A famous historical person, Michael Jackson

Hey! Today I was in the city where I visited the "walk of fame". There I saw Michael Jackson's star and it gave me an idea of what my next blog post should be about. So now I'm going to write about one of my favourite artists, Michael Jackson. In my eyes, he is a legend.

Michael Jackson was one American artist who was born on August 29, 1958. It is said that Jackson had a very tough childhood with a father who was often hard against him. Michael Jackson is the most successful in Guinness World Record of all time, and he goes under the nickname "King of Pop". He was an artist, songwriter, dancer and philanthropist.

As the eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music front with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in the mid -1960s. He began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s he became a dominant figure in popular music with the songs "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and "Thriller." The Music videos were also very popular and helped the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. He was also a successful dancer. Through live performances and music videos popularized him some dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk dance.

Michael Jackson's Thriller album from 1982 is world's best-selling album of all time. His other records, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995) is also ranks among the world's best-selling album. Jackson won hundreds of awards.

Sides of Jackson's personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships and behaviour, have at times created media storm. In 1993 he was accused of child molestation and in 2005 he was brought to justice and acquitted of further allegations of sexual abuse of children.

Jackson died after getting cardiac arrest on June 25, 2009. Before he died, he had spent some substances like propofol and lorazepam. Los Angeles County Coroner explained his death as a homicide, but his personal physician pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson's death on fans worldwide to deep sadness, and a billion people around the world was followed through on his public memorial on live Television.

I think it`s really sad that he died in a so young age.. That was what I wanted to tell you about Michael Jackson, hope you liked it!!

-Marthine

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson

An historical event, Pearl Harbor

Hello, sorry once again that I haven`t blogged in a while, the network has been down. But I’ve enjoyed my time anyway. I’m renting a cabin that's huge. There is so much to do here and the view is amazing. It was really worth the money. I’ve got some new friends during that time in USA. They have visited me a lot during this month. We have made very good food, played billiard and enjoying our time with the pool. I really don't want to go home. In this post I'll tell you a little bit about Pearl Harbor. A friend of mine, Kim, had a grandfather who survived the attack against Pearl Harbour. She has told me a lot about it. I thought this was very interesting, so I want to share this with you guys.

The attack against Pearl Harbor was a Japanese attack on the US naval base at on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. This accoutred on December 7, 1941. The attack was conducted by flight and midget submarines of the Japanese Navy, and was commanded by the Vice Admiral, Chūichi Nagumo. The attack was directed against the US Pacific Fleet, and related flight and marine infantry forces on the island. The he Americans saw the attack as a treacherous act by Japan and as a result, America joined the second world war. The attack damaged or destroyed 21 US warships, 188 flights, and killed 2,335 American soldiers and 68 civilians. One of Pearl Harbor`s fleets wasn’t in the harbor and came from the incident unharmed. Pearl Harbor`s essential oil depot, shipyards and workshops were not injured, and these resources were important for the United States when US attacked Japan a half year later.

The attack on Pearl Harbor started 7:53 and the Japanese planes attacked in two waves, the total reached 353 flights. In the first attack wave, 183 flights began to attack the US Navy's aircraft carriers and battleships with torpedo bomber. The 170 planes in the second wave attack "Bellows Field" and "Ford Island," a naval and air base for the Navy Air Force in the middle of Pearl Harbor.

In world war 2, the First American shots that was fired and the first losses under the attack against Pearl Harbor, came when the destroyer USS "Ward" attacked and sunk a japanese mini-submarine. Five Japanese midget submarines were deployed to attack US ships after the bombing had started. None of the submarines managed to escape after the attack, and of ten submarines survived only one, Kazuo Sakamaki, who became the first Japanese prisoner of war of the United States. One of submarine managed to get into port and hit the battleship USS "West Virginia" with a torpedo. This mini submarine has never been found.

The attack lasted 90 minutes. When it finally stopped was 2403 killed. Of those, 68 were civilians and most of them had been killed by American anti-aircraft shells that fell over Honolulu. 1178 had been injured during the attack. 18 ships had been lowered, among whom were five battleships.

I think it was unnecessary of Japan to attack the US. Hope you thought this was just interesting as I did.

-Marthine

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Pearl_Harbor 

Slavery

Hello again! Now I have just get home from a museum where I learned a little bit about slavery in USA. This was very interesting so I want to share something of it with you guys.

 

The slavery in the United States began slowly after the Europeans settled in 1776 in that who would become United States. From around 1619 to 1865 there were people who came from Africa who were lawfully held as slaves in the United States. The economy in the country was improved mainly through free labour performed by slaves. Around half a million Africans were brought over from Africa during the slave trade. The first slaves, who arrived in the country, came from Africa and were carried to the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia in 1619 to assist with the production of tobacco.

When the slaves arrived to America, they were sold on actions to planters. Families were split and sent to different farms around the country. There did they live under really poor circumstances and they had to work all the day. They also got a small amount of food and water. The owners treated the slaves very different. Some treated them like animals and were very naughty to them while others might be a little kinder to them. Some female slaves were assaulted and raped by the owners. If you were young or old, it didn’t have anything to say. The slaves lived in a slave’s house. The house was very cramped, since many lived there, When the slaves were working in the fields, they invented the "work song". In a "work song" could they bring out secret messages that the owner wouldn’t hear. If a slave tried to escape, some owners did cut of their limbs.

I think it's terrible how people were treated in the past and it is great that the slavery is over now. We'll talk soon.

-Marthine

Sources:

http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States  

Immigration

Hey, I haven’t been blogging that much lately, because I’ve been busy visiting cities, shopping, and sightseeing, and I am very sorry about that. I’m having a really great time being here, and I don’t want to go home. In this post, I am going to tell you guys about the immigration in the USA.

The immigration consists of four waves. We can start with the very first wave; it is called “the founders.” It began in 1609 and ended in 1775. Most of the immigrants came from England, France, Germany, Ireland and Italy. Some of the immigrants came because they were looking for adventure, others came to leave their religious past behind them, and others came with a hope of a better economic future. The first Africans who came to the USA were slaves and they didn’t have it great at all.

After a break of immigration during the American Revolution and wars in Europe, a second wave of immigrants began arriving around 1820. Most of the immigrants came into the Country through New York. A bigger part of the Immigrants who came in the second wave was Irish and Germans. A potato famine hit Ireland during the 1840’s, and as much as one-third of the immigrants during this time were Irish fleeing that famine. Nearly the same amount of Germans came in the same period and a lot of them bought farms in the mid-west. Most of the Chinese came into USA through the port of San Francisco. Most of them were single men who planned to earn fortunes and go back to China again, but a huge part of them ended up spending the rest of their lives in the USA where most of them had low paid jobs. The second wave ended at the end of the 1870 century.

It got much easier so immigrate into the United States in the 1800. It was because of the increasing railroad companies. This was the beginning of the third wave. It was cheaper and less demanding to immigrate to USA, so the poor Europeans used the opportunity and went to the states. In the period between 1881 and 1920, 23 million people immigrated from all over the world into the USA, but it was mostly the Europeans who came.

In 1965, there were no quotas based on nationality and that was the beginning of the third wave. So it meant that how many people who came from which country had nothing to say. So is resulted that 120,000 immigrants came every year from the Western Hemisphere and 170,000 came from the Eastern Hemisphere. Eventually they changed the quota so that it didn’t matter if you came from the western hemisphere or the eastern hemisphere. They increased the quota for the number of immigrants to 700,000 people from 1992 to 1994 and fell to 675,000 in 1995. If you had family in the United States and wanted to stay with them, it didn’t have anything to say in the quota law.

In the 1800, Norway met an obstacle in the industry. This made it harder for the younger generations to find themselves jobs, so they left to the USA to provide their selves and their family. At this time, Norway had a lack of jobs, but America needed manpower. A lot of people took this opportunity and immigrated to the USA. The start of the Norwegian immigration began in 1825, when the ship named “Restauration” sailed to the USA with 53 norwegians aboard. But It wasn’t before 1865 a huge amount of Norwegian immigrated into the USA. The Norwegian wave of immigrants lasted for 8 years.  During this period, there was about 110,000 Norwegians who immigrated to the USA. The first people who immigrated to USA settled in New York. From there, the Norwegians started to move to the west (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and the Dakotas). For those who had family back home in Norway, for them it was common to send letters.

Ellis Island is located in the harbour of New York. The island was once the main port for those who immigrated to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. Those who travelled on the first and second class were cleared on the ship to America, and were released on Manhattan. Those who travelled from 3rd class was sent to Ellis Island. Ellis Island was opened on 1 January 1892 and closed in November 1954. When it closed, had more than 20 million immigrants passed over the island. Of these, only about two percent was refused entry to the US and sent back to their homeland. Many of those who came into the land, was settled in New York and the northern parts of New Jersey. Ellis Island is now owned by the National Park Service, and is now run as a museum. It has a database that includes all immigrants from 1892 to 1954.

-Marthine

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island

http://www.energyofanation.org/3f9c3958-cf6f-43ed-a9bf-05b8ad118870.html?nodeid

http://immigrationinamerica.org/603-immigration-waves.html

Two well-known cities

In my last blog post, I told you guys that I want to visit Las Vegas and San Diego. So in this blog post, I will tell you a little bit about those two cities.

”We can start with Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a city in the state of Nevada, USA. The city is one of the top three leading destinations in the United States for conventions, business and meetings. It is today one of the top tourist destinations in USA and the whole world.  Vegas are also famous for all casinos and wedding chapels they have. Every day there are about 150 people that get married in Las Vegas. Another thing Las Vegas is known for is the nightlife and shopping. People come to Las Vegas to see Grand Canyon, Bellagio, The Mirage, Stratosphere Las Vegas and many other things. The city has many nicknames, some of them are; “Gambling Capital of the World”, “Entertainment Capital of the World” and “Glitter Gulch

Their climate in Vegas is really exotic. There are usually no storms and tornadoes here. They can enjoy sunny days almost the whole year. They have about 310 sunny days I one year. The summer month is really hot and dry. I the middle of a sunny day, the temperatures is around 33.6 °C and in the nighttime the temperatures is around 27 °C. The winter in Las Vegas are mild and the season is short. Snow is rare in Las Vegas. In December, who is the coldest month, the temperature is around 8, 7°C

The population in Las Vegas is 583,756(in the period 2013/2014). It is the most populous city in the state of Nevada. Last year (2013) did 39,668,221 people visit Las Vegas.

Here are some facts about San Diego: It is about 120 miles south of Los Angeles so I have to rent a car. San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States and the second largest in the state of California. The city is located on the Pacific coast in the southwest corner of the United States and is known for its mild climate all year round, natural deep-water harbor, large and long beaches and long cooperation with the United States Navy. There are 3,095,313 people living in San Diego during the period from 2013/2014. The city has several nicknames but here are some of them: America's Finest City, City in Motion and silicon beach. San Diego is known for its large zoo(San Diego Zoo) and Sea World and the city is influenced by the Mexican culture. There are many tourists who visit San Diego. In 2013 there were over 32 million who visited the city.

The climate in San Diego is very mild. It is only 23-33 cm precipitation annually.  They have a dry and warm winter. On average, the city has 201 days per year with temperatures over 21 ° C. The record high temperature in San Diego is 44 °C, it was in September 26, 1963. The record low temperature was 4 °C in January 7, 1913.

 -Marthine

Sources:

http://suburbanstats.org/population/nevada/how-many-people-live-in-las-vegas

http://www.lvcva.com/stats-and-facts/

The USA in general

Hello! I arrived LA yesterday and it is totally amazing here. I just love LA. I was really tired after all the flight trips, so it was lovely to finally see the hotel that`s fantastic. I'm really looking forward to this month. It will be fun to see some of the cities here in USA. My plane is to visit Las Vegas and San Diego, in the next few days. In this blog post I will tell you general facts about the USA.

The American Flag is the national flag of the United States of America. It consists of 13 horizontal white and red stripes and a square that's blue with 50 stars in it. Each star(who is white), represent 1 of the 50 states I USA. Since 1959 has USA had 50 states. Each red and white stripe represent 1 of 13 British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and became the first states in the Union. The flag has many nicknames and some of them are "Old Glory", "Stars and Stripes and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The government in America was formed 1789 and is the federal govermenet for the 5o states in USA. There is a president who governs the country. The government consists of the presidents, a vice president and 15 other ministries. The president has the office in the White House, it's also where he lives. His family lives there too.The white house is in Washington D.C and the house currently consists of  432 voting members, each of them represents a congressional district. The president they have now is called Barack Obama. He was elected in 2012. There is a New selection every 4 year and accedes the 20^th of January the year after the election. The president can be elected twice. The first president of the America was George Washington. He was president from 30 april 1789.

George Washington

The capital of The United States of America is Washington D.C. Tourism is today really important for the capital. About 20 million come to visit the city every year. They come to see The White House( where the president lives), Jefferson Memorial(which is a temple-like building), Lincoln Memorial(a giant statue of the American President Abraham Lincoln), National World War II Memorial(a national memorial dedicated to Americans who served in the armed forces and as civilians during World War II) and others. Washington D.C.  had in 2013 a population of 601,723.

The currency in USA is United States dollar ($) and have the code USD. 1 USD is worth 6.47 NOK.

The national day of The United States of America is on the 4^th of July. They call there nationale day Independence Day. They celebrate with fireworks over the whole country. New York City has the biggest fireworks.

There are many famous buildings in USA. One of them is The Empire State Building. It is a skyscraper located along Fifth Avenue, between 33rd and 34th street in Manhattan, New York. The building has 102 floors and 381 meters high. The building was finished in 1931, and had then a price tag of $ 45 million The Empire State Building was the world's tallest building from 1931 to 1972.

Another famous building in USA is the Statue of Liberty. The statue stands on Liberty Island in the mouth of the Hudson River in New York Harbor. The Statue of Liberty was unveiled on 28 October 1886 and was a gift to the American people from the French people as a symbol of the countries' mutual friendship.

 

Sources:

Wikipedia.com

conservapedia.com

-Marthine

Introduction

Hello!

My name is Marthine Mustad. In my sparetime I like to play football. I’m 15 years old and I come from Langesund. It`s a small town in Norway. I`m going to stay I USA for about 1 month and I’m really excited. I have never been in USA so this will be so funny. My hotel is in LA, California. And the nickname for Clifornia is Golden State. I am going to learn about the American history, some cities(LA, Las Vegas and San Diego). I’ve created this blog so my family and friends home in Norway can follow my journey here in USA.. I'm going to post some facts about slavery, immigration, cities, and historical events and People. In this post I will tell you a little bit about the itinerary, flight and the hotel. Enjoy!

The trip to the United States is quite long and I will probably get quite tired when I come to the United States after almost one day of travelling. My journey to USA starts 30 September on a Tuesday morning. The first flight goes from Gardemoen (Norway) 08:45 AM., and after 3 hours and 5 minutes the plane arrives Helsinki (Finland). Then I have to wait at the airport for about 3 hours and 5 minutes. Then goes the next flight 14:10 from Helsinki and arrives New York 15:50 after a 2 hours and 40 minutes long trip. I have to wait at the airport for 4 hours and 20 minuets!! It will be sooo boring. But anyways, after the waiting my last flight goes from New York 18:30 and arrives Los Angeles 21:45. The whole flight trip will take 22 hours. The airline I fly with is called British Airways.

The Hotel I’m going to stay in is "Mulholland Rockstar Retreat".  That`s a 5 stars hotel. For each night will it cost 17 554 NOK witch is the same as 2 729,17 USD. For 30 nights will it cost me 526 624 NOK witch is the same as 81 875, 62 USD. “The facilities in the villa: Balcony, Sea View, City View, Satellite TV, Cable TV, Satellite TV, iPod dock, Desk, Seating Area, Washing Machine, Heating, Fireplace, Private Entrance, Sofa, Tiled floor, Dryer, Wardrobe, Jacuzzi, Toilet, bath or Shower, Extra bathroom, Refrigerator, Microwave, Dishwasher, Kitchen, Dining Area, Oven, hob, Coffee machine, dining table, outdoor furniture, outdoor dining area, Towels, Linen, Upper floors only accessible by stairs” You can find the hotel here

For the trip back to Norway, it only takes 16 hours and 40 minutes. My first flight goes form Los Angeles 30 October 15:25 and after a 1 hour and 5 minutes trip, I will arrive Dallas 20:25. I have to wait at the airport for 1 hour and 5 minutes before my next flight goes. Then the flight arrives the London Heathrow 31 October 11:30. My next flight goes 13.05 from London Heathrow and I will be on Gardemoen 16:15. Then I take the train to Porsgrunn where my parents wait for me. Flights return costs 5166 NOK, which is the same as 803, 17 USD

I'm really looking forward to this trip, it will be a memory for life.

-Marthine