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Learn how local weather and climate conditions can lead to long-term water shortages.

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Nineteenth-century Americans settled the western United States, but displaced Native Americans in the homesteading process. Tim and Moby look at the concept of Manifest Destiny.

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Thank you, sister Rosa! Ms. Parks, that is! This movie is all about the civil rights movement, from segregation trials to freedom marches. Plus a few words from Dr. Martin Luther King!

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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An Aurora That Lit up the Sky Over the Titanic Might Explain Why it Sank

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An Aurora That Lit up the Sky Over the Titanic Might Explain Why it Sank

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Farming and the Dust Bowl During the Great Depression

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Farming and the Dust Bowl During the Great Depression

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Newsela | Farming and the Dust Bowl During the Great Depression

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The U.S. government took action to help farms during the Great Depression.

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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Newsela | Remembering the March on Washington, and King's historic speech

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The March on Washington, during which King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, happened 50 years ago. Thousands gathered to remember, and continue the struggle for justice.

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Kids learn about the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression including when and where it took place, the dust storms, drought, Black Sunday, Okies, government aid, and migration to California. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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Kids learn about the sinking of the Titanic including the construction of the unsinkable ship, the beginning of the voyage, hitting an iceberg, the ship sinks, survivors, and interesting facts. Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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Science >> Earth Science for Kids

Weather - Hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones)

What is a hurricane?

A hurricane is a large rotating storm with high speed winds that forms over warm waters in tropical areas. Hurricanes have sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour and an area of low air pressure in the center called the eye.

Different Names for Hurricanes

The scientific name for a hurricane is a tropical cyclone. Tropical cyclones go by different names in different places. In North America and the Caribbean they are called "hurricanes", in the Indian Ocean they are called "cyclones", and in Southeast Asia they are called "typhoons."

How do hurricanes form?

Hurricanes form over the warm ocean water of the tropics. When warm moist air over the water rises, it is replaced by cooler air. The cooler air will then warm and start to rise. This cycle causes huge storm clouds to form. These storm clouds will begin to rotate with the spin of the Earth forming an organized system. If there is enough warm water, the cycle will continue and the storm clouds and wind speeds will grow causing a hurricane to form.

Parts of a Hurricane

Eye - At the center of the hurricane is the eye. The eye is an area of very low air pressure. There are generally no clouds in the eye and the wind is calm. Don't let this fool you, however, the most dangerous part of the storm is at the edge of the eye called the eye wall.

Eye wall - Around the outside of the eye is a wall made up of very heavy clouds. This is the most dangerous part of the hurricane and where the highest speed winds are. The winds at the eye wall can reach speeds of 155 miles per hour.

Rainbands - Hurricanes have large spirally bands of rain called rainbands. These bands can drop huge amounts of rainfall causing flooding when the hurricane hits land.

Diameter - Hurricanes can become huge storms. The diameter of the hurricane is measured from one side to the other. Hurricanes can span a diameter of over 600 miles.

Height - The storm clouds that power hurricanes can become very tall. A powerful hurricane can reach nine miles into the atmosphere.

The structure of a hurricane

Where do tropical cyclones occur?

Tropical cyclones occur over the ocean in areas near the equator. This is because there is plenty of warm water in these areas to allow the storms to form. There are seven major areas in the world that tend to produce tropical cyclones. See the map below.

Locations of tropical cyclones throughout the world

When do hurricanes occur?

Hurricanes that form in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean occur between June 1st and November 30th each year. This is called hurricane season.

Why are hurricanes dangerous?

When hurricanes strike land they can cause huge amounts of damage. Most of the damage is caused by flooding and storm surge. Storm surge is when the ocean level rises at the coastline due to the power of the storm. Hurricanes also cause damage with high speed winds that can blow downtrees and damage homes. Many hurricanes can develop several small tornados as well.

How are they named?

Hurricanes in the Atlantic are named based on a list of names maintained by the World Meteorological Organization. The names go in alphabetical order and the storms are named as they appear. So the first storm of the year will always have a name that starts with the letter "A." There are six lists of names and each year a new list is used.

Categories

Tropical cyclones are categorized according to the speed of sustained winds.

Tropical Depression - 38 mph or less

Tropical Storm - 39 to 73 mph

Hurricane

Category 1 - 74 to 95 mph

Category 2 - 96 to 110 mph

Category 3 - 111 to 129 mph

Category 4 - 130 to 156 mph

Category 5 - 157 or higher mph

Interesting Facts about Hurricanes

Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere. This is due to the rotation of the Earth called the Coriolis effect.

The letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z are not used for the first letter when naming hurricanes.

The names are alternated between boy and girl names.

Weather forecasters draw a cone showing where they think the hurricane is most likely to travel.

You can always find out the latest information on hurricanes at the website of the National Hurricane Center which tracks and forecasts hurricanes.

Activities

Take a ten question quiz about this page.

Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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Earth Science Subjects

Science >> Earth Science for Kids

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Kids learn about hurricanes (Tropical Cyclones) including how they form, names, eye, eye wall, rainbands, locations, seasons, facts, and categories.

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Kids learn about the California Gold Rush from the Old West. Thousands of people move to the west to search for gold and strike it rich.

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Kids learn about the history of the March on Washington including Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech, the Big Six planners, and the results such as Civil Rights Act in 1964.

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" I Have a Dream" is the name of a speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave on August 28, 1963 while standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.. In his speech, he spoke of his wish for the future. His wish was that people of different races could live together peacefully in the United States. The speech was given to over 200,000 supporters. He spoke of the discrimination that the black men have faced even though they were to be treated as equals after the great Abraham Lincoln signed the momentous decree; the Emancipation Proclamation. The speech is very famous. It has been called by many- the best speech given in the 20th century.

Background

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was partly intended to demonstrate mass support for the civil rights legislation proposed by President Kennedy in June. Martin Luther King and other leaders therefore agreed to keep their speeches calm, also, to avoid provoking the civil disobedience which had become the hallmark of the Civil Rights Movement. King originally designed his speech as a homage to Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, timed to correspond with the 100-year centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Among the most quoted lines of the speech include "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!"

According to U.S. Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."

Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)

The speech was lauded in the days after the event, and was widely considered the high point of the March by contemporary observers. James Reston, writing for the New York Times, said that "Dr. King touched all the themes of the day, only better than anybody else. He was full of the symbolism of Lincoln and Gandhi, and the cadences of the Bible.

He was both militant and sad, and he sent the crowd away feeling that the long journey had been worthwhile." Reston also noted that the event "was better covered by television and the press than any event here since President Kennedy's inauguration", and opined that "it will be a long time before [Washington] forgets the melodious and melancholy voice of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. crying out his dreams to the multitude." An article in the Boston Globe by Mary McGrory reported that King's speech "caught the mood" and "moved the crowd" of the day "as no other" speaker in the event.

The speech was a success for the Kennedy administration and for the liberal civil rights coalition that had planned it. It was considered a "triumph of managed protest", and not one arrest relating to the demonstration occurred. Kennedy had watched King's speech on television and been very impressed. Afterwards, March leaders accepted an invitation to the White House to meet with President Kennedy. Kennedy felt the March bolstered the chances for his civil rights bill.

In the wake of the speech and march, King was named Man of the Year by TIME magazine for 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The full speech did not appear in writing until August 1983, some 15 years after King's death, when a transcript was published in The Washington Post.

In 2002, the Library of Congress honored the speech by adding it to the United States National Recording Registry. In 2003, the National Park Service dedicated an inscribed marble pedestal to commemorate the location of King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was dedicated in 2011. The centerpiece for the memorial is based on a line from King's "I Have A Dream" speech: "Out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope." A 30 feet (9.1 m)-high relief of King named the "Stone of Hope" stands past two other pieces of granite that symbolize the "mountain of despair."

On August 28, 2013, thousands gathered on the mall in Washington D.C. where King made his historic speech to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the occasion. In attendance were former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, and incumbent President Barack Obama, who addressed the crowd and spoke on the significance of the event. Many of King's family were in attendance.

On April 20, 2016, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced that the U.S. $5 bill, which has featured the Lincoln Memorial on its back, would undergo a redesign prior to 2020. Lew said that a portrait of Lincoln would remain on the front of the bill, but the back would be redesigned to depict various historical events that have occurred at the memorial, including an image from King's speech.

Original copy of the speech

As King waved goodbye to the audience, he handed George Raveling the original typewritten "I Have a Dream" speech. Raveling, an All-American Villanova Wildcats college basketball player, had volunteered as a security guard for the event and was on the podium with King at that moment. Raveling still has custody of the original copy and has been offered as high as $3,000,000 for it, but claims to have no intention of selling it.

Images for kids

King at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C

The location on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial from which King delivered the speech is commemorated with this inscription

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" I Have a Dream" is the name of a speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave on August 28, 1963 while standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.. In his speech, he spoke of his wish for the future.

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Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, and the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm formed over the Bahamas on August 23, where it moved east and hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane two days later. Katrina then crossed over Florida and strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm then hit Louisiana and Mississippi on the morning of August 29. The leftovers of Katrina then died out over the Great Lakes on August 31.

The damage Katrina brought was so bad that 80% of New Orleans was flooded when the levees to the city broke. Most of the people killed by Katrina were thought to have died from drowning. Because of Katrina's effect on the US, the hurricane was known to be one of the most deadly hurricanes in US history.

Storm history

Hurricane Katrina began as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005. The depression later strengthened into a tropical storm on the morning of August 24 where the storm was also named Katrina. Katrina continued to move into Florida, and became a Category 1 hurricane only two hours before it made landfall around Hallandale Beach on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but became a hurricane again while entering the Gulf of Mexico.

Katrina began to gain strength very quickly after entering the Gulf, partly because of the storm moving over to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. On August 27, Hurricane Katrina reached Category 3 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An "eyewall replacement cycle" once made Katrina stop becoming stronger for a short moment, but made Katrina to become nearly twice as large in the end.

Katrina again began to quickly strengthen, reaching Category 5 strength on the morning of August 28 and reached its strongest point with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar. Katrina's minimal pressure measurement made it the fourth most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be beaten by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season. In addition, Katrina was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time (a record also later broken by Rita).

Katrina made its second landfall on August 29 as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h) near St. Bernard, Louisiana. At landfall, hurricane-force winds reached outward 120 miles (190 km) from the center and the storm's central pressure was 920 mbar. After moving over southeastern Louisiana, it made its third landfall over New Orleans, Louisiana and the levees were not made to withstand that much water and ended up collapsing leading to massive flooding. Katrina kept its hurricane strength well into Mississippi, but began to weaken later, finally losing hurricane strength more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi. Katrina weakened to a tropical depression near Clarksville, Tennessee, but its remains were last seen around the eastern Great Lakes on August 31 when it died. The leftover extratropical cyclone moved quickly to the northeast and affected Ontario and Quebec.

American movie maker Spike Lee made a HBO documentary "When The Levees Broke" that shows the extensive damage in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The documentary suggests that the damage caused was due to the inability of the levees to weather the storm or a probable sabotage. The documentary also suggests that the federal government did a poor job of disaster management. Resources arrived after several days. Most of the people who died did so from drowning.

Retirement

The name Katrina was retired for the record breaking damage, the deaths, and the economic impact. This means that it will not be used as a name for any new storms in the future. A new name, Katia, replaced it for 2011.

Other pages

Images for kids

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Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, and the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm formed over the Bahamas on August 23, where it moved east and hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane two days later.

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The RMS Titanic was a British passenger ship. It was built by Harland and Wolff ship builders, in Belfast, for the White Star Line company. She sank during her first trip at sea. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it the deadliest sinking of a single ship up to that time.

Before she sailed, many people thought it would be almost impossible for ships of this design to sink.

Background

The name Titanic derives from the Titans of Greek mythology. Built in Belfast, Ireland, in what was then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, RMS Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners-the first was RMS Olympic and the third was HMHS Britannic. Britannic was originally to be called Gigantic and was to be over 1,000 feet (300 m) long. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912. The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. P. Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. (IMM).

The White Star Line faced an increasing challenge from its main rivals, Cunard-which had recently launched Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest passenger ships then in service-and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners that would be larger than anything that had gone before, as well as being the last word in comfort and luxury. Thus, the Olympic and Titanic would replace RMS Teutonic of 1889, RMS Majestic of 1890 as well as RMS Adriatic of 1907. RMS Oceanic would remain on the route until the third new ship could be delivered. Majestic would be brought back into her old spot on White Star Line's New York service after Titanic's loss.

The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilder Harland & Wolff. Cost considerations were a relatively low priority; Harland & Wolff were authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five percent profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million (approximately £310 million in 2019) for the first two ships was agreed plus "extras to contract" and the usual five percent fee.

On July 29, 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three "letters of agreement" two days later, authorising the start of construction. At this point, the first ship-which was later to become Olympic-had no name but was referred to simply as "Number 400", as it was Harland and Wolff's four-hundredth hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.

Building and preparing the ship

The sheer size of Titanic and her sister ships posed a major engineering challenge for Harland and Wolff; no shipbuilder had ever before attempted to construct vessels this size. The ships were constructed on Queen's Island, now known as the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast Harbour. Harland and Wolff had to demolish three existing slipways and build two new ones, the largest ever constructed up to that time, to accommodate both ships. Their construction was facilitated by an enormous gantry built by Sir William Arrol & Co., a Scottish firm responsible for the building of the Forth Bridge and London's Tower Bridge. The Arrol Gantry stood 228 feet (69 m) high, was 270 feet (82 m) wide and 840 feet (260 m) long, and weighed more than 6,000 tons. It accommodated a number of mobile cranes. A separate floating crane, capable of lifting 200 tons, was brought in from Germany.

Titanic was launched at 12:15 pm on 31 May 1911 in the presence of Lord Pirrie, J. Pierpont Morgan, J. Bruce Ismay and 100,000 onlookers. Twenty-two tons of soap and tallow were spread on the slipway to lubricate the ship's passage into the River Lagan. In keeping with the White Star Line's traditional policy, the ship was not formally named or christened with champagne. The ship was towed to a fitting-out berth where, over the course of the next year, her engines, funnels and superstructure were installed and her interior was fitted out.

The work took longer than expected due to design changes requested by Ismay and a temporary pause in work occasioned by the need to repair Olympic, which had been in a collision in September 1911. Had Titanic been finished earlier, she might well have missed her collision with an iceberg.

At 11:40 PM on 14 April 1912, during the Titanic's first trip, she hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. The iceberg broke the Titanic's hull (bottom), letting water into the ship. The Titanic sank two hours and forty minutes later at 2:20 AM on 15 April.

As she sank, the Titanic split in two. The wreck killed over 1,500 people. Only around 705 people survived. It was one of the worst shipwrecks that was not during a war.

One reason why so many people died was that the ship did not have enough lifeboats for everyone on board. The Titanic had 20 lifeboats with room for 1,178 passengers, only a third of the number of passengers the ship could carry. It actually had more lifeboats than was needed by law (it needed 16 with room for 990 passengers). This was because the laws in the UK were out of date. They did not say that a ship needed enough lifeboats for all passengers. They only said that a ship weighing more than 10,000 tons needed 16 lifeboats (the Titanic weighed 46,000 tons). Furthermore, the White Star Line believed that the lifeboats on the Titanic would only be needed to take passengers a short distance to a rescue ship.

Other reasons why fewer than a third of those aboard the Titanic survived the disaster include:

There was no information. The ship didn't have an alarm system (like the common ones, where sirens could be sounded). This means that the crew had to tell each passenger to go and evacuate the ship. There was less crew for second and third class, and there were much more people.

People who paid less had no access to certain decks.

There was a clear separation between the classes. The passage between decks of different classes could be locked. This was especially a problem in the first phase of the evacuation. According to some survivors, some passages were not opened even when the ship started sinking.

Many people travelling in third class were foreigners. Their language skills were limited.

The radio was off on the SS Californian, the ship closest to the Titanic. The Californian crew did not hear about the accident.

The Titanic had flares but they were white. Back then (and still now), red meant emergency and other colors were used for identification (White=White Star Line). The Californian and other ships saw the flares but they didn't think of the flares as distress signals. Another ship, the SS Carpathia, did hear about the accident and collected all 705 survivors.

Higher class women and children were allowed on the lifeboats first, and passengers who sailed in first class (which meant that they paid for better rooms on the ship) were allowed on before other passengers. Few of the poorer people who had paid less (called second class and third class passengers) got out safely (only 3% of first-class women were lost while 54% of those in third-class died). The differences by gender were even bigger: nearly all female crew members, first- and second-class passengers were saved. Men from the First Class died at a higher rate than women from the Third Class. In total, 50% of the children survived, 20% of the men and 75% of the women.

Many of those who died didn't die because they couldn't leave the ship before it sank. They died of hypothermia, while they were floating in the cold water (which was only a bit over the freezing point at that time). Many lifeboats rowed away from those who were in the water shouting for help. The people in the lifeboats were afraid the lifeboat would capsize when people entered it from the water. Only lifeboat Number four returned to the shouting people in the water. Five people could be rescued, but two of them died in the lifeboat. Around 3 am ship's time, 40 minutes after the sinking, the last calls for help ceased. After three am, lifeboat number 14, commanded by Officer Harold Lowe returned. He could save another three people. He had emptied the lifeboat and let the people in the boat enter other boats beforehand.

The following table gives a listing of those who died and those who survived, grouped by age, gender and ships class. Children are those up to age 12. It is taken from a report to British Parliament of 1912. There are other lists, with slightly different numbers.

Last survivor

The last survivor of the 'Titanic disaster to die was a woman named Millvina Dean. She was the youngest passenger on board, as she was then a baby of only nine weeks old. She died in Ashhurst, Hampshire, England on 21 May 2009 aged 97.

Changes after the accident

The Titanic disaster changed many maritime ship laws. Because so many people died, authorities felt that laws should be put into place to make ship travel safer. Changes included requiring all ships to carry enough lifeboats for everyone on the ship, and emergency materials such as flares. Someone must be at the ship's radio all the time.

Alexander Brehm, a German physicist, was shocked when he heard about the disaster. He wanted to invent a technology that would be able to detect icebergs. He wasn't able to achieve that goal until his death, but he was granted patents relating to the measurement of the depth at sea, using sound. Today, this is known as echo sounding.

The wreck was found by a French and American team, led by Robert Ballard, on September 23, 1985 at 1:02 in the morning.

In 1986, Ballard returned to the wreck with a submarine. He took many photos and made lots of films.

In 1987, a French team salvaged 900 objects and took them to the surface.

The story of the sinking has been made into several movies. The most popular film version is a 1997 film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio called . It won 11 Academy Awards, tying Ben-Hur for the record for the most Academy Awards won by one movie.

Other movie versions of the story include the 1958 film A Night to Remember, the 1953 film Titanic, the 1979 film S.O.S. Titanic and the 1996 movie Titanic.

In the 1980 film Raise the Titanic, salvagers raise the shipwreck from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. However, this is impossible to do in reality. The Titanic broke in two, and the wreck is partially stuck in the bottom, buried under more than three feet (1 m) of mud in some spots. The ship has been on the ocean floor for more than 100 years, and would shatter into many more pieces if disturbed. Worms and other animals have eaten away much of the wood and many other parts.

Images for kids

RMS Titanic leaving Belfast for her sea trials on 2 April 1912

The SS Californian, which had tried to warn Titanic of the danger from pack-ice

First Class Lounge of the Olympic which was almost identical to that of the Titanic, seen today as a dining room in the White Swan Hotel, Alnwick

The sinking, according to J. Thayer, sketched onboard Carpathia, based on his description

In Spanish: RMS Titanic para niños

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The worst drought (lack of rain) in U.S. history hit the southern Great Plains in the 1930s. High winds stirred up the dry soil. This caused huge dust storms that ruined farmland. The affected region came to be known as the Dust Bowl. It included southeastern Colorado, western Kansas, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and northeastern New Mexico.

Human mistakes made the drought worse. During World War I (1914-18) farmers planted new fields of wheat. Their plows removed grasses that had held the soil in place. Cattle grazing on ranches removed more grass. The loss of the grass cover loosened the soil. Winds blew it away in dust storms called "black blizzards." The storms blocked out the Sun and piled dirt in drifts.

During the drought, fields produced only one-fourth as much wheat and corn as before. Farmers struggled even more because the drought came during the Great Depression. The depression was a time of great economic hardship. People whose farms were ruined could not find other jobs. Many moved to California, where farms were still operating.

The U.S. government helped the Dust Bowl area recover. Government programs planted grass and trees. A government agency taught farmers better farming methods. Near the end of the 1930s rainfall finally increased. By the early 1940s the fields were productive again.

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The worst drought (lack of rain) in U.S. history hit the southern Great Plains in the 1930s. High winds stirred up the dry soil. This caused huge dust storms that ruined...

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On its first trip across the Atlantic Ocean, a passenger ship called the Titanic struck a huge iceberg. The ship sank on April 15, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people. It was one of the most famous disasters of the 20th century.

Before there were airplanes, people crossed oceans on ships called ocean liners. The Titanic was one of the largest ocean liners of its time. It was more than 880 feet (270 meters) long and had nine decks, or floors. The hull, or body, was made of steel and divided into 16 compartments. Some people said that the Titanic was unsinkable.

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set out from Southampton, England. It was bound for New York City. Some of the passengers were rich people on business or pleasure trips. Others were poor European emigrants who were looking for a better life in North America.

Lookouts saw an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14. The ship could not move out of the way fast enough. The hull was torn apart and the ship began to fill with water. At 2:20 am the next day, the Titanic sank.

About 705 people escaped in lifeboats. However, there were not nearly enough lifeboats for the 2,224 people that the ship carried. Governments strengthened safety rules for ships after the disaster.

In 1985 deep-sea explorers found the remains of the Titanic at a depth of 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) near the Canadian island of Newfoundland. Underwater vessels explored the ship and brought pieces of wreckage to the surface.

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On its first trip across the Atlantic Ocean, a passenger ship called the Titanic struck a huge iceberg. The ship sank on April 15, 1912, killing more than 1,500 people. It...

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The metal gold has been considered valuable for centuries. At times people have discovered places where gold can be dug out of the ground. This has created a gold rush, when many other people go to the same place hoping to find gold of their own.

The biggest North American gold rush took place in California. It started in 1848 when a carpenter found gold at Sutter's Mill, near the Sacramento River. By 1849 there were 80,000 gold seekers-called "forty-niners"-in the area.

A gold rush in 1851 brought people to the Ballarat and Bendigo regions of Victoria, Australia. People found nuggets, or chunks, of gold as large as 200 pounds (75 kilograms).

Another major gold strike took place along the Klondike River in the Yukon Territory of Canada. Despite cold weather, about 30,000 people came between 1896 and 1899. Some gold was found in Alaska also.

In 1886 a diamond digger discovered gold in the Transvaal region of South Africa. Today, South Africa is the world's largest producer of gold.

Gold is often discovered in isolated areas with few people or towns. But because so many people are attracted by the gold, several major cities have grown up around such areas. These include San Francisco, California; Melbourne, Australia; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

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The metal gold has been considered valuable for centuries. At times people have discovered places where gold can be dug out of the ground. This has created a gold rush, when many other people go to the same place hoping to find gold of their own.

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The March on Washington was a political demonstration in Washington, D.C. Its full name was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march was organized by civil rights leaders who wanted to bring people together to protest racial discrimination and to encourage the passage of civil rights legislation. The leaders included A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, John Lewis, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

On August 28, 1963, some 250,000 people from all over the country gathered in Washington D.C. They marched from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial to demand equal justice for all citizens under the law. Prominent civil rights leaders made speeches, religious leaders led prayers, and singers gave musical performances. King gave what became known as his "I Have a Dream" speech. The speech called for equality and freedom and became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement. It is one of the most famous speeches in U.S. history.

The march greatly influenced public opinion. It resulted in President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law banned discrimination in restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places. One year later Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act as well.

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The March on Washington was a political demonstration in Washington, D.C. Its full name was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march was organized by civil rights leaders who wanted to bring people together to protest racial discrimination and to encourage the passage of civil rights legislation.

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Hurricane, or Tropical Cyclone, Katrina struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The storm began as a tropical depression over The Bahamas on August 23, 2005. Over the next two days it gathered strength, becoming a tropical storm that was named Katrina. It made landfall between Miami, Florida, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a category 1 hurricane. Such hurricanes are capable of producing winds in the range of 74-95 miles per hour (119-154 kilometers per hour). Winds recorded at 70 miles per hour (115 kilometers per hour) whipped over Florida, and rainfall totals of 5 inches (13 centimeters) were reported in some areas. After less than eight hours over land, the storm moved off into the Gulf of Mexico, where it quickly intensified due to the warm waters.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Christine McCabe and Kenny Chmielewski

On August 27 Katrina strengthened to a category 3 hurricane (with winds capable of exceeding 115 miles per hour [185 kilometers per hour]) and covered nearly the entire Gulf of Mexico. By the following afternoon Katrina had become one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds in excess of 170 miles per hour (275 kilometers per hour). On the morning of August 29, the storm made landfall as a category 4 hurricane at Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, approximately 45 miles (70 kilometers) southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana. It continued moving to the northeast, crossing the Mississippi Sound and hitting land a second time later that morning near the mouth of the Pearl River. A storm surge more than 26 feet (8 meters) high slammed into the coastal cities of Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, destroying homes and resorts along the beachfront.

New Orleans, where much of the metropolitan area is below sea level, had been spared a direct hit. However, the levee system designed to hold back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne failed after being inundated with 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain and Katrina's storm surge. Areas of the city began to flood. By the afternoon of August 29, some 20 percent of the city was underwater.

A mandatory evacuation of New Orleans was ordered the previous day, and an estimated 1.2 million people left ahead of the storm. However, tens of thousands of residents either could not or would not leave. Some stayed in their homes while others sought shelter at the New Orleans Convention Center or the Louisiana Superdome. In the meantime, the levee system continued to give way, and by August 30 the city was 80 percent underwater. Many local agencies, with their own headquarters and control centers under 20 feet (6 meters) of water, were unable to respond to the dire situation. Without an organized effort to restore order in the city, looting became widespread.

The Red Cross set up a shelter at the Houston Astrodome, some 350 miles (560 kilometers) away from New Orleans. Although the first evacuees began to arrive on August 31, tens of thousands of people remained in the city. By September 1 an estimated 30,000 people had fled to the damaged Superdome, and an additional 25,000 had gathered at the Convention Center. Shortages of food and potable water quickly became an issue, and daily temperatures reached 90° F (32° C). A lack of basic sanitation as well as bacteria-laden floodwaters created a public health emergency.

By September 2 an effective military presence was established in the city to restore order. National Guard troops also were used to distribute food and water. Hurricane victims were still being evacuated, and crews began to rebuild the breached levees. On September 6, local police estimated that there were fewer than 10,000 residents left in New Orleans. As the recovery began, dozens of countries contributed funds and supplies, and Canada and Mexico deployed troops to the Gulf Coast to assist with the cleanup and rebuilding. The last of the floodwaters were pumped out of the city on October 11, 2005, some 43 days after Katrina made landfall. Ultimately, the storm caused more than $100 billion in damage, and it reduced the population of New Orleans to a fraction of its former size.

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Hurricane, or Tropical Cyclone, Katrina struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. The storm began as a tropical depression over The Bahamas on August 23, 2005.

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Improve your students' reading comprehension with ReadWorks. Access thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, and create online assignments with them for your students.

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Improve your students' reading comprehension with ReadWorks. Access thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, and create online assignments with them for your students.

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America's reading comprehension crisis.

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America's reading comprehension crisis.

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Fire, fire, burning bright, see what sets a fuel alight! Tim and Moby ignite the mystery of combustion, the chemical reaction that makes flame possible.

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US History: The Great Chicago Fire for Kids

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Kids learn about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that burned down much of the city of Chicago. How and where did it start? Why did it spread so fast? Did anything survive? Educational article for students, schools, and teachers.

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The most famous fire in American history is the Chicago fire of 1871. It is also called the Great Chicago Fire. It began on the evening of October 8, 1871, and burned until...

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The Great Chicago Fire begins in Catherine O'Leary's barn.

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American Experience | Surviving the Dust Bowl: Chapter 1 | Season 10 | PBS

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Watch chapter 1 of Surviving the Dust Bowl.

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BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts & Music, Health, and Technology

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The Underground Railroad was not an actual railway. Instead, it was a secret organization that existed in the United States before the Civil War. The people of the Underground Railroad helped escaped enslaved people from the South to reach places of safety in the North or in Canada.

The Underground Railroad used railway terms as code words. The routes to freedom were called "lines." The hiding places on the lines were called "stations." The people who moved or hid the enslaved people were called "conductors." The enslaved people themselves were sometimes called "freight."

The Underground Railroad had to be secret because it was against the law. Laws called the Fugitive Slave Acts protected slaveholders' rights even in states that did not allow slavery. The people who ran the Underground Railroad were abolitionists -they wanted to abolish, or end, slavery in all states.

Many Underground Railroad conductors were followers of the Quaker religion. The Quaker leader Thomas Garrett is believed to have helped about 2,700 enslaved people escape. Other conductors were Northern Blacks. Harriet Tubman, a former enslaved woman, led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom.

The heaviest activities of the Underground Railroad were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, New York, and the New England states. Most routes ended in Canada. Estimates of the number of enslaved people who "rode" the Underground Railroad range from 40,000 to 100,000. The Railroad's activities ended with the beginning of the Civil War in 1861.

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The Underground Railroad was not an actual railway. Instead, it was a secret organization that existed in the United States before the Civil War. The people of the Underground Railroad helped escaped enslaved people from the South to reach places of safety in the North or in Canada.

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Gain instant access to this beautifully designed Unit on Underground Railroad, where kids will learn What the Underground Railroad Was, Slavery in the South, Heroes and Helpers, and more. Access 3 different reading levels perfect for Grades 3-8. Written by subject experts, aligns with standards.

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Time for Kids March on Washington Remembered 

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Time for Kids March on Washington Remembered 

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On August 28, 1963, people poured into Washington, D.C. Many held signs: "We March for Schools Now!" and "We Demand Jobs for All Now!"

The event was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It drew about 250,000 people. They were calling on the United States government to pass laws guaranteeing equal rights for all Americans. At the Lincoln Memorial, they heard Martin Luther King Jr. give one of the most important speeches in our nation's history.

PAUL SCHUTZER-THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

The Life of a Leader

King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929. He became a minister and moved to Montgomery, Alabama. He preached often about his dream of equality for all. But in the 1950s, segregation was a fact of life in many parts of the country, especially in the South.

In 1955, an African-American teenager named Claudette Colvin was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama. She had refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Rosa Parks was arrested soon after for a similar act of protest. This led to a yearlong of public buses in Montgomery. It also led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that banned segregated seating on buses.

In April 1963, King helped lead a protest in Birmingham, Alabama. He was arrested and jailed. That only motivated him. A few months later, he joined other civil rights leaders for the March on Washington. It was organized by Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph. Many leaders spoke before King. His speech lasted 18 minutes.

"I have a dream," he said, "that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its : 'We hold these truths to be , that all men are created equal,'" King said toward the end. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their ."

"He was preaching from his heart," says John Lewis. He is now a U.S. congressman in Georgia.

BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

The Dream Lives On

The March on Washington showed Americans the power of peaceful protest. The following year, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. It banned .

Maxine Allen Johnson Wood took part in the March on Washington. She had just graduated from college. She says King's dream is still important today. "The image that he gave was [of] a future. And it wasn't beyond our reality to think that [it] could happen."

King's words continue to inspire people around the world. "Of all the gifts [he gave us], the greatest has been the belief in society's ability to change and the power each of us has to effect that change," Lewis says.

JEFF HUTCHENS-GETTY IMAGES; GREGORY SMITH-AP PHOTO; THOS ROBINSON-GETTY IMAGES; RICH FURY-GETTY IMAGES

"I Was There"

What was it like to attend the March on Washington? TIME magazine spoke with people who were there. They remember how King led the crowd in raising a voice for equality.
Joan Baez, Singer
"I'd never seen anything like it. I remember the electricity in the air."
Rachel Robinson, The Jackie Robinson Foundation
"We were looking for leadership, and he was offering it."
Nan Orrock, State Senator
"I resolved at that moment . . . I was going to be a part of changing the country."
John Lewis, Congressman
"There was so much hope, so much optimism after the March on Washington."

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On August 28, 1963, people poured into Washington, D.C. Many held signs: "We March for Integrated Schools Now!" and "We Demand Jobs for All Now!" The event was called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It drew about...

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People across the country rushed to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Aid groups have received more than $867 million in donations. Kids are among the biggest helpers. Third graders in Tennessee donated food and supplies. A California boy had...

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For Kids

What was a wagon train? A wagon train was a group of covered wagons that traveled together, headed west, in a straight line. There was a wagon master, called a captain, who was in charge. At night, the captain would direct the wagons to form a circle for protection from bandits and other dangers.

How did you find a wagon train to join? Most wagon trains left from Missouri or Iowa. Wagon trains were businesses. They took reservations. People booked passage, but had to purchase their own supplies including oxen and wagons. Some wagon trains were organized by people from the same town or area.

Wagons: Most pioneers purchased modified or manufactured wagons designed for the trip. Some had built-in features like sleeping berths and false floors over large storage areas. Some wagons were very simple. Some families had more than one wagon.

What did they take with them? A wagon held about 2,000 pounds of goods. People were advised to carry enough food to feed their individual families for at least 5 months.

How far did a wagon train travel in one day? If the ground was muddy, the might spend an entire day moving forward one mile. If it was dry, they might move forward 5-10 miles.

The Oregon Trail - Learn about life on the trail

For Teachers

Wagon Trains, powerpoints
Western Expansion Index

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What was a wagon train? A wagon train was a group of covered wagons that traveled together, headed west, in a straight line. There was a wagon master, called a captain, who was in charge. At night, the captain would direct the wagons to form a circle for protection from bandits and other dangers.

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Lessons From History: the Chicago Fire of 1871

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Lessons From History: the Chicago Fire of 1871

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Lessons from History:  The Chicago Fire of 1871

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Civil Rights Act of 1964 | Montgomery Bus Boycott for Kids | Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King

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History >> Civil Rights for Kids

African-American Civil Rights Movement

March on Washington Aug 28, 1963
from the United States Information Agency

The African-American Civil Rights Movement was an ongoing fight for racial equality that took place for over 100 years after the Civil War. Leaders such asMartin Luther King, Jr., Booker T. Washington, and Rosa Parks paved the way for non-violent protests which led to changes in the law. When most people talk about the "Civil Rights Movement" they are talking about the protests in the 1950s and 1960s that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Background

The Civil Rights Movement has its background in the abolitionist movement before theCivil War. Abolitionists were people that thought slavery was morally wrong and wanted it to come to an end. Before the Civil War, many of the northern states had outlawed slavery. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln freed the enslaved with the Emancipation Proclamation. After the war, slavery was made illegal with the thirteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Segregation and the Jim Crow Laws

Jim Crow Drinking Fountain
by John Vachon

After the Civil War, many southern states continued to treat African-Americans as second class citizens. They implemented laws that kept black people separate from white people. These laws became known as Jim Crow laws. They required separate schools, restaurants, restrooms, and transportation based on the color of a person's skin. Other laws prevented many black people from voting.

Early Protests

In the early 1900s, black people began to protest the Jim Crow laws that southern states were implementing to enforce segregation. Several African-American leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells joined together to found the NAACP in 1909. Another leader, Booker T. Washington, helped to form schools to educate African-Americans in order to improve their status in society.

The Movement Grows

The civil rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s when theSupreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was illegal in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Federal troops were brought in to Little Rock, Arkansas to allow the Little Rock Nine to attend a previously all white high school.

Major Events in the Movement

The 1950's and early 1960's brought about several major events in the fight for the civil rights of African-Americans. In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. This sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott which lasted for over a year and brought Martin Luther King, Jr. to the forefront of the movement. King led a number of non-violent protests including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington.

Lyndon Johnson signing Civil Rights Act
by Cecil Stoughton

Civil Rights Act of 1964

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law byPresident Lyndon Johnson. This act outlawed segregation and the Jim Crow laws of the south. It also outlawed discrimination based on race, national background, and gender. Although there were still many issues, this law gave the NAACP and other organizations a strong base on which to fight discrimination in the courts.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

In 1965, another law was passed called the Voting Rights Act. This law said that citizens could not be denied the right to vote based on their race. It outlawed literacy tests (a requirement that people be able to read) and poll taxes (a fee that people had to pay to vote).

Interesting Facts about the African-American Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Act was originally proposed by President John F. Kennedy.

The 1968 Civil Rights Act, also known as the Fair Housing Act, outlawed discrimination in the selling or renting of housing.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee was once the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed in 1968.

Today, African-Americans have been elected or appointed to the highest positions in the U.S. government including Secretary of State (Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice) and President (Barack Obama).

Activities

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Civil Rights Leaders

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History >> Civil Rights for Kids

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Kids learn about the history of the African-American Civil Rights Movement including segregation, Jim Crow laws, protests, Martin Luther King, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: A Leader and a Hero

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i love to learn about the titanic.

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