A patriot force clung grimly to the hill's heights as red-jacketed British troops charged up the slope. Not far away, Charlestown lay in flames. Seven-year-old John Quincy Adams watched in fearful awe. He and his mother, Abigail Adams, had a distant view of the raging battle from a hill near their home in Braintree, Massachusetts.
It was June 1775. Friends and relatives soon fled Boston to take refuge in the Adams home. John Quincy was too young to fight in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), but he was old enough to understand that for the Americans to succeed, sacrifices would be necessary. For the Adamses, those sacrifices started at home.
John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, in Braintree. His father, John Adams, was a leading American patriot. As a young attorney, John had become involved in Boston politics. He was a strong supporter of American independence from Great Britain. In 1774, he represented Massachusetts as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. His work with the other colonists was dangerous. They all risked being hanged for treason.
Although John often was away from home, he always made time to oversee his children's education from afar. "Take care that they don't go astray," he wrote to Abigail. "Cultivate their minds. . . fix their attention upon great and glorious objects." Under his mother's careful tutoring, John Quincy explored mathematics, history, science, poetry, and Latin.
Esta historia es de la edición October 2022 de Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Esta historia es de la edición October 2022 de Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Eye in the Sky
An interview with Joe Piotrowski
Airborne Animals
Humans have taken to the skies in balloons, gliders, and airplanes-but we're not alone among the clouds. Animals of all sorts have evolved to harness wind power.
TAKING OFF
The Wright brothers expected airplanes to “take off,” but even they might be amazed at the way the airline industry has become big business. In the past, it was expensive to send something by plane.
GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY
After their historic flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Dayton, Ohio. They spent the next few years making adjustments and building additional versions of their powered aircraft in their bicycle shop.
WHY KITTY HAWK?
The Wright brothers searched carefully for the best place to test their gliders and flying machines. Their main concern was for good, steady winds. But they also hoped to find a remote location to allow them to perform tests away from the public eye.
Two Brothers From Ohio
Most people do not realize that the Wright brothers—Wilbur, born in 1867, and Orville, born in 1871—performed various scientific experiments before inventing their aircraft. For as long as anyone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, could remember, the Wright boys had worked on mechanical projects.
A Helping Hand
May 6, 1896. A group of people who had gathered beside the Potomac River, just south of the U.S. capital, grew quiet. Then, it erupted in cheers as a small, unmanned aircraft took to the skies and flew for more than half a mile. The flight came seven years before the Wright brothers’ first manned, powered flight. The inventor of the aircraft was Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley.
THE IDEA MEN
People dreamed of flying thousands of years before the Wright brothers found success near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. These dreamers, such as Leonardo da Vinci, studied birds flying and imagined how humans might do the same—if only they had wings. Other men developed a more hands-on approach to the topic. Early inventors made wings of cloth, glue, and feathers and tied these creations to their arms in an attempt to imitate nature.
Da Vinci's 4 Designs
Have you ever wondered how a bird flies? Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) did. He thought that understanding how a bird flies would provide the key to human flight. So, what did da Vinci learn from birds?
Silken Wings
Seven hundred years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already mastered its secrets—with kites.
