AMY S. GLENN WEBSITE

Welcome!

Although this site has been created primarily for my students, anyone is welcome to visit. In these pages you will find a number of sources of information.

The Online Resources section below has numerous links that are of current interest. For more links to material on just about any topic you're looking for, use the E-Links button above. Linked off of that page are pages containing hundreds of links to sites covering a number of topics.

Visit often ... I update frequently! Hope you enjoy the site!

Quote of the month

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

-Albert Einstein

Numbers of the month

In announcing that the Supreme Court will take up the 2010 health care reform law in March 2012, the Justices allotted 5½ hours over two days for oral arguments, the most in nearly half a century. Brown v Board of Education II (1955) was allotted 13¼ hours and the Voting Rights Act (1966) was allotted 7. Since 1970, however, most cases are given just an hour for oral arguments – Bush v Gore (2000), for example, was allotted on 1½ hours.

Time Magazine, 11/28/11

Then & Now

February is Black History Month.

February is American Heart Month.

	02/01/1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union.
	02/01/1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began operations.
	02/01/2003 - NASA's Columbia exploded over east Texas on reentry.
	02/01/2012 - National Freedom Day
	02/02/1536 - Pedro de Mendoza of Spain founded Buenos Aires.
	02/02/1653 - New Amsterdam - now New York - was incorporated.
	02/02/1848 - The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, was signed.
	02/02/1971 - Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda.
	02/02/2012 - Groundhog Day
	02/02/2012 - Imbolic (or Oimelc) - Wicca, Celtic
	02/02/2012 – Candlemas
	02/03/1690 - The colony of Massachusetts issued the 1^st paper money in America to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec. It probably wasn't worth much more than it is now ... which is probably why they paid the soldiers with it!
	02/03/1913 - The US ratified the 16^th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax.
	02/03/1959 - A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claimed the lives of rock-and-roll stars Buddy Holy, Ritchie Valens and JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson.
	02/03/2012 - Setsubun (Bean Scattering) - Shinto
	02/04/1783 - Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colony, the United States of America.
	02/04/1789 - Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the 1^st US President.
	02/04/1801 - John Marshall became chief justice of the US Supreme Court.
	02/04/1861 - Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery AL to form the Confederate States of America.
	02/04/1962 - The Soviet Union's news agency Pravda claimed the Russians invented baseball.
	02/04/1974 - Members of the Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was from her apartment in Berkeley CA.
	02/04/2012 - Mawlid an Nabi (Birth of the Prophet) begins at sundown - Muslim
	02/05/1631 - Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, and his wife arrived in Boston from England.
	02/05/1917 - Congress passed, over President Wilson's veto, an immigration act severely curtailing the influx of Asians.
	02/05/1917 - Mexico's adopted its constitution.
	02/05/1937 - President Franklin Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court. Critics accused Roosevelt of attempting to "pack" the high court.
	02/06/1952 - Britain's King George VI died. His daughter, Elizabeth II, succeeded him.
	02/06/1959 - The US successfully test-fired for the 1^st time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from Cape Canaveral FL.
	02/06/2001 - Israel elected Ariel Sharon as prime minister in a landslide victory over Ehud Barak.
	02/07/1936 - FDR authorized a flag for the office of the vice president.
	02/07/1940 - Walt Disney's Pinocchio had its world premiere.
	02/07/1964 - The Beatles began their 1^st American tour, arriving in NY.
	02/07/1986 - Haitian President-for-Life Jean Claude Duvalier fled his country ending 28 years of Duvalier rule.
	02/08/1910 - The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.
	02/08/1922 - President Harding had a radio installed in the White House.
	02/08/1924 - The 1^st execution by gas in the US took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
	02/08/1978 - radio broadcast the deliberations of the Senate for the 1^st time as members opened debate on the Panama Canal treaties.
	02/08/2012 - Boy Scout Day
	02/08/2012 - Tu B'Shevat / New Year of Trees - Judaism
	02/09/1825 - The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes.
	02/09/1861 - The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson David president and Alexander Stephens vice president.
	02/09/1870 - The US Weather Bureau was established.
	02/09/1943 - The WWII battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.
	02/09/1950 - Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.
	02/09/1964 - The Beatles made their 1^st live American TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS.
	02/09/1971 - The Apollo 14 returned to earth after man's third landing on the moon.
	02/10/1846 - Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, began an exodus to the west from Illinois.
	02/10/1949 - Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman opened on Broadway.
	02/10/1967 - The 25^th Amendment to the Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, went into effect.
	02/11/1812 - Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting law favoring his party ... giving rise to the term "gerrymandering."
	02/11/1945 - FDR, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin signed the Yalta agreement.
	02/11/1979 - Followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran.
	02/11/1983 - Janet Reno became the 1^st female attorney general.
	02/11/1990 - South Africa freed black activist Nelson Mandela after 27 years in captivity.
	02/12/1733 - English colonists led by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah GA.
	02/12/1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.
	02/12/1915 - The US House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.
	02/12/1932 - Mrs. Hattie Caraway became the 1^st woman elected to the US Senate.
	02/12/1966 - Adam West premiered as Batman in the US.
	02/12/2012 - Academic Freedom Day
	02/13/1635 - America's oldest public school, the Boston Public Latin School, was founded.
	02/13/1795 - The University of North Carolina became the 1^st US state university to admit students. The 1^st was Hinton James, who was the only student on campus for two weeks.
	02/13/1920 - The League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
	02/13/1960 - France exploded its 1^st atomic bomb.
	02/14/1778 - The American ship Ranger carried the recently adopted Stars and Stripes to a foreign port for the 1^st time as it arrived in France.
	02/14/1918 - Tarzan of the Apes was released for the 1^st time. There were a number of protests since people reasoned that Tarzan was living in sin with Jane without the benefit of matrimony.
	02/14/1920 - The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago.
	02/14/1931 - The movie Dracula was released, with Bela Lugosi as the Count.
	02/14/1945 - Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joined the UN.
	02/14/1989 - Iran's Ayatollah put out a $1 million bounty for Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, considered blasphemous by members of the Islamic community.
	02/14/2012 - Valentine's Day
	02/15/1564 - Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa.
	02/15/1764 - The city of St. Louis was established.
	02/15/1879 - President Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.
	02/15/1898 - The US battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the US closer to war with Spain.
	02/15/1950 - Disney released the movie Cinderella.
	02/15/1989 - The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention.
	02/15/2012 - Parinirvana - Buddhism
	02/16/1959 - Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
	02/16/1968 - Haleyville AL began the 1^st 911 emergency telephone system in the nation.
	02/17/1801 - The House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president and Burr vice president.
	02/17/1817 - A street in Baltimore became the 1^st lit with gas from America's 1^st gas company.
	02/17/1897 - The forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, was founded in Washington.
	02/17/1947 - The Voice of American began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.
	02/17/1964 - The Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.
	02/18/1861 - the Confederate States of America swore in Jefferson Davis as president.
	02/18/1885 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published for the 1^st time.
	02/18/1930 - The ninth planet of our solar system, Pluto, was discovered.
	02/18/1985 - Jonathan Isaac Horsky Glenn was born in Mansfield OH.
	02/19/1846 - The Texas state government was formally installed in Austin.
	02/19/1942 - President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals living in the US.
	02/19/1945 - The Marines landed on Iwo Jima.
	02/19/2012 - Transfiguration
	02/20/1792 - President Washington signed an act creating the US Post Office.
	02/20/1809 - The Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state. (It's been downhill ever since!)
	02/20/1839 - Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.
	02/20/1962 - Astronaut John Glenn became the 1^st American to orbit the earth, flying aboard Friendship Seven.
	02/20/2012 - Presidents Day
	02/20/2012 - Maha Shivaratri (Great Shiva Night) - Hinduism
	02/21/1878 - The 1^st telephone directory was issued.
	02/21/1965 - Former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X was shot to death in New York.
	02/21/1972 - President Nixon began his historic visit to China.
	02/21/2012 - Mardi Gras / Carnival / Fat Tuesday / Shrove Tuesday
	02/22/1819 - Spain ceded Florida to the US.
	02/22/1879 - Frank Woolworth opened a 5-cent store in Utica NY.
	02/22/1924 - Calvin Coolidge delivered the 1^st presidential radio broadcast from the White House.
	02/22/1935 - It became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.
	02/22/1980 - The US Olympic hockey team upset the Soviets 4-3 & went on to win the gold medal.
	02/22/2012 - Ash Wednesday, Beginning of Lent
	02/23/1836 - The siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio.
	02/23/1945 - US Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi where they raised the American flag.
	02/23/1997 - Scientists in Scotland announced they had succeeded in cloning an adult sheep producing a lamb named Dolly.
	02/24/1868 - The House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. The Senate acquitted him.
	02/24/1903 - The US signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
	02/24/1920 - A fledgling German political party - the Nazi Party - held its 1^st meeting in Munich. Its chief spokesman was Adolf Hitler.
	02/24/1942 - The Voice of America went on the air for the 1^st time.
	02/24/1980 - The US hockey team defeated Finland, 4-2, to clinch the gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games.
	02/25/1570 - Pope Pius V excommunicated England's Queen Elizabeth I.
	02/25/1793 - The department heads of the US government met with President Washington in the 1^st Cabinet meeting.
	02/25/1836 - Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.
	02/25/1913 - Secretary of State Philander C. Knox declared the 16^th amendment ratified, allowing Congress to levy and collect income taxes.
	02/25/2012 - Norriture Rituelle des sources têt d' l'eau - Voudon
	02/26/1919 - Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
	02/26/1940 - The US Air Defense Command was created.
	02/26/1951 - The US ratified 22^nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office.
	02/26/1952 - Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb.
	02/26/1993 - A bomb built by a group of Islamic extremists exploded in the parking garage of NY's World Trade Center, killing 6 people and injuring more than 1,000 others.
	02/27/1801 - The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
	02/27/1922 - The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote.
	02/28/1827 - The 1^st US railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, was incorporated.
	02/28/1854 - Around 50 people opposed to slavery met at a schoolhouse in Ripon WI, to call for a new political organization. The group would later take the name of the Republican Party.
	02/28/1863 - President Lincoln signed the 1^st military draft law in the US. Rich people could opt out if they paid $300.
	02/28/1953 - Scientists James Watson & Francis Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.
	02/28/1979 - Mr. Ed, TV's talking horse, died.
	02/29/1504 - Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica during his 4^th voyage to the West, used a correctly predicted lunar eclipse to frighten hostile natives into providing food for his crew.

online resources

o Law Library of Congress: North Korea - Collection of links to websites on North Korea government, politics, and law. Includes legal guides, country studies, and links to constitutions and branches of government (where available).

o Council on Foreign Relations: North Korea - Background, articles, and opinion pieces about North Korea government and politics. Many of the articles focus on North Korea's nuclear program. From the Council on Foreign Relations, "an independent membership organization and a nonpartisan think tank and publisher."

o State of the Union (SOTU) - The site uses an interactive timeline to provide a visual representation of prominent words in presidential State of the Union addresses by displaying significant words as "determined by comparing how frequently the word occurs in the document to how frequently it appears throughout the entire body of SOTU addresses." The "Appendices" section describes the statistical methods used. Also includes the full text of addresses.

o Supreme Court Nominations Not Confirmed - Reasons include "Senate opposition to the nominating President, nominee's views, or incumbent Court; senatorial courtesy; perceived political unreliability of the nominee; perceived lack of ability; interest group opposition; and fear of altering the balance of the Court. These nominations have been the subject of extensive legal, historical, and political science writing, a selected list of which is included in this report." A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report for Congress. Opens directly into a PDF file.

o Small Town Papers - This site provides access to scanned images of recent issues of dozens of small town newspapers from throughout the United States. "Newspapers are updated periodically, 2-3 weeks after publication." The site also includes a searchable archive (of articles, photos, and advertisements), which covers different periods for each paper, some as far back as the 1890s. Access to the archives requires free registration.

o A summary of the US Supreme Court's 2005 ruling on eminent domain allowing "local governments to expropriate private property for development." Includes links to statements from organizations on both sides of the argument as well as to Supreme Court documents about the case (Kelo v. New London). From JURIST: The Legal Education Network.

o This website "serves as a centralized location to learn about the Congressional Research Service and search for CRS reports that have been released to the public by members of Congress." ("CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report.") Features a searchable database with more than 8,000 reports, a list of recently released reports, other collections of CRS reports, and a FAQ about CRS.

o Stem Cell Research - The official NIH resource for stem cell research is at http://stemcells.nih.gov/index.asp. In 2005, NOVA aired an overview of the issue, you can watch the show at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3209/04.html. A 2001 Time Magazine feature is at www.time.com/time/2001/stemcells.

o Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798 - 2004 - This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes. It was compiled in part from various older lists and is intended primarily to provide a rough survey of past US military ventures abroad, without reference to the magnitude of the given instance noted.

o Government Product Recalls

o Homeland Security Knowledgebase

o       If you're worried about retirement, try some of the following sites:
    IRS Tax Information for Retirement Plans
    Social Security Retirement Planner
    Retirement Planning Resources from Smart Money
    Personal Financial Planning Tools from Business Week

o Keeping the Shi'ites Straight - Based on the opinion that "no story has been more confusing for the Western news media to cover in postwar Iraq than the politics of the country's Shi'ite majority," this article provides a basic outline of Shi'ite religious history. Discusses the Sadr family (Muhammad Baqir as-Sadr, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, and Muqtada as-Sadr), Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim, and other figures.

o MILITARY DEATH TOLL IN IRAQ - Developed "to provide information that has been scrupulously culled from government sources and cross-checked against other existing lists" about the military death toll in Iraq. It features statistics about fatalities and injuries for Iraqi Coalition armed forces. Data may be retrieved by month, name, location of occurrences, cause of death, state residence and more. Includes links to sources of information.

o This commercial site presents brief information about dozens of Black inventors from the United States. Some entries include portraits and images. Also includes a searchable timeline covering 1721-1988. Does not include bibliographic information.

o Annenberg Political Fact Check - This site describes itself as "a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in US politics." The site provides original articles, with summaries and sources, analyzing factual accuracy in "TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases." Searchable. From the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

o White House Tapes: The President Calling - "Three of America's most compelling presidents -- Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon -- bugged their White House offices and tapped their telephones. In this documentary project, American Radio Works eavesdrops on presidential telephone calls to hear how each man used one-on-one politics to shape history." Includes audio, a transcript of the documentary and background information on each president and the tapes.

o The Government Performance Project: The Way We Tax: A 50-State Report - This report from Congressional Quarterly analyzes "the tax structures and tax management of the 50 states" and evaluates "the way each state raises its revenues." It includes an overview of major sources of state revenue (sales taxes, personal income taxes, property taxes and corporate taxes) and features a description of the tax structure for each state. Also provides related reports back to 1999.

o History of Guantanamo Bay - Based on two volumes of "the history of both the area and of the base, contributed to the base by a former Commander of Naval Base Guantanamo Bay." It begins with Columbus' discovery of the Cuban bay in the Caribbean through the Spanish loss in 1898 and until 1982. Includes appendices for flora and fauna, treaties and agreements of 1934, bibliography and more. Also provides related links.

o First Amendment Library - Provides info on Supreme Court First Amendment jurisprudence, including rulings, arguments, briefs, historical material, commentary and press coverage.

o What Home Pages Tell (and Don't Tell) About a Candidate

o American Choices: Understanding Foreign Policy Debates - This "foreign policy self-assessment ... asks you to weigh some of the fundamental trade-offs facing US policymakers. At the end of it, you get a summary of your beliefs, and how they compare with others." Also includes annotated listings of foreign policy Web resources. From "e-the People, a nonprofit organization whose nonpartisan mission is to improve civic participation through Internet technologies."

o \Interested in lowering your medication costs? Try Doctor Solve at 866-732-0305, www.needymeds.com, 800-PMA-INFO or www.benefitscheckup.org.

o Drug Policy Alliance - This group claims to be "the leading organization working to broaden the public debate on drug policy and to promote realistic alternatives to the war on drugs based on science, compassion, health and human rights." The searchable site includes information about various topics such as specific drugs, national and international drug policies, drugs and race, drug treatment options and drugs and law enforcement. Also includes the Lindesmith Library catalog, a discussion forum, news and alerts.

o Check out www.unitedhealthalliance.com or www.CrossBorderPharmacy.com for ordering prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.

o Primary Documents in American History

Community
Activities

If you need a presentation or workshop for your group,

use this Community link or the link at the top of the page.
The link will take you to a list of the topics I currently have available.
To schedule a date or for more information, feel free to contact me at dramyglenn@earthlink.net.