Mrs. P's Index of History Links

Studying History

This Day in History Link to History Matters
History Matters:
George Mason University.
Link to History is Elementary
History is Elementary

Blogspot
HistoGrafica
Historical Pictures of your Town
Look How Far We've Come Let's See How Far We've Come
anime version
Human Achievement NTI
History of Human Achievements in 3 Minutes
America's History: Historical Thinking Skills Interactives
Project ideas
Newspapers and Periodicals
Library of Congress
Primary Sources
Link to Primary Access
Primary Access

Prepare Multimedia Reports

Fun with Time

Where in Time in Carmon Sandiego? Make A Clock World Clock
Live Statistics
Seasons at the Farmer's Market TIME-LESSON-DateTime TIME-LESSON-ClockRead TIME
by Pink Floyd
Can you improve on this video?

Games

iCivics Game

Win The White House


Three Levels
Campaign! Debates! Speechs! Polls!

World History Maps
Time Maps of the World History of Conflicts
Interactive World Map
History of Religion
World Map
World Map
Time Zones
World Atlas
Explore your world
Timemaps Vimeo Time Maps
National Geographic
Dynamic Maps
This Dynamic Planet
World Map of Volcanos
UC World Map
Global Inequalities
Interactive World
K Bears
1000 Years of War
1000-2000
Time Lapse World Map
European Borders
1500-2000
Time Lapse World Map
Nuclear Blasts 1948-1998
Time Lapse World Map
University of Texas: Maps CIA Factbook Maps: Maps Enchanted Learning: Maps National Geographis: Xpeditions: Atlas About Geography: World Map (Mining Co Com) Maps

Mapping History

or click on: TimeMaps Video Tour

Palio-History

History of Hominids and Early Man

Until we can go back in history and learn about the beginnings of mankind, we will have to make do with scientific assumptions based on the study of fossils of the pre-humans (Hominids), and Early Man. Science dates the beginnings of man with discovery of fossils that can be carbon-dated, and measured to determine the characteristics and life-style of early humans.
Early Man was different from other primates. Man walked on two legs. He carried tools in his arms. Man developed smaller teeth and a larger brain. His head was attched to his backbone in an efficient way for walking on two feet.
The earliest human beings were omnivores. Man's diet consisted of both plants and animals. Man used fire for cooking and warmth. Man used tools to kill and butcher meat.
Mankind had learned how to form a working group for hunting and gathering food. The earliest humans built simple shelters from the elements. As Mankind migrated, he developed skills and characteristics for survival in his environment.
Human Fossil Timeline For Human Innovations Lucy Wasn't Alone!

Early Human Innovations

Ancient BCE Innovation Timeline
YEAR BCEMilestone
500,000 BCEFire tamed by Homo erectus.
50,000 BCEHomo sapiens (modern man) appears.
20,000 BCEInvention of the bow and arrow.
12,000 BCE Domestication of animals begins.
8000 BCEAgriculture invented.
7000 BCEPottery.
6000 BCEWeaving.
5000 BCEIrrigation systems developed in the Middle East.
4000 BCEFirst use of metals - copper smelted for making tools.
3500 BCEBronze, a copper-tin alloy, hardened copper, discovered and used for weapons, tools, armor and art.
Wheel appears in Mesopotamia
Writing appears in Sumeria.
3000 BCEAbacus is invented by the Chinese.
2800 BCEEgyptians devise the 12-month, 365-day calendar.
2737 BCETea is used in China by Emperor Shen Nung
1550 BCEEarliest surviving medical textbook written in Egypt.
1100 BCEIron is discovered.
700 BCEFirst man-made sundials appear.
650 BCEStandardized coins used by Greeks.
512 BCEChinese produce cast iron from blast furnaces.
510 BCEGreeks produce the earliest surviving world map.
400 BCETwo Greeks invent the catapult, the first artillery weapon.
312 BCEWork begins on the Appian Way, the first great Roman road.
210 BCEArchimedes, the Greek scientist, invents the Archimedean screw, for raising water, and works out the theory of levers.
100 BCEGlassblowing invented in Syria.

Inventions

Since the first early hominid picked up a stone or a stick to use as a tool to accomplish some need, humans have been interested in developing new and better inventions to make their lives easier and more successful. The use of tools, or inventions, is one of the diferences between animals and man. The inventions of man are not limited to the things he held in his hands or maneuvered with his body, but include the ability to speak and communicate with other members of his family and tribe to coordinate group actions in the seeking and consumption of food and protection from enemies.

As mankind spread out from its original place in Africa, many cultures developed, and within each culture there were inventions that addressed the need of that culture to deal with the environment they chose to live in. For some cultures, the invention of fire was paramount as a means to soften raw meat to digest it more easily. Other cultures had need of the wheel, and others found that raising their own food which led to the invention of agriculture, were a distinct feature.

While we do not know the names of those who invented the most basic tools that separated mankind from the animals, we do know that creativity and intelligence were essential to the inventive mind. With that in mind, we can explore some of the more recent inventions recorded in our history. Click on thes links to learn more.

Link to History of Inventions
History of Inventions
Link to Inventors Famous American Inventors

History of the Internet

What is now the internet began a few decades ago. Computers used by military began to communicate with one another, and their techie masters sent electronic mail along with the communication packets that could travel over telephone lines. Educational institutions developed their own computer centers, and communicated with the military, and other educational institutions. Again, humans were hanging their own mail onto the machine data being transferred. There are limits to how much machines can say to other machines, but humans can out communicate machines any day... and those little packets of email transfered with data became big packets, then bigger packets, and still bigger packets of electronic mail.
Electronic Mail grew from those early packets. The military built Arpanet and made the connections deliberately complicated to provide security for national communications case of nuclear attack. Bitnet was the educational network that began linking up universities. FredMail linked up computers in K-12 schools in California with software that transferred the precious packets by night. Bulletin boards began to flourish in urban centers and with hobbyists. The Cold War kept the routing complex, even as the number of users and what they used it for mushroomed. As education and commercial networks developed, they pulled in disabled community giving new life and hope to homebound and bed-ridden folks.
Originally, electronic mail was sent from one individual to another. Collaborations emerged, and the technology to group folks with common interests were begun. The UUnet Usenet Newsgroups were some of the earliest Electronic Discussions. Newsgroups still exist, and in fact encompass many more subject areas than before. You can find a Usenet Newsgroup to discuss almost anything.
As the Bitnet software developed, Mailing List Discussion Groups were formed usually on university networks that could subscribed to by anyone with an electronic mail account. Although the topics tend to have more decorum than topics inthe newsgroups, there are many parallel topics, and many Mailing Lists are also piped out to the Newsgroups.
As fast as communications among users of the Newsgroups and Mailing list became, and as stable and predictible as the networks became, the users wants more. They wanted graphics. They wanted point and click. They wanted music and video. They wanted live chats. Today, all this and more make up the World Wide Web also known as the Internet.
Growth of the Internet 1998-2008

Inventions

While we do not know the names of those who invented the most basic tools that separated mankind from the animals, we do know that creativity and intelligence were essential to the inventive mind. With that in mind, we can explore some of the more recent inventions recorded in our history. Click on thes links to learn more.

Link to History of Inventions
History of Inventions
Link to Inventors Famous American Inventors

History of the Internet

Growth of the Internet 1998-2008

History of the Internet

Growth of the Internet 1998-2008

World History

Divorced, Beheaded and Died
Horrible Histories: King Henry VIII Of England
The Archimedes Screw
Lifted Water for Irrigation
The War Begins
Bryan Tyler music
Nuclear Blasts 1948-1998
Time Lapse World Map
When the Moors ruled Europe
12 video episodes

The True Glory


D-Day to Berlin
WWII documentary

Uncovering Ancient Art

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500 AD Coptic Church

American and US History

Famous Americans

Link to History Hat stories History Hat Stories Mrs. Eberle's Famous Americans Link to Famous Americans link Famous Americans Famous Leaders

American and US History

Bill of Rights Institute Bill of Rights
Link to National Museum of the American Indian National Museum of the American Indian Treaties between the Natives and the Colonies Pocahontas
flash movie
Cornel Library Making of America
Journal
American Journeys
Documents in American History
Chronicling America Newspapers
1690 to present
Back Story in American History: Radio discussions Find your Ancestors
Government sources for basic records.
The Preamble
The US Constitution
Schoolhouse Rock
Three Ring Government
The Three Branches of US Government
Documents of the 19th Century Archive for Students
In Good Spirits
Celebrating the Whiskey Rebellion
Pittsburg Magazine Dec 2011
Comparing the Tea Bag Party of 2010 to the Know Knowthing Party of 1856. First Nations Film DVDs
Catalog

Ghost Towns
Liberty's Kids Link to No More Kings video No More Kings!
Schoolhouse Rock Video
The Shot Heard Round the WorldSchool Rock

Colonial History

The colonial period in American History spans from the first landing in Jamestown in 1607 until the Declaration of Independence at the start of the Revolutionary War in 1776. The Colonial Period may be extended from 17766-1783, when the colonies were fighting the Revolutionary War as colonies, that became a separate nation after the Victory at Yorktown in 1783.
Voyage on the Mayflower Colonial Records in England
Research
Chronicaling America
Newspapers 1690 to present

American Slavery 1621-1964?

The Slavery Era in America

Slavery was one of the earliest institutions in the British colonies. In the colonies settled by Spain (in Florida and California), enslavement of Native Americans was tried, but eventually found to be unsustainable. Jamestown was founded in 1607. In 1619, the first ship arrived at Jamestown with Africans for sale.
For the first twenty years, there was little difference between African and white servants who were too poor to pay their own passage to America. Both African and white servants were purchased and were required to serve their masters for a term of four to seven years. After they served their indenture, both Africans and white were free to marry, to work for wages, and to buy land.
By 1640, the number of poor whites arriving in the colonies declined, and the number of Africans began to increase. The large planters, who bought many servants each year, noticed that African and white servants got along well - too well - sometimes they escaped to freedom together. So, the colonists began to make court decision and later, legislation that required Africans to serve as slaves for the rest of their life. White servants were still given their freedom at the end of their indenture.
As the colonies grew, so did the importation of Africans to be used as slaves. In the northern colonies, the imported slaves were typically used as domestic workers and later, as manufacturing developed, some slaves were used for the hard labor. But in the southern colonies, the imported slaves were used primarily as farm labor on the plantations.
Distinctions arose between the slavery practiced in the Chesapeake area which included Virginia and Maryland. Fewer slaves were used on the Chesapeake plantations where the main crop was tobacco. As these plantations changed from tobacco to wheat, corn and other commodities, even fewer slaves were needed. Also, the work was less hard, and the slaves began to have children. Owners whose slaves produced children who were slaves from birth, did not have to buy as many new slaves from Africa.
In the Lowcountry area which included North and South Carolina, the earliest main crop was rice. Rice is a labor intensive crop that required larger numbers of slaves. The climate in the Lowcountry was unhealthy, so many white owners rarely spent time on their plantations, leaving the work to be regulated by more and more African rather than European overseers. African slaves were used not only to grow rice, but also as labor on the rivers and water ways to transport the rice to the seaports and transport the necessities to the plantations. Because of the climate and the hard work involved with growing rice, more slaves escaped from the lowcountry plantations than from the Chesapeake plantations.
At the time of the Declaration of Independence, Africans presumed that the freedoms said to be God-given and the rights of all men, would be extended to those who were enslaved. Many free black men and some slaves fought on the side of the Americans in the American Revolution. Other slaves were promised their freedom if they joined the British Army, but when Britain lost, these slaves were returned to slavery. By the time the constitution was written ten years later, slavery was accepted in the nation and was secured by the 3/5 Compromise which gave a distinct advantage to southern states in the US Congress.
During the early years of the Republic, slavery began to lose favor in the northern states, and was eliminated in some. Abolitionists arose who spoke out against the inhumanity of Slavery. The Underground Railroad was developed to enable slaves to reach freedom in Northern states that refused to recognize slavery, and in Canada where slavery was forbidden. Even some southerners began to rethink the logic of owning human beings. But as the years wore on, the stronger power in the government held by the slave-owning states pushed through more and more laws that imposed slavery on those states that chose to abolish it. This was done by harsh run-away laws that made criminals out of those who helped run-away slaves attain their freedom. Even today, the location of many of the "safe houses" and the names of those who helped slaves on the Underground Railroad are still kept secret.
Led by Nat Turner, Gabrial Prosser, and others, slaves undertook a number of rebellions to obtain their own freedom, but the outcome of these unsuccessful attempts at freedom generally led to widespread murder of slaves and free blacks, and more laws to hold slaves more harshly in bondgage.
Emancipations which were legal and encouraged prior to the establishment of the US government, were increasingly disfavored as the new republic developed. Eventually emancipation was outlawed to prevent owners from releasing their slaves as a reward for good service or upon the death of the owner. Slaves were often owned by estates which did not permit manumission because of a reduction in the value of the estate to future heirs.
Prior to the Civil War, some Americans felt that allowing slaves to return to Africa was a solution. Funds were solicited to enable free blacks and manumitted slaves to emigrate to Liberia where they formed a colony that eventually became a nation in its own right.

But, for most slaves, the release from the "peculiar institution" did not come until the end of the Civil War. In 1861, the southern states seceeded from the United States under pressure to limit the expansion of slavery into new territories and protests by abolitionist against enforcement of laws against run-aways. Southern troops fired on the Fort Sumpter as the opening volley of the Civil War.
During the civil war, the north considered slaves who escaped and enlisted in the Union Army to be free. The south announced that any such Union Soldiers would be executed rather than treated as Prisoners of War.
Fort Monroe, located at Old Point Comfort at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay found itself with a unique dilemma. One day, three slaves showed up at the fort requesting their freedom. In an interesting decision, General Butler, in charge of the fort, determined that these slaves, who were "property" of the rebellious Southerners, were therefore "Contraband", and were given Federal protection in and near the fort. Slaves from the Carolinas and Virginia could make their way overland or by water to Fort Monroe, rather than wait on the outcome of the civil war to obtain their freedom from slavery.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared that all slaves in the rebel states were now free men. This could not be fully enforced until the final surrender of the last of the Confederate forces on June 17th, 1865.
In (date) the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed to eliminate the institution of slavery and to grant citizenship and voting rights to those who had been held in bondage.
The Geography of Slavery Link to Slave Voyages Trans-Atlantic Slave Voyages
Databases, maps, routes, and more
Virginia Memory "This is a bad fix I'm in"Story of Sam, a slave, 1856, Highland County, Va. Jefferson and Slavery Slavery in Virginia
African-Americans Military History Timeline Link to Black Soldiers and Sailors Black Soldiers and Sailors Link to the Revolution's Black Soldiers The Revolution's Black Soldiers Link to African-Americans in the Revolutionary Period African-Americans in the Revolutionary Period
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Up From Slavery WPA Slave Narratives
Gov Site
American Slave Narratives (UVA)
The History of Miscegenation

by Carter Woodson
Sail Away
Video of Underground Railroad in New York URR Safe House Pennnsylvania Safe House This house is located in northwest Pennsylvania, not far from the border to Canada. In the 19th century, it was a Safe House on the Underground Railroad. Virginia Emigrants to Liberia Liberian RepatriatesSearchable database American Slave Emigrants to Nova Scotia Virginia Emigrants to Liberia

The American Revolution

Link to No More Kings video No More Kings Color Pages for the American Revolution Liberty's Kids Game: Revolution Link to Naval Battles Naval Battles of the American Revolution Link to British Perspective American Revolution from the British Perspective

The American Civil War

The American Civil War took place between 1861 when the southern Confederate Army fired on American troops at Fort Sumter in South Carolina until 1865 when General Lee surrendered his Confederate Army to General Grant of the US Forces at Appomattox in Virginia

Lincoln Archives Civil War Battle Summaries Link to the Battle of Five Forks The Battle of Five Forks The Ironclads BBC Texas Confederate Pension records searchable index
Pictures of the Civil War in Tennessee Naval War in the American Civil War British Persepective on the American Civil War Slaves Freed as Contraband at Fort Monroe
Civil War Information The Library of Congress Civil War Archives
Selected Photo Collection
Wartime Correspondence of Abolitionist Indiana Governor Oliver P.Morton Slavery and the American Civil War
Swedish Site
Living a Family History that Shaped the Nation
29th Connecticut: An African American Unit
Soldiers' letters home
Archive
Valley of the Shadow
Exhibit at University of Virginia
The American Civil War, 1861-1865:
Information Archive
Selected Civil War Photographs Library of Congress Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System National Park Service. Maps of Pennsylvania and Virginia
U.S. flag during the Civil War Confederate flags during the Civil War U.S. Civil War Generals (Confederate Only) (from Kerry Webb) Civil War Units File: Unit Designations by States (Union and Confederate: version 3.0)
Overall Organization of Armies (Union and Confederate) Ideal Organization of Confederate Army c1863
Christmas in the Confederate White House
A narrative by Varina Davis, wife of Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American SlaveOnline Biography Other great civil war web sites
Lincoln Archives
Digitized documents, photos and more
Primary sources book reviews, conference announcements, reference tools African-Americans photographed during the Civil War When Johnny Comes Marching HomeUltime Thule video
Harrison B. Jones, Civil War Diary Blog Civil War Tweets Cinco-de-Mayo and General Jo Shelby New York State Military Museum and Archive William Newby...or, The Soldier's Return
49th NY Regiment History The Fightin' Irish 69th Regiment from NYC Meagher's Irish Brigade from NY Union Colored Troops from or officered from New York Colored Troops from Pennsylvania
by Anita Wills

World Wars of the 20th Century

World War I

The War to End All Wars

Eyewitness to History: World War I The War Begins
Bryan Tyler music

War on Two Fronts : World War II


Time Witnesses of WW II

Primary sources
Marines return from Makin Island
video
Guardians of Freedom Dr. Seuss Cartoons from WWII PA Veteran's Museum
Holocaust Resistance I'd start with Mordechai Anielewicz and the Warsaw Uprising: Mordechai Anielewicz Resource Gallery Holocaust Gallery Jewish Resistance Vilna Uprising New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education The Voyage of the St. Louis The White Rose: A Lesson in Dissent The Sentencing and Execution of the Nazi War Criminals

The Cold War Era

The Cold War spanned the time between the end of World War II and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was a time when there were two dominant powers in the world, the US, and the USSR. Nuclear destruction seemed imminant, bomb shelters were built in backyards, and school children rehearsed what to do in the case of an enemy attack.

Nuclear Blasts 1948-1998
Time Lapse

The U-2 Incident

May 1, 1960

Email: April 29, 2010
From: Randy Cabell
Source: Virginia History Mailing List:

50 years ago this Saturday, a CIA U-2 spy aircraft which was flying over the Soviet Union was shot down, the first victim of the newly deployed SA-2 Surface-to-Air missile. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, had grown up in Virginia. If you get a chance, I suggest you go by the Virginia Historical Society and see the traveling exhibit which his son has put together with artifacts from The Cold War Museum. Those of you who remember the 1960 incident, and then the Cuban Missile Crisis two years later, will no doubt have a mild anxiety attack just thinking about how real nuclear war was to us back then. At the height of The Cold War, American school kids did "duck and cover exercises," jumping out of their seats, and scrambling to get under their desks. And I learned a few weeks ago from a new Russian friend, that they did the same thing. (Actually, during WWII back 1942, I did the same thing in The WT Haley Elementary School at Virginia Beach, but we were just hiding from airplanes.... ICBMs were another 20 years in the future.) Those were all scary times, and we need periodic reminders of just how fragile peace has been.

If you can't get to the Virginia Historical Society, I suggest two very good alternatives:

#1 - This one is a good four-minute overview of The U2-Incident, opening with the voice of Francis Gary Powers himself describing the first he knew something was wrong.

#2 - A 1975 movie, FRANCIS GARY POWERS, THE TRUE STORY, stars Lee Majors, whom old geezers out there like me will recall as "The Six Million Dollar Man." I don't think it ever made it to a DVD, but I ran down a VHS tape, which creaks a bit, but tells a pretty accurate story of the incident and of Power's subsequent trial, incarceration in Vladimir Prison, and the eventual exchange engineered by Willian Donavan, for Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel 22 months later.

U-2s still fly today, and I am told it is the ONLY aircraft that the USAF ever requested be put back into production. The closest one that I know of is in the Smithsonian in downtown Washington. But since they fly at over 70,000 feet and thus are all but invisible to the naked eye, there may be one soaring above me as I write this!!!

Toward the end of this year (2010), Gary Powers Jr. plans to open the Cold War Museum at the old US Army Communications Base outside Warrenton, VA -- Vint Hill Station.

by Randy Cabell


The U-2 Incident (video-4 min.) Narrated by Gary Powers, Jr. with Gary Powers, III FRANCIS GARY POWERS, THE TRUE STORY
VHS at Amazon
The Trial of the U2: Exclusive Authorized Account of the Court Proceedings of the Case of Francis Gary Powers Heard Begore the Military division of the Supreme Court of the U.S.S.R. Moscow August 17, 18, 19, 1960
(Hardcover)-Amazon
Operation Overflight: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident by Francis Gary Powers and Curt Gentry Paperback - Aug. 2002 on Amazon
The Powers' Case: Trial of American U-2 Spy Pilot, Indictment, Evidence, Speeches and Verdict in the Case of Francis Gary Powers, Moscow, Aug. 17-19. 1960 by Soviet Booklet #76
Paperback - 1960 on Amazon
Francis Gary Powers
Wikipedia
From Civilian Pilot, to Imprisoned Spy, to War Hero
VA Historical Society Exhibit
The U-2 Incident
Cold War Museum- Mobile Exhibit
Legends of Airpower - Francis Gary Powers
VHS
History Undercover - Mystery of The U-2
VHS on Amazon

Struggle for Civil Rights

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Congressional Votes by Party and Region Strange Fruit Billie Holiday Sit-ins in Richmond, VA PBS: Freedom Riders

President Dwight Eisenhower

Warning about the Military Industrial Complex

Was he heeded?

Twin Towers in NY Skyline

Nine Eleven was designated a day of national rememberence for the tragedy that occured on September 11, 2001. On Nine-Eleven, two airplanes were flown into the Twin Towers in New York City. Another airplane was flown into the Pentagon outside Washington, DC. A fourth airplane was destined to hit in Washington, DC, but the plans of those who hijacked the airplane were thwarted by the passengers who caused the airplane to crash into the mountains outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. About 5,000 people were killed on Nine-Eleven. At present, not all of the bodies of the victims have been found, especially in the rubble of the Twin Towers in New York City.

There were many heroes on Nine-Eleven.

The Passengers United Airlines Flight 93 were in contact with friends and family by phone from the air. They shared their plans to crash the airplane in an sparsley populated area. Their heroism and patriotism save the nation's Capitol from destruction.

The firemen and policemen in New York City attained hero status by helping to rescue hundreds of people who worked in the twin towers. The area where the towers once stood has been renamed "Ground Zero". Ordinary people joined the extraordinary heroes to minimize the deaths in this tragedy.

There were also heroes at the crash at the Pentagon, as members of the armed forces rescued co-workers until the firemen and police arrived to assist.

Nine Eleven is not, at present, a holiday from work or school. People report to work on this day and remember the victims and the heroes of this terrible day.

Eagle with tear in eye

Netlinks for Nine Eleven

America Mourns American Spirit Time: Attack on the US United We Stand
Shattered It Didn't Seem Real The Legacy Changed Forever

History of the West

Ghost Towns

Pennsylvania History

PA Veteran's Museum

Virginia History

Link to Famous Virginians Famous Virginians Out-Of-The-Box
Blog by Library of Virginia Archivist
Virginia Memories

Books on Slavery

In The Matter of Color by A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. 1978, Oxford

Meteor of War The John Brown Story by Zoe Trodd and John Stauffer, EDS, Harvard. 2004.

Blacks in Colonial America by Oscar Reiss, 1997

Slave Counterpoint (Black culture in the Eighteenth Certury Chesapeake and Low Country by Phillip D. Morgan. 1998.

Foul Means: The formation of a Slave Society in Virginia 1660-1740 by Anthony S. Parent, Jr. 2003.

Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson by Paul Finkelman, 2001


Page created November 26, 2007. Anne Pemberton. Updated Sat, Apr 1, 2012. AP