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Others receiving multiple votes included: Wilbur and Orville Wright, Jonas Salk, and Mohatama Ghandi.
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Here are some of the papers which were presented . . .
Even though there were a great number of important people who could be considered the "Person of the Century," there is one person who I think has really deserved the award. That man is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a man who devoted his life to the fight for the civil rights of the poor, the disadvantaged, and the people who were racially oppressed in the United States.
King organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was seen as a national leader in the fight for civil rights. One way that King developed the need for racial equality was by studying the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1958, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his first book, Stride Toward Freedom. In 1960, he became president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Throughout all these meetings and conferences, he continued to travel and speak about racial equality. Another great deed of King was his organization of the Massive March on Washington, where he gave his famous speech, " I have a dream..." He was the first black American chosen to be Time Magazine's "Man of the Year." He was also the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. King was changing lives by changing the way people thought about the poor and the oppressed. In 1969, King planned another march on Washington, demanding an end to all forms of discrimination, but on April 4, 1968, King was assassinated.
The death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an important day in history. He had done so much for the civil rights of the poor and racially oppressed that he is honored with a national holiday so we can celebrate his life. He has taught people that when something is very wrong, you have to calmly speak your mind and do what you have to do to change the way things are. For all the changes he made and all the hope of civil rights he gave to everyone, he should get the Person of the Century Award. Our country will never be the same because of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
After the years had passed, she left Ireland to join a Loretto convent in India. Her work included, teaching at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta where she saw the city's slums.
In 1964, Mother Teresa said she had received a "call within a call," experiencing what she believed was divine inspiration to begin a new chapter in her life, one devoted to helping the sick and the destitute. In that same year 1950, she founded a religious order. In 1952, Mother Teresa also found the Nirmal Hriday in Calcutta, a home to which terminally ill people could go to die with dignity.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI called Mother Teresa to Rome to found a home there. In 1971, he awarded her the first Pope John XXIII peace prize. Under Mother Teresa's direction, the MIssionaries of Charity established orphanages, nutrition centers, health care centers, and schools, bringing relief to diverse people, from impoverished blacks in South Africa to Christians and Muslims in war-torn Lebanon to the poor of New York City's Harlem section.
In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her humanitarian efforts. She was also awarded the Jewel of India, India's highest civilian medal, as well as honorary degrees from academic institutions worldwide.
After Mother Teresa suffered a heart attack in 1989, she had a pacemaker because of her health problems, and she resigned as superior general of the order in April of 1990. In early 1997, Mother Teresa began to suffer from increasingly severe health problems such as heart and kidney disorders. On September 5, 1997, at the age of eighty-seven, Mother Teresa died of a heart attack. At that time, missions of Mother Teresa's order existed in more than ninety countries and have grown to include some 4,000 nuns and hundreds of thousands of lay workers and volunteers.
As you can see, Mother Teresa was an individual, a very spiritual individual who helped many people in poverty. That is why i chose Mother Teresa as an influential person not because of her personality, but because of her caring towards others.
Henry Ford was a machinist who worked as a engineer and became an inventor of successful gasoline engines. The Ford Company introduced the Model N in 1906. The success of this car lead to the development of the very famous Model T in 1908. The Model T was also known as the "Tin Lizzie." It was a simple and inexpensive car, which made it very popular. Originally, the Model T sold for $825, but Henry Ford's use of the moving assembly line made it possible to triple production and thus cut the cost repeatedly. This production allowed the Ford Motor Company to manufacture over 240,000 Model T's a year. As a result of this level of production, the Ford Motor Company was able to lower the price all the way down to $290 by 1924.
Henry Ford did many things to help his workers. In 1914, he raised the minimum wage to $5.00 a day for his employees twenty-two years or older, which was more then twice the rate of most wage earners. Next he shortened the workday from nine hours to eight hours. Because of this, workers flocked to the Ford factories for jobs. Henry Ford chose only the smartest and hardest working ones.
Henry Ford's contributions changed this country in many ways in the twentieth century. He brought the automobile into the driveways of everyday citizens, not just the extremely wealthy. He created many high paying jobs, and he made those jobs accessible to average citizens. He was also very fair. He employed the best and the smartest workers and paid them the money they deserved. He became a wealthy man himself, and he set up the world's largest charitable foundation, the Ford Foundation, which gives away grants for education and research. Henry Ford was a highly productive worker who helped change the industrial workplace in the twentieth century.
Ghandi had some very strong feelings on the poor, women's rights, and the right to choose your own destiny. Because of the large numbers of poor people in India, Ghandi saw poverty everyday of his life. Ghandi was embarrassed to have someone whom he saw as an equal serving him. He wanted to unite with the poor, and he would be seen in the fields working, talking, and living with them. In 1921, Ghandi said, "We should be ashamed of resting or having a square meal as long as there are able bodied men and women without work or food." Ghandi was a leader for a lot of the less fortunate people, and he encouraged them to stand up for their rights.
Another moral principle Ghandi showed was his concern about women and their rights. To Ghandi, the way white men treated women was one of the greatest evil not only in India but all over the world. He found it shocking the abuse on "the better half of humanity". He thought the women were the "nobler of the two." Women today can thank Ghandi for encouraging women in India to stand up for their rights and in this way setting an example for the rest of the world.
One of the things Ghandi felt the strongest about was freedom for all. He contributed greatly to the freeing of India from the colonial power of Great Britain. Ghandi led many nonviolent protests against the British rule. He was arrested many times but that just added to his fame and prestige in India and around the world. The better known he became the larger the number of people that joined him in protest. Finally, in 1947 the protests paralyzed India and the nation of India was born. Ghandi's example of nonviolent protest inspired Martin Luther King Jr. to lead American blacks in similar nonviolent protests in search for their equality and freedom. Another world leader inspired by Ghandi was Nelson Mandela who after many years in jail, because of his nonviolent opposition to apartheid in South Africa, went on to become that nation's first president.
As you can see Ghandi was a decent man whose main concern was making life better for the poor, weak, and the people who needed a champion. For me and many others around the world, Ghandi was a true champion.
There were many people who made extraordinary contributions in this century. Sir Alexander Fleming, a British bacteriologist, was one of them. He discovered penicillin. The discovery of penicillin was certainly a major contribution to the 20th century.
Penicillin is an antibiotic that is derived from the mold Penicillium Notatum. It acts by both killing and inhibiting the growth of bacteria. Through the 1900s, this antibiotic has saved millions of lives.
Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered penicillin in 1928. While he was researching influenza (the flu), he observed that the mold contaminating one of his culture plates had destroyed the bacteria. This observation created the basis for the development of penicillin therapy.
Ten years later, Fleming, along with fellow British scientists Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain, continued the research of penicillin. Fleming and his two colleagues studied the antibiotic intensely. In 1945, their work paid off. Fleming, Florey, and Chain shared the Nobel Peace Prize in physiology(medicine).
If Fleming had not discovered penicillin, millions of lives would have been lost. I hope you will agree with me when I say that Sir Alexander Fleming is one of the many people who made a difference in our society. He was definitely a notable individual in the 20th century.
In October of 1929, the stock market crashed leading to a period of hardship for American citizens. This era is known as the Great Depression. As many as twenty-five percent of all workers could not find jobs, especially in the trades such as carpenters, plumbers, and electricians. The Depression lasted until the early 1940s. In 1933, FDR created the New Deal which increased government help to people hurt by the Depression. With the events occurring in Europe, including the invasion of Poland in 1939, the fall of France in 1940, and the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, FDR believed that war was inevitable with Nazi Germany. Only England under the leadership of Winston Churchill stood as a barrier to the German advance. President Roosevelt began a special relationship with Prime Minister Churchill that resulted in a program called Lend-Lease that provided old naval destroyers and other essential supplies to insure England's survival. As a part of this agreement, US Navy destroyers were actively escorting ship convoys to England in 1941.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbor. Hawaii. FDR now moved from behind the scenes to a wartime commander in chief leading the military and industrial forces of the United States to defeat Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. By Roosevelt's leadership, he was able to wage a two ocean war and ultimately defeat the enemies of democracy.
FDR died in April 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia, of a stroke. He never saw the surrender of Germany or Japan. The outpouring of feeling demonstrated by the American people following his death left no doubt as to his contributions as President.
Thomas EdisonEdison changed our way of living in many ways that we never think of. When most people hear the name Thomas Edison, they think of the light bulb, but that's not all he's known for. In fact, Edison's first invention was the telegraphic repeating instrument that enabled messages to be transmitted automatically without the assistance of an operator. Next, Edison devised and partly completely a stock quotation printer. In 1876, Edison had finally come up with enough money to establish his own laboratory. It was here that he devised an automatic telegraph system that made possible a greater speed and range of transmission. With the help of Alexander Graham Bell, a great American physicist and inventor, Edison next arrived on his invention of the carbon telephone transmitter.
In 1877 Edison announced his invention of a phonograph by which sound could be recorded mechanically on a tinfoil cylinder. Ten years later, he exibited publicly his brilliant electric light bulb, his most important invention, and the one requiring the most careful research and experimentation.
I could go for days listing how Thomas Edison has changed our lives, but I won't. I just want to get across the message to you that without Thomas Edison, our bedtimes would be a lot earlier because there would be no lights, there would be less communication because there would be no phones, and there would be no motion pictures because he never would've been there to invent them . Now, can you tell me how many times you've realized how important Edison really was? I can and that's why I call him person of the century.
More to come . . .
Read Team 3's picks for Inventions of the Century or go back to Ms. Smith's English Page
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