Portal:United States
Parent Portals: Geography / North America / United States
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The United States of America is a federal republic of 50 states, a federal district and 14 territories. It is located mostly in central North America. The U.S. has three land borders, two with Canada and one with Mexico, and has sea borders with Cuba, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Bermuda and Russia, and is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 50 states, only Alaska and Hawaii are not contiguous with any other state. The U.S. also has a collection of districts, territories, and possessions in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. Each state has a high level of autonomy according to the system of federalism. The U.S. traces its national origin to the declaration by 13 British colonies in 1776 that they were one free and independent state. They were recognized as such by the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Since then, the nation has grown to become a superpower and exerts a high level of economic, political, military, and cultural influence.
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Hurricane Andrew was a compact, but very powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged or destroyed, and remained the costliest in financial terms until Hurricane Irma surpassed it 25 years later. Andrew was also the strongest landfalling hurricane in the United States in decades and the costliest hurricane to strike anywhere in the country, until it was surpassed by Katrina in 2005.
Andrew is one of only four tropical cyclones to make landfall in the continental United States as a Category 5, alongside the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, 1969's Camille, and 2018's Michael. While the storm also caused major damage in The Bahamas and Louisiana, the greatest impact was felt in South Florida, where the storm made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, with 1-minute sustained wind speeds as high as 165 mph (266 km/h) and a gust as high as 174 mph (280 km/h). (Full article...) -
William Robinson "W. R." Brown (January 17, 1875 – August 4, 1955) was an American corporate officer of the Brown Company of Berlin, New Hampshire. He was also an influential Arabian horse breeder, the founder and owner of the Maynesboro Stud, and an authority on Arabian horses.
After graduating from Williams College, Brown joined the family corporation, then known as the Berlin Mills Company, and became manager of the Woods Products Division, overseeing the company's woodlands and logging operations. He became an early advocate for sustainable forest management practices, was a member of the New Hampshire Forestry Commission from 1909 until 1952, and served on the boards of several forestry organizations. As chair of the Forestry Commission, Brown helped send sawmills to Europe during World War I to assist the war effort. He was influenced by the Progressive movement, instituting employee benefits such as company-sponsored care for injured workers that predated modern workers' compensation laws. A Republican, he served as a presidential elector for New Hampshire in 1924. (Full article...) -
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as he was vice president at that time. Johnson was a Democrat who ran with Abraham Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket, coming to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the newly freed people who were formerly enslaved as well as pardoning ex-Confederates. This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
Johnson was born into poverty and never attended school. He was apprenticed as a tailor and worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tennessee, serving as an alderman and mayor before being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835. After briefly serving in the Tennessee Senate, Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms. He became governor of Tennessee for four years, and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857. During his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862. Southern slave states seceded to form the Confederate States of America, including Tennessee, but Johnson remained firmly with the Union. He was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not promptly resign his seat upon learning of his state's secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as Military Governor of Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. In 1864, Johnson was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign, and became vice president after a victorious election in 1864. (Full article...) -
LaRouche circa 1988.
The LaRouche criminal trials in the mid-1980s stemmed from federal and state investigations into the activities of American political activist Lyndon LaRouche and members of his movement. They were charged with conspiring to commit fraud and soliciting loans they had no intention of repaying. LaRouche and his supporters disputed the charges, claiming the trials were politically motivated.
In 1986, hundreds of state and federal officers raided LaRouche offices in Virginia and Massachusetts. A federal grand jury in Boston indicted LaRouche and 12 associates on credit card fraud and obstruction of justice. The subsequent trial, described as an "extravaganza", was repeatedly delayed and ended in mistrial. Following the mistrial, a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indicted LaRouche and six associates. After a short trial in 1988, LaRouche was convicted of mail fraud, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and tax evasion, and was sentenced to prison for fifteen years. He entered prison in 1989 and was paroled five years later. At the same trial, his associates received lesser sentences for mail fraud and conspiracy. In separate state trials in Virginia and New York, 13 associates received terms ranging from one month to 77 years. The Virginia state trials were described as the highest-profile cases that the state Attorney General's office had ever prosecuted. Fourteen states issued injunctions against LaRouche-related organizations. Three LaRouche-related organizations were forced into bankruptcy after failing to pay contempt of court fines. (Full article...) -
The Battle of Grand Gulf was fought on April 29, 1863, during the American Civil War. Union Army forces commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant had failed several times to bypass or capture the Confederate-held city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the Vicksburg campaign. Grant decided to move his army south of Vicksburg, cross the Mississippi River, and then advance on the city. A Confederate Army division under Brigadier General John S. Bowen prepared defenses—Forts Wade and Cobun—at Grand Gulf, Mississippi, south of Vicksburg. To clear the way for a Union crossing, seven Union Navy ironclad warships from the Mississippi Squadron commanded by Admiral David Dixon Porter bombarded the Confederate defenses at Grand Gulf on April 29. Union fire silenced Fort Wade and killed its commander, but the overall Confederate position held. Grant decided to cross the river elsewhere.
The next day, Union forces crossed the river at Bruinsburg, Mississippi. A Union victory in the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1 secured the beachhead and forced the abandonment of the position at Grand Gulf, which became a Union supply point. Grant's command moved inland, and after defeating Confederate forces in the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, began the Siege of Vicksburg two days later. Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, marking a major Confederate defeat and a turning point in the war. The Grand Gulf battlefield is preserved in Grand Gulf Military State Park, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. (Full article...) -
William Derrick Bates (born December 7, 1963) is an American former professional baseball second baseman and pinch runner who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds. In 29 career games, Bates had a batting average of .125 with six hits, two runs batted in (RBI), 11 runs, and eight stolen bases. Though his defensive position was at second base, the Reds primarily used Bates as a pinch runner. After he scored the winning run in Game 2 of the 1990 World Series, Bates never played in MLB again.
Born in Houston, Bates attended the University of Texas and, in his freshman season, won the 1983 College World Series as a part of the Texas Longhorns baseball team. For the next two seasons, Bates was named to the College Baseball All-America Team, a team composed of the best collegiate baseball athletes in America. Drafted by Milwaukee in the fourth round of the 1985 MLB draft, he rose through the Brewers' farm system helping several of his minor league teams win their respective league titles. He made his MLB debut in 1989, after Milwaukee's starting second baseman Jim Gantner was injured. A trade in 1990 sent Bates to Cincinnati, where the Reds used him primarily as a pinch runner at the end of the regular season and into the postseason. Facing the Oakland Athletics in the World Series, Bates reached base on a pinch hit single against Dennis Eckersley and later scored the winning run in Game 2 as the Reds swept the Athletics four games to none. Following the World Series championship, the Reds re-signed Bates on a one-year contract, and he played for their Triple-A team. He spent the next year with the Chicago Cubs Triple-A affiliate, and last played exhibition baseball in 1995. After retiring, he worked as an equipment supplier in the oil and gas industry in Houston. (Full article...) -
Broad Ripple Park Carousel is an antique carousel in The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. It was installed in 1917 at an amusement park near the White River in Indianapolis, Indiana, where it remained until the building housing it collapsed in 1956. The ride's mechanism was destroyed, but the animals were relatively unscathed and put into storage by the park's owners, the Indianapolis Department of Parks and Recreation. The animals were carved by the Dentzel Carousel Company some time before 1900 but were assembled by the William F. Mangels carousel company, which also supplied the engine powering the ride.
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis acquired its first two carved animals from the ride in 1965, and the last few wooden animals in 1973. The museum planned to sell some to finance the restoration of others until the director of the museum, Mildred Compton, was convinced by carousel enthusiasts that the museum should instead restore all the animals and recreate the working carousel. Restoration of the carved animals began in 1966 and was only finished with the restoration of the entire carousel in 1977. No space had been allocated for the display of such a large exhibit in the museum's planned new building, which meant some re-designing was necessary to allow its installation on the fifth floor. A 1919 Wurlitzer band organ model #146-B, a type manufactured only for carousels, was also installed. As restored, the carousel is 42 feet (13 meters) wide and has a total of 42 animals, including – as well as the usual horses – goats, giraffes, deer, a lion, and a tiger. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. (Full article...) -
Arlington is a city in northern Snohomish County, Washington, United States, part of the Seattle metropolitan area. The city lies on the Stillaguamish River in the western foothills of the Cascade Range, adjacent to the city of Marysville. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Everett, the county seat, and 40 miles (64 km) north of Seattle, the state's largest city. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Arlington had a population of 19,868; its estimated population is 20,075 as of 2021.
The city lies in the traditional territory of the Stillaguamish people, an indigenous Coast Salish group. Arlington was established in the 1880s by settlers and the area was platted as two towns, Arlington and Haller City. Haller City was absorbed by the larger Arlington, which was incorporated as a city in 1903. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Arlington area was the site of major projects undertaken for employment under the direction of federal relief agencies, including construction of a municipal airport that would serve as a naval air station during World War II. Arlington began suburbanizing in the 1980s, growing by more than 450 percent by 2000 and annexing the unincorporated area of Smokey Point to the southwest. (Full article...) -
Tecumseh (/tɪˈkʌmsə, -si/ tih-KUM-sə, -see; c. 1768 – October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and promoting intertribal unity. Even though his efforts to unite Native Americans ended with his death in the War of 1812, he became an iconic folk hero in American, Indigenous, and Canadian popular history.
Tecumseh was born in what is now Ohio at a time when the far-flung Shawnees were reuniting in their Ohio Country homeland. During his childhood, the Shawnees lost territory to the expanding American colonies in a series of border conflicts. Tecumseh's father was killed in battle against American colonists in 1774. Tecumseh was thereafter mentored by his older brother Cheeseekau, a noted war chief who died fighting Americans in 1792. As a young war leader, Tecumseh joined Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket's armed struggle against further American encroachment, which ended in defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and with the loss of most of Ohio in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville. (Full article...) -
The 13th Missouri Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry unit that served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. In early April 1863, Captain Robert C. Wood, aide-de-camp to Confederate Major General Sterling Price, was detached to form an artillery unit from some of the men of Price's escort. Wood continued recruiting for the unit, which was armed with four Williams guns, and grew to 275 men by the end of September. The next month, the unit fought in the Battle of Pine Bluff, driving back Union Army troops into a barricaded defensive position, from which the Union soldiers could not be dislodged. By November, the unit, which was known as Wood's Missouri Cavalry Battalion, had grown to 400 men but no longer had the Williams guns. In April 1864, Wood's battalion, which was also known as the 14th Missouri Cavalry Battalion, played a minor role in the defeat of a Union foraging party in the Battle of Poison Spring, before spending the summer of 1864 at Princeton, Arkansas. In September, the unit joined Price's Raid into the state of Missouri, but their assault during the Battle of Pilot Knob failed to capture Fort Davidson.
Wood's battalion fought at the Battle of Little Blue River on October 21 after having participated in some further fighting and operationed against railroads. Two days later, Price's army was defeated at the Battle of Westport, and began retreating through the state of Kansas. During the retreat, on October 25, Wood's battalion was part of the Confederate line when it was shattered at the Battle of Mine Creek. During that action, the unit suffered 72 casualties, 50 of them as prisoners of war and the rest as killed and wounded. It then accompanied Price's army to Laynesport, Arkansas, via the Indian Territory and Texas. At an unknown date, it was enlarged to regimental strength and renamed the 13th Missouri Cavalry Regiment. After Price's Raid, the unit spent the rest of the war serving outpost duty in Arkansas. The Confederate commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department surrendered on June 2, 1865, and the men of the 13th Missouri Cavalry Regiment were paroled six days later. Around 670 men served in the unit over the course of its existence, at least 67 of whom died during that time. (Full article...) -
"Donald Trump" is a segment of the HBO news satire television series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver that is devoted to Donald Trump, who later became the president of the United States. It first aired on February 28, 2016, as part of the third episode of Last Week Tonight's third season, when Trump was the frontrunner for the Republican Party nomination for the presidency. During the 22-minute segment, comedian John Oliver discusses Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and his career in business. Oliver outlines Trump's campaign rhetoric, varying political positions, and failed business ventures. The comedian also criticizes Trump for making offensive and false statements, and says the Trump family name was changed at one point from the ancestral name Drumpf.
The satirical segment went viral on YouTube and Facebook. By Super Tuesday on March 1, two days after broadcast, Google searches for "Donald Drumpf" had surpassed those for both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who were then competing against Trump for the Republican Party nomination. In eight days, the segment accumulated 19 million views on YouTube, making it Last Week Tonight's most popular segment there. By the end of March, it had received a combined 85 million views on YouTube and Facebook. (Full article...) -
Clarence 13X, also known as Allah the Father (born Clarence Edward Smith) (February 22, 1928 – June 13, 1969), was an American religious leader and the founder of the Five-Percent Nation, sometimes referred to as the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE/NOGE). He was born in Virginia and moved to New York City as a young man, before serving in the United States Army during the Korean War. After returning to New York, he learned that his wife had joined the Nation of Islam (NOI). He followed her, taking the name Clarence 13X. He served in the group as a security officer, martial arts instructor, and student minister before leaving for an unclear reason in 1963. He enjoyed gambling, which was condemned by the NOI, and disagreed with their teachings that Wallace Fard Muhammad was a divine messenger.
After leaving the NOI, Clarence 13X formed a new group with other former members. He concluded that all black men were divine and took the name Allah to symbolize this status. He rejected the belief in an invisible God, teaching that God could be found within each black man. In his view, women were "earths" that complemented and nurtured men. He believed that they should be submissive to men. He and a few assistants retained some NOI teachings and pioneered novel interpretations of them. They ascribed teachings to the meaning of letters and numerals: understanding the meaning of each letter and number was said to provide deep truths about God and the universe. Clarence 13X referred to his new movement as the Five Percenters, referencing a NOI teaching that only five percent of the population knew and promoted the truth about God. One way that he distinguished his group from his previous faith, was by rejecting dress codes or strict behavioral guidelines—he allowed the consumption of alcohol, and at times, the use of illegal drugs. (Full article...) -
The Fort Vancouver Centennial half dollar, sometimes called the Fort Vancouver half dollar, is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1925. The coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser. Its obverse depicts John McLoughlin, who was in charge of Fort Vancouver (present-day Vancouver, Washington) from its construction in 1825 until 1846. From there, he effectively ruled the Oregon Country on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company. The reverse shows an armed frontiersman standing in front of the fort.
Washington Representative Albert Johnson wanted a coin for Fort Vancouver's centennial celebrations, but was persuaded to accept a medal instead. But when another congressman was successful in amending a coinage bill to add a commemorative, Johnson tacked on language authorizing a coin for Fort Vancouver. The Senate agreed to the changes, and President Calvin Coolidge signed the authorizing act on February 24, 1925. (Full article...) -
The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It has also been known as Site W and the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the site was home to the Hanford Engineer Works and B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the site was used in the first atomic bomb, which was tested in the Trinity nuclear test, and in the Fat Man bomb used in the bombing of Nagasaki.
During the Cold War, the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which produced plutonium for most of the more than sixty thousand weapons built for the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Nuclear technology developed rapidly during this period, and Hanford scientists produced major technological achievements. The town of Richland, established by the Manhattan Project, became self-governing in 1958, and residents were able to purchase their properties. After sufficient plutonium had been produced, the production reactors were shut down between 1964 and 1971. (Full article...) -
Diplodocus (/dɪˈplɒdəkəs/, /daɪˈplɒdəkəs/, or /ˌdɪploʊˈdoʊkəs/) is an extinct genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs known from the Late Jurassic of North America. The first fossils of Diplodocus were discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a Neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπλός (diplos) "double" and δοκός (dokos) "beam", in reference to the double-beamed chevron bones located in the underside of the tail, which were then considered unique.
The genus of dinosaurs lived in what is now mid-western North America, at the end of the Jurassic period. It is one of the more common dinosaur fossils found in the middle to upper Morrison Formation, between about 154 and 152 million years ago, during the late Kimmeridgian Age, although it may have made it into the Tithonian. The Morrison Formation records an environment and time dominated by gigantic sauropod dinosaurs, such as Apatosaurus, Barosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Camarasaurus. Its great size may have been a deterrent to the predators Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus: their remains have been found in the same strata, which suggests that they coexisted with Diplodocus. (Full article...) -
Look Mickey (also known as Look Mickey!) is a 1961 oil on canvas painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Widely regarded as the bridge between his abstract expressionism and pop art works, it is notable for its ironic humor and aesthetic value as well as being the first example of the artist's employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery as a source for a painting. The painting was bequeathed to the Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art upon Lichtenstein's death.
Building on his late 1950s drawings of comic strip characters, Look Mickey marks Lichtenstein's first full employment of painterly techniques to reproduce almost faithful representations of pop culture and so satirize and comment upon the then developing process of mass production of visual imagery. In this, Lichtenstein pioneered a motif that became influential not only in 1960s pop art but continuing to the work of artists today. Lichtenstein borrows from a Donald Duck illustrated story book, showing Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck during a fishing mishap. However, he makes significant alterations to the original source, including modifying the color scheme and perspective and adding a speech balloon, changing the original joke. (Full article...) -
Benedict Joseph Fenwick SJ (September 3, 1782 – August 11, 1846) was an American Catholic prelate, Jesuit, and educator who served as the Bishop of Boston from 1825 until his death in 1846. In 1843, he founded the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Prior to that, he was twice the president of Georgetown College and established several educational institutions in New York City and Boston.
Born in Maryland, Fenwick entered the Society of Jesus and began his ministry in New York City in 1809 as the co-pastor of St. Peter's Church. He then became pastor of the original St. Patrick's Cathedral and later the vicar general and diocesan administrator of the Diocese of New York. In 1817, Fenwick became the president of Georgetown College, remaining just several months before he was tasked with resolving a longstanding schism at St. Mary's Church in Charleston, South Carolina. He remained in the city as vicar general for the Archdiocese of Baltimore until 1822, when he returned to Georgetown as acting president. (Full article...) -
The effects of Hurricane Isabel in North Carolina were widespread, with the heaviest damage in Dare County. The hurricane made landfall in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on September 18. There, storm surge flooding and strong winds damaged thousands of houses. The storm surge produced a 2,000 feet (610 m) wide inlet on Hatteras Island, isolating Hatteras by road for two months. Several locations along North Carolina Highway 12 were partially washed out or covered with debris. Hurricane Isabel produced hurricane-force wind gusts across eastern North Carolina, knocking down trees and power lines. About 700,000 residents lost power due to the storm, although most outages were restored within a few days. The hurricane killed three people in the state – two due to falling trees, and the other a utility worker attempting to restore electricity. Damage in the state totaled $450 million (2003 USD, $745 million 2025 USD).
The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch, and later warning, for the state's coastline in advance of the hurricane's landfall. Local officials issued evacuation orders for 18 counties, along with various flood warnings. In the aftermath of the hurricane, then-President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency for 26 counties in the state, which allocated federal resources to the state. Utility crews from nearby states helped restore power. The United States Geological Survey dredged sand to restore the breach on Hatteras Island, with traffic restored about two months after the hurricane. (Full article...) -
Richard Dwight Farmer Jr. (born August 25, 1969) is an American former collegiate basketball player and Republican Party politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He served as the Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture from 2004 to 2012 and was the running mate of David L. Williams in the 2011 gubernatorial election. After leaving office, Farmer was investigated for violating state campaign finance laws and misappropriating state resources and was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison along with a concurrent 12 months in state prison.
A point guard, Farmer led Clay County High School to the 1987 Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) State Basketball Championship and, in 1988, was named Kentucky Mr. Basketball and Kentucky Associated Press Male High School Athlete of the Year after setting a championship game record with 51 points in a losing effort. Although he was popular state-wide and publicly stated his desire to play collegiate basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats, Coach Eddie Sutton was reluctant to offer Farmer a scholarship. After Farmer announced that he would visit other colleges and issued a deadline past which he would no longer consider Kentucky without a scholarship offer, Sutton relented and Farmer joined the University of Kentucky. (Full article...) -
Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—including its first and best-known, Sesame Street—that have been televised internationally. Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett developed the idea to form an organization to produce the Sesame Street television series. They spent two years, from 1966 to 1968, researching, developing, and raising money for the new series. Cooney was named as the Workshop's first executive director, which was termed "one of the most important television developments of the decade."
Sesame Street premiered on National Educational Television (NET) as a series run in the United States on November 10, 1969, and moved to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), in late 1970. The Workshop was formally incorporated in 1970. Gerald S. Lesser and Edward L. Palmer were hired to perform research for the series; they were responsible for developing a system of planning, production, and evaluation, and the interaction between television producers and educators, later termed the "CTW model". The CTW applied this system to its other television series, including The Electric Company and 3-2-1 Contact. The early 1980s were a challenging period for the Workshop; difficulty finding audiences for their other productions and a series of bad investments harmed the organization until licensing agreements stabilized its revenues by 1985. (Full article...) -
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 census, it is the state's most populous city. Located in the state's center near the eastern border, it occupies both banks of the Upper Mississippi River and adjoins Saint Paul, the state capital of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and the surrounding area are collectively known as the Twin Cities, a metropolitan area with 3.69 million residents. Minneapolis is built on an artesian aquifer on flat terrain and is known for cold, snowy winters and hot, humid summers. Nicknamed the "City of Lakes", Minneapolis is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks, and waterfalls. The city's public park system is connected by the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway.
Dakota people originally inhabited the site of today's Minneapolis. European colonization and settlement began north of Fort Snelling along Saint Anthony Falls—the only natural waterfall on the Mississippi River. Location near the fort and the falls' power—with its potential for industrial activity—fostered the city's early growth. For a time in the 19th century, Minneapolis was the lumber and flour milling capital of the world, and as home to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, it has preserved its financial clout into the 21st century. A Minneapolis Depression-era labor strike brought about federal worker protections. Work in Minneapolis contributed to the computing industry, and the city is the birthplace of General Mills, the Pillsbury brand, Target Corporation, and Thermo King mobile refrigeration. (Full article...) -
Joseph Anton Lopez SJ (born José Antonio López; October 4, 1779 – October 5, 1841) was a Mexican Catholic priest and Jesuit. Born in Michoacán, he studied canon law at the Colegio de San Nicolás and the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico. He became acquainted with the future Empress consort Ana María Huarte and was made chaplain to the future imperial family. He was later put in charge of the education of all the princes in Mexico. Lopez was a close ally of Emperor Agustín de Iturbide, residing in Madrid for four years as his attorney and political informant, and accompanying him during his exile to Italy and England.
Following Iturbide's execution in 1824, Lopez moved to the United States with the exiled Empress Ana María and her children and settled in Washington, D.C. He became the chaplain to the Georgetown Visitation Monastery and entered the Society of Jesus in 1833, working also as a novice and minister at Georgetown College. When the president of Georgetown College, William McSherry, died, Lopez became acting president in 1840, making him the first Latin American president of a university in the United States. As an educator, he garnered a reputation as a strict disciplinarian. Just several months into his presidency, he fell ill and was sent to recuperate in St. Inigoes, Maryland; he died there in 1841. (Full article...) -
Shannen Says is an eight-episode American reality television series broadcast on WE TV from April 10 to May 13, 2012. The show focuses on the preparations for the 2011 wedding of actress Shannen Doherty and photographer Kurt Iswarienko, with help from celebrity-wedding planner David Tutera. Doherty and Iswarienko developed the show as a way to document the stress on a couple while planning their wedding.
Filmed in Malibu, California, between August 2011 and October 2011, Shannen Says was produced by RelativityReal and Doherty's production company No Apologies Productions. To prepare for filming, Doherty watched reality shows by Tori Spelling and Kim Kardashian. The series was released on the iTunes Store and Amazon Video under the title Shannen Says, Season 1, but it was not made available on DVD or Blu-ray. (Full article...) -
The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus Megaptera. Adults range in length from 14–17 m (46–56 ft) and weigh up to 40 metric tons (44 short tons). The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with long pectoral fins and tubercles on its head. It is known for breaching and other distinctive surface behaviors, making it popular with whale watchers. Males produce a complex song typically lasting 4 to 33 minutes.
Found in oceans and seas around the world, humpback whales typically migrate up to 16,000 km (9,900 mi) each year. They feed in polar waters and migrate to tropical or subtropical waters to breed and give birth. Their diet consists mostly of krill and small fish, and they usually use bubbles to catch prey. They are polygynandrous breeders, with both sexes having multiple partners. Orcas are the main natural predators of humpback whales. The bodies of humpbacks host barnacles and whale lice. (Full article...) -
The Appaloosa is an American horse breed best known for its colorful spotted coat pattern. There is a wide range of body types within the breed, stemming from the influence of multiple breeds of horses throughout its history. Each horse's color pattern is genetically the result of various spotting patterns overlaid on top of one of several recognized base coat colors. The color pattern of the Appaloosa is of interest to those who study equine coat color genetics, as it and several other physical characteristics are linked to the leopard complex mutation (LP). Appaloosas are prone to develop equine recurrent uveitis and congenital stationary night blindness; the latter has been linked to the leopard complex.
Artwork depicting prehistoric horses with leopard spotting exists in prehistoric cave paintings in Europe. Images of domesticated horses with leopard spotting patterns appeared in artwork from Ancient Greece and Han dynasty China through the early modern period. In North America, the Nez Perce people of what today is the United States Pacific Northwest developed the original American breed. Settlers once referred to these spotted horses as the "Palouse horse", possibly after the Palouse River, which ran through the heart of Nez Perce country. Gradually, the name evolved into Appaloosa. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Union Pacific 4014 has been the only Big Boy locomotive operating in the United States since 2019?
- ... that many participants in the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack have been charged with obstructing an official proceeding, a crime that was created in response to the 2001 Enron accounting scandal?
- ... that a retired high school teacher coached the United States men's national ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics?
- ... that the spectacle lynching of George Ward drew the attendance of more than 1,000 people, including women and children?
- ... that Jex Blackmore, an American pro-choice activist and Satanist, performed art with 100 pounds (45 kg) of rotten fruit before their second abortion?
- ... that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Guam in the territory's attempt to seek U.S. Navy contributions to clean up Ordot Dump, a former landfill and Superfund site?
- ... that the Metropolitan main line was the first electrified revenue rapid transit in the United States?
- ... that journalist Jacques Poitras spent a month repeatedly crossing the "Imaginary Line" separating New Brunswick and Maine in order to publish a book about it?
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As Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt prepared for and advocated war with Spain in 1898. He organized and helped command the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, the Rough Riders, during the Spanish–American War. Returning to New York as a war hero, he was elected Republican governor in 1899. He was a professional historian, a lawyer, a naturalist and explorer of the Amazon basin; his 35 books include works on outdoor life, natural history, the American frontier, political history, naval history, and his autobiography.
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Painting credit: Heinrich C. BerannHeinrich C. Berann (1915–1999) was an Austrian painter and cartographer. He achieved world fame with his panoramic maps that combined modern cartography with classical painting. Towards the end of his life, he created four panoramic posters of national parks which were published by the U.S. National Park Service. This 1994 panorama shows Denali National Park and Preserve in central Alaska, with Denali, the highest mountain on the continent, and the glaciers on its southern flanks. -
Photo: Alexander Gardner; Restoration: Lise BroerOn July 7, 1865, at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C., Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt (shown left-to-right) were hanged for their roles in the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Eight people were convicted for the crime; three others were sentenced to life imprisonment, with the last receiving a six-year sentence. Mary Surratt's son John was able to escape and was never convicted for his role. His mother was the first woman to be executed by the United States federal government. -
Photo credit: Jon Sullivan, pdphoto.orgThe Virgin River Narrows in Zion National Park, located near Springdale, Utah, is a 16-mile long slot canyon along the Virgin River. Recently rated as number five out of National Geographic's Top 100 American Adventures, it is one of the most rewarding hikes in the world. -
Photo credit: U.S. News & World ReportAttempting to block racial integration at the University of Alabama, Governor George Wallace (left) stands defiantly at the door on June 11, 1963, in an incident known as the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door. Wallace moved aside after being ordered to do so by President John F. Kennedy; years later, he became a born-again Christian and recanted his segregationist views. -
Banknote design credit: United States Department of the Treasury; photographed by the National Numismatic CollectionFractional currency, also referred to as shinplasters, was introduced by the United States federal government following the outbreak of the Civil War. These low-denomination banknotes of the U.S. dollar were in use between 21 August 1862 and 15 February 1876; they were issued in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 cents across five issuing periods. The notes could be redeemed by the U.S. Postal Service for the face value in postage stamps.
This picture shows a third-issue ten-cent fractional currency note, issued by the United States Department of the Treasury between 5 December 1864 and 16 August 1869, featuring a portrait of George Washington, the first president of the United States, on the obverse. This banknote is in the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. -
Photo credit: Lewis Wickes Hine; restored by Michel VuijlstekeA 1908 photo of child laborers in a glass factory in Indiana, United States, taken by Lewis Hine for the National Child Labor Committee, which formed after the 1900 census revealed that about 1 in 6 children between the ages of five and ten were gainfully employed. Hine's photos of children working in industrial settings resulted in a wave of popular support for federal child labor regulations put forward by the NCLC. -
Photo credit: Jon SullivanA street corner in the ghost town of Bodie, California, named after William S. Bodey who discovered gold in the area in 1859. By 1880 Bodie had a population of nearly 10,000. Bodie is also notable for a hydroelectric plant built 13 miles (21 km) away in 1893, one of the first transmissions of electricity over long distance. The town was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961 and has been in a state of arrested decay ever since. -
Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew ShivaThe inauguration of John Tyler as the tenth president of the United States took place on April 6, 1841, in Washington, D.C., following the death of President William Henry Harrison two days earlier. This was the first non-scheduled, extraordinary presidential inauguration to take place in American history. Having received news of Harrison's death, Tyler traveled to Washington from his home in Williamsburg, Virginia by steamboat and train, the fastest means of conveyance then available, taking 21 hours. -
Lithograph: Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler; restoration: Adam CuerdenA bird's eye view of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a 1902 lithograph by Thaddeus Mortimer Fowler. At this point in its history, Pittsburgh was an industrial and commercial powerhouse, with extensive railroad connections to the rest of the United States. Together with the rest of Allegheny County, it produced massive amounts of steel and steel products: by 1911 they reached 24% of the national output of pig iron, 34% of Bessemer steel, 44% of open hearth steel, 53% of crucible steel, 24% of steel rail, and 59% of structural shape. -
National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History; photographed by Jaclyn NashThe half eagle is a United States coin that was produced for circulation from 1795 to 1929 and in commemorative and bullion coins since the 1980s. Composed almost entirely of gold, it has a face value of five dollars. It was the first gold coin to be minted by the United States, its production being authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. The design and composition of the half eagle changed many times over the years, but this version was designed by Bela Pratt and produced from 1908 onwards. The obverse design depicts an Indian head wearing a feathered headdress facing to the left, and the reverse depicts a perched eagle with the inscriptions "E PLURIBUS UNUM" and "IN GOD WE TRUST".
Other designs:
'"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000001A-QINU`"' -
Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew ShivaMartin Van Buren (December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American statesman who served as the eighth president of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A founder of the Democratic Party, he won the 1836 presidential election with the endorsement of popular outgoing President Andrew Jackson and the organizational strength of his party. He lost his 1840 reelection bid to the Whig Party nominee William Henry Harrison, thanks in part to the poor economic conditions surrounding the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis that touched off a major depression. This line engraving of Van Buren was produced around 1902 by the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) as part of a BEP presentation album of the first 26 presidents. -
Cartoon: James Wales; Restoration: JujutacularAn 1881 editorial cartoon of Charles J. Guiteau, an American lawyer who assassinated President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881. Guiteau, depicted here holding a note that reads "An office or your life!", believed himself to be largely responsible for Garfield's victory, and demanded an ambassadorship in return, but his requests were rejected. Despite the use of the insanity defense in his trial, he was found guilty and executed by hanging on June 30, 1882. -
Photo credit: Dorothea LangeA 1935 photo of a family of migrant workers in California, United States, during the Great Depression. In the United States, the term "migrant worker" is commonly used to describe low-wage workers performing manual labor in the agriculture field. During the Great Depression, Okies who fled the Dust Bowl were a significant source of temporary farm labor. Outside the U.S., the modern definition of the term by the United Nations includes anyone working outside of their home country. -
Credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew ShivaGrover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908) was an American politician and lawyer who was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, the only president in American history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (1885–1889 and 1893–1897). His victory in the 1884 presidential election made him the first successful Democratic nominee since the start of the Civil War. He won praise for his honesty, self-reliance, integrity, and commitment to the principles of classical liberalism, and was renowned for fighting political corruption, patronage, and bossism. -
Photo credit: McPherson and OliverScars of a whipped slave named Peter, photo taken at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1863. In his own words, "Overseer Artayou Carrier whipped me. I was two months in bed sore from the whipping. My master come after I was whipped; he discharged the overseer." The slave pictured here escaped from a plantation in Mississippi, made his way to Union forces, and joined the U.S. Army at the Union garrison located at Baton Rouge.
Slavery in the United States began soon after the English colonists first settled in North America. From about the 1640s until 1865, people of African descent were legally enslaved within the boundaries of the present U.S. mostly by whites, but also by a comparatively tiny number of American Indians and free blacks. By 1860, the slave population in the U.S. had grown to 4 million.
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Since 1994, Dylan has published three books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. As a songwriter and musician, Dylan has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards; he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, a Bob Dylan Pathway was opened in the singer's honor in his birthplace of Duluth, Minnesota. The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power."
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Louisville is situated in north-central Kentucky on the Kentucky-Indiana border at the only natural obstacle in the Ohio River, the Falls of the Ohio. Although situated in a Southern state, Louisville is influenced by both Midwestern and Southern culture, and is commonly referred to as either the northernmost Southern city or the southernmost Northern city in the United States.
Louisville has been the site of many important innovations through history. Notable residents have included inventor Thomas Edison, the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, newscaster Diane Sawyer, writer Hunter S. Thompson, and actor Tom Cruise. Notable events occurring in the city include the first public viewing place of Edison's light bulb, the first library open to African Americans in the South, and medical advances including the first human hand transplant, the first self-contained artificial heart transplant and the development site of the first cervical cancer vaccine.
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Anniversaries for January 9
- 1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States.
- 1863 – The Battle of Fort Hindman, part of the Vicksburg Campaign of the Civil War begins in Arkansas.
- 1894 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
- 1913 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, is born.
- 1945 – The United States invades Luzon (pictured) in the Philippines as part of the Pacific Theater of Operations of World War II.
- 1991 – Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait.
Selected cuisines, dishes and foods -
The cuisine of the antebellum United States characterizes American eating and cooking habits from about 1776 to 1861. During this period different regions of the United States adapted to their surroundings and cultural backgrounds to create specific regional cuisines, modernization of technology led to changes in food consumption, and evolution of taverns into hotels led to the beginnings of an American temperance movement. By the beginning of the Civil War, the United States cuisine and food culture could define itself separately from that of the rest of the world. (Full article...)
Selected panorama -
More did you know? -
- ... that Michele S. Jones (pictured) was the first woman in the U.S. Army to attain the rank of command sergeant major before she retired to a military liaison position in the Obama Administration?
- ... that Grant Park Symphony Orchestra began a tradition of Independence Day Eve concerts in Grant Park accompanied by fireworks when the Petrillo Music Shell was relocated in 1978?
- ... that the Action of 9 February 1799 fought between the frigates USS Constellation and L'Insurgente during the Quasi War was the first ever victory for the United States Navy?
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