Who got to America first? This is the teaser with many claimants led as usual by the Chinese. Admiral Zheng Ho, the great seafaring adventurer heading the Imperial Navy of the Ming Dynasty, was the first to navigate the globe (in the course of which he did visit Malaya, or rather Malacca).

There is little of the Chinese occupation of the vast new land across the Atlantic, except the Slavonic features of the Native Americans. These could equally have come from the Inuit or Japanese in Alaska with the only land route to the US.

Predictably, we next hear of yet another seafarer -- the Viking Leif Erikkson. The long coastline linking the Nordic countries has for centuries lured them overseas. Next came Christopher Columbus, who legend has it was the man who really "discovered" America. In fact Columbus was searching for India, thought he had found it, and christened the natives "Red Indians".

The next era brought the true settlers headed by the Pilgrim Fathers and led by some fervent Puritans who bequeathed to America their Protestant tradition.

The Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Plymouth in the Mayflower across a vast unknown ocean (the Atlantic). When they touched land they called it "New England". Like those other later settlers who initially named New York "New Amsterdam".

But the best heritage of those early settlers was Thanksgiving -- America's greatest national festival -- the gratitude being for their safe arrival in the New World.

What did they find there? First the indigenous people -- the natives -- Columbus' "Red Indians". Simple, humble people who believed in life after death with its happy hunting grounds. They could be hostile. The settlers often had to circle their wagons against them if they ventured west away from civilisation.

Next, came the slaves. In 1700/1800 serfs were imported from Africa to be enslaved on the plantations. Liberation from slavery gave the US some of its most inspiring leaders. Martin Luther King was to pronounce "I have a dream", bringing a beacon of light and hope to millions of slaves and condemning in his words "the flame of withering injustice". One of these injustices was his own assassination before he could see his aspirations fulfilled.

The evolution of the America we know today has many highlights that have gone down in history. My readers probably now sense I'm getting into anecdotal mode. Quite right! My first story is of a Congress in Indiana chaired by the bishop.

A scientist got up with a mind boggling proposition. He predicted that one day men would fly through the air like birds. The Herald Tribune summed up the general feeling of disbelief -- "Flyers or Liars". The bishop, outraged, stormed out. Flight was reserved for the angels.

His name was Bishop Wright. He went home to his two young sons (Wilbur and Orville Wright) who were later credited with the first airplane and were indeed the first men to fly like birds.

My other story moves to another historic occasion. This time we had reached the Space Age. The first two Americans to land on the moon were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They were surrounded on their safe arrival back by, of course, the voracious press. Inexplicably the only comment from Armstrong was "Good Luck Mr Gorsky" but he refused to elaborate. Till 20 years later when a journalist accosted him for an explanation in hindsight. This time Armstrong was willing to reveal.

It seems that when growing up the Armstrongs and the Gorskys were next door neighbours. One day the small Armstrong playing in his garden lost his ball over the fence. He crept over to retrieve in time to hear a mega row between husband and wife -- "You'll get sex when that boy next door lands on the moon". Hence -- "Good luck Mr Gorsky".

The Industrial Revolution of the 20th century was the next global phenomenon. But although the Brits initiated it with their gift for innovation and technology, they exported many of their inventions to their US colony where the full extent of the Industrial Revolution was born in Small and Medium Enterprises working from garages in Silicon Valley.

We in Malaysia can testify. Andy Grove of Intel, one of these early electronics manufacturers looking to invest in this part of the world, identified Penang, which became the hub of Malaysia's first real industry -- electronics.

Bilateral relations between Malaysia and the US grew. America had also become by now a vital component in Britain's economy.

The US postal service is one of the best communication achievements in the world. They have the most sophisticated telephone service thanks to Ian Graham Bell -- a Scotsman who opted to become a US citizen.

The tradition of the Peace Corps flourished with 300 currently coming to help to build back our command of English (who would have thought? The advance guards are already here -- teaching the language of William Shakespeare).

By now post Independence, from the 13 states that originally comprised the American colony there are now 50 states and one federal territory. The US has become the world's biggest economy, the world's greatest military power, the world's superpower.

And Malaysia sustains its special bilateral relations.