Dayton Peace Center

            The Dayton Peace Center is located on West Monument Avenue in Dayton, Ohio. It is in the downtown area and easily accessible from Interstate 75. The Dayton Peace Center is also called the Pollock House. The museum has a vision, and that is to inspire a culture of peace, especially around the Dayton region. The mission of the Dayton Peace Center is to contribute to a local, national, and international culture of peace through exhibits, activities, and events that focus on nonviolent choices. The Peace Center has many goals that it tries to reach. They include fostering a peace locally and around the world, illuminating the rich history of nonviolent peacemakers and peacemaking, providing a place of inspiration and encourage all nonviolent ways of peace, becoming a thriving center for peace and nonviolent activities, working towards the prevention of war, marginalization, and other acts of violence, promoting human rights, interdependence, and reconciliation, reducing fear and polarization by encouraging tolerance and respect, striving for and celebrating diversity as a means of promoting peace, hosting lectures and roundtables on current events and issues. Other goals that the Dayton Peace Center strive for are communicating information about disarmaments and other peace issues, offering curricula and teaching children about peace and nonviolence, encouraging nonviolent public services as a way to effect peace, maintaining a dynamic website with multiple resource for peace, serving as a clearinghouse for information on peace organizations and events, serving as a peace resource for local and international media and educators, sponsoring awards, scholarships, essays, artwork, and performance for peace, housing a peace institute for researchers and writers worldwide, and creating and fostering links with the international peace community.

            In 2003, a women by the name of Christine Dull, returned from a civilian-observation visit to Iraq, accompanied by her husband, Ralph. It was on her trip to Iraq that Christine had a vision to get rid of the hatred and violence in Dayton, and start a Peace Center. They decided that the museum would be a non-partisan cultural and educational facility. They wanted this museum to be able to solve situations and problems at the local, national, and international levels. They encountered two experienced advertisers who wanted to help. These two great contributors to the creation of the Dayton Peace Center were Fred Arment and Lisa Wolters. The four volunteers worked long hours producing the documents they needed to start the museum. They also donated large amounts of money alongside a grant worth ten thousand dollars from the Dayton Peoples Fund. The museum opened in October 2005, but it opened a couple weeks later at its present location on October 14, 2005. By 2006, the museum had attracted more then one hundred volunteers who donated their time, energy, ideas, labor, and money. The museum has taken long strides towards being an important educational resource for the local area, but also national and internationally. The volunteer staff has worked very hard over the past few years to ensure that the museum can continue to grow and help the area of Dayton become a nonviolent city.

 

 

Sources: 

“Dayton International Peace Center.” Dayton International Peace Center. 2005. 4 June 2009 <http://www.daytonpeacemuseum.org/>. 

Vietnam War and the Kent State Shootings

Thursday May 28 – Absent Article

          The Vietnam War took place from 1959 toZ April 30, 1975. It was a very brutal and tough war for the United States to fight. The war was fought in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The original war was fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. North Vietnam was a communist territory and it wanted to spread its beliefs upon the South Vietnam government. The country was split many years before, after a war with France. The North was supported by the Soviet Union, because the Soviets wanted the push for communism. The South was back by the United States, because America wanted to stop the spread of communism throughout the world. The United States went into the war as a split nation. Riots throughout the United States began to break out. The ranged from students at campuses to women wanting equal rights. The most famous riot took place at Kent State University in Ohio. The students were rioting against the Vietnam War, and the Ohio National Guard was brought in to detain people and put down the riot. President Nixon gave a speech on the television on Saturday May 2 telling the country that they were going to invade Cambodia. There were over 2000 students who gathered at Kent State to participate in the riot on Monday May 4, to show there dislike for the decision by President Nixon. The Guardians, fearing that the crowd was going to break out into a huge riot, shot 67 times into the crowd killing four people and paralyzing a woman for life. Many students at the campus gave there view of the event many days later. Jeanne Anderson, a junior at Kent State, said that she was never as afraid in her life as she was that night while she was still on campus. She told reporters that you could just tell that something was going to happen, because all the riots were making the guards uneasy. She said that she feared for her life after the shooting while she walked around the campus, because she walked past soldiers with guns in their hands. The Kent State shooting was questioned by the government, but it was ruled that the soldiers acted in their limits.

Sources: 

Library of Congress. “Veterans History Project.” Veterans History Project. 21 May 2009. Library of Congress. 2 June 2009 <http://www.loc.gov/vets/>. 

Simpson, Craig. “Kent State Shootings.” Kent State Shootings. 29 Apr. 2009. 2 June 2009 <http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/4may70/oralhistory/129.html>.

Ripley, Ohio

 John Parker & John Rankin

            The son of a white man and an enslaved mother, John Parker was born into slavery on February 2, 1827. At the age of eight, he was sold to a slave agent in Richmond, Virginia. Because of John’s perseverance and work ethic, John was able to free himself by 1845. John Parker became undoubtedly one of the most influential and important people in the construction and operation of the Underground Railroad. 

          After traveling as part of a slave caravan that took him to Mobile, Alabama, John was purchased by a physician.  In Mobile, he worked as a house servant. Parker taught himself to read and write, and he eventually attend college in 1843 along his slave owner’s sons. Unfortunately, the physician that owned John did not allow John to finish, because he feared that John’s education would lead him to escape to the north.

          After much persuasion by John, a patient of the physician that owned John bought him. While he was in Alabama, he became an apprentice to a foundry and iron manufacture, and he learned the trade of plastering. John tried to escape from the factory, and he was returned to his slave owner in Mobile.  Surprisingly, despite the numerous escape attempts, John was never physically maimed.  Maiming was a common punishment for runaway slaves, as it could deter future escape attempts. Members of the John Parker Historical Society speculate that none of John’s owners cut his limbs because he was such a hard worker, and such wounds would impact the amount of work John could do.

           In New Orleans, John feared he would become a field hand for a local farmer, but he ended up working at the New Orleans shipping docks as a stevedore. While he worked at the docks, he was able to earn and save enough money to buy his freedom. When John Parker purchased his freedom from the elder women in 1845; it cost him 1,800 dollars. After John purchased his freedom, he received a pass to go Indiana. In Indiana, he worked in a factory, and in 1850 he began to work as a conductor in the Underground Railroad. In 1853, John Parker moved to Ripley, Ohio, where he created a successful foundry behind his home.

          After John Parker returned to Ripley, he dedicated the rest of his life to freeing run away slaves. It was a perfect escape route for slaves to take into Ohio. John Parker would go across the river into Kentucky, and help slaves run away to Ohio. He was one of the most important conductors of the Underground Railroad. Parker worked alongside John Rankin, who was a Presbyterian minister and abolitionists, to get slaves safety to Ripley. Parker was the conductor and person who would go into the countryside to get slave into Ohio. When John would bring slaves to the Ohio River he would look across to Rankin’s house, which stood up on a hill, and if the lantern was own in the window, it was safe to come across. Once the slaves were brought into Ripley, they would stay there in Rankin’s home until they could move on towards their final destination, Canada. They used this method for many years, and it is said that John Parker helped over 315 slaves to freedom. He wrote in a journal after every trip he made, but he later threw it into a burning furnace in his iron foundry, because he did not want it to end up in the wrong hands. John became so good at his trade of freeing slaves, that slave owners would watch guard at night looking for him. They would place a bounty on his head, because he was freeing so many slaves from Kentucky and the surrounding states.

          John Parker was one of the greatest heroes in America history, and he is still remembered today at his home in Ripley, Ohio. John used his house as a place to plan out escapes for slaves, and a place where slaves could stay for days until they moved on their journey. John Parker passed away in 1900. The government declared his home in Ripley a national historical landmark in1997.

          John Rankin was born on February 4, 1793, and he moved to Ripley in 1822. John Rankin dedicated his life as well after he moved to Ripley. He let slaves stay overnight at his home, and then he would help them on their journey to Canada.

          Today, people can visit Ripley, Ohio and walk through John’s house to experience a spot on the Underground Railroad. It is a wonderful experience, and visitors of Ripley can also see John Rankin’s home. They both over look the Ohio River, and it will give people a greater understanding of the journey that conductors took in helping free black slaves from the south.

Sources:

“The Autobiography of John Parker.” Special Collections Library. Duke University. 01 June 2009 <http://web.duke.edu/~njb2/history391/parker/parker.html>. Dillon, Merton L. “JOHN P. PARKER AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD.” Timeline 22.1 (2005), 2-15.

 

Leinhard, John H. “No. 1521: John P. Parker.” University of Houston. 2000. 01 June 2009 <http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1521.htm>. 

 

Parker, John P. His Promised Land the Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad. Boston: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998.

 

Public Relations of the University of Dayton. “Biography of the Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar.” Welcome to the University of Dayton’s Paul Laurence Dunbar Website. 3 Feb. 2003. University of Dayton. 28 May 2009 <http://www.dunbarsite.org/biopld.asp>.

Wright Brothers and the Paul Laurence Dunbar Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park’s Wright Dunbar Interpretive Center and Wright Cycle Company Building

            Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park is located in downtown Dayton, Ohio. The park commemorates three influential men that came from Dayton. These three men are Wilbur Wright, Orville Wright, and Paul Laurence Dunbar. Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871 while Wilbur was born on April 16, 1867. The Wright brothers who are manly known for the first men to successfully invent the powered flight, but they started their careers with the newspaper. The Wright brothers created the Wright & Wright, Job Printers for five years during the time of 1890 through 1895. They created there first business while Orville was still in high school, and the place they began is known today as the Hoover Block. When they first went into business they printed a small neighborhood newspaper, circulars, bill heads, and note cards. Orville was the publisher of the business while Wilbur was the editor. There first paper was titled the West Side News, followed by the Evening Item. While the Wright Brothers were printing the local newspaper, they had a client who was one of Orville Wright’s friends from high school, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Due to the Wright Brother’s invention of the printing press, they printed Paul’s newspaper that he edited called the Dayton Tattler. While Paul Dunbar wrote and edited for this local newspaper, he rose to international acclaim for his ground braking African American poetry and writings. The brothers continued for the remainder of their printing time to work alongside Paul Dunbar.

            While they were still working in there printing shop till 1895 they started to focus more of their attention on bicycles. They opened their first repair and sales shop in 1982, the Wright Cycle Exchange which later turned into the Wright Cycle Company. When they turned the name to Wright Cycle Company in 1896 they began to manufacture their own brand of bicycle. Due to the national boom for bicycles, the Wright Brothers began to make a lot of money, and used it to suffice their interest in flight. During the 1890’s there were many pictures in the local newspapers about glides that took place in Germany, and the Wright Brothers became even more intrigued with flight.

            The Wright became the first people to successfully fly the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. There dream came a reality on December 17, 1903. They received credit worldwide through the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which is the record-keeping body for any aeronautics and astronautics. Two years later the Wright brothers developed their next creation which was the flying machine into the first fixed-wing aircraft. The Wright brothers were not the first to create flight; however they were the first to create the aircraft controls that made fixed wing flight possible.

            The Wright brother’s friend, Paul Laurence Dunbar, was born on June 27, 1872 in Dayton, Ohio. Paul was the only African American in his class at Dayton Central High. He had trouble receiving a job when he was a young teenage, however he did not let that affect his grades at school. Paul excelled in all aspects of his classes. He produced twelve books of poetry, four books of short stories, five novels, and a novel through his career.

            The Wright Cycle Company became a National Historic Landmark in 1990. The Hoover Block is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

 

Sources:

Public Relations of the University of Dayton. “Biography of the Life of Paul Laurence Dunbar.” Welcome to the University of Dayton‘s Paul Laurence Dunbar Website. 3 Feb. 2003. University of Dayton. 28 May 2009 <http://www.dunbarsite.org/biopld.asp>.

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Exhibitions on View.” The Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age. 2009. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 27 May 2009 <http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/>. 

Carriage Hill MetroPark

             Carriage Hill MetroPark is located on the northern side of Dayton, Ohio. It is a park that consists of mainly of former farmland and woodlands. This park was a former farm owned by the Arnold family. This park consists of large open grass areas, ponds, wetlands, fourteen acre lake, tracks in the forest, barns, and farmland. Daniel and Catharine Arnold moved form Rockingham County, Virginia in 1830, and moved west with their five children. The Arnold’s sold all of their belongings and headed for the Ohio Valley. They came to Ohio by just ox and wagon, and after an extremely long journey, they settled along Dry Run, which is a tributary of the Mad River. The property that the Arnold family had purchased was initially owned by Henry Harshbarger, who was Catharine Arnold’s father. They built a log house upon their arrival on the present MetroPark. During the spring of 1830, Daniel Arnold bought 158 acres from his father-in-law, Henry Harshbarger, for just two thousand dollars. Six years after purchasing the land from his father-in-law, Daniel and his wife built a beautiful house on top of Carriage Hill. 

             In 1864, and prior to his father’s death, Henry Arnold, who was the youngest of Daniel Arnolds sons, had purchased one hundred and forty acres of the old farmstead. While Henry was the owner of the farm it would see many prosperous times and wonderful times of crop growing. Henry would build a new barn which would house livestock and crops. He also built an addition to the original brick house.

            Henry Arnold past away in 1910, however his daughter, Emma Arnold, took over the control of the farm. She ran the farm until 1916, when she sold the farm off and moved to Dayton, Ohio. The farm would move through many farmers’ hands, but eventually bought up by the Five Rivers MetroParks in 1968.

            When you visit the park today you can still see many of the building that existed in the 1800’s. The wonderful thing about Carriage Hill and the most important fact about the old farm is that they still farm the same way that the Arnold family did almost two hundred years ago. When you enter the park, there is a beautiful building that is the guide center along with a wonderful and cheap gift shop on the bottom level of the building.

            Once you walk through the gift shop you can walk down to the farm. There are many barns and buildings throughout the boundaries of park. You can walk around and get an up close view of how people farmed in the 1800’s. They also have farm machinery throughout the farm, which is an incredible sight. It is amazing how they used the machinery they had to get the fields worked and create the crop that they did. Carriage Hill also provides the opportunity for the visitors to go horse back riding. They have a perfect setup to go horse back riding, and it is an exciting opportunity and I recommend it to any visitor going in the near future. Carriage Hill as a whole was a very educational place to visit, because the insight you get from the 1800’s farming methods, and the machinery they used, but also just to see breathtaking scenery.

Sources:

Conservation. Education. Recreation. “Carriage Hill MetroPark.” Carriage Hill MetroPark. 2009. Five Rivers MetroPark. 15 May 2009 <http://www.metroparks.org/parks/carriagehill/>. This website gives you an overview of the buildings and sites you will encounter at Carriage Hill MetroPark. This is their homepage that gives all the general information you could need that would help you with your visit to the park. This website gave me directions and hours they were open. It also helped me with some of the background information of the buildings and items I saw at the park.

Early transportation in Ohio

            Ohio went through a very important transformation in the eighteen twenties with the expansion of the railroads. The reason that Ohioans wanted railroads was due to the lack of access to canals and other forms of transformation. Ohioans who did not have easy access to canals would try and persuade the people in their community to give money in the form of taxes to the government so that the railroads could be built. There were a couple of main reasons why people in Ohio wanted railroads in the early 1820′s. First was to connect communities together that did not have access to canals. Also Ohioans seen how bodies of water were connected together like the Ohio River with Lake Erie made it easy for people to travel throughout Ohio, and they wished that the railroads would give an even quicker form of transportation.

            Ohio would face some challenges in the effort to launch the railroad industry. Many railroad companies and workers arrived in Ohio in the 1820′s, but did not break construction till the 1840′s. There were two main reasons for the delay in the building of railroads. The first was due to the cheap access and transportation of goods down canals. It was very cheap for business men to send their products down water ways to other towns, and they did not want to waste money by sending it by train. The second and most important was the economic stumble in 1837. The economy was very slow during this time, and people were very afraid to invest money into the railroads. Some people even saw the building and creation of the railroad system as a very large risk. However, when Ohio and the rest of the United States came out of the economic troubles; people began to invest at a very large rate. By the 1850′s there were over seventy-five railroad companies or businesses throughout Ohio.

            There were many important and influential railroad companies in Ohio, but the most important and first two were the Erie and Kalamazoo Rail Road. They worked on the railroad that would eventually connect Toledo and Adrian, Michigan. This railroad was thirty-three miles and length, and if you took the trip it would take you a little over three hours. 

            The next two important railroads in Ohio were the Little Miami Railroad and the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad (CH & D) which were created in 1836 and 1831. These railroads connected Cincinnati with Springfield, Hamilton, and Dayton. This was a very important trend, because this lead to the creation of the suburb. These railroads linked most of Ohio together, and made it easier for people to travel and move goods. The creation of the CH & D Railroad was done mainly by immigrants, Irish and Germans, and they would eventually stay and settle in the Ohio valley. The railroad that connects Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton was for commuter use only. You get an interesting view of this railroad through former president Rutherford B. Hayes. He states in the text book through a letter to his fiancé, “I went to Dayton yesterday and back celebrating the completion of the railroad which makes Dayton a suburb of Cincinnati.”He also went on to say that the trip took over two and a half hours.

            In the 1800′s, most of the railroads barely went out of the state, and they did not connect Ohio with many other states or cities outside of Ohio. Through time the railroad became a more popular and useful tool in transportation of goods and a traveling system for commuters. It was a very challenging task for Ohio to complete, but their hard work and determination still remains today; as Ohio still uses railroads to ship goods throughout the state.

 

Sources:

Cayton, Andrew R. L. Ohio The History of a People. Columbus, Ohio: The Ohio State University, 2002.

 ”Railroads.” Ohio Historical Center. 2009. Ohio Historical Center. 10 May 2009 http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=794.

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

 

            The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is located just an hour south of Wright State University in Cincinnati, Ohio. The museum is a dedication and tribute to the Underground Railroad and to other African Americans who have influenced or changed our history. When you first walk into the museum you register and receive an audio device which takes you through each exhibit. These audio devices are very useful, because you just enter the number designated for each exhibit and you will be able to listen to a detailed description of the objects you are looking at. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center has five stories to the building, however the first three levels are the exhibiting floors with the top two being administrative use only.

            The first floor has a beautiful gift shop which contains a lot of great gifts that you can purchase. One of the funniest gifts I found in the gift shop was a deck of cards with our new president, Barack Obama, on the front of the deck. When you walk up the spiral staircase you will come to the immaculate second floor. The second floor has an amazing piece of art work that covered the entire wall. The piece of art work was two different quilts that are extremely colorful. The quilts tell a story of the Underground Railroad, and contain symbols and actual remains of people going through the struggle. On the same floor as the quilts is a large wooden building that held slaves. This building was called a slave pen, which could hold up to seventy-five slaves at one time. The slave pen was a very touching symbol of the triumph that African Americans had to overcome during slavery.

            Also on the second floor was an exhibit attributed to John Parker and Rev. John Rankin. This was a film that showed the heroics of both of these men and the influence they played in the Underground Railroad. Another wonderful exhibit that I went through was the Escape exhibit. This showed and descried the brave decisions that slaves had to make while they were on the run to a free place. The decisions that some of the slaves ultimately made had to be the hardest decisions and human being have ever made. They at times had to leave family and friends behind, just so they could be free.

            The most interesting and realistic exhibit at the Freedom Center was when you watched a clip from a screen and had to answer questions accordingly. The person would take you step by step through the Underground Railroad and ask you questions and you had to make the tough decisions. If you choose the incorrect answer you would be caught, but if you choose the correct one you would continue on you journey. The questions they asked you were very tough, and I had to guess on many of them. It gave you a small glimpse of what the runaway slaves went through.

            There are also many other great exhibits and collection of works throughout the Freedom Center. It is a great experience to walk around and try and take in all of this emotional and brave history. Throughout this journey at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center I was in constant amazement. The whole museum was done just perfectly and I recommend that everyone should go and see it.

 

 

 

 

Sources:

Ohio Historical Center. “Underground Railroad Information Station.” The Ohio Historical Society. 13 Apr. 2009. The Ohio Historical Society. 1 Apr. 2009 http://www.ohiohistory.org/undergroundrr//.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. “National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.” National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 5 Mar. 2009. Wikipedia. 3 Apr. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Underground_Railroad_Freedom_Center>.

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “Exhibitions at the Freedom Center.” Exhibits at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 2009. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 28 Mar. 2009 <http://www.freedomcenter.org/visit-the-center/exhibits/>.

 

 

Slave Pen

 

 

 

 

The slave pen was a holding cell for African American slaves in the late seventieth and early eightieth century. The slave pen founded at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center was original used in Mason county Kentucky, which is only an hour south of the museum. The structure is twenty-one feet high by thirty feet long. The holding pen was two stories high. The holding pen that is located on the second floor of the Freedom Center was built in 1830, and used by a Kentucky slave owner, Captain John W. Anderson. This pen was used to hold slaves before they went to auction.

The pen had eight windows; however they were very small and let in only a very minimal amount of light. The slave pen could hold up to seventy-five slaves at one time. With that many people in that small of an area; it was really hard to move around. The men were placed on the top level of the pen while the women were placed on the bottom of the slave pen. The men were tied or chained to a shackle ring in the second floor joist. The women on the bottom were not chained to the building, because the owner of the pen knew the women would not run away with their loves ones still there. If the women would run away, there husband, brother, or relatives would be beaten and punished for there crime. The ring that chained the men still remains in the slave pen, and was a very emotion sight to see.

The normal routes that Captain Anderson took the slaves were from Dover, Kentucky to either New Orleans or Natchez Mississippi. They would have to stay in the pen for a few days up to a couple months so that their stock would rise, and their owner could receive more money for them. The market value of slaves varied over time, and it was important for slave owners to have a pen to keep the slaves in for a period of time.

The slave pen still has the original floor which was made of stone still remains in the pen. The stone floor had a large fireplace and chimney that laid on it. The women slaves would use the fireplace to do all of their coking. The women had to cook for the men and take the food up to them, because they were always chained to the wrought iron rings down the center of the wooden structure.

Captain Anderson was a very cruel man. He owned over thirty-five slaves at one given time. He would buy and sell slaves as often as he could so he could turn a profit. He bought a Milan woman for three hundred dollars, and turned around ninety days later to sell her for eighteen hundred dollars. Captain Anderson made a total profit of fifteen hundred dollars. His name was branded on the inside of the building; to continuously remind the slaves who they were property of.

The overall sight of the slave pen sends shivers down your spine. When you first walk into the structure, listening to the voice of the guide, and relieving the actual events that occurred in this holding pen, you can hardly move. It was a very emotional experience for me, and anyone that has not yet had the chance to visit the slave pen at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center should really consider going and taking in the experience for yourself. 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Sources: 

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “Exhibitions at the Freedom Center.” Exhibits at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 2009. National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 28 Mar. 2009 <http://www.freedomcenter.org/visit-the-center/exhibits/>.

Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.,. “National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.” National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. 5 Mar. 2009. Wikipedia. 3 Apr. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Underground_Railroad_Freedom_Center>.

Neil Armstrong 

Neil A. Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930, at his grandparent’s house in Auglaize County, Ohio. Neil was born to Stephen and Viola Engel Armstrong and he was there oldest of three children. Neil and his family moved several times throughout his childhood. They settled in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and the family would stay for the remainder of Neil’s life. As a young boy Neil fell in love with airplanes. He took his first flight at the young age of six years old. He took his flight in a Ford Tri-Motor aka Tin Goose. As a young boy he worked at many jobs around the community. His favorite job was working at the local airport. While he worked at the airport he started to take flying lessons. At the age of fifteen he started his flying lessons and on his sixtieth birthday he received his pilot’s license. He received his pilot’s license before his driving license.

After graduating from Wapakoneta High School, Neil attended Purdue University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering. He then went on to the University of Southern California receiving his Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering. Neil also received many honorary degrees from numerous other colleges or universities. While Neil was enrolled at Purdue he was called to active duty in the Navy. He reported to the Naval Air Station Pensacola for his flight training. After eighteen months of training he joined the USS Cabot and USS Wright and qualified as a Naval Aviator. He received assignment to the Aircraft Service Squadron 7 Fleet. He also served as a Fighter Squadron 51 pilot. He was a ground-attack aircraft pilot in Korea. While making a flying run his F9F Panther was hit by gunfire. He had to eject himself from the plane, and luckily he made it back to friendly territory. He made over six hundred flights in an arrangement of different carriers. Neil Armstrong received many awards for his duties in the Korean War including the Air Medal, the Gold Star, the Korean Service Medal, and the Engagement Star.  After his time was through in Korea he retired from the Navy and became a Lieutenant, Junior Grade in the United States Naval Reserve. He retired from the Naval Reserve on October 20, 1960.

After his navy services he became a test pilot for high-performance aircraft in 1955. In 1962, NASA selected Neil to become an astronaut. Neil took his first space flight in the year of 1966, however it was a nearly tragic. He and his partner, David Scott, were in space when their spacecraft spun widely out of control. One of their rockets malfunctioned, and Neil became the first United States citizen to experience an emergency in space. They gained control of the spacecraft and returned safely to earth. Neil was selected in 1968; along with Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins to become members of the Apollo 11 mission. Apollo 11 would be the first attempt in history to have a man land on the Moon.

Apollo 11 left Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969. Four days later the shuttle went into orbit around the Moon. The lunar module separated from the command module and descended onto the surface of the Moon. Armstrong at 10:56 PM became the first man to ever walk on the Moon. Neil and Aldrin set up an American flag, collected some rock samples, and set up scientific instruments. Neil and the other astronauts returned home on July 24, 1969, and were welcomed like heroes. After Neil Armstrong returned from the Moon, he resigned form the astronaut program in 1970. He served as an engineering professor at the University of Cincinnati for eight years. Neil became cochairman of the presidential commission investigating the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
 

 

 

 

Sources:

 

Google. “Neil Armstrong.” 2009. Google. 14 Apr. 2009 <http://www.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&q=Neil+Armstrong&um=1&ie=UTF-8&scoring=t&ei=zojmSYz_JMfAtwfv05nNBQ&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&resnum=15&ct=title>.

NASA. “Neil Armstrong.” Biographical Data. Dec. 1993. NASA. 9 Apr. 2009 <http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/armstrong-na.html>.

NASA. “Neil Armstrong.” World Book at NASA. 30 Nov. 2007. NASA. 12 Apr. 2009 <http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/armstrong_neil_worldbook.html>.

 

John Glenn

             John H. Glenn, Jr. was born on July 18, 1921. He was born in the small town of Cambridge, Ohio. He was born to the parents of John and Clara Glenn. When John was a young boy his parents moved the family to New Concord. He graduated from New Concord High School and future his education at the local college called Muskingum College. John was very proud and excited about his childhood. He said it was easy to be pushed and driven when you had parents that wanted the best for him. His mother was John’s biggest education influence and his father and he loved to travel together. John’s love for flying and science started when he was a young boy and continued throughout his adult life.

            While John was enrolled at Muskingum College; the United States was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor, and influenced John to enlist into the Naval Aviation Cadet Program and became a Marine pilot. John also asked to be on active duty during the Korean War, and total in both wars in flew one hundred and forty-nine combat missions. He received many awards and prestigious metals, however the most honorable was the Distinguished Flying Cross. 

            During 1958, the astronaut corps was being formed, and John was a logical candidate, due to all his experience and skills. He became a member of the space program when he entered into the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. A period of time after he entered the space program; NASA was looking for pilots. John volunteered without any question, and became a pilot in the suborbital and orbital program. One year after being in the program, NASA selected him to be one of the first seven astronauts in the United States space program. On February 20, 1962, John piloted the Friendship & spacecraft around the globe. The atlas rocket John was navigating went around the earth three times, and made him the first American to every orbit the earth. The flight was a huge accomplishment for the United States, because the Soviet Union was winning the rave war, and now the United States took the lead. When John returned from his mission he was viewed as a hero throughout America. He also gave spirit to other American pilots, because now they had footsteps to follow.

            After John had relieved that NASA was not going to send him on another mission, he turned his attention to politics. In 1965, after retiring from the Marine Corps he ran for the United States Senate. He was running in the Ohio Democratic primary, but an accident caused John to leave the race. He ran again for the Ohio Senate seat in 1970, but was defeated in the primaries. He tried again in 1974 and was the overwhelming winner.  As senator of Ohio, John took a leading role in weapons control and government affairs. Some of John’s accomplishments as Senator were: chief of the 1978 Nonproliferation Aft, Chairman of the Senate Government Affairs Committee for seventeen years, and sat on the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees.

            John was a candidate three times for the vice presidency, and in 1984 he ran as a presidential candidate. He was not successful in his try. In 1997 John decided to retire from the Senate. A year later NASA asked him to rejoin them, and John accepted and on October 29, 1998 he became the oldest man to venture into space. John Glenn accomplished many great things in his life time, and he will always be remembered as an Ohio hero.

 

Sources:

Glenn & Taylor, John & Nick. “John Herschel Glenn, Jr.” John Herschel Glenn, Jr. 1999. United States Congress. 9 Apr. 2009 <http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000236>.

John and Annie Glenn Museum Foundation. “John Glenn.” John Glenn. 2009. The John and Annie Glenn Historical Site and Exploration. 9 Apr. 2009 <http://www.johnglennhome.org/john_glenn.shtml>.

NASA. “John Glenn.” Biographical Data. Jan. 1999. NASA. 9 Apr. 2009 <http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/glenn-j.html>.