The Panama Canal

　Have you ever wondered how ships get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean? In the old days, ships had to sail via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. It was a long, cold, and dangerous trip. Owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents, and icebergs, the waters around Cape Horn were very hazardous. These dangers made the voyage around Cape Horn seem like a trip through a graveyard.

　To make the route shorter and safer, it was decided to build a canal. Panama was chosen because it is the narrowest country in the Americas. The French started building the canal in 1880, but their early attempt failed when an estimated 22,000 people died from diseases and accidents. The United States eventually completed the project, and the Panama Canal opened in 1914. While a total of about 27,500 people died while building the 77-kilometer (48-mile) canal, it has made travel by ship much safer, and it has become one of the world’s most important shipping routes.

　About 14,000 ships go through the canal every year, and this number will increase as soon as construction on a canal expansion is completed in 2014. Because most of the canal is around 26 meters above sea level, three locks (a little like water elevators) lift ships up to the canal on one side and lower them on the other. Ships of all sizes use the locks, from large commercial container ships to small private yachts.

　Since it opened, the Panama Canal has been very successful and has had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans. Today it is still as important as it ever was for world trade, and its importance will continue well into the 21st century.

Walt Disney: Hollywood Legend

　Everyone has heard of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Pluto. They are the inventions of Walt Disney, a talented screenwriter, filmmaker, voice actor, animator, and entrepreneur.

　Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago in 1901. During his lifetime, he created some of the most famous characters that have ever appeared on film. He is also the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, Japan, France, and China.

　Disney began his career in Kansas City making short cartoons, but it was not long before his company went bankrupt. Afterward, he decided to set up a studio in the movie industry’s capital city─Hollywood, California.

　Although his first Hollywood movies did not make much money, Disney refused to give up. In 1928, he created Mickey Mouse and a star was born. Mickey’s first animated cartoon with sound was Steamboat Willie, and it was very successful. It was so popular that Walt Disney decided to use sound in all of his subsequent cartoons and movies. Disney himself did the voice of Mickey Mouse until 1947.

　Walt Disney’s animation company went on to make several masterpieces like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi. In 1932, Walt Disney received a special Academy Award for creating Mickey Mouse. During his lifetime he received 59 Academy Award nominations and 26 Oscars. Many doubt that any other moviemaker will ever have as much influence as Walt Disney.

　Walt Disney died of lung cancer on December 15, 1966, a few years before the opening of the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

　Today, the company he cofounded, the Walt Disney Company, has annual revenues of over US$40 billion. It has become one of the most famous and profitable motion picture companies in the world.

　It is hard to find someone who has not seen one of Walt Disney’s movies or cartoons. His creativity and hard work have brought joy, fun, and laughter to children and adults everywhere.