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Barnstormers, who were in fact aerial showmen, fired the imagination of aviators and skydivers after World War I. The barnstormers showed airborne performances and parachute jumps and travelled every year throughout the United States. Competitions began as a result of the increase of parachuting awareness. The first contest of accuracy landing was held in 1930 in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

The military used paratroopers in World War II , that is between 1939 and 1945. The paratroopers were parachute-equipped soldiers and had the most famous use on D-Day, the invasion of Normandy (Normandie), France, on June 6, 1944

The surplus of nylon parachute equipment after World War II and the fact that the U.S. Army had started the first military sport parachuting clubs, set the grounds of skydiving in the United Dtates, as a pleasant and relaxing activity. The same thing happened in many other countries, and thus , the first parachuting world championships were organized in 1951 in Yugoslavia.

Little by little, in the mid 1960, systems specially made for sport parachutes took the place of the military surplus systems. Parachutists started to call this activity skydiving and calling themselves skydivers. In order to improve the opening characteristics and to make them more maneuverable, there were a few sport modifications to military parachutes. A French Canadian kite builder, Domina Jalbert, developed in 1964 the the ram-air design, that has set the tendencies for parachutes in skydiving from then on.

Sport skydivers constantly tested new and revolutionary designs and materials. Apart from sport uses , there have also been designed sport-generated designs like military HAHO (high altitude, high opening) designs, smoke jumping designs and many types of equipment for two-person and four-person tandem jumping. The military HAHO designs allowed soldiers to silently fly over large areas. The smoke jumping designs aimed to put firefighters into remote forest fires from low altitude.

Skydiving has kept on becoming more and more popular after the late 1980s, and this is because the equipment, that is reliable, lightweight, and easy-to-operate, picture this sport as accesible to many people. The U.S. president George H. W. Bush also jumped , thus increasing the popularity of skydiving.

began before World War I

A new constitution went into effect in 1947: The emperor lost all political and military power, and was solely made the symbol of the state.

Critics started to grow when the United States acted increasingly according to her self interests in the Cold War, reintroduced the persecution of communists, stationed more troops in Japan, and wanted Japan to establish an own self defence force despite the anti-war article in the constitution.

With the peace treaty that went into effect in 1952, the occupation ended. Japan's Self Defence Force was established in 1954, accompanied by large public demonstrations. Great public unrest was also caused by the renewal of the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960.

After the Korean War, and accelerated by it, the recovery of Japan's economy flourished.

Japan's relations to the Soviet Union were normalized in 1956, the ones to China in 1972.

With the Olympics only a month away, athletes cannot risk falling sick and are taking few chances.

"You don't really want to go sailing around in pollution and I've never sailed in a place that's more polluted than this," said Australian coach Euan McNicol, a former skiff world champion.

The most shocking story is that of Australian sailor Elise Rechichi, who swallowed water when she slipped on a boat ramp during a test event here in 2006. It took her 10 months to recover from severe gastric trauma that had her in and out of hospital.

"It's made us all reasonably wary of what's going on,"

But for many Olympic sailors it's what they can't see in the water that is their greatest concern.

Boats, bulldozers and the military have been deployed to remove the eyesore.

On Saturday, officials briefly claimed victory over the algae saying the course had been cleared.

But Qu Chun, the 2008 Olympic sailing competition manager said the bloom has not been totally wiped out, estimating that 2-5 percent of the course was still affected, down from nearly a third a week earlier.

The emotional bond between handler and dog is a strong one.

The result was the completion of a series of test planes.

Alexander Graham Bell

This 30-lb. craft with a steam engine flew for 1 min. 20 sec. at an altitude of 70 to 100 ft. for a distance of 3,000 ft.

It was the first successful flight of an unmanned heavier-than-air flying machine. Langley's Aerodrome Number 6 had mechanical problems that day, but it flew 4,200 ft. in November of 1896.

In 1898, at President William McKinley's instigation, the U.S. Army awarded Langley $50,000 to develop a plane that would carry a man aloft. In December, 1903, nine days before the Wrights' test at Kitty Hawk, Langley tried out his new gasoline-powered experimental model. A mishap with the catapult caused the airplane to plunge to the bottom of the Potomac, and Langley gave up his experiments after being criticized by the press for the great expense to the taxpayers.

Starting in the 12th century, military administrations called shogunates became the usual form of government.

It took until the end of the 1500s for order to be restored under the Momoyama shogunate, but the government's three famous warriors eventually battled among themselves, breaking up their alliance in 1600.

His rule was marked by the near-elimination of Christianity from Japan in an effort to prevent the conquest of the country by Spain, the expulsion of all Spaniards in 1624, and the deportation of the Portuguese in 1639. All contact with foreigners was then outlawed.

Japan enjoyed a period of blossoming culture, and art, literature, and theater thrived despite the Tokugawa shogunate's strict, repressive control.

After this point, known historically as the Meiji Restoration, true authority rested with a small group of veteran politicians.

Such improvements led to the creation of a considerable export trade as Japan's leaders decided to work with the foreigners, since their efforts to expel them had not succeeded

Continued incursions into China in 1931–1932 secured a Japanese puppet monarchy in China's Manchurian region under Emperor P'u-i, China's last emperor.

plunged into World War II with its attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.

an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6

Japan signed the United States-Japan Security Treaty (1951) in San Francisco

Japanese politics after World War II has been dominated by the powerful Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

become a major global financial power and ranked as the world's largest aid donor and overseas investor.

His bold move paid off when the LDP gained a two-thirds majority in the Diet's lower house, thereby gaining for Koiziumi a wide popular mandate for his reforms. Koizumi left office in September 2006, having completed two full terms—a rarity in modern Japan.