were

burned in the museum of Alexandria, the remnants gave enough ideas for modern day science and technology.

8. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642 AD)

Born in Pisa, Italy in 1564, Galileo is called as the father of modern science because of his discoveries in

astronomy and physics.

He was sent to study medicine by his father, but he chose his career in science and mathematics and made the

first telescope to observe stars and planets.

He also discovered the law of pendulum as he watched a chandelier swing in the cathedral of Pisa. He also

discovered that the surface of moon was not smooth but contained burrows and holes to what he called crater.

Galileo discovered 4 revolving moons around Jupiter which are named after him. He proved what Copernicus

said about sun being the center of the solar system. Galileo became blind in his old days and died in the year

1642.

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7. Michael Faraday (1791-1867 AD)

Born on 1791, British citizen Michael Faraday was a son of a blacksmith who had to leave school in the fourth

grade. It started working as a bookbinder and taught himself to read and writer. He developed a fascination with

science and particularly in electricity after he studied lot of serious academic works during his days.

Faraday is specially known for his discoveries of electromagnetic inductions and rotations, field theory, dia-

magnetization and the magneto-optical effect. This humble genius invented the electric motor and Faraday’s

ring.

Faraday’s inquisitive and curious nature made him take chemistry lectures and taught at the Royal Institution as

a lecturer later when Humphry Davy retired.

Faraday also published research papers optical deceptions, condensation of gases and isolation of benzene from

gas oils. He also wrote books on ”Experimental Researches in Electricity” and the “Chemical history of the

Candle”. Faraday died on 1867.

6. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931 AD)

“The Wizard of the Menlo Park” nicknamed Thomas Alva Edison was born in 1847. Excelled as both scientist

and inventor, Edison patented a whopping total of 1,093 inventions in his life time. Most of the inventions that

came from Edison are batteries, phonographs, cement, mining, telegraphs, lights and powers.

He also improved the telephone made by Graham Bell and invented the kinetoscope that was used for viewing

moving films. He was seen working almost more than 20 hours a day.

Edison masterminded the digital voting system with his electro-graphic vote recorder for the legislative of the

parliament. He also proposed ideas on preserving fruits by keeping it in vacuum. Edison pioneered the idea for

storage batteries that was later used by Henry ford in his automobile.

“Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration” is one of the most famous quote by this genius.

He died in the year 1931.

5. Marie Curie Sklodowska (1867-1934 AD)

Marie Curie holds record for the first female to be awarded with a Nobel Prize. Inventor and scientist Curie

was born as the youngest of five children in the year 1867 in Warsaw, Poland.

Marie Curie has always remained a source of inspiration and motivation for different female scientists because

of her determination to work. She invented the first mobile X-ray machine which helped to check the injured

soldiers in the battlefield.

Radium is another great invention from her. Curie experimented different elements to check their radio activity

and found thorium. She also invented the pitch-blend which was the source of radiation in a mixture more

powerful than uranium or thorium. She is also called ”the mother of atom bomb” with her invention of the radio

active materials.

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However, with all her brilliance, hard work and patience in careful experiments she performed, her own

invention killed her because of radiation poisoning in 1934.

4. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895 AD)

Louis Pasteur made astounding contributions in the field of science, technology and medicine. This genius was

born on 1822 and spent his life working in chemistry and microbiology.

Pasteur was the first ever scientist to study about fermentation in food elements that was caused by microbes.

He also explained about biogenesis and proposed a theory named as the “Germ Theory”. He also created a

process of toning and treating milk free from the damage causing microbes to what he called ”Pasteurization”.

Pasteur is also regarded as the first man on earth to ever discover cure for puerperal fever and make the vaccines

for rabies and anthrax. He also explained the asymmetry in various crystals on a molecular basis.

His breadth of accomplishment and approaches in different fields of discoveries and inventions makes him a

giant genius. He died in 1895.

3. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727 AD)

Born on 1643 in Woolsthrope, England, Sir Issac Newton is best known for his law on gravitation. He was a

poor student at school or at running the family estate. However, he loved making mechanical toys and models

of windmills.

Newton explained the theory of gravity and gravitation by inventing calculus as no other principles could

explain it. The new revolution in mathematics, calculus was derived from his binomial theorem to infinite series

which accurately could measure the area inside the curve or rate of change of it.

He also explained the theory on tides which occurred due to the gravitation pull from the sun, moon and earth.

He also invented the reflecting telescope. Newtons laws can be found in different areas of mechanics, optics and

chemistry. He was knighted with the title Sir by Queen Anne in 1705. Newton died at the age of 84, in 1727.

2. Albert Einstein (1879-1955 AD)

Born on 1879 in Ulm, Einstein is considered as one of the greatest revolutionary scientist the world has ever

known.

The “Man of Century” has some spectacular works in physics which even makes him the father of modern

physics for his contribution in developing the general theory of relativity. The world’s most famous equation

E=mc2 on which the bomb is based comes from his theory.

One of the greatest scientist of the 20th century, Einstein’s Special theory of relativity revolutionized physics

which even challenged the scientists at CERN. Albert Einstein’s genius mind for the scientific advancement

cause immeasurable change to the world. Together with his intellect, he was also a celebrity with his flirtatious

behavior that could impress any women.

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This rare genius was awarded Nobel Prize in 1921 ”For his work on theortical physics, and for his discovery of

the photoelectric effect”. Greatest physicist ever voted Einstein died on 1955 in Princeton.

1. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943 AD)

This Serbian born scientist atop the list because of his immense knowledge in different fields of science and

technology.

Without a question, this 1856 born guy was a cool geek. He could speak 8 languages, recite a whole book

completely just with one reading, make a device just by seeing it once and not writing down anything. A funny

fact about him was that he was a celibate his whole life.

Tesla had developed almost everything by himself and did not expose any of it which later was invented by

other scientists in his time. Tesla had generated ac current before Edison knew about charges. Markoni who got

Nobel prize for inventing radio used all the ideas of Tesla. X-rays by Roentgen, RADAR by Watson-watt were

all devised by Nikola Tesla.

There was almost nothing that Tesla did not do. First hydro electricity plant in Niagara falls, experiments with

cryogenic engineering, transistors, radio wave recorder from outer space were all built by Tesla. Remote

control, neon lightening, modern electric motor, earthquake machine are finest inventions from Tesla. He was a

true genius.

However, most of his ideas and inventions were either copied, stolen or taken by somebody else. Tesla made a

way to charge a house with electric lightening for electricity purpose but did not share it thinking somebody else

will take it.

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This incredible mind created revolution with his inventions. He was a future-thinker and his minds would run

on any wavelengths. However, he died tragically in a hotel room and was found dead only after two days of his

death in 1943.

XXI. Top 20 Greatest Inventions of All Time

Cover photo: a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci

Technology is a core component of the human experience. We have been creating tools to help us tame the

physical world since the early days of our species.1

Any attempt to count down the most important technological inventions is certainly debatable, but here are

some major advancements that should probably be on any such list (in chronological order):

1. FIRE - it can be argued that fire was discovered rather than invented.1Certainly, early humans observed

incidents of fire, but it wasn’t until they figured out how to control it and produce it themselves that humans

could really make use of everything this new tool had to offer. The earliest use of fire goes back as far as 2

million years ago, while a widespread way to utilize this technology has been dated to about 125,000 years ago.

Fire gave us warmth, protection, and led to a host of other key inventions and skills like cooking. The ability to

cook helped us get the nutrients to support our expanding brains, giving us an indisputable advantage over other

primates.

2. WHEEL - the wheel was invented by Mesopotamians around 3500 B1.C., to be used in the creation of

pottery. About 300 years after that, the wheel was put on a chariot and the rest is history. Wheels are ubiquitous

in our everyday life, facilitating our transportation and commerce.

Circa 2000 BC, Oxen drawing an ancient Egyptian two wheeled chariot. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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3. NAIL - The earliest known use of this very simple but super-useful metal fastener dates back to Ancient

Egypt, about 3400 B.C. If you are more partial to screws, they’ve been around since Ancient Greeks (1st or 2nd

century BC).

4. OPTICAL LENSES - from glasses to microscopes and telescopes, optical lenses have greatly expanded the

possibilities of our visi1on. They have a long history, first developed by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians,

with key theories of light and vision contributed by Ancient Greeks. Optical lenses were also instrumental

components in the creation of media technologies involved in photography, film and television.

5. COMPASS - this navigational device has been a major force in human exploration. The earliest compasses

were made of lodestone in China between 300 and 200 BC.

Circa 1121 BC, An ancient Chinese magnetic chariot. The figure, pointing to the south, moves in accordance with the principle of the magnetic compass. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

6. PAPER - invented about 100 BC in China, paper has been indispensible in allowing us to write down and

share our ideas.

7. GUNPOWDER - this chemical explosive, invented in China in the 9th century, has been a major factor in

military technology (and, by extension, in wars that changed the course of human history).

8. PRINTING PRESS - invented in 1439 by the German Johannes Gutenberg, this device in many ways laid

the foundation for our modern age. It allowed ink to be transferred from the movable type to paper in a

mechanized way. This revolutionized the spread of knowledge and religion as previously books were generally

hand-written (often by monks).

1511, Printing Press, from the title page of 'Hegesippus' printed by Jodocus Badius Ascensius in Paris. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

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9. ELECTRICITY - utilization of electricity is a process to which a number of bright minds have contributed

over thousands of years, going all the way back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, when Thales of Miletus

conducted earliest research into the phenomenon. The 18th-century American Renaissance man Benjamin

Franklin is generally credited with significantly furthering our understanding of electricity, if not its discovery.

It’s hard to overestimate how important electricity has become to humanity as it runs the majority of our

gadgetry and shapes our way of life. The invention of the light bulb, although a separate contribution, attributed

to Thomas Edison in 1879, is certainly a major extension of the ability to harness electricity. It has profoundly

changed the way we live, work as well as the look and functioning of our cities.

10. STEAM ENGINE - invented between 1763 and 1775 by James Watt (who built upon the ideas of previous

steam engine attempts like the 1712 Newcomen engine), the steam engine powered trains, ships, factories and

the Industrial Revolution as a whole.

circa 1830: An early locomotive hauling freight. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

11. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE - the 19th-century invention (created by Etienne Lenoir in 1859

and improved by Nikolaus Otto in 1876), this engine that converts chemical energy into mechanical energy

overtook the steam engine and is used in modern cars and planes.

12. TELEPHONE - although he was not the only one working on this kind of tech, Alexander Graham Bell got

the first patent for an electric telephone in 1876. Certainly, this instrument has revolutionized our ability to

communicate.

13. VACCINATION - while sometimes controversial, the practice of vaccination is responsible for eradicating

diseases and extending the human lifespan. The first vaccine (for smallpox) was developed by Edward Jenner in

1796. A rabies vaccine was developed by the French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur in 1885, who is

credited with making vaccination the major part of medicine that is it today. Pasteur is also responsible for

inventing the food safety process of pasteurization,that bears his name.

14. CARS - cars completely changed the way we travel, as well as the design of our cities. They were invented

in their modern form in the late 19th century by a number of individuals, with special credit going to the

German Karl Benz for creating what’s considered the first practical motorcar in 1885.

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Karl Benz (in light suit) on a trip with his family with one of his first cars, which was built in 1893 and powered by a single cylinder, 3 h.p.

engine. His friend Theodor von Liebig is in the Viktoria. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)1

15. AIRPLANE - invented in 1903 by the American Wright brothers, planes brought the world closer together,

allowing us to travel quickly over great distances.

16. PENICILLIN - discovered by the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, this drug transformed

medicine by its ability to cure infectious bacterial diseases. It began the era of antibiotics.

17. ROCKETS - while the invention of early rockets is credited to the Ancient Chinese, the modern rocket is a

20th century contribution to humanity, responsible for transforming military capabilities and allowing human

space exploration.

18. NUCLEAR FISSION - this process of splitting atoms to release a tremendous amount of energy led to the

creation of nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. It was the culmination of work by a number of prominent

(mostly Nobel-Prize-winning) 20th-century scientists, but the specific discovery of nuclear fission is generally

credited to the Germans Otto Hahn and Fritz Stassmann, working with the Austrians Lise Meitner and Otto

Frisch.

Austrian nuclear physicist Lise Meitner (1878 - 1968) congratulates German chemist Otto

Hahn (1879 - 1968) on his 80th birthday, Gottingen, Germany, 8th March 1959. The pair collaborated for 30 years in the study of radioactivity, work which culminated in the discovery of nuclear fission.

19. SEMICONDUCTORS - they are at the foundation of electronic devices and the modern Digital Age.

Mostly made of silicon, semiconductor devices are behind the nickname of “Silicon Valley”, home to today’s

major computing companies. The first device containing semiconductor material was demonstrated in 1947

by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & William Shockley of Bell Labs.

20. PERSONAL COMPUTER - invented in the 1970s, personal computers greatly expanded human

capabilities. While your smartphone is more powerful, one of the earliest PCs was introduced in 1974 by Micro

Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) via a mail-order computer kit called the Altair.

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(BONUS) 21. THE INTERNET - while the worldwide network of computers (which you used to find this

article) has been in development since the 1960s, when it took the shape of U.S. Defense Department’s

ARPANET, the Internet as we know it today is an even more modern invention. 1990’s creation of the World

Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for transforming our communication, commerce, entertainment,

politics, you name it.

XXII. Top 20 Chefs

1Gordon Ramsay

2Jamie Oliver

3Anthony Bourdain

4Emeril Lagasse

5Auguste Escoffier

Without a doubt everyone on this list would be nowhere without Escoffier. He created modern

French cooking. By far #1. Personalities on T.V. don't stand a chance to this man.

He was the creator of the base knowledge that all chefs follow today.

One of the greatest chefs that ever lived. He did so much to shape the way we eat and appreciate

today.

6Marco Pierre White

7Heston Blumenthal

8Paul Bocuse

9Rocco DiSpirito

10Julia Child

11Wolfgang Puck

12Ferran Adria

13Jacques Pepin

He was the chef for Charles de Gaulle and two other French Head of State

He is also the writer of "La technique ", the most popular French Cuisine Textbook.

14Todd English

15Sanjeev Kapoor

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Sanjeev kapoor is also known as the king chef of Indian cuisine,other than Indian food he is also

expert in fusing other cuisine with Indian cuisines. He is simply the best, as he shares his all cooking

tips and tricks with the viewers which are incredible.

[Great Resource for different food throughout time. You can click on anything & pull up some great information (dates, different food items through time, it’s origin & recipe’s. A lot of great food options all in 1 easy place. www.foodtimeline.org Food Time Line (by year) or Index (alphabetical order).]

XX111 10 Heroic Last Stands from Military History

LISTVERSE STAFF AUGUST 28, 2009 To me, the “heroic last stand” is one of the most awesome of all the awesome footnotes of history. Sure, not all

of them work out this way, but I can almost see the noble bunch of heroes looking at one another and saying,

“This is it, gentlemen, we are royally screwed, surrounded, and the cavalry apparently ain’t coming so lets make

this bunch pay dearly for our blood.” They are the brawniest bunch you can imagine and the ones the people

back home are counting on to keep them safe.

Now, in my admittedly biased and prejudiced mind, not all Last Stands are created equal. So, for the purpose of

this list, I’ve got five criteria in mind. Not every last stand here meets all five, but they must meet at least three.

If you are the aggressor, you can’t have a Last Stand because you are getting your just desserts. Simply

put, you started it and if you hadn’t started it, you wouldn’t be getting wiped out to the last man, now

would you? (Think Custer)

The odds are laughably against your team. We’re talking AT LEAST 3:1 against and the worse the odds,

the burlier the last stand glory.

Everybody, or at least just about everybody, dies. It’s not a Last Stand if enough of you are left to make

another last stand at some point.

Everyone EXPECTS to die. No surrender even if asked to. As one burly sergeant in a furball of a fight

put it, “Surrender? Not bloody likely!” (Exception: You surrender on YOUR terms and it’s honored.)

The sacrifice has to mean something in the larger scheme of things. Otherwise, you should have bloody

well retreated or something to try staying alive since what you did was get everyone killed for nothing.

So, with no further ado, and in no particular order, here are my suggestions for the burliest of the burly Last

Stands.

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1. The Last Stand at Thermopylae (circa 480 BC)

This was the stuff legends are made of and since Frank Miller’s film 300 came out, a whole new

generation of people have been acquainted with the heroic sacrifice of Leonidas and his handpicked

guard of 300 warriors, all of whom had mature sons who could carry on the family name. What a lot of

people don’t seem to remember is that as awesome as Leo and his wild bunch were, they didn’t stand

completely alone. Other city-states, notably Arcadia and Thespia, sent troops as well, so the force

opposing the massive Persian army was closer to 6,000 than just 300. Still, that this group stopped those

thousands cold in their tracks at the Hot Gates for three days and in the end were only dislodged by

treachery is nothing short of amazing. The action scored a perfect 5 out of 5 on the criteria. The best

legend, probably apocryphal – but maybe not, was one Spartan hoplite’s reply to a Persian envoy’s boast

that, “Our arrows will blot out the Sun.” The hoplite replied, “So much the better, for then we shall fight

in the shade!”

2. The Last Stand of the Swiss Guard (May 6, 1527)

Rome was sacked by the troops of the Holy Roman Empire under Emperor Charles V in 1527. When the

troops, mostly rabble and mercenaries, of the empire breached the city, they immediately ignored the

orders of Charles and pretty much everyone else in command and made straight for Vatican Hill intent

on pillaging the richest treasures in Christendom. They also had murder on their mind and Pope

Clement VII was high on the list of targets. The famous Swiss Guards, who used to do more than just

stand around looking pretty for tourists, formed a fighting square on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica to

face upwards of 20,000 bloodthirsty troops who were storming the city. Only 189 Guardsmen remained

after the fighting to take the city, but these troops chose to make their stand in hopes of buying Clement

time to escape the city through one of the warrens of tunnels under Rome. Clement made good his escape

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as the Guard managed to hold the porch of the church and prevent the doors from falling, but only 42

Swiss Guards survived and none of them were uninjured. Again, this one scores a 5 out of 5 and proves

that when the Swiss decide not to be neutral, they aren’t a bunch to take lightly.

3.Battle of the Alamo (February 23 to March 6, 1836)

This one siege and especially its climactic pre-dawn final battle is the reason natives of Texas poke their

chests out a little farther than most other Americans. It is a singular event in Texan history and it’s what

lead directly to Texas becoming first a nation and later a state in the United States of America. Not only

that, but “Remember the Alamo!” has rung down the years as a major battlecry for people who’ve never

crossed the Texan border, but who feel a giddy sense of bravado in the face of utter annihilation.

At the old Spanish mission, 182 poorly armed Texas rebels faced upwards of 2000 crack Mexican troops

under the command of the finest Mexican general, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The Mexicans had

cavalry and a battery of cannon. The Texans had grit, determination, and cannons with very little

ammunition. For 12 days, the Texans stood down Santa Anna, enduring bombardments daily. Finally,

Santa Anna had enough and ordered a full assault on the mission in a surprise pre-dawn attack. Every

defender of the mission was killed but Santa Anna did spare the women and children as well as sparing

and freeing two African American slaves found in the fort. This last stand garners a 4.5 out of 5 because

technically, the Mexicans were the “good guys” since the Texans were rebels against the lawful authority

in Mexico City.

4. Battle of Camaron (April 30, 1863)

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This small engagement in Mexico while much of the world was focused on the American Civil War to the

north, put the French Foreign Legion on the map and began a legend that persists today in the unofficial

motto, “The Legion dies, it does not surrender.” Everything ,carrying supplies to Veracruz in support of

the French campaign in Mexico under Napoleon III. Caught out in the open, the French troops managed

to make a fighting retreat to the small hacienda of Cameron. There, surrounded and backs to the wall,

the handful of Legionnaires fought like they were possessed. They repulsed attack after attack, cavalry

charge after cavalry charge, until their ammunition began to run low.

Even after Capt. Danjou was felled by a bullet to the chest, his men fought on. Finally, only six of the men

remained and they were out of bullets and powder. At this point, they have killed enough Mexicans to

surrender honorably. After all, only six are left ALIVE, much less standing. But no, led by the highest

remaining NCO, a corporal, the six men fixed bayonets and, with the cry of “Vive l’France”, charged the

Mexican forces. Three were struck by rifle fire and killed outright. The remaining three were

surrounded, wrestled to the ground and asked to surrender. Most men would have said fine and thanked

their luck they were alive.

Not this bunch. One of the men looked up and said they would surrender only if they were allowed to

keep their regimental Colors, keep their weapons, carry their dead with them, AND be given a safe

conduct escort to their own lines.

According to the accounts of eyewitnesses, the Mexican commander shook his head, laughed and ordered

his men to comply with the Legionnaires’ demands. “After all,” he is supposed to have said, “What is one

to do with devils like these?” To this day, April 30 is called Cameron Day in France and is celebrated by

the Legion much as the Marine Corps Birthday is celebrated every November in America.

5. Battle of Shiroyama (September 24, 1877)

This battle would again only garner a 4 out of 5 on the criteria because Saigo’s samurai were technically

rebels. BUT, they were rebels because the Emperor was destroying their way of life. Bushido and the

sword had ruled samurai behavior for over a thousand years and now the nobility of the samurai and his

training were being swept aside in favor of conscript troops with rapid firing weapons.

So, the samurai under their commander Saigo were retreating to their base of operations when they were

caught and surrounded on the hill of Shiroyama. The 300 of them had their traditional bows and, of

course, their matchless katanas. The 30,000 Imperial troops had rifled muskets and gatling guns.

The Imperial commander asked Saigo to surrender peacefully and be spared, but, being a samurai, Saigo

couldn’t really do that. Instead, he spent the night of September 23 getting buzzed on sake and ready to

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die. At 3:00 AM, the Imperial troops began an artillery bombardment followed by a full frontal attack.

Saigo was twice wounded before committing ritual suicide to avoid the dishonor of capture. The thirty

men who survived the artillery barrage charged the Imperial lines and began laying about them with

their katanas. They acquitted themselves well, but in the end, every one of them was killed and the way of

the samurai was dead . . . at least until the start of World War II.

6. Battle of Rorke’s Drift (January 22, 1879)

Okay, this is another slightly technical violation of my criteria. After all, if the Brits hadn’t been trying to

take the Zulu’s land, Rorke’s Drift never would have happened. BUT, in my defense, these particular 139

soldiers weren’t invading anything. They were left behind while the “big boys” went off to get massacred

at the Battle of Islawandha.

No, this was a group of cooks, supply clerks, Royal Engineers, and other guys who could fight if they had

to, but hadn’t really been called upon very much. They were the prime example of the “in the rear with

the gear” soldiers. Unfortunately, all their buddies were wiped out at the aforementioned Battle of

Islawandha. To make matters worse, a whole crap load of Zulus didn’t get to take part in the battle

because everyone was dead before they got there. So, those bored Zulus decided to take out their

frustrations on the supply depot at Rorke’s Drift.

The Zulus had numbers, surprise, the high ground, and knowledge of the terrain. The defenders had

bags of grain, Martini-Henry rifles, and bayonets “with some guts behind them”. The Zulus attacked in

massive waves all through the afternoon of January 22 and through the night and early morning of

January 23. They were gathering for another assault when their scouts spotted the British relief column

complete with cannon and decided to retire.

The defenders gained a new respect for the Zulus and in the process garnered 11 Victoria Crosses, the

most ever awarded for a single engagement. True, they weren’t wiped out, but when they looked up and

saw every surrounding hill bristling with Zulu warriors, no one thought he was getting out alive.

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7. Battle of Pasir Panjang (13 February 1942)

1,400 Malay, British, Indian and Australian soldiers faced off against 13,000 Japanese troops in an

attempt to save Singapore or at least give the civilians time to evacuate. Soldiers from the Royal Malay

Regiment, The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, the British 2nd Loyals Regiment, the 44th

Indian Brigade and the 22nd Australian Brigade made a futile attempt to stop the advancing Japanese

towards the centre of Singapore. The majority of the defenders fell in the battle. Those that did not

became prisoners who would later be pressed into service on the Thai-Burma Railroad where they would

be forced to built a famous bridge over a famous river.

In the final hours of battle, a Malay soldier, 2nd Lieutenant Adnan Bin Saidi, led a 42-man platoon

against thousands of invaders, leaving himself as a sole survivor. The Japanese suffered a

disproportionately high number of casualties because of these men’s bravery so as punishment for being

burly and courageous they tortured Adnan before executing him.

8. Siege of Bastogne (19 December 1944-December 26, 1944)

Early in the Battle of the Bulge about 12,000 under-equipped and exhausted US Paratroopers of the 101st

Airborne Division seized the town of Bastogne to defend this strategic crossroads from the German

Advance. They were promptly and completely surrounded by roughly 15 Divisions of Germans. The

101st could only be sustained by airdrops from C-47s and things looked suitably grim. Seeing the

hopelessness of the American position, German commander, General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz

asked the 101st’s acting commander, Captain Anthony McAuliffe to surrender, McAuliffe’s famously

terse reply was “Nuts!”.

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Under their impetuous commander, the unit held off multiple German Panzer attacks, until eventually

relieved by George S. Patton’s US Third Army on December 26. One of the units of the 101st to take part

in the battle was the legendary Easy Company immortalized in the TV series “Band of Brothers.”

9. The Saxon Housecarls at Hastings (October 14, 1066)

On January 6, 1066, Harold Godwinson became King Harold II following the death of his brother-in-law,

Edward the Confessor. By late summer, he was faced with two imminent attempts to invade England. The first

came in the northeast from his traitorous brother, Tostig, and King Harald Hardraada of Norway. While

celebrating his defeat of Hardraada at a victory feast, Harold received word that Duke William the B…….. had

landed at Pevensey in the south with 7,000 men. Harold gathered his forces, marched south to London, and by

the evening of October 13, deployed his forces along Battle, or Senlac, Ridge near Hastings.

The battle developed into a deadly engagement between the Saxon infantry and the Norman cavalry and

archers. Initially, Norman arrows were harmlessly deflected by Saxon shields, and Saxon axes and spears

shattered the first Norman charge. Overcome by confidence, the Saxon infantry unwisely followed the

retreating cavalry in reckless pursuit and were cut down by the Norman reserve. Harold reformed his forces and

the Saxons braced for additional charges. The battle evolved into relentless pounding on the Saxon line by the

Norman cavalry. The Saxons more than held their own and inflicted heavy casualties. Just before evening,

William feigned a general withdrawal and many Saxons again broke ranks to pursue. The knights wheeled

round and destroyed the Saxon infantry in the open field.

Harold and his housecarl bodyguard remained intact and just as formidable on the ridge. William ordered a final

charge. This time he first had his archers aim not at the Saxon shields but release their volleys into the air so the

arrows would fall on the Saxons from above. The tactic worked, but the Harold and his housecarls fought on

until an arrow struck the king in the eye. As Harold struggled to pull it free, four Norman knights (one of whom

may have been William) attacked. One speared Harold in the chest, and a second nearly decapitated him with a

sword. As he fell, the other two Normans delivered additional blows. With Harold’s fall, the Saxon forces

panicked and retreated into the nearby woods except for the housecarls who fought to the death around the body

of their dead king.

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10. The Battle Off Samar (October 25, 1944)

The Battle Of Samar (also known as “The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors) has been cited by historians

as one of the greatest military mismatches in naval history. It took place in the Philippine Sea off Samar

Island, in the Philippines. It all started when Admiral William Halsey, Jr. was lured into taking his

powerful U.S. Third Fleet after a Japanese decoy fleet. He thought this fleet was the main Japanese battle

group and if he could catch them, he could destroy what was left of the Japanese navy.

To defend his rear, he left behind only “Taffy 3,” a light screen of destroyers, destroyer escorts, and three

escort “baby” carriers. A powerful Japanese surface force of battleships and cruisers thought to have

been defeated and in retreat earlier had instead turned around unobserved and came upon the tiny force

of tiny ships. With nothing else he could do, Admiral Spruance in command of Taffy 3 gave the order,

“Small Boys (meaning destroyers and escorts) attack.”

With that order Taffy 3’s destroyers and destroyer escort desperately charged forward and attacked with

5 inch guns which could not penetrate even the thinnest armor of the Japanese armada and torpedoes,

while carrier aircraft dropped bombs and depth charges, then out of bombs, strafed the bridges of the

Japanese heavy ships. While the Americans suffered more losses in ships and men than were lost at the

Battle of Midway, they caused so much damage and confusion to convince the Japanese commander, Vice

Admiral Takeo Kurita thought he had stumbled upon the lead element of Halsey’s main fleet. Fearing for

his forces, he ordered his ships to regroup and ultimately withdraw rather than advancing to sink troop

and supply ships at Leyte Gulf. Taffy 3’s bold defense in the face of overwhelmingly superior firepower

saved the invasion of the Phillippines.

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Olympics Timeline

From ancient Greece to Summer, 1948

by Shmuel Ross

Before776

B.C.

Ancient Greece

Athletic contests are held at Olympia every four years, between August 6 and

September 19. Records reach back as far as 776 B.C., but it is generally

accepted that the Olympic Games had already been held for several centuries

before that.

The Games originally consist only of foot races. Other events are gradually

added, starting with wrestling and the pentathlon.

A.D. 394 Roman Emperor Theodosius I abolishes the Games, as part of a series of

reforms against pagan practices.

1894 At the urging of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the International Olympic

Committee (IOC) is founded.

1896 Athens Games The first modern Olympic Games. 14 countries are represented by about 245 men, competing in

43 events.

No women compete, as de Coubertin feels that their inclusion would be "impractical,

uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect."

1900 Paris Games The second modern Games are overshadowed by, and incorporated into, the Paris Exposition.

1,319 men from 26 countries compete in 75 events, although it's not entirely clear—even to

some of the participants—which events are actually part of the Olympics.

Eleven women are allowed to compete in lawn tennis and golf.

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1904 St. Louis Games

Only 13 countries show up.

Fred Lorz rides in a car for eleven miles during the marathon, but is briefly

taken as being the winner anyway.

1906 Intercalated Games

The first, last, and only Intercalated Games are held in Athens, as the Greeks

plan to hold interim Games between Olympics every four years. While these

bolster the Olympics' flagging reputation, medals won here are considered

unofficial by the IOC.

1908 London Games

The 1906 eruption of Mt. Vesuvius requires the Games to move from Rome to

London. For the first time, athletes march into the stadium behind their nations'

flags. There are more than 2,000 competitors in more than 100 events.

Italian Dorando Pietri needs to be helped across the finish line of the marathon,

but is declared the winner before being disqualified in favor of Johnny Hayes of

the U.S.

1912 Stockholm Games

American Jim Thorpe dominates the Games, taking the gold in the pentathlon

and decathlon.

Finland begins its domination of long-distance running events, as Hannes

Kolehmainen picks up three aagold medals and a silver.

Women compete in swimming events for the first time, but none of them are

from America, which bars its female athletes from competing in events without

long skirts.

1913 Jim Thorpe's medals are taken away, when it is discovered that he was paid $25

a week for playing baseball in 1909 and 1910. The Olympics are strictly limited

to amateur players.

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1916 Games cancelled due to World War I.

1920 Antwerp Games

The Olympic flag is introduced, as is the Olympic oath.

Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkey are not invited, having been

on the wrong side of the Great War.

Distance runner Paavo Nurmi wins three medals for Finland.

Figure-skating events are held for the second time, and ice hockey for the first.

Philip Noel-Baker of Great Britain takes the silver in the 1500-meter dash; he

later becomes the only Olympian ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Winter

1924 Chamonix Winter Games The "International Winter Sports Week" takes place in Chamonix, and is dominated by the

Scandanavians. Two years later, this is retroactively given the status of the first Olympic

Winter Games.

Due to an error in computing the scores, American Anders Haugen is placed in fourth in ski

jumping, behind Norway's Thorleif Haug. This is discovered in 1974, and Haugen is awarded

the bronze in a special ceremony.

Summer

1924 Paris Games

Originally planned to take place in Amsterdam, the Games are moved to Paris

at the urging of Baron de Coubertin. He's about to retire, and wants to see them

in his homeland one last time.

Germany is still banned, but the other four nations banned in 1920 are back.

Paavo Nurmi wins five gold medals; his teammate, Ville Ritola, wins four.

Johnny Weissmuller wins three golds and a bronze in water-based events; he

later becomes known for playing Tarzan.

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1925 The IOC explains that "An amateur is one who devotes himself to sport for

sport's sake without deriving from it, directly or indirectly, the means of

existence. A professional is one who derives the means of existence entirely or

partly from sport." They forbid such practices as compensating athletes for time

taken away from work to compete, making it hard for working-class athletes to

participate.

Winter

1928

St. Moritz Winter Games

The Winter Games are plagued with warm weather, slowing some events and

cancelling the 10,000-meter speed-skating race.

Gillis Grafström of Sweden wins the last of his three consecutive gold medals

in figure skating; Norwegian Sonja Henie will equal that feat, winning the first

of her three consecutive gold medals in figure skating here at the age of 15.

Summer

1928

Amsterdam Games

The Olympic flame is introduced.

Germany returns.

Paavo Nurmi picks up three more medals, including one gold.

Women compete in track and field events for the first time; however, so many

collapse at the end of the 800-meter race that the event is banned until 1960.

Luigina Giavotti becomes the youngest medalist of all time, helping the Italian

gymnastics team pick up a silver at 11 years and 302 days old.

1930 The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) holds soccer's

first World Cup tournament in Montevideo, Uruguay, largely due to the

Olympics' restrictions against professional athletes.

The World Cup is held every four years from this time onward, excepting

World War II years.

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Winter

1932

Lake Placid Winter Games

Canada continues to be undefeated in hockey, taking home the gold for the

fourth time.

America's bobsleigh team, led by Billy Fiske, wins the gold; the team includes

Eddie Eagan, who was a boxing champion in the 1920 Games.

Summer

1932

Los Angeles Games

Paavo Nurmi is barred from the Los Angeles Games, on grounds that, on a trip

to a German meet, he had claimed too much money in travel expenses.

There is no soccer event.

Babe Didrikson picks up gold medals in hurdles and javelin. She would have

tied for a gold in the high-jump, but her jumping style is ruled illegal.

Winter

1936

Garmish-Partenkirchen Winter Games

Alpine skiing events are held for the first time, but ski instructors are barred as

being professionals. This leads to an Austrian and Swiss boycott, and to the

decision not to have skiing events in the 1940 Games.

Canada finally loses an ice hockey match, as Great Britain takes the gold. Only

a complete stickler would point out that almost all of the British players lived in

Canada.

Summer

1936

Berlin Games

The first-ever relay of the Olympic torch.

The Games are the first to be televised, being shown on large screens around

Berlin.

Basketball is admitted as an Olympic sport for the first time. In the final—

played on a dirt court in the rain, making dribbling impossible—the United

States team beats Canada 19–8.

Denmark's 12-year-old Inge Sorensen wins a bronze medal in the 200-meter

breaststroke, making her the youngest medalist ever in an individual event.

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In what may be the most famous incident in Olympic history, Jesse

Owens wins four gold medals, showing up German claims of Aryan

superiority.

1940,

1944

Games called off due to World War II.

Winter

1948

St. Moritz Winter Games

Held for a second time in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as that city was untouched by

the war.

Men and women each have three alpine skiing events.

The American Olympic Committee sends a hockey team, as does the American

Hockey Association; the IOC bars either from being considered for a medal.

Skeleton—a head-first version of the luge—appears for the first time since the

previous St. Moritz Games 20 years earlier. American John Heaton wins the

silver, as he had done the previous time.

Summer

1948

London Games

The first Games to be shown on home television.

Germany and Japan aren't invited, but a record 59 other countries attend.

Dutch athlete Fanny Blankers-Koen wins four gold medals, the equivalents of

the ones Jesse Owens had won twelve years earlier. She holds the world

records in the high and long jumps, but does not compete in those, as rules

prohibit women from competing in more than three individual events.

Right-handed Hungarian Karoly Takcaz, a member of the national pistol-

shooting team, had that hand shattered by a grenade in 1938. He teaches

himself to shoot with his left, and wins the gold in the rapid-fire pistol event

this year.