Historic Voices: Global History and Culture

An important U.S. Supreme Court case affected religious practice and speech in public schools. It was the Good News Club versus Milford Central School case from 2001. This audio file provides the actual argument before the Supreme Court. The voices include the attorney representing the Good News Club and voices of the Supreme Court justices as they ask questions. Under New York law, Milford Centra...

SO2-E06 U.S. Supreme Court case affected religious practice and speech in public schools. It was the Good News Club versus Milford Central School case from 2001. We will hear the voice of Justice Clarence Thomas as he delivers the opinion for the U.S. Supreme Court justices. Under New York law, Milford Central School policy authorizes district residents to use its building after school for certain...

The Pilgrims Thanksgiving Holiday was inspired by events in the middle ages and location of their cultural origins. The 3 October Festival in the Netherlands commemorates the anniversary of the 1573–1574 Siege of Leiden, during the Eighty Years' War, when the Spanish Army attempted to capture the city. The first siege was from October 1573 to March by the Spanish returned in May 1574 for the secon...

Thanksgiving , or Thanksgiving Day is an annual Canadian holiday, occurring on the second Monday in October, which celebrates the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Thanksgiving has been officially celebrated as an annual holiday in Canada since November 6, 1879. The date, however, was not fixed and varied by year, though it was commonly the third Monday in October. On January 31, 1957,...

Thanksgiving , or Thanksgiving Day , is a public holiday celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. It originated as a harvest festival. Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, after Congress requested a proclamation by George Washington. It has been celebrated as a federal holiday every year since 1863, when, during the American Civil War, Presi...

Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated in Canada, the United States, some of the Caribbean islands, and Liberia. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year. Similarly named festival holidays occur in Germany and Japan. Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the Unite...

Paul Harvey shares a short speech named " Origins of the Pilgrim's Thanksgiving ". Mr. Harvey helps us to understand the deeper meaning of a custom that dates to the Middle Ages in Europe. To provide more information about this holiday celebrated around the world, four PDF documents accompany this podcast episode: general history of Thanksgiving , history of Thanksgiving in the U.S. , history of T...

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the male passengers of the Mayflower, consisting of separatist Congregationalists who called themselves "Saints", and adventurers and tradesmen, most of whom were referred to by the Separatists as "Strangers". Later both groups were referred to as Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers. The Separatists were fleeing f...

The Mayflower was an English ship that famously transported the first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth, England to the New World in 1620. There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30, but the exact number is unknown. This voyage has become an iconic story in some of the earliest annals of American history, with its story of death and of sur...

The Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers were early European settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. The Pilgrims' leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownist English Dissenters who had fled the volatile political environment in England for the relative calm and tolerance of 16th–17th century Holland in the Netherlands. The Pilgrims held Purit...

We feature an episode from old time radio, the CBS News Radio Series, You Are There . The docudrama is " The Pilgrims Sail to America in 1620 ". Several PDF documents accompany this podcast to provide more information: Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony , Mayflower Ship and Voyage to America , and Mayflower Compact . Created by CBS Radio, it blended history with modern technology, taking an entire networ...

Memorial Day or Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces. The holiday, which is currently observed every year on the last Monday of May, was held on May 29, 2017. The holiday was held on May 30 from 1868 to 1970. It marks the start of the unofficial summer vacation season, while Labor Day marks its end....

Armed Forces Day (formerly Veterans' Day) in the United Kingdom is an annual event celebrated in late June to commemorate the service of men and women in the British Armed Forces. Veterans' Day was first observed in 2006.Although an official event, it is not a public holiday in the UK. The name was changed to Armed Forces Day in 2009. Armed Forces Day has so far been observed on the last Saturday...

Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans; that is, persons who served in the United States Armed Forces. It coincides with other holidays, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I; major hostilities of World War I were formally ended...

Robert Michael "Bob" Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American politician, scholar, and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Gates initially began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the CIA. Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Securit...

In this podcast episode, we feature Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense and his speech " Final Address to the West Point Academy Cadets ".

In this podcast episode, we feature Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense and his speech " Final Address to the West Point Academy Cadets ". In addition to this audio episode, I also provide several PDF documents: first, a transcript of this speech and secondly an overview of his life of service to the nation through the CIA and the Department of Defense. Since this episode is being released on Veter...

The  Battle of Luzon , fought 9 January – 15 August 1945, was a land battle of the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II by the Allied forces of the U.S., its colony the Philippines, and allies against forces of the Empire of Japan. The battle resulted in a U.S. and Filipino victory. The Allies had taken control of all strategically and economically important locations of Luzon by March 19...

The  Battle of Mindoro  was a battle in World War II between forces of the United States and Japan, in Mindoro Island in the central Philippines, from 13–16 December 1944, during the Philippines Campaign. Troops of the United States Army, supported by the United States Navy and U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF), made an amphibious landing on Mindoro and defeated Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) forces ther...

The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the amphibious invasion of the Gulf of Leyte in the Philippines by American forces and Filipino guerrillas under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita from 17 October - 26 December 1944. The operation code named King Two launched the...

The liberation of the Philippines commenced with amphibious landings on the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on October 20, 1944. United States and Philippine Commonwealth military forces were progressing in liberating territory and islands when the Japanese forces in the Philippines were ordered to surrender by Tokyo on August 15, 1945, after the dropping of the atomic bombs on mainland Japan a...

Part 1, naval guns bombard the beaches of Leyte and carrier-based planes bomb island defenses and amphibious assault begins. Shows Gens. MacArthur and Wainwright and Adm. Halsey. Part 2, Red Cross personnel pack food parcels for Americans imprisoned in Germany. Part 3, cadets parade at Uruguay's military academy in Montevideo. Part 4, MARK I calculator at Harvard University solves math problems. P...

Native American Day is a holiday in the U.S. states of California and South Dakota. It honors Native American cultures and contributions to their respective states and the United States. The state of Tennessee observes a similar American Indian Day each year. The state of Nevada also observes the day on the fourth Friday of September, each year.

Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday that celebrates the Indigenous peoples of America. It is celebrated across the United States, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities around the country. It began as a counter-celebration to the U.S. federal holiday of Columbus Day, which honors European explorer Christopher Columbus. Indigenous Peoples Day is intended to celebrate Nativ...

Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. The landing is celebrated as " Columbus Day " in the United States, as " Día de la Raza " ("Day of the Race") in many countries in Latin America, as " Día de la Hispanidad " and " Fiesta Nacional " in S...