NATIONAL HISTORY DAY 2016
Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History
* Wisconsin/local topic
“Explorers”
Commodore Matthew Perry – Japan
James Cook – Hawaiian Islands & Oceania
Lewis & Clark – western U.S.
Sacagawea – guide for Lewis and Clark
Hernan Cortes – fall of the Aztecs
John Smith – Virginia & Chesapeake Bay
Francisco Pizarro – Incan empire
Daniel Boone – Wilderness Road
Henry Hudson – New York
Jacques Cousteau – under the sea
Neil Armstrong – 1st man on the moon
Zheng He – Asia, Middle East, East Africa
Juan Ponce de Leon – Florida
Hernando de Soto – Southeastern U.S.
Yuri Gagarin – 1st man in space
Bartolomeu Dias – southern tip of Africa
Roald Amundsen – discovery of South Pole
Matthew Henson – 1st African Am. Arctic explorer
Robert Peary - reached geographic North Pole
Richard Byrd - polar regions
Politics/Government
*Fighting Bob LaFollette – progressive politics
*McCarthyism – Red scare/reaction to communism
*Social Security
League of Nations/United Nations
Presidents and the media – radio or TV
U.S. Constitution/Declaration of Independence
Intolerable Acts – British reaction to the revolution
Hawks & Doves – Reaction to Vietnam
Nelson Mandela - apartheid
Vladimir Lenin – starting communism in Russia
Gorbachev/Reagan – ending communism
Tienenman Square – China pro-democracy
Fidel Castro – Cuban revolution
Louisiana Purchase
Berlin Wall – two worlds in one city
Camp David Peace Accords – Pres. Carter
Zimmermann Telegram – code breaking WWI
Society
*Civilian Conservation Corps (local)
*Prohibition in WI (La Crosse County)
Underground Railroad
Malcolm X encounters Africa
Sit-Ins & Freedom Rides – civil rights
Virginia Woolf – modern feminism
Martin Luther – Reformation
Mahatma Gandhi – nonviolent protest
Virtual Schools
Women’s suffrage movement
New York Stock Exchange – money as power
Immigration
Waco – FBI & the Branch Davidians
Roanoke
Doothea Dix – mental institutions
Pop Culture
*Kleenex – Kimberly-Clark company
McDonalds – fast food
Video games
Jeans – Levi Strauss
Television
Wal-mart – Sam Walton
Social networks
Roadside motel
Transportation
*Harley Davidson motorcycles
*Steam-powered automobile – Carhart
Railroads – Transcontinental RR
Erie Canal/Panama Canal
Airplane
Automobile – assembly line
Steamboat – Gibbons v Ogden
The Chunnel
Space Shuttle
Jacqueline Cochran - female racing pilot
Sally Ride - first woman astronaut
Industry/Agriculture
*Iron/steel for bathrooms fixtures – John Kholer
*Crops to Dairy in WI
*Agriculture Act (Farm Bill)
*1880s – Holmen Coop Creamery
*Cooperative Farming
Steel Industry – Andrew Carnegie
Assembly line – Henry Ford
Light bulb – Thomas Edison
Camera – Eastman Kodak
Sewing machine
Dynamite – Alfred Nobel
Plastics – Alexander Parkes
Air Conditioning – Willis Carrier
Steel Plow – John Deere
Pasteurization – Louis Pasteur
Music, Dance, Art, Literature
*Frank Lloyd Wright – architecture
*Electric guitar/music - Les Paul
*Dance - Margaret H’Doubler
*Beatles – Beatlemania in WI
Elvis – the Blues and Rock & Roll
Movie special effects – George Lucas
Alfred Hitchcock – suspense thriller
Martha Graham - dance
Harlem Renaissance
Music videos
Phonograph
Pop Art
Picasso
Leonardo da Vinci
Michelangelo
Van Gogh
Georgia O’Keefe
Motion pictures
Aretha Franklin
Michael Jackson - pop music
Animated film
PIXAR
Computer Generated Imagery (CGI)
Edgar Allan Poe
Henry David Thoreau
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien – fantasy
Charles Dickens – exploring society through lit.
Science/Medicine/Environment
*Earth Day – Gaylord Nelson
*Wildlife Management – Aldo Leopold
National Park System – Steven Mather
Evolution – Charles Darwin
Jonas Salk – Polio vaccine
DNA – Crick, Watson, Franklin
Penicillin – Alexander Fleming
Sputnik/Space race
Space Station
Prosthetics
X-Ray
Aspirin
MRI –Lauterbur and Mansfield
Margaret Mead – human development
Atomic Bomb – the atom and nuclear power
Magellan Spacecraft
Sigmund Freud – exploring the mind
Open Heart Surgery
Rachel Carson – Silent Spring
Jane Goodall – primate encounter
Mt. Everest – more climbers, more pollution
Communication/Technology
*Typewriter - Christopher Sholes
Steve Jobs – computers to the masses; mobility
Radio - Guglielmo Marconi
Telegraph – Samuel Morse
Gutenberg Press – spreading literacy
Telephone – Alexander Graham Bell
Braille
Thomas Edison & the light bulb
Transatlantic cable
RADAR
Sports
Olympic boycotts
Title IX – Women’s sports
Snowboarding
X Games
Ping Pong Diplomacy – U.S. & China
Drug Testing
AstroTurf
Curt Flood – free agency
Billie Jean King v Bobby Riggs – tennis