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Newsela | Opinion: Can outposts on the moon and Mars serve as insurance policy?

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The number of U.S. space launches has rebounded but remains well below those of the 1960s and '70s.

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Newsela | NASA is sending a tiny robot helicopter to Mars

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A tiny robotic helicopter will fly in the underbelly of the Mars rover when it takes off in 2020.

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

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Newsela | Deaths in Mexican states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco after quake

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Death toll climbs after earthquake strikes Mexico.

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Newsela | Wild hurricane season for Atlantic Seaboard: Irma to come calling

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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

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Newsela | Pop Music and the Spatialization of Race in the 1990s

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Pop music becomes desegregated in the 1990s.

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Sharing US music and dance around the world

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Sharing US music and dance around the world

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Newsela | The diplomatic language of music

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It's part summer camp, part cultural diplomacy as American teachers and artists visit formerly war-torn areas using music to foster goodwill. The State Department says it's money well spent.

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This articles explains how eclipses can effect animals!

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This articles explains how eclipses can effect animals!

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Newsela | Scientists plan to observe animals during eclipse to see how they react

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In 1957, the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite shocks Americans and fuels their desire to catch up on technology.

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Newsela | Fresno family represents the plight of Syrian refugees

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Syrian refugees settling into their new life in the United States

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Newsela | U.S. again cuts refugee numbers, sparking widespread criticism

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The administration's lower refugee cap draws criticism from U.S. lawmakers and global humanitarian groups.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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

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Newsela | For many of the world's poor, drinking water can kill

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Sipping water, brushing your teeth and taking a shower are all healthy habits, right? But what if doing any of those things could kill you?

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Newsela | It's been three years since Flint residents have had access to safe water

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Newsela | For water-poor Kenyans, swipe of a smart card brings gallons of relief

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Water in Nairobi's slums has been largely managed by cartels, costing far more than in the city's most affluent areas. A new innovation may just end all that.

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Newsela | Papua New Guinea ranks last for access to clean water

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Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Chad and Mozambique also fare badly as report on World Water Day highlights global water and sanitation crisis

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Newsela | Sampling at 19 Detroit schools finds high lead, copper levels in water

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High levels of lead, copper found in water at 19 Detroit schools

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Newsela | Tending the Home Front: The Many Roles of California Women in WWII

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Women's contributions to the war efforts

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Newsela | Patriotism Crosses the Color Line: African Americans in World War II

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Despite fighting for the U.S. as members of the armed forces, black men and women were still discriminated against at home.

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

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This link will show you a biography on the life of Adolf Hitler

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This link will show you a biography on the life of Adolf Hitler

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ELM is brought to you by your local library or school media center, Minitex, and State Library Services, the MN state library agency, with state appropriations to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the Minnesota Department of Education, and federal LSTA funds under the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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ELM is brought to you by your local library or school media center, Minitex, and State Library Services, the MN state library agency, with state appropriations to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education and the Minnesota Department of Education, and federal LSTA funds under the support of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

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Here is one of those long articles I talked about that is a skim-read...spot the section of information you need and read that part.

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Hip-Hop Sampling - Copyright Criminals | PBS LearningMedia

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This Community Classroom educational module from Copyright Criminals teaches students about sampling and how it came to be widely used in the early days of hip-hop music. It also explores the socio-economic conditions that gave rise to hip-hop as a form of cultural expression, and introduces the seminal work of the rap group Public Enemy.

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Female Hip Hop in Senegal | Beat Making Lab | PBS LearningMedia

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Meet Gotal, an all-female hip hop group in Senegal, Africa as they work with an organization to hone their craft. These singers and producers team up with our DJs to write songs about global health issues and women leadership for the non-governmental organization Speak Up Africa.

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Hip hop is now a fully realized multi-billion-dollar industry, in which top earners make an average of $20 million a year, according to Forbes. In four decades rap has gone from an underground magpie culture that cleverly appropriated its sounds from elsewhere to the most-streamed style of music in the world. It has given a voice to those who were previously voiceless, memorably described as a "black CNN" by Public Enemy's Chuck D. And its ever-evolving beats and rhymes have sound-tracked parties from the Bronx to Beijing.

Hip hop's impact has been felt in the worlds of art, academia, politics, sports, fashion and film, running the gamut from the ghetto to the corridors of power. And it remains as vibrant and relevant now as it was 40 years ago - a feat unmatched by any other style of popular music.

The true scale of hip hop is impossible to quantify. The Forbes "Cash Kings" may sit on top of the earnings pile, but there are countless others who have dedicated their lives to the culture. Below are some of those unsung heroes whose creativity and passion has helped to make hip hop what it is today.

Kool Herc: Puttin' Down the Breaks

The cultural forces that gave birth to hip hop in the 1970s were bigger than any one individual. But if anyone can claim to have opened the floodgates, then it is Clive Campbell.

DJing under the name of Kool Herc, it was Campbell who pioneered the art of mixing "breaks" - the instrumental, percussive segments of records. Using two turntables, he would mix the beginning of the break from one record into the end of the break from another, enabling him to play instrumental-only sets that he called the "merry-go-round." This became the blueprint for hip hop. His crowd's wildly energetic response to these came to be known as "breakdancing." And the rudimentary rhymes and catchphrases ("To the beat y'all, ya don't stop...") that Herc and others - notably Coke La Rock - spoke over the top of the breaks at his parties evolved into rap.

Kool Herc's parties were held in a recreation room at the Bronx projects where he lived - at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue (now officially protected as the birthplace of hip hop). He moved there with his parents and five younger siblings at 13 years old. Before that the family lived in Jamaica, and it was here, as a child, that Herc saw reggae sound-systems with MCs toasting over the beats. The memory inspired him to assemble his own sound-system years later in New York - but instead of reggae he played hard funk by the likes of James Brown and Booker T & the MGs, using the instrumental breaks in a similar way that Jamaican DJs played dubs. He began to experiment with two copies of the same record in 1973, cutting between them to extend the same break.

Other DJs, such as Grand Wizard Theodore, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa would soon copy Herc's DJing style - and improve the technique. Flash and Bambaataa also took things to the next level by making records rather than just playing them. By the end of the 1970s, Herc's star had faded. He was stabbed during one of his own parties, reportedly trying to break up a fight, and his career never recovered.

Kool Herc remains a hip-hop legend - his character featured in the Netflix series The Get Down, and he has been namechecked by a long line of rappers including Q-Tip, Nas, Wyclef Jean and De La Soul - but he has never been commercially successful. It was reported in 2011 that he was suffering from health problems relating to his kidneys, but was broke and struggling to pay his medical bills. He still DJs around New York.

Sauce Money: Ghostwriter

After the brutal murder of Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace in 1997, his friend and mentor, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs, released a Grammy-winning tribute single, "I'll Be Missing You." The song also featured Wallace's bereaved wife, Faith Evans, and the R&B group 112. Over a sample of the Police's "Every Breath You Take," Combs rapped: "When it's real, feelings hard to conceal/Can't imagine all the pain I feel."

But Combs had not written the lyrics by himself. Overcome with grief, he had struggled to find the right words. So he enlisted a ghostwriter, Todd Gaither, aka the rapper Sauce Money. Ghostwriters are taboo in hip hop, where authenticity is paramount, but Combs was in dire straits. Gaither had been encouraged to develop his skills as a writer and rapper by his old friend, Shawn "Jay Z" Carter. As Sauce Money, Gaither had won plaudits for his guest appearance on Jay Z's debut album, Reasonable Doubt.

Sauce Money grew up with Jay Z in Brooklyn's tough Marcy Projects, before going on to a sports scholarship at Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina. After graduating he wound up working in the mailroom of a bank - for five years. As soon as he could, he escaped to music.

It was Carter who recommended Gaither to Combs. Gaither had lost his mother a few years earlier, and channeled his grief into the lyrics of "I'll Be Missing You." "It's almost like being an actor," Gaither told the BBC. "Once I became [Combs] I knew what he would want to say to Big in remembrance."

Sauce Money went on to release one album, Middle Finger U, in 2000 (guests included Jay Z and Puff Daddy). But as hip-hop's A-list ghostwriter he has made a more lasting impact putting his words into other people's mouths.

Tony D: White Rapper

Asked to name a white rap pioneer, most people would say Eminem. Or perhaps one of the Beastie Boys circa Paul's Boutique, or the producer Rick Rubin. Few would volunteer Anthony Depula, also known professionally as Tony D, Harvee Wallbanger and Grand Pubha Tony D - a gregarious, 224-pound Italian-American from the unheralded city of Trenton, New Jersey. Yet Depula was one of the first white artists to win credibility in hip hop.

In the mid-1980s, he was a regular face on Trenton's local music scene, setting up sound equipment at parties. One night the DJ failed to turn up, so Depula took his place - and launched his career. He bought drum machines from a contact in the Bronx and developed a talent for making beats, releasing the Droppin' Funky Verses album, which he both rapped on and produced, on 4th and B'way Records in 1991. But he soon became better known as a producer - his face didn't fit as a rapper in an era when hip hop had yet to recover from Vanilla Ice. Acts Depula worked with included Jazzy Jay, DJ Muggs, the Outsidaz, and - surprisingly to some - Afrocentric groups such as the Poor Righteous Teachers and the YZ, devotees of the Muslim Fivepercent Nation movement.

Depula's beats were always crisp and clean. He also pioneered a technique of stitching together choruses using snippets from different vocal samples - which artists such as Kanye West and the RZA later explored. "No one was really using samples or loops that had a voice in it until I did that," Depula told the hip-hop journalist Drew Huge in 2009, only a few months before he died in a car accident, leaving a wife and two young daughters.

Tony D released eight solo albums, but remains best remembered for his work with Poor Righteous Teachers, producing most of the music on their acclaimed first album, Holy Intellect.

Sha-Rock: Lady Killer

Known as the "mother of the mic," Sha-Rock was born Sharon Green in 1962 in North Carolina, but moved to New York during the earliest days of hip hop. Her parents split when she was eight, and Green moved with her three siblings, mom and her mom's new boyfriend to the Bronx. Surrounded by poverty, drugs and violence, music and dancing offered a chance to have fun - as long as you kept your head. "We used to have to walk over dead bodies and people shooting up the clubs," she recalled in an interview with Psychology Today in 2016.

By the mid-1970s, Green was a b-girl, breakdancing on the streets and in community centers. At home, her family would play records by James Brown, Millie Jackson and Elvis Presley, and Green became intrigued by the way these artists commanded an audience. It was perhaps inevitable that she would pick up a microphone and combine her fascination with performance and her passion for the vibrant new music culture in the streets.

She joined a Bronx rap group, The Funky 4 + 1. As the only female MC - the "Plus 1" - she had equal status to the others (in an era before female MCs came to be treated as sex objects). They released one of the first disco-rap records, Rappin' and Rockin' the House, in 1979. Soon after, they signed to Sylvia Robinson's Sugarhill Records label. Their 1980 single "That's the Joint" would be acclaimed by Rolling Stone in 2013 as one of the 50 best rap records of all time. The Funky 4 + 1 became the first hip-hop group to appear on national TV - on Saturday Night Live in 1981, on Debbie Harry's recommendation - but split in 1983 before releasing an album. Among Sha-Rock's young fans was Sean "Diddy" Combs and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, who emulated her reverb-heavy vocal delivery with Run-DMC.

In 2015, Sha-Rock was appointed as a national advisor for the Cornell University Hip-Hop Library Collection. By day she works in law enforcement. "I targeted a career I knew could help me stay out of trouble," she has said. "I chose it to stay on the right path."

Tracy 168: Graffiti 'Wild Style' King

It was Afrika Bambaataa who famously defined the "four pillars" of hip hop: rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti. Tracy 168 was a pioneering force in graffiti (or "aerosol writing" as Bam called it), who created "Wild Style" lettering: the abstract, highly stylized form of graffiti writing characterized by overlapping, hard-to-reproduce letters.

Of Irish, Italian and Puerto Rican descent, Michael Tracy was born in 1958 and grew up opposite the Bronx Zoo. He tagged his first train in 1969 at age 11. "I loved the sense of adventure," he told the Street Art NYC website. "I envisioned myself as a Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn." Some of his early work had a political dimension, such as rebelling against the Vietnam War, in which his friends had been drafted.

The early 1970s saw an explosion in graffiti culture in New York, with Tracy at its forefront. The scene was fiercely competitive - whoever produced the largest, boldest and most colorful work won bragging rights. Tracy hit on the idea of incorporating cartoon characters into his pieces "because cartoons live forever," he told the Subway Outlaws site. "I guess we were all looking for immortality." He formed Wanted, a crew of 72 leading graffiti writers, and in 1975 developed his Wild Style lettering, which the top Wanted artists all adopted.

To Tracy, the peak graffiti years of the early and mid 1970s were "a beautiful time. We took these dull, boring-looking subways and turned them into something beautiful . . .Everyone was just stuck, so we helped take their minds off the horrors in their life."

In 1977 he turned his talent to more conventional use, painting storefronts and murals before going on to work for an advertising agency, on accounts ranging from Northern Bathroom Tissue to Tanqueray gin. As mainstream fascination with hip-hop culture grew, he belatedly won recognition from the art world ("Tracy offers an astounding variety of styles," gushed the New York Times art critic Holland Cotter in 1999, "from 3D to space-age-spiky to Cubistic."). He has since exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. "The message of the Wild Style is be yourself," he said in 2016. "Find out what your talent is and get good at it."

Bob James: Sample Generator

Hip-hop's most-sampled artist is widely thought to be James Brown - whose hard-edged funky beats were practically tailor-made for rappers. But it's impossible to say for sure, because so many samples are never attributed (so producers and their record labels can avoid paying royalties). However there is another musical James, whose back catalogue has also been widely plundered by producers searching for a perfect beat or sample: the jazz keyboardist and arranger Bob James. His influence on hip hop is less widely known, but no less ubiquitous.

That distinctive cowbell break at the start of Run DMC's "Peter Piper"? Sampled from Bob James' "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" in 1975. The opening riff on Warren G and Nate Dogg's g-funk anthem, "Regulate"? From Bob James' "Sign of the Times" in 1981. That ominous bassline on Slick Rick's old-school classic, "Children's Story"? From an obscure 1974 Bob James album track, "Nautilus" - an atmospheric instrumental that has been sampled hundreds of times by everyone from Eric B & Rakim to Ghostface Killah.

James was born in Missouri in 1939 and studied music at the University of Michigan and Berklee College of Music. He moved to New York in 1962 after being discovered by the legendary Quincy Jones, who signed him to his first record deal with Mercury. James's debut album, Bold Conceptions, came out the following year. He went on to become a jazz-fusion pioneer, at his most prolific during the 1970s and early 1980s.

He has never had a problem with being sampled by hip-hop producers (that pay royalties). "I have a lot of respect for the architectural aspect of production in hip hop," he told Noisey in 2013. "I never felt that it was music that just copied and redid what the original composer did. I like the bizarre and unpredictable nature of it."

Gregory "Sylvester" Coleman: 'Amen Break' Drummer

Chances are you've never heard of the 1960s funk-and-soul band the Winstons - or their drummer, Gregory "Sylvester" Coleman. But you will definitely have heard Coleman's drumming - or at least four bars of it. That is the length of the solo he played in the Winstons' 1969 song, "Amen Brother." The so-called "Amen break" went on to become the most instantly recognizable six seconds of percussion in music history - making "Amen Brother" the most-sampled song of all time.

Think the opening bars of NWA's "Straight Outta Compton." Or Mantronix's "King of the Beats," Lupe Fiasco's "Streets on Fire," Salt-N-Pepa's "I Desire." The list goes on (and on). The website Whosampled.com lists more than 2,500 songs that have used the Amen break - the real total is likely to be far higher. It has been widely used in hip hop, but also by everyone from David Bowie to Slipknott. Drum and bass producers in the U.K. sped up the sample. It even appeared on the theme tune for Futurama, Matt Groening 's animated sitcom.

The "Amen Break" is the subject of a documentary by the Brooklyn academic Nate Harrison (you can find it on YouTube). Asked by the BBC to explain the break's popularity, Harrison said: "There's something about the groove . . . for me, it's this perfect blend between something very organic sounding and very robotic-sounding at the same time."

"Amen Brother" was the B-side of the Winstons' 1969 single, "Color Him Father" - which won a Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Song. At the time, nobody paid much attention to the B-side. A year later, the Winstons - a six-piece band based in Washington D.C. - split up. Despite the single's success they struggled to get bookings - their racial mix (three members were black, three white) was an issue at the time. Sadly, they never saw any royalties from the Amen break's subsequent popularity - it was mostly sampled in the 1980s when royalties were still a grey area. A 2015 internet campaign by DJs raised over $30,000 for the Winstons' lead singer, Richard Spencer. But Gary Coleman, who had played that famous break, was long gone. After struggling with drug addiction he died penniless and destitute in Atlanta in 2006.

Kool G Rap: Mafioso Rapper

The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Eminem and Jay Z all owe a debt to the multi-syllabic rhyming skills and gritty narratives of Nathaniel Thomas Wilson, aka Kool G Rap - a titan of "golden age" 1980s hip hop whose modest public profile has never reflected his far-reaching influence.

Wilson grew up in New York in Corona, Queens, surrounded by hip hop culture - he would hear DJs in local parks from the age of nine. He later formed a group, The Rapateers, in 1983, but it failed to take off. After that he began recording with DJ Polo as part of the legendary Queens producer Marley Marl's Juice Crew. The duo got their first exposure on Mr. Magic's influential Rap Attack radio-show in 1986. Their debut album, Road to the Riches, came out on Cold Chillin' Records in 1989. As well as battle raps, it was acclaimed for its lurid tales of organized crime and racketeering - and subsequently credited with starting "Mafioso rap," an East Coast rival to West Coast gangsta rap. Nas, the Notorious B.I.G. and Jay Z were among those heavily influenced by it. But sales of the album were modest - it peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop chart.

Their follow-up, Wanted: Dead or Alive, also underperformed in 1990 - though its single "Streets of New York" has been cited by Nas as an influence for his seminal "New York State of Mind." (Wilson helped a young Nas get his deal with Columbia). Wilson also knew Tupac Shakur, through recording in Los Angeles. He recounted to Hip Hop DX magazine how he ended up rolling through L.A. during the 1992 riots with a crew that included Shakur "popping off guns" as the anarchy unfolded.

As well as Mafioso rap, Kool G Rap pioneered multi-syllable rhyming - "multis" in hip-hop parlance - characterized by phrases in which more than one syllable rhymes. Multis have become a hallmark of great rappers. "It's not like you're just rhyming 'might' and 'fight'," he explains in the foreword to Paul Edwards book, How to Rap. "You're rhyming 'random luck' and 'handsome f***' with 'we cop vans and trucks' - it ain't just doing the basics, because that's not ear-catching."

Kool G Rap remains hugely respected as well as active musically, with an album, Return of the Don, due in 2017. To date he has released seven studio albums, two collaborative albums and 30 singles.

Proof: Greatest Sidekick

DeShaun Dupree Holton was a childhood friend of Marshall Mathers - a.k.a. Eminem. The pair grew up on the same block near Detroit's famous 8 Mile Road, which divides the city from the suburbs. As the rapper Proof, Holton showed much promise before losing his life in a nightclub shooting in 2006. He is best remembered as Eminem's right-hand man, both on and off stage.

Holton was raised by his mom, Sharallene, after his father, McKinley Jackson, left to pursue a career as a music producer. He attended a private school for a spell before enrolling in Osborn High on Detroit's east side. As a teenager he starred in MC battles in Maurice Malone's Hip Hop Shop, a clothing store and rap venue. The shop's cult status drew MCs from across America to participate - including the Notorious B.I.G. and Redman.

Holton and Mathers met when Holton was sitting on a wall outside Osborn High, and Mathers gave him a flyer for a talent show. Soon they were friends -Holton's mother even took Mathers in when his own mom threw him out during one of their many rows. Holton became a mentor to Mathers, encouraging his smart-mouthed friend to put his wit into his lyrics, and introducing him in Detroit rap battles where Mathers was often the only white face.

In 1995 Proof, Eminem and four other rappers formed the sextet D12, but the project was put on hold when Eminem's solo career took off soon after.

The D12 eventually released two albums, Devil's Night (2001) and D12 World (2004). By then, Proof was a fixture at Eminem's live shows as his hype man.

He released two solo albums, I Miss the Hip Hop Shop (2004) and Searching for Jerry Garcia (2005). But he was gunned down during an altercation at a nightclub on 8 Mile, on April 11, 2006. He was 32 years old. Thousands of mourners turned up to his funeral at Detroit's Fellowship Chapel.

"He pushed me to become who I am," Eminem said in tribute. "Without Proof's guidance and encouragement there would have been a Marshall Mathers, but probably not an Eminem and certainly never a Slim Shady."

Tim'm T West: Queer Rap Pioneer

The second of nine children, West was born in Ohio and grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. A childhood stutter led his family to nickname him Tim'm - which has stuck ever since. Surrounded by music as a child, West discovered hip hop as a teenager at Arkansas roller discos - around the same time that he realized his sexuality was different from that of other boys. Education offered an escape from "racist, homophobic, southern, rebel-flag-waving, Klan-boasting Arkansas" - and he went on to study at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, before moving to New York to attend The New School for Social Research.

From there he moved to the West Coast, to study a Ph.D. program in modern thought and literature at Stanford University. It was while he was there that he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1999, at the age of 27. He took a break from his studies to focus on his health, going on to form a queer hip-hop group Deep Dickollective (DDC) with fellow activists Juba Kalamka and Phillip Atiba Goff, coining the term "homo hop." Proudly pro-black and pro-gay, they became a hit in the underground Bay Area hip-hop and spoken-word communities before eventually disbanding in 2007. He has released six solo albums - most recently ICON ography in 2015.

DDC enjoyed a high media profile - and West has featured in a number of documentaries. These have included the New Jack City director Mario Van Peebles' 2009 short, Bring Your 'A' Game - in which West appeared alongside straight rappers such as Ice Cube and Lupe Fiasco. West has credited DDC for raising awareness of gay black artists in the media. "We had pretty much remained invisible prior to Deep Dickollective, so the effect was far-reaching."

West's hip-hop career has run parallel to his work in academia - he has taught at Stanford and at Humboldt State University; and as an adjunct professor of English and Philosophy at Houston Community College. In 2011 he moved to Chicago to be closer to his grown-up daughter, Shannon - he identifies as bisexual - and took a position as a director at the Center on Halsted, an LGBTQ community center. "They know I care about them," he said of the young people who attend the center. "I hate a lot of the homophobia they have to face in their own neighborhoods."

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Hip hop is now a fully realized multi-billion-dollar industry, in which top earners make an average of $20 million a year, according to Forbes. In four decades rap has gone from an underground magpie culture that cleverly appropriated its sounds from elsewhere to the most-streamed style of music in the world.

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Malala (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize) speaks about refugees

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Malala (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize) speaks about refugees

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#YesAllGirls: Malala talks about the refugee crisis

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On June 18, 1983, Dr. Sally K. Ride (May 26, 1951 - July 23, 2012) became the first American woman in space as a Mission Specialist aboard STS-7, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. But she was not the first female to complete a successful flight into space. Miss Baker (1957 - November 29, 1984), a 1-pound squirrel monkey, flew into space on May 28, 1959, aboard the JUPITER AM-18 and became the first monkey to survive the stresses of spaceflight.

First Women in Space

As of July 2016, of the 537 total space travelers in the world, 60 have been women. Nearly all (49) of these women flew/fly in the NASA program and the rest were/are in the Soviet/Russian and Chinese space programs. In fact, the first woman in space was cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (born March, 6 1937) who entered space aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, just two years after cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (March 9, 1934 - March 27, 1968) became the first human in space on April 12, 1961 aboard the Vostok 1.

Across the globe, women space travelers have represented their home countries well. Dr. Helen Patricia Sharman (born May 30, 1963) was the first British astronaut and the first Briton to travel into space in 1991. Roberta Bondar (born December 4, 1945) is Canada's first female astronaut and the first Canadian woman and first neurologist to travel into space in 1992. Mae Carol Jemison (born October 17, 1956) became the first African-American woman to travel in space in 1992. In 1993, Ellen Ochoa (born May 10, 1958) was the first Hispanic woman in space. Japan's first woman in space was Chiaki Mukai (born May 6, 1952) during STS-65 in 1994 (she was also the first Japanese citizen to complete two spaceflights). Claudie Haigneré (born May 13, 1957) was the first French woman in space in 1996. The first Indian-American in space was Kalpana Chawla (1961-2003) in 1997. On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari (born September 12, 1966) became the first female Muslim in space and the first Iranian in space. In 2008, Yi So-yeon (born June 2, 1978) was the first South Korean in space. Major Liu Yang (born October 6, 1978) became the first Chinese woman in space aboard the Shenzhou 9 on June 16, 2012. The first Italian woman in space, Samantha Cristoforetti (born April 26, 1977), is also known for being the first person to brew an espresso coffee in space in 2014.

NASA Women Leaders in Space Travel

In the past few decades, NASA has supported dozens of women in leadership positions. In fact, women have been "firsts" in numerous capacities since Sally Ride's first trip into space in 1983. The first American woman to participate in an Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) (i.e. activity outside a spacecraft in space) was Kathryn (Kathy) Sullivan during STS 41-G on October 11, 1984. Eileen Collins was the first woman pilot during STS-63 from February 3-11, 1995 and she was also the first woman space shuttle commander during STS-93 from July 23-27, 1999. The first woman Space Station Expedition crew member was Susan Helms during Expedition 2 from March 2001 - August 2001. Peggy Whitson was the first woman to command the International Space Station (ISS) during Expedition 16 in April 2008 and she also holds records for the most time spent in space by any American (more than 534 days), the most spacewalks of any woman astronaut (9 career spacewalks), the oldest woman to travel into space (at the age of 56) and the oldest woman spacewalker (at the age of 57). Whitson is also the first woman astronaut to command the International Space Station twice (2008 and 2017) and the first woman to serve as Chief Astronaut of the NASA Office (2009).

The Women of NASA Space Shuttle Missions

Women have also been significant members of numerous space shuttle missions into space. In fact, more than 30 of NASA's space shuttle missions in the past few decades have included more than one woman:

STS 41-G Kathryn D. Sullivan, Sally K. Ride

STS 51-L Judith A. Resnik, Sharon Christa McAuliffe

STS-34 Shannon W. Lucid, Ellen S. Baker

STS-32 Bonnie J. Dunbar, Marsha S. Ivins

STS-40 Tamara E. Jernigan, M. Rhea Seddon, Millie Hughes-Fulford

STS-50 Bonnie J. Dunbar, Ellen S. Baker

STS-47 N. Jan Davis, Mae C. Jemison

STS-57 Nancy J. Sherlock, Janice E. Voss

STS-58 M. Rhea Seddon, Shannon W. Lucid

STS-63 Eileen M. Collins, Janice E. Voss

STS-67 Tamara E. Jernigan, Wendy B. Lawrence

STS-71 Ellen S. Baker, Bonnie J. Dunbar

STS-70 Nancy Jane Currie, Mary Ellen Weber

STS-73 Kathryn C. Thornton, Catherine G. Coleman

STS-76 Shannon W. Lucid, Linda M. Godwin STS-83 Susan L. Still, Janice E. Voss

STS-84 Eileen M. Collins, Elena V. Kondakova

STS-94 Susan L. Still, Janice E. Voss

STS-91 Wendy B. Lawrence, Janet L. Kavandi

STS-96 Ellen Ochoa, Tamara E. Jernigan, Julie Payette

STS-93 Eileen M. Collins, Catherine G. Coleman

STS-99 Janet L. Kavandi, Janice E. Voss

STS-101 Mary Ellen Weber, Susan J. Helms

STS-112 Pamela Melroy, Sandra Magnus

STS-107 Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark

STS-114 Eileen M. Collins, Wendy Lawrence

STS-121 Stephanie D. Wilson, Lisa M. Nowak

STS-116 Sunita Williams, Joan Higginbotham

STS-118 Barbara R. Morgan, Tracy E. Caldwell Dyson

STS-120 Pamela A. Melroy, Stephanie D. Wilson

STS-126 Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper, Sandra H. Magnus

STS-131 Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Naoko Yamazaki, Tracy Caldwell Dyson (This flight set the record for the most women in space at the same time).

The Legacy of Sally Ride

Sally Ride was a pioneer in space travel and set the tone for the inclusion of women in space at NASA. After completing her final space flight on the Orbiter Challenger, she left NASA in 1987. She then worked as a Professor of Physics at the University of California San Diego and as Director of the University of California's California Space Institute. During this time, she heavily promoted children's education by publishing science books for kids including To Space and Back (1986), Voyager (1992), The Third Planet (1994), The Mystery of Mars (1999), and E xploring Our Solar System (2003). In 2001, she founded Sally Ride Science to pursue her dream of helping inspire young people, especially girls and racial/ethnic minorities, in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). The nonprofit organization designs science programs and publications for K-12 students to promote STEM literacy including the acclaimed book series, Cool Careers in STEM, which profiles real women and men working in STEM professions, and Key Concepts in Science, which focuses on physical sciences. In 2015, the non-profit became Sally Ride Science at UC San Diego. In 2016, the Sally Ride Science Junior Academy was created and offers hands-on workshops for 6th-12th-graders.

Women Trailblazers in Space

From Sally Ride to Peggy Whitson, women in space have served as role models for girls around the world. They have burst through the glass ceiling of NASA and they have burst through the Kármán line into outer space. They have all set the tone for the inclusion of women in science, technology, engineering, math, and space travel. Their lives have been celebrated in numerous ways, including Dr. Ride's induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Dr. Whitson's NASA Space Flight Medals and the Russian Medal of Merit for Space, and Miss Baker's Certificate of Merit for Distinguished Service to Science from the ASPCA. After attaining the record for oldest living squirrel monkey, Miss Baker died in 1984 and was buried on the grounds of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center where her tombstone often has one or more bananas on top. Sally Ride lost her 17-month battle to pancreatic cancer on July 23, 2012 but her legacy lives on. While Miss Baker and Sally Ride are no longer with us, we remember their lives as trailblazers in space. Peggy Whitson remains an active in-flight NASA astronaut and is expected to return to Earth in September 2017. She is still breaking records.

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Women in Space: From Sally Ride to Peggy Whitson

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On June 18, 1983, Dr. Sally K. Ride (May 26, 1951 - July 23, 2012) became the first American woman in space as a Mission Specialist aboard STS-7, which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. But she was not the first female to complete a successful flight into space.

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Exploring the effects of natural disasters: volcanoes, tsunamis, droughts...

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Exploring the effects of natural disasters: volcanoes, tsunamis, droughts...

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Natural disasters are extreme, sudden events caused by environmental factors that injure people and damage property. Earthquakes, windstorms, floods, and disease all strike anywhere on earth, often without warning. As examples, we've chosen disasters that have occurred around the world throughout history.

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Natural disasters are extreme, sudden events caused by environmental factors that injure people and damage property. Earthquakes, windstorms, floods, and disease all strike anywhere on earth, often without warning. As examples, we've chosen disasters that have occurred around the world throughout history.

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Quick Facts
"I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want ... I believe I can create whatever I want to create.""I want to do good. I want the world to be better because I was here.""I have a great time with my life and I want to share it. I love living. I think that's infectious. It's something that you can't fake.""Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity. Why would you be realistic?""There's no easy way round it. Your talent is going to fail if you're not skilled.""I've never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. While the other guys sleeping, I'm working. While the other guy is eating, I'm working.""The first step before anybody else in the world believes it is you have to believe it.""There's no reason to have a plan B because it distracts from plan A.""Don't chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard.""I'm a student of patterns, at heart I'm a physicist."

Name

Will Smith

Birth Date

September 25, 1968 (age 51)

Place of Birth

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Zodiac Sign

Libra

Who Is Will Smith?

After Will Smith met Jeff Townes at age 16, the duo launched a highly successful rap career as DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. Smith starred on the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air for six seasons, before establishing himself as a Hollywood A-lister with Bad Boys (1995) and Independence Day (1996). He has since headlined such popular films as Men in Black (1997) and Hitch (2005) and earned Oscar nominations for Ali (2001) and The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). Smith also earned acclaim for Concussion (2015), before returning to action fare with Suicide Squad (2016).

Early Life

Will Smith was born Willard Carroll Smith Jr. on September 25, 1968, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to mother Caroline, a school board employee, and father Willard C. Smith, a refrigeration company owner. His middle-class upbringing saw him attend the strict Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School, despite his family's observation of the Baptist faith. He went on to attend Overbrook High School.

His West Philadelphia neighborhood was a melting pot of cultures where Orthodox Jews co-existed with a large Muslim population. Smith was a good student whose charming personality and quick tongue were renowned for getting him out of trouble, a trait for which he soon gained the nickname "Prince.''

Smith began rapping at age 12, emulating heroes like Grandmaster Flash but tingeing his rhymes with a comedic element that would later become his trademark. At 16 Smith met future collaborator Jeff Townes at a party. The pair became friends, and the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince was born.

Music Career

As teens, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince began producing music but steered clear of the gangsta rap sound that was emerging from the West Coast by groups like N.W.A. The Fresh Prince rapped about teenage preoccupations in a clean, curse-free style that middle America found safe and entertaining. The pair's first single, "Girls Ain't Nothing But Trouble," was a hit in 1986. Their 1987 debut album, Rock the House, hit the Billboard Top 200, and made Smith a millionaire before the age of 18. The early success put any thoughts of attending college out of Smith's mind.

Early on, it was reported that Smith had turned down a scholarship to Boston's elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), but Smith later dispelled the rumor when he told an interviewer: "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college."

In 1988, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince continued their success with the album He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper. Featuring the radio-friendly singles "Parents Just Don't Understand," "Brand New Funk," and "Nightmare on My Street," the album won the first-ever Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. It was followed in 1989 by And In This Corner..., which continued the pair's rise to stardom.

Movies and TV Shows

'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'

Two years later, Smith began his crossover into acting. Drawing on his experiences with fledgling stardom, NBC signed Smith to headline a sitcom about a street-smart kid from Philadelphia who moves in with stuffy relatives in the posh Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel-Air. Playing on his rapper persona, and at times featuring his friend Towne, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was a huge success that ran for six seasons.

Meanwhile, Smith and Towne continued producing music, their 1991 album Homebase producing the hits "Summertime" and "Ring My Bell." Their final album together, 1993's Code Red, was notable for "Boom! Shake the Room."

'Where the Day Takes You' and 'Six Degrees of Separation'

While still making The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Smith began a second crossover into movies. Small roles in the drama Where The Day Takes You (1992) and the comedy Made In America (1993) were followed by a critically acclaimed lead in Six Degrees of Separation (1993). Holding his own alongside Donald Sutherland, Stockard Channing and Ian McKellen, Smith played a street-wise gay hustler who cons his way through elite circles.

'Bad Boys'

Smith's first steps into superstardom came with his next film, Bad Boys (1995). The high-budget cop movie saw him team up with comic Martin Lawrence, breaking away from the black-cop-white-cop formula that had been so successful for Beverly Hills Cop and the Lethal Weapon series. The two black leads proved an instant success and Smith - playing the smooth lady killer to Lawrence's clown - was established as leading man material.

'Independence Day'

Smith next took on the epic sci-fi flick Independence Day (1996), a role that confirmed him as a major player in Hollywood and the go-to guy for summer blockbusters. He played a pilot leading the counterattack against invading alien forces, and his comedic talents effortlessly transformed into the pithy one-liners all action heroes need to be able to drop while dispatching their enemies.

'Men in Black' and 'Enemy of the State'

Smith fought aliens again in his next blockbuster, the comic sci-fi action film, Men in Black (1997). Playing opposite Tommy Lee Jones, Smith chewed up the screen as the new recruit to Jones' old hand. Smith rapped the theme song, and its inclusion on his 1997 solo album, Big Willie Style, brought the multi-talented actor more success. Another blockbuster followed with the slick conspiracy thriller Enemy of the State (1998), which earned Smith an NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture.

'Wild Wild West' and 'The Legend of Bagger Vance'

The string of hits came to an end in 1999 with Wild Wild West, a sci-fi cowboy Western co-starring Kevin Kline. Despite the film's lackluster box-office performance, the track Smith cut for the film became a hit on his 1999 album, Willennium. The golf movie The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) was his next big film, with Smith playing the caddie to Matt Damon's out-of-sorts swinger.

Oscar Nomination for 'Ali'

The 2001 biopic Ali, based on boxing legend Muhammad Ali, gave Smith the opportunity to regain his big-screen swagger. His turn as the charismatic boxing great saw Smith put in the performance of his life, training and disciplining himself to extraordinary lengths to do justice to the athleticism - and ego - of the titular character. The film underwhelmed at the box office despite a record-breaking opening day, but Smith's performance was strong enough to garner him his first Academy Award nomination.

'Men in Black II,' 'Bad Boys II' and 'I, Robot'

A couple of sequels were next, with Smith reprising his roles in Men In Black II (2002) and Bad Boys II (2003). Neither was a flop, but neither matched the impressive box-office take of its predecessor. Staying with the sci-fi action theme, Smith moved on to I, Robot in 2004. The Isaac Asimov adaptation featured Smith as a futuristic cop investigating a murder by a robot and then battling a robot insurgency. The film performed well, grossing more than $144 million domestically.

'Hitch' and 'The Pursuit of Happyness'

Smith's smooth-talking charmer persona was put to use in the 2005 romantic comedy Hitch, playing a dating consultant who helps luckless guys with their romantic moves. Smith also penned the theme song and included it on his 2005 album, Lost and Found. Hitch was a massive success, and it was followed in 2006 by another critical and financial hit, The Pursuit of Happyness (2006). Starring alongside his real-life son Jaden, Smith captivated audiences with the story of a single father who has to build a life from scratch. He received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance.

'I Am Legend'

In 2007, Smith starred in I Am Legend, a remake of the Charlton Heston film Omega Man, in which he battled bloodthirsty vampires. The film became a national and international hit.

'Hancock' and 'Seven Pounds'

Smith then took on the dual role of actor and producer for Hancock (2008), in which he played an alcoholic anti-superhero, and for Seven Pounds (2008), about a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people. He also helped produce two more films released that year, Lakeview Terrace and The Secret Life of Bees.

After a hiatus, Smith returned to the big screen in 2012 with Men in Black 3, followed by a turn as a military commander in the critically panned M. Night Shyamalan sci-fi flick After Earth, which co-starred Smith's son Jaden. He then made a cameo as Lucifer in the film Winter's Tale (2014).

'Focus,' 'Concussion,' 'Suicide Squad'

Smith's next leading role came with the 2015 heist caper Focus, co-starring Margot Robbie. Later in the year, he starred as Dr. Bennet Omalu in the sports drama Concussion, earning a Golden Globe nomination for his role as a doctor fighting to raise awareness about head trauma in NFL players.

In 2016, Smith starred in the DC Comics blockbuster hit Suicide Squad, which became his most successful film since 1996's Independence Day. The same year, he also took on a more somber role as a father who loses his young daughter in the drama Collateral Beauty. Although a follow-up endeavor, Bright (2017), was thoroughly panned by critics, audiences responded more positively to the urban fantasy crime flick.

'Aladdin,' 'Gemini Man' and 'Bad Boys for Life'

In February 2019, Smith announced that he would not be returning for the Suicide Squad sequel. Around that time, a commercial during the Grammy Awards revealed him as a wisecracking Genie in Guy Ritchie's live-action adaptation of Disney's Aladdin, which went on to top $1 billion at the global box office. Next up was Ang Lee's Gemini Man, which had Smith pulling double duty - with help from digital technology - as a 50-year-old assassin assigned to kill a 23-year-old version of himself.

The A-lister closed out the year by voicing super agent Lance Sterling in the animated Spies in Disguise, alongside Tom Holland, before opening 2020 with a return to to his successful cop-buddy franchise in Bad Boys for Life.

Wife & Family

Smith has been married twice. His first marriage, to Sheree Zampino in 1992, lasted only three years but produced a son, Willard Smith III (b. 1992), also known as Trey. He has been married to actress Jada Pinkett Smith since 1997. The couple's son, Jaden, was born in 1998, and their daughter, Willow, was born in 2000.

Smith leans politically liberal and has made donations to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama. Smith is a fan of chess and video games and is known to take his mother on vacation every year, usually to the Canyon Ranch spa in Tucson, Arizona.

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"I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want ... I believe I can create whatever I want to create." "I want to do good. I want the world to be better because I was here." "I have a great time with my life and I want to share it.

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Kendrick Lamar is an award-winning rapper and songwriter best known for his innovative take on life in Southern California as well as for his affiliation with rap star and super-producer Dr. Dre.