2000s to Present
9/11 War of Terror |
Apple Inc - iPhones |
On the morning of 11 September 2001,America woke to unimaginable news. Four commercial passenger jet airliners, hijacked by 19 terrorists linked to al-Qaeda, crashed into prime US locations. Tower One and Tower Two of the World Trade Center in New York, together with the Pentagon in Washington DC, became targets. Almost 3,000 civilians and military personnel lost their lives. The world watched in horror, as one of the most pivotal moments in the 21st Century unfolded and changed the course of American history forever.
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Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, online services, and personal computers. Its best-known hardware products are the Mac line of computers, the iPod media player, the iPhone smartphone, the iPad tablet computer, and the Apple Watch smartwatch. Its online services include iCloud, the iTunes Store, and the App Store. Apple's consumer software includes the OS X and iOS operating systems, the iTunes media browser, the Safari web browser, and the iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites.
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Barack Obama
While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou Academy, excelling in basketball and graduating with academic honors in 1979. As one of only three black students at the school, Obama became conscious of racism and what it meant to be African-American. He later described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage with his own sense of self: "I began to notice there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog ... and that Santa was a white man," he said. "I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking the way I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me."
Obama also struggled with the absence of his father, who he saw only once more after his parents divorced, when Obama Sr. visited Hawaii for a short time in 1971. "[My father] had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact," he later reflected. "They couldn't describe what it might have been like had he stayed." |
George W. Bush
After his Guard duty, George W. Bush continued his education, enrolling at Harvard Business School, where he earned a Masters of Business Administration degree in 1975. He then returned to Midland and entered the oil business, working for a family friend, and later started his own oil and gas firm. In 1977, at a backyard barbeque, Bush was introduced by friends to Laura Welch, a school teacher and librarian. After a quick three-month courtship, he proposed, and they were married on November 5, 1977. The couple settled in Midland, Texas, where Bush continued to build his business.
George W. Bush credits his wife for bringing his life in order. Prior to marriage, he had several embarrassing episodes with alcohol. Soon after marrying Laura, he joined the United Methodist Church and became a born-again Christian. In 1981, the couple enjoyed the arrival of twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna. In 1986, Bush sold his struggling oil business to Harken Energy Corporation for stock and a seat on its board of directors. It was also at this time that he quit drinking and became deeply involved in his church. |
Osama Bin Laden |
Internet Computers |
But Osama would have little chance to use his degree. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Osama joined the Afghan resistance, believing it was his duty as a Muslim to fight the occupation. He relocated to Peshawar, Afghanistan, and using aid from the United States under the CIA program Operation Cyclone, he began training a mujahideen, a group of Islamic jihadists. After the Soviets withdrew from the country in 1989, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero, and the United States referred to him and his soldiers as "Freedom Fighters."
Yet Osama was quickly disappointed with what he believed was a corrupt Saudi government, and his frustration with the U.S. occupation of Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War led to a growing rift between Osama and his country's leaders. Bin Laden spoke publicly against the Saudi government's reliance on American troops, believing their presence profaned sacred soil. After several attempts to silence Osama, the Saudis banished the former hero. He lived in exile in Sudan beginning in 1992. |
The growth of the Web and Internet has transformed the ways we use and share information, perhaps as completely as the printing press did beginning half a millennium ago. There is no end in sight. Today's online world is becoming the first mass medium to incorporate nearly all previous forms of communication, from books, to money transfers, to television. But few, including key decision makers and even networking professionals, are familiar with its evolution, or the dozens of earlier systems with lessons still to teach.The CHM Internet History Program records the history of computer networking including the Web, the internet, and mobile data. Launched in 2009, it is one of the first general programs in this area by a major historical institution. The program covers networking as both a technical invention and a new form of communication with a growing impact on society.
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