The "American Century" Timeline

We're going to use some new online tools to build a timeline of the time period we're studying. It will involve some light research and the ability to enter information into an online spreadsheet.

The results will be pretty cool. 

Steps

1. Be sure that you've given me an email address that you actually check. By 1/30, you will receive an e-mail inviting you to collaborate with me on a Google Docs spreadsheet.
2. Sign up (by emailing me!) for two years from 1865-2009. One year must be in the range 1865-1935 and one year must fall in the range 1936-2009. You can see the list of available years below. Do this by 2/6.
3. Identify 8 historically significant events from each of your two years.  (Births, deaths, legislation, wars, inventions, publications, . . . ).  For each event, find a related image online (and get the URL for the image); find a link for more information (no more than half the links can be to Wikipedia); and write a ONE- or TWO-SENTENCE description of the event. Descriptions may not be longer than two sentences.
4. In the Google spreadsheet, enter the FOUR most significant events for each year, filling out the various fields with the appropriate information.  (See below for details.)
5. For each of your two years, send an email to me with the full list, and a two-paragraph document. The first paragraph should explain how you chose the full list of 8 events, and the second paragraph  will explain how you cut it down to 4.
6. The information from the first year must be posted to the timeline and the document submitted to me by 5pm on March 6. The information for the second year must be posted to the timeline and the document submitted to me by 5pm on April 8. Of course, completing the assignment early is always fine.

Available Years

1865 | 1866 | 1867 | 1868 | 1869 | 1870 | 1871 | 1872 | 1873 | 1874 | 1875 | 1876  | 1877 | 1878 | 1879 | 1880 | 1881 | 1882 | 1883 | 1884  | 1885 | 1886 | 1887 | 1888 | 1889 | 1890 | 1891 | 1892 | 1893 | 1894 | 1895 | 1896 | 1897 | 1898 | 1899 | 1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935

1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009

The Spreadsheet's Fields

Using the spreadsheet is easy, but it also requires the data to be input in a very particular way.  For best results, follow these instructions exactly:

1. Always add your information to the BOTTOM of the spreadsheet. 
2. The first field, "{label}" is the text that will be visible directly on the timeline.  It should be short: 3-6 words (where a title of a novel or poem can count as one poem).  To make a title appear italicized, type it exactly like this (without the quotation marks): "AuthorName, <em>Book Title</em>"  Don't worry about the fact that it doesn't look italicized in the spreadsheet, and DON'T USE THE SPREADSHEET'S ITALICS FUNCTION!
3. The second field, "{start-date}" is mandatory: when did the event happen?  Fill this in: yyyy-mm-dd.  You must use 2-digit months (01, 02, 03) and 2-digit days.
4. The third field, "{end-date}" is optional: If the event happened over a span of time, when did it end?  Again, use yyyy-mm-dd format.
5. The fourth field, "{description:single}"  is where you put your one-sentence description.  Also, wrap the sentence--or some portion of it--in your "more information" link.  Here's how to do it (the quotation marks in the pointy-brackets are REQUIRED!!): <a href="/LINKGOESHERE">SENTENCE GOES HERE</a>  
6. The fifth field, "{image:url}" is where you cut-and-paste the url for the related image.
7. The sixth field, "{EventType}" is where you identify what kind event this is: Politics, Military, Science/Technology, Economics, Literature, Arts, Biography.  Only choose one!
8. The seventh field: "{initials}" is where you put your initials, for ease of bookkeeping.
9. After you have entered your information in the spreadsheet, make sure that it is displaying properly on the timeline.