American Literature          

Al Capone

Al Capone was a gangster who took part in illegal activities during the 1920’s. While growing up, he was a part of two gangs. And by the age of fourteen he dropped out of school.^[1] Instead of school, he found local jobs to work at and still be a part of his gang. When he was nineteen, he met his future wife, Mary Coughlin, at a dance. She had his first son and they were married in December of 1918. While Capone was working at Yale, he murdered two guys but wasn’t charged for it because no one witnessed to seeing it happen. Yale sent Capone to Chicago to cool off. While in Chicago, he helped John Torrio with his bootlegging business. A few years later, they became partners in the business. Torrio was shot so Capone became the main man. He controlled all the illegal activities taking place and made an estimated $100,000,000 a year. Al had many afraid of him and killed anyone who got in the way. The biggest killing was the Valentine’s Day Massacre. His men dressed up as police so the victims would put their guns down. They shot the victims 150 times. Although he was strong and a tough guy, he also cared for others. He opened the first soup kitchen after the stock market crashed. Capone soon got syphilis and had a storke. He died of cardiac arrest, a stork, and pneumonia on January 25, 1947.^[2]

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh was working as a mail pilot just a year before he became an American hero.  On May 20, 1927 Charles flew his plane from New York to Paris.  He became the first person to do it successfully.  As soon as he landed he became a hero, over 100,000 people rushed to greet him in Paris, Charles said "I saw there was danger of killing people with my propeller and I quickly came to a stop." Upon arriving back in the states New York gave him the largest ticker tape parade ever.  Calvin Coolidge was the President at the time, and awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross.

• Charles Lindbergh was born February 4^th 1902, in his Uncle Edwin’s apartment.
• In 1906 his father is elected to Congress.
• In 1918 Charles was excused from senior year of high school to operate family farm for war effort.
• April 9^th 1922 Charles flew his first solo flight.
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• Charles enlisted into the Army in 1924 as a pilot.
• In April of 1926 Charles made his first Chicago to St. Louis airmail flight.
• February 25^th 1927, Charles purchased The Spirit of St. Louis, the plane he made the flight in.
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• May 20, 1927, Charles flew from New York to Paris making him the only man to go overseas.
• On August 26, 1974 Charles dies of Cancer at age 72.

Margaret Mead 

was born on December 1, 1901 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[3]  Margaret Mead focused on anthropology and social problems going on around in the world such as world hunger, childhood education, and mental health.^[4] She was a very influential speaker and spoke to big groups about education, the environment, race, poverty, and woman’s rights. She traveled around the United States lecturing on the radio and television programs. ^[5] She wrote over 44 books and more than 1,000 articles translated into all languages. She was the first anthropologist to study child practices and she was a huge activist with issues concerning the United States Congress. 

Margaret died of cancer November 15, 1978.^[6]  

"When we look about us among different civilizations and observe the

vastly different styles of life to which the individual has been made to

conform, to the development of which he has been made to

contribute, we take new hope for humanity and its potentialities."

--Margaret Mead 1930^[7]

Henry Ford  

was born July 30 1863. He created the Ford Motor Company in 1903, he was he Vice President and chief engineer. He tried to create an efficient way to mass produce cars that people could afford. ^[8] His first mass produced car was the Model T Ford in 1908.Ford started what is now called the “assembly line”. This was so that different people could work on different parts of a car and make the production of the car cheaper and quicker. The production of the Model T Ford stopped in 1927. For was also interested in politics. He ran for democratic senator but was not chosen. He had a strong work ethic and worked almost forty hours in only five days. He lived his life trying to help others and making affordable things for people. In 1947, at the age of 83, Henry died cerebral hemorrhage.

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."

-Henry Ford^[9]

"The only history worth a thinker's damn is the history we make today."

- Henry Ford^[10]