Diana Childress
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Can one invention really change the world? Before the mid-fifteenth century, books were printed by hand, making them rare and expensive. Reading and learning remained a privilege of the wealthy-until Johannes Gutenberg developed a machine called the printing press. Gutenberg, a German metalworker, began in the 1440's by making movable type-small metal letters that were arranged to form words and sentences, replacing handwritten letters. Movable type...
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Can one book really change the world? A handwritten manuscript by Marco Polo in 1288 did. Polo, son of a wealthy Italian merchant, wrote about his incredible experiences traveling to China with his father and uncle on a trade expedition, and also about his adventures as an envoy of Kublai Khan, the ruler of most of China. Polo's book became a bestseller in Europe in the fourteenth century. It was copied over and over by hand, translated into fourteen...
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We want to live, we do not want to face persecution for expressing our political opinion; as women we don't want to walk on the street with the constant horror that we could be intimidated for showing an inch of hair." -Narges Kalhor, a young Iranian filmmaker, October 2009 On June 12, 2005, hundreds of women gathered outside Tehran University in Tehran, Iran. These women were protesting an issue that Iranian women have battled for more than one hundred...
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Omar al-Bashir came into power in 1989. Sudan was gripped by famine caused by drought as well as a devastating civil war between the north and south. Its economy was in shambles. Bashir headed a coup to overthrow Sudan's democratic government, and many hoped it would finally bring order to the country. After the coup, Bashir suspended the constitution and appointed himself head of state, prime minister, defense minister, and commander in chief of...
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Augusto Pinochet, commander-in-chief of Chile's army, rose to power in 1973 when he participated in a military coup to overthrow the president, Salvador Allende. Allende was a Socialist, and the upper classes and the military feared that Socialism would lead to a takeover of the country by the Communist Soviet Union. On September 11 of that year, the military attacked the presidential palace, and Allende committed suicide. Pinochet took charge of...