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John C. Frémont

John C. Frémont

John Charles Frémont (January 21, 1813–July 13, 1890), born John Charles Fremon, was an American military officer, explorer, the first candidate of the United States Republican Party for the office of President of the United States, and the first Presidential candidate of a major party to run on a platform of opposition to slavery. He was born in Savannah, Georgia, the illegitimate son of a prominent Virginia society woman and a penniless French refugee, a social handicap that he helped to overcome by marrying Jessie Benton, the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton. Thomas Hart Benton Frémont assisted and led multiple surveying expeditions through the western territory of the United States. In 1838 and 1839 he assisted Joseph Nicollet in exploring the lands between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. In 1841, with training from Nicollet, he mapped portions of the Des Moines River, and from 1841 to 1846 he led exploration parties on the Oregon Trail and into the Sierra Nevada. During his expeditions in the Sierra Nevada, it is generally acknowledged that Frémont became the first Caucasian to view Lake Tahoe. He is also credited with determining that the Great Basin had no outlet to the sea. In late 1846 Frémont led a military expedition of 300 men to capture Santa Barbara, California, during the Mexican-American War. Expecting to be ambushed in Gaviota Pass by the entire Mexican army, he led his unit over the Santa Ynez Mountains at San Marcos Pass during the rainy night of December 27, 1846, and captured the Presidio, and the town, from behind. The rumor of the ambush turned out to be false: the army had been at Los Angeles with General Andrés Pico. General Pico, recognizing that the war was lost, later surrendered to him rather than incur casualties. On January 16, 1847, Frémont was appointed Governor of the new California Territory following the Treaty of Cahuenga which ended the Mexican-American War in California. He served (from 1850 to 1851) as one of the first pair of Senators from California. In 1856 the new Republican Party nominated him as their first presidential candidate, but he lost (see U.S. presidential election, 1856) to James Buchanan. Frémont served as a major general in the American Civil War and declared martial law in Missouri. This declaration led to a conflict with Abraham Lincoln and led to Frémont's removal from command in the West on November 2, 1861. He was re-appointed to a different post (in West Virginia), but lost several battles and resigned his post. Frémont was appointed Governor of the Arizona Territory from 1878 to 1881. He died of peritonitis in a hotel in New York City and is buried in Rockland Cemetery, Piermont-on-Hudson, New York. Four U.S. states named counties in his honor: Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, and Wyoming. Several cities are also named after him, such as Fremont, California, Fremont, Michigan, Fremont, Nebraska, and Fremont, New Hampshire. Fremont Peak in the Wind River Mountains is also named for the explorer, as is the John C. Fremont Branch Library, located on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, California. Frémont collected a number of plants on his expeditions, including the first discovery of the Single-leaf Pinyon. The standard botanical author abbreviation Frém. is applied to plants he described.

References


- Harvey, Miles, The Island of Lost Maps: A True Story of Cartographic Crime, Random House, 2000, ISBN 0375501517, ISBN 0767908260.

External links


- [http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=31&subjectID=3 Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: John C. Frémont] Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C. Frémont, John C.

January 21

January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 344 days remaining (345 in leap years).

Events


- 1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
- 1276 - Innocent V becomes Pope.
- 1506 - The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards entered the Vatican.
- 1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manz's mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
- 1643 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga.
- 1720 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
- 1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
- 1793 - After being found guilty for treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France is guillotined.
- 1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
- 1853 - Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope-folding machine.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
- 1864 - The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
- 1887 - The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is formed.
- 1887 - Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres - a record for any Australian capital city.
- 1899 - Opel Motors opens for business.
- 1908 - New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
- 1911 - The first Monte Carlo Rally.
- 1915 - Kiwanis International founded in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1919 - Meeting in the Mansion House Dublin, the Sinn Féin adopts Ireland's first constitution.
- 1924 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
- 1925 - Albania declares itself a republic.
- 1941 - World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
- 1950 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
- 1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, then the First Lady of the United States.
- 1968 - Simon & Garfunkel release the Original Soundtrack to The Graduate, which quickly goes to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.
- 1969 - An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
- 1976 - The first commercial service Concorde flight took off.
- 1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.
- 1994 - Lorena Bobbitt is found not-guilty by reason of temporary insanity for severing the penis of her husband John Bobbitt.
- 1997 - Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
- 1999 - War on Drugs: In one of the one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of cocaine on board.
- 2002 - Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
- 2003 - The terms of Kevin Mitnick's parole allow him to use a computer again.
- 2004 - Canada: The residence of reporter, Juliet O'Neill was searched by the RCMP investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar.
- 2004 - NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceased communication with mission control. The problem was with Flash Memory management and fixed remotely from Earth on Feb 6th.
- 2005 - In Belize's capital city, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.

Births


- 1738 - Ethan Allen, American patriot (d. 1789)
- 1804 - Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (d. 1887)
- 1824 - Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate Army general (d. 1863)
- 1829 - King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (d. 1907)
- 1848 - Henri Duparc, French composer (d. 1933)
- 1855 - John Moses Browning, American inventor (d. 1926)
- 1867 - Ludwig Thoma, German writer (d. 1921)
- 1867 - Maxime Weygand, French general (d. 1965)
- 1883 - Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet (d. 1929)
- 1884 - Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d. 1981)
- 1885 - Umberto Nobile, Italian politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
- 1895 - Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (d. 1972)
- 1905 - Christian Dior, French fashion designer (d. 1957)
- 1905 - Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (d. 1978)
- 1912 - Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2000)
- 1921 - Howard Unruh, American mass murderer
- 1922 - Paul Scofield, English actor
- 1924 - Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1926 - Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1936 - Koji Hashimoto, Japanese film director (d. 2005)
- 1938 - Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian football player
- 1939 - Wolfman Jack, disk jockey and actor (d. 1995)
- 1940 - Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
- 1941 - Plácido Domingo, Spanish-born tenor
- 1941 - Richie Havens, American musician
- 1942 - Mac Davis, American musician
- 1942 - Edwin Starr, American singer (d. 2003)
- 1946 - Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
- 1950 - Billy Ocean, West Indian musician
- 1953 - Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
- 1955 - Jeff Koons, American artist
- 1956 - Robby Benson, American actor
- 1956 - Geena Davis, American actress
- 1962 - Marie Trintignant, French actress (d. 2003)
- 1963 - Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-born basketball player
- 1963 - Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player
- 1965 - Jam Master Jay, American disc jockey (d. 2002)
- 1968 - Charlotte Ross, American actress
- 1971 - Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
- 1975 - Nicky Butt, English footballer
- 1976 - Emma Bunton, English singer (Spice Girls)
- 1977 - Philip Neville, English footballer
- 1979 - Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby player
- 1981 - Dany Heatley, German hockey player

Deaths


- 304 - Saint Agnes (martyred)
- 1118 - Pope Paschal II
- 1519 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer
- 1527 - Juan de Grijalva, Spanish conquistador
- 1546 - Azai Sukemasa, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1491)
- 1609 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, French protestant scholar (b. 1540)
- 1638 - Ignazio Donati, Italian composer
- 1683 - Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, British politican (b. 1621)
- 1699 - Obadiah Walker, English writer (b. 1616)
- 1706 - Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (b. 1649)
- 1710 - Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (b. 1638)
- 1722 - Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, English supporter of William III of England (b. 1661)
- 1731 - Thomas Woolston, English theologian (b. 1669)
- 1766 - James Quin, English actor (b. 1693)
- 1773 - Alexis Piron, French writer (b. 1689)
- 1774 - Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1717)
- 1793 - King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)
- 1795 - Samuel Wallis, English navigator
- 1831 - Achim von Arnim, German poet (b. 1781)
- 1851 - Albert Lortzing, German composer (b. 1801)
- 1870 - Alexander Herzen, Russian writer (b. 1812)
- 1872 - Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b. 1791)
- 1881 - Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1802)
- 1891 - Calixa Lavallée, Canadian composer (b. 1842)
- 1901 - Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)
- 1914 - Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (b. 1857)
- 1919 - Gojong of Joseon, Emperor of Korea (b. 1852)
- 1924 - Vladimir Lenin, Russian Revolutionary (b. 1870)
- 1926 - Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1843)
- 1928 - George Goethals, American army engineer (b. 1858)
- 1931 - Felix Blumenfeld, Russian composer and conductor (b. 1863)
- 1932 - Giles Lytton Strachey British writer (b. 1880)
- 1933 - George A. Moore, Irish novelist (b. 1852)
- 1948 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (b. 1876)
- 1950 - George Orwell, British writer (b. 1903)
- 1955 - Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
- 1959 - Cecil B. DeMille, American director (b. 1881)
- 1959 - Carl Switzer, American actor (b. 1927)
- 1961 - Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b. 1887)
- 1967 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (b. 1915)
- 1984 - Jackie Wilson, American musician (b. 1934)
- 1985 - James Beard, American chef and author (b. 1903)
- 1987 - Charles Goodell, American politician (b. 1926)
- 1989 - Billy Tipton, American musician (b. 1914)
- 1993 - Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (b. 1903)
- 1997 - Colonel Tom Parker, American manager of Elvis Presley (b. 1909)
- 1998 - Jack Lord, American actor (b. 1920)
- 1999 - Susan Strasberg, American actress (b. 1938)
- 2001 - Byron De La Beckwith, American white supremacist (b. 1921)
- 2001 - Chung Ju-yung, Korean industrialist (b. 1915)
- 2002 - Peggy Lee, American singer (b. 1920)
- 2004 - Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Parveen Babi, Indian actress (b. 1955)
- 2005 - John L. Hess, American journalist (b. 1917)
- 2005 - Theun de Vries, Dutch writer (b. 1907)

Holidays and observances


- Catholicism - Feast day of Saint Agnes
- Mauritius - Thaipoosam Cavadee
- National Hugging Day

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/21 BBC: On This Day] ---- January 20 - January 22 - December 21 - February 21 — listing of all days ko:1월 21일 ms:21 Januari ja:1月21日 simple:January 21 th:21 มกราคม

1813

1813 is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events


- March 17 - Through a newspaper, the Prussian king Frederick William III of Prussia calls for resistance against the Napoleonic occupation
- April 27 - War of 1812: Battle of York - United States troops raid, destroy, but do not hold the capital of Ontario, York (present day Toronto, Ontario).
- May 2 - Napoleon wins the Battle of Lützen
- May 20-May 21 - Napoleon wins the Battle of Bautzen
- May 27 - War of 1812: In Canada, United States forces capture Fort George.
- June 6 - War of 1812: Battle of Stoney Creek - A British force of 700 under John Vincent defeat an American force three times its size under William Winder and John Chandler.
- June 21 - Peninsular War: Battle of Vittoria - A British, Spanish, and Portuguese force of 78000 with 96 guns under Wellington defeats a French force of 58000 with 153 guns under Joseph Bonaparte to end the Peninsular War.
- July 5 - War of 1812: Three weeks of British raids on Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Plattsburgh, New York begin.
- August 19 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas joins Argentina's second triumvirate.
- August 26-August 27 - Napoleon wins the Battle of Dresden
- August 29-August 30 - Napoleon's troops defeated at Kulm
- September - Robert Southey becomes Poet Laureate of Britain
- September 10 - War of 1812: Oliver Hazard Perry defeats a British fleet in the Battle of Lake Erie
- October 5 - War of 1812: William Henry Harrison defeats the British at the Battle of the Thames, killing native leader Tecumseh
- October 14 - After a ceremony in Caracas, Venezuela, the municipality gives Simón Bolívar the title of El Libertador.
- October 16-October 19 - Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Leipzig
- October 24-November 5 - Persia and Russia sign the Gulistan Treaty of 1813 at the end of the first Russo-Persian Wars (1804-1813) by which Persia (Iran) loses all its territories to the north of Aras River to the Russians.
- October 25 - War of 1812: Charles de Salaberry defeats an American invasion at the Battle of Chateauguay
- November 11 - War of 1812: the Americans are defeated at the Battle of Crysler's Farm
- November 21 - An independent government is restored in the Netherlands.
- December 29 - War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York
- Russian troops reach and take Berlin without a fight after the French garrison evacuated the city.
- Mathieu Orfila publishes his groundbreaking Trait des poisons, formalizing the field of toxicology.
- George Hamilton-Gordon serves as ambassador extraordinaire in Vienna.
- Following the death of his father Wossen Seged, Sahle Selassie arrives at the capital Qundi before his other brothers, and is made Meridazmach of Shewa.

Ongoing events


- Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)-Peninsular War/Sixth Coalition
- War of 1812 (1812-1815)

Births


- January 19 - Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor (d. 1898)
- January 21 - John C. Frémont, American soldier and explorer (d. 1890)
- January 26 - Juan Pablo Duarte, Founder of the Dominican Republic (d. 1876)
- February 11 - Otto Ludwig, German writer (d. 1865)
- March 18 - Christian Friedrich Hebbel, German poet and playwright (d. 1863)
- March 19 - David Livingstone, English missionary and explorer (d. 1873)
- March 21 - James Strang, Mormon splinter group leader (d. 1856)
- March 27 - Nathaniel Currier, American illustrator (d. 1888)
- April 23 - Stephen A. Douglas, U.S. Senator from Illinois and Presidential candidate (d. 1861)
- May 5 - Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (d. 1855)
- May 21 - Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Scottish clergyman (d. 1843)
- May 22 - Richard Wagner, German composer (d. 1883)
- June 24 - Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer (d. 1887)
- July 19 - Samuel M. Kier, American industrialist (d. 1874)
- October 10 - Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (d. 1901)
- October 17 - Georg Büchner, German playwright (d. 1837)
- December 13 - David Spangler Kaufman, U.S. Congressman from Texas (d. 1851)
- Abbas I, Pasha of Egypt (d. 1854)
- John Miley, American Methodist theologian (d. 1895)

Deaths


- January 20 - Christoph Martin Wieland, German writer (b. 1733)
- February 13 - Samuel Ashe, Governor of North Carolina (b. 1725)
- February 26 - Robert Linvingston, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1746)
- April 10 - Joseph Louis Lagrange, Italian mathematician (b. 1746)
- April 27 - Zebulon Pike, American general (b. 1779)
- April 28 - Mikhail Illarionovich Kutuzov, Russian field marshal (b. 1745)
- May 1 - Jean-Baptiste Bessières, French marshal (killed in combat) (b. 1768)
- June 6 - Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, French architect (b. 1739)
- June 17 - Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, English sailor and politician (b. 1726)
- June 28 - Gerhard von Scharnhorst, Prussian general (b. 1755)
- July 29 - Jean-Andoche Junot, French general (suicide) (b. 1771)
- August 11 - Henry James Pye, English poet (b. 1745)
- August 23 - Alexander Wilson, Scottish-born ornithologist (b. 1766)
- September 2 - Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general (mortally wounded in battle) (b. 1763)
- October 5 - Tecumseh, Shawnee leader
- October 19 - Józef Antoni Poniatowski, Polish prince and Marshal of France (friendly fire) (b. 1763)
- November 12 - Jean de Crévecoeur, French-American writer (b. 1735)
- December 24 - Empress Go-Sakuramachi of Japan (b. 1740)
- Wossen Seged, Meridazmach of Shewa (murdered) Category:1813 ko:1813년 ms:1813 simple:1813

1890

1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events


- January 2 - Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer for the U.S. White House.
- January 25 - The United Mine Workers of America is founded.
- January 25 - Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
- March 1 - Léon Bourgeois succeeds Ernest Constans as French Minister of the Interior
- March 4 - The longest bridge in Britain, the Forth Bridge (1,710 ft) in Scotland is opened.
- March 20 - Wilhelm II of Germany fires Otto von Bismarck
- March 27 - A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 people and injuring 200.
- May 12 - The first ever official County Championship match begins. Yorkshire beat Gloucestershire by eight wickets at Bristol. George Ulyett scores the first century in the competition.
- June 1 - The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns.
- July 1 - Britain receives Zanzibar from Germany in exchange of Heligoland
- July 3 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state.
- July 10 - Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state.
- July 27 - Vincent van Gogh shoots himself to the chest and dies two days later
- August 6 - At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electric chair is performed (murderer William Kemmler was the subject).
- October 8 - First flight of Clement's Ader airplane "Eole" In Satory, France. In Greek mythology, Eole is the god of the winds.
- October 11 - In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.
- November 23 - King William III of the Netherlands dies without a male heir and a special law is passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to become Queen.
- November 29 - The Meiji Constitution goes into effect in Japan and the first Diet convenes.
- November 29 - In West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeats the United States Army 24 to 0 in the first Army-Navy football game.
- December 29 - The United States Seventh Cavalry massacres over 400 men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota (see Wounded Knee Massacre).

Unknown dates


- Scotland Yard moves to the Embankment.
- The corrugated cardboard box is invented by Robert Gair.
- U.S. Census - Herman Hollerith devises a method using punch cards (like Jacquard's loom) to tabulate census data by machine. (see also History of computing hardware). Hollerith's company eventually becomes IBM.
- The bustle goes out of fashion.

Births

January-March


- January 1 - Anton Melik, Slovenian geographer (d. 1966)
- January 4 - Victor Lustig, Bohemian-born con artist (d. 1947)
- January 9 - Kurt Tucholsky, German-born journalist and satirist (d. 1935)
- January 9 - Karel Čapek, Czech writer (d. 1938)
- January 19 - Élise Rivet, French Roman Catholic nun and war heroine (d. 1945)
- February 10 - Boris Pasternak, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (declined) (d. 1960)
- February 14 - Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist (d. 1956)
- February 17 - Ronald Fisher, English biologist (d. 1962)
- February 18 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
- February 24 - Marjorie Main, American actress (d. 1975)
- February 25 - Dame Myra Hess, English pianist (d. 1965)
- February 27 - Freddie Keppard, American jazz musician (d. 1933)
- March 9 - (new style) Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet politician (d. 1986)
- March 11 - Vannevar Bush, American engineer, inventor, and politician (d. 1974)
- March 20 - Beniamino Gigli, Italian tenor (d. 1957)
- March 20 - Lauritz Melchior, Danish-American tenor (d. 1973)
- March 28 - Paul Whiteman, American bandleader (d. 1967)
- March 31 - William Lawrence Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)

April-June


- April 6 - Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer (d. 1939)
- May 4 - Franklin Carmichael, Canadian artist (d. 1945)
- May 10 - Alfred Jodl, German general (d. 1946)
- May 11 - Woodall Rodgers, mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1961)
- May 15 - Katherine Anne Porter, American author (d. 1980)
- May 19 - Ho Chi Minh, President of North Vietnam (d. 1969)
- May 23 - Herbert Marshall, English actor (d. 1966)
- June 6 - Ted Lewis, American jazz musician and entertainer (d. 1971)
- June 16 - Stan Laurel, British actor (d. 1965)
- June 26 - Jeanne Eagels, American actress (d. 1929)
- June 29 - Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, oldest living person on record since May 2004

July-September


- July 18 - Frank Forde, Australian Prime Minister (d. 1983)
- July 22 - Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, American philantropist and matriarch of the Kennedy family
- August 5 - Erich Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 1956)
- August 15 - Jacques Ibert, French composer (d. 1962)
- August 15 - Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden, oldest living woman, born in Somerville, Tennessee
- August 18 - Walther Funk, German Nazi politician (d. 1960).
- August 20 - Howard Phillips Lovecraft, American writer (d. 1937)
- August 24 - Duke Kahanamoku, American swimmer (d. 1968)
- September 10 - Elsa Schiaparelli, French couturiere (d. 1973)
- September 15 - Agatha Christie, English writer (d. 1976)
- September 15 - Frank Martin, Swiss composer (d. 1974)
- September 20 - Jelly Roll Morton, American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 1941)

October-December


- October 2 - Groucho Marx, American comedian (d. 1977)
- October 14 - Dwight David Eisenhower, U.S. general and President of the United States (d. 1969)
- October 16 - Michael Collins, Irish patriot (d. 1922)
- October 16 - Paul Strand, American photographer (d. 1976)
- October 17 - Roy Kilner, English cricketer (d. 1928)
- October 24 - Maria do Couto Maia-Lopes, Portuguese supercentenarian
- November 22 - Charles de Gaulle, President of France (d. 1970)
- November 23 - El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (d. 1941)
- November 24 - August Belmont, Sr., Prussian-born financier (b. 1816)
- December 5 - David Bomberg, English painter (d. 1957)
- December 8 - Bohuslav Martinů, Czech composer (d. 1959)
- December 20 - Jaroslav Heyrovský, Czech chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1967)
- December 21 - Hermann Joseph Muller, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1967)
- December 26 - Uncle Charlie Osborne, Appalachian fiddler (d. 1992)
- December 30 - Lanoe Hawker, British fighter pilot (d. 1916)

Unknown date


- Bechara El Khoury, President of Lebanon (d. 1964)

Deaths


- January 18 - King Amadeus I of Spain (b. 1845)
- February 22 - John Jacob Astor III, American businessman (b. 1822)
- February 22 - Carl Heinrich Bloch, Danish painter (b. 1834)
- June 30 - Samuel Parkman Tuckerman, American composer (b. 1819)
- July 15 - Gottfried Keller, Swiss writer (b. 1819)
- July 29 - Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (b. 1853)
- August 11 - John Henry Newman, English Roman Catholic Cardinal (b. 1801)
- October 26 - Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (b. 1826)
- November 3 - Ulrich Ochsenbein, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1811)
- November 8 - César Franck, Belgian composer and organist (b. 1822)
- November 23 - King William III of the Netherlands (b. 1817)
- December 26 - Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist (b. 1822)

Date unknown


- Clinton B. Fisk, American philanthropist and temperance activist Category:1890 ko:1890년 ms:1890 simple:1890 th:พ.ศ. 2433

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