World War I: Redefining the 20th Century

       World War I happened from 1914 all the way to 1918. During World War I, we had President Woodrow Wilson serving his term. We had the start of the "Jim Crow" period. We had the Era of Submarines going on. We had cities being bombed by airplanes. We had the boom of of immigration. This however, was a particular group of immigrants. The vast majority of the immigrants were coming from Europe. We also had the mention of a really popular ship called The Lusitania. It was a German ship that carried an estimated 1,200 passengers which ended up sinking. This ship was on its way to Liverpool England from New York. 

         Most of the leaders in 1914 had no real idea of the war machine they were putting into motion. Many believed the War would be over by Christmas 1914. But by the end of the first year, a new kind of war emerged on the battlefield that had never been seen before -- or repeated since: total war-producing stalemate, the result of a war that went on for 1,500 days. Before the official Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918, nine million people had died on the battlefield and the world was forever changed.



The following is a timeline of the most important events that occurred in the year 1918.

• 1918-1919:Two waves of influenza kill more people than did the war.
•  January 8, 1918:President Woodrow Wilson declares his 14 points as the path to permanent world peace. 
• March 21: Germans launch the first of five major offensives to win the war before American troops appear in the trenches. German advance is finally stopped in late June.
•  April 22:Baron von Richthofen, "the Red Baron" is killed in air dog-fight. 
• April 25:British and Australian troops stop the German advance near Amiens.
• May 23:German shells land on Paris.
•  May 31:Germans on the banks of the Marne near Paris are stopped by American forces at Chateau-Thierry.
• July:German troops being shipped from the Eastern to Western Front begin to desert in large numbers from their transport trains.
• July 16-17:Former Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, children, and members of his entourage are murdered by the Bolsheviks.
• August 3:President Wilson agrees to co-operate with Allies in sending "volunteer" troops into Russia.
• August 8:Allied counter offensives on the Somme push the German army back and into retreat.
• September 27:Allied troops break through the German fortifications at the Hindenberg line.
• October 28:German sailors mutiny at port when asked to sail and fight a hopeless navel battle.
• October 30:Turks sign armistice
• November 9:Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates.
• November 10:A German republic is founded.
• November 11:At eleven o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the war ends as Germany and Allies sign an Armistice
• December 4:Woodrow Wilson sets sail for the Paris Peace conference.

The Panama Canal

The Following is a powerpoint presentation in regard to the Panama canal.  A few facts about the Panama Canal.

• 200 million tons of products cross every year

• Connects the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean

• Ships the size of skyscrapers cross through the Panama Canal

• Helps move ships an entire country cross and saves ships the drag of making the trip throughout the entire country

• In the midst of the Panama Canal is Gatun Lake and Gillard Cut

• Up to 1,0000 ships crossed in the years 1914

• The so-called, "Panamax" is the  largest ship the Panama Canal can handle.

• The triple locks. each of the triple locks stretches 300 meters enough for the Eiffel tower to lie back and high enough to pack 3,000 buses!

When Muckracker meets Journalist. Meet, Samuel Hopkins Adams

John Samuel Hopkins. He is well known for his extraordinary line of work as an investigative Journalist.  To gain that knowledge, he attended Hamilton College. He was just one of the many so called, "muckraker" journalists, that would many of the times go undercover, all in the work to expose a  lie being hidden by the government. 

From 1891 to 1929, he was a reporter for the New York Sun and then continued his Journalism career by joining McClure's Magazine. It was within this magazine where he gained a reputation as a muckraker for his articles on the conditions of public health in the United States.

In a series of eleven articles he wrote for Collier's Weekly in 1905, "The Great American Fraud", Adams exposed many of the false claims made about patent medicines, pointing out that in some cases these medicines were damaging the health of the people using them. The series had a huge impact and led to the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.

Adams series of articles on this subject, compelled the Supreme Court in 1911, to rule that the prohibition of falsifications referred only to the ingredients of the medicine. This meant that companies were again free to make false claims about their products. Adams returned to the attack and another series of articles in Collier's Weekly, Adams exposed the misleading advertising that companies were using to sell their products.

In addition to his line of work for well-known media outlets, Adams also wrote short-stories and novels. They were the following:

•  The Health Master (1913)
• The Clarion (1914)
• The Unspeakable Perk (1916)
• Square and the People in It (1917)
• Success (1921) 
• Siege (1924)
• The Gorgeous Hussy (1934) 
•  Maiden Effort (1937). 
• biography of Warren Harding entitled, Incredible Era (1939). 
• One short story, Night Bus, was turned into a film, It Happened One Night
•  Canal Town (1944)
•  a biography of Alexander Woollcott (1945)
• The Pony Express (1950)
• The Santa Fe Trail (1952) 
• The Erie Canal (1953) 
•  Grandfather Stories (1955)

Samuel Hopkins Adams long Journalism career came to an end when he died at Beaufort, South Carolina, on 15th November, 1958. The cause of death is stated.