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Second Industrial Revolution and the Bessemer Process

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Second Industrial Revolution and the Bessemer Process

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The Emancipation Proclamation (article) | Khan Academy

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What was the significance of the Emancipation Proclamation?

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The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion", Gettysburg was the Civil War's bloodiest battle and was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's immortal "Gettysburg Address".

Have you experienced Gettysburg? This video shows you what it's like to visit Gettysburg National Military Park. From the veil of early morning fog through the day's setting sun, visitors experience all the incredible history of the battlefield.

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Gettysburg National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North. Often referred to as the "High Water Mark of the Rebellion", Gettysburg was the Civil War's bloodiest battle and was also the inspiration for President Abraham Lincoln's immortal "Gettysburg Address".

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Eyewitness account of the surrender that led to the end of the Civil War.

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Concluding the Civil War

If you recall the Emancipation Proclamation, you might remember that one reason for the issuance of the proclamation was as a war strategy. The same can be said for President Abraham Lincoln's issuance of the Ten Percent Plan or, as it was officially known, the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. With the tide of the Civil War turning in favor of the Union due to the capture of several Confederate states, Lincoln pushed for the beginning of Reconstruction. His goal was to offer a merciful plan to those in rebellion in the hope of turning Confederates into Unionists, which would bring the war to an accelerated conclusion.

The Ten Percent Plan

Lincoln contended that Southern secession was technically illegal and should not be honored. He argued, instead, that rebels had seized Southern state governments and created a facade known as the Confederacy. It was his goal to reestablish control by creating pro-Union governments without dissuading white Southerners to return to the Union. It was a delicate process, and Lincoln knew he had to tread lightly.

Lincoln announced the terms of his Ten Percent Plan on December 8, 1863. The proclamation was threefold. First, Lincoln offered a presidential pardon and amnesty to any rebel who vowed loyalty to the United States and its laws involving slavery. This was not applicable to Confederate government officials or military officers. Second, when any state in rebellion had ten percent of its registered voters as of 1860 swear allegiance to the United States, a new state government could be formed and recognized by the Union. Finally, Lincoln encouraged states that returned to pro-Union rule to create policies in dealing with free blacks so long as they were not returned to bondage.

Ten Percent Plan in Action

For the time being, Lincoln's plan could only work in territories that were under Union control. Amazingly, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee quickly adopted the policies of the plan. By 1864, Arkansas and Louisiana had even abolished slavery without a Constitutional amendment! Both states also created governments that were loyal to the United States and established figureheads that supported a hasty end to the war.

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lincoln's ten percent plan: summary & history - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan: Summary & History - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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President Abraham Lincoln offered a lenient and attractive deal to rebelling Southerners in 1863. Learn how his Ten Percent Plan sought to offer...

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OurDocuments.gov. Featuring 100 milestone documents of American history from the National Archives. Includes images of original primary source documents, lesson plans, teacher and student competitions, and educational resources.

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Plessy vs Ferguson and the End of Reconstruction

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Plessy vs Ferguson and the End of Reconstruction

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- [Voiceover] So we've been talking about the system of Jim Crow segregation and in the last video we left off in 1876. And in 1876 there was a contested presidential election between a Republican candidate named Rutherford B. Hayes and a Democratic candidate named Samuel J. Tilden. And in this election there was one of the rare cases where Tilden actually won the popular vote whereas Hayes won the electoral vote. So there's a standoff in Congress for months over how this presidential election is going to end and eventually they make kind of a backroom deal known as the Compromise of 1877. And in this compromise the Democrats and the Republicans agree that Hayes, a Republican, will get to be President of the United States. In exchange the military forces that have been occupying the South, especially the last two states of Louisiana and South Carolina and have been enforcing the 14th Amendment or the equal citizenship of African Americans in the South they're going to leave, they're going to go back to their barracks and will no longer interfere in the political system of the South. So with the Compromise of 1877 the Republican Party which has been standing behind the rights of African Americans, remember the Republicans were the Party of Abraham Lincoln, pretty much gives up as a Party on trying to ensure the racial equality of African Americans. Now why did they do this? Well, I think mainly this was a question of weariness and giving up on their part. Remember that the Civil War ended in 1865, now it's 12 years later in 1877 and there are still Federal troops in the South. So imagine if you were a parent in Massachusetts and you thought that your son who was enlisted in the Union Army was going to come home in 1865 and now it's 1877 and he's still in South Carolina it seems like a long time to fight a war. So that's one part of it. The other part of it is that in 1873 there is an economic panic, this is an early Depression. You know we often think of the Great Depression as the only time the United States was stricken with an economic downturn but before the Depression there were about 20 year cycles of boom and bust. So in 1873 there was an economic bust that meant that people had less money to throw at the problem of reconstruction in the South. And I would say the last part of this is a combination of racism and the new labor movement in the North. So as whites in the North got farther and farther away from the Civil War the animating spirit of abolition started to fade among many Northerners. The late 19th century was an era of increasing racialization especially as new ethnic classes came into the United States from Southern and Eastern Europe and so there was a new interpretation of race that really came to the foreground in this time period which we call Social Darwinism and we'll talk more about that in other videos. But the interpretation of racial difference and hierarchy among the races became more broadly accepted throughout the United States not just in the South. So in 1877 the Federal troops in the South, that are remaining, pack their bags and go home meaning that African Americans in the South have no one to protect them from the Southern governments and so within months many of these governments pass the laws which we now call Jim Crow laws. And these are the laws which prevent African Americans from voting, prevent intermarriage between whites and blacks, and also enact all of these separations of public accommodations that we now associate with Jim Crow, sitting in the back of the bus, using a separate water fountain. Now if it sounds like these sorts of laws are directly in contradiction with the 14th Amendment which says that laws cannot target a specific race, that there's equal protection under the law for everyone born in the United States you're right that's exactly what these laws are. They are a contradiction of the 14th Amendment. And in 1896 a man named Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a white train compartment. You thought Rosa Parks was the first but in fact it's Homer Plessy who tries to desegregate trains. In fact he's trying to test the constitutionality of having segregated train compartments in 1896 and his case goes all the way to the Supreme Court which rules that it is fine to separate the races as long as separate accommodations are equal. So this is the place where separate but equal comes in. Now in theory, separate accommodations for whites and blacks were supposed to be equal, in reality they almost never were and in fact it was the very separation itself that implied the inequality and that is what the NAACP is going to argue in the Brown versus Board of Education case in 1954 which overturns this doctrine of separate but equal. But in-between this period of 1877 and 1954 Jim Crow laws were on the books in all of the Southern states. But I don't want you to come away thinking that things were terrible in the South and that the North was a racial utopia even though segregation laws and violence such as lynching to enforce segregation laws existed mainly in the South, de facto segregation and widespread racial prejudice also existed in the North particularly in housing and job discrimination. And of course, 1954, the Brown versus Board of Education decision didn't end segregation or end racial prejudice in the United States, it's enforcing the end of segregation and enforcing the end of some of these de facto forms of segregation and racial prejudice in the North that will be the real focus of the Civil Rights Movement. So I think the real tragedy of the Jim Crow era was that it didn't have to be this way, in fact, it was just in this presidential election of 1876 that the Federal government more or less gave up on protecting the rights of African Americans. It's interesting to imagine what life in the South might have been like had the Federal government not given up. Perhaps it would be very different, perhaps it would not but it's hard not to mourn the lost opportunity of reconstruction, this 12 year period where African Americans had voting rights and often served in public office. Instead, the United States doomed African American citizens in the South to another almost 100 years of second class status in our society.

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Origins of Jim Crow - Compromise of 1877 and Plessy v. Ferguson (video) | Khan Academy

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Voiceover] So we've been talking about the system of Jim Crow segregation and in the last video we left off in 1876. And in 1876 there was a contested presidential election between a Republican candidate named Rutherford B. Hayes and a Democratic candidate named Samuel J. Tilden.

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morrill land grant act of 1862 in homestead act

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Homestead Act: Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862

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Get in-depth analysis of Homestead Act, with this section on Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862.

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Long Walk of the Navajo: The 1864 Encounter at Hwéeldi and its Impacts on Dinétah

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Wounded Knee, located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was the site of two conflicts between Native Americans and representatives of the U.S. government, including the U.S. Army and, later, the FBI. An 1890 massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux tribe. In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest conditions on the reservation.

Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull

Throughout 1890, the U.S. government was worried about the increasing influence at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of the Ghost Dance spiritual movement, which taught that Native Americans had been defeated and confined to reservations because they had angered the gods by abandoning their traditional customs.

Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the ways of the white man, the gods would create the world anew and destroy all non-believers, including non-Indians. On December 15, 1890, reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux chief, whom they mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dancer, and killed him in the process, increasing the tensions at Pine Ridge in South Dakota.

Did you know? Nearly half of the Sioux killed at the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre were women and children.

Wounded Knee Massacre

On December 29, the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it's unclear from which side.

A brutal massacre followed, in which an estimated 150 Indians were killed. (Some historians put this number at twice as high.) Nearly half of them were women and children. The U.S. cavalry lost 25 men.

The conflict at Wounded Knee was originally referred to as a battle-the Army troops involved were later rewarded with Medals of Honor-but in reality it was a tragic and avoidable massacre. Surrounded by heavily armed troops, it's unlikely that Big Foot's band would have intentionally started a fight. Some historians speculate that the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment's defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876.

Whatever the motives, the massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was one of the last major confrontations in the Indian Wars, America's deadly series of wars against the Plains Indians and other Native Americans.

American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in 1968 in an effort to stop police harassment of Indians in the Minneapolis area. Borrowing some tactics from the Vietnam war protests of the era, AIM soon gained national notoriety for its flamboyant demonstrations. However, many mainstream Indian leaders denounced the youth-dominated group as too radical.

In 1972, a faction of AIM members led by Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier sought to close the divide by making alliances with traditional tribal elders on reservations. They had their greatest success on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, after a group of young white men murdered a Sioux man named Yellow Thunder.

Although Yellow Thunder's attackers received only six-year prison sentences, this was widely seen as a victory by the local Sioux accustomed to unfair treatment by the often racist judicial system. AIM's highly visible publicity campaign on the case was given considerable credit for the verdict, winning the organization a great deal of respect on the reservation.

Wounded Knee Siege

AIM's growing prestige and influence, however, threatened the conservative Sioux tribal chairman, Dick Wilson. When Wilson learned of a planned AIM protest against his administration at Pine Ridge, he retreated to tribal headquarters where he was under the protection of federal marshals and Bureau of Indian Affairs police.

Rather than confront the police in Pine Ridge, some 200 AIM members and their supporters decided to occupy the symbolically significant hamlet of Wounded Knee, site of the 1890 massacre. Wilson, with the backing of the federal government, responded by besieging Wounded Knee.

During the 71 days of the siege, which began on February 27, 1973, federal officers and AIM members exchanged gunfire almost nightly. Hundreds of arrests were made, and two Native Americans were killed and a federal marshal was permanently paralyzed by a bullet wound.

The leaders of AIM finally surrendered on May 8 after a negotiated settlement was reached. In a subsequent trial, the judge ordered their acquittal because of evidence that the FBI had manipulated key witnesses. AIM emerged victorious and succeeded in shining a national spotlight on the problems of modern Native Americans.

Trouble Continues at Pine Ridge

The troubles at Wounded Knee, however, were not over after the siege. A virtual civil war broke out between the opposing Indian factions on the Pine Ridge reservation, and a series of beatings, shootings and murders left more than 100 Indians dead. When two FBI agents were killed in a 1975 gunfight, the agency raided the reservation and arrested AIM leader Leonard Peltier for the crime.

The FBI crackdown coupled with AIM's own excesses ended its influence at Pine Ridge. In 1977, Peltier was convicted of killing the two FBI agents and sentenced to life in prison. To this day, Peltier's supporters continue to maintain his innocence and seek a presidential pardon for him.

And in 2021, members of the U.S. Congress petitioned President Joe Biden to revoke the Medals of Honor soldiers received for their participation in the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre.

HISTORY Vault: Native American History

Sources

Disaster at Wounded Knee. Library of Congress.
What really happened at Wounded Knee, the site of a historic massacre. National Geographic.
Warren, Merkley, Kahele Lead Bicameral Letter Urging Biden to Rescind Medals of Honor Awarded to Soldiers who Perpetrated Wounded Knee Massacre. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senate.
Wounded Knee Massacre. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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Wounded Knee: Massacre, Memorial & Battle - HISTORY

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Wounded Knee in South Dakota was the site of an 1890 Indian massacre by U.S. Army troops, and a deadly 1973 occupation by Native American activists.

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Ft Sumter
http://totallyhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Battle-of-Fort-Sumter.jpg
Emancipation Proclamation
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/civil-war-era/slavery-and-the-civil-war/a/the-emancipation-proclamation
Battle of Gettysburg
https://www.nps.gov/gett/index.htm
Appomattox Courthouse
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/appomatx.htm

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Ten percent plan
https://study.com/academy/lesson/lincolns-ten-percent-plan-summary-lesson-quiz.html
Wade-Davis Bill
https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=37
13th,14th, 15th, amendment
http://c1vilw4r.weebly.com/uploads/5/1/7/3/51731467/3702899.jpg?250
Plessy vs Ferguson and the end of reconstruction
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/south-after-civil-war/v/jim-crow-pt-4

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Gold rush
https://sfopera.com/globalassets/2603988_small.jpg
Homestead and the Morrill act
https://www.shmoop.com/historical-texts/homestead-act/morrill-land-grant-act.html
The Long Walk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f373Yqw2r9c
the massacre at wounded knee
https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee

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Inventions: Light bulb, Telephone, Automobile, Airplane

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Inventions: Light bulb, Telephone, Automobile, Airplane

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Science Lesson: Learn About Inventions

The Telephone & Alexander Graham Bell

What if the only way you could communicate with someone living in another city was by mailing them a letter, one that might take weeks to get delivered? (Even with our modern technology, it still takes at least two weeks for mail to get to some countries.) The telephone is certainly one of the greatest inventions in the history of communication!

The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, was born in Scotland in 1847, the same year as Thomas Edison. He went to university in Edinburgh and London, then immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the U.S. a year later. There he used visible speech (a type of phonetic notation that shows the position of the throat, mouth, and tongue to make different sounds) to teach deaf-mute people how speak.

When he was a young man, Bell became interested in transmitting speech, the way a telegraph transmitted messages. In 1874 he developed the idea for the telephone and successfully created and patented one two years later. (Just two hours after he applied for his patent, Elisha Gray filed his intention to apply for a patent for a very similar device.) His first transmitted sentence was to his assistant: 'Watson, come here; I want to see you.' Bell demonstrated his telephone at the Philadelphia Centennial Expo and in 1877 organized the Bell Telephone Company.

So how does this amazing invention work? How can you talk to someone miles away and hear them as though they were in the same room with you? It's actually a fairly simple process. At its most basic, a telephone consists of a switch, a receiver, and a microphone. The switch connects your phone to the telephone network; the receiver changes electrical signals into sound waves so you can hear the other person, and the microphone changes the sound waves you make into electrical impulses to send to the other end of the line.

The microphone contains carbon granules and a thin metal diaphragm. When you speak, the sound waves (vibrations in the air) hit the diaphragm and cause it to move, compressing the carbon granules behind it. A louder sound will compress the granules more than a soft sound. When the carbon is compressed, an electrical current can flow through it more easily. A battery (either in your handset or at the telephone company) sends an electric current through your phone; when you speak, the compression of the carbon varies the intensity of the current.
Experiment with electricity and sound transmission with this kit for kids!
This process is reversed at the other end of the line by the receiver. The electrical current flows through an electromagnet in the receiver, producing a magnetic field. This magnetic field attracts the thin metal diaphragm in the receiver, causing it to move in and out. As it does so, it pushes and pulls the air, creating sound waves. These waves reach your ear with the same intensity as they were spoken, allowing you to hear what the other person said.

The process hinges on the ability to have a variable electrical current. Unlike the telephone, a telegraph operates on a constant electric current - the messages are transmitted not by changing the current, but by repeatedly turning it on and off in a distinct pattern. Because the human voice doesn't start and stop sound waves in the same way as tapping Morse code does, the current must be able to adjust for variation in volume and frequency. The carbon microphone allows for this variation, giving us the ability to transmit speech electrically.

Bell probably couldn't have imagined the kind of communication we have today. Not only do we have long-distance telephone networks all over the world, we also have cellular phones that use radio frequencies to allow us to talk wirelessly wherever we are. Communication was changed forever by the telephone and continues to develop rapidly today.
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The Light Bulb & Thomas Edison

Perhaps one of the most important inventions of all time is the electric light bulb. We could get by with candles or lanterns in our homes, but imagine trying to shop at the mall, work in a large office complex, or travel at night by car or plane without electric lighting!

Thomas Alva Edison, one of the developers of the modern light bulb, is also one of the most famous as well as prolific inventors in history. He patented over 1000 inventions in his lifetime. Edison was born in Ohio in 1847. As a child, he received less than a year of formal schooling, but was educated at home. His parents allowed him to set up a laboratory in their basement and his mother gave him books about chemistry and electronics. Edison credits his mother as being 'the making' of him.

When he was 12, Edison got a job selling newspapers on a train that made day trips between his hometown of Port Huron, Michigan and Detroit. He took his laboratory along in the baggage car so that he would be able to experiment during layovers. This worked until one day some of his chemicals spilled and started a fire! Also while working on the train, Edison saved the child of one of the station masters, and as a reward was taught how to use a telegraph machine. He became a telegraph operator and began making improvements to the telegraph's functionality. He later invented a way for multiple telegraph messages to be transmitted simultaneously (rather than one at a time).

As a young man, Edison moved to New York City and eventually established a laboratory. In 1877 he invented the phonograph, which used a record made of tinfoil to play back sound. In 1879 he created a successful incandescent light bulb. This was his hardest project - from 1877 to 1880, Edison and his assistants tried around 3000 experiments to perfect their light bulb design. By the end of 1880, Edison had produced a bulb that lasted 1500 hours. (This has a moral: don't worry if some of your own science experiments aren't a success the first time you try them!)
Experiment with electricity with our student-friendly kit!
Edison was not the first person to make a working light bulb: In the 1860s another English scientist, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan, began experimenting. He made a light bulb that used carbonized paper for a filament. But Swan lacked a strong enough vacuum inside the bulb; a design problem that he corrected at almost the same time Edison did. After a legal battle between the two inventors, Edison and Swan teamed up and created the company Ediswan to market their invention.

How exactly do light bulbs work? For being such an important part of our lives, they have a fairly simple design. The base contains two metal contacts, which connect to an electrical circuit. These contacts are attached to two wires, which are in turn attached to the filament in the middle of the bulb (the filament is usually supported by a glass mount). A power supply sends an electric current from one contact to the other, traveling up through the wires and the filament. As the current passes through the filament, it "excites" the atoms that make up the filament material, causing them to give off energy in the form of heat and light. Edison tried thousands of different materials for his filaments, but most of them produced light for only a short time. He finally tried a carbonized cotton thread, which burned for many hours. Eventually, light bulbs were made using the metal tungsten for the filament. Tungsten works well because it has an unusually high melting point. This is important because metal must be heated to extreme temperatures to give off enough light.

The danger of running electrical current through the filament is that the resulting high temperatures may cause the filament to combust, or catch on fire. This will only happen if oxygen is present, so Edison sucked all the air out of his glass bulbs to create a vacuum. This method worked fine to prevent combustion, but it allowed filament atoms to evaporate, shortening the life of the bulb. In modern bulbs, the glass is filled with an inert gas, such as argon. This prevents combustion, and also helps prevent tungsten atoms from evaporating.

For over a century we have read and worked by the light of Edison's incandescent bulb. Other light sources, such as fluorescent bulbs and LED, have gained popularity in recent years because of their efficiency. The incandescent bulb releases most of its energy in the form of heat, not light, thus wasting electricity. Fluorescent and LED, however, are much cooler, and release most of their energy as visible light. These light sources have replaced the incandescent bulb for many functions.

Although almost all of Edison's discoveries were technological rather than strictly scientific, his invention credits include an alkaline storage battery, microphone, mimeograph (a copy machine), and a kinetoscope for viewing moving pictures. He also created the first 'talkie,' a movie that had sound, using his kinetoscope and phonograph. He continued to improve not only the incandescent light bulb, but some of his other inventions like the phonograph as well.
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The Airplane and the Wright Brothers

On December 17, 1903, Orville Wright flew the first powered, heavier-than-air airplane, propelling himself and his older brother Wilbur into world history. It took the brothers years of preparation to get to that cold and windy day in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Wilbur (born in 1867) and Orville (born in 1871) grew up in Dayton, Ohio, the son of a United Brethren minister. Both of their parents had college educations, and they fostered intellectual curiosity and experimentation in their children. Bishop Wright sparked his young sons' interest in flight early on by bringing them a special toy - a flying top. This toy was essentially a rubber-band powered helicopter. The boys flew it until it fell apart, and then Wilbur built his own. As they grew older, the boys spent much of their time designing, building, and selling kites.

As young adults, Wilbur and Orville capitalized on the booming popularity of bicycles by starting their own bicycle sale and repair shop. Eventually they started building their own bicycles, which was excellent training for their next enterprise: building a flying machine.

Wilbur and Orville read everything about flight that they could get their hands on in Dayton. To get more information, Wilbur wrote the Smithsonian asking for up-to-date materials on the study of flight. With the Smithsonian's help they studied Sir George Cayley's work with the four forces of flight (lift, gravity, thrust, and drag), others' experiments with gliders, and the attempts at flight made by the Smithsonian's secretary, Samuel Langley. All the work these men had done, even when they failed, proved indispensable to the Wrights' efforts. After carefully studying, Wilbur and Orville began their own scientific analysis of what was needed for flight, and began designing their own gliders. They didn't just want to put an airplane in the sky; they wanted controlled flight, and for this they needed to master the three axes of motion: pitch, roll, and yaw.

Pitch is the up and down motion of the airplane's nose (climbing or diving). Roll is the airplane rolling from side to side, causing its wings to tilt up or down. This is especially necessary for turns. When an airplane turns left, it doesn't just remain level; the left wing will dip down and the right wing will be raised up. The last of the three axes is yaw, which is the airplane's right and left movement.

Orville and Wilbur realized that birds control pitch, roll, and yaw by adjusting the shape of their wings. The brothers tried to mimic this by developing what they called 'wing warping,' a system of wires and pulleys that manipulated the glider wings to allow banking turns to the left and right. At first the wing warping was controlled with the pilot's feet, but eventually they designed a hip cradle, which was easier to use. The pilot shifted his hips right, the wires pulled the left wingtips up, and the glider banked to the right. Wing warping took care of roll; their front elevator controlled pitch, and eventually the brothers controlled yaw by connecting wires from a rudder to the hip cradle.

In the autumn of 1900, the Wrights packed up a glider and set up camp at a deserted and windy beach outside of Kitty Hawk, NC. For three weeks they flew their glider as a kite, before trying to pilot it. Though they didn't achieve as much lift as they expected based on the lift tables established by aviation researchers, they were very happy with the results of their first Kitty Hawk visit. Their best flight lasted 15 seconds and covered 300 feet.

1901 saw the brothers back at Kitty Hawk, this time with an upgraded glider. The flight tests did not go as they had hoped. The new glider proved much more difficult to control, and they simply could not get the amount of lift they were trying for. They went home to Dayton discouraged and ready to give up. Men will certainly fly, they thought, but not in our lifetime. In the end, they decided to persevere. The lift tables widely accepted by the other pioneers in flight must be wrong. The Wrights decided to test the tables; they built their own wind tunnel in the back of their bicycle shop, and observed its effects on 200 different types of miniature wings.

With the information they gathered from their wind tunnel experiments, the brothers built yet another glider for testing in 1902. This was the first flying machine that had controls for all three axes of motion. It flew smoothly, was controlled easily, and glided more than 600 feet several times. They had a maneuverable aircraft; now they needed power.

True to form, the Wrights decided to build their own engine for their plane (named 'The Flyer'). The finished product put out 12 horsepower and weighed 180 lb (the entire plane weighed 605 lbs). Then came the real challenge: designing propellers. One of their greatest contributions to aviation turned out to be their pioneer research on propellers. Their final product had 70% efficiency, which is nearly as good as modern propel ers! Back at Kitty Hawk in the fall of 1903, they began assembling The Flyer. Bad weather and damage to the plane delayed flying for several months, but finally in mid-December they were ready. Because wheels would make the plane too heavy, the Wrights constructed a wooden track for the plane to move on when taking off. On December 17th, Orville climbed onto The Flyer and started the engine. It moved down the track and lifted into the air. That first flight last only 12 seconds and covered 120 feet, but it was still the first-ever controlled, heavier-than-air flight. The brothers flew the plane four times that day, and the fourth time Wilbur flew for 59 seconds, covering 852 feet.

After this breakthrough the Wrights continued to improve their plane. Now that they weren't dependent on the winds for power, they left the beaches of Kitty Hawk and moved their work to an Ohio field. By 1905, Wilbur was flying laps around the field: 24.5 miles in 39 minutes. In spite of this success, the brothers couldn't find a buyer for their invention. They decided to stop flying until they could get a sales contract. Three years later, in 1908, they received offers from the French and from the U.S. Army. Wilbur packed up a plane and went to France, where he became something of a celebrity by flying figure eights and taking up passengers (this later model had two seats). Orville demonstrated his plane for the U.S. Government and impressed them with his altitude of 300 feet, hour-long flights and average speed of 42.58 miles. They paid him $30,000 for the plane.

The age of aviation had 'taken off,' so to speak. Just 44 years after that first powered flight, airplanes began flying faster than the speed of sound; in another 14 years men were flying in space; another eight years after that they were walking on the moon. The Wright brothers' passion and perseverance laid the foundation for this astonishing and speedy technological advance.
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Science Projects: Technology Experiments

Make a Light Bulb

Thomas Edison tried thousands of experiments when he was inventing the incandescent light bulb. You can experiment too, and find out how a light bulb really works, by making your own! You will need a glass canning jar with a lid, three feet of insulated copper wire, a 6-volt battery, and thin iron wire (unraveled picture hanging wire works great).

Cut the copper wire into two equal sections. Strip at least one inch of insulation off the ends of each length of wire. Next, punch two holes in the jar lid (you can use a nail for this). Thread a wire through each hole in the lid. Make a hook at the end of each wire (the end that will be inside the jar when you put the lid on). Twist two or three strands of iron wire together, then twist the ends around the hooks in the copper wire. The iron wire will act as your filament.

Place the lid (with the filament) in the jar and carefully connect the free ends of the copper wire to the 6-volt battery. Once both ends are connected, the current should start flowing, causing the filament to heat up and give off a bright orange glow. Your homemade light bulb is working! (Note: once your filament is burned out, don't touch it right away - it will be very hot.)

For full instructions on making and experimenting with propellers, read the rest of this science project!
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Learn about Inventions: Airplane, Light Bulb, Telephone

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What if the only way you could communicate with someone living in another city was by mailing them a letter, one that might take weeks to get delivered? (Even with our modern technology, it still takes at least two weeks for mail to get to some countries.)

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Whatever its origins, American imperialism experienced its pinnacle from the late 1800s through the years following World War II. During this "Age of Imperialism," the United States exerted political, social, and economic control over countries such as the Philippines, Cuba, Germany, Austria, Korea, and Japan.

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Political Corruption and Progressive Government Reforms

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Political Corruption and Progressive Government Reforms

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Abolition, Women's Rights, and Temperance Movements - Women's Rights National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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The early women's rights movement built upon the principles and experiences of other efforts to promote social justice and to improve the human condition. Collectively these efforts are known as reform. Among these were the Abolition and Temperance movements.The personal and historical relationships that came together, and at times split apart the movement for women's rights existed before 1848, have progressed over the subsequent century and a half.

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Second Industrial Revolution
https://richmondvale.org/en/blog/second-industrial-revolution-the-technological-revolution
Inventions
https://learning-center.homesciencetools.com/article/modern-inventions-airplane-light-bulb-telephone/
The Rise of Big Business
http://userscontent2.emaze.com/images/572b11c6-c5e1-47bb-8fe1-2b7c59e4ee3f/9bea53d7-f28c-4eec-8673-12d60b8bd4ddimage2.png
The Rise of the Labor Movement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUe0TEdEVcU

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American Imperialism
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/american-imperialism/
Immigration and the Growth of Cities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=titegSf7jgY
Political Corruption And Progressive Government Reforms
http://www.american-historama.org/images/progressivism-cartooc.jpg
Women's Rights
https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/abolition-womens-rights-and-temperance-movements.htm

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Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/duke.htm
Technology of WW1
https://www.infoplease.com/us/military-affairs/world-war-i-weapons-and-technology
Americas role in ww1
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/rise-to-world-power/us-in-wwi/v/united-states-enters-world-war-i
Rise of the automobile
https://www.christenseninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/nonconsumption-ford-model-t-1.jpg
Peace Established after ww1
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-peace-treaties-that-ended-the-first-world-war
18th Amendment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNQ_2_J7G2w

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Black Tuesday/Stock Market Crash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpLMvgUXe8
Business Cycle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5YPWRjSVJE
New Deal
https://www.history.com/news/new-deal-effects-great-depression
Dust Bowl
https://cdn.historycollection.co/wpcontent/uploads/2017/06/Untitled-2-46.jpg
Rise of Totalitarianism
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-rise-totalitarianism-lead-wwii-315984
American involvement in WW2
https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/world-war-2.cfm

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The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

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The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

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The victims, Archduke Franz Ferdinand - heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, were in the Bosnian city in conjunction with Austrian troop exercises nearby. The couple was returning from an official visit to City Hall. The assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip burned with the fire of Slavic nationalism. He envisioned the death of the Archduke as the key that would unlock the shackles binding his people to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
"When Francis Ferdinand and his retinue drove from the station they were allowed to pass the first two conspirators. The motor cars were driving too fast to make an attempt feasible and in the crowd were many Serbians; throwing a grenade would have killed many innocent people.

When the car passed Gabrinovic, the compositor, he threw his grenade. It hit the side of the car, but Francis Ferdinand with presence of mind threw himself back and was uninjured. Several officers riding in his attendance were injured.

The cars sped to the Town Hall and the rest of the conspirators did not interfere with them. After the reception in the Town Hall General Potiorek, the Austrian Commander, pleaded with Francis Ferdinand to leave the city, as it was seething with rebellion. The Archduke was persuaded to drive the shortest way out of the city and to go quickly.

The road to the maneuvers was shaped like the letter V, making a sharp turn at the bridge over the River Nilgacka [Miljacka]. Francis Ferdinand's car could go fast enough until it reached this spot but here it was forced to slow down for the turn. Here Princip had taken his stand.
As the car came abreast he stepped forward from the curb, drew his automatic pistol from his coat and fired two shots. The first struck the wife of the Archduke, the Archduchess Sofia, in the abdomen. She was an expectant mother. She died instantly.

The second bullet struck the Archduke close to the heart.

He uttered only one word, 'Sofia' -- a call to his stricken wife. Then his head fell back and he collapsed. He died almost instantly.

The officers seized Princip. They beat him over the head with the flat of their swords. They knocked him down, they kicked him, scraped the skin from his neck with the edges of their swords, tortured him, all but killed him."

Count Franz von Harrach rode on the running board of the royal car serving as a bodyguard for the Archduke. His account begins immediately after Princip fires his two shots:

"As the car quickly reversed, a thin stream of blood spurted from His Highness's mouth onto my right check. As I was pulling out my handkerchief to wipe the blood away from his mouth, the Duchess cried out to him, 'In Heaven's name, what has happened to you?' At that she slid off the seat and lay on the floor of the car, with her face between his knees.
I had no idea that she too was hit and thought she had simply fainted with fright. Then I heard His Imperial Highness say, 'Sopherl, Sopherl, don't die. Stay alive for the children!'

At that, I seized the Archduke by the collar of his uniform, to stop his head dropping forward and asked him if he was in great pain. He answered me quite distinctly, 'It's nothing!' His face began to twist somewhat but he went on repeating, six or seven times, ever more faintly as he gradually lost consciousness, 'It's nothing!' Then, after a short pause, there was a violent choking sound caused by the bleeding. It was stopped as we reached the Konak."

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Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, 1914

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The victims, Archduke Franz Ferdinand - heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, were in the Bosnian city in conjunction with Austrian troop exercises nearby. The couple was returning from an official visit to City Hall. The assassin, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip burned with the fire of Slavic nationalism.

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Here's a look at the weapons and technology used during the First World War.

The combination of 19th-century war tactics, such as an adherence to the Napoleonic principles, which focused on destroying the enemy despite huge losses, and new 20th-century technology, was a major reason for so many casualties in the First World War. However, by the end of the war, both sides were using weapons, technology, and tactics in an attempt that could be used to decrease the number of lives at risk.

Cannons were replaced by machine guns, which were sometimes used as indirect gunfire, a tactic used to draw out an enemy's location. Men carried them on counter-battery missions to spot the enemy. Tanks and armored cars were used to protect soldiers as they travelled across rough, dangerous terrain. Airplanes and submarines were used for the first time, initially to locate the enemy. Field telephones and sound equipment was also used to find the enemy's location. Still, some new weapons and technology used such as chemical warfare, flamethrowers and submarines caused great fear and chaos during World War I.

Trench Warfare

Even with all the new technology being introduced, much of World War I was fought in trenches, especially the Western Front. This meant huge casualties and some of the deadliest battles in history, including Gallipoli, the Marne, Verdun and the Somme. In fact, the situation on the Western Front during the First World War was why the term trench warfare became synonymous with attrition, futile conflict, and stalemate.

Because so much of the war was fought in trenches, trench railways emerged as a way to get food, water, and ammunition to all the soldiers. This proved necessary because the main railways were too slow and the roads were either destroyed or in rough condition. Moreover, any type of fixed location for supplies was a target for the enemy.

Trench Warfare: A Video

Planes and Tanks Make Their Debut

Tanks made their first appearance at the Battle of the Somme. The first tank used was nicknamed 'Little Willie' and carried up to three crew members. Little Willie only drove three mph and could not move across the trenches. These tanks were made for use on the Western Front because of the terrain's rough conditions. A more modern tank was developed by the end of the war that could seat up to ten men and reach four mph. Still, most men could run, even walk faster and found the tanks unreliable due to engine failures and frequently missed targets. Tanks were also uncomfortable due to engine fumes as well as extreme heat and noise.

Planes also made their debut in the First World War. In fact, during World War I the word dogfight was first used to describe a battle between two opposing planes. However, planes were first used to spy and deliver bombs. Later in the war, fighter aircraft were introduced. They were armed with machine guns, bombs, even cannons.

Guns

Machine guns had been used successfully in wars leading up to the First World War such as the Second Boer War and the Russo-Japanese War. The machine guns available at the start of World War I needed four to six men to operate them. The guns also had to be positioned on a flat service. This type of machine gun had the firepower of a hundred other guns. Large field guns were also used. They had a longer range, but needed a dozen men to operate them.

Even though the U.S. was the first to use railway guns during the American Civil War, Germany was the first to use them in World War I. These guns were mounted to and used from a railway wagon that had been custom designed for the gun.

Introducing Flamethrowers and Submarines

The flamethrower was another weapon used for the first time during the First World War. The Germans introduced it, but it was later used by other forces. The heavy weight of the flamethrower made the weapon's operators easy targets. However, flamethrowers were effective, causing lots of havoc on the battlefield.

Although they had been experimented with before, submarines were widely used for the first time during World War I. Germany began using them after the war began, first to intercept supplies on their way to the British Isles. The Germans were so successful with submarines that the other sides developed and used several weapons in response to them, including blimps, attack submarines, anti-submarine weapons such as missiles or bombs, and hydrophones, a microphone used to record and listen for underwater sounds.

Chemical Warfare

Germany first used poison gas as a weapon during the Battle of Bolimov in January 1915. By the end of the war, both sides had used it. In fact, during World War I, an estimated 1.3 million had died from the use of chemical weapons. During the Battle of Ypres, also in 1915, the Germans used chlorine gas for the first time. Chlorine gas caused suffocation after the victim experiences chest pains and burning in the throat. However, chlorine gas proved tricky to use. The wind had to be moving in the direction of the enemy.

Mustard gas proved more effective. It could be fired into the trenches via shells. It was harder to trace because it was colorless and took hours before the victim could feel the effects, which included internal bleeding, vomiting, and skin blisters. Mustard gas was fatal, but death could take up to five weeks. The use of these chemical weapons violated the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, both strictly prohibiting the use of chemical warfare.

Even though new weapons and technology were available for the First World War, a learning curve was needed to develop and use them properly and effectively. That learning curve along with the strategic use of Napoleonic principles caused many of the deadliest battles in history.

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The combination of 19th-century war tactics, such as an adherence to the Napoleonic principles, which focused on destroying the enemy despite huge losses, and new 20th-century technology, was a major reason for so many casualties in the First World War.

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United States enters World War I (video) | Khan Academy

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Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

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How Was Peace Established at the end of WW1?

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How Was Peace Established at the end of WW1?

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The Peace Treaties That Ended The First World War

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On 11 November 1918, an armistice came into effect ending the war in Western Europe - but this did not mean the return of peace. The armistice was effectively a German surrender, as its conditions ended any possibility of Germany continuing the war.

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Alcohol Prohibition, 18th Amendment 1920-1933

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Black Tuesday/ Stock Market Crash of 1929

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Black Tuesday/ Stock Market Crash of 1929

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Business Cycle/ Causes of the Great Depression

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Business Cycle/ Causes of the Great Depression

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History Brief: The Causes of the Great Depression

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President Roosevelt's New Deal/Plan For ending the Great Depression

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President Roosevelt's New Deal/Plan For ending the Great Depression

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Did New Deal Programs Help End the Great Depression?

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While the New Deal did have a lasting impact on the U.S. economy, other significant factors contributed toward ending the Great Depression by June 1938.

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Rise of Totalitarianism in Europe in the 1930s

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Rise of Totalitarianism in Europe in the 1930s

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The roots of World War II, which eventually pitted Germany, Japan, and Italy (the Axis) against the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union (the Allies), lay in the militaristic ideologies and expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, Italy, and Japan.