I've got to write a paper in Euro History

[psychospacecow]

Disclaimer up front. The teacher's made it pretty clear that the topic doesn't have to pertain to Europe. It doesn't even necessarily have to pertain to history, though I think I'm gonna keep on that as a safe zone. Every year, someone does something about guns so there's that.

Anyway, I have to choose three subjects, and the teacher chooses which one I do. I don't particularly care for the format, but its her system and its workable.

Here are my topics. Any thoughts, opinions, or alternatives are appreciated. These are just pitches at the moment, and I will expand upon whichever one ends up getting selected. Thank you for your time regardless of whether or not you choose to read and/or help.

Chernobyl



Chernobyl was a city in The Kiev Oblast,Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic which was afflicted with a grave disaster. The Geiger counters of Chernobyl’s Lenin Power Station’s control room read 3.6. They were never meant to go above 3.6, which by all accounts was a safe reading. In actuality, if proper Geiger counters were implemented, they would have read 15,000. On April 26th, 1986, an explosion went off in The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, spewing a swath of fire and radioactive particles into the air, creeping through the atmosphere to Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Sweden, The United Kingdom, Turkey, China, and Japan. 5% of Chernobyl’s explosive output found its way into North Africa, accumulating Cesium-137, Plutonium-239 and Plutonium-240 in The Nile River. 1% of the initial blast found its way to North America. By Soviet accounts, 31 people died during this event, but some figures indicate that Chernobyl was responsible for the deaths of as many as 985,000 people. Six days after the Lenin Nuclear power station exploded, Alexei Ananenko, Boris Baranov, and Valeri Bezpalov volunteered to dive into the cooling chambers of the facility. They had to manually turn valves underneath the water to pump 20,000 tonnes of radioactive water. Had they not succeeded, a thermal explosion would have gone off. The fires of Chernobyl were finally finally made controllable in mid-ay.

Ferrous Metals

The Yoruba of Western Africa believed in many spirits, and many gods. One among them has many names. Some call him Ogun, some call him Ogu or other similar names. The general consensus is that Ogun was the Spirit of Iron. He had a brother, Sango, the spirit of fire. So, why do I bring notice to deities of West Africa? Ogun’s story revolves around the people’s need to land from the forests. They simply couldn’t do it with the softer metals at their disposal. Ogun was responsible for the gift of iron, like Prometheus gave fire to the greek in their mythology.
I bring to your attention this most ancient of deities because his existence in the tales of The Yoruba are a demonstration of the changing times in Africa. For, at this time, humanity was taking control of the earth around it. We were harnessing the power of iron.

History of Semi - Automatic Rifles

The first successful semi-automatic rifle design was given to the world by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher with the M1885. Mannlicher was an esteemed German engineer known more for his bolt-action rifles and pistols.

General consensus recognizes the M1908 Mondragon Semiautomatic rifle as the first adopted military semi-automatic rifle, though there were danish rifles adopted in the 1890s in extremely small numbers with limited success. Despite the rifle being designed by the Mexican General, Manuel Mondragon, the rifle itself was manufactured in Switzerland.

Interest for a semi-automatic rifle raised in The United States in 1901 with military trials being helf from 1916 to 1918. John C. Garand began work in 1919 at the Springfield Armory on what would become the M1922 in 1924. He designed a .276 caliber round which gained favor over the .30-06 round the military was using at the time. However, General Douglas MacArthur ordered that all resources from the .276’s development be moved to work on the .30-06. On August 3rd, 1933, The Garand Rifle was re-designated Semi-Automatic Rifle, Caliber 30, M1. The M1 Garand is notable as being the first standardized Semi-Automatic Rifle as of January 9th, 1936. By the end of its career, approximately 5.4 million M1 Garands had been brought upon the world. It made its mark in history, performing during World War 2 against German Karabiner 98k’s, a german bolt-action rifle, and found its way into all US conflicts until 1965 when the transition to the M14, a derivative of the M1, was complete. Reserve forces outside The United States would continue to use the Garand rifle into the 1970s and surplus rifles were provided to Germany, Italy, and Japan after the events of World War 2.



So, thoughts, opinions, and/or alternatives?