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Who were some notable passengers on the Titanic?

Known as the "Silver Prince," Benjamin Guggenheim was an heir to his famous family's fortune and estate. He was born on Oct. 26, 1865. After the iceberg hit the ship, Guggenheim assisted in helping women and children onto lifeboats. He dressed in his finest clothes, prepared to die honorably.\nJohn Jacob Astor IV, the great-grandson to John Jacob Astor, helped build the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and the St. Regis hotel in New York City. He also invented a bicycle brake and an improvement to the turbine engine. He also served in the Spanish-American War, lending his yacht to the U.S. Navy, whi..

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How has the telephone changed and improved our lives?

Prior to the invention of the telephone, people had to communicate in writing if they could not meet. It was very difficult to make plans in writing; the plans could change by the time the recipient received a letter or telegram. The telephone made it possible for two people to communicate directly, making it easier to interpret messages based on the speaker's tone of voice and overall demeanor.\nBusiness owners were able to use the telephone to place orders for raw materials and solicit new business, making their businesses more profitable. The telephone also helped improve efficiency fo..

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What was Julius Caesar's leadership style?

Julius Caesar was born into an aristocratic family during a chaotic period in Roman history in which nobility by birth was not automatically viewed as a basis for authority. Military dictatorship was becoming the most popular and followed form of government, and Julius Caesar seized this opportunity to successfully begin a military and political career. After a successful campaign, he was named governor of Farther Spain, and a year after returning to Rome became the consul.\nBeing elected consul allowed Caesar to access political connections necessary to furthering his career. He created the f..

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Did Martin Luther King Jr. have kids?

Dr. King was assassinated in 1968 and Coretta died in 2006. The oldest daughter, Yolanda, died in May 2007. The other three children have been involved in several lawsuits regarding their father's legacy. In February of 2014, Bernice King publicly accused her two brothers of a plan to sell their father's Nobel Peace Prize medal and his Bible. She refused to give the items to her brothers after they requested them through a judge.

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How did the slave trade affect Africa?

Prior to the transatlantic slave trade, slavery was an endemic part of most African cultures. People commonly sold themselves into slavery to pay off debt or support their families, or they were forcibly enslaved for crimes or in war. When Dutch, Portuguese and other European traders came to the West African coast, they quickly saw the value of able-bodied young men and women as slaves in the New World. The trade that developed between these merchants and the rich and powerful rulers and merchants of West African nations drained the interior nations of productive young men and fertile young wo..

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How many people died in the Great Chicago Fire?

Dry weather and an abundance of wooden structures helped the fire to grow. The fire began on the property of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary where their barn was located. It is not known how the fire was actually started, but there is a theory that a cow knocked over a lit lantern. The rain that appeared on October 10 aided in controlling and eliminating the fire. Martial Law was declared the day after the fire was eliminated due to the looting that followed this disaster.

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What bureau of government first used punch cards to collect data?

Using the tabulation machine invented by Herman Hollerith especially for the census, operators processed approximately 7,000 punch cards a day, according to the Computer History Museum. This rate was about 10 times faster than manual tabulations. Hollerith used punch cards that were the same size as the paper money in circulation at that time, which allowed operators to use existing money holders to organize the 60 million cards.

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When was the first helicopter made?

Igor Sikorsky is often credited for developing helicopters. He was the first inventor to achieve commercial success with his designs. He designed the first helicopter used by the U.S. Army. In 1958, Igor Sikorsky's company built the first helicopter that could take off from and land on water. The Italian inventor, Leonardo Da Vinci, created the first conceptual drawings of flying machines in the 1500's.

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What type of information is found on Land of the Brave?

Specific topics covered on this site include the early discoverers and explorers of the New World, the 13 colonies, life in early America, the Native American battles and the problems the colonists faced with Great Britain in the pre-Revolutionary days. There are also sections about the rebellions leading up to the Revolutionary War and the war itself.

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What are the 13 original colonies?

Most of the colonies were ratified into states between 1787 and 1790. Delaware was the first colony to achieve statehood on December 7, 1787. Pennsylvania and New Jersey followed later that same month. The last colony to be brought into statehood was Rhode Island in May of 1790. The colonies themselves were broken up into three sections due to geographical location. These sections were referred to as the New England Colonies, the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies.

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