Prehistory

Prehistory means literally "before history", from the Latin word for "before," præ, and Greek ιστορία. Human prehistory is the period from the time that behaviorally and anatomically modern humans first appear until the appearance of recorded history following the invention of writing systems. Since both the time of settlement of modern humans and the evolution of human civilisations, differ from region to region, prehistory starts and ends at different moments in time, depending on the region concerned.

Sumer in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt were the first civilisations to develop their own scripts, and to keep historical records; this took place already during the early Bronze Age. The neighbouring civilisations of the Ancient Middle East were the first to follow. Most other civilisations reached the end of prehistory during the Iron Age.

Definition

As used in this article

This article is concerned with human prehistory, or the time since behaviorally and anatomically modern humans first appear until the beginning of recorded history. There are separate articles for the overall history of the Earth and the history of life before humans.

History

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

History (from Greek ἱστορία, historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation") is the study of the past, particularly how it relates to humans. It is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians. Events occurring prior to written record are considered prehistory.

History can also refer to the academic discipline which uses a narrative to examine and analyse a sequence of past events, and objectively determine the patterns of cause and effect that determine them. Historians sometimes debate the nature of history and its usefulness by discussing the study of the discipline as an end in itself and as a way of providing "perspective" on the problems of the present.

Stories common to a particular culture, but not supported by external sources (such as the tales surrounding King Arthur), are usually classified as cultural heritage or legends, because they do not show the "disinterested investigation" required of the discipline of history.Herodotus, a 5th-century BC Greek historian is considered within the Western tradition to be the "father of history", and, along with his contemporary Thucydides, helped form the foundations for the modern study of human history. Their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In Asia, a state chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd century BC texts survived.

The Early Beatles

The Early Beatles is the Beatles' sixth release on Capitol Records, and their eighth album for the American market. All of the tracks on this album had previously been issued on the early 1964 Vee-Jay release Introducing... The Beatles. The front cover photo for this album features the same back cover photo for the British LP Beatles for Sale.

Vee-Jay had gained American distribution rights to the tracks before the group became popular in America (because Capitol, the US subsidiary of EMI which owns the Beatles' record label Parlophone, had declined to release the group's records in America), and their releases had initially failed to chart. But after the group became famous, Vee-Jay, still holding the rights to the early material, was able to reissue them in America and this time the records sold in the millions. Capitol filed a lawsuit to stop Vee Jay from distributing the tracks, but was not successful. In October 1964, Vee-Jay's license to distribute the Beatles recordings they possessed expired, so Capitol finally got the American distribution rights for the album.

Joseph G. Gall

Joseph Grafton Gall (born April 1928) is an American cell biologist and winner of the 2006 Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award. He was also a co-recipient (with Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol W. Greider) of the 2007 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University. In 1983 he was honored with the highest recognition of the American Society for Cell Biology, the E. B. Wilson Medal.

Gall is credited with encouraging women biologists, a group sometimes called "Gall's Gals", in an era when this was relatively uncommon. One of his students who went on to do important work in the science was Susan Gerbi. When asked to explain his encouragement of women in the sciences, he began talking about his mother. Gifted in math and science, she had been the first woman in her family to attend college, graduating in the 1920s. She became a homemaker, not a scientist. But she urged a young Gall to explore the natural world, encouraging him to catch bugs and bring them into the house so together they could identify the creatures using scientific reference books. "It never occurred to me that a woman's aptitude was different than a man's," Gall said. "My father -- a lawyer -- was afraid of animals and insects. So, if anything, maybe I thought it went the other way.".