How are you, sunshine?
Elections that changed a nation, dinosaur footprints from 66 million years ago, and a 9-year-old boy whose first fight became his reason for helping others.
10 minutes, a big world, let's get up.
Every two years, around this time, political leaders in the U.S.
tell us that this is the most important election of our lives.
Is that sometimes an exaggeration?
Sure, but every now and then an election becomes truly monumental, literally.
Our Dana Bash takes us on a tour of the nation's capital to help us understand how five crucial elections helped shape the country generations later.
One of the best things about being here in Washington, D.C., is that we have statues and monuments that commemorate the election that changed the world.
So, let's take a look at them.
We all know Thomas Jefferson as a founding father, as one of the main authors of the Declaration of Independence, but he was also a candidate in two of arguably the most important elections in the United States of America.
These were the first contested elections.
The two candidates were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
In 1796, John Adams won.
In 1800, Thomas Jefferson won, more or less.
There was a peculiarity in this new Constitution that these men had written.
And Thomas Jefferson, in the Electoral College, tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr.
So, the Constitution said that the House of Representatives had to decide who would be the president of the United States.
It was the first constitutional crisis.
It took time, but Thomas Jefferson finally won.
How about this being groundbreaking?
Abraham Lincoln is elected president and is the final spark that ignites the Civil War.
It didn't go so well for him.
He only got 39% of the votes, and that's because no Southern state supported him.
A month later, South Carolina seceded from the Union and the Civil War effectively began.
Two years later, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and finally freed the slaves in the United States of America.
And when he gave the Gettysburg Address, he made it very clear that nothing less than democracy was at stake .
Not one, not two, not three, but four of FDR's elections were incredibly momentous.
He was first elected during the Great Depression, in 1932, because of the Great Depression.
Large Democratic majorities were elected alongside him and he began to enact what he had promised, legislation that added to the "New Deal".
He was then elected to a second term in 1936, and continued .
Roosevelt decided to run again in 1940 and won by a landslide.
It was an unprecedented third term .
And it meant that in 1941, when Pearl Harbor happened, he was in the White House and began to use his decade of experience and the relationship he had with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin to form the Allied leadership to fight Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
It is 1944, the war is still raging.
Roosevelt, of course, runs for a fourth term and wins.
And one of the other important consequences of FDR's unprecedented time in the White House is the 22nd Amendment, which was passed afterward.
It establishes that a president cannot serve for more than two terms.
The momentous elections don't have to be for president or really for any government position.
It could be just a small group, in the basement of a church, raising their hands and voting.
That's what happened in December 1955 when Martin Luther King Jr.
was elected during the bus boycott to lead the newly formed Montgomery Progress Association .
He was only 26 years old and new to Montgomery.
He was the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, and one of the civil rights leaders , Jo Ann Robinson, had heard him preach and told everyone that he could move people with his words.
And we know what happened next.
He became a civil rights leader who truly helped change the world.
On May 10, 1994 , nearly a billion people watched as this man, Nelson Mandela, was sworn in as South Africa's first black president after decades of resistance against racial segregation and discrimination by the small white minority that ran the government until his actions.
You see it right here, how a freedom fighter and political prisoner for 30 years led him to become a statesman.
He only served one term as president, but his strength not only helped the people of South Africa, but also inspired activists around the world.
10-second trivia.
Ramen is one of the most popular dishes in Japan.
Where did it originate?
China, Mongolia, Vietnam, or South Korea?
If you said China, you're a superstar.
The famous Japanese noodle dish was actually introduced by Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century and gets its name from the Chinese term lamian, which means stretched noodles.
Earlier this month, we learned all about the record number of centenarians in Japan, people who have reached at least 100 years of age.
Apparently, some of them have no interest in retiring, like Fuku Amagawa.
She is 103 years old and still works five days a week preparing ramen at the restaurant her family opened about 60 years ago.
Our Hanako Montgomery stopped by to enjoy a meal and perhaps discover some secrets about longevity.
Fuku Amagawa is 103 years and seven months old, and still works five days a week.
Her specialty is preparing ramen in a shop that she and her family opened six decades ago.
Oh, it looks so delicious.
Amagawa is just one of more than 100,000 centenarians in Japan, a new national record.
Experts say that healthy diets, low obesity rates, and universal healthcare are some of the reasons why so many people live here.
But Japan's overall population is declining.
The birth rate is at a historic low, leaving fewer workers to support a growing elderly population.
But Amagawa is not ready to retire yet.
Most Japanese people aged 100 or older are women like her.
And although scientists don't know exactly why, Amagawa has his own theory.
She tells me she has some tips for living a long time.
Eat plenty and, most importantly, find a reason to get up every morning.
This next story is for all the veterans who might be thinking: I like turtles.
For the first time in recorded history, a wild sea turtle has nested naturally on the US West Coast.
Lifeguards discovered that a rare olive ridley sea turtle had laid eggs near Seal Beach in California.
Three days later, another turtle appeared several kilometers away near Huntington Beach and laid another nest.
Scientists have confirmed that they were two different turtles.
NOAA and California Fish and Wildlife teams responded immediately, cordoning off both sites and keeping the eggs protected from people and predators.
The incubation period normally lasts from 1.5 to 2 months.
So why is this so extraordinary?
Olive ridley sea turtles typically nest much further south, mainly on beaches in Mexico and Central America.
Experts say this year's rare super El Niño could be overheating the water in its usual locations, causing this northward shift.
The following is a gigantic discovery made by a Colorado high school teacher who stumbled upon paleontological history in North Dakota.
Kent Hups was on an unrelated research expedition when he found what appeared to be three giant fingers.
It turns out he had found a 7-meter-long trail with four fossilized footprints probably left by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Each footprint measures approximately one meter in length.
Scientists date them to about 66.5 million years ago.
It is the first known sequence of footprints likely attributable to an adult T-Rex .
The famous Hell Creek Formation is rich in Late Cretaceous dinosaur bones, but finding footprints is another story.
The sediments in the area typically eroded before the footprints could be preserved.
Scientists are getting an unusual clue about how this predator actually walked .
It is estimated that he was walking, not running, at about 4 miles per hour.
Proof that, even 66 million years later, we are still following in their footsteps.
Today's story gets a 10 out of 10, a sweet moment of closure for a young philanthropist.
Nine-year-old Jace Smith, from Georgia, spent months in intensive care after being born, and now uses his own business to help families going through the same thing.
Jace was born at 24 weeks, and his mother says she remembers the help she received from others during that time.
Gasoline, food, basic necessities that allowed him to focus on what mattered most, little Jace.
Now, Jace is doing very well.
She runs her own lemonade business and used some of the profits to help neonatal intensive care units, donating a mobile library cart full of books for parents to read to their babies.
Doctors say that reading helps early brain development, even in babies.
And Jace rates his lemonade recipe four out of five.
I love that.
Philanthropist and entrepreneur of 9 years, still leaving room for improvement.
Alright, friends, I have time for two greetings today.
Miss Rubenstein and Miss Green at PS10 school in Brooklyn, New York.
I see you, Olivia.
Brooklyn, keep bringing that Big Apple energy.
And look at this, Mr.
Lechtenberg and all our friends at Stillwell High School in West Des Moines, Iowa.
I must say, I love this picture.
Thank you for making us a part of your day.
And Mr.
Lechtenberg, nice haircut, brother.
Let's make the rest of our Monday fun.
See you tomorrow, team.
I'm Coy Wire and we're CNN 10.
Elections that changed a nation, dinosaur footprints from 66 million years ago, and a 9-year-old boy whose first fight became his reason for helping others.
10 minutes, a big world, let's get up.
Every two years, around this time, political leaders in the U.S.
tell us that this is the most important election of our lives.
Is that sometimes an exaggeration?
Sure, but every now and then an election becomes truly monumental, literally.
Our Dana Bash takes us on a tour of the nation's capital to help us understand how five crucial elections helped shape the country generations later.
One of the best things about being here in Washington, D.C., is that we have statues and monuments that commemorate the election that changed the world.
So, let's take a look at them.
We all know Thomas Jefferson as a founding father, as one of the main authors of the Declaration of Independence, but he was also a candidate in two of arguably the most important elections in the United States of America.
These were the first contested elections.
The two candidates were Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
In 1796, John Adams won.
In 1800, Thomas Jefferson won, more or less.
There was a peculiarity in this new Constitution that these men had written.
And Thomas Jefferson, in the Electoral College, tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr.
So, the Constitution said that the House of Representatives had to decide who would be the president of the United States.
It was the first constitutional crisis.
It took time, but Thomas Jefferson finally won.
How about this being groundbreaking?
Abraham Lincoln is elected president and is the final spark that ignites the Civil War.
It didn't go so well for him.
He only got 39% of the votes, and that's because no Southern state supported him.
A month later, South Carolina seceded from the Union and the Civil War effectively began.
Two years later, he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and finally freed the slaves in the United States of America.
And when he gave the Gettysburg Address, he made it very clear that nothing less than democracy was at stake .
Not one, not two, not three, but four of FDR's elections were incredibly momentous.
He was first elected during the Great Depression, in 1932, because of the Great Depression.
Large Democratic majorities were elected alongside him and he began to enact what he had promised, legislation that added to the "New Deal".
He was then elected to a second term in 1936, and continued .
Roosevelt decided to run again in 1940 and won by a landslide.
It was an unprecedented third term .
And it meant that in 1941, when Pearl Harbor happened, he was in the White House and began to use his decade of experience and the relationship he had with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin to form the Allied leadership to fight Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
It is 1944, the war is still raging.
Roosevelt, of course, runs for a fourth term and wins.
And one of the other important consequences of FDR's unprecedented time in the White House is the 22nd Amendment, which was passed afterward.
It establishes that a president cannot serve for more than two terms.
The momentous elections don't have to be for president or really for any government position.
It could be just a small group, in the basement of a church, raising their hands and voting.
That's what happened in December 1955 when Martin Luther King Jr.
was elected during the bus boycott to lead the newly formed Montgomery Progress Association .
He was only 26 years old and new to Montgomery.
He was the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, and one of the civil rights leaders , Jo Ann Robinson, had heard him preach and told everyone that he could move people with his words.
And we know what happened next.
He became a civil rights leader who truly helped change the world.
On May 10, 1994 , nearly a billion people watched as this man, Nelson Mandela, was sworn in as South Africa's first black president after decades of resistance against racial segregation and discrimination by the small white minority that ran the government until his actions.
You see it right here, how a freedom fighter and political prisoner for 30 years led him to become a statesman.
He only served one term as president, but his strength not only helped the people of South Africa, but also inspired activists around the world.
10-second trivia.
Ramen is one of the most popular dishes in Japan.
Where did it originate?
China, Mongolia, Vietnam, or South Korea?
If you said China, you're a superstar.
The famous Japanese noodle dish was actually introduced by Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century and gets its name from the Chinese term lamian, which means stretched noodles.
Earlier this month, we learned all about the record number of centenarians in Japan, people who have reached at least 100 years of age.
Apparently, some of them have no interest in retiring, like Fuku Amagawa.
She is 103 years old and still works five days a week preparing ramen at the restaurant her family opened about 60 years ago.
Our Hanako Montgomery stopped by to enjoy a meal and perhaps discover some secrets about longevity.
Fuku Amagawa is 103 years and seven months old, and still works five days a week.
Her specialty is preparing ramen in a shop that she and her family opened six decades ago.
Oh, it looks so delicious.
Amagawa is just one of more than 100,000 centenarians in Japan, a new national record.
Experts say that healthy diets, low obesity rates, and universal healthcare are some of the reasons why so many people live here.
But Japan's overall population is declining.
The birth rate is at a historic low, leaving fewer workers to support a growing elderly population.
But Amagawa is not ready to retire yet.
Most Japanese people aged 100 or older are women like her.
And although scientists don't know exactly why, Amagawa has his own theory.
She tells me she has some tips for living a long time.
Eat plenty and, most importantly, find a reason to get up every morning.
This next story is for all the veterans who might be thinking: I like turtles.
For the first time in recorded history, a wild sea turtle has nested naturally on the US West Coast.
Lifeguards discovered that a rare olive ridley sea turtle had laid eggs near Seal Beach in California.
Three days later, another turtle appeared several kilometers away near Huntington Beach and laid another nest.
Scientists have confirmed that they were two different turtles.
NOAA and California Fish and Wildlife teams responded immediately, cordoning off both sites and keeping the eggs protected from people and predators.
The incubation period normally lasts from 1.5 to 2 months.
So why is this so extraordinary?
Olive ridley sea turtles typically nest much further south, mainly on beaches in Mexico and Central America.
Experts say this year's rare super El Niño could be overheating the water in its usual locations, causing this northward shift.
The following is a gigantic discovery made by a Colorado high school teacher who stumbled upon paleontological history in North Dakota.
Kent Hups was on an unrelated research expedition when he found what appeared to be three giant fingers.
It turns out he had found a 7-meter-long trail with four fossilized footprints probably left by a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Each footprint measures approximately one meter in length.
Scientists date them to about 66.5 million years ago.
It is the first known sequence of footprints likely attributable to an adult T-Rex .
The famous Hell Creek Formation is rich in Late Cretaceous dinosaur bones, but finding footprints is another story.
The sediments in the area typically eroded before the footprints could be preserved.
Scientists are getting an unusual clue about how this predator actually walked .
It is estimated that he was walking, not running, at about 4 miles per hour.
Proof that, even 66 million years later, we are still following in their footsteps.
Today's story gets a 10 out of 10, a sweet moment of closure for a young philanthropist.
Nine-year-old Jace Smith, from Georgia, spent months in intensive care after being born, and now uses his own business to help families going through the same thing.
Jace was born at 24 weeks, and his mother says she remembers the help she received from others during that time.
Gasoline, food, basic necessities that allowed him to focus on what mattered most, little Jace.
Now, Jace is doing very well.
She runs her own lemonade business and used some of the profits to help neonatal intensive care units, donating a mobile library cart full of books for parents to read to their babies.
Doctors say that reading helps early brain development, even in babies.
And Jace rates his lemonade recipe four out of five.
I love that.
Philanthropist and entrepreneur of 9 years, still leaving room for improvement.
Alright, friends, I have time for two greetings today.
Miss Rubenstein and Miss Green at PS10 school in Brooklyn, New York.
I see you, Olivia.
Brooklyn, keep bringing that Big Apple energy.
And look at this, Mr.
Lechtenberg and all our friends at Stillwell High School in West Des Moines, Iowa.
I must say, I love this picture.
Thank you for making us a part of your day.
And Mr.
Lechtenberg, nice haircut, brother.
Let's make the rest of our Monday fun.
See you tomorrow, team.
I'm Coy Wire and we're CNN 10.