Erika Johansson's Blog – July 2009 Archive (3)

Here’s a great mashup of history and cutting-edge culture: At a recent Voices of a People’s History event, hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco gave life to two very different but powerful pieces of the American story. First Lupe read an excerpt from an anti-war leaflet written during the Vietnam conflict by two civil rights activists. Then, he stirred up the crowd with the chorus of Public Enemy’s 1989 hit “Fight the Power.” Watch the video below, and read on to learn more about the pieces that Lupe… Continue

The voice that introduced America to The Beatles, the man who was there throughout the Nuremberg trials, the Vietnam war, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jr. and the moon landing, has now left us. Walter Cronkite, "the most trusted man in America," after whom the term anchor was coined, died in his New York home on Friday. For those who grew up in the 20th century, Cronkite was an constant narrator in living rooms, store windows and kitchen counters. From blue-lit television screens… Continue

Forty years ago yesterday, Apollo 11, the spacecraft that would put the first man on the moon, took off from Cape Kennedy, Florida. On Wednesday, just the day before the anniversary of this historic launch, another space shuttle, the Endeavour, broke through earth's atmosphere, this time to further construction of the International Space Station.



America's exploration of the interplanetary unknown really began in 1957, the year that the Soviet Union launched the first artificial… Continue