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Temple Grandin urges parents and educators to expose autistic children to a range of experiences

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WW2: The Rise of Nazism and the Holocaust | The Jewish Story | Unpacked

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How did soccer players survive in Thai cave?

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How Divers Successfully Saved 12 Thai Boys Trapped In A Cave | Operation Thai Cave Rescue

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Thirteen Lives - Official Trailer | Prime Video

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The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

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The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart

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The life and disappearance of Amelia Earhart

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Curios In Time - The Lincoln Kidnapping Plot

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A Timeline of the Hunt for John Wilkes Booth 

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A Timeline of the Hunt for John Wilkes Booth 

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A Timeline of the Hunt for John Wilkes Booth

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The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln Explained

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The Liberation Of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

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Roberto Clemente - The American Experience

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Roberto Clemente - The American Experience

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American Experience | Chapter 1 | Roberto Clemente | Season 20 | Episode 7 | PBS

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Roberto Clemente - Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates

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Roberto Clemente - Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates

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Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates I Read Aloud Journeys I Highlighted Words

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Roberto Clemente | Full Documentary | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS

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Clemente's first game in the major leagues was on April 1, 1955. He spent 18 seasons with the Pirates, leading them to two World Series titles, in 1960 and 1971. Clemente had an outstanding throwing arm, and he won 12 Gold Glove awards for his performance in right field. Clemente was also a strong hitter. He won four National League batting titles. In 1972, in his last at-bat, he got his 3,000th base hit. At the time, only 10 other players had done this.

Clemente had to contend with prejudice and racism because he was Black and did not speak English as his first language. He was mocked for his accent, and, even though he insisted on being called Roberto, others often called him "Bob" or "Bobby." He worked to gain equal treatment for Hispanic baseball players and helped to change opinions about Latin Americans and Blacks.

During the off-season Clemente would return to Puerto Rico. He spent time with his family, played winter baseball in the Puerto Rican League, and opened baseball clinics for young players. After a massive earthquake hit Nicaragua in December 1972, Clemente headed relief efforts in Puerto Rico. When he heard that the relief supplies for the Nicaraguan people were being stolen by the army, he decided to go with the next plane of supplies. Shortly after takeoff on December 31 the plane crashed, and Clemente was killed.

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Roberto Clemente was a Puerto Rican baseball player. He was one of the first Latin American baseball stars in the United States. He spent his entire Major League Baseball...

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British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945. Thousands of bodies lay unburied around the camp and some 60,000 starving and mortally ill people were packed together without food, water or basic sanitation. Many were suffering from typhus, dysentery and starvation.

Bergen-Belsen was first established in 1940 as a prisoner of war camp. From 1943, Jewish civilians with foreign passports were held as 'leverage' in possible exchanges for Germans interned in Allied countries or for money. It later became a concentration camp and was used as a collection centre for survivors of the death marches. The camp became exceptionally overcrowded and, as a result of the Germans' neglect, conditions were allowed to deteriorate further in the last months of the war, causing many more deaths.

The British Army immediately began to organise the relief effort. Their first priorities were to bury the dead, contain the spread of disease, restore the water supply and arrange the distribution of food that was suitable for starving prisoners in various stages of malnutrition. Additional military and civilian medical personnel were brought in to support the relief effort. The British faced serious challenges in stabilising conditions in the camp and implementing a medical response to the crisis. Nearly 14,000 prisoners would die after liberation.

For many survivors, the process of recovery and repatriation would continue long after the end of the Second World War.

In the audio clips below, British servicemen and relief workers talk about and reflect on their experiences during and immediately after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

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British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen on 15 April 1945. Thousands of bodies lay unburied around the camp and some 60,000 starving and mortally ill people were packed together without food, water or basic sanitation. Many were suffering from typhus, dysentery and starvation.

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Organized by theme, this learning site presents an overview of the Holocaust through historical photographs, maps, images of artifacts, and testimony clips. It is a resource for middle and secondary level students and teachers, with content that reflects the history as it is presented in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Permanent Exhibition.

Nazi Rule

Browse 9 articles about the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany. Learn about how the Nazis took control of the police and turned Germany into a dictatorship; used propaganda and censorship to implement a racist ideology; and implemented brutal policies as Germany annexed and occupied parts of Europe.

Jews in Prewar Germany

Browse a series of 9 articles about Jewish life in Germany and Europe before 1939. Learn about antisemitism and international attitudes toward Jews. Also, read about how the Nazis implemented antisemitic laws and organized state-sponsored violence and discrimination against the Jews of Germany. Each article includes three key dates related to its main topic.

The "Final Solution"

Browse a series of 8 articles on the Nazi plan to deliberately murder European Jews. These articles explain how the Nazis implemented the "Final Solution" by establishing ghettos and killing centers in occupied Poland; deploying Einsatzgruppen (special action squads) to commit mass shootings; and the organization of mass deportations of Jews to ghettos and killing centers.

Nazi Camp System

Browse a series of 8 articles on the history of the Nazi camp system. Learn about the different types of camps operated by the Nazi regime; who was incarcerated in these camps and why; what happened to the prisoners of the camps at the end of the war; and about the Nuremberg Trials established to bring Nazi perpetrators to justice.

Rescue and Resistance

Browse a series of 7 articles on rescue and resistance. Learn about how some Jews survived the Holocaust despite the inhumane conditions created by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Read about people who tried to rescue Jews; resistance groups who opposed the Nazi regime and occupations; and Jews who revolted against Nazi oppression in the Warsaw ghetto and in killing centers.

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The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students

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Learning about the Holocaust is one way to honor those lost. Browse our learning site for students as a resource for Holocaust-education projects.

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The Nazi Party was a political group that ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945. "Nazi" is a short form of the official name. In English the official name is the National...

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

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Temple Grandin | Biography, Books, & Facts

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Temple Grandin, (born August 29, 1947, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.), American scientist and industrial designer whose own experience with autism funded her professional work in creating systems to counter stress in certain human and animal populations. Grandin was unable to talk at age three and ex…

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Temple Grandin is perhaps the world's most famous scholar living with autism. In more than 50 years working in animal agriculture - specialising in designing more humane livestock handling facilities - she has improved cattle treatment internationally. She is also a prominent activist, author and speaker on autism. Her insights shared about her personal experiences - she struggled to talk as a child - have done much to increase our understanding of the condition. Her new book, Visual Thinking: The Hidden Gifts of People Who Think in Pictures, Patterns and Abstractions, argues that, in a world dominated by verbal thinkers, those with visual brains are being overlooked and underestimated - to the detriment of all of us. Grandin, 75, is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

What are the different ways of thinking, as you conceive them?
I've come to gradually see, and it has been confirmed in the scientific literature, there are two kinds of visual thinkers: "object visualisers", like me, who think in pictures (concrete, detailed images), and a second group who, different from me, are "spatial visualisers". More mathematically inclined, they think in patterns and abstractions. They are distinct from verbal thinkers who perceive and process information primarily through language. Both types of visual thinkers tend to be more bottom up, details first. Verbal thinkers tend to be more top down, linear and sequential. Most people are mixtures of different kinds of thinking. What tends to happen in fully verbal autistic people is that you get the extremes of one type or another. That I am an extreme object visualiser is probably because I am autistic.

Your memoir, Thinking in Pictures, was first published more than 25 years ago and you have written books subsequently about autism and thinking differently. What's new here?
The biggest thing is I look at the skill-loss issue, which is gigantic in the US. We are losing essential technical skills at a time when we need to rebuild our physical infrastructure and make more hi-tech products here. I focus on the education system and how it is screening out our visual thinkers - particularly the object visualisers who thrive at building, making and mechanical things. At the feed yard I visited this morning, they are having difficulty finding people to fix the feed mill equipment and the specialised feed trucks: that fits right in with the book.

I worry too many fully verbal kids are so overprotected by their parents, they are not teaching them basic life skills

What would you most like to see schools do differently?
Putting hands-on classes back. They fell away starting in the 1990s with more academic testing. That would include shop (with instruction in trades like metalwork, woodwork or auto mechanics), cooking, sewing, music, art and theatre (which needs set design and lighting). I'm a big believer in exposure: kids need to try different things and find out what they're good at.

How have attitudes about autism changed in your lifetime?
A lot more services are available. Little kids can get diagnosed early, there is better early intervention and better parent support; that is good. But I also worry too many kids, even fully verbal kids are so overprotected by their parents, who get locked into the autism label, they are not teaching them basic life skills like shopping or laundry, which I was taught.

The diagnostic criteria for autism were revised in 2013 so it is now on a spectrum and known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Has that been a good thing?
The spectrum is so broad it doesn't make much sense. Are we really going to put people with severe autism who cannot dress themselves in the same category as people with mild autism who work in Silicon Valley? It has also made this problem of not learning life skills worse - because even just slightly geeky kids are getting labelled as "on the spectrum". Where this labelling can be useful is with relationships - it can help with misunderstandings.

Given your affinity with animals, how can you design better slaughterhouses for them?
You've got to give animals a decent life worth living, where they can have some positive emotions. One thing that makes me angry is seeing cattle coming into the slaughterhouse lame. I've been seeing some problems with this recently for different reasons, including because animals are being grown to heavier weights. They have got to be able to walk - that is a basic behaviour they should have! And I've been in trouble with some people in the industry for saying that.

Where does your connection with animals come from?
I think it is because, like me, they don't think in words. They think instead through their senses. It used to be denied that animals had emotions, which has always seemed ridiculous to me. Back in my early scientific papers, I was not allowed to use the word "fear". The reviewers made me call it "behavioural agitation". That is slowly changing, but I think some of it gets down to verbal thinkers maybe finding it hard to imagine an animal can think and have feelings when they don't use words.

You note in the book that many historical figures we regard as geniuses were also neurodivergent. Is it a prerequisite for genius?
I haven't researched everybody, but it can be a factor. Einstein, for example, had no speech until around age three or four. He would land in an autism programme today. I also discuss savants, who have extreme skills in certain narrow areas. They can perform amazing mathematical calculations in their heads, for example. A substantially higher proportion of people with autism have savant characteristics, compared with the general population.

A biopic about your early life was released by HBO in 2010 (Claire Danes played you). Do you still use the hug machine you invented as a student to give yourself the feeling of being hugged without being touched? And do you eat more than just jello [jelly] and yoghurt these days?
The hug machine broke about 11 years ago. I never fixed it because by that time I'd been hugging real people (the machine helped me desensitise myself). I got the idea from a cattle squeeze chute: I had horrible panic attacks and anxiety and the deep pressure was calming.

The jello and yoghurt was because, in my late 20s, I found I was having terrible bouts of colitis. Everything else just went straight through me. Then I went on low-dose antidepressants for my panic attacks (which I have been on ever since) and the colitis cleared up. My abnormal fear response - I found from a brain scan that my fear centre, my amygdala, was three times larger than normal - was causing it.

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Autistic scholar Temple Grandin: 'The education system is screening out visual thinkers'

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By favouring verbal thinkers, says the author and animal scientist, essential skills are being lost. Her new book aims to demonstrate the power of processing information in different ways

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Temple Grandin Shares Her Journey With Autism

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Temple Grandin Shares Her Journey With Autism

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Temple Grandin is one of my intellectual and cultural heroes, who transformed the meat industry through her design of more humane handling systems for livestock. And she's transformed our conversation about autism, which affects (by some estimates) 2.2 million people in the United States. Grandin is a scientist, author, and professor of animal science at Colorado State University.

Grandin didn't have an easy start to life. She was diagnosed with autism when she was three, ostracized by her peers, and socially isolated. She joined us on the Science of Happiness podcast to talk about those who supported her along the way to become who she is today: an advocate for people with autism, a leading scientist, and the world's leading expert on humane animal handling.

Below, we share more of our conversation with Grandin-including tips for parents of children with autism, what helped her become successful in life, and why the world should make room for different types of thinkers.
Dacher Keltner: When you were growing up, kids with autism were treated brutally and institutionalized. You've made it known that your mother was a fierce supporter of you. What was that like?
Temple Grandin: Mother was very creative. We were always doing art projects together, carving pumpkins, making Halloween costumes. She was very much encouraging all of those kinds of activities. She also had a very good sense of what I'd be able to handle and what I would not be able to handle.

My mother was always encouraging my ability in art and pushing me to do new things. I started out just drawing the same horse head over and over again. Then mother said, "Well, we need to draw the whole horse. Let's draw the stable." She took that fixated interest on the horse heads and expanded it. It's very important to expand the kid's interest.

Social skills were taught in a much more structured way in my generation. When kids were seven or eight, they had to put on their good clothes and (when the parents had a party) greet the guests, pass out the snacks, learn how to talk to the guests.

Also, in my generation, grownups corrected children, no matter where you were. If I touched too much stuff in the store, the staff at the store would say, "Only touch the things you're going to buy." They would give the instruction on what you were supposed to do. They didn't just scream, "No!"
DK: I'm curious what words of wisdom you have for parents and families and children of different ages on how to live a life with autism.
TG: If you have a two year old that's not talking, regardless of cause (as long as there's not deafness or something wrong with the mouth), you need to get into therapy right away. And if you're in a situation where you can't get one-on-one therapy, then get grandmothers in the neighborhood to work with the kid.

Teach them language. Teach them how to take turns at games, and teach them skills, like putting on clothing. The worst thing you can do with a child that's not talking at age two and three is do nothing and let them zone out on electronics.

Now, when the kids get a little older, we need to be looking more at what they can do. A lot of those that remain non-verbal have more skills than you think they might have. Build on the thing the kid is good at.

But kids have to be exposed to things to find out what they might be good at. I feel so strongly that schools made a big mistake when they took out all the hands-on classes, because I was super good at art. Well, that's not gonna show up if art is never encouraged. For another kid, it might be music.

And work on what they're good at. I'm very much into career. Students get interested in what they get exposed to. I got interested in the cattle industry because I was exposed to it as a teenager. I just watched that movie, The Fabelmans, that's about Steven Spielberg's childhood. He had a movie camera when he was 12 years old and filmed a train wreck with toy trains. He was exposed to movie cameras very young and got to use them.
DK: How has your own autism been a source of support for you in your life and work?
TG: I'm an extreme visual thinker, and that helped me in my work with animals. Animals live in a sensory-based world. It helped me in my design work because the visual thinkers like me see the world in photorealistic pictures.

The kinds of jobs that my kind of mind is good at are art, animal behavior, mechanical devices, and photography. And I absolutely can't do algebra; it's too abstract.

I'm very concerned about all these draconian math requirements, screening a lot of kids out of many fields where you simply don't need algebra and some of the higher math. The thing is, you need us to fix infrastructure that's falling apart. When I was out working with big companies on equipment design, I worked with equipment designers and welders; I'm going to guess about 20% of them were autistic, ADHD, or dyslexic, and they owned large metal fabricating shops and they had 20 patents.

Then you have the mathematical minds-visual-spatial pattern thinkers-who think in patterns. They're the ones who ace algebra; they're going to be computer scientists [or go into the] more mathematical parts of engineering.

Then, of course, you have the word thinkers. There's scientific research that shows that these different kinds of thinkers really do exist, and a lot of people are mixtures of the different kinds.
DK: What appealed to you about science? What struck you or activated your curiosity?
TG: I was very interested in optical illusions. I watched an old Bell Labs movie about optical illusions that they showed in a science class, and I got fascinated with the Ames distorted room illusion. It's an illusion where you have two people in a room and one person's twice as big as the other person. The reason why it works is the room is actually a trapezoid.

I was then challenged to figure out how to make it myself; they weren't going to just show me how to make it. I had one hint where I got to see a brief, five-second look at a picture in a book. That's all. There was no internet back then, and I had to figure out how to make it work, which I did. And it took a lot of effort.
DK: I would imagine you've faced considerable obstacles in making the cattle industry more humane.
TG: I didn't change the cattle industry overnight. I started with something a lot more targeted, working on improving cattle-handling facilities. And I learned very early in my career that people want the thing more than they want the management. It was easy to sell people new handling facilities, but getting them to operate them correctly, that's the difficult part.

So I started out with the handling facility design, and then I wrote about it. There's a lot of people doing a lot of great stuff, but they never write about it. So I'd write in Beef Magazine how to design a handling facility, and then I would write behavioral principles of handling cattle.

I wrote and I wrote and I wrote about my projects, and then I learned that the most important person for me to train was the ranch manager, the feed yard manager, the meat plant manager-because a manager had to get behind operating the facility correctly and using behavioral principles.

What really made the big change-and that would have been in 1999, 25 years later-was getting the power of large buyers such as McDonald's behind things. But this didn't happen just overnight.

The big mistake that people make is they'll go, "Oh, the world treats animals horrible." OK, but where do you start? I started on something specific. Verbal thinkers overgeneralize-big grand principles-but how do you actually implement these big principles?

I also saw doors to opportunity. I went to this cattle event and the editor of the magazine was there, and I had the guts to go up to him and get his card, and then I produced a decent article. I knew if I wrote for that magazine, that would help my career. A lot of people don't see doors to opportunity.

DK: I know there are a lot of young people who will be very inspired by these ideas.

TG: Find something you can be good at, that you can turn into a satisfying career. You might have an autistic kid where math's going to be their thing, they're going to be doing computer programming; and then you have the word thinker that knows every fact about baseball statistics. Some of those [people] can be super good in specialized retail.

That's one of the things that has made life worthwhile for me.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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Temple Grandin Shares Her Journey With Autism

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Animal behaviorist Temple Grandin explains what helped her become successful and how parents can help their own autistic children.

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Temple Grandin, diagnosed with autism as a child, talks about how her mind works -- sharing her ability to “think in pictures,” which helps her solve problems that neurotypical brains might miss. She makes the case that the world needs people on the autism spectrum: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, verbal thinkers, and all kinds of smart geeky kids.

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It was a sunny Thursday in March when Tim Jones ( Editor's note: name changed to preserve requested anonymity) jumped into a rubber boat with six other SEAL candidates for what should have been a relatively simple task: paddling eight miles along the southern California coast to Navy SEAL training headquarters in San Diego. The trip quickly turned into a nightmare.

The current seemed to be pushing against them, making it feel like they were barely moving, and they were trailing the other boats in a race that guaranteed extra exercises for the losers. But those were the least of Jones' problems. He had already been awake almost continuously for four days, pounding out endless rounds of push-ups, timed runs, cold ocean plunges, heavy lifting and a battery of mind games. Occasionally, during the chill of the previous three nights, he had been allowed to stand still by a fire. But he was usually cold, wet and forced to remain just outside its tantalizing ring of warmth. Ninety-minute naps were always shattered by chaotic wake-up calls filled with shouting, gun blasts and flashing lights. Those disorienting jolts out of deep sleep would haunt his dreams and yank him awake for years afterwards - even as he would eventually go on to the next level as a member of the most elite subset of SEALs: the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU, also known as SEAL Team Six.

Now battling the mid-day current on his fourth day without any real sleep, Jones was the coxswain and officer in charge of his boat. After just three months in the Navy, he was responsible for the team and for steering. But every time he rested his paddle in the water to rudder, he fell asleep. His crew screamed at him. He dozed off. They screamed louder. The boat veered out toward sea. Amidst it all, he simply could not stay awake.

An inner voice gnawed at him. "I'm not succeeding here," it said. "This isn't working." He continued to struggle even as he took action, switching places with a teammate so he could paddle instead of steer for the remainder of the nearly four-hour trip. When they finally made it back to Coronado - the base for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training (BUD/S) - he collapsed on his bunk in tears, he says, "just sobbing from the stress of letting myself and my boat crew down."

This was just one particularly low moment during Hell Week, a five-day assault on physical and mental limits that spits out more than 75 percent of those who try to make it through. And it was a moment of truth for Jones, who joined the Navy to fulfill a scholarship requirement after graduating from a university in California, and then applied to become a SEAL, eventually persevering through another grueling - and far more technical and intense - round of training to qualify for Team Six. Quitting would have been the easiest choice. Instead, he finished crying. Then, he got up and returned to the beach, where he jumped in the ocean, rolled in the sand, and surged to the front of the pack in another timed run.

It wasn't the only time that doubts would push Jones to the edge, and he says, his mental struggles were always worst during relatively quiet times - like his barely conscious paddle, when the weather was calm and the boat teams got a rare break from the yelling of instructors, who stayed on shore. One of his lowest lows struck during a 2 a.m. plunge into an outdoor swimming pool, where he was ordered to huddle with his teammates for half an hour without moving. In those moments of stillness, his mind would wander. "I'm as miserable as I've ever been," he would think. "I don't know if I can do this."

"That's when everything stops, you get inside your head and realize how miserable you are," he says. "That's when people quit."

So why didn't Jones quit?

It's a question the Navy would love to answer. Most candidates who try to become SEALs (members of the U.S. Navy's elite Sea, Air, and Land Teams) fail to make it through - adding up to a lot of time and taxpayer dollars to identify who will persevere through a year of brutal training, followed by years of commitment to extreme and often dangerous military missions.

That commitment takes on another level of intensity for SEALs like Jones who enter Green Team, the training program for Team Six. Unlike BUD/S, Green Team targets a more advanced skill set that includes jumping out of stationary airplanes at altitudes as high as 30,000 feet; complex group SCUBA diving mission at night that test the limits of air tanks; surgical shooting while storming into buildings in the darkness; and training with live fire instead of simulated ammunition. A high level of performance is expected from the start. Half of SEALs who try to make Team Six fail - even after they've excelled for years on regular SEAL teams.

And while the Navy has collected tons of data on what successful SEALs share in common and which psychological factors are most likely to cause failure in the early stages, success in BUD/S has been harder to predict, says Eric Potterat, a retired Navy Commander and former head psychologist for SEALs, who now works with professional sports teams. His work led to the implementation, in 2009, of the first "neck up" assessment of prospective SEALs in the form of a computer survey that was 98 percent accurate at predicting who, among those with the slowest run and swim times, would not get past Hell Week.

But research has yet to hit on a psychological profile, personality type or family background that can identify those who will persist to become one of the toughest warriors on the planet. Even SEALs themselves can't always explain what drives them to pursue a path that seems impossible to most and remains out of reach for the majority of people who try to get in. Most won't even talk. The SEAL community is tight-knit and often secretive, particularly when it comes to Team Six.

It is in their moments of truth, like Jones's battle in the boat, when SEALs offer a glimpse into what makes them keep going through the kind of pain, fear, chaos and despair that would crush most of us. Their motivations often defy stereotypes. It's not love of country, Jones says, that makes a man choose to shiver uncontrollably in the middle of the night or pursue a career that repeatedly puts his life at risk.

What kept him going from BUD/S through Green Team and beyond, he says, were the guys depending on him and the job that needed to get done. He had heard stories of boat teams that fell like dominoes during Hell Week: when one guy quit, the rest followed. Whenever his own doubts surged, he fought back. "I can't quit now," he forced himself to think. "I'll quit later."

That kind of determination is universal among SEALs, Potterat says. Over a decade of working with SEALs, he says, he marveled at three unique qualities: their resilience to adversity, their desire to exceed limits, no matter what, and their relentless search for an edge.

"The SEAL mindset is unlike one I've ever seen in any other community," he says. "They're constantly thirsty for getting better. They're never satisfied. It's not like they hit the ceiling of their potential and are like, 'I'm good to go.' That's a rare attribute, and every SEAL I've seen has it."

Nobody knows if they have what it takes to be a SEAL until they try, and only when they're in the middle of unpredictable challenges do they reckon with their reasons for being there. Before Don Mann entered BUD/S in 1982, he spent more than four years training for it. He ran 30 marathons in 36 months, and competed in Ironman triathlons and multi-day adventure races. With no patience to keep studying after a year of college, his mind became set on becoming a SEAL. He wanted to serve his country, escape his New England childhood, and see the world. He didn't have a backup plan.

"Going around the world, supporting our country on missions, being with the toughest guys in the world - I was positive there was nothing else I wanted to do," says Mann, 59, a former Navy SEAL Team Six Operator and author. "I never wanted anything so much in my life."

In the early weeks of BUD/S, he found himself in the pool with his feet tied together and his hands bound behind his back. With each struggle to the surface for air, he heard the sounds of his classmates gasping and coughing. When one recruit tried to cheat by resting his head on a rope, the instructors whacked his forehead with an aluminum pole. Mann watched as the cheater then sunk to the bottom of the pool, seemingly lifeless. "I remember thinking, 'This is so hard-core,'" he says. "They just killed him, and we're still in here.'"

As the guy was rescued, resuscitated and kicked out of BUD/S for cheating, Mann became more determined. Then came his own closest brush with failure, when he was told to flip off the deck into the deep end and then swim underwater for two lengths of a 25-meter pool without coming up for air. On his way back after the turn, he says, he felt like an ice pick was stabbing him in the head. As the pain intensified, he lost control of his mind. "I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it," he thought before shooting to the surface. He couldn't believe it. "I wanted nothing more than to be a SEAL. As soon as I shot up, I realized I just blew my chances."

But he got another chance, and this time, he thought only about how badly he wanted it. He had already emerged from a restless adolescence, full of motorcycle racing and trouble making. Inspired by his dad, a World War II vet, and with a background in extreme adventure sports, he was drawn to the pure physicality of SEALs. And he was driven to succeed at what he saw as the toughest challenge he could take on.

When the ice pick began to stab yet again, he welcomed the pain, eventually passing out and getting dragged to the surface, foaming at the mouth. His willingness to ignore the need to breathe, he says, came not from big picture goals but from thinking only about the task in front of him. "During those times, I don't think of the patriotic feeling or of being a SEAL," says Mann, who would eventually hone a non-conformist and norm-rejecting attitude that, he says, defines the guys who end up on Team Six. "It's just 'I can't wait for this thing to be over. But no matter how miserable it is, other people are doing it, so I can do it.'"

Gaining acceptance into an exclusive community can be a powerful motivator, adds Kirk Parsley, who left home in rural south Texas at age 18 after becoming obsessed with a video about Navy SEALs in 1987. In his past were an abusive stepfather, failing grades and a teacher who told him he was the dumbest kid she'd ever taught. In his future was the potential to show everyone he was worth more than they thought.

"I wanted to make it through and prove I was one of the toughest, most resilient guys in the world," says Parsley, 46, who did not screen for Team Six, but went on to graduate at the top of his class from medical school. "There was definitely an aspect of being a SEAL to be like, 'Here, take that.' Like, 'I've achieved more than you ever have now even though you say all these horrible things about me.'"

BUD/S turned out to be mostly fun for Parsley, whose athletic background included football, wrestling, track, martial arts and boxing. But he had his share of scary moments as a SEAL, including a multinational training exercise in South Korea during his second platoon, when his team took off in a small propeller plane from an aircraft carrier and flew into a mountainous region in the middle of the night.

With each SEAL candidate wearing more than 100 pounds of equipment, their task was to jump out of the plane from 12,500 feet into a drop zone they had never scouted before with no one below to mark the landing. Mountains surrounded them on all sides, peaking as high as 10,000 feet. And snow covered the ground, making the landing uncertain. It was a clandestine training mission, so in pitch darkness, they would jump without light markings.

Parsley hadn't tested his equipment, and there was plenty of potential for disaster. At 240 pounds, he was big for a SEAL, and with the added weight of his gear, he was close to the parachute canopy's 400-pound limit. Because the landing was at altitude, the parachute's elevation-dependent emergency release mechanism was unlikely to work if he passed out or spun out of control. His pack was so heavy and awkward that he couldn't even stand up in it. Instead, he slid to the open door of the plane and rolled out. His parachute worked but as the men drifted close to the ground, they realized it was littered with old airplane hulls under the snow, making the landing perilous.

In times of extreme fear, Parsley says, he knew he had a clear choice between opening doors and closing them. He could try or to fail without trying. By the time he was serving as a SEAL, all of his self-worth was tied up in the teams. Choosing not to do his job would mean betraying his identity, abandoning his newfound family and giving up his entire support system. During BUD/S training, he and his best friend were so close, he says, he was sure that quitting would have crushed his friend's dreams, too.

"It was like 'I'm a SEAL. This is my job. I fought hard to be here and even though I'm really scared by this situation, to not do it would be tantamount to giving up on who you are as a person and everything you've accomplished,'" he says. "If you were to quit a mission because it was too scary, it would be so humiliating, you would probably prefer to die. It's a one-chance community."

The fear of losing everything never goes away, adds Mitchell Hall, who entered BUD/S in 1991 at age 18 and served as a SEAL for 21 years, including five years at DEVGRU. In 2007, he was awarded a Silver Star after a firefight in Iraq that began with an ambush just as he was about to lie down for a nap. Suddenly, the guy next to him took a round in the face. With a mental flash of his 3-year old daughter and wife at the time, he returned fire and moved to pull a wounded teammate to safety through enemy fire.

"When you get into these critical moments of strategic importance, when the stakes are high for your country or you're about to capture someone big, what it really boils down to is the training you've done and the culture you've created and the bond you have with these guys," Hall says. "This culture drives you to do anything that's necessary. It's unforgiving and harsh, but when you're in it, you know you're part of something special."

When it comes to Team Six, timing also plays a role. After about five years in regular teams, SEALs have to be willing to start over and move to the East Coast to screen for a job that entails continuous travel. Having a family or another opportunity can make logistics too complicated.

The SEALs who do push on to Team Six are the ones who can't shake their determination to become the best of the best. Once there, it's like being part of the most exclusive varsity team. A SEAL's personal reputation depends on devotion to that team, says Jones, even if teammates have nothing in common besides their service. "If your reputation is somebody they can't count on, that's anathema," he says. "You don't want to be seen as that guy who had a chance to step up for the team and chose not to."

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The Making of a SEAL | The HISTORY Channel

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It was a sunny Thursday in March when Tim Jones ( Editor's note: name changed to preserve requested anonymity) jumped into a rubber boat with six other SEAL candidates for what should have been a relatively simple task: paddling eight miles along the southern California coast to Navy SEAL training headquarters in San Diego.

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Approximately 50,000 people died in the Bergen-Belsen camp complex. Among them was Anne Frank, the most well known child diarist of the Holocaust era.

Background

German military authorities established the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1940. It was in a location south of the small towns of Bergen and Belsen, about 11 miles north of Celle, Germany.

Until 1943, Bergen-Belsen was exclusively a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp. In April 1943 the SS Economic-Administration Main Office (SS Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt; WVHA) which administered the concentration camp system, took over a portion of Bergen-Belsen and converted it first into a civilian residence camp and, later, into a concentration camp. Thus, while the German government placed the Bergen-Belsen camp complex within the concentration camp system, the WVHA initially gave it a special designation.

The Bergen-Belsen Camp Complex
Bergen-Belsen: Maps
The Bergen-Belsen camp complex was composed of numerous camps, established at various times during its existence. There were three main components of the camp complex: the POW camp, the "residence camp" ( Aufenthaltslager), and the "prisoners' camp" ( Häftlingslager).

The prisoner-of-war camp functioned as such from 1940 until January of 1945. The "residence camp" was in operation from April 1943 until April 1945, and was composed of four subcamps: the "special camp" ( Sonderlager), the "neutrals camp" ( Neutralenlager), the "star camp" ( Sternlager), and the "Hungarian camp" ( Ungarnlager).

The "prisoners' camp," also in operation from April 1943 until April 1945, consisted of the initial "prisoner's camp," the "recuperation camp" ( Erholungslager), the "tent camp" ( Zeltlager), the "small women's camp" ( Kleines Frauenlager), and the "large women's camp" ( Grosses Frauenlager).

Prisoners in the Camp

Over the course of its existence, the Bergen-Belsen camp complex held Jews, prisoners of war, political prisoners, Roma (Gypsies), "asocials," criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and gay men.

As Allied and Soviet forces advanced into Germany in late 1944 and early 1945, Bergen-Belsen became a collection camp for thousands of Jewish prisoners evacuated from camps closer to the front. The arrival of thousands of new prisoners, many of them survivors of forced evacuations on foot, overwhelmed the meager resources of the camp.

With an increasing number of transports of female prisoners, the SS dissolved the northern portion of the camp complex, which was still in use as a POW camp, and established the so-called "large women's camp" ( Grosses Frauenlager) in its place in January 1945. This camp housed women evacuated from Flossenbürg, Gross-Rosen, Ravensbrück, Neuengamme, Mauthausen, and Buchenwald concentration camps, as well as various subcamps and labor camps.

At the end of July 1944 there were around 7,300 prisoners interned in the Bergen-Belsen camp complex. At the beginning of December 1944, this number had increased to around 15,000, and in February 1945 the number of prisoners was 22,000. As prisoners evacuated from the east continued to arrive, the camp population soared to over 60,000 by April 15, 1945.

Conditions

Bergen-Belsen was hell on earth.
-testimony of Alice Lok Cahana

From late 1944, food rations throughout Bergen-Belsen continued to shrink. By early 1945, prisoners would sometimes go without food for days; fresh water was also in short supply.

Sanitation was incredibly inadequate, with few latrines and water faucets for the tens of thousands of prisoners interned in Bergen-Belsen at this time. Overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and the lack of adequate food, water, and shelter led to an outbreak of diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and dysentery, causing an ever increasing number of deaths. In the first few months of 1945, tens of thousands of prisoners died.

Liberation

On April 15, 1945, British forces liberated Bergen-Belsen. The British found around sixty thousand prisoners in the camp, most of them seriously ill.

Thousands of corpses lay unburied on the camp grounds. Between May 1943 and April 15, 1945, between 36,400 and 37,600 prisoners died in Bergen-Belsen. More than 13,000 former prisoners, too ill to recover, died after liberation. After evacuating Bergen-Belsen, British forces burned down the whole camp to prevent the spread of typhus.

During its existence, approximately 50,000 persons died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp complex including Anne Frank and her sister Margot. Both died in the camp in February or March 1945. Most of the victims were Jews.

After liberation, British occupation authorities established a displaced persons camp that housed more than 12,000 survivors. It was located in a German military school barracks near the original concentration camp site, and functioned until 1951.

SS Personnel

SS-Hauptsturmführer Adolf Haas became the first commandant of the Bergen-Belsen camp in the spring of 1943; SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Kramer replaced him in December 1944. The number of SS functionaries in Bergen-Belsen varied over the course of the camp's existence. The SS succeeded in destroying many of the camp's files, including those on personnel.

Postwar Trials

In autumn of 1945 a British Military Tribunal in Lüneburg tried 48 members of the Bergen-Belsen staff, including 37 SS personnel and eleven prisoner functionaries. The tribunal sentenced eleven of the defendants to death, including camp commandant Josef Kramer. Nineteen other defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison terms; the tribunal acquitted fourteen. On December 12, 1945, British military authorities executed Kramer and his co-defendants.

Last Edited: Aug 22, 2023

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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Learn about the history of the Bergen-Belsen camp during WWII and the Holocaust until its liberation by British forces in April 1945.

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© National Archives/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an armed rebellion of Jews in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazis in 1943, to keep the Nazis from sending more Jews to be killed at the Treblinka death camp. The revolt lasted from April 19 until it was crushed by the Germans on May 16.

During World War II, Nazi Germany seized control of much of eastern Europe, including Poland. As part of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's "final solution" for ridding Europe of Jews, the Nazis established districts called ghettos in areas under German control. The ghettos were used to confine Jews until they could be executed. The Warsaw ghetto was enclosed at first with barbed wire but later with a brick wall 10 feet (3 meters) high and 11 miles (18 kilometers) long. The ghetto comprised the old Jewish quarter of Warsaw. The Nazis herded Jews from surrounding areas into this district until by the summer of 1942 nearly 500,000 of them lived within its 840 acres (340 hectares). Many of them had no housing at all, and those who did were crowded in at about nine people per room. Starvation and disease (especially typhus) killed thousands of people each month.

In July 22, 1942, the Nazis began sending more than 5,000 Jews per day to the death camp at Treblinka. Between July and September 1942, the Nazis shipped about 265,000 Jews from Warsaw to Treblinka. Only some 55,000 remained in the Warsaw ghetto. As the deportations continued, despair gave way to a determination to resist. A newly formed group, the Jewish Fighting Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ZOB), slowly took effective control of the Warsaw ghetto.

On January 9, 1943, the Nazis ordered the deportation of another 8,000 Jews to the death camp. Ghetto residents thought that the end had come. Making use of the many hiding places that they had created since April, Jews did not report as ordered. The resistance sprang into action. Jewish fighters could strike quickly and then escape across the rooftops. German troops, on the other hand, moved cautiously and would not go down to cellars.

Within a few days, the Germans withdrew. They suspended deportations until April 19, when Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler launched an operation to clear the ghetto in honor of Hitler's birthday, April 20. That year April 19 was also the first day of the Jewish holy days of Passover. Before dawn that day, 2,000 Nazis moved into the area with tanks, rapid-fire artillery, and ammunition trailers. Most of the remaining Jews hid in bunkers. As planned, about 1,500 Jews-the ZOB and a few independent bands of Jewish fighters-opened fire with the weapons they had. They had been able to smuggle in pistols, a few rifles, and one machine gun, and they also had homemade bombs. The Jewish fighters destroyed a number of tanks, killed German troops, and held off German reinforcements trying to enter the ghetto. The next day the Germans used gas, police dogs, and flamethrowers in an effort to rout the Jews from their bunkers, leaving the city under a pall of smoke for days. Ultimately, the Germans decided to burn the entire ghetto.

The Germans had planned to clear all the Jews out of the ghetto in three days. The Jews held out for nearly a month. Resistance fighters succeeded in hiding in the sewers, even though the Germans tried first to flood them and then to force them out with smoke bombs. Not until May 8 did the Nazis manage to take the ZOB headquarters bunker. Civilians hiding there surrendered, but many of the surviving ZOB fighters took their own lives to avoid being captured alive. Among these fighters was Mordecai Anielewicz, the young commander of the ZOB. The fighting became less frequent as the Jews ran out of ammunition. The one-sided battle continued until May 16. The Germans marked the end of the uprising with the dynamiting of the Great Synagogue of Warsaw.

Total casualty figures for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are uncertain. The Germans likely lost several hundred soldiers during the 28 days that it took them to kill or deport more than 40,000 Jews. The Germans captured 9 rifles, 59 pistols, and several hundred grenades, explosives, and mines.

Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail Adrian Grycuk; © 1966 German Features/German Information Center

The Jewish fighters had faced overwhelmingly superior forces. As in other ghetto uprisings, resistance came at the end, when all hope of survival was abandoned. The fighters knew that they were bound to lose, but the honor of the Jewish people was at stake. They chose to die fighting and to inflict casualties on the enemies. The significance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising went far beyond those who fought and died. As Anielewicz wrote to his colleague Yitzhak Zuckerman:

My life's dream has now been realized: Jewish self-defense in the ghetto is now an accomplished fact....I have been witness to the magnificent, heroic struggle of the Jewish fighters.

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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was an armed rebellion of Jews in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazis in 1943, to keep the Nazis from sending more Jews to be killed at the Treblinka...

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Everyday Life in the Ghettos | Yad Vashem

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Animal Adaptations for Kids, Learn about physical, life cycle, and behavioral adaptations of animals

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In the first unit of this module, students begin by building background knowledge on animal defense mechanisms using an Animal Defenses research notebook to record notes and synthesize new information. Listening closely and close reading of informational texts about animal defense mechanisms will prepare students for the mid-unit assessment, in which they listen to and read new texts about animal defense mechanisms. Students continue their study of the topic in the second half of the unit. They will continue to record notes and to synthesize new information in their Animal Defenses research notebooks. This whole class study of animal defenses will act as a model for students as they research an animal of their choice in Unit 2. At the end of this unit, students select their "expert animal" to research with a small group during Unit 2.
As of February 15, 2019, the website www.arkive.org is no longer available. This website is used as a resource in Grade 4, Module 2 of the Module Lessons and ALL Block. You can still access content, texts, and images, using the links below. These links are archived versions of the original content, text, and images, that were found on www.arkive.org. Please note these links are single images of each animal; video and slideshow could not be captured in the archiving process. We will post any new updates here.
This module is designed to address English Language Arts standards and to be taught during the literacy block. But the module intentionally incorporates Science content that may align to additional teaching during other parts of the day. These intentional connections are described below.
Science
Note: also consider using EL's 4th grade Life Science Module, a separate resource that includes approximately 24 hours of science instruction. This life science module explicitly addresses 4th grade NGSS life science standards, and naturally extends the learning from this ELA module.
Next Generation Science Standards
Life Science Performance Expectation:

4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

LS1.A: Structure and Function: Plants and animals have both internal and external structures that serve various functions in growth, survival, behavior, and reproduction. (4-LS1-1)

Community:
If you have a number of English language learners speaking the same home language, invite family members to come into the classroom to talk with ELLs about their expert group animal and their narratives in their home language.
Experts:

Invite an expert from the local zoo/wildlife conservation organization to come in and speak with students about animal defense mechanisms.

Have a professional writer visit the class to discuss the writing process. Ask the writer to share how he or she researches topics to write about.

Visit the local zoo or wildlife/animal park to observe animal defense mechanisms and students?expert group animals in action for additional research to inform writing.
Service:

Find out about organizations working to protect students' expert group animals and their habitats. Get involved in helping/promoting this organization.

Share narratives with the local zoo. Perhaps they can be displayed or used for classes.

Extension Opportunities for students seeking more challenge:

Choose an animal to conduct a deeper study of: Compare and contrast different species and their defenses.

Create a food web for different animals to explore the relationships between predators and prey.

Read about habitats and ecosystems and the role of individual species in maintaining balance.

Collaborate with the art teacher to teach students how to create scientific drawings of different animals and their defense mechanisms.

Conduct hands-on science experiments and demonstrations. Note: The goal of the lessons in this unit is for students to build scientific knowledge while becoming better readers. These lessons do not fully address science content standards, nor do they replace hands-on, inquiry-based science.

Ask students to conduct additional research on their expert group animal with additional texts or websites. Expand the web research that students engage in to include an open search and evaluation of online resources. Teach students to evaluate the reliability of these resources.

Have students create a third choice ending for their narratives.

Have students read aloud or perform their narratives for the class.

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Building Background Knowledge: Animal Defenses and the Research Process

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In the first unit of this module, students begin by building background knowledge on animal defense mechanisms using an Animal Defenses research notebook to record notes and synthesize new information.

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College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

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Wildlife analysis shows noxious scents, social groups are effective survival strategies.

February 20, 2014
( from , a blog about research at UC Davis)

When people see a skunk, the reaction usually is "Eww," but when they see a group of meerkats peering around, they often think "Aww."

Why some animals use noxious scents while others live in social groups to defend themselves against predators is the question that biologists Tim Caro of the University of California, Davis, and Theodore Stankowich of California State University, Long Beach, sought to answer through a comprehensive analysis of predator-prey interactions among carnivorous mammals and birds of prey.

Their findings appear in the online edition of the journal Evolution.

"The idea is that we're trying to explain why certain antipredator traits evolved in some species but not others," said Stankowich, who noted that this study not only explains why skunks are stinky and why banded mongooses live in groups but also breaks new ground in the methodology of estimating predation risks.

Caro, Stankowich and Paul Haverkamp, a geographer who recently completed his Ph.D. at UC Davis, collected data on 181 species of carnivores, a group in which many species are small and under threat from other animals. They ran a comparison of every possible predator-prey combination, correcting for a variety of natural history factors, to create a potential risk value that estimates the strength of natural selection due to predation from birds and other mammals.

They found that noxious spraying was favored by animals that were nocturnal and mostly at risk from other animals, while sociality was favored by animals that were active during the day and potentially vulnerable to birds of prey.

"Spraying is a good close-range defense in case you get surprised by a predator, so at night when you can't detect things far away, you might be more likely to stumble upon a predator," Stankowich said.

Conversely, small carnivores like mongooses and meerkats usually are active during the day which puts them at risk from birds of prey. Living in a large social group means "more eyes on the sky" in daytime, when threats can be detected further away.

The social animals also use other defenses such as calling out a warning to other members of their group or even mobbing together to bite and scratch an intruder to drive it away.

The project was a major information technology undertaking involving plotting the geographic range overlap of hundreds of mammal and bird species, but will have long-term benefits for ongoing studies. The researchers plan to make their database, nicknamed the " Geography of Fear," available to other researchers.

(For additional information about this study, please refer to an article written by Anne Ambrose at California State University, Long Beach.)

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Study reveals how animal defenses evolve

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Wildlife analysis shows noxious scents, social groups are effective survival strategies. February 20, 2014 (from Egghead, a blog about research at UC Davis) When people see a skunk, the reaction usually is "Eww," but when they see a group of meerkats peering around, they often think "Aww."

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Defense mechanisms are crucial to all animal life. Since animals in every biome must eat to survive, prey animals must constantly avoid being eaten. Animals employ adaptations that add to the chances of survival for the species. Some of these adaptations include defense mechanisms-things that can give prey an advantage against their enemies.

There are several ways animals avoid falling prey to a predator. One way is very direct and comes naturally. Imagine you are a rabbit and you have just noticed a fox preparing to attack. What would be your initial response? Right, you'd run. Animals can use speed as a very effective means of escaping predators. Remember, you can't eat what you can't catch!

Camouflage

Another defense mechanism is camouflage or protective coloration. One form, cryptic coloration, allows the animal to blend in with its environment and to mask its identity. Cryptic coloration is important to the survival of many new-born and young animals, as it is often their main defense against being detected by predators. Some animals blend in so well with their environment that it is very difficult to identify them. For example, some insects and other animals can look like leaves; both in their visual appearance and their behavior. It is important to note that predators also use cryptic coloration to avoid detection by unsuspecting prey.

Playing Dead

When faced with danger, some animals pretend to be dead. This type of adaption is known as thanatosis. Opossums and snakes can even emit a fluid that produces a foul smell, thus adding to the pretense. Such behavior tricks predators into thinking that the animal is dead. Since most predators avoid dead or rotting animals, this type of defense mechanism is often very effective.

Trickery can also be used as a formidable defense. False features that appear to be enormous eyes or appendages can serve to dissuade potential predators. Mimicking an animal that is dangerous to a predator is another effective means of avoiding being eaten. For example, some harmless snakes have bright warning colors that resemble the colors of dangerously venomous snakes. Warning calls can also be used by one animal species to trick another animal species. The African fork-tailed drongo bird has been known to mimic meerkat warning calls when meerkats are eating their prey. The alarm causes the meerkats to flee, leaving their abandoned meal for the drongo to finish.

Physical Features

Physical anatomical structures can also serve as a type of defense mechanism. Some animals' physical features make them very undesirable meals. Porcupines, for example, make a very difficult meal for predators because of their extremely sharp quills. Similarly, predators would have a tough time trying to get to a turtle through its protective shell.

Chemical Features

Chemical features can be just as effective at deterring predators. We all know the hazards of scaring a skunk! The chemicals released result in a not so pleasant aroma that an attacker will never forget. The dart frog also uses chemicals (poisons secreted from its skin) to deter attackers. Any animals that eat these small frogs are likely to get very sick or die.

Warning Calls

Some animals sound the alarm when danger approaches. For example, oxpeckers (birds that live in mutualistic relationships with grazing animals) will give a loud warning call when predators get too close. African elephants emit a rumbling alarm call when they hear the sound of African bees. Animals can also give distinctive calls to identify the type of threat. For instance, monkeys have one alarm sound for leopards and a different sound for eagles.

Predator-Prey Relationship

To sum it all up, the predator-prey relationship is important to maintaining balance among different animal species. Adaptations that are beneficial to prey, such as chemical and physical defenses, ensure that the species will survive. At the same time, predators must undergo certain adaptive changes to make finding and capturing prey less difficult.

Without predators, certain species of prey would drive other species to extinction through competition. Without prey, there would be no predators. The animal organisms in such an environment could become endangered or even extinct. The predator-prey relationship ensures that the cycle of nutrients in biomes continues. Thus, this relationship is vital to the existence of life as we know it.

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Defense mechanisms are very important to all animal life. They can give prey an advantage against hungry predators.

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Kids learn about the biography of Adolf Hitler, leader and dictator of Germany during World War II. His Nazi party committed the Holocaust.

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Animals have clever defenses. These defenses protect them from attackers. The attackers are called predators. Let's find out how animals keep themselves safe from predators.

What's That Smell?

COMSTOCK IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

Skunks have a stinky secret. They spray a bad . It keeps predators away.

Blending In

GEOFFREY REYNAUD-GETTY IMAGES

This is an Arctic hare. It turns white in the winter. It against snow.

Sending a Warning

DAVID BYGOTT-GETTY IMAGES

King snakes are not . But their bright color makes predators think they might be . This sends a message to predators: "Stay away!"

Stick with the Group!

WILDESTANIMAL/GETTY IMAGES

Fish swim in big groups. The groups are called schools. Predators are confused by so many fish. So they swim away.

Did You Know?

JOESBOY-GETTY IMAGES; INSET: BOB_EASTMAN-GETTY IMAGES

Some animals have a hard outer shell. This armadillo has one. The armadillo rolls up into a ball. The shell protects it from predators.

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Animals have clever defenses. These defenses protect them from attackers. The attackers are called predators. Let's find out how animals keep themselves safe from predators. What's That Smell? Skunks have a stinky secret. They spray a bad odor. It keeps...

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Braille: What is it like to read without sight? – BBC REEL

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The Nazi Party was a political group that ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945. "Nazi" is a short form of the official name. In English the official name is the National...

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The History of Braille [Your Braille Resource] - Braille Works

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The history of braille started in the early 1800’s and is a system of touch reading for the blind in which raised dots represent letters of the alphabet.

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Before Braille: A Brief History of Visual Impairment and Education PT 1

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Education for people with visual impairments has had a drawn-out but rich history. And we can trace this history back even further than Braille.

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"Great Inventors: Louis Braille" by Adventure Academy

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A Portrait of Louis Braille

Miniature portrait on ivory by Lucienne Filippi.

Copyrighted Material

Louis Braille is the inventor of the braille code. He was born on January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, France. At the age of 3, while playing in his father's shop, Louis injured his eye on a sharp tool. Despite the best care available at the time, infection set in and soon spread to the other eye, leaving him completely blind.

Barely 16, Braille, then a student at the National Institute for Blind Youth in Paris in 1825, spent every waking moment outside class poking holes in paper, trying to come up with a more efficient way to represent print letters and numbers tactually. Until then, he and his fellow blind students read by tracing raised print letters with their fingers. It was painfully slow and few blind students mastered the technique. Writing required memorization of the shapes of letters and then an attempt to reproduce them on paper, without being able to see or read the results.

Louis got his inspiration to use embossed dots to represent letters after he watched Charles Barbier, a retired artillery officer in Napoleon's army, demonstrate a note-taking system he invented of embossed dots to represent sounds (most of the soldiers were illiterate) that would allow notes to be passed among the ranks without striking a light, which might alert the enemy to their position. The army was not impressed, so Barbier brought his system to the school for the blind. Louis immediately recognized its merits and spent the next three years improving upon Barbier's idea.

By 1824, Louis had in place the code that bears his name and is used today in almost every country in the world, adapted to almost every known language from Albanian to Zulu. Louis Braille died on January 6, 1852 at the age of 43, having lived a successful life as teacher, musician, researcher, and inventor. In 2009, the world celebrated Braille's Bicentennial.

Image above: The Institute in Paris where Louis was a student and teacher, courtesy Maison Natale de Louis Braille, France

Louis Braille: A Touch of Genius is an illustrated biography of Braille's life includes over 100 archival images from France.

Our Kids & Teachers page has books and ideas for fun classroom activities!

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A Portrait of Louis Braille Miniature portrait on ivory by Lucienne Filippi. Copyrighted Material Louis Braille is the inventor of the braille code. He was born on January 4, 1809, in Coupvray, France. At the age of 3, while playing in his father's shop, Louis injured his eye on a sharp tool.

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The Holocaust through Children's Eyes | The Last Survivors | PBS LearningMedia

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Follow the firsthand testimony of the last generation of Holocaust survivors, as they recount the haunting memories of being sent to Nazi concentration camps, in these videos excerpted from The Last Survivors: FRONTLINE. As camp survivor Ivor Perl and his family take part in a modern-day tour of Auschwitz, fellow survivors recall arriving at the camp as children and the unimaginable horror and loss that awaited them.

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Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust.

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Navy SEAL | US Special Ops, Training & History

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Navy SEAL, in the U.S. Navy, a member of a special operations armed force trained to engage in direct raids or assaults on enemy targets, conduct reconnaissance missions to report on enemy activity (especially prior to beach landings), and take part in action against terrorist groups. The SEALs

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SEAL training is extremely demanding and it is not designed to "get you in shape." You must be in excellent physical condition and pass the PST before you can be considered a SEAL candidate. For more on how to get and stay in SEAL shape, visit the Military.com Fitness Center.

The following SEAL Physical Screening Test (PST) is designed to see if you have what it takes to enter SEAL training. To pass you must be able to complete the following regimen:

* While at Recruit Training Center SEAL Candidates will transition to Boots and Long Pants for the Run portion of the PST. To remain qualified for the SEAL training Pipeline, the SEAL candidate must perform the 1 ½ mile run portion of the PST in Boots and Long Pants in 11:30 or less.

To qualify for a contract, a prospective candidate must meet the minimum requirements. It is recommended that you strive for the optimum fitness standards and beyond to better chances at BUD/S. Check out the official Navy SEAL PST Calculator to compare your scores and rank you with other prospective candidates.

For more information on academic, medical screening, and background requirements, see The Official Navy SEAL/SWCC Page at www.sealswcc.com.

The minimum standards will allow you to start training with your SEAL / SWCC mentor during your Delayed Entry Program phase. Once you reach the optimum levels, you can go to Boot Camp. Before you go to Boot Camp, your PST scores are ranked nationally and only the best PST scores (optimum range plus) fill the needed billets for that Boot Camp cycle. This program is called the Navy Spec War Draft and it creates a ranking system of the top scoring athletes that get to go to Boot Camp. This will give the SEAL / SWCC candidate more time to properly train prior to Boot Camp, or discourage him to find other employment. Recent events have made the Naval Special Warfare community very selective in who attends BUD/S.

Once you have finished Boot Camp - if you make the cut - you will attend PRE-BUDS, a 7-9 week Apprenticeship Training Division School (A-School), with immediate assignment to BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition / SEAL) training. The goal of PRE BUDS is to better prepare you for BUD/S physically after getting somewhat de-conditioned at Boot Camp.
The Navy SEAL Training Program
The Navy SEAL training program will stress you beyond your limits to make sure you're worthy to serve with the world's best fighting force. Be prepared, stay focused, make mature choices, and understand what you are volunteering for.

SEAL training prepares you for the extreme physical and mental challenges of SEAL missions. If you're up to the challenge, you'll be in incredible physical shape and possess the confidence, determination and skills needed to succeed in today's combat environment.

Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL Training BUD/S is a seven-month training challenge that develops your mental and physical stamina and leadership skills. Each BUD/S phase includes timed physical condition tests, with the time requirements becoming more demanding each week. Talk with your Recruiter and discuss the entry physical requirements.

Did you know? SEALs receive military pay and allowances, plus $375/month dive pay, $300/month SDV pay, $225/month HALO (jump) pay, $110/month special duty assignment pay and various amounts per month for second-language proficiency.

BUD/S Phase Descriptions Indoctrination: Gives students an introduction to required BUD/S techniques and performances.

First Phase (Basic Conditioning): Includes continuous physical conditioning. Students also study small boat seamanship and hydrographic surveys and charts.

Second Phase (Diving): Covers SCUBA skills. Students learn open and closed circuit combat diving and how to complete long-distance underwater transit dives.

Third Phase (Land Warfare): Includes land navigation, small-unit tactics, rappelling, military land and underwater explosives, and weapons training.

Post-BUD/S Training BUD/S graduates attend several more courses before they are assigned to a team:

Basic Parachute Training Diving medicine and medical skills training in the Special Operations Medical Course (for medical personnel) Once all courses are completed, graduates are assigned to a SEAL or Special Delivery Vehicle (SDV) Team for duty.

Advanced Training Training, physical conditioning and drills are part of the SEAL lifestyle. Once you've completed the initial SEAL training, you can go even further with advanced training, which includes foreign language training, SEAL tactical communications training, Sniper, Military Free-fall Parachuting, Jump Master, Explosive Breacher, and much more.
Related Articles:
Navy SEAL / SWCC Draft Top 10 Things You Should Do Before BUD

Show Full Article

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SEAL training is extremely demanding and it is not designed to "get you in shape." You must be in excellent physical condition and pass the PST before you can be considered a SEAL candidate. For more on how to get and stay in SEAL shape, visit the Military.com Fitness Center.

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The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's special forces. Their acronym is derived from their ability to operate at sea, in the air, and on land. In the War on Terrorism, SEALs have been utilized almost exclusively for land-based missions. All SEALs are male members of the United States Navy. The CIA, more specifically its Special Activities Division, often recruits operators from the SEAL Teams. Joint Navy SEALs and CIA operations go back to the famed MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War. Joint operations have continued, as seen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The Navy SEALs were formed in the second world war. The United States Navy found the need for covert, elite operations. As a result, the Amphibious Scout and Raider School was established in 1942 at Fort Pierce, Florida. The Scouts and Raiders were formed in September of that year, nine months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

World War II

The first group included Phil H. Bucklew, the "Father of Naval Special Warfare," in whose honor the Naval Special Warfare Center building is named. Started in October 1942, this group saw action in November 1942 during Operation Torch, the first allied landings in Europe, on the North African coast. Scouts and Raiders also helped during landings in Sicily, Salerno, Anzio, Normandy, and southern France.

A second group of Scouts and Raiders was started on 7 July 1943. Their first mission, in September 1943, was at Finschafen on New Guinea. Later operations were at Gasmata, Arawe, Cape Gloucester, and the East and South coast of New Britain.

The third Scout and Raiders organization operated in China. Scouts and Raiders were to fight with the Sino-American Cooperative Organization, or SACO. They conducted a patrol of the upper Yangtze River in the spring of 1945 and, disguised as coolies, conducted a detailed three-month patrol of the Chinese coast from Shanghai to Kitchioh Wan, near Hong Kong.

President John F. Kennedy, aware of the situations in Southeast Asia, recognized the need for special operations in the fight against guerrilla warfare. In a speech to Congress on 25 May 1961, Kennedy spoke of his respect for the United States Army Special Forces. In the speech he announced his intention to spend over $100 million to strengthen U.S. special operations forces and expand American capabilities in unconventional warfare. Some people have assumed this was the start of the SEALS, but they had already long been active.

Images for kids

NCDU 45, CEC Ensign Karnowski, Chief Carpenters Mate Conrad C. Millis, MM2 Equipment Operator Lester Meyers, and three sailors. The unit received a Presidential Unit Citation with Ens. Karnowski earning the Navy Cross & French Croix de Guerre with Palm, while MM2 Meyers received a Silver Star.

SEALs prepare for a training mission aboard the USS George Washington

In Spanish: SEAL para niños

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Learn United States Navy SEALs facts for kids

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History of Navy SEALs for Kids | Bedtime History

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On 23 June, 12 boys went exploring in Thailand's Chiang Rai province with their football coach - and ended up trapped deep inside a cave underneath a mountain. The BBC's Helier Cheung and Tessa Wong were at the scene as a dramatic rescue bid gripped the world.

What happened over those two weeks is a remarkable story of friendship, human endurance - and the lengths some people will go to save someone else's child.

Here our reporters tell the full story of the Wild Boars.

The birthday party that went wrong

It all began with a birthday.

On Saturday 23 June, Peerapat "Night" Sompiangjai turned 17 - a milestone most young people around the world would want to celebrate in style.

His family had prepared a bright yellow SpongeBob SquarePants birthday cake and several colourfully wrapped presents at their home in a rural village in Mae Sai district.

But Night wasn't rushing home that day. He was out with his friends, the other members of local youth football team the Wild Boars, and their assistant coach, Ekkapol "Ake" Chantawong.

When their football practice ended, they raced through the rice paddies on their bicycles and up into the forested hills that lately had been blanketed in rain.

Their destination: the Tham Luang cave, a favourite haunt for the boys, who loved exploring the nooks and crannies of the mountain range towering over Mae Sai.

A photo the boys posted to Facebook shortly before they went in the cave

Once at the mouth of Tham Luang, they stashed their bikes and bags by the cave entrance.

The team and their young coach had often ventured deep into Tham Luang, sometimes as far as 8km, for initiation rites where they would write the names of new team members on a cave wall.

In high spirits, they clambered into the cave with just their torches. They didn't need much else - after all, they were only planning to be there for an hour.

They would not emerge until two weeks later.

Back at Night's home, his family began to worry. His birthday cake sat untouched.

Where were the Wild Boars?

Snaking for 10km beneath the cloud-swathed mountain range that separates Thailand and Myanmar is Tham Luang, the fourth biggest Thai cave system.

Named after a mountain shaped like a reclining woman, its full name is Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Non - "the great cave and water source of the sleeping lady mountain". Rich in folklore, it is a popular destination for day-trippers - and adventurous children.

It has its dangers - people have gone missing in Tham Luang before. And once monsoon season starts in July, the cave goes from innocuous to extremely dangerous.

The cave can flood up to 5m (16ft) during the rainy season, and should only be entered between November and April.

"The water is moving, it's muddy and there is almost no visibility," local guide Joshua Morris told the BBC.

And once the cave floods - it's risky even for experienced divers.

Almost everyone in Mae Sai knows this. So when the parents of the Wild Boars began to worry about their missing boys, they headed straight to the cave. The boys' plans to visit Tham Luang had been discussed in a group chat on a messaging app with other friends.

They found the bikes, the bags, and some football shoes outside. They raised the alarm.

Deep in the cave, the Wild Boars found themselves in trouble. It had been raining for the last few days, and all that water falling on the mountain had to go somewhere.

That somewhere was the Tham Luang cave system, which was fast filling up.

One initial account from the boys suggests they were caught off-guard by a flash flood. They needed to get out, but instead had no choice but to scramble even deeper into the cave.

The Wild Boars eventually found themselves marooned on a small rocky shelf about 4km from the cave entrance, past a normally dry point known as Pattaya Beach which by now was flooded.

Swallowed up by an unforgiving mountain and surrounded by darkness, the boys and the coach lost all sense of time. Fear, perhaps even terror, would no doubt have crept in.

But they were nothing but determined to survive. The group used rocks to dig 5m deeper into the shelf, to create a cavern where they could huddle together and keep warm.

Coach Ake, a former monk, taught the boys meditation techniques - to help them stay calm and use as little air as possible - and told them to lie still to conserve their strength.

But an extraordinary set of circumstances also worked in their favour.

They apparently had no food - but they did have a supply of drinkable water in the form of moisture dripping from the cave walls.

It was dark, but they had their torches. There was also enough air for a while - because the porous limestone and cracks in the rocks meant air could come through.

They had the right conditions to survive - at least for a little while. And most importantly, the Wild Boars had one another.

Now came the hardest bit - hoping for rescue.

What's it like in a Chiang Rai cave?

Outside the cave, a full-blown rescue operation was quickly unfolding.

Authorities called in the elite Thai Navy Seals, the national police, and other rescue teams. Local volunteers also pitched in.

Initial investigations found footprints at one of the chambers in the cave - but no other sign the boys were still alive.

The Wild Boars were somewhere in the twisted depths of Tham Luang - but where exactly? And more importantly - how could rescuers get to them?

Exploring the cave was a challenge - most of the Navy divers had little cave diving experience. And the weather was merciless - heavy rainfall meant the water level was still rising, flooding chambers and cutting off rescuers from parts of the cave.

Engineers desperately tried to pump water out of the cave - but struggled, at least at first.

At the start, "no one really had any idea what to do", one volunteer said. Officials brought whatever equipment they could think of - small water pumps, long pipes, knives and shovels - but much of it was apparently unsuitable.

They even tried drilling into the mountainside, desperate to find cracks into the cave system which they could squeeze into, and used drones with thermal sensors to try to locate the boys.

The BBC joined search teams around the caves

Rescuers also turned to the villagers for local knowledge. The Thai Navy Seals found a boy, a Wild Boar member who happened to have skipped the cave expedition. He recalled a place in the complex they'd visited before - called Pattaya Beach.

Could the missing 13 be there?

Amid the flurry of rescue operations, a small group kept vigil at the mouth of the cave.

These were the boys' families, worriedly offering prayers for their lives. Among them was Tum Kantawong, the godmother of Coach Ake.

Every day she went up the mountain, carrying fruits, incense and candles. "It was to show respect to the spirit that protects the cave. I asked her to protect the 13 kids," she said.

A country in prayer

The group gradually expanded to include concerned teachers from the schools the Wild Boars attended.

"We wanted to be the first to welcome the boys when they came out," said school administrator Ampin Saenta, who is so close to one boy, Adul, that she calls herself his "mama-teacher".

Classmates of the Wild Boars held group prayers, sang songs of encouragement into the cave, folded paper cranes, and posted messages of hope on school noticeboards.

Villagers rallied together, donating money and hundreds of packages of food to the relatives of the boys and their coach.

That sense of community soon began to spread, as the story gained the nation's attention. Volunteers from other parts of Thailand flew in, while Thai social media lit up with expressions of love and support.

But it was about to get even bigger.

The first international rescuers arrived on Thursday 28 June.

These were US air force rescue specialists, and cave divers from the UK, Belgium, Australia, Scandinavia, and many other countries. Some had volunteered, and some were called in by Thai authorities.

Others were roped in when it became clear just how monumental the search effort would be.

Over the next few days, they and the Thai divers would fight a constant battle with the elements. They had to swim against a strong current, and were often forced back by rising floodwaters.

On Sunday 1 July - just over a week after the boys went missing - the rescuers made some progress. They reached a large cavern that would be later dubbed "chamber three" and serve as a key base for the divers.

It also happened to be the birthday of Note - one of the "Thai cave boys", as they were now dubbed by the media. All, however, were still lost to the world.

But not for long. The very next day, two British divers made an incredible discovery.

'Thirteen? Brilliant!'

John Volanthen and Rick Stanton had been braving Tham Luang's narrow, murky passageways for several days, laying out guide ropes and searching for signs of life.

On Monday, the two men finally reached Pattaya Beach. But there was nothing.

They continued onwards into the darkness. Then, a few hundred metres further, they found an air pocket.

"Wherever there is air space we surface, we shout, we smell," John told the BBC. It's a standard procedure for such rescue operations.

"We smelt the children before we saw or heard them."

Soon, the light from John's torch illuminated an electrifying sight - the boys emerged from the darkness, coming down the ledge towards him.

The moment divers discover the missing boys

Rick started counting the boys, while John asked: "How many of you?"

"Thirteen!" came the reply in English.

"Thirteen? Brilliant!"

Next to John, Rick couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. "They're all alive!"

The lost Wild Boars had been found.

The two divers spent some time with the boys - trying to boost their morale. Then, they left lights with the boys, and promised to return later with food.

The extraordinary encounter was recorded on the divers' cameras - and swiftly posted online. The jubilation was instant, and worldwide.

Wracked with worry for much of the past week, the Wild Boars' parents were ecstatic to see their children had miraculously survived. They looked thin, but were otherwise in relatively good shape.

Families of the boys celebrated after finding out their loved ones were alive

The boys and their coach were quickly joined by a military medic and Navy SEAL divers who would stay with them for the rest of the ordeal.

After nine days in the darkness, the Wild Boars once again saw light. They longed for proper food, and begged for pad krapao, a rice dish with meat stir fried with basil.

But doctor's orders were that they be put on a special diet of medicated liquid food, and mineral water with added vitamins.

A third boy, Dom, spent his birthday in the cave.

Rescuers set to work in figuring out how to extract 13 people - some of whom couldn't swim - from a winding, flooded 4km-long stretch of caves that even experienced divers would struggle with.

"Time is not on our side because they're expecting heavy rains within three days," diver Ben Reymenants told the BBC at the time.

"Now the real hard work comes."

A volunteer army

The astonishing discovery of the children deep in a mountain cave catapulted tiny Mae Sai into the international spotlight.

Overnight, journalists from all around the world descended on the district, as even more rescue volunteers from around the world poured in.

A small makeshift town mushroomed at the rural country park by the cave entrance.

Food stalls were set up - some staffed by members of the Thai royal kitchen - serving free drinks, hot noodles, chicken rice, and even ice lollies.

No job was too small to do.

The country park toilets were dirty and stretched beyond capacity - so people began cleaning them. Workers needed to get up and down the mountain - so drivers offered free lifts. Rescuers were covered in mud - so a local laundromat cleaned their clothes every night.

Thailand cave rescue: Meet the volunteer helpers

Spirits were high, but then a fatal accident devastated the community.

Former Navy Seal diver Saman Gunan was one of many volunteers who had rushed to help in the rescue.

On 6 July, while on a routine run to deliver air tanks to the boys, he lost consciousness after running out of air for himself. His dive buddy pulled him out and tried to revive him.

But Saman could not be saved. He was only 38 years old.

Wife and father remember 'hero' Thai diver: "He loved helping others"

His funeral took place later that day. Buddhist monks murmured prayers for Saman as incense burned.

His wife, Waleeporn Gunan, said: "Saman once said we never know when we're going to die... so we need to cherish every day."

The death hit home the danger of the rescue mission, and the risks facing the boys. Saman was a fit and healthy diver who had also represented Thailand in triathlons.

Ratdao Chantapoon, the mother of cave boy Note, was said to have told a friend: "The Navy Seal had practised for so long, and was so strong, but also died. How about a boy who has never dived before?"

There was another thing to worry about too - despite efforts to replenish the air, oxygen levels in the chamber had fallen to 15%, lower than the usual 21%.

Time was running out.

Rescuers had identified three possible options:

Training the boys to dive through flooded areas of the cave - a process so ripe with potential for disaster it was widely considered a last resort

Pumping water from the cave and waiting for water levels to recede naturally - but this could take up to four months

Finding or drilling alternative passages into the cave

The divers started practising with some local boys at a swimming pool - figuring out how to transport a child safely underwater.

Other solutions, such as an offer of a kid-sized submarine designed by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk's engineers, would be rejected as unsuitable.

The rescue team faced conditions so difficult that even simple tasks - setting up air and phone lines in the cave - seemed impossible at first because of the labyrinthine layout of the cave.

Finally, late on 6 July, rescuers set up an oxygen supply. And in the end the boys communicated with their parents the old-fashioned way - by writing letters.

The letters, made public by the Thai Navy Seals, were deeply moving.

Scrawling hearts and smiley faces on note paper, the boys told their parents again and again that they loved them and not to worry.

They listed the food they wanted to eat - fried chicken and pork crackling. One even cracked a joke: "Teacher, please don't give us too much homework!"

"I'm really sorry to the parents," said Coach Ake in his letter. But instead of a tongue-lashing, he received only love.

"Coach Ake, I really thank you for taking care of all the kids, and keeping them safe," one boy's relative wrote.

Sunday 7 July. Two weeks had passed since the boys went missing.

Out of the blue, the Thai authorities announced they were pulling out the boys - now.

"There is no other day that we are more ready than today," Narongsak Osotthanakorn, the head of the rescue operations, said.

Journalists and volunteers were asked to leave the cave rescue site - and a brisk, steely mood overtook the camp.

Rescue teams begin the operation to extract the boys from the cave

Why the snap decision? The rain that had pelted Mae Sai incessantly had petered out in recent days, giving rescuers a rare break.

Locals had also told the Thai Navy Seals that by around 10 July every year, the Tham Luang cave system would be completely flooded.

It was time to launch what would later be described as a "superhuman" rescue effort, one that involved nearly 100 Thai and foreign divers.

The journey was split into two sections.

The first - from the boys' rocky ledge to chamber three - was more difficult. Rescuers made their way for hours through pitch dark waters that were bone-chilling cold, feeling their way with guide ropes. At times they had to navigate sections so ridiculously narrow that they could only just about fit a body through.

Each boy was given a full-face air mask to ensure they could breathe, and clipped to a diver. Another diver accompanied them.

A cylinder was strapped to the front of each child, while a handle was attached to their backs - and they were held face down to ensure water would run away from their faces.

John, the British rescue diver, likened the equipment to "a shopping bag" that allowed them to manoeuvre the boys around obstacles.

At the narrow sections, rescuers had to unstrap their air tanks in order to squeeze through, while also pulling along their precious cargo.

It would have been terrifying for experienced divers, let alone for children who were not strong swimmers. The Thai government says the boys and the coach were given anti-anxiety medication to relax - but several sources have told the BBC that they were in fact heavily sedated, and only semi-conscious during the journey - to ensure they would not panic.

Once they reached chamber three, it was time for the second phase. This took another few hours.

Each boy was secured in a stretcher, and carried by a team of at least five men. At one point they had to place the stretcher on a raft and pull it across a chin-high pool of water.

Rescuers had to winch the boys up a steep slope using a pulley system. In some rocky areas they formed a human chain, passing the boys hand to hand, while at others they slid them on top of pipes pumping out water.

For diver Ivan Karadzic, the experience was extremely stressful. Stationed at a halfway point in the cave, he was responsible for replacing air tanks and guiding rescue divers through.

He clearly remembers the nerves he felt when the first boy emerged from the darkness and was brought towards him. "I didn't know if it was a casualty or a kid," he told the BBC.

"But when I saw that he was alive and breathing - it felt very good."

Thai students prayed for the rescue mission to be a success

One by one, the Wild Boars were brought out of the darkness of Tham Luang. They were given oxygen before they were swiftly spirited away in ambulances to a hospital in Chiang Rai city.

Rescuers took them out in three batches over as many days, as they needed time in between to replenish air tanks.

But they were cutting it close. By the time the last batch of boys and the coach were out, water levels were starting to rise again, as rapidly as 30cm in one hour, according to senior Navy SEAL Supachai Tanasansakorn.

It was Tuesday 10 July - the day that locals said the cave would become completely flooded.

But while the boys were out, there were still people left on the rocky ledge deep inside Tham Luang - the Navy SEAL divers and medic who had looked after the Wild Boars, as well as Richard Harris, a famed Australian cave diving expert and doctor.

They emerged shortly after the last boy was taken out. It was not a moment too soon, as a pump suddenly stopped working - some said it failed while others said it was switched off.

Floodwaters rushed in, sending workers clearing up the site fleeing.

It was an astonishing feat - after two agonising weeks the Thai cave boys and their coach were finally out at last, safe and sound.

On Facebook, the Thai Navy Seals posted: "We are not sure if this is a miracle, science, or what."

In Chiang Rai, jubilant crowds lined the streets leading to the hospital, cheering on the ambulances. Car horns blared incessantly in celebration.

Thai social media was inundated with posts hashtagged #ThankYou, #Heroes and #Hooyah, the signature Thai Navy Seal chant.

All around the world, millions of people who had anxiously followed the story celebrated the return of the Wild Boars.

But it was a bittersweet night for one person - Richard Harris. The selfless doctor who cut short his holiday in Thailand to save the boys' lives received the terrible news that his father had just died.

Reunited again

The boys give peace signs as they recover in hospital

Dressed in gowns and wearing face masks, the Thai cave boys sat up in their hospital beds and waved to the world.

On Wednesday 11 July, the media got its first post-rescue glimpse of the Wild Boars in a Thai Navy Seals video. Some made victory signs at the camera.

Their parents, who had waited so very long to hold their sons again, were not by their side. They were behind a viewing window, some sobbing with joy at the sight of their boys.

The government said it was necessary to quarantine the boys to protect them and others from infection - though this did not stop Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha from visiting in person. The parents did not publicly object to the strict rules.

At the hospital, the boys and coach were put through a series of health checks. Eye shades were a must at first - their eyes, accustomed to two weeks of darkness, could not bear the light.

The last four Navy SEALs to exit the cave

Hospital authorities said that some had minor lung and eye infections and needed antibiotics. Apart from that, they appeared to be on the mend.

Eventually, parents were finally allowed to briefly see the boys, although they had to maintain a 2m distance, and don hospital gowns and masks.

Some of the boys have even been able to start eating normal food again, after days of craving chocolate and their favourite snacks.

Rear Adm. Arpakorn Yuukongkaew, head of the Thai navy seals: "There was only a tiny bit of hope"

As for the rescuers, they are still digesting the unprecedented feat they pulled off.

"We didn't think the mission would be this successful," said Thai Navy Seals leader Rear Adm Arpakorn Yuukongkaew.

When rescue operations began, his team only had "a little bit of hope that they might still be alive".

"In the end that tiny bit of hope became reality."

Many had expected the story of the lost Wild Boars to end in tragedy. Instead, it became a story of hope and survival, and of parents and sons reunited.

It's a story of ordinary people from all over the world coming together in a remote town in northern Thailand with one mission: to save 12 young boys and their coach.

"If you could do the same for someone else's child, you would," John told reporters upon his return to the UK.

What's next for Mae Sai? The district, and Tham Luang cave, have been put on the global map, probably permanently.

The story of the Wild Boars has dominated life in the local community

Already, local officials are planning to convert the cave complex into a museum and tourist attraction - and, inevitably, at least two production companies are eyeing the Hollywood potential of the story and angling to turn the rescue mission into a film.

As for the Wild Boars and Coach Ake, plans are afoot for them to shave their heads and spend a few days in a monastery. Their families believe this Thai Buddhist tradition will bless their lives, and cleanse them of an unfortunate experience.

"It's for their protection," said Night's grandfather, Seewad Sompiangjai. "It's like they have died [after going into the cave] - and now have been reborn."

For the boys, and Coach Ake - their first priority once they leave hospital must surely be to spend time with their families again.

After all, Night still has to celebrate that 17th birthday - and his parents have promised him a party.

Additional reporting by BBC News and BBC Thai staff in Chiang Rai, and BBC Bristol. Animation by Davies Surya. With thanks to the local people of Chiang Rai and elsewhere in Thailand who made our reporting possible.

Read more of the BBC's reports on the Thai cave rescue here.

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The full story of Thailand's extraordinary cave rescue

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Uncovering the Story/History Behind the World's Biggest Shoe Brand Nike

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Nike, Inc., formerly (1964-71) Blue Ribbon Sports, American sportswear company that is one of the world's best-known brands. It was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, his former track-and-field coach at the University of Oregon. The company was renamed Nike, Inc., in 1971, and it went public in 1980. By the early 21st century, Nike had retail outlets and distributors in more than 170 countries, and its logo-a curved check mark called the "swoosh"-was recognized throughout the world. The company is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon.

Nike's origins trace to 1962, when Knight toured the Onitsuka (now Asics) factory in Japan. Impressed by the speed and quality with which it produced shoes, he made a deal to sell the Onitsuka Tiger, the company's signature shoe, in the United States. After showing the sneakers to Bowerman, the duo formed Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964. Knight largely focused on the business side of the company, while Bowerman was involved in shoe design. In 1967 Bowerman created the popular Tiger Cortez, a modified version of the Onitsuka Tiger. In 1971 Blue Ribbon Sports split from Onitsuka and changed its name to Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory. Its swoosh logo was also introduced that year.

After going public in 1980, Nike struggled, and one of the company's executive encouraged Knight, who was CEO, to sign an endorsement deal with NBA rookie Michael Jordan. A lucrative contract was finalized in 1984, and it revolutionized sports marketing and transformed Nike into an international powerhouse. The company's line of Air Jordan sneakers became a phenomenon and are perhaps the world's best-known shoes. In 1988 the company debuted its iconic slogan "Just Do It."

From the late 1980s Nike steadily expanded its business and diversified its product line through numerous acquisitions, including the shoe companies Cole Haan (1988; sold in 2012) and Converse, Inc. (2003), the sports-equipment producer Canstar Sports, Inc. (1994; later called Bauer and sold in 2008), and the athletic apparel and equipment company Umbro (2008; sold in 2012). In 1996 the company created Nike ACG ("all-conditions gear"), which markets products for extreme sports such as snowboarding and mountain biking. In the early 21st century Nike began selling sports-technology accessories, including portable heart-rate monitors and high-altitude wrist compasses.

Part of Nike's success is owed to endorsements by high-profile athletes. In addition to Michael Jordan, the company has signed deals with Mia Hamm, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and Cristiano Ronaldo. The NikeTown chain stores, the first of which opened in 1990, pay tribute to these and other company spokespersons while offering consumers a full range of Nike products. In the 1990s the company's image suffered from revelations about poor working conditions in its overseas factories. Nike later instituted various reforms, which included auditing its factories.

In 2004 Knight stepped down as CEO, though he continued as the company's chairman until 2016. At that time of his retirement, Nike's annual revenue was more than $32 billion.

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Nike, Inc. | History, Logo, Headquarters, & Facts

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Nike, Inc., American sportswear company headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon. It was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman, a track-and-field coach at the University of Oregon, and his former student Phil Knight. The company was renamed Nike, Inc., in 1971 and went public in 1980.

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Facts Just for Kids, Teachers and Parents

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What kind of animal is an Arctic wolf? What is the scientific name for Arctic Wolf? How much meat can one wolf consume? Get the answers to these questions and many more in these arctic wolf facts for kids.
The Arctic Wolf is renowned for its lack of human aversion. It is a remarkable animal with adaptations that allow it to survive in the harsh climate of the Arctic.

Arctic wolves are quite uncommon in the wild. It is because they inhabit places in which humans cannot live. Historically, European commercial hunters pursued these animals. So, let us discuss the Arctic Wolf facts for kids below:

Arctic Wolf Facts for Kids

1. They can reach a maximum length of 6 feet and weigh between 75 and 150 pounds.

2. The Arctic wolf is a grey wolf subspecies native to the Arctic areas of North America and Greenland.

3. Arctic Wolf is known as the White Wolf and the Polar Wolf.

4. The Arctic Wolf is an animal. They are subspecies of the gray wolf and belong to the wolf family.

5. The Arctic wolf is a carnivore.

6. Canis lupus arctos is the scientific name for this species. Its scientific name, Lupus, means "dog."

7. Arctic wolves are distinguished from their Pacific Northwest counterparts by their smaller stature, whiter fur, larger carnassial teeth, and narrower skulls.

8. Like their southern siblings, Arctic wolves inhabit an isolated habitat range and are not threatened by habitat loss or hunting.

9. The double-layered fur of these wolves contributes to their habitat in the northern region. It is so dense in the south that they cannot survive.

10. The innermost layer of fur protects the skin from moisture. The outer layer is thick for insulation purposes.

11. They have smaller ears, shorter legs, and shorter snouts than gray wolves.

12. Since 1930, the Arctic wolf's skull size has gradually decreased, which may be the outcome of wolf-dog hybridization.

13. The white fur of polar wolves makes blending into their cold environment easier.

14. It primarily feeds on Arctic foxes, hares, moose, caribou, elk, and deer.

15. Arctic wolves have powerful jaws. It possesses 42 razor-sharp teeth meant to rip flesh and shatter bones.

16. Arctic wolves can traverse icy terrain due to their thick, cushioned paws.

17. Although the wolf's evolutionary history is obscure, many biologists believe it descended from early predators known as micids.

18. The animal's family is Canidae, and its class is Mammalia.

19. In addition to cold weather, inhabitants of the Arctic endure five months of darkness per year.

20. They exhibit sexual dimorphism, with males often being larger than females.

21. The eyes of Arctic Wolves change hue as they mature.

22. Typically, polar wolves reside in caves or seek refuge in rocky outcrops. They are unable to dig typical dens since the earth is frozen.

23. When pursuing larger prey, they hunt in packs. A pack of wolves will kill and consume susceptible members of a herd of caribou or muskoxen.

24. The average standing height of an Arctic wolf is approximately 3 feet.

25. After 63 days of gestation, the mother wolf gives birth to two to four pups.

26. As the number of prey available is low, these wolves must occupy a larger territory than their southern cousins, bigger than 1,000 square miles.

27. Arctic wolves typically live between 7 and 10 years in the wild.

28. They survive longer than 18 years in captivity due to food availability and protection from natural threats.

29. Typically, when pups reach three to six weeks of age, they leave the den and begin exploring their surroundings.

30. An Arctic wolf may consume approximately 9 kilograms (20 pounds) of meat per meal.

31. Large hunts typically last several days. All pack members take turns guarding the carcass against scavengers between meals.

32. Breeding pairs may be the pack's largest, oldest, and strongest wolf.

33. Wolf body language is a means by which wolves convey group rules. The dominant male and female lead the pack.

34. The white or light-gray coloring of the Arctic wolf's coat provides great camouflage.

35. Under their skin, Arctic wolves have a thick layer of body fat.

Conclusion

I can say that an Arctic wolf is one of the most beautiful yet fierce animals. The fact that they can bear extremely harsh weather amazes me. That's it from my side on the facts of the Arctic wolf.

Stay connected for more informative articles.

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Looking for information on the Arctic wolf? These arctic wolf Facts for Kids will help you get all the information you need about them.

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Abraham Lincoln Assassinated

Assassination of President Lincoln
by Currier & Ives

History >> Civil War

President Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. He was the first president of the United States to be assassinated.

Where was Lincoln killed?

President Lincoln was attending a play called Our American Cousin at the Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C. He was sitting in the Presidential Box with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and their guests Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris.

Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre which was not
too far from the White House.
Photo by Ducksters

How was he killed?

When the play reached a point where there was a big joke and the audience laughed loudly, John Wilkes Booth entered President Lincoln's box and shot him in the back of the head. Major Rathbone tried to stop him, but Booth stabbed Rathbone. Then Booth jumped from the box and fled. He was able to get outside the theatre and onto his horse to escape.

President Lincoln was carried to William Petersen's boarding house across the street. There were several doctors with him, but they could not help him. He died on April 15, 1865.

Booth used this small pistol to
shoot Lincoln at close range.
Photo by Ducksters

Conspiracy

John Wilkes Booth
by Alexander Gardner

John Wilkes Booth was a Confederate sympathizer. He felt that the war was ending and that the South was going to lose unless they did something drastic. He gathered some partners together and first made a plan to kidnap President Lincoln. When his kidnapping plan failed he turned to assassination.

The plan was that Booth would kill the president while Lewis Powell would assassinate the Secretary of State William H. Seward and George Atzerodt would killVice President Andrew Johnson. Although Booth was successful, fortunately Powell was unable to kill Seward and Atzerodt lost his nerve and never attempted to assassinate Andrew Johnson.

Captured

Booth was cornered in a barn south of Washington where he was shot by soldiers after he refused to surrender. The other conspirators were caught and several were hanged for their crimes.

Wanted poster for the conspirators.
Photo by Ducksters

Interesting facts about Lincoln's Assassination

The Petersen House
is located directly across
the street from the Ford's Theater
Photo by Ducksters

There was a policeman assigned to guard President Lincoln. His name was John Frederick Parker. He was not at his post when Booth entered the box and was likely at a nearby tavern at the time.

Booth broke his leg when he jumped out of the box and onto the stage.

When Booth stood on the stage he yelled out the Virginia State Motto "Sic semper tyrannis" which means "Thus always to tyrants".

The Ford Theatre shut down after the assassination. The government purchased it and turned it into a warehouse. It was unused for many years until 1968 when it was reopened as a Museum and theatre. The Presidential Box is never used.

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Civil War for Kids: President Abraham Lincoln's Assassination

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Abraham Lincoln Assassinated Assassination of President Lincoln by Currier & Ives History >> Civil War President Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. He was the first president of the United States to be assassinated. Where was Lincoln killed?

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Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Facts for Kids

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On the day of his assassination, Lincoln had told his bodyguard, William H. Crook, that he had been having dreams of being assassinated for three straight nights. Cook advised Lincoln not to go that night to Ford's theater. Lincoln said he had promised his wife they would go.

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John Wilkes Booth: Chasing Lincoln’s Assassin

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Follow the escape route of John Wilkes Booth, one of history’s most notorious assassins, as he fled from Washington, D.C., and hid for several days in Southern Maryland before being cornered.

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Transcript

Walt Disney was an American artist, a film producer, and founder of the entertainment conglomerate the Disney Company.

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois.

As he moved around the Midwestern United States with his family, Walt discovered an interest in art.

By the time he entered high school, he had already sought out a correspondence course and begun to study cartooning.

In 1922 Walt Disney and the animator Ub Iwerks opened an independent art studio creating short advertisements and comedic sketches.

Though the venture soon shut down, Disney, his brother Roy, and Iwerks started again in California with a new studio creating animated films.

From that studio came the idea of a new character...who would later become the iconic Disney Company spokesman Mickey Mouse.

In 1934 Disney began work on his studio's first feature-length animated film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, one of the first-ever projects to prove animation's capacity for long-form narrative.

Snow White was quickly followed by Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, and Fantasia-and the opening of a new studio in Burbank to keep up with the demand for new releases.

After that small feat of changing the world of film forever, Walt Disney moved to his next big project: Disneyland, a California theme park that opened in 1955.

Though more Disney parks followed-in Florida and overseas-Disneyland was the only one created entirely under the supervision of Walt Disney himself.

Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, in Los Angeles, California, about a month after undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

By the end of the 20th century, his company would be one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates and regularly rank among the top 50 companies in America.

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Learn more about the life, career, and legacy of Walt Disney.

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Walt Disney was an American motion picture and television producer and showman, famous as a pioneer of cartoon films, including Mickey Mouse, and as the creator of the amusement parks Disneyland and Disney World.

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How one man’s big dream became an even bigger reality. Learn more about Walter Disney and his kingdom of magic that changed animation forever.

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Disneyland Paris.

The Walt Disney Company is a diversified US entertainment conglomerate and multinational mass media company commonly known as just Disney. The company's headquarters are located in Burbank, California at the Walt Disney Studios. Walt Disney is the second largest media group in the world (after Comcast) in regards to revenue.

The History Of Walt Disney

On October 16 th, 1923, Disney was founded as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studios by two brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney. In early 1923, Walt Disney an animator from Kansas City, Missouri created a short film dubbed "Alice in Wonderland", featuring a small girl whose role was played by Virginia Davis, a child actress who was socializing with animated characters in the film. Following the bankruptcy of Walt Disney's previous firm known as Laugh-O-Gram Studios in 1923, he decided to move to Hollywood and join Roy O. Disney, his brother. Margaret J. Winkler a film distributor and owner of the M.J. Winkler Productions offered to distribute a whole series of the Alice Comedies provided that Disney would come as a production partner. In that same year Walt and Roy established the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio where they produced more animated movies after Alice. The Disney studio which was under construction on Hyperion Street was completed in January 1926, and its name was changed to The Walt Disney Studios.

The Debut Of Mickey Mouse

In February 1928, Walt lost the Oswald's series contract, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was a cartoon series that Disney had been working on after the demise of the Alice comedies. To recover from that loss, later that year Disney conceived an idea about a mouse whose character he named Mortimer, while on a train en route to California. Mortimer was later renamed Mickey Mouse because Disney's wife, Lillian, did not find Mortimer mouse to be appealing. Steamboat Willie was released on November 18 th, 1929, and was Disney's first sound film and cartoon starring Mickey. Steamboat Willie was yet another milestone accomplished by Disney since it was the first cartoon that featured synchronized sound therefore becoming an immediate success and a smash hit.

Following a series of cartoon productions, Disney created the Silly Symphonies series in conjunction with Columbia Pictures who signed as the distributor of the series in August 1929. In September 1929, the Mickey Mouse Club was formed following the approval from Walt Disney. Later that year Walt Disney studios partnership was restructured as a corporation with the name changing to Walt Disney Productions, Limited which included the Disney film recording company, an investment company for real estate holdings, a merchandising division, limited and Liled Realty and Walt Disney Enterprises and two subsidiaries.

The Technicolor Era

Disney signed an exclusive contract with Technicolor which featured the production of cartoons in colors starting with trees and flowers. From 1928 to 1930, Disney produced cartoons through Powers Celebrity Pictures while from 1930 to 1932 they used Columbia Pictures and the United Artists from 1932 to 1937. Since Mickey Mouse had gained so much popularity Disney was able to plan for his first feature-length film.

The First Feature- Length Animation

In 1934, Disney began the production of Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs which was his first feature length animated film premiering in December 1937 to become the highest grossing film during that time. Disney used the profits from the film to finance the construction of a new studio complex stretching about 51 acres in Burbank, California where the current headquarters of Walt Disney's Studios is located to this date.

Disney Land

In 1954, Walt used his Disney series to showcase what Disney Land would become. Walt came up with the idea for Disney Land out of the desire for a place where both children and their parents could enjoy themselves and have fun at the same time. Disney Land was officially opened to the general public by Walt Disney on July 18 th, 1935. Currently the Walt Disney Company operates on 4 main business units which include The Walt Disney Studios, Parks and Resorts, Media networks, and Interactive Media.

1. Home

2. Society

3. The History And Evolution Of The Walt Disney Company

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The History And Evolution Of The Walt Disney Company

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Founded on October 16, 1923, the Walt Disney Company is the world's second largest media conglomerate in terms of revenue, after Comcast.

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Kids learn about the biography of Jim Thorpe. One of the world's greatest athletes, Olympic gold medal winner, professional football and baseball player, native american indian.

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Timeline of Disney’s Most Historical Events

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Check out Disney’s timeline as we highlight some of the most historical events in the iconic brand’s history.

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The company was founded on 25 January 1964. Nike was named Blue Ribbon Sports at first. The original founders of Nike are Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight. The company is named after Nike, the Greek goddess of victory .

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Walt Disney Company is founded | October 16, 1923 | HISTORY

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On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney and his brother Roy found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in Hollywood, California. The studio, now known as the Walt Disney Company, has had an oversized impact on the entertainment industry and is now one of the largest media companies in the world. A talented artist from a young age, […]

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Amelia Earhart | Timeline

Courtesy of Seaver Center for Western History Research

July 24, 1897: A 20th Century Childhood
Amelia Mary Earhart is born in Atchison, Kansas, to parents Amy Otis and Edwin Stanton Earhart. Her sister, Muriel, is born two years later.

Amelia lives primarily with her maternal grandparents in Atchison during the school year and spends summers with her parents in Kansas City. Despite her grandmother?s disapproval, Amelia spends her free time roaming the outdoors - riding imaginary horses, climbing trees, sledding, and hunting.

1908
Amelia rejoins her parents in Des Moines, Iowa. She sees an airplane for the first time at the Iowa State Fair and later recalls being unimpressed - "It was a thing of rusty wire and wood and looked not at all interesting." It was not until a decade later, at a stunt-flying exhibition, that Amelia's passion for flight is awakened.

1910-1915
These are turbulent, difficult years for Amelia and her family. Amelia's grandmother, who raised her, dies in 1911. Her father struggles with alcoholism, losing his job and checking into a sanatorium for a month to rehabilitate himself. The family moves to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1913. When Edwin is again unable to recover and find a job, Amy leaves him and moves with Amelia and Muriel to Chicago.

June 1916: Amelia's Education
Amelia graduates from Hyde Park High School in Chicago. She excels in science, only enrolling at Hyde Park after determining that it had the best science program in the area. However, she has trouble making friends - her yearbook caption reads, "A.E. - the girl in brown who walks alone."

Fall 1916-1918
Amelia attends the Ogontz School, an exclusive finishing school outside of Philadelphia. She again excels in her studies and becomes Vice President of her class. She does not graduate, however, choosing instead to volunteer at Toronto's Spadina Military Hospital as a nurse for wounded World War I soldiers.

While in Toronto, she attends a flying exposition with a friend. A stunt pilot dives at Amelia and her friend - "I am sure he said to himself, "watch me make them scamper,"" Amelia later recalled - but Amelia stands her ground. She points to this incident as a personal awakening - "I did not understand it at the time, but I believe that little red airplane said something to me as it swished by."

Fall 1919-1920
Amelia enters the pre-med program at Columbia University but after a year decides to leave to join her parents, who have reunited in Los Angeles.

December 28, 1920: Hooked on Flying
Amelia attends an air show on Long Beach with her father. With pilot Frank Hawk, she takes her first ride in an airplane. "By the time I had got two or three hundred feet off the ground, I knew I had to fly," she later recalled.

January 3, 1921
Amelia has her first flying lesson with pilot Neta Snook. She works a variety of jobs - truck driver, photographer, stenographer - to save money for these lessons, and six months later is able to purchase her first airplane, a yellow Kinner Airster biplane she names the Canary .

December 15, 1921
Amelia passes her flying license tests given by the National Aeronautic Association. She flies in the Pacific Coast Ladies' Derby in Pasadena two days later.

October 22, 1922
Amelia sets an unofficial altitude record for female pilots after flying the Canary to 14,000 feet.

May 16, 1923
Amelia is issued an international pilot's license by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI ), becoming the 16th woman ever to achieve this.

1924: Hiatus from Aviation
Amelia's parents divorce, and Amelia drives with her mother from California to Massachusetts where they move in with sister Muriel. Amelia goes to New York briefly to reenroll at Columbia, but she soon moves back to Boston where she works first as a teacher and then as a social worker at Denison House, teaching English to Syrian and Chinese immigrants.

1927
Amelia joins the Boston chapter of the National Aeronautic Association, and is occasionally featured in newspapers as an advocate for aviation and female pilots.

Amelia Earhart, c. 1928, Courtesy: Library of Congress

June 17-18, 1928: Overnight Stardom
Amelia Earhart, pilot Wilmer Stultz, and co-pilot and mechanic Louis Gordon depart from Newfoundland in the Friendship , a tri-motor seaplane. They arrive in Wales over 20 hours later and are greeted by cheering crowds.

Amelia does not think she deserves any acclaim for being the first woman passenger on a trans-Atlantic flight - "Stultz did all the flying - had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes." She adds, "Maybe someday I'll try it alone."

Summer 1928
Amelia's book about the Friendship flight, 20 Hrs. 40 Min. , is published. Amelia teams up with publicist George Putnam to write it, and he quickly promotes her to celebrity status. Amelia goes on a national book tour, endorses products like Lucky Strike cigarettes and Modernaire Earhart Luggage, and becomes known as "Lady Lindy" because of her resemblance to Charles Lindbergh. She also becomes Aviation Editor for Cosmopolitan magazine.

August 1929: Taking the Initiative
Amelia buys another airplane, a single engine Lockheed Vega. In the Vega, she participates in the Women's Air Derby race from Santa Monica to Cleveland, coming in third place.

November 2, 1929
Amelia helps found The Ninety-Nines, Inc., the first organization for women aviators. She will become its first president in 1931 and holds that position for two years, during which time she also uses her celebrity status to promote the growth of American commercial airlines.

July 5, 1930
Amelia sets the women's world flying speed record of 181.18 miles per hour. Between 1930 and 1935, Amelia will set seven women's speed and distance records.

February 7, 1931
Amelia Earhart marries George Palmer Putnam. Wary of the institution of marriage, Amelia refused George's proposals six times before she agrees. She will emphasize that her marriage is a "partnership" with "dual control."

1932
Amelia writes her second book, The Fun of It .

Amelia with New York City mayor James Walker, 1932. Courtesy: Library of Congress

May 20-21, 1932: The Record Setter
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She departs from Newfoundland and lands in a pasture in Northern Ireland.

This act earns her the Distinguished Flying Cross from Congress, the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor from the French government, and the Gold Medal of the National Geographic Society from President Hoover, becoming the first woman to ever receive this prestigious award. The site of her landing in Ireland now has a small museum, the Amelia Earhart Centre.

August 24-25, 1932
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back.

1933
Amelia visits the White House. From this visit she develops a friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Amelia flies across North America for the second time, breaking her own record with a faster flight time.

1934
Amelia receives the Harmon Trophy for America's Outstanding Airwoman for the third year in a row.

January 11, 1935
Amelia is the first person to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California. This year she will also fly solo from Los Angeles to Mexico City (April 19-20) and later from Mexico City to New York (May 8). In between flights she works as a career counselor to women at Purdue University.

July 1936: The Round-the-World Flight
Purdue University finances a new plane for Amelia, a Lockhead Electra 10E which she calls the "Flying Laboratory," though the plane was purchase less for scientific research and more for Amelia's new dream: a "prize - one flight which I most wanted to attempt - a circumnavigation of the globe as near its waistline as could be."

Amelia and her husband George Putnam plan for her world flight, raising money and consulting with advisers, mechanics, and navigators.

March 17, 1937
Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, along with Captain Harry Manning and stunt pilot Paul Mantz, fly the first leg of the trip from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii in 15 hours and 47 minutes.

When they try to continue from Honolulu three days later, the plane ground-loops during take-off and they have to call off the flight.

June 1, 1937
Amelia departs on a second attempt, this time departing from Miami, Florida with the plan of traveling from west to east. Fred Noonan is her only crew member on this second flight. They complete nearly 22,000 miles of the flight, stopping in South America, Africa, India, and Lae, New Guinea.

July 2, 1937
Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan depart from Lae. Their destination is Howland Island, a tiny island in the Pacific only 13,200 feet long and 2,650 feet wide. Amelia and Noonan cannot find the island, however, and they lose radio contact with the Coast Guard cutter Itasca , who can hear that they are lost but cannot return communication.

They disappear over the Pacific Ocean. President Roosevelt issues a massive search for Amelia and Noonan, and George Putnam finances his own search until October 1937, but their efforts are unsuccessful.

January 5, 1939
Amelia Earhart is declared legally dead in a court in Los Angeles.

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Amelia Earhart, 1897-1937 | American Experience | PBS

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Learn about Earhart's life from her childhood spent roaming the outdoors, to her first flying lessons, to her disappearence over the Pacific in 1937.

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Amelia Earhart - First Woman To Fly Alone | Mini Bio | Biography

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Of the millions of children who suffered persecution at the hands of the Nazis and their Axis partners, a small number wrote diaries and journals that have survived.

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Iby grew up in Bratislava, then the capital of Czechoslovakia. She escaped to Hungary after the Nazi invasion but was later caught and deported to Auschwitz. Read Iby’s Story Arek survived the Lodz…

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Amelia Earhart - The Official Licensing Website of Amelia Earhart

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Welcome to the official Amelia Earhart website. Learn more about Amelia Earhart and contact us today for licensing opportunities.

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During World War II, Jewish resistance fighters launched attacks, created underground networks, led rescue missions and documented their experiences at great personal risk. But though historians have ample evidence of such acts of defiance, the idea that Europe's Jews didn't fight back against the Nazis persists. Now, a new exhibition at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London seeks to honor these individuals' largely unheralded contributions.

" Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust" draws on documents, artifacts and survivor testimonies, many of which were gathered by library researchers during the 1950s. The show tells the stories of Jewish partisans in the Soviet Union, organized resistance in concentration camps and ghettos, and individual instances of bravery, among other topics.

"Sometimes the view that people have is that the Jews didn't really resist, and people have commented on 'why wasn't there more resistance?'" senior curator Barbara Warnock tells the 's Caroline Davies. "But in these incredibly extreme circumstances there are just so many examples of resistance, even in the most desperate situations."

One of the individuals featured in the exhibition is Tosia Altman, a young woman who used fake " Aryanized" papers to smuggle herself into Poland's ghettos. As a member of the social Zionist movement Hashomer Hatzair, Altman invaded ghettos, organized resistance groups, spread information and moved weapons, reports Michelle Desmet for Dutch newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. At just 24 years old, she participated in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but was captured and died of her injuries shortly thereafter.

"Her story is quite amazing," says Warnock to the Guardian. "And she was typical of a lot of the resisters in camps and ghettos. She was quite young, and managed to obtain papers indicating she was just Polish rather than Jewish Polish, allowing her to move around occupied Poland."

In concentration camps, some prisoners undermined Nazi efforts to eradicate their culture by continuing religious practices and education. As Warnock explains in a video published by the library, diaries served as one of the most explicit ways in which individuals could "keep a sense of their humanity" and document Jewish experiences.

Philipp Manes, a German Jew incarcerated in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, kept extensive diaries throughout his life. Now preserved in the library's collection, Manes' writings provide documentation of cultural life in the ghetto prior to his deportation to Auschwitz in October 1944. The library also owns a trove of poems, letters and drawings made by Manes' fellow prisoners.

Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust

Other forms of resistance highlighted in the exhibition were more overt. Filip Müller, for instance, smuggled evidence of Nazi atrocities out of Auschwitz-Birkenau while working as a member of the Sonderkommando, or units of Jewish prisoners assigned to the gas chambers and crematoria. Berlin resident Herbert Baum, meanwhile, started the anti-Nazi, pro-communism Baum Group in the 1930s. When he was forced to work at a factory in 1940, Baum recruited other young forced laborers, expanding the group's membership to around 100 people.

In May 1942, the Baum Group led an arson attack against the Soviet Paradise, an anti-communist, anti-Semitic exhibition that attempted to justify the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Many involved in the bombing-including Baum himself-were arrested and executed. Some of those who managed to escape later offered personal accounts of their experiences to the Wiener Library.

"Whether we're talking about a quiet act of bravery or a bold act of rebellion, these stories really leap off the page," says the library's director, Toby Simpson, in the video, "and the reason for that often is that they were gathered either during the time of the Holocaust or in the years that immediately followed. The Wiener Library's head of research, Eva Reichmann, gathered over a thousand testimonies in the 1950s, and many of those stories are featured in this exhibition for the first time."
"Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust" is on view at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London from August 6 to November 30.

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The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust

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A new exhibition at the Wiener Holocaust Library in London showcases accounts of resiliency and defiance

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History for kids - Free history network for kids

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Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln

John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the head during a performance of "Our American Cousin." Lincoln died the following day, making him the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Booth was later tracked down and killed by Union soldiers.

Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln Facts For Kids

Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865.

His killer was an actor named John Wilkes Booth.

The murder occurred in Ford's Theatre, Washington D.C.

Lincoln was watching the play "Our American Cousin".

Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head.

The weapon used was a .44 caliber Deringer pistol.

Lincoln died the next day, on April 15, 1865.

Booth was caught and killed on April 26, 1865.

Lincoln's death was the first presidential assassination.

The event marked a tragic end to the U.S. Civil War.

Location

Ford's Theatre, Washington D.C.

Assassin

John Wilkes Booth

Method

Gunshot wound to the head

Time between shooting and death

Approximately 9 hours

Conspirators

Lewis Powell, George Atzerodt, etc.

Motive

Confederate sympathizers

Capture and Fate of Booth

Captured on April 26, 1865; killed resisting arrest

Impact

First assassination of a U.S. President

Historical Significance

Altered the course of Reconstruction and national healing

The American Civil War

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 is closely linked to the American Civil War. Lincoln led the Union to victory and was killed just days after the war's end. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was a Southern sympathizer. Lincoln's assassination, therefore, marked a violent end to the Civil War and created further complications for the healing and reunification of the nation.

The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, as President, led the nation through the Civil War and aimed to end slavery. His term was cut short by his assassination in 1865. This tragic event, carried out by John Wilkes Booth, not only ended Lincoln's life but also his vision for a united country. Lincoln's assassination had a profound effect on the American presidency."

The Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freed enslaved people in the South. This decision stirred resentment, notably in John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln in 1865. The assassination is therefore tied to the struggle over slavery. Despite Lincoln's death, the emancipation movement he championed continued.

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. He disagreed with Lincoln's views on slavery and unity after the Civil War. Booth shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, drastically impacting Lincoln's legacy. Booth is now known as one of America's most infamous assassins.

Ford's Theatre

Ford's Theatre, located in Washington D.C., is a historic site associated with one of the most tragic events in American history, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. On the evening of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and his party attended a performance of "Our American Cousin" at the theatre. Unbeknownst to them, John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, had plotted to murder the president. He slipped into Lincoln's private box and shot him in the back of the head.

The theater, instead of being remembered as a popular entertainment venue of the era, became synonymous with the untimely death of one of the nation's most revered leaders. Today, Ford's Theatre serves not just as a working theater, but also as a monument and museum, reminding visitors of the grim event that unfolded within its walls.

The Reconstruction Era

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 sent shockwaves through a nation already reeling from the Civil War, and it profoundly impacted the subsequent period known as the Reconstruction Era. Lincoln, who had steered the Union to victory, had envisioned a lenient and swift reconstruction process to restore Southern states to the Union and rebuild the nation's economy.

His untimely death, however, led to a shift in power to his Vice President, Andrew Johnson, whose approach to Reconstruction was more punitive towards the South and less protective of newly freed African Americans. Thus, Lincoln's assassination significantly altered the course of Reconstruction, and its effects continue to reverberate in discussions on racial justice and equality in the United States.

The Confederate States of America

John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, assassinated President Lincoln in 1865 due to disagreements with Lincoln's policies towards the South. Lincoln's assassination didn't echo all Confederates' views, as many knew Lincoln sought a compassionate approach to Reconstruction. Therefore, his death greatly influenced the Confederate States' fate during Reconstruction.

The Gettysburg Address

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, articulating his vision of a united nation under principles of equality and liberty. His words set the course for an imminent end of slavery and a hoped-for national reconciliation. However, this vision was tragically cut short when he was assassinated in 1865, just as the Civil War was ending.

His untimely death left the nation without its guiding light during a crucial period of reconstruction. Despite this tragic end, Lincoln's ideals, as beautifully expressed in the Gettysburg Address, continue to shape American ideology and are considered a defining legacy of his presidency.

The 13th Amendment (Abolition of Slavery)

President Lincoln's role in passing the 13th Amendment was pivotal, as it abolished slavery. However, just months after its ratification, Lincoln was assassinated, deeply affecting the newly freed African Americans. Despite his early death, his efforts in ending slavery form a key part of his legacy.

The Conspirators of Lincoln's assassination

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln was not the act of a single man, but the result of a larger conspiracy masterminded by John Wilkes Booth and several others. Booth, an actor, and Confederate sympathizer, was the one who fatally shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. However, Booth was part of a wider group who planned to destabilize the Union government by assassinating not just Lincoln, but also Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward.

The broader plan failed, with only Lincoln falling victim to the plot. Following the assassination, authorities tracked down the conspirators. Four of them, including Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the U.S. government, were hanged, while others were imprisoned. The group's plot not only resulted in Lincoln's tragic death but also left a lasting stain on American history.

Background

Abraham Lincoln, elected President in 1860, was a vocal opponent of slavery, sparking opposition from pro-slavery Southern states. This opposition led to secession, with seven Southern states declaring themselves the Confederate States of America. Lincoln, however, refused to recognize this secession, leading to the onset of the Civil War.

By 1863, thanks to Lincoln's leadership and strategic decisions, the Union forces were on the verge of victory. This progress, while celebrated in the North, sparked resentment in the South. In 1865, in the aftermath of the Confederacy's defeat, John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer and actor, assassinated Lincoln. Booth's action marked a tragic end to Lincoln's presidency, which had been defined by his steadfast opposition to slavery and his crucial role in leading the Union to victory in the Civil War.

The Assassin

John Wilkes Booth was a famous stage actor who belonged to a well-known family of actors. He was a rabid supporter of slavery and believed that it should not be abolished. He even attended the execution of famous abolitionist John Brown, who had raided a federal armory at Harpers Ferry.

After Confederate forces were defeated on various fronts, Booth felt that if Lincoln, his vice president Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William Seward were killed, the tide of war could be changed in favor of the Confederacy. He and his accomplices decided to assassinate the president, vice president, and secretary of state. Booth assigned himself the primary task of targeting Lincoln.

The Assassination

On the night of April 14th, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln attended a stage play at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. as part of a sequence of events. Seated together in a special box, along with other attendees, they enjoyed the performance.

However, tragedy struck when John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, entered the box and assassinated President Lincoln. Booth shot Lincoln in the back of the head, inflicting a fatal wound. Despite the severity of the gunshot, Lincoln did not die immediately. He was swiftly taken across the street to Peterson House, a nearby residence, for medical assistance.

Sadly, Lincoln's injuries proved fatal, and he passed away on April 15th, 1865, in Peterson House. It is worth noting that while Booth's accomplice, Lewis Powell, attempted to assassinate Secretary of State Seward but failed, another accomplice, George Atzerodt, decided against his plan to attack Vice President Johnson at the last moment

The Fate of the Assassins

Within a few days of the assassination, all the conspirators were arrested except Booth who was shot dead after he resisted arrest. In all, eight conspirators were tried for the assassination and four of them were sentenced to death by hanging. Three conspirators were handed life imprisonment and one was booked for six years.

Lewis Powell

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln had connections to Lewis Powell, one of the co-conspirators in the plot. Powell, also known as Lewis Payne, was assigned the task of assassinating Secretary of State William H. Seward on the same night that Lincoln was killed. However, while Booth successfully carried out his part of the plan, Powell's attempt on Seward's life was not as successful.

Powell attacked Seward, who was recovering from an injury, but Seward's neck brace protected him from fatal harm. Despite the failed attempt, Powell's involvement in the assassination plot underscores the coordinated nature of the conspiracy. Following the assassination, Powell was captured, tried, and ultimately executed for his role in the tragic event that claimed the life of President Lincoln.

George Atzerodt

The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln involved the participation of George Atzerodt, another co-conspirator in the plot. Atzerodt was assigned the task of assassinating Vice President Andrew Johnson on the same night that Lincoln was targeted. However, Atzerodt did not carry out the plan and instead spent the evening drinking at a nearby hotel.

Despite his lack of action, Atzerodt's involvement in the conspiracy underscores the breadth of the plot and the multiple targets intended for assassination. After the assassination, Atzerodt was apprehended, tried, and later executed for his role in the conspiracy. Although he did not directly contribute to Lincoln's death, his participation in the broader plan further highlights the organized nature of the assassination plot.

Aftermath

Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the United States was plunged into a period of profound grief, mourning the loss of a leader who had guided the nation through its tumultuous Civil War. As the country grappled with this tragedy, the political landscape was destabilized, with Vice President Andrew Johnson ascending to the presidency.

Johnson's leadership faced numerous obstacles, as he struggled to balance Lincoln's legacy with his own policy ideas during the Reconstruction Era, expediting the integration of the southern states while contending with the complex ramifications of emancipation and civil rights for former slaves. Lincoln's assassination, therefore, left an indelible mark on American history, shaping the nation's path towards recovery and progress in the aftermath of its darkest hour.

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Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln - History for kids

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John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the head during a performance of "Our American Cousin." Lincoln died the following day, making him the first U.S. president to be assassinated.

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The Disastrous Backstory Behind the Invention of LEGO Bricks

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When it comes to all things Danish, modern furniture, beer and pastries stand out, but arguably the country's most famous export are tiny toy bricks. In 2016 alone, over 75 billion of the colorful plastic bricks were sold, and the 85-year-old company behind them reigns as one of the world's most iconic toy manufacturers.

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NIKE: The Story Behind the Iconic Brand and its Rise to Global Success | Brand the Change

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The incredible success story behind the Nike brand from its tagline to its logo evolution and the achievements the brand acquired over the years.

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The Time I... Climbed Mt. Everest - Disney Channel Official

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When was your last close encounter with a piece of LEGO? With luck, it was at Christmas, watching your grandchildren's eyes light up as they opened their must-have Star Wars kit, rather than painfully underfoot or while clearing a blocked vacuum cleaner.

But however you're feeling about LEGO right now, there's one thing you can't deny: the stuff is inescapable. There are more LEGO people ('mini-figures') in the world than there are real people. And for every one of us there exist 62 Lego pieces. Chances are that some of them once belonged to you.

That all depends, though, on your age and generation. The earliest Lego toys you could possibly have owned as a child was a wooden bus, lorry, aeroplane, or pull-along animal.

The colourful little brick that went on to achieve world domination was not launched until 1949, and the satisfying clicking coupling system was introduced almost ten years later, in 1958. The range of LEGO in the 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond has continuously grown each generation has has an opportunity to enjoy this creative, playful toy.

The origin of LEGO

2022 marks the 90th anniversary of the year when Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter from an impoverished farming family from Billund, Denmark, first began making toys. It was the depth of the Great Depression, regular carpentry work had dried up, and Ole Kirk needed to find some other way of making ends meet. Inspiration struck when he realised the miniature prototypes for items he was looking to manufacture from wood - ironing boards, ladders and the like, at great potential as toys. His toys were an instant success. Two years later, he named his company LEGO by conflating two Danish words leg and godt - which mean 'play well'.

One reason the company did so well was because of its capacity to adapt - and to snatch triumph from the jaws of disaster. For instance, during the thirties yo-yo craze, LEGO had manufactured vast numbers for Danish children when, suddenly, the craze died. The factory was left with a massive, unsellable yo-yo surplus. Ole, however, had the bright idea of cutting all the yo-yos in half and using them as wheels for a new toy truck design instead. It went on to become a bestseller.

Not until 1949 did LEGO begin manufacturing the plastic construction bricks for which it is now so famous. If you played with such things before then, it wouldn't have been LEGO at all but the prototype pioneered by a British toymaker called Hilary Page.

For LEGO's 80th anniversary in 2012 Lego produced a short animated film The LEGO Story.

Short film The LEGO Story
Boys' comics of the 1940s
LEGO as a global empire

Page, a clever, thoughtful man who spent a day a week at different nurseries trying to understand child psychology is one of the unsung heroes of toy history.

His Kiddicraft Company anticipated by a decade the Lego revolution. He patented his first Interlocking Building Cubes (with the distinctive studs on top and the hollows on the bottom that enable them to be stacked firmly) in 1940. But what he failed properly to appreciate was the design's versatility and potential.

So while Page soon flitted onto other, more apparently promising toy ranges (miniaturised replicas of Heinz soups, Quaker Oats, even spirits and cigarettes), it was the Danes who turned those bricks into a multimillion pound global empire. For the first five years, sales were slow but Ole Kirk was confident that quality would out in the end.

His attention to detail was extraordinary. The story goes that in the early wooden toy days, his son proudly announced that he had saved his father a considerable sum of money. Instead of painting the latest consignment with the regulation three coats of varnish, he had used only two. Far from being pleased, Ole Kirk was furious. He sent his son rushing off to the railway station to bring back the toys and do the job properly.

The tale has become part of company legend. 'Kun det bedste er godt nok' it says on the staff t-shirts at the main LEGO factory in Billund, Denmark. 'Only the best is good enough.'

And they act as if they mean it, too. It's a cheerful place, the LEGO HQ. Hardworking, yes, but infused with a spirit of childlike wonder: as if the staff - the designers especially - can't quite believe their luck that in adulthood they're still involved with the very thing that gave them such pleasure as kids. This spirit extends to the executives: instead of business cards, they hand out Lego mini-figure caricatures of themselves with their details printed on.

The LEGO archives

The highlight of a visit to Billund - even more exciting than the LEGO hotel with its huge Lego dragon or the Legoland theme park, or the museum - is a visit to the locked secret room that has been known to make grown men cry.

Inside this anonymous basement, stored in gun-metal grey filing cabinets, is LEGO's Memory Lane archive - almost all the toys LEGO has ever made, packed in their original boxes and arranged by year. Often, the last time you'll have seen this exact packaging was when you opened your Christmas presents all those years ago. It's like Proust's madeleine: suddenly it all comes flooding back with incredible intensity and for a delicious moment you're a child once more.

Beyond the Brick YouTube channel visits Memory Lane with LEGO designer Jan Ryaa.
The Famous Five turns 75
LEGO expands its range

The modern generation of children simply don't appreciate how spoiled they are for choice.

Today, LEGO fans have a stupendous range of products to satisfy their addiction: starting with the large Duplo bricks for when they're toddlers; then everything from movie tie-in products ( Star Wars, Toy Story etc) to themed playsets such as Atlantis or girl-targeted Belville (complete with inevitable ponies); then, as they grow more sophisticated, the fiendishly complex Technic construction kits, and the even more challenging Mindstorms (where you can build your own working robot).

And if building stuff doesn't take their fancy, there are always computer apps or online video games.

In our day it was just bricks: square and rectangular ones mainly, used for building houses. As befitted the post-war spirit of renewal, most of the early Lego sets were designed like exercises in town planning.

They came either in metal canisters or cardboard boxes with a range of parts. What made LEGO unique (setting it apart from rivals such as Meccano), was that though rudimentary instructions were included, the main idea was to go off-piste and come up with creations of your own devising.

Build anything

This is the LEGO most of us remember: jumbled-up parts from different kits that we put together whichever way took our fancy.

A popular eighties TV advert - with a Tommy Cooper soundalike doing the voiceover - captured this spirit. It showed stop-motion animation of a Lego mouse transforming into all sorts of different Lego models so as to escape being eaten by a Lego cat. In other words, if you've got enough bricks, you can build absolutely anything with LEGO.

And you can. The places that really take this to the extreme are the Legoland theme parks, such as the original one in Billund. It includes a scale model of the presidential heads on Mount Rushmore (made of 1.5 million bricks) and a 36-foot high sculpture of Chief Sitting Bull made of 1.75 million bricks, which took two years to build. In 2011, LEGO fans spent two months constructing a 38-foot high Christmas tree out of 600,000 bricks at St Pancras station in London, while others staged tableaux using LEGO mini-figures to re-enact some of the year's key events, from the Libyan civil war to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's 'first kiss' on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

Lego's unlimited potential has made it not just a toy for children but a fun and desirable object for adults to collect and play with, something Lego has embraced in recent years with nostalgic sets including a Nintendo Entertainment System no doubt aimed at 80s kids (now in their 40s) and a highly detailed 18+ range that includes model cars and beautiful floral bouquets aimed at a distinctly more mature audience.

A family friend

Perhaps the main reason LEGO attracts such loyalty is that, despite being a global corporation - with revenues in 2019 of 5.8 billion Euros, and in 2015 replacing Ferrari as Brand Finance's 'Most Powerful Brand' - it still feels less like a ruthlessly commercial brand and more like an old family friend.

LEGO takes great care to nurture this cosy image. Though its first patented design, ironically enough, was a toy gun, it has generally pursued an anti-violence policy. For years (until the pirate series of the late Eighties) its mini-figures weren't allowed to carry weapons. When a product tie-in with Star Wars was first mooted, there was strong resistance from traditionalists who objected to the word 'wars'.

LEGO Star Wars and other franchises

The objections to Star Wars were overruled and LEGO's Star Wars kits - together with the Harry Potter ones - are its biggest sellers. But not even these were enough to stave off near-disaster in 2003 when sales fell by 29%, Lego posted losses of £217 million, and the firm faced bankruptcy.

It was rescued by the arrival of its far-sighted, gently spoken CEO Jorgen Vig Knudstorp who realised that Lego needed to go back to basics. He sold off all the parts of the business that weren't integral to the core product (properties, theme parks, video game development), and reduced the number of Lego components from 7,000 to 3,000. At the same time he devised three key principles - what he called Moments of Truth - that LEGO products should follow.

1. When it's advertised does it make a child say: 'I want this!'

2. Once he opens the box, does it make him go: 'I want more of this'?

3. One month later, does he come back to the toy and still play with it? Or does he put it on the shelf and forget about it?

LEGO and a changing world

As society becomes more climate conscious LEGO has had to make steps to adapt and change with the times. The toy manufacturer has faced criticism in the past for their multimillion pound deal with Shell, which saw branded Shell LEGO petrol stations for sale. Following a 2014 campaign by Greenpeace LEGO announced they would not renew the contract, ending a 50 year partnership.

As a large plastic manufacturer (estimated to use around 90,000 tonnes a year) LEGO has also faced calls to make their toys more environmentally friendly. In 2018 the company announced that a new type of plastic made from sugar cane would be used for greenery (trees, shrubs and leaves), and announced a plan to be completely zero waste in production and have all core products made from sustainable materials by 2030.

Current strategies to reduce waste include the introduction of paper pulp trays to replace plastic in its Lego advent calendars, and paper bags for bricks. The company aims to have zero waste packaging by 2025, following requests from consumers - including children.

"We are inspired by the millions of kids who have called for more urgent action on climate change," LEGO Group chief executive Niels B Christiansen told the BBC in 2020. "We have received many letters from children about the environment asking us to remove single-use plastic packaging."

To encourage people to donate Lego sets and pieces for reuse and stop them ending up in landfill LEGO launched LEGO Replay, a scheme that allows people to box up their unwanted Lego to children in need. Currently the service is only available in Canada and the USA but Lego have plans to expand it. At time of writing 136,078kg of Lego have been donated to the scheme.

What to do with old LEGO

If you have an attic full of vintage LEGO you could be sitting on a miniature goldmine (possibly literally). 73-year-old Hans Brummer spent 40 years collecting Lego, and his collection is estimated to be worth £20,000 when it goes to auction later this year (2021). Even if your collection is not as big as Brummer's there's a market on eBay and other selling sites, and it's sure to be snapped up by buyers at boot sales.
Read our guide to selling on eBay
A LEGO timeline

1932 Master carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen started making wooden toys after making miniature versions of his product design ideas (ladders, iron boards etc)

1947 LEGO purchased a plastic injection moulding machine

1949 The first LEGO building blocks, known as 'Automatic Binding Bricks' were manufactured from cellulose acetate

1953 The Automatic Binding Bricks are renamed 'LEGO Bricks'

1955 Lego's 'System of Play' is introduced (also known as 'Play and learn'), emphasising the importance of children learning through play

1958 The LEGO brick is given a new patented coupling system using hollow tubes on the underside - thus ensuring that your models don't fall apart. LEGO bricks stick together!

1960 A warehouse fire destroyed most of the company's wooden toys, and it was decided the company would focus on plastic

1962 LEGO introduces the wheel and even experiments with electric motors

1964 The first instruction manuals are included in the kits

1966 The LEGO train system is released, going on to become one of their most popular series

1968 Legoland Park opens in Billund, as Lego sales soared to around 18 million units

1969 Duplo system is launched featuring larger, chunky bricks suitable for younger children

1971 Dollhouses and furniture items are released to appeal to girls

1974 The LEGO figure is born in the 'Lego family' sets - role play and characters become an integral part of the whole experience of playing with LEGO

1978 The minifigure is launched - these updated figures have poseable arms and legs and a distinctive smile, and the LEGO Castle, LEGO Space and LEGO City ranges are introduced

1980 The Educational Projects Department (renamed LEGO Cacta in 1989) is launched to focus on the educational possibilities of LEGO

1982 The LEGO Technic line is introduced, an evolution of the Expert Builder range

1984 LEGO collaborates with the Media Lab at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on programmable bricks...

1986 ... the result is LEGO Technic Computer Control - the forerunner of LEGO robots

1988 The first LEGO World Cup was held in Billund and featured 38 children from 17 countries around the world

1989 Seymour Papert from MIT becomes LEGO Professor of Learning Research, and that same year LEGO Pirates are launched

1990 A new range aimed at advanced builders is released. Called Three Model Team, the range included a highly detailed race car and off-road vehicle

1993 A deal between LEGO and Kabooki A/S - Lego Kids' Wear goes on sale

1994 LEGO Belville is released, a largely pink and purple range aimed at girls. It would go on to be replaced by LEGO Friends

1995 LEGO Primo launched for those aged under two

1996 Legoland Park opens in the UK, in Windsor

1997 LEGO's first video game Lego Island is released by Mindscape

1998 LEGO Group wins right to make Star Wars products

1999 LEGO produces its first branded Lego - LEGO Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh Duplo

2001 The 'Bionicle' arrives: combining real toys with online games, and LEGO Harry Potter is launched

2003 Bionicle: Mask of Light, a feature film based on the Bionicle series, is launched straight-to-DVD as the first official LEGO film

2004 The company faces bankruptcy with a loss of £174 million, with vice-president of marketing Mads Nipper putting the loss down to lack of innovation and not adapting to changing play trends

2005 The Legoland Parks are sold to theme park giant Merlin for £250 million and Lego refocuses on its core business

2009 LEGO board games launched - for all the family to play together

2010 The LEGO Universe game goes online. It means players can have fun playing with virtual bricks - while also playing with real, physical bricks at home

2011 LEGO Ninjago is launched and goes on to become one of the brand's most popular ranges

2012 Lego celebrated its 80th birthday, and a new pastel range, LEGO Friends, replaced the now defunct Belville

2014 The LEGO Movie, a feature film based on the toys, is released by Warner Brothers to critical acclaim

2017 The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie are released

2018 The first sustainable LEGO pieces (made from sugarcane) go into production. The pieces are the botanical elements of sets - trees, bushes and leaves

2019 LEGO purchases Bricklink, the world's largest Lego fan community

2020 LEGO launches several products with a purely adult audience in mind, including a LEGO White Noise, an app filled with mindful LEGO sounds, and an 18+ range in a sophisticated black box that includes detailed buildings and Star Wars armour, and would go on to expand into beautifully detailed bouquets of flowers and bonsai trees

LEGO trivia

The plural of LEGO is LEGO, not LEGOs

LEGO is short for 'leg' and 'godt', 'play well' in Danish

20 billion LEGO pieces are manufactured every year

Every second 7 LEGO sets are sold around the world

LEGO is the world's largest tyre manufacturers, producing about 700 million tyres a year

For every person on the planet there are 62 LEGO bricks

4.8 million pieces of LEGO were lost at sea in 1997 and pieces are still being washed up now

Six eight-stud LEGO bricks can be combined in 915 million different ways

It is estimated that LEGO uses 90,000 tonnes of plastic

The LEGO Colosseum is the biggest ever LEGO set, with 9,036 pieces and an RRP of £449.99, beating the Millennium Falcon's 7,541 pieces

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When was your last close encounter with a piece of LEGO? With luck, it was at Christmas, watching your grandchildren's eyes light up as they opened their must-have Star Wars kit, rather than painfully underfoot or while clearing a blocked vacuum cleaner.

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In the years since human beings first reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, climbing the world's highest mountain has changed dramatically. Today, hundreds of mountaineers manage the feat each year thanks to improvements in knowledge, technology, and the significant infrastructure provided by commercially guided expeditions that provide a veritable highway up the mountain for those willing to accept both the risks and a hefty price tag.

Where is Everest-and how old is it?

Mount Everest-known in Nepali as Sagarmatha and Tibetan as Chomolungma -straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet at the crest of the Himalayan mountain chain. Although reaching the top of the world is an arduous and potentially deadly undertaking due to the extreme altitude, avalanches, icefalls, and other hazards, the mountain lies quite close to the equator, at a latitude of approximately 28 degrees, the same as Tampa, Florida.

Earth scientists estimate that Everest is 50 to 60 million years old, a youngster by geological standards. The mountain was formed by the upward force generated when the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided, pushing up the rocks that formed the highest mountain on Earth. That force is still at work today, pushing Everest's summit about a quarter of an inch higher each year. (Learn more about how mountains are formed.)

What are the hazards of climbing Everest?

At 29,032 feet, Everest's summit has approximately one-third the air pressure that exists at sea level, which significantly reduces a climber's ability to breathe in enough oxygen. Because of this, scientists have determined that the human body is not capable of remaining indefinitely above 19,000 feet.

As climbers move higher up the mountain and their oxygen intake is reduced, their bodies are increasingly at risk for a number of ailments, including pulmonary edema, cerebral edema, and blood embolisms. The chances of frostbite are also dramatically increased at such altitude as the heart works harder to pump blood around the body delivering oxygen. The life-giving organs are first priority; digits are last.

The vast majority of climbers ascending Everest use tanks of oxygen to reduce the effects of the extreme altitude. However, bottled oxygen has its own drawbacks and risks. For starters, it's expensive, heavy to carry, and empty cylinders are frequently abandoned as litter.

Furthermore, breathing "gas" only increases the relative oxygen to about the same level as the air at basecamp, and if it runs out on summit day, the body might not be able adapt to the sudden lack of oxygen. Lastly, oxygen units are notoriously unreliable, as Everest guide Adrian Ballinger discovered in 2018 on summit day when his team experienced a systematic failure of their breathing systems.

How many routes are there to the top?

Although 17 different routes have been pioneered to the summit of Everest, almost everyone climbs it via one of two routes. From Nepal there's the Southeast Ridge, the line created by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hilary in 1953. From Tibet, there's the North Ridge, where George Mallory disappeared in 1924 long before a Chinese team finally completed the climb in 1960.

Although experienced mountaineers say the overall difficulty of the two routes is comparable, the challenges are different. On the Southeast Ridge, mountaineers must race through the hazardous Khumbu Icefall, but it's a slightly shorter summit day and easier to descend quickly in the event of an emergency. On the North Ridge, it's possible to drive jeeps all the way to base camp, but mountaineers must traverse several kilometers of terrain above 27,000 feet to reach the summit. (Read about China's highway to Everest.)

How crowded is Everest?

Mount Everest's popularity soared in the 1990s when international guides began to pioneer commercial trips up the mountain. Despite the risks, Everest draws hundreds of mountaineers from around the world to its slopes each year. In 2021, the Nepal Ministry of Tourism issued a record 408 Everest climbing permits, the highest in its history.

Who are Everest's guides?

For local logistics companies and the government of Nepal, Everest is big business. A typical spot on a commercial team costs anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000 depending on the level of service and the expertise of the outfitter. The Ministry of Tourism reported collecting $5.2 million in 2018 permit fees.

The industry is built on the backs of a small cadre of professional Nepalese guides who work together each spring to prepare the route with fixed ropes and ladders, stock each camp with essentials like tents, stoves, bottled oxygen, and food, and then patiently coach their foreign guests up to the summit.

Although historically it was the Sherpas-the Tibetan tribe of people who live closest to the mountain-who were hired by expeditions to carry loads of supplies up the mountain, today there are multiple ethnic groups who find employment on the mountain, leading to the less-catchy moniker of "high-altitude mountain worker."

For a typical three-to-four-month Everest expedition, most earn between $2,500 and $5,000. In recent years, thanks to educational opportunities like the Khumbu Climbing Center, Nepalese guides have begun to receive training and certifications to international standards.

How long is an expedition?

The best weather for reaching the top of Everest typically arrives in the second half of May, but preparations for a successful ascent begin months beforehand. Most teams assemble in Kathmandu in late March to begin acclimatization. As they trek toward basecamp, their basecamp support staff and high-altitude workers are already on the mountain, carrying loads and preparing the route to the summit.

In April, climbers make several overnight forays ("rotations" in Everest parlance) to successively higher camps up the mountain to acclimatize, while the first teams of Nepalese guides reach the summit. By the second week in May, teams hope to have an established trail of several miles of fixed ropes leading from basecamp to the summit, with several well-stocked camps along the way.

After a final rest-some teams will even decamp the mountain entirely to spend a few nights at lower elevation for maximum recovery-the summit push normally takes place over an arduous four to five days' round trip from basecamp. If all goes well, most Everest climbers are done with the mountain and on their way home by the beginning of June.

How dangerous is it?

More than 300 people are known to have died climbing Everest, according to the Himalayan Database. The overall death rate-the number of fatalities divided by the overall number of people on the mountain, not just those who summit-is approximately 1.2 percent, meaning that if you try to climb Everest, you have about a one in a hundred chance of dying along the way.

"Statistically, Everest is becoming safer primarily due to better gear, weather forecasting, and more people climbing with commercial operations," says respected Everest chronicler Alan Arnette. "From 1923 to 1999: 170 people died on Everest with 1,169 summits or 14.5 percent. But the deaths drastically declined from 2000 to 2018 with 7,990 summits and 123 deaths, or 1.5 percent." (Read about new safety measure on Everest.)

What's the summit like?

The actual summit of the mountain is a small dome of snow about the size of a dining room table. There's room for a half dozen or so climbers to stand and enjoy the view, although on busy days mountaineers must take turns to truly stand on top of the world.

Is there anything left to explore on Everest?

The last new route to be climbed on the mountain was accomplished by a team of hearty Russians in 2004. While each of Everest's three major faces and ridges have been ascended, there are several intriguing challenges for future mountaineers to attempt, including the unclimbed Fantasy Ridge and the so-called Horseshoe Traverse, an audacious enchainment of Everest and its two neighboring peaks, Lhotse and Nuptse.

"Everest is in many ways still a blank canvas," says alpinist and National Geographic photographer Cory Richards. "It's still as high, cold, and formidable as it ever was. How one chooses to climb it is as much a reflection of creativity as skill. There is always a new way to approach something, and Everest is no different."
Editor's note: This story was originally published on January 22, 2019. It has been updated.

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What to know about climbing Mount Everest

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Find out all you need to know about climbing Mount Everest, from its geology to the cost of climbing the notorious peak.

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Download FREE teacher-made resources covering 'World War Two'

World War Two was the second global conflict and a major event in British and world history. It was fought between the Allied powers - France, Russia, and the United States, and the Axis powers, which were Germany, Italy, and Japan.

When Did WW2 Start?

If we are going to talk about the start of WW2, we first need to dive into who Adolf Hitler was, and how he rose to power.

Adolf Hitler

After the first world war, Germany was in a complete economic depression. This was largely due to the Treaty of Versailles, which ordered that Germany must disarm and pay reparations. This plunged Germany into economic and political instability and eventually led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Adolf Hitler was a political dictator who rose to power in the 1930s. Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, gaining popularity amongst the German people by sharing in their resentment towards the Treaty of Versailles. In 1934, Hitler became 'Führer' meaning he was now the supreme leader of Germany, he promised to return Germany to former greatness, take over Europe, and began to rearm and retake the land they'd lost.

Adolf Hitler believed in a 'pure' German race, referred to as 'Aryan'. Hitler believed that only war would allow him to occupy land to spread an 'Aryan' race. A central figure in WW2 history, through signing treaties, Hitler formed alliances with Italy and Japan and continued to break the Treaty of Versailles by rearming and retaking land in Austria. Germany had also signed a Non-aggression Pact with the Soviet Union, promising not to invade each other. The U.S., The Soviet Union, Britain, and France were reluctant to confront Germany, as no one wanted to risk the outbreak of another war. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Britain, met with Adolf Hitler and believed he'd ensured peace. However, he was wrong.

The Start of WW2

So, now that we know all about Adolf Hitler, when did WW2 start?

By the beginning of 1939, Adolf Hitler was dead set on invading Poland, which would directly break the Treaty of Versailles, and instigate war. Both France and Britain had promised their support for Poland should it be invaded by Germany, but this did not dissuade Hitler.

Before he could invade and occupy Poland, Hitler had to make sure that the Soviet Union would not put up resistance to the invasion. There was potential for the Soviet Union to resist, as the west of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) shared a border with Poland. After a number of secret negotiations between the two countries, the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact was signed in Moscow on the 23rd of August. As part of this pact, Germany, and the Soviet Union agreed that Poland should be divided between them. This meant that the western third of the country would belong to Germany and the two eastern thirds would be given to the Soviet Union.

With this pact in place, Hitler felt he could comfortably invade Poland, with no fear of either Soviet or British resistance. The orders for the invasion of Poland were officially given on the 26th of August. The day before, on the 25th of August, another treaty was signed, this time between Great Britain and Poland, to solidify mutual assistance between the two countries. News of this treaty caused Hitler to postpone the invasion for a few days but did not deter him completely.

At 12:40 pm on the 31st of August 1939, Hitler order an attack on Poland, which would take place at 04:45 the next morning. In response to the invasion, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on the 3rd of September 1939. This was officially when WW2 started.

When did America join WW2?

America remained in isolation for much of the Second World War, believed that the fight was between the European powers and had little effect on their nation - though, they sold supplies to Britain throughout the first years of the war. Their isolation ended following a surprise attack by the Japanese army on American military bases in the Pacific Ocean, particularly Pearl Harbour. Within two hours, Japanese warplanes sank 18 warships and killed over 2000 soldiers.

On the 8th of December, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war against Japan. This was unanimously passed and three days later, Germany allied itself with Japan (thus, declaring war on the United States). America had now been drawn into a global war and aligned itself with Great Britain and the Soviet Union.

When did WW2 end?

As the spring of 1945 came round, the Western Allies closed in on Berlin and both fronts were collapsing. Hitler, realizing his impending defeat, took his own life in his bunker on April 30, 1945. His successor, Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, began peace negotiations and the unconditional surrender of all German forces was put forward on May 8, 1945. The Allies accepted, and after six gruelling years, World War II in Europe finally came to its end. Historians suggest that the war was drastically shortened by the cracking of the Enigma code.

Newspapers printed papers declaring Victory in Europe (V-E Day), and crowds erupted in celebration with huge street parties.

However, despite World War II ending in Europe, Japan did not surrender at the same time as Germany, and they were able to hold out a few months longer.

When did WW2 end in Japan?

On August 6 and August 9, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now wary of their own oncoming defeat, the Imperial government of Japan asked Emperor Hirohito to grant them the plea for surrender. He accepted, and personally broadcasted his decision on the radio on August 15, 1945.

Formal surrender documents were signed on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, marking the official Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day).

Learn more about the end of WW2 here.

WW2 Timeline of Events

Teaching your children all about WW2 history? This WW2 timeline for KS2 children can help them develop a complete understanding of the war.

1939

1st September - 6th October: Germany invades Poland

3rd September: Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany

3rd September: Canada, Australia, France, and South Africa also declare war on Germany

17th September: The Soviet Union invades Poland

1940

10th May: Winston Churchill becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Churchill is another central figure in WW2 history.

10th May: Germany attacks Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. This became known as the "blitzkrieg".

10th May: Germany begins its invasion of France by breaking through the Maginot Line. This was an extensive line of Allied fortification constructed post-WW1.

14th May: The Netherlands surrenders to Germany

14th May: The Home Guard is formed in the United Kingdom

16th May - 4th June: Dunkirk. Nearly 340,000 Allied troops are rescued from Dunkirk after becoming surrounded by German troops. Dunkirk is a significant point in WW2 history, as the Allies came so close to losing the war.

28th May: Belgium surrenders to Germany

10th June: Norway surrenders to Germany

10th June: Italy, led by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, declares war on France and the United Kingdom.

22nd June: France surrenders to Germany

10th July: The Battle of Britain begins. Germany uses planes to bomb Britain. This was known as the Blitz. The Battle of Britain is a key event in the history of WW2.

7th September: The London Blitz begins

13th September: Italy invades British controlled Egypt

27th September: Germany, Italy, and Japan join forces and sign the Tripartite Pact

November: Slovakia, Hungary and Romania also sign the Tripartite Pact, joining forces with Germany, Italy, and Japan.

1941

In 1941, plans for the 'Final Solution' begin to be carried out.

1st March: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact and joins with Germany

May: The British Royal Air Force defeats the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain. This halts Hitler's plans to invade Britain.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill begins receiving aid from the USA.

22nd June: Operation Barbarossa. Germany begins to invade the Soviet Union. This was successful and Germany got closer to Moscow. The invasion was stopped by harsh winter weather and the counteroffensive launched by the Soviet Union.

7th December: The Japanese attack Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, USA.

8th December: The USA declares war on Japan

11th December: Germany and Italy declare war on the USA

1942

5th May: The Battle of the Coral Sea between the USA and Japan

23rd August: Battle of Stalingrad begins

8th - 16th November: Operation Torch. British and US troops take back North Africa. The Vichy French in the region join forces with the Allies after their defeat. By 1943, British and US forces had defeated the Italians and the Germans.

1943

23rd August 1942 - 2nd February 1943: During the Battle of Stalingrad, German forces attempt to take control of Stalingrad from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is victorious and the Axis forces surrender.

19th April - 16th May: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins. Jews at the Warsaw Ghetto rise up against German forces, 13,000 Jews are killed.

16th May: The Dam Buster raids are carried out on two German dams as part of Operation Chastise

July: Mussolini's government falls

1944

6th June: D-Day. 156,000 British, Canadian, and US troops land on the beaches of Normandy and begin the largest seaborne invasion in history. Because of this, D-Day is one of the most significant events in WW2 history.

16th December: The Battle of the Bulge begins. Allied and German forces meet in the last major German offensive campaign of the war. It ends on the 25th of January 1945 with an Allied victory.

1945

12th January: The Soviet Army begins the East Prussian Offensive. Over the next few months, they displace the German Army from Warsaw, Kraków, and Budapest.

30th April: Adolf Hitler kills himself. Command of the German forces is passed to Joseph Goebbels.

7th May: Germany surrenders to the Allied Forces at the Western Allied Headquarters in France

8th May: Germany surrenders - VE DAY. The end of World War Two in Europe. The day is celebrated across the continent.

6th August: The first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan by US forces. A second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, 3 days later. The bombs killed over 200,000 people. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have also become significant events in WW2 history due to this being the first time atomic bombs were used in warfare, and it resulted in the deaths of around 80,000 people, most of whom were innocent civilians.

2nd September: Japan formally surrenders to the Allies. World War Two is over.

The Holocaust

Before WW2 started, Adolf Hitler had made clear his hatred towards Jewish people and anyone that fell outside of the boundaries of the 'Aryan' race. Once WW2 started, the world was completely enveloped by the conflict raging across Europe. This meant that Hitler and the Nazi Party could quietly carry out the 'Final Solution'.

The 'Final Solution' was Hitler's plan for the extermination of all Jewish people across Europe. Fed from their belief in an 'Aryan' race, and their false belief that Jews were partly to blame for Germany's financial crisis, Hitler began to indoctrinate the German people, so they'd share these views.

Learn more about this tragedy with our Holocaust Teaching Wiki.

Casualties In World War II

World War II is the deadliest international conflict in history. It is estimated that a staggering 70 to 80 million people died during the war, which was around 3% of the entire population of the world in 1940. There are a couple of different areas of casualties in World War II that add up to that 70 to 80 million deaths. For instance, all of the military and civilian deaths caused directly by the war added up to approximately 50 to 60 million. On top of this, there was an additional 19 to 28 million deaths for war-related diseases and famine that occurred as a direct result of the war. In total, civilian deaths added up to 50 to 55 million. Military deaths, on the other hand, totalled around 21 to 25 million, which includes the deaths of approximately 5 million prisoners of war in captivity. Over half of the total number of casualties in World War II are made up of the fatalities of the Republic of China and the Soviet Union.

There have been a number of recent studies that have provided new, valuable information on the casualties of World War II. Recent Russian studies have revealed that Russia, which was the USSR at the time, lost a massive 26.6 million people. This statistic includes the 8 to 9 million people who died as a result of famine and disease. Moreover, in August 2009, researchers at the Polish Institute of National Remembrance released information stating that an estimated 5.6 to 5.8 million Polish people died during World War II. Research in Germany has also revealed updated figures for the number of German fatalities during World War II. In 2000, German historian, Rüdiger Overmans, published a study detailing that the total German military dead and missing was around 5.3 million. This figure includes the 900,000 men that were conscripted from outside of Germany's borders in 1937, in Austria, and in East-Central Europe.

Statistics for Casualties in World War II

Here are some of the countries that were involved in World War II and the casualties that they suffered:

Australia - 40,400

Belgium - 88,000

Canada - 43,600

China - 15,000,000 to 20,000,000

Czechoslovakia - 340,000 to 355,000

Denmark - 6,000

Egypt - 1,100

Ethiopia - 100,000

Finland - 96,800

France -600,000

Germany - 6,900,000 to 7,400,000

Greece - 507,000 to 807,000

Iceland - 200

India - 2,200,000 to 3,087,000

Iran - 200

Ireland - 100

Japan - 2,500,000 to 3,100,000

Korea - 483,000 to 533,000

Latvia - 250,000

New Zealand - 11,700

Poland - 5,900,000 to 6,000,000

Romania - 500,000

South Africa - 11,900

Soviet Union - 20,000,000 to 27,000,000

Sweden - 2,100

United Kingdom - 450,900

United States - 419,400

World War Two Facts

Here are some interesting WW2 facts for your KS2 children:

Japan allied with Germany as they wanted control of Asia and the Pacific.

Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland remained 'neutral' in World War Two.

More than 2 million soldiers from the Indian Army served in the Second World War.

As a result of World War Two, communism spread, with China becoming communist along with the Soviet Union.

During WWII, children in Britain were evacuated to the countryside. Rural areas were considered to be safer as they were at less risk of being bombed. In 1941, there were 1.3 million evacuees.

Many people believed the war would only last for 6 weeks.

During the war, people had to cover their windows, doors and keep the lights off after sunset. This was called the Blackout and made it more difficult for planes to bomb cities at night.

The first German air attack took place in London. Liverpool, Birmingham and other cities were hit too.

To protect themselves from bombs, Air Raid Shelters were built. These were named Anderson Shelters and were half-buried into the ground, with earth heaped over the top. The London Underground was also used as an air raid shelter.

Teaching your children about the impact of WW2 on the home front? Take a look at this collection of resources.

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World War 2 | Facts for Children | WW2 Start | Casualties

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Teach your children all about World War 2. When was WW2? How did WW2 start? How many casualties were there in World War II? Full of facts, timelines, and links to helpful teaching resources.

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Photograph by Barry Bishop, courtesy of the National Geographic image collection

Mount Everest is a peak in the Himalaya mountain range. It is located between Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region of China. At 8,849 meters (29,032 feet), it is considered the tallest point on Earth. In the nineteenth century, the mountain was named after George Everest, a former Surveyor General of India. The Tibetan name is Chomolungma, which means "Mother Goddess of the World." The Nepali name is Sagarmatha, which has various meanings.

The first ever recorded people to climb Everest were Edmund Hillary (a mountaineer from New Zealand) and his Tibetan guide Tenzing Norgay. They climbed the mountain in 1953 and hold the record together. The first records of Everest's height came much earlier, in 1856. British surveyors recorded that Everest was the tallest peak in the world in their Great Trigonometrical Survey of the Indian subcontinent.

The Himalayan mountains have long been home to indigenous groups living in the valleys. The most famous of these are the Sherpa people. The word "Sherpa" is often used to mean mountain guide, though it actually refers to an ethnic group. The Sherpa have valuable experience in mountain climbing, which they can provide to other climbers. Most climbs of Everest would be impossible without the Sherpas' logistical help and knowledge. However, their way of life extends beyond helping Everest climbers. Traditionally, their lifestyle has consisted of farming, herding, and trade. And, because they live at such a high altitude year round, they are accustomed to the low oxygen levels.

Climbing Mount Everest has become a popular expedition for mountain climbers. However, it is a dangerous undertaking. Climbing Everest requires a lot of experience mountaineering elsewhere, as well as a certificate of good health, equipment, and a trained Nepalese guide. The snow and ice on the mountain create deadly hazards like avalanches, and there is only a limited climbing season due to bad weather conditions. But perhaps the biggest danger is the altitude. Most climbers are not accustomed to the high altitude and low oxygen levels and rely on bottled oxygen they bring along. This is why the area above 8,000 meters (26,000 feet) elevation on Everest is called the "death zone." Climbers who spend long periods in this region can develop altitude sickness and even brain swelling.

Mount Everest's climbing industry has become controversial. As popularity of the climb has increased, there have been more "traffic jams" as climbers spend too much time in the death zone waiting for their chance to go to the summit. With more people has also come more pollution up near the summit as climbers often discard unwanted items all along the mountain. Additionally, the Sherpa people have been exploited by climbers, and their traditional way of life has been disrupted by foreign climbers. Sherpa guides are faced with some of the highest death rates of any field of employment, for comparatively little pay. Most disturbingly, because many climbers have died along the way, and their bodies are impossible to retrieve, climbers must frequently travel past corpses as they make their way up the mountain.

National Geographic Society

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Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth. Learn about its history, the people who live there, and the people who visit to climb.

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There is a saying amongst K9 handlers from the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) that epitomizes the bond with the dogs at the command: "Your emotions run up and down the leash." The intimate bond between Will Chesney, a 13-year DEVGRU dog handler and assaulter from Red Squadron, and his working dog Cairo, a 70-pound Belgian Malinois, was immortalized after the success of the biggest mission in U.S. military history: Operation Neptune Spear. The historic raid sent shockwaves around the world as two dozen U.S. Navy SEALs assaulted and killed Usama bin Laden in his compound in Pakistan.

Since the nighttime raid in May 2011, countless articles and newspapers have printed Cairo's name, but nobody has shared the real story behind this four-legged hero - until now. Chesney and Joe Layden authored the book " No Ordinary Dog: My Partner From the SEAL Teams to the Bin Laden Raid ," which is available everywhere today. It gives insight into Cairo's extraordinary life and how working dogs are valued members of their teams.

This book is a personal and touching tribute to a beloved canine SEAL. It shares the experiences of an operator and his teammate - one that has fur, a wagging tail, and a smiling face. Humorous stories, such as one about Cairo riding in a sidecar on Chesney's motorcycle and almost stopping traffic at the sight of his "doggles," combined with action from two overseas combat deployments - including the culmination of everything they learned being put to the test during the bin Laden raid - offer a full-spectrum approach to the dog's life.

Chesney and Cairo both put their lives on the line for the U.S. military while conducting secret missions around the world. Bullet wounds and shrapnel from explosions are the price they fearlessly accepted. Chesney proposed, "I guess you could say it's ' Marley and Me' meets ' No Easy Day ,'" Chesney said in the book proposal.

Chesney accepted his first dog handling position when he joined DEVGRU, and when he first met Cairo in the summer of 2008, the pair became inseparable. They exhaustively trained together jumping from planes, rappelling from helicopters, and completing other mission-critical tasks in which SEALs are required to be proficient. When they weren't at work, they relaxed at Chesney's home where Cairo ate steak dinners, watched movies on the couch, and slept in Chesney's bed.

"Some dogs don't have the ability to turn off work-mode, but with Cairo, he could turn it off," Chesney said in a recent phone interview with Coffee or Die. "I could take him home and trust him around strangers, children, and other animals."

"I was his father and [the other SEALs] were his uncles. We were one big family," Chesney said. "He was a real mellow dog, but when you put that vest on him, he would turn on that switch and I never had to worry about him."

Working with the animals also taught Chesney and the other SEALs in his squadron valuable life lessons that are explored in his book. A prime example was how dogs don't dwell on the past or worry about the future - they live in the moment. "They run off of love," Chesney said. "If you give them love, they give you unconditional love right back."

Cairo and Chesney's story is unlike the typical war memoir. "No Ordinary Dog" explores a military career spent alongside man's best friend as they navigated the repercussions of war. They each struggled through pain and hardship, and they relied on each other to heal and overcome. The raw authenticity of Chesney's vulnerability and Cairo's resilience will resonate with readers.

Even on nighttime raids when operators depended on night vision goggles, Cairo relied on his senses and instincts to apprehend terrorists, avoid non-hostile subjects on target, and route hidden enemy bombs. Through it all, Cairo and Chesney worked as a team.

"We were fortunate enough to be a part of one of the biggest missions in history, and I've seen a few articles out there that aren't completely true, so I want people to know the truth about him and his story," Chesney said. "I want to bring attention to just how valuable these working dogs are. These dogs will sacrifice their lives for us, and they save our lives all the time."

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'No Ordinary Dog': Navy SEAL Tells Story of Cairo, the Bin Laden Raid Dog

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There is a saying amongst K9 handlers from the U.S.

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The interest in using dogs by the U. S. Marine Corps began in 1935 when Central American guerrilla soldiers used dogs as sentries to alert the soldiers. Additionally, the Germans utilized canine troops in World War I. This lead to the use of dogs in combat duringWorld War II as scouts, couriers, and infantry dogs, where the dogs were ideally suited to the dense tropical vegetation of the Pacific islands.

Camp LeJeune, North Carolina was the home of the war Dog Training School, where dogs began their training with the rank of private; war dogs actually could out-rank their handlers. Seven War Dog Platoons were trained at Camp LeJeune.

The breed of choice for the combat dog was the Doberman pinscher. German tax collector Louis Doberman first developed this versatile breed in the Apolda region of Germany to suit his own need for a loyal, obedient, fiercely protective dog to accompany him in his rounds as a tax collector. Later, the dogs were trained as police dogs in 19th Century Germany. During WWII, approximately 75% of dogs used during combat were Doberman pinschers, with 25% German Shepherds. Through a non-profit organization, Dogs for Defense, the public could loan their family dogs to the Marine Corps. The Doberman Pinscher Club of America also supplied many of the war dogs.

Each dog went through a rigorous course of obedience for a period of six weeks. After basic training, the dogs were divided into groups for specialized training: scout, messenger or infantry. Scout dogs were sent first with the handler to detect mines or enemy troops. Messenger dogs would follow their handler's trail and carry correspondence or supplies. Infantry dogs alerted the troops of the enemy's presence.

The dogs used signals to alert the soldiers of Japanese presence as they were trained not to bark. The dogs could detect a human scent up to one-half mile away. During the war, the Japanese ambushed none of the War Dog platoons. Each of the seven War Dog platoons fought in various locations in the Pacific during WWII, including Guam, Okinawa, and Guadalcanal.

In August 1945, the war Dog Platoons were disbanded. Many of the dogs were retrained for civilian life and sent back to their families, while several remained with their handlers. There were 1,047 dogs enlisted during the war, with 465 serving in combat. Twenty-five dogs died during service in the Pacific during the war.

" Through of the efforts of Dr. William W. Putney, a WWII veteran and member of a War Dog platoon, the first War Dog Memorial, a life-size bronze of a Doberman pinscher, was unveiled on the U. S. Naval Base on Guam during the 50th anniversary of the liberation of that island."
-Dana Prince

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War Dog Background | College of Veterinary Medicine

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The interest in using dogs by the U. S. Marine Corps began in 1935 when Central American guerrilla soldiers used dogs as sentries to alert the soldiers. Add ...

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The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. Climbing to the summit of all of them is regarded as a mountaineering challenge, first achieved on 30 April 1985 by Richard Bass. Climbing all Seven Summits has become a mountaineering goal to be accomplished. Completing the Seven Summits and additionally reaching the north and south poles has been dubbed the Explorers Grand Slam.

Definition

The Seven Summits are composed of each of the highest mountain peaks of each of the seven continents. Different lists include slight variations, but generally the same core is maintained. The seven summits depend on the definition used for a continent - in particular the location of the border of that continent. This results in two points of variation: the first is Mont Blanc versus Mount Elbrus for the continent of Europe; and the second depends on whether one includes all of Oceania or only mainland Australia as the continent, which results in either Puncak Jaya (also known as "Carstensz Pyramid") or Mount Kosciuszko, respectively. This also gives rise to another list called "Eight Summits" including both Puncak Jaya and Mount Kosciuszko and the rest of the six summits in the other continents.

This creates several possible versions of the seven summits:

Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Elbrus, Kosciuszko (the Bass version)

Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Mont Blanc, Kosciuszko (the 1950s explorer Hackett version)

Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Mont Blanc, Puncak Jaya

Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Vinson, Mont Blanc, Mount Wilhelm (Wilhelm version)

The concept Bass and his climbing partner Frank Wells were pursuing was to be the first to stand atop the highest mountain on each continent. They pursued this goal as they defined it, climbing Aconcagua for South America, McKinley (now Denali) for North America, Kilimanjaro for Africa, Elbrus for Europe, Vinson for Antarctica, Kosciuszko for Australia, and finally Everest for Asia.

Definition using tectonic plates

Using the largest tectonic plates, Europe and Asia could be grouped as Eurasia, and the very large Pacific plate would have Mauna Kea as its highest mountain. Puncak Jaya is actually on the Maoke Plate, which is usually grouped with the larger Australian plate. If not, then Mount Kosciuszko would likely revert to being the highest of that plate (see also Australasia).

The highest mountain on the Australian mainland is Mount Kosciuszko, 2,228 metres (7,310 ft) above sea level. However, the highest mountain in the Australian continent which includes Australia and New Guinea is Puncak Jaya, 4,884 m (16,024 ft) above sea level, in the Indonesian province of Papua on the island of New Guinea, which lies on the Australian continental shelf. Mount Kosciuszko is very easy to climb, being a four hour, grade 3 return walk from the nearest car park, while Puncak Jaya is classed as a mountaineering expedition.

Some sources claim Mount Wilhelm (4,509 m (14,793 ft)) in Papua New Guinea's Bismarck Range as the highest mountain in Australia, on account of Indonesia being part of Asia. (See List of Southeast Asian mountains, which includes Puncak Jaya and other mountains in Papua, Indonesia.) However, such a definition is political, not geophysical, and would mean that Papua changed continents in 1969.

In terms of Australia as a country, Mawson Peak (2,745 m (9,006 ft)) is higher than Kosciuszko; however, it is not located in Oceania, but on Heard island, a small island territory in the southern Indian Ocean. If excluding the island of New Guinea, then Mount Cook in the South Island of New Zealand is the highest mountain in Australasia at 3,724 m (12,218 ft).

Sources that list Mount Wilhelm as the Oceania high point or show boundaries putting Puncak Jaya in Asia include: The United Nations, National Geographic, 7 Continent Summits, World Atlas, The CIA World Factbook, Canada Atlas, and Papua New Guinea PNG Trekking.

The generally accepted highest summit in Europe is Mount Elbrus (5,642 m or 18,510 ft) in the Caucasus, appearing on both the Bass and Messner lists. However, because the location of the boundary between Asia and Europe is not universally agreed upon, its inclusion in Europe is disputed: if the Kuma-Manych Depression is used as the geological border between Asia and Europe, the Caucasus and Elbrus lie wholly in Asia. If the Greater Caucasus watershed is used instead, Elbrus' peaks are wholly in Europe, albeit close to the border with Asia. Mont Blanc (4,810 m or 15,781 ft), lying on the border between France and Italy in the Graian Alps, is seen by some to be the highest mountain in Europe.

North and South America have Denali and Aconcagua, respectively. Looking again at plate tectonics, there is also the possibility of summiting the high points on the smaller plates.

North America - Denali

South America - Aconcagua

Panama Plate - Cerro Chirripó (3,819 m or 12,530 ft)

Caribbean Plate - Acatenango Volcano (3,976 m or 13,045 ft)

North Andes Plate - Chimborazo (6,263 m or 20,548 ft)

Altiplano Plate - probably Nevado Sajama (6,542 m or 21,463 ft)

The Bass and Messner lists

The first Seven Summits list as postulated by Bass (the Bass or Kosciusko list) chose the highest mountain of mainland Australia, Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 m or 7,310 ft), to represent the Australian continent's highest summit. Reinhold Messner postulated another list (the Messner or Carstensz list), replacing Mount Kosciuszko with Indonesia's Puncak Jaya, or Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m or 16,024 ft). Neither the Bass nor the Messner list includes Mont Blanc. From a mountaineering point of view, the Messner list is the more challenging one. Climbing Carstensz Pyramid has the character of an expedition, whereas the ascent of Kosciuszko is an easy hike. Indeed, Patrick Morrow used this argument to defend his choice to adhere to the Messner list, "Being a climber first and a collector second, I felt strongly that Carstensz Pyramid, the highest mountain in Australasia ... was a true mountaineer's objective."

Images for kids

K2, about 800 feet (240 m) shorter than Everest

Kanchenjunga is the world's third highest mountain ("K3"); it tops out less than 100 feet (30 m) shorter than K2.

In Spanish: Siete Cumbres para niños

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"Weintraub... combines a gritty war story with a warm dog story -- readers who like both will think they have gone to heaven.... Where he truly excels, though, is in finding the human dramas, some painful and some inspiring, that figured in Judy's saga." ―Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

"The most inspiring true life account I've ever read of a human-animal bond.... I know this summary makes No Better Friend sound like a canine version of Unbroken. And as a dog lover, I say what could be better than that?" ―Maureen Corrigan, NPR

"This is the best dog book since the uber best-selling Marley and Me. But this is no fluffy little dog story. This is a book that will appeal to history buffs -- even those who don't love dogs." ―Linda Wilson Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"No Better Friend ... takes us on a harrowing journey to a place and time lost in the history books. A must read for every dog or animal lover."- Robin Hutton, author of Sgt. Reckless: America's War Horse

"...a spellbinding narrative that reclaims the lost history of two most unlikely heroes: a dog named Judy and fellow soldier Frank. Not only a testament to animal intelligence and a much overdue account of canine sacrifice and service, No Better Friend is also an unforgettable read. Soaring and graceful--like Hillenbrand's Unbroken and Seabiscuit--Weintraub's latest is the stuff of which Hollywood blockbusters are built." -Mim Eichler Rivas, author of Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World

"Robert Weintraub captures the beauty and power of friendship and loyalty between man and animal in this captivating narrative. We'd all be lucky to have a dog like Judy by our sides in our darkest times." -Cate Lineberry, author of The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines

"An unusual and moving story of a singular hero among fellow POWs of the Japanese during World War II: a loyal British pointer named Judy. With bite and substance, Slate columnist Weintraub chronicles Judy's incredible life.... Weintraub's research on the prisoners' experiences in the camps is remarkable as he narrates Judy and Frank's heroic tale." -Kirkus
**
The extraordinary tale of survival and friendship between a man and a dog in war

Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp in the Pacific. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog, with a keen sense for who was friend and who was foe, and the pair's relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene. She survived bombings and other near-death experiences and became a beacon not only for Frank but for all the men, who saw in her survival a flicker of hope for their own.

Judy's devotion to those she was interned with was matched by their love for her, which helped keep the men and their dog alive despite the ever-present threat of death by disease or the rifles of the guards. At one point, deep in despair and starvation, Frank contemplated killing himself and the dog to prevent either from watching the other die. But both were rescued, and Judy spent the rest of her life with Frank. She became the war's only official canine POW, and after she died at age fourteen, Frank couldn't bring himself to ever have another dog. Their story--of an unbreakable bond forged in the worst circumstances--is one of the great undiscovered sagas of World War II.

Robert Weintraub is a sports columnist for Slate, and his writing has also aired on ESPN, ABC Sports, CBS Sports, and dozens of other outlets. He is the author of The House That Ruth Built and The Victory Season and is a frequent contributor to The New York Times sports pages.

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By Robert Weintraub's No Better Friend * Represented by Chase Literary Agency

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"Weintraub... combines a gritty war story with a warm dog story -- readers who like both will think they have gone to heaven.... Where he truly excels, though, is in finding the human dramas, some painful and some inspiring, that figured in Judy's saga."

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Throughout history, dogs have accompanied man at work and play. Even in the midst of men's wars, dogs have been found serving in functions ranging from mascots to weapons of war. Therefore, it was not without precedence that in 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into World War II, a small group of civilian dog enthusiasts approached the Army about creating a program that would utilize the special traits and skills of "man's best friend" in order to further the war effort.

When the Japanese attacked on 7 December 1941, the U.S. Army possessed only a small number of sled dogs for use in arctic regions. Drawing on the lessons of the past, a group of civilians came together in the belief that dogs could serve the Army in a variety of other functions. These dog fanciers formed a coalition called Dogs for Defense, Inc. (DFD). This organization encouraged dog owners across the country to donate their dogs for training as sentry dogs that would be used to patrol borders, beaches, and industrial facilities in order to prevent sabotage. With the endorsement of the American Kennel Club, DFD quickly began procuring dogs for experiments in training the animals for guard duty under the nominal oversight of the Plant Protection Branch of the Office of the Quartermaster General. In short order, some 100 dogs were procured by DFD and an ad hoc training program was initiated.

At first, the volunteer organization was responsible not only for procuring the dogs, but also for their housing and training. However, it soon became apparent that the varying levels of experience among the volunteer civilian trainers and the inconsistent courses of training in different locations led to dogs that were often incapable of performing the duties expected of them. At the same time, the military began to show interest in a variety of different roles for dogs, both on the home front and in combat theaters. As a result, on 16 July 1942, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson issued a directive that assigned responsibility for procuring and training dogs to the Remount Branch of the Quartermaster Corps (QMC) and expanded their mandate to include the training of dogs for both sentry duty and possible tactical missions as well.

At the outset of the program, DFD and the Remount Branch accepted many different breeds of dogs as long as the dogs were healthy and showed the proper disposition. It was soon discovered, however, that certain breeds were superior to others in performing the types of duties the Army desired, and by 1944, the list of acceptable breeds had shrunk to just seven: German shepherd, Doberman pinscher, Belgian sheepdog, collie, Siberian husky, malamute, and Eskimo dog. These dogs all proved to be hearty in various conditions, eager to work, and capable of the tasks assigned them by the Army.

After narrowing the field of acceptable breeds and consolidating control of the program under the Remount Branch, the stage was set for an expansion and formalization of dog training in the Army. The expertise necessary was put down on paper by one of the organizers of DFD, Mrs. Alene Stern Erlanger, who wrote TM-10-396-WAR DOGS, the Army's first formal training manual on the subject of dogs in warfare. In addition, by the end of 1942, the QMC opened four dog training facilities at Front Royal, Virginia; Fort Robinson, Nebraska; Camp Rimini, Montana; and San Carlos, California. At these facilities, the Army began an ambitious program to train dogs for duties on the front lines and at home.

The training of the dogs was certainly important in a successful war dog program, but just as important was the training of each animal's human handler. It was quickly learned that the dogs worked best if they were trained with their handler and assigned to duty as a pair. This allowed for continuity and the formation of a bond between handler and dog, which would be important once they were in the field. Handlers were taught to care for their dogs' diet, exercise, ongoing training, and housing. Only handlers were allowed to feed their own dogs, and petting and playing were also limited so that dogs soon considered all but their handler to be a threat. This made the dogs extremely effective at detecting and alerting to unauthorized presences. This sort of training did not always stick with the dog, however, and some became detrained by too much interaction with people on beaches or in other public places.

The first of the Army's canine members were trained for sentry duty. This was deemed the most pressing need since German and Japanese submarine activity off both coasts raised concerns about the potential landing of saboteurs who might be able to gain access to military facilities and important war industries. In response to this threat, dogs were trained to alert their handlers to any strangers in their vicinity, and on command, to attack those intruders. One of the most vital missions performed by these early sentry dogs was the patrol of America's coastlines. For this task, the QMC-trained dogs were assigned to Coast Guard handlers who used the dogs' keen senses to patrol the beaches and other areas along the coast. Within a year, more than 1,800 dog teams patrolled the coastlines. By the end of the war, the QMC would assign 3,174 dogs to the Coast Guard.

As the tide of the war changed and the threat of submarine-landed saboteurs diminished, emphasis shifted in the training program from sentry dogs for domestic industry to tactical scout and messenger dogs. It was at this time that one of the most bizarre programs in Army history was conceived, a plan to train canines to recognize and kill Japanese soldiers without a handler or other human guidance.

The idea for these killer dogs came from an unlikely source. William A. Prestre, a Swiss expatriate living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, approached the government with a bold plan to train dogs for the task. The Army was intrigued by the idea which, if successful, might help keep soldiers out of direct contact with the enemy. Prestre was given control of a contingent of dogs and handlers. In order to mimic conditions in the Pacific theater, the Army leased a small island off the coast of Mississippi. Ironically, this small strip of land in the Gulf of Mexico was known as Cat Island.

The entire Cat Island program was predicated on the assumption that Japanese soldiers, whether from diet or racial characteristics, had a distinct odor which dogs could be trained to recognize and attack. Unsurprisingly, the program soon ran into difficulties. First, Prestre had to find Japanese "bait" to train his dogs. It was quickly determined that using prisoners of war was unacceptable. Instead, twenty-five Japanese-American servicemen from Company B, 100th Infantry Battalion (Separate), stationed at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, were "volunteered" for the assignment. Among those selected was Ray Nosaka, a second-generation Japanese-American (often referred to as Nisei) from Hawaii.

On 3 November 1942, Nosaka and his comrades boarded a plane in secret and headed south to a location unknown to them. They made a short stop in Memphis, Tennessee, in order to refuel, but security was so tight that the soldiers were not allowed to deplane, instead eating a hasty lunch of sandwiches delivered to the aircraft while still onboard. When they arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi, they once again were forced to wait. Only when darkness fell were they allowed to exit the plane, and then they were quickly ushered into boats for the trip out to Ship Island, which served as the living quarters for the men involved in the project. Each day, the men would climb into a boat and make the short trip to nearby Cat Island to conduct training.

Training the dogs was a slow and brutal process, both for men and dogs. Cat Island was swampy and humid, and while the dogs were being trained to track down the Nisei bait, the men had to simply wait and hide in these unpleasant conditions. Then things got worse. In order to instill an aggressive spirit in the dogs, Prestre insisted on such brutal methods as whipping and shocking the dogs. Nosaka and the others were also forced to abuse the dogs in order to make them more vicious. Then the dogs would be set loose upon the Nisei. For the most part, the men were protected by their padded gear, but a few bites got through, and most of the men ended up with scars from their service on Cat Island.

Despite these measures to maximize the aggressiveness of the dogs, they continued to perform poorly. Prestre's plan to use packs of unguided dogs was further undermined when Master Sergeant John Pierce arrived at the project. Pierce, an army dog trainer, firmly believed that the dogs required human handlers, and he quickly proved his point by training a small contingent of dogs to alert their handlers to enemy presence, and to attack only on command. These dogs attacked with much more ferocity, and proved to be much more effective despite having only a few weeks of training, as opposed to the months Prestre had spent trying to train his dogs. The final straw came on 12 January 1943, when a demonstration was held for officers of the Army Ground Forces (AGF). It was plainly apparent to the officers that the program was not working. In short order, Prestre was released, and the project was abandoned.

Assault dog packs were not the only idea being considered, and the Army also conducted experiments in teaching dogs to detect mines. The Germans had begun to use several varieties of non-metallic landmines, which made detection by standard methods all but impossible. It was believed that dogs, designated M-dogs, might be able to detect the mines, and a training program was established. At the time, it was not yet understood how acute the canine sense of smell truly is, and, as a result, training practices were based on false assumptions and incomplete data. The dogs were trained to detect disruption of the ground by humans through a method of self-preservation. Dogs were exposed to partially buried live wires. When the dogs discovered a wire, they received an electric shock. They quickly learned to be wary of any human disturbances in the ground, as presumably, this would allow them to detect mines. In initial demonstrations, these dogs displayed an eighty percent success rate, and this was deemed sufficient.

This system was believed to be effective from the one demonstration carried out stateside in a controlled environment, and the 228th Engineer Mine Detection Company (Dog) was established in November 1943. On 5 May 1944, the men and dogs of the unit boarded a ship and embarked for Africa, arriving in Oran, Algeria, on 30 May. They then crossed the Mediterranean to Naples, Italy, and went to work. Unfortunately, the dogs did not perform as expected, and casualties, both of dogs and handlers, quickly mounted in the unit. Another controlled test was performed in Italy, and it was discovered that the dogs had a mine detection rate of only thirty percent. The unit did not perform any further mine clearing tasks, and by February 1945, the company had returned to the United States to be inactivated.

The M-dog project was innovative but ultimately doomed to failure. It was determined that the dogs could not distinguish between the deliberately turned earth of mine placement and the rubble and debris caused by shells and bombs. In addition, testing was conducted assuming the dogs would be working behind the front lines, but in actual use, they often had to endure combat conditions which further degraded their efficacy. It was only after the war that it was discovered that the canine's sense of smell is so acute that they can be trained to pick out the chemical components of explosives. As a result, dogs are currently used to detect bombs and mines with great success.

At the same time that the M-dogs were falling out of favor, other tactical dogs began to prove their abilities on the battlefield. In the spring of 1943, a detachment of six scout dogs and two messenger dogs was sent to the Pacific in a test of their usefulness in combat situations. An observer was sent along, and after following the dogs around New Guinea from July to December of that year, he reported back that the animals had performed "consistently excellent." The most important discovery in this report was that the scout dogs warned their handlers of the presence of Japanese forces at ranges up to 1,000 yards, allowing the Americans to avoid ambush and to gain the element of surprise. The messenger dogs fared just as well. They were observed delivering messages over rough terrain and in short amounts of time over distances of 600 to 1,000 yards. In addition, they presented a much smaller target than a human runner. This was the first true success of the Army's canine programs in combat, and while some weaknesses were exposed, training in these fields was quickly modified and expanded with superb results.

Two major weaknesses were identified by the 1943 report. First, the stateside training of the dogs included acclimatization to gunfire, but the program failed to address a major component of frontline combat: artillery. The dogs had no experience with artillery fire, and once on the front, they quickly became skittish and ineffective when in the presence of an artillery bombardment. The other shortcoming was that, from time to time, the dogs would bark at night or when they sensed the enemy, effectively giving away their position and that of any accompanying troops. As a result, the Army adjusted its training regimen to address these issues, adding artillery fire to the course and stressing silence at all times.

By June 1944, the War Department had authorized the creation of fifteen Quartermaster war dog platoons. These units had their own Table of Organization and Equipment that included eighteen scout dogs, sixteen messenger dogs, twenty enlisted men, and one officer. All fifteen platoons were shipped overseas by the end of the year, seven to Europe and eight to the Pacific.

Once in theater, another obstacle revealed itself. While in the United States, both dogs and handlers were provided and trained by the QMC, so when they arrived at the front and were attached to infantry units, they often lacked the tactical expertise necessary to effectively carry out their duties. This brought on more changes, and by December 1944, the table of organization had changed once more, eliminating all messenger dogs. In addition, handlers were picked from AGF units so that they entered dog training already having the skills necessary for infantry operations.

Even before all these issues had been addressed, army dogs and their handlers got to work assisting soldiers on the battlefield. The first unit to go overseas was the 25th Quartermaster (QM) War Dog Platoon which left San Francisco on 11 May 1944 and arrived at Guadalcanal on 6 June. By the end of June, they had travelled to Bougainville and joined the 164th Infantry in mopping up the Japanese forces on the island. The dogs performed well, and reports indicated that the infantry troops appreciated the dogs and the service they performed. The second platoon to arrive, the 26th, accompanied soldiers of the 41st Infantry Division on New Guinea and the surrounding islands. It was shortly thereafter assigned to the 31st and 32d Infantry Divisions. On Morotai, in the Dutch East Indies, the 31st Division used the 26th QM War Dog Platoon to help conduct 250 patrols in the course of two-and-a-half months. In this period, not a single one of these patrols was ambushed, proving the invaluable nature of the scout dogs who could alert soldiers to the presence of the enemy at distances ranging from seventy to 200 yards away. Often, the advanced warning of the scout dog enabled GIs to reverse the odds and surprise Japanese defenders.

For the invasion of the Philippines, the 25th, 26th, 39th, 40th, 41st, and 43d QM War Dog Platoons were attached to various infantry units. By this time, the effectiveness of the dogs was well known, and there were not enough to go around for all the units that requested them for their patrols. The dogs were invaluable in the jungle warfare that characterized much of the combat the Pacific Theater. The thick jungle limited human effectiveness, reliant on eyesight and hearing, but the dogs could smell the presence of the enemy despite the obstacles.

Dogs were found to be much less effective in the open, fast-paced fighting in Europe, though they found use there as well. Artillery was more commonly used in Europe, and despite training, intense shelling still caused dogs to become skittish and lose effectiveness. Often Allied troops were making such rapid advances against the Germans, especially in the closing days of the war, that dogs were of little use, so they were relegated to sentry duties. Still, dogs did prove themselves useful in some situations.

In a report to the Quartermaster, Fifth Army, dated 25 December 1944, First Lieutenant Austin Risse told the story of the actions of Corporal Robert Bennett and his dog assigned to the 33d QM War Dog Platoon in Italy. According to the report, Bennett and his dog were leading a patrol in enemy territory to reconnoiter a small village. As they approached, the dog halted, nose pointed and hair bristling. When the patrol leader crept forward, he discovered a large group of German soldiers waiting in ambush less than 200 yards away. As a result of the dog's action, the patrol withdrew without casualties and ordered in mortar fire on the enemy position, wiping it out.

Another dog in Europe also had the distinction of being the only canine to receive decorations for action. "Chips" was a German shepherd-husky-collie mix who, along with handler Private John Rowell, was attached to the 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. On 10 July 1943, the division landed on Sicily, and Chips and Rowell went to work. As they approached a grass-covered hut, a machine gun opened fire. The hut was, in fact, a camouflaged bunker. Chips quickly escaped Rowell's control and made a beeline for the bunker. Within seconds, the machine gun fell silent and an Italian soldier tumbled out with Chips chomping at his throat and arms. In short order, three others exited the bunker with arms raised. Chips was lightly wounded in the incident, suffering powder burns and several cuts.

On 24 October 1943, Headquarters, 3d Infantry Division, issued General Order No. 79, which included a citation for the award of the Silver Star to "Chips, 11-A, U.S. Army Dog." A short time later, he was awarded the Purple Heart. Regulations technically prohibited such an award, and there was some controversy over whether awarding medals intended for humans to dogs was appropriate. In the end, the awards were rescinded, and future such awards banned. Chips went on to serve the Army for another two years and was discharged to his prewar owners on 10 December 1945.

Following the war, many dogs were returned to owners or given to their wartime handlers. This involved retraining so the dogs would be able to function safely in a peacetime civilian setting. Due to their classification as government property, any unclaimed dogs had to be sold as surplus, with the new owner footing the bill to return the shipping crate and food bowl to the Army. Still, this program allowed some civilians to purchase a well-trained and physically fit animal for a bargain price.

The Army took great care in retraining its dogs. The program included handling by multiple people to lessen the dogs' aggressive tendencies. They were encouraged to play and rewarded for good social behavior. Eventually they would be exposed to an aggressive person and trained not to react aggressively. A few dogs were incapable of retraining or had untreatable diseases and were destroyed, but the vast majority were carefully processed by the QMC and eventually sent to civilian homes. In the end, more than 15,000 applications were received for the returning dogs, and each dog was given a certificate of faithful service and an honorable discharge certificate. Of all the dogs returned to civilian life, about 3,000 in total, only four were returned to the Army as unsuitable for civilian life.

Both dogs and handlers provided an invaluable contribution to the American war effort in World War II. Despite the almost constant peril and close combat experienced by scout dog platoons, handlers were ineligible for the Combat Infantryman Badge due to their assignment to the Quartermaster Corps. Though man and beast alike may not have received the credit they deserved during the war, they proved their worth and pioneered many new tactics. Their legacy can still be found in the military working dogs of the modern Army and the explosives-detecting dogs used by both the armed forces and government agencies.

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The Dogs of War: The U.S. Army's Use of Canines in WWII - The Army Historical Foundation

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Written by Seth Paltzer Throughout history, dogs have accompanied man at work and play. Even in the midst of men's wars, dogs have been found serving in functions ranging from [...]

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Jordan Romero (born July 12, 1996) is an American mountain climber who was 13 years old when he reached the summit of Mount Everest. Romero was accompanied by his father, Paul Romero, his step-mother, Karen Lundgren, and three Sherpas, Ang Pasang Sherpa, Lama Dawa Sherpa, and Lama Karma Sherpa. The previous record for youngest to climb Everest was held by Ming Kipa of Nepal who was 15 years old when she reached the summit on May 22, 2003.

Upon successfully hiking the Vinson Massif in December 2011 at the age of 15 years, 5 months, 12 days, Romero became the youngest climber in the world to complete the Seven Summits (the highest mountains on each of the continents), a title previously held by George Atkinson. After this experience, Romero wrote a novel for children called "No Summit Out Of Sight".

Mountains climbed

Romero is now trying to climb the highest point in each of the 50 US states. He had already climbed Denali in June 2008. (see also Peak bagging (Climbing list))

Personal life

Romero grew up in Big Bear Lake, California, and currently resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was born to Paul Romero and Leigh Anne Drake.

Historic climb

Prior to climbing Everest, Romero had already climbed five of the seven highest peaks in the world in his desire to scale the tallest peaks on the seven continents (counting two for Oceania). He finished the seven summits with Mount Vinson in Antarctica at age 15. Before climbing Everest, Romero's highest peak was Aconcagua, 6,962 m (22,841 ft) in elevation. His group chose a northern route out of Tibet and carried a GPS tracking device and satellite phone. Along the way to the top, Romero conducted an interview from an intermediate base camp 18,700 feet above sea level. Upon reaching Mount Everest's summit, a Skype interview was accomplished and Romero also called his mother, who had been following the climb on a map which included GPS coordinates, pictures and video.

Before he climbed Mount Everest, there was some criticism over whether a 13-year-old boy should be allowed to attempt this. David Hillebrandt, medical adviser to the British Mountaineering Council, questioned whether Romero was mentally mature enough and then went on to say, "It is totally against the spirit of true mountaineering. This sounds like it's about mass marketing, money and it's verging on child abuse. Nowadays, people are effectively being winched up (the mountains), using ropes that Sherpas have put in for them. It will all be done for him (Romero). He's a token passenger." Because Nepal does not issue permits to people under 16 years of age, Romero and his team decided to climb from the Tibet side. On June 10, 2010, the Lhasa-based Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), the official channel through which climbers must apply for permission to attempt peaks in Tibet, announced future age restrictions for all those attempting Everest from the north.

After Romero climbed Mount Everest. At the end of 2014 Romero with Linda LeBlanc wrote another book No Summit out of Sight: The True Story of the Youngest Person to Climb the Seven Summits.

Matt Moniz, did 50 State Summits in 43 days with his father

Malavath Purna, summited Mount Everest at age 13

Tyler Armstrong

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The Dogs of War: Beloved Comrades in Afghanistan (Published 2011)

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The canine that went on the Navy Seals’ raid of Osama Bin Laden’s compound last week has generated a wave of interest in military dogs, which are on a surge into Afghanistan.

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World War II’s Only Canine POW Survived Shipwrecks, Crocodile Attacks, and Japanese Prison Camps

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Judy the English pointer received Britain’s Dickin Medal for animals after gaining renown as one of the war’s most heroic sidekicks.

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In 1941, 20-something British officer Frank Williams met a dog called Judy at a Japanese prisoner of war camp and they became best friends. Together they survived starvation, malaria and a torpedo attack - and lived to tell the tale - with Judy ultimately being recognized as a hero. This is their story, excerpted from "No Better Friend" by Robert Weintraub (Little Brown, $28), out now.

August 1941: They meet at Padang POW camp

Frank spent a day or two observing the dog as she forlornly sniffed about the camp, searching for anything to eat. Frank wasn't aware that Judy had recently lost a human friend who fed her regularly; he just knew the dog seemed troubled and no one in particular seemed to be taking care of her.

Something wobbled in his soul. He was in a terrible situation, and it was all he could do just to survive himself. But the sight of this dog wasting away was intolerable to him.

So on a scalding August afternoon, Frank decided upon a fateful act. After waiting on line for the usual portion of rice to be slopped out on his makeshift plate, he sat on the ground in the open area reserved for eating meals.

Her watery brown eyes gazed at Frank. He poured some of the pap into his palm."Come on, Judy," he encouraged. "This is yours."

The pointer remained frozen but emitted a soft whine. Frank knew instinctively what she wanted - not merely food, but a friend to share it with. He put his whole bowl on the ground and used his free hand to tousle Judy's ears and stroke her head.

"Okay, okay," he murmured. "Make yourself at home, girl."

Judy visibly relaxed and lay down at his feet. Then she vacuumed up every atom of rice in an instant.

She would spend most of the rest of her life close by his side.

June 25, 1944: They cheat death on the Van Waerwijck, a ship torpedoed by the HMS Truculent

Of all the inhumane treatment visited on POWs by the Japanese, time spent on the "hell ships" may have been the worst. The Japanese transported prisoners from island to island and camp to camp across the Pacific theater. Men were stuffed into dank, reeking cargo holds from the Philippines to Java to Burma to Manchuria, and especially to and from the home islands of Japan.

The Van Waerwijck was typical of the ships they used - usually aging or decrepit bulk carriers salvaged after poor attempts at scuttling.

Frank would turn 25 in a month's time, if he could live that long. Judy was well into her eighth year.

The Van Waerwijck was untied and made off into the Strait of Malacca.

The old steamer chugged along, hugging the Sumatran coast. When the monotony of the dark waves ceased to interest her, Judy lay her head on Frank's legs and slept away the night hours.

At 12:42 p.m., Frank's friend Les Searle looked up from his spot amidships and uttered a strangled cry. The wake kicking up from a pair of torpedoes on the water's surface, homing in on the ship.

They had been fired by the HMS Truculent, a British submarine commanded by Lieutenant Robert L. Alexander.

Both torpedoes struck the Van Waerwijck.

[Frank] was in a terrible situation, and it was all he could do just to survive. But the sight of this dog wasting away was intolerable to him.

In the hold, there was a flash of light accompanying the loud explosion, then all went pitch-dark. Fire erupted in various spots.

The Van Waerwijck was torn asunder by a second explosion. Dozens close to the blast were instantly killed.

Gazing upon the charnel, Frank was momentarily frozen. But then he felt Judy's wet nose sniffling upon his leg, and that "swept him back to reality." Gazing up at her friend, Judy "was incredibly calm and was motionlessly waiting for me to move."

He turned to the small porthole above them. Frank could never get through, but Judy might be able to squeeze out. Frank opened it as far as it would go, picked up the pointer, "shoved her head and front paws though the hole and commanded her to 'swim!' 'Out you go old girl!' I yelled."

The drop to the sea was about fifteen feet. Before dropping, Judy "looked down and back at me with a sad look. I immediately understood her: She thought I was nuts! Then she wrenched herself with curled up rear paws through the porthole. The hole was just wide enough and with a last push she disappeared from sight."

Now all Frank had to do was save himself.

"As far as the eye could see, the sea was filled with wreckage being dragged away by the fast currents," Frank remembered. "Somewhere in there, Judy was swimming." He worried about sharks, as much for his dog as for himself.

[After jumping from the deck] Frank spent two hours swimming around, desperately searching for Judy while others grabbed hold of floating wreckage. Several men passed on in the night. Frank scanned the waters for Judy. He tried to weep, but no tears came. He was a shell.

Judy was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't made it. His best friend was gone.

Once ashore, Frank was recaptured. Two days later, he was moved to the River Valley Road prison camp, along the Singapore River. He had just arrived when he was suddenly flattened to the ground.

"When I entered the camp, a ragged dog jumped me from behind with a great amount of force, flooring me," Frank recalled. "She was covered in bunker oil and her old, tired eyes were red."

It was Judy. Frank was in tears when he finally got up from where Judy had knocked him down. "C'mon, old girl, and stop acting so daft," he said. With his best friend miraculously back at his side, his hope was renewed, his determination to survive restored.

"His shoulders seemed to re‑set," said Searle.
Frank and Judy spent the next year in captivity. When Frank contracted a deadly case of malaria, he imagined killing both himself and his dog, so she wouldn't suffer without him. But he persevered.

Aug. 15, 1945: Release!

Frank and Judy went straight to a hospital compound that had been set up for POWs. They stayed for a month, slowly regaining their weight and strength, and ensuring Frank's malaria was finally gone. One afternoon, an orderly found Frank playing catch with Judy out in the courtyard. Both had regained a fair amount of the weight they had lost. The orderly carried Frank's embarkation papers.

"To leave for England aboard the troopship Antenor," it said, which were the most glorious words Frank had ever read.

Frank smuggled Judy onboard. They anchored in Liverpool on Oct. 29, 1945, but what should have been an incredible moment of triumph for Frank was instead bittersweet to the point of tragic. He walked down the gangway, Judy ranging ahead of him on a leash. Waiting to meet them was an official of the Ministry of Agriculture, who put her in quarantine for six months.

During that time, the story of Judy's incredible journey made her a national heroine. The press called her "Gunboat Judy" and the "Precious Pointer."

On May 3, 1946, there was a ceremony honoring her service in west London's Cadogan Square, an elite neighborhood akin to New York's Park Avenue. The pointer sat casually as the medal was pinned to her collar, surrounded by former POWs and dog lovers.

The accompanying citation read:

FOR MAGNIFICENT COURAGE AND ENDURANCE IN JAPANESE PRISON CAMPS THUS HELPING TO MAINTAIN MORALE AMONG HER FELLOW PRISONERS AND FOR SAVING MANY LIVES BY HER INTELLIGENCE AND WATCHFULNESS.

Frank took Judy back home to Portsmouth, the southern naval town of his youth, and wondered what he was to do with the rest of his life. Whatever it was, Judy would be part of it, that much he was sure of.

And after all they'd been through, that was all that mattered.
Excerpted from the book "No Better Friend" by Robert Weintraub. Copyright (c) 2015 by Robert Weintraub. Reprinted with permission of Little, Brown and Co. All rights reserved.

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In 1941, 20-something British officer Frank Williams met a dog called Judy at a Japanese prisoner of war camp and they became best friends. Together they survived starvation, malaria and a torpedo ...

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"These dogs are not only our best friends, they embody what's best about us - the courage, loyalty, and heart of true warriors." - Mike Ritland

CAD Arko served multiple deployments during his career and has been described as the ideal Malinois in nearly every way. On a raid Arko was sent to apprehend a bad guy and was shot point-blank in the chest with an AK-47 round, meant for soldiers behind him. Despite being shot, Arko had a good bite on the man and didn't come off until his handler approached and gave him the command. The enemy was apprehended, and Arko was flown to a Forward Operating Base, where he underwent surgery. Arko recovered fully and returned to action.

As Arko grabbed the insurgent he was sent to take down, he was shot. Even with his injury, CAD Arko still managed to complete his mission and take down the insurgent. Because of the Warrior Dog Foundation, Arko was able to live out his retirement in peace at the WDF ranch.

What we loved most about Arko is that he was one of those dogs that made you earn his respect every time you clipped a leash to him. Right up until the day he passed, he had a
presence about him that was unmistakable, yet hard to describe. He was a warrior through and through and is responsible for many of our countrymen coming home safe. We will always hold a special place in our hearts for Arko.

On a raid, Carlos and his handler were the unfortunate victims of an IED that went undetected. In the middle of an intense fire fight, they approached an entryway where a bunch of munitions were cached. Enemy combatants hastily detonated the IED, and the resulting
explosion severely injured both the handler and Carlos and leveled that entryway. The force of the blast collapsed Carlos's lungs and sinuses and threw him several feet, which resulted in him breaking both his back legs and his hips. His handler sustained major injuries as well. When the other members of the team rushed up to assist their fallen comrade, despite his own injuries, Carlos managed to crawl over to his handler and guard him. It took some time for the rest of the operators to calm Carlos down. All Carlos knew was that his handler was hurt and he was going to make sure that nobody else did any damage to him.

Carlos and his handler were medevac'd out of that area of operation, and both fully recovered. Carlos healed so well that he eventually returned to operational status and was deployed again before retiring to the Warrior Dog Foundation at age seven.

CWD Blackjack was on duty, protecting his unit from bombs, when a vehicle he was inspecting had a tire blow up next to him. Ever since that day, he was diagnosed with C-PTSD. He could not continue his career and Blackjack was retired. His handler, Michael, adopted Blackjack to give him the retirement he deserved. Blackjack was brought to the States and was reunited with Michael a few months later.

Sadly, in February of 2015, Michael was hit by a drunk driver and did not survive. Blackjack went to live with Michael's mother, who cared for him the best she could, before he came to live with us at the Warrior Dog Foundation ranch.

MWD Blecky is a Belgian Malinois that served in the US Air Force before retiring to the Warrior Dog Foundation in 2019.

"One night while off duty I got a call around midnight and I was notified that he was unable to move his back legs and was dragging himself around with his two front legs to be able to move. I went to the kennels right away and once I walked to his kennel I witnessed just how serious and bad the unknown injury was. After being evaluated and having numerous tests done, it was discovered he had a ruptured disc that was putting pressure on his spine. After the surgery was completed, he was sent to the Military working dog rehabilitation center to work on being able to walk again. Because of how aggressive Blecky is, the staff was unable to work with him and could not give him the treatment he needed to recover. At the time they figured the best course of action was to have him euthanized."

"Having the Warrior Dog Foundation as a resource for my partner has been huge for not only his transition into retirement but also being allowed to live a life after being a military working dog. Blecky is aggressive, and that makes it challenging for anyone else to be able to work with him. That is when we contacted WDF and explained to them the situation and they agreed to take him in. Without the Warrior Dog Foundation my partner would not be alive today, healing and enjoying retirement." - Blecky's Former Handler

K9 Chucky is a Belgian Malinois born in the USA Nov. 7, 2014. K9 Chucky and his partner completed their Police Department's K9 program on July 20, 2017. He is a certified patrol/narcotics detection K9, trained to locate heroin, methamphetamines,
cocaine and marijuana. Chucky proudly served his community until Feb 2018 when he was forced to retire early due to Patellar Luxation, a condition where his rear kneecap dislocates when he runs and jumps.

MPC Navy SEAL Nico is a perfect example of the success of the Warrior Dog Foundation. Nico served in the United States Navy Special Ops Community and served two tours in the middle east. Nico's commitment to our country saved countless human lives, provided a security that simply cannot be replicated, and is vital to the success of our special ops missions. MPC Nico spent almost 4 years at the Warrior Dog Foundation adjusting from an operational environment into retirement before reuniting with his former handler and his forever home.

Nico and former handler US Navy SEAL Taylor have been seen raising awareness for the Warrior Dog Foundation on the NASCAR track.

Ozzy was born July of 2010 in Winnipeg, Canada and comes from a long line of proven successful working dogs. Ozzy was certified through the United States Police Canine association. His certifications were in patrol/apprehension, narcotics detection, and tracking. Ozzy won the top rookie dog award in the 2012 USPCA region 12 field trials. Later in 2014 Ozzy finished 4th overall in the nation at the USPCA national narcotics trial.

Ozzy received numerous awards and commendations for his street work in the apprehension of violent offenders. Most notable was an incident where a dangerous aggravated assault suspect was believed to be hiding in an attic. Ozzy was sent in the attic to locate the suspect. Ozzy apprehended the suspect. As his handler tried to locate Ozzy through the thick insolation in the attic, his handler fell through the ceiling, lost consciousness, and was airlifted to the hospital. Ozzy stayed on the suspect and had to be physically removed from the apprehension by another K9 handler who was on scene. He was awarded the medal of valor for his efforts.

Ozzy is a character of sorts. Highly driven and endless energy. Ozzy kind of "marched to his own beat". He has an edge to him, and when he is in drive he is all business, nothing is done half speed. His intensity for work is second to none.

'These dogs have saved countless lives and prevented innumerable horrific injuries. As a nation, we owe them a tremendous debt of gratitude'~Mike Ritland

These dogs have done so much for us, and they don't deserve to be put down. They deserve rest, respect, and a dignified retirement. To date, we have rehabilitated and rehomed over 170 K9s. When you donate to The Warrior Dog Foundation, you help us give more hero dogs a chance at a peaceful life after service.

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Our charity helps military dogs who are no longer fit for service retire peacefully instead of being euthanized! Read our incredible Warrior Dog K9 Stories.

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"No Ordinary Dog: My Partner from the SEAL Teams to the bin Laden Raid," by Will Chesney with Joe Layden. St. Martin's Press. $28.99 ($19.23 on Amazon).
While this title is right on target, an equally appropriate one would be "Cheese & Cairo." While it's not a sandwich, it would capture the story of two soulmates.

It probably wouldn't sell as many books, but make no mistake about it, this resonating adventure of THE dog on the famous attack on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan in 2011 is as much about Will Chesney (nickname Cheese), Cairo's adroit handler, as the finely tuned 70-pound Belgian Malinois that became a national celebrity overnight.

Packed with energy and promise throughout - and a mix of psychological body blows from one chapter to the next - "No Ordinary Dog" is a window into the brittle dynamics of one dog team's interactions in and out of the Middle East war zone.

Beyond Friendship

In the Introduction, Chesney establishes, "Cairo was my dog. And I was his dad. I don't use that term euphemistically. The relationship between a handler and a canine SEAL is profound and intimate. It goes well beyond friendship and the usual ties that bind man to dog. The training is experiential and all-encompassing, a round-the-clock immersion designed to foster not just expertise but an attachment of uncommon depth and complexity."

From the moment Chesney first met Cairo until he was forced to let go a decade later when cancer felled the spirited fighting machine, this is a special union, sometimes separated by thousands of miles, and other occasions a few feet.

Chesney's focus is directed on the " exhaustive and intricate training " served up in fine-tuning Cairo's soldiering capabilities that were put to the test in a wide mix of challenges from tiny villages to mountainous hideaways. Yes, the attack on bin Laden's compound gets plenty of attention, too, but this exhilarating narrative is about the journey, not simply that renowned mission.

And, oh, by the way, Chesney notes in the Introduction, "My hope is that this will not be quite like anything you've read before." On that front, this delivers.

SEALS or Nothing

The young East Texan's dream was to become a Navy SEAL and he put that into motion as an 18-year-old in 2002. "For me, it was the SEALs or nothing," he emphasizes. The odds weren't exactly in his favor as only 20 percent succeed. He adds, "There is no room for the cowboy or the rogue warrior in this scenario. There is only professionalism and 100 percent commitment."

Upon following Chesney through the demanding SEAL training regimen called BUD/S, the reader is left with a strong appreciation for the talents and commitments of its select members. Of the 168 men in his class, only 22 reached the finish line in this physical/psychological test Chesney characterizes as "an utterly merciless, non-stop, six-month beatdown."

Whether you're deep underwater in a dive suit or ascending a wall, the author emphasizes "the SEALs want men who can handle adversity but not let their emotions get in the way of completing a job."

Because SEALs spend years of training prior to deployment a big chunk of this volume focuses on that facet of the job. Hence you won't even meet Cairo until you are several chapters into the read.

Fighting and Tracking Machines

It was not until 2006 - remember, he joined the Navy in 2002 - that Chesney was introduced to dogs in warfare during a training demonstration in Kentucky, after deployments to South America and Iraq. As a youngster,

Chesney's family-owned dogs but he had little familiarity with their military prowess.

That demo had two men and a Belgian Malinois, a breed Chesney was totally unfamiliar with but left him with a wow factor!

A second Iraq deployment - this one for six months - put Chesney in the crosshairs of general combat and removing high-value targets - but he was not yet a member of a SEAL team. With refreshing bluntness and candor, the reader is taken inside the unit with the feel of being on the front line.

Upon returning stateside, he was finally assigned to a SEAL Training Team, from which he graduated in six months. Training provided endless opportunities, he writes, for the new guys to find their niches. He liked dogs, which sent him on a new pathway and appreciation for their capabilities in conflict.

"It always seemed to me that the bad guys feared our dogs more than they feared us," he says. "And maybe with good reason."

Conversely, he notes that one of these "fighting and tracking machines" saving a teammate's life in a wide range of ways "wasn't that rare of an occurrence."

Becoming a Military Dog Handler

Chesney's decision to go for it - and become a dog handler - came about halfway through a 2008 deployment in Afghanistan in which his squadron was accompanied by two working dogs. Quickly, he recognized that the handler role required managing and caring for his dog while serving as a shooter. "It was an extraordinarily demanding and complicated job," he notes. In essence two jobs in one.

Chesney details the procurement process of these combat assault dogs - most are products of Schutzhund in Germany or KNPV (Koninklijke Nederlandse Politiehonden Vereniging) in the Netherlands and 2-to 3-years-old when purchased. "They are strong, fit and ready to be molded into a unique asset," he writes. "The purest and most reliable test is one that measures not just instinct or tracking and scent-detection ability, but something deeper - the dog's heart."

Chesney's eventual partner, Cairo, was a Belgian Malinois whose price tag was approximately $10,000.

Cairo was not this SEAL's first choice when they met in 2008 but their love affair and nimble teamwork grows throughout this absorbing volume. Quickly, the author establishes, "In a lot of ways, I felt like he could teach me as much as I could teach him." That catalog of challenges included scent detection, bite work, command response, desensitization to sound and physical training.

Finally, it was time to put the hard work to practice. Their first deployment together was in Afghanistan in June 2009, a four-month assignment.

Most Secretive and Famous Mission Ever

One of those missions included searching for a missing American soldier, Private Bowe Bergdahl, who was captured by the Taliban. His departure from an American base in late June 2009 prompted headlines nationwide. Was he deserting or captured while on patrol? Basically two months of Chesney's stay revolved around bringing Bergdahl home, which proved unsuccessful.

Surrounded by frustration, add a psychological grenade to the equation, when Cairo sustained life-threatening injuries to the chest and a leg following a firefight with insurgents. Fortunately, he was treated quickly in the field by a former combat medic before being flown to Bagram Airfield, the closest military base with a veterinary staff.

Several chapters center on Chesney's return to his unit and the 4-year-old Cairo's trip to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, home of the Department of Defense Military Working Dog Program and the premier canine medical care and rehabilitation facilities, for treatment. More than two months passed before the pair would be reunited.

Their future together remained uncertain, however, since Chesney had been a dog handler for two deployments and was ready to become a "shooter" again. Cairo was almost six at that point (March 2011). The Navy eventually determined that the re-energized Cairo would not be retired, rather become a spare dog, ready for his next call.

Well, surprise! Late that month, Chesney's team was assigned to a dive training trip to Florida, a chance for him to sharpen his water skills, then on to jumpmaster school in Arizona. On the second day in Arizona, he suddenly received orders to return home to Virginia - with no explanation - and to pick up Cairo upon arrival.

This set in motion what was to become the Navy SEALs' most secretive and famous mission ever, for which Chesney serves up an intrepid play-by-play of details. You know how it ended but you will find yourself glued to his riveting, first-hand account which left Cairo in the national spotlight for months.

Does Time Heal All Wounds?

But this story doesn't end on that high note. Far from it.

Chesney's personal demons were everywhere in the brittle landscape ahead where he battled PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and unable to find a medical treatment to relieve either until . . .

"You know what did help? Stopping by the kennel to play with Cairo (then 8)," he says. "I know that probably sounds crazy, but it's the absolute truth."

Time sometimes heals wounds and as this rich narrative heads to the finish line, the reader is fulfilled with a mixed bag of candor and passion that will test your emotions.

Were these two soulmates reunited in retirement? Did Chesney overcome those medical disorders? Did Cairo have a healthy post-service life?

Rest assured, " No Ordinary Dog " will provide those answers.

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No Ordinary Dog: The True Story of the Dog in the bin Laden Mission

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Packed with energy and promise, "No Ordinary Dog" is a book about one dog team's interactions in and out of the Middle East war zone.

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Former Navy SEAL connects retired service dogs with military veterans

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In September 1939, Britain entered into what would become the world's most devastating war to date. Learn all about the events that changed the lives of millions in our World War 2 facts....
World War 2 facts

1. World War 2 was a battle between two groups of countries

- the " Allies" and the " Axis ". The major Allied Powers were Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States. The major Axis Powers were Germany, Italy and Japan.

(AD)

2. Before World War 2 began, Germany was ruled by a man named Adolf Hitler

Together with the Nazi Party, he wanted Germany to rule Europe. To gain more land and power, on 1 September 1939 German troops invaded Poland. After Hitler refused to stop the invasion, Britain and France declared war on Germany - World War II had begun.

3. During the course of the war, German forces advanced through Europe.

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable Second World War primary resource? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

4. Millions of Germans were imprisoned and killed because they didn't fit the image of the 'perfect' German

Hitler wanted to create what he thought was the "best" and strongest race - and to the Nazi Party, this excluded certain groups, such as Jews, Gypsies and those with physical and mental disabilities. In an attempt to eliminate a "racial enemy" outside of Germany, such groups were also persecuted in the countries invaded by German forces.

5. The group most heavily targeted by the Nazis were the Jews

Around six million Jewish people were killed during World War 2 in one of history's most terrible events - the Holocaust. Racist in his views, Hitler blamed Jewish people for Germany losing World War I and claimed they were dangerous to German people and society.

6. Around the same time that Germany fought for power in Europe, Japan wanted to control Asia and the Pacific

In 1937 (before World War 2 had officially begun) under Emperor Hirohito, Japan attacked China, bringing the two nations into years of conflict.

7. The US didn't join the war until 1941, when Japan attacked the United States

- at their Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. On 8 December 1941 (the very next day), the US declared War on Japan and, in turn, its German allies.

8. Some countries remained 'neutral' in World War 2

Such countries were Spain, Sweden and Switzerland - who chose not to join either side.

9. The Germans surrendered on 8 May 1945

In 1944, an Allied army crossed from Britain to free France from Nazi rule. One year later, Allied armies invaded Germany, forcing the Germans to surrender. After nuclear attacks on Japan's major cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan also surrendered to Allied forces in August the same year. World War 2 had ended.

10. Around 64 million people died in World War 2

- that's more than the entire population of the United Kingdom.

Find out more about the countries involved in World War 2 with our Germany, Japan and USA facts. Plus, learn about the life of Anne Frank, a young German girl who wrote a world-famous diary...

*Yugoslavia was a country established in 1918 in south-east Europe, which included modern-day Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

*USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union) was a former country which included modern-day Russia, Ukraine and Estonia, as well as other socialist states.

What did you think of our World War 2 facts? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Learn astonishing World War 2 facts with Nat Geo Kids. When did the war start? Who fought in in the war and why? How did it change the course of history?

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In the years since human beings first reached the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, climbing the world's highest mountain has changed dramatically. Today, hundreds of mountaineers manage the feat each year thanks to improvements in knowledge, technology, and the significant infrastructure provided by commercially guided expeditions that provide a veritable highway up the mountain for those willing to accept both the risks and a hefty price tag.

Where is Everest-and how old is it?

Mount Everest-known in Nepali as Sagarmatha and Tibetan as Chomolungma -straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet at the crest of the Himalayan mountain chain. Although reaching the top of the world is an arduous and potentially deadly undertaking due to the extreme altitude, avalanches, icefalls, and other hazards, the mountain lies quite close to the equator, at a latitude of approximately 28 degrees, the same as Tampa, Florida.

Earth scientists estimate that Everest is 50 to 60 million years old, a youngster by geological standards. The mountain was formed by the upward force generated when the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collided, pushing up the rocks that formed the highest mountain on Earth. That force is still at work today, pushing Everest's summit about a quarter of an inch higher each year. (Learn more about how mountains are formed.)

What are the hazards of climbing Everest?

At 29,032 feet, Everest's summit has approximately one-third the air pressure that exists at sea level, which significantly reduces a climber's ability to breathe in enough oxygen. Because of this, scientists have determined that the human body is not capable of remaining indefinitely above 19,000 feet.

As climbers move higher up the mountain and their oxygen intake is reduced, their bodies are increasingly at risk for a number of ailments, including pulmonary edema, cerebral edema, and blood embolisms. The chances of frostbite are also dramatically increased at such altitude as the heart works harder to pump blood around the body delivering oxygen. The life-giving organs are first priority; digits are last.

The vast majority of climbers ascending Everest use tanks of oxygen to reduce the effects of the extreme altitude. However, bottled oxygen has its own drawbacks and risks. For starters, it's expensive, heavy to carry, and empty cylinders are frequently abandoned as litter.

Furthermore, breathing "gas" only increases the relative oxygen to about the same level as the air at basecamp, and if it runs out on summit day, the body might not be able adapt to the sudden lack of oxygen. Lastly, oxygen units are notoriously unreliable, as Everest guide Adrian Ballinger discovered in 2018 on summit day when his team experienced a systematic failure of their breathing systems.

How many routes are there to the top?

Although 17 different routes have been pioneered to the summit of Everest, almost everyone climbs it via one of two routes. From Nepal there's the Southeast Ridge, the line created by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hilary in 1953. From Tibet, there's the North Ridge, where George Mallory disappeared in 1924 long before a Chinese team finally completed the climb in 1960.

Although experienced mountaineers say the overall difficulty of the two routes is comparable, the challenges are different. On the Southeast Ridge, mountaineers must race through the hazardous Khumbu Icefall, but it's a slightly shorter summit day and easier to descend quickly in the event of an emergency. On the North Ridge, it's possible to drive jeeps all the way to base camp, but mountaineers must traverse several kilometers of terrain above 27,000 feet to reach the summit. (Read about China's highway to Everest.)

How crowded is Everest?

Mount Everest's popularity soared in the 1990s when international guides began to pioneer commercial trips up the mountain. Despite the risks, Everest draws hundreds of mountaineers from around the world to its slopes each year. In 2021, the Nepal Ministry of Tourism issued a record 408 Everest climbing permits, the highest in its history.

Who are Everest's guides?

For local logistics companies and the government of Nepal, Everest is big business. A typical spot on a commercial team costs anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000 depending on the level of service and the expertise of the outfitter. The Ministry of Tourism reported collecting $5.2 million in 2018 permit fees.

The industry is built on the backs of a small cadre of professional Nepalese guides who work together each spring to prepare the route with fixed ropes and ladders, stock each camp with essentials like tents, stoves, bottled oxygen, and food, and then patiently coach their foreign guests up to the summit.

Although historically it was the Sherpas-the Tibetan tribe of people who live closest to the mountain-who were hired by expeditions to carry loads of supplies up the mountain, today there are multiple ethnic groups who find employment on the mountain, leading to the less-catchy moniker of "high-altitude mountain worker."

For a typical three-to-four-month Everest expedition, most earn between $2,500 and $5,000. In recent years, thanks to educational opportunities like the Khumbu Climbing Center, Nepalese guides have begun to receive training and certifications to international standards.

How long is an expedition?

The best weather for reaching the top of Everest typically arrives in the second half of May, but preparations for a successful ascent begin months beforehand. Most teams assemble in Kathmandu in late March to begin acclimatization. As they trek toward basecamp, their basecamp support staff and high-altitude workers are already on the mountain, carrying loads and preparing the route to the summit.

In April, climbers make several overnight forays ("rotations" in Everest parlance) to successively higher camps up the mountain to acclimatize, while the first teams of Nepalese guides reach the summit. By the second week in May, teams hope to have an established trail of several miles of fixed ropes leading from basecamp to the summit, with several well-stocked camps along the way.

After a final rest-some teams will even decamp the mountain entirely to spend a few nights at lower elevation for maximum recovery-the summit push normally takes place over an arduous four to five days' round trip from basecamp. If all goes well, most Everest climbers are done with the mountain and on their way home by the beginning of June.

How dangerous is it?

More than 300 people are known to have died climbing Everest, according to the Himalayan Database. The overall death rate-the number of fatalities divided by the overall number of people on the mountain, not just those who summit-is approximately 1.2 percent, meaning that if you try to climb Everest, you have about a one in a hundred chance of dying along the way.

"Statistically, Everest is becoming safer primarily due to better gear, weather forecasting, and more people climbing with commercial operations," says respected Everest chronicler Alan Arnette. "From 1923 to 1999: 170 people died on Everest with 1,169 summits or 14.5 percent. But the deaths drastically declined from 2000 to 2018 with 7,990 summits and 123 deaths, or 1.5 percent." (Read about new safety measure on Everest.)

What's the summit like?

The actual summit of the mountain is a small dome of snow about the size of a dining room table. There's room for a half dozen or so climbers to stand and enjoy the view, although on busy days mountaineers must take turns to truly stand on top of the world.

Is there anything left to explore on Everest?

The last new route to be climbed on the mountain was accomplished by a team of hearty Russians in 2004. While each of Everest's three major faces and ridges have been ascended, there are several intriguing challenges for future mountaineers to attempt, including the unclimbed Fantasy Ridge and the so-called Horseshoe Traverse, an audacious enchainment of Everest and its two neighboring peaks, Lhotse and Nuptse.

"Everest is in many ways still a blank canvas," says alpinist and National Geographic photographer Cory Richards. "It's still as high, cold, and formidable as it ever was. How one chooses to climb it is as much a reflection of creativity as skill. There is always a new way to approach something, and Everest is no different."
Editor's note: This story was originally published on January 22, 2019. It has been updated.

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What to know about climbing Mount Everest

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Find out all you need to know about climbing Mount Everest, from its geology to the cost of climbing the notorious peak.

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Military Working Dogs: Canine War Heroes Through History

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Celebrate war dogs by learning about military working dog heroes in United States history.