In 1946, President Truman established Victory Day as a federal holiday, but did not distinguish between victory over Japan and victory over Europe, which occurred three months prior with Germany’s surrender. Rhode Island is the only state in the U.S. to commemorate Victory over Japan Day with an official state holiday. State and local government offices are closed for Victory Day, but federal offices in Rhode Island remain open....
Volcanoes are described as active (in eruption), dormant (not erupting at the present time), or extinct (having ceased eruption; no longer active). Some volcanoes explode. Others are slow-flowing fountains of lava, which is hot fluid rock. The following are examples of famous volcanic eruptions. Where: Italy When: A.D. 79 The eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum under 20 feet of ash and lava, killing an estimated 20,000 people....
Among the more unusual armaments of war are the boomerang of the Australian Aborigines, the yo yo of the Filipinos, and the slingshots of European armies before the 16th century. 1325-37 This ridiculous war started over a stolen bucket. When a group of soldiers from the city of Modena in northern Italy invaded nearby Bologna to steal a brown oak bucket, thousands of citizens were killed. Bologna became angry and went to war with Modena to take back their bucket and restore their pride....
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Second Place: $75,000 scholarship, Boris Alexeev, 17, Cedar Shoals High School, Athens, Ga., for his research dealing with the theory of automata, a simple model of computation that is the mathematical basis for pattern matching and can be used in fields such as genetics and speech recognition. Third Place: $50,000 scholarship, Ryna Karnik, 17, Oregon Episcopal School, Portland, Ore., for her patent-pending design method for constructing microchips which may save developers time and money when creating and testing prototype semiconductor chips....
Curling made its Olympic debut at the original Olympic Games in 1924. It came back in the 1932 Lake Placid Games as a demonstration sport, but then went on a 56-year Olympic hiatus, until it returned as a demonstration sport at the 1988 and 1992 Games. Curling was brought back again as an official medal sport at the 1998 Nagano Games. As far as the actual game goes, think shuffleboard on ice combined with the strategy of a game of bowls or bocce....
In this painting by Georgia O’Keeffe, White Barn, the cool blue of the background contributes to the quiet feeling. The simple shapes and stillness of the barn give this painting a restful look, and the blue makes it feel even more peaceful. Imagine how different the painting would look with a bright red sky—it might seem more exciting than restful.
Since ancient times droughts have had far-reaching effects on humankind by causing the failure of crops, decreasing natural vegetation, and depleting water supplies. Livestock and wildlife, as well as humans, die of thirst and famine; large land areas often suffer damage from dust storms or fire. Famines are extreme shortages of food that cause people to die of starvation. Where: Egypt When: 1200-02 The Egyptian people relied on the annual flooding of the Nile River to leave soil for growing crops....
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