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It's a matter of taking
the side of the weak against the strong,
something the best people have always done.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe
The men who try to do
something and fail are infinitely better than those
who try to do nothing and succeed.
-- Lloyd Jones
Twenty years from now
you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by
the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe
harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
--Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
SEPTEMBER CURRICULUM:
http://www.preschoolbystormie.com/sept.html
http://www.preschoolbystormie.com/scircle.htm
Here is an entire curriculum laid out for the beginning
weeks of the school year. Introductions to numbers and letters lead to
reinforcement activities, with a further focus on circles, safety, and
typical introductory concepts for the start of the school year. The 2nd
URL above leads to accompanying lesson plans.
September is Spanish American
Month
http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6629.html?s1
Download a free poster celebrating Hispanic heritage at:
http://www.nysut.org/hispanic-heritage/index.html
BACK
TO SCHOOL IDEAS FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS
101 THINGS FOR THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF CLASS:
http://www.unl.edu/gradstud/GSAP/101things.html
Some very savvy ideas are offered here for involving and challenging your
students as soon as they enter the classroom--with enough to keep you
going for the first few weeks of school.
ACTIVITIES FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL: http://www.angelfire.com/ks/teachme/firstday.html
Cover all the basics for back-to-school through organizers, games, and
student activities listed at this site.
APPLE GLYPH: http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Fountain/2131/appleglyph.html
AMERICA GOES BACK TO SCHOOL:
http://www.ed.gov/Family/agbts/
BACK TO SCHOOL: http://www.childfun.com/themes/school.shtml
Find a collection of ideas and suggestions to get your own preschool class
up and running smoothly this September.
BACK TO SCHOOL: http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6600.html
BACK TO SCHOOL: http://www.teacherhelpers.homestead.com/BackToSchool.html
BACK TO SCHOOL
(5 Sites for Busy Educators): http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/glavac.html
BACK TO SCHOOL: http://www.geocities.com/teachermom22/backtoschool.html
BACK TO SCHOOL & NEW SCHOOL
YEAR TIPS AND ICE BREAKERS:
http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/backtoschool/index.html
BACK TO SCHOOL
CHECKLISTS: http://www.kinderthemes.com/checklist.html
School supplies, questionnaires, first day checklists, emergency info,
transportation, lunch notes, and reading logs--find templates for a wide
variety of kindergarten classroom forms at this site.
BACK TO SCHOOL CLIP ART: http://www.cstone.net/~bry-back/schoolclipart.html
BACK TO SCHOOL IDEAS:
http://www.proteacher.com/030005.shtml
BACK TO SCHOOL LESSON PLANS:
http://www.LessonPlansPage.com/BeginSchool.htm
BACK TO SCHOOL
LETTER TEMPLATES: http://teachingheart.net/backtoscletters.html
Now you don't have to plan for extra time to write up all your back-to-school
forms--this site has already done it for you. Welcome letters by grade,
intent letters, volunteer requests, newsletter forms, and several parent
letters are all included with these resources.
BACK TO SCHOOL PRINTABLE STICKER CHARTS:
http://www.preschoolprintables.com/schart/schartback.shtml
Choose crayons or apples as your Back to School theme for these printable
sticker charts. It's a good idea to choose early in your school year how
students can earn their stickers; lines are included for students' names
at the top.
BACK TO SCHOOL
PRINTABLES: http://teachingheart.net/backtoschoolprintables.html
Why not start school off with a class treasure hunt to familiarize your
students with all of the objects and features of your classroom? You can
download the form here. Also find a back-to-school reading comprehension
placement test, homework record forms, and several other useful school
and school to home printables.
BACK TO SCHOOL RECIPES:
http://allrecipes.com/all_back2school.asp
BACK-TO-SCHOOL RESOURCES: http://www.theeducatorsnetwork.com/main/resourcefeature.htm
BACK TO SCHOOL RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS: http://www.caslt.org/research/backtoschool.htm
BACK TO SCHOOL SAFETY CHECKLIST
FOR PARENTS: www.ncpc.org/10adu1.htm
BACK TO SCHOOL THEMED ACTIVITIES: http://www.childfun.com/themes/school.shtml
For early elementary classes, try out some of these activities to set
your students at ease in a new
classroom.
BACK TO SCHOOL TIPS FOR KIDS:
http://www.ncpc.org/10back2.htm
BACK TO SCHOOL WORD SEARCH:
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/games/wwf/puz10.html
BACK
TO SCHOOL WRITING: Have students tell
about themselves in a piece of writing called "About ______ (student's
name)". It is very teacher-directed but gets the kids writing in
descriptive sentences and paragraphs. The first paragraph must contain
information about their physical self (height, hair colour, eye colour,
favourite clothing, etc.). The 2nd paragraph is about their personality
(good and bad qualities, what others think about them, etc.). Paragraph
3 is about their family (where they live, sisters, brothers, pets, what
occupations their parents have). Paragraph 4 is about their interests
(music, sports, hobbies). The 5th paragraph is about their friends (who
they are, what they do together, what qualities they like about their
friends, etc.) The final paragraph is about school (what they like/don't
like about school, any goals they have). All of these instructions are
listed on a chart paper, with sample sentence starters. Talk about adjectives
and combining short sentences into detailed longer sentences. Go through
the writing process (brainstorm, draft, edit, final copy). As for the
art component of the activity, they could look in a mirror and sketch
themselves or sketch a friend. Cut around the portraits and mount them
on black paper, adding a title like "______ sketched by his/her friend
__________".
BEGINNING OF SCHOOL:
http://www.tcea.org/ftp/resources/begin.html
BEGINNING OF SCHOOL PACKET: http://www.inspiringteachers.com/tips/packet/index.html
Find 27 Tips for Parent Conferences, Sponge Activities, 50 Opportunities
to Say You're Terrific, and more--especially helpful for beginning teachers.
THE BEST BACK TO SCHOOL SITE EVER:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/9893/backtoschool2.html
BLANKET NAME GAME: http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/164.html
Get students to learn each other's names quickly with this active naming
exercise, in a relaxed, fun setting.
BREAK THE ICE:
http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/breakice.htm
These icebreakers are generally geared toward more mature students, involving
techniques to introduce each other and to get to know one or two important
characteristics about classmates.
BRIDGING THE GAP: http://family.go.com/raisingkids/learn/teacher/feature/dcpt98connect/dcpt98connect.html
Establish excellent school to home relationships with parents and families
at the very beginning of the school year. This article discusses some
of the early warning signs of potential problems, and how to correct them
early.
BULLETIN BOARDS
*BACK
TO SCHOOL IDEAS FOR BULLETIN BOARDS:
http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/bulletinboards/bboardideas.html
*Cover a bulletin board with blue
paper. At the top write "What Would You Do Today If You Were Brave."
Students write on it in light colored gel pens.
*Get
a red and white checked table cloth and staple it as the background paper.
The caption is "This Year Will Be A Real Picnic". Make large
black ants out of construction paper and gave them pipe-cleaner antenna
and wiggle eyes. On each ant body write a student's name with gel pens
(they show up on black paper). Use these ants as a boarder for the perimeter
of the table cloth. Then use cheap paper plates to write the subjects
on and staple them in the center of the table cloth. Each plate has a
separate subject (reading, spelling, handwriting etc.). Place a real picnic
basket on the floor and fille it with several of the text books the students
will be using during the year.
CLASSROOM DIVERSITY:
http://www.LessonPlansPage.com/SSClassroomDiversityBackToSchoolIceBreakerIdeaP3.htm
At Open House, parents are invited to mark on a world map where their
ancestors originally came from. They are also invited to come into the
classroom and talk about their ethnic group, discussing what special features
they celebrate in their cultural heritage. Consider having a cultural
heritage day, where students can dress up in traditional clothes and bring
in a special ethnic dish to share with the class. Invite parents and grandparents
as well.
CLASSROOOM
JOBS: Why and how to assign them:
http://k-6educators.about.com/library/weekly/aa090300a.htm
CLASSROOM
RULES???: http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/page.html
CLASS RULES AND CONSEQUENCES:
http://www.cbv.ns.ca/sstudies/activities/management/3.html
Different teachers have contributed ideas to how they handle defining
classroom rules--as well as the consequences for breaking those rules--at
the beginning of the school year.
COLLEGE PREPARATION: www.nextstepmagazine.com/College_Preparation/
CREATE A WELCOME
BROCHURE:
http://www.ILoveThatTeachingIdea.com/ideas/010416_create_a_welcome_brochure.htm
Here's a way to organize
all your info for back to school, set student and parent expectations,
and introduce yourself all at the same time. Instead of having several
different papers sent home at all different times, this brochure offers
a readily-available reference for families to keep throughout the year.
EDUCATION AT iVILLAGE.COM: http://www.ivillage.com/topics/family/education/
FIRST DAY CHECKLIST:
http://geocities.com/Heartland/Hollow/1213/chklist.html
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES: http://www.cbv.ns.ca/sstudies/activities/1rstday/1rst.html
Ice breakers, introduction games, and various other activities highlight
this list for back to school ideas for several different grade levels.
A FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL SCRIPT: http://teachers.net/gazette/MAR03/wong.html
FIRST DAYOF SCHOOL SUCCESS TIPS:
http://www.bridges4kids.org/articles/7-06/coulter7-26-06.html#top
" Most of us can remember some wonderful and terrible things about
school. In many ways, the first day of class can set the tone for a whole
school year. If you have a child with special needs, or one who is new
to the school or district, you can help lay the groundwork for a successful
year's launch with some basic preparations."
FIRST GRADE COMPASS: http://familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,3-2303,00.html
GETTING ACQUAINTED ACTIVITIES: http://www.schoolfutures.org/inteaacq.html
Find a "Me Book" interview form, survey cards, hunt for classmates
game, and several other activities to help your students get acquainted
during the first week back to school.
GETTING ACQUAINTED GAMES: http://vbsstuff.com/information/gettingacquainted.htm
Here is a list of getting to know you games to break the ice for the first
day or two back at school.
GETTING READY:
http://vpsd6.vrml.k12.la.us:8000/%7Emonah/Getready.htm
Use these suggestions for
teachers as a final checklist as you count down the days until school
begins.
GETTING TO
KNOW YOU: http://www.kinderart.com/across/knowyou.shtml
Great for PreK classes, students
will create a self-portrait of some kind (let them be as creative as they
wish) after discussing differences and similarities, while their parents
will use the letters of their children's names to describe their children
in an acrostic poem, to partner the portraits.
GINNY'S BACK TO SCHOOL LIST OF 10: http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/hoover.html
GOING "BACK 2 SCHOOL": http://expage.com/4back2school
HALL
DISPLAYS
*Create
an on-going display in the hall of things the class wonders about. Write
a question on one side of a circle hanging from a string. As they come
up with answers in the first few days, write the answers on the back.
Some questions will have clear answers; others will not. Some of the answers
will be pictures. Some of the answers will be opinions. Encourage students
to begin contributing their own wonderings right away, aiming for 250?
500? by Christmas. This creates a bank of questions to use as models during
instruction.
*Hang
a clothesline outside the classroom. The students trace,cut out and decorated
paper t-shirts with objects and words about themselves. Tell them to draw
what some of their favorite things are like: food, sports, activities,
etc. They can also use words to describe themselves. Created a shirt for
yourself. It was an easy way to get to know your students
HELPFUL HINTS FOR PARENTS: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/5059/5.html
HOW DO I FEEL?
http://www.LessonPlansPage.com/SSHowDoIFeel-Feelings-SolveProbsWOFightingIdeaPK.htm
Start off your school year
by teaching your students how to cope with difficult situations, including
anger and disappointment. By giving them proper tools to assess and draw
back from potentially disruptive situations, you are also setting your
expectations for their behavior throughout the year. This lesson plan
features dealing with feelings for positive experiences.
HOW TO START SCHOOL SUCCESSFULLY: http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/wong.html
ICEBREAKERS: http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v3i1/icebreak.html
Pair off your students and time them for 30 seconds only to find five
things they have in common... this exercise and others are geared to middle
school students and up.
ICEBREAKERS AND MIXERS: http://www.bbyo.org/bbg/ideas/mixers.html
All of the icebreakers included here are tension releasers, game-formatted
to help ease students into relaxing and getting to know each other.
ICEBREAKERS: VOL. 10: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson318.shtml
Links to Volumes 1- 9 are also found here.
IDEAS FOR WELCOMING TEACHERS 7 STUDENTS
BACK TO SCHOOL: http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/welcome.html
INFORMATION PACKET:
http://geocities.com/Heartland/Hollow/1213/welcome.html
IT'S TIME FOR BACK TO SCHOOL: http://www.bry-backmanor.org/backtoschool.html
LEARNING CENTERS: http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/560.html
Here's the how-to manual--from letters home to parents, to set-ups, and
activities for each subject area center.
LEARNING YOUR STUDENTS' NAMES; FUN,
FAST, EASY AND IMPORTANT: http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/page2.html
LESSON PLAN FORMS: http://www.ebrpss.k12.la.us/lessonforms/
McDONALD'S ACTIVITY SCHOOL PACK:
http://www.mcspotlight.org/company/publications/schools_pack.html
MEET STUDENTS
wearing a hard hat that says, 'Room ___ Construction Crew.' Discuss with
the students how starting a new school year is like building a house.
The foundation is the relationships we have with other people in the school
(other classes, the office staff, other teachers, etc.), the frame is
the relationships we have with our own classmates, and the interior is
the decorations in our classroom and around the school. Discuss how important
each of these elements is to making our school successful and how if one
part of our building falls down, the house won't stand up. Then talk about
building codes that regulate the building of houses. The students come
up with their own building code for our classroom (i.e.-rules). Throughout
the year, whenever there is a problem in the classroom, talk to the students
about how the house we have built is not working right and might collapse.
Go back and talk about the building code, which is much more interesting
way to discuss classroom rules.
"A
MILLION WORDS..."-A Wonderful Tool to Connect with Parents: http://www.middleweb.com/MWLISTCONT/MSLmillionwords.html
NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER GUIDE: http://www.middleweb.com/1stDResources.html
PARENTS: Building Resiliency: www.parenthoodweb.com/articles/phw538.htm
PREK BACK TO SCHOOL
THEME: http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/back-to-school.htm
Take-home bags, back to school
books, job chart ideas, bus safety rules... more themes appropriate to
early education classes are covered in this back-to-school special.
PREPARING FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL:
http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/zeiger.html
RAISING KIDS: Top Ten Back
to School Tips:
family.go.com/raisingkids/learn/school/feature/iowa89btschool/
READ Chrysanthemum
by Kevin Henkes, then do a name graphing game...which name is the longest,
the shortest, how many letters is the most common etc. It is also a good
lead in for a discussion about the classroom community and how we should
all treat one another (in the book some of her new classmates mock Chrysanthemum's
long, flowerish name).
RITUAL FOR NEW STUDENTS ENTERING ANYTIME OF THE YEAR:
- An welcome letter introducing myself
- Classroom expectations sheet that explains classroom procedures, guidelines
and grading (requiring a parent signature)
- Instruction on accessing our class webpage and their grades online (teacher
email addresses, as well)
- Standards and overview of units during the year
- A student survey to get information about the student, their family,
their interests, etc. (This might include some sort of exercise that demonstrates
their graphing skills, summary paragraph writing, etc.- could also replace
grades for activities that they come into the middle of)
- A questions/comments/concerns form that they could use to ask questions
or get clarification on things they are not comfortable about.
SCHOOL STARTS:
http://www.clayton.k12.ga.us/bulletinboards/school_starts!.htm
SECOND GRADE COMPASS:
http://familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,3-2269,00.html
SETTING A BUDGET FOR YOUR TEEN'S
BACK TO SCHOOL SHOPPING:
www.cnn.com/2001/fyi/teachers.ednews/08/16/school.shopping.ap/
SMART STARTS FOR THE BEST
SCHOOL YEAR EVER: http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG02/gruber.html
SNACKING TIPS: http://www.quakerchewy.com/snacking/tips.html
STUDENTS DESCRIBE
THEMSELVES in eight or less letters and/or numbers. Give them a license
plate template and tell them that they need to create a personal plate
that best describes an important aspect of their character. They decorate
their plates and explain why their choice of letters or numbers fits them.
Post the plates around the room so they get to see what their classmates
say about themselves. Parents enjoy seeing them on open house night.
STUDY TIPS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS: www.thesemester.com
TAKE HOME FOLDER
A cheap pocket folder can be given to the students the first day of school
with all the notes and instructions that must go home to parents inside.
Parents can sign the stuff and return it in the folder. Then the students
can use the folders for "take home" folders every week.
TEACHING IDEAS FOR THE START OF THE SCHOOL YEAR:
http://www.teach-nology.com/ideas/start_year/
From ice breakers to meaningful first day activities, this site offers
teacher-submitted suggestions for smooth transitioning during those first
days back. Covers PreK to grade 12.
TEAM
BUILDING ACTIVITIES: http://www.businessfundamentals.com/TeamBuilding.htm
THOUGHTS AT THE BOTTOM OF A BEANSTALK: Letter to Parents:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/5059/thoughts.html
TIPS FOR COLLEGE BOUND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH DIAGOSED LEARNING PROBLEMS:
www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/transition/college_tips.html
WELCOME BACK
TO SCHOOL: http://www.janbrett.com/welcome_back_to_school.htm
Print out copies of these back-to-school coloring pages for your preschool
students. Hold a class discussion on what both their expectations are,
and what you yourself anticipate for your class in the coming school year.
A "welcome bag"
for students (or teachers or parents):
* an apple (because each of you is the "apple
of my eye")
*a
bandage or bandaid(to remind you to heal hurt feelings in your friends
and in yourself, I am here to help heal hurt feelings, for when things
get a little rough)
*a Butterfinger (to remind you that we are all
human and make mistakes)
*a
button (reminds you to "button your lip" and don't tattletale)
*a
chocolate kiss (to comfort you when you are feeling sad)
*a
clothespin (to hang in there when things get tough)
*a
cotton ball (to remind you that this room is full of kind words and warm
feelings)
*an
eraser (to remind you that everyone makes mistakes and that it is OK,
we all makes mistakes and can fix them, those
who never make mistakes never make anything, to
use when you check over your work)
*a
crayon (to color your day)
*a
gold ribbon (to remind you that friendship ties our hearts together)
*a gold thread (friendship and respect
are the golden threads that tie the hearts of each of us together)
*a happy face (reminds you to keep
smiling, wear a smile everyday)
*a
Hershey's Hug (for all the hard work you put into your work)
*Hugs
& Kisses (to make everthing worthwhile)
*a
Life Saver (to remind you that you can come to me if you need someone
to talk to)
*a
marble (to replace those you lose from time to time)
*movable
eyes (we should keep "an eye out" for each other)
*an orange (orange you glad you are
in this class?)
*a paper clip (to help hold everything
together when it seems to be falling apart)
*a
pencil (to help you record the knowledge you have learn)
*a
pencil grip (to get a grip on the task at hand)
*a
penny is (remind you that you are valuable and special, to
shine and always try your best, for your thoughts in writers workshop)
*a pipe cleaner (we all have to be
flexible and be willing to bend a little)
*a
puzzle piece (without you, things wouldn't be complete)
*a
rubber band (to remind you to hug
someone, to help you stretch your imagination)
*a
sequine (you are valuable)
*Smarties
(you are all smart in different ways, to boost your test taking brain
power)
*a
sponge (to soak up the over-flow when you brain is too full)
*a
star (keep shining
and alway try your best, you
are a superstar, to remind you that you set
a shining example)
*a
sticker (to remind you that we will all stick together and help each other,
we are a team and always stick together,to help you stick with the task
at hand)
*thread (to remind us that friendship
ties our hearts together)
*a
tissue (to remind you to help dry someone's tears)
*a
toothpick (to remind you to "pick out" the good qualities in
your classmates and in yourself)
*wooden
heart (you are safe and secure in our room)
WHICH WAY TO SCHOOL?: http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag105.html
Young students will follow and solve a simple maze to find their way to
the school house.
The first Labor
Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 in New York
City. In 1884, the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday.
It is a holiday honoring working people, and it is observed throughout
the United States. This date was chosen because it filled up the long
gap between Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day. It constitutes a yearly
national
tribute to the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity,
and well-being of our country. The form that the observance and celebration
of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday--twenty
thousand workers marched in a parade up Broadway. They carried banners
that read:
"LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH," and "EIGHT HOURS FOR WORK,
EIGHT HOURS FOR REST, EIGHT HOURS FOR RECREATION!"
After the parade there were picnics all around the city. Workers and celebrants
ate Irish stew, homemade bread and apple pie. At night, fireworks were
set off. Within the next few years, the idea spread from coast to coast.Some
records show that Peter McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood
of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation
of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from
rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold". But
many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded
the holiday. In 1884, the Knights of Labor adopted a resolution that the
first Monday in September should be considered Labor Day. Many states
liked the idea, and adopted it. In 1887, Oregon became the first state
to make Labor Day a legal holiday. In 1894, President
Grover Cleveland signed a bill making Labor Day a national holiday. In
1898, Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labor had this
to say about Labor Day:
"Labor Day differs in every essential from
the other holidays of the year in any country,"
"All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts
and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed
and power, of glories achieved by one nation
over another. Labor Day ... is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no
sect, race, or nation."
"...the day for which the toilers in past centuries
looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed...that
the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for
a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx
and feel the stronger for it."
Originally, there were lots of speeches by prominent
men and women who placed emphasis on
the economic, spiritual and civic significance of the holiday. Labor organizations
sponsored activities to pay tribute to workers' contributions and honor
the strength, prosperity and well-being of the country. Speeches
were followed by mass displays and huge parades.
LABOR DAY ACTIVITIES: http://www.preschoolexpress.com/holiday_station02/holiday_station_aug02.shtml
Find several activities to explore the theme of
Labor Day with preschoolers. They will learn about
different occupations and tools, play act different jobs, and create a
book about their family careers.
The first Sunday after Labor Day is Grandpartent's
Day
Grandpartent's Day: http://www.igrandparents.com/grandTopics/articles/features/GrandparentsDay.asp
Sept. 1
-1939: World War II began as Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
September 2
1945: Japan formally surrendered in ceremonies aboard the USS Missouri,
ending World War II.
September 3
Australian National Flag Day: http://www.flagaustnat.asn.au/flagday.asp
Australia's National Flag was first flown on 3 September 1901. In 1996,
The Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Sir William Patrick
Deane, acting on the advice of the Federal Executive Council, declared
that 3 September be designated Australian National Flag Day. For additional
information, visit: http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/flying_flag.html.
-1926: The murder trial of gangster Lefty Lewis started in Cook County,
IL. More than a thousand jurors were rejected in this trial, most because
they claimed they had already made up their minds. Some of the witnesses
received death threats; the house of one was even bombed. On November
18, 1927 the jury acquitted him despite the overwhelming evidence against
him.
-1992: The first PowerPC chips arrived at Apple Computer in Cupertino
CA. The
PowerPC chip, which was an Apple/IBM/Motorola joint venture became the
basis
of the PowerMac.
-1976: The unmanned U.S. spacecraft Viking 2 landed on Mars to take the
first close-up, color photographs of the planet's surface.
September 4
-1957: Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus called out the National Guard to prevent
nine black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock.
September 6
-1533: England's Queen Elizabeth I was born.
-1822: Brazil declared independence from Portugal.
-1860: American primitive painter Anna "Grandma" Moses was born.
-1867: Financier J. Pierpont Morgan Jr. was born.
-1892: James Corbett knocked out John L. Sullivan in the 21st round of
a prize fight at New Orleans, the first major fight under the Marquess
of Queensberry Rules.
-1901: the Boxer Rebellion in China ended with the Boxer Protocol.
-1908: Heart surgeon Michael DeBakey was born.
-1909: Film director Elia Kazan was born.
-1914: Physicist and rocket developer James Van Allen was born.
-1923: Actor Peter Lawford was born.
-1924: Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii was born.
-1936: Rock 'n' roll pioneer Buddy Holly was born.
-1937: Actor John Philip Law ("The Russians Are Coming, The
Russians Are Coming") was born.
-1942: Richard Roundtree was born.
-1940: Nazi Germany launched the London blitz, a bombing that Adolf Hitler
believed would soften Britain for invasion. The invasion never materialized.
-1950: Susan Blakey was born.
-1951: Julie Kavner ("The Simpsons") was born.
-1954: Corbin Bernsen ("L.A. Law") was born.
-1956: Musician Michael Feinstein was born.
-1986: Desmond Tutu was installed as the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town,
becoming first black titular head of South Africa's fourth-largest Christian
church.
-1991: A European Community-sponsored Yugoslav peace conference opened
in The Hague, Netherlands.
-1992: Black soldiers in the South African homeland of Ciskei killed 23
people and wounded nearly 200 when they fired on thousands of African
National Congress supporters. 12 people were killed when a twin-engined
plane carrying skydivers crashed in a soybean field in Hinckley,
Ill.
-1992: Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent quit, five days after the game's
owners resoundingly voted to ask him to resign.
-1993: President Clinton and Vice President Gore announced a broad program
to streamline the government. South Africa's ruling National Party agreed
to share power with a multi-party council that would be established within
two months.
-1996:"Dr. Death" Jack Kevorkian assisted in a 40th suicide
in Michigan.
-1999: Viacom, the world's largest cable network
company, announced plans to buy CBS.
September 9
-1966: Adam Sandler, actor and comedian, who gained fame on TV's "Saturday
Night
Live." His films include "The Waterboy," "The Wedding
Singer," and "Little Nicky."
September 10
-1929: Arnold Palmer, pro golfer, was born in Latrobe,
PA. He is nicknamed "The King," as in his legendary career he
has amassed 92 golf championships including 61 on PGA Tours. Palmer has
almost single-handedly brought golf out of the elite country clubs and
into the consciousness of mainstream America. He was the first person
to make $1 million playing golf.
September 11
*9/11 as History: http://www.familiesandwork.org/911ah/911ashistory.html
This site has lesson plans and ideas for parents and teachers.
*The Aftershocks of National Tragedy: Helping Kids Cope:
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?attrib_id=6279&doc_id=82637
has pulled together dozens of links - from resources for helping children
and adults cope with trauma to anti-discrimination sites to 9/11 history
lesson plans for teachers.
*America by the students of Omni Middle School: http://neighbor.firn.edu/class/palm_beach/omni_ms/andrew_goldstein/America/soundtrack1.swf
*The Day Our World Changed - Five Years Later: http://www.aboutourkids.org/aboutour/articles/bundled/911_5_year_anniversary.html
The NYU Child Study Center has created The Day our World Changed, a study
guide for the five-year anniversary of 9/11.
*Documenting the Tragedy: http://www.nyshrab.org/WTC/document.html
is a collection of links from the New York State
Historical Records Advisory Board - "archives, museums, libraries,
organizations, and individuals who are creating digital repositories of
September 11 documents, recordings, and photographs," writes Marylaine
Block, "librarian without walls" and author of "Neat New
Stuff I Found This Week":http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
*Kids Newsroom: September 11: http://www.kidsnewsroom.com/newsissues/091401/
Kids Newsroom is a weekly news site with archives dating back to 1999.
To revisit the tragedy, check out the September 14, 2001 issue. Articles
include a look at FEMA's recovery efforts, stranded travelers, the U.S.
declaration of war on terrorism and the ubiquitous red, white and blue
ribbons. Take the self-scoring Current Events Quiz to test your knowledge
of
the week's infamous events: "Which sports league announced tighter
security measures this week?"
*NationalGeographic.com has the story of the "little chapel that
stood" (just a few hundred yards from the World Trade Center towers):
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0209/st_pauls/online_extra.html
For nine months, starting September 12, St. Paul's Chapel was a relief
center, a 24/7 sanctuary for tired workers, providing burgers, coffee,
massages, listeners, schoolchildren's love notes, music, quiet - every
kind of comfort and support the church workers could think of. The page
offers many perspectives in many media formats. Elsewhere in National
Geo's 9/11 section you'll find a child's-eye-view of 9/11 - the stories
of fourth-graders at neighboring P.S. 234: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0210/index.html.
*Online News Hour: Life After 9.11: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/after911/
From the PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Extra for Students takes on the
World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks (click on: September 11 Background"
in the circular menu) and life
afterwards. "Response to Terrorism" and "Rebuilding Afghanistan"
are two of six Special Reports; "Role of Afghan Women in New Government"
and "Arab-Americans Caught up in the FBI's Dragnet" are two
of five NewsHour video clips. Click on Student Reactions (on the circular
menu) to read posts from kids around the world.
*PBS: America Responds: http://www.pbs.org/americaresponds/
"America Responds is a snapshot of PBS's coverage of the September
11, 2001 terrorist attacks. This Web site was maintained in the months
immediately following the attacks, and now serves as an archive of related
resources, analysis and discussion from that moment in time." This
site was not created specifically for kids. There is are thirty-four one-minute
videos crafted by nine independent film makers in answer to the question
"How has your life changed after September 11?"
*Project Liberty: Educational Materials: http://www.projectliberty.state.ny.us/educational.htm
*Reflecting on September 11: http://www.crf-usa.org/Sept11/Sept11_home.html
*Remembering the September 11th Anniversary: Things you can do to promote
healing, connections and learning: http://www.csee.net/SEL_Home_school/sept11.asp?PageID=5
*September 11 and Beyond:
http://lii.org/911
*The September 11th Anniversary: An Opportunity for Social and Emotional
Learning:
http://www.csee.net/SEL_Home_school/sept11.asp
*September 11 Through Children's Eyes: http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0211220/
The five Dalton School elementary students who authored this ThinkQuest
site visited New York's PS 89, just a block from ground zero. They interviewed
students and teachers, took
photos, and collected artwork and creative writing. There is an Opinion
Room (second grader Allie wrote "I wish I had wings.") and Library
("A scary thing happened. A plane hit the top of the World Trade
Center.") After evacuating their school on September 11th, the students
and teachers of PS 89 finally returned to their school on February 27,
2002
*Teaching in the Shadow of September 11, 2001: http://socialstudies.com/c/@1X5eWWkUiWABE/Pages/currentevents.html
*Teaching 9/11/01: http://www.teaching9-11.org/
*This week's lesson plan: Try to make sense of 9/11:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0909/p13s02-lecl.htm
No matter their distance from ground zero, schools around the country
were put in the difficult position of serving as emotional triage units
in the weeks after Sept. 11. With the passage of time comes a different
but still challenging task: how to recall the painful day and yet also
step back to assess its historical significance.
*US DOE: Helping Children Understand...: http://www.ed.gov/inits/september11/
-1924: Tom Landry, football player and coach, was
born in Mission, Texas. As head coach of the brand new Dallas Cowboys
he turned a floundering expansion team into an NFL powerhouse and a national
icon, "America’s Team.". the Cowboys finished their first
season with a 0-11-1 record and began a run of 20 consecutive winning
seasons, still an NFL record. During his 28 years with the Cowboys, Landry
gained a reputation as a brilliant strategist and motivator. The
conservative suits and trademark fedora hats that he inevitably wore complimented
his legendary stoicism on the sidelines.
September 12
-1913: Jesse Owens, track and field athlete, was
born in Danville, AL. He won four gold medals in a single day at the 1936
Olympics in Berlin. His gold medal-winning long jump of 26 feet,
five and a quarter inches stood as the world record for the next 25 years.
As Hitler angrily left the stadium, Lutz Long, Hitler's Aryan favorite
whom Owens defeated, embraced Owens, while the mostly German crowd chanted
the new champion's name as if he were the hometown hero.
-1977: South African black student leader Steven Biko died while in police
custody, triggering an international outcry.
September 13
-1916: Roald Dahl's Birthday http://www.surfnetkids.com/dahl.htm
-1993: At the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO
chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands after signing an accord granting limited
Palestinian autonomy.
September 14:
-1959: The Soviet space probe Luna 2 became the first man-made object
to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.
September 15
-1963: Four children were killed when a bomb went off during Sunday services
at a black Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama.
Septembet 16
-1974: President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam
War deserters and draft evaders.
September 17
Constitution Day
*Issues In Depth: Constitution Day by New York Times Online Learning Network:
http://www.nytimes.com//learning/issues_in_depth/20050916.html
This site has lesson plans, crosswords, special Q&A opportunities
with Times reporters, and more.
-1862: Union forces hurled back a Confederate invasion of Maryland in
the Civil War Battle of Antietam. During the battle, 23,100 were killed,
wounded or captured, making it the bloodiest day in United States military
history.
September 18
-1709: English poet and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, writer of the first
English dictionary, was born.
-1779: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story was born.
-1819: French physicist Jean Foucault, inventor of the gyroscope, was
born.
-1850: Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, allowing
slave owners to reclaim slaves who escaped into another state.
-1905: Actress Greta Garbo was born.
-1920: Actors Jack Warden was born.
-1928: Ahurricane that lashed Florida and the West Indies for five days
left an estimated 4,000 people dead and $30 million in damage.
-1934: Robert Blake was born.
-1940: Singer/actor Frankie Avalon was born.
-1947: The National Security Act, which unified the Army, Navy and newly
formed Air Force, went into effect.
-1959: Former baseball player Ryne Sandberg was born.
-1971: Actress Jada Pinkett Smith was born.
-1975: FBI agents in San Francisco captured heiress Patricia Hearst and
two of her Symbionese Liberation Army comrades, William and Emily Harris.
-1983: British adventurer George Meegan finished a 19,021-mile, six-year
walk from the tip of South America to the Arctic Ocean at Prudhoe Bay,
Alaska.
-1990: The International Olympic Committee awarded the 1996 Summer Olympics
to Atlanta. S&L scandal figure Charles Keating was arrested. Winnie
Mandela, wife of South African black
leader Nelson Mandela, was charged with assault and kidnapping in the
1988 abduction and murder of a 14-year-old boy by her chief bodyguard.
-1991: President Bush authorized U.S. warplanes to fly into Iraq to protect
U.N. inspectors.
-1992: Congress approved a bill providing aid to
hurricane-stricken areas of Florida, Louisiana, Hawaii and Guam.
-1994: A U.S. delegation headed by former President Carter
persuaded Haiti's military leaders to step aside in favor of the democratically
elected president after learning U.S. troops were en route to the Caribbean
nation.
-1996: The shuttle Atlantis docked with the Mir space station to pick
up U.S. astronaut Dr. Shannon Lucid, who'd set an American record for
time spent in space. The doctors of Russian President Boris Yeltsin revealed
he'd had a heart attack during his re-election campaign.
-1998: The House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to release
the videotape of President Clinton's grand-jury testimony, during which
he denied lying about his relationship with former White House intern
Monica Lewinsky during a January deposition. The
Senate failed to overturn President Clinton's veto of a bill prohibiting
a late-term abortion procedure sometimes called a partial-birth abortion.
September 19
-1865: Atlanta University was founded.
September 20
-1519: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan began a voyage to find
a western passage to the East Indies.
-1873: Financial chaos forced the New York Stock Exchange to close. It
remained closed for 10 days.
-1886: Australian nurse Sister Elizabeth Kenny, who pioneered the care
of polio victims, was born.
-1878: Novelist Upton Sinclair was born.
-1885: Jazz piano player Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton was born.
-1917: Basketball Hall of Fame coach Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach
was born.
-1924: Fashion designer James Galanos and actress Anne Meara were born.
-1928: Psychologist/author Dr. Joyce Brothers was born.
-1934: Actresses Sophia Loren was born.
-1957: Fran Drescher was born.
-1966: Britain's Queen Elizabeth launched the Cunard liner QE II, now
the only remaining ocean liner on the formerly thriving trans-Atlantic
route.
-1967: Kristen Johnson was born.
-1984: Muslim terrorists bombed the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, Lebanon,
killing 23 people, including two Americans. It was the third terrorist
attack on U.S. installations in Beirut in 17 months.
-1990: A military court convicted Nicu Ceausescu, 39, youngest son of
executed former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, of murder.
-1991: The Cambodian government and three rebel factions agreed on a form
of future U.N.-supervised elections.
-1992: French voters narrowly approved the Maastricht Treaty on European
unity. Four Dade County, Fla., circuit court judges went on trial in Miami
on bribery and extortion charges in
"Operation Courtbroom," the FBI's biggest judicial sting in
a decade.
-1993: Recommendations to close 130 domestic military bases and scale
back 45 others became final when the Senate rejected a motion to overturn
the decision. Leaders of the three factions fighting in Bosnia broke off
negotiations aboard a British aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea.
-1999: A jury in Bryan, Texas, convicted a second
white man in the 1998 dragging death of a black man.
September 21
-1645: Louis Joliet, French-Canadian explorer of the Mississippi River,
was born.
-1866: Author and historian H.G. Wells was born.
-1874: Composer Gustav Holst was born.
-1893: The first successful American-made, gasoline-operated motorcar
appeared on the streets of Springfield, Mass. It was designed and built
by Charles and Frank Duryea.
-1902: British publisher Sir Allen Lane, who first introduced the low-priced
paperback book, was born.
-1931: Actor Larry Hagman was born.
-1935: Henry Gibson was born.
-1938: An estimated 600 people were killed by a hurricane
that battered the coast of New England.
-1944: Comedian Fanny Flagg was born.
-1947: Author Stephen King was born.
-1950: Comedian Bill Murray was born.
-1957: Ethan Coen, one of the filmmaking Coen brothers, was born.
-1961: Actor Nancy Travis was born.
-1962: Rob Morrow ("Northern Exposure") was born.
-1968: Actress-turned-talk show host Ricki Lake was born.
-1977: President Carter defended budget director Bert Lance
as he announced Lance's resignation. Lance had been accused of a series
of illegal acts in banking.
-1985: Western intelligence estimates said the Iran-Iraq war in five years
had cost nearly one million lives.
-1991: Armenia became the 12th Soviet republic to declare independence.
-1993: Russian President Boris Yeltsin suspended the parliament and announced
parliamentary elections would be held in December.
-1996: John F. Kennedy, Jr., son of the late U.S. president and described
by tabloids as the world's most eligible bachelor, wed Carolyn Bessette.
-1998: President Clinton's videotaped grand jury testimony, during which
he admitted to an inappropriate relationship with former White House intern
Monica Lewinsky, was shown
on television. It ran more than four hours. Hurricane Georges began its
deadly rampage
through the Caribbean, killing more than 600 people.
-1999: At least 2,300 people were killed when an
earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck Taiwan.
September 24
-1936: Jim Henson, puppeteer, was born in Mississippi. His "Muppets'
first appeared on a five-minute program entitled Sam and His Friends.
Other appearances led to nationwide popularity
on the Children's Television Workshop's Sesame Street, which premiered
in 1969. Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and friends went on to gain success
in The Muppet Show which reached 235 million viewers in over 100 countries.
In 1991 son Brian was named president and CEO of The
Jim Henson Company, which continues to produce films and TV programs.
September 25
-1690: Anniversary of 1st US Newspaper
-1896: William (Cuthbert) Faulkner (born Falkner) in New Albany, Mississippi.
He liked to get up early, eat a breakfast of eggs and broiled steak and
lots of coffee, and then take his tobacco and pipe and go to his study.
He took off the doorknob and carried it inside with him, where he wrote
his novels by hand on large sheets of paper, and then typed them out with
two fingers on an old Underwood portable. He was prolific this way-in
a four-year span he published some of his best novels: Sartoris
(1929), The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930),
Sanctuary (1931), and Light in August (1932). In 1949 he
won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
-1905: Sportswriter Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was born in
Green Bay, Wisconsin.
-1930: Francine du Plessix-Gray was born in Warsaw, Poland. She got a
late start writing fiction. She was married with two children, she kept
a journal, and it kept getting bigger. She said that one day when she
was 33, after she cooked and entertained a group of weekend guests, she
"felt an immense void ... the deepest loneliness I'd ever known."
She wept for hours, took out a notebook, and started rewriting one of
the three stories that had won her a prize when she was in college. Twelve
years later, it had become the first chapter of Lovers and Tyrants
(1976), her first novel.
-1932: Shel Silverstein was born in Chicago. He's the author of some of
the best-selling children's books of all time, including Where the
Sidewalk Ends (1974), A Light in the Attic (1981), and Falling
Up (1996), books of whimsical black-and-white drawings and poems.
-1968: Will Smith, actor, rap musician, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He started rapping at the age of 12, and he is reported to have given
up a scholarship at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) in order to pursue his entertainment career. That was a smart move,
as by the age of 18, Smith was a millionaire. Smith formed the group DJ
Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince with his childhood friend Jeff Townes.
His nickname, "Prince", supposedly came from his high school
teachers commenting on his smooth manner and ability to talk his way out
of difficult situations.
September 26
1774: Johnny Appleseed was born.
story of Johnny Appleseed: http://www.applejuice.org/johnnyappleseed.html
Johnny Appleseed's life story: http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~weeds/SchoolPages/Appleseed/sheffield.html
Johnny Appleseed homepage: http://www.msc.cornell.edu/%7Eweeds/SchoolPages/Appleseed/welcome.html
-1874: Lewis Hine, photographer and social reformer, was born in Oshkosh,
Wis. Trained as a sociologist, he used photographs to inspire reform.
In 1905 he documented immigrants on Ellis Island, publishing his photos
with his own text. His work as the official photographer for the
National Child Labor Committee (1911 to 1916) influenced passage of the
child labor laws. Chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration
(1936), he documented the Tennessee Valley Authority project.
-1888: T(homas) S(tearns) Eliot was born into a prominent Unitarian family
in Saint Louis. He's famous as the author of "The Waste Land"
and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." He was fond of his
childhood, and he liked to watch steamboats going up the Mississippi River.
He adored his Irish nurse, Annie, who brought him to church and talked
to him about God. He loved to read, especially the poetry of Edgar Allen
Poe. He was a bird watcher and could identify more than 70 kinds of birds.
He also collected, dried and classified algae when he was at his family's
beach home in Massachusetts. But he didn't have many friends. When he
was ten his mother dressed him in a sailor suit for his first day at a
new school. The other boys laughed at him, and the girls made fun of him
for having ears that stuck out. He tried to fix the problem by sleeping
with a rope tied around his head to hold his ears down. He also had trouble
making friends at Harvard, where he went to college. He joined some clubs
and went to dances and parties here and there. He lifted weights to try
to improve his appearance. But in the end, he remained somewhat of a recluse.
He didn't like his education at Harvard, and he hated Cambridge and Boston.
He thought the nice parts were too pompous and the slums were too dirty.
-1898: Composer George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was
born to Russian immigrants and spent his childhood in Brooklyn and the
Lower East Side. As a young boy, he was more athletic and sociable than
he was musical. But he went to work on Tin Pan Alley as a song plugger.
His job was to hand out the publishers' newest sheet music to any potential
customers who wandered by. He eventually learned more about music and
tried his hand at composing his own songs. When Gershwin was nineteen,
he and a childhood friend, Irving Caesar, wrote a song together called
"Swanee." Al Jolson picked it up and made the song a huge hit,
and Gershwin made a name for himself. He went on to write Rhapsody
in Blue (1924), Concerto in F (1925), and An American in
Paris (1928). And he wrote the famous folk opera Porgy and Bess
(1935). His brother Ira wrote most of the lyrics to the songs, which include
"Summertime," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," and "I
Got Plenty O' Nuttin'."
-1949: Jane Smiley was born in Los Angeles. She grew up in St. Louis and
then went to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. She worked on an
archeological dig in Europe for a year and then got a PhD at Iowa with
a dissertation on Old Norse. She wrote Age of Grief (1988), Greenlanders
(1993), and A Thousand Acres, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.
It's about a man who owns farmland in Iowa that he plans to divide between
his three daughters. It's a modern retelling of Shakespeare's King
Lear told from the daughters' perspective. Her most recent book is
Good Faith (2003), about a New England realtor during the economic
boom of the Regan Era.
-1957: Ford Motor Company rolled out its first Edsel, considered by many
to be the Ugly Duckling of the automotive world.
-1970: Guitarist Jimi Hendrix opened the Electric Lady recording studio
in New York City.
-1985: Shamu's Birthday
-1996: The Chinese government started blocking access in China to websites
it deemed unsuitable.
-1998: A Federal Judge ruled that the export restrictions
the government had been enforcing on encryption technology were unconstitutional.
The battle continued though, because the government appealed her decision.
September 27
-1722: Patriot Samuel Adams was born.
-1825: In England, George Stephenson operated the first locomotive to
pull a passenger train.
-1939: After 19 days of heavy air raids and artillery bombardment, the
Polish defenders of Warsaw surrendered to the Germans.
-1840: Political cartoonist Thomas Nast was born.
-1885: Composer Joseph McCarthy ("You Made Me Love You") was
born.
-1898: Vincent Youmans ("Tea for Two") was born.
-1922: Filmmaker Arthur Penn was born.
-1920: Actors William Conrad was born.
-1926: Jayne Meadows was born.
-1929: Sada Thompson was born.
-1934: Wilford Brimley and actor Greg Morris ("Mission: Impossible")
were born.
-1954:"The Tonight Show" made its television debut with host
Steve Allen.
-1958: Actor/singer Shaun Cassidy was born.
-1987: Mudslides in slum areas of Medellin, Colombia, killed up to 500
people.
-1991: President Bush announced the United States would unilaterally eliminate
tactical nuclear weapons on land and at sea in Europe and Asia. The PLO
legislature voted to support U.S.-
and Soviet-sponsored Middle East peace efforts.
-1992: The Inkatha party, rival to Nelson Mandela's ANC, withdrew from
talks with the South African government after a meeting between Mandela
and President de Klerk.
-1993: Newly elected Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, D-Texas, was indicted
for using state workers, computers and supplies for her "personal
benefit" during her Senate campaign. In the wake of the Branch Davidian
siege near Waco, Texas, the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms, Stephen Higgins, announced his resignation.
-1994: U.S. forces in Haiti took control of the parliament building and
began paying Haitians to turn in weapons in order to reduce firepower
on the streets.
-1996: Rebels seized control of Afghanistan from the previous rebel group
that'd taken the country back from Moscow's control. The new rebels hanged
Afghani leader Najibullah and his brother.
-1998: Hurricane Georges struck the Gulf Coast, spawning tornadoes and
bringing heavy rains and flooding to parts of the South. Gerhard Schroder
led Germany's Social Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections,
bringing to an end 16 years of power by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his
Christian Democratic Party.
-1998: St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire set
an all-time major-league season homerun record when he hit his 70th home
run.
September 28
-1066: William the Conqueror of Normandy arrived on British soil. He defeated
the British in the Battle of Hastings, and on Christmas day he was crowned
King of England in Westminster Abby. One of the most important consequences
of the Norman conquest of England was its effect on the English language.
At the time, the British were speaking a combination of Saxon and Old
Norse. The Normans spoke French. Over time, the languages blended, and
the result was that English became a language incredibly rich in synonyms.
Because the French speakers were aristocrats, the French words often became
the fancy words for things. The Normans gave us "mansion"; the
Saxons gave us "house." The Normans gave us "beef";
the Saxons gave us, "cow." The Normans gave us "excrement";
the Saxons gave lots of four letter words. The English language has gone
on accepting additions to its vocabulary ever since the Norman invasion,
and it now contains more than a million words, making it one of the most
diverse languages on Earth. Writers have been arguing for hundreds of
years about whether this is a good thing.
-1902: Ed Sullivan was born in Manhattan, New York City. He wrote a gossip
column called "Little Old New York" for the New York Daily News.
He made extra money working as master of ceremonies for local variety
shows, war benefits and dance contests. He was working at a giant dance
competition called the Harvest Moon Ball when someone asked him if he'd
like to try hosting a show on this new thing called television. He was
forty-six years old. The Ed Sullivan Show, originally called Toast of
the Town, premiered live on CBS in 1948, and within a few years about
50 million people watched it every Sunday night. At a time when Hollywood
saw television as a threat, Sullivan was the first person to persuade
movie stars to come on his show and talk about their new movies. He brought
celebrities into everyone's living room. His formula was "Open big,
have a good comedy act, put in something for children, and keep the show
clean." Women were not allowed to show cleavage. When Elvis Presley
performed, the camera shot him from the waste up. When the Rolling Stones
came on the show to play their song, "Let's Spend the Night Together,"
he made them change the words to "Let's Spend Some Time Together."
-1909: Cartoonist Al Capp was born Alfred Gerald Caplin in New Haven,
Connecticut. He's the creator of the cartoon strip L'il Abner, about a
hillbilly named Abner Yokum who lived in the fictional town of Dogpatch,
Kentucky. The strip ran from 1934 to 1977. It's been called the greatest
cartoon strip of all time. The strip was so popular that when Capp wrote
about an imaginary tradition called Sadie Hawkins Day, on which an eligible
male is forced to marry any woman who catches him, high schools across
America started having Sadie Hawkins Dances.
September 29
-1605: Spanish author of Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes was born near Madrid.
He grew up in one of Spain's oldest families, and one of its poorest.
When he was 24, he joined the Spanish Armada and fought at the Battle
of Lepanto. He wounded his left hand in the battle, and he never regained
its full use again. On the way back from the battle, he was captured and
enslaved by pirates. Eventually he returned home, only to be put into
jail there for fraud. While he was in prison he began his most famous
work, Don Quixote. It's a story about a man who reads too many
books about chivalry, goes mad, and tries to restore old-fashioned heroism
to the world. In one episode, he mistakes a group of windmills for monsters
and attacks them. Don Quixote is considered to be the first modern
novel. It was written as a satire of the popular literature of its time.
Don Quixote's foolishness mocks the chivalric romances that celebrated
the values of the medieval world. Cervantes was successful in degrading
this genre: very few medieval romances were ever published after Don Quixote.
-1760: Novelist and travel writer William Beckford was born near Bath,
England. He's best known as the author of the story The History of
the Caliph Vathek. His father was the Lord Mayor of London and the
descendant of royalty. William was orphaned at the age of eleven, but
he was left an allowance of nearly 800,000 pounds a year. He became one
of the wealthiest people in all England. After he had finished his education,
Beckford traveled across Europe. When he returned, he decided to renovate
the family mansion at Fonthill. But he wasn't happy with the work and
ordered that the house be completely rebuilt, this time into a huge abbey.
The project cost 273,000 pounds. Beckford built a tower 280 feet tall
on the house. It collapsed and was rebuilt at least two times. William
Hazlitt called Fonthill Abbey "a desert of magnificence, a glittering
waste of laborious idleness." When Beckford was 21 he wrote the story
known as Vathek. He wrote it in French, and claimed to have finished
it in three nights and two days. It's a tale about a young ruler corrupted
by power and wealth who falls under the control of Elbis, the devil. Beckford
eventually sold his Abbey for 330,000 pounds, having squandered most of
his father's fortune. He retired into obscurity and died in 1844. He was
buried, at his request, under the shadow of his great tower, next to his
favorite dog.
-1907: Gene Autry, one of the greatest country-western singers, was born
in Tioga, Texas. He worked as a telegraph operator and played his guitar
when the lines weren't busy. One day, a caller overheard him and said
that he thought Autry could be a professional. The caller was Will Rogers,
the famous "cowboy philosopher." In 1938, Autry joined up with
another Rogers, Roy. The two of them became one of the most famous groups
of the era. Autry recorded 635 songs and acted in nearly 95 movies. He
was the first person to sell out Madison Square Garden. In 1941, the town
of Berwyn, Oklahoma, where Autry had a ranch, officially changed its name
to "Gene Autry." When Autry retired, he was still very famous
and very wealthy, and he purchased the California Angels baseball team.
-1930: Author of the Inspector Morse mysteries, Colin Dexter was born
in Lincolnshire, England. He attended Cambridge University, where he earned
his Master's Degree in Classical Studies. On a rainy vacation in 1972,
Dexter read two mystery novels. He decided he could do better, and three
years later he published Last Bus to Woodstock (1975), his first
Inspector Morse novel. Inspector Morse is educated and charming, but he's
often morose, and he has a weakness for beer and women. Morse is the main
character in each of Dexter's fifteen novels, as well as his popular television
series. Colin Dexter said, "Well I think that you've got to be prepared
to write a load of nonsense to start with and then you can tart it up.
The business of getting going, getting started, is enormously important,
and this can be physical. Solvitur Ambulando as the Romans used to say,
which means 'the solution comes through walking.'"
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-1906: Mystery writer Michael Innes was born John Innes Mackintosh Stewart
near Edinburgh. He went to school at Oxford University, where he became
close friends with the writers Christopher Isherwood and W.H. Auden. In
1936 he sailed to Australia to start his first teaching job at Adelaide
University. On the boat to Australia he began writing a mystery to pass
the time. He published the book, Death at the President's Lodge
(1936), later that year. Innes's mysteries are known for their complex
plots and scholarly allusions, and for his entire life, he was able to
excel both as a scholar and a mystery writer.
-1924: American writer Truman Capote was born in New Orleans. Even as
a child, Capote wanted to become famous. He moved with his mother to New
York City and applied to the prestigious Trinity School. He was given
an IQ test as an entrance exam, and he scored 215, the highest in the
school's history. Capote said, "I was having 50 perceptions a minute
to everyone else's five. I always felt nobody was going to understand
me, going to understand what I felt about things. I guess that's why I
started writing." One day he read a news release about the murder
of a family in western Kansas, and he decided to write about it. He moved
to Holcomb, Kansas with his friend Harper Lee, and became attached to
the community as it recovered from the crime. Capote compiled over 6,000
pages of notes on the crime, 80% of which he threw away. Eventually, he
wrote his most famous work, In Cold Blood (1966), about the murders.
He got to know the two murderers well and worked for many years to have
their death sentences reduced. When the two men were hanged, Capote became
physically ill. In Cold Blood introduced a new genre, the "non-fiction
novel." Capote received nearly two million dollars for text and movie
rights.
-1927: Poet W.S. Merwin was born in New York City.
His father was a Presbyterian minister, and Merwin made up hymns before
he could even write. Merwin is a pacifist, environmentalist, and Buddhist.
When he won the Pulitzer Prize for The Carrier of the Ladder in
1971, he gave his $1,000 award to an anti-war demonstration.
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