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The history of flags dates back more than 4,000 years. Ancient flags, known as “vexilloids,” meaning “guide,” were metal or wooden poles that featured a unique carving at the top of the pole.

The first known metal flag came from Iran and dates back to 3,000 BC. Evidence of flags has also been found on ancient Greek coins and Egyptian tomb carvings. About 2,000 years ago, people began decorating these ancient vexilloids with fabric and other materials making them more similar to the modern flags we use today.

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If you are reading this article, then you are reading something that someone else has written. But have you ever stopped to think that there hasn’t always been a written language? Where and when did humans first start writing? For a long time, people thought that the practice of writing began in ancient Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C.E. This land, along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is what is now modern Iraq.

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Did you know that the very first phone call was made on March 10, 1876 in the United States? By today’s standards it was a short call over a very short distance. Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, were literally just down the hall from each other in a Boston, Massachusetts machine shop. The message was a single sentence, “Watson come here, I want you!”

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Since this entire Tribune issue has been dedicated to the ways humans communicate, we couldn’t possibly leave out the Internet! The earliest notions of the Internet began in the early 1960’s, however, the term “Internet” was not used until 1982. The internet was originally conceived to allow researchers to create a network of their computers throughout the United States. Today, anyone has access to the internet.

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The kitchen screen door creaked and then slapped closed. Jeff’s room was right over the kitchen in the spacious farmhouse and the sound woke him with a start. He looked around the sun-filled room. It was the first day of his summer vacation and he would be spending it with his grandparents here on their Idaho farm.

He remembered the tire swing from last summer and picking ripe, juicy berries right off the vine with his grandmother. Nothing tasted better than those sweet berries, still warm from the sun.

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When you look at a dollar bill, you are looking at a very particular color green. That color green was invented in 1857 by a Canadian chemist named Thomas Sterry Hunt. Like other chemists of his day, he used natural pigments and laboratory chemicals to invent new colors with special properties. In this case he used chromium trioxide to make the green ink. So why is this such a big deal?

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In a few days time, on July 4th, we will all come together to celebrate Independence Day! It was on July 4th 1776 that the Declaration of Independence was signed and that our nation was born!

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It took a full year from the time the proud Pennsylvania colonists ordered their new bell to the time it arrived from the foundry in London, England, and was hung in the steeple of the State House. How dismayed they all were when on its very first ringing in 1752, a crack appeared in the brim and ruined the melodious tones!

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About 5000 years ago a different kind of writing was going on in Egypt. Today it looks a lot like code to us, but in fact it is the way they used to write. Their writing consisted of several hundred picture signs instead of an alphabet as we know it. These picture signs are known as hieroglyphs.

Each hieroglyph is a small picture that represents a different word or idea. For instance, a set of wavy lines symbolized “water”. A circle within a circle represented the sun. A man with his hand to his mouth could be the hieroglyph for “eat”, but it could also mean “silent”.

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Many of the images used in Egyptian writing were of familiar plants and animals. These hieroglyphs could be read as the plant or animal itself or as the symbol of an idea.

Here are a few of the symbols we in modern times would likely recognize, and what they meant to the ancient Egyptians:

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Since we’re speaking of hieroglyphs, let’s go back in time, and take a trip to Ancient Egypt. Imagine that you are visiting this land 5,000 years ago where the kings, known as pharaohs, were believed to be gods. These pharaohs lived in palaces, and temples were built to honor them and their ancestors. These temples are the great pyramids of Egypt.

Around 2,550 B.C., King Khufu, the second pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, began building his tomb at Giza. This was the first and largest pyramid of ten that were built at Giza, and it is known as the Great Pyramid.

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Imagine if you will, a moonlit night. The air is warm and scented with jasmine. You are strolling on a wide plain under the canopy of stars, drawn to the softly glowing white dome you see in the distance. It is spellbinding.

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