Latest Histories


Subscribe to RSS feed

History of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa captures the imagination of everyone who visits it. The structure sits in the Piazza dei Miracoli (Cathedral Square) located in the city of Pisa, Italy. Visitors to the monument who may not know its history may wonder why such a large undertaking shows such poor civil engineering. The Tower, considered the cathedral campanile, stands next to two imposing buildings: the Duomo the Baptistry and the Camposanto.  The following illustrates the events regarding its long history.

How the Tower of Pisa Came About

Designed in 1174 by Italian sculptor Bonanno Pisano, the Leaning Tower of Pisa began to slowly sink right after laborers started building it 800 years ago. When construction reached the third floor, the workers realized the Tower had started to lean slightly. A poor choice of location to build the Tower led to problems with the stability of the building.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Due to the marshy unstable soil of the estuary on which it sits, the Tower sank so badly that leaders halted construction on it for 90 years. Ultimately completed by Giovanni di Simone and Tommano Simone, the pair placed a belfry at the top of the tower in the 14th century. The Tower then began its characteristic tilt that captured the public’s imagination.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa illustrates the dynamics of a differential element that made it lean over the years. The excess weight on the different areas of soil underwent differential settlement that caused a gradual shift that continues to this day.

An example of a bell tower, the Romanesque design has a cylindrical shape characterized by six open galleries. Long considered a visual masterpiece, the design is stunning. Located in galleries separated by a cornice, a series of arches adorn the capitals of the columns. Blind geometrically designed arcades line the base of the Tower. The belfry contains the same arcades with the housing of the bells inside.

Loved By Many

Due to the grandeur of the design, the Leaning Tower of Pisa became beloved over the years and a testament to great Italian architecture. In the 800 years since the Tower was finished, many architects, engineers and other great minds tried to halt the inclination. Many excavations and buildings around the tower worsened said inclination.

An effort in 1934 saw engineers install a device to measure two directional tilts of the tower. They then drilled holes into the masonry foundation and injected 80 tons of grout to further stabilize it. The effort failed. The tilt sharply increased by an amount of one-half inch of movement at the top of the tower. All subsequent efforts failed to halt the Tower’s lean until efforts in 1994 started to correct the lean.

Closed to the Public

In 1990 government officials closed the Tower to the public due to safety issues caused by its incline. The move caused considerable tourist revenue loss. As the Tower lean worsened, officials began to look for a permanent solution.

Laying counterweights on the north side of the tower aided in its stabilization. A crew put in place cast ingots to aid the reverse of the lean further. The result of the design allowed the Tower to lean back toward the north in the desired direction. Soil extraction methods resulted in a further decrease in the Tower’s lean. As of 1999, efforts continue to correct the incline of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

The effort is complicated by the fact that engineers can’t remove the lean completely, or tourists will quit coming. There are ideas in the future to remove the water table in the ground under the structure.

Related Histories:

History of Presidential Executive Orders

An Executive Order is a powerful regulation first used by President George Washington on June 8, 1789. It carries the full force of the law when based on the president’s constitutional power, and Congress passed said order into law. Executive orders direct federal agencies and officials in their implementation of Congressional laws and policies. This regulation that the acting president issues legally binds agencies and officials. The president delivers Executive Orders to Federal Administrative Agencies.

History of Executive Orders

The first Executive Order that George Washington issued instructed the heads of departments to clarify important matters in said departments. Between 1789 and 1907, presidents issued close to 2400 Executive Orders. The Department of State started filing the orders chronologically in 1907 with numbers issued to them. The State Department filed 13,000 Executive Orders between 1908 and 1991. The Executive Orders are filed with the Department of State when the president finishes issuing them.

Presidential Executive Orders

Since their inception, their use has varied in such cases as regulating the civil service, determining holidays for federal workers, establishing security programs and classifying government documents as top secret or secret. Their use also allows the allotment of public lands for Indian reservations and environmental protection. Use of Executive Orders helps organize federal disaster assistance efforts as well.

Limits to Executive Orders

A federal court can enforce an executive order if Congress enacted it so long as it does not go against federal law. New legislation can cancel or nullify an Executive Order the president issued if the Supreme Court or lower federal courts deem such unconstitutional. President Harry S. Truman felt that a nation-wide strike of steel workers in 1952 would jeopardize national defense, so he issued an Executive Order directing the Secretary of Commerce to seize and operate most steel mills in the country. Congress balked at the measure it did not give the President given statutory authority to conduct the seizure of the mills. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the union that the President violated the due process clause of the Constitution by seizing the property.

Other presidents tangled with Congress over Executive Orders as well. President Franklin D. Roosevelt used Executive Orders during his term to create agencies without getting Congressional approval. In 1944 Congress passed a law to prohibit this practice. After President Richard M. Nixon tried to dissolve several agencies by Executive Order, Congress passed a law in 1968 that stopped presidents from doing this without Congressional authority.

Executive Orders can also allow a president more clout in decisions during periods of war. Franklin Roosevelt used this expanded power to take possession of defense plants to guarantee production of aircraft in World War II. He later used a series of Executive Orders to establish a curfew for Japanese Americans to limit their mobility on the West Coast. He used an Executive Order in 1944 to intern them in camps.

Obama

Recent Executive Orders

On Jan. 11, 2010, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order establishing the Council of Governors to strengthen the partnership between federal, state and local governments. The order enabled better protection of the U.S. against all types of danger. The appointed Council reviews such matters involving the National Guard, homeland defense, civil support, synchronization and integration of state and federal military activities in the U.S. “and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities”.

References

http://www.answers.com/topic/executive-order-1

Related Histories:

History of the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most recognizable man-made monuments in the world. Standing 312 meters high to the tip of its flagpole, the figure cuts an imposing view on the Parisian skyline. The tower’s powerful mixture of spare grace, sheer size and complexity make it a breathtaking attraction to visitors. Recognized internationally, at the time of its completion it was the tallest structure in the world. The many who visit it every year admire the steel woven latticework of the massive structure as a masterpiece.

Winner in a Design Competition

Gustave Eiffel, a French engineer and self-made millionaire, won a design competition in 1887 for the radical design of the Eiffel Tower. His firm was well known for constructing fine bridges all over the world. He beat 700 proposals by a unanimous vote. Not meant to be a permanent structure, one of the conditions of the contest stipulated that the structure could be dismantled easily. The Eiffel tower took 300 steel workers two years (1887-1889) to construct.

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was then used as a memorial and centennial celebration of the French Revolution. The commission’s huge iron latticework design impressed visitors of the exhibition in 1889. The Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII of England opened the tower.

Love it or Hate it

The Eiffel Tower always elicited strong reactions. Prominent people in the arts like Henri Rousseau, Maurice Utrillo, Marc Chagall and Sonia Delaunay admired the structure, but others like Guy Maupassant, Emile Zola, Charles Garnier and Alexander Dumas the Younger despised it. The wording in a petition they introduced to protest its construction deemed it a monstrosity.  The critics said that, “The Eiffel Tower, which even commercial America would not have, is without a doubt the dishonor of Paris.”

Gustave Eiffel happily stoked the fire, saying, “They begin by declaring that my tower is not French. It is big enough and clumsy enough for the English or Americans, but it is not our style, they say. We are more occupied by little artistic bibelots. . . . Why should we not show the world what we can do in the way of great engineering projects?”

Installation of Radio Inside the Tower

When Eiffel heard of the first radio signals broadcast to the Pantheon by Eugène Ducretet in 1898, he approached French military leaders and influenced them to make the Eiffel Tower into a long-distance radio antenna. By 1903 a radio connection was established with the military bases around Paris. In 1906 a permanent radio station was installed inside the tower.

The temporary Eiffel Tower was supposed to be torn down in 1909 when its permit expired. The tower had become too important because of the importance of its antenna used for military purposes. During World War I the tower’s radiotelegraphic center intercepted enemy messages. One famous example of this led to the arrest and execution of the infamous spy Mata Hari.

Eiffel Tower

After 1910 the Eiffel Tower became part of the International Time Service. French radio (since 1918) and French television (since 1957) also made use of the tower and its radio antenna. Gustave Eiffel lived long enough to listen to the first European public radio broadcast from an aerial on the tower in 1921. The French modified the top of the tower for more antennae over the years.

Related Histories:

History of Presidential Pardons

The United States President uses a pardon to mitigate or set aside the punishment of a crime committed by someone or an entity convicted of wrongdoing.  Since its inception the pardon has changed considerably from the original definition laid out in the Constitution. The president can apply pardons only for crimes against the laws that fall under his jurisdiction as chief executive, just as said leader can impose conditions on the forgiveness.

Early Uses of the Pardon

The United States pardon was modeled on the English system. An English king had the royal privilege to pardon nearly all types of crimes against the Crown. The framers of the U.S. Constitution took this definition and incorporated their version of it into the document.  The clause they included gave the president a significant amount of power and legitimacy to grant reprieves and pardons for criminal offenses except in cases of impeachment.

Presidential Pardons

The first instance involving the use of the presidential pardon involved Pres. George Washington, who used it to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. American colonials strongly objected to the whiskey tax during that time and rebelled against it.  Government troops put down the disruptive rebellion. Later, the President pardoned some of the participants involved in the rebellion. The president used the power of the pardon to test grounds for federal authority.

In 1866 the first major court case using the presidential pardon made history. Andrew Johnson was the acting president when the court case took place. While awaiting trial for alleged offenses he committed during the Civil War, Alexander Hamilton Garland asked Pres. Johnson for a pardon. The President decided to grant a pardon to him after reviewing the specifics of the case. The pardon was important later because it established precedent for the scope of the pardon and the legal effects on people requesting pardons.

Garland, an Arkansas attorney, later used the pardon to continue practicing law in federal court. When lawmakers barred him from practicing, he invoked the pardon as a reason that he should be allowed to practice.

The Test Act of 1865 required people to swear under oath that they never aided or abetted enemies of the U.S. Lawmakers attempted to bar Garland from legal practice because he was a Confederate sympathizer. Garland argued that he received a pardon from the president without being tried, and that such absolved him of all criminal wrongdoing he may have committed during the Civil War. Garland further argued that the pardon excused him from the need to take the oath.

The Supreme Court sided with Garland. Its reasoning reaches back to the very definition of the pardon: that is, the scope of the pardon power is unlimited, with the exception being only in cases of impeachment. The justices felt that this covered every crime under the law and could be exercised any time after the commission of the crime, before legal proceedings began, during legal proceedings, or after the conviction and judgment of the individual.

Recent Uses of the Pardon

Some pardons are particularly famous. Controversial and unpopular ones often sway public opinion and presidential approval ratings. Some recent presidents used their inherent powers in recent decades to grant highly publicized pardons.

Presidential Pardons

Related Histories:

History of Crop Circles

Crop circles rose to popularity in the early 1990s when two Englishmen revealed that they were behind the mysterious shapes that had been popping up in Southern England for about 15 years. They consist of usually complex patterns drawn in wheat, barley or corn fields; that is, flattened areas form shapes that are visible from above and that often span areas of hundreds or even thousands of square feet.

Crop Circles In History

There has been a lot of speculation about the origin of crop circles, ranging from elaborate hoaxes to alien-invasion theories. But the truth remains that no one can be 100% sure of their origin. Interestingly, several accounts of crop circle findings date back to the end of the 19th century, which reinforces the belief in some people that their presence has little or nothing to do with human actions. Crop circles can be found in various countries around the world, but there seems to be an unusual concentration of them in certain parts of England.

Crop Circles

The Hoax Theory

Crop circles take various forms and are often a collage of circles of various sizes. Their slick and sometimes majestic appearance tends to suggest supernatural events in the human mind. There are, however, possible explanations that don’t involve anything more sophisticated than a board, a few ropes and a small ladder.

Crop circles made the news in 1991 when Dave Chorley and Doug Bower came out of the woodwork as the makers of multiple creations in the south of England. The two artists claimed to have been crafting crop circles in the south of England for about 15 years in search of fame.

Several groups formed around the world to take up the skill and develop new techniques. Those events established that it is possible for human beings to make crop circles, and they shed some light on the origins of some of them. It didn’t, however, prove that all crops circles were necessarily man-made.

Possible Meteorological Explanation

A theory regarding crop circles that arose as early as the 19th century has to do with electrical activity during thunderstorms. According to several accounts, thunderstorms had caused damage in certain fields, leaving circular patterns not unlike those that make up crop circles. Although there is no actual scientific research to back up that theory, it hasn’t completely been ruled out.

Paranormal Theories

Links to possible extraterrestrial activities were inevitable and have abounded for many years. The main argument put forth to bolster that opinion is that there are various reports of UFO sightings near crop circle sites. The theories are diverse and include UFO landings, messages sent by extraterrestrial beings, or a physical representation of collective human consciousness.

Crop Circles

A variety of independent scientific (or pseudo-scientific) researchers claim to have proven the non-human origin of certain crop circles – but without encountering real recognition. Conspiracy theories of government cover ups are also widely mentioned to make up for the lack of concrete evidence to back up such theories.

Crop circles continue to captivate people as a semi-solved mystery. In any case, the existence of crop circles has become a hallmark in pop culture, stimulating tourism in their home countries, while movies and TV shows offer new interpretations to the public.

Related Histories:

History of the Berlin Wall

The Cold War which lasted for more than 40 years was a struggle between two major ideologies and while there were many events and items that symbolized the struggle between the East and the West, one structure- the Berlin Wall was one of the most recognizable symbols from this time period. In fact, with the eventual tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War in effect ended. Here is the history of the Berlin Wall.

Germany After World War II

At the end of World War II, Nazi Germany was carved up into four specific occupation zones as part of the Potsdam Agreement. The four occupational zones would from this point on be controlled by the Allied powers which included the French, British, Americans and the Russians. In addition, to dividing up the remains of Nazi Germany into four occupational zone, the city of Berlin, which would be the governing seat would also be divided into 4 zones, again controlled by the 4 Allied members. However in 1949, as the Cold War began, instead of jointly governing the region as originally proposed, the Soviet Union created a new state from their occupational zone called the GDR (German Democratic Republic which included East Berlin and the Americans, British and French consolidated their regions into one state now called the Federal Republic of Germany which included West Berlin.

Berlin Wall

The Two States Begin to Diverge

The two countries set up by the Allied powers the GDR and West Germany began to diverge almost immediately as the two countries were based on different ideologies and market principles. West Germany was based upon the West’s free market system and democratic government. The GDR was based on the Soviet Style planned economy and communist ideology. Within a few short years after each country was created, there were recognizable differences in quality of life and life style. In fact, during the early 1950′s as West Germany and West Berlin became quite prosperous and as the GDR and East Berlin lagged behind many in East Germany and East Berlin began to emigrate.

Not everyone left for purely economic reasons. In fact, many of those living in the Eastern Bloc countries went through borders at East and West Berlin in order to flee the Sovietization and Joseph Stalin. It should be noted that in the early 1950′s there was no natural border between East and West Berlin and traffic moved quite freely between the city, many in the Eastern Bloc took advantage of this crossing point. In fact, many East Berliners moved back and forth between the border during this time. However, as time went by, the exodus to the West was apparent and it caused the GDR and the Soviet Union to take action.

During 1950, 51, 52 and 53 close to a million citizens left the GDR for the West. This was a huge percent of the population and to make matters worse, it was causing a huge brain drain since the most likely people to leave were those that were highly educated or skilled.

Berlin Wall

Restricting Travel Between East & West Berlin

In the very early 1950′s the East/West Berlin border could be easily crossed, however as the Soviet Union started to crack down on emigration, so too did the Eastern Bloc countries including the GDR. On April 1, 1952 a meeting took place between leaders of East Germany and Stalin. Stalin’s foreign minister introduced a system of passes for visits to West Berlin, in addition, Stalin told the East Germans to quickly build up the border and to create a demarcation line between East & West Germany. However, Stalin went one step further, he communicated to the East Germans that he wanted a very dangerous border, one where the East Germans will guard the border with their lives.

With this meeting, the border between East & West Germany was closed and even a barbed wire fence was erected. However, while the inner border of East & West Germany was constructed, the border in Berlin remained opened. With the rise of restrictions, many East Germans and Eastern Bloc citizens started to fear further tightening and started to emigrate en masse.

In 1956, as emigration continued on a large scale- usually under the disguise of family visits, the East German in effect eliminated all travel to the West. Even with all travel for East Germans effectively eliminated, since the border at Berlin was administered by the four occupying powers, it was still possible for many East Germans and Eastern Bloc citizens to find ways through Berlin to the West. In fact, by the end of the 1950′s almost 90% of all emigrants came through the border at Berlin. It should be noted that there were penalties for getting caught for crossing the border illegally- usually heavy fines, but since there was no natural border and there were even subway train access to East Berlin, many found Berlin to be the most practical way to cross into West Germany.

The Berlin Wall is Constructed

For more than a decade, the emigration problem was doing plenty of damage to not only East Germany, but the Eastern Bloc countries due to the brain drain of highly educated and skilled people leaving for the West. However, in 1961 the border issue came to a head and on August 12, 1961, Walter Ulbricht which was the First Secretary of the Socialist Part and the GDR State Council Chairman signed the order to close the border and build a wall to separate East & West Berlin.

The wall began construction at midnight on Sunday August 13, 1961 as the police and the East German Army closed the border. They then went ahead and started to tear up streets that were along side the border to ensure that vehicle traffic could not pass. The first actions of constructing a wall was the installation of barbed wire and fences which bordered the entire length of the three western sections (97 miles) and separated the city of Berlin into two (27 miles). The Berlin Wall was built on the inside of East Berlin and East Germany to ensure that none of the Allied borders were infringed on.

On August 15, concrete slabs of the Berlin Wall started to be laid. It should be noted that besides concrete, chain fences, minefields and other obstacles were also installed along the inner border to stop defectors.

Response from the West

The Western countries including the Allied forces of the US, UK and France were obviously enraged, however, the reality of the situation left little recourse. A war with the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries was out of the question as it was believed it would include nuclear weapons and while diplomatic channels were being used, it was realized early on that the removal of the Berlin Wall would not happen in the short term.

It should be noted that while the Berlin Wall was constructed there were still border crossings due to the fact that the Potsdam agreement created an Allied zone. In total, there were 8 border crossings between East and West Berlin. While GDR citizens were not allowed to leave their country, as well as other socialist countries (unless they had the proper permits), West Germans and Allied personnel could cross into East Germany. One of the most well known border crossings was called Checkpoint Charlie. It was mainly used by Allied personnel and foreigners. In the early years of the Berlin Wall being constructed, generally speaking West Germans and foreigners could not enter into East Berlin, however as the years progressed, Western citizens could apply for a visa to visit East Germany, but the government could still refuse entry.

Berlin Wall

Escape Attempts at the Berlin Wall

With the construction of the Berlin Wall, many citizens of East Germany tried to defect by climbing over the wall. In fact, about 5,000 people successfully escaped to West Berlin during the time the wall was erected, however many people also died trying to cross the wall. It is estimated that over 200 people were killed trying to escape over the wall. While official orders form the GDR did not necessarily state to kill a person trying to defect, it did authorize force including being shot at. It fact, the strip around the wall was named the death strip, because if an escapee was wounded, the West could not save the defector, no matter how close they were to the wall (as the West did not want to provoke an international incident). Many times, defectors shot or injured near the wall would simply bleed to death. The last person to be shot trying to defect was in February 1989, less than a year prior to the dismantling of the wall.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Being one of the many symbols of communism, it is no surprise that with the decline and eventual end of the Soviet Union and communism also came the destruction of the Berlin Wall. The beginning of the end of the Berlin Wall came in late August of 1989 when Hungary, a country part of the Eastern Bloc removed defenses to its border with Austria. This helped thousands of Hungarians, as well as other Eastern Bloc countries to defect through Hungary into Austria. As many East Germans started to travel to Hungary in order to defect, the East German government halted travel for East Germans to Hungary. Shortly after Hungary removed its defenses with Austria’s borders, Czechoslovakia did the same. This time the GDR allowed East Germans to defect through Czechoslovakia. In addition to the removal of defenses, in 1989 with the Soviet Union releasing its grip on the Eastern Bloc, many mass demonstrations took place including within East Germany. On October 18, 1989 the leader of East Germany, Enrich Honecker resigned. Egon Krenz took his place.

As the demonstrations grew and grew- approaching over a million people in Alexanderplatz in November and as defectors continued to leave in droves through Czechoslovakia, the government was under pressure to allow emigration through its own borders. In order to ease this pressure, on November 9, 1989 Krenz decided to allow emigration directly through crossing the East German border into the West.

While the decision was made on November 9, the new border crossing regulations were to be implemented on November 10 in order to give the border guards enough time to prepare. However, Gunter Schabowski, the Party Secretary for Propaganda was to give the announcement. And while Schabowski was on vacation at the time, he was giving a press conference and was handed the new orders. Since the new order did not have the date of November 10, Schabowski thought the new orders were to be implemented immediately. At the press conference he announced the implementation of the new orders and with further questioning from reporters he made the statement that the new regulations would be implemented immediately and that the border crossings would include those of Berlin.

As thousands had either watched or heard the news conference, immediately afterwards, tens of thousands of East Berliners rushed to the checkpoints at the Berlin Wall and demanded to leave. As the border guards were overwhelmed and no government authorities would issued commands to use force, there was effect no way to hold back the thousands of citizens seeking entry to West Berlin. The border guards finally gave way and allowed East Berliners to leave. East Berliners were met on the other side by ecstatic West Germans and huge celebrations were underway.

From November 9 on, the Berlin Wall was quickly chipped away, using sledge hammers, construction tools, etc. Many people kept pieces or sold these pieces as souvenirs. The official dismantling of the Berlin Wall began on June 13, 1990 and as of July 1, 1990 the GDR instituted the West German currency and all border controls officially ceased. The last of the Berlin Wall was removed in November of 1991- however several pieces of the wall still stand as a memorial.

With the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, so to did the government of the GDR dismantle. Both the GDR and West Germany agreed to reunify. Reunification officially took place on October 3, 1990.

Related Histories:

History of AIDS

AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, is not a specific disease, but rather a syndrome of HIV infection paired with opportunistic infections. Because the Human Immunodeficiency Virus attacks the CD4 lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, the immune system of infected patients break down and ultimately stops functioning. The absence of immunity has made the patient vulnerable to diseases without any way to fight them, where a simple flu can debilitate an HIV-infected person.

Where did AIDS come from?

The place where it came from has been recently identified as Kinshasha in the Democratic Republic of Congo where a man with the same symptoms as AIDS died there in 1959. A blood sample was collected from his remains and laboratory results showed the man had an HIV infection. He probably died from complications caused by the viral infection.

AIDS Ribbon

How he was infected remained a mystery, however. Many experts believed that the disease was a form of SIV, or simian immunodeficiency virus, which was transferred from the chimpanzees to humans through ingestion of monkey brains and meat.

How was AIDS discovered?

The widespread incidence of AIDS in New York and California in 1981 led to its discovery. Recorded cases of otherwise healthy young men succumbing to a variety of diseases such as Karposi’s Sarcoma, a form of cancer, and Pneumocystis, a rare pneumonia, alarmed the medical community. Doctors called this outbreak GRID, or “gay-related immune deficiency,” which stigmatized the gay community as carriers of this new disease.

World AIDS Day

It was in 1982 when researchers began calling the new disease as AIDS to describe the occurrences of opportunistic infections, Karposi’s Sarcoma, and Pneumocystis pneumonia in healthy young men. A year later, 32 countries have confirmed incidences of the same disease in the United States.

Isolating the Virus

In 1983, French researchers at the Pasteur Institute have isolated a retrovirus that they believed caused AIDS. The virus was called human T-cell lymphotropic virus-type III/lymphadenopathy- associated virus (HTLV-III/LAV) by an international science committee. It was later called human immunodeficiency virus when the source of the virus has been traced to the SIV that killed the African monkeys.

Although the French researchers were the first to isolate the virus, the US government credits its discovery to Doctor Robert Gallo who claimed he has isolated retrovirus HTLV-III that was responsible for AIDS. Two years later, both viruses were confirmed to be the same. However, the credit for its discovery remained with Gallo. The virus was later renamed as HIV by an international committee of scientists.

AIDS

Available Treatments

After six years of intensive medical research, a new treatment for HIV arrives in 1987. FDA approved the use of the drug Retrovir (AZT, Zidovudine) in high doses to treat HIV patients. Five years later in 1992, FDA approved the first drug to be used in combination with AZT. The addition of the drug, Hivid, marked the beginning of HIV/AIDS combination therapies.

The fight against AIDS took another powerful step forward when power HIV-fighting drugs called Protease Inhibitors were introduced in 1996. Using these drugs in combination with existing HIV/AIDS drugs was effective in controlling HIV replication. The triple therapies seemed like the best option available for HIV/AIDS patients. However, a year later, scientists discovered that despite the potency of the drugs HIV/AIDS “hides” in reservoirs in the body, making it impossible to find the cure for HIV/AIDS.

Related Histories:

History of Ballet

The beauty of ballet is in its simplicity. The dancers do not need to wear costumes to portray a character. They do not need many props to create a scene. Most of all, the story is told only through body movements, gestures, and facial expression. Words are never used; not even a whisper is heard from the dancers.

Like the mimes, ballet dancers use all of their body parts and facial expression as mediums of communication. This kind of skill is learned through extensive training in dance academies and ballet schools. Children as young as five learn the art of ballet dancing from teachers who are ballet dancers themselves. The movements, such as dancing on one’s toes or maintaining a position, are so difficult to execute even when the dancer has undergone sufficient training. And yet, so many students still flock to dance academies to learn ballet. Why? What makes ballet so special?

Ballet

Dancing for the Royal Court

All through history, dancing has been a medium for men and women to express what they feel. Often, dancing is performed during festivities when everyone is celebrating. Ballet, as a form of dancing, was no different.

Ballet began as a form of entertainment for the Italian Renaissance court, and the dancers were noble men and women who were there to please their King or Queen. In court, they wore costumes, and danced on an elaborately decorated stage. Most of the time, the dancers had to wear masks to portray a certain character such as a fairy or an animal. Not only that, they had to use props to make the story as clear as possible for the audience to understand.

The French Connection

In ballet history, France is acknowledged as the place where ballet as an art truly developed. The dance was brought to the French court by Catherine de Medici when she became the Queen of France in 1547. She brought Balthazar de Beaujoyeulx, a gifted musician, with her to be her chief musician.

Among the numerous court productions made for the Queen, Le Ballet Comique de la Reine was the most celebrated. Historians consider it the first staging of ballet as we know it today. It was performed in 1581 in honor of a wedding. The story it told was of Circe, one of the Greek mythical characters who had the power to turn men into beasts. The ballet was a success and was often emulated all over Europe.

ballet

Dance Academies

The Ballet Comique de la Reine made France the capital of the ballet world. This reputation was further established when King Louis XIV, who loved dancing, founded the Royal Academy of Dancing to train professional dancers to perform for him and his court. Through the King’s academy, professional ballet was born.

Through serious training, the French ballet dancers developed skills that would have been impossible to do for amateurs. Companies of the same nature were established all over Europe. The most impressive of them was the Russian Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, which was founded in 1738.

The skills of the French dancers became widely known, and they began performing publicly in theatres. However, in 1760, the French choreographer Jean Georges Noverre’s criticism of the use of costumes and masks changed how the dance was performed. He complained that the dancers cared too much about showing their technical skills, and too little about the true purpose of ballet, which was to represent characters and express their feelings.

Noverre urged that ballet dancers should stop using masks, bulky costumes, and large wigs to illustrate or explain the plot and character. He declared that the dancers could express these things just as effectively by using only their bodies and faces. So long as the dancers were comfortable in executing the movements, they could show a range of emotions such as anger, joy, fear, and love. So long as the dancers did not look strained or uncomfortable doing difficult steps, they could show such emotions as anger, joy, fear, and love. Noverre developed the ballet d’action, which is a form of dramatic ballet that told the story completely through movement.

Ballet

Modern Ballet

Ballet flourished as the dance grew more sophisticated and mature. New ballet techniques such as dancing on one’s toes were taught to women to make them appear as if they are dancing on air like fairies or angels. The male dancers functioned as porters, lifting the women to show how lightweight they are.

The manner of dressing also changed. Unlike the bulkiness of previous costumes, the light white skirt worn by Marie Taglioni, daughter of Italian choreographer Filippo Taglioni, made her look every bit like her character in La Sylphide (1832). As a fairy-like being, Marie danced with a skirt that ended between her knees and her ankles, and with her shoulders, neck, and arms bare for everyone to see.

Because of ballet’s universal appeal worldwide, the ballet dancers and choreographers took the techniques they have learned to other countries. They established schools and dance companies in Russia and the United States, producing noteworthy graduates such as Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Maria Tallchief, Suzanne Farrell, Cynthia Gregory, Edward Villella, and Arthur Mitchell

Related Histories:

History of Disneyland

For many children all over the world, Disneyland is the Mecca of childhood dreams. Theme park attractions such as colorful stage and street shows with dancing and singing fairy tale characters, exciting themed rides and games, special tours to movie sets of popular films, and great food and accommodations mark the total family-friendly Disneyland experience. Every year, millions of tourists visit the theme parks of Disneyland in different parts of the world.

The Idea of a Theme Park

The idea for a theme park came to Walt Disney when he was visiting Griffith Park with his daughters Diane and Sharon. While watching his daughters ride the merry-go-round, Disney thought of building a place where both adults and children can appreciate and enjoy the rides and games.

Although many people have written to Disney, requesting to visit the movie sets of popular films, Disney thought a regular movie set would appear generally uninteresting to the regular moviegoer. This urging from the fans, however, germinated the idea of a theme park that can recreate the fantasy seen in Disney movies.

disneyland

The Happiest Place on Earth

Building the “Happiest Place on Earth,” as Disneyland is known throughout the world, took a long time and many highly skilled and creative people. To begin with, Walt Disney went to the Stanford Research Institute and hired a consultant, Harrison Price, to gauge the proper area to locate the theme park based on the area’s potential growth. Based on Price’s report, Disney bought 160 acres of land in Anaheim, southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County.

Funding was solved through a partnership between Disney and ABC Network. To raise funds for the theme park, Disney created a children’s show called Disneyland. In exchange for this, ABC Network partially funded Disney’s theme park project.

disneyland-2

For the first five years, Disneyland the TV Show was owned by a corporation composed of Walt Disney himself, Walt Disney Productions, Western Publishing, and ABC Network. In 1960, after it bought out Walt Disney and Western Publishing from the partnership, Walt Disney Productions bought out ABC Network’s share in the project. By this time, enough funding was available for construction to begin in July 18, 1954. Exactly one year later, the Disneyland Theme Park opened to the public.

Black Sunday

The day before the opening day, a press conference was held. It was by-invitation only, as well as, the opening day festivities. However, the event did not go as smoothly as planned. The “special preview” was plagued by problems: counterfeit tickets, newly built asphalt grounds, an unusually hot day, and a plumbers’ strike that left the water fountains dry.

The counterfeit tickets caused the crowd to swell. The freshly poured asphalt was still soft and the women’s high-heeled shoes sank into soft park grounds. Food vendors ran out of food. A gas leak in Fantasyland caused theme park management to close down Adventureland, Frontierland, and Fantasyland for the afternoon.

The unusually hot temperature made the people thirsty, but since Walt Disney chose to have running toilets instead of fountains, there was no option but to buy Pepsi, one of the sponsors, from the kiosks. People were enraged and blamed Pepsi for deliberately taking advantage of the dry drinking fountains to sell more soda.

To counter the bad press received by Disneyland that day, Walt Disney invited special guests and friends in the media for a “second viewing” so they could enjoy the true Disneyland experience. After the viewing, Walt held a party at the Disneyland Hotel for them.

disneyland-1

Because of all the problems encountered on that fateful Sunday, it will be forever referred as “Black Sunday” by Walt and his 1955 executives. Since that day, Disney has referred to July 18 as Dedication Day, and never mentioned July 18 as the opening day, even in the park’s publications.

From Theme Park to Resort

The transition from theme park to resort began in the 1990s. Disneyland Park, Disneyland Hotel, and the parking lot as well as the surrounding properties were marked for integration into a major vacation resort development. However, the park’s management was plagued by personnel problems and mismanagement issues, which pushed executives to shift and change people often.

Finally, in 2003, Matt Ouimet, former president of the Disney cruise Line, took over the management of Disneyland resort. Together with Greg Emmer as Senior Vice-President of Operations, they were able to turn around the problems regarding cosmetic maintenance and safety maintenance schedules.

Related Histories:

History of Email

Email was much older than the Internet itself. It was actually never invented, but evolved from very simple beginnings. Email messages were not sent, but left behind, much like leaving a note in someone else’s desk. The message would be left behind in a location that would be easily seen by the user when logged in.

Like Leaving a Note

The MAILBOX was probably the first email system of this type. It was first used at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1965. Another early program, SNDMSG, sent messages on the same computer. Therefore, before the Internet came, email messaging could only be done with the same computer.

Once the Internet was developed, making sure the message was sent to the right person became a problem. While the computers were able to recognize and “talk” with each other, identifying a specific person to receive the email message was much more complicated.

email

Nice Hack

Addressing the email message was invented by Ray Tomlinson in 1972. Like many Internet inventors, Tomlinson worked for Bolt Beranek and Newman as an ARPANET contractor. He chose the @ symbol from the computer keyboard to denote sending messages from one computer to another. Since then, for anyone using the Internet, addressing the email was as simple as nominating name-of-the-user@name-of-the-computer. The “nice hack” described by Internet pioneer Jon Postel lasted until this day.

Other Features

The other features of email like sorting and labeling emails in folders came much later. Larry Roberts invented some email folders for his boss so he could sort his mail, a big advance. In 1975, John Vital developed some software to organize email. By 1976, email had really taken off, and commercial packages were available for users.

email-1

Offline Readers

Connecting with the Internet cost a lot in those times. With connection charges costing many dollars a minute, it mattered to be able to prepare a reply without being connected to a telephone, and then get on the network to send it. Aside from the costs, problems such as keyboard functions such as delete keys and backspace keys did not work well, and lack of the “wrap around” text feature on the screen, vexed email users. Offline readers helped a lot.

Using offline readers allowed email users to store their email on their own personal computers, then read them, and prepare replies without actually being connected to the network. This setup is much similar to using an email client like Microsoft Outlook today.

Email Standard Protocols

Because the email’s features progressed from crude to sophisticated, standard protocols would have to be developed, especially for use in offline readers. One of the two standards, SMTP, or Simple Message Transfer Protocol, was the first important email protocol used. Although, it is still open to attacks from worms and viruses, the development of a stronger standard continues until this day.

The other standard is called POP, or Post Office Protocol. POP was an important standard that allowed different mail systems to work with each other. Both SMTP and POP were important configurations for email clients such as Microsoft Outlook to download email from the server, and to send email through the server using a desktop program.

Related Histories:

« Previous Entries

Histories of...