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04/17/2007 01:35:38 PM · #26 |
The brainstorming continues...
"OK Ricky, try to name me some famous americans.."
SILENCE
"How about movies stars?"
"Jackie Chan?"
You couldn't make this up.
The TV is going. |
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04/17/2007 01:36:21 PM · #27 |
Originally posted by rob_banks:
And mass shootings...
ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! |
[/quote]
Best answer ever. Real bad news though :-(
Message edited by author 2007-04-17 13:37:46. |
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04/17/2007 01:37:17 PM · #28 |
WE HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH ON THE FAMOUS PEOPLE..
"Elvis?"
YES!!! |
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04/17/2007 01:38:02 PM · #29 |
| Make sure your son knows that "North America" includes more than just the United States, too! |
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04/17/2007 01:38:14 PM · #30 |
Originally posted by Simms:
The brainstorming continues...
"OK Ricky, try to name me some famous americans.."
SILENCE
"How about movies stars?"
"Jackie Chan?"
You couldn't make this up.
The TV is going. |
You should have told him,
"No, no, not Jackie Chan! William Shatner." |
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04/17/2007 01:39:00 PM · #31 |
Schoolhouse Rock: it'll teach him everything he needs to know and he'll remember all the jingles :)
Schoolhouse Rock
Message edited by author 2007-04-17 13:39:35. |
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04/17/2007 01:40:53 PM · #32 |
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04/17/2007 02:13:51 PM · #33 |
Ok, let's see. Christopher Columbus was an Italian guy who got financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to find a new route to India. He had a crazy idea that the world was round and that an alternate route to India could be found if he sailed west instead of east. Part of the interest in finding an alternate route was to bypass the Muslim countries that controlled the sea routes to India. Anyway, he set sail on three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria and ended up, not in India, but in North America. I forget where he landed, but I think it was the Island of Hispaniola (check that) in the Caribean. Anyway, there wasn't anybody there except some out of work "Indians", so he claimed the land for the King and Queen of Spain.
The first permanent English settlement in the New World was at Jamestown in 1607 in an area which came to be known as Virginia. On Dec 21, 1620, the Pilgrims (The Pilgrims were English Separatists who founded Plymouth Colony in New England. In the first years of the 17th century, small numbers of English Puritans broke away from the Church of England because they felt that it had not completed the work of the Reformation. They committed themselves to a life based on the Bible. ) landed at Plymouth Rock, in what is now Massachusettes. It became the first permanent English settlement in what is now called New England (the northeastern U.S.). The Pilgrims came on a ship called "The Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock.
So, the U.S. began as English colonies.
Anyway, the colonists eventually became dissatisfied with the rule of Mother England. King George III was particularly disliked.
One of the chief complaints in those days was that George III was overtaxing the colonists but that the colonists had no say in how they were governed. This eventually led to the cry "No Taxation Without Representation!"
One of the taxes that really ticked people off was the tax on tea. This led to "The Boston Tea Party."
On Thursday, December 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians, headed toward Griffin's Wharf, where lay HMS Dartmouth and her newly arrived, tea bearing, sister ships HMS Beaver and HMS Eleanour. Swiftly and efficiently casks of tea were brought up from the hold to the deck. The cask were opened and the tea dumped overboard. By dawn 90,000 lbs (45 tons) of tea worth an estimated £10,000 had been consigned to waters of Boston harbor. This became a very famous moment in American history.
On July 4, 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress signed and adopted the Declaration of Independence. It is this moment that the United States of America considers its birth as an independent nation (although we still had to fight for it thereafter).
It begins: "When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
It then goes on to spell out the grievances of the colonists against Great Britain, and especially George III.
Ok, so then the Revolutionary War started and we eventually won -- with a little help from France.
Our first President was General George Washington.
In 1789, we adopted our Constitution, which we still use today as the basis of our government. It is the oldest constitution in the world still in use. Its Preamble gives you a good idea what it's about. It reads: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
The first ten amendments to the Constitution are called "The Bill of Rights." They set forth separation of church and state, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, etc... The Constitution is the single most important law in our country. You don't need to read the whole thing, but you need to know that it is the final say on everything. Even the President can't go against the Constitution. It sets out a tripartite system of government with an Executive Branch headed by the President, a Legislative Branch that consists of a bicameral Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) and Judicial Branch led by the Supreme Court. Its defining feature is a balance of powers between the three branches. The President is not a king. He has many powers, but so does Congress and so does the Supreme Court. Basically, the Congress makes the laws, the President makes policy and acts and the Supreme Court settles arguments over what the law really is and who can do what.
In 1812, we were at war with Great Britain again. I don't remember what started it; but you burned down The White House.
Ok, Slavery. The American colonies were agricultural resources for Great Britain, and a brisk trade in slaves from Africa was in place from near the beginning. The northern U.S. was less agricultural, and therefore less dependent on slaves. It was more industrial. By about 1860, the country was torn over the morality of slavery, with southern states supporting it and northern states opposing it. Simultaneously, it had not yet been worked out exactly how much authority the federal (central) government had over the individual states. I.E. were we a bunch of independent countries loosely banded together? Or were we one country made up of a bunch of states that had some kind of limited power versus the federal (central) government. The south favored the latter; the north favored the former.
This all came to a head on April 10, 1861, when Confederate (southern) troops fired on the Federal garrison at Fort Sumpter, South Carolina. That was the beginning of the Civil War. The war was not exactly ABOUT slavery, but slavery was one of the big issues at the heart of the debate over Federal power versus the rights of the individual states. The North became known as "The Union" and the South became known as "the Confederacy."
The war slugged on for four years. It was incredibly bloody. At least 618,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War. Who knows how many were wounded?
Anyway, the North eventually won (although France almost intervened on the side of the South because they were interested in the agricultural goods of the south.)
Our President during the Civil War was Abraham Lincoln. To this day, he is revered as one of, if not THE, greatest American Presidents. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Boothe in Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.
Anyway, slavery was abolished, but that didn't mean that the freed slaves were now equal to whites. It took slow but steady progress over the course of the next 100 years to get to the point we're at today where we have blacks in some of the most senior levels of government (though still no black President yet. Though Colin Powell has been so popular that he probably could have become President.)
Ok, WWI. The U.S. joined on the side of the Brits and French in WWI on April 6, 1917. We had tried to keep out of it up to then. Anyway, when we finally joined the fight, it proved to be too much for the Germans to take, and the Allies were victorious.
WWII. The U.S. joined WWII early. We were in it pretty much the whole way, again, on the side of the Brits. This is an interesting turning point in American history. Recall that we fought a war of independence against Britain and also the War of 1812. So we didn't really like Brits up to then. But, by WWII, we had really come around to liking you guys. It was after WWII that the U.S. and British Governments became extraordinarily close. There is an official "Special Relationship" between our two governments that is VERY REAL and manifests itself in a lot of ways that may not be apparent to civilians. Suffice to say, there is no country we trust more than Great Britain.
Ok, so while fighting the Germans and Italians in Europe, the U.S. was also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. The Japanese started the war with a sneak attack on our fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec 7, 1941. So, while the Army fought in Europe, the Marines fought in the pacific in what became known as "the island-hopping campaign." It was so-called because our strategy was to take one island at a time moving closer and closer to Japan. We kicked their buttocks; but the Japanese were fearsome fighters, preferring death to surrender.
Anyway, it was about this time that, with the help of some German scientists, we invented the nuclear bomb. Realizing how bloody an invasion of the Japanese mainland would be (for both sides) and since Japan wouldn't surrender, we dropped two nuclear bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese promptly surrendered after the second one.
Ok, so now we're damn good friends with Japan and Germany, too. Funny how that works.
So, WWII ends and the Cold War with the Soviet Union begins. For the next 50 years or so, it's the West against the USSR with thousands of nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles pointed at each other. The USSR wanted to make the whole world communists. The West wanted to keep it free. This reminds me of a song: "We'll make those commies drink Coca-Cola and watch TV all day!" Anyhow, luckily, no nuclear war ever started. The strategy at the time was officially called "Mutual Assured Destruction" (MAD). The idea was that neither the West, nor the USSR would dare to be the first to nuke the other side because both sides had enough nukes to destroy the world. So, if you nuke me, I'll nuke you right back and we'll both be destroyed. It was a dangerous strategry, but it seems to have worked. Eventually, the USSR collapsed.
But before it collapsed, there was a war in Korea when the Chinese communists invaded. The U.S. and other U.N. forces stopped them, but the war is still not over. Korea is now divided into two countries and there is just a 40 year cease fire.
Then there was Vietnam during the 60's and early 70's. Some American politicians were so caught up in the fight against communism that they thought we had to save every little country that might fall to communism. The French had already been beaten in Vietnam, but we thought maybe we could do it. Anyway, after 50,000 Americans were killed there, we decided to leave. The Communists won. But, now, 30 years later, Vietnam is communist only in name. It's a real capitalist boom over there. Funny how that works.
Ok, so then also in the 60s was the Civil Rights movement and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, and Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King.
And, there was also the Space Race where we were trying to outdo the Russians by getting to the Moon before they did. On July 20, 1969, we landed on the moon. The first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong. He stated "It's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind" when he stepped on the moon.
The 70's were really kind of downer years in the U.S., but there was some good rock and roll. Our hatred for Iran started in 1979 when Iranian fanatics overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats hostage and held them for 444 days until Ronald Reagan became president. They let them go the day he was sworn in, which was smart because he would have opened a big old can of whoop-ass on them if they hadn't.
Ok, so the 80's were pretty good years, but nothing really spectacular happened except the fall of the USSR in 1989 (or was that 1990?).
Aug 2, 1990, Iraq invades Kuwait. The U.S. leads a multinational coalition against the Iraqis. First it was Operation Desert Shield where the troops formed up in Saudi Arabia to prevent Iraq from invading Saudi. Then we kicked off offensive operations in January of 1991 in what became known as Operation Desert Storm. We kicked butt, but left Saddam in power.
For the next 10 years or so, it was a game of hide the cheese with Saddam constantly messing with UN weapons inspectors and shooting at U.S., British and other coalition planes patrolling the Northern and Southern "No-Fly Zones" which were put in place to prevent the Iraqis from using their aircraft to fight the Kurds in the north and the Shiah in the South, both of which groups, Saddam had persecuted massively before and after the war.
On Sept 11, 2001, Arab terrorists hijacked four civilian jetliners and crashed two of them into the world trade center in New York and one into the Pentagon in DC. Over 3,000 innocent people were killed. The fourth jet was taken over by the passengers and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
This really really really pissed us off.
So, we invaded Afghanistan because it was hosting Osama bin Laden who was the leader of Al Quaeda which had planned and sponsored the Sept 11, attacks. While we were at it, tired of Saddam messing with us, we invaded Iraq and, in the beginning, really kicked ass. What the Iranians failed to do in 8 years of war with Iraq, the U.S. and Brits did in a matter of days. Unfortunately, the Iraqi people don't seem ready to live in peace with each other. The Sunnis and Shia are killing each other. Iran and Syria are supplying them with weapons. It's not looking good.
Ok, so that's U.S. history in a nutshell. I'm sure I've left out a whole lot, but that's what sticks out in my mind.
Message edited by author 2007-04-17 15:12:17. |
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04/17/2007 02:20:49 PM · #34 |
Originally posted by option:
wikipedia knows everything |
Unless you ask it about religion, politics, or anything controversial... much of US history has now become the domain of questions and newly enforced ambiguity. Ah the USA! The only place where the winner is no longer writing the history!
Message edited by author 2007-04-17 14:23:39. |
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04/17/2007 02:24:01 PM · #35 |
Very sad, and unfortunate.
Originally posted by rob_banks:
And mass shootings...
Originally posted by Simms:
"What is the USA famous for"..
answer
"McDonalds"
ARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! |
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04/17/2007 02:41:05 PM · #36 |
Originally posted by Scholten:
Make sure your son knows that "North America" includes more than just the United States, too! |
Yes, Canada is our biggest state! ;-) |
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04/17/2007 02:44:11 PM · #37 |
Good job, Omanotter! Sums it up rather nicely.
One correction...On Sept 11, 2001,... The fourth jet was taken over by the passengers and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania (not Ohio).
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04/17/2007 03:08:47 PM · #38 |
Originally posted by OmanOtter:
Originally posted by Scholten:
Make sure your son knows that "North America" includes more than just the United States, too! |
Yes, Canada is our biggest state! ;-) |
map of North America |
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04/17/2007 03:10:50 PM · #39 |
Originally posted by ursula:
Originally posted by OmanOtter:
Originally posted by Scholten:
Make sure your son knows that "North America" includes more than just the United States, too! |
Yes, Canada is our biggest state! ;-) |
map of North America |
That's really funny! |
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04/17/2007 03:12:43 PM · #40 |
Originally posted by Marjo:
Good job, Omanotter! Sums it up rather nicely.
One correction...On Sept 11, 2001,... The fourth jet was taken over by the passengers and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania (not Ohio). |
Thanks Marjo. I've made the correction. |
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04/17/2007 03:36:05 PM · #41 |
Here is the direct Wikipedia link. It breaks down US history by eras which looks useful. Please suggest to your son that he leave out the last six years!
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_History |
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04/17/2007 03:36:30 PM · #42 |
Fantastic. Exactly what was needed, I found it interesting also!
Originally posted by OmanOtter:
Ok, let's see. Christopher Columbus was an Italian guy who got financed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to find a new route to India. He had a crazy idea that the world was round and that an alternate route to India could be found if he sailed west instead of east. Part of the interest in finding an alternate route was to bypass the Muslim countries that controlled the sea routes to India. Anyway, he set sail on three ships, the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria and ended up, not in India, but in North America. I forget where he landed, but I think it was the Island of Hispaniola (check that) in the Caribean. Anyway, there wasn't anybody there except some out of work "Indians", so he claimed the land for the King and Queen of Spain.
The first permanent English settlement in the New World was at Jamestown in 1607 in an area which came to be known as Virginia. On Dec 21, 1620, the Pilgrims (The Pilgrims were English Separatists who founded Plymouth Colony in New England. In the first years of the 17th century, small numbers of English Puritans broke away from the Church of England because they felt that it had not completed the work of the Reformation. They committed themselves to a life based on the Bible. ) landed at Plymouth Rock, in what is now Massachusettes. It became the first permanent English settlement in what is now called New England (the northeastern U.S.). The Pilgrims came on a ship called "The Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock.
So, the U.S. began as English colonies.
Anyway, the colonists eventually became dissatisfied with the rule of Mother England. King George III was particularly disliked.
One of the chief complaints in those days was that George III was overtaxing the colonists but that the colonists had no say in how they were governed. This eventually led to the cry "No Taxation Without Representation!"
One of the taxes that really ticked people off was the tax on tea. This led to "The Boston Tea Party."
On Thursday, December 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty thinly disguised as Mohawk Indians, headed toward Griffin's Wharf, where lay HMS Dartmouth and her newly arrived, tea bearing, sister ships HMS Beaver and HMS Eleanour. Swiftly and efficiently casks of tea were brought up from the hold to the deck. The cask were opened and the tea dumped overboard. By dawn 90,000 lbs (45 tons) of tea worth an estimated £10,000 had been consigned to waters of Boston harbor. This became a very famous moment in American history.
On July 4, 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress signed and adopted the Declaration of Independence. It is this moment that the United States of America considers its birth as an independent nation (although we still had to fight for it thereafter).
It begins: "When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
It then goes on to spell out the grievances of the colonists against Great Britain, and especially George III.
Ok, so then the Revolutionary War started and we eventually won -- with a little help from France.
Our first President was General George Washington.
In 1789, we adopted our Constitution, which we still use today as the basis of our government. It is the oldest constitution in the world still in use. Its Preamble gives you a good idea what it's about. It reads: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
The first ten amendments to the Constitution are called "The Bill of Rights." They set forth separation of church and state, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, etc... The Constitution is the single most important law in our country. You don't need to read the whole thing, but you need to know that it is the final say on everything. Even the President can't go against the Constitution. It sets out a tripartite system of government with an Executive Branch headed by the President, a Legislative Branch that consists of a bicameral Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) and Judicial Branch led by the Supreme Court. Its defining feature is a balance of powers between the three branches. The President is not a king. He has many powers, but so does Congress and so does the Supreme Court. Basically, the Congress makes the laws, the President makes policy and acts and the Supreme Court settles arguments over what the law really is and who can do what.
In 1812, we were at war with Great Britain again. I don't remember what started it; but you burned down The White House.
Ok, Slavery. The American colonies were agricultural resources for Great Britain, and a brisk trade in slaves from Africa was in place from near the beginning. The northern U.S. was less agricultural, and therefore less dependent on slaves. It was more industrial. By about 1860, the country was torn over the morality of slavery, with southern states supporting it and northern states opposing it. Simultaneously, it had not yet been worked out exactly how much authority the federal (central) government had over the individual states. I.E. were we a bunch of independent countries loosely banded together? Or were we one country made up of a bunch of states that had some kind of limited power versus the federal (central) government. The south favored the latter; the north favored the former.
This all came to a head on April 10, 1861, when Confederate (southern) troops fired on the Federal garrison at Fort Sumpter, South Carolina. That was the beginning of the Civil War. The war was not exactly ABOUT slavery, but slavery was one of the big issues at the heart of the debate over Federal power versus the rights of the individual states. The North became known as "The Union" and the South became known as "the Confederacy."
The war slugged on for four years. It was incredibly bloody. At least 618,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War. Who knows how many were wounded?
Anyway, the North eventually won (although France almost intervened on the side of the South because they were interested in the agricultural goods of the south.)
Our President during the Civil War was Abraham Lincoln. To this day, he is revered as one of, if not THE, greatest American Presidents. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Boothe in Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.
Anyway, slavery was abolished, but that didn't mean that the freed slaves were now equal to whites. It took slow but steady progress over the course of the next 100 years to get to the point we're at today where we have blacks in some of the most senior levels of government (though still no black President yet. Though Colin Powell has been so popular that he probably could have become President.)
Ok, WWI. The U.S. joined on the side of the Brits and French in WWI on April 6, 1917. We had tried to keep out of it up to then. Anyway, when we finally joined the fight, it proved to be too much for the Germans to take, and the Allies were victorious.
WWII. The U.S. joined WWII early. We were in it pretty much the whole way, again, on the side of the Brits. This is an interesting turning point in American history. Recall that we fought a war of independence against Britain and also the War of 1812. So we didn't really like Brits up to then. But, by WWII, we had really come around to liking you guys. It was after WWII that the U.S. and British Governments became extraordinarily close. There is an official "Special Relationship" between our two governments that is VERY REAL and manifests itself in a lot of ways that may not be apparent to civilians. Suffice to say, there is no country we trust more than Great Britain.
Ok, so while fighting the Germans and Italians in Europe, the U.S. was also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. The Japanese started the war with a sneak attack on our fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on Dec 7, 1941. So, while the Army fought in Europe, the Marines fought in the pacific in what became known as "the island-hopping campaign." It was so-called because our strategy was to take one island at a time moving closer and closer to Japan. We kicked their buttocks; but the Japanese were fearsome fighters, preferring death to surrender.
Anyway, it was about this time that, with the help of some German scientists, we invented the nuclear bomb. Realizing how bloody an invasion of the Japanese mainland would be (for both sides) and since Japan wouldn't surrender, we dropped two nuclear bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese promptly surrendered after the second one.
Ok, so now we're damn good friends with Japan and Germany, too. Funny how that works.
So, WWII ends and the Cold War with the Soviet Union begins. For the next 50 years or so, it's the West against the USSR with thousands of nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles pointed at each other. The USSR wanted to make the whole world communists. The West wanted to keep it free. This reminds me of a song: "We'll make those commies drink Coca-Cola and watch TV all day!" Anyhow, luckily, no nuclear war ever started. The strategy at the time was officially called "Mutual Assured Destruction" (MAD). The idea was that neither the West, nor the USSR would dare to be the first to nuke the other side because both sides had enough nukes to destroy the world. So, if you nuke me, I'll nuke you right back and we'll both be destroyed. It was a dangerous strategry, but it seems to have worked. Eventually, the USSR collapsed.
But before it collapsed, there was a war in Korea when the Chinese communists invaded. The U.S. and other U.N. forces stopped them, but the war is still not over. Korea is now divided into two countries and there is just a 40 year cease fire.
Then there was Vietnam during the 60's and early 70's. Some American politicians were so caught up in the fight against communism that they thought we had to save every little country that might fall to communism. The French had already been beaten in Vietnam, but we thought maybe we could do it. Anyway, after 50,000 Americans were killed there, we decided to leave. The Communists won. But, now, 30 years later, Vietnam is communist only in name. It's a real capitalist boom over there. Funny how that works.
Ok, so then also in the 60s was the Civil Rights movement and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, and Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King.
And, there was also the Space Race where we were trying to outdo the Russians by getting to the Moon before they did. On July 20, 1969, we landed on the moon. The first man on the moon was Neil Armstrong. He stated "It's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind" when he stepped on the moon.
The 70's were really kind of downer years in the U.S., but there was some good rock and roll. Our hatred for Iran started in 1979 when Iranian fanatics overran the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 52 American diplomats hostage and held them for 444 days until Ronald Reagan became president. They let them go the day he was sworn in, which was smart because he would have opened a big old can of whoop-ass on them if they hadn't.
Ok, so the 80's were pretty good years, but nothing really spectacular happened except the fall of the USSR in 1989 (or was that 1990?).
Aug 2, 1990, Iraq invades Kuwait. The U.S. leads a multinational coalition against the Iraqis. First it was Operation Desert Shield where the troops formed up in Saudi Arabia to prevent Iraq from invading Saudi. Then we kicked off offensive operations in January of 1991 in what became known as Operation Desert Storm. We kicked butt, but left Saddam in power.
For the next 10 years or so, it was a game of hide the cheese with Saddam constantly messing with UN weapons inspectors and shooting at U.S., British and other coalition planes patrolling the Northern and Southern "No-Fly Zones" which were put in place to prevent the Iraqis from using their aircraft to fight the Kurds in the north and the Shiah in the South, both of which groups, Saddam had persecuted massively before and after the war.
On Sept 11, 2001, Arab terrorists hijacked four civilian jetliners and crashed two of them into the world trade center in New York and one into the Pentagon in DC. Over 3,000 innocent people were killed. The fourth jet was taken over by the passengers and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.
This really really really pissed us off.
So, we invaded Afghanistan because it was hosting Osama bin Laden who was the leader of Al Quaeda which had planned and sponsored the Sept 11, attacks. While we were at it, tired of Saddam messing with us, we invaded Iraq and, in the beginning, really kicked ass. What the Iranians failed to do in 8 years of war with Iraq, the U.S. and Brits did in a matter of days. Unfortunately, the Iraqi people don't seem ready to live in peace with each other. The Sunnis and Shia are killing each other. Iran and Syria are supplying them with weapons. It's not looking good.
Ok, so that's U.S. history in a nutshell. I'm sure I've left out a whole lot, but that's what sticks out in my mind. |
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04/17/2007 03:56:17 PM · #43 |
Originally posted by OmanOtter:
WWII. The U.S. joined WWII early. We were in it pretty much the whole way, again, on the side of the Brits. |
The US tried assiduously to stay out of WW II until Pearl Harbor. That was Dec., 1941. Germany initiated WW II with the blitzkrieg of Poland in Sept., 1939. I hardly think skipping the first 1/3 of the conflict qualifies as "early on."
The intervening period was notable for the profits made by US industry selling armaments to the Europeans on both sides. |
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04/17/2007 04:39:14 PM · #44 |
Originally posted by OmanOtter:
In 1812, we were at war with Great Britain again. I don't remember what started it; but you burned down The White House. |
A number of things led to the war including British attacking US ships (merchant and military) and impressing sailors into the British navy, trade restrictions, and continued British support for people's hostile to the US in North America. Aside from the burning of the White House the most notable event occurred after the war in 1815 when Andrew Jackson attacked the invading British at New Orleans. Even though he was outnumbered 2 to 1 Jackson's troops soundly defeated the British. This made him a popular war hero eventually leading him to become the 7th President of the United States in 1829.
Originally posted by OmanOtter:
Then there was Vietnam during the 60's and early 70's. |
50's, 60's, and 70's. We were there for a very long time. |
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04/17/2007 04:49:00 PM · #45 |
Originally posted by TechnoShroom:
Aside from the burning of the White House the most notable event occurred after the war in 1815 when Andrew Jackson attacked the invading British at New Orleans. Even though he was outnumbered 2 to 1 Jackson's troops soundly defeated the British. This made him a popular war hero eventually leading him to become the 7th President of the United States in 1829. |
This battle was also notable for the fact that it occurred several weeks after the US and British signed the treaty ending the war. |
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04/17/2007 04:49:57 PM · #46 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Originally posted by TechnoShroom:
Aside from the burning of the White House the most notable event occurred after the war in 1815 when Andrew Jackson attacked the invading British at New Orleans. Even though he was outnumbered 2 to 1 Jackson's troops soundly defeated the British. This made him a popular war hero eventually leading him to become the 7th President of the United States in 1829. |
This battle was also notable for the fact that it occurred several weeks after the US and British signed the treaty ending the war. |
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04/17/2007 04:52:10 PM · #47 |
| Sorry, I was reading (perhaps skimming) this at work -- I missed that line the first time through : ( |
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04/17/2007 04:52:17 PM · #48 |
Originally posted by Simms:
Guys & Gals,
my boy has just told me he has 6 weeks to complete his project on the history of any country in the world, he has decided to choose the USA, fair enough, however he should of mentioned this to us 5.5 weeks ago and thus has 3 days in which to get it started, completed and handed in. I know, bless him. grrrrrr.
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You might want to email, or heaven forbid, actually meet with his teacher and discuss this problem. The teacher might be inclined to email you your son's requirements in the future. You could tell your son not to repeat this again and you'd have a method of keeping track of him for a while til he hit the straight and narrow again. A last minute desperate search on the behalf of your son does nothing to help. IMHO
I'm certainly qualified to give you advice on this subject as I have NO children of my own! LOL
Message edited by author 2007-04-17 16:52:45.
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04/17/2007 04:56:21 PM · #49 |
Failure can be a powerful learning tool though.
I too have no children but personal experience led me to the above. |
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04/17/2007 05:01:22 PM · #50 |
Originally posted by ursula:
Originally posted by OmanOtter:
Originally posted by Scholten:
Make sure your son knows that "North America" includes more than just the United States, too! |
Yes, Canada is our biggest state! ;-) |
map of North America |
If it could only be true. But I guess I have to stay here.
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