1.
Petrified Forest National Park
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Petrified Forest National Park is a United States national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named for its deposits of petrified wood, the fee area of the park covers about 230 square miles, encompassing semi-desert shrub steppe as well as highly eroded. The site, the part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was declared a national monument in 1906. The park received 643,274 recreational visitors in 2016, representing a decrease of 19% from the prior year, typical visitor activities include sightseeing, photography, hiking, and backpacking. Averaging about 5,400 feet in elevation, the park has a dry climate with temperatures that vary from summer highs of about 100 °F to winter lows well below freezing. More than 400 species of plants, dominated by such as bunchgrass, blue grama. About half of the park is designated wilderness, the Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that lived in the Late Triassic Period, about 225 million years ago. The sediments containing the logs are part of the widespread and colorful Chinle Formation. Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased erosion. All of the rock layers above the Chinle, except geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by wind. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the parks fossils since the early 20th century, the parks earliest human inhabitants arrived at least 8,000 years ago. By about 2,000 years ago, they were growing corn in the area, later inhabitants built above-ground dwellings called pueblos. Although a changing climate caused the last of the parks pueblos to be abandoned by about 1400 CE, more than 600 archeological sites, including petroglyphs, have been discovered in the park. Later, roads and a railway followed similar routes and gave rise to tourism and, before the park was protected, theft of petrified wood remains a problem in the 21st century. Petrified Forest National Park straddles the border between Apache County and Navajo County in northeastern Arizona, I-40, former U. S. Route 66, the BNSF Railway, and the Puerco River bisect the park generally east–west along a similar route. Adamana, a ghost town, is about 1 mile west of the park along the BNSF tracks, Holbrook, about 26 miles west of park headquarters along I-40, is the nearest city. Bisecting the park north–south is Park Road, which runs between I-40 near park headquarters on the north and U. S. Route 180 on the south, Historic Highway 180, an earlier alignment of the modern route, crosses the southern edge of the park. Like Route 66, it has deteriorated and is closed, many unpaved maintenance roads, closed to the public, intersect Park Road at various points
2.
Leslie Howard (actor)
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Leslie Howard was an English stage and film actor, director and producer. Howard also wrote stories and articles for The New York Times, The New Yorker. Howard was one of the biggest box-office draws and movie idols of the 1930s but is probably best remembered for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, Howards Second World War activities included acting and filmmaking. Howard was born Leslie Howard Steiner to a British mother, Lilian, Howard was educated at Alleyns School, London. He worked as a clerk before enlisting at the outbreak of the Great War. He served in the British Army as a subaltern in the Northamptonshire Yeomanry but suffered shell shock, Outward Bound and The Green Hat. He became an undisputed Broadway star in Her Cardboard Lover, Howard would return, however, many times—later repeating the Standish role in the 1933 film version of Berkeley Square. The stage, however, continued to be an important part of his career, Howard frequently juggled acting, producing and directing duties in the Broadway productions in which he starred. Howard was also a dramatist and starred in the Broadway production of his play, Murray Hill and he played Matt Denant in John Galsworthys 1927 Broadway production Escape in which he first made his mark as a dramatic actor. His stage triumphs continued with The Animal Kingdom and The Petrified Forest and he later repeated both roles in the film versions. Howards production, his stage role, lasted for only 39 performances before closing. Howard was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981, in 1920 Howard suggested forming a film production company, British Comedy Films Ltd. to his friend Adrian Brunel. The two eventually settled on the name Minerva Flims Ltd, the Companys Board of Directors consisted of Howard, Brunel, C. Aubrey Smith, Nigel Playfair and A. A. Milne, one of the Companys investors was H. G. Wells. Early films include four written by A. A. Milne, including The Bump, aubrey Smith, Twice Two, Five Pounds Reward, and Bookworms, the latter two starring Howard. Some of these survive in the archives of the British Film Institute. Following his move to Hollywood, Howard often played stiff upper lipped Englishmen and he appeared in the film version of Outward Bound, though in a different role than the one he portrayed on Broadway. He had second billing under Norma Shearer in A Free Soul and he starred in the film version of Berkeley Square, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor
3.
Bette Davis
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Ruth Elizabeth Bette Davis was an American actress of film, television, and theater. After appearing in Broadway plays, Davis moved to Hollywood in 1930, however, her early films for Universal Studios were unsuccessful. She joined Warner Bros. in 1932 and established her career with several critically acclaimed performances, in 1937, she attempted to free herself from her contract. Although she lost the legal case against the studio, it marked the beginning of the most successful period of her career. Until the late 1940s, she was one of American cinemas most celebrated leading ladies, known for her forceful, Davis gained a reputation as a perfectionist who could be highly combative and confrontational. She clashed with executives and film directors as well as many of her co-stars. Her forthright manner, idiosyncratic speech and ubiquitous cigarette contributed to a public persona, Davis was the co-founder of the Hollywood Canteen, and was the first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her career went through periods of eclipse, and she admitted that her success had often been at the expense of her personal relationships. Married four times, she was widowed and three times divorced, and raised her children as a single parent. In 1999, Davis was placed second behind Katharine Hepburn on the American Film Institutes list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema. Bettys younger sister, Barbara Harriet Bobby, was born October 25,1909, at 55 Ward Street in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1915, Daviss parents separated and Betty and Bobby attended a Spartan boarding school called Crestalban in Lanesborough, which is located in the Berkshires. In 1921, Ruth Davis moved to New York City with her daughters, Betty changed the spelling of her name to Bette after Honoré de Balzacs La Cousine Bette. Davis attended Cushing Academy, a school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. In 1926, she saw a production of Henrik Ibsens The Wild Duck with Blanche Yurka and Peg Entwistle, Davis later recalled for Al Cohn of Newsday, The reason I wanted to go into theater was because of an actress named Peg Entwistle. She auditioned for admission to Eva LeGalliennes Manhattan Civic Repertory, but was rejected by LeGallienne who described her attitude as insincere, upon graduating from Cushing Academy, Bette enrolled in John Murray Andersons Dramatic School. In 1929, Davis was chosen by Blanche Yurka to play Hedwig, after performing in Philadelphia, Washington and Boston, she made her Broadway debut in 1929 in Broken Dishes, and followed it with Solid South. In 1930, Davis moved to Hollywood to screen test for Universal Studios, Davis and her mother traveled by train to Hollywood and arrived on December 13,1930. She would later recount her surprise that nobody from the studio was there to meet her at the train, in fact, a studio employee had waited for her, but left because he saw nobody who looked like an actress
4.
Humphrey Bogart
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Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American screen and stage actor whose performances in 1940s films noir such as The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and The Big Sleep earned him status as a cultural icon. Bogart began acting in 1921 after a hitch in the U. S. Navy in World War I and little success in various jobs in finance, gradually he became a regular in Broadway shows in the 1920s and 1930s. When the stock market crash of 1929 reduced the demand for plays, Bogarts breakthrough as a leading man came in 1941 with High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon. His last film was The Harder They Fall, during a film career of almost 30 years, Bogart appeared in more than 75 feature films. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star of Classic American cinema, over his career, he received three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, winning one. Bogart was born on Christmas Day,1899, in New York City, Belmont was the only child of the unhappy marriage of Adam Watkins Bogart, a Canandaigua, New York innkeeper, and his wife, Julia, a wealthy heiress. The name Bogart comes from the Dutch surname Bogaert, Belmont and Maud married in June 1898, he was a Presbyterian, of English and Dutch descent, and she was an Episcopalian of English heritage, and a descendant of Mayflower passenger John Howland. Young Humphrey was raised in the Episcopal faith, but was non-practicing for most of his adult life, the corrected January birthdate subsequently appeared—and in some cases, remains—in many otherwise authoritative sources. Sperber and Eric Lax documented, however, that Bogart always celebrated his birthday on December 25, Lauren Bacall confirmed in her autobiography that his birthday was always celebrated on Christmas Day, adding that he joked that he was cheated out of a present every year because of it. Bogarts father, Belmont, was a cardiopulmonary surgeon and his mother, Maud, was a commercial illustrator who received her art training in New York and France, including study with James McNeill Whistler. Later she became art director of the fashion magazine The Delineator and she used a drawing of baby Humphrey in a well-known advertising campaign for Mellins Baby Food. In her prime, she made over $50,000 a year, then a vast sum, the Bogarts lived in a fashionable Upper West Side apartment, and had an elegant cottage on a 55-acre estate on Canandaigua Lake in upstate New York. As a youngster, Humphreys gang of friends at the lake would put on theatricals, Humphrey had two younger sisters, Frances and Catherine Elizabeth. His parents were busy in their careers and frequently fought, very formal, they showed little emotion towards their children. Maud told her offspring to call her Maud not Mother, when pleased she lapped you on the shoulder, almost the way a man does, Bogart recalled. I was brought up very unsentimentally but very straightforwardly, a kiss, in our family, was an event. Our mother and father didnt glug over my two sisters and me. As a boy, Bogart was teased for his curls, tidiness, the pictures his mother had him pose for, the Little Lord Fauntleroy clothes she dressed him in
5.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
6.
Great Depression in the United States
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The Great Depression was the worst economic times in American history. Though, it was not just in the United States it was a world wide conundrum, Great Depression began in August 1929, when the United States economy first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent two months with declining Gross Domestic Product, the Gross Domestic Rate is a very important part of the United States economy. It is so important because it represents each total dollar value of all goods and it was not until the Wall Street Crash in October 1929 that the effects of a declining economy were felt, and a major worldwide economic downturn ensued. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes. Although its causes are uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden. The economy reached bottom in the winter of 1932–33, then four years of very rapid growth until 1937. The Depression caused major changes in America. Three years into the depression, President Herbert Hoover, widely blamed for not doing enough to combat the crisis, Roosevelts economic recovery plan, the New Deal, instituted unprecedented programs for relief, recovery and reform, and brought about a major realignment of American politics. The Depression also resulted in an increase of emigration of people to countries for the first time in American history. For example, some went back to their native countries, and some native US citizens went to Canada, Australia. It also resulted in the migration of people from badly hit areas in the Great Plains and the South to places such as California. Racial tensions also increased during this time, by the 1940s immigration had returned to normal, and emigration declined. A well-known example of an emigrant was Frank McCourt, who went to Ireland and it also shaped modern American literature, resulting in famous novels such as John Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Banks began to fail in October 1930 when farmers defaulted on loans, there was no federal deposit insurance during that time as bank failures were considered quite common. This worried depositors that they might have a chance of losing all their savings, therefore, people started to withdraw money, the decreased money supply further aggravated price deflation, putting further pressure on already struggling businesses. The U. S. paper value lost an astonishing 40% value loss, the US governments commitment to the gold standard prevented it from engaging in expansionary monetary policy. High interest rates needed to be maintained, in order to attract investors who bought foreign assets with gold
7.
Billy the Kid
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Billy the Kid, born Henry McCarty, also known as William H. Bonney was an American Old West gunfighter who participated in New Mexicos Lincoln County War. He is known to have killed eight men and his first arrest was for stealing food in late 1875, and within five months he was arrested for stealing clothing and firearms. His escape from two days later and flight from New Mexico Territory into Arizona Territory made him both an outlaw and a federal fugitive. After murdering a blacksmith during an altercation in August 1877, Bonney became a man in Arizona Territory and returned to New Mexico. He became a figure in the region when he joined the Regulators. In April 1878, however, the Regulators killed three men, including Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady and one of his deputies, Bonney and two other Regulators were later charged with killing all three men. Bonneys notoriety grew in December 1880 when the Las Vegas Gazette in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and the New York Sun carried stories about his crimes. He was captured by Sheriff Pat Garrett later that month, tried and convicted of the murder of Brady in April 1881. Bonney escaped from jail on April 28,1881, killing two sheriffs deputies in the process, and evaded capture for more two months. He ultimately was shot and killed by Garrett in Fort Sumner on July 14,1881, over the next several decades, legends grew that Bonney had not died that night, and a number of men claimed they were him. Henry McCarty was born in New York City on September 17,1859 to Catherine McCarty and was baptized eleven days later in the Church of St. Peter, there has been confusion among historians about McCartys birthplace and birth date, and they remain unsettled. His younger brother, Joseph McCarty, was born in 1863, following the death of her husband Patrick, Catherine McCarty and her sons moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where she met William Henry Harrison Antrim. The McCarty family moved with Antrim to Wichita, Kansas in 1870, shortly afterward, the family moved from Santa Fe to Silver City, New Mexico. Joseph McCarty took his stepfathers surname and began using the name Joseph Antrim, Catherine McCarty died of tuberculosis on September 16,1874. McCarty was 15 years old when his mother died, sarah Brown, the owner of a boardinghouse, gave him room and board in exchange for work. On September 16,1875, McCarty was caught stealing food, ten days later, McCarty and George Schaefer robbed a Chinese laundry and stole clothing and two pistols. McCarty was charged with theft and jailed and he escaped two days later and became a fugitive, as noted in the Silver City Herald the next day, the first story published about him. McCarty located his stepfather and stayed with him for a while until Antrim threw him out and it was the last time the two saw each other
8.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
9.
John Dillinger
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John Herbert Dillinger was an American gangster in the Depression-era United States. He operated with a group of men known by some as the Dillinger Gang or Terror Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations, among other activities. He courted publicity and the media of his time ran exaggerated accounts of his bravado and colorful personality, styling him as a Robin Hood figure, causing the government to demand federal action. In response, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover developed a more sophisticated Bureau as a weapon against organized crime, using Dillinger, after evading police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger was wounded and returned to his fathers home to recover. He returned to Chicago in July 1934 and met his end at the hands of police, on July 22,1934, the police and the Division of Investigation closed in on the Biograph Theater. Federal agents, led by Melvin Purvis and Samuel P. Cowley and he drew a Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket and attempted to flee, but was shot four times and killed. John Dillinger was born on June 22,1903, in Indianapolis, Indiana, according to some biographers, his German grandfather, Matthias Dillinger, emigrated to the United States in 1851 from Metz, in the region of Lorraine, then under French sovereignty. Matthias Dillinger was born in Gisingen, near Dillingen in present-day Saarland, John Dillingers parents had married on August 23,1887. Dillingers father was a grocer by trade and, reportedly, a harsh man, in an interview with reporters, Dillinger said that he was firm in his discipline and believed in the adage spare the rod and spoil the child. Dillingers older sister, Audrey, was born March 6,1889 and their mother died in 1907 just before his fourth birthday. Audrey married Emmett Fred Hancock that year and they had seven children together and she cared for her brother John for several years until their father remarried in 1912 to Elizabeth Lizzie Patel. They had three children, Hubert, born 1912, Doris M. and Frances Dillinger, reportedly, Dillinger initially disliked his stepmother, but he eventually came to fall in love with her. The two eventually began a relationship that lasted 3 years, as a teenager, Dillinger was frequently in trouble with the law for fighting and petty theft, he was also noted for his bewildering personality and bullying of smaller children. He quit school to work in an Indianapolis machine shop, although he worked hard at his job, he would stay out all night at parties. His father feared that the city was corrupting his son, prompting him to move the family to Mooresville, Indiana, Dillingers wild and rebellious behavior was unchanged, despite his new rural life. In 1922, he was arrested for theft, and his relationship with his father deteriorated. Dillinger then returned to Mooresville where he met Beryl Ethel Hovious, the two were married on April 12,1924. He attempted to settle down, but he had difficulty holding a job, Dillinger was unable to find a job and began planning a robbery with his friend Ed Singleton
10.
J. Edgar Hoover
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John Edgar Hoover, better known as J. Edgar Hoover, was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Later in life and after his death, Hoover became a figure as evidence of his secretive abuses of power began to surface. Hoover consequently amassed a great deal of power and was in a position to intimidate, according to biographer Kenneth Ackerman, the notion that Hoovers secret files kept presidents from firing him is a myth. However, Richard Nixon was recorded as stating in 1971 that one of the reasons he did not fire Hoover was that he was afraid of reprisals against him from Hoover, according to President Harry S. Truman, Hoover transformed the FBI into his private secret police force. Truman stated, we want no Gestapo or secret police, the FBI is tending in that direction. They are dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain blackmail, J. Edgar Hoover would give his right eye to take over, and all congressmen and senators are afraid of him. John Edgar Hoover was born on New Years Day 1895 in Washington, D. C. to Anna Marie, who was of Swiss-German descent, Hoovers maternal great-uncle, John Hitz, was a Swiss honorary consul general to the United States. He was the closest to his mother in the family, who was the moral guide. Hoover did not have a birth certificate filed upon his birth, two of his siblings had certificates, but Hoovers was not filed until 1938 when he was 43. During debates, he argued against women getting the right to vote, the school newspaper applauded his cool, relentless logic. Hoover stuttered as a boy, which he overcame by teaching himself to talk quickly—a style that he carried through his adult career and he eventually spoke with such ferocious speed that stenographers had a hard time following him. Hoover lived in Washington, D. C. for his entire life, Hoover was 18 years old when he accepted his first job, an entry-level position as messenger in the orders department, at the Library of Congress. The library was a mile from his house. The experience shaped both Hoover and the creation of the FBI profiles, as Hoover noted in a 1951 letter and it gave me an excellent foundation for my work in the FBI where it has been necessary to collate information and evidence. Immediately after getting his LL. M. degree, Hoover was hired by the Justice Department to work in the War Emergency Division. He soon became the head of the Divisions Alien Enemy Bureau, authorized by President Wilson at the beginning of World War I to arrest and he received additional authority from the 1917 Espionage Act. Out of a list of 1,400 suspicious Germans living in the U. S. the Bureau arrested 98, americas First Red Scare was beginning, and one of Hoovers first assignments was to carry out the Palmer Raids. Hoover and his assistant, George Ruch, monitored a variety of U. S. radicals with the intent to punish, arrest
