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Frank Moore Colby

Frank Moore Colby

Frank Moore Colby (1865–1925) was an American educator and writer, born in Washington, D. C.. From 1893 to 1895 he was a member of the editorial staff of Johnson's Cyclopedia in the department of history and political science, and in 1898 he became editor of the International Year Book and one of the editors of the International Cyclopedia. He was one of the editors of the first edition (1900-1903) of the New International Encyclopedia and of the second edition (1913-15). He wrote: Outlines of General History, (1900); Imaginary Obligations, (1904); and Constrained Attitudes, (1910). Colby, Frank Moore Colby, Frank Moore Colby, Frank Moore

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

1893

1893 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 1 - Japan accepts the Gregorian calendar
- January 2 - Introduction by Webb C. Ball of the General Railroad Timepiece Standards in North America: Railroad chronometers
- January 13 - The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting.
- January 17 - Intervention by the U.S. Marines in Hawaii, resulting in overthrow of government of Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii
- January 21 - First "performance" of the Cherry sisters in Marion, Iowa. Their neighbors are uncritical and the sisters decide to launch a tour
- February 1 - Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio (West Orange, New Jersey).
- February 21 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents. The first is for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and another for a "Stop Device" (No. 491,992-3). Also No. 492,150 for "Process of Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps."
- February 23 - Rudolf Diesel receives a patent for the diesel engine
- March 4 - End of term for President of the United States Benjamin Harrison. He is succeeded by Stephen Grover Cleveland.
- March 10 - Côte d'Ivoire becomes a French colony
- March 20 - In Belgium, Adam Worth is sentenced for seven year for robbery (he is released 1897)
- April 8 - First recorded college basketball game occurs in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania between the Geneva College Covenanters and the New Brighton YMCA.
- May 1 - The 1893 World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Exposition, opens to the public in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The first United States commemorative postage stamps were issued for the Exposition.
- May 5 - Panic of 1893: Crash on the New York Stock Exchange starts a depression.
- May 9 - First public demonstration of Edison's 1 1/2" system of Kinetoscope at the Brooklyn Institute.
- June 6 - Marriage of Prince George, Duke of York and Mary of Teck.
- June 7 Gandhi's first act of civil disobedience.
- June 22 - Flagship Victoria of the British Mediterranean Fleet collides with Camperdown and sinks in 10 minutes - vice-admiral Sir George Tryon goes down with it
- July 6 - The small town of Pomeroy, Iowa was nearly destroyed by a tornado. Seventy-one people were killed and two hundred were injured.
- July 11 - Kokichi Mikimoto develops the method to achieve cultured pearls.
- July 12 - Frederick Jackson Turner gives his famous lecture entitled "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" before the American Historical Association in Chicago
- June 20 - Lizzie Borden acquitted of murder of her father and stepmother
- June 22 – Flagship HMS Victoria of the British Mediterranean Fleet collides with HMS Camperdown and sinks in 10 minutes - vice-admiral Sir George Tryon goes down with it
- August 27 - The Sea Islands Hurricane hits Savannah, Charleston and the Sea Islands; 1000-2000 dead.
- September 11 - Opening meeting of the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
- September 19 - Russian ironclad Rusalka disappears in a storm en route from Tallinn to Helsinki (hulk found July 2003 off Helsinki)
- September 27 - Closing meeting of the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.
- October 10 - First car number plates in Paris, France
- October 30 - The 1893 World's Fair, also known as the World Columbian Exposition, closes.
- November 7 - Colorado women are granted the right to vote.

Exact month/day of event unknown

- New Zealand becomes first country in the world to grant women the vote.
- American Council on Alcohol Problems established.
- Global financial panic (Panic of 1893)
- Physicist Wilhelm Wien composes Wien's Law
- France conquers Vietnam.
- General strike in Belgium
- American Temperance University opened.
- Milbank Penitentiary in Britain demolished
- US President Cleveland operated on in secret
- The Wengernalpbahn in Wengen, Switzerland (Canton of Bern) is opened.
- Athletic Club Královské Vinohrady is founded. Later the team was renamed to Sparta Prague
- Anti-Saloon League established in U.S. to promote temperance movement
- Committee of Fifty for the Study of the Liquor Problem established.

Births

- January 5 - Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian guru (d. 1952)
- January 12 - Hermann Göring, Nazi official (d. 1946)
- January 12 - Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi official (d. 1946)
- January 15 - Ivor Novello, Welsh actor and musician (d. 1951)
- January 22 - Conrad Veidt, German actor (d. 1943)
- February 3 - Gaston Julia, French mathematician (d. 1978)
- February 10 - Jimmy Durante, American actor, singer, and comedian (d. 1980)
- February 12 - Omar Bradley, American general (d. 1981)
- February 16 - Katharine Cornell, American actress (d. 1974)
- February 21 - Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
- March 1 - Mercedes de Acosta, American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite (d. 1968)
- March 3 - Beatrice Wood, American artist and ceramicist (d. 1998)
- March 18 - Wilfred Owen, English soldier and poet (d. 1918)
- April 3 - Leslie Howard, English actor (d. 1943)
- April 9 - Victor Gollancz, British publisher (d. 1967)
- April 12 - Robert Harron, American actor (d. 1920)
- April 23 - Allen Dulles, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1969)
- April 29 - Harold C. Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
- May 3 - Konstantine Gamsakhurdia, Georgian writer and public benefactor (d. 1975)
- May 23 - Ulysses S. Grant IV, American geologist and paleontologist (d. 1977)
- June 24 - Roy Oliver Disney, brother and business partner of Walter Elias Disney (d. 1971)
- July 25 - Dorothy Dickson, American-born actress and socialite (d. 1995)
- June 26 - Big Bill Broonzy, American blues singer and composer (d. 1958)
- July 3 - Mississippi John Hurt, American musician (d. 1966)
- July 9 - George Geary, English cricketer (d. 1981)
- August 6 - Wright Patman, American politician (d. 1976)
- August 15 - Leslie Comrie, New Zealand astronomer and computing pioneer (d. 1950)
- August 22 - Dorothy Parker, American writer (d. 1967)
- August 30 - Huey Long, Louisiana governor and senator (d. 1935)
- September 13 - Larry Shields, American musician (d. 1953)
- September 16 - Albert Szent-Györgyi, Hungarian physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- October 1 - Marianne Brandt, German industrial designer (d. 1983)
- October 9 - Mário de Andrade, Brazilian writer and photographer (d. 1945)
- October 14 - Lillian Gish, American actress (d. 1993)
- October 15 - King Carol II of Romania (d. 1953)
- October 18 - Georges Ohsawa, Japanese founder of Macrobiotics (d. 1966)
- November 3 - Edward Adelbert Doisy, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1986)
- November 8 - Clarence Williams, American jazz musician (d. 1965)
- December 24 - Ruth Chatterton, American actress (d. 1961)
- December 26 - Mao Zedong, Chinese leader (d. 1976)

Exact month/day of birth unknown

- Clement Martyn Doke, South African linguist (d. 1980)
- Berthold Bartosch, Bohemian animator (d. 1968)

Deaths

- January 2 - John Obadiah Westwood, British entomologist
- January 7 - Jožef Stefan, Slovenian physicist, mathematician, and poet (b. 1835)
- January 17 - Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States
- January 23 - Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, U.S. Supreme Court justice
- February 1 - George Henry Sanderson, Mayor of San Francisco
- February 20 - P.G.T. Beauregard, American Confederate general
- March 30 - Jane Sym-Mackenzie, First Lady of Canada
- June 21 - Amasa Leland Stanford, Governor of California
- June 23 - Sir Theophilus Shepstone, South African statesman (b. 1817)
- October 10 - Lip Pike, baseball player
- October 30 - Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, Canadian politician

Marriages

- January 7 - Mary Gish & James Leigh de Guiche
- April 20 - King Ferdinand & Maria Louisa de Bourbon
- May 2 - Marie Eve & August Strindberg
- May 30 - Israël Querido & Janet Sjouwerman
- July 6 - George V & Queen Mary
- December 12 - Rupert Hughes & Agnes Wheeler Hedge Category:1893 ko:1893년 ms:1893 simple:1893 th:พ.ศ. 2436

1895

1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January

- January 5 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

February

- February 11 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C (measured as -17°F) was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled in 1982.
- February 14 - First showing of Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest (St. James' Theatre in London).

March

- March 1 - William L. Wilson is appointed United States Postmaster General
- March 3 - In Munich, bicyclists have to pass a test and display license plates

April

- April 6 - Oscar Wilde is arrested after losing a libel case against the Marquess of Queensberry.
- April 14 - a major earthquake severely damages Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- April 17 - The Treaty of Shimonoseki (also known as Treaty of Maguan) was signed between China and Japan. This marks the end of the first Sino-Japanese War, and the defeated Qing Empire is forced to renounce its claims on Korea and to concede the southern portion of the Fengtien province, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands to Japan.

May

- May 25 - Playwright, poet and novelist Oscar Wilde is convicted of "sodomy and gross indecency" and sentenced to serve two years in a London prison.

June

- June 11 - Britain annexes Togoland
- June 28 - Union of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador begins (ends in 1898).

July

- July 15 - Archie MacLaren scores County Championship record innings of 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton.

August

- August 19 - American frontier murderer and outlaw, John Wesley Hardin, is killed by an off-duty policeman in a saloon in El Paso, Texas.
- August 29 - The sport of rugby league is formed at a meeting in the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.

September

- September 3 - The first professional football game is played, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club. (Latrobe won the contest 12-0.).
- September 18 - Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise Speech.

November

- November 5 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
- November 8 - Wilhelm Röntgen discovers a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
- November 27 - At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signs his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he dies (he died of a cerebral hemorrhage on December 10, 1896).

December

- December 28 - Auguste and Louis Lumiere display their first moving picture film in Paris

Unknown date

- Dundela FC were formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposes a space elevator
- Most recent major earthquake in the New Madrid Fault Zone
- Grace Chisholm Young, the first woman awarded a doctorate at a German university
- W.E.B. Du Bois becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University
- Duck Reach Power Station opens

Births

January-March

- January 1 - J. Edgar Hoover, American Federal Bureau of Investigation director (d. 1972)
- January 15 - Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- January 21 - Cristobal Balenciaga, Spanish-French couturier (d. 1972)
- January 24 - Eugen Roth, German writer (d. 1976)
- January 30 - Wilhelm Gustloff, German-born Swiss Nazi party leader( d. 1936)
- February 2 - George Halas, American football player, coach, and co-founder of the National Football League (d. 1983)
- February 6 - Babe Ruth, baseball player (d. 1948)
- February 14 - Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (d. 1973)
- February 15 - Earl Thomson, Canadian athlete (d. 1971)
- February 21 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
- March 3 - Ragnar Anton Kittil Frisch, Norwegian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- March 3 - Matthew Ridgway, Commander of NATO, United States Army Chief of Staff (d. 1993)
- March 12 - William C. Lee, U.S. general (d. 1948)
- March 17 - Shemp Howard, American actor and comedian (d. 1955)
- March 20 - Robert Benoist, French race car driver and war hero (d. 1944)
- March 29 - Ernst Jünger, German author (d. 1998)

April-June

- April 1 - Alberta Hunter, American singer (d. 1984)
- April 3 - Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian composer (d. 1968)
- April 9 - Mance Lipscomb, American singer (d. 1976)
- April 15 - Clark McConachy, New Zealand snooker and billiards player (d. 1980)
- April 20 - Emile Christian, American musician (d. 1973)
- April 28 - Spencer W. Kimball, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1985)
- April 29 - Malcolm Sargent, English conductor (d. 1967)
- May 6 - Rodolfo Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
- May 8 - Fulton J. Sheen, American Catholic archbishop and television personality (d. 1979)
- May 12 - William Giauque, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)
- May 15 - William D. Byron, U.S. Congressman (d. 1941)
- May 30 - Nikolai Bulganin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1975)
- May 30 - Maurice Tate, English cricketer (d. 1956)
- June 10 - Hattie McDaniel, American actress (d. 1952)

July-September

- July 8 - Igor Tamm, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- July 10 - Carl Orff, German composer (d. 1982)
- July 12 - Kirstin Flagstad, Norwegian soprano (d. 1982)
- July 12 - Buckminster Fuller, American architect (d. 1983)
- July 24 - Robert Graves, English writer (d. 1985)
- July 25 - Yvonne Printemps, French singer and actress (d. 1977)
- August 16 - Liane Haid, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
- September 7 - Sir Brian Horrocks, British general (d. 1985)
- September 11 - Vinoba Bhave, Indian religious leader (d. 1982)
- September 24 - André Frédéric Cournand, French-born physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1988)
- September 29 - J.B. Rhine, American parapsychologist (d. 1980)

October-December

- October 2 - Bud Abbott, American actor (d. 1974)
- October 4 - Buster Keaton, American actor and film director (d. 1966)
- October 8 - King Zog of Albania (d. 1961)
- October 19 - Lewis Mumford, American historian (d. 1990)
- October 21 - Edna Purviance, actress (d. 1958)
- October 22 - Rolf Nevanlinna, Finnish mathematician (d. 1980)
- October 25 - Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel (d. 1969)
- October 30 - Gerhard Domagk, German bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (declined) (d. 1964)
- October 30 - Dickinson W. Richards, American physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1973)
- October 31 - Basil Liddell Hart, military historian (d. 1970)
- November 5 - Walter Gieseking, German pianist (d. 1956)
- November 15 - Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and writer (d. 1976)
- November 16 - Paul Hindemith, German composer (d. 1963)
- November 25 - Wilhelm Kempff, German pianist (d. 1991)
- November 29 - Busby Berkeley, American film director and choreographer (d. 1976)
- December 2 - Harriet Cohen, English pianist (d. 1967)
- December 14 - Paul Eluard, French poet (d. 1952)
- December 14 - King George VI of the United Kingdom (d. 1952)
- Tuanku Abdul Rahman ibni Almarhum Tuanku Muhammad, King of Malaysia (d. 1960)

Deaths

- January 9 - Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American watchmaker (b. 1812)
- January 10 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)
- February 2 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (b. 1817)
- February 20 - Frederick Douglass, American ex-slave and author (b. 1818)
- March 2 - Berthe Morisot, French painter (b. 1841)
- March 10 - Charles Frederick Worth, English-born couturier (b. 1826)
- May 19 - José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)
- May 21 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
- June 29 - Sir Thomas Henry Huxley, English biologist (b. 1825)
- August 5 - Friedrich Engels, German socialist philosopher (b. 1820)
- August 22 - Luzon B. Morris, American politician (b. 1827)
- September 28 - Louis Pasteur, French microbiologist and chemist (b. 1822)
- October 8 - Empress Myeongseong (Queen Min), last Korean empress (b. 1851)
- October 25 - Charles Hallé, German-born pianist and conductor (b. 1819)
- November 27 - Alexandre Dumas, fils, French author and playwright (b. 1824)

Date unknown

- Green Clay Smith, American politician (b. 1826). Category:1895 ko:1895년 ms:1895 simple:1895 th:พ.ศ. 2438

New International Encyclopedia

The New International Encyclopedia was an encyclopedia first published in the 1910s. It was printed in two editons. The first edition was published from 1902 to 1914 by Dodd, Mead and Company. The second edition was copyrighted in 1917 and afterwards by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc. The Second Edition contains more volumes than the First Edition. The 1926 output was printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts by The University Press. Boston Bookbinding Company of Cambridge produced the covers. Thirteen books enclosing twenty-three volumes comprise the encyclopedia, which includes a supplement after Volume 23. Each book contains about 1600 pages. A great deal of biographic material is recorded in the New International Encyclopedia. The supplement includes a short paragraph on the activities of a Bavarian named Adolf Hitler from 1920-24. Many of the names which are used to describe the scientific identities of plants and animals are now obsolete. Numerous colorful maps which display the nations, states, colonies, and protectorates which existed early in the 20th century are included. The maps are valuable for their depictions of national and colonial borders in Europe, Asia, and Africa at the time of World War One. Drawings, illustrations, and photographs are plentiful, too.

Contributors and Office Editors

More than five-hundred educated men and some women submitted and composed the information contained in the New International Encyclopedia. :◊Editors of the First Edition
- Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D., President of Johns Hopkins University (1876-1901), President of Carnegie Institution.
- Harry Thurston Peck, Ph. D., L.H.D.
- Frank Moore Colby, M. A., Formerly Professor in New York University. :◊Editors of the Second Edition
- Frank Moore Colby, M. A.
- Talcott Williams, LL.D., L.H.D., Litt. D. Director of the School of Journalism, Columbia University. :::EXAMPLES
- Washington Irving Lincoln Adams (Photography).
- Mary Warren Allen, (Bibliographer).
- Samuel Angus, Ph.D., Professor of Hellenistic Greek, Hartford Theological Seminary. (Ostraka, etc.).
- Edith Arrowsmith, (Department of Reader's Handbook).
- Robert Arrowsmith, Ph. D., Formerly Professor of Latin and Greek, Teachers College, Columbia University. (Department of Reader's Handbook).
- Maurice Bloomfield, Ph. D., LL. D., Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology, Johns Hopkins University. (Topics in Oriental Literature).
- Mrs. Ella A. Boole, Ph. D., President New York State W. C. T. U. (Woman's Christian Temperance Union and other articles).
- Demarchus C. Brown, M. A. (Indiana State librarian).
- Alexander F. Chamberlain, Ph. D., Professor of anthropology, Clark University. (South American Indian tribes and Peoples; Asiatic tribes and Peoples).
- Colby Mitchell Chester, Rear-Admiral United States Navy (Naval Observatory)
- Wynfrid Laurence Henry Duckworth, M.D., Sc. D., M. A., Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, England; University Lecturer in Physical Anthropology, and Senior Demonstrator of Human Anatomy. (Man, Science of).
- A. A. Goldenweiser, Ph. D., Instructor in Anthropology, Columbia University. (Animism and Ancestor worship).
- William Everett Hooper, Associate Editor, Railway Age Gazette, (Supervisor of Department of Railways).
- Wolfgang L. G. Joerg, Assistant Editor of the Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, (Topics in Geography).
- Joseph J. Kral, (Topics in Gazateer).
- William S. Lahey, B. Lit. (Jersey City).
- Charles F. Marvin, Chief of the United States Weather Bureau. (Meteorology).
- Charles W. Mead, Assistant Curator of Anthropology, Department of Archæology, American Museum of Natural History, New York. (Peruvian Antiquities).
- Nelson P. Mead, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of History, College of the City of New York. (War in Europe).
- Grace A. Owen, (Topics in Modern History).
- Walter Pach, B. A., (Biographies in Painting and Sculpture).
- Harry Fielding Reid, C. E., Ph. D., Professor of Dynamical Geology and Geography, Johns Hopkins University. (Glacier).
- Paul Samuel Reinsch, Ph. D., Formerly Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin; United States Minister to China. (Political Science).
- J. Salwyn Schapiro, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of History, The College of the City of New York. (Modern History).
- Munroe Smith, J.U.D., LL. D., Professor of Roman Law and Comparative Jurisprudence, Columbia University. (Topics in European Law).
- Preserved Smith, Author of The Life and Letters of Martin Luther.
- Ralph S. Thompson, (Music and Biography).
- Frank Weitenkampf, L. H. D., Chief, Arts and Prints Division, New York Public Library. (Mezzotint; Meryon).
- R. H. Whitbeck. A. B., Professor of Geography, University of Wisconsin. (New Jersey).
- Miss Elizabeth Wilson, Secretarial Department, National Board, Young Women's Christian Association. (Young Women's Christian Association).
- Levi Edgar Young, Professor of History, University of Utah. (Mormons).

Others

Contributors with their own article in Wikipedia include:
- Cleveland Abbe
- Cleveland Abbe, Jr.
- Wilbur Cortez Abbott
- Charles Christopher Adams
- Thomas Sewall Adams
- Cyrus Adler
- Hartley Burr Alexander
- Joseph Sweetman Ames
- Oscar Phelps Austin
- Moses Nelson Baker
- Erwin Hinckly Barbour
- Louis Agricola