The European Union

The European Union is alliance of about 25 European countries. It started because of the constant deaths and injuries between many European countries. These wars and battles drained these countries by economically and also dropped the population. European leaderes finally came up with the brilliant idea to unite with each other and become what is known as the European Union. The European Union has helped drop the chance of war between these neighboring European States and has risen their economy greatly. It has become a world superpower, along with the U.S. The European Euro, which is their form of currency, is worth more than the U.S. dollar. The countries of the European Union have made their living situations and money situations better.

Film Lesson-"The Right Stuff"

The competition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. was something known as the "Space Race". Just like the Arms Race, both countries were trying to develop ways to get into space quicker than the other country. In the movie, the Russians got the first satellite up into space, as well as the first man. The U.S. had accomplished getting the first monkey into space. The U.S. also accomplished making many orbits around the earth. So technically, the U.S.S.R. had won the space race. One scene from the movie that I will remember is the scene when the American astronauts first made it into space and continued making orbits around the earth

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as "Fourteen Days In October", was one of the warmest times of the Cold War. Ironically, it obviously lasted only fourteen days and was settled without anyone firing any missiles. It started when the Soviets realized they were behind in the Arms Race. Soviet missiles only had enough range to fire on other European countries. U.S. missiles had enough range to fire on the entire Soviet Union. This caused the Soviets to worry. Premier Nikita Khrushchev created the plan to import some of their missiles to Cuba, enemies of the United States, so they could be matched up in terms of destroying each other. The U.S. quickly found out about the Soviets plans and major threat that they were proving to be if they had missiles in Cuba. President Kennedy demanded that the Soviets remove their missiles from Cuba. He also issued a naval quarantine to stop from Soviet missiles to continue entering Cuba. Any nuclear launch from Cuba would be recognized as a direct attack from the Soviet Union. Tensions began to build from the U.S. and the Soviets. Low-level reconnaissance missions every two hours. These reconnaisance missions were performed to ensure our safety and that no missiles were planned to be fired.On October 28th, Khrushchev announced that he would remove his missiles from Cuba. The U.S. also agreed not to invade Cuba. The missiles were removed at a lot of tension relieved.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO was an abbreviation for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The first members at the time of the Cold War were the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. NATO was developed in order to provide a defensive alliance against any nations that would attack any of the alliance members. Basically, a gang of countries that would defend each other in the event that another country had attacked one of them. In a form of indirect retaliation, Russia had created an alliance known as the Warsaw Pact. It consisted of the Soviet Union, Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania. The Soviets developed the Warsaw Pact in retaliation to the development of NATO.

Film Lesson:"Night and Fog"

I believe the movie "Night and Fog", was a bit less disturbing then "Schindler's List". It was real footage of what happened during the Holocaust and the dead bodies. I didn't find it as bad as "Schindler's List" because it didn't show the horror in action, just the aftermath of it. "Night and Fog" seemed to me like a watered down version of "Schindler's List". I really believe that Hollywood version of the Holocaust illustrated it better then the documentary. For example, the scene in "Schindler's List" where the Jews are packed into the train made me feel bad for them. I couldn't imagine how it would feel to be jam packed into a train full of people, dying of thirst and hunger, and about to collapse from a heat stroke. In the documentary, the Jews didn't look like they were going through so much.Both movies were still very dramatic and powerful, making the viewer feel sympathy for the Jews and those who had their lives taken at the Holocaust.

Film Lesson:"Schindler 's List"

The movie "Schindler's List", illustrated the Holocaust as a horrifying massacre and basically a real life view of history. The Nazi's butchered the Jews in a mean but effective way. The way they killed off people was disgraceful and cruel.The scenes that were most powerful was when the Nazi executed people with guns, usually shots to the head. There was one at the working camp and the women was killed because she was an intelligent jew. Another killing that took place at a working camp also was very powerful to me because an old man was killed for no reason. It is scary to know that cruel people have power over your life that way. The images of all the dead bodies and executed people will stay in my mind for a while. The burn and scarred bodies of some people, and the others with a bullet hole in their heads.

US Atomic Bombing Of Japan In 1945

I agree with the newspaper article that says the atomic bombing of Japan is the news story of the century. I believe so because it ended World War II at the cost of many innocents and also demonstrated the power of atomic bombs, which are believed to be able to destroy the world.I cannot think of a bigger news story.I would add the breakthroughs in genetic science such as the start and progress of the Human Genome Project, in which a few companies had the world's top scientists map the human gene.I would leave the rest of the top stories on the list.