The Coolness of History

I was researching the internet, looking for material to use in my new book, and ran into all kinds of neat stuff. It reminded me how cool history is.

I remember High School history classes. Most of my classmates hated history class. We had to memorize dates and learn all about people who died a long time ago. We read about things that happened way before our parents were even born. The only historical things that my peers paid much attention to had mostly to do with the Bible, which was no surprise since I attended a missionary school in Quito, Ecuador for five years. Also no surprise, looking back at that period, is that I never even heard about Darwin until I got to college. But I loved history class. It was my favorite, by far, and my favorite teacher was the history teacher, Mr. Frey. I am still a big history buff, which explains my fondness for paleontology and geography - to me, Earths' history goes back a long, long, long way. If I had it all to do over again, I would have been an archaeologist, no doubt about it.

I hope everyone at least recognizes the importance of knowing history. The lessons of past should be used as building blocks for the future but, sadly, it seems we are not very good at doing that. I think a lot of young students get turned off about learning history because most courses start by covering things that happened way, way long ago - before iPods even - and then they start working their way to the present. It should be done the other way around. Start from yesterday and work back. The students will get into it, because they will have been a part of it. By the time you go back to events before their birth, they will have gotten into the hang of things and probably pay more attention. They will be able to follow the threads. So when they get to the Crusades, they might draw some parallels to the events of today - and learn from it.

Getting back to my research. The protagonist in my book - an explorer - starts out on his first adventure in 1929, so, among many others, I found the following site.

http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/worldhis/wor1929.htm

Some of the events from 1929 that were cool to me:

Jan 7 - Buck Rogers and Tarzan comic strips debut.
Jan 13 - Wyatt Earp US marshall (OK Corral), dies at age 80.
Feb 11 - The Latern Treaty creates the Vatican (world's smallest country)
Feb 14 - Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago Illinois, 7 gangsters killed.
Feb 26 - The Grand Tetons in Wyoming is established as a national park in the United States.
Mar 23 - First telephone installed in White House.
Mar 28 - Democratic constitution goes into effect in Ecuador.
May 11 - First regularly scheduled TV broadcasts (3 nights per week)
May 16 - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hands out its first awards
June 25 - President Hoover authorizes building of Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam)
Aug 11 - Babe Ruth becomes first to hit 500 homers.
Sep 11 - San Francisco Mayor Rolph inaugurates new pedestrian traffic light system
Oct 3 - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changes name to Yugoslavia
Oct 29 - "Black Tuesday" New York stock market crashes, triggers "Great Depression"
Dec 2 - First skull of Peking man found, 50 km out of Peking at Tsjoe Koe Tien.


Just the tip of the iceberg, of course, but very cool stuff.


Back to research and writing. Cheers.