History didn’t just involve wars
and politics. It also had some other interesting aspects to it. Like the way
life was back then. What people did for fun compared to what we do today. Have
you ever thought of that? The many sports that we play today were just being
formed in the early 1900’s late 1800’s. If you think about it, it wasn’t that
long ago. How did all of the people back then entertain themselves? They obviously
didn’t have IPads to keep them company.
So baseball was one of the earlier
sports and is known as “America’s Pastime”. There were versions of this game
that were played in the early 1800’s but it wasn’t really played a specific
way. So later on they finally figured out some rules and made the game
official. The person who took part in making the rules was Alexander
Cartwright. At some point he decided to head towards California. That was the
best thing for the baseball sport. Why you may ask? Well, while he was
traveling he started to spread the sport across the country. From that time,
baseball just kept getting more and more popular and now is widely played
professionally. But that wasn’t the only game that started to get well known.
Football was also later becoming popular. This game though was not just thought
up like baseball, it was inspired by another different type of sport. Rugby.
This was an earlier game and it became the roots for football. In the beginning
of this new and exciting game at the time, it was played as a collegiate sport.
Obviously from then it has grown to become a professional game that many people
enjoy. In fact, today there is a big Sunday event that is known as the Super
Bowl and it is a huge televised game that the whole country takes their whole
day to watch it. For the exception of my family of course. I have actually
never liked or took interest in sports. Some (like football and many others)
have had repercussions of people getting many injuries over a silly game. I apologize
if I have just offended some sport fans when I called sports silly. But to me
they are and it’s just a distraction for Americans. But besides that, there was
a man who decided to create a game where it was less injury-prone for the
players. Can you guess what that sport may be? If you guessed Basketball then
you’re correct. James Naismith created this game. The sport actually wasn’t
really played with the netted basket that you see the game played with today.
They started out throwing balls into peach baskets that were connected to a
pole. As you can tell Basketball evolved a little more to this day. But, just like
football, it started out as a collegiate sport and then grew to become a
professional game.
So with all those sports being
created in the U.S., there was soon to be another big sport event that was
going to be created. But, it actually already has been made. That probably is
very confusing to you right now. The event that I am talking about is the
Olympics. I say that it was already made earlier because it was. In Greece they
used to have this type of event where there are sports that are played
competitively. Of course, the sports were very different during that early time
but now they were bringing it back. The International Olympic Committee was going
to take over the games and make it official. So, the first official Olympic
Games were held in Athens, Greece, in the summer of 1896. I could tell right
away that this was a pretty appropriate location to kick off the first games
since that is where it all started.
Even though sports were becoming a
big deal during this time there was also another industry that was starting to
grow even more popular. That was the movie industry. Now, the movies back then
were completely different from what you are used to seeing in the theater
today. The picture was black and white. There was NO sound whatsoever. But,
even though there was no sound, you could tell exactly what was going on and
how the characters were feeling. You just had to pay attention. Today, you can
keep the TV going and go to the kitchen to get a snack and you would still know
what was going on because you could hear what was happening. You couldn’t do
that if the show was silent. You would come back after you would get your snack
and you might have become lost. So you really had to have your full attention
back then to watch the movies that they had. But I still think that all of
those people in those old movies had talent because they had to interpret what
was going on without speaking. The first motion picture was made in the 1890’s.
To this day, movies are one the most entertaining things that everyone enjoys.
All of these entertaining things,
are really made to be a distraction for people. It’s a distraction from all the
bad things that are happening in the world and in their own life. In fact there
was also a really depressing and sad accident that happened during this time.
It had something to do with the R.M.S. Titanic. This was the biggest ship that
was made at this time and had very high expectations. In fact, it was said to
be “unsinkable”. Well that was the total opposite of what happened to it. They
even made watertight compartments that was said to prevent anything worse to
happen to the ship if it ever had an accident. But that didn’t even help during
the predicament. So, they were traveling through an area where there was a lot
of icebergs. But all of the staff were trying to pay very close attention for
any icebergs that could possibly get in their way. But the one that hit them
wasn’t really seen and it was sooner or later too late to avoid. There was a
life or death situation that the captain had to decide on. So, he could have
let the ship hit the iceberg head on, or try to steer it around. Of course this
decision had to be made quickly because there was no time to dawdle. There were
ships in the past that have hit an iceberg head on and were able to save many
people. But, this captain decided to try their best to steer the ship around
the iceberg but it was too late to really get around the whole thing. Because
of this move the iceberg created a large seam down the side of the ship. From
then on the water started to pour in quickly and there was nothing else anybody
could do except to try to save as many people as they could. Unfortunately,
they didn’t have close to enough lifeboats to save everyone on the ship. This
was when they made the decision to load the women and children first. Since
there wasn’t enough lifeboats to begin with, many people died because of the
cold water because once you touch that water there’s nothing around that could
warm you up. No one will forget this horrific accident because it’s very sad
that so many people died. Because of this, many ships today have many safety precautions
and they even go through a practice run through for getting to the lifeboats. I
know that because when I was younger I went on a cruise and I vaguely remember
having to do that. Which I don’t have any issue with because it’s better to be prepared.
Overall, there are many fun things
that started to happen at this time like all of the sports, but there was also
some things that weren’t as enjoyable. But, hopefully we learn from past
mistakes. Like with the Titanic. Because of that, all of the ships now take
safety precautions that will ensure that everyone can get off of the boat
safely.
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