Describing historical events

The Blitz was an intense bombing campaign that Germany launched against Britain in 1940, during World War II.

For eight months German airplanes dropped bombs on London, England, and other strategic cities where factories and other important industries were based.

Once the Blitz began, the government enforced a blackout to deceive German bombers. Streetlights, car headlights, and illuminated signs were kept off. People put up black curtains in their windows so that no lights showed outside their houses. When a bombing raid was imminent, air-raid sirens were set off to sound a warning.

At the beginning of the Blitz, the British lacked effective antiaircraft artillery and searchlights, as well as night fighters that could find and shoot down an aircraft in darkness.

As the attacks continued, the British improved their air defenses. They greatly boosted the numbers of antiaircraft guns and searchlights, and in key areas the guns were radar-controlled to improve accuracy.

Another defense measure was the installation of barrage balloons — large, oval-shaped inflated balloons with tail fins — in and around major target areas. These balloons prevented low-flying planes from getting close to their targets. The higher the planes had to fly to avoid the balloons, the less accurate they were when dropping their bombs. Barrage balloons were anchored to the ground by steel cables strong enough to destroy any aircraft that flew into them.

The Birmingham campaign was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama.

Led by Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, Fred Shuttlesworth and others, the campaign of nonviolent direct action culminated in widely publicized confrontations between young black students and white civic authorities, and eventually led the municipal government to change the city's discrimination laws.

In the early 1960s, Birmingham was one of the most racially divided cities in the United States, enforced both legally and culturally. Black citizens faced legal and economic disparities, and violent retribution when they attempted to draw attention to their problems. Martin Luther King Jr. called it the most segregated city in the country.

Protests in Birmingham began with a boycott led by Shuttlesworth meant to pressure business leaders to open employment to people of all races, and end segregation in public facilities, restaurants, schools, and stores.

When local business and governmental leaders resisted the boycott, Shuttlesworth began what they called Project C, a series of sit-ins and marches intended to provoke mass arrests.

When the campaign ran low on adult volunteers, James Bevel thought of the idea of having students become the main demonstrators in the Birmingham campaign. 

He then trained and directed high school, college, and elementary school students in nonviolence, and asked them to participate in the demonstrations by taking a peaceful walk 50 at a time from the 16th Street Baptist Church to City Hall in order to talk to the mayor about segregation.

This resulted in over a thousand arrests, and, as the jails and holding areas filled with arrested students, the Birmingham Police Department, at the direction of the city Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, used high-pressure water hoses and police attack dogs on the children and adult bystanders.

The Birmingham campaign was a model of nonviolent direct action protest and, through the media, drew the world's attention to racial segregation in the South.

It burnished King's reputation, ousted Connor from his job, forced desegregation in Birmingham, and directly paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited racial discrimination in hiring practices and public services throughout the United States.