With each stride, the ground beneath your feet feels soft and supportive. Your body tingles with energy. The game begins, and you gracefully move with purpose and skill. 

Your feet dance across the field. A black and white ball joins you as you pass and manipulate it with precision. A symphony of understanding passes between you and your teammates. No words are needed, for your actions speak louder than any words. You share a connection knowing where to be and when.

Onlookers watch in awe, their eyes wide with admiration. And then, in a thrilling moment, it happens. The ball comes to you, and you see an opportunity. You run forward, your heart pounding. With all your strength, you kick the ball toward the goal.

Time seems to slow down as you watch the ball soar through the air. The crowd holds its breath, their eyes locked on the spinning sphere. And then, with a thud, the ball finds the back of the net.

Cheers explode around you as your teammates rush to celebrate. You’re surrounded by hugs, high-fives, and smiles. You’ve scored a goal, a moment of triumph that fills your heart with joy.

This is soccer, also known as football in most countries outside of the United States. It’s easily the most popular sport in the world. It passes through borders and connects cultures. It is a sport that unites teammates and brings joy to millions of hearts around the globe. It’s a game that captures the essence of teamwork, perseverance, and the spirit of competition. 

Join us as we learn about the history of soccer…

A long time ago in the 12 century a simpler version of soccer called ‘Folk ball’ was played in English meadows. It was quite different from the soccer we know today. People used their fists to punch the ball and tackle each other. They played pretty rough and it was known to be a very violent game. It wasn’t until later that the British government made soccer a much safer sport by changing the rules. 

The game was played between English public schools, but each school had its own rules, some allowed you to carry the ball,  while others didn’t allow players to pick it up at all.

The different rules made it hard for schools to play each other. That is until 1848 when the Cambridge Rules were adopted. That’s when soccer and rugby became two separate sports and touching the ball with your hands became illegal. 

Have you ever heard of rugby? Unlike soccer, players in rugby can use their hands to pass the ball backward or kick it forward. The game is known to be pretty physical because players can tackle the other team to stop them from scoring.

For many years soccer was mostly played between local schools, but that was soon to change by the Industrial Revolution. 

The Industrial Revolution was a time in history when big changes happened in how things were made. Before, most things were made by hand, but during the Industrial Revolution, machines were invented to do the work faster and more efficiently.

These machines were powered by steam engines and later by electricity. Factories were built where these machines were used to make all sorts of things like clothes, tools, and even food. This meant that more things could be made in less time, and it changed the way people lived and worked.

When factories started popping up, their workers began playing soccer.  They formed teams based on their jobs and played the game after work as a social activity. Then something really important happened: railroads were introduced, which meant that teams could travel to other places and play against different teams. 

This is how the first soccer leagues were created. During this time, teams started paying the best players to join them and people started buying tickets to watch the star players in action. This changed soccer from just a fun game to a professional sport.

At the same time in England, the first amateur soccer club was born. 

The members of the cricket team wanted to stay active during the winter months, so they started playing friendly soccer matches during this time. Eventually, they formed an official soccer team called Sheffield FC, which was established in 1857. 

They made their own rules for the game, but after some time, they decided to follow the rules set by the Football Association (FA).

Soccer was becoming very popular all over England, and the leading clubs started playing against each other. In 1888, the English Football League was created, which made the game even more organized. Around the same time, soccer started gaining popularity in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. By 1890, all four countries in the United Kingdom had their own leagues and competed against each other.

After soccer became popular in England, it quickly spread to other countries around the world. In the late 19th century, only a few national football teams existed. England and Scotland played their first match against each other in the 1870s.

In 1903, a French journalist named Robert Guérin wanted to create an organization that would oversee international soccer. He gathered representatives from seven nations together in Paris. Their goal was to unite national soccer associations worldwide. 

These seven countries including Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, are now recognized as the founding members of the Federation Internationale de Football Association also known as FIFA.

Since it began in Paris, FIFA has grown into the world’s most popular sports organization. Every four years, FIFA hosts an incredible event called the World Cup, which brings together teams from all around the world, both men and women to prove who is the best soccer team in the world. The World Cup is incredibly popular and attracts millions of fans. It is the second most-watched international sporting event, right after the Olympic Games. 

When it comes to wins at the World Cup, one country stands out. This is the country of Brazil in South America. Brazil has an impressive record, having won the tournament FIVE times. Not only that, but Brazil has also participated in every single World Cup, showing their consistency and talent on the field.

As the years go by, the popularity of the World Cup continues to soar. In 2018, when the tournament was hosted by Russia, 3.5 billion people from all corners of the globe watched the matches. This number was even higher than the previous World Cup held in Brazil, showing the growing excitement and love for the game.

Although soccer can be a fun game that we play with our friends, for many people it is much more than just a casual activity. Soccer holds a special place in the hearts of millions around the world. It is a passion, a way of life, and a source of joy and excitement. 

From young children dreaming of becoming professional players to dedicated fans who cheer for their favorite teams, soccer has the power to ignite emotions, create lifelong bonds, and even create super athletes that we watch today. 

Two of the most famous soccer players are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Lionel Messi, born in Argentina, began his soccer journey at a young age. He joined Barcelona’s youth academy at 13 and quickly rose through the ranks. Messi’s incredible skills and scoring ability helped him win many titles with Barcelona, including La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. 

He left Barcelona in 2021 and joined Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Messi’s humble nature and millions of dollars of donations have also made him an admired figure off the field as well. Cristiano Ronaldo also showed exceptional talent from a young age. His journey started at Sporting CP before moving to Manchester United in 2003. 

Ronaldo’s remarkable skills, speed, and goal-scoring ability led him to great success. Off the field, Ronaldo has been involved in various charities, which means giving of his money, and is known for his dedication to fitness and professionalism. 

Messi and Ronaldo are just two soccer athletes who have influenced the game of soccer in their own unique ways. Their success stories reflect how soccer has the power to change lives. Both Messi and Ronaldo come from humble backgrounds and faced numerous challenges on their paths to stardom. Through hard work, perseverance, and their incredible talents, they have become role models and global icons.

Soccer is a sport that brings communities together, instills values of teamwork and perseverance. Whether played on dusty fields or crowded stadiums, soccer is able to capture the imagination and unite people from different backgrounds in a shared love for the beautiful game.

The post History of Soccer | Football for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Imagine standing on the center court of the biggest tennis match in the World, The US Open, facing your toughest opponent yet. The sun beats down on your skin, and the crowd’s roar fills your ears as you prepare to serve the ball.

As you toss the ball into the air, your mind flashes back to all the hours you’ve spent practicing, training, and pushing yourself to become the best tennis player in the world. You remember the countless sacrifices you’ve made, the injuries you’ve overcome, and the doubts you’ve silenced.

With a powerful swing of your racket, you send the ball flying over the net and into your opponent’s court. The crowd erupts into cheers as you begin the intense rally that will decide the fate of the match.

As the ball flies back and forth between you and your opponent, you stay focused and determined, using every ounce of your strength, speed, and skill to keep the rally going. You hear your opponent’s breaths getting heavier, see her movements slowing down, and you know you’ve got her where you want her.

In a sudden burst of energy, you make a bold move, charging forward to the net and delivering a stunning volley that catches your opponent off guard. The ball flies past her, landing squarely in the corner of the court, and you raise your arms in triumph as the crowd explodes with excitement.

You’ve done it again. You’ve proven yourself to be the best tennis player in the world, and nothing can stop you. As you bask in the glory of your victory, you can’t help but feel grateful for all the hard work, dedication, and passion that have brought you to this moment. 

You are Serena Williams in a tennis match and it’s nothing short of exhilarating.

Serena Williams is one of the most famous tennis players in the world. She has won countless championships and is known for her incredible athleticism, strength, and skill on the court. But before she became a tennis superstar, she was just a little girl with a big dream.

Serena was born in Saginaw, Michigan with 6 siblings, in 1981 to parents Orancene and Richard Williams who worked hard to keep their big family happy. 

One day while watching a tennis tournament on TV Richard Williams, had an amazing idea. The winner of the tennis tournament received a large amount of money, and Richard believed that his daughters could also become tennis champions. He decided to learn everything he could about the sport and coach his daughters to become superstars. He even wrote a book outlining what they needed to learn about tennis and how he would teach them. He was determined to make his daughters into tennis champions. 

When Serena was just three years old, her father started teaching her and her older sister, Venus, how to play tennis. He would take them to the public courts in their neighborhood and give them lessons on the basics of the game.

Serena learned to play on old and cracked tennis courts in Compton. These courts were not like the ones found in fancy tennis clubs. The nets were held up by chains and ropes, and the fence surrounding the courts was broken in some places. The area around the courts was also not very safe. There were often gang members causing trouble, and sometimes the girls even heard gunshots nearby! It was definitely not an easy place to practice and play tennis.

As the young girls kept practicing their tennis skills, something amazing started to happen. The court began to feel like a safer place to be. Some people who lived nearby even remember seeing gang members standing outside the courts, keeping an eye on the girls and their dad while they played.

Serena and Venus quickly fell in love with tennis. They would practice for hours every day, hitting balls back and forth and working on their technique. They also played other sports, like basketball and track and field, but tennis was always their favorite.

The girls continued taking tennis lessons from their dad and kept improving their skills. 

Serena’s older sister Venus was around nine years old when she started playing in tennis tournaments against other kids her age and Serena was only 8! She was so eager to compete that she surprised her dad by secretly filling out forms to enter a tournament without telling him. He only found out when he saw Serena win her first match!

During that same tournament, her dad got to see both of his daughters play against each other for the first time in the tournament final. Venus was nine and Serena was eight. It was a big moment for the family!

As the sisters began to win more and more games everyone in the tennis community began to notice them. What made Venus and Serena stand out was that they didn’t come from a fancy tennis club. They wore regular clothes without designer labels and they played differently from most young players. Instead of just trying to hit the ball where their opponents couldn’t reach it, they used power and slammed the ball so their opponents couldn’t even see it! The Williams sisters’ success didn’t just stay in California. It caught the attention of people all over the country. The sisters were interviewed and during the interview, Venus said that if she didn’t become a tennis player, she wanted to be an astronaut or an archaeologist and Serena said she wanted to be a gymnast or a veterinarian. 

Their dad had been teaching them all he knew about tennis, but soon he realized that his daughters needed more help to improve their skills. That’s when he decided to hire a professional coach named Rick Macci, a coach in Florida who had trained other young champions like Jennifer Capriati, the youngest player ever to reach the top ten in the world rankings at age fourteen in.

Macci flew to Compton, where the Williams family lived, to see the girls play. Macci was surprised by the run-down courts that the sisters were practicing on, but he was even more impressed by how well the girls played. He saw that they were not only strong, but also fast and graceful. After he watched them play he explained to Serena and Venus that they needed better coaching to take their game to the next level.

Macci saw that Venus and Serena had a burning desire to win, and he believed that they had the potential to become champions. But to do so, the family would have to leave California and move to Florida, where Macci’s tennis academy was located. 

In 1991, the Williams family packed up an RV and drove across the country to start a new life in Florida.

The move was not easy for some of the older sisters to pack up and leave their home, but their parents knew that it was the best decision for Venus and Serena’s tennis future. 

In Florida, the girls practiced six hours a day, six days a week for four years, hitting hundreds of serves every day. They also attended a private school that was part of the tennis academy, where they focused on both tennis and school every day.

Soon after turning fifteen, Serena played in her first professional tournament. And once she started playing professionally the German shoe company Puma offered her a lot of money to wear their name and logo while she played in tournaments, this is called being a sponsor. When you are really good at something like playing tennis, racing cars, or skating, businesses will give you money to wear their logo!

Making money while playing tennis was a big deal for Serena’s family because it helped them to have a better life. It allowed them to pay for travel expenses to tennis tournaments around the world. 

Serena and Venus worked very hard to become professional tennis players, and their success allowed them to support their family and live a more comfortable life.

The sisters were able to  move their family to a big house in Palm Beach, Florida. The house had two tennis courts that were in perfect condition, which was much different than the tennis courts they grew up playing on. 

Serena’s dad started coaching her and her sister again, and they hired tutors to help them with their schoolwork. On the way to the courts, Richard put up signs with encouraging messages for his daughters. One sign said that Venus needed to take control of her future, while another told Serena to use more top spin on the ball.

When Venus and Serena started playing in professional tournaments, they sometimes ended up playing against each other. Venus won against Serena in their first match at the Australian Open in 1998, but Venus said it wasn’t fun to eliminate her little sister. They both celebrated when they won tournaments, and in 1999, they made history by becoming the first sisters to each win a tournament on the same day! Venus won in Oklahoma, while Serena won in Paris.

Serena was only 14 years old when she turned pro in 1995. Over the years she has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, which is more than any other player in recent history! That means she’s won the biggest and most important tennis tournaments in the world many times over! She’s also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles with her sister Venus, and four Olympic gold medals too!

Serena’s powerful serve and aggressive style of play are famous around the world. She’s been ranked No. 1 in the world eight times by the Women’s Tennis Association.

Her success hasn’t come without challenges though. She’s had to overcome injuries, setbacks, and tough opponents. But through it all, she’s shown us that with hard work, dedication, and a positive attitude, anything is possible!

Serena is an inspiration to millions of people around the world. She’s not only an amazing athlete, but she’s also a businesswoman, a fashion designer, and a philanthropist who gives back to her community. Serena is proof that you can achieve anything you set your mind to, and she’s a true champion both on and off the court!

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And do you know which mountain is the highest in the world?  It’s called Mount Everest, but it is also known as Sagarmatha or Chomolungma by its native people, the Nepalese and Tibetans.  The mountain is so big that one side is in Tibet, China, and the other is in Nepal, India.  It stands 29,031 feet high – as high as the cruising altitude of airplanes!  Have you ever been in an airplane and looked out the window to see the clouds and towns below you?  That is how high you would need to climb to reach the top of Mount Everest!  And that also means it is a big drop, too!  Mount Everest is so big and respected that its name means “Holy Mother.”  Mount Everest is considered the great mother of all the other mountain ranges in the Himalayans, the highest mountains in the world.

Many people have tried to climb Mount Everest through the centuries and most have failed.  In the past, climbers did not have the right kind of equipment or knowledge to climb the mountain.  Plus, there are many dangers on the mountain.  At the top, it is bitterly cold with fierce winds that can blow people off the sides.  Avalanches frequently blast down the mountain.  And there is the dangerous Khumbu Icefall, which is filled with huge chunks of ice as high as skyscrapers.  It is one of the most dangerous parts of the mountain because the big ice blocks fall over as the mountain shifts and avalanches rage.  Also, in the icefall, there are super deep crevasses – meaning cracks in the snow – that are like bottomless pits.  If you fall into one of them, it is almost impossible to get out.  

In order to find a path – or route – to the summit, the first climbers had to figure out how to get across the crevasses. They discovered that they could take long aluminum ladders, tie them together, and lay them across the crevasses!  Can you imagine walking across a shaking metal ladder with no railings while wearing spiky boots and carrying 50 or 100 pounds of gear on your back?  It is incredibly stressful and difficult!  And that’s just at the BOTTOM of the mountain!

To climb up the rest of the mountain, many people need to carry oxygen tanks on their backs, like scuba divers, in order to breathe up high where the air is so thin.  To succeed on this climb, mountaineers also need special clothing, hooks, ropes, axes, and spiky metal crampons to put on their boots so they don’t slip on the ice and snow.  Plus, they need other supplies, like food, a tent, a sleeping bag, a camping stove, and extra clothes.  That’s a lot to carry to the top of the world!  

And even with all of these supplies, it does not guarantee a successful climb.  Climbers need to train very hard to be in top physical shape.  Even after training, a person’s body might not acclimate well to the extreme altitude – meaning it cannot process the thin air and physical strain.  They might get a wheezing cough or headaches and dizziness due to the altitude.  They might start hallucinating, thinking they are very hot, and tear off their winter clothes.  That could be very dangerous as they would then freeze without even knowing it.  There is no telling whose body is best suited for Everest and whose is not.  That is part of the gamble when climbing the mountain.

Additionally, Mother Nature is always unpredictable.  The mountain might be sunny with no wind one hour, then cloudy with raging winds the next.  The sun might warm the snow, causing avalanches to slide down the mountain and block the route or blow away climbing ropes.  Then there are falling rocks and falling climbers!  You always have to be alert on Everest!

For all of these reasons, Mount Everest was never successfully climbed until 1953, when Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary from England successfully summited its peak.  It was such an amazing feat that the news was broadcast all over the world.  One of the last unknown territories on Earth had just been conquered!

But there is also an unsolved mystery surrounding Everest.  Almost two decades before Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary summited Everest, two other British climbers named George Mallory and Andrew Irvine tried it in 1924.  On June 8^th, they set out for the peak.  They were last seen several hundred feet below the summit, climbing upwards and disappearing into the clouds.  They were never seen again.  To this day, we do not know if they made it to the top and, if so, what happened to them on their way back down.  Were they actually the first ones to summit Mount Everest?  We may never know.

Mount Everest is so difficult to climb that before climbers set foot on the mountain, they stop in monasteries – or churches – in the valley to pray with the monks.  They ask the mountain to bless them with safe passage.  They ask the monks to bless prayer flags which they string all over base camp, hoping the winds will send their prayers to Holy Mother.

Today’s climbing expeditions on Everest are truly monumental.  Large tents are erected at the bottom of the mountain to house their computer and satellite equipment, kitchen, and medical center.  Many people are hired to help the climbers – Sherpa guides with their huge yaks that look like water buffalo, doctors, nurses, weathermen, and computer people to monitor the weather and the mountain conditions.  Everyone meets daily to discuss the forecast, plan routes, and decide who will climb and who will not.  

Many times, native Sherpas are tasked with carrying massive loads of equipment up and down the mountain repeatedly over the climbing season.  Since they are raised in the high mountains, their bodies are used to the altitude, so they have less stress on their body, lungs, and heart.  Unfortunately, many times they do most of the work and receive none of the glory.  Some never make it to the top of Everest and spend their whole careers lugging supplies up and down the mountain.

And speaking of going up and down the mountain, in order to successfully climb Mount Everest, a climber needs to acclimatize.  That means they need to make trips up the mountain and back down to base camp repeatedly over several weeks.  With every climb, they go a little higher, then return to the bottom.  This acclimatization process helps their body adjust to the high altitudes and low oxygen.  

So, climbing Everest is not a weekend trip!  It takes at least a year of preparation and training, and then months on the mountain setting ropes, laying ladders, making camps, and doing climbs.  

On the day of the summit climb, most mountaineers like to start in the dead of night.  They put on headlamps, metal crampons, and oxygen masks.  They set out very early, before sunrise so the sun won’t warm the snow and cause avalanches.  They climb in the still night air before afternoon winds kick in.  They spend hours slowly inching up the mountain gasping for air in thick thermal snowsuits and foggy face masks.  Only one thought propels them forward, “Keep going.  Keep going.”  

The sun rises just as they reach the last treacherous stretch, the Hillary Step – a steep, 40-foot rock face before they walk along a summit ridge no wider than a foot or two across.  One wrong step here and they will fall 29,000 feet straight down!  

At last, they are at the summit.  They collapse, cheer, weep, or pray.  They plant flags and snap photos.  But they know they are only halfway done.  They have to make it safely back down the mountain.  They have been warned they have to be off the summit before 2:00 pm when the winds start whipping with hurricane force.  The exhausted climbers take one last look, then start the slow slog back across the ridge, down the Hillary Step, and down 29,000 feet, one step at a time, through snow drifts, glaciers, and the Khumbu Icefall to the safety and security of the base camp.  They have done it – they have successfully summited Mount Everest!

What do you think of Mount Everest?  Would you like to climb it?  Do you think you have the strength and ability to make it to the top?  Many people try, but most do not make it.  They get injured, or exhausted, or perish.  Do you think the risk is worth the reward?   Why do you think mountaineers take such big risks just to climb a mountain?  What about their families back home?

I think there are all different types of people in the world – scientists and artists, athletes and students, entrepreneurs and explorers.  Some people see a mountain and want to climb it.  Others see an ocean and want to sail it.  Others dream of learning and teaching, creating, building, or discovering.  What is your passion and what do you want to do with your life?  What is your ultimate dream, your own personal Mount Everest?

The post History of Climbing Mount Everest | For Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Imagine you are floating in a spacecraft…

You are weightless! It feels so strange, yet amazing at the same time. You push off the wall and float down a long room. You feel like Superman flying across empty space. You duck your head and do a quick flip before landing against the other wall, then push off it to soar in the opposite direction. At the end of the next room, you grab a handle and stop to look out the round bubble window. Far below you see a glittering blue ocean, clouds, and brown land. You are 200 miles above earth on board the International Space Station.

Speed and Orbit

Have you ever heard of the International Space Station? Right now it’s circling the earth above you at 17,000 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers per hour). It is going so fast that it orbits the earth every 90 minutes — that means 15 ½ times a day! That’s incredibly fast! Some people think the Space Station is floating in space, but it’s actually falling around the earth in what is known as an orbit. 

The International Space Station, also known as the ISS, is special because it’s not owned by a single country, but by many countries who worked together to build it. It started off as a single module and has grown piece-by-piece into the larger station it is now. In 1998 Russia launched the module Zarya into low earth orbit as the first piece. Low-earth orbit means it is still within the earth’s orbit, not far off in space beyond the earth’s strong gravitational pull. 

Construction

Two weeks after Zarya was launched, the United States launched its own space shuttle with the Unity module and its astronauts onboard. The next step was connecting the first two modules. The astronauts did this by floating out into space and attaching them. And that is how the International Space Station began!  After that other pieces were slowly added to the ISS until it grew and grew. In 2000 came the Russian module Zvezda, then NASA’s Destiny module. Canada’s space program contributed a robotic arm for spacewalks and to make remote controller repairs. The Harmony module came in 2007, then the European Space Agency sent up the Columbus module. Japan sent up its own module in 2008. Next came NASA’s Tranquility module, then Europe’s Leonardo module and finally the Bigelow module sent up by a private company. One reason ISS is amazing is that it is a team effort!

Space Station Activities

Usually, around 3 to 6 astronauts live and work on the ISS at a time. It was made for many reasons, but one of them was to do research. Since humans plan to go to Mars someday, they are using the ISS to see how space will affect the astronauts during their journey to Mars. For example, what will space flight do to their bodies? What kind of foods will they need to eat? What kind of exercise will they need? Will they be able to grow plants? They’ve also tried out the different devices they’ll need in space such as 3D printers and coffee makers.

On the ISS the crew’s days are very busy and besides doing experiments, they spend a lot of time doing maintenance — which means keeping the station running smoothly. Each astronaut has different responsibilities, sort of like you might have doing chores at home. Only by working together will the ISS continue to work properly. Often the astronauts climb into their space suits and space walk — which means going outside of the ISS and floating around to make repairs. This can be dangerous work, so they always attach themselves to the ISS for safety. The astronauts have also been testing a robot that they can use to fly around the ISS and make repairs for them.

The other important part of an astronaut’s day is taking care of themselves, making sure they eat the right foods, showering, brushing their teeth, and getting exercise. They also do things like video chat with schoolchildren and talk about what they’re doing with people around the world. They do this to get others excited about the space station and space research. 

Eating in zero gravity can be very tricky! Their food has to be strapped down to a table and utensils and water bottles have magnets on them to keep them from floating away. If you look on the internet you can find some funny videos of the crew doing flips, floating around and dancing, and playing with water. In zero gravity water floats around in blobs!

Space Station Crew

People from 19 different countries have visited the ISS. These include the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. Now you see why they call it the International Space Station. International means “many countries.” At the ISS it’s exciting to see people from many different countries working together. It’s a perfect example of how working together with people across the world can accomplish amazing things! 

Space Tourism

Many people dream of visiting space someday and some companies promise that someday anyone who can pay for it will be able to do it. Right now it can be very expensive (and at times not even possible) to visit places like the ISS, but someday space vacations may be available to everyone. Can you imagine visiting a place like the ISS or a far-off hotel on the moon? This is called space tourism and a few very wealthy people have been able to visit the ISS by paying for it. It costs them many millions of dollars! 

Anousheh Ansari

One of these people was Anousheh Ansari. Anousheh was born in Iran and moved to the United States when she was little. She was interested in engineering and graduated from college to become an engineer. She and her husband later started a company that grew and grew until they were very wealthy. She’d always dreamed of going to space and became interested in visiting the space station. When she found out they were allowing some to visit the ISS if they paid, she jumped on the chance. First Anousheh trained for the journey, then took a Russian rocket up to the ISS and lived and worked there for a short while. There Anousheh helped do experiments and later wrote a book about her amazing journey. 

Chris Hadfield

One of the most well-known astronauts to live on the ISS is Chris Hadfield. Chris was born in Ontario, Canada. He grew up on a farm with his family where they grew corn. When Chris was little he became interested in flying and later saw the Apollo 11 moon mission, which made him want to be an astronaut like Neil Armstrong. Later, he went to college, then joined the Canadian Air Force. This eventually led to training as an astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency and working on the International Space Station. On the ISS Chris shared his day-to-day activities on Twitter and Facebook and later made a music video on YouTube while playing the guitar in space! This brought even more attention to the important work they were doing on the ISS. 

Records

Many records have been set by the crew of the ISS — such as most consecutive days in space by an American, which was 340 days by astronaut Scott Kelly. The other cool thing about Scott’s trip to the ISS is he is a twin, so they were able to study how space affected Scott versus his twin brother who stayed on Earth. 

Another record was the longest spaceflight by a woman at 289 days by Peggy Whitson. 

The ISS also holds the record for most people in space at once, which was a crew of 13 in 2009.

How do you see the space station?

Did you know you can see the space station from earth? With the help of your parents, if you go to spotthestation.nasa.gov you can sign up to receive text messages or emails whenever the space station is visible above you. Recently, my kids and I did this and it was amazing to see it float across the night sky like a star. 

It Takes Teamwork!

One of the best lessons we can learn from the International Space Station is that by working together people all over the world can do amazing things. Isn’t this so much better than focusing on our differences and fighting? One problem in the world is when people look at those who are different and think there is something wrong with them because they aren’t the same. But differences are what keep the world interesting and there is so much we can learn from each other, from our different experiences and customs, and beliefs. The space station shows that even though we have differences we have common goals, like visiting space and learning about space and the Earth. As we focus on what is common, we can work together to do great things. 

Conclusion

A couple of years ago I worked with a man from India. I’d never met someone from India, so it was very interesting listening to his homeland, what it was like to grow up in India, and his different beliefs. He celebrated different holidays and had different ideas about the world, but it fascinated me to try and see the world through his eyes. As we got to know each other we became friends and I look back on our talks with fondness.

Take a moment to think of someone you know who is different than you. They might be from a different country, look different, talk differently or act in a different way. Take the leap and ask them a few questions and try to get to know them better — because chances are you’ll learn something interesting and possibly make a new friend in the process!

Recommended Books

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Happy fall everyone!  You might have noticed a sudden, slight chill in the air at night or the changing of the leaves on the trees.  Maybe where you live, the leaves are changing from bright green to blazing red, orange, and yellow.  In America, the stores around your town may be stocking up on spooky Halloween costumes, smiling pumpkins, and plump turkeys.  Fall is in the air and people are getting excited to celebrate holidays with family and friends.

Preparations

But do you know what else happened during this Fall season many years ago?  The sailing of the Mayflower – the historic ship that brought the pilgrims from England to America!  The year was 1620 and some people in Europe were finding it difficult to celebrate the religion of their choice.  A group of religious people, called pilgrims, decided they wanted to sail to a new land to have the freedom to practice their own religion.  So, they hired two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, to sail them from Southampton, England, to the new land of America.  They hoped to land in Virginia where a small settlement – or town – was being built.  

To get there, they would need ships, supplies, and a crew of sailors.  The pilgrims spent months making arrangements: they bought farm animals, food, seeds, tools, weapons, and drinks to take with them across the sea.  They hired a captain and a crew of almost 30 men – sailors and cooks, plus a surgeon, carpenter, gunner, barrel maker, and men to handle the cargo and repair the ship.  102 pilgrims, including 18 women – 3 of whom were pregnant – and 11 girls, agreed to sail with the men.  Excitement was high.  Everyone was anxious to set sail but sad to say goodbye to loved ones who would be staying behind. 

The Mayflower and Speedwell Disembark

Finally, the big day arrived.  On August 5, 1620, the Mayflower and the Speedwell left Southampton, England, sailing out of the harbor towards the open sea.  The ships were packed to bursting with hardly an inch of space between all the passengers, crew, animals, and supplies.  In various places on the ship, people couldn’t stand upright due to the low ceilings.  People had to sleep in shifts; there was not enough room for everyone to sleep at once.  But still, spirits were high and excitement filled the air.  

The days slipped by as everyone settled into routines aboard the ship:  eating, sleeping, playing cards, chatting, and tending to children.  Suddenly, 7 days into the voyage, the Speedwell started to leak.  There was no way they could sail across the ocean with this leak- they would surely sink.  There was no choice – they had to sail back towards land and make repairs.  The Speedwell and the Mayflower docked in Dartmouth, England, and repairs were made for two weeks.  Finally, on August 21, 1620, the two ships set sail again.  By this time, everyone was truly anxious to sail.  Once more they sailed out of the harbor for the open sea.  They were 300 miles out to sea when the Speedwell once again started to leak.  Spirits were crushed.  They had wasted so much time and effort trying to make this voyage.  They turned back to land yet again, docking in Plymouth, England. A decision was made to leave the Speedwell behind.  Supplies were transferred from the Speedwell to the Mayflower, and some passengers decided to leave the ships, disheartened by the delays and bad luck.

The Mayflower Disembarks Again

Finally, on September 6, 1620, the Mayflower set sail for the third and final time.  The ship was even more packed now, carrying additional supplies and the remaining Speedwell passengers. 102 people were crowded into a space the size of 58’ x 24’.  If you want to know how big – or small – this is, ask your parents to show you with a tape measure or march it out while counting.  It is incredibly small-maybe even smaller than your living room!  All the pilgrims were now tired and anxious.  They had been living on board for a month and a half in very tight quarters and had yet to cross the ocean.

The Mayflower sailed out into the September seas and, at first, the voyage was smooth and uneventful.  Some people enjoyed sailing – the rock of the ship, the creak of the wooden beams, and the jangle of the metal rigging.  Others, however, became seasick from the constant rolling.  They felt truly miserable and couldn’t wait for the journey to be over!  Can you imagine being seasick, plus smelling the odor of penned animals, fish, and unwashed clothes for days on end?  Not very pleasant!

Trouble on the High Seas

About halfway through the trip, the weather worsened and huge storms raged across the ocean, turning the once-calm sea into a swirling, crashing mass of waves and spray.  Animals squawked and people moaned.  The ship rolled from side to side.  Suddenly, they heard a crack and the main beam started to break in the howling wind.  They needed to repair the beam in order to sail, otherwise, they would be like a toy boat in the water, bobbing along with no way to steer toward Virginia.  By sheer luck, one of the passengers had a large metal jackscrew, which the carpenter used to repair the beam.  During these storms one woman even gave birth!

Land Ho!

By now, everyone just wanted the trip to be over – the seasickness, rough seas, and cramped conditions were becoming unbearable.  Finally, on November 9, after 66 days of sailing, they sighted land.  They had reached Cape Cod, Massachusetts, north of Virginia.  How happy they were, yelling and pointing and hugging each other.  They decided to sail further south to Virginia.  Suddenly, the weather worsened and they nearly shipwrecked in the rough seas, so they turned back to Cape Cod, landing in Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts.

The mood was joyous, yet a little anxious.  What would they find on land?  Would they find food?  Or warring tribes?  Or dangerous animals?  A group of men went ashore in small boats, scouting the area for the best spot to build a settlement.  The weather was getting colder each day.  The leaves were off the trees and crunched underfoot as the men tromped through the forests.  They could see their breaths in the cool morning air.  Soon the snow would come.  The woman and children stayed on board the Mayflower making meals, washing clothes, and tending to the animals.  The men decided that the best place to live would be farther north along the coast, to a place now called Plymouth, Massachusetts.  They sailed the Mayflower to the new shoreline and started building small wooden homes on December 25 – Christmas Day!

The First Settlement

For the next four months, the men worked tirelessly to build homes and storage sheds. Temperatures were freezing and snow covered the land.  Their supplies were running low, there were no berries or plants to harvest, and finding animals to hunt was unpredictable.  The weather was much colder than they were used to in England.  People started to get sick.  The cramped, dirty conditions on the ship were not healthy.  While the men were able to get outside in the fresh air doing construction, hunting, and sipping fresh water, the woman and children were inside the crowded ship tending to the sick, thus catching sickness themselves, including scurvy, pneumonia, and tuberculosis. In total, half of the Mayflower passengers did not survive their first winter in America.  Only 5 women remained of the original 18.  They tended to the remaining 50 men and children.

In the spring and summer of 1621, the pilgrims worked non-stop building shelters, hunting, and foraging for food.  They planted crops, raised animals, and repaired tools.  Also, during this time, they were greeted by Chief Massasoit and his Wampanoag warriors.  The pilgrims talked with the tribe and everyone exchanged gifts of clothing, food, and weapons in acts of friendship.  The Indians agreed they would not attack the pilgrims and would protect them against other warring tribes.  The pilgrims agreed they would do the same.  The Wampanoag also told the pilgrims how to plant, hunt, and survive in this new land.

The First Thanksgiving

Sometime in the Fall of 1621, maybe early October, the pilgrims held a celebration of thanks.  They relaxed by hunting, eating, and celebrating.  Chief Massasoit and 90 of his Wampanoag warriors joined the pilgrims, bringing 5 deer to the celebration.  For three days, the pilgrims and Native Americans feasted on wild turkey, deer, and fish, as well as other seafood, berries, and nuts. 

This was a wonderful feast; however, the pilgrims did not celebrate like this every year.  They were too busy growing crops, building homes, and raising families during those rough early years in a wild new land.  The holiday of Thanksgiving was actually started by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to honor the pilgrims and their historic voyages.

Before the pilgrims left the Mayflower on March 31, 1621, they drafted and signed a document called The Mayflower Compact.  It was a set of rules and principles to govern the pilgrims in this new, wild land and to set responsibilities for each person.  The Mayflower Compact and its principles later helped shape the United States Declaration of Independence.

Conclusion

What do you think of the Mayflower voyage and its brave pilgrims?  Would you sail on a small, crowded boat across the sea, leaving behind family and friends?  If you could sail anywhere in the world, where would you go? Do you think you could survive in the wilderness of new land in the middle of winter?  What would you do to survive?

I think this history shows us that the pilgrims were incredibly brave people who made a difficult decision to sail into the unknown, suffering much hardship along the way.  But they had faith, helped one another, and worked tirelessly to build a new community. Today, Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the pilgrims settled, is one of the prettiest coastlines in America and is steeped in Wampanoag and pilgrim history. The pilgrim’s voyage has never been forgotten. But we must also remember to honor Chief Massasoit and his Wampanoag tribe for helping the pilgrims, who likely would not have survived that first winter without their assistance.  We owe them an incredible debt of gratitude.  

Be sure to also check out our episode about the First Thanksgiving!

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Sometimes, siblings end up leading very different lives. And sometimes, they end up needing each other more than they realize, even when they’re grown up.

Birth of William and Caroline Herschel 

William and Caroline Herschel were born into the same family, but their opportunities in life were very different. Born in Hanover, Germany in the early eighteenth century, William was 12 years older than Caroline. At the time, as you might guess, girls were expected to learn how to run households and get married. But it wasn’t just the fact that Caroline was a girl that limited her opportunities. She was also sick a lot as a child. A bout of smallpox at age four left her face scarred. At 10, she suffered a typhus infection, which stunted her growth: she only grew to a height of 4 foot 3.

All this misfortune left Caroline’s mother, Anna, sure that her youngest daughter would never be able to marry.  Anna didn’t approve of girls being educated either. That left housework. She decided Caroline would become a servant, and promptly began treating her like one. 

While Caroline learned to cook and mend stockings, her brothers went to school and learned to play musical instruments. Their father, Isaac Herschel was a member of a military band. Though he was often away from home, he didn’t share his wife’s views on education for girls. When he did come home, he would always find time to teach Caroline alongside her brothers.  He even took her out one chilly evening to show her the stars and a comet.  So she did end up with a basic education.

With her ability to read and write, Caroline helped her mother, who couldn’t do either, write letters to her father when he was away. Other military wives in their neighborhood also took advantage of her skills. Whenever she found a spare moment without any chores, she made the most of it by reading or playing the violin.

Still, Caroline felt lost and forgotten in her large family. But William always seemed to notice her and stand up for her. After their father died, he suggested that Caroline come and live with him and their brother Alexander in England. He was working as a musician in the city of Bath, and thought he might be able to train Caroline to sing in his performances. William played several instruments – violin, harpsichord, oboe- and also wrote songs and symphonies. 

Caroline had looked around for years, trying to find something other than the dull drudgery of housework she could do to support herself. She had learned how to knit and make frilly dresses and fancy hats, but her mother insisted she only do these things for family members. She had hoped to learn French so she could become a governess, caring for a wealthy family’s children. Her mother forbade it. Singing for her brother sounded like the perfect escape! William made a deal with his mother: He would pay for a servant to replace Caroline, and she would come to England to train as a singer. 

Astronomy: A New Hobby

So Caroline finally left her dreary life as the family servant behind at the age of 22. On their journey to England, she and William rode on top of their carriage at night, and he re-introduced her to the hobby their father had shared all those years ago: astronomy. William pointed out stars and constellations and told her about the telescopes he used to view them at home. They stopped at optician’s shops in London where William scoured the supply of mirrors and lenses for ones he might use to build new telescopes. 

When they arrived in Bath, things didn’t go as Caroline hoped, at least not immediately. She was frustrated to learn that she would still have to do most of the housework for her brothers. But in addition to the housework, she was learning and improving herself every day. William began tutoring her in math, bookkeeping, English, and, of course, singing. 

Caroline took two or three singing lessons each day and soon began to perform in public. After a few years, she had become famous in Bath! She got offers to sing in festivals, but she insisted on only performing when William was conducting. 

In the meantime, William was becoming more and more obsessed with his astronomy hobby. He’d stay up late, observing stars, and tell Caroline what he’d seen in the morning. Soon, Caroline became William’s astronomy assistant as well. He built a tall platform to observe from. He would yell down the positions of stars and nebulae and other celestial objects, and Caroline would record them carefully in her notebooks. Even on the coldest nights, they bundled up so they could keep watching the sky. 

Soon, Caroline was learning more advanced geometry and algebra so she could measure the distances and angles between celestial objects. She began making her own observations of the night sky. The siblings recorded every object they saw as they gazed up into the cold, dark heavens. 

Building a New Telescope

But William wasn’t satisfied with the tools he had at hand. Telescopes at the time didn’t magnify as much as he would have liked. They used small concave mirrors–think of a shallow bowl–to gather light from far off in space, then that image reflected onto another small, flat mirror that the observer looked at. But these mirrors were only a few inches across, and bigger mirrors would mean more magnification. But no one knew how to make a larger mirror that was still clear and smooth enough to create a sharp image. 

William bought his own equipment and began experimenting with creating his own mirrors. At first, Caroline was mostly responsible for making sure William had food to eat while he labored long hours on his mirrors. But soon, she began to help grind and polish the mirrors as well. It was smelly, messy work– they created molds for their mirrors out of horse poo– but after some practice, William created a better mirror: 6 inches across, polished to a perfect, smooth, uniform surface. He mounted it in a 5-foot-long telescope tube. Later, he created an even bigger mirror and built a 20-foot telescope! 

New Discoveries for William and Caroline Herschel

With their new instruments, the pair racked up thousands of discoveries. William realized that many bright stars were actually two stars that were so close together that they appeared to be one unless you looked at them through a powerful telescope. Likewise, some fuzzy objects that people once thought were nebulae turned out to be clusters of stars. Caroline discovered eight comets and thousands of new nebulae and star clusters using the better telescopes. 

In 1781, William made his most exciting discovery yet. He noticed a fuzzy object in the sky that looked a bit like a comet. But it didn’t behave like a comet. After watching it for weeks and calculating its orbit, he realized it was a planet! No one had discovered a new planet since ancient times. William decided to name the planet Georgium Sidus, or George’s Star, after the current king of England, King George the Third.

The Royal Astronomer

The name didn’t stick–eventually another scientist renamed it Uranus, after a Greek god. But King George didn’t let the compliment go unrewarded. He asked William to become the royal astronomer! William accepted, and he and Caroline moved closer to the palace. 

William even requested that Caroline be paid a salary, and King George agreed. Not only could Caroline now support herself–something she’d longed for her entire life–she also became the first woman to be paid for doing science! 

Working for the king allowed the Herschels to take on even bigger, more ambitious projects. King George gave William the money to build what would be the largest telescope ever constructed. It would have a 4-foot, one-thousand-pound mirror and be over forty feet long! That’s about the length of ten Caroline Hershcels! The telescope would have to sit on a specially designed rotating platform and would be supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding. It took 5 years to build. When it was done, they threw a party, with guests dancing in and out of the tube before it was put in place. 

William married in 1786, but unfortunately, Caroline didn’t get along with his new wife at first. After spending her entire adult life by her brother’s side, Caroline had to move out on her own as William’s wife took over running his household. But eventually, the two women seem to have mended their relations, and Caroline wrote about her in friendly terms in later journals. She became a role model and educator for their son, John, shaping him into a first-rate astronomer in his own right. 

Caroline kept herself busy with her own astronomical projects as well. She created a catalog of all known stars. An astronomer named John Flamsteed had created a catalog years earlier, but Caroline’s would correct many errors and add more than 500 new stars. The Royal Astronomical Society in London published her work in 1798. 

Royal Astronomical Society

William passed away in 1822. Caroline was devastated by the loss of her brother, but kept on studying the night sky, carefully recording every detail. She and William’s son, John, worked together to catalog their observations. Eventually, she moved back to Germany. She was famous and respected for her work. The Royal Astronomical Society in London and the King of Prussia–now part of Germany–presented her with gold medals. She lived until the age of 97, and died peacefully in her sleep in her hometown of Hanover.  

Together, William and Caroline discovered over 2,000 objects in space – asteroids, comets, nebulae, and star clusters. William’s gravestone has the Latin words Coelorum perrupit claustra engraved on it–”He broke through the barriers of the heavens.” Not only did he break through the barriers of the heavens, he made sure his sister was able to break through with him. Caroline saw that knowledge could help her leave behind a life of drudgery and housework if only someone would share it with her. William saw that his sister was smart and capable, and refused to let her talents go to waste. 

Together, William and Caroline changed how people viewed the universe, and opened many eyes to its wonders. And together, these siblings did more than either one could do alone!

Sources

https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/a-giant-of-astronomy

https://scientificwomen.net/women/herschel-caroline-43

https://www.space.com/18704-who-discovered-uranus.html

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/herschel/memoir/memoir.html 

Krull, Kathleen (2013) Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and what the Neighbors Thought). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York.

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Today we’re going to learn about a few of the people who were born in the Navajo Nation and their adventures that started back in 1942, around 80 years ago.

At this time in Europe, World War II has been raging for two years, but in the United States, people are still going about their daily activities – attending school, working in stores, tending family farms, and raising children.  But suddenly, on December 7, 1941, the US state of Hawaii is attacked by enemy planes.  Big battleships are sunk.  Many lives are lost.  The US must respond and save their nation – but how?

A Military Plan

Military leaders get together to discuss a battle plan.  They gather soldiers, ships, tanks, and planes.  Next, they need to find a battle language – a secret code – to relay messages back and forth.  Their enemies are good at cracking codes – they did it in World War I and they are currently doing it in Europe during World War II.  So, what kind of code can they use?  They need a language that is unknown, and very difficult to speak and understand.  During the first World War, the US used Native American languages like Choctaw for their codes. Nineteen Choctaw warriors were sent into battle to relay secret messages.  The enemy couldn’t understand this Choctaw language; they thought the US had created some type of machine to record voices underwater!  However, after WWI, the enemy learned about this code and sent students to the US to learn Choctaw, plus other Native American languages such as Hopi, Comanche, and Cherokee.  The US military leaders need to find a new language – something unknown to most people.  An article about this search is printed in the papers.

The Navajo Code

Philip Johnston reads about this search in the paper and has an idea.  As a child, he was raised on a Navajo reservation with missionary parents, meaning religious people, who helped the Navajo.  He knows how to speak Navajo – a language that is not written has no alphabet and is very difficult to understand.  The same Navajo word can mean different things based on the tone of voice used or if the word is spoken in a high voice, a low voice, or even a rising or falling voice.  This would make a perfect code! 

Philip contacts the US military and, after a lot of convincing, they agree to use Navajo as their code!  They find 29 young Navajo men who are bilingual – meaning they speak Navajo and English – from the Navajo Nation spread across the US states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.  The men are sent to Camp Elliott in San Diego, California, for boot camp and training.  There is so much to learn:  they need to learn how to jump over high walls, crawl quietly through jungles with huge backpacks, shoot rifles, and hone survival skills like reading maps, building fires, and bandaging wounds.  But these Navajo soldiers have to learn even more.  They have to create and memorize a secret code – plus use a special radio to transmit these codes!

Writing the Code

These young men are smart.  They know that the enemy might understand certain Navajo words, so they turn their language into a secret code!  Sometimes they will use their original Navajo words and sometimes they will change words.  For instance, in English, the word “cat” starts with the letter “C”.  The Navajo word for “cat” is “mosi” (mo-see).  So, now they will use the word “mo-see” to mean the letter C!  They do this trick with all the letters of the English alphabet.  And then they do something even more amazing!  They think of military words like “Captain” or “Patrol Plane” or “Mine Sweeper” and think of animals or objects that look or act like those military objects.  For example, a captain wears a pin with two metal stripes on his uniform.  This striped pin reminds the Navajo of railroad tracks.  So, the code for captain is now “two tracks.”  A patrol plane soars through the sky looking for things below, like troops, or tanks, or ships.  This reminds the Navajo of a bird that likes to fly and look for things on the ground.  Thus, they call a patrol plane a “crow!” And a mine sweeper ship cruises through the water looking for things in its way.  The Navajo code talkers say that’s a “beaver.”  And that is how they build their code – by turning military words into Navajo words with a secret meaning.  Now even a Navajo speaker will not know what they are talking about!  

Implementing the Navajo Code

The Code is ready.  Now it needs to be tested in battle!  Four hundred trained Navajo code talkers are sent to the Pacific islands of Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Guadalcanal, and Bougainville.  The fighting is fierce.  The noise of guns and grenades is deafening at times.  The code talkers work in pairs with no code books; everything is memorized.  They can’t risk the enemy finding the books and learning the code.  They can hardly think, speak, or hear each other with all the noise during intense battles.  And other times they have to be very quiet when speaking on the radio, especially at night, so their voices or the squawk of the radio will not give them away. 

They relay messages day and night – such as where US planes and ships should land or fire, where the enemy is located, where to send more troops, or where to pick up injured soldiers.  This is incredibly important work and is very stressful and tiring – plus they have to stay safe themselves through all this action.  They are always the first to land and the last to leave in battle. They are on the front lines of battles learning important information to pass back to their commanders. It is very hard for them to stay alive and send accurate messages every day; however, they successfully send over 800 messages during the battle of Iwo Jima alone without one mistake! Due to their heroic actions and their secret code, the US wins the famous battle at Iwo Jima.

The Navajo Code Talkers serve for three years in battles all across the Pacific Islands, relaying thousands of messages, saving countless lives, and securing victory in the Pacific with the US Marines.  The enemy never cracks their code.  

Finally, the war ends and the Navajo code breakers return to their homes and families in the Navajo Nation.  Some have died bravely in battle, but many have miraculously survived.  Their code and mission remain secret and confidential for more than 20 years, until details are released in 1968.  That is because the US military continued to use their Navajo code in other battles, such as Vietnam and Korea.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan honored the code talkers and declared August 14 “Navajo Code Talkers Day.”  In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Congressional medals of honor to 29 of the original code talkers, followed by additional award ceremonies in 2001 by President George W. Bush and 2017 by President Donald Trump.  

Code Talker Peter MacDonald states, “What a privilege God had given to us to do that job, for selecting the Navajo!”  He opens his old, faded code book. With a gnarled finger, he traces across the page and lands on the word “America.”  Beside it is the Navajo code: “Our Mother.”  His weathered face breaks into a grin – the Navajo have helped save America, their nation’s mother.

Our Debt to the Navajo Code Talkers

I think we owe a large debt of gratitude to the Navajo Nation and the brave young men who fought so valiantly in the Pacific relaying thousands of messages swiftly and accurately while under extreme battle conditions.  They offer us many important life lessons about duty, honor, service to others bravery, courage, and so much more.  Each of us in our own way has something to offer to the world: a skill, a talent, a helping spirit, or a language!  Just think what amazing things we can accomplish if we work together and help one another.  What is your special gift and what could you do to better your community?

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Have you ever moved to somewhere far away? Or maybe had a friend who did? It can be exciting, but also scary. You don’t know what to expect as you pack up all your things and say goodbye to the friends and places you’ve always known. But you know you can call your friends and stay in touch, starting as soon as you arrive in your new house in just a few days. Maybe you can even visit them in the summers.

The Long Move to Oregon Territory

150 years ago, things would have been different. A move of more than a few hundred miles meant selling or giving away most of your things, and undertaking a tough and dangerous journey to reach your new home. You could write letters to your old friends, but chances were, you would never see them in person again. And yet, in the middle of the 19th century, thousands of people decided to make just such a journey, from the eastern United States to the Oregon territory, near the Pacific Ocean, where the US government was encouraging people to settle. The route people took was called the Oregon Trail, and it was a much bigger deal than moving today. 

Imagine it’s 1859. Your parents have told you that you’re going to move to the Willamette Valley, in Oregon territory. You start your journey in Independence, Missouri in early May. Maybe you took a train to get from your home in the eastern United States to this point, but there are no trains to take you on the rest of the way. You’ll be traveling in a covered wagon pulled by a team of oxen. Or, at least your stuff will be traveling that way.

You and your family will ride sometimes, but very often, you’ll walk. The wagon will be stuffy, bumpy, and crowded. You’ll be passing through prairies, mountains, and deserts, crossing roaring rivers, warding off disease, fixing things constantly, and hunting for food. 

You know other people have gone on this route before, and your parents have read and planned a lot to help make your journey a success. Your parents have told you about Oregon, and it sounds like a dream. They’ve never been there either, but they’ve read accounts by previous settlers. The Willamette Valley, where you’re headed, is said to be full of rolling hills and groves,, and the Willamette River runs right down the middle. All kinds of crops grow well in the mild climate there – it rains often, and rarely snows. But you’re still nervous. You’ve taken a peek at the books they read, and seen that the journey can be dangerous. 

Your parents have sold many of your family’s things, because there won’t be room for them on the wagon. The wagon is only 4 feet by 8, so you had to be careful about what you kept. You have a few clothes and blankets for the trip, tools you’ll need along the way, and a few keepsake items. 

Packing for the Oregon Trail

What will you need on your trip? What can you get along the way? The answer to the second question is “not much” – at least you won’t be buying much, so before you go, you need to stock up on food and supplies for the 5 to 6 month journey. That’s right, this trip could take half a year! So fresh fruits and veggies, anything that will spoil, are out. You help your parents buy 600 pounds of flour, 90 pounds of crackers, 200 pounds of bacon. Huge amounts of coffee, tea, sugar, salt, and dried fruit and beans. You wonder how it will all fit into your wagon, but also worry that it won’t be enough for the journey. But as you slowly load up the wagon, you realize there’s plenty of space, and sacks of flour aren’t so uncomfortable to sit on. Your parents reassure you that they will also hunt for buffalo, deer, and other animals on the trail. 

But food is just part of the cargo. You need tools and cookware too. Pots and pans, dishes, axes, scythes, shovels, and saws. Guns and knives for hunting. Finally it’s all packed into the covered wagon that will be your homebase on the trail. You’re ready to start off, along with several other families in a wagon train. 

On the trail, your days are long, but the tracks are well-worn at first. During the first month, you pass several trading posts where your parents pick up supplies you need, trading  with both European settlers and Native Americans. Your dad is able to hunt and get fresh meat for the family often, and you camp near bubbling streams each night. 

Crossing the River

One day, you come up to a river. You’ve crossed some rivers by now, but the weather has been stormy, and this one is moving high and fast. There’s no ferry or bridge, like at some of the other rivers, and you can’t imagine trying to just walk across. How will you cross it? 

Your dad and a few other adults talk. When they return to the group, they say the wagons can cross here But, you have to turn them into boats! You unload the wagons and press caulking into all the gaps, making them waterproof. You take off all the wheels and load them into wagons. The men push the wagons into the water, then jump in when they’re afloat and start rowing like mad with shovels, sticks, anything else that makes a decent oar. The animals struggle to swim behind. One of the cows is washed away in the current. It seems like hours, but you finally reach the other side.  Then you begin the work of putting the wagons back together and reloading everything. By the time you get going again, it really has been hours.

As you walk or ride, you start to notice strange rock formations off in the distance that look like buildings or chimneys or phantoms. You encounter your share of thunderstorms, and hear rumors of travelers getting sick with a terrible disease. 

At one campsite, someone left a warning carved into a fallen log: BAD WATER. But there’s nothing else to drink, so your mom boils the water for an extra-long time. Actually, all the water on the trail tasted bad. Bad enough to make you drink coffee instead, which you normally think is terrible. Boiling the water does the trick, and your family stays healthy. Many people in your wagon train aren’t so careful, and they get sick with cholera. Some end up dying on the trail, their journey west coming to a tragic end.

Traveling Along the Oregon Trail

After a couple of months, the weather starts to get hotter during the day, but is still bitingly cold at night. You celebrate Independence Day, July 4th, at a huge round rock called Independence Rock. Your mom tells you it’s a good sign that you’ve made it this far: it means you should be in Oregon before snow starts to fall on some of the route. 

The terrain slowly starts to get steeper, as you trek up endless miles of hillsides and into the Rocky Mountains. The place where you cross doesn’t look like the grand, majestic mountain pass you imagined: dry scrubby hills rise slowly in front of you, and wagons further up in the train disappear one by one over a curved horizon. 

Sometimes, you lie down in the wagon to try to sleep on the road, but it’s so bumpy and hot, you usually end up walking alongside after a while. One day, your stomach starts to churn. You’re getting sick. You’re not sure if it was the water you drank, the aging dried meat, or just sheer exhaustion from nonstop travel. You have to ride in the stuffy wagon, near the back so that if you need to throw up, you can poke your head out. Given how bumpy the ride is, that happens a lot. But after about a week, you slowly start to feel better. You can walk alongside the wagon for a few minutes at a time. You even feel like eating the hard, stale crackers and the tough, leathery meat again.

The months on the trail wear on, and you wonder if you’ll ever get to Oregon. The beautiful land of the Willamette Valley starts to seem like a myth. You lose count of the times you’ve had help to fix an axle or wheel. You’ve lost count of the rivers you’ve forded or ferried or floated across. The bags and barrels of flour, sugar, coffee, and other food are getting looser and lighter. You wonder if there will be enough to reach the west. You miss home. 

September rolls around, and the days start to get colder. You hope you reach the Willamette Valley before the snow starts. You’ve heard your parents talking late at night, when you’re supposed to be asleep. They worry that the wagon train will get caught in the mountains in early snows before you reach Oregon City in the Willamette Valley, where your wagon train will officially disband. 

The road doesn’t get any easier, and you do see a few flurries of snowflakes in the mountain passes. But after months of walking, bumpy riding, stale food, sickness, worry, and hardship, you realize that Mount Hood, a magnificent mountain rising high above the Willamette Valley, is looming larger in the distance. Soon, you’ll see the little town of Oregon City in the distance. You realize the air here is fresh and clear, the land green and rolling. You finally feel what your parents told you they felt, way back when they told you you were going west. 

Hope. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed your imaginary journey on the Oregon Trail. Between 1840s and 1880s, 300 to 500 thousand men, women, and children made this arduous journey on the trail, looking for new opportunities in the western United States. Today, the National Park Service operates dozens of sites along the Historic Oregon Trail. If you’re anywhere near the US states of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, or, of course, Oregon, you can check out the National Park Service website to find out how to visit. It’s at nps.gov/oreg. 

Sources

https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/learn_interp_nhotic_historybasics.pdf

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Oregon-Trail/Outposts-along-the-trail

https://www.frontierlife.net/blog/2020/6/9/oregon-trail-river-crossings

https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/oregon-trail

https://www.jobcarrmuseum.org/blog/oregon-trail-foods-preparing-for-the-journey

https://oregontrailcenter.org/traveling-west

https://www.nps.gov/oreg/index.htm

https://www.nps.gov/oreg/learn/historyculture/index.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Valley_(ecoregion)

https://www.vox.com/2015/2/6/7987697/oregon-trail-game-real-life

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Have you ever traveled in an airplane? Imagine if you had to make that same trip in a car. It would have taken a lot longer, right? Even just a hundred years ago most people didn’t have access to airplanes. They had to use horses, trains, or sometimes cars to get around, but for most people getting from here to there in a plane was still a thing of the future. 

Did you know around 100,000 flights happen every day! And around 6 million people fly every day! Those are huge numbers! Aircraft have revolutionized travel across the world. I remember the last flight I went on, and in just a few hours I had gone from Arizona all the way down to Costa Rica. It still blows my mind to think about it! I can still picture my kids’ faces the first time they’ve had the chance to fly. They are nervous when we take off, but then they smile after we are in the air and look out the window at the ground as it grows smaller and smaller below. And then I imagine what the world would be like without airplanes. It makes me very grateful that some very determined people dedicated their lives to figuring out the miracle of flight.

In this episode, we are going to talk about two brothers who invented the first airplane and took humans to the sky — Wilbur and Orville Wright, also known as the Wright Brothers. 

Interestingly, in 1891, the different brothers were putting the final touches on their 15 meters long-winged Glider in Germany.

One brother was named Otto Lilienthal. He was attracted to the sky when he first saw a bird on the shores of the Baltic Sea in northern Germany. Otto’s brother, Gustav Lilienthal’s heart, was on the ground, but his mind was in the sky. Both brothers were engineers and had a strong desire to fly.

Climbing on a high hill, Otto Lilienthal hung himself under the Glider and ran into the wind. Four seconds later, he was floating in the air. He was flying! Little did he know, his glider flight would go down in history as the first recorded year someone flew.

News of these thrilling experiments made it into the newspapers of Europe and America. In those times, the question, “Can a human fly like a bird?” was a matter of great discussion.

Two American brothers, Orville and Wilbur, the Wright brothers, heard about the news of the first glider flight and were very interested. At the time the Wright Brothers were running a bicycle repair shop in Dayton, USA.

One day, Orville Wright fell ill and was still bedridden in the morning. Sunday’s newspaper came with front-page news titled “Glider had suddenly crashed in a strong wind, killing Otto Lilienthal.”

Orville was sad to hear about the inventor who had first flown the glider. Wilbur Wright, three years older than Orville, was also shocked. The hard work and sacrifices of the other brothers in Germany inspired and challenged the Wright Brothers to create their own airplane.

The Wright brothers didn’t want to make any hasty efforts. First, Wilbur Wright wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington asking for materials on aeronautics and mechanics. The institute was collecting research papers as well as books on scientific experiments taking place around the world.

The Smithsonian Institution replied positively. The natural wind that can lift an aerial vehicle can only be found on the coast, so the Wright Brothers left Ohio and moved to the coastal state of North Carolina in 1900, where they camped on a hilly shore called Kitty Hawk.

The Wright Brothers set up a Glider-making workshop there. Next to it, they even built a small house with all basic furnishing. This extended plan was not a hobby; their plan was to stay at the testing ground until they had achieved their goal.

Can you believe that the world’s first self-powered aircraft – which they called Flyer-1, was built in less than two months!? Today, if we looked at the Flyer-1 design, it looked like a dragonfly and was a pretty fragile plane — which means it could break easily. But you can’t help but admire Orville and Wilbur Wright’s intellect and talent after learning about the technology they designed in the Flyer-1’s structure.

The main component of the Flyer-1 was its engine. Since The Wright Brothers couldn’t find the right automobile engine for the Flyer-1, they decided to build a new one. Orville and Wilbur used a four-cylinder gasoline engine after considering the aircraft’s size, weight, and dimension. The Flyer-1 engine weighed 178-pound with 12 horsepower. 

After examining several types of wood, Wilbur and Orville decided to use giant Spruce wood for the Flyer-1. The wood was pretty light yet strong. After forming a skeleton-like framework, they covered it tightly with a muslin cloth.

Can you believe that the Flayer-1 had no spark plug, cockpit, no carburetor to pour gasoline into the engine, and no water pump for cooling? Probably, the biggest shocker is that the plane had no wheels!! But Flayer-1 had one thing, that was the genius of two brothers. They overcame every challenge with brilliancy and common sense.

For example, to make up for the lack of wheels, Wright Brothers set up a four-piece wooden plank in a row like a train track. They made a dolly and set the plane on it. The idea was that when the dolly carrying the plane runs on the 18-meter long track, the dolly stays on the ground while the plane shoots into the sky.

After much effort and preparation, the day for realizing the beautiful and thrilling dream came on December 14, 1903. Kitty Hawk Beach in the state of North Carolina was the stage for a dramatic and historic event.

To decide who would fly it first, Orville Wright tossed a coin and Wilbur won. But when the plane’s 12-horsepower engine sped off, Wilbur got too excited and raised the elevator too high, and the lift factor suddenly disappeared. Flyer-1 fell on the ground with some damage. It took them three more days to repair Flyer-1. 

On December 17, the two brothers returned to the seashore. The weather was pleasant. Exactly, at 10.35 a.m., Orville raced down the rail and held his breath as suddenly, Flyer-1 took off and flew through the air! The Age of Flight had begun! 

Orville flew 120 feet for 12 seconds. The history of the world would never be the same! 

Orville and Wilbur Wright were happy to have completed the unfinished work of Otto Lilienthal and to have made the impossible possible with their intelligence. Little did they know that their invention of Flyer-1 would someday lead to huge passenger jets, military aircraft, and all of the other amazing aircraft we know today.

Surprisingly, the flight that took place in Kitty Hawk wasn’t really recognized in the United States. People couldn’t really accept and believe it. So Wilbur Wright went to France the following year and held an air show there. He flew the aircraft at an altitude of 300 feet.

In 1904, Wilbur Wright flew the modified version of Flyer-1 a distance of 2.7 miles. Wilbur proved that planes can be used for travel.

Then in 1908, Wilbur took his friend Charles William Furnas on the plane’s back seat and started the experimental journey. The successful flight made Charles William Furnas the first airplane passenger in the world. 

The journey was short, but the era of air travel really began when Wilbur covered the distance of 41 miles in France a few months later.

After returning to America, he got even more attention when he flew for crowds in New York. People saw it and finally believed human flight could happen.

Since The Wright Brothers’ time, aircraft were created that were bigger and faster and soon could hold many people and fly across the ocean. Aircraft was in the major world wars and in the case of World War II, major battles were won or lost based on airpower. Air travel eventually led to the building of rockets, and Neal Armstrong was a pilot before he went to the moon. Today jets can fly at the speed of sound and even some passenger jets like the Concorde can fly over 1,000 miles per hour and travel from New York to London (across the Atlantic Ocean) in less than an hour. 

Thinking about these advances makes me grateful for bright people like Orville and Wilbur Wright who learned all they could, then put their smarts to work and stuck with their work until they built the first basic airplane. Next time you’re flying on a plane thinking about people like Otto Lilienthal and The Wright Brothers and all of the engineers and pilots who have come after them. Be sure to check out our episodes about Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart and Neal Armstrong, all pilots. 

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This was the winning moment that made North Carolina freshman Mike Jordan into Michael Jordan, who became the most famous basketball player of all time.  

Early Life

Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York.  He was the fourth of five children in his family.  When he was just a toddler, his family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. When Michael tried out for the school’s basketball team they said he was too short to play and he didn’t make the team.

Instead of feeling bad for himself, Michael worked harder.  He practiced every day and made the team the next year. Eventually, he became the star of his basketball team.  He trained very hard and by the time he was in his final year of high school colleges were asking him to come play for them. 

College Basketball

After receiving many offers, Michael accepted a basketball scholarship to North Carolina University. A scholarship is where a college pays for all of your schooling. In college, Michael studied geography and played on the basketball team.  He helped his team make it to the championship game. During the final seventeen seconds, his team was losing but Michael took a jump shot and won the game! Scoring the winning shot made Michael famous, and after college, he joined the Chicago Bulls, a professional basketball team.

Chicago Bulls and “Air Jordan”

From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, everyone loved to watch Michael Jordan play basketball. Because he could jump so high, he earned the nicknames “Air Jordan”, “His Airness” or just “MJ.” He had amazing leaping abilities and could do slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests. During games, he was known for doing trick dunks and dunking over other players. He also used other trick moves like the reverse layup.

During the summer of 1984, Jordan played for the U.S. Olympic basketball team. The team won the gold medal at the games that year, which were held in Los Angeles. In the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona Spain Jordan and his team became known as the “Dream Team” and won their second gold medal there.

Popular Brands

Over the years, Michael worked with several large brands in their advertisements, including Nike, Hanes, Upper Deck, Gatorade, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Chevrolet, and Wheaties. He even acted in a few movies like Michael Jordan’s Playground and Space Jam. The movie mixed live action and animation and had Michael act with cartoon legends Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck on screen.  Nike created a whole line of shoes and sports clothes named “Air Jordan” after him. Many kids at the time wanted to be like Michael Jordan and wear the shoes with his name.

In 1985, even though he was a very wealthy basketball player, Jordan knew school was important so made sure he finished the college degree in geography he had started. 

During his second season he tore his ACL and was hurt badly, but after this went on to become the first player since Wilt Chamberlin to score more than 3,000 points in a single season.

Family Life

In 1989, Michael Jordan was married and later had three children. He was close with his children and taught them to play basketball too. Many years later Michael’s oldest son, Jeffrey, made the basketball team at the University of Illinois. Michael always tried to help his children do their own thing and not feel they needed to be as successful as he was or successful in the same way.  He said that the thing that he has tried to tell his children is that they should set their own expectations. Expectations are strong beliefs of something you want for yourself in the future.

By the late 1980s, the Chicago Bulls were becoming the team to beat and Jordan was a huge part of the team’s success. The Bulls made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in 1990 and won their first NBA championship the following year by beating the Los Angeles Lakers. A NBA superstar, Jordan became known for his power and agility on the court as well as for his leadership abilities.

During his time on the Chicago Bulls team, Michael Jordan led his team to six NBA championships and he won the Most Valuable Player Award in the tournament five times. He became the most famous basketball player in the world and kids everywhere were inspired to play basketball like Michael Jordan and dress like him and wear his number, 23. 

At one game Michael Jordan wore a nameless no. 12 jersey because his no. 23 jersey had been stolen! One funny fact about Michael is he was known for sticking his tongue out when driving to the basket or dunking a ball. 

In 1993 Michael’s father died and this was a very hard time for him and his family. After many years of success playing basketball, Michael retired and decided to play minor-league baseball. He played for a team called the Birmingham Barons, as an outfielder. 

Return to NBA

In March 1995, after a short time playing baseball, Michael returned to the basketball court, and re-joined the Chicago Bulls.  He eventually helped them win the championship against the Seattle Sonics in the 1995 to 96 season.

In 1997 during the NBA Finals, Michael became sick with the flu. Many didn’t know if he would play this very important game against the Utah Jazz. His trainers told him he should take a break and get feeling better. But Michael wanted to help his team and played anyway. There were many times when he could barely stand during the game, but he ended up scoring 38 baskets and helped his team win the game.

The next year was 1998 and Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were in the last game of the NBA Finals again. This would be Jordan’s last game playing for The Bulls. The Bulls were losing to the Utah Jazz by one point and there were only 5 seconds left before the game was over. Jordan maneuvered back and forth, then took a jump shot and made the basket! The Bulls won the game thanks to Michael! 

After retiring from the Bulls, Jordan played a few years later for the Washington Wizards. He donated all of the money he made to families and those who suffered during the September 11th attacks.

In April 2009, Jordan received one of basketball’s greatest honors: He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Attending the induction ceremony was a happy but sad time for Jordan because being at the event meant “your basketball career is completely over,” he explained.

In 2003, Michael retired from basketball for a second time.  He decided to focus on his businesses, including owning a basketball team.

Michael Jordan is still considered a basketball legend.  He was known for his competitiveness and his very strong work ethic.  He spent hours watching videos of his opponents so that he could learn how to defend them. He also had a special “Love of the Game Clause” written into his basketball contracts that said he was allowed to play basketball against anyone at any time, anywhere. This was rare and unusual for a player to request, but Michael loved basketball so much that he didn’t want to be limited by his contract from what he could do.

Inspirational Figure

Michael Jordan was successful because he had a natural talent and a drive to succeed.  He worked hard every day toward his goal of becoming the best basketball player in the world.  People respected his work ethic and his drive helped him become one of the greatest basketball players of all time.  Remember, he didn’t make the basketball team the first time, but kept working at it until he became better despite being short at the time.  

One of Michael Jordan’s most famous quotes is: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Even if you fail at something, that is okay, because you tried. Everyone who is good at anything has failed many times, but they keep trying and trying and getting better. Not doing something right the first time is okay. You’ll never become better at anything if you aren’t afraid to mess up sometimes.

Is there something that you love to do that you would like to become even better at?  Is there a sport or activity that you would like to turn into a career when you are older?  Practice those things that are interesting to you and focus on becoming the best that you can.  The important thing, as Michael Jordan said to his kids, is to set your own goals and your expectations for yourself.

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