Portal:United States
Parent Portals: Geography / North America / United States
Introduction
.svg) |
 |
 | |
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.
Featured article -
This is a Featured article, which represents some of the best content on English Wikipedia.
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) is the fourth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on November 11, 2000, by Nothing and Interscope Records. A rock opera concept album, it is the final installment of a triptych that also included Antichrist Superstar (1996), and marked a return to the industrial metal style of the band's earlier work, after the glam rock-influenced production of Mechanical Animals (1998). After its release, the band's eponymous vocalist said that the overarching story within the trilogy is presented in reverse chronological order: Holy Wood, therefore, begins the narrative.
In the aftermath of the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, national news media reported that the perpetrators were wearing the band's T-shirts during the rampage, and had been influenced by their music, both of which were untrue. As their first release after the massacre, the record was Manson's rebuttal to the accusations leveled against him and the group, and was described by the vocalist as a "declaration of war". It was written in the singer's former home in the Hollywood Hills and recorded in several undisclosed locations, including Death Valley and Laurel Canyon. His ambitions for Holy Wood initially included an eponymous film exploring its backstory—a project which has since been abandoned and was modified into the as-yet-unreleased Holy Wood novel. (Full article...)- The 2006 Gator Bowl was a college football bowl game between the Louisville Cardinals and the Virginia Tech Hokies at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, on January 2, 2006. The game was the final contest of the 2005 football season for each team and resulted in a 35–24 Virginia Tech victory. Louisville represented the Big East Conference (Big East), and Virginia Tech represented the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) in the competition.
Louisville was selected as a participant in the 2006 Gator Bowl following a 9–2 regular season of their first year in the Big East Conference. Louisville won its last five games before the Gator Bowl and participated in the Liberty Bowl at the end of the previous season. Facing the 15th-ranked Cardinals, were the 12th-ranked Hokies. Virginia Tech finished 10–2 regular season, and included wins over 15th-ranked Georgia Tech and traditional rivals Virginia and West Virginia. A loss to Florida State in the inaugural ACC Championship Game gave Tech a position in the Gator Bowl instead of the more prestigious Bowl Championship Series-run Orange Bowl game. Pre-game media coverage of the game focused on Louisville's loss of star quarterback Brian Brohm to injury, Virginia Tech's fall from being a contender for the national championship, the fact that both teams were playing under new conference affiliations, and the rise of Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick, younger brother of NFL star Michael Vick. (Full article...) - Billy Joe Tolliver (born February 7, 1966) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL) for twelve seasons with the San Diego Chargers, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Oilers, Shreveport Pirates, Kansas City Chiefs, and New Orleans Saints. Over the course of his NFL career, he played in 79 games, completed 891 of 1,707 passes for 10,760 yards, threw 59 touchdowns and 64 interceptions, and retired with a passer rating of 67.7.
A graduate of Boyd High School and Texas Tech University, Tolliver was selected in the second round of the 1989 NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers. He started 19 games in two seasons at San Diego before being traded to Atlanta, where he saw playing time as a backup for three seasons. In 1994, he became one of three starting quarterbacks for Houston and then served as quarterback of the Shreveport Pirates in the CFL during their final season of activity in 1995. After not competing in 1996, Tolliver played for both Atlanta and Kansas City in 1997. He then started 11 games for New Orleans in two seasons but did not take the field in 2000. A stint with the Green Bay Packers in the 2001 offseason concluded his professional career. (Full article...)
HMS Endeavour was a Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771.
She was launched in 1764 as the collier Earl of Pembroke, with the Navy purchasing her in 1768 for a scientific mission to the Pacific Ocean and to explore the seas for the surmised Terra Australis Incognita or "unknown southern land". Commissioned as His Majesty's Bark Endeavour, she departed Plymouth in August 1768, rounded Cape Horn and reached Tahiti in time to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun. She then set sail into the largely uncharted ocean to the south, stopping at the islands of Huahine, Bora Bora, and Raiatea west of Tahiti to allow Cook to claim them for Great Britain. In September 1769, she anchored off New Zealand, becoming the first European vessel to reach the islands since Abel Tasman's Heemskerck 127 years earlier. (Full article...)
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. An influential figure in popular culture, Swift is known for her autobiographical songwriting and artistic reinventions. She is the highest-grossing live music artist, the wealthiest female musician, and one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Swift signed with Big Machine Records in 2005 and debuted as a country singer with the albums Taylor Swift (2006) and Fearless (2008). The singles "Teardrops on My Guitar", "Love Story", and "You Belong with Me" found crossover success on country and pop radio formats. Her songs began incorporating stronger rock elements with Speak Now (2010) and electronic styles with Red (2012). She subsequently recalibrated her artistic identity from country to pop with the synth-pop album 1989 (2014), while ensuing media scrutiny inspired the trap-imbued Reputation (2017). Through the 2010s, Swift accumulated the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "Shake It Off", "Blank Space", "Bad Blood", and "Look What You Made Me Do". (Full article...)- "What'd I Say" (or "What I Say") is an American rhythm and blues song by Ray Charles, released in June 1959. As a single divided into two parts, it was one of the first soul songs. The composition was improvised one evening late in 1958 when Charles, his orchestra, and backup singers had played their entire set list at a show and still had time left; the response from many audiences was so enthusiastic that Charles announced to his producer that he was going to record it.
After his run of R&B hits, this song finally broke Charles into mainstream pop music and itself sparked a new sub-genre of R&B titled soul, finally putting together all the elements that Charles had been creating since he recorded "I Got a Woman" in 1954. The gospel and rhumba influences combined with the sexual innuendo in the song made it not only widely popular but very controversial to both white and black audiences. It earned Ray Charles his first gold record and has been one of the most influential songs in R&B and rock and roll history. For the rest of his career, Charles closed every concert with the song. It was added to the National Recording Registry in 2002 and appeared in the 2003 and 2021 versions of Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list: at number 10 in 2003 and at number 80 in 2021. (Full article...)
The Battle of Marais des Cygnes (/ˌmɛər də ˈziːn, - ˈsiːn, ˈmɛər də ziːn/) took place on October 25, 1864, in Linn County, Kansas, during Price's Missouri Campaign during the American Civil War. It is also known as the Battle of Trading Post. In late 1864, Confederate Major-General Sterling Price invaded the state of Missouri with a cavalry force, attempting to draw Union troops away from the primary theaters of fighting further east. After several victories early in the campaign, Price's Confederate troops were defeated at the Battle of Westport on October 23 near Kansas City, Missouri. The Confederates then withdrew into Kansas, camping along the banks of the Marais des Cygnes River on the night of October 24. Union cavalry pursuers under Brigadier General John B. Sanborn skirmished with Price's rearguard that night, but disengaged without participating in heavy combat.
Overnight, Sanborn's troops were reinforced by cavalry under Lieutenant Colonel Frederick W. Benteen, bringing the total Union strength to 3,500. The battle began early the next morning as Sanborn drove Major General John S. Marmaduke's Confederate rearguard from its position north of the river. Union troops captured cannons, prisoners, and wagons during this stage of the fighting. Marmaduke attempted to make a stand at the river crossing, but his position was outflanked by a Union cavalry regiment, forcing him to abandon it. A rearguard action by Confederate Brigadier General John B. Clark Jr.'s 1,200-man brigade bought Price more time to retreat and disengage. Some of Price's men were still caught near Mine Creek later that morning and were badly beaten in the Battle of Mine Creek. That evening, the Battle of Marmiton River became the day's third action, after which Price burned his supply train so it no longer slowed the retreat. After another defeat at the Second Battle of Newtonia on October 28, Price's column retreated to Texas through Arkansas and the Indian Territory. Only 3,500 of the 12,000 men Price had brought into Missouri remained in his force. (Full article...)
Three of the five members of the Overman Committee in 1919 during hearings: Senator Josiah Oliver Wolcott (D-Del.), Chairman Lee Slater Overman (D-N.C.), Senator Knute Nelson (R-Minn.)
The Overman Committee was a special subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary chaired by North Carolina Democrat Lee Slater Overman. Between September 1918 and June 1919, it investigated German and Bolshevik elements in the United States. It was an early forerunner of the better known House Un-American Activities Committee, and represented the first congressional committee investigation of communism.
The committee's final report was released in June 1919. It reported on German propaganda, Bolshevism, and other "un-American activities" in the United States and on likely effects of communism's implementation in the United States. It described German, but not communist, propaganda efforts. The committee's report and hearings were instrumental in fostering anti-Bolshevik opinion. (Full article...)
John Caldwell Calhoun (/kælˈhuːn/; March 18, 1782 – March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Calhoun began his political career as a nationalist, modernizer and proponent of a strong federal government and protective tariffs. In the late 1820s, his views shifted, and he became a leading proponent of states' rights, limited government, nullification, and opposition to high tariffs, and distinguished himself as an outspoken defender of slavery in the United States. Calhoun saw Northern acceptance of those policies as a condition of the South remaining in the Union. His beliefs heavily influenced the South's secession from the Union in 1860 and 1861. Calhoun was the first of two vice presidents to resign from the position, the second being Spiro Agnew, who resigned in 1973.
Born in South Carolina, Calhoun began his political career with election to the House of Representatives in 1810. As a prominent leader of the war hawk faction, he strongly supported the War of 1812. Calhoun served as Secretary of War under President James Monroe and, in that position, reorganized and modernized the War Department. He was a candidate for the presidency in the 1824 election. After failing to gain support, Calhoun agreed to be a candidate for vice president. The Electoral College elected him vice president by an overwhelming majority. He served under John Quincy Adams and continued under Andrew Jackson, who defeated Adams in the election of 1828, making Calhoun the most recent U.S. vice president to serve under two different presidents. (Full article...)
Wail Mohammed al-Shehri (Arabic: وائل الشهري, romanized: Wāīl ash-Shehrī; or Alshehri; July 31, 1973 – September 11, 2001) was a Saudi school teacher and terrorist hijacker for al-Qaeda. He was one of five hijackers of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the September 11 attacks.
Wail al-Shehri was an elementary school teacher from Khamis Mushait in the Asir region of Saudi Arabia. In early 2000, he traveled to Medina to seek treatment for mental problems. He and his younger brother Waleed traveled to Afghanistan in March 2000 and joined an Al-Qaeda training camp. The brothers were chosen, along with others from the same region of Saudi Arabia, to participate in the September 11 attacks. Once selected, al-Shehri returned to Saudi Arabia in October 2000 to obtain a clean passport, then returned to Afghanistan. In March 2001, he recorded his last will and testament on video. (Full article...)- "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" is the ninth episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on December 17, 1997. The episode follows Kyle as he feels excluded from the town's Christmas celebrations due to being Jewish, finding solace in Mr. Hankey, a sentient piece of feces. Mr. Hankey does not come alive in the presence of other characters, who consequently think that Kyle is delusional. Meanwhile, the townspeople remove all religious and commercialized aspects of Christmas to remain politically correct and inoffensive.
The episode was written and directed by co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The Mr. Hankey character was based on an idea from Parker's childhood; when Parker and Stone conceived the South Park series, they intended for Mr. Hankey to be the lead character. Heavily influenced by A Charlie Brown Christmas, "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo" was the first South Park Christmas episode; the first musical episode; and the first episode, as well as the only one of the first season, in which Kenny does not die. In addition to Mr. Hankey, the episode introduced Craig Tucker, the school counselor Mr. Mackey, Kyle's father Gerald Broflovski, and the songs "The Lonely Jew on Christmas" and "Kyle's Mom's a Bitch". It served as a satire of political correctness and religious sensitivity. (Full article...) 
Up to a million people (about 800 thousand of them are Catholics) left communist North Vietnam during Operation Passage to Freedom after the country was partitioned (USS Calaveras County).
Operation Passage to Freedom was a term used by the United States Navy to describe the propaganda effort and the assistance in transporting 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam (the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) to non-communist South Vietnam (the State of Vietnam, later to become the Republic of Vietnam) between the years 1954 and 1955. The French and other countries may have transported a further 500,000. In the wake of the French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Accords of 1954 decided the fate of French Indochina after eight years of war between the French Union forces and the Viet Minh, which fought for Vietnamese independence under communist rule. The accords resulted in the partition of Vietnam at the 17th parallel north, with Ho Chi Minh's communist Viet Minh in control of the north and the French-backed State of Vietnam in the south. The agreements allowed a 300-day period of grace, ending on May 18, 1955, in which people could move freely between the two Vietnams before the border was sealed. The partition was intended to be temporary, pending elections in 1956 to reunify the country under a national government. Between 600,000 and one million people moved south, including more than 200,000 French citizens and soldiers in the French army while between 14,000 and 45,000 civilians and approximately 100,000 Viet Minh fighters moved in the opposite direction.
The 1954–1955 Great Migration of Northerners was facilitated primarily by the French Air Force and Navy. American naval vessels supplemented the French in evacuating northerners to Saigon, the southern capital. The operation was accompanied by a large humanitarian relief effort, bankrolled mainly by the United States government in an attempt to absorb a large tent city of refugees that had sprung up outside Saigon. For the US, the migration was a public relations coup, generating wide coverage of the flight of Vietnamese from the perceived oppression of communism to the "free world" in the south. The period was marked by a Central Intelligence Agency-backed propaganda campaign on behalf of South Vietnam's Catholic Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem. The campaign was usually viewed to exhort Catholics to flee "impending religious persecution" under communism, and around 60% of the north's 1.14 million Catholics immigrated. The Viet Minh also tried to forcefully prevent would-be refugees from leaving, especially in rural areas where there were no French or American military forces. (Full article...)
James Russell Lowell (/ˈloʊəl/; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets to rival the popularity of British poets. These writers usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their firesides.
Lowell graduated from Harvard College in 1838, despite his reputation as a troublemaker, and went on to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School. He published his first collection of poetry in 1841 and married Maria White in 1844. The couple had several children, though only one survived past childhood. (Full article...)- Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a 2018 American action spy film written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It is the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) and the sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible film series. The ensemble cast includes Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, and Alec Baldwin. Set two years after the events of Rogue Nation, Fallout follows Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team in their efforts to prevent a nuclear attack by terrorist Solomon Lane (Harris) and the mysterious extremist John Lark.
Work on a sequel to Rogue Nation commenced before its 2015 release. The series' first returning director, McQuarrie intended for Fallout to better explore Ethan's character and emotions, believing previous entries had left him primarily a cipher for audiences, and to test the limits of Ethan's abilities, morality, and personal relationships. The script was brief, only 33 pages, serving as an outline driven primarily by the interesting filming locations and allowing for improvisation and significant changes to scenes throughout filming. Principal photography began in April 2017, on a $178–180 million budget, in Paris, continuing on to London, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates by early 2018. Filming was delayed for several months after Cruise broke his ankle during a stunt, significantly inflating the budget while the production waited for his return but also providing McQuarrie the opportunity to further develop unfinished scenes in the script. (Full article...)
The Sawmill Fire was a wildfire that burned 46,991 acres (190 km2) in the U.S. state of Arizona in April 2017. The fire was caused by the detonation of a target packed with Tannerite at a gender reveal party in the Coronado National Forest. No injuries or fatalities resulted from the fire, nor were any buildings destroyed, though the fire did come close to the historic Empire Ranch, a National Register of Historic Places property. Over 800 personnel from various federal, state, and local agencies and organizations worked to contain and then extinguish the Sawmill Fire at a cost of $8.2 million (equivalent to $10.8 million in 2025).
The fire was started by accident on April 23, 2017, by Dennis Dickey, an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol agent who had shot the Tannerite target. Dickey immediately informed first responders of the fire, which spread rapidly until it was contained on April 30. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Dickey with a misdemeanor charge to which he pleaded guilty, fined him $220,000 in restitution (equivalent to $282,000 in 2025), and sentenced him to five years' probation. When the U.S. Forest Service released footage of the fire's inception in November 2018 at the request of a local news agency, the concept and practice of gender reveal parties became the subject of widespread ridicule and online mockery, a pattern repeated after later wildfires started at such events. (Full article...)- The 1979 Salvadoran coup d'état occurred on 15 October when junior officers of the Armed Forces of El Salvador's Military Youth Movement (MJM) bloodlessly overthrew General Carlos Humberto Romero, the president of El Salvador. The coup leaders established the Revolutionary Government Junta (JRG) that ruled El Salvador until 1982.
Since 1931, a military dictatorship had ruled El Salvador; from 1961, it was led by the National Conciliation Party (PCN). During the 1970s, leftist militant groups committed terrorist actions such as kidnappings and hit-and-run attacks, and mass organizations held peaceful demonstrations to oppose the military dictatorship. The dictatorship and death squads targeted and repressed members of these groups. The PCN remained in power after claiming to have won fraudulent presidential elections during the 1970s. (Full article...)
Appalachian Spring is an American ballet created by the choreographer Martha Graham and the composer Aaron Copland, later arranged as an orchestral work. Commissioned by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Copland composed the ballet music for Graham; the original choreography was by Graham, with costumes by Edythe Gilfond and sets by Isamu Noguchi. The ballet was well received at the 1944 premiere, earning Copland the Pulitzer Prize for Music during its 1945 United States tour. The orchestral suite composed in 1945 was played that year by many symphony orchestras; the suite is among Copland's best-known works, and the ballet remains essential in the Martha Graham Dance Company repertoire.
Graham was known for creating the "Graham technique" of dance; in the 1930s, she began commissioning scores from various composers, often related to American history and culture. Around the same time, Copland incorporated relatable and accessible musical characteristics of the Americana style to increase his music's appeal to the general public; he first implemented this in earlier ballets like Billy the Kid and Rodeo. The initial scenario for Appalachian Spring devised by Graham was revised many times by both her and Copland; the title characters' names were changed numerous times and other characters from the early revisions were cut in the final production. Originally orchestrated for a thirteen-piece chamber orchestra, the score was arranged into various suites by Copland for different purposes; the original ballet featured eight episodes, three of which were cut in the well-known orchestral suite. (Full article...)- Eve is an American television sitcom created by Meg DeLoatch that originally aired for three seasons on UPN from September 15, 2003, to May 11, 2006. Featuring an ensemble cast consisting of Eve, Jason George, Ali Landry, Natalie Desselle-Reid, Brian Hooks, and Sean Maguire, the show revolves around two sets of male and female friends attempting to navigate relationships with the opposite sex. The executive producers were Robert Greenblatt and David Janollari; the series was produced by The Greenblatt/Janollari Studio and Mega Diva Inc. in association with Warner Bros. Television for UPN.
The series was developed as a vehicle for Eve under the working title The Opposite Sex; UPN executives approached the rapper about a television project after the success of fellow musician Brandy in another of the network's sitcoms, Moesha. Eve's series was created as part of the network's attempt to appeal to a younger demographic. After being picked up, the show was renamed Eve to attract the rapper's fans. It was set in Miami, but filmed at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood. Eve has stated that she was intimidated at first by the process of preparing for and filming a sitcom, and she would later regret not fully committing to her character. The show aired on UPN in its original run, and later in syndicated reruns on TV One and Cleo TV. UPN had promoted Eve as part of its new comedy block, one of four new comedies developed by the network. (Full article...)
Marcus Elmore Baldwin (October 29, 1863 – November 10, 1929), nicknamed "Fido" and "Baldy", was an American professional baseball player who pitched seven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). In 346 career games, he pitched to a 154–165 win–loss record with 295 complete games. Baldwin set the single-season MLB wild pitches record with 83 that still stands today.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Baldwin made his professional debut for a Cumberland, Maryland, team in 1883. Though signed by Chicago White Stockings president Albert Spalding to pitch against the St. Louis Browns in the 1886 World Series, Baldwin did not play after the Browns objected. He made his MLB debut for the White Stockings in 1887, when a writer for the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern called him the "swiftest pitcher in the National League" (NL). Released by Chicago player–manager Cap Anson, he signed with the Columbus Solons of the American Association (AA) in 1889, where he led the league in innings pitched (513+2⁄3), losses (34), strikeouts (368), and walks (274). (Full article...)
The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), sometimes referred to simply as the peregrine, is a bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae known for its speed. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, barred white underparts and a black head. As is typical for bird-eating (avivore) raptors, peregrine falcons are sexually dimorphic, with females being considerably larger than males. Historically, the bird has also been known as the "black-cheeked falcon" in Australia and the "duck hawk" in North America.
The breeding range includes land regions from the Arctic tundra to the tropics. It can be found nearly everywhere on Earth, except extreme polar regions, very high mountains, and most tropical rainforests. The only major ice-free landmasses from which it is entirely absent are the islands of New Zealand, making it the world's most widespread raptor and one of the most widely found wild bird species. In fact, the only land-based bird species found over a larger geographic area, domestic and feral pigeons, owe their success to human-led introduction. Both are domesticated forms of the rock dove, and are a major prey species for peregrine populations. Due to their greater abundance in cities than most other birds, feral pigeons support many peregrine populations as a staple food source, especially in urban settings. (Full article...)
Samuel Adams (September 27 [O.S. September 16], 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in colonial Massachusetts, a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and other founding documents, and one of the architects of the principles of American republicanism that shaped the political culture of the United States. He was a second cousin to his fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. He founded the Sons of Liberty.
Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious and politically active family. A graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. He was an influential official of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Boston Town Meeting in the 1760s, and he became a part of a movement opposed to the British Parliament's efforts to tax the British American colonies without their consent. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British troops, eventually resulting in the Boston Massacre of 1770. Adams and his colleagues devised a committee of correspondence system in 1772 to help coordinate resistance to what he saw as the British government's attempts to violate the British Constitution at the expense of the colonies, which linked like-minded Patriots throughout the Thirteen Colonies. Continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution. Adams was actively involved with colonial newspapers publishing accounts of colonial sentiment over British colonial rule, which were fundamental in uniting the colonies. Adams, the ringleader at the destruction of the East India Company's tea, was also actively involved in bribing British soldiers to desert and provided them with new clothes and the offer of land to cultivate.. (Full article...)
Landmarks in the vicinity of Vicksburg, Mississippi, from a river map published in 1863, showing Duckport and New Carthage
The Duckport Canal was an unsuccessful military venture by Union forces during the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. Ordered built in late March 1863 by Major General Ulysses S. Grant, the canal connected the Mississippi River near Duckport, Louisiana, to New Carthage, Louisiana, using a series of swampy bayous for much of its path. It was intended to provide a water-based supply route for a southward movement against the Confederate-held city of Vicksburg, Mississippi, as high water made overland travel difficult. Some 3,500 soldiers of Grant's army dug the canal, which was filled on April 13 with water from the Mississippi River. But trees and low water levels rendered the canal all but impassable, and the project was abandoned on May 4. Grant moved men and supplies through the overland route, which had been made more accessible by the same falling water levels that doomed the canal. After some inland maneuvering and a lengthy siege, Vicksburg surrendered on July 4, a turning point in the war. (Full article...)- The Chase is an American television quiz show adapted from the British program of the same name. It premiered on August 6, 2013, on the Game Show Network (GSN). It was hosted by Brooke Burns and featured Mark Labbett as the "chaser" (referred to on air exclusively by his nickname "the Beast"). A revival of the show premiered on January 7, 2021, on ABC. It was hosted by Sara Haines and initially featured as the chasers Jeopardy! champions James Holzhauer (who was a contestant on the GSN version), Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter. Labbett returned as a chaser in June 2021, before stepping down in 2022 along with Jennings. In their place are Buzzy Cohen, Brandon Blackwell, and Victoria Groce.
The American version of the show followed the same general format as the British version, but with teams of three contestants instead of four. The game was a quiz competition in which contestants attempted to win money by challenging a quizzing expert known as the chaser. Each contestant participated in an individual "chase" called the Cash Builder, in which they attempted to answer as many questions as possible in 60 seconds to earn as much money as possible to contribute to a prize fund for the team. The contestant then had to answer enough questions to stay ahead of the chaser in a head-to-head competition scored on a game board; otherwise, they lost their winnings and were eliminated. The contestants who successfully completed their individual chases without being caught advanced to the Final Chase, in which they answered questions as a team playing for an equal share of the prize fund accumulated throughout the episode. (Full article...) 
William Hayden English (August 27, 1822 – February 7, 1896) was an American politician. He served as a U.S. representative from Indiana from 1853 to 1861 and was the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1880.
English retired from the House in 1861, but remained involved in party affairs. In the American Civil War he was a War Democrat, supporting the Union war effort. As well as pursuing a political career, he was an author and businessman. He owned an opera house, was president of a bank, and developed many residential properties. English was successful in business, and became one of the wealthiest men in Indiana. After nearly two decades in the private sector, English returned to political life as the Democratic nominee for vice president in 1880. English and his presidential running mate, Winfield Scott Hancock, lost narrowly to their Republican opponents, James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. (Full article...)
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (/duːˈbɔɪs/ doo-BOYSS; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, writer, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in a relatively tolerant and integrated community. He completed graduate work at Harvard University, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate. He was a professor at Atlanta University and over the course of his life wrote many books and articles. He spent the last years of his life in Ghana and died in Accra on August 27, 1963.
Du Bois rose to national prominence as a leader of the Niagara Movement, a group of black civil rights activists seeking equal rights. Du Bois and his supporters opposed the Atlanta Compromise. Instead, Du Bois insisted on full civil rights and increased political representation, which he believed would be brought about by the African-American intellectual elite. He referred to this group as the talented tenth, a concept under the umbrella of racial uplift, and believed that African Americans needed the chance for advanced education to develop their leadership. Du Bois was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Du Bois used his position in the NAACP to respond to racist incidents. (Full article...)
.png)
.jpg)
_-_Google_Art_Project_(cropped).jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg)
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that opera composer and librettist Joseph Redding was also a chess expert and lawyer who argued a landmark decision before the United States Supreme Court?
- ... that Esther Merle Jackson, as a specialist in theatre and dance education at the United States Office of Education, intended to expand theater's role in the Great Society?
- ... that "Thy Strong Word" replaced an anti–Mexican–American War hymn in the Episcopal Church?
- ... that the Tennessee State Capitol was one of the first buildings in the United States to use structural iron?
- ... that a portrait engraver made the controversial decision to change a Sioux chief's war bonnet so that it would fit on the 1899 United States five-dollar silver certificate?
- ... that the LACE satellite tracked rocket plumes from space for the United States's Star Wars program?
- ... that Ladislav Zgusta escaped Czechoslovakia to the United States partially by elephant?
- ... that so much fake inventory was declared during the salad oil scandal that one storage facility claimed to store more salad oil than existed in the entire United States?
Selected society biography -
As First Lady, Pat Nixon promoted a number of charitable causes including volunteerism and oversaw the collection of more than 600 examples of historic art and furnishings for the White House, an acquisition larger than that of any other administration. She also encouraged women to run for political offices and became the most traveled First Lady in U.S. history up to that time, visiting about eighty nations; she was the first First Lady to visit a combat zone. Pat's tenure ended when, after being re-elected in the landslide victory of 1972, President Nixon resigned two years later amidst the Watergate scandal.
Pat's public appearances became rarer in her later life. She suffered two strokes within ten years of returning to California and was later diagnosed with lung cancer. She died in 1993.
Selected image -
Photo credit: Berlyn BrixnerThe Trinity nuclear test explosion, .016 seconds after detonation. The fireball is about 200 metres (700 ft) wide. Conducted by the United States on July 16, 1945, at a location 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what is now White Sands Missile Range, Trinity was the first test of technology for a nuclear weapon.
Lithograph: Currier and Ives; Restoration: Adam CuerdenAn 1872 lithograph depicting seven early African Americans in the United States Congress, (from left to right) Senator Hiram Revels and Representatives Benjamin Turner, Robert DeLarge, Josiah Walls, Jefferson Long, Joseph Rainey, and Robert Elliott. During the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, some several hundred African-American officeholders were elected – all of whom were members of the Republican Party.
A collection of hand-painted tiles adorns this fence in Greenwich Village in Manhattan as a memorial for the attacks of September 11, 2001. Recurring themes within these pieces of art include world peace, American patriotism, and appreciation of the heroism of the FDNY and NYPD.
Photograph credit: Associated Press; restored by Adam CuerdenRosa Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American activist in the civil rights movement, best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks rejected a bus driver's order to relinquish her seat in the "colored section" to a white passenger after the whites-only section was filled, inspiring the African-American community to boycott the Montgomery buses for more than a year. Her act of defiance and the boycott became important symbols of the civil rights movement and resistance to racial segregation. After her conviction for disorderly conduct, her appeal became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bus lawsuit, Browder v. Gayle, succeeded in overturning bus segregation in November 1956. Upon her death, Parks became the first woman to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
This photograph of Parks being fingerprinted was taken on February 22, 1956, when she was arrested again, along with 73 others, after a grand jury indicted 113 African Americans for organizing the Montgomery bus boycott.
Engraving: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restoration: Andrew ShivaAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the Civil War, its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. Born in Kentucky into a poor family, Lincoln educated himself and worked as a lawyer in Illinois before entering politics. A powerful orator and astute politician, Lincoln used his Gettysburg Address to promote nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. He has been consistently ranked as one of the greatest US presidents, by both scholars and the public.
National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History; photographed by Andrew ShivaThe 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 John Reich and produced from 1813 to 1834. The obverse design depicts a round-capped portrait of Liberty facing to the left, and the reverse depicts a modified eagle. This 1822 coin is one of only three known for the year.
Photograph credit: Aaron Allmon IIThe Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is a semi-retired American single-seat, twin-engine stealth and attack aircraft that was developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force. Its maiden flight took place in 1981, and it was the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology. This F-117 was photographed flying over Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.
Photo credit: Daniel MayerBryce Canyon National Park is a national park located in southwestern Utah in the United States. Contained within the park is Bryce Canyon, a giant natural amphitheater created by erosion along the eastern side of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Bryce Canyon was not formed from erosion initiated from a central stream, meaning it technically is not a canyon.
Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing; restored by Andrew ShivaWilliam Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773 – April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States in 1841. He died of typhoid, pneumonia or paratyphoid fever 31 days into his term, becoming the first president to die in office. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency. Vice President John Tyler claimed a constitutional mandate to become the new president and took the presidential oath of office, setting an important precedent for an orderly transfer of the presidency and its full powers when the previous president fails to complete the elected term.
Artist: Daniel A. Jenks; Restoration: Papa Lima WhiskeyA drawing of travelers on the California Trail, one of the major emigrant trails across the Western United States used by over 250,000 people heading west during the California Gold Rush. This, combined with those coming from the east across the Isthmus of Panama or around Cape Horn, greatly increased the population of California, and spurred the movement to make it the 31st U.S. state.
Photograph credit: NASA; restored by CoffeeandcrumbsSally Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American physicist and astronaut. She joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman in space. She was the third woman in space overall, after Soviet cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova (1963) and Svetlana Savitskaya (1982). Ride had completed eight months of training for her third flight when the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred. She served on the two panels that investigated this accident and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
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.![Image 13History of BostonMap credit: Sir Thomas Hyde PageA map of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1775 showing tactical positions from the perspective of the British Army. The caption in the upper left reads, "A plan of the town of Boston with the intrenchments [sic] &ca. of His Majesty's forces in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen." Boston in the early 1770s played a major role in sparking the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several of the early battles of the Revolution (such as the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston) occurred near or in the city.More selected pictures](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Boston%2C_1775bsmall1.png/120px-Boston%2C_1775bsmall1.png?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail)
Map credit: Sir Thomas Hyde PageA map of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1775 showing tactical positions from the perspective of the British Army. The caption in the upper left reads, "A plan of the town of Boston with the intrenchments [sic] &ca. of His Majesty's forces in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen." Boston in the early 1770s played a major role in sparking the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several of the early battles of the Revolution (such as the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston) occurred near or in the city.
Engraving credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing, after John Vanderlyn; restored by Andrew ShivaArtists producing banknotes in Colonial America began experimenting with copper plates as an alternative to wood engraving in the early 18th century. Applied to the production of paper currency, copper-plate engraving, and later steel engraving, enabled banknote design and printing to rapidly advance during the 19th century. This engraved vignette appeared on certain United States five-dollar bills issued in 1875. Produced for the Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the engraving is of John Vanderlyn's painting Landing of Columbus, which hangs in the United States Capitol rotunda. It depicts Christopher Columbus landing on San Salvador Island on October 12, 1492, on the first of his voyages to the New World.
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.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
![Image 13History of BostonMap credit: Sir Thomas Hyde PageA map of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1775 showing tactical positions from the perspective of the British Army. The caption in the upper left reads, "A plan of the town of Boston with the intrenchments [sic] &ca. of His Majesty's forces in 1775, from the observations of Lieut. Page of His Majesty's Corps of Engineers, and from those of other gentlemen." Boston in the early 1770s played a major role in sparking the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and several of the early battles of the Revolution (such as the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston) occurred near or in the city.More selected pictures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boston,_1775bsmall1.png)
-Landing_of_Columbus_(Vanderlyn).jpg)
.jpg)
Selected culture biography -
Punk initially came to prominence through his career on the professional wrestling independent circuit, primarily as a member of the Ring of Honor (ROH) roster, where he won the ROH Tag Team Championship, ROH World Championship, and was the first head trainer of the ROH wrestling school. In 2005, Punk signed a contract with WWE and was sent to its developmental promotion, Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he won every championship available in the promotion.
Throughout his career, Punk has consistently used the gimmick of being straight edge, a lifestyle he follows in real life. Depending on Punk's alignment as a crowd favorite or villain, he emphasizes different aspects of the culture to encourage the desired audience reaction.
Selected location -
Selected quote -
Anniversaries for November 8
Selected cuisines, dishes and foods -
Italian-American cuisine (Italian: cucina italoamericana) is a style of Italian cuisine adapted throughout the United States. Italian-American cuisine was created primarily by Italian immigrants, and the cuisine has been shaped throughout the years by various waves of immigrants and their descendants, called Italian Americans. (Full article...)
Selected panorama -
More did you know? -
- ...that the Pewee Valley Confederate Memorial (pictured) is the only American Civil War obelisk monument in Kentucky to be made of zinc?
- ...that the second subtitle of title III of the USA PATRIOT Act largely modifies the Bank Secrecy Act in an effort to make it harder for money launderers to operate, and to make it easier for law enforcement and regulatory agencies to police money laundering operations?
- ...that Senator William A. Blakley of the U.S. state of Texas worked as ranch hand as a young man?
Topics
Categories
Select [►] to view subcategories
Featured content
List articles
|
Culture Education Economy |
Geography Government
History |
Law Media Natural history |
 People Protected areas Religion Transportation |
Tasks
Featured article candidatesTotal pages in content type is 9 Featured list candidatesTotal pages in content type is 1 Good article nominees
Total pages in content type is 154 | ||||
|
To create
To discuss on Articles for deletion
To expand To destub |
Assessment requests New articles Most Popular pages To find images |
Maintenance and cleanup
Other issues
| ||
Related portals
State-related
Region or city-related
.png){kind=small}
Sports-related
Transportation-related
Other US-related
Nearby areas
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
WikiProjects
| National |  | |
|---|---|---|
| States |
| |
| Territories / Federal District | ||
| Cities / Regions |
| |
| Borders | ||
| Culture / History / Sport |
| |
| Government | ||
| Society | ||
| Transportation | ||
| Related | ||
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
More portals
