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Who first discovered photosynthesis?

Joseph Priestley, a chemist, discovered that air was composed of gases. In 1730, Dutch biologist Jan Ingenhousz reported that plants produced oxygen. Further discovery was made by Jean Senebier, a Swiss botanist, who uncovered the role of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis. It wasn't until 1845 that Swiss chemist Nicolas-Theodore de Saussure was able to finally draw all the pieces of photosynthesis together.

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What were politics like during the Renaissance?

Italy grew as a center of the Renaissance primarily due to trade. According to Open University, it was Italy and the Low Countries which acted as "hubs of international trade and commodities." City-states, like Florence, Venice and Genoa, thus became fabulously wealthy, and soon powerful families emerged that controlled commerce and banking and often had small mercenary armies at their disposal. Among the most infamous families of the period are the Medici of Florence and the Borgias of Rome. The Borgias, in particular, became so powerful that they installed one of their own as pope.\nAt time..

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What was life like in gold rush mining camps and towns?

Prior to news of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill, the non-native population of California was under 1,000. As word spread and miners came, the non-native population grew to over 100,000 within a matter of a few years.\nGold-mining towns grew rapidly and usually included shops, saloons and brothels, along with other businesses to meet the miners' needs. However, the rapid growth brought lawlessness to the towns. The mining camps were tent cities that grew rapidly in areas of gold discovery, and people often moved to the next site within months after the gold supplies were deple..

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How did the French Revolution affect the United States?

When the French Revolution began in 1789, Americans were largely supportive of it. The United States was allied with France at that time, and the hope was that democratic reforms would turn France into a more powerful ally against Britain. As the revolution became more radical and violent, however, opinion became more divided. This led to political division between the Democratic-Republican party who supported the revolution and the Federalist Party who wanted to maintain a good trade relationship with Britain.\nWhen the other European powers went to war with France in 1793, however, both part..

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How did the American Civil War end?

The American Civil War, which began on April 12, 1861, ended after four years and resulted in the death of between 620,000 and 850,000 soldiers, 40,000 of whom were African-Americans. More Americans died in the Civil War than in any other war, including World War II. The bloodiest battle, with 51,000 casualties, was fought at Gettysburg, Pa.\nThe Civil War began when the Confederate States of America, formed by seven southern states that had seceded from the United States, attacked Union-held Fort Sumter in Charleston, S.C. President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteer soldiers to fight to p..

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How did the phonograph change society?

Edison was working on his design for a telephone transmitter when he noticed that sounds could be recorded by a stylus using tin foil wrapped around a cylinder. Within a few months, Edison had a basic design that he worked on for the next 10 years until he came up with a commercial application.The phonograph revolutionized the art of music. Performances were recorded and people could listen to them at their leisure. It also made music and communication more public.The invention signaled the birth of a new form of entertainment and an entirely new field of business that fed the demand for the n..

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What was the outcome of the Hundred Years War?

Periodic fighting over the English rights to territories in France dated back to the 12th century. However, the Hundred Years' War started in earnest when the French king Charles IV died in 1328. King Edward III of England had a legal claim to the French throne because his mother was the late king's sister. He deferred to Philip VI, a Frenchman from a younger branch of the family, but when Philip VI tried to seize some of Edward's French territory in 1337, the English king renewed his claim and backed it up with troops.\nThough outnumbered and relatively poor, the English army i..

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Why was abolitionist John Brown executed?

John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry took place on Oct. 16, 1859. The raid was a failure. No slaves revolted as a result of his actions, and a militia quickly surrounded Brown's positions and attacked, killing 10 of Brown's men and wounding and capturing Brown himself. His execution on Dec. 2, 1859, sparked outrage from abolitionists, who considered him a martyr for the cause, and many analysts credit his trial and death as one of the catalysts of the Civil War.

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What are three contributions to mathematics by Euclid?

Euclid wrote "Elements," a collection of 13 books comprised of geometrical theorems. The "Elements" defined the mathematical terms number, prime number, composite and perfect number. Euclid proved a sequence of theorems that marks the beginning of number theory as a mathematical endeavor versus a numerological one. Euclid's third contribution remains one of the most elegant proofs in mathematics.

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Where can you find information on Henry Hudson?

Henry Hudson was an English navigator and explorer active in the early 17th century. He is best known for his attempt at navigating the Arctic Circle in order to find a suitable route along the Northwest Passage to China. The Hudson River in New York, which he once explored, is named in his honor. Henry Hudson is a public figure, so many details of his life can be found within biographies, such as Douglas Hunter's "Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the voyage that redrew the map of the New World" and primary sources, like Robert Juet's "Juet's Journal of Hudson's 1609 Voyage."

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