The Wizard of Oz is an American musical movie. It was produced by MGM and released by RKO in 1939. The movie is based on the children's book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. This book was first published in May 1900. The book and movie are about a little girl's adventures in the land called Oz. This is still watched from 1939 to 2017.
The song "Over the Rainbow" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The movie was first televised in 1956. It became an annual Thanksgiving television special for many years. The movie was named the most-watched motion picture in history by the Library of Congress.
In 1998, the movie was sixth on the American Film Institute's 100 Years... 100 Movies list. The movie has been chosen for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Dorothy (Judy Garland) lives on a drab Kansas farm with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry (Clara Blandick and Charlie Grapewin). A powerful storm sweeps her away to the Land of Oz. She accidentally kills a wicked witch. She wants to go home, but only the Wizard of Oz (Frank Morgan) can send her home. She must go to the Emerald City to see him. She sets off on the Yellow Brick Road wearing the witch's ruby slippers. She makes three friends on the road: a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion (Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, and Bert Lahr).
On the way to Emerald City, the friends are tormented by The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton). She is the sister of the witch Dorothy killed. She wants the ruby slippers. Dorothy won't give the slippers to the witch. The friends arrive in Emerald City. The Wizard sends them off to kill the witch. The friends are captured by the witch. Dorothy throws a pail of water over the witch. The witch melts.
In the Emerald City, the four friends are welcomed as heroes. The Wizard prepares his hot air balloon to take Dorothy back to Kansas. The balloon takes off without her. A good witch called Glinda (Billie Burke) tells Dorothy she can go home by just clicking the heels of the ruby slippers together and thinking about home. She does this. She wakes up in her bed. Her adventures have been a dream.
Assassination
Assassination is the murder of an important or popular person. Usually the person is a political leader, like the head of a country or a political party. Assassinations are usually done for political reasons or for payment. A person who assassinates someone is called an assassin.
Throughout history, assassinations have happened for many different reasons. Sometimes assassinations have been used to take over governments. Other times, assassinations have been used to kill military leaders during wars, or for religious reasons. Some assassins want revenge, or just want to be famous.
Assassinations have happened ever since people started living in group societies.
The Old Testament of the Bible talks about assassinations in the Books of Judith, Kings, Samuel, and Chronicles.
An ancient Indian writer named Chanakya, who lived from about 350 283 BC, wrote a lot about assassinations in a book called "Arthashastra". One of his students later assassinated some of his enemies, including two of Alexander the Great's generals.
Famous victims of assassinations include Philip II of Macedon (336 BC), Alexander the Great's father, and Julius Caesar (44 BC). Emperors of the Roman Empire were often assassinated so that a different leader could take their place.
In the Middle Ages, many kings in the Eastern Roman Empire were killed by assassinations so that new kings could take power.
During the Renaissance, assassinations became more common in Western Europe. Kings William the Silent of the Netherlands (1584), Henry III of France (1589), and Henry IV of France (1610) were all assassinated.
The first American use of state assassination (where a government planned to assassinate someone) happened in 1620. It happened in Plymouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where the Pilgrims had landed. Native Americans had lived there before the Pilgrims landed, but the Pilgrims wanted the land to themselves. Myles Standish invited a local Native American tribal chief, the chief's 18-year-old brother, and two other Native Americans to a feast. Then they locked the door, killed the three older men, and hanged the teenager in public as a warning to the other Native Americans to stay away.
Assassinations have been common in modern history. This section does not list every assassination that has happened in modern history. It lists some examples of world leaders who were assassinated, and explains some of the reasons why these assassinations happened.
In Imperial Russia, two emperors were assassinated within 80 years: Paul I (1801) and Alexander II (1881).
In the United States, four presidents were assassinated within 100 years. They were Presidents Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), and John F. Kennedy (1963).
After Abraham Lincoln was killed, Andrew Johnson became President. He was President for four years. During that time, 12 people who held important political jobs were assassinated. The next president, Ulysses S. Grant, led the United States from 18691877. During that time, 11 government leaders were assassinated; another 9 were attacked, but survived.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in 1914. Some historians say this assassination started World War I.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Josef Stalin's NKVD assassinated many people outside of the Soviet Union, including Leon Trotsky. These were mostly people who Stalin thought were against him or could take power from him. He wanted to make sure to keep the power he had, so he killed many of his opponents.
Between 1934 and 1944, different individuals and groups tried 27 different times to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany during The Holocaust and World War II. These people wanted to stop Hitler from taking over so many countries and killing so many people. However, he always survived.
During World War II, the Allies used assassinations to kill important Nazi and Japanese leaders:
Some famous human rights activists were also assassinated in the next few decades. They were assassinated by people who did not like the things they were doing to work for human rights. The most famous activists who were assassinated include:
Between 1960 and 1965, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tried at least eight times to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Around this time, the CIA also made plans to assassinate Patrice Lumumba, the only democratically elected leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Between 1960 and 1970, the CIA also encouraged and in some cases helped with assassination plans against:
In 1979, the Iranian Revolution turned Iran into an Islamic Republic. A group called Iran Human Rights Documentation Center says that between 1979 and the 1990s, leaders of the Iranian government had 162 people assassinated, in 19 different countries. The group says Iran stopped the assassinations because a German court put out an arrest warrant for the head of Iranian military intelligence.
Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, was assassinated in 1981 at a parade. He was killed by people who wanted to take over the country and make it into an Islamic Republic.
In 1983, Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated. Aquino was against Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator who ruled the Philippines. The people of the Philippines were so upset that they started the non-violent People Power Revolution. This led to the end of Marcos's government. Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, became President of the Philippines.
In India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984. Her son Rajiv Gandhi became the next Prime Minister. He was assassinated in 1991. (They were not related to Mohandas Gandhi.)