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John Warner

John Warner

John William Warner (born February 18, 1927) is an American statesman and politician, who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1972-1974 and has served as a Republican senator from Virginia since 1979.

Early Life

Warner was born in Washington, D.C. and attended the elite St. Albans School there, and then went to college at Washington and Lee University, graduating in 1949, He then entered the University of Virginia Law School.

Public Service

Warner's public service began with his enlistment in the United States Navy in January 1945, in which he served until the following year and left as a Petty Officer 3rd Class. He joined the United States Marine Corps in October 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, and served in Korea as a ground officer with the 1st Marine Air Wing. He continued in the Marine Corps Reserve after the war, eventually reaching the rank of captain. captain After resuming his studies and graduating from Virginia, he became a law clerk in 1953 to Chief Judge E. Barrett Prettyman of the United States Court of Appeals, then an assistant US attorney in 1956, and then entered private law practice in 1960. In February 1969, he was appointed Under Secretary of the Navy by the Nixon administration, then on May 4, 1972, succeeded John H. Chafee as Secretary of the Navy. He participated in the Law of the Sea talks, and negotiated the Incidents at Sea Executive Agreement with the Soviet Union.

Marriages

Warner married banking heiress Catherine Mellon, the granddaughter of billionaire Andrew Mellon, and their marriage ended in divorce in 1973. He married actress Elizabeth Taylor on December 4, 1976, and they divorced November 7, 1982. He married real estate agent Jeanne Vander Myde on December 15, 2003.

Politics

Warner entered electoral politics in the 1978 Virginia election for U.S. Senate. Known primarily as Elizabeth Taylor's husband, he finished second in the Republican primary. When the primary winner died in a plane crash two months later, Warner was chosen to replace him and won the general election narrowly. Committee memberships have included the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and the Select Committee on Intelligence. Most importantly, Warner is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He has used his position to ensure and enlarge the flow of billions of dollars into the Virginia economy each year via the state's naval installations and shipbuilding firms. In 1994, John Warner campaigned against fellow Republican Oliver North in his campaign to unseat Virginia's Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb. On May 23, 2005, Warner was one of fourteen moderate senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' proposed use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and three Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. He is unrelated to the outgoing Governor of Virginia, Mark R. Warner, who ran against him in the 1996 election.

Intimidation of officer who tried to contact Warner about torture by US troops

In September 2005, a Human Rights Watch report on routine torture by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan accused US troops of having prevented an officer from leaving his base for an appointment with staff members of Senators John McCain and John Warner. He had made persistent efforts over 17 months to raise concerns about detainee abuse within the chain of command but was consistently told to ignore abuses and to “consider your career.” After the broken appointment the officer was interviewed by investigators from the Army Criminal Investigative Division and the Inspector General’s office, and there were reports that the military has launched a formal investigation. [http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/09/25/usint11776.htm]

External links


- [http://warner.senate.gov/ Official Site] Warner, John Warner, John Warner, John Warner, John Warner, John Warner, John William Warner, John Warner, John William Warner, John William Warner, John ja:ジョン・ウォーナー

February 18

February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 316 days remaining (317 in leap years).

Events


- 3102 BC - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga- Lord Krishna leaves his mortal coil.
- 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor signs a ten-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy.
- 1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is privately executed in the Tower of London.
- 1685 - Fort St. Louis is established by a Frenchman at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.
- 1797 - Trinidad is surrendered to a British fleet under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby.
- 1814 - Battle of Montereau occurs.
- 1841 - The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.
- 1856 - The American Party (Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former President (Millard Fillmore).
- 1861 - In Montgomery, Alabama Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
- 1861 - With the Italian unification almost complete, King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont, Savoy and Sardinia assumes the title of King of Italy.
- 1865 - In the U.S., Delaware voters reject the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment on February 12, 1901.)
- 1878 - The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
- 1885 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
- 1911 - The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 km away.
- 1913 - Raymond Poincaré becomes President of France.
- 1929 - First Academy Awards are announced.
- 1930 - While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
- 1930 - Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in an airplane and also the first cow to be milked in an airplane.
- 1932 - The Empire of Japan declares Manzhouguo (obsolete Chinese name for Manchuria) independent from China.
- 1943 - The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement.
- 1943 - Joseph Goebbels delivers the Sportpalast speech
- 1948 - Eamon de Valera resigns as Taoiseach of Ireland.
- 1953 - The first 3D film, Bwana Devil, opens.
- 1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz sign an $8,000,000 contract to continue the I Love Lucy television series through 1955.
- 1965 - The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 1970 - The Chicago Eight are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic Party national convention.
- 1972 - The California Supreme Court invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life in prison.
- 1974 - The game show Tattletales debuts in the slot vacated by the long-running soap opera The Secret Storm.
- 1974 - KISS releases their self-titled debut album.
- 1977 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle goes on its maiden "flight" while sitting on top of a Boeing 747.
- 1983 - Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee Massacre in Seattle, Washington, said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in American history.
- 1985 - The legendary "mirror globe" ident, first used in 1969, is seen for the last time in regular rotation on BBC1.
- 1998 - Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada and accused of plotting a biological attack on New York City subways.
- 2003 - Nearly 200 people die in the Daegu subway fire in South Korea
- 2004 - Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Neyshabur in Iran when a run-away freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertiliser catches fire and explodes.
- 2005 - The United Kingdom law banning fox hunting, hare coursing and other sports which kill wild mammals is enforced from this date.

Births


- 1516 - Queen Mary I of England (d. 1558)
- 1530 - Uesugi Kenshin, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1578)
- 1559 - Isaac Casaubon, French classical scholar (d. 1614)
- 1602 - Per Brahe (the younger), Swedish soldier and statesman (d. 1680)
- 1635 - Johan Göransson Gyllenstierna, Swedish statesman (d. 1680)
- 1609 - Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English statesman and historian (d. 1674)
- 1642 - Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)
- 1658 - Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer (d. 1743)
- 1745 - Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (d. 1827)
- 1835 - César Cui, Lithuanian composer (d. 1918)
- 1838 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)
- 1846 - Wilson Barrett, English actor and playwright (d. 1904)
- 1848 - Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)
- 1849 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (d. 1906)
- 1859 - Sholom Aleichem, Russian Yiddish humorist and author (d. 1916)
- 1871 - Harry Brearley, English inventor (d. 1948)
- 1883 - Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer (d. 1957)
- 1884 - Andrew Watson Myles, Canadian politician (d. 1970)
- 1890 - Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
- 1890 - Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
- 1892 - Wendell Willkie, U.S. Presidential candidate (d. 1944)
- 1896 - Andre Breton, French writer (d. 1966)
- 1898 - Enzo Ferrari, Italian race car driver and manufacturer (d. 1988)
- 1901 - Reginald Sheffield, British actor (d. 1957)
- 1903 - Nikolai Podgorny, President of the Soviet Union (d. 1983)
- 1905 - Jan Gies, Dutch resistance fighter (d. 1993)
- 1906 - Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
- 1909 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)
- 1915 - Phyllis Calvert, British actress (d. 2002)
- 1919 - Jack Palance, American actor
- 1920 - Bill Cullen, American game show host (d. 1990)
- 1920 - Eric Gairy, Grenadan politician (d. 1997)
- 1922 - Helen Gurley Brown, American editor and publisher
- 1922 - Allan Melvin, American actor
- 1925 - George Kennedy, American actor
- 1927 - John Warner, U.S. Senator
- 1929 - Len Deighton, British author
- 1930 - Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist
- 1931 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
- 1931 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1931 - Bob St. Clair, American football player
- 1932 - Milos Forman, Czech film director
- 1933 - Yoko Ono, Japanese-born singer, artist, and wife of John Lennon
- 1933 - Bobby Robson, English football manager
- 1933 - Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
- 1936 - Jean Auel, American writer
- 1938 - István Szabó, Hungarian film director
- 1943 - Graeme Garden, Scottish writer, comedian, and actor
- 1945 - Judy Rankin, American golfer
- 1947 - Princess Christina of the Netherlands
- 1947 - Dennis DeYoung, American musician (Styx)
- 1948 - Sinéad Cusack, Irish actress
- 1949 - Gary Ridgway, American serial killer
- 1950 - John Hughes, American director, producer, and writer
- 1950 - Cybill Shepherd, American actress
- 1952 - Maurice Lucas, American basketball player
- 1952 - Juice Newton, American entertainer
- 1954 - John Travolta, American actor
- 1957 - Marita Koch, German athlete
- 1957 - Vanna White, American game show presenter
- 1960 - Greta Scacchi, Italian actress
- 1962 - Julie Strain, American actress
- 1964 - Matt Dillon, American actor
- 1965 - Dr. Dre, American rapper and record producer
- 1967 - Roberto Baggio, Italian footballer
- 1968 - Molly Ringwald, American actress
- 1970 - Susan Egan, American musical actress
- 1973 - Claude Makelele, French footballer
- 1975 - Gary Neville, English footballer
- 1981 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
- 1981 - Buddy Nielsen, American singer (Senses Fail)
- 1983 - Jermaine Jenas, English footballer
- 1985 - Lee Boyd Malvo, American serial killer
- 1988 - Rihanna, West Indian singer

Deaths


- 806 - Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 1866)
- 814 - Angilbert, Frankish monk and confidant of Charlemagne
- 901 - Thabit ibn Qurra, Arab astronomer and mathematician (b. 826)
- 999 - Pope Gregory V
- 1139 - Prince Yaropolk II of Kiev (b. 1082)
- 1294 - Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire (b. 1215)
- 1379 - Albert II of Mecklenburg
- 1478 - George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV and Richard III of England (executed) (b. 1449)
- 1535 - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, astrologer and alchemist (b. 1486)
- 1546 - Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)
- 1564 - Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian artist (b. 1475)
- 1583 - Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Itlian writer (b. 1503)
- 1654 - Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, French writer (b. 1594)
- 1683 - Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
- 1712 - Louis, Duke of Burgundy, heir to the throne of France (b. 1682)
- 1718 - Pierre Antoine Motteux, French-born English dramatist (b. 1663)
- 1743 - Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, last of the Medicis (b. 1667)
- 1748 - Otto Ferdinand Graf von Abensperg und Traun, Austrian field marshal (b. 1677)
- 1772 - Johann Hartwig Ernst, Count von Bernstorff, Danish statesman (b. 1712)
- 1778 - Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)
- 1780 - Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
- 1788 - John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist (b. 1713)
- 1803 - Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)
- 1931 - Milan Sufflay, Croatian politician (b. 1879)
- 1933 - James J. Corbett, American boxer (b. 1866)
- 1938 - David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
- 1942 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (b. 1872)
- 1956 - Gustave Charpentier, French composer
- 1957 - Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (b. 1877)
- 1966 - Robert Rossen, American screenwriter, producer, and director (d. 1908
- 1967 - J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
- 1973 - Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (b. 1891)
- 1977 - Andy Devine, American actor (b. 1905)
- 1978 - Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
- 1981 - John Knudsen Northrop, American aircraft designer (b. 1895)
- 1982 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand author (b. 1895)
- 1993 - Kerry Von Erich, American professional wrestler
- 1993 - Jacqueline Hill, British actress (b. 1929)
- 1997 - Emily Hahn, American writer (b. 1905)
- 1998 - Harry Caray, baseball broadcaster (b. 1917)
- 1999 - Noam Pitlik, American actor and director (b. 1932)
- 2001 - Balthus, French-Polish painter (b. 1908)
- 2001 - Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)
- 2001 - Eddie Mathews, baseball player (b. 1931)
- 2003 - Isser Harel, Israeli Mossad leader (b. 1912)
- 2004 - Jean Rouch, French filmmaker and ethnologist (b. 1917)

Holidays and observances


- Independence Day in The Gambia, (1965)

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/18 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050218.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 17 - February 19 - January 18 - March 18 -- listing of all days ko:2월 18일 ms:18 Februari ja:2月18日 simple:February 18 th:18 กุมภาพันธ์

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

Politician

A politician is an individual involved in politics to the extent of holding or running for public office. In Western democracies, the term is generally restricted to those officials who attain their position through election campaigns, rather than all members of the state bureaucracy. Such a distinction is less clear in non-democratic forms of government. In a state, individual politicians compose the executive branch of government and the office of Head of State (unless the head of state is a non-political figure, such as a king) as well as the legislative branch, and regional and local levels of government. Other organs of government such as the judicial branch, law enforcement, and the military are not usually regarded as being composed of politicians, despite the fact that the men and women involved do government work. Sometimes political scientists are also refered to as politicians. The Australian slang term for politicians is pollies. Some common offices for politicians can include:
- Alderman
- Congressman
- Councillor
- Governor
- Mayor
- Member of Parliament
- Minister
- Premier
- President
- Prime Minister
- School board member
- Senator

See also


- Richest American politicians
- Richest British politicians
- Political party
- Muslim politicians

External link


- [http://politicalgraveyard.com/chrono/index.html List of American Politicians by Year Born or Died] Politicians Politician
- ja:政治家

United States Secretary of the Navy

In the United States, the Secretary of the Navy is the civilian head of the Department of the Navy. The position was a member of the President's Cabinet until 1947, when the Navy, Army, and newly created Air Force were placed in the Department of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy was placed under the Secretary of Defense. Naval and Marine personnel informally refer to the Secretary of the Navy as "SECNAV."

Responsibilities

The Secretary of the Navy is responsible for, and has the authority under Title 10 of the United States Code, to conduct all the affairs of the Department of the Navy, including: recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, mobilizing, and demobilizing. The Secretary also oversees the construction, outfitting, and repair of naval ships, equipment and facilities. SECNAV is responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and programs that are consistent with the national security policies and objectives established by the President and the Secretary of Defense. The Department of the Navy consists of two uniformed Services: the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps.

The Navy Secretariat

The Office of the Secretary of the Navy and its subordinate officials are known collectively as the Navy Secretariat. Other members of the Secretariat include the Under Secretary of the Navy and the Assistant Secretaries of the Navy (ASN).

Secretaries of the Navy (Cabinet)

Secretaries of the Navy (Department of Defense)

External links


- [http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/people/secnav/secnavpg.html Secretary of the Navy home page]
- [http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/organization/org-sec.html Navy Organization - The Secretariat] United States, Navy Navy

1974

1974 (MCMLXXIV) is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar).

Events

January-February


- January 5 - Dungeons & Dragons officially released.
- January 6 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
- January 30 - G. Gordon Liddy found guilty of Watergate charges
- February 1 - Fire in Joelman Bank Building in Sao Paulo, Brazil - 177 dead, 293 injured
- February 1 - The Joelma Fire kills 188 in São Paulo.
- February 3 - Prisoners riot in the Bathurst Jail Riots, destroying much of the jail.
- February 4 - Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patricia Hearst, the 19 year old granddaughter of publisher William Randolph Hearst
- February 8 - After 84 days in space, the crew of the temporary American space station, Skylab, return to Earth.
- February 12 - US District Court Judge George Boldt rules that Native American tribes in Washington State are entitled to half of the legal salmon and steelhead catches, based on treaties signed by the tribes and the US government.
- February 13 - Nobel Prize winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn is expelled from the Soviet Union (he returns May 27 1994)
- February 17 - Soccer stampede in Cairo - 49 dead
- February 20 - Following a visit to his home from a woman wearing a strange pendant, Phillip K Dick begins to receive a series of visions which he refers to as 2-3-74, shorthand for February/March of 1974.
- February 23 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demand $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.
- February 27 - People magazine is published for the first time.
- February 28 - United Kingdom general election results in an almost dead-heat. Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister again despite his Labour Party (UK) having received fewer votes than the Conservative Party (UK).
- February 28 - Ethiopian prime minister Tsehafi Aklilu Habte-Wold, who has held the position since 1961, is dismissed by Emperor Haile Selassie and replaced with Endelkachew Makonnen.

March


- March 1 - Watergate scandal: Seven are indicted for their role in the Watergate break-in and charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice.
- March 1 - Pierre Messmer finishes his first term as Prime Minister of France.
- March 3 - A Turkish Airlines DC-10 travelling from Paris to London crashes in a wood near Paris, killing all 346 aboard.
- March 8 - Charles de Gaulle Airport opens in Paris, France.
- March 10 - Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Lancashire.
- March 10 - Japanese World War Two soldier, second lieutenant Hiroo Onoda surrenders in the Philippines
- March 18 - Oil embargo crisis: Most OPEC nations end a five-month oil embargo against the United States, Europe and Japan.
- March 20 - Ian Balls fails in his attempt to kidnap Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips in The Mall, outside Buckingham Palace, London.
- March 29 - Mariner 10 approaches Mercury.

April-May


- April 1 - the Local Government Act 1972 comes into effect in England and Wales, creating six new metropolitan counties and comprehensively redrawing the administrative map
- April 3 - The Super Outbreak, the largest series of tornadoes in history, hits 13 U.S. states and one Canadian province. By the time the last of 148 tornadoes hit early the following morning, 315 died and over 5,000 were injured.
- April 10 - In Israel, Golda Meir resigns as Prime Minister
- April 17 - Three members of the Symbionese Liberation Army die when their apartment catches fire during a shootuot with the LAPD
- April 25 - Coup in Portugal restores democracy (see Carnation Revolution)
- April 28 - Last Americans evacuated from Saigon
- May 4 - All female