First computer mouse

In computing, a mouse is a type of pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface.

The first prototype computer mouse was made in 1963. The name mouse originated with the original design, which consisted of a wooden shell housing small rolling wheels and inner parts, with a cord dangling off the rear. The cord has since been moved to come off the top but the name stayed the same.

"Douglas Engelbart received a patent for the wooden shell with two metal wheels in 1970, describing it in the patent application as an "X-Y position indicator for a display system." His version of windows was not considered patentable (no software patents were issued at that time), but Douglas Engelbart has over 45 other patents to his name.



Currently, Douglas Engelbart is the director of his company, Bootstrap Institute in Fremont, California, which promotes the concept of Collective IQ. Ironically, Bootstrap is housed rent free courtesy of the Logitech Corp., a famous manufacturer of computer mice.

Blanche

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa081898.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_(computing)

Givenchy & Audrey Hepburn post-WWII

In 1952 the French aristocrat and fashion designer, Hubert de Givenchy, founded the The House of Givenchy in Paris. He was widely known for having designed most of the personal and professional wardrobes of clients such as Audrey Hepburn, Jacqueline Kennedy, and others.

From Famous Women and Beauty: Hepburn and Givenchy first met in 1953 during
the shoot of the film "Sabrina". At that time the twenty-six-year-old Hubert de Givenchy was already the rising star of French couture, competing with the famous forty-eight-years-old Christian Dior. The technique of Givenchy was influenced by his mentor and friend Cristobal Balenciaga. After he had worked for the well-known Lucien Lelong and Elsa Schiaparelli, the young designer opened his own salon in Paris in 1952. His clothes were revolutionary for his time: feminine, yet very simple, and beautifully tailored.


The movie Sabrina would win only one Oscar - for the costume designs. Another designer, Edith Head, was given the credit, and Hepburn was so upset she called on Givenchy to apologize. It was the beginning of a friendship that would last a lifetime, and Hepburn later went on to help market Givenchy's design, seldom allowing him to pay for the use of her name in his ads. Together they created a brand that is still recognizable today.

In 1957 he gave her a surprise gift: an exclusive signature perfume, L'Interdit, which her friends loved so much that she later insisted that he put on the market. He did so in 1957. She had become his prototype of ideal woman and had a great influence and importance in his life.He spoke of her constantly during his lifetime as being the inspiration behind many of his designs.



Blanche
http://www.luxtex.net/givenchy.html
http://www.famous-women-and-beauty.com/hubert-de-givenchy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_de_Givenchy

Fall of the Berlin Wall

1989 marked the destruction of the the Berlin Wall that separated the German ccommunist eastern Belin to separate itself from western Berlin and was dissolved with the fall of communism in Germany. The wall was in place from 1961-1989.

Here is a synopsis on the wall's history: "The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a concrete barrier built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) that completely enclosed the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.

The separate and much longer Inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.

Before the Wall's erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and escaped from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin. From West Berlin, emigrants could travel to West Germany and other Western European countries. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated the GDR from West Berlin for more than a quarter of a century.[1] After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200.



During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990."*1



kristen

sources:
http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/
*1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall#The_Fall
http://www.heroism.org/class/1980/berlinwall.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdZVsFjWnbI

Mouse Trap Game

Mouse Trap, which was originally titled "Mouse Trap Game", is a board game first published in 1963.

The original version, designed by Marvin Glass and Associates from Ideal, allowed the players almost no decision-making, thus making it almost impossible for youngsters to keep up in the game.

In the 1970s, the board game surrounding the Mouse Trap was redesigned by Sid Sackson, adding the cheese pieces and allowing the player to maneuver opponents onto the trap space.


Mouse Trap has never changed as for as the rules of the game over the years though the colors and shapes of some pieces has been slightly modified over the years. There are several stages which form the mouse trap, though most stages are comprised of multiple pieces. A 1990s ad campaign for the game involved a song which listed most of the stages of the mouse trap.




Kids to this day are still playing the very famous board game that all stated in 1963





Paul

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_Trap_(board_game)
http://www.wwwk.co.uk/culture/toys/mouse-trap.htm

Woodstock 69'

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Woodstock was probably one of the biggest sub-culture music festivals in history, billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music", it was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969.





Woodstock was the era of the so-called "hippie". The "hippie" subculture was originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the early 1960s and spread around the world. The word hippie derives from "hipster", and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. These people inherited the counter cultural values of the Beat Generation, created their own communities, listened to psychedelic rock, embraced the sexual revolution, and used drugs such as marijuana and LSD to explore alternative states of consciousness.
Woodstock 1969 was basically a 3 day period of people united as one listening to psychedelic rock, ingesting several psychedelic drugs such as marijuana and LSD (hallucinogens), and taking sex to a whole new level. Nothing really phased any of these people who were apart of this Piece Revolution that took place during a horrific time of war for the U.S.

Woodstock 1969 (lineup)

Richie Havens
Swami Satchidananda
Sweetwater
The Incredible String Band
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Quill
Keef Hartley Band
Country Joe McDonald
John Sebastian
Santana
Canned Heat
Mountain
Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin
Sly & the Family Stone
The Who
The Grease Band
Joe Cocker
Country Joe and the Fish
Ten Years After
The Band
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Johnny Winter featuring his brother, Edgar Winter
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Sha-Na-Na
Jimi Hendrix





Paul Miller

Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodstock_Festival
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie

The Watergate Affair

"The Watergate scandal was a political scandal in the United States in the 1970s. Named for the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., effects of the scandal ultimately led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, President of the United States, on August 9, 1974. It also resulted in the indictment and conviction of several Nixon administration officials.


The scandal began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The men were connected to the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President by a slush fund and investigations conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, House Judiciary Committee and the news media.


President Nixon's staff conspired to cover up the break-in. As evidence mounted against the president's staff, which included former staff members testifying against them in a Senate investigation, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing that he had attempted to cover up the break-in. After a series of court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes; he ultimately complied.


Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and a strong possibility of a conviction in the Senate, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, would issue a pardon unto President Nixon."*1

Here is a clip of Walter Croncite explaining the Watergate affair:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

kristen

sources:
*1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
http://www.watergate.info
http://www.cbsnews.com

Malcolm X

Malcolm X (originally born as Malcolm Little) was a civil rights activist who was most active in the 1950s and 1960s. Malcolm's father was involved in the civil rights movement when Malcolm was young so he was exposed to activism at a young age. As Malcolm grew older he became involved in illegal activity and was sent to prison for eight years. While in prison he was introduced to Islam and became Muslim.



Upon his release from prison in 1952 Malcolm involved himself in the civil rights/racial segregation movement. He was also involved in the Nation of Islam organization and became a great speaker and icon through this movement. Malcolm became increasingly extremist in his views,"while the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people. He proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa. Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves."*1



Malcolm was assassinated while giving a speech in 1965.

Here is an excerpt from one of Malcolm's speeches:

kristen

sources:
*1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X
http://www.malcolmx.com/
http://www.brothermalcolm.net/

Bay of Pigs, 1961

To summarize the Bay of Pigs event it was "an unsuccessful invasion of Cuba by Cuban exiles, supported by the U.S. government. On Apr. 17, 1961, an armed force of about 1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the south coast of Cuba. Trained since May, 1960, in Guatemala by members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with the approval of the Eisenhower administration, and supplied with arms by the U.S. government, the rebels intended to foment an insurrection in Cuba and overthrow the Communist regime of Fidel Castro.


The Cuban army defeated the rebels and by Apr. 20, most were either killed or captured. In Dec., 1962, Castro released 1,113 captured rebels in exchange for $53 million in food and medicine raised by private donations in the United States."*1


"As a result of the U.S. failure at Bay of Pigs and the diplomatic embarrassment that ensued, President Kennedy fired long-time CIA Director Allen W. Dulles, Deputy Director Charles P. Cabell, and the one principally responsible for the operation, Deputy Director Richard Bissell. Publicly, Kennedy assumed full responsibility for the failure, but he secretly blamed the CIA and ordered a full investigation of the operation. The resulting report, written by CIA Inspector General Lyman Kirkpatrick, upset the new CIA director John McCone (who replaced Allen W. Dulles) so much that all but one of the 20 copies produced were destroyed, and the report stayed classified until February of 1998.


The controversial Inspector General's report concluded that ignorance, incompetence, and arrogance on the part of the CIA were responsible for the fiasco. It criticized nearly every aspect of the CIA's handling of the invasion: misinforming Kennedy administration officials, planning poorly, using faulty intelligence and conducting an overt military operation beyond "agency responsibility as well as agency capability." The report also said that, "The agency reduced the exile leaders to the status of puppets." Aside from being at once a major victory for the Cuban Revolution and a major embarrassment for Kennedy and the CIA, the attack at the Bay of Pigs set the stage for the major confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union: the missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war."*2

kristen

sources:
*1 http://isshinryu.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/bay-of-pigs-april-1961/
*2 http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/baypigs/pigs.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion

I...am...BATMAN~!

Arguably the number one Superhero ever conceived, Batman made his debut in the world of comics in 1939, obtaining his own series in 1940. Him and his young side kick, Robin. The story of Batman, (If you didn't already know) was of the heir of a wealthy family, Bruce Wayne witness the murder of his family at a young age. Swearing to bring justice to his city and avenging his parents, he grew up training both his mind and body to become Batman.

In earlier renditions of batman, he was far more of a vengeful vigilante, one who would and did kill. Later incarnations altered this, but the general concept of the character as a bringer of justice remained the same. The series of comics that began in 1940 continue to be made and printed today in a bi monthly basis, currently on hiatus due to a major change in events. Originally written by Bill Finger and illustrated by Bob Kane, the series of comics went through several different writers and artists in it's 60 year+ span, including artists/writers like Frank Miller.

The character of batman has had several films, TV shows, animations (Batman, The Animated Series, also considered the best cartoon ever made), and video games; is still viewed upon as one of the greatest superheros ever made. This is especially significant as he is also entirely human, while Superman is down right invincible.

EAK

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(comic_book)

Psychedelic Art

Psychedelic art found its beginning, interestingly enough, as a result of a scientific lab experiment on LSD. Psychiatrist Oscar Janiger, wanted to view the effects of LSD on the artist's creative process. Almost all of the artist volunteers in the experiment experienced an increase in creative output as a result of LSD as "LSD causes expansion and an altered experience of senses, emotions, memories, time, and awareness for 6 to 14 hours, depending on dosage and tolerance," according to Wikipedia.*1


LSD was embraced by the youth underground in San Fransisco and elsewhere and in the 1960s and early 1970s artwork that mimicked a kaleidoscopic LSD trip began appearing on the scene manifesting itself in Psychedelic artwork, mostly in the form of posters for bands and music events.


This new kind of art, while influenced by drug use, was also stylistically influenced by the Art Nouveau movement as well as Dada, Surrealism, and Pop art. "Richly saturated colors in glaring contrast, elaborately ornate lettering, strongly symmetrical composition, collage elements, and bizarre iconography are all hallmarks of the San Francisco psychedelic poster art style," according to Wikipedia.*2


One psychedelic poster artist, Victor Moscoso, uses a "vibrating color" technique to achieve a kaleidoscopic effect in his work. "The vibration is achieved by taking colors from the opposite end of the color wheel, each one having equal value (dark to light) and intensity (brightness). An example is red and green. Because there is no break between the colors, your eye does not know which one to focus on as the colors ‘compete’. This effect only happens along the edges where these colors touch." *3

The psychedelic brand of art is still used today and recently appeared in the "Respect the Van" ad campaign by Honda.


kristen

sources:
http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=98&fid=485
*1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide#Sensory_.2F_perception
*2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_art
*3http://www.victormoscoso.com/aboutvictor.html