Website Title: TIME

Page Title: A Brief History of Mickey Mouse

Website Address: http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1859935,00.html

Author: Claire Suddath

Date Published: November 18, 2008

When Mickey was first created it started with a rabbit. Walt Disney created a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. With a round, white face, big button nose and floppy black ears, Oswald was an instant hit. When Disney met with executives to negotiate another contract in 1928, the studio told the animator that they had retained the rights to Oswald. Disney offered him a lower salary, but he refused. He and Ub Iwerks, returned to work and brainstormed Oswald’s replacement. They shortened the ears and turned the rabbit into a mouse.

Prohibition went into full effect January 16th, 1920. 33 states already enacted their own prohibition legislation. Because of prohibition, bootlegging, gambling, gang violence, and prostitution new heights in the 1920’s. In Chicago 1929, men dressed as police men shot and killed men in a rival gang.

The stock market crash happened in November of 1929. It is known as Black Thursday. The stocks were down 12.6%. Many people sold their liberty bonds and mortgaged their homes to put all their money into the stock market. In 1929, around 300 million shares of stock were being carried by margins.

The price of cotton began to peak (to 46 cents a pound) in the 1920’s which made farmers plant more of it. With that came overproduction which caused prices to plummet to 10 cents a pound. This made farmers get in debt from loans.

The first time you could stay home and listen to your favorite team play was 1921. Later that year the World Series was read by an announcer from a play play sent by telegraph wire. Only home games could be played on a radio until 1939.

Aviation: The flying or operating of aircraft. The Wright brothers were the inventors of the first plane. On December 17th, 1903 their first experiment was successful. After this, with the booming economy of the 1920’s, military and civilian companies rushed to produce plane and plane parts. During this time the designs managed to go from 80 miles an hour to 200.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.