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Edwin L. Drake

Edwin L. Drake

Edwin Laurentine "Colonel" Drake (1819-1880), an American oil driller, is popularly credited with having "discovered" oil. He was born in Greenville, New York on March 11, 1819. On August 27, 1859, a well that Drake drilled near Titusville, Pennsylvania struck oil. While petroleum oil was known prior to this, but there was no appreciable market for it. Yet, studies of crude oil showed it to be a good source of kerosene if enough could be obtained. Drake's employers were seeking enough crude oil to establish a new enterprise, providing kerosene for lamps. According to Ida Tarbell's 1904 book The History of Standard Oil, the oil well was not Drake's idea, but rather that of his employer, George Bissell. Bissell sent Drake to the site in the spring of 1858. Drake, a native of Greene County, New York, had spent his earlier life working as a clerk, an express agent, and a railway conductor on a brand new sometimes dangerous conveyance railroad. Then, in the late 1850’s Edwin Drake was hired by the Seneca Oil Company to investigate suspected oil deposits in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The oil company chose the retired railway man partly because he had free use of the rail. Drake decided that the best way to find oil was to dig for it. He used an old steam engine to power the drill. In 1857 and again in 1858 Drake searched for oil in and around Titusville. He had limited success, but was only able to extract a maximum of 10 barrels (1.6 m³) per day. This was not enough to make a commercial yield sustainable. When attempts to dig huge shafts in the ground failed due to water seepage, Drake decided to drill in the manner of salt drillers. The well was dug on an artificial island on the Oil Creek. It took some time for the drillers to get through the layers of gravel. At 16 feet (5 m) the sides of the hole began to collapse. Those helping him began to despair. But not Drake. It was at this point that he devised the idea of a drive pipe. This cast iron pipe consisted of ten foot long joints. The pipe was driven down into the ground. At 32 feet (10 m) they struck bedrock. The drilling tools were now lowered through the pipe and steam was used to drill through the bedrock. The going, however, was slow. Progress was made at the rate of just three feet (1 m) per day. After initial difficulty locating the necessary parts to build the well, which resulted in his well being nicknamed "Drake's Folly," Drake proved successful. Meanwhile crowds of people began to gather to jeer at the apparently unproductive operation. Drake was also running out of money. Amazingly the Seneca Oil Company had abandoned their man and Drake had to rely on friends to back the enterprise. On August 27th Drake had persevered and his drill bit had reached a total depth of 69.5 feet (21 m). At that point the bit hit a crevice. The men packed up for the day. The next morning Drake’s driller, Billy Smith, looked into the hole in preparation for another day’s work. He was surprised and delighted to see crude oil rising up. Drake was summoned and the oil was brought to the surface with a hand pitcher pump. The oil was collected in a bath tub. While some claims of prior art do exist, the Drake Well at Titusville was the first well to be widely copied. Within a day of Drake's striking oil, Drake’s methods were soon imitated by others, along Oil Creek and in the immediate area. This culminated with the establishment of several oil boom towns along the creek, and by 1865 nearby Pithole City was producing nearly 2/3 of the world's oil for a few months. Drake set up a stock company to extract and market the oil. But, while his pioneering work led to the growth of an oil industry that made many people fabulously rich, for Drake riches proved elusive. Drake did not possess good business acumen. He failed to patent his drilling invention. Then he lost all of his savings in oil speculation in 1863. He was to end up as an impoverished old man. In 1873, Pennsylvania voted an annuity of $1500 to the "crazy man" whose determination founded the oil industry. He died in 1880 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. [http://ks.essortment.com/whowasedwindr_rhim.htm]

See also


- Petroleum
- Oil field

External links


- [http://www.drakewell.org/ Drake Well]
- [http://www.blastbooks.com/RAWDEAL/Drake/fr2drk.htm blastbooks.com: Edwin Drake]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/drake_lo.html pbs.org: Edwin Drake] Drake, Edwin Drake, Edwin Drake, Edwin Drake, Edwin

1819

1819 common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 17 - Simón Bolívar proclaims the Republic of Gran Colombia
- January 29 - Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore
- February 6 - Formal treaty between Sultan Hussein of Johor and the British Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles originates Singapore
- February 15 - The United States House of Representatives agrees to Tallmadge Amendment to bar slaves from new state of Missouri--opening vote in controversy that leads to Missouri Compromise
- February 22 - Spain cedes Florida to the United States. (See Adams-Onís Treaty)
- March 1 - USS Columbus launched
- March 20 – Burlington Arcade opened in London
- May 22 - The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship will arrive at Liverpool, England on June 20
- August 6 Norwich University founded by Captain Alden Partridge in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States
- August 7 – Battle of Boyacá in Colombia – Simón Bolívar wins
- August 16 - Peterloo massacre in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, UK. Cavalry charge into a crowd of protesters causes deaths of 400.
- December 14 - Alabama is admitted as the 22nd U.S. state.

Month/day unknown


- Panic of 1819 - first major financial crisis in the United States
- 'Ai Noa in Hawaii.
- French paradox first identified.
- Physician Dr. Thomas Sewall convicted on multiple counts of grave robbing in Massachusetts.

Births


- February 8 - John Ruskin, English writer, artist, and social critic (d. 1900)
- February 11 - Samuel Parkman Tuckerman, American composer (d. 1890)
- February 14 - Joshua A. Norton, self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico"
- February 20 - Alfred Escher, Swiss politician, railroad entrepreneur (d. 1882)
- February 22 - James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (d. 1891)
- March 3 - Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist (d. 1912)
- April 4 - Queen Maria II of Portugal (d. 1853)
- April 9 - Annibale de Gasparis, Italian astronomer (d. 1892)
- April 11 - Charles Hallé, German pianist and conductor (d. 1895)
- April 18 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (d. 1895)
- April 28 - Ezra Abbot, American Biblical scholar (d. 1884)
- May 5 - Stanisław Moniuszko, Polish composer (d. 1872)
- May 24 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
- May 31 - Walt Whitman, American poet (d. 1892)
- June 5 - John Couch Adams, English astronomer (d. 1892)
- June 10 - Gustave Courbet, French painter (d. 1877)
- June 20 - Jacques Offenbach, German-born composer (d. 1880)
- July 19 - Gottfried Keller, Swiss writer (d. 1890)
- August 1 - Richard Dadd, British painter (d. 1886)
- August 1 - Herman Melville, American novelist (d. 1891)
- August 13 - Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (d. 1903)
- August 25 - Allan Pinkerton, American detective (d. 1884)
- August 26 - Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria (d. 1861)
- September 13 - Clara Schumann, German composer and pianist (d. 1896)
- September 17 - Thomas Hendricks, Vice President of the United States (d. 1885)
- September 22 - Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (d. 1897)
- October 20 - The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábi Faith (d. 1850)
- November 22 - George Eliot, British novelist (d. 1880)
- December 30 - Theodor Fontane, German writer (d. 1898)
- Felice Orsini, Italian revolutionary (d. 1858)

Deaths


- July 1 - Jemima Wilkinson, American preacher (b. 1754)
- August 19 - James Watt, Scottish inventor (b. 1736)
- August 23 - Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)
- September 12 - Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (b. 1742)
- December 5 - Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, German poet (b. 1750)
- December 19 - Sir Thomas Fremantle, English naval officer and politician (b. 1765)
- Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii Category:1819 ko:1819년 ms:1819

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

Greenville, New York

Greenville is the name of some places in the U.S. state of New York:
- Greenville, Orange County, New York
- Greenville, Westchester County, New York
- Greenville, Greene County, New York

March 11

11 March is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). There are 295 days remaining.

Events


- 1513 - Leo X is elected Pope.
- 1649 - The Frondeurs (rebels) and the French government sign the Peace of Rueil.
- 1702 - The first regular English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, is published in London.
- 1708 - Queen Anne withholds Royal Assent from a militia Bill, the last time a British monarch vetoes legislation.
- 1824 - The United States War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
- 1845 - The Flagstaff War: In New Zealand, Chiefs Hone Heke and Kawiti lead 700 Maoris to chop down the British flagpole and drive settlers out of the British colonial settlement of Kororareka because of breaches of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
- 1861 - American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.
- 1864 - The Great Sheffield Flood: The largest man-made disaster ever to befall England kills over 250 people in Sheffield.
- 1880 - Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (d. 1943)
- 1888 - The Great Blizzard of '88 begins along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
- 1897 - A meteorite enters the earth's atmosphere and explodes over New Martinsville, West Virginia. The debris causes damage but no human injuries are reported.
- 1900 - Boer War: Boer leader Paul Kruger's peace overtures are rejected by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Lord Salisbury.
- 1917 - Baghdad falls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by General Maude.
- 1927 - In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opens the Roxy Theatre.
- 1936 - British Prime Minister pardons five convicted Irish militants who promise to join growing conflict with Germany.
- 1941 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
- 1942 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur abandons Corregidor.
- 1959 - In Cannes, France, Teddy Scholten wins the fourth Eurovision Song Contest for the Netherlands singing "Een beetje" (A little bit).
- 1966 - President Sukarno of Indonesia was forced to give up his executive power.
- 1966 - A fire at two ski resorts in Numata, Japan kills 31 people.
- 1966 - Henry "Dickie" Marrow" is murdered in a violent racially-motivated crime in Oxford, N.C..
- 1977 - 130+ hostages held in Washington, D.C., by Hanafi Muslims were set free after ambassadors from three Islamic nations joined negotiations.
- 1978 - Nine Palestinian Al Fatah guerillas hijack a bus in Israel, killing 34 civilians and wounding 70 before being killed by security forces. The Israelis retaliate by invading southern Lebanon three days later, under codename Operation Litani.
- 1983 - Bob Hawke becomes 23rd Prime Minister of Australia.
- 1985 - Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader.
- 1988 - Iran-Iraq War: Cease Fire declared.
- 1990 - Lithuania declares itself independent from the Soviet Union.
- 1990 - Patricio Aylwin is sworn-in as the first democratically elected Chilean president since 1970.
- 1991 - A curfew is imposed on black townships in South Africa after fighting between rival political gangs kills 49.
- 1993 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.
- 1996 - John Howard comes to power as the twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia.
- 1997 - An explosion at a nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination in the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history.
- 1999 - Infosys becomes the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
- 2003 - The International Criminal Court is founded in The Hague.
- 2004 - Simultaneous explosions on rush hour trains in Madrid kill 191 people.
- 2005 - Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Brandau and deputy Hoyt Teasley are all murdered in the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia; the main suspect being Brian Nichols who surrendered to police on the 12th.

Births


- 1544 - Torquato Tasso, Italian poet (d. 1595)
- 1725 - Henry Benedict Stuart, pretender to the throne of Great Britain (d. 1807)
- 1785 - John McLean, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1861)
- 1876 - Carl Ruggles, American composer (d. 1971)
- 1885 - Malcolm Campbell, English race car driver (d. 1948)
- 1890 - Vannevar Bush, American engineer and politician (d. 1974)
- 1892 - Raoul Walsh, American film director (d. 1980)
- 1898 - Dorothy Gish, American actress (d. 1968)
- 1899 - King Frederick IX of Denmark (d. 1972)
- 1903 - Ronald Syme, New Zealand classicist and historian (d. 1989)
- 1903 - Lawrence Welk, American musician (d. 1992)
- 1910 - Robert Havemann, German chemist (d. 1982)
- 1915 - Hans Peter Keller, German writer (d. 1988)
- 1916 - Harold Wilson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1995)
- 1920 - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1921 - Frank Harary, American mathematician (d. 2005)
- 1921 - Astor Piazzolla, Argentine composer (d. 1992)
- 1926 - Reverend Ralph Abernathy, American civil rights leader (d. 1990)
- 1927 - Robert Mosbacher, United States Secretary of Commerce
- 1928 - Albert Salmi, American actor (d. 1990)
- 1929 - Timothy Carey, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1931 - Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher and entrepreneur
- 1934 - Sam Donaldson, American reporter
- 1936 - Antonin Scalia, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
- 1939 - Flaco Jiménez, American musician
- 1950 - Bobby McFerrin, American singer
- 1950 - Jerry Zucker, American producer, director, and writer
- 1952 - Douglas Adams, English writer (d. 2001)
- 1955 - Nina Hagen, German singer
- 1958 - Anissa Jones, American actress (d. 1976)
- 1959 - Nina Hartley, American actress
- 1961 - Elias Koteas, Canadian actor
- 1963 - Alex Kingston, English actress
- 1964 - Vinnie Paul, American drummer (Pantera)
- 1964 - Shane Richie, British actor
- 1965 - Lawrence Llewelyn-Bowen, British television presenter
- 1968 - Lisa Loeb, American singer
- 1971 - Johnny Knoxville, American television personality
- 1974 - Bobby Abreu, baseball player
- 1978 - Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast footballer
- 1979 - Benji Madden, American musician (Good Charlotte)
- 1979 - Joel Madden, American musician (Good Charlotte)
- 1981 - David Anders, American actor
- 1981 - Lee Evans, American football player
- 1981 - Russell Lissack, English musician (Bloc Party)
- 1982 - Thora Birch, American actress
- 1987 - Victoria Valadez, Silly
- 1989 - Anton Yelchin, Russian-born actor

Deaths


- 222 - Elagabalus, Roman Emperor
- 222 - Julia Soaemias, mother of Elagabalus (b. 180)
- 1198 - Marie de Champagne, daughter of Louis VII of France (b. 1145)
- 1486 - Albert III, Margrave of Brandenburg (b. 1414)
- 1514 - Donato Bramante, Italian architect (b. 1444)
- 1575 - Matthias Flacius, Croatian protestant reformer (b. 1520)
- 1602 - Emilio de' Cavalieri, Italian composer
- 1607 - Giovanni Maria Nanino, Italian composer
- 1722 - John Toland, Irish philosopher (b. 1670)
- 1759 - John Forbes, British general (b. 1710)
- 1786 - Charles Humphreys, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1714)
- 1847 - Johnny Appleseed, American pioneer agronomist (b. 1774)
- 1854 - Willard Richards, American religious leader (b. 1804)
- 1869 - Vladimir Odoevsky, Russian philosopher and writer (b. [1803]])
- 1870 - King Moshoeshoe I of Lesotho
- 1907 - Jean Casimir-Périer, French politician (b. 1847)
- 1908 - Revd Benjamin Waugh, American activist (b. 1839)
- 1920 - Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer (b. 1865)
- 1931 - F.W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
- 1955 - Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1881)
- 1957 - Admiral Richard E. Byrd, American explorer (b. 1888)
- 1967 - Geraldine Farrar, American soprano (b. 1882)
- 1969 - John Wyndham, British author (b. 1903)
- 1970 - Erle Stanley Gardner, American novelist (b. 1889)
- 1971 - Philo T. Farnsworth, American television pioneer (b. 1906)
- 1971 - Whitney Young, American civil rights leader (b. 1921)
- 1977 - Ulysses S. Grant IV, American geologist and paleontologist (b. 1893)
- 2002 - James Tobin, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)

Holidays and observances


- 1990 - Purim
- Lithuania - Reestablishment of Lithuania's Independence
- Lesotho - Moshoeshoe Day
- Red Nose Day in the United Kingdom (2005)
- Zambia - Youth Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/11 BBC: On This Day] ---- March 10 - March 12 - February 11 - April 11 -- listing of all days ko:3월 11일 ja:3月11日 simple:March 11 th:11 มีนาคม

August 27

August 27 is the 239th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126 days remaining.

Events


- 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea. Along the with the Greek victory on the same day in the Battle of Mycale, the Persian invasion of Greece ended.
- 55 BC - Julius Caesar lands in Britain for the first time.
- AD 410 - Visigoth sack of Rome ends after three days.
- 1232 - The Formulary of Adjudications is promulgated by Regent Hojo Yasutoki. (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 1232)
- 1776 - Battle of Long Island, in present day Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington
- 1813 - Napoleon defeats the Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden
- 1828 - The Russians defeat the Turks at Akhaltzikke.
- 1859 - Petroleum discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania. World's first successful oil well.
- 1861 - Union forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina
- 1883 - The after effects caused by the Krakatau explosion in Indonesia kills 36,000 people.
- 1896 - Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (9:02 to 9:40) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
- 1900 - British defeat Boer commandos at Bergendal
- 1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed by sixty nations
- 1937 - The automobile division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works is spun off into the Toyota Motor Corporation.
- 1939 - First jet aircraft flight
- 1952 - Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg; West Germany to pay 3 billion Deutschmarks.
- 1962 - Mariner 2 launched
- 1969 - The first installment of the Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It's Tough Being a Man) movies is released in Japan. Director and screenplay writer Yoji Yamada went on to make 48 installments of the series, which is recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running movie series.
- 1979 - An IRA bomb kills Lord Mountbatten and 3 others on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
- 1985 - The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.
- 1990 - The British Broadcasting Corporation launches BBC Radio Five Live at 9am GMT with a mixture of sports, news, and children's programming. The station broadcasts for eighteen hours per day.
- 1991 - The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- 1991 - Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
- 1993 - The Florida DOT decides to cease producing its distinctive colored U.S. Highway shields so that it can make use of Federal funds for those signs.
- 1993 - The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.
- 2000 - Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.
- 2003 - Mars makes closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing approximately 34,646,416 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth.

Births


- 1407 - Ashikaga Yoshikazu, Japanese shogun (d. 1425)
- 1471 - George, Duke of Saxony (d. 1539)
- 1637 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (d. 1715)
- 1665 - John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (d. 1751)
- 1677 - Otto Ferdinand Graf von Abensperg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (d. 1748)
- 1724 - John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-born Continental Congressman (d. 1781)
- 1730 - Johann Georg Hamann, German philosopher (d. 1788)
- 1770 - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (d. 1831)
- 1809 - Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President of the United States of America (d. 1891)
- 1858 - Giuseppe Peano, Italian mathematician (d. 1932)
- 1865 - James Henry Breasted, American Egyptologist (d. 1935)
- 1865 - Charles G. Dawes, 30th Vice President of the United States, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1951)
- 1870 - Amado Nervo, Mexican poet (d. 1919)
- 1871 - Theodore Dreiser, American author (d. 1945)
- 1874 - Carl Bosch, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1940)
- 1875 - Katharine McCormick, American women's rights activist (d. 1967)
- 1886 - Rebecca Clarke, English composer and violist (d. 1979)
- 1886 - Eric Coates, English composer (d. 1957)
- 1890 - Man Ray, photographer and artist (d. 1976)
- 1899 - C.S. Forester, British author (d. 1966)
- 1899 - Byron Foulger, American character actor (d. 1970)
- 1904 - Norah Lofts, British author (d. 1983)
- 1906 - Ed Gein