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5. Transcendental Meditation: The Transcendental Meditation technique or TM technique is a form of mantra meditation introduced in India in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917-2008). It is reported to be the most widely researched and one of the most widely practiced meditation techniques in the world today. Taught in a standardized seven-step course by certified teachers, the technique involves the use of a sound or mantra and is practiced for 15–20 minutes twice per day, while sitting comfortably with closed eyes.
In 1957, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began a series of world tours during which he introduced and taught his meditation technique. In 1959, he founded the International Meditation Society and, in 1961, he began to train teachers of the Transcendental Meditation technique. From the late 1960s through the mid 1970s, both the Maharishi and the TM technique received significant public attention in the USA, especially among the student population. During this period, a million people learned the technique, including well-known public figures. Transcendental Meditation is at the core of the Transcendental Meditation movement.
6. Woodstock: Woodstock Music & Art Fair (informally, Woodstock or The Woodstock Festival) was a music festival, billed as ―An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music‖, held at Max Yasgur‘s 600-acre (2.4 km2) dairy farm near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York, from August 15 to August 18, 1969. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles (69 km) southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, in adjoining Ulster County.
During the sometimes rainy weekend, thirty-two acts performed outdoors in front of 500,000 concert-goers. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most pivotal moments in popular music history and was listed among Rolling Stone‘s 50 Moments That Changed the History of Rock and Roll.
7. Robert F. Kennedy: Robert Francis ―Bobby‖ Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also referred to, by his initials, RFK, was an American politician. He was a younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and acted as one of his advisers during his presidency.
Following his brother John‘s assassination on November 22, 1963, Kennedy continued to serve as Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson for nine months. In September 1964, Kennedy resigned to seek the U.S. Senate seat from New York, which he won in November. Within a few years, he publicly split with Johnson over the Vietnam War.
In March 1968, Kennedy began a campaign for the presidency and was the front-running candidate of the Democratic Party. In the California presidential primary on June 4, Kennedy
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defeated Eugene McCarthy, a fellow U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Following a brief victory
speech delivered just past midnight on June 5 at The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan. Fatally wounded, he survived for nearly 26 hours, dying early in the morning of June 6.
8. Fourth of July: In the United States, Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.
9. Democratic National Convention in 2004: The 2004 Democratic National Convention was a United States presidential nominating convention that took place from July 26 to July 29, 2004 at the Fleet Center (now the TD Banknorth Garden), in Boston, Massachusetts. The convention was one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings of the Democratic Party with a primary focus on officially nominating a candidate for President and adopting a party platform. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson served as chairman while former presidential advisor to Bill Clinton, Lottie Shackelford, served as vice chairwoman.
Defining moments of the 2004 Democratic National Convention included the featured keynote speech of Barack Obama, a Honolulu native and candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois and future President of the United States, and the confirmation of the nomination of John Kerry as the candidate for President and of John Edwards as the candidate for Vice President. They faced incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney of the Republican Party in the 2004 presidential election.
The 2004 Democratic National Convention marked the formal end of the active primary election season, although all meaningful primary elections had finished months earlier. Kerry and Edwards faced Carol Moseley-Braun, Wesley K. Clark, Howard B. Dean III, Richard A. ―Dick‖ Gephardt, D. Robert Graham, Dennis J. Kucinich, Joseph I. Lieberman and Alfred Sharpton Jr. in the primaries.
10. Reader’s Digest: Reader’s Digest is a monthly general-interest family magazine co-founded in 1922 by Lila Bell Wallace and DeWitt Wallace, and based in Chappaqua, New York, United 120
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States of America. The Audit Bureau of Circulation says Reader’s Digest is the best-selling consumer magazine in the USA, with a circulation of over 8 million copies in the United States, and a readership of 38 million as measured by Mediamark Research (MRI). According to MRI, Reader’s Digest reaches more readers with household incomes of $100,000 than Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Inc. combined. Global editions of Reader’s Digest reach an additional 40 million people in more than 70 countries, with 50 editions in 21 languages. It has a global circulation of 17 million, making it the largest paid circulation magazine in the world. It is also published in braille, digital, audio, and a version in large type called Reader’s Digest Large Print.
The magazine is compact, with its pages roughly half the size of most American magazines‘. Hence, in the summer of 2005, the U.S. edition adopted the slogan, ―America in your pocket.‖ In January 2008, it was changed to ―Life well shared.‖
11. Hillary Clinton: Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving within the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she served as First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. In the 2008 election Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.
12. Punahou Academy: Punahou School, once known as Oahu College, is a private, co- educational, college preparatory school located in Honolulu CDP, City and County of Honolulu in the United States of Hawaii. With about 3,750 students attending the school, in kindergarten through the twelfth grade, it is the largest independent school in the United States. In 2006, Punahou School was ranked as the ―greenest‖ school in America. The student body is diverse, with student selection based on both academic and non-academic considerations.
13. Bill Clinton: William Jefferson ―Bill‖ Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third- youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and as he was born in the period after World War II, he is known as the first Baby Boomer president. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, is currently the United States Secretary of State. She was previously a United
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States Senator from New York, and also candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination
in 2008. Both are graduates of Yale Law School. Clinton was described as a New Democrat and was largely known for the Third Way philosophy of governance that came to epitomize his two terms as president. In 1996, Clinton was re-elected and became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term as president. Later he was impeached for obstruction of justice, but was subsequently acquitted by the U.S. Senate. Clinton left office with an approval rating at 66%, the highest end of office rating of any president since World War II. Since then, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to promote and address international causes such as treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2004, he released his autobiography My Life, and was involved in his wife Hillary‘s 2008 presidential campaign and subsequently in that of President Barack Obama. In 2009, he was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti.
14. Center for American Progress: The Center for American Progress is a liberal public policy research and advocacy organization. Its website describes it as ―... a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all.‖
Its President and Chief Executive Officer is John Podesta, who served as chief of staff to then U.S. President Bill Clinton. Located in Washington, D.C., the Center for American Progress has a campus outreach group, Campus Progress, and a sister advocacy organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
15. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the 6th and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran‘s council appointed him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard-line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, and garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, becoming President on 3 August 2005.
16. Kim Jong-il: Kim Jong-il (born 16 February 1941; official biographies state 16 February 122
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1942) is the paramount leader of the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea (also known as North Korea). He is the Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People‘s Army, and General Secretary of the Workers‘ Party of Korea (the ruling party since 1948). He succeeded his father Kim Il-sung, founder of North Korea, who died in 1994, and commands the fourth largest standing army in the world. North Korea officially refers to him as the ―Dear Leader‖. CNN has described Kim as ―one of the most mysterious leaders in the world.‖
17. Al-Qaeda: Al-Qaeda is an Islamist group founded sometime between August 1988 and late 1989 and early 1990. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless arm and a fundamentalist Sunni movement calling for global jihad.
18. The Heritage Foundation: The Heritage Foundation is a well-known conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage‘s policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to have a significant influence in U.S. public policy making, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential research organizations in the United States, especially during the Republican administration of President George W. Bush. Heritage‘s stated mission is to ―formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.‖
19. National Journal: National Journal is an American weekly magazine that reports on the current political environment and emerging political and policy trends. National Journal was first published in 1969 and is now part of National Journal Group, a division of Atlantic Media Company. National Journal is aimed at Washington insiders. It is mostly read by members of Congress, Capitol Hill staffers, the White House, Executive Branch agencies, the media, think tanks, corporations, associations and lobbyists. Most of the journal‘s content can be accessed only by subscribers. The magazine has received three National Magazine Awards.
20. Democratic Leadership Council: The Democratic Leadership Council is a non-profit corporation that, upon its formation, argued the United States Democratic Party should shift away from the leftward turn it took in the late 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The DLC hails
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