The space race was an important part of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and almost all space technology has come from the initial space race. While the Soviets made lots of early advancements, the Americans made it to the moon first. Today I’m going to cover the space race in chronological order.

The space race truly began at the end of World War II. Both the Soviet Union and the United States of American had captured rocket scientists from Germany, and, with their aid, began to start building spacecraft. The first spacecraft was Sputnik, sent into orbit by the soviets. News outlets turned this into propaganda, saying the U.S.S.R. had built a bomb that they could hurl down at will, and other lies like that. This did, however, begin to create insensitive for the U.S. to launch a satellite themselves, which they did.

The soviets then made several advances, putting the first living being (a stray dog) in space in 1917 on Sputnik 2, sending the first man into orbit in 1961, and making the first spacewalk in 1965.

On May 15^th, 1961 JFK made his famous speech that would set the expectation to put a man on the moon before 1970. This would basically set the end goal for the space race, and prompted NASA to create the Apollo program and the Gemini program for this sole purpose of reaching the moon.

The next major advance in space technology was when the Americans docked the first two spacecraft together, allowing for more complex missions in space. This would go on to become a very important part of almost every future space mission, including the moon landing, and it was also the entire basis that the international space station was built off of.

The first orbit of the moon was successfully made by the Apollo 8 manned spaceship in 1968. Finally, six months later, Apollo 11 achieved the impossible: setting the first two men on the moon. Following Apollo 11, there were a few more missions to the moon done by the Apollo spacecraft, and the Soviets also landed shortly afterwards. This was the climax of the space race, and public interest started to die down. The most recent moon landing to this date was Apollo 17 in 1972, and we have not been to the moon since then.

The real conclusion to the space race was when a United States Spaceship and a U.S.S.R. Spaceship docked to each other, and the two captains shook hands, signaling the healing of the relationship between the two nations. So the race ended.

Richard Nixon was born into a poor family in California in 1913. He grew up with his older brother and his three younger siblings. Richard excelled at school, graduating third in his class in 1937.

Nixon then attempted to go into law in California, but changed his mind to go work for the government in Washington DC. He didn’t like his job there either, and so he applied to join the Navy, and was accepted. Nixon worked for the Navy for two years before he decided to run for a position in the House of Representatives for California. Shortly afterwards, he was elected to the Senate. After this, Nixon served two terms as vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon then ran for President, but lost to JFK. He then tried to run for California Governor, but he also lost that election. After these two defeats, Nixon decided to take two years away from politics.

Nixon then ran for the 1968 Presidential Election, and was able to beat Humphrey Davy and win. Nixon was not a very good president for the people; inflation increased, and he didn’t really do anything good for the people outside of ending United States involvement in the Vietnam war, if you can count that.

For Nixon’s second election, he sabotaged the election, and so of course he won. Nixon decided that he would rather resign from being President than be impeached and be forced from office. With his reputation in tatters, Nixon left Washington D.C.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on March 29, 1917, to Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose F. Kennedy. John would be nicknamed Jack throughout his childhood. As a young boy, Jack was very ill a lot of the time, and had already contracted several diseases at age three. He was not expected to live adulthood. Jack lived every day like it could be his last; however, Jack was able to go to school, and was actually quite the prankster during high school in particular.

After graduating from high school, Kennedy went on to study law and politics, and he wrote his first bestselling book about Britain in World War II at a young age. This established Kennedy as a generally known name in politics before he even participated in the government.

Kennedy then enlisted in the US army in WWII, and became the commander of a torpedo submarine. When it was attacked by Japan, JFK spent several hours swimming around the wreckage, finding every survivor, and then they were able to swim three miles to the nearest land, where they would be rescued.

After returning home from the war after the submarine incident, Kennedy’s older brother died, and Kennedy’s father began to pressure JFK into running in politics. Kennedy didn’t really want to, but he did it anyway. In 1946, he was elected to the House of Representatives, and then in 1953 he was elected into the senate. Also in 1953 JFK would marry. Finally, in 1960, JFK was nominated for president, and he won the election.

Kennedy’s two biggest accomplishments as president were probably pushing for the space race and delaying the Vietnam war for as long as he did.

Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 2^nd, 1963. He had been riding in a parade with his family, and was shot twice, one of those being fatal.

Today I’m going to talk briefly about four different authors that wrote during the 20^th century.

C.S. Lewis is the author of the award winning book series, Narnia. C.S. Lewis’ full name is Clive Staples Lewis. He is one of the most famous modern authors, with millions of people still reading his books today. His most famous series is The Chronicles of Narnia, which I have read multiple times over myself. Lewis did not actually write the books in the chronological order of the story, rather writing the main narrative and then adding in a prequel and some other small additions and retcons.

J.R.R. Tolkien is another famous author of the twentieth century. He wrote The Lord of the Rings, a series of books that I have not been fortunate enough to read for myself as yet. I do want to begin to read his books at some point, but don’t yet have the time to make that investment, although I really want to. Tolkien would go on to become one of the most famous authors, and his books have become a staple of fantasy literature.

The next author I’m going to talk about is, believe it or not, Albert Einstein. Einstein was famous for his theory of relativity, as well as his other mathematical genius, and he published the majority of his works, and so he earned a place on this list.

I decided that it would be appropriate to include Dr. Seuss on this list, even though we didn’t study him. Dr. Seuss is one of the most influential authors of the century, and I honestly find it amazing that my teacher didn’t think he was important enough to cover in his lesson. Although Dr. Seuss didn’t write adult literature, he did create a multitude of famous characters and stories for children, and he has become one of, if not the most, well respected children’s author of all time.

All of these authors had a large influence on the culture of their time, and have published some works that will (probably) entertain us for hundreds of years to come.

• In 1939, the first war was declared. Hitler had been preparing for expansion to Germany for years.
• The war began with Germany’s invasion of Poland, and France and England declared war to try and stop Germany.
• Using their new tanks, Germany conquered Poland, Belgium, Holland, and France very quickly
• It was at about this time that Japan bombed pearl harbor, prompting the US to join in active combat.
• Four key battles took place that turned the tide of the war:
  • Operation Barbarossa: Germany failed to make headway against the USSR
  • June 6, 1944 D-Day: The allies gained a foothold on mainland Europe near Germany
  • May 1942 The battle of the coral sea: A naval battle between Japan and the US, won by the US.
  • June 1942 The battle of Midway: another naval battle in which the US. crushed the Japanese
• Over the remaining years of the war, Germany would get pushed back into it’s former footprint buy the USSR and the British and the US. It surrendered on May 8 1945.
• The Atomic Bombs were dropped on Japan, and they surrendered shortly afterwards, on September 2 1945.
• The war would go on to start tensions between the USSR and the US, which would go on to become the cold war.

The Russian Revolution was an important event in history, as it led to the downfall of the Russian economy, the beginning of communism in Russia, and the cold war, just to name a few reasons why. Russia went from a government similar to the others in Europe ruled by tsars (pronounced zars) to being the Soviet Union or the USSR, a large communist economy.

It all started with Tsar Alexander II. He attempted to reform the country, but was assassinated. His son Alexander III also attempted to reform the country, but was assassinated. His son Nicolas II would go on to have a role in the real revolution rather than just dying beforehand. Nicolas also failed, but not quite as bad as his father and grandfather. It was at about this time that Vladimir Lenin began to organize a socialist party, but because he was stubborn with his beliefs about communism, it caused a split in his party.

The Tsar’s advisor realized that the underlying problem with Russia was its economy and its lack of modern technology, so he borrowed money in order to build some factories. The working conditions for the people just got worse when these factories started, and this caused more unrest. At this time, Japan also tried to conquer some Russian territory, and so a war ensued. Japan whipped Russia, causing even more distrust in the government.

A peaceful protest would be lead by a priest against the Tsar. They literally just wanted him to read their petition to make the people’s working conditions better, and in response the imperial troops fired at them. Hundreds of civilians were slain that day for no reason. Workers started going on strikes.

A new advisor for the Tsar had been appointed, and this fixed some of the original issues with the economy, but also made it a little worse in other areas. The country was about back to where it started when World War One broke out. The war brought partition to Russia, but it also brought spending. Resources in Russia went dry quickly, with little food and starving people, most of the population was starving, and mutiny and uprisings started. The communists then forced the Tsar to resign his position, and so the last Tsar resigned.

Vladimir Lenin finally returned from his long exile from Russia, and he quickly abolished the nine-month-old government that had taken the place of the old Russian government for the short time after the Tsar’s resignation and his arrival. He formed the socialist party, with himself as the leader. The people, however, hated Lenin. He acted just as much like a dictator as the Tsars, and they hated him. Lenin’s health declined as the Russian civil war started up, with the red soviets (Lenin’s party) eventually winning. Lenin died shortly after this. Joseph Stalin took over as the head of the new USSR.

The Russian Revolution was important because, not only did it introduce communism to Russia, it would be Joseph Stalin who would fight the Cold War with America, the first true nuclear war.

World War One (referred to henceforth as WWI) was the second largest military conflict to date, only being outmatched by the Second World War, just a short time later. The war started as a small conflict between Austria-Hungry and the small country of Serbia, and escalated into a war that involved countries and settlements across the globe. First, I am going to go through a list of countries that were involved in the war. I will then give a brief summary of the war in chronological order with names of battles and dates, and then I will summarize the effects that the war had on the world.

The war began when Austria-Hungary had some problems with the small country of Serbia. Serbia called on their ally Russia to help protect them from Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary then, in turn, called on Germany to aid them in taking down Russia and Serbia. See where this is going? Russia called on their ally France, and then Austria-Hungary called on the dying Ottoman Empire to aid them. Later on in the war, the British Empire, Japan, Belgium, Italy, and the United States of America would join the Allies. The Central Powers remained as just Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans.

The first conflict in the war happened when the Germans tried to go around the French defenses through Belgium, but the Belgians put up a good defense. This battle was called the Battle of Liege, and occurred in August of 1914. Belgium immediately joined the allies. Britain was pissed that Germany had attacked a neutral country, and this prompted them to join the war on the side of the Allies as well. Already, the Central Powers were getting ganged up on by the rest of the world. Throughout the rest of the war, the Germans would not be able to make much headway in France.

Russia started on the offensive shortly after this, gaining some territory. Serbia was also able to repel the Austria-Hungarian army’s attempts at invasion. The British also create a naval blockade across the north sea so that Germany can not import via the ocean. The entirety of the allies also attacked German colonies; Australia took care of new guinea quickly, and the other allied colonies in Africa attacked the German colonies there as well. Around this time, Japan and Italy also joined the allied forces, and they began to conquer some more German colonies.

Italy started an offensive against Austria-Hungary, but they were also caught in a stalemate. The ottomans attempted to go on the offensive against Russia, but they were to weak, and Russia pushed them back. The ottomans also tried to take the Suez canal from the

British, which also failed miserably.

This is when the Germans started to use nuclear warfare against the Allies, and they also started using submarines to sink the allied ships. The Allies also started using the same sort of tactics, but only because the Germans did the same.

Bulgaria also joined the war on the side of the central powers, because of the promise of some of Serbia’s land. Serbia was finally conquered by Austria-Hungary with help from Germany and Bulgaria.

Greece then joined the war, also on the side of the allies. The allies transferred lots of troops to Greece, and they started pushing their way into Austria-Hungarian territory.

The next major turning point in WWI was the Russian Revolution. Under the new government, Russia backed out of the war, and would no longer trouble the Central Powers.

Germany realized that it was likely that the United States of America would join the war, so Germany got a head start by trying to get Mexico to attack America. The letter was intercepted by the British, who showed it to the Americans, and that was the last straw. The Americans joined in the war on the side of the allies. Not long after this, the fresh reinforcements from the Americans were able to push back the Germans out of France. The war was at a close.

One by one, all the Central Powers surrendered. Germany got the short end of the peace treaty, and they were forced to keep their army small and they also had lots of other punishments. They also now had a grudge with the many of the allies, and this would go on to spark World War 2: The Sequel. The war also caused the final downfall of the Ottoman Empire, and it was split up into smaller nations and provinces. The war also strengthened the economy of the United States, and also led to new advancements in war technology, including tanks and fighter planes.

WWI was also one of the bloodiest in history, with over seventeen million soldiers dead, and over twenty million wounded. After WWI, everybody called it the Great War, and thought that nothing could top it. Little did they know, there would be a sequel before too long.

In this essay, I’m going to talk about the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth amendments to the constitution of the United States of America. Amendment sixteen made income tax allowed, amendment seventeen clarified the rules of the senate, amendment eighteen banned liquors, and amendment nineteen allowed women to vote in elections.

Amendment sixteen was probably one of the worst amendments to the constitution. Literally its only purpose is to make the income tax allowed. It was the first amendment to give congress power instead of giving it to the people. This was one giant leap in the wrong direction, and gave Americans an income tax that would only get bigger as time goes on. Income tax is one of the many taxes that have to be filed to pay for all sorts of things, many of which should be privately funded instead of funded by taxpayers (eg. public schools, exploration for alien life, and other government nonesense). Basically, income tax should not be legal.

Amendment seventeen confirmed that there were two senators per state, and that the term of each senator lasts six years.

Amendment eighteen banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor, basically banning the entire existence of liquor in the United States of America. I guess you could still drink liquor if you already had it, but that’s it. Of course, people still did it illegally. This would go on to be reverted in the twenty-first amendment, which made it so it was legal again.

Amendment nineteen allowed all citizens of the United States of America to vote, regardless of sex. The fifteenth amendment had already stated that all races could vote, so now, anybody who was taxed was allowed to vote. There is not much more to be said about this amendment.

In conclusion, two of these amendments were good, and two of these amendments were bad. The confirmation of the rules of the senate were good because they could get rid of some confusion. The ban of liquor was bad, not because I think it is good to drink, but because government restrictions are almost never a good thing, and people were still going to do it illegally. Income tax is very bad, and legalizing it is also very bad. There should be as few taxes as possible. Lastly, allowing every citizen of the United States of America to vote is very good, because that means everybody can get representation in the corrupt American government.