Today in History: A Short Note and Blog Update!

Poster for the Wizard of Oz

Today's post will be slightly short and vague, as school is starting soon and I am preparing for it. Though my school is starting, I will be sure to post everyday and continue to write my more exiting articles like My Passport Experiences and Movie Reviews.

The Spanish-American War was very brief and also very one sided. Compared to many other major battles, this war was a short, 3 month war. Today in 1898 marked the end to the war, resulting in the decline of the Spanish Empire, 1898 Treaty of Paris, and an outbreak of the Philippine-American War. The aftermath of this war ultimately ended with Spain ceding Cuba to the United States.

Have you ever wanted to follow the yellow brick road? If you do not know where this reference is from, it's from the classic book and movie, The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz movie premiered on this day in 1939 in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Even for many who have not seen the movie, they may recognize its signature song, "Over The Rainbow," which won an Oscar for Best song in 1940.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was a big event in the Cold War. Many have heard about the fall of the wall, but what about its construction? East Germany begins its construction officially the next day on August 13th, 1961, but on the night of August 12th the same year, the East German government sealed off sections of Berlin to begin construction on the wall. More information on the wall will come out on tomorrow's post, the day construction of the wall began!

Sue the tyrannosaurus rex displayed
in Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois

Today is an important day for paleontologist and dinosaur enthusiast, as a skeleton of a tyrannosaurus rex is found in 1990. Paleontologist Susan Hendrickson discovered the bones hanging on the side of a cliff near Faith, South Dakota. These three bones jutting from the side of the cliff turned out to be the skeleton of the largest t-rex skeleton ever discovered. The skeleton was named "Sue" after Hendrickson, where it has been displayed at Field Museum in 2000. With this important discovery, scientist have learned much more about the tyrannosaurus rex with Sue's well-preserved bones. Though using Sue, scientist determined that the t-rex had an incredible sense of smell, they still could not determine its gender.