History

Refine Search

Who made the first robot?

Later robots were designed by Leonardo da Vinci, Jacques de Vaucanson and Hisashige Tanaka. However, the first digitally programmable robot was built by George Devol in 1954. The Unimate was not humanoid in form, but laid the foundation for all modern robotics work. Honda's ASIMO, introduced in 2000, was the first practical humanoid robot capable of easy interaction with humans.

Continue Reading

What caused segregation?

The Reconstruction Amendments outlawed slavery and gave former slaves citizenship and the right to vote, theoretically placing African Americans on an equal playing field with white citizens. However, former slave states and even some in the north quickly passed laws that re-tilted the playing field. Poll taxes, grandfather clauses and other mechanisms were used to prevent African Americans from voting, and separate schools, train cars, restaurants, lodgings and other businesses were set up to prevent the races from intermingling. Though the Plessy case requiring those separate facilities to b..

Continue Reading

What did the houses of the Pomo Indians look like?

The Pomo Indians created temporary houses when they decided to rest somewhere for awhile. These houses were in the form of elliptical shelters, which were built from materials they found in the nearby countryside. The house-building materials included brushes, redwood branches and mud. They built rough frames from the branches and other vegetation and plastered mud over the top. The mud provided some insulation from the cold and wind.\nThe Pomo Indians were normally migratory, regularly moving from place to place. They lived along the Pacific coast between Duncans Point and Cleone in Northern ..

Continue Reading

How did military technology develop during World War I?

Tanks changed the nature of trench warfare by actually allowing opposing troops to get close to one another without being mowed down. The first tank used was British Mark 1 at the Somme in 1916. Modern flamethrowers were perfected by the Germans in 1915 and used in trench warfare to burn the enemy alive in the trench without destroying the trench with a grenade.\nPoison gas was used extensively by both sides. They raced one another to make more and more lethal gases capable of penetrating gas masks.\nTracer bullets helped the British by leaving phosphorescent trails at night and causing the Ge..

Continue Reading

How did Jean-Claude Duvalier get the nickname "Baby Doc"?

Jean-Claude Duvalier succeeded his father as President of Haiti, and he governed from 1971 to 1986. He ruled the country as a dictator like his father, and he had a lavish lifestyle. During his regime, the Haitian people lived in poverty while Duvalier became rich from embezzlement and his involvement in the drug trade.After the fall of his regime in 1986, Jean-Claude Duvalier settled in France. He returned to Haiti in 2011, where he was a charged with corruption. Duvalier suffered a fatal heart attack on October 4, 2014.

Continue Reading

In art history, what does the term "Renaissance" describe?

Florentine artist Giotto, who lived from 1267 to 1337, invented advanced techniques to paint the human body realistically. Giotto's frescoes adorned churches and cathedrals all over Italy before the birth of Michelangelo. The proto-Renaissance gained popularity in the 1400s with artists like sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, architect Filippo Brunelleschi, Masaccio and Donatello in the time of the Medici family's powerful reign in Florence.\nThe High Renaissance was from the 1490s until 1527. Masters like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael dominated this period, along with Bramante..

Continue Reading

What was the Roman name for Persephone?

Proserpina is the daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, while Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.\nAfter Proserpina is abducted by Pluto, her father asks for her return as her distraught mother has ceased to make the crops grow. Pluto agrees to allow Proserpina to return to earth for a few months each year. She can't remain on Earth because she's eaten seeds from the pomegranate, the fruit of death.

Continue Reading

When was the Internet first launched?

The ARPAnet was developed by scientists at M.I.T. and ARPA, a U.S. government agency, as a response to the Cold War with Soviet Russia to ensure communications between computers in the event that the Soviets knocked out the telephone system. ARPAnet, connecting four computers, delivered its first message in 1969.In the early 1970s, other computer networks were added and TCP, or transmission control protocol, on which the modern Internet is based was developed by scientist Vinton Cerf. In 1989, a Swiss programmer named Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web as a place to store information a..

Continue Reading

When did beer flood the streets of London?

During the afternoon of October 17, a worker at the Meux and Company brewery noticed that one of the large iron hoops on the fermentation tank had slipped and was no longer holding the vat. Although the tank was practically full—holding the equivalent of about 1 million pints of beer—the worker was told that nothing would happen and to leave a note for someone to fix the hoop later.The tank, full of brown porter ale and pressure due to the fermentation process, burst about an hour later. A 15-foot-high wave of 320,000 gallons of beer rushed out of the brewery and into the neighborhood stre..

Continue Reading

What are some ideas for a project about the Nile River?

An economic analysis project can help students better understand the impact the Nile had on Egypt's economy. Students can examine the different economic effects of the river, including effects on trade and industry. They can also map out the trade routes of boats that carried goods to and from Egypt, analyzing the impact of these different goods as well.\nA Nile diorama offers students the opportunity to both examine the river's features and represent them artistically. Using an empty shoe box or another container, students can depict the river bank and its surroundings using paint, ..

Continue Reading
Showing 161 to 170 of 8554 (856 Pages)