The California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush was a remarkable episode in history sparked by the discovery of gold at Sutters Mill, a remote outpost in California, in January 1848. As rumors of the discovery spread, thousands of people flocked to the region hoping to strike it rich. In early December 1848, President James K. Polk confirmed that quantities of gold had been discovered. And when a cavalry officer sent to investigate the gold finds published his report in a number of newspapers that month, gold fever spread. The year 1849 became legendary. Many thousands of hopeful prospectors, known as Forty-Niners, raced to get to California. Within a few years, California transformed from a sparsely populated remote territory to a booming state. San Francisco, a small town with a population of about 800 in 1848, gained another 20,000 residents the following year and was well on its way to becoming a major city. The frenzy to get to California was accelerated by the belief that gold nuggets being found in stream beds would not be found for long. By the time of the Civil War, the gold rush was essentially over. But the discovery of gold had a lasting impact not only in California but on the development of the entire United States. Discovery of Gold The first discovery of California gold took place on January 24, 1848, when a carpenter from New Jersey, James Marshall, spotted a gold nugget in a mill race he was building at the sawmill of John Sutter. The discovery was purposely kept quiet, but word leaked out. And by the summer of 1848 adventurers hoping to find gold was already starting to flood into the area around Sutters Mill, in north-central California. Up until the Gold Rush, the population of California was about 13,000, half of whom were descendants of the original Spanish settlers. The United States had acquired California at the end of the Mexican War, and it might have remained sparsely populated for decades if the lure of gold had not become a sudden attraction. Flood of Prospectors Most of the people seeking gold in 1848 were settlers who had already been in California. But confirmation of the rumors in the East changed everything in a profound way. A group of U.S. Army officers was dispatched by the federal government to investigate the rumors in the summer of 1848. And a report from the expedition, along with gold samples, reached federal authorities in Washington that autumn. In the 19th century, presidents presented their annual report to Congress (the equivalent of the State of the Union Address) in December, in the form of a written report. President James K. Polk presented his final annual message on December 5, 1848. He specifically mentioned the discoveries of gold in California. Newspapers, which typically printed the presidents annual message, published Polks message. And the paragraphs about gold in California got a lot of attention. The same month the report by Col. R.H. Mason of the U.S. Army began to appear in papers in the East. Mason described a trip he had made through the gold region with another officer, Lieutenant William T. Sherman (who would go on to achieve great fame as a Union general in the Civil War). Mason and Sherman traveled into north-central California, met with John Sutter, and established that the rumors of gold were entirely true. Mason described how gold was being found in stream beds, and he also ascertained financial details about the finds. According to published versions of Masons report, one man had made $16,000 in five weeks and showed Mason 14 pounds of gold he had found in the previous week. Newspaper readers in the East were stunned, and thousands of people made up their minds to get to California. Travel was very difficult at the time, as argonauts, as the gold seekers were called, could either spend months crossing the country by wagon, or months sailing from East Coast ports, around the tip of South America and then onward to California. Some cut time from the trip by sailing to Central America, crossing overland, and then taking another ship to California. The gold rush helped create the golden age of clipper ships in the early 1850s. The clippers essentially raced to California, with some of them making the trip from New York City to California in less than 100 days, an astounding feat at the time. Impact of the California Gold Rush The mass migrations of thousands to California had an immediate impact. While settlers had been moving westward along the Oregon Trail for nearly a decade, California suddenly became the preferred destination. When the administration of James K. Polk first acquired California a few years earlier, it was generally believed to be a territory with potential, as its harbors could make a trade ​with Asia possible. The discovery of gold, and the great influx of settlers, greatly accelerated the development of the West Coast.

Central school district vs. Rowley 458 US 176 (1982) Essay

Central school district vs. Rowley 458 US 176 (1982) - Essay Example These helped to increase the amount of training and funding individuals that were responsible for education could receive; specifically with regard to learning and understanding how to educate children with mental retardation and issues pertaining to blindness/disabilities with sight. Further, the State School’s Act of 1965 provided additional grant funding from the federal government as a means of accomplishing the tasks that have thus far been denoted with respect to the provisions made available for those with distinct disabilities within the educational system. As one can adequately note, the purpose of all of this legislation was to provide a more fair and equitable distribution of education; one did not favor or preference one specific of individuals. As this served as the fundamental backbone of what came to be known as FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education), it had a profound impact with regard to the way in which educators came to understand their role and allocated funding based upon the unique disabilities that were exhibited within their student body. The context of education at the time was one that of course placed a higher emphasis upon the average student and most often ignored the needs and requirements of those that had what were referred to as special needs. As a means of seeking to make this reality a distant memory, Congress and stakeholders within the educational system sought to effect a more reasonable and ethical approach whereby students with disabilities would have their educational needs determined and provided for in a similar degree as compared to those that were considered as average. The core challenge to FAPE came as a Supreme Court case that challenged that Free Appropriate Public Education was not being provided to a deaf girl within a particular school district; as the district had denied her parents request for a deaf translator. Seeing this as an egregious denial of FAPE, the suit

Willa Seidon at Tides Center Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Willa Seidon at Tides Center - Essay Example while the recession is highlighted by increased competition, low market share and financial constraints and instability. Even in these circumstances the organization needs to survive through its strategies. Often different strategies are adopted for survival which requires organizational restructuring and change management. A visionary leader, with clarity in ideas about how to proceed and effective change implementation is required at this stage. Leadership: Leadership is a subjective concept. There is no particular definition of leadership; there are as many definitions of leadership as the number of people who tried researching on the vast subject. Leadership is a social process embedded in the minds of leaders of followers. Great leaders help us see the current situation and see a brighter future through the dark times. They see new opportunities and combine every one to work for a common goal, during which they make critical decisions to set a direction to proceed. Some research ers view leadership as power relation by which they can affect and introduce change in people. Some view it as transformational process by which the followers are able to achieve more than what is expected from them. While some scholars view it as skills perspective where they argue certain skills and knowledge are required to be effective leaders. (Northouse, Peter.G. 2009 ; Gallos, Joan.V. 2008; Koestenbaum, Peter. 2002) The arguments about leaders are born or made is a never ending debate. Many researchers say it could be both. A natural ability to lead is important and found in every leader. On the other hand various workshops and courses are conducted on effective leadership programs. Therefore leaders possess natural ability and skill to lead which can be further polished and converted into more effective leadership. (Lussier, Robert. N, Achua, Christopher. F. 2009; Avolio, Bruce J. 2005) Effective leaders motivate and inspire followers; they have the skills to take out the be st from people. Leadership is exercised on group of people and teams, usually with the aim to make them achieve one common goal rather individual goals. Successful leaders need to understand tasks, people and processes in the organization. They must attend the current situation work through them to identify future possibilities, provide a vision and strategies to fulfill that vision and related missions, create a learning organization where people’s development and growth is paramount of importance and direct their minds in strategizing and initiate collaboration among different sections, departments and processes in the organization. The function of management and the function of leadership are often confused together. Management provides order and consistency to the organization and works for order and stability while leadership initiates change and improvement and seeks adaptive and constructive changes. Leadership is all about establishing direction- setting vision, missi on, strategies and goals, aligning people- bring clarity in goals, seek commitment and built team work and last but not the least motivating and inspiring- by empowering and satisfying development needs. (Northouse, Peter.G. 2009 ; Gallos, Joan.V. 2008) Like many great leaders, Willa Seldon is one of the inspiring leaders who helped Tides Centre and guided them through the difficult times. With her vision and ability to manage effective change she led Tides Centre (TC). She was appointed as a Chief Executive Director in September 2003, when Tides applied for the ‘seed grant’ of $ 1 million was offered by Kellog Foundation. During that time TC and the entire fiscal sponsorship sector was struggling for financial

Son Of The Revolution Essay Example for Free

Son Of The Revolution Essay STRUGGLE AGAINST ONESELF; CRITICIZE REVISIONISM (p. 144) was a slogan often used during the Great Cultural Revolution. In reality, the Cultural Revolution was not great at all. It was an unwarranted attack on personal freedoms of Chinas people. The Chinese fought themselves, they even acknowledged it as a struggle. They looked upon this struggle as part of the great Cultural Revolution. At age 3, a boy should not be held accountable for his parents political status. Yet, Liang Heng was. One mistake on his mothers, Yan Zhi-de, behalf changed his life forever. Yan Zhi-de uttered the words that the leaders of the Party would not listen to the masses opinions when it came time to give raises. This led the Party to label her a rightist. What began as the Hundred Flowers Movement quickly changed to the Anti-Rightist Movement, leading many to the path of poor political performance. In turn, disgracing her family members, she was sent to become a peasant. For the rest of her life, Yan Zhi-de remained a peasant. After this incident, Liang Heng, Liang Wei-Ping, and Liang Fang had been labeled Rightists children. Though each of the children attempted to fit in, the other students picked fights with Liang Heng and the children never had the opportunity to join the Red Guards. Not until Liang Heng tricked his way into being admitted into the group. Liang Heng saw many different aspects of the Cultural Revolution. He became a student, a peasant, a basket ball player, factory worker, and finally an intellectual (writer.) Liang Heng had been falsely accused of many crimes throughout his life, and he held his ground firmly. Fate had another choice for Liang Fang. Though she would try desperately to join the Communist Youth League, she was never able to. However, she did join the Red Guards and later became a Rebel. Ultimately, she ended up as a peasant until her mid-twenties. Liang Wei-Ping joined the Educated Youth which was the determining factor that led her to become a peasant. Liang Shan had one of the most miserable situations out of the entire family. Once his wife had been declared a rightist, he immediately attempted to  break off all relations with her. This was unsuccessful. Everything in his life went downhill from there. He was publicly humiliated and suffered mental torture due to the fact that he had to criticize himself. Liang Shan was sent to a re-education center for a number of years, then spending the rest of his days in the countryside. He eventually had a stroke and lost the abilities of his left side. The Cultural Revolution was a serious mistake. A mistake that took many happy homes and destroyed them. Neglecting to seriously care about the people of his country, Chairman Mao started a disaster. Thankfully, this disaster ended with his death. That allowed people to live somewhat normal lives, compared to the horrible lives the lower class was forced to live during the Cultural Revolution.

Capital Punishment Essay -- Death Penalty

Capital Punishment The definition of capital punishment is the legal punishment of death for violating criminal law. The person who gets capital punishment is the ones who committed serious crimes. Methods of capital punishment throughout the world are by stoning, beheading, hanging, electrocution, lethal injection and shooting. The two most common methods capital punishment use in the United States are lethal injection and electrocution. The lethal injection is the most used form of capital punishment. It’s an intravenous shot that kills the criminal quick and painless. When capital punishment is done by electrocution the criminal is strapped to a chair that a volts of electricity is pass through. In America if all people agree with capital punishment there will be less crimes. Capital punishment is different in each state, so depending on what state a crime is committed there’s different punishments for committing serious crime. To deter and reduce serious crimes all states need to have the same laws. Crimes can only be reduced or deterred by making people frightened of being arrested, convicted, and punish for crimes the commit. When a person commits a serious crime, which causes another life to be lost, they should have their right to live taken. If there was a standard law in which capital punishment was permitted in all fifty states, serious crimes will be reduce. When people already know that if they will be executed for taking another life, people will think...

Having a busy life Essay

It’s funny how everyone is constantly going, getting stuff done. You go from the beginning of freshman year to sophomore year in the blink of an eye, where does the time go? When does the time matter? It feels as though once I get one task accomplished I’m expected to fulfill the next; it’s a never-ending cycle. With busy schedules that consist of wake up, get ready, go to school, go to work, eat, homework, clean, and so on, how could we have the time to simply just stop and think. By the time we have completed the lengthy list of daily tasks we are simply too exhausted or tired to sit down and reflect over our day. Some days I go home and honestly I couldn’t tell you what I had for lunch. On top of my classes I also participate in Dance, Robotics, and a full time job. One of my close friends has FFA, FCCLA, volleyball, Basketball, Track, and all A’s. We busy ourselves with daily schoolwork and extracurricular activities to the point that we are simply just trying to climb out of the mounds of papers and piles of athletic shoes just to crawl into bed out of pure exhaustion. What happened to the days where we had playtime? Would we even know what to do with it? If you sat our grade together in a room and took away our phones, homework, worries, sport practices, and all other distractions, what would we do? Honestly the last time I had absolutely nothing to do I just took a nap. That’s almost pathetic when I was little I was creative with my time I had a big imagination and was loaded with curiosity and energy, now I just nap. I remember the blankets draped over chairs to make forts and drawings cluttering the fridge. It’s sad to see that napping is the way I prefer to spend my small amount of unscheduled time. I’ve somewhat out grown hanging out with my friends ever since they got their cell phones we are together, but we aren’t, they text all the people they aren’t with; you get little time in between the pattern of ringers going off. Secrets are no longer kept they are sent through text to anyone willing to give them time. I am not just saying my friends do this I find myself guilty of this too but honestly I really wish it would just stop. I miss the time of late night sleepovers; giggling over boys and gossiping. In the midst of a society centered on technology how could we possibly just step away from it? The little things in life are a blessing and a curse at the same time. They can either make or break your day and there really is not an in between. In 5 seconds you could have a new inside joke with your best friend or you could trip and see half the school laugh at you. Some of the little things that happen throughout the day can make a big impact and only take a small amount of time. We need to reflect on these bits of time I don’t mean to fret over them, but just smile over them. It’s the small things that happen in a day that make our lives good, When you help a friend work out a problem or are there just to let them vent. When you smile and wave at all the familiar faces you see throughout the day. Simply reminiscing with a family member or friend, is one of those moments that you will remember a lot better than the busy daily routine you do have. If we could cut back on the extracurricular activities and put away our phones for a few minutes wouldn’t it make us better people? Stepping away from the glare of cell phone screens and pressures of school and just enjoy our last bits of time before being adults sounds wonderful. We just need a small amount of time to enjoy the smaller moments in life. Our time is cluttered with activities and social networking crammed into every waking moment, when does it ever end?

Education Program For The United Nations Development Program

1. Jim Teicher is Cofounder and CEO of CyberSmart! Education, a digital learning company and international leader in fostering digital literacy skills. In 2007 Jim founded CyberSmart! Africa—partnering with The Millennium Villages Project, a joint initiative of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, Millennium Promise and the United Nations Development Program. The program is going to provide a sustainable, scalable solution to 21st century learning. 2. Bill Gates is the most influential person in education policy in the last decade. He has contributed to over $1.2 billion in high school reform efforts. Bill Gates has also helped bring technology into schools that needed and has had some success with changing the high school system†¦show more content†¦The department’s mission covers the following main areas: †¢ Encouraging teaching practices using ICT; †¢ Developing school equipment; †¢ Creating networks; †¢ Teacher training (both initial teacher education and continuing professional development); †¢ Supporting the production and distribution of multimedia resources; †¢ The product and services industry. 2. Agence Bibliographique de l‘enseignement Supà ©rieur (ABES) †¢ ABES is the French higher education organisation for bibliographic issues. It has been coordinating STAR, a management system of electronic theses from all French universities since 2007 and has now developed a portal for over 60 000 doctoral theses since 2001. †¢ OA mandate: Yes. All universities deposit their theses to this centralised disseminating portal. 3. Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) †¢ CNRS is Europe’s major research organisation working through its 7 institutes of Biological Science, Chemistry, Ecology and Environment, Humanities and Social Sciences, Information Sciences and Technologies, Engineering and Systems Sciences, Physics and 3 national institutes: National Institute for Mathematical Sciences (INSMI); National Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics (IN2P3); National Institute for Earth Sciences and Astronomy (INSU)/ Its aim is to encourage collaborative and interdisciplinary research. †¢ OA mandate: Mandated through the Ministry of Research. 4. Couperin †¢ Academic consortium of over