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FACT OF THE DAY
Fox tossing once was a popular sport in some parts of Europe. The sport consisted of a canvas sling and two people on either end who would fling the fox into the air.
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
WORLD WAR II
WORLD WAR II - JEWISH DIARY
HALLOWEEN
THE TROJAN WAR
THE TROJAN WAR WAS A WAR FOUGHT BETWEEN THE TROJANS AND THE GREEKS, WHICH WAS FOUGHT OVER A GODDESS NAMED HELEN OR HELEN OF TROY OR HELEN OF SPARTA (SHE HAS MANY DIFFERENT NAMES). DURING HER WEDDING TO MENELAUS (THE HUMAN KING OF SPARTA), ALL THE GODS AND GODDESSES ATTENDED THE RECEPTION. WHEN ERIS THE GODDESS OF DISCORD WAS NOT ALLOWED INTO THE WEDDING, SHE THREW HER GIFT; A GOLDEN APPLE WHICH HAD THE INSCRIPTION ‘FOR THE FAIREST’ INTO THE WEDDING. ATHENA, APHRODITE, AND HERA ALL DOVE FOR THE APPLE AND FOUGHT OVER WHO WOULD POSSESS THIS ITEM. TO SETTLE THIS DISAGREEMENT, THEY ASKED PARIS THE PRINCE OF TROY TO DETERMINE WHO WAS THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL. (SOUND LIKE A CERTAIN FAIRYTALE?) OBVIOUSLY, THEY ALL TRIED TO BRIBE HIM, BUT APHRODITE WON HIM OVER BY PROMISING THE LOVE OF THE BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD: HELEN OF SPARTA. PEOPLE THINK THAT HELEN WAS EITHER CAPTURED BY PARIS OR THEY FELL IN LOVE INSTANTLY AND WENT TO TROY TOGETHER TO LIVE TOGETHER FOREVER. ANYWAY, HELEN’S HUSBAND MENELAUS WAS FURIOUS AND CONVINCED HIS BROTHER AGAMEMNON, KING OF MYCENAE TO GO BY SEA TO RETRIEVE HELEN. AGAMEMNON BROUGHT GREEK HEROES SUCH AS ACHILLES, ODYSSEUS, NESTOR, AND AJAX. AFTER TEN YEARS FILLED WITH MANY BATTLES, THE GREEKS PRETENDED TO BACK OUT OF THE WAR BUT HID A COMPANY OF MEN INSIDE A WOODEN HORSE AND PUT THE HORSE AT THE DOORS OF TROY AS A GOODBYE GIFT. THERE WERE SEVERAL WARNINGS FROM PRIESTESSES ABOUT THE HORSE, BUT THE TROJANS TOOK THE HORSE INSIDE THE WALLS ANYWAY. DURING THE NIGHT, THE HORSE WAS BROUGHT IN AND THE GREEKS CREPT OUT AND BURNED THE CITY WHICH WON THE TROJAN WAR. THEY BROUGHT HELEN BACK TO TROY AND PEOPLE THINK SHE WAS KILLED. NOW THAT YOU KNOW THE SHORT VERSION OF THE TROJAN WAR LET'S THINK ABOUT IT IN THE MIND OF HELEN.
HELEN WAS CAPTURED BY PARIS THE KING OF TROY AND TAKEN HUNDREDS OF MILES AWAY FROM HER HOME TO LIVE IN A CITY WHERE HER FAMILY DID NOT LIVE AND WHERE SHE KNEW NOBODY. THIS CAUSED PEOPLE TO FIGHT AND DIE. PEOPLE DID NOT JUST FIGHT FOR THE SAKE OF IT THEY FOUGHT OVER HER. SHE NEVER GOT A SAY IN ANYTHING. SHE DID NOT GET TO CHOOSE WHETHER SHE WANTED TO GO HOME WITH HER HUSBAND TO SPARTA OR STAY IN TROY WITH PARIS. SHE WAS CLUELESS ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING ON OUTSIDE HER AREA SINCE SHE WAS LOCKED UP SO THE GREEKS WOULD NOT FIND HER. I THINK THAT HELEN WOULD HAVE LIKED TO GET A SAY AND IF SHE DID I THINK THAT SHE WOULD HAVE CHOSEN TO STAY IN TROY. TROY WAS A WEALTHY PLACE WHILE SPARTA WAS A POORER PLACE WITH A LOT OF POVERTY. PEOPLE FROM SPARTA CONSTANTLY MOVED TO TROY TO TRADE AND LIVE A WEALTHIER LIFE. HELEN COULD HAVE LIVED THERE WEALTHIER THAN SHE DID IN SPARTA AND COULD HAVE HAD A NICE LIFE WITH PARIS AND HIS FAMILY.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
MARTIN LUTHER KING BIOGRAPHY
You might have heard of MLK or Martin Luther King Jr. He is the Man who gave the “I Have A Dream'' speech. He is the man known to have led the Civil rights movement and “ended” it (no one can ever end the civil rights movement or now BLK or Black Lives matter because racism is always going to happen). Anyway Martin Luther King Jr, has a long history from when he was just a child to his short but successful time in the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr, was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia as the middle child of the King family. At the time of his birth he had an older sister, but later he would get a younger brother. During his childhood and adulthood the law was of Segregation. Schools, buses, and restaurants had different places for white people and black people to sit. Typically the places where black people sat were not nearly as nice as where white people would sit. Sometimes, (if you were black and in a restaurant) the cushions might have been teared and hurt to sit on. Martin noticed this racial separation at a young age and decided that he wanted to dedicate his life to making America equal and have equality for both white and black people for future generations to come. As a highschooler he went to Booker T. Washington High School. There he was so smart that he was able to skip 2 grades. This resulted in him starting his college education at the young age of 15. He got a degree in Sociology at Morehouse, then went to Crozer Seminary to get a divinity degree. After that he went to get a doctor's degree in theology from Boston University. His dad was also a preacher. This inspired Martin to pursue ministry as well. In 1953 he married Coretta Scott King, his wife who would be there with him to the last of his days. Together they would have 4 kids. Yolanda King who was born November 17, 1955, Martin King lll who was born October 23, 1957, Dexter KIng who was born January 30, 1961, and finally Bernice King who was born March 28, 1963. Martin Luther King and his King believed that peace was the way to end racial injustice. When Rosa Parks, another activist, refused to stand up for a white man, King participated in the year long boycott to end racial injustice on buses. In 1965 he and his wife Coretta also led the famous 5 day march that started in Selma and ended in Montgomery Alabama, to get the right to vote. Thousands of peaceful followers participated in this march for justice. King also gave lots of speeches. On August 28, 1963 he gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech”. But because of these marches and speeches he went to jail multiple times. Luckily one time, though, presidential candidate John F Kennedy intersected and got King released (this act was highly credited for helping him win the election). His “I Have a Dream Speech” was a huge success. This speech is basically what made President Lyndon B. Johnson finally pass The Civil Rights Act in 1964, a year after his speech. Not only did the Civil Rights Act pass in 1964, but King also won the Nobel Peace Prize. 4 years later after accomplishing what he wanted too and after winning the Nobel Peace Prize his life came to an end. While Martin was standing on his hotel room in Memphis, TN fighting for better housing, wages, workplace safety and schools for the underprivileged, he was shot in the head and killed by James Earl Ray. In Conclusion Martin Luther King had an amazing and Memorable life. We continue to honor his bravery and determination on January 18th every year. This day which was signed into existence in 1986, is known as Martin Luther King or MLK day.
HISTORY OF VIDEO GAMES
You are sitting in your chair staring at your screen, with a controller in your hand. You could be playing many games from Pacman to Call of Duty or Fortnite. These games are awesome but something has to be behind it. Right? This article will show you the inside story of how many different video games were created and turned into what they are today. So put your controller down and peak on the world inside of your favorite new and old video games.
Pong
Why are you talking about Ping Pong you may ask? After all, it is a physical tennis game and we are talking about video games. I see why you might think that from the name of the game. However this was actually the first video game and is what inspired Ping-Pong or Table Tennis. Pong was created in 1972 by the Atari Ink video game company. However the real man behind the first video game was actually German born Ralph Baer who brought up the idea of making simple games that people could play through a screen. He originally came up with Pong as a virtual tennis game that could be played on the new and first video game console called The Magnavox Odyssey. This game became famous really quickly and that is when the founder of Atari (which was a small company then) created the arcade game of Pong and in 1972 they sold more than 8,000 arcade games. Unfortunately it lost it’s popularity in the 1980’s when the concept of video games became less cool.
Pacman
Most of us know the game of pacman. The game that makes this yellow figure eat up dots and dodge ghosts. But how many of you know how this popular game was made? I’m guessing very little of you know the history. Well let’s learn the history of pacman. The dot eating game of pacman was originally created and released in Japan on May 21st, 1980. That same year in October it was released in the U.S.A and became an instant phenomenon. In fact according to Thought. Co , “By 1981, approximately 250 million games of Pac-Man were being played in the U.S. each week on 100,000 Pac-Man machines.” To add on Thought. Co also said that since then Pacman was released on every video game platform. On top of all of that In 1982, an estimated 30 million Americans spent $8 million a week playing Pac-Man. Yikes, that is a lot of money. We all know Pacman is the eating game with a yellow pie shaped figure. But did you know the inspiration for this? Well turns out the inspiration for him was actually pizza. Interesting isn’t it? There was also inspiration for the whole game itself. However Pacman did not turn out like it’s inspirations, in fact the designers took a whole different turn. According to a video game designer Toru Iwatani, Pacman was originally supposed to be a more violent game. This idea was adopted from more violent games of that time like Asteroids, Space Invaders, Tail Gunner, and Galaxian. The break from a shoot-em up style of video games would crack open the video game universe.
Mario Bros
One of the most popular games is Mario Bros. Having 23 games that were created and released all the way from 1985 to even now 2021. The idea of defeating the evil Bowser and saving the glorious Princess Peach attracted and is still attracting lots of attention. However what inspired this, what created this? Well like Pac man, Mario bro’s was made in Japan by a manufacturer that is very well known called Nintendo Entertainment System or Nintendo for short. It starts with two italian plumbers who find themselves in a mushroom kingdom trying to rescue Princess Toadstool or Princess Peach from the evil king bowser who is trying to marry her. According to Brittanica. Com, “ It is one of the best-selling game series, with more than 40 million copies sold.” Originally it was released in Japan but later that year it quickly came to the US and became extremely popular. However if legendary video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto who also created other hit games like Donkey Kong,The Legend of Zelda, and Star Fox had his way of the game it wouldn’t exist or at least would be really different and not as we know it today. Miyamoto first designed Mario as a carpenter and the protagonist of Donkey kong who is his pet monkey. He is trying to save his girlfriend from Donkey kong. However 4 years later Miyamoto decided that a plumber would be a better career for Mario. Originally Miyamoto was hired to create a brand new game after Nintendo’s failure. That was when he created Mario who at the time was called jump man. Mario soon became a hit while being a character in Donkey Kong and so Miyamoto decided to create a new game surrounded around him and his newly created brother now known as Luigi. This game Mario Bro’s was predominantly released in Japan only 2 years later it exploded world wide. Miyamoto created a new game called Super Mario Bro’s. As time went on Nintendo started creating new Mario games like Mario Kart and Mario Odyssey as well as other games that included Mario like Smash Bro’s.
Fortnite
Fortnite is another popular game. It is a game about survival that involves you using different weapons to eliminate people and the last one standing wins what is called a Victory royale. This game was originally announced in 2011 at the Spike Video Game Awards. “It was a project that was pitched internally several months ago that came together lightning fast…” according to the creator Cliff Bleszinski. From about 2015 to 2016 the creation of Fortnite went relatively quiet. The team continued to work on it and on July 25, 2017 the game Fortnite was released. Then you had to buy Fortnite, so it was not a free to play game although it would later be. In september of 2017 Fortnite BR or Battle Royale was released and became available on PC, Mac, Xbox One, and PS4. As Fortnite grew in 2018 Epic started giving regular updates to the game that added new features like as we know today Tilted Towers. Also in 2018 Epic did something that would change the video game world. They offered Fortnite on mobile devices. The game scored a 9.6. As time went on Fortnite kept expanding. Epic started to offer Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch. They also started doing live events. From 2020 - 2021 they have had people like popular K-pop group BTS perform live.
THE HISTORIC SITE
What is CMS History Club?
Hello everyone that joined the CMS historic community where every week we choose a historical topic and then we write about it we make videos and do many more things to help you connect with the past.