The Millenium Bug

The Y2K bug, or millenium bug, was a possible computer flaw that people feared would cause problems once the year hit 2000. Computer engineers thought that the date might turn to 1900 rather than 2000, destroying many systems they had in place. For example, banks and power plants depended on computers for interest rates and safety levels, respectively. Transportation, such as airlines and trains, required correct time. The problem became so widespread that countries like Australia invested millions of dollars in preparation for Y2K. Other countries like Russia barely invested any, so Australia recalled most of its embassy staff from Russia in fears that they might lose contact with them. The United States is another example of a country that spent millions of dollars to combat the Y2K bug. Eventually, when the year reached 2000, there were problems but very few. A nuclear energy facility in Japan had a fail in its radiation equipment.

Team Work Makes the Dream Work : Apple and microsoft

When the co-founder of the company Apple, Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997 the beginning of Apple's resurrection was just beginning.  After twelve entire years of complete financial loss, Gil Amelio was ousted from the CEO position. Jobs took the position over and his task to complete was to restructure the company back to success. This is where the partnership with Microsoft was formed The Apple-Microsoft deal was revealed at the 1997 Macworld Expo. Both Gates and Jobs made the public announcement of Microsoft office and the $150 million investment in Apple. During this expo, Steve Jobs stated ¨If we want to move forward to see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.¨ This was the end of a long-lasting competition between the two major tech industries.

Macintosh

THE MACINTOSH

The 1990s were known for the increase in technology because the electronics went through all sorts of phases until it reached practicality for users with no experience beforehand. Most importantly, it was the year where Apple Inc. could really stand out in the market and offer their customers a revolutionary way to change the perspective on the computers. 

Steve Jobs was met with critiques after launching his first computer and made the adjustments that his customers had asked for; the "Macintosh line had become too complex, Apple consolidated nearly twenty models in mid-1997." Thus, introducing the iMac G3 in August 15, 1998, which became popular and saved the company from bankruptcy.  

2000 Presidential Election

In 2000 Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore ran for the presidency of the United States. Both men had to reach 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, and it came down to the last state (Florida). Bush had 246 electoral votes and Gore had 266. Florida would ultimately give the presidency to one of these men, giving 25 electoral votes to the winner. With the election coming down to one state there was lots of controversy surrounding the voting process. Each state had the power to decide how votes could be selected. In the state of Florida on the ballot, voters were supposed to puncture a hole in the ballot. Bush was ahead of gore by only a couple thousands to win Florida, Gore saw that he was about to lose the presidency and demanded a recount. The recount was underway and Gore was starting to catch up to Bush. Bush panicked and went to Congress and demanded that the recount is stopped. He claimed that it was a violation of the 14th amendment of the Equal Protection Clause. The supreme court later on ruled in favor of Bush and stopped the recount giving Bush the electoral votes in Florida and the Presidency. If the recount weren't stopped many believed that Gore would've won the presidency, he was only a couple of hundred votes behind and they had only gotten through half of the ballots.

Footage techniques: For a vulnerable crowd

Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez writer and director of The Blair Witch Project created an audience that believed their ¨Real footage¨ of witches to be true. Lots of ingenious offscreen threats were discussed on camera, creating immediate suspense for the audience, this was a very unique film in the 19th century as it was the first to use such techniques. The backstory for the film is a legend fabricated by these two men which are detailed in Curse of the Blair Witch, a mockumentary broadcast on the SciFi Channel in 1999 prior to the release of the Blair Witch Project. This film was nonetheless cobbled together on an unbelievably low budget, using what they portrayed as ¨found footage¨ which in that century was only popular in cult films, with this a marketing campaign in the cinema world was created and outdid any other film that was put out in 1999.

9/11 - The Aftermath

Americans were in shock as they woke up on the morning of September 11, turned on the news, and saw photos of national landmarks billowing up in smoke. No one could believe that we, the strongest and most developed nation in the world, was watching their nation go up in flames. Initially, after only the first attack,  everyone believed that the crash was a mistake. The thought was that the navigation systems on the plane broke and that it lost control, flying too low and hitting the towers.

As soon as the second building was hit, everyone in the country knew that America had been the target of a terrorist attack. It was now obvious that the threats from Al Qaeda were legit. Right away, the FBI started the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, needing the man who caused our country so much pain.

News Coverage During the Iraq War

In the years leading up to the Iraq war, Fox News was the number one most watched news station. CNN was always trailing behind a little bit when compared to Fox. However, once CNN got exclusive coverage on many of the things that were happening in the Iraq war, they got a huge bump in their ratings.

The Iraq war was one of the first wars that Americans were able to watch unfold in real time on their television screens, so of course CNN had a lot more people tuning in to see what was happening. People could see what their family members and friends were seeing. This not only bumped up ratings for CNN, but increased the moral of the United States. Many people at home were seeing the war as video game-like and were impressed with what the U.S. military was capable of.

This amazement with the power that the military had led to many changes in common American fashion and technology. People wanted to buy Jeeps, which were previously only seen as military vehicles, and games and movies were being made about the war. There was a sort of fashion that came from the Iraq war that still hasn’t left the American people. Who knows if or when people would’ve gotten so infatuated with a war if it weren’t for CNN’s ability to cover this war thoroughly.

2008 Election

           The presidential election of 2008 was groundbreaking in many ways. The Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, represented the Democratic party and ran against the Republican party nominee John McCain, a Senator from Arizona.
           Because of this, it was the first time since 1952 that the sitting President or Vice President wasn't either major party's nominee. Biden defeated Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney among others for the Republican ticket which Obama contested against Senator Hillary Clinton. She was able to become the first woman to ever win a major party's presidential primary by winning the New Hampshire primary. Senator Barack Obama would go on to become the first African American to be elected president, winning 365 electoral votes in 28 states against McCain's 173 votes in 22 states. With close to 69.5 million votes, it was the largest percentage of a popular vote for a democrat since Lyndon B Johnson in 1964.
           Keys issues of the election reflected the ongoing issues of the time. McCain endorsed the war in Iraq while Obama opposed it. Sitting president Bush endorsed McCain but by the end of his presidency, he had only a 30% approval rating. The election showed contrast on every level, Obama's push for change in the government and new ideas like universal health care versus McCain's longtime service in the Senate and US Military, and this was shown in the high youth turn out of 51%. In polls, the percentage of people for whom race became a bigger issue in this election rose, with around 2% saying race made them more likely to vote for Obama and 4% saying it made them less likely to do so. The rest did not think race was an important factor. On the other hand, 17% said that they were enthusiastic about Obama being the first black president while 13% had reservations or were uncomfortable because of race.
         

Extremest hate towards the US

Today we know about many extremists like Osama bin laden who was the leader Al-Qaeda found their hate for world super powers who were to big and strong for their own good. Many Muslims fought against the soviet union during the cold war and had support from the US. They didn't like the soviet union expanding in such a way and after the soviet union fell the last super power left was the US. The US was supporting Israel very heavily and had participated in many external conflicts. People like bin laden did not like Israel for being Jewish and keeping the holy land away from Muslims, he also doesn't like how the US is involved in world wide conflicts. He also believed that Americans are infidels, they were not following Islam and their way of life is toxic. This hate builded up and after the US declares war on terror generations after generations of Muslims had hate towards the US for their involvement in the middle east and killing of their people.

Operation Ranch Hand

This operation took place during the Vietnam War as part of the herbicide program that was sprayed over at least 20% of Vietnam's forest to "deprive Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover". Their main motto was "Only you can prevent a forest". The Rainbow Herbicides, talked about in another older blog post by me, was one of the primary weapon used in the operation. It contained about 65% or more of poisonous substance, most of them a known human carcinogen. The operation was based in a place called Bien Hoa Air Base and began its spraying in August 10 of 1961 to test out how well the spray works against the vegetation. (Once again, refer to the Rainbow Herbicide blog post for more details regarding information about the types of sprays.) As for the impact on people in Vietnam, it left a variety of things behind, such as health defects, ecological defects, and etc. Some of the obvious immediate damages are deforestation, increased cancer risks caused by dioxin (found in many different herbicides, made of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and chlorine atoms, their toxicity dependent on the position of which the atoms arrange itself), violation of the Geneva Records, and etc. This was definitely one of the war tactics proven to be unethical because of the way it may have accidentally involved innocent civilians by spraying the herbicides over vegetation that may or may not have Viet Cong hiding in them.

History of Argade Games

Arcade Games played a huge factor on society during the late1970's and the mid 1980's. The arcade games or the "coin-op" to others was the entertainment side of things during this time period. The arcade games  since they started to grow in popularity since they were the first of its kind in technology that helped and allow people to interact with the virtual world in a way and that they could have complete control over actions that were occuring in the games. During the 1930s the first coin-operated pinball machines started to emerge and grow in popularity. With the coin-op games there were many other types of games that emerged around the same era and from the same concept of it. The other games that started to emerge were video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games or merchandisers. All of these starting games that were emerging from this time period caused the emergion of the newer and more recent video games. The games that were emerged during the late1970's and the mid 1980's could be considered to building blocks and structures for games that we consider today.

Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky

It is well known to the public that there might have been some kind of relationship between President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky in the past. The case between the President having an affair with someone when he swore to never having one in the first case. There was a debate on weither Bill Clinton should be impeached or not since he was going against his owth or he was going against what he had said in the past. The to see if Bill Clinton had an affair and if it should be able to cause the right to impeach him went in trial to if he was going to get impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives. The outcome of the trail had caused mixed opinions towards the people. Some of teh supporters of Bill Clinton were glad of the outcome while the others were frustrated with the outcome and there were some that were skeptical towards the judgement of the court. He was found not guilty and was never kicked from his position as president but he was also fined $90,000 at the end other trial. The license to practice law was suspended in Arkansas for five years and then he was not allowed to make cases to the supreme court. Till this day people argue if the outcome of the trial was considered just or unjust.

Y2K

   The Year 2000 Problem, nicknamed Y2K or Millennium bug was an issue that was related to the formatting and storage of calendar dates and data on computers. This issue came about, because many programs represented our 4 digit years with just the 2 last digits of that year. This made the year 2,000 indistinguishable from the year 1900. This led to a huge freak out, as many people across the nation believed that it would lead to various errors on computers and that people would lose control over their devices. As many programmers attempted to reset as many codes as possible in preparation for the date, to minimize the damage that they though would be done, but the reality was that not all codes could be changed since there were so many. People thought that there would not be any control over electronic devices such as computers, phones, traffic lights or things like that. There was the speculation that trains would stop, traffic lights would malfunction, and all the controls would stop working. This was a real issue for the military. People were nervous that the military would lose control of the missiles and other lethal weapons, as the controls for those were on the computer. Everybody was in a desperate attempt to save what they thought would brake. However, on New Year's eve as people were anticipating a nationwide blackout, as everything would shut down, people were pleasantly surprised to see that everything was fine. Traffic lights and computers didn't malfunction and everybody still had control over their devices, and the military could still control their weapons. Luckily this event was just a perceived disaster, and never truly became an issue.

9/11

   The September 11th attacks, also known as the 9/11 attacks were a series of terrorist attacks by the Islamic fundamentalist group al-Qaeda. In these attacks, nearly 3,000 people died and 6,000 were injured. As a part of these attacks 19 hijackers were onboard a series of planes that were operated by 2 major U.S passenger airlines. The hijackers decided to take over cross-country flights as they contained more fuel, creating more fire and a bigger explosion once crashed. Of these planes, 2 crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center complex, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon, and a 4th plane, which originally was flown towards the White House was crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after the passengers were aware of the hijackers. After the first plane crash, many people thought that it was just a terrible accident that happened. However, minds quickly changed once the second plane flew into the World Trade Center minutes later. As this was happening, the government was suspicious that it was al-Qaeda. The US responded to this attack by launching the War on Terror and invaded Afghanistan. The mission was to extradite Osama bin Laden- one of the main coordinators of this attack and a large presence in al-Qaeda- and also to remove the terrorist group from Afghanistan. Initially, bin Laden denied any affiliation with the group, but later on in 2004, he claimed responsibility for the the attacks. The US remained searching for bin Laden, and later found him in May 2011, when he was killed. This attack still remains the largest terrorist attack that the United States has faced, and it motivated the American government, along with other countries' governments to tighten their laws against terrorism, along with strengthen their defense against terrorists. From these horrific attacks, it is important that we learn that we all have an impact against these terrorist groups. For example, the 4th plane was supposed to crash into the White House, but just regular civilians had the ability to take the plane down and crash it into an open field rather than the White House. This shows that we all can take a stance on terrorism and make an impact, no matter what our position in society is.

Columbine

      The Columbine massacre was a high school shooting that took place in April, 1999 at Columbine High School. While the plan was executed as just a school shooting, the planned attack involved bombs and propane tanks in order to achieve as much damage as possible. However, while the perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were executing their plan, the bombs and propane tanks failed to ignigte, so they went through with just shooting their peers and teachers.
    While some people believe that this attack was a spur of the moment thing, the reality was that the two killers had done a lot of planning and preparation. The morning of the attack, Klebold and Harris placed a small bomb about 3 miles away from Columbine as a way to divert the attention away from the school, and toward the bomb. Right as those bombs were set to go off, the two boys arrived at their high school, they set their car bombs to go off at noon and gathered their propane bombs before entering the cafeteria. They went out to set up the propane tanks, hidden in duffel bags and begin their mission. However, when the bombs failed to explode, the two boys walked into school and began throwing pipe bombs. After they threw the bombs, the boys took out their guns and began shooting in the hallway and made their way to the cafeteria. The shooting continued until the police arrived about 5 minutes later. However, the police were not able to stop the boys as they continued shooting into the library. After Harris and Klebold left the library, they threw a pipe bomb into the science area of the school and attempted to detonate one of the propane tanks. After a failed attempt to ignite the tanks, the two boys committed suicide by gunshot later. After the boys died, there was an abundance of bomb squad, police officers and swat team members aiding the investigation. Despite popular belief, this shooting was not the first major school shooting in our American history. It was one of many in this case. However, it is important that all of these shootings are remembered and learned from, especially in our current day society as there has been a large increase in gun violence.

BATH TOWNSHIP SCHOOL BOMBING

BATH TOWNSHIP SCHOOL BOMBING 

When talking about the shooting of Columbine High, it was brought up that there were many other deaths at schools caused by people setting bombs off or going on a killing spree. Meaning that Columbine's tragedy wasn't the first of the many others to come in the future because of our gun law.

One particular school who faced the same outcomes if not worst, was, in fact, a school in Bath Township, Michigan. The bombing occurred in 1927 making it the "deadliest school massacre in U.S. history" The Bath Consolidated School was originally set in a "rural village of 300 people," known as Bath Township. Only 314 students from farmer families attended the school, and on May 18 "it was the last day of classes for that year." 

When 8:45 comes around, however, the 3-story school building was bombed by Andrew Kehoe. That action could be heard from a mile away according to the residents. "There was a pile of children about five or six under the roof and some of them had arms sticking out, some had legs, and some just their heads sticking out. They were unrecognizable because they were covered with dust, plaster, and blood.” The perpetrator, Kehoe who was a treasurer for a school board, however, didn't just bomb a school because of the taxes for the school. He "killed his neighbor’s dog, beat one of his horses to death" as well as his wife.

Death of Princess Diana

The car accident of "the people's princess" was awful for the entire world. Many Americans followed her life and the life of British Royalty, and were crushed by her death. The car accident was due to the incessant paparazzi as she was traveling. As the paparazzi followed her, the chauffeur sped up and crashed into a wall, killing all of them.

Many people blame the paparazzi for the incident, and her death brought up the topic of how to control the media and add limitations. The crash happened in Paris, and blamed on the driver Henri Paul who lost control of the Mercedes due to intoxication with alcohol and prescription drugs.

Flowers were left outside of Kensington palace in tribute of Diana,real tons of them because of her general popularity. At her funeral, 11,000 light bulbs were turned off in mourning. She was so loved because she broke the rules and standards as the Princess of Whales. She was continuously watched by Americans who loved keeping up with the royal family.

Osama bin laden - Al Qaeda

Osama Bin laden held multiple interviews both before and after the attacks on the twin towers. He was surprisingly open to telling the United States of his plans of mass destruction and hatred. His first interview was barely seen by Americans, and, in fact, didn't get him any more American attention.

Most people didn't see him as a threat, though they should have. He had access to millions of dollars, had signs of a global terrorist network, and divulged his plans to attack major buildings and kill as many Americans as possible.

Now, the FBI knew a surprising amount of information on Bin Laden, terrorism, and the network even in America itself. They received hint after hint, and sign after sign that 'hey this guy is dangerous and has tons of money'. This money he got from his father, who was wealthy off of the oil business.  His main control center was in Afghanistan, where corruption reigned the street.

It is the civilians who fought alongside him against the Russians who made the initial Al Qaeda group. Not only were they brought together by fighting, but the Americans gave them weapons to help defeat the Russians. So now they had weapons, money,. a team, and a leader; the recipe for global terrorism

dorothy dandridge

Dorothy dandridge was an African American film actress, dancer, and singer. She is the most famous African American actress to have made it big time in hollywood. She performed in vocalist venues such as the cotton club and Apollo Theatre.

She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award in 1959. Her first on screen appearance was on a short comedy called Our Gang, and then in a hit 1941 musical. She recieved attention for wearing what was considered revealing by the Motion Picture Code, and was cause of some public attention.

She ended up on the Ed Sullivan Show after many performances in films that got hits in the United States. She stopped acting for three years, and reappeared on a movie that became extremely controversial for interracial relationships. She was acting in love with a white actor, and gave the movie a lot of good and bad reviews.

Margaret Thatcher- The Cold War

Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time of Reagan's presidency, had strong views that affected the end of the Cold War. She served from 1979 to 1990, and the cold war went from 1985 to 1995.

She met with President Reagan to try to call off his Star Wars (SDI) idea, and her main idea were based on MAD. MAD was Mutually Assured Destruction. This is the idea that if both sides in a war had so much ammunition to be able to destroy 25 percent of the other side's population.

She was a figurehead of conservative ideology, and the first female prime minister of Britain. her views made her controversial. During her three terms, she cut welfare, reduced union power, and made some industries private. Her fellow conservative ally was our fellow conservative President, Ronald Reagan.

The American Perpetrator of 1995

To the public´s surprise, the perpetrator of this act of terrorism was an American citizen. Early reports suggested that a Middle Eastern terrorist group may have been responsible, but within days, Timothy McVeigh was considered the primary suspect. He was already in jail, having been pulled over shortly after the bombing for a license plate violation, during which time he was found to be carrying an illegally concealed handgun. Nichols immediately later surrendered to authorities, and the two were indicted for the bombing in August. An abundance of anger was built up inside of this young man,  prior to his attack two events involving the FBI's actions against separatists added fuel to Timothy McVeigh’s anger toward the government: In the summer of 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver was engaged in a standoff with government agents at his cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. He was suspected of selling illegal sawed-off shotguns. The blockade resulted in the death of Weaver’s son and wife. Tables turned when this incident had occurred and the repeated question of what drove him to do this act was constant.

DARPA

DARPA stands for defense advanced research project agency. Its main goal and responsibility were developing new weaponry to be used by the military in future wars. It was originally created in February 1958 by President Eisenhower during the Space Race in response to their first launch of Sputnik. Its current mission statement is "to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security." When NASA came into play, the original funding for this program had been shifted towards NASA, so in order for DARPA to stay active, the organization decided to make their research more high-risked, high-gain, and far out research to prove its usefulness compared to the more popular NASA. The research expanded from being just military-based to more of of the national security needs.

Here are their current active projects.

• Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System (ARES, formerly TX): Cargo carrying UAV.
• ACTUV: A project to build an unmanned Anti-submarine warfare vessel.
• Air Dominance Initiative: Developmental technologies to be used in sixth-generation jet fighters.
• Big Mechanism: Cancer research.
• BlockADE: Rapidly constructed barrier.
• Boeing X-37
• Captive Air Amphibious Transporter
• Clean-Slate Design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts (CRASH), a TCTO initiative
• Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System
• Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE): Modular software architecture for UAVs to pass information to each other in contested environments to identify and engage targets with limited operator direction.
• Combat Zones That See: "track everything that moves" in a city by linking up a massive network of surveillance cameras
• Computational Weapon Optic (CWO): Computer rifle scope that combines various features into one optic.
• DARPA GXV-T
• DARPA XG: technology for Dynamic Spectrum Access for assured military communications
• Experimental Spaceplane 1 (XS-1): first stage of a reusable space transport
• Gremlins: Air-launched and recoverable UAVs with distributed capabilities to provide low-cost flexibility over expensive multirole platforms.
• Ground X-Vehicle Technology
• Force Application and Launch from Continental United States (FALCON): a research effort within TTO to develop a small satellite launch vehicle.[41] This vehicle is under development by AirLaunch LLC.
• Fast Lightweight Autonomy: Software algorithms that enable small UAVs to fly fast in cluttered environments without GPS or external communications.
• High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System
• High Productivity Computing Systems
• Hydra: Undersea network of mobile unmanned sensors.
• Integrated Sensor is Structure
• MEMS Exchange: Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) Implementation Environment
• Near Zero Power RF and Sensor Operations (N-ZERO): Reducing or eliminating the standby power unattended ground sensors consume.
• Persistent Close Air Support
• Protein Design: Processes
• QuASAR: Quantum Assisted Sensing and Readout
• QuBE: Quantum Effects in Biological Environments
• QUIST: Quantum Information Science and Technology
• QUEST: Quantum Entanglement Science and Technology
• Quiness: Macroscopic Quantum Communications
• Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites program: a telerobotic and autonomous robotic satellite-servicing project, conceived in 2017, and planned for launch no earlier than the 2020s.
• Remote-controlled insects
• SafeGenes: a synthetic biology project to program "undo" sequences into gene editing programs 
• Satellite Remote Listening System: a satellite mounted system that can eavesdrop on a targeted area on the surface of the planet in coordination with satellite cameras. This project is in its infant stage.
• Sensor plants: DARPA "is working on a plan to use plants to gather intelligence information" through DARPA’s Advanced Plant Technologies (APT) program, which aims to control the physiology of plants in order to detect chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
• System of Systems Integration Technology and Experimentation (SoSITE): Combinations of aircraft, weapons, sensors, and mission systems that distribute air warfare capabilities across a large number of interoperable manned and unmanned platforms.
• Squad X Core Technologies (SXCT): Digitized, integrated technologies that improve infantry squads' awareness, precision, and influence.
• SyNAPSE: Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics
• SIGMA: A network of radiological detection devices the size of smart phones that can detect small amounts of radioactive materials. The devices are paired with larger detector devices along major roads and bridges.
• Tactical Boost Glide (TBG): Air-launched hypersonic boost glide missile under development.
• Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node: Ship-based long-range ISR UAV.
• UAVForge
• Upward Falling Payloads: Payloads stored on the ocean floor that can be activated and retrieved when needed.
• ULTRA-Vis (Urban Leader Tactical Response, Awareness and Visualization): Heads-up display for individual soldiers.
• VTOL X-Plane[69]
• Warrior Web: Soft exosuit to alleviate musculoskeletal stress on soldiers when carrying heavy loads.
• XDATA: Processing and analyzing vast amounts of information.
• Neural implants for soldiers.
• AGM-158C LRASM: Anti-ship cruise missile.
• HIVE (Hierarchical Identify Verify Exploit) CPU architecture.

Rise of Al Qaeda

    Most people know of Al Qaeda because it was behind the planes flying into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. What many don't know is that Al Qaeda was a big threat to the US even before 9/11. Al Qaeda, run by Osama bin Laden, sets its main goal to destroying America for being the superpower that bin Laden wants to be. Long before 9/11, there were many tips given about Al Qaeda to the FBI and CIA that were not acted upon. The CIA was informed by a man that had told a US embassy in Sudan that he had stolen $100,000 from Al Qaeda. He also informed the embassy of Al Qaeda and bin Laden's plans for future attacks. As a result of this, the CIA was able to keep an eye on bin Laden but not allowed to take action. Even if the US were to take action, it would not be a sure success. Years before the tip, the US actually shot a missile at bin Laden's camp attempting to take him out. Later we found out that he had evacuated the area before the missile hit. While the 9/11 incident is by far the worst attack by Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda is still looking to get revenge on America.

John Gotti

John Gotti: America's Mobster

John Joseph Gotti Jr. is an Italian-American born into a family of 13, in the Bronx, New York. He is most notably known for becoming the boss of the Gambino crime family, the common nickname he had is “the Dapper Don” because of "his polished appearance and expensive suits." Due to his family's poverty, he resorted to doing petty crimes for other mobsters and eventually joined Fulton-Rockaway Boys gang at age 16 and dropped out of school. 

Gotti was arrested three times, 1968 for hijacking trucks in Idlewild Airport though he pleads guilty and spent three years in prison, the second one in 1974 was for "revenge slaying of a man who had kidnapped and killed the nephew of crime family boss Carlo Gambino" and was sentenced to four years. Finally, in 1990, Gambino was found guilty of 13 counts which included murder and racketeering, all thanks to one of his gang members, Mobster Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano. 

June 10, 2002, Gotti ended up dying because of throat cancer at age 61.

WACO

On February 28, 1993, some 80 agents from the U.S. ATF raided a religious compound at Mount Carmel, near Waco, Texas, after receiving reports that the Branch Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, were violating federal firearms regulations. However, the ATF agents couldn't handle the situation and so the FBI was called in to take over control. There were about 900 agents who were sent to surround the compound, eventually, the media started to arrive on the scene in huge numbers. Even civilians started to show up to the scene, the standoff ended up lasting about 51 days. David Koresh was the leader of the cult, the believed that he was the son of god. He had many men and women inside of his compound, he also believed that all women were his wives and all the men should remain seldom during their time on the compound. The agents eventually moved in on the compound and ended with the compound lighting on fire killing about 25 children and 50 adults in the compound including David Koresh. 

Approach of the New Millennium

    In the late 1990s, people realized that computers were programmed to have the first two digit of each year be 19. With the turn of the millennium approaching, many feared that along with computers, airplanes, heat, and street lights might stop working. As a result, many computer programmers worked long hours to fix this problem in everyone's computer. While most just feared the crash of computers, some even believed that there would be an apocalypse of some kind. One family went as far as buying a house in the middle of nowhere, building a defense system, and stockpiling food which took them at least 10 years to get through. While it was somewhat scary at the time, the arrival of the 2000s clearly didn't cause any life-threatening effects.

The Causes of 9/11

9/11 was not just some simple attack on the Twin Towers. Osama Bin Laden definetely did not just wake up the morning of September 11 and decide that he was going to bomb New York. Bin Laden and some of his others developed a sense of hatred towards the United States starting almost 20 years before. The Afghanistan War, the hate crimes toward jewish rabiis, and many other events that started in like the 1980s all led up to Al Qaeda's hate towards the United States. They all blamed the United States for everything that had happened to Saudi Arabia and their culture.

1990s Television

Comedy television became very popular in the 1990s. Shows like Roseanne, Seinfeld, and Friends, along with many other popular titles were all introduced and hit off within America. The shows had such a big appeal because people were able to relate to the stories. Seinfeld and Friends were both shows about a group of friends in big cities living their best lives. People watched these shows and saw how carefree all the actors were in their shows, and it gave them the hope that they too could live their lives freely. 

Roseanne used television for something totally different. It was used as an outlet to voice and make political stances on events in our government and/or economy. In total, 1990s television started the revolution of television being so prominent in our society. Nowadays, we can pull out our phones or computers, go to our netflix app, and watch any of one 300 available comedies or tv shows because of the start it got in the 1990s. 

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold

In April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine a mass school shooting occurred which lead to the death of 13 people and 24 others getting wounded. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold both were responsible for the mass shooting at this school. The reason why the Columbine school shooting was made a big deal was because of the number of deaths and specifically where it was located. The location was at Columbine High School where it was considered a safe school since there was not that much going around that location and there were minimal incedents. Both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were seniors at the high school and they had different motives for the massacre and were found with different mental issues. In the case for Eric Harris he was found to have a Phsycopathic background and saw himself as surperior towards others. He also was part of the massacre since he thought that everyone at the school had to die since they were inferior to him and that he was to smart or above everyone. On the other hand Dylan Klebold was diagnosed with depression and he was seeking a reason to end his life. When Harris met Klebold he proposed his idea and plan. Since Klebold was seeking to end his life, Harris saw it as an opportunity to seek help from him and asked him to do it. Harris told Klebold that if he helped out he would end up having a reason to kill himself at the end of it. 

Flight 93

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group Al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. United Airlines flight 93, was scheduled to take off from Newark, New Jersey and Land in San Francisco, California. The plane carried seven crewmembers, thirty-three passengers and of those thirty-three passengers, four were the hijackers. The hijackers managed to sneak box cutters and knives onto the plane. Midway through the flight, the four terrorists took control over the plane and held the passenger's hostage. The passengers contacted family members on the ground and learned the fate of three other planes that were hijacked that day. They realized that they were apart of a larger terrorist plot and decided to fight back against the hijackers. With the four men inside the cockpit, the passengers were trying to gain access inside the cockpit. Worried about the passengers breaking through, the hijackers made the decision to crash the plane instead of reaching the destination. The plane crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania killing everyone onboard. To this day Flight 93's target is unknown it was believed that the hijackers were targeting either the white house or the U.S Capitol.

University of Texas tower shooting

On August 1st, 1966, former marine Charles Whitman after killing his wife and mother, took various rifles and weapons to the top of the observation deck of the main building tower at University of Texas and proceeded to shot at the students, teachers and passerby's on the campus. For over and hour and a half he shot at these civilians injuring 31 and killing 16. At the start of the shooting people did not know what was going on, they thought it could have been an anti-war protest. After locating the shooter Civilians and police started exchanging fire with Whitman as  police got into the tower and worked their way to the top were they shot Whitman dead and were almost shot by the people on the ground who still believed Whitman was alive. It was later found out that his violent impulses were caused by a brain tumor he had been struggling with for years.

Effects of the 9/11 Attacks

The 9/11 terrorist attacks took place in September of 2001. 19 al-Qaeda Islamic extremists took over 4 planes. Two planes with thousands of gallons of explosive fuel were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. One hit the the 80th floor of the north tower, killing hundreds instantly and trapping thousands of others. 18 minutes later, another plane flew straight through the 60th floor of the south tower. Another plane then smashed into the Pentagon near Washington DC. Everyone in the plane was killed, and 125 others died in the Pentagon. Meanwhile, civilians fought hijackers over the fourth plane. It crashed in Pennsylvania, where all aboard it were killed. All in all, nearly 3,000 were dead. Hundreds of firefighters, paramedics, and police officers evacuating civilians were killed. Osama bin Laden was in charge of the attacks. He was able to financially support their operation. Against American support of Israel, the Persian Gulf War, and the military presence in the Middle East, the terrorists planned 9/11. Bin Laden would eventually die in 2011. 9/11 was the biggest terrorist attack in United States history. It changed the way Americans lived. Airport laws are extremely strict, and security in general tightened up all over the United States. It also intensified the war between America and the Middle East. It also made America more hostile to immigration, and many foreigners were taken into custody and some deported. Finally, there was large surveillance all over the country, and NSA (National Security Agency) spying became a big issue.

Straight Outta Compton

In late 80's there was a group of rappers from Compton that included Dr. Dre, Arabian Prince, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, DJ Yella and MC Ren. The group would come together to form NWA that was together from 1986 to 1981. NWA was earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap genre, and are widely considered one of the greatest and most influential groups in the history of hip-hop music.  rap group endured controversy owing to their music's explicit lyrics, which many viewed as being disrespectful to women, as well as to its glorification of drugs and crime. The group was subsequently banned from many mainstream American radio stations. In spite of this, the group has sold over 10 million units in the United States alone. Drawing from their own experiences of racism and excessive policing, the group made political music. They were known for their deep hatred of the police system, which sparked much controversy over the years. In 1988, Straight Outta Compton, in 1988. With its famous opening salvo of three tracks, the group reflected the rising anger of the urban youth. The opening song "Straight Outta Compton" introduced the group, "F--- tha Police" protested police brutality and racial profiling, and "Gangsta Gangsta" painted the worldview of the inner-city youth. This led to the group often being banned from radio stations and some police did not offer security when the group wanted to on tour affecting their plans. This was because the group was being targeted by the FBI for "advocating violence and assault is wrong and we in the law enforcement community take exception to such action." The group would disband in 1991 after some disputes within the group. A lot of them would go on to become successful solo artists as part of studios. Most of the group today is alive except Eazy-E who passed away after contracting HIV. The group would have a biopic made of them which was released in 2015 that would focus on the formation and the aftermath of the group being disbanded.

Osama bin Laden

Osama bin Laden is mostly known as the leader or general to one of the biggest terrorist groups of its time, the Al-Qaeda. The reasons why he is well known was because he was conneced to terrorist attacks that had happended to the United States in the early 2000's and the late 1900. One of the well known attacks on the United States that Bin Laden was part of was the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th 2001. Even if he was not directly part of the attack he was the leader of the terrorist group that had attacked the Trade Center. Before being the Leader of the terrorist group, the Al-Qaeda, Osama was born into a family in which the fateher,  Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, was a Saudi billionaire from Hadhramaut. As he grew up he went on to join the Mujahideen forces. The main goal for these forces was to fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. While in the Mujahideen forces he donated money and arms to the force to help them grow in strength and power. After defeating the Soviet Union and making them leave Afghanistan he and his "Holy Warriors" tried to stay and protect Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the leaders decided to seek protection from the United states. Out of his outrage of them choosing a non "holy" or origin based group to protect them he went out and started the terrorist group the Al-Qaeda. His hate towards the United States lead to the terrorist attacked on the US seaking revenge in a way.

The September 11 attack

In class we are going to learn about the infamous 9/11 terrorist attack and I wanted to research a bit about the situation. The September 11 attack also known as 9/11 were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks led by the Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda on the United States. The attack was initiated on the morning of September 11th, 2001 and killed 2,996 people, injuring over 6,000 others. The total damage to the property cost was at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property damage.

The attack was carried out by four passenger airliners operated by two major U.S. passenger aircrafts which were hijacked by a total of 19 Al Qaeda members. Two of the planes, American Airline Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were crashed into the northern and southern towers of the World Trade Center. At 10:30 am the northern building of the twin towers collapsed and only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapsed had survived. According to History.com "At the World Trade Center, 2,763 died after the two planes slammed into the twin towers. That figure includes 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors." In the aftermath of the event, President George W. Bush who was in Florida at the time delivered a speech around 9 pm from the Oval Office, in which he said, "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." Whether or not the attack was heard, this left an significant change in the nation's attitude towards terrorism and how close these threats could be. If Americans had been more careful and aware of the surrounding hate speeches and activities would this event be preventable?

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Y2K

Y2K

The year 2000 or as more commonly known by its acronym, "y2k" or "the Millenium bug" was a point in the late 90s where people grew fearful of the great ambush of the computers and technology. Due to the fact that computers were programmed to store "year values as two-digit figures," it was widely acknowledged by everyone that it could lead to some defaults because the computer would think that the next input would be 00; the next two digits have a smaller value compared to 99 which people thought would have negative side effects like causing all technology to go out of control. 

Columbine: Not the First Modern Mass School Shooting

       On April 20, 1999, the country was shocked as 12 students and a teacher were killed at a high school in Columbine, Colorado. The shooting raised questions about school culture, desensitization from the growing number of first person shooter games, and finally mental health. It was the shooting that brought school shootings to the forefront of conversation in schools across the nation, but it was by no means the first mass school shooting in America.
       Outside of shootings that would have constituted mass shootings from precolonial America, the first school shooting that constituted a mass shooting in modern US history was the University of Texas shooting in 1966, even though there were lower profile shootings sprees from the early 20th century where either only a couple students died or three or four faculty etc were targeted. The ex-marine sharpshooter killed 13 and injured 30 more, bringing the term 'mass shooting' into situations outside of war and into the vocabulary of the everyday American.
       In 1976, at SCU Fullerton, seven people were killed and two more were injured in a shooting spree by a thirty-seven year old schizophrenic.
       In 1989, two decades before Sandy Hook, five children were killed and twenty-nine others were injured at an elementary school in Stockton, California when a man shot 106 rounds into the playground with an AK-47. Most of the victims were Southeast Asian war refugees.
       In 1991, four faculty members and a student were killed at the University of Iowa by another graduate student in a rampage after his financial aid ran out.
       In 1998, an eleven year old and a thirteen year old killed four students and a teacher at a middle school in Arkansas after pulling the fire alarm.
       These are just examples of the types of variety of gun violence in schools seen before Columbine, not an exhaustive list, but showing that mass shootings at schools has been prevalent in modern US history and not a new occurrence, albeit rising in frequency.

William Calley: The My Lai Killer

William Calley was the commander of a very highly respected company of soldiers during the Vietnam War. The Charlie Company was a group of highly trained twenty-somethings with fear in their hearts and assault riffles in their hands. They were ordinary men and boys before they were sent off to the war-torn country of Vietnam and placed through grueling training that left them as thoughtless soldiers that would follow whatever instructions they were given.

The mindlessness of the soldiers was extremely clear when William Calley himself said: "I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women, and children. They were all classified as the same, and that's the classification that we dealt with over there, just as the enemy. I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the order that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so."

William Calley was the only person convicted in relation to the My Lai Massacre. A year after the massacre, he was found guilty of killing South Vietnamese civilians. Many were outraged that he was the only person that was held responsible for this heinous act. They were even more upset when President Nixon decided that the jury was to be ignored and took Calley out of the prison where he was supposed to spend the rest of his life and placed him under house arrest for the next three and a half years before he was free to go.

The My Lai Massacre

During the Vietnam war, the people that were living in South Vietnam were stuck between the American army and the communist Vietcong. This left them in a lot of danger and led to many innocent people getting killed. One of the more prominent instances of people being killed for no good reason is the My Lai Massacre. 

The leader of the soldiers was William Calley, and his company of soldiers, the Charles Company, was known to be one of the best companies in the army. They were known to be efficient and obedient and being in Vietnam had left them trigger happy and itching to do something meaningful.

The soldiers thought that they were going to a vietcong-occupied village, but when they arrived they found that they were in a small farming village. When they searched for weapons and came out relatively empty-handed, they continued their mission and rounded up the civilians. After the soldiers directed the civilians to one place in the center of the village, they killed them all. Around 500 innocent South Vietnamese villagers were killed because of the paranoia and restlessness of the American soldiers that were supposed to be protecting them. 

The Election of 2000

The United States Presidential Election of 2000 was special because it was one of the few elections in which the victorious candidate was unable to win the popular vote.  Democratic candidate Al Gore received half a million more votes that his republican opponent George W. Bush.  However, due to the electoral college system that has been in place for many years in the United States, Bush was elected to be the next president.

It may seem shocking that the election was within 500,000 votes.  What is even more shocking is that the election came down to just one state: Florida.  The state of Florida has 25 electoral votes, and was the last state to be counted.  When the counting was completed, the vote in Florida was separated by only 1,800 votes, but Bush ended up ahead.  Many called for a recount, which the state of Florida began to ensue.  However, Bush thought that a recount would be unfair, and sued Al Gore to stop the recount.  Right as the recount began to turn in Al Gore's favor, the lawsuit was taken to the Supreme Court.  So, yet a bigger shock, the Supreme Court voted with a result of 5-4 that a recount would be unconstitutional.

So, the election of 2000 came from 500,000 people, to 1,800 people, to 1 Supreme Court justice.  Bush won by a hair, and many Americans today still question how just this victory was.

The Coming "Apocalypse"

In the time of 1999 and 2000, people were afraid of a coming apocalypse.  The reason for this was partly because of the hysteria behind the millennium bug and some people's religion. 

The general public really was not informed on how computers worked, creating more mystery behind what could happen when the clock struck midnight for the new year.  There was a lot of overhype and hysteria behind it, conspiracy theories rose everywhere.  One theory, in particular, stood out.  It was created by tech-hating extremely traditional religious groups.  It was that on January 1st, 2000, all computers and technology, including electric power for homes, water supply, everything and anything that had the slightest connection to innovation, would shut down.  Many religious people made parallels to quotes from the book of Revelations in the bible, that talked about exactly what people would see happen before and during the apocalypse.  Religious leaders encouraged their followers to save up and create a place to hide from this apocalypse.  The fear created by people was all made up and used to control groups of people.  Some families even bought new houses in isolated areas to avoid the apocalypse, however when January 1st arrived, all of their money spent was wasted.

Apple's Consumer Appeal

    When computers were introduced to the public in the 1980s, they were very hard to use since they needed to be programmed to be able to use them. When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs got into the computer industry, computers were very large and expensive. Their vision for Apple computers was that they wanted everyone to be able to have one and that these computers would be very user-friendly. When small microchips became available, Apple started making their computers smaller and more affordable. Apple was able to transform refrigerator-sized computers into the size that can fit in your backpack. Before laptops, Apple's first computer was the iMac which followed Apple's vision of being more user-friendly. When you unboxed the iMac, all you had to was plug it in and you could start using it. This led the iMac to be the most sold personal computer after its release. Since the 1980s all the way to today, Apple has always been on the forefront of cutting-edge technology and products that customers find easy to use.

CNN Effect

    The CNN Effect began during the Persian Gulf War when CNN was the only news broadcast company allowed to take footage of the war. This was the first time that Americans got to see live coverage of the action. While ABC, NBC, and CBS were covering the war on their news shows, it was CNN that was gaining the most popularity because of its 24-hour coverage in Saudi Arabia. They showed people the missile launches hitting building and planes flying overhead. Some people against the coverage thought that it was framed to make the war "exciting" and that the news companies did not provide a balanced account of the war events. While it is debated by some, the ability to broadcast the war live allowed Americans to follow the war as it was happening. Families would tune in to the coverage and they were able to watch American attacks as they formed.

OJ Simpson

   The OJ Simpson murder case is easily one of the most popular murder cases in our nation's history. This was a case in which NFL player and actor OJ Simpson was tried for 2 counts of murder for the deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and his friend Ron Goldman. On June 12, 1994, Nicole and Ron were found stabbed to death outside of Nicole's condo in LA. Given OJ's connections to the victims, he was labeled a person of interest in this case. Detectives later went to OJ's house to tell him of his ex-wife's murder, but Simpson was not present when the detectives arrived. Instead, he had taken a flight to Chicago around the time of the incident. Given OJ's high standing in the media, the police gave him the opportunity to turn himself in, but on the day he had the option to, he didn't show up. As the police continued looking for him, they finally came in contact once they saw his car driving on June 17. This led to a low-speed chase and was the most viewed incident on TV. Television stations even interrupted the 1994 NBA Finals to  show the chase live. Many people believed that OJ was in fact guilty of both murders, as a lot of the evidence traced back to him. In the car, there was blood that matched the victims' and OJ was also in possession of a bloody glove that could have been used at the crime scene, and a gun. However, he told the police that he was not running away, and that he had nothing to do with the crimes committed. OJ had a lot of money and a high standing in the media, which most people believed influenced the trajectory of his trial. The trial lasted 9 months, and the jury's verdict was that OJ was not in fact guilty of either murder.  People's reactions were very split. While some were in complete shock and disbelief, many people viewed this as a racial victory for black Americans. In the past, many people of color were given the worse punishment, and perceived as more dangerous in the eyes of others. However, some believed that OJ's victory was payback for the brutal beating of Rodney King. In all, this case was one of the most popular in our nation's history and the question still stands as to whether or not OJ is guilty of the murders.

Waco Siege

   In 1955, a religious group called "The Branch Davidians" followed the death of the Shepherd's founder, Victor Houteff. Victor Houteff founded this group based on his idea that there was an imminent apocalypse involving the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. As the group gained more membership, they moved the church to a location close to Waco, Texas. In preparation for the "imminent apocalypse" the group was armed with hundreds of guns and weapons. The group's accumulation of firearms violated several federal laws and was suspicious in the eyes of the government, which later led to the Waco Raid.
   David Koresh was the American leader of the Branch sect, and he believed that he was the final prophet. He looked at himself as though he were a God, and wanted to be praised by his followers. As Koresh took the lead of this sect, he faced numerous allegations of child abuse and statutory rape by people surrounding him, and also declared himself married to several female residents of the small community. He declared that he had at least 120 wives and was the father to at least a dozen children. After many reports of abuse and rape, Koresh was also suspected of gathering illegal weapons. As stated earlier, The Branch Davidians were in genuine belief that there was an incoming apocalypse, and were doing everything in their power to prepare. This was exposed when a UPS driver noticed a package filled with firearms and grenade casings sitting on the porch of the Branch Davidian residence. This led to the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) to conducting an investigation on the group. The ATF began a close surveillance from the house across the street from the Branch residence, and soon gathered enough evidence to obtain a search warrant on suspicion that the Branch had illegal automatic weapons. On February 28, 1993, the ATF attempted to execute their search warrant, not knowing that Koresh had been tipped off and was expecting a raid to occur. ATF agents began to enter the house, but the Branch members began to open fire on the ATF. The ATF returned fire on the sect members and shots began to fire back and forth. Agents began to take cover and exchanged fire with the branch for nearly 45 minutes. After the raid was over, a total of 76 people died, including Koresh.

Early Stages of Google

The main purpose for the creation of Google was to show the "PageRank" of thousands upon thousands or even millions of pages accross the web. The "PageRank" was term given to the new technology that allowed list the websites in order of relevancy or in other words the amount of times the pages were accessed or the number of pages being linked back to the original site. This was the main concept and idea given by Larry Page and Sergey Brin the creators of Google. The creation of Google was a process that involved financing as well. Since both Larry Page and Sergey Brin were not able to keep spending money and invest large amounts of money towards their company they had to figure out a way to earn money they needed to keep advancing their company. Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin started to earn money from various companies and people. They also started to sell shares of the company to people in order to get  the company to expand or to grow. 

Martin Cooper

Martin Cooper: The Father of the Cellular Phone

Before the cellular phones, the only way people were able to communicate was through a landline house phones that were wired, not compact and "cordless." People would have to wait home to hear their messages which meant that they missed important calls. Thanks to Martin Cooper, however, having to play all missed calls was a thing of the past because he was the first one to invent the cellular phone. This great invention simplified America's lives.

Martin Cooper was born in December 25, 1928. During the Great Depression him and his family, like others nationwide, were left to fend for themselves. That did not stop his curiosity to run wild. November of 1972, the Motorola Company and Cooper collaborated to produce a "prototype of the Dyna-Tac phone, and five months later Cooper stood on a Manhattan street and placed the world's first call from a mobile phone. 

Silicon Chip

Integrated cirtcuit or in other words Chips (silicon chips) were considered one of the greatest breakthroughs for technology at the time. What made this "Chip" so special was that it advanced the storage capacity of actions in a computer or any technological device. The other reason that made the Silicon Chip such a breakthrough was that it revolutionized the ability for computing programs and actions to a smaller and more compact space. The cost of the Silicon Chips were supprisingly low since it did not require much materials to make and they could be mass produced which would later benefit the popularity of the Silicon Chip. A man by the name of Kilby was the first person to ever create a first functioning Intergrated Circuit on  September 12, 1958. Kilby was also given the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for being the first person in inventing the integrated circuit and his contribution to the success of the intergrated circuit. Withought his help and without the help of everyone else that was part of the success of the intergrated circuit we would not be able to obtain such devices as we have today.