WORLD'S INVENTIONS

                                        WORLD'S ALL INVENTIONS

1955—TV REMOTE CONTROL
It marks the official end of humanity's struggle for survival and the beginning of its quest for a really relaxing afternoon. The first wireless remote, designed by Zenith's Eugene Polley, is essentially a flashlight. When Zenith discovers that direct sunlight also can change channels on the remote-receptive TVs, the company comes out with a model that uses ultrasound; it lasts into the 1980s, to the chagrin of many a family dog. The industry then switches to infrared.

1955—MICROWAVE OVEN
In 1945 Raytheon's Percy Spencer stands in front of a magnetron (the power tube of radar) and feels a candy bar start to melt in his pocket: He is intrigued. When he places popcorn kernels in front of the magnetron, the kernels explode all over the lab. Ten years later Spencer patents a "radar range" that cooks with high-frequency radio waves; that same year, the Tappan Stove Co. introduces the first home microwave model.

1957—BIRTH-CONTROL PILL
Enovid, a drug the FDA approves for menstrual disorders, comes with a warning: The mixture of synthetic progesterone and estrogen also prevents ovulation. Two years later, more than half a million American women are taking Enovid—and not all of them have cramps. In 1960 the FDA approves Enovid for use as the first oral contraceptive.

1958—JET AIRLINER 
The Boeing 707-120 debuts as the world's first successful commercial jet airliner, ushering in the era of accessible mass air travel. The four-engine plane carries 181 passengers and cruises at 600 mph for up to 5280 miles on a full tank. The first commercial jet flight takes off from New York and lands in Paris; domestic service soon connects New York and Los Angeles.

1959—FLOAT GLASS
There's a reason old windowpanes distort everything: They were made by rapidly squeezing a sheet of red-hot glass between two hot rollers, which produced a cheap but uneven pane. British engineer Alastair Pilkington revolutionizes the process by floating molten glass on a bath of molten tin—by nature, completely flat. The first factory to produce usable float glass opens in 1959; an estimated 90 percent of plate glass is still produced this way.


1961—CORDLESS TOOLS
Black and Decker releases its first cordless drill, but designers can't coax more than 20 watts from its NiCd batteries. Instead, they strive for efficiency, modifying gear ratios and using better materials. The revolutionary result puts new power in the hands of DIYers and—thanks to a NASA contract—the gloves of astronauts.

1961—INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
The Unimate, the first programmable industrial robot, is installed on a General Motors assembly line in New Jersey. Conceived by George C. Devol Jr. to move and fetch things, the invention gets a lukewarm reception in the United States. Japanese manufacturers love it and, after licensing the design in 1968, go on to dominate the global market for industrial robots.

1962—COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE 
Telstar is launched as the first "active" communications satellite—active as in amplifying and retransmitting incoming signals, rather than passively bouncing them back to Earth. Telstar makes real a 1945 concept by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, who envisioned a global communications network based on geosynchronous satellites. Two weeks after Telstar's debut, President Kennedy holds a press conference in Washington, D.C., that is broadcast live across the Atlantic.

1962—LED 
Working as a consultant for General Electric, Nick Holonyak develops the light-emitting diode (LED), which provides a simple and inexpensive way for computers to convey information. From their humble beginnings in portable calculators, LEDs spread from the red light that indicates coffee is brewing to the 290-ft.-tall Reuters billboard in Times Square.

1964—UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES
Widespread use of remotely piloted aircraft begins during the Vietnam War with deployment of 1000 AQM-34 Ryan Firebees. The first model of these 29-ft.-long planes was developed in just 90 days in 1962. AQM-34s go on to fly more than 34,000 surveillance missions. Their success leads to the eventual development of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles widely used today.

STATS



1962/VIDEO GAMES MIT programmers write Spacewar; 43 years later 89 percent of school-age kids own video games. 1955/POLIO VACCINE The year Jonas Salk finds a way to prevent polio, there are 28,985 global cases; by 2005, the number drops to 1200. 1957/THREE-POINT SEATBELT According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, more than 15,000 American lives are saved in 2005 by Nils Bohlin's device.

The first general-purpose computer, the nearly 30-ton ENIAC (1947), contains 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors and 10,000 capacitors. In 1959, the INTEGRATED CIRCUIT puts those innards on one tiny chip. Before the entire world is networked, there is the ARPANET—four computers linked in1969. It introduces the concept of "packet switching," which simultaneously delivers messages as short units and reassembles them at their destination. The Apple II, Commodore Pet and Radio Shack's TRS-80 are introduced in 1977—four years before IBM, soon to become synonymous with the term "PC," unveils its PERSONAL COMPUTER. In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee creates "hypertext markup language" (HTML) to make Web pages and the "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) to identify where information is stored. These breakthroughs form the foundation of the WORLD WIDE WEB. 

1964—MUSIC SYNTHESIZER 
Robert Moog develops the first electronic synthesizer to make the leap from machine to musical instrument. Moog's device not only generates better sounds than other synthesizers, it can be controlled by a keyboard rather than by punch cards. The subsequent acceptance of electronic music is a crucial step in developing audio technology for computers, cellphones and stereos.

1966—HIGH-YIELD RICE 
The International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines releases a semi-dwarf, high-yield Indica variety that, in conjunction with high-yield wheat, ushers in the Green Revolution. Indica rice thrives in tropical regions of Asia and South America, raising worldwide production more than 20 percent by 1970.

1969—SMOKE DETECTOR 
Randolph Smith and Kenneth House patent a battery-powered smoke detector for home use. Later models rely on perhaps the cheapest nuclear technology you can own: a chunk of americium-241. The element's radioactive particles generate a small electric current. If smoke enters the chamber it disrupts the current, triggering an alarm.

1969—CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICE 
Bell Labs' George Smith and Willard Boyle invent a charge-coupled device (CCD) that can measure light arriving at a rate of just one photon per minute. Smith and Boyle's apparatus allows extremely faint images to be recorded, which is very useful in astronomy. Today, its most noticeable impact is in digital cameras, which rely on CCD arrays containing millions of pixels.

1970—DIGITAL MUSIC 
James Russell, a scientist with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, invents the first digital-to-optical recording and playback system, in which sounds are represented by a string of 0s and 1s and a laser reads the binary patterns etched on a photosensitive platter. Russell isn't able to convince the music industry to adopt his invention, but 20 years later, Time Warner and other CD manufacturers pay a $30 million patent infringement settlement to Russell's former employer, the Optical Recording Co.

1971—WAFFLE-SOLE RUNNING SHOES 
Bill Bowerman, the track coach at the University of Oregon, sacrifices breakfast for peak performance when he pours rubber into his wife's waffle iron, forming lightweight soles for his athletes' running shoes. Three years later, Bowerman's company, Nike, introduces the Waffle Trainer, which is an instant hit.

IN THEIR WORDS
1962 Computer Mouse
"I don't know why we call it a mouse. It started that way, and we never changed it." —Doug Engelbart, engineer, Stanford Research Institute, 1968

1969 Automated Teller Machine
"On Sept. 2, our bank will open at 9:00 and never close again!" —Long Island branch of Chemical Bank, advertisement from 1969

1973 Cellphone
"Joel, I'm calling you from a real cellular phone." —Martin Cooper, leader of Motorola's cellphone team, to Joel Engel, research head of rival AT&T's Bell Labs, April 3, 1973

1978 In-Vitro Fertilization
"We'd love to have children of our own one day. That would be such a dream come true." —Louise Brown Mullinder, the first test-tube baby, on her wedding day, in 2003

1979 Sony Walkman
"This is the product that will satisfy those young people who want to listen to music all day." —Akio Morita, Sony Chairman, February 1979

RADICAL FIBERS

From easy-on shoes to lighter tennis rackets and stronger planes, revolutionary materials have changed our lives.

In 1955, Patent No. 2,717,437 is issued to George de Mestral for VELCRO, a fabric inspired by burrs that stick to his dog's fur. In 1961 researchers in Japan develop high-quality CARBON-FIBER COMPOSITES, capping a decade of experimentation with plastics reinforced by carbon fibers. Thanks to DuPont's Stephanie Kwolek and Herbert Blades, who in 1965 invent a high-strength polymer called KEVLAR, the body armor of 2920 police and correctional officers has protected them from fatal attacks. The term "FIBEROPTIC" is coined in 1956, but it isn't until 1970 that scientists at Corning produce a fiber of ultrapure glass that transmits light well enough to be used for telecommunications. 

1972—ELECTRONIC IGNITION 
Chrysler paves the way for the era of electronic—rather than mechanical—advances in automobiles with the electronic ignition. It leads to electronic control of ignition timing and fuel metering, harbingers of more sophisticated systems to come. Today, these include electronic control transmission shift points, antilock brakes, traction control systems, steering and airbag deployment.

1973—MRI
Everyone agrees that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a brilliant invention—but no one agrees on who invented it. The physical effect that MRIs rely on—nuclear magnetic resonance—earns various scientists Nobel Prizes for physics in 1944 and 1952. Many believe that Raymond Damadian establishes the machine's medical merit in 1973, when he first uses magnetic resonance to discern healthy tissue from cancer. Yet, in 2003, the Nobel Prize for medicine goes to Peter Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield for their "seminal discoveries." The topic of who is the worthiest candidate remains hotly debated.

1978—GPS 
The first satellite in the modern Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) is launched. (The GPS's precursor, TRANSIT, was developed in the early 1960s to guide nuclear subs.) It is not until the year 2000, though, that President Clinton grants nonmilitary users access to an unscrambled GPS signal. Now, cheap, handheld GPS units can determine a person's location to within 3 yards.

1981—SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE 
By moving the needle of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) across a surface and monitoring the electric current that flows through it, scientists can map a surface to the level of single atoms. The STM is so precise that it not only looks at atoms—it also can manipulate them into structures. The microscope's development earns IBM researchers Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer a Nobel Prize and helps launch the emerging era of nanotechnology.

1984—DNA FINGERPRINTING 
Molecular biologist Alec Jeffreys devises a way to make the analysis of more than 3 billion units in the human DNA sequence much more manageable by comparing only the parts of the sequence that show the greatest variation among people. His method quickly finds its way into the courts, where it is used to exonerate people wrongly accused of crimes and to finger the true culprits.

USES
1958/LASER BEAM Whitens teeth, removes tattoos, corrects vision, scans groceries, tracks missiles.1978/GENETIC ENGINEERING Produces insulin, creates vaccines, clones sheep, increases shelf life of tomatoes, manipulates human cells to prevent disease. 1958/SUPER GLUE Repairs a broken taillight, reassembles a vase, strengthens knots on a hammock, closes wounds, lifts fingerprints.

LIFESAVERS

Over the past 50 years, a few pivotal medical discoveries have helped to boost adult life expectancy dramatically.

In 1956, Wilson Greatbatch grabs the wrong resistor and connects it to a device he is building to record heartbeats. When the circuit emits a pulse, he realizes the device can be used to control the beat; in 1960 the first PACEMAKER is successfully implanted in a human. Rene Favaloro performs the first CORONARY BYPASS SURGERY in 1967, taking a length of vein from a leg and grafting it onto the coronary artery. This allows blood to flow around the blocked section. Thanks in part to these advances, the number of deaths from heart disease declines in the U.S. by almost 50 percent. The outlook for people infected by HIV also dramatically changes. The FDA approves Invirase, the first of a class of drugs called HIV PROTEASE INHIBITORS, in 1995. By blocking the function of enzymes used in the virus's replication, the inhibitors can reduce HIV to undetectable levels for sustained periods in up to 90 percent of patients.


1985—POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION 
Biochemist Kary Mullis invents a technique that exploits enzymes in order to make millions of copies of a tiny scrap of DNA quickly and cheaply. No matter how small or dried-out a bloodstain is, forensic scientists can now gather enough genetic material to do DNA fingerprinting. With PCR, doctors also can search for trace amounts of HIV genetic code to diagnose infection much sooner than by conventional methods.

1987—PROZAC 
Prozac becomes the first in a new class of FDA-approved antidepressants called "selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors," which block the reabsorption of the mood-elevating neurotransmitter serotonin, thereby prolonging its effects. Though at times controversial, Prozac helps patients cope with clinical depression, reshaping our understanding of how personality and emotion can be chemically controlled. Within five years, 4.5 million Americans are taking Prozac—making it the most widely accepted psychiatric drug ever.

1998—GENETIC SEQUENCING 
Scientist Craig Venter announces that his company will sequence the entire human genome in just three years and for only $300 million—12 years and $2 billion less than a federally funded project established to do the same thing. Venter uses a method called "shotgun sequencing" to make automated gene sequencers, instead of relying on the laborious approach used by the government program. The result is an acrimonious race to the finish, which ends in a tie. Both groups announce the completion of the human genome sequence in papers published in 2001.

1998—MP3 PLAYER
Depending on who you ask, the MP3 is either the end of civilization (record companies) or the dawn of a new world (everyone else). The Korean company Saehan introduces its MPMan in 1998, long before Apple asks, "Which iPod are you?" When the Diamond Rio hits the shelves a few months later, the Recording Industry Association of America sues—providing massive publicity and a boost to digital technology.

2002—IEEE 802.16
The geniuses at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers publish a wireless metropolitan area network standard that functions like Wi-Fi on steroids. An 802.16 antenna can transmit Internet access up to a 30-mile radius at speeds comparable to DSL and cable broadband. When it all shakes out, 802.16 could end up launching developing nations into the digital age by eliminating the need for wired telecommunications infrastructure.

FORWARD DRIVE

With 196 million licensed drivers in the U.S., a little automotive innovation can conserve a whole lot of oil.

The fuel cell goes back more than 150 years, and the first FUEL CELL VEHICLE—a 20-hp tractor—is built in 1959. But it isn't until 1993 that a Canadian company, Ballard Power Systems, demonstrates the first zero-emissions fuel cell bus. Since then, progress toward an economically viable fuel cell car has remained slow but steady. Likewise, Ferdinand Porsche wins his class at the 1902 Exelberg Hill-Climb in Austria in a front-wheel-drive HYBRID-ELECTRIC CAR. But it is almost a century later, in1997, that Toyota surprises its rivals by unveiling the hybrid Prius to Japanese consumers. It takes nearly three years for the Prius to reach North America. 

PM's Panel Of Experts
TO SELECT THE 50 most pioneering inventions of the past 50 years, PM consulted 25 authorities at 17 museums and universities across the country. Their collective expertise spans aeronautics, biology, physics, medicine, automobiles and technology. An initial call for suggestions resulted in a list of 100 inventions, which was then circulated for a formal vote and reduced via a points system determined by each expert's top picks. Any such list is open to debate, of course. We welcome your suggestions of other worthy inventions here at popularmechanics.com/50inventions.

Dennis Bateman
Carnegie Science Center
Pittsburgh, PA

Dag Spicer
Computer History Museum
Mountain View, CA

Matilda McQuaid
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
New York, NY

Trevor Pinch
Kathleen Vogel
Cornell University, Department of Science and Technology Studies
Ithaca, NY

Paul Doherty
Exploratorium
San Francisco, CA

Blake Andres
Great Lakes Science Center
Cleveland, OH

Jennie Holladay
The Henry Ford Museum
Dearborn, MI

Stephen Cutcliffe
John Kenly Smith
Lehigh University, Science, Technologyand Society Program
Bethlehem, PA

Emlyn Koster
Liberty Science Center
Jersey City, NJ

Amy Lowen
Louisville Science Center
Louisville, KY

Robin Doty
Cheryl Wojciechowski
Museum of Science
Boston, MA
Victoria Harden
Sarah Leavitt
Office of National Institutes of Health History
Bethesda, MD

Marilyn Johnson
Anders Liljeholm
Craig Reed
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
Portland, OR
David Weil
San Diego Computer Museum
San Diego, CA

John Anderson
Peter Jakab
Roger Launius
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Washington, D.C.

Brad Osgood
Stanford University, Science, Technology and Society Program
Palo Alto, CA

Greg Brown
Tech Museum of Innovation
San Jose, CA

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history of airoplane.

he dream of flying is as old as mankind itself. However, the concept of the airplane has only been around for two centuries. Before that time, men and women tried to navigate the air by imitating the birds. They built wings to strap onto their arm or machines with flapping wings called ornithopters. On the surface, it seemed like a good plan. After all, there are plenty of birds in the air to show that the concept does work. The trouble is, it works  better at bird-scale than it does at the much larger scale needed to lift both a man and a machine off the ground. So folks began to look for other ways to fly. Beginning in 1783, a few aeronauts made daring, uncontrolled flights in lighter-than-air balloons, filled with either hot air or hydrogen gas. But this was hardly a practical way to fly. There was no way to get from here to there unless the wind was blowing in the desired direction. It wasn’t until the turn of the nineteenth century that an English baronet from the gloomy moors of Yorkshire conceived a flying machine with fixed wings, apropulsion system, and movable control surfaces. This was the fundamental concept of the airplane. Sir George Cayley also built the first true airplane — a kite mounted on a stick with a movable tail. It was crude, but it proved his idea worked, and from that first humble glider evolved the amazing  machines that have taken us to the edge of space at speeds faster than sound. This wing of the museum focuses on the early history of the airplane, from its conception in 1799 to the years just before World War I. Because we are a museum of pioneer aviation, we don’t spend a great deal of time on those years after Orville Wright closed the doors of the Wright Company in 1916. We concentrate on the development of the airplane before it was commonplace, when flying machines were odd contraptions of stick, cloth, and wire; engines were temperamental and untrustworthy; and pilots were never quite sure whether they’d be able to coax their machine into the air or bring it down in one piece. A History of the Airplane is divided into four sections:	1490 Leonardo DaVinci's plan for a man-carrying ornithopter with flapping wings. 1783 Montgolfier hot-air balloon. 1799 Sir George Cayley's plan for a fixed-wing aircraft.
	THE CENTURY BEFORE In 1799, Sir George Cayley defined the forces of lift and drag and presented the first scientific design for a fixed-wing aircraft. Building on his pioneering work in aeronautics, scientists and engineers began designing and testing airplanes. A young boy made the first manned flight in a glider designed by Cayley in 1849. In 1874, Felix duTemple made the first attempt at powered flight by hopping off the end of a ramp in a steam-driven monoplane. Other scientists, such as Francis Wenham and Horatio Phillips studied cambered wing designs mounted in wind tunnels and on whirling arms. Finally in 1894, Sir Hiram Maxim made a successful takeoff (but a woefully uncontrolled flight) in a biplane "test rig." At the same time, Otto Lilienthal made the first controlled flights, shifting his body weight to steer a small glider. Inspired by his success, Wilbur and Orville Wright experiment with aerodynamic surfaces to control an airplane in flight. Their work leads them to make the first controlled, sustained, powered flights on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The First Airplanes, 1799 to 1853 Powering Up, 1854 to 1879 Airmen and Chauffers, 1880 to 1898 The Road to Kitty Hawk, 1899 to 1903	The Aerial Steam Carriage, conceived by William Henson in 1843, was the first aircraft design to show propellers. In 1874, Felix du Temple made the first attempt at manned flight in a powered aircraft. He was not successful.
	THE DECADE AFTER Immediately after the Wright Brothers make their first powered flights in 1903, they begin to develop their experimental aircraft into a marketable product. By 1905 they have what they consider to be a "practical flying machine." Other experimenters learn of their work and begin to build on their success. By 1906, would-be pilots are making tentative hops in uncontrollable aircraft. By 1909, after watching the Wrights' flying demonstrations, they grasp the brilliance and necessity of three-axis aerodynamic control. The performance of their aircraft quickly catch up to, then surpass Wright Flyers. The capabilities of and the uses for aircraft expand as designers and pilots introduce float planes, flying boats, passenger aircraft, observation platforms fitted with radios and wireless telegraphs, fighters, and bombers. As World War I  approaches, aircraft have become an essential part of war and peace. Landing Without Crashing, 1904 to 1905 Wake Up Call, 1905 to 1909 Faster, Higher, Farther, 1909 to 1912 Girding for Battle, 1912 to 1914	The 1905 Wright Flyer III was the first practical aircraft, capable of sustained flight and navigation. The Dunne flying wing, built and tested by the British in 1910, was the first top secret aircraft.
	PILOTS, PLANES, AND PIONEERS The history of pioneer aviation is resplendent with heroes and heroines who took spindly, underpowered aircraft and accomplished amazing things. They were an odd collection of scientists, entrepreneurs, adventurers, soldiers, and people who just wanted to push personal and cultural boundaries. What they all had in common is that they blazed the first trails through the sky and in doing so, changed the world. This is a collection of short biographies, arranged alphabetically. We have added longer bios for a few pioneers, and will add more as time allows. Short Biographies of Aviation Pioneers, A through Z Charley Furnas, the First Airplane Passenger Cal Rodgers and the Tale of the Vin Fiz The Wright/Smithsonian Controversy	In 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first licensed woman pilot in the United States.
	WHO WAS FIRST? Almost as soon as the news of the Wright brothers' first flights at Kitty Hawk and Huffman Prairie became known, there were claims that others had been the first to fly. We shouldn't deny these "wannabees" the acclaim they deserve; they aretrue aviation pioneers and visionaries. It's interesting to note that with only a few exceptions, none claimed this honor for themselves. It was claimed for them, often many years after they had completed their work. And the people who made these claims often had transparent reasons -- reputations to uphold, axes to grind, books to sell, and tourism to encourage. The accounts presented here reflect the conclusions of the majority of aviation historians. We also address a favorite of conspiracy theorists, a controversial agreement between the Wright estate and the Smithsonian, allegedly designed to suppress whatever truth du jour needs suppressing.

history of china wall.

                                     
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       China's unbroken story: from 500,000 years ago

Northern China, in the plains around the Huang Ho (or Yellow River), bears evidence of more continuous human development than any other region on earth.

500,000 years ago Peking manlives in the caves at Zhoukoudian, about 30 miles (48km) southwest of the modern city of Beijing. This is the farthest north that Homo erectus has been found, and hearths in the caves are probably the earliest evidence of the human use of fire. The same caves are occupied 20,000 years ago by modern man,Homo sapiens sapiens, during the Stone Age. And 3500 years ago a nearby river valley becomes the site of one of the first great civilizations.









The Shang dynasty: 1600 - 1100 BC

The city of An-yang, rediscovered in the 20th century, is an important centre of the first Chinese civilization - that of the Shang dynasty, which lasts from about 1600 to 1100 BC. Known to its occupants as the Great City Shang, its buildings are on both banks of the Huan river, to the north of the Yellow River.

An-yang is at the heart of a society in which human sacrifice plays a significant role. Archaeology reveals this, as does an extraordinary archive of written records - stored on what the peasants of this area, in modern times, have believed to be dragon bones.










The dragon bones are the records, kept by the priests, of the questions asked of the oracle by the Shang rulers. The answer is found by the method of divination known as scapulimancy.

The priest takes a polished strip of bone, usually from the shoulder blade of an ox, and cuts in it a groove to which he applies a heated bronze point. The answer to the question (in most cases just yes or no) is revealed by the pattern of the cracks which appear in the bone. With the bureaucratic thoroughness of civil servants, the priests then write on the bone the question that was asked, and sometimes the answer that was given, before filing the bone away in an archive (seeQuestions and answers on oracle bones).







Sacrifice, silk and bronze: 1600 - 1100 BC

Several of the inscriptions on the oracle bones mention sacrifices, sometimes of prisoners of war, which are to be made to a silkworm goddess. There is even a Shang court official called Nu Cang, meaning Mistress of the Silkworms.

Silk, China's first great contribution to civilization, has been an important product of the region for at least 1000 years before the Shang dynasty and the beginning of recorded history. The earliest silk fragments unearthed by archaeologists date from around 2850 BC.










The writing on the Shang oracle bones is in pictorial characters which evolve, often with only minor modifications, into the characters used in written Chinese today - 3500 years later. There can be no better example of the continuity underpinning Chinese civilization.

The excavations at An-yang demonstrate that Shang craftsmen have reached an astonishing level of skill in the casting ofbronze. And they reveal a reckless attitude to human life. A building cannot be consecrated at An-yang, or a ruler buried, without extensive human sacrifice (see theSacrificial guardians of An-yang).







The roots of Chinese culture: 1600 - 1100 BC

The area controlled by the Shang rulers is relatively small, but Shang cultural influence spreads through a large part of central China. In addition to their writing of Chinese characters, the Shang introduce many elements which have remained characteristic of this most ancient surviving culture. Bronze chopsticks, for example, have been found in a Shang tomb.

The Shang use a supremely confident name for their own small territory; it too has stood the test of time. They call An-yang and the surrounding region Chung-kuo, meaning 'the Central Country'. It is still the Chinese name for China. And the Shang practise another lasting Chinese tradition - the worship of ancestors.










Most of the elaborate bronze vessels made in Shang times are for use in temples or shrines to ancestors. The richly decorated urns are for cooking the meat of the sacrificed animals. The most characteristic design is the li, with its curved base extended into three hollow protuberances - enabling maximum heat to reach the sacrificial stew.

The bronze jugs, often fantastically shaped into weird animals and birds, are for pouring a liquid offering to the ancestor - usually a hot alcoholic concoction brewed from millet.








In Shang societyancestor worship is limited to the king and a few noble families. The good will of the king's ancestors is crucial to the whole of society, because they are the community's link with the gods. Over the centuries the king becomes known as the Son of Heaven. The shrine to his ancestors - theTemple of Heaven in Beijing - is the focal point of the national religion.

In subsequent dynasties, and particularly after the time ofConfucius, ancestor worship spreads downwards through the Chinese community. It becomes a crucial part of the culture of the Confucian civil servants, themandarins.

Read more:http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa21#ixzz37n4N9iry

History Of Pakistan

Information on history of Pakistan and its provinces

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Historical Background of Pakistan and its People

Muslim world is a vast and immense mass of land sprawling from West Africa facing the Atlantic to southern Philippines far in the Pacific. Its northern limits touch the Volga in Russia while southern frontiers run up to Mozambique in South-East Africa on the Indian Ocean. In China, in addition to Sinkiang, Muslims are in substantial numbers in the provinces bordering Burma and in the districts around Peking. Total population of Muslims in the world is estimated at one billion.
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Posted in History

History of Sindh

The land of Sind has a hoary past with some of the most striking episodes in history having occurred in its bosom. It has given a slightly different variation of its name to our neighbouring country and to the religious majority of its inhabitants. Both the words India and Hindu are derived from Sindhu, which, in Persian became Hind and Hindu (the letter H substituted for S) and in Greek and Roman, Ind (the letter S of Sind having being dropped). The meaning of the word Sindhu is water, referring to the great river. There is an old belief among Muslims that four rivers had sprung from Heaven: Neel (Nile), Furat (Euphrates), Jehoon (Juxartes) and Sehoon (Sind).
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Ghaznavid Rule of Pakistan

The next period in Pakistan’s history begins with the defeat of Raj Jaipal and his son Anandpal, rulers of northern areas of Pakistan, and of the Ismaili and Carmathian rulers of southern areas i.e., Multan and Sind at the hands of Mahmud Ghaznavi, leading to the unity of the two region. Eleventh century ushered in an era of Muslim rule over the entire length and breadth of Pakistan. During the 32 years of his rule Mahmud invaded Pakistan and India more than 17 times and though he carried his successful arms up to Muthra, Kanauj, Baran and Gawaliar, he did not annex any area beyond Ravi. As such, Pakistan continued to remain separate from India, again looking westward constituting a part of the Ghaznavi Empire. The boundaries also were almost the same which had been coming down from the days of the Indus Valley Civilization. It will be notice that this phenomena of Pakistan forming a separate country with its eastern boundaries running upto either Ravi, Beas or Sutlej has been recurring again and again.
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Posted in Islamic History

The People and the Land of Baluchistan

In spite of the intrinsic hostility of its landscape and climate, archaeological discoveries have confirmed that Baluchistan was already inhabited in the Stone Age, and the important neolithic site at Mehrgarh is the earliest (7000-3000 B.C.) on the subcontinent. Until its overthrow by Alexander the Great, Baluchistan was part of the Persian Empire, whose records refer to it as “Maka”.
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Posted in Balochistan

Indus Valley, Inc

The railway linking Lahore to Multan in Pakistan is 4,600 years old. In truth, the rails were laid down in the middle of the nineteenth century, but to build the railway bed, British engineers smashed bricks from crumbling buildings and rubble heaps in a town called Harappa, halfway between the two cities. Back in 1856, Alexander Cunningham, director of the newly formed Archeological Survey of British India, thought the brick ruins were all related to nearby seventh-century Buddhist temples. Local legend told a different story: the brick mounds were the remnants of an ancient city, destroyed when its king committed incest with his niece. Neither Cunningham nor the locals were entirely correct. In small, desultary excavations a few years later, Cunningham found no temples or traces of kings, incestuous or otherwise. Instead he reported the recovery of some pottery, carved shell, and a badly damaged seal depicting a one-horned animal, bearing an inscription in an unfamiliar writing.

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