Cool Videos and April Tales

THE HUNGER GAMES

Katniss Everdeen and her fellow Tributes have taken the film world by storm.  Check-out our story behind the movie (including a series of "issues and questions to ponder"). 

MIRROR, MIRROR

Did you know there's reasonably good evidence that Snow White was a real person?  Did you know that the "seven" dwarfs might have been child miners?  Turns out ... legends, history and fairy tales sometimes merge within the world of the Brothers Grimm.

TITANIC - 100th ANNIVERSARY

This year marks the 100th anniversary of Titanic's maiden voyage and sinking.  Also ... there was a real J. Dawson - did you know that?

THE LORAX

What happens when trees in the real world get chopped-down like trees in Dr. Seuss' world?  Take a look.   

NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

It's National Poetry Month in America, so we have added new poems to our arts (inspiration) channel.

VISUAL VOCABULARY BUILDERS

Explore a new feature at Awesome Stories - our Visual Vocabulary Builders.  Currently, they support fourteen stories (with 140 words and pictures).

RADIO BROADCASTS at AWESOME STORIES

The editor of Awesome Stories frequently talks about our new stories on the radio.  You can listen to some of those broadcasts - and - you can also hear some of the best radio plays from "yesteryear," such as Les Miserables, A Tale of Two Cities, Dracula, The Count of Monte Cristo, Treasure Island, Mutiny on the Bounty and more!

NEWSLETTERS ONLINE

Because it's much easier to share our newsletters with a stand-alone URL (rather than as an email), we have created a separate URL for this month's edition.  You can access it at any time.

AWESOME STORIES ... IN THE NEWS

In case you missed it ... Awesome Stories, and the site's editor, were featured in a major news profile. Take a look at the story and its pictures.
 

We are using Twitter, between monthly newsletters, to profile current and historical events. To stay on top of things, click the link above, sign up and off you go!

SITE SIGNUP and LOGIN

DR. KING'S "MOUNTAINTOP SPEECH"

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968.  Although ill, he gave an extemporaneous speech the night before (which seemed to foreshadow his untimely death).  This clip contains the most famous part of his "Mountaintop Speech," delivered in Memphis on the 3rd of April, 1968.  

ROBERT F. KENNEDY - ON THE DEATH OF DR. KING

Robert F. Kennedy was campaigning for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination on the night Dr. King was killed.  Scheduled to speak to a crowd of supporters in Indianapolis, Bobby instead was charged with telling the people about Dr. King’s death.  His moving speech (given without notes) is still considered one of his best, and he was credited (then and later) with keeping the crowd (and the city) calm, despite the terrible news.

HELEN KELLER - AT THE WATER PUMP

Helen Keller first realized the meaning of words when her teacher (Annie Sullivan) spelled "water" (w-a-t-e-r) in her hand on the 5th of April, 1877.  Helen later described what it was like - at that moment - when an entirely new world was opened for her.

U.S. JOINS WORLD WAR I

On the 6th of April, 1917, the U.S. Congress granted President Wilson's request to declare war on Germany.  That act propelled America into World War One.  How did that deadly conflict begin?

MAHATMA GANDHI - BREAKING the SALT LAWS

On the 6th of April, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi bent down to pick up a grain of sand on Dandi Beach.  It had taken one month for Gandhi and his colleagues to walk 241 miles, completing their journey to protest the salt tax which Britain had levied on India.  This was not the first time Gandhi had advocated non-violent resistance.  Learn more about his life, and his efforts, in this video incorporating historic footage. 

PETER the GREAT - ENDS TAX on MEN with BEARDS

Peter the Great was a Russian tsar who had absolute power.  He even had the power to end the tax imposed on men who ... wore beards.  He issued that order on the 6th of April, 1722.

LEE SURRENDERS - END of U.S. CIVIL WAR

Did you know ... America's civil war essentially started where it ended - in the backyard (and then in the parlor) of the same man, Wilmer McLean.  Take a look at this piece of American (and Virginian) history.

BONHOEFFER - HANGED for OPPOSING HITLER

One of the first people to speak-out against Germany’s new Chancellor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not quite 27 years old when his radio speech was cut-off in 1933.  Continuing to oppose Hitler, and the Nazi regime, he was executed on April 8, 1945 - three weeks before the war-in-Europe ended.  What caused Bonhoeffer, a young theologian, to resist Hitler?

DEATH of PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT

On the 12th of April, 1945, FDR died at his "Little White House" in Warm Springs, Georgia.   His death - so close to the end of the war in Europe - was unexpected, and Americans everywhere mourned his loss.

YURI GAGARIN - FIRST PERSON to ORBIT EARTH

The Soviet Union won the "first-person-to-orbit-Earth" leg of the "space race."  The cosmonaut was Yuri Gagarin; the date was April 12, 1961.  This video incorporates historic footage from the Russian State Archives.

YURI GAGARIN - WHO WAS HE?

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin was one of the most famous men in the world.  Who was he?

ASSASSINATION of PRESIDENT LINCOLN

By all accounts, Abraham Lincoln had a relaxing day on the 14th of April, 1865.  The President loved plays, so that evening he and Mary went to Ford’s Theater to see a comedy.  Arriving late - which he detested - he would leave fatally wounded from an assassin's bullet.  He died the next morning.

MARY SURRATT - ACCUSED CONSPIRATOR

The U.S. National Archives sponsored a program assessing the evidence against Mary Surratt, who was hanged as a Lincoln-assassination co-conspirator.  Take a look, then judge for yourself.

SINKING of the TITANIC

Why did Titanic sink so quickly after it struck a North-Atlantic iceberg?  What does the great ship look like now, 100 years after it sank on the 15th of April, 1912?

JACKIE ROBINSON - BREAKING the COLOR BARRIER

On the 15th of April, 1947, Jackie Robinson made history when he broke the color-barrier in major league baseball.

SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE of 1906

One of the worst natural disasters to strike America occurred on the 18th of April, 1906, when San Francisco was rocked by an earthquake.  The situation was made even worse, for the people and their city, when fires followed the quake.  Historic footage depicted in this video reveals the chaos and the damage.

DOOLITTLE RAID over TOKYO

Before the 18th of April, 1942, Americans were despondent that Japan would win the war it had started against the U.S.  Then - Lt. Col. James Doolittle and his men flew an impossible mission.  Although the physical damage they inflicted on Tokyo was minimal, their efforts gave Americans a huge psychological boost.

DEATH of ALBERT EINSTEIN

At the age of 76, Albert Einstein died on the 18th of April, 1955.  What was he like at the end of his life?

BAY of PIGS - "A PERFECT FAILURE"

Although an invasion of Cuba - planned by the CIA - was already in the works during the Eisenhower administration, President Kennedy inherited the situation when he took office in January of 1961.  Just a few months later, one of the worst events of his presidency occurred.  What was the Bay of Pigs - and - what is its lasting impact?

MARIE and PIERRE CURIE - RADIOACTIVE DISCOVERY

Marie and Pierre Curie were married scientists who first isolated radioactive radium salts (from mineral pitchblende) at their Paris laboratory (on the 20th of April, 1902).  Their work has been called one of "Six Experiments that Changed the World."  The following year, they shared a Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work.   

DEATH of the "RED BARON"

Manfred von Richthofen - Germany's World War I ace - flew a Fokker DR1 which was painted red.  He was credited with shooting down victims 79 and 80 on the 20th of April, 1918.  The next day, the "Red Baron" was shot down himself over Vaux-sur-Somme (in northern France).  It is believed he was shot from the ground. Ever the skilled pilot, he was able to land his plane, despite his injuries.  Soon after the crash, his plane was stripped by souvenir hunters (as depicted in this historic footage).  It is said his last word was "Kaput."

HENRY VIII BECOMES KING of ENGLAND

Henry Tudor never expected to become king of England.  His brother, Arthur, was the Prince of Wales.  Then ... tragedy struck the Prince's family when his brother and mother both died.  Henry would ultimately marry his dead brother's wife - Catharine of Aragon - and would become Henry VIII when his father died in April of 1509.  Famously known for his six wives, Henry led a sheltered life after the death of his brother.  What was he like as a young man?

MARK TWAIN - HISTORIC FOOTAGE

Mark Twain - the famous American author born "Samuel Langhorne Clemens" - died on April 21, 1910.  This is the only-known historic film footage of the man who created such characters as Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

SHACKLETON and the ENDURANCE

On the 24th of April, 1916, Ernest Shackleton realized his ship - the Endurance - was so badly stuck in ice that he had to take other measures to protect his crew.  He and five men, of the Imperial-Trans-Antarctic Expedition, launched a life boat - from Elephant Island - to begin his now-legendary rescue mission.

HUBBLE - ORBITING TELESCOPE

Hubble - an amazing, orbiting space telescope - was launched on the 24th of April, 1990.  This animation depicts how the famous telescope works.

WEDDING of the CENTURY

When "Bertie" (the Duke of York, later King George VI) married Elizabeth (then Lady Bowes-Lyon, later Elizabeth, the Queen Consort), people called it the "Wedding of the Century."  This historic footage highlights the events of April 26, 1923.

CHERNOBYL - A MAN-MADE DISASTER

HITLER LAST SEEN in PUBLIC

On the 20th of April, 1945 - ten days before committing suicide - Adolf Hitler left his Berlin bunker to greet members of the "Hitler Youth."  Historic footage of that meeting is believed to be the last-known moving images of the Nazi leader.

APRIL HIGHLIGHTS

AMERICA JOINS WORLD WAR I

JESSE JAMES - ASSASSINATED

It was hot in Missouri on the 3rd of April, 1882.  After feeding his horses that morning, Jesse James returned to his rented home.  Then he did something he almost never did - he took off his gun belt.  Soon thereafter, he was fatally shot by one of his own men, Robert Ford.  Learn the story of Jesse James within the context of the American Civil War.  And ... discover what happened to his assassin, ten years later.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER - NAZI RESISTOR

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man whom Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. greatly admired, was a pastor and a Nazi-resistor.  Implicated in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler, Bonhoeffer was executed on the 8th of April, 1945.  He died at the Flossenburg concentration camp three weeks before the war in Europe was over (and eleven days before Flossenburg was liberated).  This story highlights his life and the plot to bomb the bunker at Wolf's Lair (referred to as "Operation Valkyrie"). 

APOLLO 13 - SAVED

Before Apollo 13 launched, some folks wondered whether its mission number should be changed.  It was that thing about suspicion...about the number 13.  Keeping the sequential numbers in place, however, NASA launched the intended moon shot on the 11th of April, 1970.  Two days later - on April 13 - the astronauts radioed Houston control with the now-famous words: "Houston, we've had a problem."  With links to official documents, video and radio transmissions, learn about the "problem" and how the astronauts were saved. 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION

On the 14th of April, 1865, Abraham Lincoln attended a play - Our American Cousin - at Ford's Theater.   Wielding a knife and a derringer, John Wilkes Booth had no trouble entering the President's box since no bodyguards were there to resist him.  Lincoln died from a single shot to the head.  Three others were attending the play with the President.  Each faced serious personal challenges as a direct result of what they had witnessed. 

Thanks to the Library of Congress and National Archives, you can see Booth's derringer, the contents of the President's pockets when he was shot, the theater as it appeared at the time, the only known photograph of Lincoln in his coffin and much more.   Also learn "the rest of the story" regarding several others whose lives were impacted by the first assassination of an American president.

DIARY of JOHN WILKES BOOTH

Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, kept a diary about the shooting.  Many pages of that diary are missing, leading to ongoing debate about what they might have said.

THE TITANIC

Crossing the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage, the Titanic - then the world's largest ship - received several warnings about ice in the area.  Some of the messages were not marked for the captain to see.  Late in the evening of April 14, 1912 - a moonless, windless night - Titanic struck an iceberg.  Within five to ten minutes, the ship had a starboard list of five degrees.  She was already sinking, without enough lifeboats to save everyone.  Although it was not the most deadly sinking of all time, Titanic remains the most sensational.  

Learn how icebergs are formed and how they reach "Iceberg Alley."  See a picture of the iceberg believed to be the one which Titanic struck.  Examine photographs of the ship - before and after its sinking.  Review the testimony of witnesses and discover how Titanic communicated with other ships.  Learn how her new wireless system operated, meet rescuers and heroes who risked their own lives to help others, view the wreck today and learn about a new theory which might explain why she sank so quickly. 

MASSACRE at VIRGINIA TECH

On the 16th of April, 2007, a catastrophe enveloped the campus of Virginia Tech.  This story is a tribute to the victims of the massacre - produced by the 2007 Sophomore English Class at McMullen County High School in Tilden, Texas.  Awesome Stories is proud to feature this magnificent piece of work, written as a tribute in the style of Spoon River Anthology.

BATTLE of BERLIN

MIDNIGHT RIDE of PAUL REVERE

It was the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, in 1775.  As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later penned:

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

The poem, of course, commemorates the famous ride of Paul Revere, sent to alert Massachusetts colonists that British troops were on their way.  But three men, not just Revere, attempted to warn the colonists.  And only one - Dr. Samuel Prescott - made it to Concord.  Revere and his other companion, William Dawes, were captured.  Perhaps Longfellow changed the facts because his poem would have lacked good rhyme and rhythm had he used Prescott’s name!

SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

While the people of San Francisco slept, the ground below them was moving. At first, during the early hours of April 18, 1906, no one knew that something was awry. But then the rolling motions came, causing streets to rise, and fall, and rise again. It seemed, to one observer, as though the earth itself was breathing.  What happened next devastated one of America's most popular cities and traumatized her citizens.  Learn the story from eyewitnesses and archived photographs. 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION - THE FIRST SHOTS

By the time an advance guard of British soldiers arrived at the town of Lexington - on April 19, 1775 - most of the minutemen under Captain John Parker’s command had gone home.  He had earlier admonished them:  "Stand your ground.  Don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here."  It did - hours later.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

It is believed that on the 20th of April, 1853, Harriet Tubman began the "underground railroad."  What was it - and - how did it work?

CRAB NEBULA - AS A SUPERNOVA

On the 22nd of April, 1054, Chinese astronomers saw an amazing event in the night sky - an exploding supernova known today as the Crab Nebula.  It remains one of the most-studied objects in the sky and - thanks to the orbiting telescope we call Hubble - we can view it in amazing, colorful detail.

DEEPWATER HORIZON - MASSIVE OIL SPILL in the GULF

On the 22nd of April, 2010, an oil rig known as "Deepwater Horizon" dramatically sank in four minutes, causing the worst oil-spill in American history.  Two days before, the rig had exploded, killing eleven people.  Meet the men who died, see the photos of the event and learn what happened to cause America's second-worst environmental disaster (after the dust bowl of the 1930s).  

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - 1990 LAUNCH

On the 24th of April, 1990, the space shuttle Discovery left Cape Canaveral with a very special payload - the Hubble Space Telescope.  Although it initially had "vision problems," the Hubble has produced a treasury of information (and images) from outer space.  This part of our space story is about the Hubble and its extraordinary legacy.

EASTER STORY - IN MEDIEVAL and RENAISSANCE ART

During the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, some of Europe's greatest artists told the Easter story in their paintings.  Take a look. 

WORLD WIDE WEB - BORN AT CERN

On the 30th of April, 1993, a stunning announcement was made at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research).  An amazing new tool - called the World Wide Web - would be freely available to anyone wishing to use it - with no fees payable to CERN.  This month, in other words, the web celebrates its 19th birthday.

BATAN "DEATH MARCH"

We provide this story to mark an important event, but be advised it is neither for children nor for anyone who does not want to see pictures of war. 

On the 9th of April, 1942, Filipinos and Americans could no longer defend Bataan during World War II.  The following day, the "Bataan Death March" began.  Thousands of Filipinos and Americans died before the last survivors were rescued.

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