Three Recording Artists From 1960!

Rod Lauren was born Roger Lawrence Strunk in Fresno, California on March 20, 1940. He moved with his parents to Tracy, California when he was three. Father Larry Strunk was a school teacher who subsequently found work as a switchman for the Southern Pacific Railroad; his mother was also a teacher and a church organist. While attending Tracy High School, he appeared in school plays and played the trombone in the high school band. Graduating in 1957, he began singing in local clubs in Tracy. A recording executive was taken by his easy vocal style that differed significantly from the popular rock 'n' roll genre. The exec gambled with it, offered the teen an audition, and Roger ended up winning an RCA recording contract. He took on the professional name of Rod Lauren. The fledgling singer appeared on both Ed Sullivan and Dick Clark's variety showcases between the years 1959 and 1960 and earned a mild hit along the way (#31 on the Billboard chart) with "If I Had a Girl" in 1960. But with the British invasion, his singing career fell away. Fortunately, Rod had a dark, sulky, greaser-type appeal that recalled the rebel in Fabian, and, with that look, started to find acting jobs on TV. He also earned singing work in Vegas and Southern California lounge clubs on the sly.

The band known as the Fendermen were Formed in 1959 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, the Fendermen were a trio best known for the 1960 US chart Top 5 rock ‘n’ roll adaptation of the Jimmie Rodgers country standard ‘Muleskinner Blues’. The group consisted of guitarists Jim Sundquist and Phil Humphrey both born 26 November 1937, Sundquist in Niagara, Wisconsin, USA, and Humphrey in Stoughton, Wisconsin, USA and drummer John Howard, of LaCrosse, Wisconsin, USA. The two guitarists, who preferred the Fender brand of electric guitar, hence the name of the group, recorded ‘Muleskinner Blues’ initially for the small Cuca label. It was picked up by the somewhat larger Minnesota-based Soma Records and became a hit in May 1960. (Howard was added at that time, for live appearances. The group recorded one album for Soma, now a valued rarity in the USA, and continued together until 1966, with no other chart successes.

Dorsey Burnette was born on 28 December 1932, Memphis, Tennessee, Burnette was a member of a classic 50s rock ‘n’ roll act, had his own hit soloist act in the 60s and became a country singer in the 70s. He helped to form the highly respected Johnny Burnette Trio with younger brother Johnny Burnette and Paul Burlison in 1953, but after appearing in the movie Rock Rock Rock in 1956, Dorsey left the trio. He recorded with Johnny as The Texans and wrote major hits for Ricky Nelson, including ‘It’s Late’ and ‘Waitin’ In School’. As a soloist, he recorded for Abbott, Cee-Jam, and then Era, where he had his two biggest solo hits, ‘Tall Oak Tree’ and ‘Hey Little One’, in 1960, both classics of their kind and both showcasing his deep, rich, country-style voice. He then recorded without luck on Lama, Dot Records, Imperial Records, Reprise Records, Mel-O-Day, Condor, Liberty Records, Merri, Happy Tiger, Music Factory, Smash (where he re-recorded ‘Tall Oak Tree’), Mercury Records and Hickory. In the 70s he had 15 Top 100 country hits (none making the Top 20) on Capitol Records, Melodyland, Calliope and Elektra Records, with whom he had only recently signed when he died of a heart attack in August 1979.

History of Japan

The early Mandarin Chinese word for Japan was recorded by Marco Polo as Cipangu. However, the Cantonese word for Japan, from which the word Japan was probably originally born, is Jatbun. In Malay the Cantonese word became Japang and was thus encountered by Portuguese traders in Malacca in the 16th century. It is thought the Portuguese traders were the first to bring the word to Europe. It was first recorded in English in 1577 spelled Giapan.Traditional Japanese legend maintains that Japan was founded in 600 bc by the Emperor Jimmu, a direct descendant of the sun goddess and ancestor of the present ruling imperial family. About ad 405, the Japanese court officially adopted the Chinese writing system. Together with the introduction of Buddhism in the sixth century, these two events revolutionized Japanese culture and marked the beginning of a long period of Chinese cultural influence. From the establishment of the first fixed capital at Nara in 710 until 1867, the emperors of the Yamato dynasty were the nominal rulers, but actual power was usually held by powerful court nobles, regents, or "shoguns" The first recorded contact with the West occurred about 1542, when a Portuguese ship, blown off its course to China, landed in Japan. During the next century, traders from Portugal, the Netherlands, England, and Spain arrived, as did Jesuit, Dominican, and Franciscan missionaries. During the early part of the 17th century, Japan's shogunate suspected that the traders and missionaries were actually forerunners of a military conquest by European powers. This caused the shogunate to place foreigners under progressively tighter restrictions. Ultimately, Japan forced all foreigners to leave and barred all relations with the outside world except for severely restricted commercial contacts with Dutch and Chinese merchants at Nagasaki. This isolation lasted for 200 years, until Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy forced the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. Within several years, renewed contact with the West profoundly altered Japanese society. The shogunate was forced to resign, and the emperor was restored to power. The "Meiji restoration" of 1868 initiated many reforms. The feudal system was abolished, and numerous Western institutions were adopted, including a Western legal system and constitutional government along quasi-parliamentary lines. In 1898, the last of the "unequal treaties" with Western powers was removed, signaling Japan's new status among the nations of the world. In a few decades, by creating modern social, educational, economic, military, and industrial systems, the Emperor Meiji's "controlled revolution" had transformed a feudal and isolated state into a world power. Japans greatest leader was named Ieyasu Tokogawa. Japanese leaders of the late 19th century regarded the Korean Peninsula as a "dagger pointed at the heart of Japan." It was over Korea that Japan became involved in war with the Chinese Empire in 1894-95 and with Russia in 1904-05. The war with China established Japan's domination of Korea, while also giving it the Pescadores Islands and Formosa (now Taiwan). After Japan defeated Russia in 1905, the resulting Treaty of Portsmouth awarded Japan certain rights in Manchuria and in southern Sakhalin, which Russia had received in 1875 in exchange for the Kurile Islands. Both wars gave Japan a free hand in Korea, which it formally annexed in 1910.

Julia Child

Popular TV chef and author Julia Child was born Julia on August 15, 1912, in Pasadena, California. The oldest of three children, Julia was known by several pet names as a little girl, including Juke, Juju and Jukies. Her father John McWilliams, Jr., was a Princeton graduate and early investor in California real estate. His wife, Julia Carolyn Weston, was a paper-company heiress whose father served as lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Julia Child lived a privileged childhood. She was educated at San Francisco's elite Katherine Branson School for Girls, where at a towering height of 6 feet, 2 inches she was the tallest student in her class. She was a lively prankster who, as one friend recalled, could be really, really wild. She was also adventurous and athletic, with particular talent in golf, tennis and small-game hunting. In 1930, she enrolled at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, with the intention of becoming a writer. "There were some famous women novelists in those days," she said, "and I intended to be one." Although she enjoyed writing short plays and regularly submitted unsolicited manuscripts to the New Yorker, none of her writing was published. Upon graduation she moved to New York, where she worked in the advertising department of the prestigious home furnishings company W&J Sloane. In 1941, at the onset of World War II, Julia moved to Washington, D.C., where she volunteered as a research assistant for the Office of Strategic Services , a newly formed government intelligence agency. In her position, Julia played a key role in the communication of top secret documents between U.S. government officials and their intelligence officers. She and her colleagues were sent on assignments around the world, holding posts in Washington, D.C., China and Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 1945, while in Sri Lanka, Child began a relationship with fellow employee Paul Child. In September of 1946, following the end of World War II, Julia and Paul returned to America and were married. In 1948, when Paul was reassigned to the U.S. Information Service at the American Embassy in Paris, the Childs moved to France. While there, Julia developed a penchant for French cuisine and attended the world-famous Cordon Bleu cooking school. Following her six-month training which included private lessons with master chef Max Bugnard Julia banded with fellow Cordon Bleu students Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle to form the cooking school L'Ecole de Trois Gourmandes (The School of the Three Gourmands). With a goal of adapting sophisticated French cuisine for mainstream Americans, the trio collaborated on a two-volume cookbook. The women earned a $750 advance for the work, which they received in three payments. The original publisher rejected the manuscript, however, due to its 734-page length. Another publisher eventually accepted the 3 pound. cookbook, releasing it in September 1961 under the title Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The book was considered groundbreaking, and remained the bestselling cookbook for five straight years after its publication. It has since become a standard guide for the culinary community. Julia promoted her book on the Boston public television station near her Cambridge, Massachusetts, home. Displaying her trademark forthright manner and hearty humor, she prepared an omelet on air. The public's response was enthusiastic, generating 27 letters and countless phone calls a remarkable response, a station executive remembered, given that station management occasionally wondered if 27 viewers were tuned in. She was then invited back to tape her own series on cooking for the network, earning $50 a show.

Star Spangled Banner/Old Glory

During the war of 1812 (on September 14, 1814), poet Francis Scott Key wrote a poem entitled "Defense of Fort McHenry", being inspired by seeing the American flag still flying amidst the battle. Key never meant for it to become a song, or a national anthem, yet after showing the poem to his brother in law Judge Joseph H Nicholson, Nicholson noticed the poem could fit the sound to “Anacreon in Heaven” , a song written for a gentlemen's social club in London, but gained popularity outside Great Britian, including in the United States, where by this time the tune was familiar to American ears. (The tune was also once the national anthem of Luxembourg). Key may have had this tune in mind when he wrote the poem, as an earlier poem of his was also in the same rhythym and could be set to the same tune. The poem spread quickly across the United States, the first printing of the poem in a Baltimore paper suggested the "Anacraeon in Heaven" tune, and it stuck. A Baltimore music store owner first printed the song under the title "The Star Spangled Banner." It gained in popularity, and was made the official tune to accompany flag raisings by the secretary of the Navy in 1889. In 1916 it was ordered to be played at military and other occassions, and, due to a large public relations effort, it was officially adopted by Congress as the first official national anthem of the United States in 1931. 

The Flag was made by Betsy Ross in June 1776 The name "Old Glory" was first applied to the U.S. flag by a young sea captain who lived in Salem, Mass. On his twenty-first birthday, March 17, 1824, Capt. William Driver was presented a beautiful flag by his mother and a group of Salem girls. Driver was delighted with the gift. He exclaimed, "I name her 'Old Glory." Then Old Glory accompanied the captain on his many voyages. Captain Driver quit the sea in 1837. He settled in Nashville, Tenn. On patriotic days he displayed Old Glory proudly from a rope extending from his house to a tree across the street. After Tennessee seceded from the Union in 1861, Captain Driver hid Old Glory. He sewed the flag inside a comforter. When Union soldiers entered Nashville on February 25, 1862, Driver removed Old Glory from its hiding place. He carried the flag to the state capitol building and raised it.Shortly before his death, the old sea captain placed a small bundle into the arms of his daughter. He said to her, "Mary Jane, this is my ship flag, Old Glory.

My First Blog Entry for The Year/Left Handers Day

Hello, My name is Andrea. I am ten years old and I am in fifth grade. I was born on September fifteenth,2001 I am very short and skinny. I love playing soccer and doing girl scouts. And this is my blog it is called Saga of pandibear. My favorite color is red, I wear glasses, and i look a lot like my mom

 My summer was lots of fun. I swam in our pool (we don't own a pool in the area we live in they have one). I got to see my grandparents, I caught some crawdads I caught two in a row in a bucket,  I took my SOL'S and I passed i got above the fifth stanine on every subject my best score was in spelling i got ninety-nine percent I am now a fifth grader yay!

This year I want to learn about many things like How wood came to be. Who made the first ever fan? How big was the very first computer ever made? Were humans originally in the form of a monkey? What was the first musical instrument to be played? What is the Liberty Bell, and why does it have a crack in it? What year was the first porcelain doll made in? Why are all the queens in Britain named Elizabeth? Who made the first scooter? What is the heaviest dinosaur? Who played the very first electric guitar? Who played the very first guitar? How long is the great wall of China and when was it built? What was the first ever rock song called and when was it wrote and preformed? Why was witch craft so horrible to so many people? And many more cool questions.

On August 13th, 1976 an organization know as Lefthanders International first declared this holiday. This organization served as a source of information for left-hander's It also sold left-handed products several years before going out of business. No one entity really picked it up from there. Now, its up to individuals and local organizations to celebrate this day. We have not heard of left-handed parades or large parties. Left-hander's day is not marked in calendars either. There will always be some mention of this day in a few newspapers or local TV stations that can be easily missed by public at large. The question is - What can we do to change this and bring more attention to left-hander's day.