The States

Hey ever wonder where in the world the 50 states got their names? Well this amazing website tells all of them. Check it out!

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/06/50-u-s-states-got-names/

How Monopoly saved POWs in WWII

I was watching and episode of one of my favorite television shows called "What History Forgot" on the "American Heroes Channel" and it tells about events in American history that are very little known. One episode told about this topic, which I am sharing with you all today.

During the height of German control in Europe during World War Two, the POW (prisoner of war) camps were cram packed with British soldiers. Sometimes the Red Cross would drop board games for the soldiers. If you were lucky you might get a Monopoly game. These weren't just any Monopoly games, they had supplies hidden inside. They were recognizable by a red dot on the game board. Some of the supplies included a map of Germany printed on silk. It was printed on silk because it was easy to fold, water proof, and quite to fold, German, Italian, and French money in the Monopoly money. One of the most underpaid jobs was guarding POWS, so guards were easily bribed into setting off the alarm hours after they escaped. A compass in the playing token, Metal files, a handheld cutting saw that was a circle of wire that had metal beads on it. It could saw through metal and steel in no time at all. It is estimated that that thousands of POWS escaped, but the British government made them swear to secrecy, so they could use it in a later war. It wasn't until 2007 that they reveled their tactics.
This Monopoly board is showed with the dot, the map, and the box of extra stuff.

The Space Race

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” - President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961

 The Space Race began in 1957, and ended in 1975, and it was between the United Sates, and the Soviet Union. It was also one of the largest parts of The Cold War, along with The Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The first event in The Space Race was First intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), but the most famous early event was the Soviet launch of Sputnik One. Sputnik One was just a satellite, orbiting the Moon, but the Soviets made an even more impressive discover in Sputnik Two, which carried a dog. The Soviets and the United States take turns launching Stuff into space, but the next big breakthrough happened in April 12,1961, Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin, was the very first man in space.Finally the United States started to work hard to land a man on the Moon. Carrying Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin took liftoff on July 16, 1969. It took them three days to reach the Moon, and three days to return. There are many conspiracy theorists that think the Moon landing was fake, but some of our greatest scientific minds, (The Mythbusters) proved them wrong. Several more Apollo missions and Russian Soyuz programs followed. By landing one the Moon the U.S. figuratively won, but the Race didn't end until 1975. Little side information the word Luna or Lunar is Latin, adoption in Russian, to mean Moon. And this is Sputnik (left) and Apollo 11 (right).

D-Day

The date is June sixth, 1944. You are a U.S. Marine headed for the beach. The landing craft's ramp is lowers, and immediately your division is being rained on with MG fire. That is just a little of what the soldiers had to deal will on the D-Day invasion. The plan was created by David Dwight Eisenhower. The Germans had taken over five French beaches, nicknamed Omaha, Sword, Utah, Juno, and Gold. The Germans had set up a perimeter around those five beaches. The plan was for paratroopers to drop in during night, and take over the bridges and roads. The rest of the soldiers would arrive by ships. The British would attack the beaches Sword and Gold, the Canadians would take Juno, and the U.S. would attack Omaha and Utah beaches. Nicknamed Operation Overlord, the attack began early morning of June sixth, 1944. The paratroopers successfully landed, except for the Omaha beach ones. Most of them missed the drop zone and either was shot out of the air, or drowned, meaning that when the landing crafts got to the beach, the Germans weren't taken over. Over 2400 Americans died before Omaha was taken over. Utah Beach was almost as bad. Very few landing crafts made it on time, and most of the troops weren't placed near their designated targets. The British had better luck on Gold Beach. The British had little beach to cross and got almost none enemy gunfire, and suffered only 400 causalities. The attack on Sword Beach went not according to plan. The airborne attack did not succeed, and while the British only suffered 630 causalities, they didn't get as far as the D-Day planners had hoped. The Canadians suffered worse loss on Juno Beach then on Omaha Beach, however the Canadians had made the deepest penetration out of any land forces. After the beaches, the Allied forces had taken France back, and they started on their trek to Germany, as were the Soviets. This is an image of after Omaha beach was taken over.

Billy The Kid

It was September 17, 1859, Manhattan New York. Katherine McCarty has just reached shore from Ireland, and she is about to be a mother. Her son Henry is born, and together they move to Silver City, New Mexico. Katherine married William Antrim, who never liked Henry. When Katherine died with tuberculosis, William left Henry to fend for himself. Henry then started to steal to live. He also started to gamble. One day he was playing cards with a local outlaw, who wasn't to keen on loosing. He started beating up Henry until Henry grabbed his gun and shot him in the stomach. Henry then ran away to Lincoln County, New Mexico and changed his name to William H. Bonney. He was stealing horses from local ranch man, John Tunstall, and had a severe punishment. Tunstall agreed to drop the charges, and let Billy free if Billy worked for him. Tunstall was running for office against Laurence Murphy, of the Murphy-Dolan faction. Murphy and Dolan hired Sheriff Brady and his posse to kill Tunstall, and they did. Then, Billy and the rest of Tunstall's men recovered Tunstall’s body and declared war on the group who was responsible. Billy and his gang of regulators Ambushed the Faction, and the Faction ambushed the Regulators. Once most of the Faction were killed, the U.S. Army got involved. Wanted posters were made, and put up everywhere. Billy was at number one on their list of Regulators. Billy was eventually captured by the new Sheriff named Pat Garrett. Billy was held on trial and was founded guilty. While waiting for his hanging Garrett had to leave, he told his two deputies Bob Olinger (who bullied Billy) and James Bell (who respected Billy as a person but still treated him like a criminal) not to let their guard down. After Bob got done threatening Billy with a double barrel shotgun he left it in the jailhouse and went across the street to get food. Billy Told Bell he needed to use the bathroom. Bell took him to the outhouse and while going up the stairs, Billy got out of the large handcuffs, grabbed a pistol, and shot Bell. Before Billy escaped on a horse, he grabbed Bob's double barrel shotgun and smashed the second floor window. Everyone ran outside to see what was going on, including Bob. Billy's last words to him were "Hello Bob", Billy shot him and then rode out of town, in his hideout in Fort Sumner. The video clip from the movie Young Guns two shows how it happened, because it is kind of hard to explain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ5lZPc3664

Later, Garrett went to Fort Sumner to kill Billy. The legend goes he and two deputies killed Billy. What actually happened is they killed Billy's friend, while Billy escaped. Sixty-nine years later a man named Bill Roberts said he was Billy the Kid. He showed interviewers how to get out of handcuffs and was a good shot with a revolver. A few days later he was brought into a conference and was interviewed by many people at once. He died the next day of a heart attack. Billy the kid was the most famous outlaw ever. Unlike most outlaws it is divided whether he was to be thought hero or villain. That is for you to decide.

The Bismarck and the Tirpitz

The Bismarck and the Tirpitz were two of high German ingenuity battle ships. The Bismarck was named after Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. The Bismarck was launched February 14, 1939. The Bismarck is the more famous of the two. The Bismarck's mission was code named Operation Rheinübung. The objective is to raid allied ships headed to Great Britain. During one of the Bismarck's battles known as the Battle of Denmark, the Bismarck got into a fight with the British battle cruiser the Hood and the HMS Price of Whales. The Hood was sank, forcing the Price to retreat. When the Bismarck was headed to Axis controlled France, the Bismarck was attacked by Biplane torpedo bombers and the HMS Ark Royal. The Bismarck was sunk on May 27, 1941 in the North Atlantic Ocean. This is the Bismarck.


A man named Johnny Horton wrote a song about the Bismarck VS the Hood



Tirpitz was named after Admiral Alfred Von Tirpitz. The Tirpitz was launched April first, 1939 . In 1941 it was sent to Norway to intercept Soviet convoys. Later in 1943 was used to bombard Allied positions, but was damaged by British subs. On November 12, 1944, the Tirpitz was sunk by two British Lancaster bombers, which were planes used by the Royal Flying Corp. The Tirpitz was sunk that day. This is a picture of the Tirpitz.

Butch Cassidy

The man known as Butch Cassidy was fantasized as murderous bank robber who died in Bolivia. This is the real story. Butch Cassidy was born as Robert Leroy Parker. His family was poor so his father sent his kids to work on ranches. Robert meets a man by the name of Mike Cassidy, who shows him the ropes of being an outlaw. Robert becomes so close to Mike that he adopts his last name. Also working in a butcher shop, he earns the nickname "Butch." After committing small crimes, the powerful ranchers of Wyoming have Butch arrested for stealing horses, and he is sentenced to five year hard labor. Historians believe that it is that experience that trigger Butch's vendetta against the law. Years later Butch looks for a crime partner. People think that his only true friend and partner is the Sundance Kid. The truth is years before he meets Sundance, he becomes friends with a man named Elsie Lay. Butch and Elsie start robber small town banks and making names for themselves. Butch had an intolerance for violence because of earlier experiences. While he did hold people at gun point and threaten them, he never killed anyone. Another thing about Butch is in the midst of unorganized crime of people walking in, shooting, and walking out, Butch was the sort of criminal mastermind who did organized crime with weeks of planning. News of smaller bank heists spread to other outlaws, who like Butch's style, and together they form the Wild Bunch gang, with Butch as there leader. Members included Harvey "Kid Corey" Logan, and two Texans named Will and Ben. In planning a big robbery a young man by the name of Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, also known as the Sundance Kid, joins the Crew. The crew does a daytime robbery of the whole coal company's payroll in Castle Gate Utah. They take the money, give covering fire, take down Telephone lines, and then switch to fresh horses at each checkpoint. The legend claims that he is stealing from the powerful, like a Robin-hood figure. The truth is when he stole the payroll it was the poor miners that suffered. Butch's most famous heist was a robbery on the U.S. pacific railroad. He made the conductor think that the rails were flooded. he unhooked the cars so the passengers could leave, but the precious cargo like gold and money would stay. When the only person in the car won't open it up, Butch blew the door open with dynamite. On the escape, Sundance and Kid Corey are confronted by a posse. Corey shoots a deputy and flees to Montana, while Butch and the whole gang are wanted for murder. Butch wants to lay low, but Elsie wants to keep robbing, so he goes by himself, getting shot in the shoulder and arrested in the process. The Union Pacific hire the Pinkerton's, the most fearful law company in the U.S. to kill them. Butch hires a lawyer, but when he is supposed to meet with him, the Pinkerton's, and the Supreme Court, they don't show up. Butch thinks he is being setup so he leaves, still a wanted man. he Pinkertons track him across the U.S., so they move to Argentina. Sundance sends a letter to his mother, but the letter is intercepted and the Pinkertons followed them there too. They go to Bolivia, but trying to get more money to survive they rob a bank, but is chased into a house by the Bolivian army. The story goes that Sundance was wounded, so Butch killed the both of them, but some historians theories that he lived. In the end Butch Cassidy has been the western world's criminal mastermind. Wither his legends are true remain a mystery. This is a picture of Butch.

Bolshevik Revolution

During 1917, the first world war, the Germans were starting to lose the war. They were fighting on two fronts, the Russian eastern front, and the British, French, Belgium, and later American front in the west. Germany needed to focus all it's strength on one front. So they decided to take Russia out of the war once and for all. They decided to sneak in a communist named Vladimir Lenin from Switzerland. Lenin was angry with the government of Russia, under the leader of Czar Nicholas the second. The Czar (Monarch of Russia, Serbia, and Bulgaria pre World War I) was sending troops, mainly peasants to fight the war. There economy was also failing terribly. He was also hated because he was a naive and ignorant ruler. He rallied much support for the revolution, and on March 8th, 1917 the February Revolution began. There were many riots and protests, over 200,000 people protesting. Then on November 7, 1917, the October Revolution broke out. The Protesters got armed forces and captured the Winter Palace. As a result the Soviet Union was created and Russia was out of the war. The Union was lead by Vladimir Lenin until he died of a stroke. a man named Leon Trotsky took over until he was assassinated by Josef Stalin, who became the most infamous leader of the Soviet Union. He was credited for leading Russia in World War II, and killing if not as many, then more people then Adolf Hitler. This is a picture of the Red Army (Lenin's group) attacking the Winter Palace, protected by the White army (non communist group).