PERSONALITY COLUMN

HOME PAGE MY ALBUM PERSONALITIES DAMFIDEL GUEST BOOK PAGE HEALTH NEWS SOCCER PAGE PERSONALITY COLUMN LEARN MORE

MEET SOME OF THE MOST INFLUENCIAL PERSONALITIES IN THE WORLD

Here you will get to meet most of the world Heroes. Men and Women that have made a mark on the world history. Happy Veiwing.

GEORGE W BUSH: The America President 2001-Date

GEORGE WASHINGTON Born: February 22, 1732 Died: December 14, 1799 The first president of the United States, George Washington, is often referred to as the Father of Our Country. He was known for his love of the land and farming, and his dislike of war. He was a distinguished general and commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution. He married a widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, and they lived at Mount Vernon, Washington's plantation in Virginia on the Potomac River. George Washington the Soldier At 16, Washington helped survey and plot the lands of Lord Fairfax, who owned more than 5 million acres in northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. After surveying for a few years, he was commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel in 1754 and fought in the French and Indian War. In 1755, he was serving as an aide to British General Edward Braddock at a fateful battle in Pennsylvania on July 9. That day the British made an attempt to capture Fort Duquesne. George Washington had been sick during most of the month of June but he insisted on joining the battle. The British suffered a terrible defeat that day. Out of 1,459 soldiers, almost 1,000 were killed or wounded. The French and their Indian allies routed the British who were not accustomed to the guerrilla warfare style of combat. General Braddock was killed, and Washington had to help lead the Virginians and British in retreat to safety. Do you think this experience was frightening to the young cavalry officer? Washington kept a record of his life, in letters and journals. Ten days after the battle he wrote a letter to his mother, Mary Ball Washington. He said that he had escaped uninjured but "I had four Bullets through my Coat, and two Horses shot under me." No doubt Mrs. Washington was worried about her son, but he proved to be an excellent soldier. Washington was made commander of all Virginia troops. Due to difficult circumstances and hardships in the wild, Washington became very ill and his doctor insisted he go home to his estate in Virginia to recover. Washington recovered from his illness, and then returned to lead the Virginia army. He attained the rank of brigadier general and was a major factor in Britain's defeat of the French and capture of Fort Duquesne (renamed Fort Pitt by the British) in 1758. Immediately after his return to Virginia, Washington married Martha Dandridge Custis on January 6, 1759. Wilderness fighting had made Washington a trained military man. This training helped prepare him for his greatest military challenge--leading the American revolutionary forces as commander in chief during the fight for independence that began in 1775 with the Battle of Lexington and Concord. George Washington the Husband After Washington resigned from the French and Indian War and returned home to Mount Vernon, he married Martha Dandridge Custis on January 6, 1759. He had met Martha Custis, a widow, the previous March and had proposed at that time. This cartoon of Washington proposing makes fun of what Washington might have said, "Dear Martha, will you be the mother of your country...?" Martha had been married to Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy planter in Virginia, and they had two children together before Daniel died. John ("Jacky") was six and Martha ("Patsy") was four when George and Martha married. Washington was very fond of his stepchildren and treated them as his own. George and Martha had a happy marriage. For eight years, while he was at war, Mrs. Washington joined her husband at his headquarters every winter. She did everything she could to help encourage the soldiers and she was determined to keep a positive outlook. What other characteristics do you think were important for the wife of the president to have? As a young woman growing up in Williamsburg Virginia, Martha Dandridge had lessons in sewing, housekeeping, cooking, dancing, and music. She also had private tutors to teach her how to read and write. Martha liked her private life and enjoyed being at Mount Vernon with her family. Even when she couldn't be there or when her husband was away, she was, "... still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances." George Washington, too, loved being at Mount Vernon. He enjoyed farming and wrote that "it is honorable, it is amusing, and, with superior judgment, it is profitable." He believed Mount Vernon was the best estate in America for farming. Later in his life, he took great pride in being thought of as the first farmer of the land. Independence and the Presidency You might have thought that George Washington was in Philadelphia with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and the other delegates of the Continental Congress as they wrote the Declaration of Independence, but he wasn't. In July 1776, Washington was in New York with his troops. On July 9, he received his copy of the Declaration with a note from John Hancock telling Washington to share the news with the troops. Can you imagine how the troops reacted? The soldiers were so excited and filled with patriotism after they heard the Declaration that they rushed over to the Bowling Green and tore down the statue of King George III. Shortly after this the British, as Washington expected, attacked the colonists and the American Revolution was under way. The colonists fought eight long, hard years (1775-1783) for their independence from Britain. After the war was over, Washington hoped he would be able to retire and return to Mount Vernon. Instead, in 1789, the electors unanimously voted George Washington the first president of the United States. Because it was such an honor, and he felt a great duty to his country, he accepted. He left Mount Vernon on April 16 and arrived in New York City on April 30 for his inauguration. As he took his oath standing on the balcony of Federal Hall, a crowd broke into cheers. The members of his first Cabinet included Thomas Jefferson as secretary of state, Alexander Hamilton as secretary of the treasury, Henry Knox as secretary of war, and Edmund Randolph as attorney general.

EDISON: The Great American Inventor

Born: February 11, 1847 Died: October 18, 1931 The phonograph and the motion-picture projector were only a few of Thomas Alva Edison's more than 1,000 inventions. One of the most famous inventors in the history of technology, Edison also created the first industrial research laboratory, in Menlo Park, New Jersey, in 1876. Edison Invents the Phonograph Thomas Edison created many inventions, but his favorite was the phonograph. While working on improvements to the telegraph and the telephone, Edison figured out a way to record sound on tinfoil-coated cylinders. In 1877, he created a machine with two needles: one for recording and one for playback. When Edison spoke into the mouthpiece, the sound vibrations of his voice would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle. What do you think were the first words that Edison spoke into the phonograph? "Mary had a little lamb" were the first words that Edison recorded on the phonograph and he was amazed when he heard the machine play them back to him. In 1878, Edison established the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company to sell the new machine. Edison suggested other uses for the phonograph, such as: letter writing and dictation, phonographic books for blind people, a family record (recording family members in their own voices), music boxes and toys, clocks that announce the time, and a connection with the telephone so communications could be recorded. How many of these uses have become a reality today? Many of the uses Edison suggested for the phonograph have become a reality, but there were others he hadn't imagined. For example, the phonograph allowed soldiers to take music off to war with them. In 1917, when the U.S. became involved in World War I, the Edison Company created a special model of the phonograph for the U.S. Army. This basic machine sold for $60. Many Army units purchased these phonographs because it meant a lot to the soldiers to have music to cheer them and remind them of home. This is an audio clip of Edison himself in which he expresses his pride in the soldiers and reminds Americans of the enormous sacrifice and contribution made by the other allied nations. Edison Invents Motion Pictures Who are these wild women and what are they doing? Would you believe they were two sisters in a boxing act that played all over the East coast? They were the Gordon Sisters, Bessie and Minnie, who claimed to be the first female boxing act. In the early years of motion pictures, there was such a demand for motion pictures that Thomas Edison's company filmed all sorts of things. This film of the sparring sisters was made in 1901. The Edison Manufacturing Company was able to shoot "Gordon Sisters Boxing" and many others only after Edison and his employee William Dickson had spent years inventing the motion picture camera. In 1888, after Edison invented the phonograph, he turned his attention to motion pictures. "I am experimenting upon an instrument which does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear," he said. The result of his experiments was the Kinetograph (a motion picture camera) and the Kinetoscope (a peephole motion picture viewer). The first film ever copyrighted shows an employee of Edison's, Fred Ott, who is pretending to sneeze. Take a look at the "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze" and see how far film has come since 1894. One problem Edison faced was that good motion picture film was not available. In 1893, Eastman Kodak began supplying motion picture film stock, making it possible for Edison to step up the production of new motion pictures. What could top this? Edison could see that filmmaking was going to become a successful business, so he built a motion picture production studio in New Jersey. The studio had a roof that could be opened to let in daylight, and the entire building was constructed so that it could be moved to stay in line with the sun. Now, Edison's company could step up the production of new films. The "Boxing Gordon Sisters" was not the only boxing film Edison's company made. Can you imagine boxing cats? One of the Edison Manufacturing Company's earliest films shows two cats fighting in a boxing ring. Other films starred well-known performers such as Annie Oakley and Native American dancers from Buffalo Bill's "Wild West Show." Edison's films were so popular that he needed a way to show them to large groups of people. C. Francis Jenkins and Thomas Armat invented a film projector called the Vitascope and asked Edison to supply the films and manufacture the projector under his name. Eventually, the Edison Company developed its own projector, known as the Projectoscope, and stopped marketing the Vitascope. The first films shown in a "movie theater" in America were presented to audiences on April 23, 1896, in New York City. Edison's Failed Inventions Edison had 1,093 patents for different inventions. Many of them, like the light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, were brilliant creations that have a huge influence on our everyday life. However, not everything he created was a success; he also had a few failures. One concept that never took off was Edison's interest in using cement to build things. He formed the Edison Portland Cement Co. in 1899, and made everything from cabinets (for phonographs) to pianos and houses. Unfortunately, at the time, concrete was too expensive and the idea was never accepted. Cement wasn't a total failure, though. His company was hired to build Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. What else do you think Edison tried to create? From the beginning of the creation of motion pictures, many people tried to combine film and sound to make "talking" motion pictures. Here you can see an example of an early film attempting to combine sound with pictures made by Edison's assistant, W.K.L. Dickson. By 1895, Edison had created the Kinetophone--a Kinetoscope (peep-hole motion picture viewer) with a phonograph that played inside the cabinet. Sound could be heard through two ear tubes while the viewer watched the images. This creation never really took off, and by 1915 Edison abandoned the idea of sound motion pictures. The greatest failure of Edison's career was his inability to create a practical way to mine iron ore. He worked on mining methods through the late 1880s and early 1890s to supply the Pennsylvania steel mills' demand for iron ore. In order to finance this work, he sold all his stock in General Electric, but was never able to create a separator that could extract iron from unusable, low-grade ores. Eventually, Edison gave up on the idea, but by then he had lost all the money he'd invested.

BILL W GATE: Reigning Richest Man In The World

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington) is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft, the world's largest software company. Forbes magazine's list of The World's Billionaires has ranked him as the richest person in the world for the last thirteen consecutive years,[2] and recent estimates put his net worth near $56 billion.[2] When family wealth is considered, his family ranks second behind the Walton family.[3][4] Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is widely respected by people who see his wealth as a product of intelligence and foresight,[5][6] his business tactics have often been criticized as unethical or anti-competitive, and have, in some instances, been ruled as such in court.[7][8] Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000. Early life William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Jr. (now Sr.) and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had dropped his own "III" suffix.[9] Several writers claim that Maxwell set up a million-dollar trust fund for Gates.[10] A 1993 biographer who interviewed both Gates and his parents (among other sources) found no evidence of this and dismissed it as one of the "fictions" surrounding Gates's fortune.[9] Gates denied the trust fund story in a 1994 interview[11] and indirectly in his 1995 book The Road Ahead.[12] Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive preparatory school where tuition in 1967 was $5,000 (Harvard tuition that year was $1,760). When he was in the eighth grade, the school mothers used proceeds from a rummage sale to buy Lakeside an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric computer.[9] Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted he and other students sought time on other systems, including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation, which banned the Lakeside students for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time. At the end of the ban, the Lakeside students (Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans) offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for free computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, not only in BASIC but FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language as well. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when it went out of business. The following year Information Sciences Inc. hired the Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them not only computer time but royalties as well. At age 14, Gates also formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. That first year he made $20,000, however when his age was found out they lost a lot of business.[13][14] As a youth, Bill Gates was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. According to a press inquiry, Bill Gates stated that he scored 1590 on his SATs. [15] He enrolled at Harvard University in the fall of 1973 intending to get a pre-law degree,[16] but did not have a definite study plan.[17] While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer. At the same time, he co-authored and published a paper on algorithms with computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou. [18] Microsoft After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform.[19] In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen hired into MITS, [20] and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS, dubbing their partnership "Micro-soft" in November 1975.[20] Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the tradename "Microsoft" was registered with the USPTO.[20] Microsoft's BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter saying that MITS could not continue to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment.[21] This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems. According to Gates, people at Microsoft often did more than one job during the early years; whoever answered the phone when an order came in was responsible for packing and mailing it. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, he personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.[22] IBM partnership In 1984, Bill Gates appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine; he has since appeared seven more times. In 1980 IBM approached Microsoft to make the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system.[23] IBM's discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M that Seattle Computer Products had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS, but did not mention that IBM was a potential customer. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee.[24] Gates never understood why DRI had walked away from the deal, and in later years he claimed that DRI founder Gary Kildall capriciously "went flying" during an IBM appointment, a characterization that Kildall and other DRI employees would deny. As several companies reverse-engineered the IBM architecture and developed clones[25] Microsoft was quick to license DOS to other manufacturers, calling it MS-DOS (for Microsoft Disk Operating System). By marketing MS-DOS aggressively to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft went from a small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry. Microsoft continued to develop operating systems as well as software applications.[26][27] Windows In the early 1980s Microsoft introduced its own version of the graphical user interface (GUI), based on ideas pioneered by the Xerox corporation, and further developed by Apple.[28] Microsoft released "Windows" as an addition and alternative to their DOS command line, and to compete with other systems on the market that employed a GUI. By the early 1990s, Windows had pushed other DOS-based GUIs like GEM and GEOS out of the market. The release of Windows 3.0 in 1990 was a tremendous success, selling around 10 million copies in the first two years and cementing Microsoft's dominance in operating systems sales.[29] By continuing to ensure, by various means, that most computers came with Microsoft software pre-installed, the Microsoft corporation eventually became the largest software company in the world, earning Gates enough money that Forbes Magazine named him the wealthiest person in the world for several years.[30][31] Gates served as the CEO of the company until 2000, when Steve Ballmer took the position.[19] Microsoft has thousands of patents,[32] and Gates has nine patents to his name. Personal life Gates married Melinda French of Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). Bill Gates' house is one of the most expensive houses in the world, and is a modern 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. According to King County public records, as of 2006, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is just under $1 million. Also among Gates' private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for USD $30.8 million at an auction in 1994.[43] Gates' e-mail address has been widely publicized, and he received as many as 4,000,000 e-mails in 2004, most of which were spam. He has almost an entire department devoted to filtering out junk emails.[44] Gates says that most of this junk mail "offers to help [him] get out of debt or get rich quick", which "would be funny if it weren't so irritating".[45] Wealth and investments Gates has been number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2006 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995 to 2006 with around 50 billion U.S. dollars. In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $100 billion causing him to be referred to in the media as a "centibillionaire".[46] Since 2000 the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. In May 2006, Gates said in an interview that he wished that he were not the richest man in the world, stating that he disliked the attention it brought.[47] Gates has several investments outside Microsoft. He founded Corbis, a digital imaging company, in 1989. In 2004 he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by longtime friend Warren Buffett.[48] He is a client of Cascade Investment Group, a wealth management firm with diverse holdings.

Image title would go here.

These are a few of my favorite photographs from my different travels. Feel free to browse them as you like. If you want one click your right mouse button and choose "Save As" from the menu.

Image title would go here.

These are a few of my favorite photographs from my different travels. Feel free to browse them as you like. If you want one click your right mouse button and choose "Save As" from the menu.

Image title would go here.

These are a few of my favorite photographs from my different travels. Feel free to browse them as you like. If you want one click your right mouse button and choose "Save As" from the menu.

TONY BLAIR: The America Prime Minister

Name Anthony Charles Lynton Blair Official Site Personal Information Born - May 06, 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Marital Status - Married, four children - three boys and one girl. Education - Law (Fettes College and St. John's College Oxford University). Personal History Tony Blair traces his political genesis to the paralysis of his father. In 1963, when Blair was 11, his father suffered a stroke while campaigning for a Conservative seat in Parliament. Blair's upbringing was privileged. His father was a law lecturer, and Blair was educated at the elite Fettes College in Edinburgh before going to Oxford for law school in 1972. Blair was known as a gregarious student and as the gyrating bass guitar and lead singer for a rock band called Ugly Rumors. Political Activity Tony Blair is the current Prime Minister of United Kingdom. Blair began his political career in 1983, when he was elected to the British Parliament as a member of the Labor Party. He quickly advanced to the party's front ranks during the Conservative administration of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, when Labor was in the opposition. He won the favor of Labor leaders, who believed Blair's moderate positions would revive popular support for the party. From 1984 to 1987 Blair was opposition spokesman on treasury and economic affairs. He then moved to various posts in the Departments of Trade and Industry, Energy, and Employment. In 1992 Blair was promoted again, taking charge of domestic issues in the Labor Party's counterpart to the governing Conservative cabinet. Blair was chosen to lead the Labor Party following the death of John Smith in 1994. Tony Blair, at 41 years old, was Labor's youngest leader ever. He soon established a reputation as a determined reformer and firm leader, confronting established factions and contentious policy issues within the party. Almost immediately, Tony Blair began working to make the party more mainstream, de-emphasizing its traditional ties to labor and trade unions in an effort to broaden the party's membership. In May of 1997, Tony Blair, became the youngest British Prime Minister in almost 200 years. After taking office, Blair vowed to honor his campaign pledge to abide by national spending limits and programs established by the preceding Conservative administration. At the same time, he launched ambitious new programs aimed at building better relations with the European Union decentralizing the national government, and reforming Britain's welfare state. In his first year in office Blair fulfilled his campaign promise to hold referendums in Scotland and Wales to decentralize powers from the British Parliament to a Scottish parliament and a Welsh assembly. In addition, Blair worked to stimulate the faltering peace talks in Northern Ireland. Buoyed by the strong performance of the British economy, Blair called general elections in June 2001. Blair led the Labor Party to its second consecutive landslide victory and secured a second term as Prime Minister. Additional Information In 1995, Tony Blair, as the new head of the Labor Party, used his new position to strike a blow to the sacred leftist Clause IV of the Labor constitution advocating the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange. Following the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, which resulted in the deaths of more than 100 British citizens among the thousands of casualties, Blair pledged that the United Kingdom would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the United States. When the United States launched attacks against Afghanistan in October, it was with the support of British naval and ground forces. In the ensuing months Blair continued to maintain his high-profile support for U.S. military action, including ongoing combat activities in Afghanistan and a possible U.S. led war against Iraq.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JNR: The Black American Activist And Reformist

Born: January 15, 1929 Died: April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was the most important voice of the American civil rights movement, which worked for equal rights for all. He was famous for using nonviolent resistance to overcome injustice, and he never got tired of trying to end segregation laws (laws that prevented blacks from entering certain places, such as restaurants, hotels, and public schools). He also did all he could to make people realize that "all men are created equal." Because of his great work, in 1964 King received the Nobel Peace Prize -- the youngest person ever to receive this high honor. King was also a Baptist minister. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, when he was just 39 years old. His birthday is now observed as a national holiday on the third Monday in January. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail because he and others were protesting the treatment of blacks in Birmingham, Alabama. A court had ordered that King could not hold protests in Birmingham. Birmingham in 1963 was a hard place for blacks to live in. Everything was segregated, from businesses to churches to libraries. Blacks faced constant discrimination and the constant threat of violence. What is segregation? To segregate is to separate from others. What this meant in Montgomery is that blacks could only sit in certain places in restaurants, that they could not go into certain businesses or that they could not use public rest rooms that were for "whites only." While King was in jail, he wrote a letter to the newspaper explaining why he had broken the law. "I am here because injustice is here," he wrote. "I would agree with Saint Augustine that 'an unjust law is no law at all.'" Because black people had suffered injustice for so long, King believed they should not have to wait any longer for change. King believed nonviolence was essential for him as a man of God. He also believed that violence would ruin the chances for change. King and others were willing to go to jail for the cause of civil rights. Voting for Change The civil rights movement had a big year in 1964. Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This law made it illegal to treat people differently because of the color of their skin when they were trying to buy a house, rent an apartment or go to a restaurant, for example. But passing this law did not always make things better for African-Americans. King believed that the situation would not change until more blacks voted in elections. Although they had the legal right to vote, very few blacks were registered, and many states had rules that made it difficult for them to register and vote. King believed that most of the states' voter registration requirements should be removed. What did King do? King went to Washington, D.C., to discuss a voting rights bill with President Lyndon Johnson. Although the president was supportive, he didn't think the bill could pass. He told King to wait, but King did not want to wait. He and other activists decided to protest in Selma, Alabama. Selma was a typical Southern city. Very few blacks were registered to vote, even though about half the population was black. The protests began in January 1965. A month later, a protester, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was shot and killed by state troopers. Jackson's death spurred King and the others to organize a voting-rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery, the state capital. On March 7, 1965, hundreds of marchers set out for the capitol building (King was not able to be with them). When the marchers reached Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, they met a group of state troopers who told them to turn back. The marchers refused, but, as King would have wanted, there was no violence on their part. Instead, they knelt on the sidewalk. The state troopers were not so peaceful. They used tear gas, sticks, and whips to attack the marchers. People all over the country were horrified. King was not discouraged. They tried the march again, and this time made it to Montgomery. Days before, President Johnson had addressed Congress and America. He introduced the Voting Rights Act. After the Selma protests and violence, the time was right. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King and the other protesters' actions had successfully led to legal change. Now the federal government would help blacks use their right to vote. Bus Boycott in Alabama On Dec 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, an African-American, refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, as local law required. She was arrested. A few days later the black community in Montgomery began a bus boycott. What's a boycott? A boycott is when a large group of people refuse to take part in, or make use of, something as a way of showing their disapproval. Because so many black people rode the bus, a boycott would cause the bus system to lose a lot of money. The bus boycott was an immediate success. African-Americans walked, took taxis, and even rode horses, but they did not ride the bus. King agreed to head the organization leading the boycott, and Rosa Parks became a hero. It was the beginning of a new life for Parks and King. At the time, King was a new pastor. He had just finished school and had moved with his new wife to Montgomery to be a preacher. The bus boycott lasted more than a year. Many people tried to get King to end the boycott by threatening him. King and the boycotters finally won. On November 13, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., agreed that Alabama's bus segregation laws were unconstitutional. (Unconstitutional means that the laws did not follow the U.S. Constitution and had to be struck down.) Because the U.S. Supreme Court made the decision, all states had to follow the ruling. King celebrated by riding the bus seated next to a white man.

CARNIGIE: The America Philatropist And World Ricchest

Born: November 25, 1835 Died: August 11, 1919 Andrew Carnegie's life was a true "rags to riches" story. Born to a poor Scottish family that immigrated to the United States, Carnegie became a powerful businessman and a leading force in the American steel industry. Today, he is remembered as an industrialist, millionaire, and philanthropist. Carnegie believed that the wealthy had an obligation to give back to society, so he donated much of his fortune to causes like education and peace. Andrew Carnegie Grows Up Working Although Andrew Carnegie became a millionaire, he did not start life as one. He was born in 1835 into a working-class family in Dunfermline, Scotland. In 1848 his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When Carnegie was 13 he got his first job in a textile mill earning $1.20 a week. How old were you when you got your first job? He then took a job in a factory tending the steam engine. Can you guess how much he was paid for that job? Carnegie earned $2 a week tending a steam engine. The next year, Carnegie worked as a messenger boy in a telegraph office for $2.50 per week. Because of his quickness and hard work, he was soon promoted to telegraph operator and was paid $5 a week. Slowly but surely, Carnegie was working his way up. In 1853, he went to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad for $35 per month as the personal telegrapher and assistant to Thomas Scott, a superintendent. Under Scott, Carnegie learned all about the railroad industry and later became a superintendent himself. Scott also taught Andrew about investing in the stock market. What do you know about the stock market? Scott explained to Carnegie that when a company performed well, it paid "dividends" out of its profits to people who owned its stock. When Carnegie received his first dividend check, he shouted, "Here's the goose that laid the golden eggs!" Do you know what he meant? This money was the first he had ever received without having worked for it himself. The golden eggs he was talking about meant that Carnegie had learned to let his money work for him. Andrew Carnegie, Philanthropist Can you imagine becoming the richest person in the world and then giving your money away? That's exactly what Andrew Carnegie did. After retiring in 1901 at the age of 66 as the world's richest man, Andrew Carnegie wanted to become a philanthropist, a person who gives money to good causes. He believed in the "Gospel of Wealth," which meant that wealthy people were morally obligated to give their money back to others in society. Carnegie had made some charitable donations before 1901, but after that time, giving his money away became his new occupation. In 1902 he founded the Carnegie Institution to fund scientific research and established a pension fund for teachers with a $10 million donation. Do you know of any other causes that Carnegie funded? Throughout his life, Andrew Carnegie loved to read. So it made sense that he wanted to give money to support education and reading. When Carnegie was a young man he lived near Colonel James Anderson, a rich man who allowed any working boy to use his personal library for free. In those days, America did not have a system of free public libraries. Carnegie never forgot Colonel Anderson's generosity. As a result, Carnegie supported education; he gave money to towns and cities to build more than 2,000 public libraries. He also gave $125 million to a foundation called the Carnegie Corporation to aid colleges and other schools. What else did Carnegie believe in? World peace was another cause Carnegie believed in. He established the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and funded the building of the Hague Palace of Peace, which houses the World Court, in the Netherlands. By 1911, Carnegie had given away a huge amount of money -- 90 percent of his fortune. Can you think of some other Americans who have given away a large part of their fortunes to support a worthy cause? What causes would you choose to support? Andrew Carnegie and His Parents All kids learn from their parents. And, as a child, Andrew Carnegie learned values from both of his parents. But their values were very different and often in conflict. From his father, Andrew learned the value of helping those who are less fortunate. Carnegie's father, Will Carnegie, was part of a British working class movement in Scotland, which believed in making conditions better for the working man. Will Carnegie was a weaver but when he was unable to find work in America he tried to produce and sell his own cloth. He died at the age of 51 when Andrew was 20 years old and the only breadwinner for the family. Given these circumstances, what kind of values do you think Carnegie learned from his mother? Carnegie's mother taught him that he needed to put his own needs before those of others in order to survive. This is a direct result of the family's poverty, especially after his father died. You can see how his mother's values influenced him by some of his actions. In 1865, someone told Carnegie that the railroad workers were about to strike and gave him a list of the strike organizers. Carnegie gave the information to his boss, who fired everyone on the list. So the strike was broken before it even began. What do you think about what Carnegie did? How do you think his actions affected him later in life? Carnegie was extremely successful in business. He became a very wealthy man. In fact, when he retired, he was the richest man in the world. But he had mixed feelings about some of the ways in which he made his fortune, so as a result, he decided to give much of his money away. His father would have liked knowing that by the time he died, Carnegie had given away over $350 million, equal to more than $3 billion in 1996 dollars. It is interesting to see how Carnegie's parents' opposing values affected him as a person. Were you brought up with any values that are in conflict with each other?

ALIKO DANGOTE: The Nigerian Philatropist

Aliko Dangote is one of the richest men in Nigerian history, the owner of Dangote Group and a very wealthy business man.His businesses has gone to other countries like Ghana,Togo,Benin Republic.Aliko Dangote is the ultimate embodiment of the gritty mercurial instinct for which the quintessential Nigerian businessman is known. He successfully transformed a small trading business which he began in 1977 at the age of 21 to a multi-billion naira business which now spans the West African Sub-region. His businesses, which are all under the Dangote Group include foods, sugar, salt, cement, haulage, flour concerns among others. Presently, Dangote dominates the sugar market in Nigeria as he is the major supplier of sugar to the country's soft drink industry, breweries, and confectionery industries. He is also a principal commander of salt and flour markets. He is referred to as the Al Calpone of Nigeria's manufacturing sector. A quintessential industrialist who believes firmly in wealth creation. A sugar and rice magnate, a major transporter, a former banker, an Insurance broker and a cement merchant. By every calculation, Aliko Dangote sits atop a flourishing business empire that is growing in leap and bound. Simple, unassuming, sociable and immensely rich. Although in his 40s, he seats strong in the old economy while making significant inroads in the new economy. He is widely connected within the business and political circles. He bought over Federal Government's Shares in Benue Cement Company BCC. He maintains a domineering presence in consumables. Interestingly, he competes favourably with foreign manufacturers of similar products for the Nigerian market. He has built factories and established production plants across the country for the various brands, from spaghetti, to cement, to salt, flour and sugar. His company is also into the production of Gum-Arabic which is used as adhesive. But that is not all, Dangote Group is also into textile production. He recent acquired majority Shares in Savannah Sugar company in Adamawa. He is presently under taking a simultaneous construction of three cement factories in Kogi, Cross River and Ogun states which on completion will make the country self-sufficient in cement production. Hardly one to grant interviews, the man's annual turn according to close sources is the region of N150 billion. By appointing him a member of Nigeria Investment and Promotion Council, President Obasanjo may finally have come to terms with the young man's immense contributions to the industrial and economic growth of the country. And now wants him to make policy input to open up the environment to more people like him. And how can the business team to South Africa be complete without Aliko? The man the President would have loved to succeed him. It will be recalled that, Dangote played a prominent role in the funding of Obasanjo’s re-election which he contributed over N200 million . He doled out N50 million to the national Mosque under the aegis of friends of Obasanjo and Atiku and contributed N201 million to the presidential library project.

Image title would go here.

These are a few of my favorite photographs from my different travels. Feel free to browse them as you like. If you want one click your right mouse button and choose "Save As" from the menu.

Image title would go here.

These are a few of my favorite photographs from my different travels. Feel free to browse them as you like. If you want one click your right mouse button and choose "Save As" from the menu.

Image title would go here.

These are a few of my favorite photographs from my different travels. Feel free to browse them as you like. If you want one click your right mouse button and choose "Save As" from the menu.

Image title would go here.

These are a few of my favorite photographs from my different travels. Feel free to browse them as you like. If you want one click your right mouse button and choose "Save As" from the menu.