Gregory Jarvis

Gregory Bruce Jarvis (August 24, 1944 - January 28, 1986) was an American astronaut who died during the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where he was serving as payload specialist. He received a B.A. in electrical engineering from the University at Buffalo (SUNY) in 1967, and a Master's in the same discipline from Northeastern University, Boston in 1969. Jarvis joined the Air Force the same year and served until 1973, being discharged as a Captain. Thereafter he worked for Hughes Aircraft, and was selected as a payload specialist in July, 1984. SUNY at Buffalo now has a building, Jarvis Hall, named after him, which is devoted largely to engineering support services - see [http://www.buffalo.edu/buildings/building?id=jarvis this page].

References

- [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/jarvis.html Official NASA Bio]
- [http://www.challenger.org/about/jarvis.cfm Challenger Center bio] Jarvis, Gregory Bruce Jarvis, Gregory Bruce Jarvis, Gregory Bruce J

August 24

August 24 is the 236th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (237th in leap years), with 129 days remaining.

Events

- 49 BC - Julius Caesar's general Gaius Curio is defeated in the Second Battle of the Bagradas River by the Numidians under Attius Varus and King Juba of Numidia. Curio is slain in battle.
- AD 79 - Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash.
- 410 - The Visigoths under Alaric sack Rome for three days.
- 1215 - Pope Innocent III declares the Magna Carta invalid.
- 1349 - Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz because they are blamed for the bubonic plague.
- 1391 - Jews massacred in Palma de Mallorca.
- 1456 - The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed.
- 1511 - Alfonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers the Sultanate of Malacca.
- 1572 - Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: On the orders of king Charles IX of France, a massacre of Huguenots (French Protestants) begins.
- 1608 - The first official British representative to India lands in Surat.
- 1662 - Act of Uniformity requires England to accept the Book of Common Prayer.
- 1682 - William Penn receives the area that is now the state of Delaware, and adds it to his colony of Pennsylvania.
- 1690 - Calcutta, India is founded.
- 1814 - British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings.
- 1821 - The Treaty of Córdoba is signed in Córdoba, now in Veracruz, Mexico, concluding the Mexican War of Independence from Spain.
- 1831 - Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle.
- 1847 - Charlotte Brontë finishes Jane Eyre.
- 1853 - Potato chips are first prepared.
- 1857 - The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history.
- 1858 - In Richmond, Virginia, 90 blacks are arrested for learning.
- 1891 - Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera.
- 1909 - Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal.
- 1912 - Alaska becomes a United States territory.
- 1914 - World War I: German troops capture Namur.
- 1929 - Turkey and Persia sign a friendship treaty.
- 1931 - France and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality/no attack treaty.
- 1931 - Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
- 1932 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey).
- 1936 - The Australian Antarctic Territory is created.
- 1942 - World War II: The Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho is sunk.
- 1944 - World War II: French and Allied troops start the attack on Paris.
- 1949 - The treaty creating NATO goes into effect.
- 1950 - Edith Sampson becomess the first black U.S. delegate to the UN.
- 1954 - The Communist Control Act goes into effect. The American Communist Party is outlawed.
- 1954 - Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, president of Brazil, commit suicide and is succeeded by João Café Filho.
- 1960 - A temperature of −88°C (−127°F) is measured in Vostok, Antarctica — a world-record low.
- 1963 - The 200-metre freestyle is swum in less than 2 minutes for the first time by Don Schollander (1:58).
- 1968 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
- 1968 - France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power.
- 1971 - Pink Floyd performs their most famous concert, in an abandoned Pompeii amphitheatre on the 1892nd anniversary of the infamous disappearance of Pompeii.
- 1979 - In Central Park, New York a concert is given by cars.
- 1981 - Mark David Chapman is sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for murdering John Lennon.
- 1989 - Colombian drug barons declare "total war" on the Colombian government.
- 1989 - Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose is banned from baseball for gambling by Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti
- 1989 - Voyager 2 passes Neptune.
- 1990 - A judge rules that Judas Priest are not responsible for the deaths of two youths who committed suicide after listening to the band's music.
- 1990 - Sinéad O'Connor refuses to perform at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Holmdel, New Jersey if "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played before her show, as is customary.
- 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
- 1991 - Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
- 1992 - Diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and South Korea.
- 1992 - Hurricane Andrew hits South Florida.
- 1994 - Initial accord between Israel and the PLO about partial self-rule of the Palestinians on the West Bank.
- 1995 - Windows 95 is released.
- 1998 - The Netherlands is selected as the site for the trial of the two Libyan suspects of the 1988 PanAm bombing.
- 2001 - Air Transat Flight 236 runs out of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean (en route to Lisbon from New York) and makes an emergency landing in the Azores.
- 2003 - US Spacecraft Voyager 2 is 71 astronomical units distant from Earth and escaping the solar system at a speed of about 3.3 AU per year (ca. 15 km/s). It will be approximately 40,000 years before Voyager 2 approaches another planetary system.
- 2004 - Two airliners in Russia, carrying a total of 89 passengers, crash within minutes of each other after flying out of Domodedovo International Airport, near Moscow, leaving no survivors. Authorities suspect suicide attacks by rebels from the breakaway republic of Chechnya to be the cause of the crashes.
- 2005 - Peruvian airliner TANS's Flight 204 crashes in Pucallpa, killing at least 60 people.

Births

- 1113 - Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou (b. 1113)
- 1198 - King Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249)
- 1358 - King John I of Castile (d. 1390)
- 1393 - Arthur III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1458)
- 1552 - Lavinia Fontana, Italian painter (d. 1614)
- 1580 - John Taylor, English poet (d. 1654)
- 1591 - Robert Herrick, English poet (d. 1674)
- 1635 - Peder Griffenfeld, Danish statesman (d. 1699)
- 1669 - Alessandro Marcello, Italian composer (d. 1747)
- 1759 - William Wilberforce, English campaigner against slavery (d. 1833)
- 1772 - King William I of the Netherlands (1814-1840)
- 1787 - James Weddell, Antarctica explorer (d. 1834)
- 1817 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
- 1837 - Théodore Dubois, French composer and teacher (d. 1924)
- 1852 - Deacon White, baseball player (d. 1919)
- 1863 - Dragutin Lerman, Croatian explorer (d. 1918)
- 1865 - King Ferdinand I of Romania (d. 1927)
- 1880 - Joshua Lionel Cowen, American inventor and entrepreneur (d. 1965)
- 1884 - Earl Derr Biggers, American author (d. 1933)
- 1887 - Harry Hooper, baseball player (d. 1974)
- 1890 - Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaiian swimmer and surfer (d. 1968)
- 1890 - Jean Rhys, Dominican writer (d. 1979)
- 1898 - Malcolm Cowley, American literary critic, writer, and editor (d. 1989)
- 1899 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
- 1901 - Preston Foster, American actor (d. 1970)
- 1904 - Alice White, American film actress (d. 1983)
- 1915 - James Tiptree, Jr., American writer (d. 1987)
- 1916 - Hal Smith, American actor and voice actor (d. 1994)
- 1922 - René Lévesque, Premier of Quebec (d. 1987)
- 1923 - Arthur Jensen, American psychologist
- 1927 - Harry Markowitz, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1929 - Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2004)
- 1934 - Kenny Baker, English actor
- 1936 - A. S. Byatt, English novelist
- 1938 - Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
- 1938 - David Freiberg, American bassist (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
- 1943 - John Cipollina, American guitarist (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (d. 1989)
- 1945 - Ken Hensley, English musician (Uriah Heep)
- 1945 - Vince McMahon, American professional wrestling entrepreneur
- 1947 - Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author
- 1948 - Jean-Michel Jarre, French musician
- 1951 - Orson Scott Card, American novelist
- 1954 - Libby Mooney,British Science educator
- 1956 - John Culberson, American politician
- 1957 - Stephen Fry, English comedian, author, and actor
- 1958 - Steve Guttenberg, American actor
- 1958 - Tracy Harris, American artist
- 1960 - Cal Ripken, Jr., baseball player
- 1962 - Craig Kilborn, American talk show host
- 1962 - David Koechner, American actor
- 1963 - John Bush, American singer (Anthrax)
- 1963 - Hideo Kojima, Japanese video game director
- 1964 - Salizhan Sharipov, cosmonaut
- 1965 - Marlee Matlin, American actress
- 1965 - Reggie Miller, American basketball player
- 1968 - Shoichi Funaki, Japanese professional wrestler
- 1968 - Andreas Kisser, Brazilian guitarist (Sepultura)
- 1973 - David Chappelle, American actor and comedian
- 1973 - Inge de Bruijn, Dutch swimmer
- 1973 - Carmine Giovinazzo, American actor
- 1974 - Jennifer Lien, American actress
- 1978 - Rafael Furcal, Dominican Major League Baseball player
- 1981 - Chad Michael Murray, American actor
- 1983 - Christopher Parker, British actor
- 1988 - Rupert Grint, English actor

Deaths

- 79 - Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and naturalist (b. 23)
- 1042 - Michael V, Byzantine Emperor) (b. 1015)
- 1103 - King Magnus III of Norway (b. 1073)
- 1217 - Eustace the Monk, French mercenary and pirate
- 1540 - Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Italian painter (b. 1503)
- 1542 - Gasparo Contarini, Italian diplomat and cardinal (b. 1483)
- 1572 - Victims of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre:
- Gaspard de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (b. 1519)
- Pierre de la Ramée, French humanist (b. 1515)
- Charles de Téligny, French Huguenot soldier
- 1595 - Thomas Digges, English astronomer (b. 1546)
- 1647 - Nicholas Stone, English sculptor and architect (b. 1586)
- 1664 - Maria Cunitz, Silesian astronomer
- 1679 - Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz, French churchman and agitator (b. 1614)
- 1680 - Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels (b. 1618)
- 1683 - John Owen, English non-conformist theologian (b. 1616)
- 1759 - Ewald Christian von Kleist, German poet (b. 1715)
- 1779 - Kosmas Aitolos, Greek Orthodox martyr (b. 1714)
- 1831 - August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1760)
- 1832 - Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French mathematician (b. 1796)
- 1888 - Rudolf Clausius, German physicist (b. 1822)
- 1921 - Nikolay Gumilyov, Russian poet (b. 1886)
- 1841 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author (b. 1788)
- 1940 - Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German television pioneer (b. 1860)
- 1946 - James Clark McReynolds, U.S. Supreme Court justice (b. 1862)
- 1954 - Getúlio Vargas, President of Brazil (b. 1882)
- 1956 - Kenji Mizoguchi, Japanese film director (b. 1898)
- 1967 - Henry J. Kaiser, American industrialist (b. 1882)
- 1975 - Eamon de Valera, President of Ireland (b. 1882)
- 1978 - Louis Prima, American band leader (b. 1910)
- 1979 - Hanna Reitsch, German pilot (b. 1912)
- 1985 - Paul Creston, American composer (b. 1906)
- 1990 - Sergei Dovlatov, Russian writer (b. 1941)
- 1991 - Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (b. 1904)
- 1995 - Alfred Eisenstaedt, German-born photographer (b. 1898)
- 1998 - E.G. Marshall, American actor (b. 1910)
- 2002 - Hoyt Wilhelm, baseball player (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer (b. 1910)
- 2004 - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-born psychiatrist (b. 1926)

Holidays and observances

- Roman festivals - first of the 3 days on which the mundus was openend
- RC Saints - Feast day of Saint Bartholomew
- Liberia: Flag Day
- Sierra Leone: President's Birthday
- Ukraine: National Holiday, independence from Russia (1991)

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/24 BBC: On This Day] ---- August 23 - August 25 - July 24 - September 24 -- listing of all days ko:8월 24일 ms:24 Ogos ja:8月24日 simple:August 24 th:24 สิงหาคม

January 28

January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 337 days remaining (338 in leap years).

Events

- 1521 - Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.
- 1547 - Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler of England.
- 1573 - Articles of Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning religious freedom in Poland
- 1788 - The first penal colony is founded at Botany Bay, Australia.
- 1820 - Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev approaches the Antarctic coast.
- 1846 - Battle of Aliwal, India won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
- 1855 - The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the Panama Railway.
- 1871 - Franco-Prussian War: France surrenders, ending the war.
- 1878 - The Yale News becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States.
- 1887 - In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, USA, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches (38cm) wide and 8 inches (20cm) thick.
- 1902 - The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.
- 1909 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War.
- 1915 - An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
- 1916 - Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
- 1917 - United States ends search for Pancho Villa.
- 1918 - Finnish Civil War: Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.
- 1921 - A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honour the unknown dead of World War I.
- 1932 - World War II: Japan occupies Shanghai.
- 1935 - Iceland becomes the first country to legalize abortion.
- 1938 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
- 1938 - The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by driver Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195
- 1945 - World War II: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
- 1946 - Bluenose, Canada's greatest sailing ship, founders on a Haitian reef.
- 1958 - Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate begin their murder spree with the killings of her parents and infant sister.
- 1973 - Barnaby Jones premieres on CBS.
- 1982 - US Army general James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces after 42 days of captivity under the Red Brigades.
- 1986 - Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after liftoff killing all seven astronauts onboard. Failure blamed on leaking Solid Rocket Booster.
- 1990 - Super Bowl XXIV: The San Francisco 49ers are crowned "Team of the 1980s" by defeating the Denver Broncos, 55-10.
- 1994 - The first trial of accused murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- 1996 - Super Bowl XXX: The Dallas Cowboys win their fifth Super Bowl title by defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17.
- 1997 - Arista Records founder Clive Davis receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1998 - Ford Motor Company announces the buyout of Volvo for $6.45 billion.
- 1998 - Gunmen hold at least 400 children and teachers hostage for several hours at an elementary school in Manila, Philippines.
- 2001 - Super Bowl XXXV: The Baltimore Ravens defeat the New York Giants, 34-7.
- 2002 - An Ecuadoran airline Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia killing 92.
- 2004 - September Dossier: Lord Hutton publishes his report into the death of UN weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly.

Births

- 1457 - King Henry VII of England (d. 1509)
- 1540 - Ludolph van Ceulen, German mathematician (d. 1610)
- 1582 - John Barclay, Scottish writer (d. 1621)
- 1600 - Pope Clement IX (d. 1669)
- 1608 - Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)
- 1611 - Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer (d. 1687)
- 1622 - Adrien Auzout, French astronomer (d. 1691)
- 1701 - Charles Marie de La Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (d. 1774)
- 1706 - John Baskerville, English printer (d. 1775)
- 1712 - Tokugawa Ieshige, Japanese shogun (d. 1761)
- 1717 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1774)
- 1719 - Johann Elias Schlegel, German critic and poet (d. 1749)
- 1755 - Samuel Thomas von Sömmering, German physician (d. 1830)
- 1784 - George Hamilton Gordon Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1860)
- 1822 - Alexander Mackenzie, second Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1892)
- 1833 - Charles George 'Chinese' Gordon, British soldier and administrator (d. 1885)
- 1841 - Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh-born explorer and journalist (d. 1904)
- 1853 - José Martí, Cuban revolutionary (d. 1895)
- 1857 - William Seward Burroughs, American inventor (d. 1898)
- 1873 - Colette, French writer (d. 1954)
- 1874 - Vsevolod Meyerhold, Russian theatre director (d. 1940)
- 1879 - Francis Picabia, French-born painter and poet (d. 1953)
- 1880 - Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (d. 1970)
- 1884 - Auguste Piccard, Swiss physicist (d. 1962)
- 1886 - Marthe Bibesco, Romanian writer (d. 1973)
- 1887 - Arthur Rubinstein, Polish pianist and conductor (d. 1982)
- 1890 - Robert Stroud, American convict, the Birdman of Alcatraz (d. 1963)
- 1892 - Ernst Lubitsch, German-born film director (d. 1947)
- 1897 - Valentin Kataev, Russian writer (d. 1986)
- 1910 - John Banner, Austrian actor (d. 1973)
- 1910 - Arnold Moss, American character actor (d. 1989)
- 1912 - Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
- 1922 - Robert W. Holley, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1993)
- 1923 - Ivo Robić, Croatian singer (d. 2001)
- 1927 - Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japanese director (d. 2001)
- 1929 - Acker Bilk, English jazz clarinetist
- 1929 - Claes Oldenburg, Swedish-American artist
- 1933 - Susan Sontag, American writer and activist (d. 2004)
- 1935 - David Lodge, English author
- 1936 - Alan Alda, American actor, writer, and director
- 1936 - Ismail Kadare, Albanian writer
- 1941 - Joel Crothers, American actor (d. 1985)
- 1944 - John Tavener, English composer
- 1945 - Robert Wyatt, English musician
- 1948 - Mikhail Baryshnikov, Russian dancer
- 1948 - Charles Taylor, leader of Liberia
- 1950 - Barbi Benton, American actress
- 1951 - Leonid Kadeniuk, Ukrainian cosmonaut
- 1954 - Rick Warren. Pastor, Author of The Purpose Driven Life
- 1960 - Robert von Dassanowsky, American cultural historian, writer, and producer
- 1962 - Sam Phillips, American singer
- 1968 - Sarah McLachlan, Canadian singer and songwriter
- 1968 - DJ Muggs, American musician (Cypress Hill)
- 1968 - Rakim, American rapper
- 1969 - Kathryn Morris, American actress
- 1974 - Tony Delk, American basketball player
- 1976 - Mark Madsen, American basketball player
- 1976 - Jarrod Montague, American drummer (Taproot)
- 1977 - Daunte Culpepper, American football player
- 1977 - Joey Fatone, American singer (
- NSYNC)
- 1978 - Gianluigi Buffon, Italian footballer
- 1978 - Jamie Carragher, English footballer
- 1978 - Papa Bouba Diop, Senegalese footballer
- 1979 - Pixie, English model
- 1980 - Nick Carter, American singer (Backstreet Boys)
- 1981 - Rick Razzano, American football player
- 1981 - Elijah Wood, American actor

Deaths

- 814 - Charlemagne (b. 742)
- 1061 - Duke Spytihněv II of Bohemia (b. 1031)
- 1271 - Isabella of Aragon, queen of Philip III of France (b. 1247)
- 1443 - Robert le Maçon, Chancellor of France
- 1547 - King Henry VIII of England (b. 1491)
- 1596 - Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and soldier (b. ca. 1540)
- 1599 - Cristofano Malvezzi, Italian composer (b. 1547)
- 1613 - Thomas Bodley, English diplomat and library founder (b. 1545)
- 1621 - Pope Paul V (b. 1550)
- 1681 - Richard Allestree, English royalist churchman (b. 1619)
- 1672 - Pierre Séguier, Chancellor of France (b. 1588)
- 1687 - Johannes Hevelius, Polish astronomer (b. 1611)
- 1697 - John Fenwick, English conspirator
- 1725 (O.S.) - Tsar Peter I of Russia, (b. 1672)
- 1754 - Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian historian and writer (b. 1684)
- 1903 - Augusta Holmès, French composer (b. 1847)
- 1912 - Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist (b. 1819)
- 1935 - Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Russian composer (b. 1859)
- 1939 - William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- 1949 - Jean-Pierre Wimille, French race car driver (b. 1908)
- 1953 - James Scullin, ninth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1876)
- 1960 - Zora Neale Hurston, American author (b. 1891)
- 1965 - Tich Freeman, English cricketer (b. 1888)
- 1965 - Maxime Weygand, French soldier (b. 1867)
- 1971 - Donald Winnicott, British psychoanalyst (b. 1896)
- 1973 - John Banner, Austrian actor (b. 1910)
- 1977 - Freddie Prinze, American actor (b. 1954)
- 1983 - Frank Forde, fifteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1890)
- 1986 - Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger:
- Greg Jarvis (b. 1944)
- Christa McAuliffe (b. 1948)
- Ronald McNair (b. 1950)
- Ellison Onizuka (b. 1946)
- Judith Resnik (b. 1949)
- Francis R. Scobee (b. 1939)
- Michael J. Smith (b. 1945)
- 1988 - Klaus Fuchs, German physicist (b. 1911)
- 1991 - Red Grange, American football player (b. 1903)
- 1994 - Hal Smith, American actor (b. 1916)
- 1996 - Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1940)
- 1996 - Jerry Siegel, American cartoonist (b. 1914)
- 1999 - Torgny T:son Segerstedt, Swedish sociologist and philosopher (b. 1908)
- 2001 - Curt Blefary, baseball player (b. 1943)
- 2002 - Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author (b. 1907)
- 2004 - Lloyd M. Bucher, US Navy officer (b. 1927)
- 2004 - Don Cholito, Puerto Rican radio host (b. 1923)
- 2004 - Elroy Hirsch, American football player (b. 1923)
- 2005 - Jim Capaldi, English singer and songwriter (b. 1944)
- 2005 - Karen Lancaume, French actress (suicide) (b. 1973)

Holidays and observances

- Catholicism - Feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/28 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 27 - January 29 - December 28 - February 28 — listing of all days ko:1월 28일 ms:28 Januari ja:1月28日 simple:January 28 th:28 มกราคม

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