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The Contributions of Italians to America. Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus. Landed in San Salvador in 1492. He is responsible for finding the Americas. We now celebrate a holiday in his name on the second Monday of each October.
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Christopher Columbus • Landed in San Salvador in 1492. • He is responsible for finding the Americas. • We now celebrate a holiday in his name on the second Monday of each October. • It is in honor of his October 12th discovery that eventually led to our country’s founding.
Giovanni Da Verrazano • Born in Tuscany, Italy in 1485. • He was a Florentine Explorer sailing under the French Flag. • He was the first European to sight New York. • He set sail in January of 1524 with two French Vessels.
Giovanni Da Verrazano • In March he arrived in Cape Fear North Carolina. • He was the first to find New York Bay and Block Island. • He didn’t get the credit that he deserved. It was named after Henry Hudson. • 85 years later in 1609 was when Hudson named it after himself.
William Paca • Born October 31, 1740 • Went to Philadelphia College. (Later became U Penn.) • Provincial Legislature (1768-1774) • Continental Congress (1774-1779) • He signed the Declaration of Independence.
William Paca • In the Continental Congress, he contributed to the Constitution. • He proposed some twenty amendments to it. • 1789 he was appointed as a U.S. District Judge. • Held this position for 10 years until his death in 1799.
Antonio Meucci • Alexander Graham Bell? • He was the man credited with the discovery of the telephone. • It should have been credited to Meucci. • Born near Florence in April 1808.
Antonio Meucci • He invented the telephone in 1849, and filed his first patent caveat in 1871. • This set into motion a chain of mysterious events. • These events weren’t so well documented though. • That is why not many people know about it.
Antonio Meucci • He discovered that he could hear his friend talking through a piece of copper wire running between them. • He spent ten years bringing his discovery to a practical stage. • He had a big problem with the English language though. • Financial trouble also plagued him.
Antonio Meucci • He was in a steamship accident, in which he was severely burned. • His wife proceeded to sell his telephone invention as well as other working inventions for a price of SIX DOLLARS! • After he was well he tried to get these things back. He was told they were sold to “an unknown young man.”
Antonio Meucci • He didn’t have the money for the patent, so he kept renewing his caveat. • He tried to show the potential of his invention to Western Union Telegraph Co. • He was told that they had no time for his invention.
Antonio Meucci • In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell filed his patent. • Meucci had his lawyer protest the patent. • He was informed that his documents regarding the talking telegraph had been lost.
Antonio Meucci • Later investigations show that there were illegal relations with the patent company and Bell’s company. • It was revealed that Bell agreed to pay Western Union 20 percent of his profits.
Antonio Meucci • He brought bell to court in 1886, but the case kept getting postponed, until his death in 1896. • The case was then dropped and that was that.
Charles J. Bonaparte • Born in Baltimore, Maryland on June 9th 1851. • He received a law degree from Harvard University. • After that he began his career in jurisprudence. • In 1908 President Roosevelt appointed him the 46th Attorney General of The United States.
Charles J. Bonaparte • He was in Charge of Trust Busting. • He didn’t have a permanent investigative staff. • The justice department was limited to hiring only temporary investigators. Coming from the Secret Service.
Charles J. Bonaparte • July 28th, 1908 Roosevelt made his investigative force a permanent subdivision of the Department of Justice. • In 1935 what began as a 23 man unit under Bonaparte, was renamed the Federal Bureau of investigation.
Riccardo Giacconi • The Physics Nobel Prize Winner in 2002. • A research professor in X-ray astronomy research. • At this position he was the lead administrator of groups that build astronomical observatories.
