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.edu

.edu ("dot-edu") is the generic top-level domain for educational institutions, primarily those in the United States. Created in January 1985 as one of the first top-level domains, .edu was originally intended for educational institutions anywhere in the world. With few exceptions, however, only those in the United States registered such domains, while educational institutions in other countries usually used domain names under the appropriate country code TLD. In some countries a second-level domain is used to indicate an educational institutions (e.g. .edu.mx in Mexico, .edu.au in Australia, .ac.uk and .sch.uk in the United Kingdom) and in others only the country code is used (e.g. in Canada and Germany). An example of a non-US .edu domain is the French polytechnique.edu. Under the present system, only post-secondary institutions that are accredited by an agency on the U.S. Department of Education's list of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies are eligible to apply for a .edu domain. Most such agencies accredit only US institutions, so very few non-US institutions qualify, and .edu remains an almost exclusively American top-level domain. Note that the current eligibility requirements only apply to new applicants. Several non-qualifying institutions retain their .edu domains obtained before the current rules came into force (for example, Detroit Country Day School is a kindergarten through 12th-grade institution, but has the Internet address http://www.dcds.edu). The restriction to post-secondary institutions does not apply to the corresponding domains in some other countries. For example, the British .ac.uk second-level domain is also used by Further Education colleges.

External link


- [http://www.educause.edu/edudomain/ .edu Home Page]
- [http://www.iana.org/root-whois/edu.htm IANA .edu whois information]
- RFC 920 defined .edu and the other original top-level domains.

See also


- .ac.uk
- .sch.uk Edu Category:Education

Generic top-level domain

A generic top-level domain (gTLD) is a top-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization. These are three or more letters long, and are named for the type of organization that they represent (for example, .com for commercial organizations). The following gTLDs currently exist (as does .arpa, which is sometimes considered a gTLD):
- .aero - for the air transport industry
- .biz - for business use
- .cat - for Catalan language/culture
- .com - for commercial organizations, but unrestricted
- .coop - for cooperatives
- .edu - for educational establishments
- .gov - for governments and their agencies in the United States
- .info - for informational sites, but unrestricted
- .int - for international organizations established by treaty
- .jobs - for employment-related sites
- .mil - for the U.S. military
- .museum - for museums
- .name - for families and individuals
- .net - originally for network infrastructures, now unrestricted
- .org - originally for organizations not clearly falling within the other gTLDs, now unrestricted
- .pro - for certain professions
- .travel - for travel agents, airlines, hoteliers, tourism bureaus, etc.
- .xxx - for sexually-explicit "adult entertainment" sites The following gTLDs are in the process of being approved, and may be added to the root nameservers in the near future:
- .asia - for the Asian community
- .mobi - for sites catering to mobile devices
- .post - for postal services
- .tel - for services involving connections between the telephone network and the Internet

History

When generic top-level domains were first implemented, in January 1985, there were six:
- .com
- .edu
- .gov
- .net
- .org
- .mil While .net was not listed in the original RFC document describing the domain name system, it was added by the time the first group of names were implemented. The .com, .net, and .org gTLDs, despite their original different uses, are now in practice open for use by anybody for any purpose. In November 1988, another gTLD was introduced, .int. This gTLD was introduced in response to NATO's request for a domain name which adequately reflected its character as an international organization. It is also used for some Internet infrastructure databases, such as .ip6.int, the IPv6 equivalent of .in-addr.arpa. However, in May 2000, the Internet Architecture Board proposed to close the .int domain to new infrastructure databases. All future such databases would be created in .arpa (a legacy of the pre-TLD system), and existing ones would move to .arpa wherever feasible. By the mid-1990s there was pressure for more gTLDs to be introduced. Jon Postel, as head of IANA, invited applications from interested parties [http://www.gtld-mou.org/gtld-discuss/mail-archive/00990.html]. In early 1995, Postel created "Draft Postel", an Internet draft containing the procedures to create new domain name registries and new TLDs. Draft Postel created a number of small committees to approve the new TLDs. Because of the increasing interest, a number of large organizations took over the process under the Internet Society's umbrella. This second attempt involved the setting up of a temporary organization called the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC). On February 4 1997, the IAHC issued a report ignoring the Draft Postel recommendations and instead recommended the introduction of seven new gTLDs (.arts, .firm, .info, .nom, .rec, .store, and .web). However, progress on this stalled after the U.S. government intervened and nothing ever came of it. In October 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) formed to take over the task of managing domain names. After a call for proposals (August 15, 2000) and a brief period of public consultation, ICANN announced on November 16, 2000 its selection of the following seven new gTLDs:
- .aero
- .biz
- .coop
- .info
- .museum
- .name
- .pro These new gTLDs started to come into use in June 2001, and by the end of that year all except .pro existed, with .biz, .info and .museum already in full operation. .name and .coop became fully operational in January 2002, and .aero followed later in the year. .pro became a gTLD in May 2002, but did not become fully operational until June 2004. ICANN is adding further gTLDs, starting with a set of sponsored top-level domains (like the previous .aero, .coop, and .museum). The application period for these lasted from 15 December 2003 until 16 March 2004, and resulted in ten applications. As of June 2005, ICANN had announced the approval in principle of several new TLDs, with details still being worked out and implementation still in the future:
- .cat
- .jobs
- .mobi
- .post
- .tel
- .travel
- .xxx Proposals for .asia and .mail were still under consideration. There was also a second proposal for .tel.

External links


- [http://www.iana.org/gtld/gtld.htm IANA's gTLDs information page] Category:Top-level domains

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded1 from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Miami, Florida; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Boston, Massachusetts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Seattle, Washington; plus, outside the contiguous forty-eight states, Anchorage, Alaska, and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Society

Demographics

Hawaii The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the western United States followed by the southern portion. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%). [http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t2/tab03.pdf]

Ethnicity and race

:Main article: Racial demographics of the United States The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts. The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority--69.1% in 2000--decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada. Russia Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are the largest minority group in the country, comprising 12.5% of the population (2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades. About 12.3% (2000 census) of the American people are African Americans (Blacks). African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South. Asian Americans--including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders--are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

Religion

Polls estimate that just under 80 percent of Americans are Christians of various denominations. The other 20 percent comprises other religions such as Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism, other various faiths, and those without a specific religion. The United States is noteworthy among developed nations for its relatively high level of religiosity. According to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 44% of Americans attend a religious service at least once a week. However, this rate is not uniform across the country; attendance is more common in the Bible Belt—composed largely of Southern and Midwestern states—than in the Northeast and West Coast. In the Southern states, Baptists are the largest group, followed by Methodists; Roman Catholics are dominant in the Northeast and in large parts of the Midwest due to their being settled by descendants of Catholic immigrants from Europe (such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland) or other parts of North America (mainly Quebec and Puerto Rico). The rest of the country for the most part has a complex mixture of various Christian groups.

Education

West Coast's home at Monticello and the University of Virginia (library building shown above, and designed by Jefferson), the only collegiate campus on the list. Both sites are located in Charlottesville, Virginia.]] In the United States, education is a state, not federal, responsibility, and the laws and standards vary considerably. However, the federal government, through the Department of Education, is involved with funding of some programs and exerts some influence through its ability to control funding. In most states, all students must attend mandatory schooling starting with kindergarten, which children normally enter at age 5, and following through 12th grade, which is normally completed at age 18

1985

:This article is about the year. For the song by Bowling for Soup, see 1985 (song). For the album by Rufio, see MCMLXXXV. 1985 (MCMLXXXV) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February


- January 1 - The first British mobile phone call is made (by Ernie Wise to Vodafone).
- January 3 - Finnish government announces that a Soviet cruise missile has fallen into Inarinjärvi lake in Finnish Lapland
- January 17 - British Telecom announces it is going to phase out its famous red telephone boxes.
- January 20 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan is sworn in for a second term in office.
- January 23 - A debate in the British House of Lords is televised for the first time.
- February 1 - AM stereo broadcasting starts in Australia.
- February 5 - Australia cancels its involvement in U.S.-led MX missile tests.
- February 7 - "New York, New York" becomes the official city anthem of New York City.
- February 11 - Pakistani bowler Wasim Akram takes ten wickets in his second Test cricket match, but New Zealand still wins.
- February 14 - CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is freed from captivity in Lebanon.
- February 19 - William Schroeder becomes the first artificial heart patient to leave hospital.
- February 26 - US federal grand jury indicts 15 members of New York Mafia for racketeering

March


- March 2 - Government of John Cain reelected in Victoria for second consecutive term.
- March 4 - The Food and Drug Administration approves a blood test for AIDS, used since then for screening all blood donations in the United States.
- March 11 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and de facto leader of the Soviet Union.
- March 11 - Mohammed Al Fayed buys the London-based department store company, Harrods.
- March 11 - The Prague Appeal by Jiří Dienstbier, Czech dissident.
- March 14 - Five lionesses at the Singapore Zoo are put on birth control because the lion population had increased from two to 16.
- March 15 - José Sarney takes oath as acting president of Brazil, because the president-elect Tancredo Neves becomes severely ill.
- March 15 - The first .com domain name, symbolics.com, is registered by the Symbolics corporation. However, in this early stage of the rollout of domain names, .edu domains, for educational institutions, still predominate over the commercial .com ones.
- March 16 - Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He would later be released on December 4, 1991.
- March 17 - Serial killer Richard Ramirez (the "Night Stalker") commits his first two murders in Los Angeles, California.
- March 20 - Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod dog sled race.
- March 31 - Wrestlemania I occurs at Madison Square Garden, New York. The Main Event features Hulk Hogan and Mr. T with Jimmy Snuka vs. Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff with Bob Orton, Jr.

April


- April 1 - Villanova University's "perfect upset" of Georgetown University and Patrick Ewing for the NCAA Basketball Championship.
- April 1 - Sports Illustrated magazine publishes an article about the non-existent baseball prodigy Sidd Finch.
- April 15 - South Africa ends its ban on interracial marriages.
- April 21 - Tancredo Neves, president-elect of Brazil, dies after 38 days of illness that prevented him to take oath.
- April 23 - Coca-Cola company changed its recipe/formula and packaging to New Coke (not successfully)
- April 24 - Secular Organizations for Sobriety formed.
- April 26 - High Court judge Justice Lionel Murphy is committed to stand trial on charges of trying to pevert the course of justice.
- April 28 - Australian Nuclear Disarmament Party (NDP) splits.

May-June

Nuclear Disarmament Party
- May 8 - New Coke is released on the 99th anniversary of Coca-Cola. It will later become a major flop with consumers.
- May 11 - The FBI brings charges against suspected heads of the five Mafia families in New York City
- May 11 - Fire breaks in Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England - 56 dead
- May 13 - Philadelphia's mayor orders police to storm the radical group's MOVE headquarters to end a stand-off. The police drop an explosive device into the headquarters killing 11 MOVE members and destroying the homes of 61 city residents in the resulting fire and leaving 250 people homeless.
- May 15 - Unabomber bomb injures John Hauser at UC Berkeley
- May 17- United Airlines Pilots go on strike for 29 days.
- May 20 - Propaganda: Radio Marti begins broadcasting to Cuba.
- May 23 - Thomas Patrick Cavanagh is sentenced to life in prison for attempting to sell stealth bomber secrets to the Soviet Union.
- May 25 - Bangladesh is hit by a tropical cyclone and storm surge which kills approximately 10,000 people.
- May 29 - In the Heysel Stadium disaster at the European Cup final in Brussels, 39 football (soccer) fans die and hundreds are injured.
- May 31 - The US-Canadian Outbreak: 41 tornadoes hit in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario. By its end, 76 perish.
- June 6 - The body of Josef Mengele is located and exhumed in Brazil.
- June 9 - Thomas Sutherland is kidnapped in Lebanon (he is not released until 1991).
- June 10 - Claus von Bulow is acquitted on charges of trying to kill his wife.
- June 13 - In Auburn, Washington, police defuses an Unabomber bomb sent to Boeing
- June 14 - TWA Flight 847 is hijacked by Hezbollah.
- June 23 - Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, blows up 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.

July


- July 4 - 13-year-old Ruth Lawrence achieves a first in Mathematics at Oxford University, by becoming the youngest British person ever to earn a first-class degree and the youngest known graduate of Oxford University.
- July 10 - The Greenpeace vessel, the Rainbow Warrior, is bombed and sunk in Auckland harbour by French DGSE agents.
- July 10 - After a storm of controversy surrounding a change in its cola's formula (see New Coke), Coca-Cola re-introduces the old formula as "Coca-Cola Classic".
- July 13 - Live Aid pop concerts in Philadelphia and London raise over £50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.
- July 19 - U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush announces that New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe will become the first schoolteacher to ride aboard the Space Shuttle.
- July 20 - The main ship wreck site of the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha (which sank in 1622) is found 40 miles off the coast of Key West, Florida by treasure hunters who soon begin to raise $400 million in coins and silver.

August-September


- August 2 - Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes in Dallas, Texas, killing 137 people.
- August 6 - In Hiroshima, tens of thousands mark the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.
- August 7 - Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
- August 12 - Japan Airlines Flight 123, a Boeing 747SR-46 plane en route from Tokyo to Osaka, crashed northwest of Tokyo, killing 520 of the 524 people on board.
- August 22 - 55 people killed at in the Manchester air disaster at Manchester International Airport when a British Airtours Boeing 737 burst into flames after the pilot aborts the takeoff.
- August 31 - Richard Ramirez arrested for the "Night Stalker" murders.
- September 1 - A joint American-French expedition locates the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
- September 5 - John Howard replaces Andrew Peacock as Australian Federal Opposition Leader.
- September 6 - Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a Douglas DC-9 crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing 31.
- September 15 - U.S. hostage Benjamin Weir released in Lebanon.
- September 19 - 8.1 Richter scale earthquake strikes Mexico City. More than 9,000 people are killed, a further 30,000 injured, and 95,000 lose their homes.

November


- November 6 - In Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the M-19 movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá. By the next day, 115 people are dead, including 11 Supreme Court justices.
- November 15 - In separate events, mail bombs kill two people in Salt Lake City, Utah; a third bomb explodes the next day, injuring Mark Hoffman. The ensuing police investigation leads to the arrest of Hoffman for these murders, as well as forgery.
- November 16 - When 1,800 staff of Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa go on strike for better pay, they are dismissed and troops called in to help run the hospital.
- November 18 - First Calvin and Hobbes comic strip printed in a handful of newspapers; the strip is not carried in the hometown newspaper of its creator, Bill Watterson.
- November 19 - Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time.
- November 19 - Pennzoil wins a $10.53 billion verdict from Texaco in the largest civil verdict in U.S. history (Texaco established a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty).
- November 20 - Microsoft Corporation releases the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0.
- November 21 - United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard is arrested for spying (he was caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison).
- November 23 - Gunmen hijack EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo when the plane lands in Malta, Egyptian commandos storm the hijacked jetliner but 60 people die in the raid).
- November 25 - Man wearing a chicken suit walks into the Australian House of Representatives and sits on the government front bench. He is later removed
- November 26 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan signs over rights to his autobiography to Random House for a record US$3 million.
- November 28 - Gerard Hoarau, exile political leader from the Seychelles, assassinated in London

December


- Ford Taurus released. It would become one of Ford's biggest successes ever.
- December 12 - Arrow Air Flight 1285 DC-8 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256, 248 of whom were U.S. servicemen returning from overseeing a peacekeeping force in Sinai.
- December 16 - In New York City, Mafia bosses Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead in front of Sparks Steak House, making hit organizer John Gotti the leader of the powerful Gambino organized crime family.
- December 23 - Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov returns to Moscow after 7 years of internal exile
- December 27 - Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks - Groups of Abu Nidal members open fire in the airports of Rome and Vienna - 18 dead, 120 injured
- December 27 - American naturalist Dian Fossey is found murdered in Rwanda.
- December 31 - Last issue of The Columbus Citizen-Journal is distributed.

Environmental and weather change


- Asian tiger mosquito, an invasive species is first found in Houston, Texas
- November 13 - The volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupts in Colombia, killing an estimated 23,000 people.
- Ethiopian famine continues - Live Aid attempts to raise funds for famine relief.

Unknown date


- Victoria celebrates its 150th anniversary.
- Capital gains tax introduced to Australia.
- Buckyballs discovered by Harold Kroto, Robert Curl and Richard Smalley.
- GNU Manifesto first written by Richard Stallman.
- Western Sahara is admitted to the Organization of African Unity; Morocco, which claims Western Sahara, leaves in protest.
- Solarquest, space age real estate game, first published by Golden.
- Free Software Foundation founded.
- Norma Phillips Thornworth elected president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Births


- February 5 - Cristiano Ronaldo, Portuguese footballer
- February 9 - Rachel Melvin, American actress
- February 10 - Anette Sagen, Norwegian ski jumper
- February 18 - Lee Boyd Malvo, American serial killer
- February 19 - Haylie Duff, American actress and singer
- February 28 - FeFe Dobson, Canadian singer
- March 2 - Robert Iler, American actor
- March 13 - Emile Hirsch, American actor
- March 15 - Antti Autti, Finnish snowboarder
- March 24 - Haruka Ayase, Japanese actress and model
- March 26 - Keira Knightley, English actress
- May 2 - Sarah Hughes, American figure skater
- June 26 - Urgyen Trinley Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader
- June 27 - Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russian tennis player
- June 28 - Phillip Bardsley, English footballer
- June 30 - Michael Phelps, American swimmer
- July 2 - Ashley Tisdale, American actress
- July 24 - Teagan Presley, American actress
- July 25 - James Lafferty, American actor and athlete
- September 14 - Aya Ueto, Japanese actress
- October 11 - Michelle Trachtenberg, American actress
- October 22 - Zachary Hanson, American musician
- October 24 - Wayne Rooney, English footballer
- October 25 - Ciara, American singer
- November 8 - Jack Osbourne, English actor
- November 30 - Kaley Cuoco, American actress
- November 18 - Rex Goudie, Canadian singer
- December 3 - Amanda Seyfried, American actress
- December 5 - Frankie Muniz, American actor
- December 10 - Raven Symone, American actress
- December 23 - Harry Judd, English drummer

Deaths


- January 4 - Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)
- March 10 - Konstantin Chernenko, Soviet politician (b. 1911)
- March 12 - Eugene Ormandy, Hungarian conductor (b. 1899)
- March 28 - Marc Chagall, Russian-born painter (b. 1887)
- April 11 - Enver Hoxha, Albanian dictator (b. 1908)
- May 5 - Sir Donald Bailey, British civil engineer (b. 1901)
- May 8 - Theodore Sturgeon, American writer (b. 1918)
- May 9 - Edmond O'Brien, American actor (b. 1915)
- May 10 - Chester Gould, American cartoonist (b. 1900)
- May 12 - Jean Dubuffet, French artist (b. 1901)
- May 16 - Margaret Hamilton, American actress (b. 1902)
- May 17 - Abe Burrows, American songwriter, composer, and writer (b. 1910)
- June 11 - Karen Ann Quinlan, American right-to-die cause célèbre (b. 1954)
- June 15 - Andy Stanfield, American athlete (b. 1927)
- July 2 - David Purley, British race car driver (b. 1945)
- July 9 - Jimmy Kinnon, Scottish founder of Narcotics Anonymous (b. 1911)
- July 16 - Heinrich Böll, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1917)
- July 19 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer (b. 1938)
- August 6 - Forbes Burnham, President of Guyana (b. 1923)
- August 12 - Manfred Winkelhock, German race car driver (b. 1951)
- August 25 - Samantha Smith, American schoolgirl activist (b. 1972)
- August 31 - Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Australian biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1899)
- September 6 - Isabel Cox-Meighen, First Lady of Canada (b. 1882)
- September 6 - Little Brother Montgomery, American musician
- September 7 - Rodney Robert Porter, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1917)
- September 8 - John Franklin Enders, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1887)
- September 9 - Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1910)
- September 11 - William Alwyn, English composer (b. 1905)
- September 19 - Italo Calvino, Italian writer (b. 1923)
- October 2 - Rock Hudson, American actor (b. 1925)
- October 6 - Nelson Riddle, American bandleader (b. 1921)
- October 10 - Yul Brynner, American actor (b. 1915)
- October 11 - Orson Welles, American film director (b. 1915)
- October 12 - Johnny Olson, American game show announcer (b. 1910)
- October 22 - Thomas Townsend Brown, American scientist (b. 1905)
- October 31 - Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor (b. 1913)
- November 5 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895)
- November 24 - Big Joe Turner, American blues singer (b. 1911)
- December 7 - Robert Graves, English writer (b. 1895)
- December 23 - Ferhat Abbas, Algerian nationalist (b. 1899)
- December 24 - Robert Lincoln Beckwith, last direct descendant of President Abraham Lincoln (b. 1904)
- December 27 - Dian Fossey, American biologist (b. 1932)
- December 31 - Ricky Nelson, American singer and actor (b. 1940)

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - Klaus von Klitzing
- Chemistry - Herbert A. Hauptman, Jerome Karle
- Literature - Claude Simon
- Peace - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
- Economics - Franco Modigliani

Templeton Prize


- Sir Alister Hardy

Right Livelihood Award


- Theo van Boven, Cary Fowler / Pat Mooney / Rural Advancement Fund International, Lokayan / Rajni Kothari and Duna Kör Cat