​Americans pride themselves on their support for their armed service members. We have an entire holiday dedicated to honoring our veterans along with countless documentaries, films, and even tv shows about soldier’s bravery during conflict. But for all of this honor for our armed services there is one conflict in recent memory that is overlooked: The Korean War. 

​Following their surrender in World War II, world leaders divided Germany into four pieces to be occupied until the nation could re-enter the world stage. The US, UK, France and USSR all received a segment of the nation to occupy. However, with the nation’s capital, Berlin, firmly in the Soviet section the city was further split four ways to restrict the Soviet influence over the city. Here, in Berlin was where one of the most physical representations of the Cold War would stand. That representation, the Berlin Wall. For many of us, the Berlin Wall’s history is presented as the day it fell on the 9th of November 1989. The wall, however, stood as the constant reminder for German citizens that they were separate. This history of the wall is more than its fall.

​For many of us the Cold War has been a topic that has been covered quite thoroughly throughout our historical education, but there is one thing that still may not be quite clear. Was the Cold War really that cold? While it is clear that this conflict was primarily “fought” between the USSR and the United States through largely indirect means, the Cold War did get quite hot throughout its near half-a-century long history. Over the next few weeks there will be blogs written to discuss tease more heated moments, but for the moment, lets discuss how the Cold War began.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor forced Americans to face a new reality. They were no longer safe from war. Rather than stand defenseless, many enlisted in the U.S. military. Others at home participated in Civil Defense.
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Civil Defense measures had existed prior to Pearl Harbor, the bombings made it a priority. At that time the Civil Defense Corps were non-military personnel trained to fight fires, decontaminate areas after chemical weapon attacks, and to provide first aid. The advent of the Cold War, however, made these individuals much more important.

The Cold War was a decades long struggle (roughly 1945-1991) between the United States and the Soviet Union. Countless proxy-wars were fought in an effort to spread or contain communism and capitalism, costing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of lives. But what caused the Cold War? 

​Generous locals taking pride in the city's beauty, businesses adopting German alpine architecture, and even the completion of the dike in the 1950s all helped to make Frankenmuth a tourist destination. But one often overlooked project literally paved the way for Frankenmuth's tourist appeal: The created of I-75.
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Beginning in April of 1956, the Federal Aid Highway Act through the halls of Congress. By June the bill was signed into law by President Eisenhower. The initial bill allocated $25 billion in federal funds to construct 41,000 miles of interstate highways over the next decade. Our own trusty I-75 is one of those beautiful interstate highways that originated in this bill.

The first Monday of September. It’s a marking point that means the school year has come. Technically, it’s also the last day to wear white in a socially acceptable manner. All these points aside, Labor Day has a deeper meaning.

​What are the chances that you could become an Olympic athlete? As of today, the US is sending 621 athletes across 36 sports to Tokyo. While historians are not known for our math skills, this intern has calculated that one has a 0.00019% chance of becoming an Olympian. But look on the bright side, according to USA swimming your chances to become a US Olympic swimmer or diver are hovering at an *attainable* 0.00013%. Against these odds, 10,931 men and women from the U.S. have gone on to represent the Stars and Stripes on the Olympic stage. This blog will go on to recognize and celebrate the Olympians that have been produced locally.

​The Tokyo Olympics are almost upon us! But how much do you know about the history of the games? 
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Greece’s Ancient Olympic Games were held at the temple of Zeus in Olympia, hence why they are known as the Olympic games. Meant as a religious festival to honor Zeus, every four years the warring Greek City-States were meant to lay down their arms for the sporting event. While the ceasefires never really happened, the Olympic games were a message of peace in a time of war. 

​YouTube has millions of videos for someone to choose and watch. Topics range from cooking to gaming, pets to gardening, and everything in between. Even in the historical field, there are thousands of videos on a variety of different topics, so much so that you could never watch all the videos that YouTube holds in a lifetime!