January 20, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/arts/music/etta-james-singer-dies-at-73.html   Etta James, Powerful Voice Behind ‘At Last,’ Dies at 73 By PETER KEEPNEWS Etta James, whose powerful, versatile and emotionally direct voice could enliven the raunchiest blues as well as the subtlest love songs, most indelibly in her signature hit, “At Last,” died Friday morning in Riverside, Calif. She was 73. Her manager, Lupe De Leon, said that the cause was complications of leukemia. Ms. James, who died at Riverside Community Hospital, had been undergoing treatment for some time for a number of conditions, including leukemia and dementia. She also lived in Riverside. Ms. James was not easy to pigeonhole. She is most often referred…

http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-king-jr/photos#martin-luther-king-jr Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. He was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the March on Washington, which helped bring about such landmark legislation as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each…

New Technology & Cookie For Girl Scouts January 9, 2012 9:46 AM NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – With a fresh Girl Scout cookie season underway, the charity is also embracing new technology and a new cookie! Last year, online sales were added as a way to boost lagging Girl Scout cookie sales. Now, there’s a free Cookie Locator app available for iPhone and Android users. The app uses GPS technology to direct customers to the nearest cookie sale location, which could be a new neighborhood booth that accepts credit cards. And given that this year is the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts, they’ve also introduced a new cookie — Savannah Smiles.…

DNA links 1991 killing to Colonial-era family – CNN.com By the CNN Wire Staff 2012-01-10T01:30:54Z (CNN) — DNA may help Seattle-area sheriff’s deputies find a suspect in a 20-year-old killing after a comparison with genealogy records connected a crime-scene sample to a 17th-century Massachusetts family. The DNA sample was taken in the death of 16-year-old Sarah Yarborough, who was killed on her high school campus in Federal Way, Washington, in December 1991. The King County Sheriff’s Office has circulated two composite sketches of a possible suspect — a man in his 20s at the time with shoulder-length blonde or light brown hair — but had been unable to put a…

  ARE YOU INTERESTED IN CURATING A HISTORY COLLECTION?   High School Students Curate Exhibit on History and Culture of Brooklyn “Inventing Brooklyn- People, Places and Progress” opens June 2 at Brooklyn Historical Society   May 18, 2011: Brooklyn, NY – Fourteen local teens curated the exhibition Inventing Brooklyn: People, Places and Progress at the Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS). Inventing Brooklyn: People, Places, Progress traces the evolution of Brooklyn into the place we know today. From Native American roots and Dutch colonial influences to icons such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Dodgers, Inventing Brooklynexamines how various people, places, and historical events have shaped the development of the borough. Drawing on archival documents, photographs, prints, artifacts, and oral histories from the…

Plans for a bridge connecting San Francisco and Marin County were more than a decade in the making when, on this day in 1933, construction finally began. For about a century before the bridge’s construction, ferries were the primary means of travel across the bay. Though the idea of a bridge was circulating as early as 1872, it wasn’t until the 1920s that people thought the idea was feasible, in terms of both bridge technology and costs. The final suspension design was the result of a collaboration among Joseph Strauss, Irving Morrow, Charles Alton Ellis, and Leon Moisseiff. The bridge opened with much fanfare in 1937; its 75th anniversary will…

The crows nest bell from the Titanic on exhibit in London in 2010. The owner of more than 5,000 artifacts from the ship plans to auction them off as a group in April. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The owner of more than 5,000 artifacts recovered from the Titanic intends to auction them off in April on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the famous ship. But don’t expect to be able to bid on any one item from the ship. The artifacts will only be sold as a single lot, according to a filing by Premier Exhibitions (PRXI), an Atlanta-based company that now exhibits the artifacts at various locations…