C2 - Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born in London in 1926 and became Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1952 when her father died. She was an active volunteer during WWII, earning the respect and admiration of her countrymen for her many talents and "can-do" attitude. Elizabeth's primary role was as a symbol of unity and continuity within the Commonwealth of Nations. Some of her family was torn apart because of international press coverage.
A3- Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) is a Welsh poet, short-story writer, and
playwright, renowned for unique brilliance of his verbal imagery and for
his celebration of natural beauty. At an early age, he revealed unusual
power in the use of poetic diction and imagery; the volume won him
immediate critical acclaim. These poems and virtually all that followed
seem obscure because they contain elements of surrealism and personal fantasy.
Thomas became legendary in the United States where he gave many lecture
tours and gained a wide following. He died in NY city in 1953 in a death
brought on by alcoholism. His last words were reputedly, "I believe
I'll have another drink."
A4 - Playboy magazine editor and advocate of a lifestyle of luxury and travel. He was a famous novelist, he used a high level of writing in his magazines. He would interview several famous people that had never been interviewed before and ask them tough questions. His first centerfold in playboy magazine was Marilyn Monroe.
C4 - Gamel Abdel Nasser - in the government of King Farouk and the British,
he set up a underground organization called the Free Officers. Eventually
staged a coup, and became the leader of Egypt. Nasser was highly
praised for his Nationalization of the Suez Canal, his Agrarian reform,
and his socialist policies that brought the vast majority of Egyptians
out of poverty. He died from severe health complications in 1970,
and millions of Egyptians followed his funeral procession through the streets.
A11 - Althea Gibson's accomplishments as a black female in sports are
forever marked in history. She broke the color barrier of the American
Lawn Tennis league in 1956 after Alice Marble (a white player) stood up
for her rights. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of
Fame and the International Sports Hall of Fame for a great tennis career
during which she became the first black player to win at Wimbledon and
the U.S. Open.
C14 - Theodore Maiman - He was a scientist at Hughes Research Laboratories. Maiman invented the first the first operable LASER (Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation). We should remember him today because the laser beams he invented are now used in medicine, industry, and communications.
B15 - Yuri Gagarin - He was a Russian Cosmonaut. Gagarin was the first person to be rocketed into orbital flight. We should remember him because he "paved" the way for future space travel and exploration.
D15 - Alan Shepard- One of the first seven astronauts from America, and he was the first American in space. He rode in the Freedom 7 capsule for a fifteen minute suborbital flight. Later, he was the commander of the Apollo 14 mission, and he spent 33.5 hours on the surface of the moon.C16 - Robert Zimmerman- better known as Bob Dylan, is a fingerstyle guitarist who was primarily self-taught. Known for his command of the acoustic and classical guitar, Bob has a continual drive to combine the techniques and beauty of legendary masters of the guitar to his original works--a trait that sets him apart from other guitarists. Bob combines a variety of guitar tunings with his unique fingerstyle techniques to produce rich and expressive tones that are heard as three-dimensional melodies (foreground, middleground, and background) to create an almost "orchestral" sound.
D16 - The Surpremes- Members were Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, and Mary
Wilson. Between 1964 and 1967 the Surpremes dominated commercial radio
airplay with a series of successful songs. Ross and the Surpremes were at
the center of media attention in the mid-1960s, with Ross especially taking
on a larger-than-life persona. In 1967 Florence Ballard was replaced and
the group changed it's name to Diana Ross and the Surpremes. Regardless
of her over the top reputation Diana Ross made herself into one of the first
black superstars in America, she helped break down many racial barriers
that Black American artists faced at the time. In 1998 the Surpremes were
inducted in the rock and roll hall of fame.
B21 - Valium- part of a group of drugs called Benzodiazepines. They were used for tranquilizing, anti-anxiety, sedatives, and muscle relaxing, and accepted at first for being non-habit forming and less lethal in overdose. Valium (diazepam) Developed the most dangerous side affects and amongst the group. Until the invention of Viagra, it was the most prescribed drug in American history.
B21- Botulism - a food virus that can withstand heat.
During the 50's, poor canning processes sometimes led to food products
that contained bacteria or viruses that could cause illness or
death. When a member of the Rockefeller family ate a TV dinner
with tainted swordfish in it and died, a national scare occurred about
the dangers of prepackaged food. Your mother probably still won't
pick up dented cans at the market, though most processes today are
well-protected from such problems, including many cans that have teflon
linings.
A22 - Beginning as "Frankie and the 4 Lovers", "Frankie Valli and
the 4 Seasons" was one of America's most popular groups throughout the
60's and continued their success into 3 other decades. Their
first big hit was "Sherry" in 1962, on which Frankie produced what
became known as the "East Coast Sound", where lead singers often
syrocketed into a falsetto vocal range. With other hits like "Big
Girls Don't Cry", "Walk Like a Man", and "Rag Doll", the group
established a sound that continues to be in demand today.
Comp. 4 - "Catch-22" is actually a book written by Joseph Heller
after
W.W.II. The book's main character, Yossarian, serves in the Air
Force
and ends up spending all of his war missions trying to stay alive
rather
than complete the objective. The book is remembered for the
humorous
point of view it applies to war and its message that war is full of
many
contradictions. The main contradiction in the book is that
Yossarian wants to get out of the military, and his best chance to do
so (alive) is to be declared insane. He contends that flying
missions over enemy territory, where the chance of getting shot down is
very high, is insane. The military contends that it is
"brave". Such satirical doubletalk dominates the entire book, and
has caused the term "Catch-22" to refer to any rule or policy that
contains a built-in exception that allows the person in power to force
compliance no matter how obvious the situation seems.
Nautilus -- Launched on Jan. 21, 1954, she was the first nuclear-powered submarine. Because of her nuclear power, she was able to stay submerged for weeks at a time; much longer than any other submarine before her. As a result, Nautilus was selected for Operation Sunshine, the first passage under the geographic North Pole -- an assignment she completed on August 3, 1958.
<>Bikini Atoll -- Part of the Marshall Islands, it is a small atoll (ring of islands) located in the Pacific Ocean, northeast of mainland Australia. In March of 1946, the indigenous people of the Bikini Atoll were relocated to the Rongerik Atoll in preparation for Operation Crossroads, a series of atmospheric nuclear weapons tests performed by the United States during the summer of 1946. During the years between 1946 and 1958, the Bikini Atoll would be the location of over 20 hydrogen and atomic bomb tests.DEW Line -- The Distant Early Warning Line was a system of radar stations that stretched from Greenland and Iceland, through Canada, to Alaska, whose purpose was to detect incoming Soviet aerial attacks during the Cold War. Three such lines existed in Canada (the Pinetree Line and the Mid-Canada Line being the other two), but the DEW Line was the most capable. The DEW Line was constructed jointly by the United States and Canada, with the majority being staffed by the Royal Canadian Air Force, with a select few staffed by the U. S. Air Force. Shortly after its construction, the DEW Line became obsolete, as it was unable to detect ICBM's (intercontinental ballistic missiles) and submarine attacks.
Bill Haley -- Known for popularizing rock music with his band
Bill Haley & His Comets.
Haley began his career producing western swing music, then country
music, before finally settling into rock 'n' roll. In 1953, his song Crazy Man, Crazy (co-written with his
bassist, Marshall Lytle) was the first rock song to hit the American
charts. After his song Rock Around
the Clock played during the film The Blackboard Jungle, it reached
Number 1 on the American Billboard charts for eight weeks and became the
first record in history to sell over one million copies in both Britain and
Germany.