Mrs. P's Index of History Links
Studying History
| This Day in History |
History Matters: George Mason University. |
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 |
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America's History: Historical Thinking Skills Interactives Project ideas |
Newspapers and Periodicals Library of Congress Primary Sources |
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? |
iCivics GameWin The White HouseThree Levels |
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. | |
Timeline For Human Innovations |
Lucy Wasn't Alone! |
Early Human Innovations
| Ancient BCE Innovation Timeline | |
| YEAR BCE | Milestone |
| 500,000 BCE | Fire tamed by Homo erectus. |
| 50,000 BCE | Homo sapiens (modern man) appears. |
| 20,000 BCE | Invention of the bow and arrow. |
| 12,000 BCE | Domestication of animals begins. |
| 8000 BCE | Agriculture invented. |
| 7000 BCE | Pottery. |
| 6000 BCE | Weaving. |
| 5000 BCE | Irrigation systems developed in the Middle East. |
| 4000 BCE | First use of metals - copper smelted for making tools. |
| 3500 BCE | Bronze, a copper-tin alloy, hardened copper, discovered and used for weapons, tools, armor and art. Wheel appears in Mesopotamia Writing appears in Sumeria. |
| 3000 BCE | Abacus is invented by the Chinese. |
| 2800 BCE | Egyptians devise the 12-month, 365-day calendar. |
| 2737 BCE | Tea is used in China by Emperor Shen Nung |
| 1550 BCE | Earliest surviving medical textbook written in Egypt. |
| 1100 BCE | Iron is discovered. |
| 700 BCE | First man-made sundials appear. |
| 650 BCE | Standardized coins used by Greeks. |
| 512 BCE | Chinese produce cast iron from blast furnaces. |
| 510 BCE | Greeks produce the earliest surviving world map. |
| 400 BCE | Two Greeks invent the catapult, the first artillery weapon. |
| 312 BCE | Work begins on the Appian Way, the first great Roman road. |
| 210 BCE | Archimedes, the Greek scientist, invents the Archimedean screw, for raising water, and works out the theory of levers. |
| 100 BCE | Glassblowing invented in Syria. |
Inventions
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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. | |
History of Inventions |
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. | |
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History of Inventions |
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
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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 GloryD-Day to Berlin WWII documentary |
Uncovering Ancient Art">500 AD Coptic Church |
American and US History
Famous Americans
History Hat Stories |
Mrs. Eberle's Famous Americans |
Famous Americans |
Famous Leaders |
American and US History
National Museum of the American Indian |
Treaties between the Natives and the Colonies |
Pocahontasflash movie |
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| 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. |
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The Preamble The US Constitution Schoolhouse Rock |
Three Ring Government The Three Branches of US Government |
Documents of the 19th Century Archive for Students | ||
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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 |
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| Liberty's Kids |
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 |
Trans-Atlantic Slave VoyagesDatabases, 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 |
Black Soldiers and Sailors |
The Revolution's Black Soldiers |
African-Americans in the Revolutionary Period |
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| 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
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
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No More Kings |
Color Pages for the American Revolution | Liberty's Kids |
Game: Revolution |
Naval Battles of the American Revolution |
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
The Battle of Five ForksWorld 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 Islandvideo |
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.
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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 |
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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 |
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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
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.
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
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, OxfordMeteor of War The John Brown Story by Zoe Trodd and John Stauffer, EDS, Harvard. 2004.Blacks in Colonial America by Oscar Reiss, 1997Slave 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 |