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Michael J. Bloomfield

Michael J. Bloomfield

Michael J. Bloomfield (born 16 March 1959) is an American astronaut and a veteran of three space shuttle missions. Raised in Lake Fenton, Michigan, Bloomfield attended the United States Air Force Academy and trained as an F-15 fighter pilot. He test piloted the F-16 aircraft before being selected as an astronaut candidate in 1994 and first flew aboard STS-86 in 1997. Bloomfield also few aboard STS-97 (2000) and STS-110 (2002), both missions to the International Space Station.

External link

- [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/bloomfie.html NASA Biography] Bloomfield, Michael J. Bloomfield, Michael J. Bloomfield, Michael J.

1959

1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. It is also a song by The Sisters of Mercy on the album Floodland.

Events

January

- January 1 - Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin.
- January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance.
- January 2 - CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
- January 2 - Castro's troops approach Havana.
- January 3 - Island of Addu in the Maldives declares independence.
- January 3 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- January 4 - In Cuba rebel troops lead by Che Guevara and Glenfuego enter Havana.
- January 4 - In Léopoldville 42 people are killed during clashes between the police and participants of a meeting of the Abako party.
- January 6 - Fidel Castro arrives in Havana.
- January 7 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
- January 8 - Charles De Gaulle inaugurated as the first president of French Fifth Republic.
- January 13 - Cuban communists execute 71 supporters of Fulgencio Batista.
- January 22 - Knox Mine Disaster - water breaches River Slope mine in Port Griffith, Pennsylvania - 12 miners dead.

February

- February 1 - A referendum in Switzerland turns down female suffrage.
- February 3 - The chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper goes down in an Iowa snowstorm, killing all four occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died," popularized in Don McLean's song, "American Pie."
- February 6 - At Cape Canaveral, Florida, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile is accomplished.
- February 15 - Mattel's Barbie doll goes on sale in the USA.
- February 16 - Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba.
- February 16 - Blizzard causes a massive power outage in Newfoundland.
- February 17 - USA launches Vanguard II weather satellite.
- February 18 - Jesus Sosa Blanco, murderer of 108 people, executed in Cuba.
- February 18 - Women in Nepal vote for the first time.
- February 19 - The United Kingdom grants Cyprus its independence.
- February 22 - Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
- February 26 - Author Walter Mene throws acid on Rubens painting in Munich.

March-May

- March 1 - USS Tuscaloosa, USS New Orleans, USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia struck from the Naval Vessel Register.
- March 1 – Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus from exile.
- March 8 - Last television appearance of The Marx Brothers, in The Incredible Jewel Robbery.
- March 9 - The Barbie doll debuts.
- March 17 - Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, flees Tibet and travels to India.
- March 18 - American President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs bill allowing for Hawaiian statehood.
- March 19 - Two other islands join Addu in the United Suvadida Republic (abolished September 1963).
- March 31 - Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida is dedicated and opens its gates.
- March 31 - Dalai Lama leaves Tibet.
- April 9 - NASA announces its selection of seven military pilots to become the first US astronauts (see Mercury Seven).
- April 25 - The St. Lawrence Seaway linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean officially opens to shipping.

May-July

- May - First Ten Tors event held in Dartmoor.
- late May / early June - import tariffs lifted in the United Kingdom.
- May 24 - British Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day.
- June 3 - Singapore becomes a self governing crown colony of Britain with Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister.
- June 5 - A new government of the State of Singapore is sworn in by Sir William Goode. Two former Ministers were re-elected to the Legislative Assembly.
- June 8 - The USS Barbero and United States Postal Service attempt the delivery of mail via Missile Mail.
- June 9 - The USS George Washington is launched as the first submarine to carry ballistic missiles.
- June 14 - A three-front revolutionary invasion by air and sea takes place in the Dominican Republic consisting of exiles aided by Fidel Castro whose purpose was to overthrow dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo. Within a few days all but four are captured and executed. Trujillo is killed less than two years later by men partly inspired by the deaths of the 1959 martyrs.
- June 23 - Sean Lemass becomes the third Taoiseach of Ireland.
- June 23 - Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs is released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden, East Germany (where he resumed a scientific career).
- June 26 - Queen Elizabeth II and US Dwight Eisenhower open Saint Lawrence Seaway.
- July 2 - Royal wedding in Belgium: Prince Albert marries the Italian princess Paola Ruffo di Calabria.
- July 4 - With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- July 7 - 14:28 UT Venus occulted the star Regulus. The rare event which will next occur on October 1, 2044 was used for determining the diameter of Venus and the structure of Venus' atmosphere.
- July 15 - Steel industry strike in USA.
- July 24 - At the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, US vice-president Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev have a "kitchen debate."

August-December

- August 4 - Martial law declared in Laos.
- August 7 - Explorer program: The United States launches Explorer 6 from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- August 8 - Flood in Formosa leaves 2,000 dead.
- August 14 - Explorer VI sends the first picture of Earth from space
- August 15 - Cyprus gains independence.
- August 16 - Explorer VI sends back the first picture of Earth from space.
- August 21 - Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.
- August 24 - Cyprus joins United Nations.
- September 13 - Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon as the first man-made object.
- September 14 - Luna II reaches Moon as the first man-made object.
- September 15 - Russian probe Luna 2 sends back first photos of the far side of Earth's Moon.
- September 25 - Ceylon's prime minister SWRD Bandaranaike assassinated.
- October 12 - At the national congress of APRA in Peru a group of leftist radicals are expelled from the party. They will later form APRA Rebelde.
- October 12 - Large scale diamond robbery in London.
- October 13 - USA launches Explorer VII.
- October 21 - Mau Mau leader Dedan Kimathi is arrested in Nyeri, Kenya.
- October 21 - In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
- October 31 - Riots in the Belgian Congo.
- October 31 - Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow he won't ever return to US.
- November 1 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a hockey puck, Montreal Canadiens goaltender, Jacques Plante offered to return to play on the condition that he can wear his protective face mask. It was the first time such equipment was used in a regular NHL game.
- November 2 - Quiz show scandals: "Twenty-One" game show contestant Charles Van Doren admits to a Congressional committee that he had been given questions and answers in advance.
- November 15 - Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas.
- November 19 - The Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel automobile, which had been introduced to the American public on "E Day" only two years earlier -- September 4, 1957.
- November 28 - Anti-USA demonstrations in Panama.
- December 1 - Cold War: Antarctic Treaty signed - 12 countries, including the United States and the Soviet Union, sign a landmark treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on that continent (this was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War).
- December 2 - Malpasset dam in southern France collapses and water flows over the town of Frejus - 412 dead.
- December 14 - Makarios selected first president of Cyprus.

Unknown date

- The neutrino is first experimentally detected, by Cowan and Reines.
- TAT-2 cable goes into operation.
- Workers World Party is founded by Sam Marcy.
- The first skull of Australopithecus is discovered by Louis Leakey and his wife Mary Leakey in the Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.
- Serengeti becomes a nature preserve.
- "Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry opens on Broadway in New York.

Births

Unknown date

- Claudia Benton, American murder victim (d. 1998)
- Graham Docherty, Scottish rugby player and businessman

January-February

- January 1 - Azali Assoumani, Comorese president
- January 6 - Kathy Sledge, American singer
- January 9 - Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan writer, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- January 16 - Sade, Nigerian-born singer
- January 17 - Susanna Hoffs, American singer (The Bangles)
- January 24 - Nastassja Kinski, German actress
- January 27 - Keith Olbermann, American news correspondent and sportscaster
- February 4 - Lawrence Taylor, American football player
- February 14 - Renee Fleming, American soprano
- February 16 - John McEnroe, American tennis player
- February 22 - Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
- February 23 - Richard Dodds, British field hockey player
- February 26 - Rolando Blackman, Panamanian basketball player

March-April

- March 6 - Tom Arnold, American actor and comedian
- March 8 - Aidan Quinn, American actor
- March 10 -Mike Wallace, NASCAR race car driver
- March 9 Rodney A. Grant, American actor
- March 15 - Harold Baines, baseball player
- March 16 - Flavor Flav, American rapper
- March 16 - Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway
- March 17 - Danny Ainge, American basketball player, coach, and baseball player
- March 18 - Luc Besson, French film producer, writer, and director
- March 21 - Nobuo Uematsu, Japanese composer
- March 22 - Matthew Modine, American actor
- March 29 - Perry Farrell, American musician
- April 3 - David Hyde Pierce, American actor
- April 10 - Brian Setzer, American guitarist (Stray Cats)
- April 16 - Alison Ramsay, Scottish field hockey player
- April 21 - Robert Smith, British musician (The Cure)
- April 22 - Catherine Mary Stewart, Canadian actress
- April 22 - Ryan Stiles, American actor
- April 27 - Sheena Easton, Scottish Singer
- April 30 - Stephen Harper, Canadian politician

May-June

- May 3 - Uma Bharati, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
- May 3 - Ben Elton, British comedian and writer
- May 5 - Steve Stevens, American guitarist
- May 14 - Patrick Bruel, French singer
- May 15 - Andrew Eldritch, British musician (The Sisters of Mercy)
- May 20 - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, American singer (d. 1997)
- May 20 - Bronson Pinchot, American actor
- May 22 - Steven Morrissey, British singer
- May 29 - Adrian Paul, British actor
- June 12 - John Linnell, American musician (They Might Be Giants)
- June 26 - Mark McKinney, Canadian actor and comedian
- June 27 - Clint Boon, British musician (Inspiral Carpets)
- June 30 - Vincent D'Onofrio, American actor

July-September

- July 3 - Julie Burchill, British journalist
- July 6 - Richard Dacoury, French basketball player
- July 7 - Ben Linder, American engineer (d. 1987)
- July 10 - Janet Julian, American actress
- July 11 - Richie Sambora, American musician
- July 11 - Suzanne Vega, American singer
- July 13 - Richard Leman, British field hockey player
- July 16 - Gary Anderson, American football player
- July 26 - Kevin Spacey, American actor
- July 29 - Sanjay Dutt, Indian actor
- July 29 - Ruud Janssen, Dutch artist
- August 1 - Joe Elliott, lead singer for band Def Leppard.
- August 2 - Apollonia Kotero, American actress and singer
- August 3 - Koichi Tanaka, Japanese scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- August 10 - Rosanna Arquette, American actress
- August 14 - Magic Johnson, American basketball player
- August 18 - Dorothy Bush Koch, sister of George W Bush and daughter of George H W Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush
- August 21 - Jim McMahon, American football player
- August 29 - Timothy Perry Shriver, son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and nephew of John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy and Edward M Kennedy
- August 29 - Stephen Wolfram, British scientist
- August 30 - Mark 'Jacko' Jackson, Australian footballer and actor
- September 4 - Kevin Harrington, Australian actor
- September 8 - Mary Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel Kennedy.
- September 14 - Morten Harket, Norwegian singer (a-ha)
- September 21 - Dave Coulier, American actor
- September 22 - James Mark Roth, American author, teacher, missionary, blogger
- September 29 - Benjamin Sehene, Rwandan writer

October-December

- October 3 - Fred Couples, American golfer
- October 3 - Greg Proops, American comedian
- October 3 - Jack Wagner, American actor
- October 9 - Michael Pare, American actor
- October 15 - Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York
- October 21 - Ken Watanabe, Japanese actor
- October 23 - "Weird Al" Yankovic, American singer and parodist
- October 25 - Nancy Cartwright, American voice actress
- October 27 - Rick Carlisle, American basketball coach
- November 10 - Linda Cohn, American sports reporter
- November 14 - Paul McGann, British actor
- November 23 - Dominique Dunne, American actress (d. 1982)
- November 25 - Charles Kennedy, Scottish politician
- November 28 - Judd Nelson, American actor
- December 13 - Nadia Russ, Ukrainian-born artist
- December 14 - Dana Childs, American radio personality and basketball coach
- December 21 - Florence Griffith Joyner, American athelete (d. 1998)
- December 27 - Gerina Dunwich, American author
- December 31 - Val Kilmer, American actor

Deaths

- January 21 - Cecil B. DeMille, American film director (b. 1881)
- January 22 - Mike Hawthorn, English race car driver (b. 1929)
- February 3 - Killed in a private plane crash:
- The Big Bopper, American singer (b. 1930)
- Buddy Holly, American singer (b. 1936)
- Richie Valens, American singer (b. 1941)
- February 3 - Vincent Astor, American philanthropist (b. 1891)
- February 11 - Marshall Teague, American race car driver (b. 1922)
- February 14 - Baby Dodds, American jazz musician (b. 1898)
- February 15 - Owen Willans Richardson, British physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1879)
- February 28 - Maxwell Anderson, American screenwriter (b. 1888)
- March 3 - Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (b. 1906)
- March 4 - Maxey Long, American athlete (b. 1878)
- March 26 - Raymond Chandler, American novelist (b. 1888)
- March 29 - Barthélemy Boganda, first President of the Central African Republic (b. 1910)
- April 9 - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect (b. 1867)
- May 5 - Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Argentine politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1878)
- May 14 - Sidney Bechet, American musician (b. 1897)
- May 24 - John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State (b. 1888)
- June 9 - Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1876)
- June 23 - Boris Vian, French writer, poet, singer, and musician
- July 11 - Charlie Parker, English cricketer (b. 1882)
- July 15 - Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (b. 1880)
- July 15 - Billie Holiday, American singer (b. 1915)
- August 5 - Edgar Guest, English poet (b. 1881)
- August 6 - Preston Sturges, American film director and writer (b. 1898)
- August 15 - Blind Willie McTell, American singer (b. 1901)
- August 16 - Wanda Landowska, Polish harpsichordist (b. 1879)
- August 19 - Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor (b. 1880)
- August 28 - Bohuslav Martinů, Czech composer (b. 1890)
- October 7 - Mario Lanza, American tenor (b. 1921)
- October 14 - Errol Flynn, American actor (b. 1909)
- October 16 - George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b.1880)
- October 18 - Boughera El Ouafi, Algerian athlete (b. 1898)
- November 15 - Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, Scottish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1869)
- November 17 - Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazilian composer (b. 1887)
- November 17 - Nichijun Horigome, Japanese priest (b. 1898)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Emilio Gino Segrè, Owen Chamberlain
- Chemistry - Jaroslav Heyrovský
- Medicine - Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg
- Literature - Salvatore Quasimodo
- Peace - Philip John Noel-Baker
- ko:1959년 ja:1959年 simple:1959 th:พ.ศ. 2502

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

Lake Fenton, Michigan

Lake Fenton is an unincorporated community located in Fenton Charter Township, Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a Census-designated place (CDP) used for statistical purposes and has no legal status as a municipality. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 4,876.

Geography

2000 According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 18.6 km² (7.2 mi²). 14.3 km² (5.5 mi²) of it is land and 4.3 km² (1.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 23.23% water.

Demographics

As of the census ² of 2000, there were 4,876 people, 1,886 households, and 1,433 families residing in the CDP. The population density is 341.7/km² (884.3/mi²). There are 2,076 housing units at an average density of 145.5/km² (376.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the CDP is 97.09% White, 0.25% Black or African American, 0.45% Native American, 0.66% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.27% from other races, and 1.27% from two or more races. 1.39% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. There are 1,886 households out of which 31.2% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.8% are married couples living together, 7.2% have a female householder with no husband present, and 24.0% are non-families. 19.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.2% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.58 and the average family size is 2.97. In the CDP the population is spread out with 23.6% under the age of 18, 7.1% from 18 to 24, 29.0% from 25 to 44, 29.2% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 40 years. For every 100 females there are 102.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 102.0 males. The median income for a household in the CDP is $67,885, and the median income for a family is $82,366. Males have a median income of $54,559 versus $32,804 for females. The per capita income for the CDP is $32,717. 3.2% of the population and 1.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 1.1% of those under the age of 18 and 4.7% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. Category:Genesee County, Michigan Category:Unincorporated communities in Michigan Category:Census-designated places in Michigan

United States Air Force Academy

The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is an institution for the undergraduate education of officers in the United States Air Force. The Air Force Academy is often referred to informally as "The Academy", "The Hill" or "The Zoo". It is occasionally referred to as "Colorado Springs", but this usage is not as common as the use of "West Point" or "Annapolis" for those cities' respective service academies. In athletic events, the Academy is generally referred to simply as "Air Force". Air Force cadets and Academy graduates are often referred to as "Zoomies". Upon completion of the four-year program, graduates receive a Bachelor of Science degree and are normally commissioned as Second Lieutenants in the United States Air Force. (A small number of graduates "cross-commission" into other services each year, and a few foreign cadets and graduates who are not medically qualified will receive a degree but will not be commissioned.) The program at the Academy is based on its core values of Integrity, Service and Excellence.

History

Annapolis

Establishment

Although airpower advocates had been pushing for a separate air force academy during previous decades, it was not until the late '40s that the concept of the United States Air Force Academy began to take shape. In January 1950, the Service Academy Board, headed by Dwight D. Eisenhower, then president of Columbia University, concluded that the needs of the Air Force could not be met by the two existing U.S. service academies and that an Air Force Academy should be established. Congress authorized the construction of the Academy on April 1, 1954, and established an advisory commission to help determine the site of the new school. Among the panel members were Charles Lindbergh, General Carl Spaatz, and Lieutenant General Hubert R. Harmon, who later became the Academy's first superintendent. The original 582 sites considered were winnowed to three: Alton, Illinois; Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; and the ultimate site in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Secretary of the Air Force Harold E. Talbott announced the winning site on June 24, 1954.

The Early Years

On July 11, 1955, the first class of 306 cadets was sworn in at a temporary site at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver while construction was completed in Colorado Springs. Because there were initially no upperclass cadets to run the Cadet Wing, a cadre of "Air Training Officers" (ATOs) was selected to supervise and train the new cadets until the upper classes could be populated. On August 29, 1958, a wing of 1,145 cadets moved to the present site, and less than a year later the Academy received accreditation. The first class graduated on June 3,